chitownsportsfan

moncada goes down on a bad call, sounds about right.

Micker continues to hit, and ends the year in AAA and makes it in the back end of some top 100 lists.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 29, 2018 -> 11:48 AM) The rain chances around game time rise to a whopping ~10%. So you're telling me we can put this one on the board? Yes!

Ugh. Davidson hitting 4th. Other than that I like the lineup, although I'd flip Engel and Sanchez. Usually like to put the worst hitter 8th and keep them a bit further spaced from the top. When Eloy comes up and takes Davidson's spot the real fun can begin.

Any chance of a rainout? I want to see BASEBALL.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 29, 2018 -> 08:45 AM) Wow, you were more stoked last year? This year’s team could actually be pretty fun. The position player side is filled with interesting players across the board. Just following Moncada will be worth watching most games IMO. Seeing how Anderson rebounds after a rough sophomore season will be exiciting. If those two can take a big step forward this year that could accelerate the rebuild a bit. Then you got a stud in Abreu and a maybe stud in Avi (another guy who will be fun to follow). You got Castillo coming off a pretty nice and having a good catcher would be pretty sweet. I’m actually super excited to see what we have in Nicky & Yolmer. Even Engel will be somewhat interesting to follow given his elite CF defense and if the bat fails as expected we’ve got a very interesting prospect in Cordell. Honestly, DH is the only spot I’m really bummed about, but at some point Eloy will be up and it won’t really matter because the weakest hitter (likely Davidson) will move to the bench or get cut. The pitching side is more worrisome but at least we open the season with three young talents in the rotation. I’m super pumped to see if Giolito is going to take that next step this year. Despite Lopez’s rough spring, I still have faith in his stuff and feel he’ll eventually prosper by working with Coop on a daily basis. And while I have zero faith Carson Fulmer will ever make it as a starter, I’ll take him over Derek Holland, Mike Pelfrey, Dylan Covey, & David Holmberg who combined for 66 starts last year. Plus I fully expect Rodon & Kopech to be in our second half rotation, which is when things should get really excited. The bullpen is what it is but there are a few guys who will be fun to follow in Jones, Soria, Bummer, & even Santiago. Overall, I am pretty pumped for this season. Hopefully Shields doesn’t s*** on that optimism today.

QUOTE (Replacement Level Poster @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 09:53 PM) Surprise: yolmer solidifies third base with 20 hr pop and plus defense, taking ownership of 3b for next 4-5 yrs. Dissapointment: Abreu does not age well in early 30s due to lower body injuries and general decline. (Think pujols) He misses out on competitive window from 2020 forward because not extending him at that point seems like an obvious no brainer. Dark horse: sexy Zavala continues to hit at every level and makes its obvious to organization he is catcher of future. Solid post, plausible.

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 09:23 PM) Looking for tank wins and losses I wanna see the team compete. Time for "finish bottom 5" is over. If guys like Moncada and Gio and Yolmer and TA and even Avi are producing this isn't going to be an awful squad. that said, let's hope most the losses come on james shields' watch.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 08:19 PM) 78-82 wins is what I'm seeing, 3rd place in the AL Central same. offense will be average or slightly better. starting pitching will be bad. bullpen will be solid.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:36 PM) Lopez to me is the question mark not sure if it’s conditioning or focus later in games or what. Maybe a lack of conditioning affects his focus later in starts which is flattening out his pitches. That’s my guess but could be wrong. Needs another pitch or two to succeed long term as a starter. I think he just has really s***ty command on his fastball which leads to way too many full counts. He's a big question mark and seems to have a high variance. I can see him becoming a very good 3rd starter and I can also see him becoming just a decent setup guy.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:23 PM) Biggest Surprise: I was originally going to go with Gio, but I don't think anyone will be surprised with him becoming a legit #1 or #2 this season after watching him this spring. I think my biggest surprise will be the ascension of Aaron Bummer to being a legit bullpen piece. His stuff is good enough to get people out at the major league level, if he continues to build on how he looked this spring, he will be a great option in the 7th or 8th. Biggest Disappointment: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about where Reynaldo is right now. His stuff is too good to be nibbling like he does. He isn't getting ahead of hitters and when he does, he isnt making good pitches to put them away. Ultimately, the Sox don't really need him to be anything more than a 5th starter, but I would really like to see him be more aggressive. Biggest Dark Horse: This will sound funny for this category, but I think Moncada is my dark horse this season to become a superstar in the MLB. IT seems like both locally and nationally people have just moved onto the next shiny prospect in the Sox system, but I think Yoan is going to blossom in the leadoff role and really take his game to the next level. He was smoking everything towards the end of ST and I think he will be running a lot more this season. I like how much he was pulling the ball this spring as well, that's where you will see him tap into his power a lot more. Yes, I agree, people are sleeping on this kid -- both nationally and in Chicago. There's a lot of lazy analysis and old school thinking wrt to his batting average and strikeouts last year and a lot of ignoring how good his defense was (overall, certainly had some hicups) in his first season full time at 2B. The SI "scout's" preview actually said he had a "hitch" (his timing mechanism) in his swing and wouldn't be surprised to see him back in AAA this year. Come on. He has one of the prettier swings in all of baseball, especially against RHP. He rips the ball as evidenced by his exit velocity. He's going to be a star. If he can hit 280 he'll be a superstar. If he just hits 250/330/470 and plays good defense he's a 3-4 player. If he hits 280/370/520 he's a 6 WAR 2B and a superstar. He can get there imo. Won't be this year almost certainly but by the time he's 26? Sure.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:19 PM) Guesses on lineup? I'll go: 2B Moncada 3B Sanchez 1B Abreu RF Avi LF Delmonico DH Davidson C Castillo SS Anderson CF Engel Ya know that actually looks like a decent f***ing lineup imo.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 02:56 PM) Anyone else going to be there? Leaving from Northern IL in an hour or so. Checking out the Negro Leagues Museum in the morning before the game. Can't wait; first ever Opening Day of any kind. very nice. enjoy. Personally I'm looking forward to having something to watch most days around 4-5pm to help pass the last couple hours at the office. There's enough exciting young talent on the Sox this year to keep my interest, hopefully throughout the year it builds to a contender in 2019.

Surprise: Nate Jones stays relatively healthy and is flipped for a "B" prospect in July. Disappointment: Adam Engel improved...to the mendoza line and loses the starting CF spot to... Darkhorse: Leury Garcia who turns in a 2-3 WAR season and makes a case for starting CF in 2019.

didn't even know they were hurt. I guess it's good not seeing Jose here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 02:04 PM) Sure, but if you were consistently wrong, you wouldn't be doing the job for very long at all. The best trainers in the world couldn't prevent Jabari Parker from tearing his ACL a second time and so on and on and on. I can't stress enough how awesome modern medicine and rehab (that ptac is on the cutting edge of) is. That said, (and this will probably be my last post here I think I'm arguing the same point over and over) it's a big data point against Burger that in his 1st big league camp he makes it two weeks before blowing out his achilles. Given all the talk about how he has a "bad body" and just doesn't appear to be a smooth athlete he (imo) didn't have much room for error as far as sticking at 3B and contributing in areas of the game other than hitting. Now there's going to be a ton of pressure on him to hit, hit with power. The injury is at absolute best robbing him of critical development time. Even if he comes back physically 100% there's a big setback to his career here.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 01:05 PM) ? let me put it more clearly: would you become a surgeon if you didn't believe in the efficacy your techniques? of course he believes Burger can come back 100% athletically -- he's in the business of making sure that happens.

It's not a death knell but it's a bad sign that a guy that young ruptured his achilles running to 1st base. ptac knows his s*** but as a trainer he can't help but almost always envision the best case rehab. I'm more of a cynic I've seen too many rehabs, even modern ones, go wrongly and players never fully recovery for whatever reason.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 07:45 PM) All this talk about who plays 3B. How about just leave Davidson there? how about just cut him. he's replacement level.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 27, 2018 -> 07:29 PM) What will this injury do that will cause him to not play 3B? Same reason Schwarber will never be a catcher (even part time) after his ACL. The margin for error athleticism wise was razor thin. He's going to come back less agile, and he'll have missed a critical 9-15 months of reps. Modern medicine and rehab is a miracle but a ruptured achilles is still a ruptured achilles. He may never regain the athletic timing needed to play 3B. Or hit for that matter. I'm pretty cynical here I'll admit.

Any chance he had of being a 3B is gone IMO.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 26, 2018 -> 09:30 PM) Yoga would typically help. With his body type im sure he has typically tight muscles and that contributed to it. I'm the DIII version of burger, have the exact type build and looked the same damn way on the field. "tight muscles" is a good way to describe it. I think he trained the wrong way this offseason. Easy to say in retrospect but he would have been better served not bulking up and just getting lean. I'm sure his legs where tight here in the 2nd week of workouts. Hopefully the Sox can monitor these guys' workloads, especially the under 23 set, and try and prevent these type of injuries in the future.

torn achilles? his career is done. that sucks.

Burger just doesn't look athletic imo. Looks stiff.

that's like a split squad lineup. yikes.