Balta1701

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 01:46 PM) http://beta.espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/12...-nerds-too-easy Point #2 is the reason why I previously argued that Cubs' batters with high strikeout rates IS a real cause for concern. Stat nerd himself Nate Silver says that strikeout to walk ratio is one of the most predictive stats for a pitcher's win-loss record. Taking the other side of this, unless the Cubs' big strikeout guys are getting on base at a high rate via walks or high batting average, it's a real problem. Link just takes me to ESPN's homepage.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 11:44 AM) But what if they did that and they lost and Sale was never the same again? Getting to the playoffs is a challenge. Winning the WS a bigger one. Bumgarner threw 52 postseason innings last year. It paid off. But what if the Giants didn't win? I would bet there would be people saying Bochy throwing him out there so much was dumb. He is going to get his days off during the season. How many times has he pitched simce becoming a starter on less than 4 days rest? 2012 was the only season where they would have thought of using him on 3 days rest, but he was already showing signs of wearing down anyway (ERA 5.03 in August) and they were skipping a start of his a month that year, wisely, because he'd already had the arm soreness early in the year & they were trying to make sure they didn't hurt him.

We don't have to be nuts about it with him either, just "reasonable" stuff. If the guy has labored through 6 innings or loaded the bases in the last inning and just barely got out of it...we're paying the bullpen a ton of money this year. If he's thrown an 8 inning shutout but he's already at or near his high mark on the year for pitches in a game...we're paying a guy $10 million this year to get those last 3 outs. If we have an offday, yes it would be nice to skip the 5th starter and put Chris out there again, but just give Chris the extra day of rest. Just don't be nuts about overworking him during the regular season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 11:28 AM) Yet you suggest if the White Sox make the postseason, they push him like Madison Bumgarner. Abso-f***ing-lutely. That's the point of all this, winning a title. Get him there and he can do that. Getting him there is the challenge.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 08:55 PM) 50 Shades of Grey will sink like the Titanic in the second week, probably down 75%. Then the big question becomes whether a sequel will be profitable enough. And should they go all-out and do an NC-17 sequel and cut the budget by 75%, not put it into theatres via wide release and hope to make it back by DVD sales/netflix/rentals, etc. For once this random point appears accurate, down just about 75% and apparently one of/possibly the largest week to week drop in movie history.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 06:08 AM) Compared to a lot of guys. Compared to the notion that he's injury prone. 25 guys have thrown more innings than Chris Sale since he became a starter. He's qualified for the ERA title each of the three years. This is a guy who has been an MLB starter for 3 seasons and has missed games complaining specifically about elbow soreness in 2 of them. At the least it's a worry enough that we shouldn't try to push him so hard we find his breaking point.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 21, 2015 -> 06:43 PM) I'm talking about performance - it's a given that we need health. And that's the second time in a very short time in this thread that you've referenced, somewhat out of nowhere, possible injury to Sale. Is there something leading you to think he'll get hurt, other than the #analysis we've been hearing from people for years about how he'll always get hurt? He went down for what, 4 weeks last year with a sore elbow, and that was the 2nd time in 3 years he's missed games with a sore elbow? He's so good that I'd put money on him winning the cy young this year, and I see only 1 thing stopping that from happening - the disabled list. If he pitches 200+ innings this year, he's the best starter in the AL based on how much he improved last year. Trading for a guy with one year left on his deal makes sense if Chris Sale is mostly healthy this year. You put Chris in the playoffs and he can do what Bumgarner did last year...and we all know that. But outside of Robin trying to kill Abreu (like he did in May of last year playing him 3 games in a row after this fool named Robin Ventura said he needed a day or two off), Chris also my biggest worry for the year as well. He can flat out carry a playoff team or his elbow could be the reason we don't make it.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 21, 2015 -> 05:02 PM) Okay, thanks for clearing that up. To me it'll be more important to get that type of jump from the offense than the bullpen. If the six-man unit of Robertson-Duke-Petricka-Putnam-Jennings-Guerra all do essentially what they did last season then we have a decent bullpen. That sounds like it's asking somewhat a lot, but it's not asking for thaaat much. What we cannot make the playoffs without is a sprinkle of the following: Avisail breaks out Gillaspie, and our second baseman, are legitimate starters Abreu is still top-5 Then throw in Danks and/or Noesi beating the projections. I'm not even sure where I'm disagreeing with you at this point. I guess it's that career years out of the bullpen = not essential to our playoff chances. Chris Sale staying healthy is, to me, more important than any of the things you listed other than the Abreu part. All those could happen, Chris gives us 125 innings and we're still not a playoff team.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 21, 2015 -> 02:39 PM) Sure the bullpen regressed to the mean, but all 4 returning starters saw big jumps in their ERA from 2005 to 2006. They have just as much to do with the 9 win decrease as the bullpen, if not more. Mark Buehrle - 2005: 3.12 ERA 2006: 4.99 ERA Freddy Garcia - 2005: 3.87 ERA 2006: 4.53 ERA Jon Garland - 2005: 3.50 ERA 2006: 4.51 ERA Jose Contreras - 2005: 3.61 ERA 2006: 4.27 ERA Plus we spent half the season playing with only 8 players on defense for no good reason.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 10:42 PM) I'm seriously considering putting 10k on our win odds in Vegas. That's a whole lot of money to wager on Chris Sale's left elbow's health.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 04:03 PM) I already mentioned Ozzie in my initial reaction post, saying that's why I'm not incensed Robin said it. I'm just saying you're better off using coachspeak. Q: Robin do you expect the playoffs this year? Is this a playoff team? A: "I absolutely love the acquisitions the front office made, just love them. I'm anxious to get on the field and getting to work with these guys. I know we're going to have a group that wants to win as many games as possible. Obviously we'd love that to result in a postseason appearance. The goal every year is to win the World Series." That said, I loved the brash Ozzie, so I'll take the brash Robin as I said before. After the debacles and the team seemingly not caring for parts/all of the last 2 years, the tone needed changed.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 03:51 PM) I love the Sox, but there's no way Robin should be expecting playoffs with this club. Sox have to come out and play ball and reverse the mojo from the last few horrific seasons. This team should absolutely be expecting the playoffs, to the point where if they're not at least close I'll verly likely be calling for the manager's head on a platter.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 03:34 PM) Vegas says we're a .500 team and u better believe Vegas is right most all the time. Last year, Vegas's preseason predictions missed the average team's win total by >6. The largest underestimate was 19 wins.

Foreign Affairs looks back at the disastrous, unnecessary Libya campaign. Considering we're stuck in another one and that one set the table for the last surge of beheadings, an important read.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 12:14 PM) If Samardzija really is seeking 5/140 then I wish him well in FA. Not in the least bit interested for that price and another reason why I am not high on the trade in the first place. Hopefully Montas continues his progress and can slide into Samardzija's rotation spot after the 2015 season. Just to keep harping on this point because why not...Montas pitched 81 innings last year. The most he's ever pitched is 111 in 2013. A minor league season taking him up to 130 innings is a big jump on his arm this year. I know the White Sox push people aggressively, but there's such a thing as overaggressive.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Feb 20, 2015 -> 10:54 AM) I think this line of thinking is somewhat backwards. Sure, if Rodon doesn't pitch for the Sox until June, they'll get an extra year of control - which is great, and should try to achieve that, IMO. However, they're also giving up 40% of a season of Rodon on the front end. It is a good trade off, in theory, but if the SOX need him before June, and he is healthy and the best option, they won't hesitate to call him up. I just hope it isn't in the bullpen. What needs to be remembered is that if Rodon is limited to 160-ish innings on the year, which would actually be a helluva lot of effort to hang on his arm since the most he's ever had is 130 innings and that was against college level competition, they're going to have to replace 25-30% of his season anyway, and that's if everything went spectacularly for a guy making a jump from college to the big leagues.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 08:33 PM) I just don't think this is true or smart. I don't want to sacrifice 1 entire year of control of a stud Boras client that will be in his prime for an extra month and a half in the big leagues. Rodon is ticketed for Charlotte and it's the right call regardless of what the White Sox say. With Rodon having never pitched more than 130 innings in a season, and in college only, I really don't think anything that brings him up early in the year is a good move, I don't care how well he's pitching. If they bring him up, then by the middle/latter part of the year they're going to have to skip him once every couple weeks, or even once a month starting early in the year to keep his innings down. The end result of that is that the other pitchers in the rotation and the pen are going to be absorbing more innings. Simple question...are you confident that Chris Sale can absorb more innings? That Chris Sale will have no injury problems? Because that's the downside risk. Yeah we get more out of Rodon, but an injury to Sale and I don't care who else we have in the rotation, we're 5 games or more behind the Tigers. I have no problem with a midseason callup for Rodon, but if we're planning on this team being competitive, he should stay in Charlotte at least for a month or two, preferably more if the back 2 people in the rotation aren't awful. Priority #1 in this rotation by far is keeping Chris Sale healthy, and that means at least going a little easy on his arm and giving him extra rest, not using Mr. Offday as the 5th starter once every 4 weeks.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 06:05 PM) Pretty sure he was saying that the offense was the reason we thought they would be contenders, not that it was devoid of talent I was agreeing.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 07:36 PM) Micah doesn't have the upside of a Ray Durham (overall), but look no further for a player with all the physical tools who had his fair share of defensive struggles. There's the mental side of things to always take into consideration at that level...he was probably Top 5 in the history of the game at 2B in being able to chase down balls in the outfield and down the foul line, but the routine play, that was challenging for him and he'd lose focus, just like Alexei drifts sometimes. With Sanchez, you just have the feeling that, while he won't kill you on a really good offensive team, he's going to start to weigh down the bottom of the line-up and he just doesn't have anything about his game that really stands out. If the Sox still had Eduardo Escobar on their roster, I think they would start him at 2B over Sanchez. Faint praise, indeed...and, with all that said, they seem to be weighing the ability to manufacture runs and wreck havoc on the basepaths more than defense at this point. Of course, it also wouldn't be shocking if somehow Beckham ended up starting again...sigh. Eduardo Escobar put up 2.3 fWAR last year at SS. That's actually a pretty solid season at SS. Little bit worse on the bWAR number but he's carried by being a positive on both offense and defense. He also outhit Beckham last year, despite playing in the caverns of Minnesota. He put up a similar fWAR to Andrelton Simmons. That's more than faint praise.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 06:01 PM) The offense. The year before the offense was great and we thought they would take a step forward last year. With the additions on defense with Allen, Young, Houston and Fuller we thought they would at least be okay and outscore every one. Hard to say that offense is "Devoid of talent".

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) Again, read. It's not a complex thought. Obama refuses to state that ISIS is killing people because of their religious beliefs. His admn has a whole policy on that because of a fear of offending other Muslims and perpetuating an anti-Muslim sentiment. At home, that "policy" is ignored when it involves domestic race/religious issues. He's more than happy to call black victims of white crime victims of racism/hate. He'll conclude that a white person that kills 3 brown people did it because of racism/religious intolerance with no evidence supporting it. Clearly he's not afraid of offending anyone or perpetuating the "white people hate blacks/muslims" myth here at home. It's broad v. specific. It's taking a stand versus not taking a stand. It's a double standard. If there was some legitimate reason for doing so, maybe i'd be ok with it. But I don't see an issue with calling a spade a spade. ISIS killed people based on their religious beliefs. The victims may have been random, but the targeted group was not. Why is it harmful to point that out? You not liking the response of "Isis wants themselves to be viewed as #1 the Muslim resistance to the west and so adding the religious element to any of these discussions furthers their recruiting goals" doesn't mean that no one has told you what the legitimate reason is. Isis wants everyone in the middle east to view this as them standing up to the (Christian) bullies in the west. Al Qaeda wanted the exact same thing. There's a reason why - it's the best way to recruit disaffected fighters, give them an enemy that is attacking their religion and keeping them oppressed. Hell, even our "allies" in the region play the same game.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) He will also have to adjust to pitchers who will be studying much more tape and finding his holes. I think that (along with not being used to 145 games) was part of why he saw the power decrease in the 2nd half. That's why I think there's a decent chance we see more of his power reappear this year.

Shoulder surgery for Jurickson Profar, sidelined indefinitely.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 01:15 PM) Acting like these guys are performing random acts against random people IS pretending a problem doesn't exist, whether you drop bombs on them or not. And you're acting like there's no potential reason behind it and discarding the most obvious potential reason because you don't like it. One might even say you're burying your head in the ground regarding their recruiting techniques and successes.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 01:08 PM) Why does he have to go to the extreme and say we're in a holy war? Why can't he just be factual? And at this point how are they not a legitimate group? They have a name. Its members perform these acts under that name. That strategy is just burying your head in the sand and pretending a problem doesn't exist. Bombing them = pretending a problem doesn't exist?