nrockway

it was also Flexen! ? I've already posited an adjustment to FIP called "pitched against White Sox" (PWSx) so that fans don't get the wrong idea that the likes of Andrew Abbott and Simeon Woods-Richardson are Cy Young contenders. But now how about a "pitched while Dominic Fletcher played center field behind you while gross, man and that other guy wiped up the corners" (PWDFPCFBYWGMATOGWUTCx).

I'm pleasantly surprised by what guys are doing at every level to be honest. Even after Colson and Thorpe graduate, I think there are some studs, guys who might move up/into top 100 territory. AAA isn't the most impressive level to me. I'm not willing to say it's a "successful" farm, more like let's wait and see. early returns seem positive.

holy cow we're actually winning by a convincing amount. in pham we trust

seems like whenever Fangraphs updates their rankings, Sox will assuredly have a top 10 (they are 12th, right below SDP, before factoring in the Cease trade) system by their rankings. Probably top 5 considering all the graduations coming for the teams above the Sox. Citing Bleacher Report is probably dumb but the farm system seems to be in genuinely OK shape.

That guy would've lost so much money if he had made good on his empty threat to move to St Petersburg. No one is leaving Chicago by choice for a third tier city. I don't think JR has any political capital remaining to get the sort of deal he wants on a ballpark. In any state.

I thought it was pretty candid to say "the people who sell tickets have a tough job right now, please stop screaming at them".

it's amusing that he signed a $5mil contract and Belt is a free agent.

wouldn't mind seeing Duke Ellis. .830 ops at AA, 16 stolen bases in 13 games! there are a bunch of solid outfielders on this team but I guess there's no real point in rushing them. Colas or DeLoach should be playing over Benintendi. The Red Sox have the nerve to bench their highly-paid corner outfielder, and Yoshida is a much better player than Benintendi is, so why is Benintendi's spot apparently safe?

Every night lately I think to myself, "what a day, let's relax by watching the replay of my favorite team play my favorite sport." Now I have the good sense to click on any random page of the game thread and gage the reaction of fans to see if it's worth wasting two hours. Thus far, it's not been worth it. The minor leaguers are kinda fun to watch at least.

C Edgar run C Edgar catch C Edgar hit One, two, three extra base hits WRC+ goes up up up

I get the logic behind the positional adjustment and I don't take fault with that necessarily. Well I do a little bit, it overrates bad players who play premium positions and underrates first baseman defense generally -- but that's not really my point here, I'm more so critiquing what they give precedence to or ignore when making the calculation. I think Vaughn is a better defensive first baseman, relative to other first basemen, than dWAR calculations gives him credit for. I can't prove it quantitatively, it's just the eye test, he's saved some really god awful throws and turned them into outs. There was a play the other day, I forget who fielded it on the left side of the infield, maybe Mendick, it was a tough, close play but the throw was offline and in the dirt. Vaughn looked like a 200 pound ballerina, I don't know how he contorted his body to make the scoop. I'm exaggerating a little bit but I'm generally impressed with his play at first base; he's missed some hard grounders he probably should've fielded which I think is what's counting against him, but I bet he's saved a couple of runs making catches that other first basemen wouldn't get to (see: Michael Busch. literally the worst first baseman I've ever seen...I'd still rather have him than Vaughn).

I think however fangraphs calculates defensive WAR for first base and catcher is way off. Both sites do first basemen dirty, to my eye Vaughn has been pretty good defensively. He's turned a lot of bad throws into outs that I don't think other first basemen get. I don't think they do a "zone rating" for scoops/stretches but they should. The catcher point is mostly an aside, but boy does Fangraphs love "framing", something that can't actually be effectively quantified, is a skillset that is predicated on umpire ineptitude and will become entirely useless the second the automated strikezone replaces the home plate ump. Let's consider two catchers: Salvador Perez and Yasmani Grandal. Perez has a fWAR of 16.5 and a bWAR of 34.3. He's so bad at framing that it cost him 20 WAR. Now let's look at Grandal, 38.6 fWAR, 19.6 bWAR. Framing evidently earned him 20 WAR. How can there be such a discrepancy between the two calculations?

The entire team still makes very dumb defensive lapses (how about that Harper run down) which can only reflect on the coaching staff

Shewmake had been worse than I thought defensively but I bet most of that negative war is in the outfield. Benintendi and Grossman are two of the worst defensive outfielders I’ve ever seen play baseball. These are the kids you stick in right field because nobody is left handed in little league. Fletcher is ok but doesn’t have the range to play cf and it shows

they need to add an adjustment to FIP: pitched against White Sox. Paddock had an ERA above 8 before becoming prime Gred Maddux against the Sox.

Albert Pujols. Tony will vouch for him.

benintendi and grossman tripping and falling instead of fielding balls was hysterical

I deluded myself into thinking this team would be better than it was last year. I thought the hitting couldn't possibly get any worse and that the pitching/defense could actually impress. I thought Benintendi might bounce back and Vaughn would finally show something. Boy was I wrong. I don't necessarily blame Getz for that, I can only blame myself.

can we just relegate the entire team? does that exist in this sport?

well, after that Bohm 3-run home run, I decided I'd check the box score and see what I'm in for. oh s%*#, I mean his first 3-run home run. I think I'll pass on this game.

now that the Bulls have finished losing (for a couple months anyway), I can turn my undivided attention to watch the Sox continue to lose indefinitely!

I just wanted to play shortstop, man. One time. 70% of the kids can't throw it across the infield anyway, who cares if I have to turn my body? The last game before high school the coach let me play second base. Jerk.

the most memorable Sox game I attended, we went back-to-back-to-back off Randy Johnson. You could probably guess the year.

I frankly doubt it. Plenty of teams could have used Clevinger going into the season and know what he's capable of. And if he's toast, it's a minor league contract, no major loss. Re-signing him was the stupidest thing Getz has done, mostly from a moral standpoint but also from a baseball perspective too. There are about 10 pitchers in the organization that I'd rather see develop than watch Clevinger's old slimy ass net the Sox 2 extra wins in a 120 loss season.

I've always been partial to "Yasmani Groundball" .