CaliSoxFanViaSWside

Yea Aardsma was the one i was trying to remember not sure if you mentioned the other one . What year was that ? They all kind of meld together at this point .

Didn't the Sox have like a trio of fireballers that everyone loved which included Masset . I cant' remeber any of their names but they were all young and threw hard and it was akin to the prospect love we have today. They all ended up sucking.

So back to Madrigal . I loved that pick. I know people don't like he has little power and makes a lot of weak contact but weak contact is better than striking out and thats just going to happen when you don't K a lot. There's a lot to be said for the Boggs and Carews and Ichiros and Gwynns even though baseball doesn't seem to like those kind of players any more. Someone has to get on base before the boppers bat and force the defense into making errors . Just look at Cincy last night making some key errors and look how the Sox manage to lose so much because of defense. Some key misplays have been big parts of Word Series wins, Buckners error , Graffanino's against the Sox in the playoffs.

Yea most us of have to work 30 yrs to even come close to saving $500K and thats if you make wise investments and get out when the market plunges but it's extremely difficult with a family and hard to be right for that many years without at some point getting stung.

What no one has brought up Brian Andeson yet ? He was the poster child of the pretty boy man crush around here.

Well the long term signing thing is pretty much just a certain poster and arguing with him is pointless. Most of us are understanding that Avi still has flaws that cause major concerns. I think when you talk about upside like we do with prospects Avi's is huge but he is getting expensive soon unlike prospects and he has to show that one season wasn't an outlier or else the money could be spent on a more statistically balanced player. Maybe I just have more faith in AVi then I do in Sox management to make the right choice of finding that player.

I know you were and I truly appreciate the support. But the Avi debate has been going on a while so I was more focusing on the fact you said you don't get the Avi hate. It's easy to understand was more my point . There's ammo on both sides plus his bad history outweighs his recent history and the fact he's going to get expensive soon and they just need more proof and the walk rate is very concerning to them so much so that even a massive hot streak like now plus last year doesn't outweigh the history and the terrible walk rate.

Hard to say , probably not when you consider most teams are going to be playing the waiting game but that's a dangerous game. If you think piece or 2 are key then you should go out and get them and pay the price. He who hesitates is lost starts to come into play. Avi would have to stay really hot for the next few weeks . Maybe hit 5 or 6 more HR's getting his OPS over .900 to compensate for so much missed time. Of course if he does that and starts to resemble the AVi of last year with much more power then we have the classic sell at peak performance scenario but still those who think he's too injury prone or not getting on base enough. At some point the Sox are going to have to stop dealing the present for the future and with Eloy and Kopech and a few relievers and some other pitcher getting real close plus next years free agent class you probably should look for some big improvement next year and without Avi and Abreu its going to be a hard sell to convince a guys who want to win to sign with the Sox. Yea money talks yada yada but you'll see a guy like Machado losing so many years in Baltimore is going to get a big payday and from a legit contender .

Oh I get it. People can use stats every which way they want like you did. When there's ton of stats out there you can always find something . Before he lost all the weight last year he was pretty much a young overly heavy guy who didn't take walks and while heavy and muscular he didnt show much in game power nor any plate discipline . Throw in the extra weight hurt his fielding and base running and you got a prwtty bad playerwho wasn't home grown and wasn't showing too many signs of improving. I think people tend to overlook how much the weight lose has actually helped his overall game but not his plate discipline which everyone is quick to point out.And that's fair because it's hard to be a good hitter when you can't learn to recognize pitches. He was always a line drive hitter but when you are not getting on base much you better hit some HR's or a ton of doubles especially when you play a lousy right field to boot. I just believe he has so much talent that he's just realizing how much time and effort and being in peak physical shape matters. I love that they can't shift on him much.It's just that darn plate discipline thats really holding him back from being a superstar instead of an enigma.

Actually it was just 8 games he sucked from 4/9 through 4/21. The 1st 8 games from opening day to 4/8 he was 12 for 35 with 3 doubles and a HR. He had 2 other games right before he got injured where he was 3/6 no xbh. so in10 games he was 15/41 or .366 and in the 8 others he was 2 for 32 or .063. SO 10 games, hot 10 games, incredibly cold 8 .Again too small of a sample size but now the hot games are starting to lap the bad games . Again I will mention the no walks and yes that is critical especially when you are struggling you have to get some. SSS size theater really either way hot or cold .

Not taking it too personal just a wee bit. And we basically agree there's no reason to sign him long term . But you did start off by saying he sucked earlier in the season like it was some proof that he had reverted back to his 1st few seasons when it was an incredibly small sample size . Maybe I do sound like it's personal but in my mind there's an over reliance on stats and not enough on what goes on between the white lines. Every positive gets spun negatively every negative in the case of prospects gets spun positively and you guys are considered the smart ones while the rest of us are whiners. I don't ignore stats of course but the group dynamic comes into play way too often and I feel like i get lumped in with some of the posters some of us don't take really seriously . I don't like defensive metrics much or pitch framing stats and BABIP gets mentioned way too often. I've been around long enough and read plenty of arguments to see that more than half of the people trying to use advanced stats have no idea how to use them. Not saying thats you. There's a lot of concern about the 3 true outcomes in baseball and talk of banning shifts . I say learn to hit to all fields and put the ball in play if you don't like it. A walk, while a great thing is boring. Strikeouts are boring . I want to see people flying around the bases but certainly I am not against trotting around the bases either. I'm trying to say baseball's a great game when it's played the right way and and I'm sorry if I came off like an ass. It's just hard to believe people can be so critical when there's a lot to be positive about with Avi. We are all warned constantly about SSS an to see it used for 8 games while ignoring all of last year just bugged me. Trust me I looked at the game logs way before we had this conversation so I was loaded for bear when Avi critics showed up in the midst of an incredible hot streak like no one currently on the Sox can do when combining high batting average and just tattooing the ball all over the park with HR's to left , left center, center and right center, a triple high off the wall, a couple doubles , You have to admit that, yea, we have seen Avi get hot before, but never with this many HR's in such a short period of time. I just wanted to enjoy it and maybe should 've stayed out of the game thread .

Crazy game . Lot's of hitting lots of bad pitching but also some good pitching in extra innings by the Sox. Moncada comes through in the clutch . Avi and Palkamania each hit 2 massive bombs. Happy 4th everyone . This one was a fireworks show in itself.

Legitimate concerns about huge red flags in his whole game and people are whiners and a guy hit .330and the sabermetric people call it lucky and they are smart and not whiners. Geez people are strange. The talent is there in both of them so maybe we can all agree that we are going to disagree without being called whiners or unobservant for ignoring obvious sabernetric signs of imminent regression.

Woo hoo a walk for Avi and the sabermetric people rejoice !!

Yea I understand you want to be right, I want to be right and you have BABIP on your side to spin a great season into a lucky season.It's cool if you want to always look for the negative. If your happy waiting for some double and A= players to make there mark it is what it is.

SOrry can't hate a guy at all when has a phenomenal year . It's not easy in todays game to hit .330 with all the shifts Look at what they're to to Bryce Harper batting average and yeah I know its only batting average. But there's a lot to be said for a guy who hits rockets everywhere so thy cant really shift on him. You call it BABIP but they used to call it "hitting them where they aint' .

I understand the concept of BABIP . What I don't understand is why when someone does so well with a high BABIP and the resulting high batting average it's flukey and a negative while the person with the low BABIP and resulting bad batting average is unlucky. Well I do get it but it's turning a positive into a negative and a negative into a positive, I'll just take the positive results if you all don't mind. The rest of you can use BABIP to predict regression and all that . I'll just take the better "luck" every time.

What's to follow he's hasn't had all that many Ab's this season and you said he sucked and I agree for 8 games and yes no walks and that;s bad but he's been making up for lost time really well and yes he's hot now just as he was cold earlier and doesn't really have much of a problem with launch angle lately . So we're both dealing with small samples but add them up and only the lack of walks is bad.

You really hate Avi that much after a 2 HR game and 6 in the last 10 days ? I guess a walk or 2 and less HR's doubles and triples would make you happy .

It was actually just an 8 game stretch before he went on the DL where he went 2 for 32 so if you want to count that small sample I suppose you can.

Nothing but sinkers and sliders to Avi there according to Game Day

Must see AB's here with Avi then maybe Palka

Pretty good game Sx never have had a lead but fought back a few times. Sure would hate to see a walk off loss here.

OMGFG AVI !

Just knew Yoan was going to get a 3-2 curve and he missed it of course.