CaliSoxFanViaSWside

Yabba Dabba Doooo !

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 25, 2017 -> 11:14 AM) Yes. Name cereals....Caulfield: Captain Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Rice Krispies, Fruity Pepples, pepples reminds me of the Flintstones, which brings me to the question do you know the difference between people in Dubai and people in Abu Dhabi? People in Dubai don't like the Flintstones. People in Abu Dhabi do. I think you mean people in Abu Dhabi yabba dabba do !

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ May 22, 2017 -> 04:24 PM) Well that was unexpected. Luis Robber? Oh man totally ruined my joke. I was going to say if he flops call him Robber for getting that 25+M

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 20, 2017 -> 09:48 PM) Looking at just average. Your better than that Tmar. You're not your. You're better than that SoxAce .

QUOTE (spiderman @ May 20, 2017 -> 10:02 PM) I heard on another site that Keith Law wouldn't have him in the Top 100. But he's the best hitter on the planet !

I've been wanting to make this thread for a week . After tonight's game where he went 4/5 with 2 HR's and 2 doubles to just about every part of field I had to do it. Still a while to go before the All Star game so I will understand if his career to this point or seeing if he cools off makes anyone hesitate. But, hey, what the heck he's been a revelation so far and no matter how anyone feels about him , you have to admit he has been a joy to watch. All Star balloting is open so vote early and vote often. Ballot here https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot?tcid=AS...lb_shortcontent Please pin this if you think it worthy.

The good vibes from the Robert signing carried over to the game. Pelfrey actually pitched good going 6 inning, 4 hits, 0 walks and 3 K's. Avi 4/5 with 2 HR and 2 doubles and a career high 6 RBI, Abreu had a HR and a double Every hitter had 2 hits except Willy Garcia who had one but it was his 1st career HR and it was crushed. Sanchez extended his hitting streak to 11 games and Frazier got his BA up to an even .200. Davidson had a HR and a single. 16 runs 19 hits total.

Lost in all the hitting is Pelfrey pitching good or Seattle being totally demoralized.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 20, 2017 -> 09:12 PM) W Garcia may not turn up as a player but every time he steps in the box I feel like he will crush the ball. Physically imposing as hell. Every time I see him I think of Big Frank. He's just about the same size to my eyes.

Whoa Willy nice one !!

Abreu, Avi, and Davidson all tied with 8 HR.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 20, 2017 -> 08:34 PM) Me too. Eminor should be joining us soon as well... Not sure Eminor will ever join the ranks . He'll need a lot bigger sample size. We've had some intense debates about Avi in the past.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ May 20, 2017 -> 08:28 PM) Who is this Avi Garcia guy? He isn't who we thought he was. But by we I mean all of you . I am on record as supporting him almost all the time.

Avisail Garcia ladies and gents !!

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ May 20, 2017 -> 07:27 PM) Is anyone else sick of Hawk's old man bulls***? Of course but not me.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 20, 2017 -> 07:25 PM) So are we buying in yet? I've been one of Avi's biggest detractors. I think I am sold. With all the positives vibes from the Robert signing I think it's about time we pinned an Avi for All-Star game thread.

Frazier using right field a lot more lately. Making adjustments or just getting fully healthy ?

Dayum what a start, 1st 4 guys reach and double by Abreu and Avi HR ! 4-0 SOx !

QUOTE (SouthSide2004 @ May 20, 2017 -> 02:50 PM) On the field, I'd say a B so far. But overall he gets an A for his Robert recruiting efforts. Pretty much my thoughts. No matter what else he does the whole recruitment video thing is huge. Also , even though there's no way to prove it., you could debate how the 3 biggest break out players so far are all Latin in Avi, Leury and Yolmer. OK maybe Swarzak and Kahnle too but you get the drift.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 20, 2017 -> 06:42 PM) Ricky aiming high. Might as well. Pair Robertson with someone , maybe Ynoa to get Robles. . Nats need more than just a closer. Don't need Ynoa since Robert is already signed .

Once some managers start getting fired expect to see more Spanish speaking managers hired. Surprised there's not more already with so much Latin talent already in MLB.

Well I worked all day and hardly gave this a thought until my ride home. I was hoping to see he had signed with someone at least. Seeing it was the Sox of course made it even better. Whatever affiliate he starts with I'd assume he will start slow since he hasn't been playing but if by chance he starts hot I'd be impressed . Here's hoping he is too good for where ever he begins.

1st time the Sox have held an opponent to 1 hit in extra innings since...1903 !

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ May 17, 2017 -> 12:20 PM) Exhibit A: 2016 Tyler Saladino vs 2017 Tyler Saladino About a 4 year difference in their ages. So Tyler doesn't fit into the youngster category.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 17, 2017 -> 10:22 AM) Coming into the season, Saladino was the obvious best choice at 2B. He'd really earned his spot there. In the ST action I saw, he looked like he might be the most competent hitter on the team. Since then, you've had a combination of his terrible hitting and Yolmer's good hitting cost him some major playing time...and there's a chance when Moncada gets called up, Saladino is shipped out. With that said, we're 6 weeks into the season and good plays sometimes play bad for 6 weeks. I try to look for indicators of whether something has changed beyond how many balls are falling in for hits. Plate discipline Let's start with the most basic way of digging deeper than the OPS-type stats. He has gone from 4.7% BB% (2015) and 4.1% BB% (2016) to a much better 10.7% BB% this year. That change is the only thing keeping him afloat, if you can call where he is afloat. His O-Swing%—the portion of balls outside the strike zone that he swings at—has dropped a bit from an already-low 27.5% and 26.8% to 24.5% this year, which might partially explain the elevated walks. The next obvious thing to look at his strikeouts and they aren't pretty. His K% this year is 27.9%, way up from 19.4% last year and 20.1% the year before. He was consistently around 15% in AAA. Striking out a lot more than normal is a sign of 1. someone who may not be having bad luck and 2. someone who has changed something at the plate. Making contact Digging a touch deeper, there's an obvious explanation for the strikeouts: He's making less contact. Overall, his contact rate is at 77.5%, down from 84.2% last year and 84.6% in 2015. When you look more closely, it's even more alarming. We know already that he's shown better discipline in terms of laying off non-strikes, something that has always been a strength of his. Still, if he never makes contact on balls outside the zone, that could still result in strikeouts...but that hasn't been the case. His O-Contact% (contact on pitches outside the zone) is right at career norms and up from last year. Instead, it's his ability to make contact on strikes that has deteriorated. He had identical 90.9% Z-Contact% in 2015 and 2016, which means he made contact on 91 out of 100 strikes that he swung at. This year, it's down to 81.7%, which isn't super low in general but constitutes a major dropoff. It's the worst on the White Sox and in the lower portion of the league, though it should be said that plenty of good hitters have similar issues swinging and missing at strikes. It may actually be the case that has helped him draw more walks as the whiffs draw him deeper into the count. He has also cut back on his swings at pitches in the zone, from 67.7% last year and 62.1% in 2015 to 58.6% this year...overall, he swings less. I actually find it troubling that he is more selective in the zone and yet swings and misses more. With that said, maybe this is all so he can hit the ball with power. We can see if that's panned out at all. Quality of contact Let's turn to Statcast. One of the new toys we can play with is xwOBA, which is a predicted wOBA (a cousin of wRC+) based on the quality of the player's contact (exit velo and launch angle) along with his K% and BB%. If his xwOBA is way better than his wOBA, we can say he's perhaps been unlucky. Well, that doesn't pan out. His xwOBA is .239, worse than his actual .270 wOBA. Both figures, based on FanGraph's wOBA rules of thumb, are below the "awful" threshold. It is meant to be similar to OBP in terms of what constitutes a good number. So that isn't good. Let's compare to the past two years. Last year his xwOBA was .278, well below his actual .315. In 2015 his xwOBA was .270, close to his actual .262. So the past two years he has outperformed his xwOBA by a similar amount, something faster players tend to do. But take note that his xwOBA last year was quite a bit better than this year, which is important, since it corresponds to a big change in production. In fact, his xwOBA from 2016 to 2017 has worsened by .039 and his actual wOBA has worsened by .045, which is likely no coincidence. Fly balls He's actually hitting the ball higher this year, with an average launch angle of 10.9 degrees, up from 7.9 in 2016 and 5.9 in 2015. Some have argued that this should improve his results, but the swing changes a player might implement to hit the ball higher could have major drawbacks. This also gibes with his substantial increase in fly ball rate, from 23.5% in 2015 and 28.8% in 2016 to 39.7% this year. And he hasn't been popping up more than normal, his 7.4% infield fly per fly ball rate is equal to 2016. Most of his increase in fly balls has come from his groundballs, which have dropped from 53.6% (2015) and 51.3% (2016) to 42.6% this year. His line drives have dropped from 23.0% (2015) and 19.9% (2016) to 17.6% this year, but this is a notoriously finicky stat and the change from last year isn't huge. Exit velocity is down to 84.8mph this year compared to 85.7mph last year, but I don't consider this a very big change and neither is very high at all. If you restrict exit velo to fly balls and line drives, he's hitting them harder this year at 89.3mph than last year at 88.8mph. Still trying to tease this out, his fly balls are launched at a much higher angle (40 degrees) than last year (33 degrees). I should say that while there's not a ton of literature on this, balls hit at a 40 degree launch angle do not fare well and rarely become homers. High flies that do not become homers are usually caught. In other words, Saladino has increased his fly balls but has done so with worse contact (despite being hit harder!). According to xStats.com, about 23% of his balls in play have had a launch angle at or greater than 40 degrees, which is categorizes as "popups." Only 12.8% and 10% were hit at that launch angle in the past two years. He's hitting those balls harder (83.7) than past years (77.6/77.3), but it doesn't matter how high your easy flies are. What's going on? You might say that last year was the fluke. His .587 OPS this year is pretty similar to his .602 OPS in 2015, his first MLB playing time. But we've already started to see that in some important ways, his 2015 and 2016 were much more similar to each other than 2015 and 2017 are. This year, he has a been a very different hitter than in the past. What I can't say is why that has happened or if it has changed. With Yolmer hitting well and Moncada on the way, he might not have long to show us whether he can change. But he's not been unlucky and this is not a return to some pre-2016 norm for him. Good job with all the stats but without conclusions it's pointless. As Fathom just said and I said 4 or 5 days ago it looks like he's trying to pull more and when I started to read all the info you posted I was hoping you would look at his spray charts this year and in previous years to indicate where his hits or outs are going. He just seems to be a better hitter when he is thinking right field or up the middle as opposed to left field.