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QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) To me, the phrase "one of baseball's best" means top-ten. That being said, Carrasco doesn't miss by much, but I'm still reluctant to call him that. WAR isn't the only stat I'd use to judge this, though. I'd obviously take Felix, Bumgarner, and Hamels over Carrasco. Regardless, Cleveland's rotation is very good.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-the-...cond-half-2015/ Article I read on it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 02:02 PM) I wonder if Theo wouldn't mind moving a couple of these prospects before they become exposed as frauds. I would guess Baez's value is down. Castro could have netted more. A couple of these others, the value most likely will go down unless the Cubs are really lucky. I would if I were them, but I'd try to get a good pitcher in their mid 20s. They can get pitchers like Hamels in FA. but how will they deal when their position players are about to enter their prime years, and they are paying their 34/35 year old pitchers 25 miillion a year for crap performance.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 01:58 PM) What is their reasoning? Basically they feel good about competing next year with Darvish back. But...not sure with gallardo being shopped what that means. So, still confused. But I kind of like the idea of them just liking hamels so who knows.

I've heard the reasoning behind Texas's interest, still so weird to me.

I'll take Geo vs DH if I have to choose between him playing vs. not playing.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 01:17 PM) Big picture, i think the most common expectation was for this team to be in the 85-88 win range. 82 would be disappointing in that sense, but in the terms of how this season started, and finishing on an upswing, plus not having given away any of our real future pieces, I would be OK with it. Not thrilled, but not ready to light up some torches either. At the very least it means that some of the guys who got off to horrible starts, continued to recover and are viable pieces for 2016. edit: deleted everything I wrote. I agree. But having endured the beginning of this season, I feel like 81-81 or better means that: -Saladino stayed good -Sanchez may have finished with .240 or better average - Melky stayed good -Pitching stayed good That would make me pretty optimistic for next year, as opposed to a 73-something finish.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 01:10 PM) I would love to watch this team finish with 82 wins. I would be thrilled with that. I thought the same thing. Going from 63 to 72 to 82 wins looks like decent progress to me.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) I just think the Sox trade for someone who is gonna help next year, and possibly even this year. Can't see them trading their best chip for a piece that's a few years away. Particularly when said piece plays the position that Tim Anderson plays (hopefully). Yes, I agree on the close to minors portion, I just don't think they would refuse to inquire on a talent like that because of Tim Anderson. No guarantees either would end up a SS, and it's the easiest position to move elsewhere.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 12:45 PM) A 18 year old sure wouldn't fit their 3 year plan, so I kinda doubt it. Plus I think Tim Anderson is type SS of the future. Eh, SS at 18 years old doesn't mean anything.

the only team the sox should assume they can beat are coming up (red sox) and Phillies. That we should assume we can beat a team ahead of us in rankings is ridiculous.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 10:45 AM) "No one has a right to grade a President—even poor James Buchanan—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions." - JFK That's such bullcrap. I understand presidents have difficult decisions to make, Buchanon had a country about to collapse, but ultimately he accommodated and appeased a side that enslaved other humans. Just because his decisions were hard doesn't mean they weren't morally awful. It just goes to show what a phenomenal president Lincoln was, and how courageous the Republican congress was that came from it.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 10:43 AM) Rodon does have a 3.62 FIP and 1.1 WAR this season, Danks in 07 had a 5.54 FIP. Rodon has been very impressive to me in his first stint so far, if he can keep his control at all similar to yesterday going forward he will dominate. Well, Danks also fell apart at the end and completely ran out of steam. He was uneven but provided some fantastic performances in may/june/july. We'll see how Rodon performs as he pushes past his previous innings workload.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 10:37 AM) This is the key. There have been plenty of times before when the Sox have missed good opportunities to "sell" because they felt their underperforming, so-so team could get back in the race at any time. Those were frustrating, because the team's chances of competing were low and they could have restocked/reloaded for a better chance the following year. While their chances of seriously competing this year are very low, the chances any return on a rental of Samardzija being significant are also low. Not as much at stake here, I guess. I would agree that, if a good match doesn't present itself, there's very little point in just trading him for some low level lottery tickets. Agreed at this point. I do believe our drafting has improved recently, I'd like to see how we do with the additional budget from a comp pick.

Jonathan Strange was a really good series. I hope Susanna Clark pens more material.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 10:28 AM) I believe Rodon threw 21 change-ups. That is very exciting. Reminds me a lot of Danks 07 season this year. I think he comes back next year and dominates.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 10:08 AM) I enjoy the game of baseball. I’ve watched other teams on TV, I’ve watched minor league games in person. I’ve watched a ton of (fast-pitch and slow-pitch) softball both on TV and in person as well. From t-ball all the way up to professional. The difference is that when I’m watching those games, I’m not emotionally involved in who wins or loses. When I watch the Sox, I want them to win. When they don’t, I get upset and don’t want to watch anymore. I’m not going to punish myself by watching something that’s just going to make me mad. So I’ll simply turn off the TV and find something else to do. That’s just me personally. I’m sure there are still people out there that can watch the Sox and have a good time whether they win or lose. I don’t think that makes me a fair-weather fan either. I still follow the team and hope they do well. I still wear my t-shirts and hats. I still defend them to my Cub fan friends. I just have a really hard time watching them lose. Yes, all of this. I will say I enjoyed last years team even as they lost. They were very exciting in that it seemed they could hit their way back into the game those first 3 months.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 09:55 AM) Even if we sweep Boston, I'm still on the fence as to whether we should trade Samardzija. We need to evaluate Erik Johnson for next season and if Jeff stays we lose that opportunity. But some guys on the offense are coming around. Last 30 days: Melky: 0.9 WAR (30th best in baseball) Sanchez: 0.5 WAR Eaton: 0.4 WAR Soto: 0.4 WAR (please play him more over Flowers) Alexei: 0.3 WAR However: Flowers: -0.2 WAR Avi: -0.4 WAR LaRoche: -1.1 WAR (if we could play him less, that'd be great) I would be happy if we could get rid of bonifacio and bring up EJ to take spot starts to give Danks extra rest. He has performed so well with extra rest there has to be something to it. Gives us a few more starts (5-6) from EJ to see including september.

QUOTE (JolietThunder @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 08:27 AM) This four game sweep was the worst thing that could have happen for our long term future. I hope FO doesn't start believing in this team like I did after seeing great pitching( which is norm for us), stellar defense (not use to seeing around here) and some timely hitting ( also not use to seeing). I want this team to take CUBS approach and suck for few year and stock pile our minor league roster. This sweep featured a 6 2/3 inning scoreless gem, with 0 walks, pitched by last years first round pick, multiple hits from our star 1b, and a hit spree from our young second and third basemen. This was absolutely not the worst thing that could have happened for our long term future. April, where it seemed that our cf of the future, rf of the future, 2b of the future, and rotation looked like garbage were much darker times.

Given the times Clinton inherited I have a hard time grading his presidency as anything but a huge failure. Given incredible popularity from merely being president during a great economic boom, he did so extraordinarily little during his time.

Obama's second term for me has been a dream. I was happy he won in 2012 largely because of defense, and he ended up delivering on so many more initiatives from 08. The libya/syria decisions were the dark days of that presidency, to me. Since then along with the Kerry as SOS era, I'm very happy.

I was listening to game on radio yesterday, and one thing that excited me was toward the end of the game it seemed like he was throwing his change consistently. Far from the beginning of year where he'd show it 8-10 times per game, there were at bats where he'd throw it 3-4 times. Did that seem to be the case? Was DJ just misidentifying the slider?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 09:11 AM) And he went on quite the rant against the Saints and Sean Payton http://deadspin.com/junior-galettes-twitte...d-th-1720339378 If he really signs with TB, they really will have become the most awful franchise.

I am hoping we trade samardjiza, but I'm honestly very intrigued by this past weekend. This was such a breath of fresh air to see offense over multiple games (against a good rotation). To see power, man. That was great. So, if you guys could get a rental upgrade over one position, what would you choose/is there anyone you have in mind? I have to think RF would be top priority for me, moving laroche to a platoon and avi with him. Fully happy to let the saladino ride continue so we can have a better idea if we happened to stumble into a positive war 3rd baseman. Not sure there are many options for 3rd coming in FA for a while, and i've soured on FA after this year.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jul 24, 2015 -> 05:17 PM) He won't. By the time he is a free agent, he can command 30+ mill annually easy if he keeps this up. 30 mill is what he'd command this offseason, in 2018? Whew, can't imagine.