chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 13, 2015 -> 07:37 PM) I'm so sick of watching Quintana bat. He's worthless. Gotta love Hawk on T Flow: He had FOUR REALLY GOOD AT BATS LAST NIGHT. Ok, so when the next 20 are REALLY s***TY AT BATS what should we do? Ignore them duh.

Beckham's bat looks quicker this year for whatever reason. Maybe he's just fresher off the bench.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ May 13, 2015 -> 07:29 PM) Familiarity breeds contempt. For sure.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ May 13, 2015 -> 07:24 PM) For all the guys who have thus far fallen way below expectations, Avi has exceeded all reasonable predictions. He's a great talent I don't know how anyone could be over the Moon about the "upside" of Micah and not also support Avi for the same reason. FFS, Avi is younger than Micah. If you're going to give anyone time to figure it out, it's Avi.

What the f*** is this s***? Damn. More please.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 13, 2015 -> 07:21 PM) It's funny how some don't think he has much home run power He has a ton of raw power for sure. Great bat speed. He needs to continue to try and go straight up the middle and to LF and it will show up more in games imo. Sometimes it seems he takes a two strike approach with less than 2 strikes.

WOW. That looked like a lazy fly ball. Now that is POWER. Rocket.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:24 PM) i really didn't want to be the first to mention this, but i agree. actually i thought it was a bad sign, period. but he supports that with other hitting tools. It's a huge red flag no matter what his other tools are. If you can't command the strike zone MLB pitchers aren't going to throw you many strikes. I'm high on Anderson overall but he needs to start taking more walks. Not a ton, just a few more. I'd be happy with 30-40 a year in MLB. Just enough to keep pitchers honest. I will add that I have zero faith in the Sox to develop any sort of strikezone command in their prospects. It's not something they do well, at all.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2015 -> 04:13 PM) Old stadium, yes. Now the area surrounding the park is similar, if not better, than USCF. And how many times did Illitch have negative revenues? He's like Cuban....fans perceive he cares more about winning the World Series than his bottom line. That is something his (Reinsdorf's) supporters won't or can't argue. Illitch is an anomaly (a la Steinbrenner), just like the Cubs with their unique situation. It is a better area without a doubt. Furthermore, Detroit is obviously a car town and it's quite easy to find parking around there for $5-25 if you're coming in from the 'burbs. Comerica is an easy sell as well with the way they setup the stadium. The sight lines aren't that great from inside but the promenade outside with the statues is an easy gathering spot on warm summer days for anyone (and there are more and more) living and working around downtown Detroit.

It only took 6 weeks to figure they needed more defense. Well, better late than never. Now you can do the obvious thing and exchange Micah for Sanchez. Bonifacio isn't that great at 2B.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 03:06 PM) To look at how those are impacting in balance, Alexei has -0.3 fWAR while Semien has 1.2 fWAR. Semien is doing what Micah's boosters thought Micah would do: hit enough to offset the defense. Semien has been brutal in the field but when you put up a wRC+ of 143 at SS it papers over a lot of bad defense. IMO Semien will never stick at SS but if he hits this well he's a solid starter anywhere.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 02:20 PM) We're looking at 3 straight losing seasons and 4/5. We have done nothing better this decade than doing exactly what people say we can't do. You can't make me fear "OMG what will the fan base do if we tear things down and lose every year" when...we're losing every **** year! good post

I was widely panned for arguing Sanchez would be 20 runs better than Micah over the course of the season defensively. Turns out I lowballed it: Micah is on pace for one of the worst defensive seasons at 2B in history: -47 runs below average. It's well past time to make the change. Micah needs to be Ray Durham in his prime with the bat to offset his defense and he's not even close. How this decision was made continues to boggle the mind. Every warning sign was on full display in spring training wrt to his defense -- the game is simply too fast for him. That play at 2B last night was simply inexcusable and it's not the sort of thing you can teach IMO. He simply needs more experience and he shouldn't be learning on the job in a year the team expects to contend. Just to pile on: Micah has an ISO of .029. He's been on base 25 times and has erased himself with a pickoff or CS 6 of those times. His wOBA is .289. He's hitting like Carlos Sanchez and fielding like Micah Johnson. As a fan, it's just frustrating to see the Sox continue to push the Micah's through the org instead of the Sanchez' and for that matter the Semians. Can you run? You might want to go to open tryouts next spring the Sox will probably sign you. Maybe bring a glove if you think it will help, but it probably won't matter, just stretch your hamstrings well before you show up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:15 PM) That plan also didn't include being 4 games under .500 and 6.5 back of the division in mid-April, hence the fact that this thread exists in the first place. I'm getting younger? Yes!

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ May 12, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) @ckamka The last time the White Sox started a season 2-12 in their first 14 road games of the season was 1942. Let's win tonight and avoid the worst road record to start a season in franchise history! Yea! #wow #whitesoxbaseball2015

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 12, 2015 -> 02:25 PM) If you're looking for perfection you're not going to find it. The errors cost them, no doubt, yet they found a way to tie the game late and had it not been for a bad outing from a so-far reliable Duke, they may have pulled it out. I'm looking for clean baseball. Haven't seen much this year. Letting a ball go through the wickets in the 1st inning isn't that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 12, 2015 -> 02:00 PM) In the past 2.5 weeks since the last comment in this thread our bullpen has dropped to 8th in the AL in ERA and 18th in MLB. They are 17th in OPS given up, 24th in the league in OBP given up, 23rd in WHIP, 20th in K/BB, and 12th in K/9. Some of that is constantly pitching from behind and using the lower leverage options.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 12, 2015 -> 10:26 AM) Noesi is in the bullpen. I think the White Sox have answered the question. I agree with you there. When he came on last night it seemed pretty clear. Some guys just can't work out of the pen and it was always a lot to ask a 22 year old kid that has never relieved to suddenly start pitching high leverage innings in MLB. Just start him. If he runs out of innings in August who cares. Put the best team on the field until then and see what happens.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 12, 2015 -> 11:59 AM) good game last night. Nice to see the offense have the ability to fight back like that. Win tonight and win the series. We'll have to disagree here. I saw another sloppy defensive effort and poor starting pitching that was papered over by some offense. Even when the Sox hit, they don't play clean baseball. The error by Ramirez and the ball Micah couldn't get to are plays that absolutely need to be made. Johnson is now at -.2 fWAR. He's in good company however, most of the team is in the negative. What a s*** show. Eaton is showing signs but holy f*** somehow (and I believe based on the eye test) he's been worse than even Avi in the outfield. Hard to win many games when your CF and RF are sitting at a combined -8 runs below average 30 games into the season.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ May 12, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) How do you know that? That's not consistent with anything that was said at any point by front office staff, nor is it consistent with the prevailing trends of the industry. Our team, like at least a dozen others, realized that they're better off contending every year, even if it's only for the Wild Card, than they are following the "boom & bust" rebuild cycle. Most of the acquisitions Hahn made this offseason are designed to help for two to three years without sacrificing much beyond that. The only significant move he made for 2015 only is Samardzija, who he'll recoup some of the value on with a QO offer or a deadline trade. I've seen at least three posts now conflating this "all in" with the KW "all ins" (pick your year) and as you said, it should stop. This isn't picking up Alex Rios on waivers or trading for Jake Peavy. The Sox have exactly one contract they might have trouble moving (La Roche) and even then it's not like they are on the hook for much there. The only player of any consequence they gave up was Semien who wasn't going to see much time here anyways. We can argue that picking Micah over Semien was dumb but whatever it's clear they didn't have a plan for him here.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 12, 2015 -> 12:55 PM) 16 of the next 23 on the road. Now or never. The season is pretty much over IMO. The Sox have the worst differential in the AL and nobody was predicting this team had any margin for error. Even the most optimistic were saying 86-88 wins. They'd have to play roughly .560 ball here on out to get to 87, does anyone see that happening? Don't confuse this post for quitting or giving up on this season. Far from it -- but let's be real -- the sands are slipping through the hour glass.

If it makes anyone feel better I saw Semien at SS up and personal this weekend and he was a complete disaster. Whatever you think about the Sox or the trade or Semien at least know that Marcus Semien is not a MLB caliber SS. 2B? Maybe but not SS.

Tax subsidies for sports teams are almost never a good investment for taxpayers and although an "indirect subsidy" this setup seems a particularly egregious example. I'm sure the locals can fill in the blanks how exactly did such a deal come to fruition? What son did JR promise to marry off?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 10, 2015 -> 11:14 AM) IP alone isn't abuse. It all depends on how he worked up to the 250 IP in years past. You have to work up to a marathon, but it is routinely done. Starting pitching is no different. Guys could throw 300 IP if they were trained for it. Hawk is that you?

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ May 9, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) Pitchers with high K rates and low BB rates almost always tend to see their ERA come down. And so will his K rate.