NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Donaldo @ Sep 3, 2016 -> 08:10 PM) Do they plan on using Cooper as a Starter or a Reliever? The Sox see him as a reliever. His PC in Winston-Salem said it. and so did a front office guy I talked with.

Recap posted NOTE: That recap was written by Mary Peters, our newest writer at FutureSox. She is simply 'mpeters' on SoxTalk, Say hello!

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Sep 2, 2016 -> 12:40 PM) White Sox stressed plate discipline with their 2016 draft. Check out the minor league OBPs from their draft class. https://t.co/kBlsCEzRMa https://twitter.com/ChuckGarfien/status/771751033634775040 We covered this in an article recently.

Here's our preview of the White Sox prospects set to play in the Arizona Fall League (AFL) starting in October. Fun side note: the team is being managed by Aaron Rowand. 8 players, all there for different reasons. Who are you most interested in seeing how they do?

Blown saves does not tell you anything about how good or bad a bullpen is. It's a pretty useless stat for evaluation. Blown saves can occur late in games for a variety of reasons, and it treats all the same which makes it really noisy. The bullpen is bad, but the blown saves measure doesn't tell us that.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 10:56 AM) Clark I understand. Why wouldn't they give Goldberg innings though? There is no reason why Matt Albers should be getting innings that Goldberg could be pitching. You're confusing my thoughts with the Sox' thoughts. I agree that I'd much rather see a Blake Smith or Brad Goldberg, than Matt Albers or Justin Turner. I'm just not sure the Sox feel the same way.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 10:43 AM) Does this prevent Clark or Goldberg from being September call ups? Nope. Though I think they are both semi-long shots anyway for that, but both are possible.

QUOTE (Sox Fan In Husker Land @ Sep 1, 2016 -> 08:01 AM) Arizona Fall League Rosters P Brian Clark P Matt Cooper P Brad Goldberg P Connor Walsh C Zack Collins (taxi squad member, activated only on Wednesdays and Saturdays) 1B Danny Hayes 3B Trey Michalczewski OF Courtney Hawkins Manager Aaron Rowand. I got the majority of those right. I didn't predict Michalczewski because he's been there before, and players rarely go twice. Also kinda surprised at Hawkins, but hey, why not.

10 straight wins for Great Falls. Not that affiliate records are important, but with the rest of the system ranging from mediocre to atrocious, it's nice to see one affiliate do some damage.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 03:35 PM) This could be interesting. I wonder if the Sox put off roster expansion with Charlotte having a shot at the playoffs. Merkin has said they will likely promote 1 or 2 guys tomorrow, but leave some in Charlotte for their playoffs and bring them up a week or so later. Given the team is out of the hunt in Chicago, might as well give some guys some post-season experience in AAA.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 01:59 PM) Our average fan could hardly care less whether or not the teams wins. Our season-ticket holders do, though, but they also really latch onto specific players and root them on/hope they succeed at higher levels. There's no question that, from the affiliate end, they only really care about individual success. But you wouldn't be able to tell by watching what's on the field. The coaches and players treat it like it's the only baseball happening; they see winning as part of the training process. Agreed on all of this. Also to add, minor league games are a lot of fun, and way less expensive than the majors. It's worth doing at least once, and some people I've met prefer it to MLB.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 08:23 AM) I think a Maddux requires a CG shutout with less than 100 pitches. He had 99 pitches in a CG, but you're right it wasn't a shutout (allowed 1 run). My bad.

QUOTE (kwill @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 01:52 AM) Hey Guys, I am wondering if some of you guys can shed some light on this issue. Do the White Sox own all of the affiliates or just a partial stake? Do the affiliate have any control of which guys get sent up or down? If not, Do the other investors ever get upset that their team is a bad product on the field? How much money do the minor league teams bring in? Sorry, if some of this is obvious. I just always kind of interest me on how the revenue stream worked in the minors? Seem like the White Sox lucked out on getting to fairly large markets in Charlotte and Birmingham. Most minor league affiliates are independently owned. In the Sox case, they own a majority stake in the Winston-Salem Dash, but the other 4 non-complex teams are independent. The AZL team is a "complex" team that does not operate as a business, and is run by the Sox. The affiliates do not control who goes up or down. They work with what is called a Player Development Contract (PDC), an agreement wherein the parent club supplies the players, manager and coaches, and pays their salaries. They also exercise some degree of control in other areas. The minor league teams are profitable in some cases, though few make big bank. But the profits are held by the owners, which is usually not the parent club (though there has been a trend lately towards teams buying their affiliates). When the MLB lawyers made the statements that paying players more would financially ruin minor league teams, they were being 100% false and they knew it. QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Aug 31, 2016 -> 01:55 AM) What always kind of interested me was the role of a GM for a minor league team. Because you really don't even get to construct your own roster. And your best players get taken from you, and sometimes struggling/injured players get forced on your team. Must be weird to try to build a team, but you really aren't the guy constructing your roster. A Minor League GM is a mirror to the MLB GM. MiLB GM's do everything EXCEPT what is on the field. Here's an article written by a minor league GM for FutureSox explaining it for you.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 08:22 PM) Wow stephens And wow Solorzano. Threw a Maddux, struck out 10 and walked no one.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Aug 30, 2016 -> 08:10 PM) Wouldn't "Robin-rolled" be more appropriate? Rick (Hahn) - Robin (Ventura) The 1 and 2 from above Rick-Robinned If it was just Robin, it would be just the cliché, and there's already a term for that.

This may fail miserably, but here goes. I think the next time you hear an athlete 1) answer a question by cleverly not answering, immediately followed by 2) throwing out a droll sports cliche, this should be called a Rick-Robin. Like being rick-rolled, except the media is being rick-robinned. I'm bored, sue me.

Recap posted Voyagers now with a 4 game lead on 1st with 10 to play. Looks like the system will get at least one playoff team.

QUOTE (CregerMax @ Aug 29, 2016 -> 09:00 PM) I love this site, I have read it for years. I really like the Sox fan perspective on the team. Unfortunately this thread is one of the reasons I didn't create an official login. Somebody tries to say something positive about anything and it goes negative right away, Guaranteed Rate has naming rights, so what! There CEO is rich and happens to be a Sox fan, good for him. I don't care if it was Summers Eve Park as long as it smelled great watching the Sox kick ass year after year. Love you all, Cregermax Welcome aboard. And I mostly agree, though I did cringe a bit at the name. This thread is, sadly, a poor reflection.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 28, 2016 -> 07:37 PM) So really, Fulmer probably does need to be here. Hopefully he gets some starts in September. I still think he was brought up too early, and that the pen was a mistake in his particular case at this time. I'd rather he'd been promoted to AAA to start, but it looks like they finally got it right in the end.

Recap posted Fulmer with a very nice outing. Mitch Roman is getting interesting too.

I saw one of the polls had Trump's support among African Americans in North Carolina was at... 3%. It's very rare to see any number that close to one end or the other in any candidate survey item. The general rule is chocolate - about 92% of the population likes chocolate. If your result is above 92% or below 8%, it is effectively 100/0 because anything closer is just noise.

MiLB scoreboard Charlotte 6:05ct Loe (half game lead in first place) Birmingham 7:05ct Lowry (Barons have lost 11 games in a row, 14 of 15) Winston-Salem 6:00ct Thompson Kannapolis 6:05ct Hansen (Class A debut, also BA will have seven (!!) of their writers there, so watch Twitter) Great Falls 8:05ct Ledo (2 game lead in first place, Ledo debut in PIO) AZL 9:00ct TBA

QUOTE (the_Xsport @ Aug 26, 2016 -> 01:51 AM) Thank you! Yeah, I hadn't even thought of AJ Pollock as a comp for Call until he said it. Once he said it, I immediately thought of how great a comp that is, albeit for his absolute ceiling. Like 2015 AJ Pollock would be the ideal outcome for Alex, but it's not totally out of the realm of possibility. After speaking with him, I agree the make up is off the charts. He puts in the work and I personally think he'll add more mass to his frame. 15-ish HR was the ceiling I envisioned for him. Pollock had 20 last year... But I do think Call has the chance to have at least doubles power that can impact the game. Add in the plus glove and it's a player with a solid floor. The guys with a playable floor and simultaneously a glimmer of upside is the most ideal profile IMO. Not saying Call will be AJ Pollock by any means, but if he does succeed that is the level of success I think he can have. I was particularly impressed with Call talking about pitcher pop times to home as it relates to stealing bases. He's definitely a baseball rat, and clearly has a head for deeper analytics.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 26, 2016 -> 10:11 AM) It's very easy to build your own echo chamber these days whether you're in college or not. No doubt. Social media amplifies it.

I'm going to take this opportunity to point out something I was way wrong about. When money policy was so significantly loosened during the depths of the recession, along with the dramatic increase in government spending, I had major concerns about a big inflation snap-back when the economy did eventually heat up. This was based on history, in terms of the typical rates of acceleration out of the bottom. But something odd happened - the recovery was much less sharp, more gradual than really any other we've seen. As a result, we didn't get the snap-back. In some ways that's a good thing. The one danger with it, though - the rates are still pegged so damn low because there wasn't that spike out to respond to. Now, with a pretty healthy economy, rates didn't go back up, which means the Fed has very little wriggle room if things turn south. So there's a danger there too.