Jake

If Jackson had so little interest this offseason, I don't see any indications that he will do anything this year to make the interest much higher next offseason

I like Robin. I also think that continuity, both in the clubhouse and front office, is underrated.

I swear that every time I look at Robin since ST began, he's wearing a different set of glasses. I don't even remember him always having worn glasses? Gameday glasses in and of themselves may be new. I've seen: Transition lenses Thick rimmed glasses Sunglasses Thin metal rimmed glasses Oakleys with clear lenses Just going off the top of my head. What's the deal? We like you just the way you are Robin, you don't have to find the trendiest eyewear.

He was never going to be an absolute team-killer so long as he was in the DH spot. His floor as a hitter isn't unbelievably low and I think it was never optimistic to say he'd be within shouting distance of league average at the plate. That's a huge problem when you're the worst defender around, but you can be patient when he doesn't play defense. And when he hits a bit better than average, he's a useful DH rather than a still-not-good-enough RF again due to his poor defense.

He just didn't look remotely good enough, reminiscent of most of his other recent MLB appearances and spring training starts

QUOTE (hi8is @ May 1, 2016 -> 10:11 PM) Dude embodies who I would be if my career went to the MLB level. Every aspect of his character on the diamond is a carbon copy of the hi8is way. I haven't seen him take a single dump

5th starter was disappointing, but the offense is a much clearer problem with much murkier solutions

It would have been a real disservice to someone in the bullpen to have their spot taken by John Danks. Only worth consideration if we had somebody hurt.

By all accounts a pretty good dude and he did plenty of good things for the Sox over a very long period of time. He goes out like a lot of others, seeing the toll on his body costing him his effectiveness. I don't think the Sox have any reason to feel like they didn't give him every chance to prove himself, we treated him right and gave him a very long look but it just wasn't going to work. I doubt he's got much production in him, but I'll wish him well if he can find it.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 2, 2016 -> 03:41 PM) I could see you taking exception to what he did in camp with Milwaukee but I am not sure, and I am a probably in the minority, you should pin the amphetamines suspension against him without context. I'm much more forgiving of amphetamines than steroid-type substances. Amphetamines are out of your system in a hurry and the benefits are mostly mental and go away as soon you cease use. While you can't stay massive for too long after you quit steroids, your body is very much changed by it in a way that for most pro athletes wouldn't be possible without the substance. It's also more believable that you could be fooled into having amphetamines in your system without knowing exactly what it was or that it was illegal. For instance, does every ~20 year old kid know that Adderall is a mixture of amphetamines? I suspect not all of them do–not to say there shouldn't be punishment.

I honestly thought his arm looked like s*** a week or so in. He hadn't made many throws but most that he did were straight into the ground. They're looking pretty good now, though

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 1, 2016 -> 09:04 PM) Love Sale, but he's not even the best pitcher in Chicago currently. Yep, that's Quintana

Well, the guy is heating up now isn't he?

I don't wade too deeply into game threads, so I'm curious how people are feeling about this guy. Obviously, his numbers are pretty good, but it's early. The way I see it, there are some reasons for optimism, but there's also no single part of his game where I feel like I know for certain what he's got. He's never had a terrible bat, so I'm not worried about a Beckham-esque slide into terrible-ness, but it's also far from certain that he keeps up his current pace. Even beyond that, I'm not sure if he's going to continue to show some pop, draw walks, or strike out so much. On defense, he's made a few very high-difficulty plays, but especially here in Baltimore a few boners. It could be the bias of the recent gaffes, but to me he doesn't look very natural receiving the ball. Maybe it's that he looks like a 3B playing 2B, I'm not sure. And I haven't even decided what I think about his attitude. I was never a huge fan of him as a non-Sox, but he does seem to bring some nice balance to the mix of personalities. With that said, I'm not sure if any of us would be surprised if we heard that he was really irritating people or started playing poorly because he lost his cool. What are other folks thinking about Lawrie? Was this a steal? Will he be a fixture going forward?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 30, 2016 -> 11:14 PM) Seriously. Is there anyone on the planet who was like "Adam Eaton could be one of the best rf'ers in the game" I mean, when we signed Jackson it wasn't even 100% clear which corner he would play. I'd say management picked the right one.

Seems like it may be more posturing if the team gets pissed off about releasing him or sending him to the bullpen

Gonzalez got hit pretty hard a few times, but I actually thought his stuff looked better than advertised.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 09:40 AM) Actually I have caught Stone give Benetti the silent treatment a couple of times already too. What people don't realize, because we've had Hawk nearby as a comparison, is that Steve Stone has an enormous ego. The silent treatment is Steve letting Jason off gently, because one thing Steve won't do is dare to say something he doesn't agree with. While you might think it would help the broadcast sometimes if Steve just agrees even when he thinks Jason said some minor thing that is incorrect, Steve will either go silent or correct him. Obviously, sometimes it's good to have a little disagreement, but Steve is obsessed with the being the smartest guy around. Of course, Hawk is off the handle a good portion of the time which is probably why we don't get the best of Steve with Hawk in the booth because Steve is terrified of the possibility that someone think he endorses whatever Hawk says or the way Hawk says it. That's actually what made Hawk and DJ such a nice pairing: DJ didn't have the need to be better than Hawk, he was happy to play off of him. It's also what is making Jason and Steve work together better, because again Jason Benetti doesn't need to defend his ego. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 10:08 AM) Very clearly, Hawk isn't the same guy anymore. I really believe his eyes are failing him, which has led to a shortfall in his ability to see a lot of plays happening. That said, his excitement and love of the game, along with this authentic portrayal of how he is feeling at any given moment are absolute gold to me. He is elated when I am elated. He is sad when I am sad. He is pissed when I am pissed. You just don't get that out of announcers anymore, except for a very few guys. It is one of the reason I absolutely love Pat Foley too. I found myself thinking "this is it?" when Abreu hit the extra inning walkoff the other day. I truly missed Hawk having a coronary on screen for a walkoff. After saying all of that, I know it is time for a change, but that doesn't mean I want to let go of Hawk. The dude is the soundtrack to a good portion of my life. I know we had a thread talking about people overreacting to the death of a celeb or music star, but I will legitimately bawl when Hawk is gone. Great post, I agree with every word.

I like Jason and can live in a world in which he takes over for Hawk full time. He's funny and does a nice job of going back and forth with Steve without completely blowing him ala Swirsky. With that said, I still want to hear WAY BACK on a deep fly and of course the standard hooting and hollering when it clears the fence and/or the Sox score runs.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 06:24 PM) The only problem I've had is Jake Petricka in high leverage situations, but I know we can't use the same guys each and everyday. Or Zach Duke for that matter. I consider him the weak link until proven otherwise

Interesting point about Chicago taxes. It's also unique in that the city doesn't have an income tax. NYC, to which salaries and such have been compared, taxes incomes at 3-4% (modestly progressive), and that's on top of a state income tax that can go as high as 10% for top earners. Where I live in Ohio there is a 2.5% city income tax (and a progressive state income tax that ranges from 0-5.5%).

I look at something like FanGraphs's projections and they had our position players projected to be 6th from the bottom in WAR this year. That tells me we need something unexpected to happen in order to not be around that place (incidentally, it's right where we are so far). 2B is an area where a breakout would be reasonable and the projection has us getting nothing from the DH, but we could obviously hire some outside help for that position. I think LF and RF could be likely to exceed projections, but so far C is looking like a bummer. SS and CF I'm not so sure is going to meet their expectation either, but it's early.

I think there are some real reasons to be pessimistic about the Sox offense. It's looking like they will be a bottom 10 squad on the positional side, maybe bottom 5. We need multiple guys to exceed expectations and that just isn't happening yet.

I haven't thought that Jackson has looked amazing out there, so I don't know why people are flabbergasted that he doesn't look great in DRS. He's made at least one bona fide mistake, though that may have been after the post was made, I can't remember. Plenty of time for things to even out anyway. One thing about Eaton that has stood out for me so far is that his arm looks terrible. I don't necessarily mean in terms of strength, but it just looks incredibly unlikely that he would throw anyone out given the chance due to how inaccurate most of his throws have been. Jackson for his part has been more accurate at least in terms of the alignment, but both of them have been just chucking it straight into the ground.

I'd like to see Frazier play better, but I'm not super concerned. Even if he doesn't meet expectations, I very strongly doubt we look back at the end of the year and see Frazier's performance as the thing that held us back. Also, FWIW, I can't think of a good reason why the switch from NL to AL would be an explanation for a big shift in production.