Balta1701

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 11:23 AM) Because it is always something, that is how so. The guy is always hurt, and I am sick of waiting Ah. Not sure I consider that bizarre either, dude's just injury prone.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 10:57 AM) This Beckham situation is so bizarre. How so? Isn't it an oblique pull? Those take forever to heal. Viciedo missed over 3 weeks with one last year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 07:27 PM) Beede struggling again tonight vs Tennessee. Hoffman to face Rice now. Was this at Tennessee? Y'all could have sent me in person if it was here.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 08:25 PM) I believe in technology. Not in magic. You seem to be the opposite. "Well I come from a place where they're one and the same"

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 07:23 PM) called it

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 05:11 PM) Jim Edmonds v Rob Mackowiak, one had a great ability to read a bat off the bat the other did not. Actually Edmonds's defense stats (yes a bit early in their existence) are quite remarkable. He had a couple really great early career defensive seasions, but then from 1998 on his defense gradually got better every single year until it peaked in 2005. First I wonder if the early-career ones were just related to data quality, but second, this looks a whole lot like the stat line of a guy who gradually got better on defense over his entire career due to wroking at it.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 05:07 PM) That is instinct and Garcia does not have it. You can not teach a player to be a better outfielder. His speed will make up for some short comings. The ball in the first he should have gotten to. It would have been a good play but he still should have gotten there. The fact this organization thought he could be a center-fielder is a head scratcher though. Really? Because honestly I just don't buy that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) What do you expect when you ask the guy to drive the speed limit? What do you want him to do, leave his place early? Pfft. This is LA. clap clap clap.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 02:43 PM) I have my posting faults, but I don't flood the board with the "it's early" stuff. Most of us who complain realize it's early in the season. We'd just like to see the team avoid early meltdowns and huge ruts like players starting 1 for 20 and blowing games against teams like the Twins where it looks like we stole the game to begin with. If you're not willing to put up with huge ruts and blowing games really badly with stupid mistakes, you really shouldn't watch a team this young. That's exactly what we should expect from them.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 02:24 PM) Sure, but it's still a huge question about his development, the answer to which could have a ripple effect on the future infield. Really hoping he can be good enough at short. Just to stress...with Alexei on the big league squad, this is something he won't be able to work on or be evaluated at until he is sent back down.

QUOTE (beautox @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 12:03 PM) Is it possible for Semien to play a competent SS? About 2/3 of the games he's played in the minors he started at SS.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 10:28 AM) I had that plus "mandatory" (if you want to play) lifting from 5-7am each day. The arguments are the exact same. The reason the NLRB judge focused on the control issue was in part to argue that the scholarship was less about education and more about football. There are ton of basketball high schools around the country that kids transfer to solely for basketball purposes. I'm sure in Texas football works the same way. I think if you're going down the line of "they make money off you, you should get paid," HS students have to be paid as well. But I think the trick is "it's possible to make money off of people volunteering for an athletic program, but there is a dividing line between legit volunteerism/amateurism and a nearly-full-time-job". Oh, and the HS Swimmer in me has officially just resumed my taunting of the weak workloads of the football teams.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 10:13 AM) I agree. It's not mechanics, its definitely pitch recognition. People have disagreed and said that there is a mechanical change he may need to make to exploit his power - that he drives the ball too much into the ground, and thus hits too many ground balls/bloops.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:58 AM) Yeah, I've always liked him, but let's let someone else pay for the overweight guy's 30s. Seems to me like the round guys break down early. If you got him next offseason, on say a 5 year deal, you'd have his age 28-32 seasons. That seems like a reasonable gamble if they are interested in spending money in that particular way.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:57 AM) I agree, I think they need to start working Johnson out in CF. Personally I say work them all out at SS, at least part time. They're all young, see if one of them can really grab hold of it.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:28 AM) Wasn't part of the ruling about how much control over the athletes' lives the universities have as well? Curfews, pressure over what classes/majors to take, final say on where they can or can't live, etc. And I'd bet at those few "football factory" high schools, those sorts of restrictions are in place as well.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:49 AM) If Semien doesn't pan out, I still have high hopes for Sanchez, just 21 starting his second full season at AAA after a tremendous performance in the DSL. I think he is a better option at 2B than SS in the long run defensively. Trouble is, we've got what, 3 guys we might be able to say are best fit at 2b? Semien, Sanchez, Johnson, all of them with promise. If more than 1 of them are big leaguers, someone's going to have to play a position other than 2b.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:27 AM) Johnson/Eaton/Garcia might give you 18-20 homers. That's probably not going to cut it unless you're making it up at 3B, middle infield and catcher. If you're adding him onto that list and they're only giving 18-20 homers then Garcia isn't going to be long for this team.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) Sandoval is looking for a contract similar to Hunter Pence, maybe more. He's a guy I stay very, very far away from. I hear ya, but it's nice to know that the option is out there. He'll be what, a 28 year old this offseason? He'd be pricey but if we solve the catcher's spot and we think we're going for the division in 2015, Abreu followed by Sandoval is a formidable middle of the order.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) Raul Ibanez would tend to agree with you. Still, there's no sure-fire obvious candidate like Dunn this time around. VMart/Morales/Lind/A.LaRoche/S.Smith/Doumit/Melky Cabrera...etc., not exactly a Murderer's Row. Look at the success (we'll see how long it lasts) the Twins are having with Collabello or whatever his name is...he was THIS close to taking an offer to play in Japan during the offseason, despite putting up really impressive minor league stats last year. Also should point out that if the White Sox want to spend bigger money on a guy on a multiple year deal to fill their DH spot, Sandoval is an obvious option as well.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) Raul Ibanez would tend to agree with you. Still, there's no sure-fire obvious candidate like Dunn this time around. VMart/Morales/Lind/A.LaRoche/S.Smith/Doumit/Melky Cabrera...etc., not exactly a Murderer's Row. Look at the success (we'll see how long it lasts) the Twins are having with Collabello or whatever his name is...he was THIS close to taking an offer to play in Japan during the offseason, despite putting up really impressive minor league stats last year. If JDA is what I'm hoping he is, we don't need a guy to carry the entire offense. We need a lefty to hit behind him and do some damage. Pretty much any of those names would look ok hitting 5th in our lineup if they were healthy. An upper .700's OPS, 15+ HR, and the ability to drive in 75+ runs in a full season's equivalent would work pretty darn well there. The guy wouldn't even need to play every day, if the team was deep enough you could easily slide one of the righties into that slot on days when there's a lefty on the mound.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 03:14 PM) Ideally it would be someone in our organization, but I doubt Wilkins or Black is the answer. VMart or Morales are interesting options. I feel as though you solve this before catcher if possible....unless a lefty catcher is the option. The "middle of the order LH bat" is IMO probably easier to solve for this roster than a catcher. For the catcher they're clearly looking for a long-term solution. The LH bat is something we could plug in from the free agent market with a veteran since we have the DH slot open, and we could even cycle through more than one of those guys over a couple years. If we're signing late-in-their-career veterans, we'd still have to worry about injuries and declining performance, but the long term cost risk might be kept to a minimum.

Thought about this a bit more in the context of the actual NLRB-regional ruling for colleges. One key argument that was made in the NLRB ruling was that the college athletes were being worked like full time employees. They were required to be at 40+ hours of practices and sessions per week, and thus could not by any reasonable means be considered amateurs. This concept actually sets up a potential to draw a dividing line. Back in my day, before these kids and their music, the football team at my high school didn't commit anywhere near 40 hours a week to practice; I think I'd have been impressed if they did 20. Based on that standard, it would seem entirely reasonable to consider them as volunteering/not full time employees. Furthermore, they weren't obviously getting anything (like payment in the form of a scholarship) in exchange for the time they spent there. However, I didn't go to one of those football factory high schools that now exist. Those are a different beast, and I wouldn't be surprised if the football teams at those schools, the top ones in the country where they have 15,000 seat stadia and so forth, are effectively working their players like full time employees. Furthermore, I would bet that the players are in many ways receiving the equivalent of "compensation" by being allowed to be at those schools. You make an interesting point, and with some thought it seems like following the NLRB ruling could actually give a way to come up with a rough dividing line.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) Wouldn't that be the exception rather than the rule? If one guy can become a vastly more patient hitter, that means its possible with coaching. Like I said with Viciedo, these guys don't need to walk 100 times to be successful, they just need to be paitient enough to control the strike zone.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 06:13 PM) Oh yeah, smart guy? THEN HOW THE f*** DO MAGNETS WORK!?!?! Do I really...