chitownsportsfan

Holy f*** this is awesome news. Hell yea! Now they need to add another bat but they suddenly have 13 million plus more to work with!

def agree with ptac from my reading (and I'm pretty into fitness) it's gone from "stretch before working out" to "stretch after working out" to "maybe stretch after working out but def do a dynamic warmup before hand". I don't think it's settled science that you should never do static stretching but it's certainly not some must do thing anymore to "prevent injuries".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 14, 2016 -> 05:50 PM) His ceiling is so incredibly high. The Sox are so set if he is even 80% of what he could be. Thank goodness the Astros and Marlins completely overthought it and passed on him.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 14, 2016 -> 06:02 PM) This is critically important. Spring Training stats don't mean much for hitters; they mean absolutely nothing for pitchers. They literally go out there sometimes with directives like "only throw fastballs" or "located a changeup down every two strike count." It's like they're going for Steam achievements or something. I think some of the best work comes in the "B" games where they get to face live hitters but have the pitching coach behind the screen coaching them every pitch. The most important thing for Latos right now is just building arm strength and testing his body. Cooper is a surly old guy stuck in his ways but his ways seem to keep pitchers healthy more often than not. Certainly think if anyone could get something out of Latos this year other than a 60 day DL stint it's Coop and the Sox.

Just win baby. Hard to believe a bunch of pro baseball players could take a single three game series that tough but it did seem like last year a lot of s*** went wrong at the beginning. Sale was hurt so they didn't have that stopper, Robertson was battling a dead arm or whatever that limited his availability, they had a lot of rain outs and then the stupid cancelled games in Baltimore. This year, for once, it would be nice if they could come out hot and be five or so games over .500 when May rolls around instead of halfway buried like usual where they need to win 10 or 12 or something just to get back to .500

What a beautiful swing by Avi on the that homerun. Quick hands, easy power generated from his hips and perfect balance. s***ty pitch but great to see him turn on the ball so successfully. I say you start with a strict platoon at DH and give Avi another day or two a week spelling an OF. Sox have some depth if Avi hits so it would behoove Ventura to rest Eaton, Abreu, Jackson and Melky when possible.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Mar 11, 2016 -> 05:23 PM) http://m.mlb.com/news/article/111172938/do...-than-you-think Spring training stats mostly don't matter, but ST ISO actually does show some positive correlation with the regular season, so the homeruns are definitely encouraging. thanks for that link.

QUOTE (Tony @ Mar 11, 2016 -> 05:32 PM) According to Merkin, Rodon was working on some things and didn't throw a slider the entire game. Rodon said the last game where he didn't throw a single slider was in the middle school. Rodon is going to be filthy this year, I can feel it. Might struggle with walks at times but I think he's got a really good chance to turn in a 4-5 fWAR season. Won't put down any ERA numbers as it's too park and defense dependent but I think he has a chance to put together a top 30 season from a fWAR standpoint among SP. This rotation could be filthy if they get anything out of Danks and Latos other than replacement level. Sale, Q, Rodon is as good as it gets for a top three.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) Dan Hayes ‏@CSNHayes 14m14 minutes ago Adam LaRoche is surprised how much better he feels after two days. Initially thought it would be few weeks. Got light workout in today. Everything feels better down in that Arizona sun and heat. Just wait until his 36 year old body gets back to the 40s in Chicago. Seriously though, let's hope the weather is decent for April I don't want any excuses for a slow start.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 11, 2016 -> 03:17 PM) If you're that worried about Chris Sale's work load...then be proactive. Let "Mr. Offday" start once in May and once in June when your bullpen is rested, give him a couple extra days each time, and don't let him average 116 pitches per start in June. If you're 2 games out of the race in August, let's face it, even if Chris is getting blown up too often down the stretch, you're going to have a tough time not giving him the ball. He's going to want the ball. You're not going to want Latos taking the ball and you're not going to want Fulmer taking the ball. I'd give him the ball. You'd give him the ball. I'd give him a 5th or 6th day of rest if the offdays lined up and it gave us an excuse to put him against the team ahead of us, but that's about it. No way he's skipping a start if this is a close race. Sale should never be throwing more than 110 pitches in any non playoff, non "do or die" game. Yea, if it's the play in game f*** let'er rip into the 120s but FFS not in April. Didn't RV immediately having Sale throwing 110+ last May coming off the foot?

I'm going with 83 wins. Might move that up or down a few based on injuries headed into the opener. If they stay healthy this spring and have everyone ready to go maybe go with 85.

Just watched some of the spring highlights on MLB.com -- man, the Sox are slugging! Avi in particular looks short and quick to the ball. That oppo triple followed by the 400 ft humpback line dive was pretty impressive. Rollins showing some pop as well and that Davidson HR -- wow. Obviously doesn't mean jack squat but it's better than looking like ass.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Mar 10, 2016 -> 05:18 PM) Mine can't even run a stream for more then 5 seconds with it jumping around and stopping and changing quality levels. I swear MLBTV gets worse every year when it should be getting better Many times the issue has nothing to do with your computer or local LAN or WLAN but the backbone of the Internet itself buckling under the deluge of streaming. IIRC MLB.tv has been working on a bunch of back end stuff but networks are under more strain than ever and even with their compression tech it's a ton of bandwidth to push.

Sanchez quietly turned in a pretty good 2nd half last year. He's a guy to watch IMO. Won't ever be a star but could still turn into a solid regular at 2B. His glove is an asset and he doesn't have to hit more than 280/320/380 to be a solid everyday player.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Mar 8, 2016 -> 02:40 PM) On the streets of London. nice sig. DFW's essays on sports are his best work IMO, where he did his clearest writing. As for Latos, anything he gives the Sox is a bonus.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Mar 7, 2016 -> 08:50 PM) Remember 2006? Power was fun. That was a fun team until September when they stopped hitting but yea a lot of 10-6 victories that year. Looking at that B-Ref page for that team looks like they lost 8 of 9 in early September and that killed them. I remembered something like that happening so at least I'm not quite senile but it's hard to believe that was 9 f***ing years ago. Hell, I was still in college. Crazy.

I'd rather give the PA to Avi but I guess La Roche has "value" as the primary backup to Abreu at 1B. I do wonder why they haven't been training Avi at 1B however.

Great signing. No multi year commitment and only 5 million is perfect for Jackson. Was worried about doing something like 2 years 15 million but obviously that didn't come to pass. Interesting the Sox apparently weren't the highest bidder but won out on other factors. Hahn did work this offseason. I really don't think any move he made has much downside and the club is now ready to really move into that middle tier where if a few things break right you could see 88 wins. They should really just cut LaRoche but I guess they are hoping for a dead cat bounce and maybe they can unload him on some sucker at the deadline.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Mar 4, 2016 -> 05:16 PM) It's a Bruce Levine article. Nothing to see here folks, move along. I don't follow the Chicagoland media that closely is Levine the Sox mouthpiece the same way KC Johnson is for the Bulls? Whenever the Bulls want to make something public they always leak it to KC.

Seems like a pretty obvious "calm the masses" type leak from the FO. Nobody really makes trades this time of year especially not involving major players like Braun or Cargo. I'm guessing it's because by now payrolls are pretty much finalized. How are the Sox gonna afford CarGo or Braun given they apparently can't even afford Austin Jackson?

I like that he's more open in my very amateur opinion it should help him increase his pull power. That said, unless he improves his pitch selection he's going to keep hitting a lot weak ground balls to 2B. He's not Vlad, nobody is, gotta swing at stuff in the zone.

Also, I've come around on Austin Jackson given that other targets have moved on and that Jackson's price certainly won't be more than 1 year 7 million at this point. His defense in CF won't be elite, it probably won't even be good, but it will probably be about the same as Eaton's and obviously you eliminate the worst of the bunch in Avi by moving Eaton to LF. In theory LF would be less taxing on Eaton's body than CF as well and that would another benefit.

Given how bad the projections were the past two seasons -- well under 80 wins on all the major sites -- and now there's some that actually have the Sox winning the division and most have the floor at 80 wins -- I'd think there'd be some optimism around the club. Every season is its own entity. The Sox certainly don't deserve the benefit of the doubt but if you can't get excited for the season on March 1st then I personally don't even know why you follow the team and sport. You can be optimistic and realistic, it's not some false duality. I'm realistically expecting around 80 wins, better but not enough. That said, I'm optimistic that with some internal improvement during the year the Sox could give us a pennant race, or at least a WC2 race. I'd love that.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Mar 1, 2016 -> 04:56 PM) He can hit. Just not well enough to overcome his defense, poor base running and lack of baseball IQ. Actually, last year he didn't hit. If he hits, he's a 1 WAR player. If he doesn't, he's replacement level or worse. He needs to hit. I haven't given up on a 280/330/450 season from him in '16.

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 1, 2016 -> 03:16 PM) Noodle Arm Eaton can hit 100 mph http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-outfiel...-who-threw-100/ lol, must have really torched the worms around second base! Eaton's problem with his arm seems to be throwing it mostly straight into the ground or wildly off target. If he could get a better launch angle maybe he could put that velocity to better use.