Balta1701

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 28, 2015 -> 02:37 PM) I really, really wish I had Gage's optimism but they have no real shot. Still pumped to have basketball starting even if the Bulls just piss me off. I'll play optimistic for now and think they have a chance too...but it takes Hoiberg winning coach of the year?

I just think it's going to be interesting to see what a different coach does with this roster. Will we see that taking the reins off on offense will lead to these guys suddenly being more effective or will we lose some of the discipline imposed by Thibs? Will we lose some of the 1on1 defense effectiveness we saw or will being more flexibile actually make this team more effective. Inquiring mind wants to know.

I just think it's going to be interesting to see what a different coach does with this roster. Will we see that taking the reins off on offense will lead to these guys suddenly being more effective or will we lose some of the discipline imposed by Thibs? Will we lose some of the 1on1 defense effectiveness we saw or will being more flexibile actually make this team more effective. Inquiring mind wants to know.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Sep 28, 2015 -> 01:27 AM) The argument I'm making isn't is he worth his contract. He is, and I'm happy with him as an individual player. At the same time, the overall hitting on this team sucks. He's been playing CF and pretty good at it. I think he's peaked, you maybe don't. I'd trade him unless the Sox plan on bringing in a lot more legitimate players with him which it doesn't sound like they plan on doing. You trade him for a position of need. That's what you do in all trades. Seriously, you trade something to get something. I would love to trade Danks and turn him into Trout, but that ain't happening. Instead, you can trade Eaton for someone in the infield (hell, you need all positions but one). That's just one idea. His defense has gone down. His average and OBP have gone down. He k's more. You have more or less seen the best of him. Not saying his peak won't last longer than a year or 3. I'm just saying I don't think he's going to improve dramatically anywhere. I don't think that the stats strongly support "Adam Eaton is declining", the case is much more complicated than that. Yes, Adam Eaton's batting average is down this year and he is striking out more. However, he's also hitting the ball with much more power - hence the boost from 1 to 13 HR. If he's swinging more to drive the ball, it's not unexpected that he'll hit more fly balls than ground balls that can turn into outs, and it's not unexpected that he'll also strike out more. The end result is that he's basically been almost exactly as effective of a hitter in 2015 as he was in 2014, maybe a tiny slice better in '14 but barely. That could be a long term trend downwards - he could hit 7 HR next year and still keep the same number of Ks, or he could perhaps find an even better balance next year and actually improve as a hitter. I don't know. But that is a way he could significantly improve. His OBP is down, but his walk rate is actually up on the year. That means he's got a few less hits because of the extra strikeouts and that's about it. His defense is definitely down, but defense is one of those stats that can fluctuate a lot from year to year, so I hesitate to call that a long term trend based on one year. Also worth noting - last year at this time we were saying "if Eaton could stay healthy" because that was one of his major issues in 2014. He's actually done that, so that's a positive for him in 2015 as well. Your proposal to trade Adam Eaton for someone to fill an IF hole could be interesting except it only fills 1 hole while it opens up another. Our outfield is also the worst in baseball or maybe 2nd worst, too early in morning to look exactly where we are compared with the Phillies. If we open up another hole in the OF, we don't have anyone to fill that spot either. If you're going to get someone to make a mistake and fill several positions in the white sox lineup for him, ok you listen to that, but just looking to "fill an infield hole" is digging one hole to fill another.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 27, 2015 -> 09:08 AM) Balta, what is this big Mars news they are teasing? A few years ago an undergraduate discovered that there were slopes on Mars that formed "streaks" every year when they were exposed to the sun. Most people's guess was that was frozen water melting in the spring, but no one could prove it because they couldn't actually detect the water. Running guess from most people is that the announcement will be "verifying that these things are actually flowing water". This is also something of a running joke because it seems like NASA has several press conferences discovering water on Mars per year, if this is something along those lines. These press conferences also get more coverage than they really deserve after the 1996 "We may have found fossil life" press conference. So, a big enough detail scientifically to get a press conference could be something that is only moderately interesting and it gets way too much coverage as a consequence.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 27, 2015 -> 01:23 PM) Pre game fireworks? Yup.

So the Steelers and Rams are delayed because the astroturf caught on fire.

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Sep 27, 2015 -> 12:40 PM) How will he be gone? I don't think any other team would want him at this point. He's basically Viciedo 2.0 with less power. If he's gone, it's because the White Sox decide not to offer him arbitration.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 26, 2015 -> 11:06 PM) This might sound dumb ... but I forget how the candidate emerges at the convention. Is it merely a vote of all the delegates? If so why do the delegates have so much power to pick a candidate?? Who the frick are they? I could see Bush winning in such a scenario. "The great state of Texas, home of the best beefy steaks in the USA, nominates Jeb Bush!!!" then everybody follows suit. The delegates are generally people elected by the voters in the various primaries and caucuses to represent each state, however not all of them are 100% guaranteed to a specific candidate based on the votes. They're chosen as supporters but do have some rights to support other candidates. There are also party elders who are "super delegates" and have the right to support whoever they want to and they are equal to the delegates selected by the candidates in the elections. To become a nominee you need a majority of the full set of delegates.

The White Sox have officially been eliminated from contention for the 2nd Wild Card.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Sep 26, 2015 -> 06:17 PM) Meh, it's their first playoff birth in 7 years. Counting on fingers 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 7. Cries and walks away.

All right, an hour after the loss and we're still under 25 posts for our game threads with still a week left in the season! Congratulations Rick and Kenny!

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Sep 26, 2015 -> 07:21 PM) How are they just going to get better hitters overnight without trading away the pitching? Unfortunately the A's made one terrible trade last offseason and one solid trade and we somehow wound up on the giving end of the solid trade. Maybe someone will do us the favor that we did Oakland last year.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Sep 26, 2015 -> 06:33 PM) First of all you're comparing us to the best organization in the MLB, yeah the Cardinals are very good at developing talent. Secondly, Nate Jones was hurt most of the year, as was Albers, and Sale got off to a rough start due to a lack of Spring Training, but I'll give you the breaks we've had on health. That's about it for breaks though. Literally everyone had a massive drop-off from 2014 except for Q, Eaton, Danks and a couple bullpen guys. I get there were risks of guys not repeating those years but there was a HUGE drop-off from almost all of them. Very few guys performed how they were projected to do, and the projections were pretty pessimistic as it was. I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm pointing out that the difference between the White Sox this year and contention is not as large as people are making it out to be. I still think 2016 should be a rebuilding year, and there's still a lot of work to do, I just don't see the reason for extreme pessimism like so many have here. So your response to "The White Sox are a losing organization who can't stop making excuses" is "Here's my list of excuses". That's the problem right there. Every. Single. Organization. Can. List. Their Excuses. Winning organizations win despite them. Losing organizations dwell on them. Ask yourself this question: If the White Sox lost just Chris Sale to a torn achilles in April where would they be? The Cardinals had the equivalent of that and laughed it off. We had Chris healthy the full year and somehow we're unlucky.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Sep 26, 2015 -> 03:33 PM) Hell, you don't even have to go back to 2014. LaRoche had a .760 OPS entering June. He keeps that pace the rest of the year, Samardzija doesn't completely fall apart after the deadline, and Sale repeats his first half ERA, there's a good chance we make the playoffs. And again, a 10-game improvement really isn't that much in baseball, that's turning 5 of your losses over 162 games into wins. The difference isn't as big as it might seem. My point is that we were a couple breaks away from a playoff berth even this year, yet a lot of posters here act like the situation is completely hopeless. See, this thinking drives me completely batty because this is the thinking of the White Sox front office and it's so much the thinking of a losing organization. All you've got is a list of "excuses" even if you don't want to call them that. "Oh if LaRoche had kept this up", "If Sale had kept this up", "we're so close we're right there". Every single losing organization can say stuff like that. They're still losing organizations. But you know what? The winning organizations could say that too, but they don't. Put the Cardinals in that same mode. How many excuses could the Cardinals make this season? "Wainright missed almost the whole year. Holliday, our best hitter, was out for more than 1/2 the year. Molina has hit the DL. Adams has missed most of the year. Peralta has put up a .626 OPS the 2nd half. Yadier Molina has a .660 OPS on the season - that's his worst in 5 years. I could keep going if I wanted. Winning organizations put together rosters that can take that. Losing organizations give a list of all the bad things that happened and pretend "oh if a few of those were different we'd be right there". Some things always go wrong! Especially if you're buying guys who are in their mid to late 30s. Play the excuse game the other way with the white sox and you can make them seem awfully lucky. In 2014, Abreu, Sale, Garcia, and Eaton all hit the DL. Nate Jones was out for the whole year. This year we've been remarkably healthy, out of that group the only thing resembling the DL was Sale missing 1 start. Eaton looked like an injury prone player last offseason and he's been almost 100% healthy. We've gotten great stints from Soto and Trayce Thompson that no one would have expected. How on Earth did the White Sox get that lucky? No one would have ever guessed all those positive things could happen. The Cardinals could make excuses like that. Their excuses put ours to shame if they wanted to make them. Instead they went out and won >62% of their games and put away the only division in baseball that has 3 playoff teams with little stress. That's the difference between a winning and a losing organization and we're the latter.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 10:42 PM) I see Trump got booed for saying Cruz looked like a clown. He also went after one candidate for sweating way too much. Tick tick tick ... his 20 minutes of fame hourglass has begun its downward cycle for sure. Trump's strategy for a brilliant businessman at this point is puzzling. He has to know he was riding high early cause he was the fresh new voice, barking out great one-liners, taking no s*** from anybody. But like any 'good' thing, his mean, cruel schtick starts to wear. If Donnie was smart, he'd have rode that popularity and backed off for a while. You got to keep 'em wanting for more and Trump is starting to wear on the people. Dumb strategy. Let Florina and the others flap their gums for a couple months and go to New Hampshire and Iowa and shake some hands a couple days a week MAXIMUM. Do any of you politicos agree with me on this? Whether you like DT or not, isn't his strategy of all Trump all the time on TV kinda lunatic-ish if u wanna win a nomination/election? He did a fine job hopping to the head of the pack, but unless he backs off BIG TIME the regression in Greg's opinion is forthcoming!!! Depends on a lot of things...there's enough other candidates in the Republican race that "30%" in the early states might well be enough to hold onto a win. Similarly, the people who supposedly like him are people who like hearing things about how all the Mexicans are rapists except for a handful of good people. If he backs off on the insulting of groups they dont' like, he might well lose some of that energy. But there's a whole lot beyond just "where the polls are". He hasn't had to spend any money at all whatsoever, so seeing how things like "getting written material into people's hands" and "actually getting your voters to the polls" are done by him could be a huge deal - has anyone seen anything about him building organizations to do that? And again, we haven't seen the superPAC money enter the game really at all yet, there are going to be a whole lot of ads bought in Iowa over the next few months and whether he's willing to spend $100 million+ just on that we haven't seen yet.

I realized yesterday that I can't even remember anyone pointing out when the Royals eliminated the white sox like 2 weeks ago for the divison.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 04:39 PM) Whoa, what a difference! So does fangraphs take info account USCF and the poor defense while BR does not? Man, I really need to spend more time in the advanced stats thread. Actually they both take into account defense but they do so in different ways. It's really a remarkable difference and I've been struggling to explain it since it was pointed out last month - the White Sox pitchers are vastly worse on Baseball Reference WAR than in Fangraphs WAR while the defense it's the opposite. This isn't just the defense, as other poor defensive teams don't show the same effect, it is something unique to the 2015 white sox. Somehow they're giving up a ton more hits and runs than you'd expect for a team giving up as few walks and getting as many strikeouts as they have. Baseball-Reference generally is more "what actually happens on the field" while fangraphs is thought of more as "what should have happened", so you could say that they're just getting unlucky, but that's unbelievable for an entire staff for an entire season to me - that seems like something far more systematic. They're giving up more hits than they should. Some of my guesses are "poor defensive positioning", or "Pitchers that are really bad at pitching to their defense and are really stubborn" but honestly I'm still waiting for a good explanation.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 04:28 PM) Thanks for the link, good read. What I found very interesting about using WAR is that for this season, Q is technically the ace of the staff with his WAR at 3.8 and Sale at 3.0. That does not mean Q is better than Sale, just that Sale has been roughed up more this year than years past. Thing is, neither pitcher qualify as an " ace" since neither have put up a 6+ WAR this year. Check both fangraphs war and baseball-reference war. Sale looks spectacular on Fangraphs.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 04:16 PM) And let's be honest... I know things have improved down on the farm, but do people really trust the Sox to draft and develop an entire team set to all arrive and star at roughly the same period of time? Do people really trust the White Sox to build a winning team by wise trades and free agent acquisitions?

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 03:39 PM) I can only imagine the debates that went on here,lol. I guess it comes down to an individual's perception of an ace. I never thought to Google this and will do so after I finish typing this post but is there an actual outline of what truely defines an "ace"? For the most part, what I see on the board is based on opinion/perception but nothing truely defined. Before someone has a chance to say it, Google is my friend and will go use it now Here's an article I caught last year trying to qualify "average WAR" as a function of "spot in the rotation". Basically if you stuck Quintana's numbers into there he's roughly a strong #2 starter who is unusually reliable and healthy so far in his career.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 03:26 PM) I just do not understand the lack of appreciation for Q by some fans. Q does not have the sexy strike numbers but he makes all his starts and continues to put up a low to mid 3 ERA every year while pitching in a very hitter friendly ball park. Imo, Q is not that different from Buehrle, whom was the #1 for the Sox for quite a few years. Q is not the prototypical #1 but the end results are what matters. As for the topic. I agree with those that say Rodon is a star in the making and Fulmer could be a star. In the end I think Rodon will be the better pitcher but also believe Fulmer will be very good in his own right. Maybe in a few years we can make a more fair comparison between the two after Fulmer has had a chance to show what he can do in the majors but for now, its clearly Rodon. Of course, whether "Mark Buehrle is an ace" is a debate that had something of a history at this website even before I started here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 02:23 PM) Again, a lot of assumptions going on here. Kansas City is the new love around MLB. Have we all forgotten they hadn't been to the playoffs since 1986 before that? The Pirates went from 1993 to 2013 without a single winning season, let alone a playoff cycle. This isn't some foolproof thing where you suck for a few years and then make the playoffs. If you blow the franchise up, not only do you lose what's left of the fanbase, but we could still be scratching our heads in 2020 and wondering why we are still a 70 win team after half a dozen awful years, and not have any hope to show for it. So how exactly are you going to argue that continuing to "go for it" every year isn't just as likely to leave us scratching our heads in 2020 and wondering how we had a dozen awful years? Because that doesn't seem like a major threat to me any more.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Sep 25, 2015 -> 02:22 PM) Pirates have won 6 in a row coming in to today, so accordingly, they will lose and the Cubs will clinch against them. Basically the Pirates need to not be swept in this series. If they win 1/3, the Cubs have an almost impossible task of catching them for home field in the WC game and the Pirates are 50-25 at home on the year.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Sep 24, 2015 -> 09:38 PM) If they could prove it, they could get her for obstruction of justice, I suppose. It depends on what they actually said to the police. It's not obstruction to lie in public and it's not obstruction to lie to your lawyer.