Balta1701

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 27, 2015 -> 08:30 AM) Heh... Viciedo seems like the last player Beane would want with the A's philosophy/style. The guy who does nothing but hit home runs out of their big ballpark? Makes sense to me.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 27, 2015 -> 09:36 AM) Technique can be taught, but if you are really going to steal a ton of bases, you have natural speed, some natural instinct, and you have to be pretty tough with a high pain tolerance. Guys that steal a lot get pretty beat up. Vince Coleman's pointers aren't going to make Adam Eaton a 75 SB guy. They can help for sure. Rickey Henderson was every bit of a freak as a baserunner as Nolan Ryan was as a pitcher. That's the thing I keep finding amazing about these 100 steal guys...how in the world did they stay healthy for multiple seasons?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 27, 2015 -> 09:19 AM) They have won 3 World Series in 5 years, of course they are excited. Going by ESPN's attendance tracker, they have been at 99.2% capacity or higher every season from 2011-2014. At that capacity if they needed to they could also likely make more money by raising prices and winding up at 95% capacity, but franchises also appreciate the value of a packed ballpark every night for playing the political game - keeping local businesses happy, keeping lots of vendors employed every night, keeping the local politicians on their side for when issues like new ballparks do come up, keeping a waitlist for season tickets so that when they have a down stretch they don't have to seriously cut back.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 26, 2015 -> 01:41 PM) Almost assuredly keep him, at least for this year. I think the org has him above Saladino on the depth chart, and possibly (hopefully) Beckham too. Its a good problem to have. That said I think Sanchez probably makes the MLB bench of Johnson wins the 2B job. Sanchez is still extremely young - dude turns 23 in June. He could bounce back and forth between the bigs and the minors for 3 years and still be a guy you say "he's young enough that his best years are still ahead of him". Plus, I typically think guys like him, players who are versatile, put teh bat on the ball, but aren't flashy and don't have any big tools, are often undervalued in trades.

Any chance they decide they can use Sanchez, Beckham, and Bonifcacio as their bench, basically declaring that they all will "figure out" how to play OF spots?

Daesh kidnaps ~100 local Sunni Tribesmen in the area around Tikrit, seemingly to keep them from allying with the army during any spring offensives. Why won't Obama say that these guys are clearly targeting all Sunni muslims? Their victims are overwhelmingly muslims. The president should be ashamed for not acknowledging that constantly.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 08:46 PM) There was a 10:06 minute stretch (from about 13 to 3) where IU didn't score. Not a single point. I kept reloading my gamecast thinking it was failing to update.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:10 PM) Is your teachers first name "Greg"?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 08:53 PM) What the hell happened to him anyways? Last I read he had a back issue but he's been shut down for what, 6 months now? Long toss is nothing. It's like a basketball player taking warmups. When does he think he'll be throwing from the mound, end of March? Have to think they'll have him stick around extended spring training until early May and then assign him to a rehab stint. Was rehabbing the back injury last year and went down for Tommy John Surgery after tearing UCL in his elbow, good chance it was due in part to extra stress during the back injury rehab.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 05:46 PM) lol a 1-2 WAR player that was acquired for diddly squat and is pre-arb. Great guy to say "sucks". He's a decent starter and a great guy to have on the roster at his salary. He's been playing that game with him since 2013, just let him be.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:59 PM) Enter Balta in 3...2...1... Take Spring Training completely off, no fatigue at the end of your 70 win season!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 01:22 PM) Most April dates in the northern cities are crapshoots. It might be really nice or really awful. If I owned the Sox, I would prefer to open the season on the road, but more important to me would be as few April home dates as possible. People just aren't going to buy advanced tickets when they can wait a month or two and know they can wear some shorts to the game. After the year that Cleveland had like 6 games snowed out I vaguely recall seeing a study showing that simply having the most obvious, at-risk cities start a week later would cut down weather postponements early in the year by some ridiculous fraction, like 75% or somewhere close to that.

CPD operates an off the books, previously unknown, interrogation blacksite where captured suspects vanish for a time without access to family or legal representation or even acknowledgment of where they are.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 01:02 PM) The problem with this though is that those warm weather/dome teams don't want their home schedule loaded in April either (typically lower-attended games in general, kids in school, etc.). It also could be seen as a competitive disadvantage to have less home games in crunch time at the end of the season. You could have that rebalanced pretty well by the end of April IMO.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:57 PM) If they can eliminate 30 seconds per half inning, that's 9 minutes right there. Keeping guys in the box will eliminate even more than that. You elimate 15-20 minutes of down time per game, it will keep fans more engaged, and IMO grow the game. They don't have to cut an hour out of it. There is plenty of down time in baseball. Eliminating some of the unneccessary delays is good. Most people don't really care if it is a long game if things are actually going on. But if it's waiting for a replay or hitter to get back in the box, or the constant trips to the mound not only by coaches (I'm looking at you Mauer), it gets old quick. I read an article last year where a 1-2-3 inning with no pitching change took almost a half an hour during a game last year. Here's a stunner. I agree word for word with this post.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:54 PM) An average 4 or 5 is still a below average pitcher. There are many ways for the Sox to make the postseason, but some of those seem inherently more possible and attainable than others. C, 2B, 3B, and RF could all be weaknesses at this point and there's not a ton of depth offensively. However, those are sometimes difficult to fill, even in season. However, finding an average or above average pitcher will take less work and would still signify a drastic upgrade. Again, I have no problem with Noesi/Danks to start the season, but if they're the same pitchers as before, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then replacing them becomes inherently easier. Two guys I think the Sox may have interest in, depending on output, are Victorino and Utley, but that will likely be tepid interest for now. Having an above average pitcher int he #4 slot though could also be viewed as diminishing marginal returns given that, for example, the playoffs you're not likely to use the #4 slot very often except in the full 7 game series.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:49 PM) My first instinct was to say no way, but as I think about it more I could see it being a decent idea. I'm probably in the minority, but I think spring training is too long. However, I couldn't very well argue to start the season early because of weather concerns...unless they somehow worked the schedule to where the first week+ is played in warm areas and/or domes. I also understand the reasoning for the long spring training. Baseball being played until damn near November is a recipe for disaster, especially if the World Series ended up being the Sox vs. the Mets (or similar cold climate areas). That's certainly a pro for shortening the season by a week. I also have an issue with the limited number of teams that make the playoffs. Along with the long season, some teams are essentially eliminated in July. I'd like to see a better playoff system, but to do that, you'd have to shorten the season (by more than 8 games). Adding the second WC team was a good start, though. I totally get people saying that NFL's preseason is too long, but I don't buy that for MLB for one reason above all others - pitchers need time to get their arms stretched out and adapted to pitching every 5th day. You can't stretch out pitchers by making them throw more often, you can't stretch out pitchers by just dumping them into 5 inning games, that's the one thing you have to work up to. Hitters could probably deal with a training camp 1/2 as long as the one they have now. Pitchers? Maybe you could cut a week off, but that leaves no margin for error if a guy has any setbacks or elbow tightness or dead arm or all those other things that happen during camp.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:27 PM) I don't really see the point of shortening the season by one week. I can't see how that would make any sort of difference I get the weather issues but have always thought there's a surprisingly simple solution - everyone in the northeast starts the season with a 6 game road trip unless they have a dome. Gets a little cold in the November part too...but that's as much for TV scheduling as anything and I don't want to lose games because TV needs an offday.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 12:24 PM) Weakness is one thing, but based on Joe Aiello's research from a year ago, which included only innings qualifiers, I'm not sure I'd call him a competitive disadvantage. Depends where you think he belongs in the rotation (I think 4), how you project him (I don't know here, but I happen to think the -0.4 WAR from ZiPS is horse****), and whether salary is part of this debate. Really I'm just replying to share this link, because it's good stuff. You can stop reading after the second chart because it gets all Cubby. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...in-terms-of-war One big thing I took from those numbers is that the average 4-5 starters together come up with about 2.0 WAR, and less in recent years. Together last year, Danks and Noesi put up 1.3 and if Noesi does nothing else but pitch more innings, they come close to that number together. In other words, both Danks and Noesi are below average #4 starters right now and above average #5 starters, leaving us surprisingly close to an "Average 4-5" in the rotation behind a stellar 1-3.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 06:58 PM) i am totally at a lost here, how in hades did KW and the FO knew of Noesi going on waivers let alone getting picked by the sox. another gem to give me a reminder of KW doing good. Noesi had already been released once on the year after 2 terrible games with Seattle. He then pitched 4 innings for Texas, gave up 4 hits and a walk but 0 runs, bringing his ERA down to 5.06. He then faced the White Sox, who tagged him for 7 runs in 1 inning. His ERA jumped back to 14.21. Guys with ERAs of 14.21 who already were waived once don't often stay on teams rosters.

I'm 95% sure you're "through an employer" in that case and won't have anythign else to worry about.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 05:01 PM) I think you're right, at least to some extent, and Victorino would be a wonderful addition as insurance for Eaton/Garcia too. I'm just not sure what the cost would be. Do the Red Sox gamble on some guys whose stocks are lower, like Davidson or Erik Johnson? Do they inquire about a lower level guy like Michalczewski? Maybe they want a few of the younger power arms too. It's hard to say exactly. He's also a potential platoon partner for LaRoche.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 04:15 PM) Lovely. Saying, "well, he was hurt two of three years" is dishonest to this discussion. There are degrees of hurt. One of the two years he was hurt, he missed one start. The other was his DL stint. The third year was completely healthy. So I'm looking at two years where he worked just about full seasons and a third where he missed a month, and as I already cited, he's managed to throw more innings than all but 25 guys since he became a starting pitcher. The guys I mentioned consistently miss quarter seasons, two months, half seasons routinely. So you can sit there and tell me I'm delusional, but if you think that Chris Sale has earned the injury-prone label as much as them, you are wrong. I'm much more worried about giving Chris an unusual load than I am about him being unable to handle a normal load. If we try to run Chris out for 220 innings and he gets hurt in the regular season...sometimes you can only do so much. What worries me is calling up Rodon as the 5th starter early in the season and having Rodon be skipped once a month on offdays, dumping those extra innings onto the rest of the staff. Suddenly Sale is going every 5th day when we could be giving him an extra day or two most weeks. Then throw in the fact that we'll probably want him going deep in the game, and then it gets down the stretch when we're in a pennant race and trying to match him up against the Tigers or something like that, a setup where he's working harder than he's ever done in his career...and then that is possibly followed up by pitching in October...That's what worries me. Just be smart about him in the regular season, don't treat with kid gloves, but at least be smart. We've got this big money closer, use him. We've got offdays, don't sacrifice them for Rodon being up, etc.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 02:05 PM) good point i think i am a minority in this thinking, but this is a reason why i would like to see a 6 man rotation this season. This would seem reasonable to me late in the season as a way to work Rodon in...except that down the stretch is the time when you might really be wanting to ride your front of the rotation guys in order to make the playoffs.

Perkins wound up with the Cavs.