chitownsportsfan

There you kid. Rip that shit. It's obvious the scouting report is "pound him inside with fastballs" and finish him away. If he start pounding this inside fastballs that plan will have to change.

I can't remember the last time Shields looked this good.

Avi, have you ever held a bat?

mentally rushing. only thing to fix it is experience. at least it's a throwaway year.

his hands are fine. his fundamentals suck when he rushes. same as with TA.

fucking Yoan and TA think you get extra credit for throwing on the run or some shit.

JFC SET YOUR FUCKING FEET SQUARE UP TO THE BALL AND THROW

Shield's looking like a poor man's Covey tonight. That fastball is diving all over.

JFC Omar drops a ball that had the edge of the plate and gives the Ump absolutely zero chance to call it a strike.

In case anybody is checking in late: Jose Abreu continues to suck.

And that's why if you're going to swing at the first pitch you better hit it hard. 5 pitch walk to Yolmer and none of the balls were particularly close.

Still missing fastballs he should hammer on a way too regular basis.

Nice play by Yoan. That's what Jose needed to do last night. Just knock it down and get the out.

Great command and solid movement for Shields so far.

Morneau back in the booth tonight for the Twins' broadcast.

I just read the article and it appears to obliquely credit his improved BABIP with his now more optimal launch angle. They buried the lede imo. He's making about the same contact he did last year but his BABIP is up 60 points. Some of it is no doubt due to hitting less grounders. The closer I read that article the more I realize how bad it is: Ok, well... So his BABIP is at a career high, so is his launch angle, but alternative explanations. Fuck man. Not dogging you for linkin' it (in fact god bless you for passing 5 minutes at work for me) but that journalism is crap. Bayes rolls over in his grave at this inductive process.

New rule. If the creator of a the previous night's winner game-thread doesn't create the thread either a) within an hour of the game's start OR within 3 hours of the Sox posting the lineup said creator cedes the right to create the new thread.

You should trust the opinion of arguably the best medical staff in MLB. @ptatc knows his shit but last time I checked he hasn't personally evaluated Dunning's elbow and consulted with the Sox' medical team on a course of action.

Nah, there's a good chance he can avoid surgery otherwise they wouldn't be advising this plan. The last thing they want to do is perform TJ on a guy that doesn't need it. 6-8 weeks is nothing when the timetable is 18 months with surgery.

Great to see Lambert going against tougher competition now. As an older guy (for a recent draftee) you'd like to see him continue to excel and push for a spring training invite next year. Been said many times but the depth in the system is really showing through. Five years ago a guy like Lambert would probably enter next year top 10 in the org.

oops, I meant to post 138, glanced over his fangraphs page a bit too quickly there. Anyways, his slump is coming at a really awful time. Recency bias will be a thing for any club scouting him. It's a pretty shit environment to try and trade him anyways with the AL looking so top heavy and the NL clubs only able to use him at 1B. Unless some club just bowls Hahn over with an offer (and I'm not sure what that would even look like other than it would include a top 100 league wide prospect) there's not much point in trading him IMO.

And when you ignore his positional adjustment and negative defensive value you're really rejecting a substantial part of his value. It is what it is man. Fans love to over rate corner sluggers. For years GMs did as well. Those days are over.

I mean I don't really have a strong position here either way but his rookie year is clearly an outlier. His career wRC+ of 136 has come in a career in which he's produced exactly one season above a wRC+ of 136 -- his rookie year. I don't really see any reason we should weight that year equally with his more recent ones or this one.

From Sox Machine this morning:

Ha, you're the ultimate "west coast sports fan". Of course you blew past Hawaii and went into the future and ended up what, like 5 hours ahead of Chicago? @southsider2k5 helps when the starter is pitching into the 7th inning, clearly. Loved how Lopez finished last night and I thought it was a great decision by Rickie to pull him when he did. Let the kid really finish on a high note and kudos to the offense for getting him the victory.