caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 22, 2015 -> 02:31 PM) The bolded is exactly what I'm focusing on with his K-Rate. His K-Rate is the worst of his career. you giving that list of his positive starts could be answered by me giving the list of his negative starts from the beginning of the year. Reality? Jeff Samardzija last year had the best strikeout rate of his career and the best numbers of his career for a reason - they're directly linkes. This year his K-Rate is very much down, 30% lower than last year, and that's not a statistical fluke, it's been that way the entire year. Almost entirely because his K-rate is down, he's a worse pitcher. That doesn't make him a bad pitcher, it makes him a middle of the order starter right now. He'll have some good games, like he did against Toronto, but when he can't put people away with the strikeout he'll also have some weak games like he did his next time out against KC. The balance between them is set based on whether or not he can strike people out. If people are putting the ball in play enough against him, he will get beat too often. If he's this pitcher again next year, he's a solid #3 starter that can help a team with a good offense to the playoffs. But...that huge, sudden drop in K-rate should be extremely concerning to any team wanting to bid on him. If he's giving up strikeouts for those other things...he's losing games because of it. If he's willing to lose games because of this strategy, then we should expect he's a 4-ish ERA pitcher in the future. If the White Sox win 86 games this year and need a pitcher in the middle of the rotation to put them over the hump and have a ton of money to spend, fine he's a candidate for that. For a long term deal, for a team that struggled this year, is extremely weak on offense, and keeps spending their first round pick on pitchers anyway? I wouldn't touch a guy whose K-rate plummeted like this with a 20 foot pole. Shouldn't we be comparing his k-rate with the A's moreso than anything he put up in the NL, since you're getting pitchers batting at least twice per game, which would explain a falloff from 8/9ip to just 7. Could it simply be the hitting in the AL Central this season is just better than what he was facing in the AL West and NL Central? Are their pitch fx and spin numbers that show his stuff has somehow deteriorated? Are the fastball and slider exit velocities comparable? Swing and miss rates? What about comparing use of repertoire from 2014 vs. 2015? Is there a payoff from pitching longer into games and exposing less of the bullpen? Maybe with the White Sox offense, guys like Shark or Quintana just don't look as good because they're prone to lots of starts where they give up 2-3 runs and end up on the losing side of the ledger.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 22, 2015 -> 02:14 PM) I dont recall Cespedes being labeled a clubhouse chemistry trouble maker. Only that he is more of a .250 hitter than he is a .300 hitter http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2250329...-this-offseason See article from about the 2/3rd's point on. There were a ton of stories out of Boston last year but I don't have a Globe subscription. This is the first one I randomly pulled up.

We should have taken the money wasted on Bonifacio/Beckham and thrown it at Epstein's lieutenants, like the Astros did when they raided StL for Luhnow, Mejdal and 2-3 more guys the next rung or two down on the talent evaluation side. Or paint a target on the Twins now that Ryan is back in charge.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 22, 2015 -> 01:03 PM) Can't wait for Andy Amito and Bobby Bonito to start producing. Must be relatives of Rangel Ravelo. Btw, how is it that the biggest power hitter in nearly a generation, Micker Adolfo, has yet to homer in the AzL? Between him and Hawkins striking out 1/3rd of the time...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 22, 2015 -> 01:41 PM) That. $10 million for the season, prorated for 2/3 of the year, give or take the extra 10 days, winds up somewhere around $4 mil. It's not huge, but it's not worth ignoring either. And yet we have ignored wasting money like that on Bonifacio, Paulie, Keppinger, Beckham, Downs, Belisario, Paulino, etc. It all adds up. We can't even get our "value" contracts right these days.

Cespedes has often been compared to Puig, Kemp and Hanley Ramirez in the "guaranteed to screw up team chemistry" department. Maybe because no stories have come out of DET this year compared to Boston last season (and All-Star numbers) he's suddenly more viable again, but you can practically guarantee if Cespedes isnt't playing everyday with a FA contract looming that he'd become a major headache. Another player the White Sox or Tigers would desire from LA is Hector Olivera for 3b...if they were willing to part with him. On the injured list right now for OKC.

Looks like Jason Vargas might have a serious injury...MRI today, major DL time and they absolutely have to make a move with Ventura banished to the minors for the time being.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 10:11 PM) Makes you wonder just exactly what they do in spring training. The last 10 days of it were brutal capped off by Charlotte pounding them. They were flat on opening day in Kansas City...they were flatter for the home opener for Minnesota. In my opinion that does fall directly on Ventura and his coaching staff. Mark Uh, oh, you just joined "Team/Camp Balta."

At least we can be proud we produced two starters for the Pirates tonight, Brent Morel and Chris Stewart. So, there's that.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 05:19 PM) i guess i didn't fully write out my thoughts on that. with LaRoche, the sox are stuck. no moves what so ever. i even doubt the owners will try to eat his contract. so will the sox pay someone for 15 mil to sit on the bench??? no, he will get his swipes in. They essentially did the same thing with Dunn...with the only difference being they won't have to wait 3+ years to dump him in July/August of 2016.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 05:06 PM) just coming in now..... i didn't have time before. Melky stat - june 270+ avg, july 303 avg. he is starting to hit like many expected him. Danks contract was inherited there is nothing that can be done about that. Adam LaRoche - why wasn't he added to the list??? the only what if, i have is the additional pitching, Anderson / Volquez, both of which i wanted in dec. Beckham moved paid off, much to my surprise. but then i am saying a person who is hitting a sub 200. Boni i am totally surprise on him.... my only lame excuse is he wasn't handle right. but that is grasping. next yr, it is really going to take a smart gm to do this right. whomever is making the decisions. With KaRoche, only a two year deal and we're going to be hard pressed to compete next season as we've been discussing for 2-3 months now.

The end of Trump is nearing...it was quite fun for the Dems while it lasted. Now maybe we'll see if Bernie Sanders' crowds will net him any real traction against Clinton. Also seems to be a repeat of 2012, when 6-7 different GOP candidates pulled into the lead but managed to quickly blow themselves up. Now, the pressure will fall back on Walker again, who has been flying under the radar. Do the Republicans really want a candidate without a university degree for the highest office in the world? Stay tuned.

It would be nice to have the second or third best team in baseball and still have the luxury of sending down the equivalent of Carlos Rodon with little or no impact on the product on the field.

Also, in hindsight, it's going to be fairly ridiculous to pay Robertson elite closer money for at least 2/4 years when we're not even close... There are a ton of guys out there like Melancon, Grilli, K Rod, Casilla, Boxberger, Soria and Uehara who wouldn't have been up there in Robertson/Miller territory. There's no doubt that spending money too early on Robertson, Cabrera and then the Danks deal aren't preventing another huge push this coming offseason.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 11:35 AM) This is the one spot that you and I disagree, but I don't think much of what we did necessarily set us back that much. I don't think LaRoche contract decimated the club and I don't think the Melky deal did either, but I suppose that one was more risky given the extra years. I still think you can spin Shark today and get the equivalent of what we gave up (and as I've long said we traded from a surplus given the Semien was the primary chip). In fact, I think we could get more, so one could argue (and none of us were privy to the conversations) that Kenny and Rick told JR, okay, we can try to make a push, give it our best, but whatever we do, we will ensure ourselves we have ability to pivot after this year depending on how things go (as we know this team can only contend if all of these things go right vs. even with x and y going against us, we'll still contend). No point in you and I arguing this back and forth since we both see these differently regarding what the Sox did this off-season. You think it set us back, I happen to have a differing opinion, but that is a seperate argument. None of us know that conversations between JR / Rick / Kenny and what went down and we also don't know strategically what they have in mind, but my presumption is we'll at least find out if our return for Shark exceeds what we gave up (on paper) in the next few days. Who can the White Sox realistically pursue in FA that will improve the team significantly and NOT blow our entire budget on just 1-2 players (Heyward, Gordon, Cespedes). So the question with the Melky contract is did spending that money too early impact our next free agency class? Obviously if he had a crystal ball and signed Morales instead of LaRoche, B.Anderson/Volquez instead of Shark...were in a position to add Puig for Quintana, you'd be much closer to competing and we still would have Semien to start at 2b or 3b, maybe bringing in Cervelli to catch. Lots of what ifs. The problem is that Avi Garcia is closer to a negative than a positive, Melky's more of a complementary player at his best, Abreu's struggling physically and hasn't carried the team like in 2014 (or Quentin in 2008)...and the gaping holes are at premium positions like 3b, SS and C. I'm not so sure we wouldn't be in the same spot if we signed Russell Martin instead of Cabrera/LaRoche because we'd still have had to spend another $25 million on the likesof Lind/Morales/another veteran pitcher. In the end, the Cabrera and Danks contracts are weighing us down...that and wasting money on guys like Beckham and Bonifacio when it would have been better to play Saladino, Micah and Sanchez the whole season at the big league level and see what we had at the end of the year. At this point, nobody could say with certainty any of those players should be penciled in as starters for next season, other than Micah Johnson since he's still the most likely impact player of the three.

Is that Hamels contract now considered a bargain? Two months ago, it was more of a salary relief must come back with him conversation. Who's going to outbid the Dodgers on Greinke? With his social personality disorder, NY or Boston's not the best landing spot. You could see Detroit if they go back into "all in" mode, which they are pretty much going to be forced into doing with their roster construction and payroll.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 09:12 AM) This would be our tremendous lack of power and reliance on stringing 4-5 singles in an inning to score runs. And lack of two out clutch hitting since we had all those miracle comebacks the first six weeks or so...passed balls, HBP, balks, opponent's errors, that's our best offense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 07:38 AM) Just read about it. I'm over the vampie genre. Even that indy one with Tilda last year was annoying to me. What about Let the Right One In, the Swedish film? Warm Bodies was pretty clever, fwiw. A little of Rob Corddry goes a long ways, though. I even had to watch two Kevin Hart films because it was a 15 hour flight and was running out of options...Get Hard and Wedding Ringers. He'e definitely getting overexposed. The best was Her Granddaughter, a Japanese film, and Red Army, a documentary about the Russian state hockey machine in the 70's and 80's starring Slava Fetisov and Scotty Bowman.

Well, considering that Alexei and Gordon will both be off the roster...and one of the replacements is likely to be Micah Johnson, it's difficult to imagine where the defensive improvement will come from. It's hard to believe they will sign Heyward, Gordon or Cespedes and move Avi to DH. As it is, Abreu's looking like he needs to spend more time at DH with his body seeming to break down more and more as the season wears on.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 04:56 AM) No, the point is Escobar wasn't the best. Players become infinitely better in your mind the secomd they are traded. You were making excuses for Semien and his 28 errors saying the A's see potential and brought in a coach to help him. They brought in a coach because he is awful, and the bat has come back to earth as well. Escobar is a utility guy. Trading him made plenty of sense. It didn't work out, but he will hever be a difference maker. Considering your benchline/standard for best position player produced by the White Sox is Gordon Beckham over the last decade...infinite's not a bad choice of words when Semien still comes out well ahead of Alexei production-wise.

They would have to continue to average 22,622 over the final 38 games to get to 1.832 million. Will be hard-pressed to do that with so many games left when the team's already perceived to be out of the race. If the Yanks, Cardinals (midweek) and Cubs are enough to offset the team's blase record and end of summer vacation, it will be a huge surprise. 1.775 million is probably a better final guess. If they would have taken 3/4 out of the All-Star Break against KC and kept Samardzija, 1.9 might still have been doable.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 09:10 PM) If you've got Bonifacio, he's bumped up to 24. If Beckham can hit his career average against lefties, he's fine as a platoon mate with his plus defense. Beckham, like Alexei, LaRoche, and Melky, has not approximated career averages. But it's beyond silly to care what deficiencies the back end of the bench have, when you consider the hitting of literally every player on the team. Except his GM is paying Bonifacio basically twice as much as Beckham to do pretty much nothing. How did he end up overvaluing him by so much? We've seen the same thing happen with Keppinger, as well, fwiw.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 09:10 PM) Escobar's UZR/150 -15.1 falls into the "awful" range. So there you go...if the best of the worst is awful, whose responsibility is that? As has been noted 1,000+ times with Semien, if we can't develop hitters or fielders, what can we do well, as you don't think Cooper has done a good job with the pitching, either?

That would put Price, Cueto, Hamels and probably Chapman ahead of Samardzija...and, if the Sox are asking too much, someone like Haren from the Marlins. What's the status with Kazmir's injury the other day? Should be plenty of interest, Ventura got rocked again so it seems KC really needs an anchor at the front end of that rotation to stabilize things and remove some of the pressure on Duffy and Yordano.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance Barely got the White Sox past Oakland for 26th...there's the Cards and Cubs still coming, but not much else to prop up attendance from here on out.