danman31

Charlotte, W-S and GF start at 5 central. Birmingham starts at 6 central. Kanny on the road, down early J.R. Ballinger getting rocked for Kanny. Bristol in a pitchers' duel Serafin continues to dominate the level.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 19, 2009 -> 03:34 PM) No, there's no such thing as luck, period. It doesn't exist. The odds play themselves out as in everywhere in life, and baseball especially is an extremely complicated game where hundreds of variables are always present. For example, getting a basehit because the 3B coming in to field a grounder slips on wet grass is NOT luck. The hitter isn't lucky or unlucky that it rained. Everyone plays under the same conditions. That's just one example, but it stands for everything. In a 600+ PA season, when you where all the offensive stats came from - facing hundreds of different pitchers in varying periods of success and failure, and facing hundreds of different defensive players, and tons of different defensive arrangements, and doing it in a bunch of different ballparks under all kinds of weather conditions - when you consider all that, each individual event that became part of a stat is unique enough an unlikely enough to be explained away as "luck." So luck doesn't exist in baseball, because saying it does completely ignores how complex the game is. As a hitter you only control your hitting. A fielder slipping is lucky for the hitter because he had no control over it. We might as well stop this because your stance is so far from mine it's actually hilarious to me.

I barely noticed Corley's numbers. Man, there sure were a ton of dominant pitchers on that team.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 19, 2009 -> 03:07 PM) Luck doesn't exist and belief in it is for those who also believe in Santa Claus, but if it did exist, the closest example of luck in baseball would be something like hitting a towering pop-up in a dome and having it drop in for a double because the ball hit a catwalk. I didn't say Swisher was a good hitter or that I would do the original trade over again. It's just that the Sox have lost nothing and none of them are big prospects anymore. I just think Swisher has some value as a hitter. His numbers with the Sox were well below his career numbers. Luck doesn't exist in baseball? Really? You wrote a long post about Swisher not being good and then say luck doesn't exist in baseball? Everything you post is so definitive like you are always right, and you know what you are talking about, but to say luck doesn't exist is embarrassingly ignorant. Luck may be overstated, but c'mon. Batting average ranges more than most stats. Hitters generally make similar amounts of contact (ie avoiding Ks, and don't bring this back to Swisher, I don't care). That's where the consistency comes into play.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jul 19, 2009 -> 02:42 PM) Poreda has some tinkering to do. You could tell his confidence is pretty low and his mechanics are a bit off. Some time in triple-a should do wonders. I'm not giving up on the guy yet. And I still believe he has really good trade value. Halladay season anyone? Poreda isn't the piece that I don't want to give up for Halladay. It's the main piece that makes it not worth it. I'd go as far as to say I wouldn't trade Danks for Halladay straight up. I think Danks can be that good and has way more value considering he is cheap and under contract longer. If we don't give up Danks or Beckham (which we shouldn't), we don't get Halladay and I'm ok with that.

This is impressively bad from Poreda. Ozzie is going to demand he gets dealt now.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 19, 2009 -> 09:54 AM) Swisher is a mediocre ball player who gets overhyped because he walks a lot. No matter how you cut the cheese, a guy who hits around .240 and K's over 130 times a year isn't that good of a player unless he is putting up massive power numbers. Plus, not to mention Swisher had probably the worst approach to hitting last year of all our players combined, IMO. He doesn't get overhyped. He is a solid ballplayer. Average is the worst stat for hitting. It's based a lot on luck and varies from year to year. Regardless of the trade, it really bothers me that you think Swisher sucks because you don't like the things that he is actually good at. Also, right now Sweeney is an awful Major Leaguer. He'll probably get better, but he is just not good right now. Nothing from that trade has proven to be worth more than Swisher.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 18, 2009 -> 10:30 PM) As I said many times before... The mistake wasn't trading Swisher, the mistake was trading FOR Swisher. We've been over this. You don't evaluate players like most people. I disagree.

Or he can just go yard and not be on the basepaths for long at all.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 18, 2009 -> 09:13 PM) If not for the game in which Hudson gave up 4 runs I believe in the 7th inning, he would have a 1.50 ERA in AA. He's been excellent. At this point, the only thing I can see that would keep him from being at least solid in the Majors would be injuries. Brandon McCarthy is doing alright considering he had a major injury and is in a big hitters park as a strikeout/flyball pitcher. QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jul 18, 2009 -> 09:19 PM) Holmberg with a nice outing in relief for Bristol. It's good to see him have a good outing. Any sort of success would be a victory. I can't imagine going from high school to pro ball, even in rookie Bristol.

Canada got a screw job against Honduras today. Honduras got a first half PK because the ref called a hand ball on a Canadian defender, but the replays show it hit his head. The defender should know better than to have his hands in the air. They tell you that in youth soccer for the same reason. From there on out Canada had the run of play, but couldn't finish. On the upside, Honduras at Soldier Field for the semis will make for a much better overall atmosphere.

Pods bunting there is puzzling. I know he was trying to get a hit, but the pitcher had given up hits to 7 straight batters. Swing the bat.

That should have been a 6+ run inning. Neither single was hit hard. Getz was a more respectable send, but geez.

Phegley with a HR too. It would be nice to see Phegley get a little something going to finish the year.

QUOTE (scenario @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 02:29 PM) Carter's progress in the organization at this point seems to be tied to the development of his changeup. Once he starts having more success with it, I would guess he'll move up quickly. He needs to be more consistent with his curveball. It's a good pitch, but from what I've read he doesn't always throw it well.

Middle 10, maybe a bit lower. It was probably top half until Beckham and Poreda got moved up and Allen got traded.

Cubness aside, "The Riot" Theriot is pretty cool.

Carter's fastball is supposed to be a bit higher than that. Disappointing report.

Disappointing that not only is he not advancing from a year ago, but he is down a level from a year ago.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Jul 17, 2009 -> 12:21 AM) I liked what he said about Ozzie. What he said was good, but would you expect otherwise from a guy who spent 3 years in college with a PR department telling him what to say/not to say and a year plus in pro ball of the same? He knows not to say something stupid by this point in his career. These guys make a minor mistake once and someone is yelling at them. He is old enough to know what's going on. I'm not saying he doesn't believe what he said, but there is no guarantee that he actually does. He could hate Ozzie and know enough to say he loves him regardless. Welcome to the world of journalism.

Heh. He is really awful. I guess the new question is whether or not Betancourt will be more than a slight improvement.

Ozzie Ball wrote an excellent article reviewing Dayan's first half of the season with some sweet statistical analysis. It's a great read. Dayan Viciedo: A First Half Review

Great to see Jordan go yard and have Upchurch deal.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 15, 2009 -> 12:15 PM) Ha, I'm glad you said that as noticed I was the one to rank Leesman and Jones the highest, also had Upchurch at 10 and the highest he was ranked was 9. Nah, you were the high range on Upchurch too haha. It's fine though, we have varying opinions and philosophies when it comes to rankings and I think that makes it better. It ends up being a pretty conservative list because the guys that are on most of the lists are higher regardless of where they are ranked on the list. QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 15, 2009 -> 12:36 PM) As it stands right now, outside of Flowers/Danks/Viciedo/Hudson/Mitchell I think you can make a case for a lot of guys to fill out that top-10 or top-15. Yeah, there isn't a clear cut 2nd tier yet.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 15, 2009 -> 01:30 PM) Vicideo was paid a lot of money-more than Alexei Ramirez and AR went straight to the bigs and is doing nicely. I would think Cuban baseball is either AAA or better so the struggles have me a bit concrned and confused. But, he was picked for the Futures game so I am guessing someone other than just the Sox people see something in him that's positive The Cuban league is actually quite a ways from AAA. It's a massive jump.