Chicago White Sox

f*** yes!

I think we score 6+ runs tonight.

Alright saber guys, please tell why Viciedo's performance is not sustainable. Obviously the BABIP will come down by about 100 points, but that still will leave him with sick ass numbers if everything else holds. Are there any other stats involving his plate discipline and/or power that look totally out of whack and will come back down to Earth?

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 06:26 AM) Yes, but isn't interesting that the two players with the most impressive start are Abreu's fellow Cubans? Alexei hitting for average and power in APRIL!! Viciedo hitting for average, and drawing walks. Are these the same two guys? If Steverson were the difference, interesting that he should be getting through to the two guys who barely speak English. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most non-Hispanic hitting coaches still find a way to work with their Hispinic players. And a quick google search confirms that Steverson can converse in Spanish. And again, my beef is with the idea that guys like Abreu & Konerko are working on the technical aspects of batting with other players. Is it possible? I guess so, but it seems incredibly unlikely IMO, and quite frankly that's the hitting coach's job. I'm not going to argue that Abreu may serve as a mentor to a guy like Viciedo, but that comes down more to preparation side of things. Viciedo becoming more patient is something Steverson has been pushing and credit should go to them not Abreu.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 03:10 AM) Could Alexei and Viciedo be trying to emulate Abreu? Or, maybe he has even been "coaching" them a little. Neither of them has had a start like this season's first month. Where would the Sox be without the Cubans? Perhaps our new hitting coach has been coaching them? I seriously doubt Abreu has offered much technical advice to either player.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 08:07 PM) His signing was very popular here. It must be Ventura's fault he sucks. The signing made complete sense regardless of how Downs does. Are you implying it was a bad move?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) 1.) The Sox should not wait for Johnson to develop because of Sale's health. 2.) If Johnson does develop this year Q can be used to fill other holes. What holes are you talking about? Right now, we have the following position player depth: 1B: Abreu 2B: Semien/M. Johnson SS: Ramirez/Semien 3B: Gillaspie/Davidson LF: Tank/Thompson CF: Eaton/Thompson RF: Garcia/Thompson DH: ??/Tank C: ?? So realistically we two major holes in DH and C. We should be able to fill the first one in free agency. I see no reason why we couldn't move prospects for a C. Again, trading a starter makes no sense for us.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 07:31 PM) Deal him, if not keep him and deal Q. See, this is where you're clearly trolling. You complain about our pitching depth and then your plan to improve it starts with trading away one of our few cost-controlled pitchers. Makes no sense at all.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 07:24 PM) I think they are going to need three of the high-to-medium priced pitchers on the market and then take a chance on a guy for a year. Some combo of 2 starters and 2 relievers. What's wrong with a rotation of Sale-Shields/Masterson-Quintana-Johnson-Danks? Save the rest of your money for the best left-handed bat available in free agency and a couple relievers and this team is a catcher from being a legit title contender.

Wow, Robin really going to kill the bullpen with a five run deficit against Verlander. Putnam needs to go more inning than Charlie or this a ridiculously stupid decision.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 07:10 PM) It has to be a two-pronged approach draft and the free-agent market. I agree with you Marty. Draft the best pitcher at 1-3 and sign the best free agent pitcher you can. IMO, Shields & Masterson both make perfect sense for us. Sign one of them, draft Hoffman, and our rotation outlook from 2015 to 2019 suddenly becomes pretty awesome.

Robin, please don't let the Sale scare skew your judgement. Let Leesman throw 140 pitches if need be. This game is a lost cause and so is Charlie. Give the bullpen some rest today and hope Rienzo brings his A game tomorrow.

And this game is OVAH! At least the Bulls are playing tonight.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 06:57 PM) Very good range there from Garcia. Of course, for him to be a regular, he would have to be nearly Gold Glove caliber at the major league level. Garcia has some nice physical tools, but if you can turn him into a quality utility guy I think that's a win. I just don't see his defense getting to the level that will offset his lack of a hit tool.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 06:47 PM) So I guess Leesman is our new Axe. Left-handed Axe > Right-handed Axe

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 04:51 PM) There are a couple guys who could be mid-rotation (Beck, Danish), a handful of guys who have a good shot at back end starters, and a number of "intriguing arm" types. But the system completely lacks depth in terms of #1 or #2 guys (not uncommon, but to have none is not great). Beck is a #3 IF it comes together, in my view. Danish is hard to predict, but I see him as a #4 most likely, assuming his delivery can handle starting. And those are the two guys with a likely major league floor (if healthy) that have the highest ceilings, IMO. There are guys like Ortiz or Montas that have some intrigue, but also high bust likelihood. This is the right draft at the right time for the Sox. There is some pitching depth there, but most of it is back-end starters and relievers. This is a realistic view of our pitching depth. I agree with everything you said other than your ceiling for Danish. Regardless, the system's strength has clearly moved towards the position player side. Just look at our top 15 prospects and few of them are pitchers. You should always draft BPA with your first 10 picks in the draft, but leaning towards pitching this year would go a long ways towards adding balance to the system.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 02:32 PM) I think the Sox pitching depth has rapidly become underrated...and I absolutely think they should target a pitcher here. The pitchers by everyone's account are just standing head and shoulders above the position players. And there's no such thing as too much top flight pitching. Pitching depth has become underrated? Please elaborate because I'm not seeing this so called "depth".

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 12:44 AM) I put Trayce, Davidson, Mitchell and Phegley. Davidson because he was ready entering the season and I think a promotion could do him some good. Trayce because if he keeps raking, get him here. Phegley because it would mean he earned the promotion hopefully. Mitchell to see if he has anything left. Mitchell has shown he has nothing left against AA & AAA pitching, there is absolutely no reason to call him up to the majors.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) Well, I was more talking about his last few years, but if we're talking about the year, he's not been great, but he's not been awful either. Hasn't walked many. Very low sample-size to be reading too much into. Plus he's coming off an injury. Fielding independent pitching. It attempts to show what an ERA should look like over a period of time. Accounts for guys with artificially low/high ERAs because of bad/good luck that they don't control. It's a better predictor of future performance than ERA. Fangraphs uses it over ERA to calculate pitcher WAR. It was actually 3.08 before tonight. Now 3.41. What's the better stat, FIP or xFIP? Also, we couldn't even get a lottery ticket prospect for Lindstrom last year. I'm not saying he's a horrible reliever, but he's not a closer and that's not just based on his performance so far this year.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:17 PM) It's cool that we have a new Matt The Bullpen Guy Who Everyone Abuses Constantly Despite His Statistical Decency so soon after Thornton left. What numbers are you looking at that makes him look decent? He's blown 3 saves, his WHIP sucks, and his K rate is terrible.

I'm sorry, but Lindstrom doesn't have closer stuff. Hope he gets the save, but he's beyond terrifying to watch in the 9th.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 09:07 PM) Early on, this looked like a game that was going to get out of hand and not in a good way. It would be a really nice win. Why couldn't you wait two outs before saying this?!

Holy f*** you suck Lindstrom.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 10:39 PM) This. He's just getting his first taste of American ball period. Expect some adjustment time. The key is that the power is as good as advertised. The rest of his game should improve with time.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 09:01 AM) This criterea for spending money is too narrow when you have a farm system as empty as the Sox have. They're going to lose whatever advantage the Abreu and Sale contracts give them if they wait for this system to fill a hole or two before spending money. Why are posters so against spending money? You're right, but we need to spend that money on impact players and not marginal free agents. The guys you wanted to add would have made the team better, but not that much better and would have eaten our financial flexibility going forward.