greg775

Is our AAA manager any good? Let him take over the big league club if we must save $$. Ricky needs to go. When we play this bad I think about Jason on a podcast saying how overjoyed every single Sox fan was at Soxfest. It was a party with people cheering Hahn everywhere he walked and worshiping him cause everybody loves the rebuild.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 05:21 AM) You complain they don't spend money on players but you hope their attendance sucks? That's a horrible take. Why? You and I know they aren't ready to spend on players (yet) no matter what the attendance is.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 05:14 AM) He's not horrible. Would have been a way better signing than Gonzalez. But yes, this team is mentally defeated. They're on one of the worst offensive stretches I've seen. It's like the third full week of the season and they look like they want the season to end. I'd fire Ricky. No offense to Ricky lovers but his refusal to change the lineup for whatever reason is stupid. Fire him. Oh wait, we don't want to pay two manager salaries I'm sure. Sox management should be embarrassed.Hopefully they don't have one crowd over 20,000 til the Cub series.

I would like to say: "Rest In Peace Barbara Bush." She appeared to be a very nice lady and a classy individual. Peace to her loved ones at this difficult time. Mrs. Bush was a gem.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 11:44 PM) Greg, in all seriousness, how could you question the relevance of BABIP as a stat? I mean of all the stats we track in baseball, including ones like RBI that have been around for decades, questioning this one seems...strange. Good question and politely worded! I like. ... I don't mind BABIP but I tired of it in relation to Avi. I am not of the opinion he HAD to stink this year after last year's out of whack BABIP. I think he still could have hit .315 with a lot of bombs and RBI. For example ... there must be examples of current STARS who had large BABIP numbers 2-3 seasons in a row. There have to be, right? QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 11:56 PM) You are unbelievable. Geez. QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 12:12 AM) not a statnik but has no problem removing the three homeruns on opening day because it doesn't fit his "eye test". unbelievable is right. I like Davidson, remember? Also there has to be common sense here. If a guy hit 3 of his 5 homers on Opening Day and had five of his 10 RBI on Opening Day? That's one fricking game. In the last 10 he has 2 homers and 5 RBI. The homer total is still OK but cmon. He's really dropped off since Game One. I mean there has to be some consideration of this. QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 12:12 AM) His wRC+ is basically double what it was last year (165 vs. 83), but since you're not a "statnik" let's project his current traditional stats over 443 plate appearances so we can compare to last year. 2017 Actuals: 26 HR, 68 RBI, 19 BB, 165 SO 2018 Forecast: 43 HR, 85 RBI, 85 BB, 153 SO But I get it, that .190 batting average is real concerning compared to the robust .220 he posted last year. Certainly that .118 point differential in BABIP will not normalize over the course of the year. I like the 2018 forecast. If he can hit 43 bombs, nice. I just want to see some ropes from Davidson. He's had one good game for gawd's sake. QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 12:17 AM) I also enjoy the fact that “not a statnik” means “I am purposely being uniformed and uneducated on this issue, and I’m OK with it.” This thread was literally created saying “Please tell me what you think of Avi, but please don’t use any data points or critical thinking, just what you feel.” I did want some "human" comments about what yu all think of Avi. I didn't want a barrage of only BABIP comments. Yes I wanted pure human emotion in some responses. I would think new threads would be welcomed, but in my opinion, start a thread and u better duck. Cause the debris is gonna be flying at your head soon if you dare start a thread.

I love SWA. My only airline. I feel badly that the engine blew up today and one person has died and seven injured. Best wishes and prayers to all involved. Like an unnamed comedian had in his act before he was disgraced, we take for granted sitting in a box barrelling through the sky at 575 miles an hour. It is a miracle that we can blaze through the sky as if we are stationary figures. I hope the airline industry continues to be careful with their planes. There are so few incidents they are still doing most things right. Mistakes in that business are life and death. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southwest-airl...stream-updates/

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 09:25 PM) Lol Greg, only you could love Davidson after his horrible 2017 but be disappointed in him after a much improved start to 2018. He's 8 for 41 which is .195. 10 RBI in 12 games is good. Five homers is good. However ... he had 3 of the homers and 5 of the RBI in one game. Yikes. 2 HRs and 5 RBI in the last 11 games. Remember I am not a statnik. I like the walks obviously and I still worship Davidson, but ... disappointment is creeping in because of my fan eyetest. I'm glad I'm not controlled by advanced stats. His first season he has 26 HRS and 68 RBI in 443 at bats. Before advanced stats that was rookie of the year contention, baby.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 05:49 PM) To answer your question Avi Garcia is a .250-.270 hitter who had one season where a lot of balls dropped in. Man. I beg to differ. I'm no advanced statnik so I have no proof but my MLB dollars fed my eyes last year and he crushed so many hits. QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 06:15 PM) Saw this on Twitter today. But, we shouldn't use stats in this thread and instead blame the manager for batting him in a place in the order that has no barring on performance. Carry on. You sound like somebody mad I started a new thread. Remember when I said, "Start a new thread at your own risk?" People don't like new threads. Why so mean? I am an Avi lover not a hater. I quoted some stats in my original post. You are just crabby IMO. QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 06:47 PM) Not sure how much it matters as he's beating the ball right into the ground. He's 58% of his batted balls are grounders. That is not going to work. Also hasn't taken a single walk all year. That is also not going to work. He's a 270/320/420 hitter that lucked into a great year. Is what it is. I just hope his value doesn't completely crater before they can deal him at the deadline for a B- level prospect, maybe a toolsy IF type. No matter what happens I don't think he lucked into a great year. He was pretty good the whole way through. I think he had a slump in August or something but then he finished strong strong strong again. QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 06:55 PM) Avi sucks, always has and rode an extreme babip outlier to a decent season. He's a below replacement level player and always was. To think anyone is or was going to give the Sox anything other than a bag of used baseballs for him is a pipedream. Next. I don't think he's as bad as you suggest, but if he hits like this all year he's DFA candidate like Viciedo. QUOTE (Scoots @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 07:10 PM) Is it though? Look at how much Davidson is walking and he's not hitting very well right now either. I'm a Davidson lover disappointed with his start. QUOTE (Blackout Friday @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 07:52 PM) So many hot takes. Yes sir. Moral: New thread starters are not beloved. QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 08:51 PM) Avi's always had an absolute ton of red flags at the plate and on the field. I haven't liked him since the first time I saw his swing. Interesting. I respect this take.

My favorite player, Avi, is off to a horrible start. He's 13 for 56 which is a lousy .232 batting average with 1 homer and 3 RBI and just 5 runs scored. His OBP is .254 and OPS is .594. I assume his advanced stats reek. If my memory is correct, he raked almost all last season, really having no bad slumps. I ask you to NOT say this was inevitable because of BAPIP and instead talk to a non statnik here and give me your take on Avi. I prefer to blame Ricky for inexplicably batting him second. If ever a man was NOT a prototypical No. 2 hitter it's Avi. Ricky messed with him and it is NOT WORKING. Yet Ricky has him stuck at second in the order as if it is something that has to happen. Cal Ripken used to play every day no exceptions; Avi will bat second no exceptions despite his reeking. My final question: Is Avi a victim of the Sox organization being clueless or is he just another guy who will be remembered as having one good season? Who is Avi Garcia? I'm sad cause I thought he was a star and now I'm wondering if he's merely Viciedo who tries hard.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 04:14 AM) 100% what will happen. Not this year. We're that bad.

I think Hawk jinxed this team by that crap he was spewing in that home opener when he said this team was special, would never quit, blah blah. There's something special going on and you can see it, blah blah. That error by Abreu there is the ones you make when you are not concentrating because you have such a bad team. Ditto that error there by Anderson. This team totally blows. It really has no strengths when you think about it and a ton of weaknesses. That's it. Name one strength. This team has none. Only weaknesses.

As a Sox fan, I give Moncada the benefit of the doubt. He passes the eye test to me and will be a good to great player. My question/concern would be however, something I'd have to be educated on. What type of a person is he in terms of hard work/focus/caring? Isn't he the guy who was the subject of the long ESPN article on his Twinkies eating habits, etc? Wasn't that article kind of non flattering about his work ethic? Just asking. If he is a hard worker, I think he should be fine. People should IMO just relax and watch. We're not winning anything anyway right now. I'll change my mind, however, if you tell me there's hard evidence he doesn't care/loafs, etc.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 15, 2018 -> 07:37 PM) You think starting pitchers are getting pulled early now, it's only gonna get worse as results are shown and teams win with longer bullpens. Baseball is gonna have to do something, but I'm no sure what, you can't just tell teams to stop trying to win efficiently. Good thread. I'm shocked teams haven't gone to six man rotations yet. What's going to happen is 6-man rotations and at least 8 relievers on a team as rosters will be expanded a bit. There are so many bad pitchers on the non contenders now. Man, baseball has a lot of issues coming up. The key is to speed up the process, but the umps want no part of it. To do that you call the correct strike zone and you forbid more than 2 mound visits per game by anybody, infielders, catchers, managers. You also do not allow the hitters to leave the batters box once he steps in to start the at bat. If an ump sees a player re-do the velcro on the glove it's a strike. And it has to be called automatically. If a player disagrees (further delaying the game), he is automatically ejected. Baseball has to speed it up especially with all future changes to the game going to slow it up even more. I would think in a year or two, no starter will be allowed to face a batter a third time. So that means the starters go anywhere between 3 to 5 innings max.

Well ... What do you think of Trump the Chump (is it OK to have negative nicknames in Filibuster, if not kill it) bombing Syria? I am very much against Syria poisoning its own people, but I generally don't think it's a good idea for us to butt in and bomb them. Is there anything we could have done sanctions wise? I think if we keep butting in, it will lead to WAR sooner rather than later. What do you think? Good tactic to bomb the s*** out of Syria or bad idea? Greg is leaning toward "bad idea." p.s. Russia claims Syria air defenses shot down 71 of 103 missiles. Hmmm. If true, maybe we can protect our own mainland after all with missile defense. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/14/politics/tru...ivor/index.html

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 14, 2018 -> 11:09 PM) Why would they ever do 3 double headers in one series? They will spread them out As a negative Nancy, can you imagine us losing all 6 games? Minnie, depending where it is in the standings, will be licking its chops. The Twins could make up a lot of ground, or expand their lead in the division BIG TIME with the patsie Sox in town for six in 3 days. If I were the Twins I'd be ALL FOR THAT setup. 5-1 or 6-0. QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 15, 2018 -> 01:27 AM) Two biggest differences- it was good enough to get the game in, and it was against a team not coming back to town. The Sox are going back to Minnesota twice and it is a blizzard. I have no doubt if Chicago weather was good tomorrow they would have played two tomorrow. As far as beefs with the Twins, they should have called off all three games Thursday night and let the Sox fly home or out to Phoenix to workout at Camelback a couple days before going to Oakland. Disgraceful. Twins should have sent the Sox home after the first game. Hope the Sox charter is safe and gets out of snowville. It's snowing in KC. Are u guys getting snow tomorrow? Usually our weather heads your way.

QUOTE (harkness @ Apr 14, 2018 -> 05:23 PM) Why the Twins chose to have an outdoor only stadium seems like a pretty head scratching choice. True, you'd think they'd have a retractable roof at least. Don't know about cost issues at the time with them but the people spoke. They wanted outdoor baseball and who can blame them? I would never want to go to a game indoors but I would accept it if I had to on a day they'd close the roof.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 14, 2018 -> 03:09 AM) Have you read this thread or are you talking out of your ass again Greg? I didn't think people were that harsh about Moncada in the thread. QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 14, 2018 -> 03:10 AM) I still think Moncada will be fine, but that isn't going to stop me from stating that he doesn't pass the eye test right now. When I say "he sucks" with regard to the prospects, it is more like "he sucks right now" That doesn't mean I'm completely writing players off. I just think they look awful currently, and I hope it doesn't continue. For example, I'd like to see Kopech get through 6-8 innings in a start with the Knights, but he continuously only makes it through 4-5. That tells me he's not throwing enough strikes, which is why I think he has greater reliever risk than some here think. It doesn't mean he sucks, it just means I see him as more likely to be a reliever than a starter. It doesn't mean he CAN'T be an ace still, but it means that, in my opinion, there is a higher likelihood that he isn't a starter than he is. Fair enough. I only get mad when people blast guys when they are doing well. It drives me crazy. Like last year Avi hitting .330 or better and people constantly attacking him last year.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 14, 2018 -> 02:18 AM) Soon to be 23 years old is "sink or swim". Lord you can not make this stuff up. I'm just imagining the outrage if Buxton was on this team. It's OK to be critical. Most Sox fans think Moncada will be fine and is just getting used to the bigs. But if somebody wants to be critical, let 'em go for it. It's not like Sox management or any managements care about their fans. Folks, they don't NEED to charge as much as they do for beer and parking. I thought folks on here said TV was the source of all the real money and all that matters. If some want to blast Moncada, why be so sensitive about it? He's a big boy and makes a good buck.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Apr 13, 2018 -> 04:44 PM) Maybe direct those numbers to the people who agreed with you a week ago, because those same people are starting to change their minds. I don't really care about exit velocity if you're barely making contact, because at that K rate, he'll be middle of the pack soon. If you don't think he's struggling, why did Renteria say he was last night? Why were Abreu and Garcia seen talking to him? Don't they know about exit velocity? As much as I'd like to say no one is saying he sucks and will never be successful, it seems like some people are saying that. I'm not one of them. I'm strictly pointing out that he has been underwhelming NOW and is struggling NOW. Greg is as negative as anybody and I'm not worried about Moncada (I am mad at Ricky for f***ing with him batting him leadoff; STUPID!!). Back to the point ... I am not a fan of Hahn yet and dislike KW and Jerry (cant say I 'hate' them cause of WS title which turned out to be a lightning in bottle fluke) but Moncada passes my eye test. If he stays healthy and is coachable (get an experienced f***ing hitting coach who knows what he's doing WHITE SOX!!) he'll be fine. That is coming from negative Greg, folks. I'm very sad about Avi's lousy hitting. Again I blame Ricky. Davidson also is regressing. Sucks.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 13, 2018 -> 01:45 AM) Ricky Renteria might as well have been Robin Ventura this last week. Light a fire under them, come on Funny you mentioned Robin. First mention of him in a while cause until this season Ricky was beloved. Now we're wondering WTF? I am a one-trick complainer but I'll never understand his lineup construction. Also it would have been nice to add a big booming bat this season. We are 1-2 MLB quality hitters shy of even thinking .500. We are one top starter and 2 top relievers shy of having pitching that can sniff .500. I won't give up on Moncada and Avi til they mercifully get lowered in the lineup. Ridiculous to come up with them batting 1-2. Moncada is a No. 6 hitter. Avi No. 5 or 3.

Does Yoan batting lefty remind anybody of the real Rock Raines?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 13, 2018 -> 01:20 AM) Avi’s groundball rate has been out of control this year. Doesn’t seem like he’ll ever tap into that raw power. At least we didn’t extend him to big money after his BABIP fueled season last year. I never thought he'd return to the old Avi.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 13, 2018 -> 01:16 AM) avi garcia is an earth worms worst enemy. Moncada and Abi obviously do not like batting 1 and 2 in the lineup. Seems Hahn/Ricky are trying to hide some of our weaker hitters. Just let Yolmer or Leury lead off even if they are not ideal candidates either. Or Saladino. Let him play for 2 weeks and see if he gets good. Seems dumb to let Moncada and Avi suck when they are good hitters.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Apr 11, 2018 -> 01:29 AM) Reportedly 947 people attended the game yesterday https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/04/10/white-sox...flow_twitter_si I can't believe there were that many. It looked like 150-200 fans max. There's no way 1000 people were there.

The Sox should have made a move after winning the WS. Getting private $$s to build a new stadium in the suburbs. Look. 35th and Shields is not a good place for a ballpark. Old Comiskey was great sitting there, but when it was time to build a new one, they shoulda went by Lake Shore Drive. Suburbs woulda been better but the state wasn't going to allow that, correct?