chitownsportsfan

Conor Gillaspie is blossoming into a star, no kidding.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 02:38 PM) Nieto can't go to Charlotte until next year unless the Sox acquire him outright from the Nationals. Ah, he hasn't been up with the big club enough? I thought it wasn't the full year anymore.

Sign him for prorated min, let him catch against most RHP, and then let Nieto get 200PA or so in Charlotte. That would be excellent all around.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 02:10 AM) If I were Robin, I would move Garcia to 1B full time and move Abreu to DH, that would allow me to get more athletic in the field and could fill some holes for the team going forward. I would do that, but first you gotta try and give them both time to prove they are durable and productive where they are. for Jose, other than some speed bumps early on, he's been solid enough (and healthy) playing 1B. Avi has straight line speed, an arm in theory, but perhaps not much instinctual play in the OF, we'll see if he can stick.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 12:28 AM) Flowers is pretty sturdy defender back there. Isn't the catcher position pretty abysmal throughout baseball hitting wise? Somebody was touting McCann for the all star game and he's hitting .230 with a .289 on base percentage. Obviously I'm down on Flowers the hitter, but it's nice to have a guy with a good arm back there. average catcher line so far is 249/315/387 even in that s***, puck awful run environment for catchers Tyler Flowers manages to be quite a bit below average. If Flowers hadn't had perhaps one of the luckiest (given his talent) two months of BABIP luck ever, he would probably be DFA.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 01:48 AM) Especially if we trade Viciedo for Erasmo Ramirez or Maurer, lol. Maurer for Viciedo would be such an amazing trade. Under Coop, Maurer could blossom into a solid 3rd starter, maybe even solid 2. His floor is middle reliever but whatever you trust in your staff.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 01:39 AM) Seattle's going to be a tough one to knock off No way, they are playing far above their heads. Now, you don't not get credit for games you've already one, but going forward they have the look more of a .500 team than a .550 team. The Sox aren't going to win the division without Noesi and Danks turning into Glavine and Maddox but I don't really think the Mariners are that much better than Chicago. The problem is that when you're 3 under .500 no matter how close to the top of the wild card you are, you're also that close to the bottom. There are a lot of teams "to catch" and other than winning like 45 of their next 71 (or better) the Sox aren't likely to win enough to make it. Historically, a couple teams or more almost always win 85 or more and don't make the traditional playoffs.

This is like a 75 to 82 win team. That's pretty damn good considering where they were last year. Hell, with a healthy Avi this might be an 86 win team. I think we should be giving the FO quite a bit of credit for turning this thing around. We have cleared out a s***-ton of dead wood and yea it's obviously not a great team, but it's a team that on a cost per WAR basis is probably twice as good as last year. It's harder of course to find marginal wins once you're already a decent club, but hey this is progress.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) Or just try and get hit by the ball.. I played DIII baseball 8 years ago, I honestly think I could go up there and put up a similar line to what he's done the past 100 PA or so. For one thing, I'd f***ing chock up on the bat a little bit and look dead red fastball every single time. His approach is awful for a guy with that slow of a bat.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) Whatever tweaks they made to Flowers' swing a few weeks ago has given him even less of a chance at the plate. I rather he go back to what he was a year or two ago and try and pull everything hard. I'd rather he go up there with a tennis racket.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:09 PM) If you are talking about Conor, he is batting 6th tonight Ah yes, at this point I am box score following the season and switched him and tank for some reason, I'm usually still at work anyways when the games are on (west coast) so less anger bubbles up in me (and to my customers) when I simply watch it unfold on the box score.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:02 PM) This line-up is so weird. Our coldest hitter still hitting 2nd. Tyler still playing everyday. Our hottest hitter, Viciedo, hitting 7th. Obviously batting Conor 7th took the pressure of him and allowed his awesome performance today. Robin is a Zen master.

Heck of a 7 hole hitter we got.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 08:40 PM) More like an enema. At this point I would be on board with trading Beckham for any live body A ball pitcher in the mold the Sox like (stuff, control problems) and start Semian the rest of the year at 2B. Or if not Semian, Sanchez.

I thought this year would be a bit of a cleanse with some new faces but my sunny outlook is being pissed on by the same old Beckham and Flowers. I look forward to never seeing either as a starting player on the Sox after this season. Flowers can stay around as a backup catcher if he wants, Beckham can just go away.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 07:46 PM) Pretty sure a 695 OPS and 264 average isn't very good...unless our bar is set really low. Plus, he hasn't been walking or stealing enough bases for a leadoff hitter. He's been okay, but I'd venture if you look up the expectations the day he was acquired, they were for a 750-825 OPS line, 340 OBP, etc. Yea but the bar is low. We are in an offensively challenged era, to put it mildly, a 695 OPS and a 334 OBP from your good defensively CF is pretty valuable. That said, relative to my expectations I want to see more.

I'm with Caulfield I think Eaton's season has been a bit of a disappointment. Basically the book on him is "good player when 100% healthy, is rarely healthy, let alone 100%". That narrative is has proven true so far. He's got like .9 fWAR so he's hardly been a disaster but personally I felt he was more of a 3-4 WAR player and he's on pace for about 2. When 100%, he's a very good player. He's almost never 100%. That said, he's a solid starter but I don't think the Sox can rely on him for a monster 4-5 WAR season where he plays 150 games very often.

Why the f*** is Conor batting 7th against a RHP? I'm running out of patience with Robin. If you're gonna do dumbass s*** all the time like wait to PR for Abreu until it really doesn't even matter and screws you later in the game, then DON'T DO DUMB CRAP LIKE BAT YOUR HIGHEST OBP HITTER AGAINST RHP 7TH. ok, rant over.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 10:59 PM) How in the world are Carroll and Hector capable of this? These type of games, and Viciedo's performance on this road trip are times you think the Sox actually have a good managerial and coaching staff. WTF is with this team? Is it a good team or horses***? It never can completely make up its mind. You remember the pathetic sweep at Minnie, pathetic sweep at home against KC and performance vs. the Angels. You think the Sox would have had enough mediocre teams in the past that this wouldn't be rocket science...Seriously, do you watch baseball? Have you seen mediocre teams? Have you seen bad offenses get shut down by bad pitchers? Have you seen good offenses get shut down by bad pitchers? It's baseball man, today was 1/162.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 06:29 PM) fWAR uses FIP, so it strips the influence of defense on a pitcher's success. Everyone, including FanGraphs, believe that FIP probably goes too far in it's culling, and may underrate pitchers that are uncommonly good at inducing weak contact or preventing homeruns. bWAR uses ERA, so it assumes that a pitcher is responsible for the entirety of a teams defensive effort when he is on the mound. This is inherently unstable and non-predictive because a pitcher is given credit or harmed if (1) his defense is or is performing above or below average, if the pitcher has been lucky or unlucky through BABIP fluctuations, and (3) the pitcher has been lucky or unlucky in terms of run or hit sequencing. The argument fWAR is accuracy over completeness; the argument for bWAR is completeness over accuracy. The truth is somewhere between the two, but most pundits believe it is closer to fWAR. DIPS theory is certainly evolving and I think even Voros would tell you he was wrong about a few things. I personally prefer fWAR for the majority of pitchers. There are some pitchers fWAR over and underrates, sometimes quite badly, but for most guys it works fine and for Sale it really underpins his greatness, in case the .86 WHIP and 2.16 ERA already didn't.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) Viciedo doesn't have the dramatic splits vs. RHP/LHP as in years past. You're basically saying he's worth less than Jeff Keppinger, Scott Downs and about the same as Paulino. Not buying it. We've been able to find useful pieces in Guerra, Carroll, Putnam and Noesi without giving up a thing for them. We developed Petrick and Webb internally. Why would we give up our 3rd best power hitter and an everyday position player for that? If this was a case of Joe Borchard for Matt Thornton, sure. Or Guerrier for Damaso Marte. This is like saying "why would we give up Gordon Beckham he's our 2nd best defensive infielder and an everday regular". You give him up because you want to make the team better. Viciedo's upside is pretty limited because he's a two tool player (arm, power), he literally has shown nothing outside of that in almost 3 full seasons in the bigs. He's not going to suddenly turn into a great baserunner or defender or 300 hitter. If he suddenly does in Seattle then you say "forget it" because the process was good, the results let you down but that's life.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 09:41 PM) Stuff has a lot of sink so far. Check the humidor! Sox are doctoring the balls!

How the f*** does Scott Carroll have a shutout with 4k right now? Is his stuff really that good tonight?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 09:25 PM) Call me an eternal optimistic, but I just have a feeling if Viciedo becomes confident again with his offensive game, his defense will pick up as well. He has the arm strength. 90% of his problems are 50% mental (Yogi Berra). Also, just guessing, but think they would like to keep Dayan in RF and move Garcia over to LF if they don't DH them. Of course, the problem is putting a player of their age at DH full-time, usually that's not a great idea. You are def an enternal optimist with Tank. Guys don't magically become better defenders because they are hitting better. What might happen, and emphasis on MIGHT, is that he turns into a solid 270/320/480 hitter, and thus, is around a 2 WAR player, aka solid starter. That's his ultimate upside and if the Mariners want to give us a couple good prospects because they think they are getting a solid starter then we need to jump on it.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 07:33 PM) For Nieto? Honestly, I think it's quite clear at this point that our intention with Nieto is to get him through the season with the least amount of damage to his confidence, which means limiting his playing time. The good news is that Flowers will not be our starting catcher next year, Hahn isn't blind and can see how horrific Tylee is offensively. Good take. You hope Nieto can get through the year, continue to improve in the offseason, and then maybe be ready to compete for a starting job next spring. That is extremely optmitisc however. As of now I'd proceed as if we have zero starting caliber catchers on the roster. Assuming anything else is ludicrous. I will say that Tyler Flowers def scraped against his floor as a prospect but did it the exact opposite most expected. He can't hit for s*** but he's a decent defensive catcher, go figure.