Jake

It's definitely getting to the point that I may not try going to school in Chicago anymore. I'm shopping for grad schools and I might just settle in Madison/Bloomington/Ann Arbor/Toronto instead, as much as I'd like to be able to see Sox games at will.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 05:11 PM) There have been 27 active players arrested this offseason. That's 1.6% of the league in one offseason. Not exactly the same number, but the incarceration rate in the U.S. is 0.74% of the population. and how do those numbers look for MLB/NBA/NHL

I believe the Cards plan to let Beltran walk and let Oscar Taveras take over in the OF, making a Craig-to-OF move unworkable. Taveras is the number 3 prospect in baseball and after an injury is hitting AAA pitching well. In AA he hit 23 HR with 94 RBI over 124 games. The only wildcard is his defense in center, where he is much improved but reports are mixed as to whether he is an MLB CF'er. They could opt to take Jon Jay out of the lineup, but it's tough to say how likely that is at this point. He's having a down year but has been damn good in the past. I think the easiest thing for them to do is move Adams as he's never been that highly regarded within their organization. It is a bigger question whether they opt for Freese or Wong going forward IMO

What I wonder is whether the NFL has so many deplorable characters a simple product of numbers (lots of guys on NFL rosters) or if the game just happens to attract bad guys.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 04:52 PM) You make a fair point, but your premise is unfair. You can flip it. Hawkins is 19. Would any of the players you mentioned be fairing any better in the Carolina League at 19? It's hard to imagine so. Phegley had a bad freshman year of college, so I'll say his 19 year old season in A ball would have been horrible.

The Sox's hottest hitter may be a SS

They very well could have known a lot by the day he was charged, too. They could have knowledge that the public lacked.

From what we know today, we would believe that Trayce is faster and a better defender. There may be some argument about power potential, but I'll say it's a wash. I believe Hawkins would have the better throwing arm. It seems Trayce has the better hit/contact tool, but on draft day Courtney's was better than draft day Trayce's.

No surprise when Phil Rogers is trying to s*** on the White Sox. Anyways, Robin did later admit that he benched Dayan (during that game mind you) for the blunder. Dayan talked the next day about how he had to learn a lesson from it.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) Viciedo can't play defense, he can't run the bases, he can't throw with accuracy, and he sure as hell can't hit - there's not much there to talk about at the moment. The guy's completely lost. Dayan's ARM UZR stat is rated 15th out of all outfielders, tied with Yoenis Cespedes. No need to make up weaknesses when there are so many obvious ones

I used to root for the Cards for the same reasons as fathom, but I've really lightened up on it because I'm starting to really hate Cardinals fans

Maybe I/we don't know enough specifics, but Ozzie was gone in 2012 and KW remained and Rios had the year of his life. It could be that the Oz/KW circus and not just Oz was the problem, but it seems like the inexplicably horrible play by key players went away when Ozzie left.

I think that Trayce Thompson is the highest ceiling player in our system and, even if not, is the current "most likely to be a star" player.

I'm on the same wavelength with most people here. I don't believe we'll move him at this point because it seems unlikely that he'll fetch the talent that he's worth to us. Rios is a guy we can build around if we want to and if we change our minds, I'm betting he has more trade value at that time in the future than he does now. He has certainly been one of the more enigmatic players we've had, though. As far as 2011, I still don't understand that season. I rarely think the manager has much to do with anything, but it sure seems that Ozzie has infected a few players over the years with bad play. Rios, Dunn, and Swisher come to mind.

I can't believe they would be willing to let Freese go. Carpenter also hasn't rated as a good 3B while his UZR at 2B this year has been excellent. I'll settle for Matt Adams though as there is just no place for him on their team without injuries.

Dog house might not be the word. You don't get punished for playing badly, you get punished for giving poor effort. I think his effort is fine. I think it's safe to assume the benching against righties is to give Manto and the staff a chance to work with him on things without his having to go in games and use it right away. FWIW, Manto has said that one of the biggest hurdles to working with Dayan has been his inability to take lessons right into gameplay. Basically, he has to internalize a mechanical change before he is comfortable trying to apply it in games. Some guys can/will try anything in a game scenario whereas others (Dayan included) don't like being a work in progress as they are trying to hit MLB pitching. Looks like he'll have his wish with some days off to work on things. It appears to me that he is being platooned, also. Not a good permanent option, but it may definitely benefit his psyche to get favorable matchups for a while as he slumps. It seems to have helped Conor Gillaspie quite a bit with his mini-slump of a couple weeks ago.

When you have decided to trade your players are bad enough that you need to trade them away and let the others walk via free agency, that means you no longer hold your manager accountable for the losing. That means it is the fault of the players.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) I almost feel guilty for rooting for this kid to fail, but what do you expect when you have weirdos busting a nut every time he comes to the plate. lol my feeling exactly. In other news, Freddie Freeman leads final man voting

One of the "issues" with Phegley as a prospect was a supposed lack of ability to get loft on balls. He would square up what should be home run balls and just hit line drive singles. You could see yesterday that he does indeed possess an ability to turn around a good fastball and put some air under it. I'm guessing that that is a new development. You can see a different issue commonly cited with him, that he has a bit of an issue catching the ball. He hasn't dropped anything with men on base yet, though. He does block balls well, which is one of the funniest things about him. Scouts report that he blocks balls fabulously well, but gets passed balls frequently on balls he doesn't catch. Luckily, he's been able to catch a bunch of guys he's worked with in AAA so far in the big leagues. We might see a bit more of this stuff as he catches guys he's never seen before.

Jaws has ranked his QBs from 32-15 so far and still no Cutler. That's encouraging.

My feeling is that the less Dayan hits, the less they will consider a position change. Paulie will be gone at the end of the year and you have to wonder how many "injuries" he'll deal with this season. Then there is Dunn who is equally likely to be gone in just a couple of weeks as he is to stay the duration of his contract. It's hard to tell. Anyway, Andy's first ~15 games at AAA have been "meh." It did take him a season to adjust to AA, so he may need at least the rest of this season to adjust. Of course, I don't think anybody would foresee him coming up on a full-time basis before September rolls around anyway. Regardless, I don't see any way that they would let him have success in AAA and then never give him a shot with the big club. If he does get blocked, I have a strong inkling that it won't be Tyler Flowers or Dayan blocking him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 09:04 AM) Hernandez must have skipped that day of Bible study. Perhaps the victims were adulterers?

I haven't seen anything all that negative on Anderson's defense. My impression from most scouting reports is that folks haven't seen him enough to say for sure, so the easier stance to take is to say they don't know if he will stick yet not cite any specific weaknesses. Anyways, as someone else pointed out, it is fairly common for young infielders to commit a boatload of errors at the lower levels and eventually get better. Conor Gillaspie is an example on the White Sox -- many questioned whether he could pick it when/after he was drafted, but began cutting his errors in half year by year until now, when he is a damn fine defender. This isn't to say Anderson is a lock to be a defensive wizard, but it is just difficult to say.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 11:38 PM) I agree. Morrison would have to go to 1B though. He has not hit very well in his career as an OF. Or fielded well.

I bet they won't want to trade him until that fundraiser thing happens