caulfield12

You say all these very dramatic/exciting things, but choose to lead with taking 2/3 from ATL instead of sweeping them...!!!

QUOTE (harkness @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 08:25 PM) Because the game is on WPWR.... There's a LOGICAL answer. Although I would imagine every professional sports team's message boards are more active in losses (especially controversial ones, see Boston threads with Farrell getting 100X more heat than Ventura ever will)...UNLESS they're Opening Day, playoff-clinching or post season determining games, BlackOut, post season/World Series, etc.

Maybe Thad's trying to get more votes for his Dick Allen vs. Thad Bosley Beef...? Rallying the troops....

Fathom deserves some kind of award from the moderators for most consistent game thread poster....lifetime achievement award? He's been much calmer than I would have thought in the face of the Cubs' onslaught (which has recently become panic in a burning theatre for Cubs' fans).

Morneau finished the game 1/3 with a walk. 4 PA's. 1/7 on the year, BB, HBP. Single.

The Yankees fans' don't have much faith in their aging team this year, pretty much no buzz around that team (other than will they stand pat or sell off Chapman, Miller, Beltran, etc.) playing in what looks like the best division in baseball. Just not much interest in either team right now (except for Anderson/Sale/Eaton/Q interest). Sox, though, are going to pass the Royals if they hold onto this lead. A big move for a bat or at least a smaller move to improve the bullpen would help to improve the interest level. Fulmer, maybe Morneau hitting like his 2014 version, all of those would be nice for fans.

There's something like only 10 qualified players below him in OPS now. Almost all of them are middle infielders. The other two are Aoki with the M's and Prince Fielder. Of course, Alexei Ramirez is there as well.

Too much...

Jays have been averaging 7+ runs per game since June 11 WITHOUT Jose Bautista... One more starting pitcher (again, see David Price 2015), they become pretty scary. And Michael Saunders has added a new element to that attack. That said, they don't have nearly the bullets they did last year in their minor league system. 1. TOR +9 2. BOS +8 3. HOU +7 1/2 GB 4. DET +5 1 1/2 GB 5. CHW +3 2 1/2 GB 6. KCR +2 3 GB 7. SEA +1 3 1/2 GB 8. NYY -2 5 GB Toronto leading KC 2-1, Houston beating the M's 4-0 already (again).

Kyle vs. The Punisher and Normal Spelling of First Names (Not to be confused with The Equalizer). SoxTalk vs. Greg Walker

Santana was very impressive today, raising his stock. Gray wasn't bad either, although he took the loss. Has gradually pushed his ERA down into the low 5's, and was consistently in the 93-95 MPH range. That said, he's not going to get the king's ransom he would have last year on the trade market.

The Marlins can have their own better-rated HR derby, Stanton vs. Ichiro vs. Bonds.

That's what you would have thought originally when Jared Mitchell went down. Kind of a once in a lifetime freak catastrophic injury. He SHOULD be okay, kids that age are so resilient physically.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 01:27 PM) Phil Rogers ‏@philgrogers 4h4 hours ago Nice factoid from @BillShaikin: Johnny Cueto is only All-Star among 10 free agents to sign for at least $80 million last winter. Zobrist wasn't off by too much.

So much for one of our best, and likeliest, trade chips left remaining in the cupboard. Morneau walked in his first PA, so far in first 2+ games, BB, HBP...0/4, GIDP. At least getting out there on the basepaths in game action should help, too.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 02:04 PM) Post Politics Eric Trump: My father gives ‘millions and millions and millions’ to charity Not sure how believable that claim is given that Trump claims some sort of middle income tax deduction worth a couple hundred but would forego millions in deductions here. eta well, aside from claiming that trump "likes to keep some anonymity" in the first place. That's the least believable deflection you could possibly come up with. Trump's entire bulls*** image being destroyed in the process of his campaign really is the icing on the cake. "My brand name being attached to the event itself was worth approximately $1.4 million to the gala, alone. Any rich white dude can cut a check, but I made the GALA an event, just like all my hotels, golf courses and beauty pageants make news all around the world and draw the cream of the crop, just the absolute best people out to these events."

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/1509336...itive-drug-test Just passed the 80 game mark on positive drug test suspension. Starting for Charlotte tonight against Pawtucket. Help is on the way...for the bullpen. Or, somewhere. Has spent most of his career with the Rangers' organization as a starter and long reliever.

Any SoxTalk Beef? Unfortunately, landing in Chicago on the afternoon of the 17th, but it seems like a really cool event...not sure they'd have much patience for a 16 1/2 month old, though. Did they invite someone from Jeter's site (The Undefeated) to come? Not their niche?

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 12:45 PM) He is on the DL, so no, he wouldn't be. Let's just put it this way. He's a career 609 OPS guy in the majors in 434 career AB's. That makes Avi Garcia look good, almost. We MIGHT be better off with Nieto...who's the better defender.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 11:28 AM) Most guys who can top out at 98 don't throw 98 with every pitch. David Price was brought up as an example a second ago - his best fastball his first 5 years in the league was always 98-99, but his average fastball was 93-95. Yeah, but there's a "cluster." When Rodon's at his best, he's throwing 95-98 MPH fastballs, with 94 being the "middle ground" range. When he's been getting absolutely hammered with the fastball (and usually, it's first pitch/earlier in games)....it's almost always at 90-93 MPH, but specifically 92-93 MPH, at least since the first month of the season. It has been this same exact trend over and over and over again. Nobody wants Rodon to (over)throw 97-99 and ruin his arm/shoulder. That's not the point. Chris Sale can get away with this same exact strategy because of his slurve, different arm angles and especially having that change-up available in his arsenal. He certainly has the ability to pitch confidently when behind in the count, you can understand why Rodon hasn't/doesn't looking at his pitch selection (unless we want to blame all this on the catchers/Cooper.)

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 12:40 PM) CarGo is having a really f***ing good year. See the CarGo notes in the Keith Law article above. Polanco and Marte are much better all-around players, and not park-adjustment issues. Just read what Law wrote.

If Hayes really COULD catch, he would be on the White Sox right now...that's like calling Saladino a catcher.

http://espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/insider/...d-five-who-dont Keith Anti-Sox Law really really goes out of his way to defend Quintana and Kluber and why they deserve spots on the team

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 6, 2016 -> 11:16 AM) Well, to be fair, part of the reason to have zero patience is that the organization keeps saying that this guy is ready to be the #3 starter on a team challenging for the central this year (lots of exclamation points!!!!) and then makes decisions based on that. Anyway, one of the more interesting comments I saw from Yankee broadcasting last night is that for Rodon, every pitch is hard, harder, hardest. Both Rodon and Price came up throwing a fastball that averaged 93 mph, but Rodon's slider is 2 mph faster than Price's average slider, so the difference between the pitches is less. On top of that, when Price started having success in his 2nd full year he was mixing in a curveball in the upper 70s (and a changeup on occasion as well, or at least pitch-FX is thinking it's a changeup even though it matched his slider in velocity). It'll be interesting to see if Rodon can find that kind of success without something that has a bigger velocity difference from his fastball - right now if his fastball and slider aren't both on, then there's nothing in his arsenal that forces the batter to speed up or slow down. Yes, it was their female radio broadcaster who started going off on that point...like it was the most obvious thing in the world (which it kinda is). Where's the change/curve and 10+ MPH differential that's ideal? Why is everything hard? Why isn't he throwing his best fastball when he has shown time and time again he can throw 94-98 MPH in games even where/when he's around 90-110 pitches earlier in the year. It's not a stamina or pitching deeper into games point. And he's not getting significantly better command/location in the strike zone at the lower speeds. Farmer and DJ have both been going off about this issue pretty much all season long, but it still hasn't changed at all. Not that it's their job to "fix" Rodon.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/28958/david-price This is like your Ventura would be a HoF manager with the 2016 Cleveland Indians or 2015 Royals argument. Rodon has 226 IP now and has surrendered 227 hits. His ERA's hovering just a bit below 4 career-wise (4.05 now, 1.5ish WHIP). For your comparison to work, for Rodon to get anywhere near Price's second full year in the big leagues (see stats above), he's going to need to put up a 2.00-2.25 ERA for the remainder of the season. Price's walks were way up, but you can also see he was +40 in terms of IP/H ratio. Carlos is at -17. Carlos' better control isn't enough to offset those IP/H ratios. For that full second season, he recorded a 4.4 WAR. Then slipped to 2.4, then 6.4. So it averaged out to 4.4 (overall) for those 2nd-4th years in the big leagues. So we've got 1.6 WAR, then 0.6 right now for Rodon. Let's just say he's got to be one of the five best pitchers in the AL from here on out to catch up with David Price and get to a 4+ WAR, let alone at least a 3 on the season.