NorthSideSox72

FutureSox's second podcast, featuring Dan, Blake and Matt, is now up on iTunes and our podcast host (pod-o-matic). You can go here for links to download or search for FutureSox Podcast on iTunes. We talk minor league rosters (surprises and role changes) and first weekend impressions. If you missed the first one, links are here, or again, search on iTunes. In that one we went through over/under-rated prospects, the underachieving outfield four and some other topics. We plan to do a couple more before the draft, including one focusing on said draft, and would love suggestions or questions/topics. So fire away!

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 02:39 PM) I always thought they should have built a domed, state of the art stadium near Soldier Field. City owned plenty of land there. Could have been done. It would have been great for the city. That's another thing. Ideally, in a place like Chicago, you need a stadium along the lines of Miller Park or Safeco, with a retractable roof that can be variably open air. Of course, that also makes it far more expensive.

Wynkoop is a great choice. There is also a bar within a couple blocks of the stadium with about 120 beers on tap, a lot of them micro brews, I think it's called Rocky Mountain Tap maybe? If you like unique beers, that's a good stop. Really all of LoDo (the neighborhood the park is in, Lower Downtown) is pretty great, from restaurants to bars to art galleries to live music.

QUOTE (The Mighty Mite @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 02:30 PM) They tried like hell to leave 35th and Shields but got turned down by Addison, the deal the state gave them included staying at 35th and Shields. I for one will always believe that the best move was to the burbs. Welcome to the board! The ideal thing was always the south loop, for lots of reasons, but it didn't happen. Far better than any suburban location. Your weeknight games have a huge crowd of downtowners right there, and transit from all over the suburbs is way easier than for 35th and Shields. I'm not totally convinced the suburbs would be a significant improvement over the current location, but could be talked into it. If you do the suburbs, you need to be near transit somehow, like a Metra station.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 02:08 PM) Semien is 4-28. Beckham's job not even close to at risk. The latter is correct for now, though the former is sort of ignoring the bigger picture. He was o-for-everything until very recently, made some small changes, and looks much better now. Long term it is likely Semien's job.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) Not exactly Garland and Buehrle of yesteryear. EDIT: OK, Buehrle was terrible, but he did homer. Garland was fairly decent. Neal Cotts has a career .500/.500/1.000 batting line. in 2 plate appearances.

Combined career line of our pitchers: .081/.122/.087, 25 SAC, 66 K in 170 PA

Well, Paulino is apparently our best hitting pitcher (see the thread I posted), so I guess it's good he's in an interleague game.

I do this every season, just before the first inter-league series. Here is a look at the MLB hitting track records for all pitchers currently on the White Sox roster... Chris Sale: 0-for-2, 1 SAC, 2 K Felipe Paulino: .143/.172/.161, 9 SAC, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 29 K in 67 PA (has 1 XBH, a double) John Danks: .041/.098/.041, 3 SAC, 1 BB , 7 K in 25 PA (he has 1 hit) Erik Johnson: n/a Jose Quintana: 0-for-5, 1 SAC, 1 BB, 4 K Nate Jones: n/a Matt Lindstrom (DL): 1 PA, struck out Daniel Webb: n/a Jake Petricka: n/a Scott Downs: .067/.125/.067, 10 SAC, 3 BB, 17 K in 58 PA Donnie Veal: 1 PA, SAC Ronald Belisario: 0-for-5, 3 K Maikel Cleto: 0-for-3, 3 K Not a good hitter in the bunch, but some guys we haven't seen, so maybe they can do something. Paulino looks like the pitching staff's best hitter.

Leaving confidence vs overconfidence aside for the moment... his htting approach is now not only quieter, but his swing is also shorter and quicker. These are encouraging things, as is the return of power. And the adjustment to breaking pitches noted by Josh Norris is very encouraging. But - and this is a very small sample size at this point - he's still striking out an awful lot. We'll see after a month or so, but if he's still striking out in the 30's or higher as a K/PA percentage, that does not bode well for how he'd do at AA. Or even A+, once pitchers adjust to him again. The adjustments are a positive, but I'm still skeptical.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) I forgot about all those stands they've added on the lower deck over the years, good point. As far as the upper deck concourse goes, they've improved it since the renovation, but it pales in comparison to the lower deck. They'll make improvements to it when they start selling UD tix more consistently because they won't want to leave any money on the table. My feeling about Sox Park is that it was built around the premise of maximizing revenue for a season attendance of 2M and it probably does a good job of that. I'd put the lower deck seats with the best in MLB. Unfortunately to design it that way, the upper deck had to be one of the worst. Forget about the steepness (which is an issue), the first row is too far back from home plate. The views are solid, but the casual fan is not going to enjoy the experience of going to a game nearly as much because the seats are so far away. I haven't sat in front row UD seats in any other parks, except Wrigley... but we have kept our season seats in basically the same spot - front row UD, above home plate, 3B side - for years, and have no plans to move. We've had plenty of chances to go LD, but having sat in various parts down there too, I'd rather have our seats than behind 20 rows of people in the LD. And ours are much cheaper to boot. The views are great, IMO, so I'm not sure I agree with your assessment.

A look at some guys who we all (or mostly) thought would be with a full-season team this year in April, but weren't. We take a look at some reasons why.

Winston-Salem Dash. Went up last night but I didn't get around to posting it here.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 11:14 PM) Barnum finished with 3bb's for Dash, nice. Kyle Hansen 1 IP, 0 BB, 2 SO in relief for Dash. Really disappointed he's not starting this year. He was excellent last year. I guess Sox don't see too much in his stuff. I'd bet they still like his stuff, but he's a reliever long term, and had a hard time staying strong his first year starting. I saw him last August, near the end of Kanny's season. Lots of guys are pretty tired out by then of course. But Hansen, who can throw mid-90's, was struggling to hit 90. Lots of 88, 89 fastballs. His slider was pretty wicked, wiped out a lot of guys with it. But the fastball was slow and didn't have much life. I think he just lacks the stamina, at least right now, to start. Still think he could be a good reliever though.

Here's our first daily recap article. We'll be doing these daily going forward, should usually be up that night after the games. That one was southside hitman (Rob), but raBBit (Brian) will also be doing them, and occasionally Dan or I as well.

Charlotte Knights

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 10:36 AM) Pitching-wise, other than the Beck start, I'm more excited about tomorrow when Danish, Jaye and Goldberg start, along with Rienzo. I'm interested in the fact that there are two interesting arms converting to starters that go today (Wendelken, Dykstra). QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) Is Goldberg one of those guys that is starting just to get innings, but will end up a reliever if he makes it? This is something the Sox do often. They pick a few key relief arms, particularly ones that are relatively young or raw, and convert them to starting. Nate Jones, Jake Petricka, and Chris Bassitt are all examples in recent years. It is a win-win thing. Likely scenario, they aren't great at starting, but they are forced to learn how to go from being a thrower to a pitcher - and then they go back to the pen better pitchers (see Jones, Petricka). Occasionally, they may actually excel at starting, and hey, bonus - you have another starter (i.e. Bassitt, at least so far). Goldberg did start in college BTW.

In addition to having this thread for game days, and the @FutureSox twitter posting information... we now have a plan in place for doing daily recap write-ups on the blog. Two regular posters in this forum (raBBit, soutside hitman) have volunteered to take on these daily/nightly duties. So, if all goes to plan, starting tonight until early September, there will be content on the blog every day. You'll be able to bring up the blog and see an overview of what transpired in all the Sox affiliate games, with links to boxes, stats and fun facts. The recaps will go up in the evenings after games are finished, or on occasion, the next morning. TODAY'S STARTERS: Charlotte @ Norfolk, 6:05pm CT, Scott Carroll starts Birmingham @ Montgommery, 7:05pm CT, Chris Beck starts Wilmington @ Winston-Salem, 6:00pm CT, JB Wendelken starts Greenville @ Kannapolis, 6:05pm CT, James Dykstra starts

LOL at this thread. 32 degree game where rain had been forecasted, weekday day game, against an awful team, second game after a 99 loss season... I'm shocked the number was as high as it was. 10k and change was basically the entire full season ticket base (neither 27 game plan would have that game in it), so there are probably around 10k season tickets. I'm glad it's still that high, I thought it may fall more than that. As for comparing to last year, it was 10 degrees warmer coming off a surprisingly good season with high expectations. And it was still only 14k. This thread is pure trolling.

And Middle Infield.

Corner Infield went up a couple days ago, here it is.

Kannapolis Intimidators

I think the removal of these limits is horrible for the political process, as are the masked entities allowed via Citizens United. I also think SCOTUS pretty much had no choice but to find this way. What it comes down to is, these limits run afoul of Constitutional Law. The only way to fix it is via Constitutional Amendment, exempting political donations from 1A protections related to free speech. Unfortunately, the chances of that getting done are next to zero.

Birmingham Barons.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) Micah is in Birmingham, they have org filler Michael Johnson at WS. That is a still a group that means a ton to the future of the Sox. DeMichelle is also there and I still hold hopes that he will put it together. I saw some positive reports from scouting types about DeMichele in camp in AZ, was hitting with some serious pop.