NorthSideSox72

Rem was demoted to AA again in June. And he's not pitching much in B-Ham, only about once every 4 or 5 days. His numbers have been OK in small sample size.

Mark had just started to heat up in early June, posting a .370/.452/.444 line in 9 games, but then he went on the DL. He's still there, been a month and a half.

ASB update... 25 of his 68 hits with W-S so far are XBH (was 24 of 84 last year). He's got 19 2B in 240 PA, or a pace of 40-50 in a full minor league season. Last 10 games: 3 HR, .359/.419/.641. K/PA rate a very reasonable 13.3%. OPS close to .900. And still just 21 in High A, and he missed half of his A ball season last year. Nathaniel Stoltz was saying the two HR he saw him hit weren't cheapies either. His move to 1B makes his road tougher, but the guy can clearly hit.

Rangel Ravelo... 25 of his 68 hits with W-S so far are XBH (was 24 of 84 last year). He's got 19 2B in 240 PA, or a pace of 40-50 in a full minor league season. 3 HR in last 10 games. K/PA rate a very reasonable 13.3%. OPS close to .900. And still just 21 in High A, and he missed half of his A ball season last year. His move to 1B makes his road tougher, but the guy can clearly hit.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 02:05 PM) I'd love to get in on something like that if I had a lot of money. There's a novel idea in there somewhere. Allow small investors to buy into the rebuild in some fashion, providing small returns on investment. Instead of just interest on loans, they could offer a similar interest rate, plus some part of growth in tax revenue over time. Like a bond-plus instrument of a sort. I would bet they could get lots of people to buy in, enough that as a block, that could be a useful chunk of money for the city. You could even give the instrument voting rights on certain key decisions, to guide certain aspects of policy.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 01:56 PM) [/b] If they could figure out a way to fund the renewal, it would be an unprecedented opportunity. What was the last planned large city in the US? DC? Chicago after the fire.

As I said in the minor league forum, this now make 4 1B's in Charlotte: Wilkins, McDade, L Anderson and now Ishikawa. Anderson has been terrible and is probably gone. One of the others may go as well, though they may be hoarding extra 1B types knowing they MIGHT trade PK or Dunn. Still though, 4 is silly, you can't get them playing time. 3 is even silly, IMO. This also gives you an idea that the org probably doesn't see Dan Black as a future major leaguer, for those who have asked on that before.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 01:33 PM) The other detail you didn't add though is physical development. 21 year olds are just, on average, less physically developed than 23 year olds, assuming that they're trying to stay in shape. A guy who is old for a league might be putting up good numbers because he's physically more developed than everyone in the league even if he isn't very professionally experienced. That is also true. But it also varies by person. Hell, I was a late bloomer, I grew 3 inches in my freshman year of college as an 18/19 year old. So at an age some players are already in the minors, I was still getting taller. That isn't even getting into the years of filling in, adding muscle, balance, etc.

Word is now that Detroit will file for bankruptcy tomorrow. Would be far and away the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history. It will be ugly for a while, but on the other side, they get to start with a nearly clean slate financially. One would hope they'd use that truly unique opportunity to not just go back to doing the same stuff, but really saying... how would you start a brand new city TODAY, ideally? And go from there.

Pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but here again... if you are going to buy a new car, or even a recent model used on, always use TrueCar for pricing information. Huge value in using that free tool.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 10:18 AM) I can't figure it out anymore. It seems like half the s*** doesn't show up on my feed anymore, there's crappy advertising everywhere. It's still a good way to kill time when bored. These, plus also, it is a BEAR of an app on the iPhone as far as taking up processing and internet bandwidth. I don't use it nearly as often anymore.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 08:50 AM) They may like Lars' talent, but a .553 OPS after 266 PAs is Andy Gonzalez in the majors bad. That's my guess. Yeah, and McDade hasn't been special either. At least one of those will go, if not two. This does tell me that the org apparently doesn't believe in Dan Black. Which is a mild surprise to me, given his offensive output, but there are probably things we don't see/know about him.

Beck: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K On the season so far... in 94.2 IP: 2.95 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, .257 AvgA, 3.2 BB/9, 4.4 K/9, 1.77 GO/AO Beck has a fastball with a lot of sink, to go with the slider/curve and change. His ground ball rate is very good, the average-against is fine, the ERA shows he handles his games well at least, and the control is good. But that K rate is very low, especially for a guy who supposedly throws low-mid 90's. He doesn't need to strike out a guy an inning to be successful (he's getting ground balls), but that is a lower K/9 rate than any of his rotation partners in W-S. Far less than most of them. In fact it is hard to find a starter anywhere in the Sox org, all the way up and down, with a lower rate. Not that I'm saying it is the end of the world. He is still developmentally (and in age) very young, and he skipped A ball. He also made some dramatic physical changes prior to the season. But it is a little worrisome.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Jul 17, 2013 -> 10:33 PM) It's kind of a generalization, but here's my best take on the typical ages at each level: Rookie - 18/19 Low A - 19/20 High A - 20/21/22 AA - 22/23 AAA - 23/24/25 Does that sound about right, guys? Obviously, a lot of it depends on what level they're joining the minors from - HS, JC, or a 4-year school. It's pretty common to see a 21 or 22 year old guy out of college get put in the advanced rookie league (Great Falls) or in Low-A ball at first. But the hope is they'll move up pretty quickly because they're certainly a bit old for those leagues. Also, injuries can skew things a bit. Those are more what I'd call IDEAL ages, not anything like typical or average ages. Average ages are more like 25-27 at AAA, and down from there to 22-23 at Low A. Also, age is important, but it is only as important as effective, or professional, age. Guy who was drafted at 22 but reaches AAA at 25 is on a good track, for example. Other side, guy drafted at 18 who is 25 in AAA, that is 7 years to get there, probably not a great sign. Have to keep development time in mind. QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 18, 2013 -> 06:48 AM) If you can hit .250 during your "slump", that's not bad. Yeah, not exactly a huge slump. He wasn't going to keep hitting .300+ forever most likely, he's not seeing an adjustment to his level. Completely expected, would have been a surprise if he was hitting in A+ the entire rest of the season like he was in A.

That is now FOUR first basemen in Charlotte: Wilkins, McDade, L Anderson, Ishikawa. One or two of those will be released, traded, promoted, demoted or otherwise moved some time very soon.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jul 17, 2013 -> 02:21 PM) Recognize his name, what is there to know about him? From FutureSox Draft Tracker: 21 (633): Toby Thomas, SS, R/R, 5-9, 180, Pensacola State CC [sIGNED, Bristol] This 19-year old was a two-way player at Pensacola. He hit .341 this spring as a freshman, but also pitched 20 innings and posted a 0.45 ERA and striking out 17.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 17, 2013 -> 09:05 AM) My brother thought the leather trenchcoats were the coolest thing ever after he saw the Matrix so he spent $300 on one only for the security guards at his high school to tell him he couldn't wear it, because Columbine was so recent at the time. lol, dumbass Your bother had $300 to spend on an item of clothing in high school? Holy crap. I probably spent that on my entire wardrobe for high school.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 17, 2013 -> 09:43 AM) But it was style over substance in the typical MLB/Fox way. It is the All Star Game. The entire thing is style over substance. And an award in a style-points event is even less substance.

Sheesh. Must be an off day. I mean, I agree the whole Rivera victory lap thing this year is overblown to the point of creepy. And yeah, Sale probably did a little more than others to deserve the MVP. But this really bothers people that much? It's the ALL STAR GAME MVP. It doesn't matter.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 16, 2013 -> 12:31 PM) All the baserunning gaffes usually point to the manager a little bit IMO, but obviously he can't teach players to stop being dumb. It just seems like there is a lack of focus out there on defense and on the basepaths, and usually you look at the manager to wake his guys up. Of course there is only so much Robin can do, and there is very little he can do with the offense right now. That pretty much covers it for me. Defense and baserunning gaffes, from a team of mostly the same personnel who did great with it last year... the manager deserves some of the blame for that, in my mind.

Robin definitely deserves plenty of blame. But with 2012 and 2013 being such divergent stories, I don't think we'll really know who he is as a manager until he plays out at least part of 2014, when he will inevitably have a very different roster.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 16, 2013 -> 11:05 AM) They are saying the right things for now, but I will reserve judgment until we get to the point where the various people who are exacting their own revenge get to trial, and see where there defense money is coming from. Are you aware of some history of that scenario occurring? People committing violence as some sort of revenge being defended by those guys' money? Not saying it hasn't happened, but I am not aware of it. And you aren't reserving judgment - you made your judgment clear earlier.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 16, 2013 -> 11:00 AM) They are saying what they have to say in order to keep the money rolling in, just like any other politician. So? How does that mean they aren't doing the right thing - IN THIS CASE?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 16, 2013 -> 10:52 AM) Actions speak louder than words. OK, you know... I really dislike both of those guys, but their actions clearly show in this case they are trying to keep people calm. I really can't criticize them in this case, and frankly, you are only doing so out of fear and not fact. I hate defending their actions, but, this is reality.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 16, 2013 -> 10:26 AM) Buddy Bell seems to be on Rongey's show every Saturday. Maybe one of you guys on Twitter can ask Rongey to ask Bell specifically what is going on with Hawkins this year, and what are the plans in the offseason. I'm going to put that question in via some other channels, and we'll see what we can find out. If anything. I also might get the chance to talk with Courtney directly in August, when I am down there in W-S and Kanny. If he is still there at that point.