CaliSoxFanViaSWside

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 10, 2017 -> 10:01 AM) Sox will light up Bum.

QUOTE (ron883 @ Sep 10, 2017 -> 09:14 AM) Rick Hahn sending Fulmler out there like Old Yeller. Gotta admire his commitment to the tank effort. Sox will light up Bum. Bum may head a HR against Fulmer.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 10, 2017 -> 09:18 AM) I read an article that mentioned the umpire missed 11 pitches his last start. That can't happen. It is amazing there wasn't more damage, I'm pretty sure Gabe Morales was one of the 2 umps Ian Kinsler singled out about needing a new profession.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 09:00 PM) Shields actually pitches a dominant game. Weird. I don't like him. Abreu is so good it's scary. He's a special White Sox hitter. Always glad to see Avi hit a dinger. Anderson excels today. Back near .250. Man our record sucks. Scary that we are four wins from 60. What a lousy ballclub. Great win today though. It just came out of nowhere.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 09:12 PM) An unsustainable, lucky .300 with limited sample size You're telling me about sample size when you listed his last 16 games. My limited sample size is bigger than yours . I'm in no way implying Devers is or will be better than Moncada just don't like the lucky schtik, You have more chances to get lucky when you at least put the ball in play .

QUOTE (ptatc @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 08:15 PM) His adjustment needed to be either A. not throw so low in the zone or B. find another place the ump will call. All you can really ask from an ump is to be consistent. If he consistently not calling a pitch low in the zone a strike. Don't throw it there. I'm not saying it's right. i agree they were strikes but many umps have biases for or against certain pitches. I know where you're coming from but when you start elevating pitches from knee high to thigh high is when you start getting torched. Keep the ball down and at least when the hitter swings he can miss it or beat it into the ground. I know the title of the thread said I was biased and I only said that because I'm a Sox fan saying a Sox pitcher got hosed. I really think I was pretty fair. I saw a comment on whitesox.com discussing the strikes called and he came up with 12 pitches in the zone that weren't called strikes. He didn't mention how he came to that conclusion but it's a lot more than the 7 I listed. I had to draw the line somewhere and I explained how I drew that line . I wasn't going to list every pitch that pitch cast said nicked the strike zone. Gio only gave up 3 hits in his 5.1 innings and the big Sandoval HR most likely was a result of one of those blown calls, Instead of being down 0-2 in the count, Sandoval hits an elevated pitch on a 2-1 count.The loss doesn't really bother me . The Sox played like crap . It was a bad pitch that Sandoval hit out especially with 1st base open at the time. But does Sandoval even get that pitch if Gio is ahead 0-2 ?

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 08:38 PM) Not worried, but I think they need to seriously consider dropping switch hitting. Not worried but give up switch hitting ? Sounds like worried to me.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 08:31 AM) Devers has been horrible lately Edit- .197/.258 with a .487 OPS in his last 16 games. Regression to the mean. So now he's only hitting .300 . That's a pretty good mean.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Sep 9, 2017 -> 12:17 PM) I agree with this as I was watching the game. Hopefully, it was a learning experience for Giolito. Certain umps. aren't going to call certain pitches. when he saw the ump wasn't calling low strikes, he needs to find something else that works. It's not right but many umps have a "he doesn't give this." As he learns umps, hopefully he can adjust. I not sure what else Gio could've done. The pitches I listed were all very good pitches. That's his job, to make good pitches .He didn't allow many hits and if he tries to adjust to the ump who knows what happens . Maybe he gets hit harder. I'd also like to point out the umps are not familiar with Gio and in time and certainly with reviews of the games by the umps ( hopefully they do these things) that Gio will get the kind of calls that veteran pitchers do.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 07:08 PM) Kanny advances! Great to see Martinez and Hickman both pitch very well.

Cycles are more rare than no hitters so tonight's cycle by Jose Abreu had to be commemorated. It's the 1st Sox cycle since Jose Valentin hit his in 2000. Perhaps more Jose's equal more cycles. Meanwhile the Sox showed no compassion for former team mate Jeff Samardzija nor did they care about the large contingent of his family there to watch him. Samardzija managed to last 5.2 innings but he gave up 8 hits , 4 of which were HR's. He allowed 6 Earned runs. The Giants , especially their bullpen eerily resembled the Sox on their worst days. This was not one of those days for the Sox offense. They belted out 18 hits. They smashed 6 HR's, 3 triples and 1 double. The 1st 5 hitters in the lineup all had HR's (Sanchez, Moncada, Abreu, Delmonico and Avi Garcia.) Tim Anderson also had a chance for the cycle only needing a double in his last AB but he K'd on 3 pitches. Final score 13-1 I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fine starting pitching of James Shields . So, again congrats to Jose Abreu on accomplishing a rare feat of hitting prowess.

I expected a longer thread for such a wild game. Abreu 1st Sox cycle since Jose Valentin in 2000. 1 double, 3 triples ,6 HR's for 43 total bases on 18 hits ?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 02:11 PM) Right, $300k is what I meant by "penalty box money." It's possible that he literally doesn't care about money at ALL and would sign for the minimum, but unless (1) the Sox are the ONLY team that will let him hit, or (2) he's REALLY excited about being part of a rebuild, we don't have anything to offer him that another more popular and more competitive team couldn't top. Which is why I said the Sox only had a 1% chance at him in a later post. Hey it's a lot better odds than winning the powerball jackpot .

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 02:30 PM) I read the other day that the Yankees have traded for a decent amount slot money and now sit at around $8 million. They could be a team that can offer him DH at bats as well. I think you should provide a link because my research show that's way off. http://pinstripedprospects.com/yankees-add...for-otani-24809

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 06:59 PM) Eric Cooper is a joke back there. Usually you don't like young pitchers (players in general) complaining about calls, but Giolito was completely justified. And he did it when he was pulled. I like it. Gabe Morales is the home plate ump tonight.

I was watching the game and after an 0-1 fastball that was right down the middle at the knees to Sandoval in the 3rd inning was called a ball and Sandoval then proceeded to hit a 3 run HR I decided to rewind my DVR and check the ball/strike calls against the pitchcast calls. I don't think pitchcast is the end all be all . I acknowledge it could be wrong.So I told myself in order to have a strike that was called a ball , the ball had to be mostly or 3/4 or more of the ball had to be in the zone ,according to pitchcast. On borderline pitches like just 1/4 or a sliver of the ball in the zone I gave the benefit of the doubt to the umpire, The home plate umpire was Gabe Morales and right from the get go it was pretty obvious he was not going to give Gio the low strike . Now some of you may blame the framing by the catcher but most of the bad calls were on fastballs and Gio being as tall as he is certainly has some downward tilt on low fastballs that will drag a catchers glove down. I happen to believe a fastball should be the easiest pitch for the ump to accurate call. 1 .1st inning a fastball to Span at the the knees was called a ball probably a 4 seamer 2. A fastball to Hundley was down and in perfect pitch but called a ball , maybe a 2 seamer . 3. 2nd inning to Mac Williamson again down and in great pitch called a ball.Williamson then got on 1st with the error by Davidson. 4 With Williamson running Gio throws a fastball right down the middle low but whole ball easily in the zone , called a ball but Williamson caught stealing for 3rd out. 5. This was the pitch to Sandoval where instead of 0-2 it was called a ball changing the whole complexion of the AB. 6. 6th inning 0-1 curve to Posey called a ball clearly in the zone. After that Moncada missed the pop up and then things really got out of hand. 1-2 pitch to Hundley a nasty curve/slider and according to pitchcast its in the zone but pitch caught way off the plate and low . I will not count this as a strike. It's doubtful many umps would've called it a strike Ump gets the benefit of the doubt over pitchcast. 7. Pitch to Pence again a beautiful low fastball fully in the zone on 0-1 pitch. Steve Stone mentions Gio not getting low strikes. Pence walked on 3-2 pitch that was another well located fastball away and waist high . This was a pitch where pitchcast said caught the zone slightly but because I'm trying to be unbiased will call a ball and Crawford out at 2nd since he was going on the pitch. Will never know if he would've been out or safe since he may have slowed up when he saw ump didnt raise his arm for the strike. So instead of being out of the inning there's still 1 out and bases loaded. Gio is removed , gets ejected, angry at lack of strike calls no doubt. Renteria ejected sticking up for Gio So in my estimation thats 7 great pitches, the kind you want your pitcher to make all low or low and in strikes that were called balls and 2 others that maybe couldve been called strikes but weren't that the ump gets the benefit of the doubt over the pitchcast indicator.. There were also 1 or 2 others that caught a sliver of the plate called balls that I did not list.

That 0-1 fastball to Sandoval that was right down the middle at the knees and was called a ball changed the whole dyanmic of that AB. Damn ump. Still Lucas needed to realize with 1st base open he could still mess around with him and go after the next hitter if need be.

Maybe Tito Polo can wow everyone in CF in AA/AAA next year and become a legit candidate for the gig .

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 11:18 AM) First I don't think anyone is parti, ularly excited about any of our CF's as whole until you get down to Luis Robert, maybe Rutherford if you think he can stay there... Other than that we have a pile of perfectly imperfect players to run out there. With the way the roster looks to be built going forward probably including some pretty defensively questionable players in LF, RF, 2B, SS and 3B at least, the whole reason I want Engel to have a chance at succeed in CF is because he is by far the best defensive CF we have with a chance at playing next year. Yep Sox got a whole lot of nothing in CF for sure. No one stands out in any way except Engel with his glove. So many guys coming and going due to injuries and multitude of candidates. Someone needs to grab the bull by the horns. I just like Leury as the better option in CF because he comes closest to being above competent with both glove and hitting. Don't see him as a corner OF because LF is probably the safest place to put a big bat with questionable defense. Don't like OF's that have only a little power over 3 positions. Somebody out there has to produce 25-30 HR's.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 10:35 AM) It's much easier to wait on a player when your team isn't competing and knows that at the start of the previous offseason than when you insist the player will be the #5 hitter on a contending team and build your entire team around that assumption. In his first 331 big league PAs, Leury put up a .462 OPS. He has the better bat - now, because he was given a chance in the big leagues over 4 seasons. He's also 26, interestingly enough. Leury put together a good season in the minors last year. Not sure Engel has as recent of a good showing . That season for Leury stood out Then it showed this year in the bigs whatever he found was sticking around. I love Engels D but he just has no pedigree anywhere of being a good hitter. Wasn't an outstanding college player, wasn't drafted high, no outstanding minor league seasons. I am not predicting he will never make it . It's pretty long odds is all. Leury is 26 but as you said he was given chances before he was 25. Engel will not get 4 seasons over the age of 25 I think he has less chances next year. Sox have to start weeding guys out especially when they run out of options.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 09:27 AM) Yeah, I just threw that out there for s***s and giggles. Read the name and all the shows you named came to mind. No surprise you picked up on it. I'm fine with Engel in CF. Let him play until he shows the job is his or until someone takes it from him. I don't think Engel has a serious threat for CF until Polo comes in the picture mid summer next year. Tilson, May, Leury aren't going to push Engel out of CF so Engel has his opportunity. Let's see what he does with it. I'm actually surprised so many would rather see Engel in CF over Leury. I am a huge fan of great defense especially in CF but now Leury has the better bat and certainly has the speed to play the position well if not the fundamentals . I was pining for Jackie Bradley and Buxton for a long time. I'm happy Engel is getting a shot and all but he needs to show something with the bat soon. Next year the Sox OF will be pretty crowded Avi got plenty of opportunities. He was Mr. 9 lives but he was under 25 years old . It's easier to wait on a much younger player . Engel will be 26 at the beginning of spring training for the 2018 season.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 8, 2017 -> 06:37 AM) I knew Ken Berry could sing, dance and act but didn't know he could play CF too. Ha, pretty cool! Anyways... Two reasons for taking the wait and see approach with Engel. 1) Brian Anderson 2) Trayce Thompson. It doesn't really matter because once Tito Polo arrives we won't remember what an Adam Engel was. I'd say your Berry joke was lost on most of the audience. The former F-Troop star , Mayberry RFD and the Carol Burnett spinoff Mama's Family star was hardly a household name. The Sox Ken Berry might be slightly more well know on a Sox forum but he played so long ago. I know the old timers here remember the "Bandit" . That nickname derived from robbing HR's . The baseball Berry was a technical consultant and also made a cameo in the baseball movie of the 1919 White Sox , Eight Men Out. I always put in my 2 cents about him because he along with Joel Horlen were my boyhood favorite Sox players. If anyone ever thought the actor and ball player were one and the same you wouldn't be alone as crazy as that sounds. http://www.fangraphs.com/tht/card-corner-1...ry-and-f-troop/

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Sep 7, 2017 -> 12:28 PM) I'm afraid we're gonna win the majority of those games with Rodon/Lopez/Giolito facing those offenses Nah Rodon out now . Wouldn't surprise me if he didn't pitch again this year. Lopez is 0-3 and both he and Giolito are capable of getting lit up or the Sox offense shuts down. And there's always the bullpen to the rescue.

Looks like Engel's latest bat position experiment is over. Tonight he went back to holding the bat up higher again. 1-3 HR and no K's. Progress ?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Sep 6, 2017 -> 06:46 PM) Lopez has pitched a really nice game. Yep/ Too bad the defense has been subpar. He could've had 10-15 less pitches to this point.