Balta1701

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 04:21 PM) I fully expect he will figure that out eventually, and he and Sale, as long as they remain healthy, can battle each other for Cy Youngs. He's nasty as it is. When he figures out how to stay ahead of hitters, IMO he is going to be unreal. Yup.

Really really really quick weak popout by Garcia.

WTF was that call.

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 04:19 PM) Rodon only threw 10 pitches too. If he can throw 12-14 pitches an inning consistently, he'll be really dangerous. He was much more precise to the righties that inning than to the lefty.

Walks Rizzo on 5 pitches. Several outside.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 04:14 PM) 3 strikes in a row to Folwer, backwards K That slider was beautiful.

Abreu also grounded out weakly off the end of the bat to Castro.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) He played 8 games there. Saladino has played 5. So really, they are in the same boat. He has primarily played SS so I don't think this should be a huge deal. If he is a decent SS, and I don't know where his throwing is at, he should be better than Gillaspie right now, and improve at 3B with more reps. But this isn't like putting Soto in LF. Yeah, but only 2 of those games were this season. Woulda been nice to give him a week there just to get the footing down.

Tyler made some contact, took one foul down the RF line, wound up weakly grounding out to SS off the end of the bat.

Early strikeout for Eaton, fooled on something off the plate away.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 03:58 PM) Playing Gordon at third initially seemed odd, but God knows he can pick it. Saladino is supposed to be above average with the glove. IIRC they worked Gordon at 3b for like a week or two in Charlotte right before he was called up.

https://twitter.com/CST_soxvan

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 03:16 PM) I sort of wonder if the Bulls would look at Cousins if he became available, but whether he'd be a good fit under Hoiberg and what trade package they could offer is another matter entirely. Hard to imagine we'd have anything that would be workable in that deal. We'd have to include a matching salary which is ok but then also give the Kings something they'd actually want in addition. Unless Snell or McDermott have incredible starts to the year, what major tradeable asset do we have? The Kings pick that we probably won't get? Would you trade Mirotic + Taj + Snell/Portis/Mcdermott for him, probably and that matchup works payroll wise, but doubt the Kings would do that?

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 03:13 PM) i am a little confuse here. are were talking about Avi.....right??? if not, i was totally off base on my post. many thanks. Sorry for unclear sentence structure. If Avi remains this player, then even if we fill in the 3b and SS holes, we will continue to have a major weakness in our lineup - Avi. Other people (not naming names) think we're able to compete next year if we just fill in a couple holes. I disagree and Avi is one of many reasons.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:38 PM) They signed Bonifacio before they signed Beckham. The fact is Beckham and Shuck outplayed him. People moan about guys like Flowers and Beckham and Sanchez and last season Leury Garcia, well, Bonifacio has been worse than all of them, yet there are complaints he isn't used "properly". If being used properly is not being used with the other guys, why wouldn't it apply here? Pretty sure I didn't like how Leury was used last year. He was on the bench so Konerko could be on the roster when he should have been starting at SS, probably in AA. With as little positional talent as the White Sox have, even a remote chance wild card seemed to me to be better than letting him rot on the bench as the emergency backup. Anyway...the end result is this is another failure by the front office. We desperately needed platoon partners for the guys they were going to use at 3b and DH and the job they did of filling that role is totally inadequate, leaving this team extremely easy for left handers to beat.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) Him being exclusively OF reserve is consistent with him being a waste. We really do need a righty somewhere in this roster to take PAs away from LaRoche. That's the role I thought Semien would fill...then that became the role I thought Bonifacio would fill, because why else would you spend that much money on him after already signing Beckham? (Beckham, btw, was needed to be the RH platoon with Gillaspie, which was equally important to having a platoon partner for LaRoche)

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:20 PM) I'm more concerned about his production. The $2M and $4.5M are in no way financially crippling and aren't even guaranteed so if club found other options you could cut release with minimal risk. I also don't see any scenario where Garcia is crippling to the franchise in the next 2 years to the contention plans. Maybe if you can only contend if he turns into Mike Trout, then sure, but as long as you plan accordingly, you aren't talking about having to put a guy on the bench whose making $15M/yr with a long term contract. Money-wise the $4.5 million isn't crippling I agree, but it's enough that it's getting in the way. That'd also be an awful lot of money to pay him if he's just a backup. By 2017, we're talking what, $7-8 million, probably more with revenue growth? I'd have to imagine he's non-tendered if he's basically this same player at that point.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) For him to not be a complete waste, he would need to play better defense when he's not hitting. TO put a likely bad offensive player in 2 games a week in which every 3rd week he'll be offensively successful, you can't have his garbage d for the rest of the time. The way I'd have used him, except for when Abreu was hurt, would be to put him in RF on days when there's a left handed starter and move Garcia to the DH spot. Takes LaRoche's bat out of the lineup against LHP, gives Bonifacio more regular PAs, and we might still actually get a defensive upgrade. Then maybe he does find a groove with more regular PAs and we could use him more in the IF.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:12 PM) with ref to the salary cap, there were many more screw up than giving him 2 mil. however i would like to see how he does in the season of 2016 before i decided how to look at the whole picture then. The 2m in 2016 is not a big deal, it's the "if he remains this same player he can 100% completely sabotage people's plans for how this team competes next year". If you're like me and think this franchise is a mess you don't care about that, you play him and see if maybe something turns out well. But, if you're like the people who argue "we just need 1 or 2 more pieces" like some in this thread...if he remains this player filling the 3b and SS holes will not be enough. In 2017 the money actually starts becoming a big deal. That's a lot to pay a guy if his track record is a below-replacement player.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:13 PM) Not really. You don't know when the hot streak is going to happen. If he gets a couple of hits, it probably is a sign to keep him in the line up a few days, but if he is not hitting at all, it isn't unusual. That leads to the conclusion you actually have to play him on a fairly regular basis otherwise he's almost guaranteed to be a complete waste?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 01:51 PM) The thing about Bonifacio is he usually is pretty weak for long stretches, but goes on an amazing hot streak or 2 which keeps his numbers respectable. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 02:07 PM) The RV doesn't know how to use him is pure BS. He has a ..344 OPS against LHP, a .332 OPS vs. RHP, his glove has been horrible. RV not playing him IS USING HIM PROPERLY. I'm pretty sure the first post explained the way you wind up needing to use him?

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 01:56 PM) you know how many young hitter can't even do that??? i say, let him continue to develop. Are you prepared to pay him $2 million in 2016 if he continues playing like this? Probably. Are you prepared to pay him $4.5 million in 2017 if he continues playing like this through 2016? That's the level we offered Viciedo but narrowly and then cut him loose in order to sign a win-now player. By 2016 the clock officially starts ticking on him to perform. If he doesn't show improvement next year and the White Sox continue their "win every year" offseasons, replacing him will look like a major upgrade. It will look like Viciedo looked in this year's OF - a "we can't compete if he's in this position, we need to upgrade it" slot. He's fine for a rebuilding roster and I have no problem picking up other guys like him if we're rebuilding, but right now he's absolutely in the way of a competitive team.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 01:45 PM) The importance of the pen becomes on the closer, set-up guy, and 7th inning guy. You shorten your pen to 4 really good guys and with 3-4 really good starters, including one of the 3-4 best in the game, and your odds are strong. Much different story. You could have a mediocre bullpen because your secondary pieces are bad vs. a pen where the primary pieces are bad. Defense in the post-season also becomes more important due to fewer runs typically being scored in post-season (better pitching staffs push down run production, typically, not to mention fact that you don't face teams #5 starters and the early inning guys in the pen). I wouldn't say the primary pieces are "bad" but they certainly haven't been "really good" so far this year overall. Some "really good" streaks for the primary pieces with some "really bad" streaks in-between.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) IIRC, weren't some Sox players in awe last year watching Avi in BP? Something about how Avi was hitting the ball further than Dunn? I agree with those that say patience with Avi. He absolutely has the power in him, the problem is that in the game he doesn't use it. His approach is all about going to the opposite field and it sacrifices his ability to use that power. He barely pulls the ball with authority and that leaves him especially vulnerable to pitches on the inner half. He can take pitches that are away and drive them the other way but if you can't pull the ball middle of the plate in, you're not going to be able to exploit that power, and that's right where he is now. Patience is fine with players like him as long as we're not counting on them to lead us to a playoff spot before guys reach free agency. Oh, and he's also a first-year arb guy next year, so after 2016 patience starts having a clock.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) Has he done that yet? That 92 pitch/6.1 inning outing against the Astros was probably the closest he's come.