Dick Allen

Why are games in the East and South region being played in Seattle?

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Mar 15, 2015 -> 07:29 PM) No one really knows at this point, but chances are extremely high that he'll be better than Belisario/Downs/Francisco/Veal/Snodgrass were last year. He was better than them last season when he didn't get in a game. Right now, he isn't better than those guys if he were put on the mound. Hopefully he gets back up to snuff but I believe he had a shoulder injury, and you saw how it changed John Danks. Crain's recovery is taking longer. I wouldn't expect the 2012 Jesse Crain to emerge this season. If it does, it's a huge bonus, but to think he will be anything more than a mediocre 6th or 7th inning guy this year is really pushing it IMO. Apparently it was bicep surgery. Here is an article from March 22 last year. He thought he would be game ready at the end of April or the beginning of May. http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/...ury/#21129101=0

Big walk to Beckham leads to a run, and then a sweet play by Beckham turns into a DP and ends a potentially a huge inning. Mercy!

Grant Hill sounds like JB Smoove.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 15, 2015 -> 12:50 PM) At earliest, Sale will start the 6th game (4/12) but ultimately I'd like to see the order fall into Sale, Samardzija, Quintana, Danks, Noesi. I had Sale coming back on the 18th before Kenny said anything, and it still wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't make his first start until Detroit. If Sale starts game 6, the opening day starter is pitching game 5 on regular rest, assuming no rainout. So if Q opens up, you still have 2 lefties vs. Min. Mauer wouldn't be happy. I don't know how much it matters, but if Sale right now can start game 6, you would think he would be good enough for game 5 which would technically mean no missed starts. While the lefty then righty is nice, hopefully they remain healthy and effective enough to even worry aboit it.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 15, 2015 -> 12:43 PM) My hope is Quintana gets the OD start, and they keep Samardzija on the same schedule he would have had with Sale in front of him. Plus then they would be messing withe L-R order if Smarj goes first. Just my humble opinion. If Sale starts the 5th game of the season, then you have Sale and Q back to back. You are always going to have back to back from the same hand with a 5 man rotation,

Jose Quintana was a 3.7 WAR pitcher in 2013 and a 5.3 WAR pitcher in 2014. The breakout already happened.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 15, 2015 -> 09:24 AM) http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballn...ic-big-12-title Or you can copy and paste the back end of this article about how Hoiberg runs the Cyclone program. Lovie was always ripped fot "not having the fire". The White Sox lose, Robin "doesn't have a pulse". Iowa State wins after being down big, Hoiberg not flying off the handle being down 15, or using timeouts, is genius.mthe team chemistry moves the same way. Win, everything was great. Same locker room and lose, there were problems, somewhere.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 06:32 PM) Boo!! Cmon, Richard Allen, you need to lighten up or you will give yourself a coronary. Thanks, Bunk/Wendell Pierce At least argue about something interesting...will the Apple Watch change the future or end up as a big dud? I am going with dud. At least in it's current state.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 06:18 PM) I have no idea what Dick Allen is actually arguing, but what could have been an interesting thread now sucks. Posts like yours really make it good.

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 03:33 PM) You say that if you like a White Sox prospect you don't care where he's ranked. Interesting. Well, how did you learn about that prospect? Did you watch at least 75% of his minor league games each season? Or did you read prospect rankings lists, scouting reports, check statisitcs, and watch short clips of the prospect like pretty much everyone else does? For how "pointless" all of this is, I'm willing to bet you would be a lot less informed on the Sox prospects without it. Ironic that everyone ripping me is actually making my point. If this guy is so dumb to even consider Trey to be a better prospect than Courtney wouldn't you have to question the validity of his entire list? NSS said lists form 2 years ago are going to look silly. So why be up in arms if a guy is ranked 8 or9?

Results at the major league level. Your age 19 huge year in A ball doesn't get your organization to want to buy out your arb years.

Obviously if you pitchers have to get cut somewhere on their arm, TJ is one with at least favorable results. There are so many of these surgeries. Is there a bigger pool of surgeons? Ptac wrote, and I read where Floyd's may have been too strong moving the pressure to his elbow, and he now has fractured that twice.Hanrahan had issues, a lot of double TJ guys, there is another guy on his third. There is enough fail out there to make you hope although you will never avoid it, your best pitchers can.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Nothing anyone doesn't know. Pick any T25/T30 list from any org two or three years ago and you'll see some successes and some bombs. But I can't figure out why you'd come into the thread, use stats to argue a point, turn around in a later post and say you have to see the guy, then end up at none of it matters. If it doesn't matter then why are you here? When did I use stats to argue a point? I used the Abbott/Magglio stats to show that stats often don't matter. If anyone pre 1997 ranked Maggs higher than Abbott, they would have been considered a fool. After that, they would probably never have let anyone forget. I did say IMO Hawkins strikes out far too much to ever be a good player, and Trey seems to have the same issue. My very first post of this thread was asking Caulfield who apparently loves rankings even though he disagrees with them if he had actually seen the players play. One of them he didn't mention BTW. Just take your rankings from 2 years ago, did it ultimately matter the order you rank Scott Snodgrass and Charlie Leesman? It probably doesn't matter with these guys either.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:54 PM) So you prefer what, no ratings at all, no mock drafts, etc.? What do you prefer instead...to take its place? I'm just saying you shouldn't take them so seriously. Frankly, if I like a player, it really doesn't matter to me if someone thinks he's the White Sox best prospect or their 30th best.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:38 PM) What's the point of arguing anything at a baseball message board..as the supposedly "pure" statistics can be slanted or skewed any which way to make your case. Here's Future Sox top 25 prospects from only 2 years ago. Things happen. IMO unless the guy is just a stud, the rankings business is just a game where if you get one out of ten right you ride it for a while. Marcus Semien, a favorite around here was 16. Scott Snodgrass, Simon Castro, Nestor Molina, Charlie Leesman were all above him. I'm not trying to make fun of the Future Sox guys, these rankings for baseball are almost impossible, especially when you are looking at mostly junk. The two best players so far were #16 and #22. http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2013/...e-sox-prospects

QUOTE (gatnom @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:23 PM) Probably worth noting that Michalczewski had 152 less PA's as a 19 year old, though the majority of them were at a slightly lower level. I think you mean 152 more but the fact is rankings are opinions. Sometimes they are correct, sometimes not. Arguing whether a guy should be the 8th or 9th rated White Sox prospect is for the most part a waste of time. If they don't become contributing major leaguers, whether they once ranked #1 or #1000, it doesn't matter.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:08 PM) Isn't that exactly what NSS/caulfield have been arguing? Why you try to make me look like a fool at all times, this time I think you need to also include the post I was responding to when I posted those numbers. I'll give you a hint, the posters you mentioned didn't not author the post in which I was responding.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:40 AM) Oh good point... Do you think living with your parents and/or your in laws, even if in a well-designed, large space, would drive you absolutely f***ing crazy though? My buddy has a father who is near blind and his mother died. He was planning building a new house when she passed, and actually built his place plus a coach house for his dad to live in because he really wouldn't have been able to live without some help. It's been several years and everything seems to be great.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 12:11 PM) Courtney Hawkins as a 19 year old struck out 160 times. Courtney Hawkins as a 20 year old struck out 143 times. Trey Michalczewski as a 19 year old struck out 161 times. Would you like to revise your support for putting him above Hawkins or not? Again, I haven't seen enough, but apparently someone who has seen them more than you feels Trey is a better prospect. That doesn't mean either is going to make it. Both players as 23 year olds in AAA .325/.373/.860 .329/.364/.840 The top one had a career .263/.307/.724 major league line with 18 homers. He also preceded his year as a 23 year old in Nashville splitting levels as a 21 year old with a .397/.488/1.094 line, limited ABs, and .336/.395/.839 he also returned to AA as a 24 year old when he actually played with the bottom guy and hit .327/.385/.870 The bottom guy is Magglio Ordonez. As much as people think you don't have to watch players to evaluate them, just look at the boxscore, you really need to watch the player. Obviously, the Sox were not so high on Jeff Abbott.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 11:59 AM) But if all you're focused on is Results, Michalczewski put up a .781 OPS at Kanny last year and a .515 in a cup of coffee at Winston Salem. Those aren't results that scream "future MLB player" on their own either. You might do other things like note that he's still only 19 and has plenty of room to grow and add power, improve performance, etc., but if you're focused on what you just said "waht gets you there is results" and not a player's ceiling, the guy being compared directly to Hawkins put up the same OPS as Hawkins at a lower level. I haven't seen either play enough to make up my own mind, but results matter when you get to the major leagues is what I mean. If Trey has an approach that is more sustainable and better suited when the pitching improves, that's reason to put him higher. Frankly, I don't think Hawkins is going to make it because he cannot make enough contact. Either way, I am not bothered if someone is ranked 8th or 9th or vice versa. The end result is all that matters. Rankings are something you can show people in 20 years, and then tell them about the injury that cost you millions. If anyone was so accurate to rank a team's prospects correctly between 1-30, they would be making a lot more money than anyone who has their name on a list.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 11:19 AM) I can't speak for caufield, but I can tell you without a doubt I had Hawkins above Michalczewski before ST, and that hasn't changed. The reasonable ceiling is much higher. Hawkins still has huge tools in raw power and arm strength along with a little speed, whereas Trey has good but not spectacular tools that go across the board. But ultimately what gets you there is results. Some guys love high ceilings, but a lot of evaluators have big problems with Hawkins' game. I know we all were thrilled after his debut, and he did bounce back a bit last year, still, there is contact issues, and although he is still young, with all these tools, his numbers weren't dominant. I know the old still young for his level, but a lot of the really good players overcome that. I don't think we want him being the typical high A player.Those guys usually don't make it and if they do, don't usually provide a lot of impact. There is nothing out there IMO that makes ranking Hawkins lower, and really it is just a spot, ridiculous. Viciedo was a few months younger than Hawkins was in 2014 when he made his debut in AA, and he held his own. Hawkins may have more tools, (I do think he is going to get really big) but can he put it together?

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) Oh, hey... https://twitter.com/KapN93/status/576419369724465152/photo/1 Herm is the Luther Vandross of MLB. You never know if you are going to get fat Herm, average Herm or skinny Herm.

Anyone here ever a Strat-o-matic player? Here's Ferrell's stratomatic card: http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/3/13/8...at-o-matic-card

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 10:37 AM) Well he has no choice no matter how much they are going to pay him if they dont trade or cut him and I dont see any of those two things happening. Yeah, but he is a good guy. I would be real surprised he made waves.