Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 4, 2015 -> 11:34 AM) Fulmer's first pitch as a member of the White Sox https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=102...&permPage=1 Did he throw a strike?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 08:47 PM) Er, strike that. Fulmer just said he'll be reporting to Arizona on the 10th. Weird. Did they say if he'll start in the rotation or the pen?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 02:13 PM) this will be a short dance. Like, you got to the dance hall, and they told you to go home I get that Pederson is out since he's already contributing to the big league team...but again, if you're not getting someone like Seager + other solid guys, there's little motivation to move Quintana. Not with that ridiculously valuable contract.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 01:17 PM) How many people here have ever hired someone who turned out to be crappy at their job? Or managed someone who turned out to be bad enough he or she needed to be fired? Did you ever consider their failure was grounds for you to lose your job? In some cases it is, but in sports, many seem to think it ALWAYS is. I will trade that lack of job security for a multi-million dollar salary. Deal?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 12:57 PM) This is one of those things where speculation rules. It's the same thing as the manager thing -- we don't know if he's on PEDs or not, we don't know WHEN he was and wasn't, we don't know WHAT he was on, and we don't know how much it helped or didn't help. You're welcome to jump to whichever conclusions that you want regarding all of that, but if you're being intellectually honest, you should acknowledge that you don't actually KNOW what you're talking about here. None of us do. Regardless -- we're talking about what Hahn should/could have expected from Melky this year. If you're going to argue that he should have planned for a 60-something wRC+, I just don't think you have any ground to stand on. This year is WAY off everything we've seen over the entire roller coaster of his career for the past five years. How about I just argue he shouldn't be spending $40 million on 30 year old+ proven steroid abusers and then counting on them to be key parts of his roster? Or that just in general "Free Agency is an extremely poor way to try to build a losing roster into a winning one". Oh, and we absolutely do know he was juicing in 2012. 100%. He actually tested positive and was suspended.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 12:41 PM) You have moved the goalposts, Balta. We're not talking about honor, we're talking about wins. RE wins: Melky is a career 100 wRC+ hitter. At 30 years old, he's putting up 67. PEDs are irrelevant because he's performed both well and badly when both on and off PEDs. If you think he was still on them last year, why do you think he still isn't now? He got a really dumb organization to give him $42 million by performing during a contract year. If hypothetically that were chemically-aided, why would he stay on them and risk a positive test that would cost him that money through a suspension? He's well below a career 100 wRC+ hitter if you don't count the clearly steroid-aided Giants and probably Royals seasons. Quick bit of math had him at 90 even assuming he was clean last year. A 30 year old hitter with a career 90 wRC+ putting up a 67 isn't that big of a dropoff or unprecedented in any sense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 10:54 AM) Anyone else checking out Mr Robot? I am about an episode and a half in. Digging it so far. Yes, similarly enjoying it, lots of ways they could go with this. I assume you're cheering for the corporation?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 10:30 AM) Then he had a tumor removed and had the best season of his career two years after that 50 game suspension. The point stands, despite the fact that I somehow missed referencing his bad age-23 season seven years ago. The good news is that Melky Cabrera's career is one replete with honor and dignity and respect for the game and since he's such a respectable person with no reputation for lying to the league you can have 100% confidence that Melky Cabrera would never do anything during a contract season that would have impacted his performance that year.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 09:59 AM) Melky Cabrera's wRC+ in 2013 was 86, which is roughly equivalent to a solid ML SS. Melky's wRC+ THIS year is 67, which is worse than a typical AAA journeyman. His performance is far-and-away worse than it was in 2013 and, for him, completely unprecedented. Completely unprecedented...except for the 68 he put up in 2008. And not that far from the 77 he put up in 2010. Then suddenly in 2011 he got a lot better and in 2012 he was great except for some reason he missed about 50 games.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) thanks for your hard work, i like the thought process behind this. but let me ask this, the base running errors, the defensive errors or screw up etc.... are you saying it is all on the players??? the coaches has not input in this? i would also have to question in "is the team fully prepared" every game. Let's say it this way. You're a player who is on a team that has been crap for 3 straight seasons. You've got your money. The guy next to you made 3 errors yesterday to give away the game, or the pitcher was left in too long and gave away the game, or your manager gave away the game when he didn't trust you enough to ask for a replay. There's a decent chance you're going to be traded or the guy starting next to you will be traded. Are you going to be 100% ready every day? Are you going to put in the extra set in the weight room or are you maybe going to take it a little easier this time? Human nature is going to involve running out of motivation for a losing squad. The only thing keeping people going for a systematically flawed organization is their own professionalism and that can only take them so far. The greatest manager in the world can't help with that. I think a much bigger indictment of the management staff is how this team comes out of spring training every year. They come out showing the same flaws that I mentioned above - people pushed too rapidly, no changes in approach, losing games to put themselves in the spot at the bottom of the division because it's not about how ready the team is for the season, it's only about TWTW on the field. That's when stuff ought to be correctable and workable. That's when people ought to know "Hey the ball's hit to me I should hit the cutoff man" or "I've got a guy in a rundown the correct move is to run at the guy not to throw the ball". The one year where we didn't behave that way was 2012, with a brand new manager. We came out of ST as the complete opposite of that. I think the only person who did a rundown incorrectly on that roster that year was Youkilis and he started the year with the Red Sox. We got out of our comfort zone somehow and it produced our only above .500 team in the last 5 seasons. Then we fell back into our old habits, because that's the norm for the entire organization. Guys who needed to work to improve from 2012 didn't, guys who had good years in 2012 were content with their performance, and by May of 2013 the manager had the whole team out doing fundamentals work before a game to shame them for how poorly they were performing on the basics again.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 09:02 AM) If Bosox are so concerned with getting "cost-controlled" players, why on earth did they sign their Panda Bear/third baseman to that outlandish contract? Because they thought they would have a team ready to win right now and were surprised when the pieces didn't fit together. Therefore as of right now their priorities are different than they were in December.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 3, 2015 -> 01:53 AM) I would completely agree with you except for one thing, which is why I see no reason to "blow this up" like many are saying. What I want to see out of the roster on a day-in and day-out basis, namely, solid, fundamental defense and situational hitting, is just nowhere close to occurring. I really don't care one way or another whether we win 80 games or 70 games this season. All I am asking is that this roster start showing signs of playing the kind of ball moving forward where with some additional tweaks and some development by the younger players, one can see scenarios where they compete for the division in the next 2-3 years. Unfortunately, we're seeing a bunch of sloppy bulls*** which basically negates the talent on our roster because we are giving away runs and outs on a daily basis with no sign of any progress being made whatsoever. For me, it's not about wins and losses; it's about the way we are playing which leads me to the same consistent conclusion. The coaching staff simply has to go. I've reached the point where I believe that the sloppiness is not just a function of the big league ballclub, it permeates the entire organization. It permeates the draft strategy - we target raw power hitters with lots of swings and misses and then never put them through any kind of ringer to get them adapted to a position. We move guys around all the time on the assumption that unless they're a top pick they're a likely utility guy, so people don't get experience at a position and a chance to struggle and adapt to things like footwork, throwing angles, and basic decision making in the minors. We give guys a chance to get hot for a few months with the bat and then rush them upwards, seemingly forgetting that guys who are hitting well might need time to work on other parts of their game. We expect them to arrive in the big leagues with no major holes in their game and count on them to rapidly become positive contributors even though we pushed people upwards rapidly and then paid no attention to how the different parts of their game worked together. We trade for guys who fit the same mold - power, but little discipline. We go into the free agent market looking for bats but we don't focus on whether or not that player will hold their own on defense. We expect guys to just handle things physically rather than working with decision making on things like hitting the cutoff man. We're impressed by a guy's work ethic when he gets himself in great shape or recovers rapidly from an injury yet we don't see that same kind of work ethic applied to improving people's approaches at the plate or in the field. It's like the TWTW philosophy permeates our entire organization. We don't give people the tools they need to be successful, we don't target guys with tools we need, we expect that they'll try harder between the lines, that they'll have more TWTW, and if they fail that's not a failure of preparation beforehand, that's just a lack of TWTW. That's why I stopped hanging this "solely" on the manager. I thing he's just another cog in a failing system.

@CST_soxvan White Sox' Chris Sale named AL Pitcher of the Month

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 05:17 PM) That is "strife"? What would you call what is happening in Anaheim? "Much closer to the Bobby Valentine Red Sox".

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 05:08 PM) and there exists no evidence of strife in the dugout. So far this year we have Alexei calling out Robin after he didn't challenge the 9th inning play in that loss, Eaton being benched for his refusal to play where the coaching staff wants him to, and then Eaton also completely failing to hustle to 1b a couple days later. It's not the Bobby Valentine Red Sox, but it's not nothing.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 04:50 PM) I don't see why celebs are against vaccinations. Isn't it medically proven people NEED them? Well no, humans lived without vaccinations for millennia. Vaccinations just keep lots of people from dying because they randomly were exposed to a disease.

The U.S. also celebrated with its first measles death in more than a decade today.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 03:54 PM) Trump is an idiot and a brings a bad name to republicans everywhere. I for one can't wait to spend the next 6 months declaring that all republicans believe whatever comes out of his mouth

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 03:38 PM) The piling on from random places (mattresses? really?) is hilarious though. Never under estimate the PR bump from a controversy! No hispanic people purchase mattresses.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 03:30 PM) Giants need to acquire some starting pitching. Counting on Peavy, Lincecum and Cain seems dangerous. The Cubs have a very soft schedule the rest of the way, with a lot of games against teams likely to be sellers (Reds, Brewers, Phillies). Did you know there's a website that compiles "winning %age of remaining schedule"?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) Ugh. I don't see a fit with STL. We would need a huge headline player to start a deal, and I don't see Martinez being it. The other side is that I don't see STL wanting to give up enough to get Sale. They would have made sense a couple years ago but between the tragedy and the fact that many of their players have now arrived and are contributing to the team, they had even dropped out of the top 15 systems according to BA and others by the start of the year.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) I didn't think any of their signings were bad uses of their cash. Compare to what most teams are spending money on and the Butler move could turn into a huge coup when cap expands and the Dunleavy deal isn't going to have any long term negative ramifications from a cap perspective (not enough money their). Even the Rose deal, when you look at what guys are getting right now, going forward, I don't see Rose's contract as some huge impediment (but I also expect him to play the majority of the games for the rest of his contract). Here's an interesting thought experiment. If Rose retired and the Bulls were suddenly able to offer a max deal to any other PG or other player they wanted during any of the last couple offseasons, would landing anyone other than Lebron make them a finals team?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 2, 2015 -> 02:17 AM) What I should have said is that he would have to pass through waivers first (in August), which theoretically could be blocked....so there's no guarantee of getting him onto the post-season roster unless you trade for him before the deadline July 31st. If Alexei Ramirez is put on waivers and claimed so that some team picks up his buyout and his remaining $4 million or so for this season so that the White Sox don't have to pay any of it....I'd imagine the White Sox would let him go.