nrockway

if I were the other team, I would only throw Colson four-seam fastballs until he proves he can actually hit them. That was his problem in the minors, it's still a problem. He's not hitting velocity. He's crushing basically everything else. He's crushing two-seamers and cutters. But when the fastball gets a little faster... Prior to this game, he has a .114 average against 4-seamers and it's the pitch he sees the most, it's dragging down his stats. If he figures it out, he's a superstar. But I think that's where his bust potential still lies. Pretty bad against changeup too, but low sample size. It also looks a lot like a 4-seam fastball...

I watched a little bit of some 'banana ball' earlier. Party Animals vs Tailgaters. Not the Savannah team. It just seemed like boring baseball being played in cutoff shirts. Lots of commercials and otherwise just regular, non-professional baseball with some guys shimmying their shoulders in the background. Some guy rode around on a 4 wheeler and hi-fived some kids. They played some cornhole. They brought out Logan Forsythe as the 'MLB star' (remember him? barely) who took a walk and probably should've struck out looking but got some generous calls. Maybe the Savannah guys are showmen, but these other dudes certainly were not.

I'm not sure you can call $3.5 mil precious money. Precious, wasted money is Willy Adames at $187 million and 1.5 WAR. Anthony Santander at $92.5mil and -1.0 WAR. Sean Manea, $75mil, -0.2 WAR Tanner Scott, $72mil, 0 WAR Luis Severino, $67mil, 0.8 WAR Christian Walker, $60mil -0.4 WAR You can see where I'm going with this. $3.5 mil is nothing. It's a nothingburger. It's only something because a different player could've been on the roster. Andrew Benintendi is wasted money, Josh Rojas is a flyer that didn't work out.

dunno why anyone would throw Colson a breaking ball. absolutely smoking them

I'd take that bet

why am I watching opera videos on youtube and the advertisement i can't skip is grant taylor and sean burke working at a fish market in seattle? what in the world? anyone see this? it's usually spanish language beer ads. definitely not a thought worthy of its own thread, but are the sox paying for 'viral' advertisements now? they should advertise to people who don 't already have sox-stockholm syndrome

That’s awesome but also can’t believe it’s never happened. Like, Ozzie never managed against a fellow Venezuela guy?

Welp, everything I wrote in this thread is absolutely an opinion. One "tells" opinions just as one "tells" facts. "Telling" and "opining" are not opposites. They're related in the sense that both are verbs and they communicate a thought. Interestingly, I'm not sure if there's a verb form of "fact" like there is with "opinion". I'm also functionally illiterate and I don't know many words, but I know the difference between a fact and an opinion. Evidently many do not. Facts are, like, you know, things that aren't disputable. "X player has Z batting average" is a fact. "On August 18, 2026, The Chicago White Sox beat the Atlanta Braves 13-9" is a fact. "Batting average is more important than OBP" is an opinion that might also be a fact. That's a little more challenging. I read a great article with statistical evidence as to why it might be true. It's a worthy discussion. "I like the strategic aspects of pinch hitting for a pitcher" is an opinion. "I don't like the designated hitter for xyz reason" is clearly an opinion. I also definitely did not write "worse hitters make the game more exciting." It's a total misrepresentation. I don't know if the misrepresentation is willful or what, but it's annoying and rude. Your opinion is "it robs fans of a better experience", a fair perspective to have, if you think it robs you of a better experience. You're entitled to your opinion and I respect it. I think it is bombastic language though that I wouldn't use, I'm saying, "this is what I think, some people agree with me". Much less rhetorical. I'm not winning any presidential elections talking like that. Never gonna be a TikTok influencer, alas. It isn't the intention to offend you, seemingly you took it personally because somebody has a different opinion than you, and I try to write in such a way that doesn't make it personal. I wish other people felt and wrote the same way and weren't offended by differing perspectives. Seems like bad argumentation too. I wrote a bunch of reasons why I dislike the DH and nobody actually replied to it. Talked past it. It's a bully tendency. I don't even care, really, but I care about people being internet bullies...which is a lot of people on this forum for whatever reason. It's quite a hostile place. Was it less hostile when the team was good? I haven't been posting here very long. In your post, you are hung up something I simply didn't write. I said I like the strategic aspects of potentially pinch hitting for a pitcher who is having a good game. It makes the manager a relevant factor in the outcome of ballgames. I think if you watch baseball to see home runs, you're gonna have a bad time. Go watch a more action-packed sport. Basketball is a fun sport to watch and there's a lot of scoring. My opinion is that pitching is what makes baseball a sport worth watching. The physics and metaphysics behind it is very cool. My opinion is that a baseball player should have to play both offense and defense. I think, like I said, extending players' careers is a good argument in favor of your opinion that the DH is worthwhile. People made fun of me without actually addressing the argument though. Make it personal. I elaborated on it anyway that clearly there is no logical connection between a bad hitter in the lineup and more hits... Could also reply to the actual point if you really wanted instead of, ya know, putting words in my mouth. My words are written down, you can go back and look at them. Or not, because again, you know, who gives a s%*#, I'm not replying to this thread anymore. It's not like it's a wild perspective that people preferred NL baseball to the AL though. I already stated my perspective on standardization. It's boring in every fucking field, specifically art and literature, not just sports. Outdoor baseball is fun because the playing conditions are never the same. Playing inside a dome in climate-controlled conditions is not much fun. It's sterile. It's bad architecture too. That's an opinion by the way. You are welcome to disagree, it's a free country, it's no skin off my back, it has no bearing on the outcome of either one of our lives. Watching baseball and playing in a beer league is a fun, almost childish hobby. Getting offended over it is sort of wild to me.

why is everything an argument with you people...

A baseball at bat usually ends in failure. That’s how it works. Basketball is more fun in this regard. Soccer is I guess also very boring. You’re putting words in my mouth too.

It’s not f*** Frank Thomas, if its f*** anybody, it’s f*** Dan Pasqua (who Frank replaced at 1b anyway), f*** Wil Cordero and his 6 career WAR. Frank played more at 1b than people remember. Maybe Konerko doesn’t join the team ever, which would be kinda sad. Small price to pay. anyway, this thread isn’t about the DH, but it is about making baseball into a neat little product to sell to non-baseball fans who will never like the sport anyway outside of highlights they see on TikTok

Of course it is. Maybe you pinch hit for the starting pitcher who’s having a great game on the mound. Maybe a guy like Michael Lorenzen is a more valuable player than he is otherwise. I don’t have any memory of a DHless American League, but interleague actually used to be fun. Standardization isn’t fun, it’s boring. Might as well have all teams play indoors with the same dimension field. On Maldonado, this is how you get the “golden at bat”. Slippery slope. I mean, yeah, if you can’t play 50% of the game anymore, maybe it’s time to retire. Extending careers is the best logic for the DH, but that’s not why they do it. 700 is a pretty arbitrary figure anyway. Do you think differently about Pujols if he only hits, I dunno, 614 home runs? The tail end of his career was pretty bad. It’s Pete Rose logic. The guy is the leader in hits despite being really bad for the last 5 or so seasons of his careers. Who cares about a contrived record. Albert probably could’ve played the field anyway that last season, his bat was actually good, but he wasn’t beating out Goldschmidt. Why should a dinosaur get an opportunity over a young player who can actually play 100% of the game? I know it’s the internet, but sometimes a joke is still pretty obvious. The undertone of the joke was that if you like watching hits, instituting the DH is much less impactful than small ball. Veeck thought home runs were pretty boring relative to small ball, so he put in the famous SoxPark pinwheel fireworks. Swinging for the fences or throwing 100mph is the appropriate strategy to win baseball games; but it isn’t more exciting.

His daughter wasn't born when he played here. I don't think anyone cares about the injuries, they care that he was good at baseball. To your point, I dunno if he has a nice backstory or whatever. Signing out of Venezuela is cool in its own right, but not particularly unique. I guess neither is getting injured (especially if you play for the White Sox) He loves his mom and his wife though and is a smiley guy. we like a smiley guy. Jake is a great guy obviously. Miss his attitude. Love that his first instinct regarding his daughter is to stay positive and to start a foundation to help a whole lot of other children. Miss his personality more than the home runs. I guess my point was they're both silver linings to otherwise bad, hard to watch seasons. The fanbase sorta wrote off both guys and then they turned it on in their mid 20s (similar tier prospect out of the draft/international free agency I'd say, comparable in that way). I think Sosa will be the better player ultimately. Jake is turning it on in the second half too though. Guy probably has other things on his mind, especially to start the season...

Fangraphs puts him at 32nd in dWAR out of 80 players who have played more than 100 innings at second base. Guess that makes him above average. 1.2 dWAR isn't "great" but it's also "above replacement". Former #1 prospect Jackson Holliday is at -1.9 for reference. Is anyone questioning his 2b chops? Dude is the Jake Burger of this season, when are Sox fans gonna realize?

I do. Some of us like strategy. Some of us like the excitement of Bartolo Colon hitting a bomb or Dylan Cease going 3 for 3 while striking out 11. Incredibly memorable. Baseball is a very boring sport if you only watch it to see dingers. Lots more hits per game, higher batting averages when pitchers were hitting, just sayin'.

Just do away with divisions entirely and make the pitcher hit again...in both leagues. Cubs and Sox in the same division/league would be horrible.

left side? is it his kidney? pancreas? spleen? anything but the back

Hopefully it isn't American Airlines where they cancel your flight while you're sitting on the tarmac despite knowing well in advance that Chicago is going to be a stormy, flooded mess...then they string you along for an hour...oh maybe you can go to Midway...while you sit at the airport bar drinking $15 high lifes watching Logan Gilbert get shelled. Or something like that. in other news, this one seems like a good replay to watch. too bad we're not seeing Fedde this series, go off for 20 runs.

optimism! I'm not projecting it, I'm just hopeful we might do something in 2027. I'll change my point of view in the homer department if it doesn't happen. I'd be disappointed, but not necessarily surprised. I was excited about the new Bulls front office, but they proved quickly they were worse than the previous guys. Had to give em a shot though. Everything you said is fair. I don't know that it's already happening though, but it's def realistic. There's a wide range of outcomes. I think Braden will be a star, I wanted to draft him in the first place. I think the org is doing things differently with the new front office. The AZ complex seems rejuvenated. There's a new DR complex coming. Hiring biomechanics people strikes me as smart. Lowly-rated minor leaguers have started to show something. I think the minor league system is pretty exciting, though lacking in star power outside of the Montys. I was writing a post about Montgomery in response to you the other day and forgot to hit post. Essentially, he could still bust if he never figures out how to hit a fastball. It was the same problem as in the minors and teams will expose him if he can't figure it out. Think Bannister and Fuller were good hires, Venable was a big name hire though the jury is still out on him; and Getz seems like a guy who empowers his staff unlike Kenny. Kenny was great, brought a WS, I have a positive opinion of him, but it was time to move on. Same opinion with John Paxson. I thought Hahn and Gar were both pretty bad and it was a weird structure to have essentially two GMs competing against each other. I write "I think" a lot on this forum because I don't really know, it's just my perception. I've been comparing the hire of Getz to the Mets hiring Stearns. The Mets are kinda floundering with a much bigger budget and a more appealing geography, I wonder what he would've done differently than Getz with our team. I think they're doing things that the previous front office did not do, hence my optimism. Will all the players turn out? Certainly not. I'm skeptical about free agency like you are.

why'd I even turn the tv on

can't help but laugh

Vargas played some left for the Dodgers. I would've liked to see him get reps there this season. I think you're right though, sluggers in the corners would be ideal. Honestly, cutting Benintendi would be addition by subtraction.

ugh

the second I turn this game on, we lose the lead. I'll see myself out.