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Dude, when you are active and posting in a game-thread. You criticize EVERY single AB he has with a GIANT magnifying glass. Not just that -- very OFTEN you criticize LITERALLY every pitch he takes, swings at or HOW he swings at the pitches he chooses to. Well, maybe I shouldn't say EVERY AB. You do (sometimes) conveniently ignore the AB's that he does well in. (Example: 1st AB of this game *crickets* and then coming back around immediately when he fails) That is utterly ridiculous my man. Especially in a sport where even the best players fail 7 out of 10 times and prolonged slumps happen to EVERY player -- it's an absurd thing to do. Nobody can possibly live up to that type of spotlight. I could spotlight Abreu like that and it would wind-up being 70% criticism. I could have also treated Abreu like this early on in the season (when he was less than stellar) just as you are treating Moncada now. Do you think that's fair? It's not. If I were him, or any major leaguer, I’d likely swing at the straight ones right down the middle. How impossibly dense are you? These guys are up there seeing starting pitchers with an arsenal four different pitches, all which move in different directions and at different speeds. With fastballs up to 100 MPH. They have a micro-fraction of a second to recognize what that pitch is and THEN they still have to decide to pull the trigger. Being fooled by a fastball, when you are expecting off-speed (AGAIN) happens to the best of players. He's a young player who is 500 AB's into his career, still figuring things out and is 1 for 2 with a HR tonight. Just watch the damn game and quit your whining already. We've GOT IT... We understand your position on Yoan. It's ENOUGH dude. Seriously. Goodness gracious.

Wait, you've been commenting on this but have no idea what is happening in NK? Donald is that you?

https://mobile.twitter.com/followmefor3/status/1006695767166406668

I figured you would have learned your lesson after the Puig hype. The original post I replied to was nonsensical. Does it worry me that a rookie hasn't had multiple 5+ WAR seasons? No Caufield, it doesn't worry me.

Is it possible to make the Underslot amount in GREEN color and any overslot amount in RED color? Just to make it easier to see how many of these guys are signing underslot and who were tough signs.

I think guys can be a bit overrated because they are catchers as well. Recent catchers taken in the top 10 (ish): Joey Bart (2) Collins (10) Tyler Stephenson (11) Kyle Schwarber (4) Max Pentecost (11th) Reese McGuire (14th -- but 1st taken) Mike Zunino (3) Tony Sanchez (3) Buster Posey (5) Kyle Skipworth (6) Jason Castro (10) Matt Wieters (5) Jeff Clement (3) Neil Walker ( Yes, that Neil Walker -11) Joe Mauer (1) Eric Munson (3) This goes back 20 years. 20! The top 3, it is too early to say. Schwarber isn't a C, Pentecost isn't looking good, McGuire is out of baseball, Zunino is a career .209 hitter, Sanchez is out of baseball, Posey is an All-Star, Skipworth washed out, and Castro has had 1 good year at the plate. Wieters is ok, never had an OPS over .800, Clement had no more than a cup of coffee, Walker was moved off the position fairly quickly, and Mauer was obviously great. Munson washed out. 2. 2 real difference makers in 20 years. Both taken in the top 5, so maybe there is something there. But that isn't necessarily an inspiring success ratio. I think teams get hypnotized by the idea of the great catcher and reach to get guys that shouldn't be going that highly. Then again, I'm sure this is the case for most positions in terms of ratios...

Do you watch the games? His talent is obvious and immense. Hitting baseballs at the major league level is really hard. He'll be fine.

Because Greg like to argue topics while ignoring/without understanding counter arguments. Example: "we should listen to offers for Abreu and only trade him for a great haul. Only another year of control, wrong side of 30, and keep adding to a great system. Great numbers. We should get some key pieces easily." Legit baseball reasons. Greg however: "I can't believe all of you want to trade Abreu. His numbers are great. I don't understand why everyone here hates him. My gawd." Completely ignoring key points and thinking everyone hates Abreu. This is every Greg argument.

He has been in the majors for less than 2 full seasons.

Decent flick, Minnie Driver was quite the cutey in her day.

This sox team is showing more than 48 win spunk, maybe they might get to 55.

Davidson is making Palka run a lot tonight

He’s hitting like .215 over his last 120 at bat’s or so. That’s not a giant magnifying glass. When he swings the bat, he hits it. If I were him, or any major leaguer, I’d likely swing at the straight ones right down the middle. It’s especially hard when you don’t swing.

Moncada would be on pace for 20 fWAR if Ron started talking badly about him.

Basabe Bomb

I can see one of those pitchers being throw ins to sweeten the pot if/when Jose is traded

Greg, you have no idea what you are talking about. Soria and Avilan have been really good this year. You won't get top level prospects but you'll definitely get something useful. Jones needs to pitch better but I still think they move him for solid return.

Isn't Hansen replacing Adams?

This i get people want results in line with what he did last year, but I just don’t think it’s been as bad as people Markit out to be. The guy has fewer than 3 walks in 7 out of his 12 starts. He’s had a WHIP under 1.3 in 9 out of his 12 starts. He’s had a k/9 at 9 or higher in 11 out of 12 starts. He’s had 2 starts that accounted for 48% of his earned runs this season. Hes not a finished a product, he’s certainly has had a few clunkers this season, but make no mistake, Kopech has been REALLY GOOD at AAA this year. We all know that a 13% BB walk rate won’t get it done, but even with it, he’s pitching to a 3.60 FIP. Having him stay down or come up is not going to make or break him. He just turned 22 years old and he is good enough and has been good enough to learn and iron out his weaknesses while facing ML hitters. I think he should be up by August if I had a say.

Anyone know the peak of this for the Astros and Cubs before they started getting good? Also, when do Futures Game teams get released?

I was thinking of ways to address how bad of a post this is and it's a struggle just to figure out where to start.

well i bet @Hot FiRe voted for him repeatedly

Boy, it's nice to have a lot of pitching prospects. Fortunately, we're not relying on Lucas to become a permanent member of our rotation on the next competitive Sox team. That said, it's also nice to be able to give him every opportunity to succeed. There are strange advantages to tanking, sometimes. No doubt, Giolito would be in AAA if the Sox were trying to win games. Ultimately I will trust whatever decision the Sox make on him. They may believe that he could be turning the corner soon, and that sending him to AAA now with the different baseballs would be pointless. Whatever it is, I'm rooting for him to make our process of boiling down our next competitive rotation easier, even if he ends up being the #5 instead of the #2 we had hoped. His shortcomings make the Eaton trade look even better. I know that sounds weird, but being able to get 2 more pitching prospects... essentially lotto tickets was key. You have a good shot of at least 1 of those guys making it, and if that happens, that is great and it was a good trade, Eaton's unfortunate injuries notwithstanding. All I think about when I start to get frustrated by Giolito or Fulmers shortcomings is the following: Kopech Lopez Giolito Fulmer Covey Hansen Cease Dunning Stephens Adams That is pretty decent starter depth, and it's not even a complete list. It's basically 10 lotto tickets. If you hit on 50% of them, you have your rotation. Some of them even carry better odds, like Kopech, Lopez and seemingly Hansen, Cease and Dunning. There could also be more Covey types who throw themselves into this mix, or Quintana types who come out of nowhere. We are relatively insulated to the potential failure of Giolito. It is nice that we aren't depending on him to hit his ceiling. Giolito strikes me as the kind of guy who with age and baseball wisdom will overcome mental problems and let his skillset do the work. Let's just hope it happens sooner rather than later.

I did some breakdown of this a while back because I also found this interesting. If you look at the lowest levels of the minors (short season A, rookie league, complex, DSL) the Sox are one of 12 organizations with only 3 of those teams with two more teams sharing one, so they basically have 3.5 teams. 11 organizations have 4 teams between these 4 levels, though some have two at one and none at another. The Yankees, Rays, Astros, Mets and Diamondbacks have five teams between these four levels, so two at one level with all of those being either an extra complex team or DSL team. However when you just look at short season A ball and rookie leagues (which seems mostly equivalent), only 9 organizations have a team at both the short season level and rookie league level, though the Royals (not counted in the nine) do have two rookie league level teams and no short season team while the Rockies (counted in the nine) have one team at the short season and rookie league levels but do not have a complex team. TL;DR: Only about 1/3 organizations have both a short season team and a rookie league team, though more than half the league does have at least 4 teams between the lowest four levels while the Sox only have 3. So I would like to see us add one more team between the lowest four levels, though it does not necessarily need to be a short season A ball team.

Not to mention it wasn't Caulfield who brought it up.

Except there are a lot of better ways to handle this. Postcards can get lost in the mail. People move within the same district, but forget to update their voter registration, so they would not receive that postcard. Even if it gets there, people ignore mail like that all the time. The State's own records can verify addresses in a better manner (particularly via tax returns). The question is - what is the bad act that this is intended to fix. If it's clearing the voter rolls to reduce administrative costs, then why don't you allow people to re-register day of for the people who didn't realize they had been removed? Every. Single. Legitimate study on voter fraud finds that it is so statistically insignificant that it is not something to legislate around. Republicans push this type of legislation, and cheer results like this from the Supreme Court, because it enables voter suppression - voter suppression that ultimately acts in their favor at election time. You say any restrictions on voting have this impact. I say what is the harm that the restrictions on voting are in place to stop? On the firearm side, there is significant evidence that increased access to firearms costs lives. Hence, some reasonable restrictions on firearms provide value to society. Absent some compelling evidence that restrictions on voting serve society (like taking the vote from convicted felons, for example), your comparison between the right to vote and the 2nd Amendment doesn't hold water.

yea....thats a mental issue, thinking about mechanics.

I hear "unfucking pitching mechanics" is part of Don Cooper's job description. I also hear he's pretty good at his job.

a guy saying he is beating himself sounds like a mental problem. You can see him fall apart on the mound when his mechanics fall apart. Just like last night, he walks two guys(after having both hitters 0-2 and 1-2), gives up a bloop, and then gives up a double to Yan Gomez. He falls apart.

I have no issue calling up Eloy the third week of the 2019 season. He has performed well, but spending time in AAA will only help his overall development.

They broke their test facility so they cant test nukes for the foreseeable future. Why not get some stuff until you can get your program running again? The other possibility is that they think they can just out maneuver Trump because he has shown a willingness to be friendly with American enemies at the expense of our friends.

Trump NK Golf club would be sweet. The 2 dictators could play a round. It would last about 5 minutes with all the holes in one.

Whoever had Dennis Rodman and Donald Trump in the Make Peace with North Korea pool, please collect your winnings at the window.

The results in the DSL mean almost nothing. Don’t look too far into it, if they still suck after a couple years in the states then start worrying. Some of the DSL players are 16 playing against 21/22 year olds who are just org filler. Their stats mean very little, they’re just getting reps and physically maturing down there until they’re ready to come stateside. The only exception is when someone is very young and still crushes it

Clearly too early to write him off, but this is VERY concerning. To date, he's not an impact player. Having tons of potential is great, but is it possible the White Sox got hoodwinked on the best prospect in baseball?

He just needs to stop guessing. Why look for offspeed pitch when you can't hit it and take fastballs down the plate? This is where having a strong coaching staff would also help.

We had better be able to scrounge together two or three starting outfielders moving forward from: Eloy, Robert, Rutherford, Gonzalez, Basabe, Adolfo, Walker, Booker, Call, Polo, Cordell If not, our rebuild is likely screwed.

Why are we talking about trading Rodon? We have him for three more seasons after this one. It will be hard to win again if he's not leading our rotation when we make our run. The only scenario where trading him makes sense might be if he's pitching badly mid-way into next season and the Sox start to think he's on the verge of flaming out entirely.

Your arbitrary use of nothing but an opinion doesn't help yours.

Anyone else kind of meh about him coming back? I like seeing others play like Palka (possible move to left when Garcia is back?).

So how confident are you that Buxton and Moncada are 5+ fWAR players for the foreseeable future? Buxton can put up a 2.5 on CF defense alone, but he has only done it once so far...

If he had an already established baseline of putting up multiple 5+ fWAR seasons, there wouldn't be much of a reaction around here, sure...agreed.

It's getting ridiculous really.

1. Nobody owes anybody a “discount”. Don’t understand why you’d be critical of any person trying to maximize their value. There isn’t even a “for the good of the team salary cap” excuse in baseball. 2. That’s called counting your chickens before they hatch.