Greg Hibbard

I guess I wonder if people would have the same reaction if Moncada's career line was for just one complete rookie season from April to September.

Right now it really is his K rate that is the problem, and I agree it's his looking-at-third-strike tendency that needs to be vastly improved upon I think people are largely ignoring the fact that years of service rookie/non-rookie/number of PA's aside, the kid is still just barely 23. It could be he hits his stride at 24-25.

The glaring difference is that Cano had a .232 BABIP that month whereas Moncada has a .324 BABIP this year with a .221 avg.

Yeah I'm not making any conclusions until after 1200 PAs.

How does a guy with wheels this slow have three triples in 30 AB? ?

Ah, I didn't go back enough pages.

Is there not a thread on him? Every time he hits 1-2 XBH in a game I keep asking myself "Who is this guy and when is he going to come back down to earth?" A few days later, I see another couple of XBH. Is he having a Alejandro De Aza type of "mirage" partial season, or is there a chance he is the real deal? BABIP doesn't look outrageous, his K/BB leaves a lot to be desired but I just don't know what to make of the guy and don't see a lot on him.

I prefer another year of control, because I think it's a wash between the bad losing culture of the 2018 Sox and getting him MLB at bats slightly earlier.

Of course we are going to stink - we have had TERRIBLE starting pitching - some of the worst I've ever seen since I've been a Sox fan. Even guys like Danny Wright and Carlos Castillo weren't this bad. With Anderson's offensive resurgence, flashes of Moncada's future, Abreu's career year type stats, Davidson's power stroke and Kopech/Eloy being ahead of schedule, I don't understand how people can't see that once we get some major league caliber pitching in the mix our record is going to massively improve.

we are less than half of one season into 50-60 game winner territory.

why does 49 vs. 65 wins even friggin' matter? Last place is last place. win/loss is not going to be a good metric for whether this team is better long term or worse this season. It's about evaluating who can perform on this roster at a major league level medium term. If we find out Gio and Fulmer aren't suitable, we move on faster with more info.

Yeah I'm not really interested in reverting to middling 80+ win "moral victory" teams that have no championship potential. Real longterm winners take time to build. They aren't retooled. Like it or not, 2005 was lightning in a bottle and a bunch of us drank some major KW koolaid.

If Giolito were able to cut down on the number of walks significantly (and HBB), to an amount that reflected his previous two seasons, wouldn't that normalize his numbers? He had 24 BB in 66.2 IP previously.

Didn't know his BABIP was down that far.

I'm extraordinarily concerned about his offensive performance this season. a .689 OPS doesn't seem enough to cut it. I realize it's typically not a power position, but he's 17th in qualified SS in OPS. Does anyone else think his offensive decline is eerily similar to what happened with Beckham? Great rookie year offensively followed by a gradual dropoff.

2024 vs. 2025 seems silly for us to think about - what did we know about 2018 in 2012? Nada. I don’t think the White Sox should be thinking about saving 2025 as a year of service, as much as what will make them most competitive in 2020-24. That’s their realistic window with this group. Call either up whenever it makes sense after mid July to save the arbitration money but to hell with 2025 as a year of service. All this losing is conditioning us to think 7 years down the line....

Maybe we all need to keep in mind that the White Sox are a bad team but also that the Astros are really really good.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 18, 2018 -> 10:48 AM) You've been on this board for 13 years and you still have it set at 15 posts per page? Yes.

25 pages of debate about a sample size of 7% of a single season we must really be bored this year

Greg, in all seriousness, how could you question the relevance of BABIP as a stat? I mean of all the stats we track in baseball, including ones like RBI that have been around for decades, questioning this one seems...strange.

QUOTE (Scoots @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 02:10 PM) Is it though? Look at how much Davidson is walking and he's not hitting very well right now either. let me clarify - I think Avi's lack of walks are his biggest offensive problem right now. Then again, I expect Avi to be a .270 hitter and he's having a somewhat cold April In no way do I expect Avi to be a .330 or even .300 hitter this season.

To answer your question Avi Garcia is a .250-.270 hitter who had one season where a lot of balls dropped in.

0 walks - that's the biggest problem

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 11, 2018 -> 02:30 PM) So you are taking one person's words and applying it to the entire site? Yeah, that tells me what this conversation is worth. In my original post, I said "a handful of people". It isn't just Ron883, there are others too. I can pull them up if I need to prove my case, but I'm not applying it to the entire site at all. I never said that. Why are you twisting my words?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 11, 2018 -> 01:00 PM) Vitrol? Yeah, can't say I see that. I think the takes have been pretty realistic. No one he is saying he sucks, or is even average, but Hall of Fame is a whole other level. When I close my eyes and squint at the future of Jose Abreu, I see a Harold Baines ceiling. Maybe a few big years, a lot of consistency, but nothing that stands out and makes HOF voters go WOW. Call it a 5-10% HOF vote, tops. Yes, vitriol. As I mentioned, I'm referencing the links in the thread above. Ron883 saying Abreu was DFA worthy based on 100PA last year is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen on this site.