Balta1701

QUOTE (Boogua @ Apr 12, 2014 -> 11:40 AM) Yes. The pacers aren't very good anymore... I can understand that perspective, but still wouldn't be surprised to find that team turning it on once playoffs arrived.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Apr 11, 2014 -> 10:32 PM) Toronto lost today. That's huge for the Bulls as they'll likely make the ECF if they get the 3 seed. It's also not great for the Heat as they're likely to face both Brooklyn and the Bulls if the standings hold up. The Heat should win both, obviously, but its not the easiest of paths. Doesn't this mean you have the Bulls beating the Pacers?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 12, 2014 -> 01:35 AM) Chen got rocked in 3 2/3 innings tonight vs. Minnie. Can KC keep a guy in the rotation just cause he beats the White Sox? Guthrie is slightly better than Chen. KC isn't gonna contend. If we can stay .500, big if, we can be in this race. Bruce Chen's ERA over the past 5 years is 4.21. Bruce Chen is doing more than just beating the white sox.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 11, 2014 -> 07:27 PM) And he hardly mentions it was the TWELFTH pitch of the f***ing at bat. That is one of the better at bats you'll see. And if you watch the video, he was actually fooled by the pitch and paused mid-leg kick to time it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 11, 2014 -> 04:18 PM) I simply don't understand how Semien can start every day and yet will be shipped to the minors when Beckham and Kepp return. Makes no sense. Kepp should be traded for a Class A prospect; Beckham should either be utility guy or traded for again a couple low level prospects. Semien getting sent down will suck majorly. NO ONE WILL DO THIS. IF YOU GAVE A TEAM KEPPINGER AND THE $10 MILLION REMAINING ON HIS CONTRACT, THEY'D ASK FOR ANOTHER $5 MILLION BEFORE THEY GAVE UP A PROSPECT.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 08:35 PM) One guy injures himself and we all know how he needs to train how to play. Sure I don't know what he needs to do, but what he's doing right now seems like a path to tearing an arm off.

Michael Pineda's hand:

The timing does make sense. Successfully saved the goal that HHS completely screwed up at the beginning, now transitioning from startup to long term implementation of HCR, time for the senate to sit on its hands while filibustering the new nominee.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 07:58 PM) This is something that is teachable. Sliding into first is a decision that isn't really likely to work out in your favor, both being safe and likelihood of being injured. But trying to tell an outfielder not to lay out anymore will take away his aggressiveness in close balls and probably mess up how he attacks a ball. I gotta disagree here after seeing Garcia. I don't know if there's a technique to diving, but if there is he's terrible at it. Maybe its' a body type thing too, that could be important I don't know, but if he lays out like that for fly balls for a couple years then he's going to be the next Winter Soldier. He nearly broke his wrist and cost him the season last week, and it took him less than a week to do it again. Either there's technique he needs to learn about how to do it, or he needs to stop and learn the Ordonez slow down big guy slide.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 07:12 PM) The Sox should take whoever they feel is the best player available regardless of position. Major league needs should never be a factor in the MLB draft. I actually kind of disagree with this. If there's a position where the whole system is weak then it makes sense to give a little extra weight to that position in the middle rounds, especially since in the middle rounds it's so much of a card-flip which guy is going to be better. The White Sox were weak on catchers at their lower levels like a year or two ago and had no incumbent at the big league level, so it made sense to target them. But, at the top of the draft...that's just not the case.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 06:36 PM) Valid point, but I think this injury may have closed the gap to the point where they might be better off taking the HS hitter (less risk) ahead of the HS pitcher (more risk.) If they were approximately even you might have a point, but by all accounts the pithcers are still a lot ahead of the hitters

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 07:02 PM) You just wonder after the dive last week, and with his size, why the outfield instructor/s didn't start working with him on the patented Magglio Ordonez sliding catch? Or, more importantly, why the Tigers didn't as well? Letting Manny be Manny, maybe coaches nowadays just defer to letting the players do whatever they want. Doesn't make much sense from the club's perspective, though. Well, if nothing else, it turned out to be fortunate to have Viciedo and DeAza both on the roster instead of traded in the offseason. Maybe they both can relax now, knowing they're not fighting each other for playing time every day and every at-bat, even though they SEEMED like they were handling it okay so far. Probably because it's only been a week since the last terrible slide and he has a lot of things to work on, like pulling the ball high& tight to LF like we just saw him successfully do.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 03:13 PM) That poster who said Piersall hates outfielders diving for the ball intrigued me. If it is frowned upon, shame on the Sox for not instructing their guys better. Garcia's career now in serious jeopardy. Just another guy to fill one of baseball's DH spots now if he can hit well enough. I don't know that it's frowned upon...but Avisail Garcia looked terrible in both attempts. In the one last week I thought he was an inch from breaking his wrist in half. This one, well...

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 03:09 PM) Thank alot you lawn ornament Viciedo. You are part of the reason Avi is out rest of 2014. Seriously...anyone writing this didn't watch Garcia's dive last week. Unless someone got him to stop doing that, he was going to damage something while diving.

QUOTE (The Mighty Mite @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) I did not see the play but I know one thing, I see way too much unnecessary diving for balls in MLB. Before we moved to Florida I was a pretty good friend of Jimmy Piersall who was a hell of a center fielder and he despised it when guys dove for balls. It seemed last week like Garcia had terrible form while diving for balls. He almost did this on a dive last week too.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 02:06 PM) I don't want Rodon if it costs the entire draft pool to sign him. I continue to think "I'm going to go back to school for another year (and potentially delay my time before reaching free agency by a year) in order to get $8 million instead of $5.5 million in the draft" sounds absolutely crazy. I'm not sure I'd even want to draft a person thinking that in the top 5 because they're thinking like a person who will never make the big leagues.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 11:35 AM) WHAA??? Dude is an admin on talkbears!! If I was just a fan of the Bills, I wouldn't be able to get very excited about watching the NFL for the last...15 years. Sorta had to re-adopt the Bears around 03 or so.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 12:11 PM) Colbert is replacing Letterman. Good for him. But...Boooooo.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) Ok, so what happens when someone breaks their contract and is drafted into the NBA (NFL) after only 1 (3) years of college? Don't see a reply to this, but this happened for the NFL, Maurice Clarett tried to get into the draft after 3 years at OSU once he was tossed out of school, the case made it to the Supreme Court but the Court sided with the NFL.

Benny FTW.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 02:06 PM) I kind of agree. He hits many balls hard, but his groundball rate is one Leury Garcia would be proud of. If he is thinking about homers, maybe he gets the ball in the air a bit more, and if he does, more runs will happen. I found it interesting that both of the pitches he demolished yesterday were high and tight, I feel like poeple have been getting him out there the last few games.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 02:01 PM) Being a 30th round pick is going to put him in all probability in the bullpen, not everyone can start, and if you check his minor league career, early on, he didn't do anything to make an organization say, "you know what, you should be a starter". A WHIP of almost 1.6 in the Sally League, walking over 6 per 9 innings, usually is a recipe for a starter to become a reliever, not the other way around. After he cut his walk rate in half, the Sox gave him a shot as a starter. I just don't see any evidence that shows if he was handled differently he was pretty much assured of being a quality starting pitcher on the major league level. Despite decent stuff, he has had many struggles with excess baserunners and throwing too many pitches. It was fairly obvious Cooper was very frustrated with him. But the other thing you noted right there was that he was able, with work, to cut his walk rate in half. The one thing I'm wondering about is his velocity and whether or not there was an increase through the minors. We saw him bounce between the bullpen and starting and he never gained much, if any velocity out of the pen. If he was a lefty who threw 93 out of high school...well I'm surprised he lasted to the 30th round, and I'd be even more surprised that he didn't get a chance to do at least some starting early.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 01:57 PM) Let's just hope Garcia doesn't get homer happy and starts swinging for the fences all the time. I'm actually not sure that would be a worse approach than the one he has now by all that much given the power he does seem to have.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 01:57 PM) Lots of pitchers start out in the bullpen, get spot starts, then go back to the bullpen. Some of them then go on to be starters. What, precisely, do people suppose has been altered by this pattern of development? If anything, bullpen guys should throw a greater percentage of strikes than starters, so I'm not sure how "being jerked around" would result in an inability to throw strikes. Are you saying he gets fatigued easily because of the role switch? He should be able to get stretched out over a season. Seems like the reason all of this happened is that Santiago is a fringe player, not the other way around. No, I'm saying that he never got the chance to develop his offspeed stuff, and in particular throwing offspeed stuff for strikes, because he never was treated as a starter who might have use of developing multiple offspeed pitches.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 01:52 PM) But still, using your conspiracy theory and his uber talent, shouldn't he be at least a little improved? If anything, he's going the other way. I think you will ultimately find out Santiago isn't nearly as tremendous as you think. I'm sure you're right and I have no problem with the trade...but I will still think that if he'd been put on the trajectory the white sox use for most of their other guys...start first and then try in the bullpen at higher levels...we'd see a much stronger pitcher.