CaliSoxFanViaSWside

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Aug 7, 2015 -> 06:26 PM) I didn't think it could get worse than Hawk-Rowand...enter Scotty Pods. I liked Hawk /Rowand . Rowand maybe needed reminding he was broadcasting with children listening and wasn't in a bar.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 7, 2015 -> 06:20 PM) What the hell, Hawk just blew off Pods' question to him. This is a shameful production. Pods doesn't exactly have a commanding presence in the booth . Hawk probably didn't hear it as a question , probably as a statement or didn't hear his name which was sort of mumbled.

Danks doing the Bumgarner on the Royals so far.

I swear sometimes I wish hitters had an earphone in their helmet. Don't these hitters know that once Volquez is ahead in the count he's going to just throw junk off the plate? (Abreu/Garcia) . I realize it's more difficult to hit with 2 strikes but damn they swung at crap.

Good job Danks. Volquez is keeping Sox hitters just off balance enough to get some outs on hard hit balls. The Sox will get to him in the next few innings.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 04:39 PM) Gotcha, thanks. Hopefully something clicked and he balls out the rest of the season. If Avi turns it around hitting wise many may point to the 2 consecutive HR's in 2 separate games. I would point to the walk that brought home the winning run as an AB that may be even better. 2 straight IBB to Abreu and Cabrera loaded the bases with one out. That kind of thing tends to piss a hitter off and he's got to have an itchy trigger finger wanting to drive home that winning run. That's just what the pitcher is counting on knowing Avi doesn't take many walks and also hits the ball on the ground a lot. Perfect double play fodder. But Avi ,surprisingly, shows restraint and doesn't offer at any of the crap the pitcher throws . He refuses to get himself out . He realizes the pitcher has to come to him with the bases loaded and he stays focused only looking for a pitch he can drive. A walk with the bases loaded might not be the most exciting way to win but it's effective. If Avi can do that more often , the classic "stay within yourself" he might just have turned a corner. Or maybe the pitcher was wild and Avi was frozen in fear

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 08:37 PM) Robin broke and dislocated his ankle when his spikes got caught in the mud sliding near home plate against the Red Sox. His foot literally was pointing 180 degrees opposite of the way it should. The injury was so gruesome that a woman in the first row of seats fainted. Yes the "White Flag Trade" was an unmitigated disaster for the Sox. Locally even mild mannered columnists like Bob Verdi were savage in their responses. Nationally ESPN's Baseball Tonight devoted almost their entire show that night to the trade. Joe Morgan was extremely caustic berating the organization. Dave "Soup" Campbell the same although not quite as bad. The "Sox Surrender" was the lead story that week in Sports Illustrated. The story quoted Alvarez and Hernandez as saying when manager Terry Bevington (a first rate buffoon) told them they were traded he was "laughing." The move did incredible damage to the organization on and off the field. Sox attendance dropped like a stone the next few seasons and even in 2000 when the team won 95 games, attendance wasn't that great. Fans simply did not trust Reinsdorf anymore. And remember this took place after the collusion issues in the mid 80's which former commissioner Fay Vincent accused JR of being a ringleader and of course the labor issue of 1994 which cost the Sox a potential trip to the playoffs and or World Series. Mark Thank you for reminding everyone of that. If anyone thinks JR has the Sox best interests at heart, think again. The reason for going for it every year is the bottom line. Has been that way and continues to be. When he passes his family and the investors will all make a huge profit on top of the profits they have already pocketed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 06:59 PM) I think the thought process really went off the rails in the 2014 offseason. Fine, Adam Dunn and the 2011 team turned into a disaster. 2012 was somehow better, then in 2013 we had to begin tearing things down. We moved off Peavy, we cleared salary, we started giving time to young guys. We successfully brought in Abreu, so we started gathering pieces...then the 2014 offseason hit. In the 2014 offseason was where we really blew it. We made so many basic errors, so many flaws in our thought process. That's where we shortcut the path we were on that could have actually worked and could have actually worked at building a strong, deep roster. First on that list is that we couldn't be patient, we couldn't give time for guys to adapt to the big leagues, we knew with absolute certainty that they were ready to go and big leaguers never need time to grow into the league. Avi Garcia was ready right now and we were sure of it. Micah Johnson could jump completely over AAA because we said he would. Carlos Rodon was going to improve our record this season by 10 wins. Then we threw in a nice batch of assuming some guys would develop while other guys never would, because we said so. Phegley and Semien would never develop into anything useful because we said they wouldn't. Bassitt was talented but he's a reliever, guys never improve on their offspeed stuff. But hey, here's a big name pitcher off of a career best year. And the fan base fully bought in, continued declaring in the same breath that we gave up so little for that pitcher and then wondering how we had an organization with so little depth. Then there's the failure to assess risk. Conor Gillaspie and Tyler Flowers were going to be solid players because they had 1 year that showed it. There was no risk of them taking steps back. Abreu and Eaton were guaranteed to have better seasons than 2014. Alexei Ramirez had no risk of getting older and therefore we had to hold him because we can't afford to give anyone time to grow into his spot. Chris Sale's arm is rubber. Then there's the failure to think about defense. And yes, some of the guys they traded away weren't going to help with that, but then we plugged in guys who were no better, and we weren't willing to give guys time to improve on their defense or grow into positions. Then there's the assumption that paying full value on the free agent market is a good deal. That's just a lesson we need to learn, it's flat out not working for us. Or really, most teams - the teams that had great FA spending sprees last offseason are overwhelmingly disappointing right now. So fine, the team didn't have an obvious time to "rebuild" coming into 2014, but then they started the process in 2014 and then short circuited it. They couldn't be patient. They couldn't pass on 2015 and use it as a year to grow some guys up while filtering out the unsuccessful ones. They couldn't give people time to grow into their roles. They went for the big names instead of making sure they were deep with guys who could grow into contributors. They bet hugely on the whole roster taking big steps forwards and in the process, they set themselves back substantially. They had time, they had a roster that could have grown together and then had tiny holes to fill, instead they went for the big splashes, they had to compete right now, full speed ahead and bleep the torpedoes. And the end result is that now we're back to having to fill gaping holes on the FA market and worrying about a roster with little depth and we'll need to rely on rookies and we've got a lot of weak defenders but I'm sure it'll work better in 2016 so let's spend big again. Very good post . I'm surprised you were able to refrain from mentioning Adam LaRoche specifically who I know you had deep reservations on. Even at the trade deadline a ton of big names were thrown around while of course we'd have to give up more minor league depth , maybe even some of the prized prospects. I brought up a cheap alternative for a non big name like Chris Colabello and got some not so nice responses. He's exactly the kind of castoff who could have been had after the Twins said goodbye to him. With the acquisitions by Toronto he might've come cheaply and his splits are excellent for use as a DH or PH with power off the bench. In other words a depth guy with a pretty potent bat. I'll edit this to say I was completely on board with spending the money we had in the off season since I was one of the biggest proponents of trying to get Victor Martinez but I never had Adam LaRoche in mind as a substitute for VMart. Moral of the story: Instant gratification is never quite the answer fans seem to think it is.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 08:21 AM) Based on a pretty extensive track record. There are few exceptions for player decline when moving to the AL from the NL. Players to go NL to AL last season Previous league last season Other league first season Pablo Sandoval .279/.324/.415 113 OPS+ .259/.305/.385 89 OPS+ Hanley Ramirez .283/.369/.448 130 OPS+ .263/.304/.450 104 OPS+ Adam LaRoche .259/.362/.455 127 OPS+ .220/.312/.347 88 OPS+ Emilio Bonifacio .259/.305/.345 82 OPS+ .169/.200/.195 14 OPS+ Evan Gattis .263/.317/493 124 OPS+ .244/.274/.449 96 OPS+ 2013 Shin Soo Choo .285/.423/.462 145 OPS+ .242/.340/.374 100 OPS+ Brian McCann .256/.336/.461 118 OPS+ .232/.286/.406 93 OPS+ Carlos Beltran .296/.339/.491 127 OPS+ .233/.301/.402 97 OPS+ AL to NL Nick Markakis .276/.342/.386 105 OPS+ .293/.371/.369 108 OPS+ Alberto Callaspo .223/.290/.290 67 OPS+ .226/.310/.271 65 OPS+ Jonny Gomes .234/.320/.250 66 OPS+ .205/.313/.319 78 OPS+ AJP .251/.288/.337 114 OPS+ .302/.339/.446 124 OPS + 2013 Curtis Granderson .229/.317/.407 99 OPS+ .227/.326/.388 103 OPS+ Jarrod Saltalamacchia .273/.338/.466 118 OPS+ .220/.320/.362 91 OPS+ I know you're just using hitters as examples but look at Arrieta and Hammels and how they did in the AL as compared to the NL. Arrieta is probably more a case of a pitcher figuring things out though sonce his 1st year with the Cubs wasn't so hot but last year and this year lights out.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:51 PM) Kind of sad that the last two Sale starts, the JS s***ty outing Sunday andthe Joe McEwing f*** up are the difference in this being a wildcard race and what we have now which is fools gold. One week ago I thought maybe if the pitching could hold up...well the pitching has s*** the bed. One half of the roster is always conspiring against the other half. You're not a team to be taken seriously unless offense defense and pitching all do well together a lot of the time.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:39 PM) Blind squirrel. Blind poster.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:30 PM) WALK OFF WALK THIS WAY! Avi 4 of the 6 RBI !

Yes couldn't get Avi to get himself out !

Some knocks and 1 run . Let's go ! Or a Geo HR would work too.

QUOTE (L. Ron Paultard @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 01:23 PM) In a word? Yes. Stats-mongering has always been one of baseball's charming quirks, but there has to be a some limit Look at virtually all other pro sports. From soccer to basketball. Noone in their right mind would use NCAA or NBADL numbers to make definitive projections. Scout the player, not the stats, to the best of your ability. Simple as that. This is why Tyler Saladino and Dustin Pedroia will have stellar careers in the bigs, while BP session monsters like Joe Borchard and Brooks Kieshniek are teh fails. Every player drafted early whether its QB's, RB's, CF's, P's, point guards , centers ( hockey and basketball) usually put up big numbers in the levels below professional . Stats are not charming quirks especially in this day and age where the arguments against Avi using K zone recognition and other sabre stats build an argument against him just as MiL league hitting stats build an argument for him. Of course stats do not tell the whole story since there are busts in all sports also. I am not saying it's the end all be all but scouts in all sports also use other methods such as personal interviews, written exams, background checks, etc to gauge as best they can how a player will develop. Nothing is an exact science but stats do have their place as part of the process.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:25 AM) Ownership Belief: Jerry is old and wants to win now I wonder if it is truly possible that Jerry does not want to make sweeping changes to the organization because any such change costs the White Sox a chance to win. This team tries to win it all every year and since 2006, they have been massive failures at it. Thankfully, the White Sox have been so bad, they have started to improve the farm system anyway, but not nearly to the level they could. I'm still brainstorming this whole concept, because I'm convinced the White Sox could benefit heavily from a talent development model. Biggest fallacy out there. Try discussing Jerry want's to make money for himself and his investors and 4-5-6 lean years in a row to rebuild will hurt the bottom line. If the Sox continue having a middling team with middling attendance and middling sponsors they can still make money.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:53 PM) At the rate he's going he might not even reach 150, and there will be concerns about pushing him up to 200 ip next year. Zach Putnam in... Nothing wrong about him not reaching 150 and 175/180 probably is more realistic than 200 for next year.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:47 PM) I agree. Worrying about a mythical wildcard berth rather than developing a young pitcher. Maybe it's just that the Sox could use a win and Rodon is STILL on an innings limit.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:34 PM) Wait. Why is Rodon being lifted after 75 pitches and two walks? Saving him for the playoffs ?

QUOTE (Dunt @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:32 PM) Problem is I've watched all his professional ABs since getting called up and that "skill set" hasn't really translated to much. He cant hit a major league fastball, he still takes awful angles in the OF, he is a trainwreck on the bases, he doesnt even have a .700 OPS this season....dude is not good. Nope it hasn't translated very well so far. But wouldn't you say that most young hitters do not set the world on fire right away ? Go look up some HOF hitters . Some are good right away some take time. Damn the Rays are a pesky bunch.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:23 PM) Hitting .374 in the minors is a skill in the majors in what way? Oh please don't pretend that if there was a 22 year old hitting .374 in AAA with a .950 OPS that you wouldn't be salivating. If you can't admit those numbers could translate to being a good hitter in the majors then you're just arguing for arguments sake.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:05 PM) Catching 2 balls over the fence isn't a skill set. How about hitting .374 in the minors ?

QUOTE (Dunt @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 11:48 AM) He has the lowest WAR among qualified RFers in the MLB. He has the 3rd lowest UZR, only in front of a 33 and 30 year old. We all know the facts but you asked about skill set and it was answered.

None of those pitches for the 2 doubles and the blooper were bad pitches . In fact They all were pretty good pitches.

A walk and 5 straight hits.