NorthSideSox72

Finally saw it. Loved it, overall fantastic. Lots of good, too much to list. Only two things really bothered me. One was the whole futures trades thing, which was laughably ridiculous for multiple reasons. I love how Batman was somehow going to get data from... an antenna. The other was, in the football stadium scene, when the field went under, it just looked so not believable - no dust, the player running was so non-chalant...could have been done better. But for the most part, great movie, really liked it.

There is a video of all these guys in their garb, on the White Sox site. There is some guy in the front of the group shot, front row, middle-right, who looks absolutely hilarious, and I can't figure out who it is. He's got sunglasses hanging from the front of his shirt. Also, Chris Sale's pants >>> ALL

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2012 -> 08:44 AM) Does he have to be protected on the 40 man this offseason? I'm not sure, though he's only in his 4th year in the minors. But the Sox always call up a 3rd catcher for September, and since neither him nor Gimenez are currently on the 40, I'd say Josh will be added anyway.

Mark has been promoted to High A Winston-Salem, who are getting ready for a playoff push. The slot opened up with Trayce Thompson went up to B-Ham.

Mark Haddow promoted to W-S, takes Thompson's OF slot. Seems like a lot more late-season movement this year than last in the minors.

Nice to see Phegley finally hitting better in AAA. Hitting .323 with a 1.051 OPS in his last 10 games, .283 and .882 in all of August.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 05:49 PM) On the BA Prospect Hot Sheet yet again this week. No. 8 TRAYCE THOMPSON, CF WHITE SOX Team: Double-A Birmingham (Southern) Age: 22 Why He's Here: .476/.593/.810 (10-for-21), 1 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBIs, 6 BB, 4 SO, 2-for-2 SB. The Scoop: Some teams like to treat prospects like an index fund. Buy the stocks, check up on them every now and then, but in general, be patient and watch them slowly mature into a big league ballplayer. The White Sox aren't ones to buy an index fund, they prefer day trading. They draft a prospect and then push him up the ladder as quickly as possible. When it works, like it has with Chris Sale, it pays off very handsomely. In other cases, we end up wondering what happened to Gordon Beckham. Thompson is another player climbing the minor league ladder as if he's on an express elevator. Not long after center fielder Jared Mitchell was promoted to Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox bumped Thompson up to Birmingham to replace him, despite a .252 batting average, a .321 on-base percentage and strikeouts in 32 percent of his at-bats. (The promotion to Double-A also qualified him to play in the Arizona Fall League.) It's not been long, but Thompson has handled the jump with no problems up to now. He's hitting .382/.475/.647 in 10 games since his promotion, including an excellent showing this week. Weird way to look at it. Thompson, up until this year, was a year per level, and in fact repeated A- (and played 2 years in Rookie leagues). So I wouldn't exactly call promoting him to AA 1.5 months earlier that standard to be "day trading".

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 12:58 PM) i will be the one with the sox hat *like*

I like what Brandon Brennan has shown so far at GF in a hitters' league. K/9 rate around 8, BB/9 around 4, big ground ball rate. So far in August got a 2.55 ERA with a GO/AO of 3.00. Strike out totals are trending down a little as he pitches more innings, but he put in a full spring season before arriving in GF. Been interesting to watch Shoemaker's transition to AA. He hit well the first few games, then seemed to get walked constantly, then his average plummeted, and now he seems to be hitting again (last 6 games: .438/.609/.625/1.234). Seems like normal sorts of adjustments, but his have been in rapid succession.

QUOTE (QuickJones81 @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 07:46 AM) This is only his first season in pro ball as well, as we was drafted in the 24th round of this years draft. He's on my list of pet prospects whom I like, but most people don't. No one has said they dislike him - hard to not be happy with his performance. It is just that no one else is ready to consider him in the top 20 names in the system... yet. If he is putting up big numbers like this in A ball next year, and as he progresses up the chain, it starts to mean more. That doesn't mean he can't make it or that he isn't good - it just means he has an uphill battle at this point.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 08:00 AM) Wish we can get some more scouting in his defense, seem there's huge misinformation in that department. If you look carefully at who has said what, no one has said bad things about this defense. I have seen a few good things about his 2B and 3B defense, and some people who seem non-commital. Goldstein is in the latter category. Also, some of these analyst types (like Goldstein) that are not actually scouts, often tend to ignore or sideline defense considerations, talking purely about offense. Who knows what he meant in that tweet.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 10:30 AM) I gotta disagree with that. We've seen him turn around fastballs for brief, couple day stretches, more than a few times. I haven't. An individual pitch here or there where he guesses and gets lucky, sure. But this is a stretch of a couple weeks now where I have seen him do it quite a few times. I haven't seen that since 2009. Have you?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 08:29 AM) Nothing we haven't seen before yet. We're probably about 4 days from the tribune "Beckhams swinging the bat better, changed part x of his swing/did drill y, and is finally on track" article. Actually, it is something we haven't seen before, at least not since his rookie season. He his hitting high-velo fastballs hard in play now. He simply was not doing that before. How that will or will not translate into consistent results, I don't know. But it is an important indicator, in my view.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 06:05 AM) Sanchez also has 41 walks on the year, which is pretty amazing for a Latin player who literally turned 20 on June 29th. I get the power numbers are low, but this is a guy who should probably be in Kannapolis based on his age. He's already displayed a plus hit tool, an above-average eye (given his age), and reports say he is a very good defensive 2B. This kid will probably begin 2013 in AAA as a 20 year old. Maybe his power don't improve much, there's no way to really know, but I would expect his walk rates and defense to get even better time. The bolded is big, to me. He obviously has a strong hit tool, K rate is reasonable, and seems like he's got the potential to be good defensively. The ability to draw walks on top of a good average would push him over the top. He may in fact be a nice leadoff hitter, if he keeps up his trends. But I still think he needs to start 2013 in AAA, both to give Beckham another chance (with his talent, I'm just not quick to give up yet), and to allow Sanchez to develop. The guy is 20 years old, there is no huge rush here.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:17 PM) The problem is, since around 2006 on Soxtalk, when it comes to baseball discussion, nobodies opinions are accepted as mere opinions...they're accepted as correct OR incorrect. Then perhaps you shouldn't end your "opinion" statements with absolutes like this: Or this: Or this: You will get much better discussion if you treat your opinions as... opinions. Seems you are frustrated by your own posting style.

Not often you see a picture of Babe Ruth next to a picture of Dewayne Wise. Well done, sir.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:07 PM) Good point. I'm not saying he'll be Konerko on defense, I'm just not expecting him to be Cal Ripken with the glove. He could fill in as an average 2b or 3b and be very useful to this team. Fair? Wasn't trying to make it a thing, just pointing out that his defense may turn out to be pretty good. I haven't seen any indication it is likely to be bad. Also, weird reference... Konerko? He was actually an above average defensive player until recently, and he's still OK at 1B. Or did you mean if Konerko played 2B? 'Cause yeah, that would be ugly.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:10 PM) The same thing could have been said about Youk at 3B. Things like this happen. I know, it's crazy to have opinions about baseball players on a baseball forum and all...but just because we're stuck with Beckham doesn't mean I can't say I think he sucks. That seems to be a huge problem around here...and I don't really understand why. The problem isn't you stating you think Beckham should be replaced. The problem is the way you say it. If Beckham doesn't improve a lot the rest of this year and first half next year, you will likely see one Carlos Sanchez promoted to take his job and make Gordo a utility IF. Sanchez was just promoted to AAA, by the way, at age 20.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:01 PM) He's a batting average guy. He's not a legit top prospect. If everything goes well, he could pencil in as a decent major leaguer. His biggest flaw is probably that he's lacking power, but he's also very very young, and the difference between 0 HR and 10 HR is pretty large. He isn't expected to excel at being a speed guy or a defense guy, so he needs to hit. But...if he were to start playing some 2b or 3b, right now the Sox look to have needs at either of those positions. He's so young it's difficult to see him doing anything but spending most of next year in the minors, but if he keeps hitting >.300, he'll wind up in the majors at some point. I agree with most of this, though reports on his 2B and 3B defense I've seen are very positive. He was initially a shortstop. Otherwise, yeah, that's the ticket. I said it in PHT, I am betting Sanchez is in AAA in 2013, and they give Gordon one more long look at 2B. If his performance this August and September, and first half next year, are a significant improvement (in terms of offense), he keeps the job. If not, Sanchez gets the call, and Gordo becomes a utility IF.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 09:02 AM) Isn't Beckham's defensive WAR actually negative right now? Just checked...he has a -0.3 DWAR. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/3.../gordon-beckham ... QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 09:08 AM) Defensive metric can vary greatly with small sample sizes (less than a year). I know from what I've seen from him this year he has played the position excellently yup, and... QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 09:08 AM) As for his negative defensive WAR, there is a flaw in the system if someone wants to say that's gospel. There is absolutely no way he is below replacement level defensively. I think even the biggest haters would agree with that. yup. The idea that Beckham is negative defensively at 2B is just not believable.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 08:40 AM) Defense is pretty much the reason the Sox are in first place. If they were playing defense like last year, they would be 10 games out. Or alternately, if Detroit wasn't playing some of the worst defense in baseball, including 2 or 3 guys who might be the worst regulars at their positions... they'd be well up on the Sox.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 08:43 AM) Didn't you post somewhere a few months ago a stat that the Sox were leading MLB in major league WAR from their 2009 draft on? Someone else did, I do recall that.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 08:27 AM) How many hitters have they developed since 2009? Since the 2009 draft? Who became major leaguers? About as many as other teams, which is to say very few. We're only just now getting to the point of being the typical 3-5 years out from draft to see results changing along with methods. I'd say in about two years, you will have a much better idea ithe new people and new methods are actally successful or not.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Aug 21, 2012 -> 04:25 PM) Its too bad he still can't hit a fastball and is over-matched by league average pitching. Hes now a negative WAR player period. His wOBA is .270, 30 points lower than the next lowest AL 2B. His FB hitting ability, measured by wFB on Fangraphs is -7.8 now for the 2nd year in a row. His ability to hit the slider, wSL is -6.6 and the change up, wCH, is -1.9. The only pitches hes a positive hitter on cutter, curve, and splitter, and his slightly above 0 on all of those. There is something wrong with a hitter who is the worst at hitting FBs, 2nd worst at hitting Sliders, and 3rd worst at hitting Change Ups...aka about 90% of the pitches hes going to see. There is just no place for that in the AL, at any position. The fact that he's a "good glove guy" is meaningless unless ur manager is Tony LaRussa who loves inferior hitting infielders with "good gloves" like David Eckstein, Khalil Greene, Aaron Miles, etc. A plus glove guy who can't hit is perfect for the NL (I'm thinking Padres) or a bench role. Sad but true. As I mentioned earlier, his ability to hit high velo fastballs has been an issue for a couple years... but not so much the past couple weeks. The advanced stats won't tell you that, yet. Use your eyes. We'll see if it sticks, but for now, he's made a good adjustment. Also, I find it hilarious when people throw out gourmet offensive stats, but then decides having a "good glove" is meaningless. Defense is a key part of any player's value to a team (except DH's), and that is amplified in the middle infield. Beckham being above average defensively at 2B has definite value to he team. Want proof of the value of defense? Check out how many more UER the Tigers have given up this year than the Sox... then add to that the even more runs given up on lack of range, etc... and you start to realize that the Tigers are giving up probably close to a half run more per game than the Sox just due to defense. And they are 2 games back, despite their talent. Defense matters.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 08:09 AM) The most likely outcome for ANY prospect is to fail. I don't understand the optimism for Thompson given his K rate and the Sox track record for developing hitters. If that's negative so be it. It isn't about being negative - it is that your reasoning is illogical. Sox development staff has had nearly 100% turnover in the past few years. So equating now to then makes zero sense. It is different staff, different leaders (except the very, very top, who don't actually do any development work anyway), different approach.