NorthSideSox72

Recap posted Some fun stuff from the Kanny game. And damn, Coats just keeps hitting.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 10:22 PM) Lefty, speedy, good defense.....and he gets sent down in favor of Sands....sigh. Sands doesn't have any minor league options. Shuck does. So who gets called up? Could be any of: Charlotte relievers: Kahnle, Smith, Marin Charlotte starters to work in relief: Turner, Johnson (due to start today), Gonzalez BHAM: Ynoa Wouldn't be Volstad who just pitched last night. Wouldn't be Beck who is just getting back in a groove from his surgery. I'll guess one of the CHAR relievers. Kahnle makes the most sense, he's on the 40 and the closest to ready. Marin is used to longer innings so he may work, but he'd need to be added. Same with Smith. I doubt they take E Johnson off his routine. Ynoa maybe an outside shot.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 08:25 PM) Fulmer sucked again...and with that and the sox awful start tonight my optimism is gone lol, I assume you're being sarcastic. He's doing what you want him to do - get better over time. Improved each start, just like Danish. And Brennan too.

Brian (raBBit) interview pitching prospect Tyler Danish, to see how he's handling life back in Birmingham. There are some good bits in there and you should read it. Here's the interview article. How do people see Tyler's future?

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 03:53 PM) The alternative possibilities for top prospect, Anderson and Fulmer, are both showing early that their number 1 issues (plate discipline and control respectively) are real issues that they need to work on. Meanwhile, Adams has improved on his already terrific K/BB rate (the number one predictor of major league success), has reportedly been touching 96 with potential to add more after struggling at times to maintain velo last year and is, to boot, over 2 years younger than the other two guys whilst only a level or two behind. I think the idea that Adams has leaped over Anderson and Fulmer based on 2 starts / 5 games seems... incredibly premature. Especially since all we are working from, really is stats. As for Adams specifically, I am not sure where you get "the number one predictor of major league success" for K/BB rate. I don't think any stat can be the number one predictor. And as for touching 96 with potential for more... he was more low 90's most of last year. He was 92-95, T96 in rookie ball in 2014, in a short stint. He's not been back there since, that I am aware of. Do you know what his velo or stuff have been like this year? Adams could be #1 by the end of the year. But declaring it now, based on a very small sample of stats, just doesn't fly.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 02:32 PM) Spencer Adams is our top prospect State your case.

Scoreboard MLB Farm Board CHAR 6:05CT, Volstad BHAM 7:05CT, Fulmer W-S 6:00, Cooper KAN 6:05, Riga

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 18, 2016 -> 10:49 AM) What if you're transgendered and outwardly appear to be one sex, but you haven't undergone the surgery? Should a person with female genitalia who presents himself and looks very much like a man use the women's restrooms, or vice-versa? But as you said, these laws are looking for a problem that doesn't exist. If some man wanted to dress as a woman to enter women's restrooms to leer at other women, there's nothing stopping them from doing that now and this law changes nothing. There is some point in between where it gets tough. Just pick the one closest at that point, I guess. If you're male and decide to be female, you've already been using the men's room forever. Just keep doing so until the surgical, physical changes are done, then switch. Again, I think we are overcomplicating something that doesn't need to be. All because some people really, really want to show the world they are allowed to be jerks, so they pass laws like this and we have to discuss extreme corner cases that have always existed and aren't really problems.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 16, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) This site should start being the standard for these threads. MLBFarm is great. Daren Willman's site - he's with MLBAM now. We (Future Sox) were one of the first sites to be feeding him videos to include, and in fact you can still see some FS videos of Sox prospects on their profile pages.

This doesn't need to be complicated. It's functional. You go to the bathroom with the equipment that best matches your own equipment. What you were before is irrelevant. No laws need to change. And let's be honest, the only reason the laws are being changed is bigotry. There is zero evidence of any likelihood of risk to people in this situation, and despite the fact that trans people have been doing exactly what I suggest for a long time, how many reports of issues have there been? These laws are a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist. It's just another way for closed-minded people to lash out. Like the fights against gay marriage, after a while, these efforts will fade away or be struck down in court.

Recap posted There's a fun fact buried in the Dash portion of the recap. Their lineup did (or more accurately, didn't) do something quite unusual.

KAN OF's now: Adolfo, Lassiter, Rodriguez, Sullivan, Silverio The first four should all be starting. SO, when Cruz returns, I bet one of them goes up to A+. Probably Lassiter.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 03:24 PM) If I am supposed to believe that Donald Trump is supposed to be this incredibly smart business man who is going to rescue us from our government with his understanding of complex mechanisms used to reform them for the betterment of the people, why can't he figure out how to run a campaign staff that won't keep losing him delegates to candidates with way less of that business experience? To keep losing delegates to the system means he either isn't as good of a manager as he keeps telling us he is, or he isn't as smart as he keeps telling us he is. If he can't keep Ted Cruz from stealing his delegates, how in the hell is he going to keep Vlad Putin from stealing back Eastern Europe? Running government is just not the same as running a business. Similarities sure, but tons of huge differences.

Recap posted. Kinda surprised on Dopico getting hammered for a second straight game. He was double-promoted and I heard good things from multiple people in the offseason.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 08:10 AM) Or the worst when people in 'safe' states or places where one sides primary is already decided, can go try and put in the worst candidate for the other side. Thats one reason Trump does so well in open primaries. So be it. People will game the system no matter what. I mean, even if you register as one party, you can still vote for the other in a general election, so... why not register for the other? Or in many states, like IL, you could mess with it that way too. A six month expectation for registration doesn't really accomplish anything. So open it up. Allow people to vote for who they like best, from all parties. It's at least going to get you the most voters involved, and give people real choices. Not to mention it will pull things away from this stupid run-for-the-extremes we are seeing.

My personal view is that having to register for a party is stupid to begin with. It does nothing to help anyone. For that matter, I think everyone should get to vote in primaries for any and all major parties (Dem and GOP in the current setup). It's the best way to get the best candidates.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 04:19 PM) On the south side sox podcast I think they touched on him strictly working out of the stretch. That was the initial report, but the reporter (BHAM radio guy) later retracted, saying he was actually working from a modified windup that was very similar to his stretch.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 11:55 AM) So, do we agree that there's nothing that can be done about Avi right now? And that maybe waiting until the trade deadline, when a replacement player might actually be available, is the better option? That's pretty much where I stand, though I'm apparently a little more optimistic about Avi getting over the .700 OPS hump by then. No. I do think you wait until maybe end of April, but at that point if he looks like Avi, he's Avi and it's time to make an improvement. Look outside and inside. I think outside isn't realistic until June or July though, and meanwhile I think you can do better. So you go with Coats or Ishikawa for May and June, then see what the outside world holds for options. Having some improvement for a couple months is not a small thing, and remember too that there may not BE any outside help available at the deadline. So you want internal options as, at least, a backup plan.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 11:48 AM) He looked really good in ST and has been relatively bad for the past two weeks. It's difficult to draw a conclusion from that data set. Given that productive veterans such as Eaton can slump for multiple months, I'd say that May is still too early. The trade deadline makes a lot more sense to me, particularly because a solid replacement is unlikely to be available until July anyway. No one is drawing a conclusion from that data set. They are drawing a conclusion from 1100+ MLB PA's, all those innings of terrible defense and the TOOTBLAN machine on the bases. And that at the moment - stats aside, he LOOKS like the same old Avi, other than a different stance.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 11:33 AM) So you're giving a 24-year-old exactly one month of regular-season ABs in cold weather to improve over a disappointing season? That's insane. The trade deadline is much more realistic. Why do people keep pretending Garcia's career started a week ago? He's been very bad for quite a long time. And now so far this year, he looks just as bad. I don't think you replace him TODAY, but I think as we get into May, if he's still the same old Avi, you make a change.

Recap posted

As part of our Prospect Perspectives series, Blake Hickman is our latest player-writer. But in his case, this will be a periodic journal of his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Here's his first entry. This should be fun to keep track of. Nice work by Quinarvy to rope in Blake for this.

Love that Lassiter and Coats, two guys I was higher on than most, are both starting off hot. They are similar in some ways - outfielders taken late in the draft after issues in college (knee blow-out for Coats, personal issues for Lassiter). Both guys that normally would have gone much higher in the draft. Neither with any super-loud tools, but both with a number of good to very good tools. Those guys tend to fly under the radar.

Recap posted Good to see Zavala get off the schneid. That's three really nice starts too.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 12, 2016 -> 05:11 PM) Ishikawa is awful. The fact he's even being mentioned is laughable. He's the best available alternative within the organization, and I'm pretty confident he'd be an upgrade. No one is looking for a star here, just looking for marginal improvement over a negative value player.