NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 02:35 PM) Mike Marjama of Kanny sure has been hitting lately. He should move up to W-S next year with Ravelo to B'ham. How are those related? Marjama is a catcher, Ravelo a 1B.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) If Alexei is traded in the offseason, then Garcia better hit .450 in camp while Semien hits .100 for Garcia to get the job. He'd have to be head and shoulders better than Semien to get it. Garcia in AAA next year while Semien gets a trial at SS isn't the worst thing. If long term they both develop then 3b or 2b could be options for Marcus. I agree. Semien seems to be decent at SS, maybe even above average, depending on who you read. Slightly better at 2B, and can play 3B. But Semien gives me far more confidence as a hitter, and his game just seems much more polished. I like you plan.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 12:06 PM) Not much better than .200? His career batting average in the minors is .261, and that's with a .225 BA in his first 405 at bats in the US at the ages of 17 and 18. If cough those years up to transitionary periods, his career average in the minors jumps to .271, and he hit .292 last year. The biggest key with Garcia will be keeping his K rate below 20%. If he can stick around 18% or so, he'll be fine. The 25.8% he's at this year is a much graver concern. Those K's are my big concern, and why I think he can't sustain his minor league BA's... yet. And his appearance in the majors, albeit brief, was not encouraging. I think right now, he can be a solid and useful utility player... but I think, if you want him to be able to start later, you keep him in AAA next season. Just my view.

I have serious concerns that he will struggle to hit much better than .200, with almost no power. And he doesn't walk a whole bunch. So I am still thinking his likely end game is a utility guy - and he'd be good for that role. I hope I'm wrong of course. And he is still just 22, so he can certainly stay in AAA another year and maybe the bat will develop further.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 09:21 AM) That depends on your job. You are only eligible for FMLA if your employer has 50 or more employees. When my wife was having a baby, she was offered 6 weeks unpaid leave, that's it. (Yes, I do have a child). If something is that serious at home, then why doesn't the baseball player take time off? I'd respect him more if he left to take care of his personal issues that matter more, instead of flailing away, putting up an all-time historically bad season while stealing money from the club. That is a better question. In theory, though I've never seen it come up, a player could probably take FMLA leave, unpaid. On the other hand, a player doesn't necessarily KNOW he can't do it, until he tries. And so you are taking an asset away from your teammates. But you seem to be making an assumption that this is an effort thing. For Dunn at least, it isn't, not from what I've seen. I am sure he thought he could play through it, and wanted to. It just wasn't happening. But each day, he'd be thinking he could play. I just don't see holding it against him, at all.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 08:29 AM) No and, in fact, they have a ways to go. The DSL Yankees 2 are 13-50. If they played 162 games, they'd go 33-129 This happens almost every year. Looking at articles in the past, usually the Appy and Pioneer Leagues are very similar in terms of level of competition, though I've seen the Appy be slightly higher. The Sox however, tend to use them differently - the older, more polished guys go to Great Falls, the younger and more raw ones to Bristol. So, Great Falls is an almost perrenial playoff team, while Bristol is usually rock bottom.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 07:05 AM) I get that, but it sucks for a fan or season ticket holder, spending all this money to attend games and support a team, only to be forced to watch a player half ass it and suck on the field because their mind isn't there. I feel bad for the player for any serious personal issues, but I just can't buy it as a valid excuse. You are getting paid handomsely to perform on the main stage, if you can't perform near expectations, some criticism is warranted. I find this thought process absurd bordering on offensive. I'm a season ticket holder, and I certainly do get frustrated by players like Rios who won't make the effort out there - I do expect that. But I can tell you two things. One, most people who have "normal" jobs, are given plenty of time off (paid, or FMLA unpaid by law) for family medical needs, so your previous idea that it would "get you fired" is way off base. Two, while I can be frustrated by the way a player is doing, I really can't be mad at said player if they show up every day and work but just can't put it all together because of something as serious as a very ill child. If you ever have children, I think you'll change your tune.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 14, 2013 -> 08:19 PM) Not a lot of offense of late. Except from Great Falls, who have won 10 or 11. The one game they lost, none of them slept - their overnight bus ride broke down 2 hours in, waited hours for another bus.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 14, 2013 -> 04:40 PM) Were the rumors ever turned into facts? This Alexei story mentioned the specific problem. His kid had serious medical problems, I remember reading about it. I don't recall the exact nature. But it was not a rumor.

Saladino is on the DL, so is Carlos Sanchez. And after Semien went to AAA, that leaves B-Ham's middle infield pretty empty - they needed a body. Kind of surprised they didn't just promote Chris Curley to AA.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 07:15 PM) Valve cover gasket is what I was thinking at first as well until I looked at my coolant and saw it looked like a chocolate milkshake in there. That's leading me to believe it's potentially a blown head gasket. But then again I'm not losing any coolant, unless it only appears that way due to the amount of oil getting in. Anyway, it's white smoke when I just start the car...but only after adding oil. I just got an oil change Saturday, that night when I started it I got a good amount of smoke out the tailpipe and it continued for about a block before going away. Same thing Sunday morning. This morning I had no smoke whatsoever. Really hoping it's not the head gasket because I don't have the thousand dollars or whatever to fix it. I owned a Saturn VUE at one point. A number of Saturn cars had a recall some years back, because coolant was some how getting itself into the block, and back out again. I wonder if you are seeing this issue come up with yours. I apologize I don't remember the exact details, but you can probably find it Googling.

danman did a nice comparison article yesterday on FS, of Garcia vs Sanchez and Escobar. Here it is.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) They're actually more like $80k with any sort of meaningful options before a nice government subsidized $7500 tax credit. By the way, complaining that poor little Tesla cannot be compared to the larger companies when 10% of every sale is incentivized by the government and the company itself spent all of its life except the past 6 months suckling on some form of green initiative teat doesn't fly with me. Their lack of innovation annoys the crap out of me. Mercedes beancounters decided it was OK to just hurl some R&D car onto the market offering all these functions we've never seen before. They're letting the market get exposed to the possibilities here. I mean instead of getting bogged down in the tired old arguments that circle around batteries, charging times and ranges that wont solve themselves for probably another decade Mercedes just flat gives us this grand statement on what the electric car can (and should) be. It should not be a luxo-barge weighing in at 2.5 tons that delivers its power to one set of wheels in the most inefficient way imaginable considering the available technology, that's just a colossal waste of tech that already exists. And yea, an M5 MSRP's for about $90k, F-Types anywhere from $70-90k, used DB9's with sub-15k miles can be found under 100grand. There's ton more than that too, its a crowded arena. Tesla is raking in because they're a new domestic carmaker that gets some really great publicity, but eventually they're going to have put something out that's better than the rest if they want to compete. I dont see the Model S nor Model X doing that much longer. You seem to be allowing whatever strange thing you have against Tesla warp your perspective here.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 02:55 PM) Watch that if you're interested in what's possible with electric cars. Here's the problem I have with Tesla. Mercedes is just throwing s*** against the wall and seeing what sticks and coming up with stuff like torque vectoring and these interchangable chassis/engine output settings that completely change the identity of the car. Press a button and your comfortable, efficient highway cruiser can gain AWD and be great in the snow. Its traction control on steroids, it starts defeating the purpose of brakes altogether (and the most inefficient thing you can do in a car is brake)... brilliant. It start creating an identity around the electric car that instead of trying to be the ICE it does something wildly different that you average driver will probably find better. Tesla isn't doing that. They are making ICE cars and just swapping out the drivetrain components, accepting all the faults of electric cars with only one or two of the real benefits (no gas, great torque). The Model S, when you compare it with cars in its pricerange, just gets smothered. Would you honestly have a Model S instead of an M5? Or F-Type V8S? Or maybe the greatest GT car ever (DB9)? Because that's what its competing against directly. It not trying to be that different at all... Those cars are not its competition. Its primary competition are mainline luxury sedans in the 50-100k price range. You are talking about super-cars priced at 150k and going up to 300k. Different market entirely. And you are trying to put the idea of engineering subtleties from mature companies on a company that just released its first sedan, ever. Really? The Tesla S has all sorts of nifty neato features the others don't, as well. But not surprising that they don't have every same design aspect. It seems like you are expecting Tesla to cram all the wonders of a 200k supercar, into a 75k sedan, ALONG with all the brand new aspects of an electric luxury sedan. Bizarre.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 01:31 PM) There's a lot of random electric vehicle chargers, but the Tesla "Supercharger" is a much-higher-amperage charger only for Tesla vehicles. Yeah, Normal, IL seems pretty random. But their schedule for adding new ones looks very aggressive on that page. Should be some in Chicago in 2014 it looks like.

I honestly don't care about how a car performs on a track. For 99.9% of the population, that is irrelevant. The Tesla will get you 200+ miles (how much + depending on various factors) on a full charge on the road. That is more than enough for everything but a true long-distance road trip. Leaf is what, 40-50 miles? As Balta has said, you need to ask yourself how often (if at all) you are going to make a long road trip. If it is zero, or even if it is rarely, or if you have another car, then the range should be only a minimal consideration. If on the other hand you go off on road trips a bunch of times yearly and only have one car, then an electric is not for you... yet. The Volt is the best of both worlds, and I would love the idea, if only it had more room for kid seats. Maybe the next one will. We won't be in the market for a car for another couple years, and it will be fun to see what electric and/or plug-in hybrid options will be out there at that time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 08:43 AM) Really, it's Rodon? Nearly everyone I've seen here has called him Rondon. I just thought that was his name. ITs confusing because, yes, it is Rodon... also yes, we already HAVE a Rondon too, in the system from the Peavy trade. And then there is the Detroit fireball pitcher too, just to make it a trifecta. The guy we are talking about draft-wise is Rodon.

QUOTE (BPK @ Aug 10, 2013 -> 03:35 PM) Yeah, he's definitely still a kid, and I would play him at SS over anyone else at any level of the organization if/when he grows up. But he is a long, long way from being able to mentally handle the major leagues while also keeping himself under control. You've now posted twice in a way that seems to indicate you have some information about him that others do not. Care to expound?

I'd put Leury Garcia 10-15, and behind Sanchez. Based on the research I just did for the article. I think there is very little chance he's more than a utility guy. Less chance than Sanchez has, IMO.

FutureSox analysis of Leury Garcia. Also there is a discussion thread on Garcia on the FS forum.

FS Article. Discuss.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:07 PM) I am all about getting one in 4-5 years, I'm hoping that either the S comes down in price as the tech comes cheaper, or they have a new model that as I mentioned earlier is made for "everyone's budget". I thought the X was going to be more expensive? I haven't seen any numbers other than the reservation price which is higher than the S' but that may just be because it hasn't released yet. The X, I thought, was going to be slightly cheaper, but not as well appointed, at the base level. But yeah, no actual numbers out there yet, so who knows. I do know they said the longer term plan after that is a less expensive sedan or fast-back.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:39 PM) Meant for a car that "everyone" can afford, as in starting under $30k. Musk has announced that after Model X is released that's what they are going to focus on. And Rock, I would absolutely love a Tesla S, those cars are freakin' awesome. AS I noted earlier, the plan for Tesla is sort of the opposite the way Nissan is doing it. Tesla is starting from the top working down. Give it a few years.

Tesla has done fantastic stuff with the S. Consumer Reports called it one of the best cars they had driven, in any class, ever. Sales are sky-rocketing despite a high price tag. Early quality measures from the usual evaluating firms are positive, though it is still very early to say for sure. And they used a very smart business plan... they knew early adopters were the ones with cash, so they went highest end first (their sports car), in small numbers... then the less expensive but still pricey sedan, at much larger but still relatively small numbers... their next project in the pipe is an SUV slightly cheaper... then they want to do a cheaper-still sedan at more like 40-50k. This allows them to go into economies of scale as they make their way into lower price points. That one infamous newpaper article about the Tesla S, trying to get from one super-charging station to another and not making it... turns out the driver didn't follow the instructions. The author even posted a partial retraction of the original article. And Tesla is smart enough to realize the fears are in part about reliability (new car, new brand), and about the battery (staying power over the years), so they are putting long warranties on the cars. I may seriously consider getting one in the next few years.

QUOTE (Noonskadoodle @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 03:50 PM) LMAO You are so ignorant. Rios could help the Rangers BIG TIME. No need for the name-calling. And even though I've found many of greg's arguments lacking before, in this case, he is not far off base. While it is true Rios could help them, greg said their fan base may not be that excited to get him or think he is a savior. And he is right.