Chisoxfn

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 03:55 PM) Nobody said fire the guy, but extend his contract with 5 years still on it? Seemed very very premature when they havent won the conference in over a decade and he wasnt being heavily pursued by another program. And with all due respect, I dont believe Iowa was really in contention to win the national title, regardless of the outcome of that game. They did capitalize on not playing a single good team in conference until the title game which is all you could ask for. I never said they were a title front-runner, but no one would ever expect Iowa to be the front runner to win a national champsionship. Under Ferentz, we've known were going to largely be competitive with certain years where we give it a pretty darn good run. This has included playing in some fantastic bowl games as well. Ferentz was re-energized the past year and I think they can have another very very good season (by Iowa standards) this year. By the way, since 2001, Wisconsin has had a 70% winning percentage vs. Iowa's 64% and has won an additional 14 games (essentially one more game per season).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 02:56 PM) So that was a long way to say he's good enough and you don't expect better. Iowa at one point contended for national titles and that hope apparently is long gone. Imo Iowa city and the university have a lot to sell and recruiting isn't as good as it could be and the team isn't winning as much as it could be either. If you look at "similar" schools and their success vs the talent in state, Wisconsin is a great comparison and places like Oregon aren't far off. Iowa has a ton to sell and its location is not nearly as bad as you make it out to be. Last year they were a couple plays from being in the playoffs. If that isn't competing, I don't know what is. And they have had a couple other times during the Ferentz era where they were right there. That is about all I can ask for. Not going to fire the guy cause they didn't win "it". Oregon has a billion dollar budget (yes, I exaggerate a bit, but its true). Wisconsin is a good and fair comparison though.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 11:49 AM) It's freaking Iowa. I don't think many coaches would do nearly as good as he does if most of their recruits come out of West Des Moines. Iowa isn't exactly a hot bed of football talent. Many places still play 7 on 7. He gets 2 and 3 star recruits a shot in the NFL as well as any coach in America. I have no idea how his style might work somewhere else, probably not as good as it does for others, but I don't think many people would have the success he has had in Iowa City. And those that perhaps would, are getting paid as well. His teams have finished the season ranked in the top 10 five times. When that happens at a place similar, like Minnesota, give me a call. It's a well deserved extension. He is a class act. From the Hayden Fry, Bill Belichick tree. If they could hire someone better, they wouldn't stay like he has. Iowa fans take him for granted. Whether he coaches another 10 years, I tend to doubt it. Well said.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 11:37 AM) Because he is a great coach. Who else is going to do what he does at Iowa? And his biggest threat is the NFL. I think people know he is happy at Iowa and probably isn't leaving for another college gig, but you never know with the NFL (and every few years, his name comes up, but I think the security has keeps that in-check). What he's done at Iowa is great (by my standards). Would he be great at USC or something, I don't know. Yes, he has some issues, but I certainly wouldn't go another direction and keeping him there longer is a plus in my book (as long as he keeps that hunger).

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 08:54 AM) 3 guarantees in life: Death, taxes, and Kirk Ferentz @ Iowa. Is Jerry Reinsdorf the AD in Iowa City? They gave him a raise and an extension through 2026. I have zero problem with it. This will also be the week they find a way to lose to ISU.

Prayers with you all.

QUOTE (SpankyEaton @ Sep 5, 2016 -> 10:01 AM) Can someone explain the outrage over releasing Gould and how the meatballs are upset by the direction Pace has taken? It's a complete rebuild that isn't done yet - I doubt Cutler, Jeffery, Houston and Royal are in the future plans. I still think Jeffrey should be. And if he isn't, we should get draft picks for him. Same can be said for Cutler (look at what the Eagles got for Bradford).

QUOTE (shipps @ Sep 2, 2016 -> 09:51 AM) I wonder if Shea is going to make the Patriots 53 man. I know he played rather sparingly in the pre season and didnt play in the last game. If he didn't play in the last game, that would tell me he is either hurt or made the team already.

If you want to complain about Braverman not making it, complain about him not putting up a good performance. We will obviously try to sneak him onto the practice squad, but nothing during the games screamed, this guy is more deserving of a position then Meredith or any of the other wideouts they'd be keeping over him (and this is coming from someone who really liked the Braverman pick). I think even Braverman would admit that and hopefully we can keep him on the practice squad and he can put in the work, develop, and eventually make the squad.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 08:19 PM) You survive, Evan? Ha, I was thinking the same thing and being the jerk that I am, I was sitting there rooting for Applachian State to pull the win just so I could picture Evan throwing a remote as his TV, haha.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 2, 2016 -> 07:13 AM) Mariani. Ugh. Why? Because he was pretty good in the slot last year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 01:47 PM) But don't miss this part though...what are the White Sox missing from their bullpen? Putnam, Petricka, Duke (or other random LOOGY), maybe you count Webb also. They're missing some depth fine, Putnam can be an 8th inning guy sometime, but they're not missing Wade Davis. They're not missing their closer or their top setup guy from the start of the season. Add in Petricka, Duke, Putnam, and they're perhaps closer to an average bullpen and that's a few wins over the course of the year, but that's not an "above average" bullpen. With unbelievable health, they were in the middle of the league last year in bullpen FIP and xFIP, and that was that crazy year where fangraphs thought the defense was so much worse than every other metric that I probably put them as closer to an average pen last year. You want this to become an "above average" bullpen, they need to get those other guys back and add a Chapman level pitcher and then have no injuries next year. That's how far away they are from the standard you just set. Oh, I never said they have a good bullpen, I just said our bullpen is crap and probably would have been crap regardless of injuries. That said, pens can be a little fluky, but we run out a lot of garbage and none of the guys that are gone are all that great (Putnam is about the only guy I can maybe point at and even he had his ups and down's and Robin didn't have a ton of trust in him). Will be interesting to see what Burdi does when he comes up and what the Sox end up doing with Fullmer as well. Obviously we are going to see a bit of both of them, although it might not be until after Charlotte's post-season run.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 12:30 PM) Blown saves does not tell you anything about how good or bad a bullpen is. It's a pretty useless stat for evaluation. Blown saves can occur late in games for a variety of reasons, and it treats all the same which makes it really noisy. The bullpen is bad, but the blown saves measure doesn't tell us that. It tells me that we have lost a lot games we could have potentially won, but I also don't have the context of the actual conversion %, the amount of situations vs. other teams, etc. What does stick out is that by most advanced stats our bullpen is awful. 25th in xfip, etc. We have a really really porous pen and it is very evident, imo. We are a lot better team with an above average bullpen. We could say that about other areas, but this bullpen is awful.

Kevan Smith should be interesting. Guy who has a chance to stick around the big leagues as a backup.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 10:23 AM) Go back and read what I wrote. He and Avi are very similar offensively at this point. Why is that inaccurate? Who cares what a guy did in 2013 in 2017? He's in AAA. He has to be a colossal bozo. Why would he suddenly thrive with the White Sox? And as I pointed out and you ignored, Avi is probably a non tender. If Avi had Puig's defense, what would you say if the Sox gave him a 2 year $12 million extension, 2/3s of what is owed Puig? You can't just ignore past production though, especially for a player who still has all the physical tools, etc. This is a guy who was a well above average player and quite frankly still is. Yes, there are other issues here, but comparing him to Avi just isn't worthwhile. What if I compared Omar Vizquel to other mediocre offensive shortstops and said, well, they are comparable offensive players (this is before his late career offensive burst). You would be ignoring the fact that he was one of the greatest defensive shortstops ever. Now I am not saying that Puig is the best defensive outfielder ever and he doesn't play the premium defensive position that SS is, but in some ways, Puig's defense compared with Avi's would be like comparing a bad defender to Omar Vizquel. If Avi had a track record of Puig's (good and bad), I would not be writing him off. Avi has done absolutely nothing every single season in his big league career thus far. In fact, he's been worse then replacement level in every single season of his career.

I bet the Giants put a claim on him and the Dodgers were like, well, there goes trading Puig.

Trump confirms president will pay for wall. Two hours later, president says, I didn't say that.

QUOTE (RegionSox @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 08:24 AM) Stranger Things is officially renewed by Netflix for season 2 They should do it American Horror Show style where each season pretty much fully stands on its own. Anything else and I think it only goes downhill.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) There is no way in hell that David Price should even be considered for the award. He's had an awful year. Awful, no. Up to David Price's usual standards, no. Cy Young, no. Pretty good, yep, he's still been pretty good.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 08:51 AM) Have you ever seen Teddy Bridgewater? Honestly, I think I saw a split second and immediately turned away so I didn't look close enough at anything other then how messed up the knee was (didn't see skin color, etc, nor did I analyze it cause it was so nasty).

Should make one item clear. Sox were in attendance. And I also want to point out, I am one who is fully convinced if Jordan started baseball when he was younger or to be frank gave it more time, I think he could have played in the league. I'm not saying he would be a star, but to even do what he did at AA was pretty impressive for a guy who hadn't played baseball in forever. His stats were not good for a regular AA'er, but this was a guy who last played what, in high school, so he was 13 or so years removed from his last game, was put in AA, and was able to hit just above .200 while shockingly showing a pretty good awareness of the strike zone (51 walks in 127 games). And I don't think this attempt has anything to do with arrogance, I think it has more to do with him knowing he isn't going to be able to play football and he wants to still compete so he is trying the next best thing. Clearly the odds are astronomical that he'd succeed, but crazier things have happened. Look at the movie the "Rookie".

Was that really his knee?

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 08:07 PM) Baiting is ok, but not retaliating. Got it Who said baiting is okay. No one. The message was loud and clear at the start and if people have a problem and don't react, they'll be suspended or can find another place to post. If you can't have civil discussion, than you don't belong here. This is not censoring people's message, this is treating people with respect. Case closed. And if you have a biased against certain individuals that you can't respond to them in that manner, then put them on ignore or do your own mental ignore.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 04:49 PM) Lawrie is better, and younger. They are pretty much the same age, however, Saladino has shown steady improvement in his first two seasons in this league (this being his second year). That said, he obviously has the benefit of playing a platoon role which may help inflate his standalone cause. Defensively Tyler is the superior player and offensively, Tyler has shown some positive trends. Lawrie definitely has the more proven track record and slightly higher OPS from the offensive perspective. Tyler is also under team control for a while and while both have the benefit of being able to play multiple positions, Tyler can play 3B / SS / 2B and play them well. Basically put, I see more upside giving Tyler more playing time then Lawrie, given overall control (might as well see what we have, is it a darn good back-up or do we have a good serviceable starter).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 03:11 PM) Puig and Avi have Ben pretty similar offensively his season But Puig has been an excellent defender throughout his career and brings a ton of value there (and compared to Avi, who is brutal in the field, the measures are even more comical). Offensively, he also is having his worse yes (yes, trend has also been negative) but prior to this year, he also was light years better than Avi offensively (as well).