chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 09:23 PM) Looking for tank wins and losses I wanna see the team compete. Time for "finish bottom 5" is over. If guys like Moncada and Gio and Yolmer and TA and even Avi are producing this isn't going to be an awful squad. that said, let's hope most the losses come on james shields' watch.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 08:19 PM) 78-82 wins is what I'm seeing, 3rd place in the AL Central same. offense will be average or slightly better. starting pitching will be bad. bullpen will be solid.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:36 PM) Lopez to me is the question mark not sure if it’s conditioning or focus later in games or what. Maybe a lack of conditioning affects his focus later in starts which is flattening out his pitches. That’s my guess but could be wrong. Needs another pitch or two to succeed long term as a starter. I think he just has really s***ty command on his fastball which leads to way too many full counts. He's a big question mark and seems to have a high variance. I can see him becoming a very good 3rd starter and I can also see him becoming just a decent setup guy.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:23 PM) Biggest Surprise: I was originally going to go with Gio, but I don't think anyone will be surprised with him becoming a legit #1 or #2 this season after watching him this spring. I think my biggest surprise will be the ascension of Aaron Bummer to being a legit bullpen piece. His stuff is good enough to get people out at the major league level, if he continues to build on how he looked this spring, he will be a great option in the 7th or 8th. Biggest Disappointment: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about where Reynaldo is right now. His stuff is too good to be nibbling like he does. He isn't getting ahead of hitters and when he does, he isnt making good pitches to put them away. Ultimately, the Sox don't really need him to be anything more than a 5th starter, but I would really like to see him be more aggressive. Biggest Dark Horse: This will sound funny for this category, but I think Moncada is my dark horse this season to become a superstar in the MLB. IT seems like both locally and nationally people have just moved onto the next shiny prospect in the Sox system, but I think Yoan is going to blossom in the leadoff role and really take his game to the next level. He was smoking everything towards the end of ST and I think he will be running a lot more this season. I like how much he was pulling the ball this spring as well, that's where you will see him tap into his power a lot more. Yes, I agree, people are sleeping on this kid -- both nationally and in Chicago. There's a lot of lazy analysis and old school thinking wrt to his batting average and strikeouts last year and a lot of ignoring how good his defense was (overall, certainly had some hicups) in his first season full time at 2B. The SI "scout's" preview actually said he had a "hitch" (his timing mechanism) in his swing and wouldn't be surprised to see him back in AAA this year. Come on. He has one of the prettier swings in all of baseball, especially against RHP. He rips the ball as evidenced by his exit velocity. He's going to be a star. If he can hit 280 he'll be a superstar. If he just hits 250/330/470 and plays good defense he's a 3-4 player. If he hits 280/370/520 he's a 6 WAR 2B and a superstar. He can get there imo. Won't be this year almost certainly but by the time he's 26? Sure.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:19 PM) Guesses on lineup? I'll go: 2B Moncada 3B Sanchez 1B Abreu RF Avi LF Delmonico DH Davidson C Castillo SS Anderson CF Engel Ya know that actually looks like a decent f***ing lineup imo.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 02:56 PM) Anyone else going to be there? Leaving from Northern IL in an hour or so. Checking out the Negro Leagues Museum in the morning before the game. Can't wait; first ever Opening Day of any kind. very nice. enjoy. Personally I'm looking forward to having something to watch most days around 4-5pm to help pass the last couple hours at the office. There's enough exciting young talent on the Sox this year to keep my interest, hopefully throughout the year it builds to a contender in 2019.

Surprise: Nate Jones stays relatively healthy and is flipped for a "B" prospect in July. Disappointment: Adam Engel improved...to the mendoza line and loses the starting CF spot to... Darkhorse: Leury Garcia who turns in a 2-3 WAR season and makes a case for starting CF in 2019.

didn't even know they were hurt. I guess it's good not seeing Jose here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 02:04 PM) Sure, but if you were consistently wrong, you wouldn't be doing the job for very long at all. The best trainers in the world couldn't prevent Jabari Parker from tearing his ACL a second time and so on and on and on. I can't stress enough how awesome modern medicine and rehab (that ptac is on the cutting edge of) is. That said, (and this will probably be my last post here I think I'm arguing the same point over and over) it's a big data point against Burger that in his 1st big league camp he makes it two weeks before blowing out his achilles. Given all the talk about how he has a "bad body" and just doesn't appear to be a smooth athlete he (imo) didn't have much room for error as far as sticking at 3B and contributing in areas of the game other than hitting. Now there's going to be a ton of pressure on him to hit, hit with power. The injury is at absolute best robbing him of critical development time. Even if he comes back physically 100% there's a big setback to his career here.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 01:05 PM) ? let me put it more clearly: would you become a surgeon if you didn't believe in the efficacy your techniques? of course he believes Burger can come back 100% athletically -- he's in the business of making sure that happens.

It's not a death knell but it's a bad sign that a guy that young ruptured his achilles running to 1st base. ptac knows his s*** but as a trainer he can't help but almost always envision the best case rehab. I'm more of a cynic I've seen too many rehabs, even modern ones, go wrongly and players never fully recovery for whatever reason.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 07:45 PM) All this talk about who plays 3B. How about just leave Davidson there? how about just cut him. he's replacement level.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 07:29 PM) What will this injury do that will cause him to not play 3B? Same reason Schwarber will never be a catcher (even part time) after his ACL. The margin for error athleticism wise was razor thin. He's going to come back less agile, and he'll have missed a critical 9-15 months of reps. Modern medicine and rehab is a miracle but a ruptured achilles is still a ruptured achilles. He may never regain the athletic timing needed to play 3B. Or hit for that matter. I'm pretty cynical here I'll admit.

Any chance he had of being a 3B is gone IMO.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 09:30 PM) Yoga would typically help. With his body type im sure he has typically tight muscles and that contributed to it. I'm the DIII version of burger, have the exact type build and looked the same damn way on the field. "tight muscles" is a good way to describe it. I think he trained the wrong way this offseason. Easy to say in retrospect but he would have been better served not bulking up and just getting lean. I'm sure his legs where tight here in the 2nd week of workouts. Hopefully the Sox can monitor these guys' workloads, especially the under 23 set, and try and prevent these type of injuries in the future.

torn achilles? his career is done. that sucks.

Burger just doesn't look athletic imo. Looks stiff.

that's like a split squad lineup. yikes.

Sounds like he dodged a bullet here. Getting the reps at the plate is the most important thing. Hopefully they can manage it so he can swing freely without pain.

Frankly he sounds unhinged. This comment on a Jay's forum sums it up well: Sounds like he's on speed in that interview. Or he's manic.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 24, 2018 -> 06:50 PM) Better comp is Matt Albers running the bases. He’s definitely “stout.” Robert almost misplayed a ball where he ran in, then had to jump to keep it from carrying over him...sun seemed to be bothering him. Basabe definitely looked the best overall. He never gets mentioned anymore, but he’s the natural heir to Adolfo hype train. probably because he hasn't done jack s*** other than today in the last 18 months.

QUOTE (SonofaRoache @ Feb 23, 2018 -> 09:27 PM) I feel bad for him, but he is always hurt. We need to move forward as if he wont make it to the big leagues. this is the beauty of having a deep system. And it's not like he's a prized middle infield or catching prospect. Toolsy OF are a dime a dozen compared to IF prospects in the Sox org. It's a blow, but it's not a bad one. I'm just knocking on wood (literally, right now) that the more critical pieces to the rebuild enjoy good health this spring and year. We already are dealing with a pretty bad setback with Rodon imo. edit: we have "SonofaRoache" and "GoodAsGould" both in this thread right now. Awesome.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Feb 23, 2018 -> 08:29 PM) I think it’s ridiculous that fans continue to obsess over the prospect of signing Machado next winter even though the odds of that happening are slim to none. The Sox signing Machado would mean many things and almost every single one of them would be a huge positive wrt to the White Sox' future so I don't blame people for "obessing" over it. Now, obsessing over Moose or Hosmer or CarGo? Now that is stupid. Machado moves the needle in ways these guys do not even come close.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Feb 23, 2018 -> 07:36 PM) Paging ptact... stat. Don't think there's much good news here other than that they think they can rehab it without TJ. At best he's missing a critical 2-3 months of development time. Bigger picture (and problem) is that Micker seems to be put together with duct tape and zip ties. I'd be curious to here what ptac thinks but I do think that "injury prone" is a thing -- and micker is injury prone.

the glass man.