chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 25, 2014 -> 07:51 PM) Ha, keep throwing 90 mph with no movement. Another guy on the roster that should be in the minors. I don't know where these reports of him around 92-94 came from. He throws 89-92 consistantly, and if he can't command his breaking stuff he's going to get shelled, as we see.

god damnit

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 25, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) Some of these shifts piss me off. You can't do it to the best hitters that can hit anywhere. Stop trying to be cute with the shifts Eh, it's playing the odds, you get burnt sometimes, but you get burnt plenty when you don't shift as well. I like it, it's nice to be at the forefront of something for once.

Johnson looks good, but stop nibbling. If you're throwing 90-92 on the fastball and your slider is breaking like that, attack the hitters.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2014 -> 01:25 PM) I think the change in his approach to pitches on the outer half is a big reason he is seeing a much higher contact rate. He had gotten extremely pull happy in previous years, where he would try to yank those outerhalf pitches to LF. Now he is swinging to those pitches and punching them into RCF, very similar to what we are seeing out of Flowers. Sure there will be some regression after pitchers make an adjustment, but I think both end up putting up much better numbers this year because of the mental and physical changes in their approaches. Master of the obvious here, but the key will be how he reacts to a slump. Will he have the discipline to remain patient when he's not seeing the ball this well? Will he continue to use all fields after a couple line drives fall into mitts? We'll see, but it's pretty exciting what he's done so far, the most reason for optimism since around 2011 for him. Also, he's completely healthy, knock on wood, for the first time a while.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 25, 2014 -> 01:09 PM) I'm not calibrated on that number...is that actually good or is that just good relative to what he was doing before? fangraphs has a helpful link up that shows the historical league average for the past decade or so: http://www.fangraphs.com/library/offense/plate-discipline/ 30% is league average...Viciedo was at an awful 42.5% last year, and was trending in the wrong direction entirely, as that was up from 36% and 40% in '11 and '12. So, for him to now get back down to 34% is pretty impressive. Usually these numbers start to normalize around 100 PA so he's onto something here. If he's still at around 34% by July you can probably say this is a new, improved Viciedo. Even with his poor defense, he's been worth .7fWAR this year, and hell, I'll take that. He's a guy that has to rake around 280/330/450 to have value as an everyday player, so even if he regresses quite a bit he has some margin. If he finishes with that line in around 500 PA I'll be thrilled and that should give him 2-3 WAR depending on how bad his defense is. Offense is way down, even at the corner spots. A 780 OPS goes a lot further than it used to. edit: ht to Eminor.

Lol, Robin thinks Webb is his long guy. Robin is too clueless to realize Webb should close.

it's crazy how this team is still putting up runs with all the injuries, they have every excuse just to rollover with so many regulars out of the lineup but instead they continue to hit. Leury Garcia is growing on a me a bit. Obviously he's not a guy you want starting all the time but as a bench player he could be pretty valuable. flowers is going to be back down to 220 pretty quickly.

abreu seems a pretty quick study at 1b, he played those two balls nicely.

Our staff sure can throw a 58 footer with the best of 'em. Feel sorry for Tyler and Nieto.

so, Viciedo is smoking the ball, all sorts of pitches too, he might have actually turned a corner. It was always a little puzzling why a guy with such great bat speed could only hit 250.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 07:01 PM) Rienzo is the man! amazing what happens when you can get ahead in the count the majority of the time.

I'm going to miss 26-32 year old Alexie, when he slows down in a couple years. Watching him play SS is a lot of fun, what a cannon he has when he wants to gun it.

god we are dumb

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 06:42 PM) That is what Danks brings. He's a nice 4th OF, it's too bad he's now playing every day. f***ing injuries.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 06:38 PM) First move, guess wronged. I like the aggressiveness on the base path. that was stupidity.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 11:07 PM) Yeah, I was just checking in to witness the outrage over Webb being used in a meaningless game, but his name wasn't even mentioned. So, when he's truly needed in a couple days from now, Ventura will rest him. No s***. Ventura is f***ing clueless. Webb comes out throwing 96, this is our "long man". Meanwhile he won't just let leesman eat it, he's gotta go to the pen early. Dude has no fugging clue when you call it a day and when you fight, none, zip, zero, zilch.

I can't f***ing believe Robin let him go 127 in a meaningless game. f***ing firable offfense.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) Whatever, I hate set 'pens anyway Players like them, which is why managers usually do it. Robin apparently wants to go his own way, and he has such a illustrious managing career who can blame him...

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:39 PM) Does Webb still need rest or will he close?? Robin likes to think Webb is his long guy when in reality he's one of our better relievers.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:26 PM) Ya Avi getting hurt might have saved Dayan's career. Hopefully it's not just a hot stretch and he's starting to learn some things up there. It's a cliche, but injuries really held him back the last couple years. For a guy that was raw as f*** a wrist problem and oblique are not good. They aren't good for anyone but a young toolsy guy without much to fall back on needs to get into a ryhthm and get a lot of PA, for Dayan he's probably about a year behind where he should be because of injuries. Garcia is young and advanced compared to Viciedo so his injury (in theory, and I hope) shouldn't set him back that much, obviously not good to miss nearly a full year, but he should bounce back.

what's gotten into viciedo, he looks like the top 100 prospect guy again.

what part of robin's brain thinks it's a good idea to give semian and danks the most PA in the game? I am pretty much convinced that the next good sox team won't be managed by Robin.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 06:58 PM) The end result was good so therefore it was good. Rather be lucky then good as the saying goes. I'll take that from Johnson. Control is still a problem but at least he has confidence in his breaking stuff where he can challenge guys with it. He won't get this lucky everytime but at least give the team a chance to win. He batlled, which isn't going to turn him into a 3.00 FIP ace, but if he can battle everytime out he'll be a solid 4th starter and the Sox will take that.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 05:18 PM) MLB network guys criticized Robin but you are right too. We need a bullpen that can throw strikes. We had like 11 walks? Ridiculous Matt Thornton was a real luxury to have around as a LHP that could dominate righties. Sox could really use a guy like that. You got a dominant LHP that strikes out Ortiz then breezes through the righties makes Robin look pretty smart, I'll give him that.