ScottyDo

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:31 PM) One of them involves a shoulder drop. But seriously, Konerko makes it obvious. Yeah he does. He definitely trots. I bet Hawk thinks "you earn that right" or something equally dubious.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:27 PM) Hawk talking about always running hard to first base..................yet he has watched PK trot for years and remained silent. You have to pay really close attention to tell the difference between PK running hard to 1b and PK trotting to 1b.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:21 PM) Out of the 2, Tanaka was clearly more advanced when signed despite Abreu being a bit older. Better competition and better coaching. The White Sox are still covering some of the basics of 1b footwork with Abreu because he hasn't been taught correctly before. Tanaka has had professional pitching coaches before and it is showing already. Those are probably some of the reasons Tanaka cost >2x more

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:17 PM) Is anyone else getting quite tired of "GOD BLESS AMERICA"? COMMUNIST!!!! JK, yes.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 09:52 PM) Opinion on the Abreu signing as it relates to not being the right time for significant cash outlay? Abreu is relatively young, costs no talent, is controlled for the long term, and has sky high upside by all accounts. You are not paying a premium for past performance (see: non-Latin American free agents). He would be considered part of the core, not a peripheral/secondary piece. Same goes for Tanaka, within reason. The Yankees, of course, are rarely reasonable.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 09:34 PM) What is significant monetary risk and why is this not the time when there is very definitely the need? Balta has answered your question. There is need, satisfying the need will not tip us into competition until our core is somewhat bigger. Also, we have discussed draft picks to the point where I am considering seppuku rather than finishing this sentence. Oh. Sentence finished anyway. I guess I'm satisfied with my decision.

QUOTE (MAX @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 07:10 PM) Semantics don't interest me. I agree with what you said, but don't care much about how I said what I did. He was advertised as a slugger that would improve the team. He hurt it badly. Aha. Well if it's a semantics issue, then I don't care either. Good chat

I mean, does anyone think it's a PROBLEM that the Sox took a shot in the dark that failed? I sure don't. This is the time for it. Not worth taking any significant monetary risks at this point, thus your only smart option is to make moves like this. You should EXPECT, more than likely, that they'll fail. It should not come as a shock, nor should it draw any ire, when a gamble doesn't pay off. It was still a smart move.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 05:05 PM) Still, no high reward. And that is another $4 million for a mediocre at best pitcher. Much higher reward than risk

QUOTE (MAX @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) I don't 'hate' him, but I do hate watching him becaue he was a horrible terrible pile of garbage that I had to endure in order to watch the rest of the team. And he was advertised to be the exact opposite. I don't feel guilty for feeling lied to. How in the crap were you in any way lied to? And by whom? He was bad. There was every expectation that he would be good, and reasonably so. Since when is it up to everyone else to spoon feed you promises about what a player is going to do? You can make those projections for yourself. If you're gonna claim you saw his failure coming, then good for you, maybe you're smarter than the rest of everybody. But if you didn't think he would fail, then you were just wrong, not lied to. Besides, a projection is just a projection, not a promise no matter who's delivering it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 12:50 PM) Coop will fix him. Why isn't Cooper getting any crap for crap pitchers pitching crappy? The 2 previous hitting coaches did and we read about all the wonderful pitchers the Sox develop. I think he deserves some crap. All these walks are very un-Coop-like and we need our staff to be Coop-like. Not ready to throw him under the bus entirely, but this start inspires no confidence.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 01:25 AM) Well it's not the same thing with Lindstrom. Downs's ERA/FIP/xFIP is 10.80/6.35/7.18/. Lindstrom's is 3.86/3.34/4.71. Not to mention that Downs is 4 years older than Lindstrom and much more likely to become ineffective overnight. And, er, Lindstrom made it into the game eventually and gave up 1 hit, 0 walks and 0 earned runs over 2 innings? Gave up the game-tying hit. I mean if you want to dig into the peripherals, Lindstrom (along with Belly and Veal) are among the last in MLB relievers in swing-and-miss %, leading to a woeful 2.57 K/9 so far. I'm not saying that's sustainable, but right now the dude is just not missing bats. And even if the runners were inherited, he certainly didn't earn anyone's love and adoration the other night. What it comes down to is this: I have never seen a box score that more obviously screams: "WOW, THOSE PLAYERS WERE JUST GOD AWFUL THAT NIGHT! IT'S AMAZING THEY WENT 14 INNINGS SOMEHOW!" You can criticize the manager for that if you want, but I think you'll have way more valid opportunities to do so in the future. This was just an abysmal night for Sox players, no matter how the manager played it. Believe it or not, I'm not even really a Robin defender. I just think managers have limited influence and are thus overblamed when crap goes wrong. This monstrosity of a bullpen performance is a perfect example. If Ventura had an even mildly competent bullpen that night, they manage to squeeze through those last couple of innings without walking a bajillion guys and coughing up a gift-wrapped win.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 12:44 AM) No, it's not. And Lindstrom's ERA for the last 3 years has been 3.12, 2.68 and 3.00. His xFIPs are in the high 3s and FIP in the low 3s. In an incredibly small sample size this year, his ERA is in the high 3s, his xFIP in the high 4s and his FIP in the low 3s. What about any of that is orders of magnitude below an acceptable level to you? He's obviously not elite, but he's an above-average major league reliever, and has to this point shown many magnitudes more of performance than Cleto has. Downs has not had an ERA above 3.15 since 2006. Downs clearly does not have the ability to get people out at this point in time. Same thing with Lindstrom. He may revert to form at some point, but there's no reason to expect anything but failure at this point. He did make it into the game eventually, remember, and guess what happened?

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 11:39 PM) He's made many- he's basically an amateur. Heck, tonight he left his starting pitcher in to give up 13 hits in less than 4 innings. Didn't even try to win the game. Sarcasm?

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) I don't get it. By that graph Lindstrom is twice as reliable as Cleto. Anything else is irrelevant. The point of that graph is that the relative difference between Cleto and Lindstrom is negligible when they're orders of magnitude below an acceptable level. The choice between the two is completely irrelevant even if Lindstrom is twice as reliable as Cleto (in reality, he's not).

QUOTE (daggins @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 09:19 PM) Normally in a rebuilding year you hold on to guys but yeah, he's toast. Fastball ain't fast and the slow stuff just spins. Average fastball is over 93, so it should be fast enough to work. It just doesn't move at all and he can't control it. And like you said, his offspeed stuff doesn't have enough break.

I'll take the over, since they'll have to go at least 4 innings.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 11:07 AM) Well it's a bit simplistic to say based entirely on his current ERA, but I think putting him in in the 8th in a high leverage situation and leaving him in for the 9th was largely based on his perceived good performance this year. Obviously they think he has the stuff as well, but if his ERA more accurately matched his peripherals, i don't think he gets put in there. A degree of guesswork involved there of course. I think it may have been based on his actual good performance relative to the other absolutely abysmal performances from 80% of the rest of the options. And he was kept in a little longer because there were only 2 guys left in the pen. One of them was the "closer" who has a 25% save percentage so far, and the other pitched the day before.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 12:33 AM) I found him not challenging that KC home run last week a greater mistake than managing his crap b.p. last night. Which one? KC didn't have one in that series. If it's the Cleveland one I'm thinking of that people blasted Ventura for in the game thread, that HR bounced off the foul pole. There just wasn't a good video shot of it. Everyone in the ball park knew it was a HR. DJ and Farmer talked about it extensively the next game.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) f*** this bullpen rick hahn. For all the good you've done in rejuvinating this team with fun offensive players, you screwed the pooch on the pen. Bullpens are year-to-year, consistent offenses are a much longer-term deal and thus much more important.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 11:55 PM) Either lack of judgement or lack of effort. I am guessing judgment. He looked like he was trying to pull the old 3B "can't get the out, so let's see if it'll roll foul" thing, except he COULD get the out and it was NEVER going to roll foul. Its spin took it towards the field. Ugh.

WTF was that, Downs??

Did Downs just check out his junk?

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 11:31 PM) If that's meant to me, my complaint last night was sending Cleto (wild command naturally) out for the ninth after he pitched in the eighth. I get trying new closers but not him. Love the bunt from Garcia. I like him as a bench guy f*** it Haha sorry it was meant for no one in particular. I'm just being an a**hole.