Jake

If anyone could come back, it's the Hawks. But they haven't shown much of any sign of having it in them in these three games.

I think the Hawks are the better team, but we have not played better for more than a handful of minutes in this series.

Quintana is one of the most valuable trade pieces in the game. Baez is on a fast track to bustville. No thanks.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 8, 2015 -> 08:18 PM) now that is what i want to hear..... someone who is team first. any word on his agent??? I say don't tell me, show me when it comes to that kind of thing

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jun 8, 2015 -> 05:53 PM) Really poor location with the slider throughout this game by Jay. Was able to get away with those against Big 10 competition but that isn't going to work at higher levels. I've read that some scouts like his curveball better for that very reason, he controls it much better

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2015 -> 03:50 PM) IIRC, Baseball America was reporting his signing demands were scaring off some teams as well. I think I saw that when going through the 2009 draft thread on this site a few weeks ago. It's not all that uncommon that we hear about these things and the kid ends up signing for the slot he's drafted at. Sometimes the team calls the kid's bluff and he just takes the money and runs.

I finally sucked it up and watched the whole thing. 1. Why the hell does that cop do the roll in the first 10 seconds of the video? That was hilarious. 2. Yeah, that cop was out of control. When he finally targeted this girl, she was literally out of the picture. She was just one of several in her group who were all headed away from the scene as instructed. Of course, as others pointed out, the instructions were extremely contradictory. Don't run, get out of here, get on the ground, stop running. If I had to guess what happened, he probably heard this girl say something that especially pissed him off so he decided he would teach her not to talk to authorities that way. Also, very interesting how they tell the black kid on the ground he can't go get his things but are completely unconcerned with the white cameraman doing what he pleases. The cameraman knows it too, because he offers to go get the kid's stuff for him.

I can't help but think about what a day this must be for Junior Guerra. This guy had little legitimate hope of pitching in an affiliated minor league this season, let alone making a major league team. This is the kind of thing that, at age 30, he probably no longer even dreamed of. I hope he sticks around long enough to get pension, some great experiences, and whatever other benefits conferred to major league ballplayers.

Stoney wears on me more with Swirsky in the booth. Swirsky is extremely modest and wants to make a show of deferring to the expertise of Stoney and Steve likes this way too much. He shrugs off some of Chuck's questions and comments like they're beneath consideration. I've said this elsewhere (or earlier in this thread), but having two big egos helps to make it less clear that anyone is being a big shot.

I do get a good laugh out of how our only solution for the 2 hole after Melky is the one guy who's hitting as bad as he is. I hate to say it, Gordon is probably the right answer

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 20, 2015 -> 01:59 PM) Even if we doubled it from 9 to 18 (your 2:1 ratio above), then that still wouldn't come anywhere close to what the Bulls have done since 1985, or the Blackhawks in terms of level of success over the last decade. No matter how many ways we spin it (the record between 1990-2013 was the 4th or 5th in MLB, trailing only the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves and Cardinals, etc.), there's still the predominant perception that we're a "losing" rather than winning franchise, and that's going to take a LOT more than 2nd and 3rd place finishes to change. In case anyone is curious, with 18 teams making the playoffs, the Sox would have made it in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, and 1990. Quit looking earlier than that. Put differently, would only have missed 2014, 2013, and 2007 in the years since 1989.

Walker I think is someone who was clearly promoted too aggressively and was irrevocably harmed. I don't mean to say I think he'd have been a major leaguer with better development, but his production and things like the way he has talked on Twitter make it clear he has struggled to handle the massive failures he's had at just about every level. I really hate promoting guys with sky-high K rates like he's had just about every year and level except this one.

This is a mistake I vow never to make again. I would continue to find the right spots to play him without promising anything

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 4, 2015 -> 10:08 AM) Don't worry, he'll back to DHing everyday in no time. TBH, I'm willing to accept a dropoff in defense in exchange for not relegating Abreu to the DH role so early in his career

I think KW is a more interesting interview and the organization is happy to trot him out there occasionally

The main thing that doesn't make me regret losing Hector (beyond what we got back for him) is that he's still nearly the most flyball-heavy starting pitcher in baseball and that just won't work in our ballpark over the long term.

I think the dress code is a little suspect, but I don't care about their restrictions. At the least, the half-assed TB fans will make a bunch of money on the secondary market

if you can get some value out of your draft picks, that will be very big, whether it involves trading Noah/Taj or not. It's basically the #1 way to remain competitive once your best players are off their rookie contracts

It wasn't the most impressive complete game shutout ever, but he really did pitch a nice ballgame. If he pitched like this again, he'd probably give up a couple of runs. If he had bad luck, he could have given up 3 or 4.

I guess Danks picked up a trick or two from Keuchel yesterday

QUOTE (SCCWS @ May 31, 2015 -> 01:16 PM) Actually Sanchez has struggled for a month. His average had dropped 60 points over 3 weeks before he was recalled from AAA. From .400 to .340!

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ May 31, 2015 -> 03:50 PM) The cap's projected at $67 million right now, so the MLE is really their only recourse. They're above $62 million for 8 players, and that doesn't count Jimmy Buckets. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he'll still count at about $3 million from the last option year on his rookie deal. That still doesn't leave anything under the cap since they still need to fill several spots. From there, you get into attempts of dumping someone's salary to a team under the cap, which don't usually go anywhere because they can just sign FA's. Whether they can get one of the guys for the MLE is another question entirely. I would assume they'd get more than that since everyone wants 3 and D guys now, but Mathews' injury is a major wildcard. With the looming cap explosion, you have to wonder if a guy like Mathews might go for a one-year MLE deal to rebuild his value coming into the more favorable FA year

Between Noah, Pau, and Niko, you have three bigs who are really quite skilled on the offensive end and feel comfortable working outside the paint and moving the ball around. I think Hoiberg can really work with them without really compromising the way he usually runs things. Taj is less of a fit offensively but he obviously has value as a defensive player and great finisher around the rim.

Chuck's humility really brings Steve's arrogance into focus. When you have Steve and Hawk together, they both have such big egos you hardly think about it. Nonetheless, they're fine to listen to. Also, what a clown show from Houston. They do not look like a first place team

Another thing to add is that we've outperformed our Pythagorean W-L by 3 wins and our BaseRuns projected W-L by 4 wins, both best in the league. You can often attribute this to the manager or simply luck. Either way, we're better off than we deserve to be. This can be taken as a negative, in that we look due to regress, or as a positive because we can play well and not have it be in vain.