mmmmmbeeer

If domination was their baseline for top25, I kind of get it. The 05 Sox weren't exactly a thing of beauty....there's no denying the results but that roster, subpar by most measures, seemed to always have just enough to win games. Their record in one-run games was insane, not only by winning% but also the number of times they were in games finishing that close. I don't have the energy to look up the odds in the spring of 2005, but I would guess Sox were probably a middle of the pack team in Vegas. It's very rare to have a team where everyone seems to click during the same season. Hell, based on talent, I thought the 03 team was a better team than the 05 Sox. Cubs in '16 were nothing like our 05 Sox. That was a team built and ready to win with a very impressive roster. Their ceiling, in terms of dominating opponents, was heads and shoulders above the us.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 02:59 PM) OK, I opened this can of worms I suppose. For the record, our relationship with the Sox has, overall, been very good. We've been able to interview Rick Hahn, Jeremy Faber (Asst GM), Nick Hostetler (Scouting Director), Marco Paddy (Intl Director), Chris Getz (Dir of Player Dev) and others with the big club. We'd previously been one of just two blogs credentialed to SoxFest (the other was SSS). They've let us into the secure area of the back fields at Camelback. We have been credentialed at every affiliate (though that's more them than the Sox). But in this case, what Scott explained was that it was a problem of time and demand. The number of requests was such that they were afraid that outlets would not get to spend the time they wanted with the players, prospects and coaches during the 45 minute scrum if there were too many press there. So they had to find a way to limit it, and non-traditional media is lowest on the priority list. I don't necessarily agree with the way they did this, just reporting what the Sox told us. And I do get the logic, even if it isn't great. Scott did have effusive praise for FutureSox, FWIW. Was really disappointed by the decision to shut out RedlineRadio and, moreso, you guys. I'm glad you shared the explanation and it does seem somewhat reasonable. That said, how about making the "scrum" longer than 45 minutes instead of refusing credentials to the rabid, unpaid mega-fans behind non-traditional media? I do hope they dangled some nice carrots in return for the snub and look forward to enjoying the results.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 10:00 PM) The Yankees had three guys 25 years old and below combine for 18.3 WAR last year. They have a top 5 prospect in Gleybar Torres, a bunch of other top 100 caliber prospects, plus a ton of prospect depth beyond that. Right now we’re simply hoping that Moncada, Jimenez, & Kopech can match the output of Judge, Sanchez, & Servino. Let’s say they can match them, does Rodon, Anderson, Giolito, Lopez, Robert, Hansen, Cease, Rutherford, Burger, Collins offer more upside than Torres, Frazier, Montgomery, Florial, Andujar, Sheffield, Abreu, Adams, etc? I’d say it’s awfully close and the Yankees have far more certainty at this point. The Yankees are definitely stacked and, if things play out as both front offices expect, Sox and them will likely be the top two teams in the AL from 2020-2023ish. That said, some of the Yankee prospects, as we've learned over the years, are certainly a bit overrated. I don't know if it's enough to put us on top when ranking organization talent

So Rick Hahn just went out and got 2 great deadline-flip candidates and $4M in cash in exchange for a AAAA player? And people (person) are b****ing? GTFOH.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 16, 2017 -> 09:17 PM) It depends when you actually need the money. The simple plan is to allocate by age, if you’re 25, should be 75% stocks/25% bonds and vice versa at 75, moving to protect your returns. Timing or predicting the market is impossible. Some very smart people here thought Trump winning would instantly signal disaster, and exiting led them to lose huge returns that might take another decade to equal. There’s all kinds of different ways to go...REITs, hedge funds, international/emerging markets, small and mid cap stocks...generally, it’s best to have your eggs in as many baskets as possible. That diversification limits the upside but protects you as well on the downside. In general, with interest rates rising again and close to full employment and historically high PE’s, most economists would predict 3-5% rates of return the next decade, assuming at least one major recessionary period will hit again and cutbacks in SS, Medicare and Medicaid will eventually depress aggregate demand in the economy. So that leaves it up to Silicon Valley (AI, AR, VR) and alternative energy strategies....and our export economy to sustain the US. How confident should we be in beating China AND that the world economy will continue to grow at a 10% rate the next decade, especially SE Asia and India? I have been adding Chinese stocks like baba, tcehy, tsm, zto, jd, ping an...to protect from a US collapse. Appreciate the input and I like your Chinese strategy, especially in the long-term. Probably easier for you to stomach given you living there (or at least did at one time, if I remember right?). I just want out for a few months. I guess the question will be if the securities market remains stable should we encounter a situation where a US President kills an investigation into his potential collusion with a US enemy and the Congress sits idly by? Seems this would introduce an incredible amount of apprehension globally in both the dollar and federal bond market. I don't have risk tolerance to place a bet on this happening by hedging the market or going full-bore on international stocks. If I sit out for a few months and lose a point or two of ROI over that period, so be it. The Fed raising rates and raising inflationary concerns, an unfunded $1.5T tax bill about to pass, a terrifyingly strong chance at constitutional crisis within the next couple of weeks, all surrounding a nearly unprecedented bull market.....yeah, I want to take my money and run. I get the whole "don't try to time the market" idea but, FFS, it sure seems the writing is on the wall.

This may belong in the financial news thread and, if so, feel free to move it. I'm a bit of a politics freak. I have been for years and consider myself fairly knowledgable. I'm scared s***less right now with the whole Trump/Russia/Mueller show and there are a lot of rumors that s*** is about to come to a head by the end of next week. Rumor on the hill is that Trump will try to fire Mueller this Friday and, as a result, we'll be in a full blown constitutional crisis if congress doesn't step in and put Trump in his place (which I have zero faith in happening). With the GOP tax bill already baked into the market (imo), I'm very fearful of seeing this bull market turn on its ear and turn full bear until DC figures out what the hell to do. I'm seriously considering liquidating any and all assets I have in the market this week and put my money on the sideline. My question to you financial guys.....what exactly is the "sideline" in a potential s*** show like this? My brokerage and Roth accounts I can hide relatively easily in corporate bonds but my 401k just has bond mutual funds with high exposure to treasury notes. Not convinced that's the place to sock away money during a constitutional crisis lol. What do you guys think? We used to have a PIMCO fund that was basically just a place to park money with the only risk coming from the ups and downs of the dollar. I no longer have that option. Should I roll the dice on the bond funds I do have available to me? Am I just overreacting? ETA: I don't use a financial adviser or I'd just ask them. I'm reasonably money savvy so have never really felt the need to pay someone else to handle my investments. This, though, is waaayyy out of my league given how unique the potential situation is.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 16, 2017 -> 04:43 PM) True. Because nobody cares for anything except money. Even outside of the money, NY and LA are prime destinations for ball players. They are great destinations for superstars looking to build a legacy and increase their national exposure. Bottom line, this hurts the Sox if they want Machado or any prolific 2018-2019 free agent.

This is really bad news for the Sox if 2019 is circled on Rick's calendar. The less competition we face in the FA market the better....LA is a place a lot of players would love to go.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 16, 2017 -> 04:01 PM) I think some of you guys are a little unrealistic. Even if we just loosely say that an ace is a 4 WAR pitcher, there were only 14 of those in the majors last year, and I think that definition is way too loose. Personally, I think the only guy in the system currently who has ace potential is Kopech. There are a lot of guys with nice ceilings, but they project more as #2/3's. What do you need to see out of Hansen to put him in the "potential ace" category? The kid absolutely dominated last season. I get not anointing him until he shows he can excel in the upper levels of the ml system but at the same time I don't think he's done anything to wholly disqualify himself from having ace potential. Lopez has an extremely gifted arm with sometimes incredible secondary stuff. If he can pull it all together on a consistent basis, I really think he has the intangibles to be an ace. While most disagree, Buerhle wasn't an ace. He was a good pitcher. When I think ace, I think about a guy who has the innate ability to strike people out and completely shutdown an offense without relying on the defense. Lopez has that potential. As do Hansen and Kopech.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Dec 16, 2017 -> 09:05 AM) I agreed with your opening sentence. But then you jumped from Giolito being solid to dominating next year. Maybe solid in 2018 could lead to dominate in 2019 or 2020. Chris Sale was dominating and Q was outstanding. I don't see Gio as either next year. Absolutely agree with you, SCCWS. Dominating expectations for a typical #2 would be a better way to express what I see him capable of reaching next season. Certainly not an ace but could very well finish with the best season on the Sox staff and would be a solid #2 for even competitive teams. I REALLY want to see Reynaldo grow next season. I love watching him pitch, especially when his offspeed stuff is on and he's able to control his fastball. He has the ability to make hitters look absolutely foolish. Outside of Kopech and perhaps Hansen, I think he has the best ace potential in the system.

I think Giolito will be put up very solid #2 numbers this season. It was all mental with him and, after several solid starts last season, I think this kid is going to dominate this season. I definitely see struggles from Lopez and especially Fulmer. Lopez will improve as the season goes along but I just see this being the year Carson is sent to the pen for good. Rodon will take several months to get right and then still be susceptible to the occasional blowout (please trade his ass). There's no way this team competes in 2018. I think it will be extremely fun baseball to watch as we see the chemistry continue to grow, young guys catching on to the MLB game, and some of our top guys coming up throughout the season but, really, they're going to be really s***ty for at least the first half of the season. We may see a late run/streak but it won't be enough to snag a WC spot....though it will leave us pumped for 2019.

Went back and watched the replay. That box isn't in the field of play and is, in fact, surrounded by padding on the wall and railing in the field of play. I'm not entirely clear how the hell he fit his leg between the wall and railing...bad luck? Sox/IFSA may settle this one but I'm not convinced they lose in court.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Oct 24, 2017 -> 08:52 PM) I would just appreciate a legal way to watch White Sox games from inside their blackout territory. I would pay $120 a year to get MLB.TV; sadly, I still cannot watch Sox games, legally. If you're willing to pay for MLB.TV, go ahead and purchase a VPN. This is the one that I use. It's reliable, reasonably priced, gives you access to blacked out games via any of the major sports' streaming packages, and, if you download torrents of movies and such, it will protect you from your ISP. Highly recommend for anyone, especially for those wirecutters who still want to watch their teams.

Houston has a lot of great storylines going for them....Harvey, first WS win, Kate Upton and Verlander, multi-hundred+ loss seasons recently, etc. Wouldn't be awful if they won but I'm all Dodgers in this series. I just think they're far and away the best team in baseball this season with a very likable roster and it would be a damn shame to watch them lose.

That Yankees trade dropped it from a 10 to a 9. Whether it was a matter of money or just negotiations, we should've come out better than we did, imo. I dropped another point, to an 8, on our inability to trade any of our vet starters (outside Rodon) for anything by the waiver deadline. Just a low floor/high ceiling A-ball prospect out of trading the bunch would've satisfied me. Flipping FA assets is a big part of a rebuild and it was a weakness. Still, that's a strong ass 8. As I've read countless times on SoxTalk, winning more games than we wanted to during the end of the season, given that most of those wins were due to contributions from our young guys, isn't a bad thing. Kopech and Moncada look to be cornerstones of this franchise for years to come....Eloy has all-star production written all over him, other young guys in the system are progressing very well and those who are scuffling we didn't have particularly high expectations of anyway (Collins kind of excluded, he showed life).

That Giolito - Gonzalez AB had to have been the longest on record this season, right? Felt like it was a 15min AB.

I think it's safe to say Coop fixed him. Will be really fun to watch what Coop can do with our other studs when they come up.

Dunning needs to put that one behind him. Ugly

Few thoughts on Lucas' start.... All these Gavin Floyd comps....to me, he looked like a young BMac on the bump. For basically being a one-pitch pitcher last night, he had a pretty damn good outing against a relatively hot team. Those HRs are excusable, to an extent, because hitters knew there was nothing but a fastball coming and it was going to be in the zone. If he was behind 3-1, 2-1, 2-0, even 1-0, Twins were sitting dead red and treated it almost like a 3-0 green light. With all the swings and misses and oppo field foul balls in the first few innings, tardy on 93-94MPH fastballs, I think it's safe to say he looks a few MPH faster to hitters than he's throwing. No wonder this guy was ranked so highly when his true velocity was 98MPH. He worked very well up in the zone. His fearlessness up in the zone reminded me a lot of Q. Obviously he's not on Q's level yet, but he's not afraid to go up in the zone, nor throw inside to back hitters off a bit. Narvaez can't be his catcher. There were a few of those curves that nipped the bottom corner of the zone...a little framing and he might have gained some confidence in that pitch. This could also be a matter of umpires being unfamiliar with his curve and the amount of movement involved. That pitch is going to come around with time and he'll look like a completely different pitcher. I didn't see many changes or sliders. Seeing some of you guys say his change looked good, it must've been straight downward movement because I didn't see much sweep on any changes. If that's the case, maybe he needs to change his grip because with a straight downward tilt on his change his curveball and change both become less effective. I think Lopez impressed me more his first start but he had his secondary pitches working so prob not a fair comp.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 21, 2017 -> 07:53 PM) He did at Vandy. Doesn't come close to resembling that guy now What happened to him? I don't recall any serious injuries he's suffered. Given the Sox decent success the last couple of years with pitching prospects in ml, I don't buy that they ruined his mechanics. May just come down to confidence....we rushed him up far too soon after being drafted and he got knocked around a good bit.

QUOTE (kingranch @ Aug 15, 2017 -> 12:00 PM) Kopech should start on the 18th Thanks, man. I live NW of ATL so BHam is only an hour and a half..two hours from the house. Been wanting to go check out the Barons on a Kopech night but the rest of the roster was never anyone warranting the drive. With Jiminez and Collins up, Kopech night would be great to catch.

When should Kopech's next home start be? I'm only seeing TBD on the Barons' website.

Way too high in the zone this inning. Maybe getting a bit fatigued after all the adrenaline has run its course.

Rodon-esque start thus far.

I didn't watch any of his Charlotte appearances but watched video after we acquired him....I don't remember his change-up looking this good. it graded out at a 45 a couple years ago (can't find a recent grade)...that isn't a 45 change.