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QUOTE (glangon @ May 22, 2015 -> 09:16 AM) Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, Soxtalk.com presents your Chicago White Sox at home tonight in the AL Central Clash with the Minnesota Twins. In the Blue Corner we have Phil "Huggy Bear" Hughes who is 3-4 with a 4.76 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched. And in the Black and White corner we have Jeff "The Shark" Samardzija who is 3-2 with a 4.58 ERA with 50 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched. Can Jose Abreu find his Home Run swing? will Alexei start hitting? and will our defence be error free tonight? Find out tonight at US Cellular Field. Tonights performance starts at 7:10pm Central Time and is shown live on Comcast Sports Net and on MLBTV (blackout restrictions apply) GO SOX!! Nice work

John Danks needs to f***ing retire.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ May 20, 2015 -> 01:57 PM) The White Sox should be ashamed of themselves for selling SRO tickets for $75. I'm in a season ticket package so it doesn't affect me. But still to charge that much for SRO tickets is shameful. I think it's another PR mistake for the White Sox. I don't see any reason not to sell tickets at market rate.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 20, 2015 -> 08:49 AM) I see his name listed on the Houston top prospects, but his minor league numbers look like a powerless 3B ala Connor Gillaspie. What is the big attraction to him, as I know nothing about him. He has always been polarizing -- one of those guys where 8-10 teams saw him as a top 5 overall talent, and 8-10 others saw him as 5th round or later. He's undersized and thrives on bat speed, from what I remember reading.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 20, 2015 -> 12:39 PM) Ok. For all of you Smart Alecks, I would be satisfied if Adam La Roche could hit .260, with an OBP of close to .375. If he hits 20 homers and 25 doubles, and doesn't strike out 35% of the time, which is what he is doing now, I'll stop complaining. Oh, and Robin has to find a way to be sure that he doesn't start against any lefties. Does anyone disagree that the Sox would have been better off with K. Morales, Adam Lind or Andre Ethier? Yes, Lillian, we would be better if we had all the players having better seasons. Let Hahn use your crystal ball next year, please. There was literally no reason at all to believe that any of those guys would outproduce LaRoche in the offseason, which is when the decision had to be made.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 19, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) Last night was highest rated sox game since August '13 for csn, per soxvan. So looks like people did take an interest in the matchup after all. There ya go. Crazy what a little winning can do.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 19, 2015 -> 02:32 PM) I am still pissed about that rumor and hate Boston fans even more. I was obsessed with the Chris Sale draft pick to the point where my Dad made fun of me for it. As a sort of joke, he bought me a Chris Sale jersey for Christmas in 2010. We went to Boston to watch the Sox play at Fenway in 2012. We went to the game and the Pedro Hernandez made a spot start. If that isn't his name it was the guy the Sox got for Ozzie. Anyways, our Sox got absolutely pissed on to the tune of 12-1 beating. A group of 25-30 year old fans followed my dad and I back to our hotel just chanting White Sox suck and making fun of our jerseys. My dad had a retro light blue Bill Melton jersey on. They made fun of that for being a "gay" color and I was wearing a "reliever's" jersey. Even though Sale had been in the rotation all of that year... I've seen the Sox play in 10 opposing stadiums and there are no fans like Boston fans. They are ruthless. Of course the Sox are 1-4 when I have seen them at Fenway but the aggressiveness of their fans mixed with the accents and corresponding cackles made for a bad environment leaving that stadium. Jhan Marinez?

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ May 19, 2015 -> 01:24 PM) He's only hitting .125 vs lefties In like 4 games.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 19, 2015 -> 12:52 PM) Tulo has 2 walks in over 120 plate appearances and is hurting again. He is a guy who won't be able to live up to the expectations when he is traded. He's got a 10% career walk rate over his prior 4000PA, so we should probably wait a little longer than 120PA to draw conclusions about his diminished ability to take walks. Him not having a great start is the only reason he'd be available/affordable for us. That said, I don't think we'd win the bidding and it would be hella risky, indeed. I can't make a strong case, but it would still be a TON of fun.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP, CLAP, CLAP! CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP! TU-LO!

The problem with this is that these comeback streaks are typically unsustainable. I'll feel a lot better when we start getting leads early.

QUOTE (shysocks @ May 19, 2015 -> 08:50 AM) 1) The scoring play by Eaton was really not that different than a lot of the "dumb" attempts the Sox have made on the bases this year. A lot of people pointed out that the baserunning luck would turn around a little, and that was an example. Thank you.

For those that wonder about what goes into WAR, here's a graphical representation: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs...sition-players/

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2015 -> 10:29 AM) To me the question is easy. Would the Sox have had a 9-3 run if Ventura had been fired? Which is completely unanswerable.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 18, 2015 -> 08:26 AM) If the players like Robin as much as the media tells us, it isn't that much of a stretch to think that they are playing smarter to make sure he doesn't get fired. I don't know, I guess I just don't feel like players can just "turn it on" whenever they want and it's just a matter of them being motivated enough to do so. Maybe I'm just easily frustrated by issues where we'll never have an answer.

This is the worst thread on Soxtalk right now. Have you guys noticed that everyone loves RV when we win; hates RV when we lose? Do you REALLY think that the FO said some words to RV that made him MAKE our players play better?

QUOTE (Condor13 @ May 14, 2015 -> 03:45 PM) Pretty sure that's the definition of two-faced Only if you assume he owes you transparency.

#TeamSanchez

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 14, 2015 -> 11:31 AM) Should they bat Sanchez in the 2 hole and move Melky to 5/6? Lillian?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2015 -> 02:30 PM) Small picture. Great. Big picture, his hitting isn't sustainable, but his bad defense is. He is about at bad at SS as he was at 3B last season. Right but he would have been our 2B, and if he's been worse than Micah, it sure can't be by much. I'm not suggesting renegging the trade or anything, I was just shocked at how well he's hitting.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:29 PM) I was widely panned for arguing Sanchez would be 20 runs better than Micah over the course of the season defensively. Turns out I lowballed it: Micah is on pace for one of the worst defensive seasons at 2B in history: -47 runs below average. It's well past time to make the change. Micah needs to be Ray Durham in his prime with the bat to offset his defense and he's not even close. How this decision was made continues to boggle the mind. Every warning sign was on full display in spring training wrt to his defense -- the game is simply too fast for him. That play at 2B last night was simply inexcusable and it's not the sort of thing you can teach IMO. He simply needs more experience and he shouldn't be learning on the job in a year the team expects to contend. Just to pile on: Micah has an ISO of .029. He's been on base 25 times and has erased himself with a pickoff or CS 6 of those times. His wOBA is .289. He's hitting like Carlos Sanchez and fielding like Micah Johnson. As a fan, it's just frustrating to see the Sox continue to push the Micah's through the org instead of the Sanchez' and for that matter the Semians. Can you run? You might want to go to open tryouts next spring the Sox will probably sign you. Maybe bring a glove if you think it will help, but it probably won't matter, just stretch your hamstrings well before you show up. or he could be Marcus Semien so far. Holy s***balls he is raking: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...;position=3B/SS

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ May 13, 2015 -> 01:02 PM) I think the bolded is true of everyone's postulates in this thread. No one's technically "right" or "wrong" because it can't fully be proven. And it doesn't have to be 100% "Sox fans are excuse-making, fickle jerks" OR 100% "Sox team doesn't win enough or try to" anyway. It's probably a combination of things. I think both camps are right to an extent. Sox fans are fickle (and skeptical) — it's not enough for the team to be good (2012) or for management to put an "all in" effort to make the team good (2011, 2015). The front office has to generate a lot of buzz in the offseason AND the team has to play really well in the ensuing season. Unfortunately, this has NEVER happened in recent White Sox memory. Either the team has been unexpectedly good with lower expectations (2008, 2012) or they've been built up with acquisitions and expectations and then thoroughly disappointed (2011, 2015 among others). Sox fans don't buy in in either scenario. The stuff about the Sox being a small market team because of city market share and unresponsive fans, while based in fact and somewhat true, is overblown. The Sox can spend, and have spent. The frustrating part there is that management has put the effort into winning to attract fans, and the team always disappoints in those circumstances, which turns off the fans! At the same time, there are tons of other facts limiting attendance (location, aesthetics, etc.) If the Sox had a beautiful, super new or super retro-new, downtown stadium, they would draw more easily. Unfortunately, they don't. I like the Cell, but objectively it's a generic-looking stadium, without an "aura," located substantially out of the way of the heart of the city. To me, it's an inertia thing. More fans being at the park begets more fans coming to the park. When there's no one there (often the result of a bad team), the park looks empty, lifeless and uninspiring. Truth is, perception (fair or not) is reality. It doesn't inspire someone watching at home to come out. Even if that random fan watching at home did want to go to a game, they know there's no reason to buy a ticket in advance when they could get it day of game and wait to see their home/work schedule, weather, pitching match ups, etc. And so by the time that game rolls around, they find a weather problem or a work problem or whatever other excuse to prevent them from going to the game. Basically, I think it takes commitment and execution from both sides — the team and the fans. The team has to build a winner AND they have to win to get the ball rolling. The fans have to come out and support it. I don't think Sox fans will ever just blindly come out to the Cell, it's just not going to happen. Once the ball is rolling, the rest will begin to take care of itself: more winning means more fans, which means more need to buy tickets in advance, which means more fans committing to coming out in advance regardless of match ups, weather, etc. The opposite — lots of walk up sales for a surprisingly serious late season contender — can happen as well: I remember the insane walk-up crowds late summer 2003 . But that is far less reliable. So I do think the onus is on the Sox to start it out, and it is a little more difficult than it is for other major league team, but that's just the way it is. Good news is, if they ever get it right, the effects could be longer-lasting than we've seen. Remember, the Sox were awful in 2007, yet still drew 2.6 million. They'd kill for that kind of number today. Why did they draw so well? Previous seasons' success raised fan interest and forced/inspired them to buy in advance! So the tickets were already sold before the team tanked. Great post

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:40 PM) And if anyone ever wants to make the neighborhood argument, go to a game in Detroit, and get back to me. Go live in Detroit and tell me how many better things you have to do. Whatever the number is, it's far less than Chicago. We had a Brewfest scheduled last fall. All of a sudden a bunch of vendors pulled about a month away. Why? Jay-Z and Beyonce announced a free concert in Central Park and they could sell there instead. Context is everything.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:33 PM) So basically this ownership group needs to go into debt on the hope that they can maybe convince fans to show up after years of winning playoff series. Yeah, good luck with that. If you are waiting for a once in a franchise history kind of run to show up, you might as well find another team to complain about... err, root for. The Tigers have been brought up a bunch in this thread. Go back and look at their history. From 1988 to 2010, they made the playoffs exactly once in a 23 season period. In 2010, the Tigers drew just over 30k a night to Comerica. 2010 was the year before their 4 straight playoff appearances, to see a team that won 81 games. That allowed the Tigers to invest in the minor league system and their major league system in a way that the White Sox, couldn't. For comparisons sake the White Sox were coming off of 3 playoff appearances in 10 years, including the 2005 WS, and drew about 27k a night. Going back to the bottom of Tigers history in 2002 and 2003 when they lost a combined 225 games in two years, they still saw almost 24k a night show up to see a 72 win team in 2004, or about 4k a night more than we had last year. So yes, it is done in other places without winning multiple years in a row. It is another excuse. No, they're making more and more money every year. They're not in debt. They're very much in the black and presumably happy about it. And that's despite ten years of more bad than good. I'm sure they want attendance to increase because it would make them even more in the black. But that's on them. They're a business. "Fan loyalty" at whatever level it's currently at is making them profitable. I don't believe anyone owes them more than that. If they want people to spend $40-200 in their ballpark about ten times a year, then it's on them to make that a worthwhile experience.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2015 -> 12:32 PM) What is interesting is there is a heck of a lot of turnover with all those businesses around Wrigley Field. I read where most lose money on non game days. Makes sense. Again, "ballpark experience." It's a holistic thing, and it's part magic, but that's the difference.