NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) Pretty sure I am heading over there for this. Never been to one before, what kind of format are these events? Q&A or casual meet and greet? They've done panels before, but this one is casual meet & greet. Just get a pint and mingle. Maybe we'll have name tags or something, not sure though, so you maybe be talking to a reporter or a writer and not know it, haha.

So Fangraphs has organized a baseball meet-up at Rocking Horse in Logan Square, for Thursday night (7/16), 6pm to 10pm. It will include some FG writers (Eno Sarris, Craig Edwards), Baseball Prospectus writers (Harry Pavlidis, Sahadev Sharma), various beat writers (Dan Hayes, JJ Stankevitz), other baseball writer types (Dayn Perry, Tim Baffoe), and two writers from Future Sox (Dan Santaromita, Matt Cassidy) among others. Free apps, $4 pints, and baseball talk with some good folks. You should all come out! Here is the press release about it with the full list of writers.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 08:54 AM) This is ridiculous .... Baines, Konerko and Minoso shouldn't have even been considered. Disagree strongly on Minnie, who should be in the HOF and should be considered for this, but agree on the other two.

The White Sox have about a dozen Hall of Famers that spent a good chunk of their career with the team. I love Harold and Paulie, but they absolutely do not belong there.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 14, 2015 -> 12:38 PM) There's actually the possibility of getting blasted by a ball in 12 when you pitch. 16 comes off a lot slower and the ball isn't as hard, so it might be a mental thing. At least it would be for me. Heh. I once accidentally broke a woman's finger that way, where I hit a hard liner right at her (NOT on purpose), and she only had enough time to get her hand part way up (so that her fingers were pointed at the ball when it hit). I felt awful. It is different, but for me at least I don't think its a fear thing.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 14, 2015 -> 11:17 AM) Yea I know, they weren't really curveballs but he was doing the whole side-step thing to try and put any curve he could on it. The pitcher previous to him did the backspin flip pitch as well as doing "fake" pitches all the time (would do the motion, stop, then would pitch fast after that trying to get your timing off). I may do that to a top hitter, but not to bottom of the order girls especially when up 15 runs. I only do the pump fakes if I have a reason. Like, the hitter is talking crap (usually just for fun), or the like. Otherwise I don't bother. Though I will sometimes pause before I pitch just for a second or two longer than seems needed, or speed up or slow down the motion, just so they can't get a good timing going. I rarely do the sidestep either, unless the hitter is clearly pounding my pitches. Also, for whatever reason, while I can pitch 16 pretty well, I am awful with pitching 12.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 6, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) Im in a 16in coed league in Lincoln Park this summer, played against a bunch of douches this past Thursday. We were tied going into the 5th (we only had 4 guys so it was a pleasant suprise for our winless team) but then our defense pretty much just fell apart (dropped balls, girls just not paying attention at all, etc) and gave up 9 runs. During the next inning, this short guy gets a single but then takes off for 2nd because he sees a girl had picked the ball up. He makes it easily of course and I shouted at him from SS to take it easy, you're up by 9 runs no need to take the extra base. The next inning he's up again and points to me before he goes to the plate (he proceeds to hit a grounder to me and I threw him out by 2 feet or so only to have our first basemen drop the throw). Then in the last inning we have our bottom of the order up and they bring in a new pitcher who is now throwing "curve balls", and at this point we are down like 18 runs (we really fell apart the last few innings). I'm competitive but damn douche moves by that team. As a guy who often pitches when playing 16", I just want to point out that you can't really throw curveballs. With the arc minimum at 6' (and usually it's a lot more than that), at that low a velocity, you can't get enough horizontal rotation to have it actually move in any meaningful way. You CAN put serious backspin on it if you flip-pitch like I do, which makes it drop harder as it approaches the plate, but that's really it. It is 90% about location and arc/velocity, along with maybe some side-jump angle tricks. The spin is limited to making it drop a little harder.

Barnum pick wasn't crazy to me at the time. But you had to know going in he was boom or bust, with that raw power and not much else. High bust potential, and at this point, he's close to that tag.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 10:23 PM) Hickman won't be signing. Correct, he told us (Future Sox) he's not signing. Just found out last night. DJ King is still in theory a possible sign, but I know nothing about the guy.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jul 14, 2015 -> 01:04 AM) They start filmming in two weeks. Yeah, this was pure teaser, didn't look like any real filming per se.

Worth noting on Lassiter, he's a guy who was at one time a high round pick-level guy. Scuffled on the field this past year, then had off-field issues and was suspended from his team for the end of the season. So he's probably more talented than his draft round indicates, but we'll see if he can make it work.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 10:05 PM) If I am not mistaken, you can also use the slot savings on undrafted players? I wouldn't want to sign a kid just for the sake of signing a kid and he's the only one available. The slot savings are the team's money. They can spend it on hot dogs if they want to. Anything at all. The leftover cash may have been emergency cushion in case Fulmer played hard ball, or it may be for this DJ King kid, or they may have thought they had a good shot at Mike Hickman. Or all the above, and none came to fruition.

Mike Hickman reports to Future Sox that he will NOT be signing. Draft Tracker being updated. DJ King the only remaining open question, and I honestly know next to nothing about the guy. The Sox DO have a solid 200k to offer him, and could go as high as 471k and pay a 75% tax on the overage.

I think he's got a potentially very interesting relief profile. Needs to get command of a breaking pitch though.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 11:42 AM) So what to make of Drabek? Stuff-wise, multiple scouts I've seen quoted were not impressed.

So here is a fun article about Jacob May's baseball bloodlines. But buried in there is some stuff about his concussion. The collision was on June 2nd. Here is, to me, the interesting part: PAGING PTATC - headaches still a month later? Is that expected? Seems like a long time.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 13, 2015 -> 10:23 AM) 2 more years and then the summer vacations begin. I keep telling my wife...no vacation until both kids can at a minimum, feed themselves, haha. Thankfully my daughter is their (that is of course presuming she wants to eat). Yep, I have high standards for my kids I can say this because my kids are older... you'll find that kids who are younger, like less than 1.5 or 2 years old, are EASIER to take to restaurants and the like than toddlers. It's the age 2-4 range that is the worst for travel, dining out, etc. They're old enough to feed themselves sure, but they're also big enough to make all manner of trouble, get antsy, etc. They don't start really calming until 4-5 years old, give or take.

QUOTE (juddling @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 04:37 AM) One more week till vacation...one more week till vacation...one more week till vacation. Headed north to the UP and a cabin on the Lake Superior shore. Almost makes me wish I fished. I might have to start..... If you do fish up there, keep something in mind. Fishing IN Lake Superior is different than fishing in a small lake or river nearby. You may want to try the latter first. If you go out onto the lake, be careful - Lake Superior can get very angry, very fast. And to fish it well, you need to get out from the shore a bit, find some reefs, etc. You CAN fish from the shore, but won't likely get much.

Someone posted an in-theater (low quality) video of a teaser trailer for Rogue One. That was kind of a cool, unexpected thing this soon. Can't link it from here, but search on YT and you'll find it.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jul 11, 2015 -> 08:16 PM) Trayce Thompson 2-3 2B Megan Smith 3-3 Drabek looking good through 6 WTF? QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 12, 2015 -> 01:45 AM) 2 for 4 for Alvarez with 2 doubles. However he made 2 throwing errors. He has 25 this year. YIKES. I'm guessing he just doesn't have anything close to the reps that other guys have to excel fundamentally. Matt Cooper with the elusive 4 K inning. The pitchers at Kanny have had nothing but great things to say on Alvarez' play. He makes some spectacular ones and has the quickness and range, but also boots some simple stuff. So yes, I'd agree he needs reps more than anything. But the tools are there.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 10, 2015 -> 12:16 PM) Let's hope these numbers translate slightly better than Sanchez's. Different players in many ways. Saladino's bat has a quickness I never saw with Sanchez. Saladino may flop, but I think he's got a better shot to not be totally overwhelmed at the plate. Its the defense, especially at third where he hasn't played a ton, that I'd have some concern about. Needs time there.

Remember too, post-TJ, he missed some time in ST and again early this season and was getting his strength back. He's been hitting lately though. Last month worth of games: .289/.364/.458. Last 10 games: .316/.356/.526.

Something to keep in mind too... Saladino has played 3B, and can likely handle it given his tools, but he has only played 5 pro games there (426 at SS, 69 at 2B, 11 at 1B, 5 at 3B, 8 in LF). So I wouldn't expect him to be a LOT better than Gillaspie defensively, straight away.

Everything you need to know about Tyler Saladino, in our prospect profile. Some folks may not like the swing comp we put on there, but go find some recent videos (ours or anyone's), and tell me you don't see it.

I have bought new almost always (since I've been able to afford it), but we keep our cars for a long while (5-7 years) and usually pay them off within a year (if not sooner). Next buy will be in 2017, when the second kid goes to public school and we save the big daycare bill each month. But I do occasionally build out a car on a website just for fun, to see how they'd be.