Jake

I think Law used to dislike the White Sox because KW had singled him out as an "idiot" in the past. I think he has since, more or less, buried the hatchet. There are reasons not to like Avisail Garcia. When he was asked about Avisail on ESPN, he was very diplomatic. He said there is division among people like him about how his approach will play at the MLB level over time. He first presented the case that many see him being a perennial all-star, but said that his and some others' opinion was that he "has no plan at the plate" and thus is unlikely to hit it big.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 12:42 PM) When he was hired he said that OBP was a little overrated or something like that. He should have been shown the door right then and there. All he has ever said, which of course results in people jumping down his throat, is that there are situations in which a walk is not the most productive result of an at-bat. He has always used examples of great hitters needing to hit a pitch they can hit rather than letting pitchers pitch around them. The first time he was quoted saying something like this, he talked about having a runner on third with 1 out. He said if your best hitter is up and the pitcher is trying to walk him, that's not what you want. You want your best hitter to drive the man in instead of allowing the pitcher to set up a DP for an inferior hitter. He also theorized that some of Dunn's issues were related to his preference of walks over hitting the right pitch. Early this season, we thought Manto had f***ed Adam up. It turns out, according to Adam, that he only began to turn around when Manto stuck to his guns and wouldn't let Adam scrap the changes to his approach just because he wasn't executing them correctly right away. QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 01:47 PM) If the White Sox continue to prioritize tools over skills at all costs, though, we're going to need someone that will teach the kids to stop swinging at bad pitches. And considering he was able to convince Adam Dunn, reigning emperor of TTO, to start swinging at anything that appeared to be middle in, regardless of count or pitch type, I do NOT think Manto is the guy to teach that plate discipline. Manto has presided over Adam's K rate declining in consecutive seasons.

You have to wonder if we had them working on something in particular early in the season that was causing them to take a step back

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 12:40 PM) "It may well be 2014 is a season like this one where we got rid of Jake"....to me, that means it's absolutely a rebuild coming up. I got the sense that he's just going to play the market as it comes to him. If the market dictates that we dump everyone for low-level guys, we do it and we probably aren't great. If it dictates that we get MLB-ready talent, we're ready to compete with a young club plus a vet or two. If the market sucks, we hold all the current vets and see what happens at the deadline.

Danks!

Tank!

I did not get the message that we are trying to rebuild. As a matter of fact, I got the impression that that is the last thing he wants to happen. He isn't about to drop $50 million in free agency to make sure we compete, but he certainly wants to make this team good as quickly as possible. There is a reason he didn't mention the draft as part of our future, only mentioning that better drafting in the past couple years has already built up our system. There won't be any all-in next year, but I'd expect to see a new veteran or two around and a team that expects to finish better than last. He's going to try to get maximum value for our players and if that means Rios turns into young but good prospects, he's okay with that. He's going for as much Avisail Garcia type guys as possible and even suggested that Avisail has already begun to shorten our rebuilding window. He said he is fully willing to hold on to our veterans if we don't get fair deals because we can always go out and win next year. He also repeatedly talked about the pitching and how the rebuild is already partially done because of how good our pitching is. He's right about that.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:59 AM) Really excited to see what Semien can do at AAA. Hopefully he handles well because it would be nice to have a skillset like his in the lineup next year. Yeah, I really hope he turns into a valuable major leaguer. He really seems like one of the higher floor guys in the entire system right now.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:54 AM) Not a chance in hell he should be brought back next season. As bad as our offense has been, I have a hard time truly feeling like he should go. Before he came, players like Dunn and Rios were among the least valuable assets in MLB. Beckham had had his third straight declining season. Now those guys have become legitimate pieces again. The jury is out on a guy like Dayan, where the way he finishes this season could have a profound effect on the way we view his development. Our most significant decline this season is PK, and I'd like to find the person that believes that is the fault of the hitting coach and not father time.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 07:37 AM) I still don't see why you guys have Hawkins rated so high. Not even close to top 10 IMO. Fast forward to one year from now.....If he has similar numbers then, will you still rank him in Top Ten? Not me. Ranking prospects is a balance of talent and production. While the production side of Courtney is fairly low (not zero, though - he's playing center field well and showing off that power tool), the talent side is sky high. The net is still a very valuable prospect at this point.

LOL @ Dayan's face after he nearly misplayed that fly

That is one of the most softly hit homers I'v ever seen

Quit saying all the evidence they have is the "word of a drug dealer." All the investigative reporting suggests they have an absolute preponderance of evidence.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 10:11 AM) Great case for a new manager. It would be if it weren't for the fact the previous manager presided over a team with similar issues and had the same players

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:10 AM) Yep, that might be our best bet of adding an impact bat for next season. It would be awesome if we got yet another key contributor via waivers

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 10:50 AM) He and Carlos will be the middle infield I'm sure, but it is hard to say which plays where. They may switch back and forth some, at least at first, to see who seems more comfortable at each position. Yeah, I'm betting they just trade off

QUOTE (Dizzy Sox @ Jul 31, 2013 -> 08:01 PM) Not in the lineup at B-Ham this evening...promoted to Charlotte perhaps? ding ding!

Semien to Charlotte, per everyone

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:46 AM) Western Australia West Texas Southern Utah Montana West North Carolina Christchurch Wyoming Idaho West Nebraska What draws you to those places? Weather? Open spaces? Small towns? Politics? I was hoping for some unorthodox responses like this

There are hard documents they're using as evidence as well as people that worked at that clinic. Baseball will be just fine without him and would have been fine if he never played.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:02 AM) Jacobs is hitting AA pitching solidly but he's still got a very raw game. Couple misplays in the field and one on the basepaths that I caught. Thompson is still clearly learning how to hit AA pitching. He's gone through some slumps, taken his lumps, and he's learning. these guys are right where they should be for the next month and a half. I've been very impressed with Thompson's ability to play really, really bad for long stretches of time and not let it doom him. There have been many times in his career already where he looked absolutely doomed. He keeps chugging along. Most impressively, on a year by year basis, he's consistently lowered his K rate - this year is his biggest drop and he needed it.

It seems like the teams that think they have too much starting pitching and start dumping their starters always end up regretting it

Cano is the type of guy who destroys your financial flexibility as he turns into a late 30's/early 40's second baseman that can no longer field and likely loses his ability to hit for power in a non-Yankee Stadium ballpark. You only sign Cano if he's putting you on top -- not to try to get you within a stone's throw of contention. This isn't the NBA. It makes far more sense to get a collection of average to above-average players than go for broke on a single stud. If your want your team to have studs, you have to draft/develop them (Sale). If you want to build through FA, you are going to have to find the guys the market has undervalued and when you have to bring in guys that the market does value, they can't be ones that you are obviously going to regret signing later (Cano). Dunn's contract may have felt bad at times, but imagine if you gave him a 5 or 6 year deal. Part of the reason the White Sox are never dumping contracts for nothing is that even when they go "big" on a guy like Adam Dunn, it's a 3-year or 4-year contract. You can live with a bad 3 or 4-year contract. Dealing with albatross 7-10 year deals for guys signed at peak value in their early 30s is a recipe for a bad, old, expensive team. You only do that if you think you're about to win a World Series. See the Tigers. If they get a ring, this is all worth it. If they don't, Dombrowski will be out of a job in 5 years as they are unable to afford anybody new

I think what we're starting to see (Chisoxfn's last post in PHT was optimistic along these lines as well) is that there is at least enough legitimate talent and production with our prospects and young major leaguers that it is fathomable that we could wind up with a great young core. Now, that will take some luck -- luck in the sense that we get a very good turnout rate from our current young MLBers and our upper echelon prospects. Nonetheless, a few years ago nobody in their right mind thought we had this many potential impact big leaguers in the pipeline.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 31, 2013 -> 11:00 PM) He's showing more patience and a much better ability to hit right handed pitching. I think the left handed struggles are just a fluke based on limited stats (since he's crushed LHP in the minors and last year). If he continues to take the steps forward he did, we will start to see him start to become an above average player, imo (especially when you factor in his bargain contract). Dayan has the best mixture of talent/present production to be the type of guy that can start to turn our team around. If Tank is a bonafide middle of the order guy, winning in the near future gets THAT much easier. Imagine for a moment a future in which Tank and Avisail turn out...what a cheap, young duo in the middle to build around that would be. What we need from Tank, honestly, is to replace PK. He doesn't have to play first or be the exact hitter PK was/is, but we need somebody to replace that production that we've had for over 10 years and the top candidate for that job is Dayan. I just really hope he pulls it off.