Eminor3rd

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 05:09 PM) "Hope Runs" lead to many donations and raised awareness for numerous charitable causes across the country.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:55 PM) So says a new way to try and measure that: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article....articleid=25647 Goes on to talk for 5 hours about what they are measuring, then we find that over 3 seasons Ventura is better than average. Last season alone, near the top of the list. Signed, Robin Ventura THEN WHOSE FAULT IS IT WHEN RONALD BELISARIO GIVES UPA HOPMERUN!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Pizza Cutter!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 01:24 PM) The problem is first getting to the playoffs.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) And I think it's a claim that ignores the value of being a pitcher who pitched enough to be considered an active Major League baseball player in 2014 so the team doesn't have to go to the pitchers who are literally worse who are in the minor leagues mostly. It's like saying, "That guy is one of the least wealthy billionaires." It might be true, but the fact that you're taking from a certain exclusive subset weakens the claim. Which is why I originally said... "You mentioned that they both qualified but then discarded the inherent value of that. If you're on the qualifying list and your WAR is higher than 0, then there are probably at least ten guys I'd take after you." And I think that claim still stands. Note: I am aware it's probably more impressive to be a billionaire than qualify for the ERA title one year. It's an example. Right, but no matter where you set the bar, Danks is among the absolute worst of the people who will be pitching a bunch of innings for baseball teams. Therefore, we have a competitive disadvantage. So he represents a massive weakness in the rotation.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) Because of tradition, weather, length of the postseason. They should be able to finish a baseball season before the month of Thanksgiving and the first snow. I don't understand why that's self-evidently good, though. Weather is about the only one that makes sense to me.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:33 AM) As long as Game 7 of the World Series is always the last Wednesday of October, I'm good with whatever. This year, the WS could go into November. It's bad optics. Why?

That's dumb.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:10 AM) He was purposefully put into situations where he was made to "fail" from a statistical standpoint in order to build up his arm to become a full time starter. It was truly a unique situation where a former full time reliever was built into a full time starter in mid-season, at the major league level. If the goal had been "winning" or keeping his numbers good, he wouldn't have pitched in many situations last year that he gave up runs in. I think I see what you're saying -- if your claim is that our expectations of Noesi's performance this year should be based on more than his performance last year because he was often fatigued from being "stretched out," then I think that's a plausible/reasonable argument. You could strengthen it if you found some evidence that he wore down later in the season or, if you wanted to argue that he'll improve in 2015, that he was bad after the fourth or fifth inning early on but began to show signs of greater endurance as the season progressed.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:08 AM) I don't know the stats, but it seemed like when he did start, it was Danks starts last season. When he was good, he was real good, and when he was bad, he was real bad. Yeah I agree that it seemed that way. We could test it, but it would require actually doing some math and research instead of just looking it up on Baseball Reference or FanGraphs. I'm not sure it matters much though -- like many have pointed out, everybody looks good on their best days. If we're thinking about what we're going to get from either Noesi or Danks next year, we have to take the bad ones in order to get the good ones.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 11:04 AM) Right, but not "one of the five worst pitchers in baseball." Ok, I agree that there are pitchers that are literally worse that are in the minor leagues mostly. But if we agree that "baseball" means Major League baseball, and that "pitchers" means "pitchers who pitched enough to be considered active Major League baseball players in 2014," I think the claim stands.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 10:52 AM) Situations like Noesi's last year are exactly why there is more to baseball than stats. I agree that there is more to baseball than stats, but what do you mean by this in regards to Noesi? That he's a better pitcher than his stats indicate because it "felt" like he gave up fewer runs than he really did?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 10:12 AM) That Samardzija article called back to mind the interaction of a "stat geek" and Hosmer/Moustakas. http://www.hardballtimes.com/learning-the-...-the-clubhouse/ There's a steep learning curve for the "sabes" (I love that Greg-ism) people to go through when interacting with professional athletes using their statistics-driven language. Athletes can sniff out a "poser" a million miles away, and they're often not as nice as someone like Mark Teahen or Jim Thome would be about it. You have to build a relationship and get respect from an athlete first..or at least give them some pertinent statistical information which helps them improve their games (rather than criticizing it). Eno is a great guy. Met him at the Winter Meetings last year.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) and in some way the sox still don't except for the bull pen. however starting a new season, and hoping that the main core of pitchers can really pull it out, it is kind of exciting. Right. No question the top three are great, but this is one of the main reasons that the projections/skeptics are further down on the Sox' chances than we want them to be. Most teams get significant innings out of about 8 starters each season, and our top 8 include Danks, Noesi, Brad Penny, Erik Johnson, and like Scott Carroll or something. Certainly we have high hopes for Rodon and he could be difference maker, but he's a still a prospect.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:33 AM) When Danks had a quality start: 20 games, 130.2 innings, 2.48 ERA (team record 10-10, 1-6 in no decisions) Without quality starts: 12 games, 63 innings, 9.43 ERA #1 positive--he made his starts. No DL time. #2 positive--he's another year away from surgery, which could help him #3 positive--he's playing with a better offense to support him He'll be fine. QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:35 AM) If that were true, then why did Noesi qualify? He's got no big contract, we could have tossed him away at any time. The reason is because they'd have to be replaced. Danks qualified because if he weren't throwing those innings, somebody like the guys on that list would have been doing it instead. He may not deserve credit for having a big contract, but he deserves credit for putting up .8 WAR in those innings instead of 0 or less. Also, yes, he made his starts. He gets credit for his 0.8 fWAR over a full season -- which is a bad number. Substantially below average. He gets credit for giving us 200 innings of bad pitcher.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:35 AM) If that were true, then why did Noesi qualify? He's got no big contract, we could have tossed him away at any time. The reason is because they'd have to be replaced. Danks qualified because if he weren't throwing those innings, somebody like the guys on that list would have been doing it instead. He may not deserve credit for having a big contract, but he deserves credit for putting up .8 WAR in those innings instead of 0 or less. Because we didn't have anyone better, which is the point. We don't have any decent pitching depth. Hector Noesi and John Danks were terrible pitchers last year.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:26 AM) You mentioned that they both qualified but then discarded the inherent value of that. If you're on the qualifying list and your WAR is higher than 0, then there are probably at least ten guys I'd take after you. Here's a handful of them, for example: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...0&sort=17,d But all that really mean is that they threw a lot of innings. That's both where the "qualified" comes into play, AND it's an input of fWAR. The ONLY reason John Danks "qualified," for example, was because of his massive contract. I don't think he deserves credit for that.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:16 AM) I'm guessing that much of this is spring training fluff pieces, so I'm not reading too much into it, but the quotes say that they believe in Noesi. The numbers indicate that there's nothing special about him, and that's how I feel about him, but perhaps there's genuine talent change on the way. Noesi was a fairly well regarded prospect so I wouldn't completely rule out the idea of him turning a new leaf over and being a legitimately good pitcher, but I'm not holding my breath and he's a replaceable piece at the moment. I think it's true that Noesi could have some upside left, and I've always liked him, even when he was on the Yankees. He was a long-time favorite sleeper of mine. But let's stop pretending that he's been a good pitcher so far, haha. That's all I'm saying.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 09:16 AM) Danks had 20 quality starts last year. Where was he ranked in the league on that? Lol, I don't know. Why? EDIT: I found a site that measures it! The answer is 41st. Of course, by QS, Alfredo Simon was better than Chris Sale. So if QS makes John Danks NOT terrible, then maybe we have no hope against the Tigers.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 08:22 AM) Well he didn't suck for the White Sox last year but alright. QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 08:35 AM) No I don't think John Danks sucks either. He just makes too much money and was way better before. Of those that qualified for the ERA title last year: By ERA, the fourth worst pitcher in the majors was Hector Noesi. The fifth worst was John Danks. By FIP, the third worst pitcher in the majors was Hector Noesi. The fourth worst was John Danks. By xFIP, the second worst pitcher in the majors was John Danks. The tenth was Hector Noesi. By fWAR, the sixth worst pitcher in the majors was Hector Noesi. The ninth was John Danks. TL;DR No matter how you slice it, both sabermetrically and traditionally, John Danks and Hector Noesi were among the bottom ten pitchers in the entire major leagues last year.

QUOTE (LDF @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 11:11 PM) not only Sir Charles but Jeff Samardzija not a big fan of analytics as well. http://www.prosportsdaily.com/articles/whi...ics-342924.html That's not what I got out of the article at all. He was asked if Don Cooper is out of touch because he isn't into sabermetrics (which is a pretty loaded question), and he said: “Sabermetrics, nyeh. Sounds like a lot of hot air,’’ Samardzija said, smiling. “I think there are definitely positive aspects to it. I think there is some information you can take from it that’s important. But ultimately from a player’s point of view, you want a coach that can relate to you. Can help you with adjustments mid-game. “I think preparation with numbers and stats and all that’s great, but when the bullets are flying, you need a guy that knows your personality, can relate to you and get you to change or fix what’s going wrong. If you don’t respect the guy that’s telling you that information, you’re not going to listen to him.’’ Sounds like he's just defending Don Cooper, and echoing what many believe about coaches, which is that managing personalities is their most important job.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 08:41 PM) You might want to read his "interests" under the profile page. Lol. That guy.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 27, 2014 -> 08:49 AM) TUC sent me a message to deliver to the soxtalk world Is he banned currently?

I just realized I probably played against JB Shuck in High School

The problem is that Beckham isn't even versatile enough to make sense there. Shuck is at least left-handed, and Bonifacio can essentially play every position other than catcher. If you're afraid Bonifacio can't play SS well enough, then Leury Garcia is a better option than Beckham.