Eminor3rd

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 4, 2015 -> 09:33 PM) Because believing the players are all terrible (getting worse) or than Hahn made a slew of mistakes (other than Robertson) is just too terrible to contemplate. It's psychology 101. We want to believe that a new manager could come in (just like 2012) and instantly make this team competitive again. Otherwise, we're talking about another half decade of struggles/irrelevance, new GM, etc. The most likely scenario is simply that the players have been playing like s***, because history tells us that players often, for no good reason, play like s***. The good news is that those players will probably stop playing like s*** at some point soonish, but the bad news is that we still have all these losses in the bank. But yeah, you're right -- the manager seems like the scapegoat that's the easiest to remove, and since we don't really have any idea how to tell what type of impact the manager is having, we can find hope in the fact that no one can prove that it ISN'T him. Therefore, RV is an easy target.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 4, 2015 -> 03:41 PM) nice.... very nice. one question, re the bold, wouldn't that be the managers of the team's job?? Possibly. But we don't know, really. It could be a result of poor team prep on the manager's side, or it could just be that those guys are sucking. That's why I've always stayed off the "FIRE RV" bandwagon -- I don't like to draw conclusions without evidence to believe them. Just because it's plausible doesn't mean it's any more likely than any other outcome. I prefer to blame the players, because I KNOW that they can affect their own performance and preparation.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 4, 2015 -> 02:57 PM) Better question is what has Hahn put on the field to not show that he sucks at his job? I absolutely don't think he sucks, but so far, the results under his tenure have been terrible with very little progress being shown in multiple areas. Right but the on-field product sucks because Sale/Abreu/etc. have sucked. If you're going to blame Hahn for this 8-14 start or whatever it is, you have to blame him for relying on those guys. I don't think ANY of us are ready to say that Hahn shouldn't have relied on Sale/Abreu/Eaton/Samardzija to put up good numbers. If those guys would have had an April like we all expected and we were STILL 8-14, then you'd HAVE to blame Hahn for not putting enough depth on the field and letting the scrubs drag everyone down. Right now, you HAVE to blame the players. Or you can blame the coaching staff if you believe that they didn't do enough to prepare the players, but I always hate to make an assumption like that based on no evidence.

I know I said this once before already (and ss2k5 is saying it, too), but I think it needs to be reiterated: This team's abject failure (so far) is NOT due to poor roster construction/spending on the bullpen/Melky Cabrera, it's due to ALL the players playing poorly. The issue isn't whether or not we could handle carrying Micah Johnson and Connor Gillaspie, it's that we could NOT handle disappointing/mediocre/bad versions of Abreu, Sale, Samardzija, Quintana, Eaton, etc. The whole thing was only ever going to work out if we assumed those guys' star performances were in the bank. I don't blame Rick Hahn for those guys being bad. And since those guys HAVE been bad, I can't form an intelligent opinion on whether or not carrying Tyler Flowers was a significant transgression in the end.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 4, 2015 -> 12:25 PM) Then why isn't he saying the AL West race is over. The 2001 White Sox, after losing Frank Thomas and David Wells, finished the season 83-79 with Jerry Manuel at the helm. On May 5th, they were 8-19 11.5 games out. Granted they didn't win, if they playoffs were set up then like they are now, they missed by 2 games, but too much is made out of this doom and gloom. I'm guessing because the team that's ahead is universally considered to have much less talent than the teams behind. The opposite is true for us against KC/DET. Also it was a article on the White Sox, I'm sure he'll get around to the West. As for the rest of the year: yeah, it's possible. They could come back. But again, it isn't likely, and I don't think it's ridiculous to suggest that the Sox may want to be early sellers. Now, "early sellers" still isn't until mid-June, realistically, so maybe it's pointless to talk about now, sure.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 4, 2015 -> 11:51 AM) Considering Cameron pretty much runs fangraphs which likes to mention sample size from time to time, I find it odd he can come to total conclusions based on 24 games of role player performance. I don't think his point is that the team is this bad, but rather that the team has dug themselves into a hole that requires an exceptional performance to get out of, and that he doesn't think the team is capable of such a performance. That's a reasonable claim, I think. I mean obviously all of us are going to hold out for a magic run because, as you said, it's not reasonable to expect ALL of our players to blow this hard, but his larger game theory point is an interesting one: if you think you're out of it, do you take advantage of the small market and sell early?

The thing about this year isn't that the team had holes like the projections said, it's that even the GOOD players have sucked. Aside from health, this season almost could not have gone worse than it has. It's just a frustrating pile of crap and Cameron's probably right that it's already too big a hole to dig out from, considering that we just happen to be in a division with the two top teams in the AL so far.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-white-s...oming-decision/

QUOTE (harkness @ May 1, 2015 -> 10:16 PM) Batting Abreu 4th has now helped put him in a slump. Just nice all around. QUOTE (greg775 @ May 1, 2015 -> 10:29 PM) Six hits ... 14 men left on base ... But it's early! I'd be all for shaking it up and firing Robin. Have an interim the rest of the year. It'd be entertaining seeing Cooper get a shot and have to deal with the media every day. This team is not going to be entertaining. It's still a dysfunctional unit. We can all dream of some magical run at some point but that's our only hope. Beaten again by Minnie! ps. Nice to see LaRoche bust out with 2 hits. Another bad move moving Micah up. He was doing just fine and comfy down below in the order. Just my two cents on this rotten team. The batting order has nothing to with this. And if any of the players come out and use ti as an excuse, they should be DFA'd. It's the major leagues, just f***ing hit.

QUOTE (shysocks @ May 1, 2015 -> 02:38 PM) In honor of Q's start tonight and inspired by a suggestion from Eminor, here's my next avatar. Yes!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2015 -> 10:38 AM) You say advanced stats... I say steroids. Haha, I think the way he put it was "working the count."

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 1, 2015 -> 08:38 AM) I don't get it either. The promos always say first 20,000 fans or whatever, not first 20,000 tickets scanned. It always irks me to see on a bobblehead day some grown man with a garbage bag filled with 20 of them while kids coming through the gate get none. As long as they are talking loopholes, that's one I wouldn't mind being closed. It's just a matter of logistics. Our policy is "one item per person that comes through the gate," which lets us deny people with extra tickets (much to their dismay), but it's really impossible to stop people from going through different gates or coming up behind workers at other gates and claiming that we were out at whatever gate the person came in before. I imagine the issue is tenfold at Major League games -- you just can't memorize all the faces and, to be honest, if the person is willing to make a fuss about it, it's better for business simply to hand them another item and diffuse the scene.

Brady Anderson: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/brady-anderson-on-analytics/

I work in promotions for a minor league team, can confirm that giveaways drastically improve attendance. The key is finding the point of diminishing returns -- too many giveaways and people stop caring.

cOld, cOld, cOld fIre. So cOld. Please get hOt. Please?

WHY CAN'T WE EVER JUST BE f***ING GOOD?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 03:36 PM) Why even post in the game thread... Why even fan?

QUOTE (shysocks @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 01:14 PM) Well, I'll tell ya Stonepony... it's got a lot to do with Bo Porter. Before they got rid of 'im, he planted the seeds in those young players and taught them the right mindset. So much of baseball is between the ears. And that team's lucky they had a guy around who understood that. #mindset #approach

I just wanted to point out that the Astros are 14-7. I had no idea. Huh.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 30, 2015 -> 11:35 AM) Keith Law really doesn't think Fulmer can be a starter. I have similar concerns from the games I've seen the last month or so. Ryan (Nashville) Given that Carson Fulmer holds his stuff late into games and has, knock on wood, never had injury problems, is there a non-zero chance he can be a starter? It seems like sometimes there are just funky guys that it works for (Sale, Lincecum), so could you see a team in the top 15 take a chance on him thinking he can start? Klaw (1:27 PM) Two questions. Do I think he can start? Absolutely not. Incredibly violent, max-effort delivery that currently has him with 40 fastball command. Yes, he holds his stuff and hasn't been hurt, but he also pitches every seventh day, and Vandy handles their arms as well as any program in the country. Do I think someone will take him in the top 15? I'd give you even money on that. FWIW, McDaniel seems to have the exact opposite view. He admits to being high on Fulmer specifically because he believe he CAN start.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 29, 2015 -> 08:55 PM) Three days ago, the White Sox were on top of the world, best bullpen on earth, etc. Now we're back in the doldrums, Samardzija needs to be traded before the deadline, Ventura sucks because his team came out flat and the offense is in a malaise, Eaton's not the same player he was in 2014, Abreu can't field and LaRoche should be at 1B, etc. Total 180 degree change. Look, we've established that gamethreads are how we vent emotions. If you watched yesterday, you'd understand that it was a huge piece of s*** and so we all felt like s***. You don't have to read them if you don't want to.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 29, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) Obviously, but is he really a 9 figure pitcher? Ultimately, I think he probably he is, but he sure as hell pitched like s*** today and it didn't even look like he was trying, so I'm angry at him and so f*** him today.

I don't see much of any reason to believe that Davidson has become ML ready. He's hitting a little better, overall, but it's much of the same as last year -- plenty of power but not nearly enough to make up for way too many strikeouts. Sure, those numbers applied directly would be better than Conor right now, but they're going to get worse against better competition.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 29, 2015 -> 12:55 PM) Actually his second half in 2013 was pretty awesome. I don't know why he upsets you so much. His second half was so good, it propelled him to 0.4 fWAR for the year. The 0.1 fWAR he's earned this year by starting off awesome is sitting on the back of a FIP almost exactly two runs higher than his ERA, a 68% (!) GB rate, and a 90% (!!!) strand rate. That isn't just unsustainable, that's impossible. No man, it's still a terrible contract that we should be thrilled not to have. It's ok to be wrong about a guy. I'll eat crow on clamoring for Saltalamacchia all day, for example.

The best thing to do at this point is forfeit the game and do some I/O.