Balta1701

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 07:42 PM) This. Nobody likes the Ks. The front office doesn't like them either. It's no secret that a high K rate is bad. But panic? Just seems unfounded at this point. Let's give him a chance to get better. It's 100% clear what he needs to work on this offseason and this is probably the first time he's hit real difficulties in his career. Let's see what he actually learns from it.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 09:08 PM) De Aza has been a better "lead-off hitter" each of the past 2 years than Podsednik was in '05. I know we all love to glorify players from the '05 team, and Podsednik certainly had his role, but his offense isn't the reason that team won the World Series. Pods in '05: .290/.351/.349 88 wRC+ De Aza this year: .270/.328/.437 105 wRC+ I note that Pods's numbers were probably impacted by being hurt for August and much less effective stealing bases in September because of the injury.

QUOTE (Harold @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 09:47 PM) I was at the game (took my grandson to his 1st Sox game ~ have to help raise him right!) and met Shingo on the concourse. He was with his translator and I shook his hand, it was loads of fun. I bet he could still flip the frisbee up there at at least 75 mph, although he did bounce his first pitch about 6 feet in front of home plate, so maybe not. When did he gain 20 mph on that pitch?

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 07:36 PM) Man nice find with that velocity chart. Looks like a bit of a negative slope if anything. Do you attribute that to decline or the old "learning how to pitch rather than throw" Bobby Jenks excuse. Something about relievers and their fastballs wear down fast IMO, not all of them but some. I wonder if there are any studies into that or if it's just Jerksticks science talkin. I think Reed tired out clearly last year, hence his terrible second half. And is getting stronger as this year goes on.

Yay Peavy, De Aza, Phegley, Rios. Boo defense.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 07:18 PM) Are you kidding me. I pray Rick Hanh is working the phones and placing calls on Sale. I wouldn't publicly shop him and say flood me with calls. But I would call a few teams in need of SP that you have a good relationship with and see if those select few would like to work out a package for Sale. I am talking the type of haul the Rangers got for Mark Texeria; Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz, Elvis Andrus. If Hahn can get that kind of package for Sale you 100% trade him, even though he has a team friendly deal. This team is bad and with no real talent in the minor leagues penciled in for roles with the big league club if you can get three for one here you do it. This team is a lot closer to a cubs like tear down and rebuild than they are to building around Sale to compete in the next 2-3 years. Sale is the one piece than can accelerate the tear down and rebuild ten fold. I note that the actual key piece in the Tex deal, Saltalamaccia, you left out because he busted. The Rangers turned out because they got a bunch of lower level pieces for him and each of them has done decent, but hell...Andrus, Feliz, and Holland, I wouldn't be happy with that return for an actual ace pitcher.

WTF? If there's one thing a contending team wants, it's...prospects from the white sox system?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) De Aza 4 hits . Pretty much everyone you could want to trade has had a good game today.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) If hitting .194/.268/.436 with a 44.1 K% isn't overmatched, then no player in the history of baseball has ever been overmatched. A .730 OPS in high-A? Decent walk numbers, closing in on 20 HR with a good shot at 25? He needs work, but he's not blown away nearly as much as you guys want to pretend.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 05:25 PM) I think once we sell off we wrap of that #1 pick, the season will no longer be about winning games but player development at the major league level. (I think the White Sox make themselves better if they sell off some of these guys and get them out of the way).

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 05:53 PM) The point is if he's dominating at a low level with bad habits, then he's not really developing. While I agree in principle, a 50+% K rate is just mind-boggling and something should probably be done to help Hakwins out whether that's a demotion or a time-out. And as others have pointed out, his K-rate has improved as the season has gone on. If he's working on improving on the bad habits...then he is actually developing.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 06:17 PM) If someone's clearly over-matched at a level, he isn't developing, either. There's nothing wrong with letting Hawkins hit .300 with power in Low A before promoting him. Let him prove to you he's ready for a promotion. There's a reason only one HS player from last years draft (Addison Russell) started the year at High A. Even prospects that were clearly superior to Hawkins entering the year such as Correa, Buxton, and Dahl all entered the season at Low A. Regardless, the White Sox deciding Hawkins was ready for High A before the season is a disaster. It's one of the biggest internal scouting mistakes they've made in years. Again, he's not "clearly over-matched". He's run into an issue that he has to work through, but he has still been surprisingly productive despite that issue.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:30 PM) FWIW, Jon Heyman says contending GMs see Peavy as a better get than Garza And also today is a day that ends in Y. And Mark Prior is hurt.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) Are you seriously asking why pension plans shouldn't take into account the current economy and rate of returns for other investments that are happening NOW, but instead should base their predictions on what they did 5, 10, 20 years ago? Yes, they should absolutely take into account the rate of return on investments over time. Why are people claiming that on average they will make smaller returns over time than they have over the last 50 years? If you're in 1999 and the PE ratio is over 30, that's one thing. That's not the case now. That certainly wasn't the case a year or two ago, but people who want to slash pensions say things like this regardless of the time. A 7-8% projection right now really isn't that outrageous. There is still reasonable space for this market to go up. If you use a basic projection of the growth rate based on historic PE ratio trends a 5% growth rate projection should seriously underestimate the market performance. That's 2% inflation + 3% GDP growth plus 0 equity premium. Detroit's pension problem continues to be the fact that the population has shrunk by more than 50%. You can't fund a pension for anyone when the company is 1/2 the size it used to be.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 06:06 PM) When Rios was removed, was it when the team was still on the field or at the end of the inning? It was between innings. After he loafed into the double play he went straight to RF without going to the dugout. He fielded that half inning, did not come up during the home side, and then Wells took over RF the next time out.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 05:54 PM) Yea. I think we have to trade Addison. Wasn't he throwing 97 when he first came up? Either way, bailey just went down, now's the time to cash in before he is exposed. Here's his velocity chart. Doesn't look like there's any real consistent trend other than him getting tired at the end of 2012 which we all saw. He might well be getting stronger as this year goes on.

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 06:39 PM) I can't believe Phegley was left down in the minors as long as he was.....if he had been on the major league roster all season, I bet we'd be at least 2-3 games closer to the playoffs than we currently are. You can't call a guy up after only 2 good months in the minors. I still thought they were taking a chance with how early they called him up, we'll see what happens as pitchers adapt.

That was a helluva swing Josh

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Yep, him/Flowers/Axelrod just don't seem like they can cut it at the MLB level. Axelrod will wind up hanging on at the big league level for a fairly long time as a 5th/6th starter I'll bet. Flowers, not sure if he can hang on as an adequate backup or not. Morel, who knows.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:39 PM) He's pretty close to being a zero-tool player. I've always thought his defense was severely overrated, but I'm not sure what defensive metrics say about him. His D has been bad ever since the back problems cropped up.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:33 PM) Beckham almost got killed after a less than perfect throw by Morel Bah, that wasn't that bad, that ball was so slow that a perfect throw wouldn't have made a difference. beckham shouldn't have been pushing so hard to turn 2.

Sigh.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:16 PM) As they should. Santiago actually has a future in this rotation. Easy decision in my opinion. Still surprising that they were so insistent on Santiago in the bullpen earlier in the season.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 20, 2013 -> 04:09 PM) Not a really good list there outside of the Red Sox. I was really hoping Arizona would be interested in him. Baltimore makes sense, they just have very little to give up. Bah, not every team has to scout a guy in person.

Phegley gives and takes away immediately. Really nice throw, he was out. Nice job blocking 2nd by Alexei as well.