chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 11:19 PM) No! Not Downs! if webb doesn't pitch in this game I'm going to be pissed.

all our rhb should just sit on the curve, good job from Kong there maybe he at least has some value against LHP eaton is struggling, facing a lot of lhp lately, just like Conor has, with similiar results.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 11:12 PM) I see Tyler homered again. It's still early but it looks like he's turned himself into a serviceable big leaguer. s***, he's probably got more homers than anybody on the Royals this season. I wonder if Tyler has assured himself at the worst being a backup for 10 years or more. Some good money to be made if he can hit like this. He's hitting .280 with a decent on base percentage and five homers. Less than 20 RBIs. Baseball is a funny game. I'm not quite convinced he's anything other than a backup. He's coming from below replacement.

wow, Dunn making it look easy out there. I saw a guy catch a pop fly with a watermelon at Safeco the other day, I wonder if Dunn could do that.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 11:00 PM) Conor has gone into a mini slump... A lot of guys seem to be slumping now.. Hopefully they get hot in a week He's a platoon player imo, a very good one, but he shouldn't be facing lhp if possible.

Viciedo looks awful, it's not even that he's getting himself out on bad pitches anymore, it's that he's fouling off and grounding out good pitches to hit. The key to his rebounding will be if he can stay mentally committed to his new approach while scuffling.

One of the most frustrating games of the year yesterday hopefully team can bounce back tonight.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 11:48 PM) Vin Scully is so boring. "But...but... He's been there forever he must be good!" I agree, he was bothering me so I switched back to CSN. Dunno, Scully is great, but he's like a million years old and he doesn't really watch the game anymore it seems.

and f*** here's puig

god damnit, gordo can't stand prosperity. no s*** hawk defend him, come on. this is why advanced metrics are lukewarm on him...

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 11:29 PM) AL pitchers hit .085/.127/.094 in 2013 yay interleague!

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 11:20 PM) Out of curiosity what are the garbage hitter comments referring to? Anonymous scout relayed by Keith Law I believe about "slider bat speed", implying as long as you can jam him inside he'll get himself out on the hard stuff and no reason to try to fool him offspeed. Well, that's the MO on him and so far he has a wRC+ of 140. Scouting report might have been half accurate, in a way. The thing is, and most observers realized this about Jose, is that every hitter, unless they are 'roids Barry Bonds or .400 Ted Williams, has a weakness. The key is -- does he have a strength? It's pretty obvious what Abreu's is -- massive, tremendous power.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 11:13 PM) Are you saying this because of the sun?? I obviously have no idea if it will be hot or not that day so its a gamble Home plate is NW, for sun sit down the 3rb base line.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 09:37 PM) I think it's way too premature to make any observations or comparisons with the latter two...let alone Gillaspie and Beckham, based mostly on the last 2 months. Could be, but luckily we have Soxtalk where we can prematurely discuss everything!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 09:05 PM) That tells me the team has no plans at all to trade Alexei anytime soon. If you can turn Marcus into any kind of LF, I'd start him over De Aza in a heartbeat. I think it means the Sox see Semien as a super sub with a bat (say: 270/330/400) that you could squint hard and say "ok, if someone gets injured 30 games of this guy in left won't kill us". I dunno, it's arguable that he has 3 more talented players ahead of him already on the 25 man (Conor, Alexei, Gordo) and 2 players more talented than him (Micah and Sanchez) in AAA and the Sox see his future as a super sub. 300 PA a year as a guy that can cover 2B,3B and the Corners is a nice piece, especially at min salary. edit: not to jinx it, but this is the first time in recent memory the Sox actually have enough talented position infield players to where you actually have to feel a bit bad about someone getting sent down.

are you kidding me, get this guy a f***ing screen, he should have his own team of 2 guys following him around with a screen.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 07:11 PM) You want the Sox to start losing every single playoff series they're ever in? Gotta pay to play. I'd take getting there 4 or 5 times every decade and going from there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 07:08 PM) There were actually four guys with differing pedigrees (and potentially-dominant stuff) who "failed" with the White Sox at right around the same time (2007-2008)... Aardsma, MacDougal, Massett and Sisco Yea, those were the halycon days of "doesn't matter how bad the dude was before Chicago, Cooper will fix 'em". Found out the limits of that plan.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 06:53 PM) http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/four-y...bled-chris-sale Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Are Sale's teammates trolling him with the song in the background? nice link but I can't stand that website can't pause the vids, awful

Oh yea Marte. Also while doing some research for this thread I ran across the name: Mike MacDougal. Also, Nick Massett was a thing for a minute. Coop can't fix'em all -- but overall the Sox have acquired so much low cost above replacement pitching it's kept them afloat and papered over a really bad position player development history.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 07:32 PM) I'm getting excited! This will be my first Sox game this year. I'm leaving the office in about an hour.. who all is going? I'm sitting about 20 feet to the right of the Sox dugout. So glad Abreu is back! That's awesome man enjoy the game. It will be a packed crowd tonight stay safe with some of those nuts at Chavez Ravine around.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 06:32 PM) Examples? I assume you're talking about pitchers we've brought in from other organizations, moreso than the pitchers the White Sox have drafted over the Don Cooper years. Jenks and Santos, Floyd, Danks (pre-surgery), Contreras, Sale? Santiago? (Certainly hasn't worked with Paulino or Cleto). Our biggest success story of the last five years is Quintana, who profiles more like an A's pitching find, even though he does throw 92-93, which is very solid for a lefty. Thornton, Sale, Contreras, Hector, Santos, Jenks, Jones, Edwin Jackson off the top of my head. Jackson was actually pretty damn good his season under Cooper then went back to being the exact same guy after he left.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 06:17 PM) Traded, I might add, as a low level minor league throw in from the Cubs in the Rich Harden deal. That is one I think is important. When you trade away guys, steal some lottery tickets from a team's lowest minor league levels. I certainly think that you have to have a philosophy as an organization about the type of player you think you can work with and those that you can't. Chicago seemingly just realized they can't take every toolsy football player and teach him baseball. On the flip side, taking hard throwers and turning them into pitchers -- they've had a lot of success there. Agree that you have to give yourself a bunch of lotto tickets and the Sox are doing better with that by signing the latin guys. Only 1 in 20 might pan out but if you strike a superstar on that 1 guy it's totally worth it. In a way, that's what they've been trying to do with all the toolsy outfielders they've drafted but you have to wonder if the Sox are doing something wrong wrt to player development if none of those guys pans out -- certainly Hawkins will be a litmus test. I mean look at the Royals, those guys make the Sox' track record on position player development look downright Bean esque. They had the top rated farm system for seemingly half a decade and hardly any of those guys developed.

eh, if it was so easy everyone would do it. Donaldson is like an 7-8 WAR player, that's a pretty f***ing good foundation. Basically it comes down to "find really good players". I mean, giving Donaldson 160 some PA before he went "poof, 8 war player" is some sort of guide? I RTFA and I just don't see it, so much of this stuff is just hindsight bias. The A's are really good at finding guys good at baseball. That's a combination of scouting, sabermetrics and luck, with luck being perhaps the most important -- see every playoff series since Beane took over. His s*** doesn't work in the playoffs, and most team's s*** doesn't work in teh regular season without a good deal of luck. Especially when you're working on the margins as a mid to small market team.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 2, 2014 -> 06:14 PM) Jose Fernández got picked and he is currently broken. Yea that's brutal. It's ESPN and their motley crew of old and new school analysts so whatever, but that is just brutal. The critique of Sale pretty much boils down to "he could explode", ignoring the fact that the guy just put together a very healthy two seasons, averaging over 190ip, and so far -- knock on wood -- this year it looks like he'll go over the 160 mark again. Chris Sale is chronically under hyped. It's pretty bad. Not even on Baseball Think Factory does he even garner much attention. He's basically been the best pitcher in the AL by fWAR over the last 3 years and he gets talked about 1/2 of guys like Verlander, Scherzer, Darvish, etc.