Balta1701

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 03:29 PM) The problem is he was hitting well in AAA. I think it's hard to get a guy to commit to a change when he's seeing success with his bad habits. Actually, I could easily have convinced myself that Viciedo would benefit from another year at AAA. In 2011, he missed a portion of the year after being hit by a ball in ST, that bothered him the whole year, he was put through the "position switch" ringer again in 2011, and he didn't really "destroy" the ball in 2011 like he seemed like you'd want at AAA at his age. He kinda got called up because the 2011 team fell completely flat on its face and the team cut back on payroll in 2012, stepping back after an "all-in" season. It made sense to give him at bats to start 2012 because the team wasn't doing the "all-in" thing again and having him enabled them to move a guy who was a year away from FA that the Sox weren't going to keep (Quentin). If you were putting together the perfect way to develop him, or the perfect way to put a competitive team on the field, you'd probably have given him another year at AAA and used someone else in the OF, but neither of those were the case.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 03:21 PM) One thing that I noticed typing up some of these names is that I forgot some good prospects & didn't feel it necessary to include much in the way of fringe types or specialist/MR prospects. Other years guys like Bassit, Veal, and Leesman would immediately come to mind when thinking of this system, but things are developing to the point where we have some more interesting names to watch. Maybe we even have a few players like May, Beck and Danish turn into premium prospects while guys like Snodgress move up. We seem to be pretty thin in pitching though. Not many names to consider it seems when it comes to truly interesting SP without immediately dipping into Montas/Olacio territory. I think we need to focus on big arms probably with our 3-4 of first 5 picks this year if possible, get some more SP in here. Beck, Johnson, and Danish are all that excite me & the rest are just kind of interesting. Personally, no guarantees of course but I think, between Beck sitting down at AA and more arms than we can count at Charlotte, the org's pitching will look pretty strong again coming out of this season. Not sure it'll look so strong that we'll be able to trade away a starter again, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case at all.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 03:12 PM) He played for Lovie in 2012 Didn't "play" = "was third string behind Caleb Hanie until the whole season went down the toilet"?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 03:07 PM) why does this feel like Crain part 2 Crain missed a lot of spring last year but then was outright dominant for 3 months.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 02:35 PM) This is, IMO, the best reason for hope for both Viciedo and Garcia. Sort of like a change of scenery came to them instead of the other way around. Maybe this dude gets through to them -- it's refreshing, at least, to see Hahn making a good assessment of the type of message his hitters need. It at least shows that he has a good grasp of his team. Seems like there are several front offices that don't have a clue. One of my worries coming into this season is that since Garcia actually hit "well" in Chicago he won't feel like he needs to change his approach at all.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 01:26 PM) I just think the team-wide slump last year exaggerated his struggles. With a possibly more competent group around him and hopefully a more positive attitude team-wide I suspect he will take a nice jump. If the thing he takes from that "more competent group" is "be just the tiniest bit more patient and force the pitcher to try to get you out in the zone", you'll be right. I'd say his season last year was pretty much right what you'd expect given his approach.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 01:04 PM) Marshall Did that "next year" refer to th e 2014 or the 2015 season?

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 12, 2014 -> 12:40 PM) Will Hawkins and/or Mitchell ever reach the show with us? Mitchell it seems unlikely. How's he doing this spring? Hawkins, he's 20.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 06:43 PM) Garcia is in his age 23 season, do we really need to worry about him slowing down anytime soon? Besides, Garcia has proven he can carry a high average in the big leagues, something Viciedo has yet to even sniff. It's one thing to be a 290 hitter with little patience and mediocre power (as Garcia has been so far in his young career), it's another thing entirely to be a 255 hitter with little patience and mediocre power (as Tank has been so far in his young career). And it's one thing to flip a coin 4 times, have it come up heads 4 times, and declare yourself infallible too.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 04:49 PM) I agree on all points. This site is going to be disappointed with Garcia this year IMO. I like his athleticism and potential for both average and power but I see a .270/.310/.425 type season. Cautiously optimistic is my sentiment. How well each of them does depends on how well each of them learns.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 04:00 PM) Do you believe that Avisail Garcia is going to go through the same struggles? Viciedo actually has a higher walk rate than Garcia does thus far. Yes. Garcia put up a .370 BABIP with the White Sox. He swung at a ton of bad pitches and blooped a lot of them over the 2b in August. In September, he put up numbers that were more "normal" for how he was doing; hit .256 with a .673 OPS. Now to be clear...you don't necessarily have to "take the walk" to be effective at hitting. You can be a free swinger, but you have to do so in areas close to the strike zone or areas where you can actually do damage.

So the Bears signed Houston and have yet to cut Peppers?

QUOTE (59th street @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 03:39 PM) No argument, he has to have a better approach and learn to be more selective. It is very difficult to have any protection given the putrid performance of our lineup last year. I just think he has shown flashes of being a dangerous run producer and it would help him (and the SOX) if the pitcher was more likely to challenge him "in" the strike zone as opposed to never having to show him a strike knowing a couple of .220 hitters were coming up behind him. They're not going to challenge him until he can continously prove he's going to let pitches that are unhittable go past him. When he gets into those short grooves you can see him doing exactly that, he'll take a couple extra walks and have the count in his favor and the next thing you know he kills the ball, but then 2 weeks later he'll be back swinging at pitches over his head. Pitchers won't be scared of walking him until he shows he's not going to swing.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) The research that has been done on this that debunks it has been centered on observing Pitch F/X data for players who have had large discrepancies in their "lineup protection" over short periods of time, typically in situations where a player is traded or lost to free agency. No one has been able to find any difference in the types of pitches that these players see. Here's a Dave Cameron article examining pitch types to McCutchen over four years: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/...lb/refresh/true The general conclusion is that scary hitters are scary regardless -- that even with a good hitter behind him, you don't want to serve it up to a guy that can hurt you. Guys like Abreu don't see intentional gopher balls no matter who is behind them, because one swing can affect the scoreboard in every situation. HR hitters don't get fewer strikes with no protection because they are already getting the fewest strikes possible. Lineup protection is just another one of those things that makes sense intuitively, but for which no actual evidence exists. If you can show an effect for it, you'd be discovering something new. But for now, there's no evidence of anyone actually being pitched to differently based on who hits behind him (pitchers excluded). Seems like it should be there, but it just isn't. Not even a tangible difference in the number of walks a guy gets?

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 12:38 PM) Feeling less good to start FA than I felt last year around this time. That should be expected. IMO the Bears have more positions to fill than last year and less money with which to fill them.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 12:36 PM) baseball-reference.com can do it for any given year. In 1999, the MLB average OPS for 1B was .853, and Grace's OPS was .870. Can you give me a link or description of where in in their website to go? I got to seasonal totals but couldn't figure out how to do it by position.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 11:10 AM) That doesn't matter. She went out of her way to make a very dubious connection between the Koch brothers and that foundation, without mentioning that it is the same level of connection her employer has. If the Koch brothers are evil because of it, so is her employer and all the other companies that have the same level of connection. Which of course, I can't investigate because you can't be bothered to provide a few links to back up the statement, even to the original on-air piece.

QUOTE (Brian @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 12:30 PM) Dumb theory but could it have been hijacked by people who were awful flyers and went too high and disintegrated? There'd probably still have been a sighting. I'd actually guess that "disentigrating in the air" would leave a wider trail of debris to be found than smacking directly into the surface at high speed. Winds would scatter the debris and gasoline and oil over a wider area as it moved to the ground, and much more of it would be found floating than if it hit the water as a nearly intact piece.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 12:03 PM) Mark Grace also hit like a typical, average 1B of that period. He just didn't hit for power. Is there any way to see average league-wide splits from the early 90's by position? Grace's overall numbers are pretty solid and I'm curious what the average 1b was putting up then.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) Well yeah, I certainly wasn't saying Ravelo would have a career like any of those three. Those were All Star level players for numerous years. Was more just coming up with top-of-my-head examples of high-average, so-so power 1B's of a different era. Ravelo could perform significantly below that level, even as a 1B, and still have at least some value to a major league club. Unfortunately though, if he's a step below those guys both with the bat and with the defense...he might be able to hold down the starting 1b job on a club that just needs a cheap 1b, but he's not going to carry a team to the playoffs and he's not going to have a lot of trade value either. It's plausible the Chisox could wind up in the mode of needing a cheap 1b at the end of their lineup in a few years if Abreu moves to DH, but even in that case they'd probably be keeping their eyes open for an upgrade.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 11, 2014 -> 12:14 AM) S Rachael Maddow went all gonzo one night on her favorite target, the Koch brothers. Her claim was that a fund they had, gave money to the State Policy Network. The SPN is 'affiliated' with the Florida Foundation for Government Accountability, along with hundreds of other groups. If you were in any way affiliated with tnem, you were bad. What she failed to mention was that Comcast, which owns MSNBS is also affiliated with the Florida Foundation. Hmmmm. There is the truth, then there is the truth you don't tell people. both sides are pretty good at letting you only hear the side they want you to hear. She is as big a liar as any of them. Which is an impressive level of cognitive dissonance, because you somehow wrote this post without saying anything about what the Florida Foundation is, does, or why exactly Ms. Maddow decided to bring them up.

They basically use it as a census.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 04:38 PM) MSNBC copied Fox News. And she wasn't buying it. I'm still waiting for the what, 4 hour morning show on Fox led by a former Democratic Congressperson.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 10, 2014 -> 03:34 PM) Could be. We may see a re-emergence of the Mark Grace, Wally Joyner, Don Mattingly types at 1B in the current era of baseball. Would be an interesting shift. Worth stressing that a couple of those guys were considered elite defenders.

Clear a 40 man spot or no?