Rowand44

WSU fans are pretty confident Marshall won't go to Tennessee. They're a pretty delusional fan base in general so it doesn't mean a whole lot but thought I'd pass it along.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 01:06 PM) Is it safe to say if any of the big three go down, the Heat could lose to the Bulls? Only LeBron.

I can't wait to get to another game but no chance in hell I'm going tonight. Anywho, regardless of the result it'd be very nice to see Johnson's stuff improve from his 2 previous outings tonight.

QUOTE (CyAcosta41 @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 10:13 AM) I'm one to lurk on message boards, occasionally post to discuss, but rarely debate. That said, this one really surprised me. Really? Do you really think RH deserves ANY of the blame for the 63 win debacle that was 2013? That wasn't simply a volleyball hovering over the net and you found it impossible not to spike (truth being irrelevant)? If you really think 2013 is a a "pretty solid black mark" AGAINST HAHN, then I have to say I couldn't disagree more. Kenny, Jerry, Coop, Manto, the entire coaching staff, and every player who played on last year's deserve a heckuva lot more blame than Hahn for 2013. If there was anyone who ever inherited a complete mess, it was Rick Hahn. He had little to no ability to do anything about 2013, other than take his lumps and stay true to a sensible, long-term plan. There would have been plenty of GMs who might have paid dearly for some minor 2013 improvements which would have cost a lot more in the long run (in terms of locking into silly long-terms deals with players who simply didn't long-term matter). If anything, I think Hahn deserves a heck of a lot of credit for "taking it like a man" in 2013, so that he could best show his stuff going forward. Not every sound baseball decision works out. Sometimes you square up a ball and line out hard to a fielder. But, that's infinitely more desirable than doinking one with a bad swing and winding up on base. One is sustainable and eventually leads to success; the other are doinks. LOVE having Rick Hahn as the Sox GM. The likelihood of a 2013 type mess is what opened the job for him. Blame him if you will, but I don't, and I'm happy to let it dirty him up a little if it means that it enabled the Sox to have a really good GM for the long haul. For my money, Hahn has been truly impressive in his short time on the job. QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) Here's another way to look at it: What exactly do we want Semien to learn in AAA? When I look at his results and peripherals, I really only see one issue: strikeout rate (28.1%). But what is causing the high K rate? Almost everything actually looks really good. The BB rate is a touch above league average (10.5%), the O-Swing rate is significantly better than average (18.6% by Pitch F/X, 24.1% by FG), and his Z-Contact is right in line with league average (83.5%/88.2%). The issue appears to lie in Z-Swing (56.1% compared to about 65% for average) and O-Contact (50% compared to about 65% again). So it appears he's (1) actually taking too many good pitches in the zone, and (2) in the rare instances that he DOES swing outside of the zone or get fooled by a slider, he's really struggling to make contact. I can't see any reason that improving either of those wouldn't best be done at the highest level possible. And, arguably, he may not even WANT to change #1 much if he's operating under direction to work counts. If he's going to improve, it's going to be on recognizing ML breaking pitches. I don't think he can do that in AAA because he won't be seeing those high quality pitches. Good stuff here by both you guys.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Ermagerd. Sixersssss That was quite the roller coaster of a bet, wasn't it?? Awesome.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 06:48 PM) Cesaro should be in World title picture by SummerSlam Lesnar-Bryan would be the perfect SS main event if they don't have to put the title on Bootista by than.

I just don't think they really have given Big E much of a chance to succeed. They've basically given him no time to show off his personality and he does have some. He's also extremely agile for a guy his size. And Cesaro does make sense if they want to make the IC title legit again but I think his Swagger feud might keep him away from this.

And I have to disagree with you Fathom. I'm not 100 percent convinced that Davidson is the answer long term at 3b but it's not Conor either, he'll hit a slump soon where his numbers start to plummet. Of course I hope I'm wrong about that but I really don't believe Gillaspie is a legit starting 3b in the majors.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 05:56 PM) After 14 games you say this? I remember hw Josh Fields was anointed as the next 3Bman of the future based on half a year stats and where did he go? I've been saying it since the end of last year. No doubt in my mind that Marcus is already the better player and he's going to get better, Gordon is not no matter what excuse we give him this year. And please stop with the Josh Fields and Gordon Beckham examples as to why Marcus shouldn't be up here or starting or whatever. He's not Fields and he's not Beckham and just because those guys are bad baseball players doesn't mean we should be scared to push Marcus. He's going to be able to handle it just fine.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 05:02 PM) Let me ask this...do you guys believe Semien will provide significantly better production this year than Beckham? If so, fine, go with it, bench Beckham or super-sub him, and give Semien the regular every day 2nd base job. If not, send Semien back down and let him get at-bats in Charlotte and allow Gordon to either make or break himself with the White Sox. It's really not that difficult. Yes, I believe Marcus is already better than Gordon. Semien should be our starting 2b right now.

Does this mean we can now trade for Carl Everett again? Cause I'm all about that.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) Downs will go somewhere in July. He has only seen 11 batters this season, far too early to write him off. The closer should be Lindstrom until he is traded, then probably Webb, until he is traded. No contender is going to trade for Matt Lindstrom as a closer. But some may want him as a middle reliever, it does nothing for him or the team to leave him there if he's not cutting it.

Gorkys!!

Ya being the division leader would actually be the tiebreaker if the standings stay the same. EDIT: ha thought Brian just posted the standings not the tiebreaker scenarios. What an asshole!

What he said ^. I want Webb to be the closer but I also want him used in the biggest situations which isn't always the 9th inning. When we got to the 9th with the lead today it should have been Webb though.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 06:57 PM) Yeah, but outside of Abreu and Dunn, does anybody believe any of them can actually finish a season above an 800 OPS? This team is going to have an inevitable offensive slump, and if the pitching doesn't get better it will lead to a pretty bad losing streak. The pitching isn't this bad though either. The offense will get worse and the pitching will get better.

I will say that as much as Hawk annoys me now a days, I definitely missed him on the walk off call.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 06:37 PM) It'll get lost, but Quintana is a stud. Yup, no doubt.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 06:33 PM) It was a walk-off....surely the unwritten rules don't expect a stoic trot to first base after hitting a game winning home run. No s***. You're allowed to celebrate if you hit a walk off homer.

The offense struggles all game but still ends up bailing us out. Amazing.

This f***in team

This f***in team.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 13, 2014 -> 06:16 PM) The problem is you need to let him grow into the role naturally...it's a progression. Forcing Webb there right now probably isn't the right move yet. They'll try Cleto or Belisario first. I would go with Cleto, simply because there's nothing to lose. He fails over a two week period, then you've bought Webb some more time. I don't buy any of this.

If Webb isn't used in the 7th or 8th he needs to be closing.

First and foremost, don't feed the Marty troll. I also highly disagree with some of you that this team is s***ty. Obviously time will tell but I still like the roster more than most. As for the "dead weight," I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you on the players but it's still far too early to come to that conclusion.