Chisoxfn

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 08:55 AM) It happened just within the past couple years. Most though the idea was ridiculous, but a few thought Konerko's supposedly good defense made up incredibly huge gap in offense. There might have been some conversation when he was pushing .400 and getting better with age (but everyone knows Frank in his prime was one of the greatest offensive players to ever play the game). Paulie was a very good pure hitter himself and his numbers would look a heck of a lot more impressive when you adjust out for the other steroid guys (as do Frank's). Again, this is me assuming he wasn't roiding but Paulie has been pretty much the same size from the day he entered the league.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 08:48 AM) I miss Toub too. You just never really think that a coach for such a fluid unit (personnel wise) could make that much of a difference, but you know KC has noticed it. I always knew we were spoiled. Its going to be what happens when Cooper retires or leaves us.

You both bring up fair points in my biased goal of getting a new special teams coach. I miss our boy!

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 08:10 AM) I dont know about that, you would think the depth problems last season would trickle down to Special Teams the worst. Any depth the bears had was removed from Special teams and elevated to defense, and ST was running out some terrible players Im not saying Decamillis is great by any standard, but if Tucker gets a reprieve from injuries and depth issues, then Decamillis should too. Bears weren't exactly pulling those guys off special teams. They were doing both and the unit still kept some of the standouts from the previous era. Bad penalties, bad execution. Everything I saw out of the unit a year ago was one that was undisciplined and poorly coached. Joey D is the type of coach that could cost the Bears wins. I wanted Tucker gone too but from about the 3rd week on last year I was railing about how awful Joey D was and I presume it will be more of the same this year, but I hope I'm wrong. Also, I've heard that the special teams practices don't look that good and that the performance on fan night a week ago was really ugly.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 08:06 AM) Which leads to the arguments about his not running out ground balls or doing bat flips, etc. Let's go back to 15 or so years ago, when he supposedly had a degenerative hip condition and was fated to end up like a Joe Crede, out of baseball by age 30. He's never going to be Mike Trout, he can't run...he doesn't have a lot of range at 1B, he's losing his hair, etc. JOKING. At any rate, he's been one of the best ambassadors in baseball for his team, so I don't have any problem with him. He's never been my favorite, either, but I guess the best word is appreciate him and everything he's accomplished for the franchise. Paulie also doesn't seem like one of those guys (ala Gabe Kapler) who spend their entire offseason working on weights/health/nutrition. He's more from that Mark Buehrle, Thome or AJ old-school way of thinking. Would he be sitting on edge of the Hall of Fame if he took better care of himself, or could run 25% faster? Maybe, but probably not. I guess the other thing to consider is that he's not a "rah rah" Bobby Valentine type. He has always been a "quiet/lead by example" type, and that's led in the minds of some to complacent clubhouses...along with others who have similar personalities, Thome, Dunn, Dye, etc. We really do seem to have a leadership issue on this team if Adam Eaton can't stay on the field and Gordon Beckham obviously never came close to fulfilling that potential/label from 2009. Abreu and Chris Sale...not sure they are the ones, either. It seems we do need a veteran or two (position players) added into the mix who will bring our young players to that next level...a Mike Napoli, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, their equivalent (and not easy to find), Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Tim Hudson, etc. I have no idea where you get that about Paulie. He's supposed to be the most intense guy in the lockeroom and has always been in good shape and always seems like a hard worker.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 07:59 AM) Can we actually give Konerko some love for his career and what he did for the 15 years he was here, instead of focusing all on the negatives of the last couple of seasons. It doesn't seem people can. Really sad. Guy was incredible and gave it his all for the Sox. Heck, he really only had one bad year, which was last year (yes he had a bad 2nd half the year before but that was after a legendary first half). This year can't possibly be defined as bad, not given the role that he has been placed in. He basically had 2 bad full seasons in his entire career with the Sox.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 07:52 AM) So, the special teams. I've read a bit recently that Decamillis' system is complicated and may be reason foe the mistakes. If that's the case, maybe don't use a complicated system on the part of the team with 70% turnover every year. He's awful. Decamillis is a gigantic train wreck. He was awful last year and I can't believe he got a reprieve. I can see excuses for Tucker a year ago but those excuses didn't exist for decamillis.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 11:12 AM) Why can't there be an in-between ground between lionizing him as a veritable deity like one particular poster in this thread and "not being a fan of him and his career"? He shouldn't be on this team this year and he's been in the way for the last 2.5 years. As much as anyone, his falling apart with the bat in 2012 was absolutely key to that team missing the playoffs, and he's been paid a lot for the privilege. He had a couple rough years early in his career, had a great peak, was a key to both the 05 and 08 playoff runs, but in hindsight the White Sox would have been better off not signing him to either of his last 2 contracts. Sox aren't in that race if he isn't hitting .400. His bat falling apart, how about him being injured. Guy is one of the greatest White Sox of all time and was a consistently above average player for this franchise for a long long time. Nothing he has done this year has impacted the Sox ability to win...nothing. In fact, he has been a valuable pinch hitter and your bias comes through where you dispell that by acting as if the stats which back him as being above average actually make him not so good.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 10:46 AM) "Amongst the league leaders" = 8th out of 28 guys with that many PA's. He's at the 75th percentile. The 75th percentile for batting average, for example, is hitting .278. That's decent but the language is being stretched to compliment him. Better then 3/4th's of the league's pinch hitters. Yeah, I'm the one stretching things. In what world is that a negative from the description I gave of him being amongst the leagues best pinch hitters.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 10:39 AM) He's 8/23 pinch hitting, good for a decent average but putting up a .776 OPS and 3 RBI in pinch hitting roles. That's one of the top averages amongst guys with 25 pinch hit appearances but closer to adequate with the OPS. He might have been useful on an NL team if he could have done that for a few more PA's, but nothing to get excited about. That is amongst the league leaders in pinch hitting and pretty good from an OPS. Again, proving the point that he has been a very good pinch hitter. That is very good production off the bench. Ventura should be using him more often in that role. Heck, look at how Giambi was able to extend his career with some good pinch hitting production over the past couple of years.

Hasn't Konerko been one of the better pinch hitters in baseball this year?

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 06:28 PM) Zach Miller is looking rather impressive. First time he's been healthy in some time and had a full off-season. Could be a nice option and we could really use some depth at TE. I presume Bennett will be back with the squad today / tomorrow.

He probably makes his way through waivers.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 02:12 PM) Defensive end might be weak, but even there Austen Lane is better than most of the crap we had at DE last year. In DT, if rookies suck, Nate Collins has shown a lot already. I'm just not worried at all about the dline. The LBs on the other hand...mercy. How is DE weak? We have Willie Young, Jared Allen, and Houston. All are significant upgrades over what we had last year with the potential exception of "on paper" Peppers.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 12:50 PM) http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/white-...p;vkey=news_mlb Wonder if any of this was in response to Baez, or simply the fact that Hahn was with the Dash for three days this week and watched Carlos' start along with Buddy Bell? It's interesting, in the sense there's little here but speculation from Merkin, with nothing coming from Hahn or Bell and Ventura not even wanting to address the situation with anything but "the more the merrier" remark. RocketRod2 just now He could at least serve as the mop up man on the mound following Adam Dunn. Of course, that had to come from a Cardinals fan. Couldn't resist, I guess. @scottmerkin: RT @KenFinan: @scottmerkin My old man says despite the troubles, this is the most fun season he has seen since '05. @scottmerkin: Regardless, there's a solid young nucleus developing on the South Side that needs to be supplemented accordingly @scottmerkin: But fans have to admit that IF Rodon is ready, seeing him pitch a few games in Sept. certainly would create a little more buzz I disagree. 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 were MUCH MUCH more enjoyable... Pretty foolish to make roster decisions on promoting guys based upon the Cubs. Sox need to do what is best for them, plain and simple. Put a winner out there with exciting players like Abreu and Sale and fans will come. We will never draw like the Cubs anyway so focus should not be there, rather, focus should be on putting out a quality product that makes the team entertaining and competitive. Only way you even get close to really doing something like that is by doing something special and having a perennial contender and winner. Make it a trend and you will have more youth be White Sox fans. Realize that may not be the popular answer but it is the reality. I expect Chicago to have to exciting baseball teams from the window of 2016-2020 and part of that is based upon the faith I have in Epstein and Hahn.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 09:31 PM) You talking Beckham or Semien right now? Beckham.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 06:27 PM) I must have missed the conference call where everyone decided that Kevin Love is injury prone. Yes, he missed a ton of games in 12/13 with the broken hand. Other than that, he's played 77, 55 (lockout year), 73, 60 and 81. Even with the lockout subtracting 16 potential games, that's an average of about 70 a year. Unless you expect him to hurt himself while doing pushups on a yearly basis, that's not really much of a history to go on. Irving has a much more sketchy history so far. Besides, even if they do get hurt, they have two guys that can put up numbers off the bench in Waiters and Thompson (I'm assuming Varejao starts with Lebron and Love). I find this position funny given the team we all support. Even if you ignore Rose (which is a glaring issue to ignore), Noah has played 70 games once in the last 5 years (lockout caveat as well to be fair) and is frequently hobbling around in the playoffs, Gasol has missed 55 games the last two years and Butler had issues last year as well. That's really a case of the crow calling the raven black. There are enough real issues to worry about with Cleveland without picking nits. The bottom line is they're adding the best player in the league and another top-15 player without losing anything mind-blowing from last year's squad. I think they'll probably get the 2 seed because they'll have to work out some kinks, but they'll be a force to be reckoned with at the end of the year. I think Cleveland is a really good team and better then those Heat teams. Deeper and better. However, I also think the Bulls are better and some other teams in the league are better as well. Bottom line, I don't think anyone should be crowning them right now. They can be beaten, but it will be tough. They are an excellent squad.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 02:07 PM) Yeah right. Look, root for whoever the hell you want, doesn't mean I have to respect someone for it as a fan. Like the guy with the new FSU gear walking around Chicago. Did he go there? No? What's the tie there exactly, besides winning and jumping on a big team? Zero tie. Oh look at me, I'm the world's biggest FSU fan and I'm now I'm going to talk s*** and wear this gear to make me feel good about myself. Whatever gets you out of bed in the morning. I respect people who root for their teams win or lose, big or small. Does being an alum of a school do nothing for you? The point is, if you went to Dayton, they have sports programs you can root for. You probably paid money to go there. You probably rooted for them in some fashion for 4 years. Now you're out, time to jump on the OSU bandwagon because they are bigger, better. Whatever works. My school pride is tied to the education I got, the friends I made, and the fact that it put me in an excellent position to take the next steps in my professional career. Cheering for their sports teams is great and all but it doesn't mean I can't cheer for teams I've been cheering since I was a kid. Whether my school is great at football or sucks at football, sure it would be nice if they had a great program, but it is a school first and foremost. Picking a school (unless you are playing for that sports team and a recruit) based upon their sports team, while I'm sure some people do it, is pretty foolish. I guess no kid can ever cheer for a college sports team, only college grads can and you can only cheer your school. And said FSU fan you are describing is a bandwagoner, no different then any other sport in this planet where said fan switches from team to team and cheering for the frontrunners.

Tear apart. 1 Carlos Rodon 2 Tim Anderson 3 Courtney Hawkins 4 Micah Johnson 5 Francellis Montas 6 Spencer Adams 7 Matt Davidson 8 Tyler Danish 9 Cleuluis Rondon 10 Rangel Ravelo 11 Trey Michalczewski 12 Jace Fry 13 Carlos Sanchez 14 Chris Beck 15 Micker Adolfo 16 Keon Barnum 17 Trayce Thompson 18 Jacob May 19 Adam Engel 20 Scott Snodgress 21 Andy Wilkins 22 Brett Austin 23 Kevan Smith 24 Luis Martinez 25 Jake Jarvis 26 Tyler Saladino 27 Jordan Guerrero 28 Chris Bassitt 29 James Dykstra 30 Mike Recchia

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:57 PM) This has certainly hit a sore spot with you. There you go. No I think it is piss poor. you think you are better then someone else that is an Illinois fan because you went there and they went elsewhere. A fan is a fan? If they follow their team and aren't bandwagon hopping, they are no different then you. Not at all. But go ahead and pretend you are some elitist.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:42 PM) Props to you Wite this is a solid list. I just think you are crazy for making Rondon a top ten prospect when his ceiling is Brendan Ryan. Keith Law hinted that he has Simmons like skills at shortstop. I'm not saying he said he'd be Simmons just saying this guy has elite defensive skills and at a premium position, that adds value. Ryan also had a few 3 and 4 WAR seasons and has stuck around the league for quite some time.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:46 PM) The Chicago Bears are also a professional sports franchise, not a university. Their job is to play sports and entertain fans. When you were in high school, did you root for the sports teams from the high school across town because their school was bigger than yours? Little different. College football is a huge huge business. High school is not. You can watch a college football team from anywhere and while the athletes aren't professionals, they are extremely close and the product is a multi billion dollar business with games televised all over the place. I think that is a pretty poor comparison. If you had to go to a school to be a fan of the team, well then, I guess I'm not even allowed to watch college football. Pretty pathetic. I didn't pick my school because of their sports teams, I picked it for what I was going to get my degree, cost, etc. Has no impact on the allegiance of who I follow and cheer for and makes me no less of a fan then someone who graduated from that school.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) The same reason the Cubs brought up Baez in August. Because you can't simply go on September results to determine if he (Semien) should be a projected starter coming into 2015 season...45+ games gives you a far bigger sample size than 25 games. (Not to mention he's a natural SS, so he needs to show how well he can play 2B at the major league level, as they might move Russell to 2B and Baez to 3B or a corner OF spot, or keep Bryant at 3B or move him to RF). We've seen guys like Fields or Morel look good in September and then POOF it disappears the next season when it really counts and the weather's cold. If a guy can play passable at SS, he'll be able to play 2B. Might have to work on certain nuances but he can play.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) I think we are watching and talking about two different people Pitching, defense, pure hitting (guys who can handle a stick), and speed are my four favorite parts of a baseball game. When I watch games, I'm usually extremely focused on what guys are doing, the jumps they get, the range they display, the balls they get to and the balls they don't, and having watched as much as I have, Gordon's range is just simply not very good, when compared to other 2nd basemen and it has declined over the past few years. I used to think Beckham was one of the 2 or 3 best defensive 2nd baseman in the game but I think people who have that opinion or even that he is above average are completely wrong and going off of past performance. I also believe the stats as much as I question a lot of statistics, back up what my eyes are telling me as well. I could live with someone saying he is average to slightly below average. I don't think he's the worst defensive player in the game, but at average to slightly below average (and that would be lower based purely on range but is bumped up due to his strong arm and an above average ability to turn the DP) when combined with a weak bat, you are talking about one of the worst starting 2nd basemen in baseball.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:21 PM) I fully agree; I've long thought BAPIP, while interesting, is a pretty overrated / overrelied upon stat. I'm sure 20 years ago people would have been talking about Tony Gwynn's BAPIP as being unsustainable. I think you'd be better focusing on line drive rates and actual indicators of how a guy is hitting. If I were in the majors, I'd have a BAPIP of 0 (this is assuming I actually was able to put a ball in play)...does that mean I'm the most unlucky hitter in the world and should revert to some better number; no, absolutely not; It would be because I am a BAD hitter. I understand BAPIP a bit when it comes to looking at larger sample sizes of players who have proven themselves to see if potentially they've hit a string of bad luck, but again, I could just as easily focus on average and line drive rates vs. historic line drive rates of an individual player and probably get a more meaningful result. By the way, I do agree with some of the other points you bring up regarding Beckham and Semien being separated and just because we don't see a future in Beckham doesn't mean we just plug and play Semien. Semien was up a little earlier then expected and clearly was in a little over his head and went back to AAA with some more things to work on. While I want him up and would like him to get valuable at bats and more importantly allow our front office and scouts to get a better view and better idea as to whether we can count on Marcus, the fact that we have other internal options if Marcus struggles, probably allows the franchise to be more conservative in waiting because there are some other guys who have nice tools and could work at the position as well (Sanchez / Micah). I happen to think Semien will play at this level but again, nothing wrong with letting him get his bumps and continue to work on his game at AAA, plus to your point, he isn't lighting it up and I do really think there is something to be said about bringing a guy up when he is confident. Also by letting him go through the struggles in the majors, then go down to the minors and make adjustments and actually succeed based upon those adjustments (hopefully that happens and we see a nice hot streak), he will also have been able to pass a big mental hurdle which will be so important in his early major league development. You also had another great point on not having an entirely new middle infield and I think that is probably a very underrated reason why Alexei stays around (not to mention the fact that he's signed to a fair price and is one of the leagues top shortstops). I also don't see Semien, Johnson or Sanchez playing well enough defensively to fit in at SS. Rondon is the guy we have and he's still a ways a way (and again very raw; I'm probably the highest on him on this entire site and it is because I believe you have to have strong up the middle defense in this current era of baseball and that up the middle defense focuses more significantly on SS / CF / C.