mmmmmbeeer

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 14, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) The level of seething, angry disrespect in this thread for anyone who has a negative reaction to signing this guy is really quite remarkable. We often don't even get this level for political discussions. Agreed.... I think Melky is likely clean, now. The past is the past and I'm, personally, going to give him the benefit of the doubt. With me, if a player takes PEDs and goes on to just dominate, like a Bonds, Sosa, or Clemens, I'm more disgusted than I am when a guy like Cabrera, Ozuna, or a Jhonny Peralta gets caught....cheating is cheating but the PEDs didn't have a drastic impact on the game when looking at those lesser-known players, likely due to using PEDs for a different reason (faster recovery times vs. straight performance)

I read a lot of concern on here about Avisail....I don't get it. I'm a huge proponent of his and think he's going to be an excellent bat. With that said, we all have different ideas of what needs to go right for us to succeed or is making us doubt any chance of succeeding...What are your 3 keys to this season? Here's my 3: 1. Robin Ventura needs to show that he can manage an ML team with talent. He had an excuse last year with the roster being what it was but I think it was more than obvious that he was making many poor in-game decisions that had nothing to do with a lack of talent. He needs to step up this year or folks are going to be calling for his head early and it will disrupt the clubhouse. 2. Tyler Flowers showed flashes of the offense he achieved in the minors last season. Our stats gurus on here were quick to point out his absurd BABIP during his streaks, but from the eye test he was making more consistent contact and seeing the ball well during those stretches....no surprise that more contact leads to a better offensive contributor. We really need Tyler to feel comfortable most of the season if the Sox are going to make some noise. 3. Carlos Rodon and how management decides to manage his innings. The kid has the ability to be dominant and make an immediate impact on our club leading to easier victories out of the 4th spot in the rotation. I was a fan of bringing him along in the pen out of ST and ease him into a starting role....we know that isn't happening now. My next hope is that we milk those 130-140IP during the regular season being, outside of a possible BP role, we don't need him in the playoffs with our top 3 starters. We need every win we can get and I don't want to see him handled with kid gloves...give him a job and an innings limit and let him do his thing.

I've never really followed Melky very closesly but, looking over his numbers, this is a very nice snag for us. What really jumped out at me was his performance at the Cell....that line in his splits just really jumps out. Great snag and decent price!

BTW, for us out-of-town fans, here's the Shark's interview on the Score. To me, he sounds like a man who wants to stay. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/audio/670-the-score-interviews/

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 06:08 PM) Sale now steps up as sort of a leader, and read nothing but good things about Laroche, Samardzija and Robertson in the clubhouse. This is really important and is being greatly underestimated, imo.....we have truly solid veteran leadership on this team now. Robertson, Mo Rivera's understudy, spending atleast 8 innings a game with young guys just sitting in that bullpen chewing the fat....this will have an impact. Samardzija and Sale, both fierce competitors, will be the media's elected leaders of this team....they'll set a "fun" tone but will be clear that when it comes to winning, you do what needs to be done. LaRoche is a notoriously great clubhouse guy and has spent enough time in the league that our younger hitters will listen anytime he's willing to talk (which will be often). We know that Avi is a fun guy and puts everything he has into his craft....mix that with Abreu, who really impressed me last year with his willingness to become a leader in not only his first year in MLB, but his first year in America. For more than a decade we had Paul Konerko as our leader......Paulie is a helluva guy and great teammate, but I never took him as the type of player who was a natural born leader. This roster is now full of them and it WILL make a difference.

I'm very excited for 2015 until I remember who will be managing all of this talent.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Dec 9, 2014 -> 01:28 AM) Just to put it into text... 1.) Sale 2.) Samardzija 3.) Quintana 4.) Danks 5.) Noesi CL - Robertson SU - Duke SU - Petricka MR - Putnam MR- Webb MR - Snodgress MR - Guerra If we're going all in, gotta believe they won't dick around with the clock on Rodon and let him start in the rotation if he has a good spring.

FanGraphs has him worth a 1.8WAR this upcoming season. What's the $/WAR ratio? Like $7M? Not a bad deal when you look at it like that....even a little under value.

I think that Rick has proven over time that he understands the market as well as anyone in baseball...gotta trust his seeing $10M as a fair contract.

Good read....glad Kevin could take the time to share with us.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 07:44 PM) Viciedo is going to get what, like 4-7 million in arb? That's a pretty damn expensive DH platoon. I know....and I don't like Viciedo in the platoon. The last 2 seasons his splits don't show that he's noticeably better against LHP...he pretty much blows against any pitcher.

His 2014 splits are crazy....620 OPS against LHP, .890 OPS against RHP. He's going to have to be platooned. I'm not a fan of sinking $12.5M into a platoon player BUT he's quite a dominant hitter against RHP, enough so that he'll change this line-up considerably when he's in it. With that said, unless Viciedo will be his platoon partner, this signing still leaves a hole for a RH DH or 1B. I also agree that this signals that the Sox plan on being competitive next season which really surprises me. I thought it'd be 2016 before we threw our chips in.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 30, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Triple Crown Update- .318 (.014 behind Altuve) 98 RBI (4 ahead of Ortiz) 33 HR (1 behind Cruz) I can't believe we got this guy and he's doing THAT in the first season he's seen ML pitching....with another 3-4 today!

I really hope they give Semien the rest of the season at 2b. While he didn't have gaudy numbers, he looked like a pro at the plate and wasn't afraid of hitting in a big situation. So many guys who come up in this organization look scared in the batters box, Marcus didn't. I think he can be a solid hitter given the opportunity.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 03:36 PM) There's no decision to be made. You don't non-tender that kind of arm. If the Sox are lucky, he's back by July or August of next year, knocks off some of the rust, and is ready to go full time again in 2016. Not only that, but this has "good Samaritan" Jerry Reinsdorf written all over it.....you know JR probably feels horrible for the kid and will do anything he can do to accommodate him.

Kid truly has video game stuff.....some of those sliders were just insane.

Robin catches a lot of hell but I love how aggressive he is when it comes to giving the green light on 3-0 counts. Sierra was visibly nervous that last at-bat....the fact he came through is going to be huge for his confidence moving forward.

Did not see that coming with 1st and 2nd, nobody down, Dyson on 1st. Helluva job, pen!

Downs? Really?

QUOTE (JoshPR @ May 16, 2014 -> 05:44 PM) Sale K'd 11 in 4 innings for Charlotte. One hit day over I think he's feeling good again.

What happened to Bob Costas? Unless my memory is just way off, I thought he was largely considered the inevitable successor a few years ago.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2014 -> 09:19 PM) Insane strike zone It will be interesting to see PitchFX on this game.....that at bat alone the zone was from the letters to just below the knee and 2 inches wide of the plate.

Anyone else having issues with the mlb.tv feeds? Mine won't load due to "technical difficulties".

Dunn and Alexei should net us something decent but there are serious drawbacks to dealing both. With Dunn, you now have no one to protect Abreu in the order unless Dayan keeps hitting. If teams see Abreu as the only threat in the order, they won't pitch to him....while his obp will increase, I just worry that this could stunt his development. With Alexei, I really sense that the whole Cuban pride deal is pretty strong on this squad and don't think it's any coincidence that 3 of the 4 Cubans are playing head and shoulders above expectations. Do we want to mess with that chemistry this soon? If this is the new Alexei, do we really have anyone that can step in and provide what he does? Semien can't.

I found him not challenging that KC home run last week a greater mistake than managing his crap b.p. last night.