chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2014 -> 12:19 AM) With Rios, you never know if they could have afforded Abreu then. I'm ok with those trades, as it resulted in Abreu and Avi and some decent minor leaguers. The trade that's a killer if it doesn't work out is Addison Reed for Davidson. Uh, no. That's a great return for Reed, there is a reason Towers is about to get fired -- it's a few too many trades like that.

we need to get healthy, sigh.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 13, 2014 -> 12:02 AM) Makes sense to me. We do have some lousy lefties playing. some bad BABIP luck tonight a couple warning track shots and a rocket from conor that went right to CF with two on. That said, way too many poor ABs tonight.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 12, 2014 -> 05:31 PM) Viciedo is better than Avi Garcia. I don't know how you can say that with any certainty. For all his hitting Viciedo is still only on pace for about 2 WAR, he gets major knocks for fielding and baserunning. Tools wise Viciedo might compare to Garcia but when you look at their respective careers Garcia was doing big things at age 22 in MLB before he got hurt. Usually players that can hold their own with the bat at 22 in the bigs turn out to be stars. Not always, but usually. That's why ZIPS had Garcia down for about 12 WAR over the next 4 years -- pre injury of course. He was actually looking a good bet to exceed that before he got hurt. Viciedo needs to hit like 300/360/480 to be a 2 WAR player because of his limitations elsewhere. I don't know if he's every anything more than a useful regular. Don't get me wrong, but Garcia's upside is almost certainly higher.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 9, 2014 -> 11:29 PM) Sounds like playing on it, won't make it worse. They'll try to get him a game off on Wed before the Thursday off day. could be a bone bruise or soft tissue injury Robin mentioned he gets foul balls off the ankle a lot and that aggravates it. I couldn't help but think "just like Cabrera" as he limped out a couple hits tonight, dude wants to play every day and will if given the chance and be successful because he has that much talent. Also, having Dunn at 1B makes Jose look downright spry. I honestly don't know how you can be a professional athlete and be so unathletic as Dunn. There are HS level offensive lineman his size that have 5x the movement. He really must not put any effort into getting quicker.

ridiculous, seriously who does that? Two 3-0 HR, one of them a grand slam? Wow. This team has some juice.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 9, 2014 -> 01:37 PM) If you watched last night's game you know that would be a no. Tragically I can't tell if that's really the case or if Robin is just that clueless. Why Cleto continues to even sniff high leverage situations is beyond me. Yea that ball should have been caught by Sierra but my goodness look at Cleto's pitch plot it was like the Wild Thing out there last night he's lucky he didn't take Castillo's head off.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2014 -> 03:11 AM) Right now, they're saying two rehab starts because Ventura doesn't want him to go out at the MLB level and be limited to 4-5 innings the first time out....says it wouldn't be fair to him. Gimme a break are we trying to win games or what...

damn, field your position.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 8, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) Semien is most likely the super sub Yea I wouldn't write off Sanchez so quickly. He's still young for AAA and the power will probably never develop, but he COULD become a very useful player based on his OBP skills and ability to play a passable SS. There aren't many shortstops that can go 280/350/380.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 8, 2014 -> 12:23 PM) Who could you possibly be referring to? lol. Dick Allen and SS2K should get their own thread where they can just go from Ubaldo Jimenez to Mike Trout to Kenny Williams to Gordon Beckham to John Danks and on and on. I left Soxtalk for about 4 years and switched over to SSS because I thought this community had become stagnant. When I came back this spring I found a good number of new, thoughtful posters but was a bit chagrined to see some of the same obstinate knuckleheads still around. It's now SSS that has become stagnant imo; not that there isn't room for both (and that "other" Sox forum) on the Internet, but I'm not a huge fan of the guy that runs SSS and Soxtalk, imo, has been invigorated by some fresh blood.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 8, 2014 -> 06:17 PM) When the Sox and Cubs play I purposely watch the Cubs broadcast, as it's infinitely better than our poor washed up Hawk. I love Hawk's passion; I love that some of my best memories of my father are us watching games during the Hawk and Wimpie era. That said, he's actively taking away my enjoyment of the Sox the last two years. I've always defended him but I can't defend him anymore. It's amazing that Stone puts up with it. I would have just quit if I were Stone. Once in a great while Hawk will have something original to add like last night talking with Stone about knuckleballers, but those moments are becoming rarer and rarer.

Conor!

QUOTE (flavum @ May 8, 2014 -> 04:55 PM) https://twitter.com/DanHayesCSN/status/464520443018219520 That is seemingly good news, he's picking up the pace which means no setbacks from yesterday's session. He gets through the next bullpen I'll start walking away from the ledge.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 8, 2014 -> 02:40 PM) What is the over/under for how many times Stone mentions USCF to be a "lively park" tonight? Well, hopefully quite a bit when our guy are batting. Seriously though the whole "that would have been out of here if it was above 45 degrees" must be getting pretty tiresome for everyone, probably most tiresome for the people sitting in the stands freezing. It's an awful day in Seattle after we had a beautiful one yesterday. It's 55 and raining. Yesterday was 65 and sunny, sigh.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 8, 2014 -> 02:58 PM) He is in his prime and I agree. Alexei is good and it seems as soon as we get someone good the call is to trade him for unknowns I dunno man this is a classic sell high scenario unfolding. He's 32, his peak is over, probably after this year. His range isn't what it was when he first joined the Sox and although he's still an excellent defensive player he's probably going to regress to average as soon as next year. Father time is still undefeated. IF, and this is a big if, the market is there for him (and by that I mean a top 100 prospect + an A ball lottery ticket or two) then you make that trade every single time. If the market is a B prospect and filler then that's a hard decision for Hahn to make. If there isn't even that, then yea, keep him.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 8, 2014 -> 01:44 PM) Viciedo has 50% of the walks he had last year in 25.4% of the PAs. It's remarkable. Like, his isoD is now high enough to even if he slides back to 270 average, he's still going to have a .330 OBP if he keeps up the patience. Quite a few of his walks have seemingly led to big innings as well. Amazing what not making outs on pitcher's pitches will do to a lineup.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 8, 2014 -> 02:06 PM) I'm a physical therapist and athletic trainer with about 30 years of sports medicine research and experience. You're right about the imaging techniques. I refer to MRI as standing for "More Radiographic Income." One reason i say that there really isn't an exploratory surgery for this case is the way they are treating it. While the imaging techniques aren't always accurate, manual ligament tests are. They know if the ligament is loose or not. They would have him throwing if there was any doubt. The other reason is that Zumaya is a different case as he is having post surgical difficulties. Once you have surgery and the anatomy changes all bets are off. The normal manual tests don't always look the same. Plus he has been having problems for months post surgery. You really can't equate the two since one has already had a surgery. Thanks a lot. I'm an amateur, no formal training in sports medicine, but consider myself fairly well informed about this stuff just from my own research and experiences when I played.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 8, 2014 -> 01:49 PM) There is no exploratory surgery for something like this. The joint is currently not lax so there is no plans for surgery, otherwise he wouldn't be throwing. If the joint is lax but not enough for surgery, he is shut down and in a brace for 3-6 weeks. Currently it is a question of building the arm strength back with no adverse effect to the muscles. If the muscles aren't working properly the ligament can tear. So they need to strengthen it a the symptoms allow. Are you a doctor? I just ask because I'm generally curious. My understanding is that the imaging (MRI and X-Ray) are good but not perfect for looking at the structural integrity of the elbow joint. They can say "it looks clean" but if symtomps perisist past the time of a mere "muscle strain" and they can't see anything in the imaging then they go into the elbow. A google search of "exploratory elbow surgery" yields quite a few results, including Joel Zumaya to have exploratory elbow surgery

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 7, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) @scottmerkin: Chris Sale threw his second bullpen today. The biggest thing is he remains pain-free Poorly worded tweet, is he saying it's important he stay free or that he threw and it was pain free? Robin's words today scare me: So, what does that mean? Anyways, all we know for a fact is he's thrown two bullpens in the span of a week. If things are actually better in his elbow then he'll throw a rehab start next week and be back a week after that. If that doesn't happen you'll probably see the dreaded "exploratory surgery" option thrown out there.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 8, 2014 -> 01:25 PM) He seems to be such a pragmatist and I definitely embrace the KIS approach. Yea he's a badass. I loved his quotes when he was hired about how he wanted to let AG be his self but also work within that to take advantage of his natural power by starting to pull the ball with power more. I also liked he mentioned that OBP leads to runs and runs leads to wins but that you aren't necessarily going to tell (for example) Jose Abreu to go up there looking to walk. Hitting coaches are great when guys are hitting and awful when they aren't, but it's at least nice as a fan to hear a guy that has a solid philosphical base for scoring runs (don't make an out) while also being pragmatic. Viciedo is never going to take 100 walks a year, but if you can get him to realize he needs to stop chasing garbage away, not only will he take more walks, he'll hit more balls hard. It could be that finally healthy and with 800 odd PA in MLB behind him a lightbulb went off for Dayan (also gotta like Hahn's "progress isn't linear") but I think Stevenson helped him get to this point. Maybe he would have come to it on his on but I certainly dont' think Stevenson is hurting.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 7, 2014 -> 09:48 PM) He had a very nice fastball and a changeup that rated as elite to benefit off that. Not so much now. But damn we just caught a huge break. Yea his average FB velocity pre injury was 91.6. That is pretty damn good for a lefty starter. It was a very good pitch that was complimented by the change at 85-86. Now his fastball sits at 87-88. There are very, very few pitchers in MLB, even LHP, that can survive with that velocity.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 7, 2014 -> 09:46 PM) It's what happens when you move players all over the diamond at his age, instead of letting them get comfortable at one position. Different reactions at 3B than the middle of the infield. yep.

As someone said earlier today "never thought I'd say it, but we need Conor back in the worst way". Maybe not tonight, but Semian is a butcher at 3B.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 7, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) Why is Beckham leading off? God is he bad and Ventura dumb. Just DFA him. God I want to live in your world. "Hey I just hit green on the roulette well everyone that said it wouldn't hit is dumb".