Balta1701

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 14, 2015 -> 10:09 AM) Winning the WS does not make the NL better, nor does winning the all-star game. Exactly why I said that. Because even if the AL has more talent...someone pointing that out always means the NL wins the WS.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 14, 2015 -> 11:49 AM) So you want Flowers to throw to 1B after the runner has been called out and the play is dead? That doesn't make sense. In the era of replay...it's like keeping the tag on the guy at 2b after he has already slid just in case he comes off the bag. Over-do it.

Seriously, this is at the Cell and it's a f***ing afternoon game on a Friday? Do the Cubs insist that these must be day games?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 14, 2015 -> 09:37 AM) I think the PP issue f***s up any CR the same way it would an actual budget. The question will be how much they actually want to shut it down. To make it happen they basically would need party leadership to go along with the shutdown idea since they control who gets access to the floor and for how long. If party leadership isn't ready for a shutdown, it won't happen.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 14, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) Some conservatives in congress are threatening yet another government shutdown unless funding for planned parenthood is stripped from the federal budget this year. Governance by continual crisis is the best! And there are only like 12 days where Congress is in session before the shutdown date. And they also still haven't passed a number of other major things like a highway funding bill. The likeliest end result on everything seems to be another set of continuing resolutions that just punt everything until December, but I wouldn't rule out a shutdown.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2015 -> 12:53 AM) -- Laughed at critics and said it would be easy, 100 percent assured, to get Mexico to pay for the wall. -- Said he'd kill Obamacare immediately. Can the next president do that? 1. it's not just critics, his plan is actually illegal. The North American Free Trade Agreement specifically says he cannot simply put tariffs on Mexico to make them do what he wants. Do you support overturning NAFTA? Does he? and how will he get Congress to agree with that? Ending NAFTA seems like it would be a major issue that deserves more focus. 2. A couple months ago I pointed out how the Republicans wanted to take health care coverage away from 15 million+ people. You couldn't believe that anyone would that callous at the time and now you endorse that. I won't even bother noting that the Deficit has shrunk by almost 75% under the current President compared to the last budget of the previous administration or that the bill you wanted to repeal in #2 has been basically the biggest long-term deficit reduction bill since 1993 because you won't pay any attention to that.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 10:08 PM) We do not have proper personnel for a 3-4 defense. Having fat linemen play linebacker always goes well, right? Pretty sure the Bears aren't looking at this as a 1-year transition.

You guys realize that in 8 months we're going to be bumping this series of posts after he somehow is a key player in beating the Bulls in the playoffs after a mediocre, otherwise little-noticed season, right?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 06:32 PM) I'm actually on board with this, there aren't nearly enough team dance numbers during football games. Though I stand by my dickhead comment. Shipoopi. Shipoopi.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 04:59 PM) Schwarber's going to end up winning ROY over Bryant and Joc. fWAR Bryant: 4.0 Schwarber 1.2 Highest BABIP amongst NL rookies: Shane Peterson .418 Schwarber .397 Tomas .388 Soler .384 Defensive value: Bryant Positive, Schwarber negative. Even if you assume Bryant's insane baserunning numbers are overdone, every reason to expect Schwarber cannot keep this pace up while Bryant will approach a 5 fWAR player by the end of the year.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 04:14 PM) Simple, they failed to retain the services of Adam LaRoche The National League is god awful. Aw hell, someone said it, now the NL is a lock for the WS win again.

How much longer can I bite my tongue in the Republican thread before screaming out "THE F***ING SENATE PASSED A COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL AND THE REPUBLICAN HOUSE WOULD HAVE PASSED IT BUT JOHN BOEHNER WOULD NOT BRING IT UP FOR A VOTE AND IT WOULD HAVE SOLVED 80-90% OF YOUR BORDER SECURITY PROBLEM ALREADY." I'm taking bets.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 03:47 PM) Chris Rongey Just now · Chicago, IL · This is a serious question, Herb Lawrence, and I think you're the one to answer it: How much hell would Robin Ventura and Don Cooper be catching right now for not teaching one of their starters how to hold runners? So, should I go and check the CS rates for the comparable teams and tweet them back at him? The Cubs have a higher CS %age than the White Sox and 1 more pickoff on the year (although both teams pretty high on pickoffs).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 12:27 PM) Oh I know we have work to do, but the system has always lacked depth. Seeing all of this young competition come in is just great for our future. Even if it only means one or two additional guys make the majors, it is huge for us. Sigh.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 12:02 PM) To be fully honest, even as a fully biased observer, he wouldn't be the first guy I would pick out of his conference. He wouldn't be second either. Those other two guys don't have any major offers either. Is that kid especially tall? Because IU needs some size.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Aug 12, 2015 -> 07:48 PM) Good post Balta but I think it's simpler than that: he's sitting fastball more and driving them. Most of his homeruns have been on fastballs right? I'm thinking he's just more comfie the 2nd time around the league, older wise all that, and is probably letting it rip more often in favorable counts rather than trying to draw a walk or slap a single. FWIW, the pitch values back this up: he's done more damage on fastballs this year and less on offspeed. It's interesting to note that Fangraphs presents RC+ as their overall number for a persons offense and wrote this article saying how Eaton is hitting more HR without noting the important part that his additional HR has not led to an improvement in offense (RC+ actually slightly down despite the HR).

If you delve a little deeper into his stats than this article it becomes even more confusing. Yes, his GB% age is way down, but what counters that is not hard-hit balls or line drives, it's fly balls, specifically a certain type of fly ball that you don't want to hit. His Fly Ball rate has gone up by 8% and his infield popup rate has gone up by 7% - so almost all of the additional fly balls he's hitting are popups. He's not noticeably pulling the ball any more, he's not noticeably hitting more balls hard, he is hitting slightly more line drives (2%) but not nearly as big as the change in fly balls. Basically Adam Eaton is popping the ball up a lot more. He's getting vastly fewer groundball and infield hits, those ground balls are now turning into popups. However one thing is offsetting that - he hit HR on only 1% of his fly balls last year. This year his HR/FB rate has gone from an insanely low 1% to a much more normal for baseball players 9%. Eaton is actually doing fewer good things with the bat...popping the ball up weakly more and hitting fewer ground balls that could turn into hits....except for he's suddenly showing the power of a normal hitter and additional power is really good. So, batting average down, OBP down, but almost the same overall hitter because he's hitting with a more normal amount of power. The question remaining is...how much of that is sustainable. If he keeps this higher rate of IF popups and his HR rate drops somewhat next year...then he really hurts his game. If he could keep this rate of HR/FB and cut that rate of IF popups back down, then he could become an exceptional player again.

QUOTE (shipps @ Aug 12, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) WTF is wrong with them? They are just bizarre. Worse record than most contending teams & did the same "oh were still competitive" move we did at the trade deadline. Plus, in a number of cases they'd probably be willing to take the palyer.

QUOTE (MEANS @ Aug 12, 2015 -> 01:00 PM) new pics from SW - TFA over at Entertainment Weekly http://www.ew.com/gallery/star-wars-force-...st-look-gallery Did it crash the page?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 05:30 PM) I'm not exactly well-versed in the criticisms, but I think the idea is that it takes all the bad of the taxi industry and then dumps other costs on the drivers on top of it all while exploiting or just simply ignoring numerous regulations. Plus there's the issue of the drivers' insurance probably not covering an ad hoc livery service. Getting the insurance requirements up to speed has been a major step in many of the states where those programs are now allowed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 05:18 PM) edit: is there a big taxi lobby out there anyway? In New York?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 02:45 PM) Rick Perry's fundraising has dried up, and he's no longer able to keep paying staffers. He may be packing it in soon as Trump continues to suck up all of the energy and attention. His SuperPAC is still flush with >tens of millions of dollars.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 03:46 PM) Playing the OF is much easier than playing 2B, especially LF where there isn't as great of a need to have a strong arm. We have seen a lot of guys with poor arms and good speed be ML caliber OF's Podsednik, Pierre, and Crawford as examples. I am not sure what the point at keeping him at position he cannot play long term is. He doesn't have the offense capability of Dan Uggla had to warrant having him as a defensive liability in the IF. There is no reason to think he would not be at least as competent at LF as anyone in the system. The Sox need to get away from the philosophy of playing subpar defenders at positions and work on finding better defensive homes for their players, and that would probably include starting to work Tim Anderson out in CF. I can turn your words around and use "The Sox need to get away from the philosophy of playing subpar defenders at positions" as an argument for why they shouldn't be moving people around as often as they do and instead stick with guys and let them learn a single position.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 03:24 PM) There's 0% chance he gets an extension. They've done nothing to prove that he's worthy. Unless this team goes on a historical run to end the season. If they don't fire him I expect he will get at least 1 more year. If you're not firing him you have to - don't want to have him become a "free agent manager" if the team overperforms next year.