NorthSideSox72

If Mitchell keeps doing THIS badly, in say May or June, I'd say it's time to cut ties. Jason Coats is doing well in AA, and would be more age-appropriate in AAA anyway, so send him up. Hawkins and May aren't ready. Josh Richmond should be healthy around that time too so he's also a possibility to replace Mitchell in Charlotte.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 06:05 AM) Has he shown any signs of improving or getting hot? I'll put this here too... a couple things. First, saw Lakso comment that Davidson is going center and oppo a lot more often now. Second, the defense at 3B has apparently improved quite a bit, saw it a bit myself on MiLB.tv, and also multiple people commenting on it. For what those are worth.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 09:26 PM) Davidson 3-3, .263. And as I noted a few days ago, he's going up the middle and the other way more often. Maybe he's actually starting to recover a bit. K's are still high though.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 04:39 PM) I really hope this is all a bluff, and he'll be in the rotation after Danks and Noesi get bombed a few more times. Wasting an entire year of Rodon's development having him pitch in the minors seems like a really bad idea, especially given how much the Sox are spending on Duke/Robertson. To me, it makes no sense to keep him in the bullpen all year while Danks and Noesi are pitching terribly. As for the idea of just bringing him in to face a tough lefty, I would be very concerned about the adjustments he would have to make in warming up to get prepared. This is a weird reaction to something that was never said. What on earth makes you think he stays there all year? And what they Sox are saying is 100% a good idea - you don't put him in the rotation right now for the rest of the year, because then you likely have to shut him down in August or September. You work him from the pen for a month (maybe a little more or less), then put him in the rotation.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 02:16 PM) I would draft Kyle Tucker at #8 overall and have him be my LF of the future. I think he's going to be a guy that's hits for .290 while hitting 25 homers and driving in 95 rbi a year from the left side of the plate. And he projects as a plus defender in the outfield. Can you imagine an outfield featuring him and Micker together? A LF who hits .290 with 25 HR and plus defense in the OF? That's an All Star level player. Heck that's a guy who could get MVP votes if he does even a little better than that. That's an insane projection. I mean I hope he does, but sheesh.

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 03:55 PM) again, another unheralded pitcher making a name for himself. big pict >> come draft day, may be another reason not to go with a 2nd or 3rd tier pitcher. just my opinion. on a side note, way to go Dykstra. keep up the good work. How a fringe pitching prospect like Dykstra does in a given week has zero bearing on what the Sox should do on draft day.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 04:02 PM) Zach Duke career line (374 PA): .180/.208/.221 Leury Garcia career line (266 PA): .179/.215/.215 I already had Duke on my list. Leury lol.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 03:42 PM) Rodon DH'd for NC St in a lot of games when he didn't start. Good point. Here are his hitting stats from 3 years at NC State... 85 PA, .267/.353/.307, 3 2B, 6 BB, 4 HBP, 13 K (no SAC) He may indeed end up being the best hitter of the bunch, though that's a big leap from college to MLB with no experience between for him.

First interleague series isn't for another 2-3 weeks, but in the meantime, here it is again. The annual thread where I list how all our current pitching staff has done career-wise as hitters... Chris Sale: 6 PA, .000/.000/.000, 1 SAC, 4 K Jeff Samardzija: 190 PA, .125/.160/.194, 2 HR, 5 2B, 6 BB, 2 SF, 21 SAC, 64 K Jose Quintana: 17 PA, .000/.067/.000, 1 BB, 2 SAC, 8 K John Danks: 28 PA, .083/.120/.083, 1 BB, 3 SAC, 8 K Hector Noesi: 8 PA, .250/.250/.250, 3 K David Robertson: (never hit) Zach Duke: 374 PA (only 7 since 2011), .180/.208/.221, 2 HR, 7 2B, 12 BB, 2 SF, 43 SAC, 117 K Dan Jennings: 1 PA, .000/.000/.000 Zach Putnam: (never hit) Jake Petricka: (never hit) Matt Albers: 37 PA, .059/.059/.059, 3 SAC, 21 K Carlos Rodon: (no history) *Javy Guerra (DL): 1 PA, and he walked! 1.000 OBP *Nate Jones (DL): (never hit) None of our SP's are very good. Shark is the best in any sample size, Noesi did well with his 8 PA. Duke is probably the best hitter on the team but won't actually hit. Somehow Javy Guerra got a plate appearance, and he walked, which is awesome.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 02:07 PM) The new Star Wars movie looks awesome. Then they also released a teaser for the OTHER new Star Wars movie called "Rogue One", which is an anthology movie set between Episodes III and IV, and is about a band of rebel fighters who work to steal the plans of the Death Star. Apparently there will be no Jedis in the movie, because they want it as realistic a Star Wars movie as they can make. It's going to be a hardcore war movie in the vein of Saving Private Ryan, Blackhawk Down, etc. I think that's an interesting take that may bring in viewers who aren't big Star Wars fans, but do enjoy war movies. Is that Rogue One concept trailer online? I can't find it, I thought it was just shown at a conference or something.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2015 -> 01:06 PM) I watched that last trailer and felt like I was watching a nostalgia piece rather than a new interesting story. The last time I saw Abrams do something that was "too much of a nostalgia piece" it was Into Darkness and that was a fairly weak movie. Could be. Honestly I consider Into Darkness to be a much better film than any of the Episode 1-3 Star Wars movies. But again, that's not a high bar to set. The level of irritating actors, laughable CGI, empty characters and TV-series-level plot points in those three movies made them nearly unwatchable for me. I did like the cool light sabre fights in the first one involving Darth Maul. Not sure that one had a single other redeeming quality.

I'm excited for even a chance that we can erase from recent memory those three piles of steaming crap that Lucas put out for Episodes 1-3. I feel pretty confident we'll get that, but it wouldn't be hard to do.

I'd be surprised if Drabek wasn't DFA'd.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 12:50 PM) Finally selling our condo in the city, and it's a pretty unusual deal. We had the middle unit in a semi-typical three-unit Bucktown single-lot building (a duplex down, and two single-floor units). Had been renting out our unit for a few years, but current lease ended at the end of Feb and we wanted to sell now. Investor made us an offer on our place, but wanted to buy the whole building, so he wrote us a conditional offer: $1000 down in exchange for a two week negotiating window with the other units, and we keep the thousand if he doesn't close the deal. I contacted the other two units. The duplex down had been trying to sell on and off, so she got an offer and took it too, with a closing target in June when her current renters are out. The third floor unit was owner-occupied, and hadn't said anything about wanting to sell, but they ended up deciding to go for it too, with a lease-back for six months while they look for a house (turns out they'd been debating it anyway). Inspections are underway now, we get first close, hopefully early April. Bonus: its a cash offer, so commission is sale-side only, we save probably $8000 in commission costs. Hope this all works! The investor guy was confident they'd get their project approved, but a few days after the election, the Alderman pulled the plug. No deal. Figured that was possible, this was a hard thing to pull off. At least we got a total of $3000 in earnest money out of it, and a chance to get more up to 3% of listing price. Back on the market a few days ago, already have had about 7 showings. And people asking for financials and condo association rules, which usually means they are serious. Seems the market is a lot stronger now than a few months ago, so maybe we get a higher offer anyway.

Not just early - way too early. Also Johnson is getting on base at a reasonable clip given he's so new to MLB and lacked AAA time. His defense is shaky at times, so is the baserunning, but he's not had a chance to calm down into it either. Unless he's really, really bad, you give him until at least the ASB.

Just to be clear on who Robinson (Robin) Leyer is... he's always had the big fastball, mid-90s touching upper 90s with some movement. The problem is he's got basically nothing else. The change has nice velo spacing but isn't anything special. His breaking pitch is... not good. He's a reliever. He's starting now because they do that with guys they think can be key relievers later, and he may be that. But he is definitely not a starter long-term.

Brian (raBBit) wrote a really nice anthology piece for FutureSox, taking us from the beginning in 2013 to the present on The Road to Rodon. This will catch you up on all the history and some fun stories along the way.

In case someone hasn't linked already, some helpful background info from FutureSox... Carlos Rodon profile with details Interview with Carlos Rodon from SoxFest

After doing about 6 of these, I'd love to hear some suggestions as we keep going. We've already discussed guests, so that's a real possibility. Any other general requests?

Recap posted here.

BA will have a guy (Josh Norris) at the Kanny DH tonight, and the W-S DH tomorrow, so we should get some reports on at least Adams and Fry, maybe others. I think he also is writing a piece on Guerrero soon.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 04:00 PM) He was out by a mile. Not even close. I don't know what Alexei did, but he should have been in Ventura's face to challenge because he had to have known he was out. As for Ventura..... Let's not get absurd here. He was not out by a mile, he just barely got him. Ventura already looks bad and made a stupid decision, so there's no need to make stuff up to make it worse.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 03:48 PM) Someone added this quote in the game thread. There's no way Alexei didn't know that you don't say things like that in public. Ah. Yeah, that's a bad sign. No excuse for Ventura. You absolutely challenge that, even if you aren't sure, in that situation of the game. It's a no-brainer really. That's two games in a row where a poor managing decision may have effected the outcome.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) Not in the least. Not one bit. Not one iota. It's literally what I expected. We've seen it 2 years in a row, why would I epxect anything different this year. Heres me calling a well below .500 season after a crappy start in the predictions thread. Manager wants to impress now? Get his team back in gear and turn this around. They're already calling him out publicly. Could still happen, but... Wait what? Who has done that?

There is no good excuse for Robin to not review that. None. Heck, if it is "inconclusive", all the more reason to challenge because that means you have a chance. Why on earth would you not? The sloppiness and poor decision-making is happening on the field and in the dugout.