maggsmaggs

In three years, the Sox will have a loaded pitching staff. The question is, will we have any sort of offense? :/

Cubs are just frickin loaded on hitting prospects. Jeez.

Fulmer is from Lakeland, Florida, where . . . Chris Sale is from.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 8, 2015 -> 05:18 PM) Need hitters not pitchers right now. Do you trust this organization to develop a hitter? I don't. Until they drastically change the player development department, I go pitching all day.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 5, 2015 -> 11:17 PM) There is no need for him, Versteeg was measures better. Exactly. He was doing nothing this postseason except for making hits. I just hope the Hawks can trade him, but I am not sure if we can unless we sweeten the pot with a draft pick.

Don't start nibbling Q.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 5, 2015 -> 08:28 PM) 4 of the 5 hitters after Avi are easy outs vs LHP. Either start playing Boni or release him and pick up Ruggiano. Our hitters have a combined -1.2 WAR on the season. Four teams have had a negative offensive WAR since 2000. Tigers twice in 2002-2003 and lost 100+ in both seasons. Diamondbacks in 2004, lost 100+/. Marlins in 2012 and lost 93.

The Charlotte Knights hit this s***ty Tigers pitcher better than the Major League team. That's embarrassing.

KRod and Joe Nathan also meet Stark's criteria since he never limited the question to solely starters.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 07:03 AM) While it worked for a game or two, the whole asking a bunch of questions thing has gotten very old, very quick. His eye for tracking the ball is also worse than Blind Hawk's is. Exactly, Swirsky just sounds clueless to baseball. I understand wanting to give Stone a lot of analytical time which is hard when Hawk is in the booth. But the incessant asking questions like Swirsky is an intern is annoying. They need a guy like Jeff Joniak in my opinion. A smart, eloquent and knowledgeable broadcaster who knows when to let his analyst who played the game get his airtime.

KW is embarrassed by the Sox this year, I am embarrassed with KW's track record as an organization leader, his draft success and many other areas. Toronto hiring him would have been the best news for this organization in a long time.

Between Swirsky and Hawk, I don't know who I like least.

QUOTE (VAfan @ May 31, 2015 -> 09:04 PM) Fortunately for my sanity, I haven't been watching these first 49 games that closely. They have certainly been putrid, especially on offense. But that actually gives me cause for optimism. - We're only 3 games under .500. - The Minnesota Twins are in first place, and lead us by only 7 games. - The AL East is led by two teams that are each only 1 game over .500. - The AL West second place team is only 2 games over .500 - There are only 3 AL teams more than 5 games above .500 - In other words, we are within 3 games of all but 4 teams in the AL, and 5 teams make the playoffs - The offense CAN'T remain THIS BAD. Eaton, Melky, Abreu, LaRoche, Alexei, Gillaspie, Flowers, Soto. ALL have hit better than this. - The only guy who is possibly overachieving is Avisail, and who's to say he can't get better? - The starting pitching is starting to come around - Chris Sale threw a masterpiece against Baltimore. He's not going to finish with an ERA in the mid-3s. He seems to be past the setback from missing spring training. - Samardzija is not going to end up with an ERA closer to 4 than 3. - Quintana may still be the unluckiest starter in baseball, but his ERA in the 4s is not where it's going to end up. - Carlos Rodon is now in the rotation, and is likely to give us a lot of good starts - John Danks just pitched his first shutout since 2011, and looks capable of pitching at least as well as last year, when he was a .500 pitcher. - The bullpen can pitch better than it has. And we may have reinforcements coming at some point this year. - Our expected W-L is 19-30, but we're 4 games better than that. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I'm taking it as a good sign, since we are maximizing the return on the performance we're getting. It's a bad sign. Run differential is generally the best indicator of future performance and it tends to correct itself as the season plays out.

You fix the mess by having a farm system that produces Major League Baseball players. Until we have that, get used to suckiness to mediocrity. Unless you can go out and give $100 million contracts to the best free agents, the building of a consistently contending team must be done through the farm system. I guess my answer is simple: Fire Buddy Bell and clean house in the rest of the player development side at least the "hitting" people.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 29, 2015 -> 06:36 PM) I agree, we'll probably be having a draft in the not to distant future anyway. The problem with this strategy is that in order to make it worth your while, you have to just go all out, spend an insane amount of money, which the Sox likely don't have nor would do. You can't just go over the bonus limit by $500,000. To make it worth losing the next two years of major international signings, you have to blow past by millions, IMO.

My top five currently is: Fulmer, Tate, Jay, Benintendi and Stephenson. Based on what I am reading from the guys in the know (McDaniel, Callis, Manuel), any of those five could be available for the Sox. So many unknowns this year. Last year, it was certain who was going in the top three (Kolek, Rodon and Aiken), the order was just up in the air. This year, no one knows. But let's just hope the Sox have done their research on the top 8 players in the Draft in their mind and then the highest rated player left.

QUOTE (OilCan @ May 24, 2015 -> 06:12 PM) Maybe it's kind of "OK, here we go I expect some BIG things from some of Rick Hahn's draftees/acquisitions" and although they've been good, they haven't dominated. Hawkins is developing well at AA. Still only 20. Danish too. Thompson, for his lack of batting average the last two years, is doing well at AAA. Montas is learning his craft. So is Adams...Rodon as well in a "learn on the job" phase ala Alex Fernandez and Jack McDowell. Tim Anderson is hitting the ball well at AA, just need to develop a more patient eye, perhaps? It's on the upswing, guys. Keep the faith. Go Sox. See, I completely disagree. The only person in that group who is showing real signs of development is Danish. He is the youngest guy in the Southern League and performing pretty darn well overall. I am not concerned about Adams due to his age relative to the league, but undeniably, he is not performing as well as we probably would've hoped. Hawkins continues to flounder in my opinion. He doesn't walk enough to justify his high strikeout rate. Thompson ditto. Tim Anderson will never be a solid major-league baseball player if he cannot walk. He is not hitting extra-base hits like he should and his defense continues to be suspect. Anderson's ability to be a solid major-league baseball player is entirely tied to his offense and right now I am not seeing enough of a progression there to be any more optimistic about his future. There is still plenty of time, no doubt, so I'm not completely writing him off at all. But you would like to see a little bit more progress. I am very disappointed in the progress this year of our minor-league system. We simply cannot develop offensive talent. It's a shame and it's terrible for future. So far this year in terms of legit prospects, I am only pleased with the progress of Guerrero and Danish.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 19, 2015 -> 07:35 AM) Not as deep into this year's crop since I'm buried in work, but I'm fully on board with Tyler Jay. Think he could be a steal if he's still on the board still. Would probably go top 5 if he was starting this year. I feel Jay is such a big risk, mostly due to Illinois's coaching staff by not allowing him to start this year. No one has any idea, beyond speculation, how his stuff will hold up late in the game. He stared one game this year and an extended relief appearance or two, but without starting consistently, it's a big risk that he can eventually be a starter. Obviously, Illinois's coaching staff, especially the pitching side, has been terrific the past few years in developing tons of great arms, but I still have never heard the rationale for not starting Jay. Do they not think he can handle the starter innings? Do they think he is more valuable to them as a reliever? If I knew for a fact he could pitch deep into games and keep his stuff, I would be all over him. But I still would take Fulmer over him, even with his delivery and all, simply because there is hard data that he can pitch deep in the game and maintain his stuff. But I wouldn't be disappointed with Jay.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 15, 2015 -> 04:26 PM) Benitendi has some crazy stats. He's surpassed Happ as the best college bat available. Apparently, he is a legit CF, too. I just always take college HRs with a grain of salt. After all, Beckham hit 28 HRs his junior year. But looks like a great combination of power-speed and strong eye at the plate. Plus the ability to play CF.

I don't know anything about her, but she could replace Jurko and that show would be immensely better.

Guerrero reminds me on the mound of Jim Parque, similar motion and delivery. Not saying it is good or bad, just throwing it out there.

There are plenty of missed calls in every game. JR Smith shouldn't have received a technical when he pushed Niko. Bulls lost this game because they had multiple stretches where they scored five points in like six minutes.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 10, 2015 -> 10:50 AM) Here is the dilemma. Do you prefer the sox have their best pitchers in the regular season or in the latter part of the season and post season? It's as simple as that. He cannot pitch both. With Danks and Noesi pitching in the rotation, the Sox are not going to make the post-season. With Rodon in instead of one of them, at least you have a legitimate starter giving the team a chance to win. The Sox cannot afford to "save" him until the end of the season because then the hole they have dug themselves will be even worse. Let him pitch until he hits whatever the inning limit is.

All I know is that there is no excuse for him not being in the rotation from here on out. Whether it is Noesi or Danks, neither is a better option. If you are trying to win, he should be starting.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ May 4, 2015 -> 05:44 PM) That would be fantastic if true (and he isn't implicated, which so far it sounds like he's not a suspect). Would love him assuming all of the investigation stuff comes out clean. Bears have a huge needs on the line. Depending on Slauson's productiveness, you could always use this as the opportunity to move Long to tackle. But Bears need talent all over and adding a first-round caliber guard like Collins would be amazing.