Chisoxfn

Ah f***...Andruw...f***.

Do most hitters wear mouthpieces/mouthguards?

Come on Becks!!!

And there is an error to start things off!!!

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 04:42 PM) Wow, as Hawk said, no momentum going right now. Caught in the hyperboles after the deadline passed, you have to wonder what the impact of no trades will be on the team's psyche? Besides Konerko, almost everyone was saying they were hoping to see additions. I know the usual posters will say there's none and others will say there's a lot. They did add Edwin Jackson. Albeit, they wanted a bat, I think they know they are a pretty quality club. I still won't write them out of tonights game. Albeit, it doesn't look good.

Wasted a leadoff double...ouch. Danks is gonna have to keep this short from here on out.

Damn I thought that fister was falling. Time for a Viciedo HR

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 04:37 PM) He just seems like a totally different hitter against LHP. He doesn't pick up the pitch very well at all. Q was in a hole and rolled over a very very hittable pitch. That is what happens when you are behind in the count 1-2. Come on AJ, pick up Q and knock in Paulie.

Q just swung at a terrible pitch. When he swings at strikes, he's amazing, when he doesn't, uggh.

Beautiful, Paulie crushed that double. Lets get some back right here!!!

That would have been freaking miraculous play if Jones could have made it. Very little chance. The only hiccup he had was at the last second when he realized he had no chance and had better keep it in front of him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:27 PM) I'd rather have Freddy on the mound than Jackson, as it stands right now. Jackson has a rock solid Fip and Xfip. Having our defense behind him and playing in the cell will be very beneficial. Not to mention a regression to the means on his bad luck. Add in a potential mechanical flaw Coop might see and you might see major progress. Might not, but even as his, Jackson is a much more valuable pitcher than you give him credit for.

QUOTE (daggins @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:26 PM) Mitchell is at least 2 years off. Missing a year is bad news for a guy like him. I get the idea he starts in high A and will be aggressively promoted to AA if he hits well, but that's it. Thompson will probably start next season in Kanny as well. This year has really been crap in terms of injuries. If Mitchell hits in winter ball, he'll open the year in Birmingham. You can take that to the bank. The Sox love him and are going to move agressively with him. Thompson is the guy that is a few years out. He has a high bust-rate, where as I feel pretty confident that if healthy, Mitchell will have a long major league career. Whether that is as an all star or not is a whole other story, but Mitchell does a lot of things pretty good and the Sox player development group is a lot better than it was 4 years ago.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:20 PM) I don't think people realize how talented Jackson is. He was once considered a top 5 prospect in all of baseball, made his major league debut when he was 19 and seems fully recovered from surgery. If they have found a flaw that's easily correctible, he's going to be a pretty popular guy. Completely agree. He is still very young and this is a guy that every team in baseball would have loved to have at 19. The guy was one of the best young prospects of the past 5 years. He didn't live up to that hype and kind of faded away before finding himself in Tampa. He seems to have a resilient arm and has never really been a position where he's worked with top notch pitching coaches. He is a good kid with a HUGE arm that is just 26. Cooper tends to have a decent track record of fixing guys and with his stuff, if he has even mediocre command he'll be a guy we really like. I also think he has the stuff to shut-down really good offensive teams come October and that is the big reason the Sox made this deal. I don't think the Sox were going to go with Freddy or Hudson in October. Maybe Freddy but you have no idea what he'll have left than.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:18 PM) Rock solid in 2008? He put up an ERA of 4.42 and a WHIP of 1.51. He was so rock solid that they dropped him from their playoff rotation and stuck him in the bullpen. I think that's basically the definition of a back of the rotation starter, the guy who gets dumped from the rotation. Last year, he had a really good first half...keyed by Comerica park and a .249 BABIP. Every other season in his career he's had a .315ish BABIP against him and that's given him an ERA around 5. In the 2nd half of 2005, he had a BABIP around .315 and wound up with...an ERA around 5. He's an ERA ~5 pitcher. Coop might be able to fix that, but right now, he's an ERA 5ish pitcher. That wasn't just a typical team. The Rays had a very good rotation that year. They had about 6 quality starters.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) Mitchell being ready next year would require the kind of jump that Hudson made last year. Mitchell is a year out. He'll spend all of next year in the minors and than if all goes well be ready. Agressive, certainly, possible, absolutely. Obviously it is very dependent on him being healthy though, which is a major ?.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:13 PM) This team certainly has a shot, but let's not pretend that "we'll add another big bat at the deadline!" is a decent strategy. Buying at the deadline is a perfectly fine strategy, especially when there weren't a ton of great fits at the deadline. You guys all talk about Thome, but he isn't exactly a world beater. He'd clearly be a lot better than Kotsay but he still hasn't been that amazing and no one could have even assumed he'd put up the numbers he has thus far this year. I liked some of the bats this off-season, but quite frankly, outside of Vladdy none of the cheaper DH options have lit the world on fire. I would have loved Matsui, he hasn't exactly been stellar either. The reality is we don't have a huge budget and our team was built to have a studly rotation, good defense, and nice bullpen. That can win a whole lot of games and our offense isn't near as bad as it was for the first two months of the season. It has issues, but a lot of teams have issues.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:11 PM) If Coop can work a miracle, sure, maybe there's a ridiculous savings bit there because we extend him early. Then again, I think he's a fringe #5 starter right now. How is he a fringe 5th starter? 2008 he was rock solid in Tampa and in 09 he was freaking real good in Detroit. Neither of those years was he anything remotely close to a 5th starter. His numbers aren't great this year, but Arizona is just a s***ty place to pitch (ball gets little movement and everything jumps out of that place; it is much harder to pitch at than the cell, imo). Jackson has proven he can pitch in spurts and I believe a lot in Cooper. Jackson at 26 still has some upside, imo, and Coop will be the best pitching coach he's ever worked with.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:08 PM) That plan worked like a charm this year. I still think this team has a shot. Jackson has the ability to be a pretty good pitcher and I feel we have a strong defense and strong bullpen. If the bats are hot at the right time this team could win it all. But I like Danks/Floyd/Jackson more than some. And we all know I am Floyds biggest fan. I think Floyd is one of the best starters in all of baseball.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:07 PM) Extending Jackson? Where's that "Shooting myself" smiley? The Sox are going to try and get Danks or someone else to sign a deal to keep control of pitchers. Extending Jackson might not be a bad thing. But than again, I tend to like Edwin.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:04 PM) Why would Flowers be gone this offseason? The team won't be cutting him, and no one else is going to overvalue him after having a poor season. THey might hold onto him, but they might move him. I think we have a few deals to make between now and than. Sox are going to probably break camp with Morel and Viciedo as every day players. Maybe that is why Kenny wants Edwin Jackson, basically it ensures we have a super strong 5 man rotation to keep things close while the younger players develop and if everything goes well, next July, Kenny will be trying for that big bat again.

In regards to Edwin Jackson, I wouldn't be super surprised if the Sox either extend him in the off-season and look at moving one of Floyd/Danks as they have a lot of money tied to the rotation, or if they swung him in an off-season deal for a younger bat. The key will be how Jackson pitches down the stretch. However, I think the Sox are gonig to be in an interesting position, given that there most productive offensive bat is a FA at the end of the year (Konerko). Beckham should get better, Quentin seems to be pretty good since he got his mojo going in May/June and than there are guys like Ramirez and Rios who have been legitimate. The big question is who is next. If Viciedo can be one of those guys it gives the Sox a little more leeway to add another bat or two. Mitchell is probably a year away as well. I do think we have a rotation built to contend year in and year out and have a generally nice core of position players (Q, Becks, Ramirez, Rios, Viciedo).

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 01:57 PM) Is Danks really a top 10 prospect anymore? Unless he has a strong finish, he's really hurt his stock this season. I also believe Flowers is gone after this season, and will be used as a trade chip. Flowers might be gone this off-season and Danks is still a prospect. He's clearly hurt his status significantly this year, but the guy hits the ball hard when he is 100% and he has struggled mightily this season with some nagging injuries that he really hindered his bat-speed as well as just struggled with some adjustments to his swing that he has been working on. A year ago, Danks was crushing the ball. He hits the ball very hard when healthy, albeit he has that high strikeout rate. I tend to be down for the most part on our system but I think some people are too far down on the system. There is no denying we haev a few guys in this organization right now with quite a bit of upside (Viciedo, Sale, Mitchell, Thompson). Add in guys like Morel who are solid bets at making the majors, plus Flowers/Danks and I don't think our system is exactly horrendous. And than there is a whole new crop of guys with a shot at developing that we brought in during the June amateur draft.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 01:51 PM) That's why I said playing though, as those guys are untradeable. But all of a sudden next year, we'll have a system with Mitchell/Thompson/Sale/Viciedo. Those are 4 really high upside guys as your potential top 4 prospects. Add in other guys like Flowers and Danks, who have strong tools and aren't bad guys to have in your top 6 or 7 prospects. I actually think our system might be a little better than some people think, its just two huge injuries really shrunk the depth for this season.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 01:48 PM) do share...outside of Morel and Sale, there's no one playing in our minor leagues right now that has much value at all. Mitchell and Thompson might be hurt, but scouts f***ing love those guys.