fathom

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 08:37 PM) I think it's because MLB draft picks take a while to get to the majors & a lot of the draft is hit or miss, I personally root for them to win 79 instead of 72. I fully understand a better draft pick could help the team more, but I'd just rather see them win a few more games. It doesn't give me the same mind-set as the NBA/NFL, where your draft pick will immediately help you the next season. Unless they are fun-bad, then I can root for the loss cause it's entertaining. But what about a situation where a few extra wins move you into the 2nd part of the first round, which makes you eligible to lose the picks due to free agent signings?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 08:10 PM) He really goes to the "Is catching the front corner of the plate, instead of passing over the whole plate" debate for being a strike. That's the thing though, it seems he gets credit for when it crosses the plate a strike as well as when it ends up behind the plate as a strike.

Something that is being discussed a lot is how the wood bat actually has more pop in it than the bats they were using in college this past year. Experts expect much better offensive numbers from ex-college players drafted this year while in the minors.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 07:46 PM) The biggest problem is that the ump bails him out as much as anyone I've seen not named Greg Maddux. Yay, you're on the Marmol has a 30 inch plate bandwagon with me! Never seen someone who gets the benefit of the call on the slider as much as he does.

I'm super excited for games to be starting up again. Hopefully we don't continue to be a mediocre team on pace to win about 78 games. Either have a .550 win percentage the rest of the way or just tank like crazy. I have absolutely no problem with a disaster 2nd half where we end up trading Jackson, Quentin, and a few others. The next 3 months should really be a turning point with this organization one way or another.

Teahen starting at 3rd base instead of Morel

QUOTE (MAX @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 05:16 PM) Rasmus is basically Arron Rowand without the defense. Not sure why people want him so badly. Potential, as well as a huge 2010 season. Big concerns about his make-up, among other things.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 06:09 PM) We have several pieces that are very valuable to a contending club, Danks, Sale, Thornton, Santos, Floyd. That I agree with, but I just can't see Cardinals giving up such cheap starting pitching with Carpenter leaving after this year and the Pujols situation at the end of this year. I think it's much more likely they give up Rasmus in order to get another starter. Rock, do you know if we've been speaking with the Cardinals? BTW, Thornton makes a ton of sense for them.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 04:40 PM) The cards have 2 prospects in Law's new top 5. I would say those are the kinds of pieces the Sox need to go after. I can't see Martinez or Miller going anywhere, and even if they were available, who would we have to acquire them?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 04:11 PM) The worst part was...you could see plainly why he was struggling with his control, because he was doing the classic rookie thing and trying to paint the corner at the knees with every pitch. He actually was controlling his pitches well, he was just too nervous to go after hitters...which happens all the time with a rookie. I still say that Hudson would be a member of the Sox if Beckham makes a tough play, but one that could have been made, on a grounder to his left at Oakland. I was down on Hudson at the time cause he was supposed to have an awesome slider, but he never threw one. However, I do know I said I was very impressed at how many swing and misses he got on his change-up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) Although Morel's done pretty much what I expected in the bigs this year (with a little less power), I think he and Hudson both sorta show that there's a downside risk to pushing these guys up so rapidly...that they get here and the team sours on them or the coach starts benching him because the team needs higher level performance more immediately. I will never understand how the Sox turned on Hudson so quickly last year. IIRC, he made three starts. One of them was dominating, and the other two were poor (mostly cause of control issues).

FNL review, well worth the time: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/676607...ull-hearts-lose

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 12:20 PM) They're getting punished more because they were totally uncooperative the entire time and tried to cover it up Yeah, they deserve a fine, but no reason to lose ACC Championship considering that they didn't play anyone who was deemed ineligible. As for the basketball violations, if they start busting teams for having coaches take illegal recruiting notes for tournaments that are held near their campus, they might as well just put every college basketball program on probation now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 01:44 PM) So I found out last night in my $180ish triple play package, I don't get f***ing ESPN Classic. What system you have? DTV, U-Verse, etc?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 03:49 AM) Hilarious. Twins, who swept KC in 4 game series in KC, now are leading KC 8-3 late. The Twins, folks, know how to win the division. They feast on Sox and Royals. You wait, it'll be a 4 game sweep this weekend. For some reason, Sox don't emphasize divisional games enough. How else can you explain our s***tiness. We're too cool to get down and dirty vs. the 'inferior' Central teams. I'm beginning to buy into the theory that our divisional opponents have great scouting reports against us, and with our hitters being overly aggressive, it plays right into the scouting report.

The GT sanctions are a crock of s***. All over 312 dollars worth of clothes that they couldn't even prove were provided by a street runner.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 06:20 PM) Based on KW's comments in the Sun-Times this morning, I see no changes coming. He hinted at maybe trying to get a player but actually said he liked the way Ozzie is managing these guys. I don't think any big change is coming. The fact that Walker still has a job, though, is amazing. Even the most die-hard supporters of him over the years here have turned on him this year. Yeah, it may not fix every thing but it would do something that the organization seems loathe to do: send a SIGNAL. Although, I wonder how many more games with half-empty attendance will be tolerated before something is done. It's become obvious to me, in my opinion, that the Sox going 3-7 out of the ASB might be the best thing for this organization. It would force KW to go into sell mode.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 05:19 PM) Cotts was lucky that year, but he wasn't THAT lucky. He still had a 2.95 FIP, which is pretty damn good. Politte was lucky as hell. 3.75 FIP. Both had low as hell BABIPs and very high strand rates (especially Politte). Those two are the perfect example of relievers riding a luck streak for a whole season and then falling apart in later seasons. You can't outrun your true talent forever. I'm not saying Cotts got lucky with a lot of hard hit balls at defenders (that would have been Hermanson). Rather, I can't believe a lefty who throws 91 mph high fastballs nearly every pitch only allowed one homer all year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 12:33 PM) I caught the last 3 innings, a few observations that no one will care about: -In that 8th inning, you could see the wheels already coming off on Politte/Cotts. How the hell did the Sox get sub-2.00 ERA seasons out of those two jokers? -Juan. Uribe. I forgot about that great play to end the 8th as well. -I think he had the Tommy John, but Brandon Backe really fell off the radar quickly. I thought he'd be a solid starter for a while, had some great playoff performances. Some great observations here hurt, especially the second point. That was a gigantic play by Uribe, even more important than the final out of the game. As for Cotts, I still say he had the luckiest season I can ever recall. Case in point, the strike out in game 1 against Ensberg. I'm still not sure how he missed that final pitch.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 02:29 PM) And some people don't care near enough. Who would you say had good/bad AAA stats that didn't receive enough analysis on here? I watched the AAA All-Star Game last night, and was shocked at how awful the players in it were.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 02:25 PM) I assume the reaction to this will be half people angry about him still being unable to pitch, the same half also saying that they were right about the Sox having overworked him, and then the remainder of the board trying and failing to point out the contradiction? It's a smart move. I don't fault Peavy at all for what's happened the last month, and you can tell he basically admitted last week that they need to slow it down with him.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 11:39 PM) With Pierre done after this season, Morel not showing many signs of improvement, and the lack of any real lead off hitter in the organization, if the Mariners were to eat a large portion of Figgins contract, I see Williams regrettably jumping all over it. I'm not sure, he's pretty close to being out of baseball. But you're so right. I'm still waiting for the Rios for Rowand deal.

As we've seen over the last 5 years or so, Kenny usually ends up acquiring players that he's been linked to in the past. With that said, who are some of these players that he's been linked to that are still in the majors (and weren't members of the Cleveland Indians of the 1990s)? Players I can recall are: - Hunter Pence (almost got him in a deal for Garland) - Adrian Gonzalez (yeah...that's not going to happen) - Brett Wallace (KW loved him in the Gordon Beckham draft) - Gio Gonzalez (what's one more trade) - Carlos Gomez (I still think he'll be acquiring by Sox in next year or so) - Torii Hunter - Chone Figgins - Erik Bedard - Michael Young

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 10:59 PM) Well, those Ozzie offensive statistics were also put up in a totally different era. And, the Old Comiskey Park was not exactly "Home Run Central," not that Ozzie ever was a power hitter. He's one of those players who would have fit in any era...and certainly in the first 5-7 years, he had the added dimension of hitting for more triples and piling up some decent stolen base numbers. Much like Juan Pierre, I'm sure hitting in a big park benefitted Ozzie more than hitting at the Cell with the narrow gaps and outfielders that can play shallow.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 11:01 PM) That's the problem with our organization. Why wait and see what happens the next 10 days? Why not be proactive? Guys, this team is not going to suddenly become good on the offensive end. No way. There's really no way to say that with 100% confidence. I would say this team has a better chance of a drastic offensive improvement in the 2nd half of the season than any Sox team I can recall.