Dick Allen

Rodon should be at least a little rusty. So the walks and WP shouldn't concern anyone.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 01:12 PM) For James Ramsey, the Cards 1st round pick in 2012. Not a bad return for the 2014 Masterson. I wonder if Cleveland is picking up mopst of the cash. I would imagine so.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 01:09 PM) That's kind of bogus. The Red Sox did a great job negotiating that contract (or at least that aspect of it) and they don't get to reap the benefits. If they gave him 20 million they wouldn't be able to back out. I wonder how that contract year is affecting the trade talks. http://firebrandal.com/2014/07/29/john-lac...r-2015-red-sox/ Here's a little bit on it. He will use it as means for an extension. So while you may get him dirt cheap next season, the year after will cost you. I guess it makes a lot of sense for teams with money coming off the books in a year.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 01:04 PM) Are you assuming this or do you have a link to back it up? That's the story going around. Even if he stays in Boston.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 12:55 PM) God, the Red Sox suck. They're horrible this year, have a great farm and have numerous ways to cash in/sell high. Lester, Lackey and Miller have all had great years and teams are going to have to pay a lot for them. People don't realize how valuable Lackey is, because of a silly clause in his contract, Lack will be making $500K next year. Whoever trades for him could be paying a 3/4 type effectively the league minimum. He won't play for that. He will require an extension or he'll probably retire.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 12:33 PM) Rose needs to call up Tony Snell's barber and get a fresh cut. Thibs needs to paint some hair on like Carlos Boozer did a couple of years ago.

I don't think the Sox are going to trade Viciedo. What will they get for him? You might as well wait and see if he can turn it around.

Am I the only one that finds it odd Vafan doesn't like Ventura because he walked Bryce Harper with runners on 2nd and 3rd last season with a RHP on the mound? On that date, Harper was hitting .417. Zimmerman .241.

It seems to me that unless the White Sox trade Alexei, which I hope not and doubt, there really isn't any of the usual suspects that really has to be dealt by the deadline. I think they all can pretty much make it through waivers, and if they don't I don't think the Sox would mind handing them over to the claiming team.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 11:26 AM) As for how many games has Robin cost the team in 2014? Well, how many blown saves does Bellisario have? Does anyone here think Bellisario should have been the closer when Lindstrom went down? Or why does he seem to have an infatuation with Javy Guerra in tight games, when he's blown saves in all 4 of his opportunities? Guerra's been in middle relief. The bullpen has been a mess. Guerra has prior closing experience. BTW, Middle relievers rarely have save opportunities they can convert. They pretty much can only blow a save. Using a middle reliever's save percentage as proof a manager is an idiot, shows you would think every manager is an idiot.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 10:49 AM) Still waiting for someone defending Robin to argue that he's helped the Sox win more games than they would have with an average manager. You can take whatever you want into account. Instead, all I've read is that, well, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre weren't great managers at first. Which seems to me a backhanded admission that Robin Ventura isn't a good manager now either. Sorry, but we aren't debating whether Robin Ventura might become a good manager at some hypothetical time in the future, AFTER he stops making the many poor decisions he's been making over the last 2+ years. We're debating whether Ventura is a good manager NOW, and I think those of us who argue he's below par are winning the argument rather handily. Also, to the reasons I gave above for why I think Robin costs the Sox games, I would add last season's horrible fundamentals. We had to be the worst team in baseball fundamentals. To me, that speaks volumes about a manager. Yes, the players execute, but it's the manager's job to get them prepared to play. I think he's a good manager. I mentioned the others because the just went into the HOF. You can add Maddon to them, and at the same point in their careers, their teams, with talent that was short, just like Robin, weren't winning. They must have been idiots too. A manager doesn't take a 99 loss team and make them champions. He also doesn't take a team that should win 90 games and wind up losing 100. Your criticism is crazy. All things considered, IMO, the White Sox have won more games than they should. The arguments about what has he done to increase the win total, also is tied into talent. If another manager does the exact same thing as Ventura but has a more capable player who executes it, while Robin has a mediocre player fail, that manager gets credit. Robin, no matter what he does, if it doesn't work, is an idiot to a lot of people. This isn't school. The right answer doesn't always work.

Has anyone seen Davidson's splits with 2 out and RISP? He is 8 for 81 (.099) with something like a .311 OPS. He is messed up.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 10:42 AM) So not at all. They predicted him to pitch the same as 2012-13 and be a great pitcher. Instead he's become on of the top 3 pitchers in all of baseball. He also has missed several starts.

Eaton DL Abreu DL Gillaspie DL Garcia DL Sale DL Jones DL Lindstrom DL Beckham DL If someone told you this would have happened, would you really think hovering near .500 meant a terrible job of managing?

Soria doing his White Sox closer impression. Nailed it.

I think Dunn's OPS is back over .800

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 08:20 PM) It ain't good, but it's severely dented by a) a horrible slash against lefties, which he would be protected against by a platoon and b) a BABIP that is still almost 40 points below his career average. Similar to Beckham.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) There's nothing too wrong with that summary, except a) people are acting like he's never been any good and b) even with that low BABIP he's hitting .269/.340/.406. Adjust that for his career BABIP, combined with his cromulent defence/baserunning that can be a pretty valuable guy as the platoon guy playing the majority of the time. Although you're correct, obviously not as valuable as an everyday CF. What about his 80 wRC+

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 08:00 PM) Dunn's ISO is down to .204. His OPS is now well below 800. Please, for the love of god get a hit in the next day or two with a scout watching. .795 is well below.800?

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 06:18 PM) I hate looking like the desperate fat chick at the Ball. Not enough fat chick references lately. Every team does it.

You still have to have the player execute so if you have bad players a manager can put you in a position to win but you still lose. When Maddon didn't have good players he also lost a ton of games. It is amazing how smart you get when the talent level of your team rises.

QUOTE (sayitaintso @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 03:17 PM) If the sox took on the whole contract there's a snowballs chance in hell that they give up that. The Phils would be lucky to get Dunn and Axlerod's jock. His salary is probably appropriate, but the Sox can't give up what it would take to get him. Someone probably will if he truly is available. But they are going to want a ton back.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 02:54 PM) What do you think about the difference in the quality starts stats when you tweak the definition of quality starts? Danks pitched 7 innings last time out and gave up 4 runs, but actually pitched well. Sometimes QS is a QS, sometimes it's not and vice versa. To tweek it and say it matches what "should" happen to me is just coincidence. We don't know what "should" happen. If we did, there would be no reason to play the game. I have always loved stats. I used to play Stratomatic and one of my favorite parts was doing the stats. (Now it's done on a computer for you). But I am starting to agree with the poster who said the advanced stats are taking the joy out of it. If a guy has a good game, some stat that has nothing to do with hits or outs or strikes or balls or errors or pitches or runs will say, no that's a bad performance, and then you can have the Jeff Samardjiza performance last year where he was yanked after giving up 9 runs in 4 innings, but had a lot of K's so his xFIP that game was 3.70 or something like that , and no, he didn't pitch bad. Look how hard he threw and how many strikeouts he had. Forget everything else. A soft tosser like Danks, it's the opposite. Forget all the outs he got and the lack of runs. He didn't strike nearly enough out. He was only throwing 89. That's not a good performance. The fact is Danks is on pace for close to 200 innings pitched and most of the time pitches a pretty solid game. If the peripherals say he's one of the league's worst pitchers, the peripherals are wrong. He's no ace, but he's no bum.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 02:35 PM) 5 minutes, if that. It may not be exact but it paints the picture. It doesn't paint the picture. It's a different measurement.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) I have a question: Does anyone on this thread who is defending Robin Ventura think that he is a GOOD manager, i.e., one who helps the Sox win more games than they would with an AVERAGE manager? I'm firmly in the camp that he's a BAD manager, by which I mean he costs the team games. Aside from the game in question, I've seen multiple games where I think his strategic decisions have cost games, and I don't actually see that many Sox games living in Virginia. I think the only reason Robin seemed to do well his first season was that he was the anti-Ozzie. The team was done with Ozzie's antics, and the veteran team we had then responded well to a little peace and quiet. Going forward, I can't see the Sox winning under Robin. I believe he does a very bad job managing the bullpen, even given the fact that our bullpen is not good. And that, to me, it probably the most important tactical day-to-day job for a manager. He is also often caught not thinking ahead, as is evidenced by the game analysis in this thread. Plus, he comes off as having ZERO energy. This was okay in the year after Ozzie, but since then he comes off as indifferent, sleeping, lethargic, uninterested, etc. The problem is that he's a Sox ICON, which means he's going to be given far too long to manage. Lastly, this week the Hall of Fame recognized two iconic managers -- Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox. Anyone here see any of their managing qualities in Robin Ventura? I didn't think so. I always love the zero energy argument. Yeah, you're there you know. 3 HOF managers: LaRussa was 70-90 his second year, and was under .500 after 3 1/3 seasons, Torre was over 100 games under .500 his first 3+ years. Cox first 3 years he was over 50 under. What idiots they must have been. They let those guys manage far too long, just like with Robin.