chw42

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) The "luck" is in his approach. He quit trying to pull that ball and hit it to the LF foul pole. He shortened his swing and redesigned it with the full intention of doing exactly what is is doing with the slow stuff on the outer half. He isn't try to hit it 500 feet. He is actually trying to dump it into RCF. You can see that with his swing. There's a good amount of players who try to do this in baseball, yet none of them have a .600 BABIP. There's guys like Jason Motte and Matt Thornton who threw nothing but fastballs (hitters knew what was coming) and had great success. Clearly, knowing what's coming doesn't guarantee you success as a hitter in this game.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 06:12 PM) Saying Shields won't get a $100 million contract because Santana didn't get one is ridiculous. Santana hasn't been the model for consistency that Shields has been. Santana isn't close to Shields. I like Shields but I wouldn't sign him I don't think because of his age. That's not what I meant. I was trying to point out that teams are getting smarter in terms of the contracts they're giving pitchers. It wasn't meant to be a comparison of Santana and Shields.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 10:51 PM) Can somebody tell me why Marcus was moved from the 2-hole and Gordo and his immaculate Buck-something BA was there? Just got home... I don't know, it was real odd. It happened over the weekend for some weird reason. Gordon had been hitting the ball hard, but the results weren't there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 10:41 PM) You're really going to play DeAza or Eaton in RF? That's an even worse idea. Or you want Danks to play everyday, with Viciedo and Dunn DHing? Hard to give up Viciedo's bat, isn't it? De Aza came up as a CFer with LA and Florida. I don't know where this idea that De Aza is absolutely terrible at defense (even worse than Viciedo) came from. His UZR and DRS at the corner outfield positions have been solid. He was never a good CFer, but you could live with his shortcomings without wanting to tear your hair out.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 05:09 PM) Ha, that's like 9 pin bowling, that sounds fun. A guy on my summer team played a winter league where the only field is the infield, and there is netting with a designated home run area, nothing off the ceiling can be a home run. He said there are few doubles, and triples are almost unheard of. That almost sounds like indoor wiffle ball. Our winter ball in the city league was 5 home runs, but they got some plastic fences and put them at 250. There were a few games where it was like 30 degrees, but it was a lot of fun since home runs were so easy to come by. A friend of mine also played in a tournament where they had a fence at 250 and at 300. Unlimited homers, but if you hit it over the 300 you're out.

Tank needs to be in left field, where he's less awful.

I don't know why you'd have Semien bunt on 1-1 when he's been our most clutch hitter and one of the more clutch hitters in baseball. It totally changed the dynamic of the PA.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 04:17 PM) Santana is no where near Shields. Not even in the same area code. Those Tanaka, Grienke, and Kershaw deals play large here. If I had to guess, I would say 6 years at around $23 million a year. And Shields is nowhere near Tanaka, Kershaw, or Greinke. He's a 4.5 WAR type pitcher who can be considered an ace on most teams. Age also plays a big part. The three guys you mentioned are all at least 2 years younger than Shields. When Greinke signed his contract, he was 29. I'd be willing to give a guy with 4.5 WAR talent (which Grienke does and then some) 6 years and $123 million at 29. I'd be very hesitant to do the same for a guy who's 32. Edit: Shields will actually be 33 come the 2015 season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 03:57 PM) His lack of injury history will make it much easier to convince teams to add another year on to that deal, not harder. We're talking about a guy who's going to be 32. He's not going to get 6-7 years, that's a bit crazy. He'll get his 4-5 years at a fair price. We saw guys who were asking for 5 years and $100 million (like Ervin Santana) without a contract until March this off-season. Teams are definitely being more careful with pitchers, especially older ones.

I played in an interesting USSSA tournament this past weekend. It was a E tournament, but with NIT rules. So no home runs allowed. If you hit one, your team is automatically out of the inning and you get an offensive ejection for the rest of the game. I got pretty close to hitting one out the first AB. Luckily, it hit the wall about half-way up. It really forces you to swing down on the ball and focus on hitting line drives and ground balls.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 03:46 PM) I see zero chance of it being that small. He has been over 200 innings for 7 straight years now. He turns 33 in July. Unless he collapses or really gets hurt this season, I'd bet on a 5 to 6 year deal, starting at $20 million per year, but I wouldn't be shocked at all if it pushed more like $25 million. There isn't a lot out there on the market this year. Max Scherzer is the clear #1, but after that, Shields is probably #2. If anything, the 1400+ innings he's pitched over the last 7 years hurts him more than it helps him. That's a lot of mileage on his arm and pitchers don't always stay healthy once they get near their mid 30s.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 03:33 PM) I don't think he will. Teams have grown leery of giving out large contracts to older pitchers and Shields is 32 this year. He can probably get 4 years and $80 million.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) It guarantees you can criticize the government. It doesn't require a business to support your views or offer a stage for them. If you are working at McDonalds and telling people the food is bad for you, it will make you obese, you can't expect to remain in the job. The league is not a collection of independent businesses. When an owner's actions are detrimental to the league, stuff will, and should happen. I'm pretty sure StrangeSox was just being sarcastic.

It's so entertaining to see idiots say that this is a first amendment issue on Facebook and comments sections everywhere.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 01:19 PM) Banned for Life. $2.5M fine; maximum allowed under league constitution. What exactly does "banned" mean? Does he still own the team or are they taking the team away from him? Edit: NVM, looks like he'll have to sell the team. Silver with the Banhammer.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 01:12 PM) I understand that, but I mean, he never made these comments publicly. The guy could be the biggest asshole ever, and appears to be up there, but I just have a hard time accepting the validity of this sort of punishment for something that was said in the privacy of his own home with only him and his significant other in the room. He should absolutely be strong armed out of the league, there is no question about that, but it's quite unfair to have private words used against you because someone secretly recorded and then released the conversation I don't even know if it's secretly recorded. There was a rumor where Sterling had his girlfriend record their conversations so he can remember what he said (somewhat plausible considering the guy's 80 years old). This could easily be a byproduct of that.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 01:06 PM) I am in no way defending him or what he said, but does anyone else have a major issue with him being fined for comments made in private that someone illegally recorded without one party being aware? To me, the legality of such a thing seems a bit tenuous It's the NBA. It's not like the federal government is fining him.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 11:52 AM) It takes a few minutes to get going, but I thought Bomani Jones had a great breakdown of the whole Sterling situation. http://deadspin.com/in-10-minutes-espns-bo...-ste-1569195989 That's some real talk.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2014 -> 09:24 AM) He is hitting .333 with RISP and has an OPS of 1.084 in that situation, good for 3rd on the team behind Alexei and Abreu. His OPS is .411 HIGHER with RISP. Despite hitting .230, Semien has a WPA of 0.65, good for 5th on the team. That's ahead of Viciedo, Dunn, and Eaton, 3 of the most productive players on the team. He also has the highest clutch rating at 0.72, good for #3 in all of MLB behind Jayson Werth and Kyle Seager. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...0&sort=12,d

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 26, 2014 -> 11:43 PM) No, I am friends with an old work manager of mine and her husband is really big in to softball. Travels to National touraments with his team and whatnot, so he always has really expensive bats. So I figured I'd ask her if he had any bats he would sell to me for my team. She said he'd give me his Easton Stealth for $60. I guess his team no longer does ASA, so he can't use it anyway. He said the bat has nothing but HR left in it and in the couple tournaments he used it in he didn't stop hitting HR with it, so at least I know it's not dead, and probably broken in. My team only has 2 bats that we share, and one of those is a DeMarini of mine, so I figured I'd get us another one that has more life for the guys on our team that can actually hit HRs. I still don't know if I will be able to, but if not, someone will benefit on our team. If you had an aluminum bat before, moving to a good composite can give you 50-60 feet on your hits. If you swung a crappy composite and you move to a great composite, you might get 20 more feet out of it.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 03:36 PM) Don't look now but the lineup is out and it features Beckham in #2 hole and Semien batting last. Huh, why?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 09:48 AM) I enjoyed the finale, but this last season sucked. They re-did a bunch of the same story lines (unity concert = fall festival or whatever it was called) and the funny moments were few and far between. The dude that yells at people in the street is not funny, he's obnoxious. A guest appearance would have been fine but becoming a secondary character was too much. He's the male version of April I think April sucks balls. It would have been awesome if Lesley had taken the job and moved on. Or, better yet, if they had ended the show now, before NBC drives it into the ground like they did with The Office. Do you hate all the TV shows you watch?

How the hell is it 35 degrees on April 26th? Crazy weather this year.

The Rays are just missing home runs on a lot of these fly balls thrown by Noesi.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 26, 2014 -> 12:15 AM) I remember Rios and Carlos Lee vs the Cubs. Must have been tied. I feel like Alexei hit one in 08 too. Alexei's slam was in the 6th inning.