Balta1701

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 29, 2016 -> 01:20 PM) KW didn't like toolsy players all the time. That was a shift from his previous philosophy of safe college players. So what you're saying is that KW/Han have the money to spend up to the INTL limit so not to pay a penalty? I wonder how many other teams take the same philosophy? IIRC the last few years they've spent up to very close to their international limit without going over, which to me is actually a fairly sensible way to do it because the penalty the next year will hurt and piling up a large number of guys does seem to increas the chances of a success story.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 29, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Britain confronts a wave of racist incidents after the Brexit vote One thing the English-speaking world is going to have to face up to this year is that we've stepped backwards 25+ years in terms of making it suddenly ok to yell obviously racist things on the street to whomever you want to hate. =Stealing quote

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 05:35 PM) The Blue Jays and Red Sox have better offenses. Sox have better pitching. Interestingly, Torotno's pitching staff actually has the 3rd best ERA in the AL. The White Sox's staff has slightly more fWAR, but it's closer than I'd have guessed had I not looked (Sox are 7th, Blue Jays 9th in MLB in fWAR). Blue Jays and Red Sox have also both had comparably difficult schedules to the White Sox.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 04:24 PM) Actually they already are since they are 2.5 games out. As many problems as the White Sox have, the AL is pretty weak this year. If the season ended today, KC and Boston would be the two wildcards. Two teams that have as many holes as we do. We just took 3 out of 4 in Boston and Farrell may get fired before Robin. KC is the 2nd worst road team in the AL. Only Minny is worse. Toronto---we just took 2 of 3 from them. Detroit? Another team w a manager on thin ice. I think the teams that make the best moves at the deadline will win the WC spots. But right now, there is no front runner. Worth noting - right now the 2nd wild card is on pace for 86.3 wins. If, as you say, the team winning the 2nd wild card is a team that improves at the deadline, that means your team needs 87-88 wins to target the 2nd wild card.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 04:37 PM) Hard to say they are "definitely" better than the Sox when the Sox are collectively 10-6 against those teams. "It's not who you play, it's when you play em'"

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) The government is so corrupt you thought they'd get Hillary on something there? I love listening to Jesse Ventura talk about America. He was a loyal Navy Seal who believed in government. He points out how corrupt it all is with politicians getting paid off. After Ventura won he said he'd meet with no lobbyists because they didn't give him a cent during his campaign and didn't need to listen to anybody cause he wasn't bought. Just the amounts of money Hillary got for speaking, one big lol and to the companies she'll be doing favors for. She's "raised" more money for her campaign than Bill Gates is worth (well, almost). I can't believe there are Hillary supporters out there still. I was reading an Internet ad for Hillary. Somebody was saying they'd vote for her cause she has a big heart. What?? Where do they come up with these things. She's the definition of selfish elitist and she has a big heart? Yeah, the Republicans have no interest in finding anything out about Hillary. They didn't even try. They blew 2 years and a couple million dollars on blow.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jun 27, 2016 -> 11:39 PM) But the flip side of that is how many runs will he allow and cost games because of his bad defense? Mark He's cut his error rate compared to last year by more than 50% and he's getting to more baseballs per game. He's not going to win a gold glove over there, but he's an average defensive SS right now.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 08:02 AM) I'd be very surprised if he keeps up that pace. I can see 25 HR, but not more. His defense will keep him out of the lineup at times in close games. You realize he's cut his error rate by more than 50% compared to last year while getting to even more balls, right? He's not Iglesias, but he's gotten himself up to being about an average SS. 3 other SSs have more errors than him so far this year and he's tied with Gregorius.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 08:29 PM) Which current hitters did they develop? Schwarber, Bryant, and arguably Rizzo arrived ready to hit. Who is next? Baez? Everyone else was a free agent They've had some guys who left also. Justin Bour's hitting cleanup for the Marlins and was blocked by Rizzo, The Rangers backup catcher Robinson Chirinos was one of theirs. Anyone else I'm forgetting? Edit: Junior Lake, the opposing CF today, was in their org for a while.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 10:34 PM) Exactly, that's chasing the million dollar dream. I don't invest that way. Can you get lucky? Sure. Bit odds are against it...and in Vegas we call that gambling. But if you sign up for Trump University we will teach you to beat this system! And I'm investing in Gold like the Fox commercials tell me! (Calmly walks away)

So whats been the deal with Stroman this year? People were talking about him coming into the season as Toronto getting their ace back and he's got an ERA over 5. Anyone had a chance to see him?

Well, at the very least this game significantly increased the White Sox's team Slugging %age.

QUOTE (Condor13 @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 05:08 PM) Unless cleveland comes back down to reality, no one in the central will catch them. Sox best hope is the wildcard I think. Obviously if cleveland starts to play like everyone thought they would then the sox could make a run at them. "Everyone thought they would" in a bad context? I think there were a number of people, me included, who thought they were on paper the best team in this division before the season started. If Kluber could get into a groove they could really be scary.

Wasn't there a game a few weeks ago where they set the record for biggest number of solo HR in a single game?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 04:44 PM) They lost the challenge on Frazier's infield single, correct? Why can they do this Starting in inning 7 the challenge doesn't matter, the managers can politely ask the ump to review a play and the ump can decide yes or no. Genuinely makes some sense, you don't want to have a game decided on something a review would obviously catch.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 05:35 PM) The message should be on everyone sitting in government office today. The answer is the status quo and the bickering and the stagnation are not acceptable and that people need to work with the other party to actually drive progress. The standstill that has occurred in government (along with the stagnant economy) are what is driving all these people to be absurd and those pushed and frustrated, either lean more left to a near socialist candidate or more right to a lunatic. Either way, both sides are revolting and they have given those indications, now hopefully the politicians wise up and realize change has to happen (and things don't get too crazy where everything goes to hell). Just so I say this. Hypothetically, if one party decided it was no longer willing to govern, that it was willing to shut down the ability of the nation to govern itself unless it got 100% its own way, and that decision was key to leading to the "standstill"... If that were the case that this one party had done that, and people blamed "everyone sitting in government office today" for not solving stagnation, then anyone blaming "everyone in office" would be proving that the strategy of breaking government was smart and successful. That hypothetical party would have: broken government and gotten people to blame the full government for it, rather than blaming the party that made that decision.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 01:57 PM) How final is the vote? Can it be negated or re-voted upon? Love all the voters who said they didn't think their vote would matter. It's a non-binding referendum, so it matters as much as the PM wants it to matter. The PM has pledged to follow the results of the vote and the PM apparently has the authority on his own to submit the "Article 50" declaration to the EU that starts the process of removing the country. From that perspective, it's final in that the PM pledged to follow the results. However, Parliament is still sovereign. They in theory could pass legislation somehow barring the PM from following the results of this vote. There are a number of proposals out there so far for how Parliament might do this and that's the current limit of my knowledge of their system.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 03:36 PM) re: Lawrie's first HR A ball that hits the yellow part of the fence is not an automatic HR? I thought it was In this ballpark the yellow line is just there to provide a color contrast so that umps can see if a ball flies over the fence or not. The ball must actually clear the fence in this ballpark. Other places with the "Big vertical walls" use the yellow line differently and will have above it be out of the park.

Well Lawrie's hitting quite well.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 25, 2016 -> 02:58 PM) Eh, he had a long way to get to being OK in the field. He's 23, we can give him time. A reasonable question in reply then is if the organization is ok sacrificing wins this year in order to give him time to develop in that slot.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 04:52 PM) You really get exposed for how thin you are when you someone like Abreu goes down. Unless Rodon spins an absolute gem tonight, they stand almost no chance of winning this game. That's just not how any of this works.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 02:47 PM) It is really too bad that the big picture is getting missed here. Both with Trump and Brexit, there are a lot of people fed up with the system and the way things are going in their respective countries. They feel like they don't have a voice, and with 21st century politics having turned into it being more important to mock your opponents than to actually learn something from them, these are the ways that people see they can even the score and stick it to the man. It would be nice if we could look at things in gray's anymore instead of black and white. Fixing a flawed system doesn't have to be a victory or a loss. But when the alternatives that get set up are extremes of one side or the other, people can't be surprised when the flow is to the opposite extreme of what we have been doing. Brexit should scare the crap out of anyone here in the United States because that same undercurrent of anger, resentment, and frustration exists right here in the US, and has already given us Donald Trump. More important than what the guy actually stands for is why people are actually gravitating towards people like him, and even Bernie Sanders to a large extent. Hopefully people starting paying attention the "why" before it is too late here. What I find particularly interesting is that I think you're generally right with the "scare the crap out of anyone" part, but your answer for the why is "more important to mock your opponents" and I think that's 100% as much being in denial as what you try to condemn. I think this is a complete failure to acknowledge the major driving force - actual economic grievances. The provinces that voted strongly for this, away from the financial center in London that has grown rapidly, are people who have had 5 years of 2 recessions followed by the Austerity program. They've had health benefits and jobs cut as the Conservative government cut its budget, and the only place that was growing at that time was a financial center/industry.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 02:24 PM) Not always. At the trade deadline, the competition is other teams selling staring pitching as well. In the offseason the competition is almost every teamwilling to trade pitching as well as the free agents. Fo example, it seems like the market for Sale or Q will be limited because it is going to take a lot to get either one. If Boston decides they need another staring pitcher for the pennant chase this year, they might trade off assets that would take them out of the market for another trade in the off-season. The question is whether or not you're demanding players who have already hit the big leagues in return for them. If you're demanding a player who is establishing himself on a big league roster as a return for Sale, you will not get that at the trade deadline because teams in contention are not going to give up the guys who put them in contention. That's the spot where they might get desperate and part with any minor leaguer you want for one of them, but if you're talking about big league talent in return that's the one thing you don't get at the trade deadline. The only recent example I can remember of a team in competition giving up a player in a trade at the deadline was the Cespedes/Lester deal. If you're willing to trade Quintana for a package of "entirely minor leaguers", then the deadline might be ok. If you're insisting on a 2nd-3rd year player as the keystone in return for Sale, you will not get that at the deadline.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 01:56 PM) And remember, Asik went down in the ECF. I still believe if Rose hadn't torn his ACL, they win in 2012. They were clicking at the end of the season so well. Wasn't that the year they never really clicked because it was lockout shortened and then Rose missed like 1/3 of the games with various injuries? I don't think clicking is how I'd have described it, it seemed more like waiting around for them to have a chance to play together.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jun 24, 2016 -> 11:33 AM) His BABIP will stay that low because he either pops up, K's, or homers. Nothing in between. His BABIP will not stay at .179. That's absurdly low. Rob Deer had a career BABIP of .275 and he's always my go-to guy for what you just described. He had a season as low as .220, but his career still averaged out. The lowest full season BABIP on record is Aaron Hill at .196, here's the lowest BABIP seasons since 1945.