Jake

Cue the Coolio - Livin' in a lefties' paradise

While Davidson has never been a low strikeout player, there's no good reason to think the AAA version we've seen this year is the real thing. He has played better in the majors than he has played most of the year in the minors. FWIW, since the time Thome arrived (~June 19th), he's struck out 23.9% of the time with a .267/.367/.533 slash line. That includes the recent spike, which IMO still looks like nothing more than statistical noise given that his power also went up along with his average while his OBP went down...lots of conflicting info in that sample.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 21, 2014 -> 09:56 PM) well your knowledge cant be that great since he told Bob Costas that he'd have a gay player if he was good enough. Ahh, so the bar is just higher for gay folks. Hey, at least there's a bar!

There are a whole bunch of positives that come along with being the team to allow the first gay player ever on their team. It is true cowardice that someone would let anticipated awkwardness with a few powerless individuals in their midst get in the way of the tremendous good that will come to the organization for being perceived as a trendsetter. Since we've talked about Jackie Robinson a lot, does anyone not remember what team he played for? Who the GM was who signed him? As for fans, they'll get over anything. They'll get over black players, criminals, weirdos, you name it.

lol, my boy Wilkins is ridiculously hot. Or he's what others might call a "Kris Bryant slump"

Another way to think about it is: if you think both were worth the room exception (what was used on Hinrich), which of the two would have been easier to replace at the minimum? I don't see Aaron Brooks being appreciably worse than DJ Augustin. With that said, part of having a coach who is supposed to be excellent is buying in when he says that [x player] needs to be on the team for a couple million per year

By and large, playing for the draft is a ridiculously bad bet. Just do your job and take the picks you get.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2014 -> 06:29 PM) The game thread is a lot like listening to Hawk. It is the same people, saying the same things over, and over, and over.... Except Hawk cheers for the White Sox

This is a good new wrinkle - what's more relevant: the accumulation of runs lost on the bases or the runs lost per time spent on base? PK isn't quite the worst when you're looking at a per-baserunning situation.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 20, 2014 -> 05:11 PM) Would the Knicks do Butler for Shumpert? I'm sure they would. That'd be an awful deal for us.

I actually think it's a very valid question - is Konerko the worst baserunner of all time or just one of the worst? Well, he's the worst.

I was surprised to see Aramis so high. That has to be laziness more than anything else.

Nightmarish defense from HOU today, but our baserunning has been absolutely excellent

I looked at the baserunning component of fWAR, which is calculated via a stat called Ultimate Baserunning (UBR). I wanted to know - who are the least valuable (or most harmful) baserunners of all time? The results didn't disappoint: UBR is calculated simply based on whether you advance the amount of bases that would be expected in a given situation. The run value is derived from how different the likelihood of a run scoring is based on where you ended up (say standing on second base vs. advancing to third on a single from first base). It isn't necessarily anti-slow guy and doesn't even account for missed opportunities to leg out force outs at first. But, still, PK and several other recent Sox were really bad on the basepaths.

It was only a matter of time before that lucky run caught up with Danksy. I hope he figures out how to strike out an acceptable amount of hitters and keep the ball in the ballpark

Semien is the classic "gets a cup of coffee in MLB and now everybody thinks he sucks" guy. Marcus has accomplished far more than Micah at this point and the only tool where Micah beats him is speed. Marcus, at present, is clearly a better bet on defense, for power, for plate discipline, and hit tool in general. It isn't so far apart that Micah can't pass him up, but that's how it is.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that was ridiculous. How do you play baseball your whole life and interpret that bunt to be a bush league move?

Of all people in MLB that had as many ABs as Josh Phegley last year, he was the absolute worst hitter of them all. It wasn't even close. I'm not sure if he could do anything to make me feel confident in him at this point, especially considering his atrocious defense.

T Wolves are brilliant. They've put themselves in a position where they have to get Love. Everyone knows they aren't good enough without him and the public speculation and the stuff like LBJ calling Love mean that Cleveland has failed if they don't get him. So what does Minny do? "More please!" Yep, just keep asking for more because CLE is backed into a corner

Pitcher pissed about 2-out bunt against shift w/ 2-run lead, calls it breach of etiquette

I am going to be real and say I don't know a god damn thing about this kid so...if we get him, I hope he's good, and if we don't, I hope he goes to the Cubs for a very high price and then sucks ass

I think they're way too down on Davidson, especially considering his recent bounceback. Too high on Micah. WAY too high on Beck.

Wilkins and Micah are both players that saw their walk rates plummet upon arriving in AAA

I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that Astros are in the wrong, here. If the kid's medicals look like s***, they look like s***. With that said, I wonder if Close feels that he can get free agency for Aiken now, which is why he apparently advised him to balk at all offers.

Yes yes yes, I understand how amnesty works. I was just too lazy to edit the post