chw42

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 04:00 PM) 2/$30+, maybe 3/$45+ I wonder what crazy GM would be stupid enough to pay a 39 year old DH $15 million for a year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 03:56 PM) I bet he gets at least $15M a year, after he rejects the Tigers qualifying offer. For what, 2 years? That's a contract you might be able to stomach, but even that's an overpay. That's pretty much assuming V-Mart's a 3 win player. He's not.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 03:53 PM) Sans 2 good games Semien hasn't been any better. I know I'm cherry picking again, but he went 8 for 11 in 2 games this year, the other 26 games he's batting .170 with 37 strike outs. That .170 is better than whatever Gordon's hitting. It doesn't have to be Semien vs. Gordon for the 2 spot. You can easily just put Alexei there, ya know, since he's probably the team's second best hitter right now.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 03:40 PM) .303 career hitter and OBP is .368 could do a lot worse than Victor at DH. You can do worse, but you have to realize he's 35 (36 next year) and he doesn't really catch anymore. He's a 1B/DH with an above average, but not spectacular bat. I would pay him around $10-12 million a year, but that'd be a 1 or 2 year deal. There's a chance he can decline at anytime.

The worst hitter on the team is hitting second...makes a lot of sense.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) I would love to see Victor Martinez take Dunn's spot next year. He would fit great in Sox lineup. V-Mart's a good hitter, but you'd like to have a better bat as your DH. He's a .340-.350 wOBA guy, which is maybe barely above average among DHs.

AlAl is in.

Now they're teeing off Noesi.

That's not even close. We're gonna win this one.

Noesi's gonna get through 4 with his 50-60 pitch limit at this rate.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 30, 2014 -> 10:51 AM) WGN game today There's been a ton of WCIU and WGN games this year. Any reason why?

If there's anything good to say about Noesi, it's that he has a 3.77 FIP this year. That's mainly due to his good K/BB ratio and only 1 HR given up. The bad thing is that after watching the Sox score 7 runs on him in one inning and his outing against the Rays, none of the hits he gave up can be considered lucky and he probably deserved to get lit up like he did based on the pitches he threw.

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.