SCCWS

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 04:51 PM) Avi is 8th in baseball at swinging at the first pitch. https://twitter.com/baseball_ref/status/723608617275011083 What does this stat indicate though. Some of the players in the top ten actually lead their teams in BA. Avila, Abreu and Jackson have the lowest % on the Sox and they are all struggling.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 12:57 AM) And they both got torched. Rusney Castillo is a bigger weight on Red Sox payroll than Pablo Sandoval (OK maybe that's stretching it a little too far). The Cuban ballplayer trendiness among ML GM's has definitely fallen off since Puig/Abreu set the bar so high. I don't agree. Sandoval has no trade value. Boston ended up with too many outfielders. Castillo is hitting enough to be playing in the ML but he ended up being 4th on the depth chart when Brock Holt continued to produce. Now Castillo may not be a HR hitting outfielder which may mean Boston overpaid. Rather than keep him 4th they sent him to AAA to play everyday. I think it is a great luxury to have 5 ML outfielders at this point. Boston is desperate for starting pitching so I am sure you will see them trade one of the 5 outfielders + for a pitcher once the dust settles. I hate the Red Sox while living part of year in New England. But I envy the fact that Boston is able to produce positional players on a regular basis. Their everyday lineup is filled by players they brought up except for 1st and DH. All in their mid-20's except for Pedroia. Luckily they are really struggling to produce pitching so they are forced to trade for it or sign free agents.

Avi is working with him to change up a few things.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 07:38 PM) Just another massive scouting blunder. Funnier aspect is they thought he could play CF To think the Red Sox offered Iglesias and we said no.

QUOTE (sammy esposito @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 01:28 PM) Frazier to first bring up Davidson. I think Davidson would be startled into playing well after being demoted to the minors after a great spring Well Davidson is off to another great start at AAA hitting under .220. That would probably translate to under .200 in the majors. The good thing is Frazier would not feel threatened by his presence.

QUOTE (wizeguy57 @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 05:22 PM) Yup, a win now counts the same as one in September. When the weather really heats up I believe you will see this team start to hit. HUH??? If we start to hit once the weather heats up, then so will our opponents. So instead of 2-1 games we will have 6-5 games.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 05:58 PM) Chris Sale is really damn good. I hope they can stay afloat and land a hitter at the deadline, preferably a LH hitter. I would not trade Chris Sale for a LH hitter at the deadline...............................

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 03:01 AM) Great win. With Latos and Sale pitching like aces we should have this type of record. Even better that they are back to back in the rotation. Now if Rodon gets hot..................

There is no way they are replacing Danks after 2 starts. Let's not forget that Latos was horrible in ST and still won the 5th starter spot. Now maybe Latos has "found" himself but it is way too early to judge him after 2 starts either. This team did not go into ST with enough SP depth so Latos made the roster by default. But by June we may be screaming for Danks to go and maybe Latos as well. If one of the Top 3 go down, we will raise the white flag early.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2016 -> 04:37 PM) Scott Merkin ‏@scottmerkin 21m21 minutes ago Chicago, IL Todd Frazier taking early BP among a group of 3 or 4 Why would he tell us Frazier is taking early BP but not identify the other 2-3??? Does he not know who the others are??? Could it be player's kids taking BP?? Is Drake back???

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 03:10 PM) Latos, Albers and Lawrie are the only ones better than advertised (so far)...perhaps Rodon if you really want to push the definition. You forgot David Robertson and Chris Sale. Sale is 3-0 and Robertson is 5-5 saves and has been literally perfect. Both are advertised as good and have been great.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 08:09 AM) Lawire, Cabrera and Eaton are hitting. Though they're all due for regression, so is everyone else, in the positive way. Abreu and Frazier are struggling heavily but both have track records. Jackson has looked fine despite meager results. Rollins hasn't been good but he does has a .219 BABIP. Avi was expected to suck, but he also has a .192 BABIP but he's second on the team with 9.3 BB%. The catchers have been horrible, but they have combined for a .129 BABIP. Even if they are god awful, they will double that mark in a decent sample. This is a very small sample and an individual snapshot in time. The offense has been bad and it needs to get better very soon but it's not time to freak out. The concerns to me are: 1.)#5 starter Danks 2.)DH Avi Garcia 3.) Duke/Putnam/Petricka If #3 is a in your list of concerns, things are going that bad. I'll wait til the end of May to get testy about SS/C. They used to say the strength of a team is up the middle. At least offensively our C-SS-CF look weak offensively. Hopefully Lawrie can at least hit .275 and offset the weaker spots. Frazier and Abreu will hit for power if not average( Frazier). Hopefully Melky can also hit .275 ish.

QUOTE (michelangelosmonkey @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 06:33 PM) After 9 games in 1927 the 32 year old Babe Ruth was hitting .233 with only 1 homer and a .744 OPS. I think the Sox talk thread back then was "Ruth is washed up. Its clear he can't hit the fastball anymore. We should try to dump him for prospects". He managed to hit 60 homers and put up a 1.259 OPS that season. So, yeah, baseball takes time to unfold. Let's exhume Frazier. Great point. But after 12 games last year, LaRoche was hitting .212 and he ended the year hitting.207. The Sox were 7-5 after 12 games last year and 8-4 now so that is progress. Ironically they won the next to go to 8-5. Now if we lose tomorrow night......................

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 04:22 PM) Similar to last year with the offense but right now we are still 4 over .500. We need to just forget about this series and go back home to hit the damn ball. Who plays baseball indoors anyways? Too much time spent at the beach yesterday. Should have taken extra BP..................................

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 04:13 PM) This team got up to 8-2 on the backs of a 2.00 team ERA. We have seen the past 2 games what happens if the pitching or defense even slips a little bit. The bats aren't getting better. I went through this last year, "but the BABIP's are so bad! B-bad luck! They'll figure it out eventually!".. I'm not buying it for one second. Frazier is on track to have a year worse than any Dunn had. If the Sox want to compete this year there are two things they need to do: Trade for Sonny Gray and get rid of the automatic Danks loss. Trade for a top defensive CF and move Jackson to LF and Melky to DH. The reason everyone is down on this team despite the record is we are all watching the same crap, the kind of pitching the Sox have been riding to this record cant be sustained with their current players. Who are you giving up for a "top" defensive CF and Sonny Gray????

QUOTE (harkness @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 04:04 PM) What I mean is... we saw this last year. We lost a ton of games giving up 3 or less runs. It's hard to just forget the last few years when you see offense like this the last 3 games... it makes it all come back. Hey, Tampa wasn't hitting till we came to town. Must be the dome effect.............................

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 10:33 AM) If one of Eaton, Abreu or Frazier go down, they most likely are screwed. Same with Sale, Q or Rodon. I just don't see any reason to panic offensively. One starter, Eaton, has an OPS greater than his career mark. Everyone else, including Melky, is below, many hundreds of points below. There is zero reason to think that will continue an entire season. Agree. But also if Melky or Jackson for an extended period. I think the improved outfield defense has been a factor in the start. If we had to play Shuck or Avi everyday for a month I would be concerned offensively/defensively. I still think we are worse than last year at catcher ( you disagreed at end of ST) but what happens if one them goes down and the other has to play extended time. I do think we could survive ( SS/2B) w Saladino an/or Sanchez filling in.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 09:45 AM) Every team is flawed. Reading this board most of the team is flawed. They really would need a new roster, a new coaching staff, and a new manager. It is just not realistic to have the greatest pitching staff in baseball by far, the greatest offense in baseball by far, the greatest coaches, and the best manager all at the same time. That seems to be the requirement with some. Winning games hitting what they are hitting, to me is a positive. I don't think Rodon and Q and Sale are suddenly going to give up 5 runs a game because they are playing the Angels or Blue Jays. The offense has to find a way to consistently score 4 or 5 runs. If that happens, we won't have the Caulfield return with 10 or 20 doom and gloom posts after a loss. Before Lawrie got a couple of hits last night, the Sox had 2 regulars hitting over .250, yet were in first place. They only have 4 regulars with an OBP over .231. That is not sustainable no matter who you play. I( am very happy w the 8-3. My biggest concern with this roster is the depth. If we get to June and need to add a SP or a left-handed bat, I am sure Hahn can find one. Not a #2-3 starter and not a stud lefty but acceptable upgrades. My bigger concern is a major injury. I am not convinced we have a ML ready player in Charlotte or on the bench that is blocked from playing because of talent. An injury to many of our starters would force Hahn to go out and trade/buy at a disadvantage. We saw the collision in Tampa Friday night and how easy it is to lose players. If, for example, one of our 3 outfielders gets hurt for a month, I think there is a major drop-off in talent. Same with 1st and 3rd. I hope we don't have to rely on a starter from Charlotte as well. I put all 5 in the same category as Danks. Hopefully Charlotte will develop a few players ready by late summer and maybe Fulmer blossoms, but let's hope we don't get any DL trips for a while.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 09:01 AM) Hahn knows they are screwed. He knows White Sox fans are way too smart to buy tickets to see a team that wins. Why is it anything positive is always something that can't be sustained, and anything negative is just how things are no matter the sample size? Fans who make decisions on players after a few weeks in April are just as bad as those who do the same after a month of ST. Eaton and Melky are not going to hit .330 and Frazier and Avi are not going to hit .170 for the year. Some players traditionally don't hit in early spring so small samplings are useless. Then there are those who see 8-3 and are already planning their vacation schedule to attend World Series games. The record is great but the majority of games are against what will probably be the 3 last place finishers in each AL division. The positive so far is the Sox are 8-3 ( with mostly road games) and not 3-8. The question is what will happen in the next 11 games which will be mostly at home but against a little better competition.

QUOTE (South Sider @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 11:20 PM) The Sox hit a lot of balls hard early in this game and had some tough luck. The Rays could have easily lost by a few more runs. Odorizzi settled in a bit, but he was very fortunate that there wasn't a worse outcome. I feel as if the offense DID show up today, just didn't get any bounces until the 9th inning. If the team as a whole can keep hitting balls hard as they did today, you will soon be singing a different tune about the offense. The Rays announcers said in postgame the same thing about the Rays. They felt they hit Sale better late in the game---great catch by Eaton, ball Melky caught on warning track and the rocket right to Rollins. These things even out. Sale walked no one and only allowed a couple of hits. Sox caught a break with the collision which ultimately cost the Rays the game. White Sox, i.e. Rollins, took advantage of it and Sale probably could have gone 10 or 11 and not allowed a run. Now if Danks can get 4 -5 runs we can keep the streak going.

No walks is as impressive as the 9 K's. Party time in Lakeland tonight.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 09:08 AM) Biggest series theyve had all year. Time to make a statement and go down there and pound them. WHY??? I would say the series against Cleveland is the biggest. Against a division rival who we could be competing for a playoff spot with. Minny, TB and Oakland very well could be last place teams in their respective divisions.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 13, 2016 -> 11:17 PM) It is good pitching, not good hitting, that wins you these types of games. We are actually getting very good pitching. The big 3 and the pen have been dominating early on.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 13, 2016 -> 06:22 PM) http://finance.yahoo.com/news/adam-laroche...-151844831.html Adam LaRoche "on practical/applicable education" is quite the hot topic... Btw, this whole Bangkok trip puts the "battle of good versus evil" quotes into their rightful context of pimps/traffickers and away from an accusation against KW and the Sox. Did Drake go to Bangkok or is he back in school???....................................

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 12, 2016 -> 08:53 AM) That is why the $13 million the Sox saved from the LaRoche fiasco is really nice. They can afford to trade for a big bat at the deadline with that money. They also could have traded for a big bat in Spring training and didn't. The $13 Mil may already be targeted for non-roster expenses.