Eminor3rd

Re-draft has Hoffman at #2, Schwarber at #3.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 13, 2015 -> 04:51 PM) What is Harrelson saying? Quietly steaming? "You can't keep giving them gift runs if you're going to put any kind of winning streak together." "The first rule of baseball..."

Alexei is the worst player in the league this year.

WHAT THE f*** IS ALEXEI'S PROBLEM? He's f***ing terrible. f***ing god f***! He's like a little leaguer this year

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 12, 2015 -> 08:25 AM) I'm a hater of the term "Hater". Please stop. I hate hate haters! www.youtube.com/watch?v=byTNVYOVxdQ

QUOTE (Condor13 @ Jun 12, 2015 -> 07:36 AM) I wanted to start the thread earlier (busy the rest of the day) to keep the streak going. I hope that's alright with everyone. Everything you do is alright when you're carrying our team through a winning streak.

The thing is, even if only Abreu gets hot, we're going to start winning a bunch more games.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jun 11, 2015 -> 12:41 PM) Avi somehow lost .2 fWAR last night. Sometimes I'm really not sure how the defensive metrics are working because was he expected to catch the ball in the 9th? That was a smart play keep the ball in front of you don't turn a single into a triple, even with a 2 run lead you just don't want to give away runs. QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jun 11, 2015 -> 12:43 PM) How does one defensive play have that much of an impact on his WAR? It didn't -- their defensive metrics only update every week or so, so you were seeing a change from several games that just got applied.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 11, 2015 -> 08:50 AM) Since being 8-14, they have played 4 over .500 without playing well. Rodon in the rotation helps. Sale, IMO, getting up to speed after missing spring training helps. Q is been much better lately. Get Samardjiza going, some guys starting to hit better, and who knows what happens. As great as everyone wants to make out the AL Central, each team has some major flaws. The fact that the Sox probably have a much better record than they should I find encouraging. They have to regress to the mean which would mean some guys are really going to be playing pretty well soon. There is no question in my mind Melky will be much better. Eaton will be much better. Alexei will be much better. Abreu will be much better. To me the key is Samardjiza. If he starts pitching like they thought he would when acquired, it is going to be hard to beat this team. That would be 4 top guys. It is so funny how little respect Q gets. The advanced numbers say for the past 3 1/2 seasons, he's been just as good as Jon Lester. Yet he makes more than $100 million less, and is younger. This is how I see it. There's certainly no guarantee that all the stuff the should happen actually will happen, but we are far, far from the point where the team has no chance to win. We're 58 games into a 162 game season and two under .500.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 07:36 PM) Oh I completely get that. I think the Robin-bashing is wrong and I actually don't pin much if any of the current woes on him. I'm saying that I'm not seeing any of what Dick Allen is saying in this thread. If he was criticising the people celebrating it he'd have a point. He's saying "Soxtalk doesn't want him managing and now Soxtalk wants him managing!". I don't see that. QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 07:47 PM) To me, this just demonstrates Robin's lack of passion for the job. I have no problem with a parent attending his daughters graduation. However, any manager who really had a strong commitment to the position (and to the team) would minimize the time away. I doubt there is another manger in the league that would miss 3 games for this occasion. Almost all would miss one. Some would miss two. Missing an entire series just shows that our manager would rather have a vacation instead of working. That's a problem. As if on cue, haha, 11 minutes later.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jun 11, 2015 -> 08:05 AM) You know as well as I do that it's not just the pitches . It's the location and the difference in speed between them and how well you outfox the hitter.Not only making the hitter think about which pitch he's getting but in what location. Well yeah. QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jun 11, 2015 -> 08:05 AM) Danks has enough pitches just not the command or the difference in speed between them. I said having three good pitches, is the key. Good probably meaning average or better. Danks has a four seamer, a cutter, a change, and a curve. Of those four, only the change plays above average when he's on. The cutter is probably a 50. The curve is a "show me" pitch and the fastball is dog-s***. So yeah, one good pitch and one average.

I'm pretty sure that Guerrero has a clause in his contract that allows him to become a free agent at the end of the year if he's traded. Makes him MUCH less valuable to whoever gets him.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 05:33 PM) He is correct for the most part although his version of mechanics is in line with the Andrews/wilk group out of birmingham. The one aspect that still concerns me which he didn't address is the follow through. This will be the continuing problem of high pitch counts and walks. The author states that he get past some issues due to the arm strength and this may be an issue later on due to the poor deceleration phase. Price does the same type of thing, right?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 06:19 PM) Only Soxtalk would complain the manager they complain is managing won't be managing.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 03:04 PM) Fire Parent!

This is the device the Sox are using to make the lineups now:

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 02:28 PM) Colleen Kane ‏@ChiTribKane 3m3 minutes ago White Sox manager Robin Ventura will miss the Rays series this weekend to attend his daughter's college graduation. Mark Parent fills in. Oh this is going to be fun.

I just hope he actually CAN improve his command without substantial mechanical changes. Not sure if this is behind a paywall, but if it is, everyone should consider getting a BP subscription SOLELY to read Doug Thorburn pieces: www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=26343 Throburn provides the most complete analysis of pitching mechanics I've seen anywhere, and it almost could not be more interesting, IMO. A couple excerpts from his conclusion section: Anyway, if Thorburn likes his mechanics, then I do too. He worked for some private company that did a ton of biomechanical research for teams.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 09:28 AM) Alright, that's it. I want Eminor3rd sitting next to Stone doing broadcasts. Hawk is now retired. I like your thinking here and the only thing I can add is that Sale shows you do not need a deep repertoire of pitches to be elite. Just imagine this rotation if Rodon (same pitch selection as Sale) follows in Sale's footsteps with the change up and overall command of his pitches. That would make two elite #1's at the top of the rotation with Q pitching #3 who is more of a #2. And hopefully in due time, Fulmer will be in that mix setting this rotation up for some really good years to come. Sale is well on his way to being a mentor and that you cannot put a price on. Definitely, especially with how much Sale has INSISTED on getting ahead in the count. I think that;s the absolute key for Rodon's success. To me, Rodon's is just a completely different pitch than Sale's, because Rodon's comes in on the same plane as his fastball before breaking really late. Rodon's slider is a "foo you" pitch, whereas Sale's is a "just go ahead and try to make contact with this because you know it's going to be bending through the zone at some point" pitch. So for Rodon, it's essential that the batter has to be protecting the plate on the slider, because they ALL know it's there, but they've got to guess anyway because they can't afford for it to be a fastball because of the count. I'm not sure of the numbers (if these are available anywhere), but it really seems like a lot of Rodon's walk come in the 4-straight-balls category or close, because when he gets behind, hitters just let that slider go since it NEVER lands in the zone and they have strikes to give up in case it's actually a fastball.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 10, 2015 -> 09:03 AM) It's like the least least surprising thing ever how much better he is with a proper 3-pitch mix rather than using the slider less than 10 percent of the time Three pitches, I think, is the ultimate requirement for consistently being able to pitch well deep into the game, because it gives you a weapon for the third time through the lineup. The other night we saw him go fastball/slider almost exclusively the first time through, start adding the change in tough spots the second time through (and honestly it didn't look real good at first), and then start to lean on the change as a wipeout the third time through (and it looked fantastic). I'm starting to wonder if there's a correlation between those "one bad inning" guys (like Edwin Jackson, John Danks, etc.) and the number of legitimate pitches they have. Maybe if you only have two good pitches, you're constantly going to be at risk for a meltdown the third time through the order.

Basically, all three of Chris's pitches are elite this year: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/chris-sale-...h-by-diversity/

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 9, 2015 -> 03:47 PM) What the hell is that lineup Seriously why would you EVER DH your terrible hitting catcher? Don't you want to give them as much rest as possible?

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 9, 2015 -> 04:36 PM) So, most of these guys seem like Slot or underslot signings....who are they saving for? Probably Fulmer, honestly. Don't forget that the Sox have no 2nd or 3rd round cash to play with. That's a huge chunk of the pool.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 9, 2015 -> 04:33 PM) Probably. I wonder if there's a successful pitcher in the majors who gave up more walks than strikeouts in college. If there is, I doubt he's a starter.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2015 -> 04:17 PM) That doesn't sound right. How do you have a higher batting average than BABIP? Dingers