2nd_city_saint787

Sigh, loved his arm, and he did have some upside on paper, but I've officially given up.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 04:58 PM) Not a huge fan of Nix at #14, but I do like him overall. Hopefully this dream was the Bears trading down to take him. Because I can't rationalize using the 14th pick on Nix. If Donald isn't on the board, I hope they wait until R2 or R3 to take a DT. Maybe even hope one of the top DTs falls out of the 1st round, and then possibly trade up a few spots to snag them (a la, Alshon Jeffery). Also, I hate that all the draftniks are now hoping on the Dominique Easley bandwagon. Even after the 2nd ACL tear, I continued to be a big proponent of taking him in the 2nd or 3rd round, and saw it as a major steal. Seems that he's working his way back up now. FWIW one of McShay or Kiper(Or someone similar) actually had the Bears taking him in their first mock of the year which was months ago.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 12:19 PM) The Bears have brought Mundy and MD Jennings at safety, and there are two safeties who warrant 1st round consideration. If they reach for Nix while either Clinton-Dix or Pryor are on the board, the fans should mutiny. They need developmental guys upfront, but they have added enough this offseason to suffice for this season. If you read my last post I said I'd prefer HHCD/Pryor over him, with the post you quoted I'm merely saying I wouldn't hate it. I think Mundy is a fine player who's been behind some really good safeties in his career (see: Polamulu, Troy), and he'll be fine at SS. Now, it's probably just GM mumbo jumbo, but Emery has said that he would like to talk extension with Conte, and that he will compete for his job back. So if that is indeed true I can see him waiting a round or 2 to bring in a guy to compete with him. As far as them bringing in enough, I only see that at the DE position. Right now they have Jay Ratliff and Stephen Paea as starters with Nate Collins and Izzy Idonje as backups. Ratliff looked decent down the stretch, but the fact of the matter is he hasn't done squat in like 4 years. After 3 years of Paea I just have no clue what to think of him, someone with a PFF sub care to share how he's graded out? Nate Collins and Izzy are both question marks in my book as well. IMO all those guys are rotational players. I'd like to see 2 DTs in the first 4 rounds with a S with some coverage skills and a CB mixed in with the other 2 picks.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 12:16 PM) For pitchers, BABIP has almost always been a constant mainstay in the .290-.300 range with some guys who are outliers putting up BABIPs in the .260s or the .330s. BABIPs of .118 or whatever do not exist over the course of a full season. Chris Sale's career BABIP is .284, and while the BABIP he currently has of .227 will certainly rise, it won't rise an incredible amount. His career opponent's AVG is .222, and that number can range anywhere from about .180 to .280 and pitchers can still find success. Feeky is stating that because Cleto's BABIP is at an untraditional and unprecedented level outside normal expectations, it IS going to rise. There are no "it might" or "it should" but only that it "IS" going to rise. It's the same thing as a guy hitting .100 after April - pretty much anything he does beyond that point, his average is going to rise. Meh, Alexei and Dunns .400+ OBP probably isn't sustainable either but that doesn't mean they haven't been good so far. Cleto's performance BABIP won't be sustainable, but the fact of the matter is he's only given up 1 line drive, which tells me teams aren't hitting him hard. Will the flyballs start flyin out? Ya, possibly. Will the GBs start finding the hole? Sure. Will teams start hitting more LDs? Probably, but they haven't so far. I'm the last guy that should be getting in a fangraphs argument though.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 12:04 PM) Nix has first round talent, but I am skeptical about his ability to stay healthy and in shape That's a fair concern. I do however like that he lost the 20 pounds pre draft, that at least shows he's capable. I'd prefer Donald/HHCD/Pryor and maybe Jernigan/Hageman over him, but I wouldn't hate to see him be the pick one bit.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 11:53 AM) Sample size, sample size, sample size. As is the whole "BABIP" stat. I'm just saying it's not like hitters are hitting line drives right at people, if he were then yes, I'd say he's getting lucky.

Wait, people think Nix is a 2/3 round pick?? I'm a Notre Dame hater and still think he's a 1R pick. I wouldn't mind drafting him in the first 1 bit, esp. if Donald is gone. Matter a fact, again saying this as a ND hater, I wouldn't absolutely hate to see them go with Tuitt in the 2nd. Something like.... 1- Nix 2- Tuitt 3- Terrance Brooks S 4- Rashaad Reynolds CB

I know it was ST, but Cleto only had 3 walks in 10.2 inning through ST.....That has to account for something. Perhaps showing a little more confidence in him will do him some good. Actually going to his fangraphs page, I see he's given up 1 line drive to the 27 batters he's faced. So it's not like he's getting hit hard.

When you include ST Cleto had 7 walks in 17 innings(before last night) and he's been damn near unhittable. I have zero problem with them trying him out at closer. I don't care what he did last year, he was the hottest RP this year.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 11:42 AM) I think Dunn took Lester out last season. This is true as well....He's 2-8 with 4 walks....When do they give Abreu a day off?? He's just 2 for 13 so far vs LHP.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:38 AM) Paulie should be getting a start tonight. I like Paulie. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...hursdays-finale

Should the Sox have any interest in Joel Hanrahan? He's a name that has yet to be brought up in these parts. He's trying to come back from TJ surgery.

In what role though? I highly doubt KW is talking manager here. I loves me some Super Joe at 3B coach. Bench coach?? Not sure what to think of Parent. Infield instructor?? I'm not even sure that exists. Or just something like "Latin ambassador"?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:48 AM) You know who has good control? Dylan Axelrod. I say they bring him back and insert him at closer. But seriously, I don't know why Lindstrom is closing still. He performs much better in middle relief and set up. Move on with the inevitable and insert Webb into the role. He's going to be awesome. Ironically Lindstrom was the best pitcher last night...ERA down below 4 now...I agree overall though, eff the whole build up Lindstroms trade value thing(If that's the idea behind him closing), and just go with what's going to work best.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:24 AM) Tell me exactly what he could have done different to make his bullpen throw strikes. He literally used everyone, none of them were close to the zone Agreed. There's just nothing the manager could have done. You can't really anticipate going 14 innings so you can't really go back and say he shoud have kept Belisario/Downs/Petricka out there longer, especially when none of them looked particularly good. Had he kept Downs or Petricka out there in the 8th do you think the story would have been different?

er mah gerd, I was lost without you soxtalk....I thought I was actually gonna be driven to the point of having to find a job! Maybe the Sox pen woulda hired me...I once walked 7 straight batters in my only little league pitching appearance so I woulda fit right in!

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 16, 2014 -> 11:00 AM) There are 14 players in the AL with OBPs over .400. We have three of them including the top two. LOL. Who would have thunk it? All hail Todd Steverson! If Todd, Robin, Hahn, and the rest of the organization really think that Todd has "gotten through" to him and they see him being able to sustain 75% of this then I'd have absolutely no problem with them resigning him for another year or 2. I'd certainly put him on the block at the deadline though. If they get a good deal I'd trade him. If not give him that 1-2 year deal and hope to prove to teams that he's for real.

Season sure has been fun so far. I'm "saving up to buy in" at this point(meaning I haven't fully bought in yet, but I'm getting there). I really think the bullpen will work itself out, Robin just needs define everyones roles. If Nate Jones can return as 2012 or 2nd half 2013 Nate Jones it's really gonna help the pen out. Cleto is really looking like he'll be Coops next success story, and Webb looks like he's the closer of the future. If those 3 guys keep it up and emerge as the 7-8-9th inning guys the pen should be in fairly good shape. If 1 or 2 of the vets (Lindstrom, Belly, Downs, Francisco, Guerra) emerge then they're in even better shape. The offensive approach thus far has been brilliant. Sox currently have the highest team OBP in the league. I hear a lot of people bring up wRC+ on this board, I'm not exactly sure what it means, but they lead the league in that as well, so there's that. The only concern I have at this point is Paulino, who I was real high on in the offseason. I just have to remember that, sans ST, this is his first month back in over 2 years. I know ST should be the time to knock the rust off, but there's a lot of rust on that arm. I'd probably give him about 10-15 starts and then go from there.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 07:45 PM) There wasn't a replay that showed him safe. That one they showed from by the dugout, his foot was off the bag way after the ball was in his mitt, not sure what they were trying to show there. It's as likely that he was still on the bag when that was caught, replays didn't show anything different. Agreed, nothing was definitive in any of the angles they showed. If he was called safe and Boston challenged they probably wouldn't have overturned it either.

Jeff Jarrett could be in some trouble.... http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2014/0...h-son-of-indie/ Dr. Jerry Wiseman of The Examiner reports that Jeff Jarrett was involved in a physical altercation with 17 year old John Calvin, the son of IWA Mid-South promoter Ian Rotten, at Sunday night's IWA Mid-South event. IWA-MS is the company I used to follow back in the day. John Calvin even at 10-15 years of age was a little prick, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he antagonized Jarrett into doing what he did. He could still get in trouble in that situation though yes? Also, him not getting paid is no shock at all to me. How they even booked him is beyond me. Ian has a longgg history of not paying his workers, and they have closed down at least 3 times in the past few years due to not having the money. Maybe Ian will get some cash out of this to keep him afloat for awhile.

Sounds like Kevin Hart is at the game.

I'll be up in the cheap seats utilizing my free tickets...Hoping Paulino surprises us all today and has one of those 10k plus games.

Someone needs to make a bad luck De Aza meme.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 10:25 AM) Balta is a Bills fan too. Pretty sure we are the only two human beings on the planet to be fans of the Chicago White Sox and the Buffalo Bills. Up until 2005, there were not many team combinations worse to cheer for. WHAA??? Dude is an admin on talkbears!!

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 12:37 AM) He was shaking at Mania, but damn that is just messed up. He also was barely able to shake the ropes it looked like.....Just spit balling here, can a bad cycle of roids do you in? From what I remember he always kept him self in shape over the years but he was looking really stacked for a guy his age.