caulfield12

Hahn boxed himself in by not trading Shark at the deadline last July and pretty clearly telegraphing he was holding onto that draft pick come hell or high water. He also pretty much said Alex Gordon (or potentially Upton, who never showed an interest) was the only big bat they'd consider surrendering the pick for. Cespedes, it was all about the money with no draft pick since he was traded at mid-season to the Mets.

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 21, 2016 -> 01:31 PM) $100,000,000 payroll. Yep, they're cheap. Not cheap, but we're a 3rd quartile payroll in a huge media market. The Tigers and Royals are WAY ahead of the Sox, especially Detroit. The best way to put it is that we've spent a TON of money inefficiently or evaluated talent quite poorly....wasting money on guys like Keppinger, LaRoche, Duke, Bonifacio, Kelly Downs, Beckham, the money all adds up even with the contracts at $5 million or less.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 21, 2016 -> 01:29 PM) I watched Jackson the last few years in Detroit and Seattle fairly closely. He's a .5 to 1 WAR player. The only good thing signing him did is push everyone else down the defensive spectrum. He got hot last year at the end to salvage an otherwise brutal year at the plate where he was this bad or even worse for long stretches. The real argument is why they didn't go after either Span (no draft pick) or Ian Desmond, because Fowler was never coming to the Sox.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 21, 2016 -> 01:24 PM) I thought we got rid of Flowers? Austin Jackson's line after that AB: 220/284/305. Should have f***ing signed Fowler. I told a lot of you that it was a pointless upgrade. I guess it allowed Eaton to move to RF but Jackson's bat is toast. You really think 1) he wanted to play here, and 2) he was going to get the same 3 year contract the Orioles SUPPOSEDLY offered him from us? Also, they weren't going to give a one year contract and surrender a draft pick as well, along with paying him almost $15 million. It wasn't pointless because Eaton has saved 15-16 runs single-handedly in RF and the rest of the team's at -19 DRS. Do you really think Fowler would have the same numbers for the Sox?

Alexander, Flynn, Moylan (37 years old) and C-M Wang the four pitchers that will have to cover 5th inning if they have to pull Duffy. Now they're saying he could go up to 70 pitches.

Of course. We just had to completely fall apart as a team when we started playing our divisional rivals. Lovely timing. Get off to our best start in a decade and then lose whatever that "it" was in a heartbeat.

Jackson just needs to take a nice and easy swing here. Seems like he's trying to hit a homer or double instead. With Duffy's velocity, you don't need to muscle up and take an exaggerated swing.

Unfortunately, only a double. Missed by less than 2 feet. Duffy thought it should have been caught by Gordon for some reason. I guess because they're so used to homers being robbed at the fenceline in this stadium. Can we actually get a hit with RISP again? Lawrie rockets a ball at Moustakas. Bad luck continues.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 21, 2016 -> 01:14 PM) Gonzalez is pitching well minus the 1st inning The ball Cain hit, fwiw, was just good hitting and a pitcher's pitch low and away...not like he got clobbered. Both hits there were to the opposite field. The only mistake was elevating a pitch to Hosmer that allowed the sac fly.

Well, the reason to get to their bullpen is you get Wang or an inexperienced rookie lefty. Soria sucks this year...they need one of Hochevar/Soria to cover the 6th and 7th. From the 8th inning on, yeah, it's a nightmare to manufacture more than 1 run against Herrera or Davis.

Lawrie needs to show his usual patience and not be swinging so early when they've got a good chance to get Chien Min Wing out there in the 4th or 5th inning if they can push up the pitch count every inning. Otherwise, he'll get 4 or maybe even through 5.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ May 21, 2016 -> 12:37 PM) So they played together Benetti was right. Didn't realize Dyson had been playing in the big leagues (small role) since all the way back in 2010. Seems like he's a lot younger than 31 years old with his energy level.

Yeah, the Orioles aren't dumb. Well, maybe with Arrieta. But they let Chen go to the Marlins and still didn't bother to keep Gonzalez around. That said, still more confident in him than, say, Erik Johnson.

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 21, 2016 -> 12:31 PM) I have to do more research, but I don't think the 4 hole is where you want your best hitters anyway. Edit: Sorry, it's the 3 hole where teams put their best hitters and that's wrong. Well, yeah, all the simulation programs will say to bat your best hitter 1st or most likely 2nd in the line-up to get him more plate appearances over the course of a season. Makes a not insignificant difference getting that 5th at-bat in the 9th inning more frequently.

Dyson and Cabrera never played together...his one year with KC was back in 2011.

Was that Crede/Frank Thomas with that flare to RF, or Abreu? At least Jerry Sands has been hitting...but the 4 hole? Working for now. 39 more pitches to go for Duffy. Cabrera just not as dangerous from the RH side, but at least making Duffy work a bit so far. Still can't buy many hits with RISP anymore.

They don't take many pitches...and they almost never walk. But they make contact about as well as any team in baseball. That's their schtick. Duffy has a great arm and still hasn't learned how to pitch. Always has had command/walk and pitch count problems. 60 pitch count limit today.

Except you're asking for Jacob Turner with that experiment ending. Be careful what you wish for. At least Gonzalez has a 628 OPS against with current KC hitters.

Well, that was quick. KC not trying to do much, taking what Gonzalez was giving them. Elevated pitch for Hosmer to put in play into the OF.

Adam Eaton: +15 Defensive Runs Saved in 2016 The Rest of the White Sox: -19 Defensive Runs Saved in 2016 At least we've moved to the middle of the rankings instead of the bottom 3.

Looks like it will be $1 billion plus, $500 million publicly financed and $500 million from the Rangers (plus the Rangers responsible for cost overruns)...will be finished no later than for the 2021 season. Funds available created by local hotel taxes and early payoff of the bonds for AT&T/Cowboys Stadium.

Looks like 1975 George Brett, lol...maybe you have a career in graphic design!

The scary thing is there are quite a few similarities with the Minnesota Twins of last year...except the Twins did more of their damage on the offensive side than pitching/defense. They were 10-12 and 5 GB on April 30th and got to 32-21 by June 4th (a 22-9 run of baseball, similar to our 23-10 record). Tied or leading the division for about 10 days. Oscillated back and forth in that 5-10 games over .500 zone (peaked again at 50-40) but were never able to make another run at the Royals for the remainder of the season, finishing at 83-79. Obviously, we've led the division for most of the first 7 weeks of the season...but it seemed readily apparent from the scheduling this run of games against ALCD opponents and a string of other pretty good teams would make or break the season (barring some miraculous patchwork by Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams at midseason). Of course, the main difference is these Royals and Indians teams aren't nearly as good as the Royals last year (especially post-Zobrist/Cueto). Which at least provides a half measure of hope for those looking for something to cling to.

The // is a new innovation...hope it works.

I actually thought this was about the acquisition of Huston Street, lol... And not a NASA reference..."Houston, we have a problem." It was actually 7 runs in that 8th inning and 1 running in the 7th, but the point still stands. It's why I started the Ventura extension thread right after that game, having an immediate sense as a Sox fan it was going to constitute a defining moment in the season.