flavum

It can't happen again, can it?

The Sox just played a half season of baseball games without a player hitting 2 homers in a game. Abreu tonight.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) Trade Avi or make him the DH. Avi is down to 159th out of 164 in terms of WAR, and showing no signs of improvement. Most of his hits of late have been bloopers. I'm fully on board with dropping Garcia like a bad habit, but I would probably give the new coaching staff (yes, new coaching staff) a crack at him in 2016 when the Sox clearly won't be contending. It's one of those things where you know where it's headed, but you have to give it every chance to succeed.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 01:03 PM) Have you looked at the free agent class yet? Not to mention the White Sox tried to patch things up in free agency this winter and it failed. I HIGHLY doubt they try this route a 2nd year in a row. Listen, I respect Shark and believe he will get a nice contract this winter, but not with the White Sox. When you have 10 teams interested in a guy and your team has a 0% chance if competing for the playoffs, you can't be ignorant, you trade him to a contender and bring back prospects. In regards to Quintana, you can get A LOT for him. When your team has a weak farm system position wise, you have to explore trading from a strength which is the starting pitching. As for your concerns with the rotation in 2016 goes, if i'm right and both Shark and Q are traded, you will likely get an arm back in such a deal AND it appears as if Erik Johnson may have found his way again which is encouraging. Montas and Fulmer should be ready by 2017 just in time for Danks to leave after the 2016 season. I hate to bring this up, but the White Sox will not be contenders in 2016. They need to build a new infield, obtain a catcher and hope for Eaton and Garcia to continue to grow. I can see them being competitive in 2017 if Hahn plays his cards right. Its hard to be patient with this horrible offensive/defensive team but at this point, we have no choice. Great Scott. Great post. Some real talk is appreciated.

Sale/Buehrle got hurt by the rain. Probably would have got close to 30k. It's difficult for most to go to a Sox game last minute. Most people plan games they go to weeks in advance. The Sox will start drawing the year after they actually are good, and continue to be good. Nobody should want to pay to see this crap they're putting out there right now.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jul 8, 2015 -> 10:18 AM) I mean, the bullpen has improved about as much as we could have expected from the terrible 2014 unit. It's basically middle of the pack now. We're sixth in starting pitcher WAR and second in the AL, and everybody is more or less performing to expectations if you look outside their ERA's. A lot - or even most - of that bad ERA can be pinned on bad defense. I'm not comfortable blaming the pitching when the position side of things has been so disappointing in every way. That's fair. The Sox starting pitchers put up more innings than anyone. They're up there in quality starts. So there are positives. And then when the bullpen has to be perfect all the time because of the low scoring, bad things sometimes happen. The starting 9 on a daily basis is the biggest problem in every way.

Runs Scored - Runs Allowed first 81 games: Top 5- KC, Hou, NY, LAA, Min (1749-1587) Average game 4.32-3.92 Middle 5- Tor, Bal, TB, Tex, Det (1800-1683) Average game 4.44-4.16 Bottom 5- Cle, Sea, Bos, Chi, Oak (1572-1710) Average game 3.88-4.22 White Sox 3.41-4.38 Not only is the Sox offense an embarrassment, their starting pitching has been below par besides Sale and Quintana, and the bullpen isn't that great either.

Through 81: Runs scored, runs allowed, diff KC 48-33, 347-291, +56 Min 43-38, 338-333, +5 Det 41-40, 359-371, -12 Cle 38-43, 325-346, -21 Sox 37-44, 276-355, -79 Jerry, Kenny, Rick...figure it out, guys. It isn't working.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jul 7, 2015 -> 10:50 PM) 3 runs or less 45 of 81 games just awful. 276 runs in the first 81 games. I mean, seriously?

QUOTE (flavum @ May 24, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) After 41 Games: Hou 27-14 KC 27-14 Det 24-17 Min 23-18 NY 22-19 TB 22-19 LAA 21-20 Bal 19-22 Bos 19-22 Chi 19-22 Sea 19-22 Cle 18-23 Tex 18-23 Tor 18-23 Oak 14-27 After 81 (Record in Games 42-81) KC 48-33 (21-19) Hou 47-34 (20-20) NY 44-37 (22-18) LAA 43-38 (22-18) Min 43-38 (20-20) Tor 42-39 (24-16) Bal 42-39 (23-17) TB 42-39 (20-20) Tex 41-40 (23-17) Det 41-40 (17-23) Cle 38-43 (20-20) Sea 37-44 (18-22) Bos 37-44 (18-22) Sox 37-44 (18-22) Oak 36-45 (22-18)

20 games between tonight and July 30. 13-7 would get them to 50-50, waking up on July 31. With 62 left, I would give them an outside shot to go 35-27 and win the wildcard with 85 wins. To me, when they know they can't get to 50-50, that's when they officially become a seller.

Hitting 100 in a sim game. Good for him.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 7, 2015 -> 11:54 AM) I do not look forward to the Cubs/Sox series this year. At all. It's good they play each other because of ease of travel, but these games are the New Year's Eve of the baseball schedule.

Those kids are paid on tools-- how fast they run, how their body projects 4-5 years in the future, bloodlines. It almost has nothing to do with baseball ability when they're at that age. Unless you're a prospect freak, it's best to ignore these guys until they make it to full season minor league baseball- most of them won't sniff AA. That's why I kind of don't pay much attention to prospect lists. Micker Adolfo is a perfect example. So, yeah, he may be good someday. But he's 18 in short season ball, and not killing it. But he's pretty high on lists because he got paid, his dad played minor league baseball, and he looks good in his uniform. It doesn't mean he'll be anything three years from now.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 7, 2015 -> 09:05 AM) Only 6 teams in the NL have a winning record. There are 4 terrible teams in the NL- Rockies, Brewers, Phillies, and Marlins. Milwaukee has been better but they'll regress back again. Ultimately, when they get to the final 5 weeks of the season where they play 8 out of 10 series in the division, having the Marlins and Phillies in the East will help the Mets (and Giants in the West), and hurt the Cubs.

Carlos Carrasco is the anti-Quintana. 17 starts. 17 decisions.

X-rays negative on Buehrle. Just cramping.

Fun game. Feel bad for Buehrle getting that defense, but Sale was great. Hope Buehrle isn't injured too bad. If it didn't rain today, I bet they would have got 3-5k more.

Keuchel is on the same schedule, and is having a better season than Sale, so he'll start. Sale can pitch the 3rd inning.

https://twitter.com/ChuckGarfien/status/616...4610688/video/1

Carlos Carrasco perfect through 6. 10 K's.

Weather looks ok. Couple stray showers.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 1, 2015 -> 12:13 PM) I would be in favor of playing it on the 20th. Not like Chicago and St. Louis are far apart. We shall see. I think they'll play and weather won't be as bad as it may seem.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 1, 2015 -> 11:59 AM) Isn't there some kind of rules with regards to starting a game or playing a game time wise? I think they used to have curfew rules when a lot of parks were in neighborhoods. The home team is in charge of the game starting, but once they start it's in the hands of the umpires. And when it's a teams' last time (or only time) visiting, they wait it out as long as possible.

Their only shared off day the rest of the season is July 20. They'll be there as late as possible if they have to. edit: unless the Cardinals want to play a day/nighter against two different teams tomorrow. I think the Indians or Royals did that once.