Richie

Really highly doubtful. He landed full speed, flipped and had just knocked that ball off of the ledge behind the railing. He knew he didn't have the ball and he saw one right in front of him. Said he didn't know it was rubber until he had it and I actually believe him. He just saw a baseball and who would be thinking "well, of course this COULD also be a fake rubber ball in the EXACT same spot that one just came out of my glove in a major league baseball game" Nah, you just grab it and try to sell it. It's what all players do. Other teams do it to you - you do it to them. It's apart of the game. Put it this way - not even a whisper of a fine = ejection wouldn't even be considered.

Anderson's OBP and OPS, while league average for a SS, still suck. That doesn't make him good, it means the league average SS sucks as well. This makes absolutely no sense, I am sorry. It's like saying Jorge Posada didn't have a great hitting career for a catcher because the position sucks offensively. "Aaron Rodgers is a quick/mobile QB... but QB's are slow and so is Rodgers compared to WR's/RB's/DB's... so... actually Aaron Rodgers is not a mobile QB" It's just fallacious logic Tim Anderson is a SS. He does not have to be superior offensively to most OF's or corner IF's to be a good offensive SS. If he's giving us more production than the majority of the league gets out of the SS position. That makes him a plus offensive player. It's that simple.

I honestly am just reading those tweets and wondering what the hell is so bad about that coming from a 17 year old. "Mexican rapist version of Super Mario"... how is that racist? He's just saying the guy looks like a creepy ass Super Mario. "Are you calling us f*gs?"... Really? This is homophobic? lol.... Then he clearly says "ni**a" in a manner which is simply conveyed as "dude". Don't get me wrong... I get the implications of the words f*g and Ni**a. However, this is ALL completely normal for a high school kid. Myself and people I grew up with said far worse. Teenagers don't have a frame of reference for this stuff. They don't understand the weight it carries. They have no life experience. They're still learning all of this. That's the point of growing up... lol. You say/do dumb shit. You learn from it and then you look back going "Jeez I was dumb". I couldn't even pretend to act like that stuff is a reflection of an adult's character. My god, did I say stupid shit at that age. Not even out of anger or hate. You just don't get it at that... ZERO of Kopech's tweets were angry or actually making implications pertaining to a group of people.

The people who actually spend their time doing this. Just to fuck with people's lives - based off of some shit they said in high school. Should seriously be hung in the town square and laughed at. Who the hell's public life could withstand having their teenaged years gone through with a fine-toothed comb... I know I'd be done. 95-99% of others would be too, I would suspect.

Tonight's forecast: Dark

His offensive WAR was above replacement level every year with us... but whatever you say. lol Also, even being a slightly below average player at his position - is light years better than what Fulmer was as a starting pitcher. A complete and utter travesty. There would be no harm having Fulmer be a 5.50 ERA pitcher in AAA at this point What? I'm sorry, but... what? Sure there would be. It would be a waste of time. We know he's not a starter. It's MORE than time to bite that bullet. Now we get to work in developing him as a reliever. By your logic... it doesn't matter what we do anyway. Right? Let's bring back Jacob May and play him everyday! How can you give up on him? Sure, he hit .059 for a month in the bigs! What does it hurt, though? Right? Nothing matters... just let the losers keep flailing. Let's not adjust... no. That would be insane. Let's keep trying the same f'n thing over... and over. That will surely get us somewhere THIS time. That's your Fulmer comparison... Jacob May. Except May actually faired better when he went back down to AAA. Avi/Moncada? Ha... I'm honestly sorry for the b*tchy attitude. This isn't like me... but the lack of perspective on Fulmer by some of you on this board. My god... look through his numbers and his game logs at AAA and with the White Sox over this past season. It's over, Johnny. F'ing OVER. There is no comparison to how bad he's been. He has made Yoan Moncada look like the coming of Christ. When it comes to hyped up prospects.

Because he was so absolutely terrible that you could not possibly justify having him on a Major League roster and pitching him every 5 days. When there are other guys waiting for an opportunity that are more deserving. Fulmer did not just perform inconsistently. He was not simply "underwhelming" or "failing to live up to expectations". Continuing to trot him out every 5 days would have been an absolute abomination and unfair to those waiting in the minors who provided a better option to the team. Then, he went to AAA and was horrible at that level. There is a huge... and I mean... a HUUUUUUUGE difference between the Avi/Yoan vs Fulmer situations. Avi early on and Yoan right now are/were about average or slightly above average MLB players. Showing bursts of their potential for small stretches. Fulmer demonstrated the prowess of a semi-professional beer league pitcher out there for most of his outings with the big club. To give some perspective... Lucas Giolito is currently at the bottom of the league in just about everything to do with qualifying statistics for Major League pitchers. Carson Fulmer's ERA is two full runs worse than his. His FIP is 1.20 worse. Do you want more perspective? Carson Fulmer's AAA numbers are as bad as Giolito's big league numbers. Worse in multiple areas. His issues with command and walks actually increased in the minors. You are equating ALL prospects who didn't live up to expectations as equals and lumping them into the same basket. That is a fallacious way of looking at this. There are varying degrees of failing upon entering the big leagues. Moncada's had a 1.7 WAR in each of his two seasons with the White Sox. Avi's first three seasons hovered around replacement level. They were also marred by long stints on the DL. The equivalent to Fulmer would be if Moncada came out and hit .130 the first few months of the season. Just incomprehensibly bad (like Fulmer with an 8+ ERA) He'd have been demoted... Then, if he kept doing that in AAA (like Fulmer has as a SP) we'd be writing him off. That simple. Fulmer earned this demotion. He never ONCE demonstrated that he had the ability to be a consistent Major League starting pitcher. They're trying to salvage a wasted first round pick. That's what this boils down to.

Not anymore than they do during an AB or in the field. Probably less... Sorry, I don't understand your outlook here.

Feel for the guy - as that's a far fall from being the opening day CF for the big league club a year ago. However, he's basically plateau'd as a .250 (.600's OPS) AAA ball player at 26.

I think you're onto something. However, let us not forget -- correlation does not prove causation. That's an easy logical fallacy to fall into. I think you demonstrated that a bit here: It seems to me like all of these experiments are coming from teams who are desperate for bullpen outs. The liberal use of bullpens seems to strongly correlate to the bad teams! This is rather contradictory. Yes, the liberal use of bullpens seems to strongly correlate to bad/losing teams. However, just prior to this assertion -- you pointed out that these experiments are all coming from teams with poor bullpens in desperate situations. So... what do we really have here? Sub-standard bullpen talent = sub-standard bullpen production. Which makes your team less likely to succeed. I don't think that anyone would disagree with that. The final conclusion to draw here is merely "better bullpen = better team". That seems pretty obvious. Teams worse off in the bullpen are experimenting more, because they don't have the talent. However, I don't think it can be proven that the reason they're failing is due to how they're experimenting. The more obvious conclusion is simply that those teams just have shitty relievers.

Yeah, dropping Anderson so far down in the order against RHP seems a bit drastic.

Yeah... the pitching situation with our prospects is very, very unsettling right now. You only need 3 or so to really pan out as good starters. It's just frustrating right now, though.

He had basically been the luckiest BABIP pitcher in the league, giving up a ton of fly balls and had an xFIP over 5.5... I realize xFIP isn't perfect, but that's such a huge gap compared to his sub 4 ERA prior to these last two starts. I'm not saying he won't be a solid MLB pitcher, but this whole narrative of "Lopez is a silver lining" has been a lie.

And... variance continues to smack Lopez in the face. Deep down, I knew it. I didn't want to believe the peripherals, though.

Yeah, that idea reminds me of one of the trades you constantly get proposed in fantasy. Where it's like one good player and two average players for one of your best. Then you laugh at the guy as you decline.

Who is Dylan Covey?

I worry about Lopez... There's more to suggest that the first half success was a mirage, then there is to suggest he's legit.

I doubt it's a personal thing. He never speaks to the umps. It must be something to do with the way he's setup in the box? He does dive-into the plate sometimes when he takes. Could make the outside pitch appear to be closer to the plate and deceive umps. Just spitballing... I have no f'n clue. However, it may be worth simply pointing out to the MLB.

I don't know... his name combined with the numbers as of late carry some weight. As mentioned by another poster, an organization top 10 player (towards the back end) sounds about right.

Okay, well that's a fair point. I am not outright saying you are incorrect. Your guess is as good as mine. However, I still go back to true power hitters not hitting more HR's than they were over the past decade or so. It's just that everyone and their mother hits 20 now. I don't know how that gets explained with a juiced ball. Logic says the 35-40 HR hitters would become 50-ish HR hitters. However, there hasn't been much of a spike at the top of the league's HR list.

I still simply don't think the ball is juiced and that the numbers support that. Power hitters aren't hitting more HR's. The former Omar Vizquel's of the world are now deploying this launch angle craze and hitting 20 HR's instead of 5-10. Power hitters numbers aren't changing. The elite HR numbers in the league look like they have since Bonds and the big roid guys exited. 50 HR seasons are still rare. There were only 2 last season and only 3 more who hit 40 HR's. In 2016 there were approximately ZERO 50 HR hitters. K's are also way up, velo is way up... this all makes sense without a juiced ball. I still 100% believe it's a plate approach thing. Most people are still stuck on that ridiculous Sports Science segment that didn't take into account that a ball from 4-5 years ago will naturally be a lot less live than a brand new one.

I have a feeling Moncada has a promising second half. Finishes with roughly 25 HR's and 80 RBI's and 20 SB's. Gets the triple slash line up and cuts back on the K's a bit (although, it will still be an issue). I guess we'll just have to see, though. He certainly has a good deal to work on.

A gigantic portion of pitch recognition is where you're picking up the pitch, where you are looking at the pitcher in order to pickup the pitch, how you are seeing the ball out of the hand... What exactly are you looking for out of the hand? Where are you picking the pitch up from? "Are you looking the pitcher's shoulders before he releases? Where are you looking when he's in his set?:... "How about when he goes into his leg kick?"... "Try focusing here... it could help you pickup the breaking ball out of the hand a little better."... "If we open you up a bit, will the different eye level help you recognize a pitcher's release point better?" Hitters start out poorly with discipline and figure this stuff out all of the time. It happens by working with their hitting coach. Sure, there's guys who are royally f'd. However, many are not that way and just need some guidance. I think that's been proven.

Hitting coaches help with both of those things, actually. Pitch recognition is a big part of what Major League hitting coaches do. It's very teachable.

I still have a lot of hopes for Moncada/Kopech and despite Giolito's struggles - Lopez has looked promising. However, THIS is certainly the deal that is panning out in the most desirable way to this point. I suppose anything can happen once Cease/Eloy reach the majors, but they look very good. Hard for me to envision Eloy busting. Guy smashes wherever he goes.