Chisoxfn

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) I wanna go back in time one month and share this statement with that version of Soxtalk. I am not saying he's going to do that. I just said if he did that, that is what you'd be talking about. I'm enjoying this ride but its Tyler Flowers, if we had a good option, I'd be asking for him to be playing now, but we can't just throw Nieto to the wolves totally and might as well ride this version of Flowers while its rolling and who knows, maybe something finally clicked.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:53 AM) Projection is a FO's job. People on this board project both an increase in production and a decrease. One thing that doesn't make sense to me is if a relief pitcher's performance greatly varies from year to year, why would anyone use the previous season as the indicator for how they will perform in the current season? Regression and breakouts happen all the time. The Sox have a couple of breakouts in Petricka and Putnam. Next year, those guys both could be regressions. That is why you use scouting. I also think the comment on relievers performance fluctuating is exagerated. I think mediocre relievers performance can fluctuate but the good relievers with quality stuff tend to perform year in year out. Could some years be better then others, certainly, and given the smaller statistical sample sizes for relievers, that can type of variability can happen, but I think the relievers are relievers is a little old. I think that is more you can have a few guys in the back end of the pen that all of a sudden come out and have a great year, etc.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:28 AM) If FIP is an indicator of future success, it appears it needs a bit of fine tuning. FIP is one of the most overused and overrelied upon new stats out there. There are inherent flaws in the calculation and favoritism towards certain statistics.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:23 AM) So you think training camp fights correlate to penalties in the regular season? That would mean the Lions have more training camp incidents that anyone in the league right? Or they just have 2 extremely dirty players. I think being undisciplined in camp leads to issues in the game. It is why you practice. You lose tempers in practice why wouldn't you in the game and when you do, you get flagged 15 yards for a personal foul. Thankfully Trestman has sent a hard message so clearly he was pretty fed up with this too (in fact he was pissed about it two fights ago and made a huge deal about it).

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 08:12 AM) At this point, its a possibility since he apparently had surgery this morning. That would be extremely strange if that were the case. I presume somewhere between 6-10 weeks. Although I do presume time to recover from surgery is slightly longer which maybe puts him at 12-14 weeks which might just mean you can't hold the roster spot and sit him for the season.

I would gladly claim Utley, but Utley is going to get claimed and Phils won't let him walk for nothing.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 07:59 AM) I did "look" at the video and it was nothing out of the ordinary, if anything Fuller made a dangerous play and needed to be sent a message. Yet Bennett is the one suspended. Why, because he's already had a few of these incidents. You practice undisciplined and you play undisciplined. Look how that worked for the Lions. Teams that are undisciplined are penalized and tend to lose a lot of games.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 06:19 AM) You think they'll get claimed? I would be shocked if all of them were claimed. And if they were, I would expect you'd see some of those guys go for nothing.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 04:00 AM) if he ends up settling in at .250ish with moderate power (by moderate I mean number of HRs, not shear power...because the dude is strong) and decent defense, he'll be fine as the starting catcher. If he hits .250 with moderate power, with his ability to call a game and do a quality job behind the plate, we will be in great shape because we'll be talking about one of the 5 or 6 best catchers in the game. Tools are there but lets see if he can sustain and start hitting the ball more consistently hard for a long term period like he has since putting those glasses on!

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 11:48 PM) Okay now, let's not get carried away. He's not far removed from hitting .089/.141/.143 over 120 plate appearances. Sometimes I think you just watch simulated baseball. Sometimes, don't you think its nice to sit back and enjoy things. I'm sure there would have been some advanced stats that could have told you he wasn't going to hit .089 for the rest of the season which meant there was a hot streak in there somewhere to bring him up to 188 or some crap.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 5, 2014 -> 06:42 AM) Easy mom, there is a video of the incident if you want to watch it. You can even see them make up and Cutler come over to speak with Fuller. Look. Bennett has taken down a few guys and there have been quite a few more incidents. I follow training camp and have for a long time and also follow all the other camps. I know 1 or 2 incidents tend to happen but there have been more then that with the Bears. Why do you think Tresty cut practice short by almost half an hour. He was sending a message saying cut it out.

If you are factoring in contracts, you go with Sale. If you factor in best player, its Sale. However, if you are concerned about his long term ability to stay healthy, you might lean Abreu. Ace pitchers help you win a series though.

We seem to have some problems in camp. Morning practice was cut short 25 minutes because Bennett decided to body slam Fuller. There have been a lot more fights reported in this years camp then I can pretty much ever remember and while I'm all for a little chippiness, this is just sloppy and undisciplined and needs to stop. It needed to stop 3 fights ago and most definitely need to stop now. Reports are that Fuller just tried to strip the ball and Bennett went crazy on him. These incidents are increasing in severity too, which is bad, because the culture is that it is okay because others have done it and it is a slippery slope. Next thing you know, we turn into the flipping Lions. Tresty certainly isn't condoning it but the leaders of this lockeroom and coaching staff need to end this stuff NOW!

That is downright hillarious.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 11:47 AM) Same thing Rodgers had. He was out 2 months. Tough break, but he'll be back. Bears still have Josh Morgan, and I'm intrigued to see is Chris Williams will get some time at WR. Morgan has been pretty bad by all accounts.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 11:32 AM) Not really. A bad pen is something that tends to happen when your back two guys get hurt. The back 2 guys, well the back guy, was one of the worst in baseball anyway. We aren't talking about two of the top relievers in baseball. Nate Jones argument works, he was one of the better 7th / 8th inning guys in the game but Lindstrom wasn't even close to that and as a closer he isn't very good. Sure we had an injury but as a whole this was a bad pen. Lindstrom was our 5th best reliever a year ago and all of a sudden this year he was our so called "best". That alone should tell you how bad the pen was set up. Again, I wasn't going to get all that mad about it because I didn't expect to contend and figured we'd be able to use it to potentially find some cheaper guys and get our young pitchers some time to hopefully prove themselves so we had some cost-controlled options that were ready for when we were contending.

How long is he going to be out? 8 weeks or so?

Uh oh. Hopefully nothing major. He really looks like he has a shot at being a pretty good slot receiver.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:54 AM) Yes. I understand injuries can set you back, but it's Nate Jones and Matt Lindstrom. I will say, since he's been injured, Matt Lindstrom has become a lot better pitcher without even throwing a pitch than he was when he went down. He was one of our last relievers a year ago and become one of our top 2 guys and it wasn't like a year agos performance indicated he was deserving of that. No, he wasn't bad, but he certainly isn't real good either. It was a bad pen from day 1 (which, I think you are in agreement with DA, at least based upon the post above).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:51 AM) If that is what he thought, he thought wrong. An average bullpen, this team, with all it's warts, had a shot. The moves they made, seemed to be indications, that it was unlikely we would have a legit shot this year. Not to say if everything broke right we didn't, but it seemed that there was still a much more long picture in view and realistically as fans, I think we all would have said, somewhere near to slightly above .500 would be probably the high end of the road.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:47 AM) It's a rebuilding year. Hahn doesn't think he had a shot at winning.... I don't think anyone expected the club to be this much better, this quickly. I don't think Hahn was that focused and was more focused on reclamation projects, etc, to see if he could get some other cheap options going forward thinking that soonest we could compete was next year.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:12 AM) Danish will be on a lot of lists at season's end. The timing of the mid-season lists had his early high A struggles fresh in some minds, but he's obviously adjusted well. He should be Top 50 or better. Only the lazy he-looks-like-a-reliever crowd will keep him out of the Top 20, which is where he belongs. He's our best prospect after Rodon. I would not expect Danish to be on any top 100 list and he is nowhere near our 2nd best prospect. I like him and his potential but objectively, there are a lot of reasons to peg him as a potential reliever. We need to see how he can handle continued innings increases, etc. I think he can stick as a starter, but it will be another year, imo, before he jumps into the top 100 picture and if he does what he did this year and continues to improve a year from now with more innings and a higher level under his belt, absolutely.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:45 AM) This. If Wiggins is in the deal, the Bulls can't do any better. The one thing that could happen is Love, maybe through his reps, ends up deciding Chicago is a far better destination for himself and he plays a little hardball and throws a wrinkle into the mix.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 4, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) Yes, he predicted injuries to his last two guys in the game. Lindstrom was already, on paper, one of the worst closers on opening day. Again, not calling him a bad reliever but he was not one of the 20 best closers to start the season. This pen was bad to start and while Nate and Lindstrom were unexpected, most everything else could be expected with exception of Putnam pulling things out. We had some vets on the decline or who we were hoping we could turn around plus Petricka and Webb (as two nice arms who...are still just that and really the only projectable worthwhile pieces in our pen).

I'm going to say this. We entered this season with what I thought was a bad bullpen. We had no closer, however, I thought Nate could step into that role. We added some scrap heap vet arms and obviously had Lindstrom who I put as a serviceable reliever and probably one of the worst closers on any opening day roster. The two of them got hurt, which was surprising, but as a whole, this pen had very little talent, and that is on Hahn. With a league average pen, we are, conservatively 2-3 games out of the wild card. However, we don't have that and never did, so while injuries factored in, I also think the pen was devoid with talent and that was from the start. The bright side is, bullpens, can be remade pretty quickly and I am sure that will be an area Hahn targets. They also can be great places to bring up guys internally and hopefully Petricka and Webb continue to develop and that gives us a couple, quality, cost controlled relievers.