Chicago White Sox

Must win game. Need to keep winning series up until the deadline.

Avi Garcia WAR by year: 2013: -0.5 2014: -0.4 2015: -1.1 2016: -0.4 Absolutely mind-boggling this bum is still on our major league roster.

I f***ing despise Avi Garcia, what an absolutely horrific baseball player.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 07:09 PM) Half of the relievers who got in over him don't deserve it. And Marco Estrada, and his 4.14 FIP?? Give me a break. Yeah, seemed like a lot of relievers, which makes sense if you're trying to win the game I guess. It's still bulls*** that a pitcher with the 5th highest fWAR in baseball doesn't get acknowledged as a "star", which is still the point of the game right?

Caulfield, don't you have a newborn? How in the world do you have this much free time? Not trying to hate, I just know how much time a two year old sucks out of your life.

And while Quintana missing is ridiculous in it's own right, you knew he would get overlooked due to his W-L record.

I'm sorry, but Beltran over Eaton is ridiculous.

Big game. Rodon needs to be on point as the ball will be carrying tonight. Also, SSS but we've done ok against Tanaka and I expect that to continue tonight. I feel more optimistic about this game than I normally would.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 05:55 PM) An option year shouldn't be a problem. But you lose a control year or part of one. Plus he's had a long year already. You lose half of a control year, but it gets him a taste of big league experience while helping the major league club. Even if you plan on converting him to a starter, I still think it's worth the cost.

No matter how you slice it, they aren't going to consider turning Burdi into a starter until next season. Therefore, if there is any chance he can help the big league club in the near future, there's no downside to calling him up other than potentially wasting an option year on him. Hopefully after a week or two, we'll see if he's worth that risk and my guess is he will be.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 05:09 PM) Y2HH and I have gotten each other banned at least once. No real beef there though. There are clearly many SLAM beefs that I purposely ignored, but they definitely deserve their acknowledgement. You & Y2HH (amongst others), would take the cake there. I was purposely going with baseball-oriented rivalries.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 04:02 PM) This is missing so many it's hard to vote for. I don't even know what balta v ss2k5 is. Throw some names and I'll add them to pick list.

Alright Soxtalk, with the Caulfield/Dick Allen battle continually reaching new highs this season, it's officially time to vote on your favorite beef amongst posters in board history. I'm only including five rivalries as options, but feel free to vote "Other" and include the posters you enjoy seeing fued.

When Guerra does this for multiple seasons, then you can rip the front office. Until then, he's no different than Esteban Loazia or Philip Humber.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 07:36 PM) That's where you have to decide if you want to risk trading Fulmer...as it's highly unlikely Reddick wouldn't go for the big FA riches in the offseason, so odds on him agreeing to an extension would be pretty minimal. Guys like Engel, Trey, Jacob May or Jordan Stephens aren't going to be enough to pry Reddick away. And neither will Adams with his reduced velocity. Beane will want a player who can contribute next year at some point. Beane gets a comp pick if he holds onto him, so I don't think a package built around Adams is a bad alternative. All depends on how many bats are available on the market.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 12:51 PM) And do you believe they will do BOTH or at least one of these things? And that it will be enough to push them over the top (to at least get Chris Sale to a WC start)? No idea if they will do both, but I think that's gives them as good of a chance to win the second WC spot as any of these other contenders. Our main weaknesses right now our the bottom of our lineup, bench/depth, backend of our rotation, and 6th/7th inning relievers. Adding an impact bat and getting Morneau & Jackson soon could solve those first two items. Rodon has looked a lot better as of late IMO and Shields is no longer the worst pitcher in baseball history. I feel much better about the rotation than I did a couple weeks ago. Robertson, Jones, Duke, & Jennings are a solid group of relievers, but we desperately need one more reliable arm to slot in with them ASAP. I'm ok with relying on one of Ynoa & Beck for now, because I have a feeling Burdi or Fulmer will be called up by late August if we're still in the race and an additional arm is needed.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 05:05 PM) The other thing is Avi wasn't supposed to see much time. LaRoche was going to DH. They weren't counting on Avi playing everyday. They tried to change him up, but e erytime they make an adjustment, either lowering his hands or opening him up, he quickly goes back to his old way. If Morneau can play fine, if he can't, I am sure they will bring in another bat. Avi wasn't the reason the team went into that horrible slide. So let's ignore Avi's failures because he like every other player in baseball history didn't single-handily cause their team to go through a horrific month-long slump. Makes perfect sense to me. We've lost 14 games by 1 run. If you don't think having a competent hitter at DH might have won us another game or two you're fooling yourself. Instead we trot out Avi and his wRC+ of 75 because our front office decided to enter the season with no backup plan whatsoever once LaRoche retired (FWIW, a guy they tried giving away). It's an absolute joke and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for arguing otherwise. This was one of our biggest misses of the offseason and one that could be costly in the end if Hahn doesn't rectify his mistake soon.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 04:57 PM) Not giving Hahn a free pass . I have been all over Hahn for his failed attempts to improve the offense. As you said there is a lot of bad. The Sox are a bad offensive team. You can't pin that on just one player. And as others have said even adding Morneau ( if he hits well) to replace Avi will not magically make this a good offensive team. You could say if Abreu had been the Abreu of the past 2 years that would also mean the difference in a win or 2. What about all the games Lawrie sucked during the 35 games the Sox sucked. What about Shields wetting the bed his 1st three starts. How about the Rollins failure ? The Matt Albers implosion ? The game they blew in the late innings ahead by 5 or 6 runs ? The failures of Danks and Latos leading to their releases ? You blame Avi if the Sox miss the playoffs by a game or two when others who have had better seasons and expected to produce have not lived up to expectations. Plus you didn't even mention Hahn in your original post. It has been and always will be a team game and I just don't think you can ever blame one player when the whole team has not hit. You said it yourself, there is a lot of bad on the team yet you can blame just one guy if the Sox miss the playoffs by a few games ? Doesn't make sense. Of course I can also add how just about everyone wanted Ventura fired. I'm wrong ? Get real and stop being a sheep following the Avi is the scapegoat for everything other sheep. Didn't mention Hahn in my original post? I said it was indefensible for the Sox to count on Avi as a starter, who do you think that falls on? Hahn passed on numerous upgrades in the offseason and eventually entered the season with a bad hitter as his primary DH. No doubt there are other flaws with the team and clearly guys have underperformed, but I'm not going to blame Hahn for things he's not accountable for or holes that were far more difficult to fill. There's absolutely no excuse for Avi being our DH right now. Don't care that LaRoche retired, there were guys available that could provided some value offensively, such as Jay Bruce. Instead, the organization decided to give Avi one last opportunity. It was a foolish gamble and one that could cost us in the end. And again, it won't be the only reason we miss the playoffs if we do, but it will be the biggest reason that could have been easily mitigated before the start of the season.

Shields! Anderson! Navarro! Frazier! Eaton! Melky! Bullpen!

Jones with the K!

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 4, 2016 -> 03:23 PM) Oh please. It's a team game and there is plenty of fail to go around. Not sure what you're arguing here, but you're flat out wrong. There may be a lot of bad on this team, but there is simply no excuse for having a DH that can't hit. It was one of biggest flaws with the team heading into the season and to no one's surprise Avi has once again failed to live up to his tools. This is an issue that could have easily been addresssed in the offseason, so I'm not sure why you're giving Hahn a free pass here.

I still find it indefensible that we entered the season with Avi Garcia as a starter. Guy had proven to be an all-around bad baseball player and the Sox gambled on his tools once again. If we miss the playoffs by a game or two, Garcia will be the one biggest and easily mitigated reasons why.

Navarro! His hitting is definitely coming around!

How does Shields' velocity look so far? Gameday has shown him in the 92-93 MPH range.

Yes, the White Sox will make the playoffs IF they add an impact bat AND a reliever. If they stand pat like idiots again, they will miss out.