Eminor3rd

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) I might be the last Hawk Homer left in the world, but I love the guy. Sure he doesn't know when to shut up at times, but I love the fact that he articulates what I am thinking during the game. When I am pissed, he is ranting. When I am thrilled, he is over the moon. I don't want to think about the day that Hawk isn't in the booth. He is pretty much the only voice of the White Sox I can remember. Except for the 2005 playoffs, the guy is the soundtrack to every single great memory I have of my favorite team. I think he was among the best in the business in his prime. I think he is clearly NOT that now. He pisses me off sometimes because he says some of the dumbest s*** I've ever heard and he represents the White Sox, but most of the time I'm fine with him still. Not because he's good at his job necessarily, but because he usually makes me feel like him and I are in this thing together. He's just a part of the experience at this point. I don't agree with hardly anything my grandpa thinks, for example, but I still love him and want him around at Christmas.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 10:30 AM) As I stated, the team was doomed. It was going to be bad. The next regime did a lot better job drafting players than ANY regime in White Sox history. And Hawk made some good trades. Calderon was a good player, and he also got the White Sox Tim Raines. Jose DeLeon, acquired for Bonilla, who Hawk selected in the rule 5 draft, was a good pitcher, and he also eventually netted Lance Johnson. Bonilla was better than DeLeon, but not as good as what the Sox might not have had if they had kept him. http://www.southsidesox.com/2013/1/11/3862...y-minor-leagues Right but you can't give Hawk credit for trading for Tim Raines or Lance Johnson. Hawk gets credit for DeLeon and Calderon. One of those was a good trade, one was a bad trade.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 10:22 AM) Maybe a late spring training addition. They have spent the money. If there is something that really needs addressing, I think they now will try to do something about it instead of waiting. If, for some reason, all the computers are right, and this is a 77 or 78 win team (without huge injuries), it will be a huge blow to the franchise. More than any other year, I'm really nervous about health. This is a team that's totally fine if everything goes according to plan, but an injury to Abreu, Eaton, or any of the three top starters could ruin the season before it begins. And I think that's a lot of why the projections don't like the team -- they have playing time projections built in, and they assume contributions from much further down the depth chart than we typically imagine because they expect an average amount of injuries.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 09:55 AM) Hawk's year as the GM has been written and talked about as something that basically set the team back for 5 years. That team was going to be bad regardless of who the GM was. All you really have to do is check the roster. There were some pieces acquired that helped in the future. I laugh at all of the people now who made it seem like Hawk committed some sort of felony when he got rid of LaRussa. LaRussa got booed every time he went to the mound. Many of the same people who would call into radio shows to say LaRussa sucked and needed to go are fans that now use firing LaRussa as proof Hawk is an idiot. You're right -- if someone claims that he set the franchise back several years, they're off base. Still, if the BEST thing you can say about a guy is that "the next regime was able to take advantage of all the great draft picks he earned them," and "the next regime was able to salvage some value from all the bad trades he made," then the guy was really bad.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 10:10 AM) Flowers would definitely get claimed. If someone had an injury to fill, sure. But he's making $2.6m this year. That's not a salary you just stash in the minors unless you really see some upside.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 10:02 AM) Flowers can't be sent to Charlotte. I'm assuming no one would claim him, lol.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 09:09 AM) You do know in 1986 he picked Bonilla in the rule 5 don't you? Trading him probably turned out well for the White Sox. A few more wins the next couple of seasons, they might not have had McDowell, Ventura, Thomas and Fernandez later on. And if Soxtalk were around in 1986, LaRussa would have been about as popular as Robin Ventura if he brought Cleto in to close a 1 run game with the bases loaded. I think Larry Himes did a pretty good job as Hawk's replacement. I doubt Dombrowski, if he would have been the replacement had Hawk kept him around, would have been able to match. Hawk wasn't a great GM. He will be the first to tell you that. But it wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of people made it out to be. The 1986 team was doomed. Burns was done. Seaver wanted out. James was done. Hawk got Bonilla, who eventually turned into Lance Johnson. He also got Calderon who was pretty good, and became Tim Raines. Hawk got the job because the minor league system was worse than it has been at any point the last 20 years. The year before they drafted the great catcher Kurt Brown in round one. The next pick.........Barry Bonds. Lol DA, this might be the faintest praise I've ever read/heard.

I hope that both catcher spots are up for grabs. You want Kottaras in there because he mashes righties, but if Soto comes in strong, I'd love to see Flowers in Charlotte.

QUOTE (dewssox79 @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Danks is the wild card. If he pitches well we can be insane to face. Noesi as the 5th is just fine. A lot of people complained about his velocity drop since his injury, he needs to now pitch instead of throw. The change up is going to make or break it for him. I hope his changeup is above avg I think he's gonna have some good games, but just as many absolute disasters. The problem with his velo loss isn't that he CAN'T be good, it's that he has to be on-point practically every pitch in order to be good. He'll have that stuff some days, but he'll have to re-invent himself to avoid being a problem more often than not, IMO.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 01:53 PM) Eminor I hope you understand my rant was half truthful and more comedically intented in nature. Writing is more my thing than math so once in a while I write things just to get it off my chest with some humor and hopefully it's understood I meant no slights to anyone. But I still don't understand why it takes precedent over offseason acquisitions in the pinned area. I assume Soxtalk wants to grow as a community so even the casual fan can find things that appeal to them by dropping in here and lurking before eventually feeling comfortable enough to make posts. I realize threads "run their course " and the discussions of acquistions is old news at this point but the players and a chance at a successful season and the excitement it has generated are usually the primary interest of fans in general . I understand what is pinned is not my decision to make . It's just my feeling that having the best Sox topics pinned or on the front page is the best way to keep people who show up here interested in coming back rather then having them look at page after page of what's been discussed over the past few months rather than the first thing they see being FAQ about avanced stats. Yeah I just re-read my post and see that it reads like I was punching walls while writing it. I have a problem with coming off way angrier than I want to. I really am trying to work on that even though I'm failing. Sorry. To be clear: any rage that did exist in my last post is directed toward Charles Barkley, lol. The only thing directed toward you or greg is some mild exasperation I actually think what you said about thread pinning makes sense -- I can see a good argument hat all acquisitions should be up there until at least the start of the season.

Does seem like a ton of arms that could at least be bullpen pieces. Is this typical, though? Or is our system legitimately deep in this area?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 08:26 PM) Heard Barkley's rant last night . Wondered if there would be something on here but I fail to see how it stays in PHT . Are all sabremetric discussions now required reading ? I mean, I try ,I really do, to understand some of the more frequently used new terms to stay abreast of things. Can't say I enjoy reading sooooooooo much about it though. I enjoy my sports which mostly consists of watching and drawing my own conclusions on players. Around here or any forum where younger people gather I'm thankful for the broadening of my horizons. However, I can definitely say it hasn't enhanced my enjoyment level of sports , probably has even lowered it a little bit to be honest. My math education stopped at Algebra 2 so everytime someone starts in with coeffeicients and variables yada yada yada, I get bored to tears. Is this math class or the place to discuss White Sox baseball. I see people ask what is FIP or something else. I'm like are you kidding me ? You're on a computer ! You have the world at your fingertips ! Stick it in a search engine and you can find all the stuff on it your little heart ever desired. You get rants like Hawk and Barkley and now me I guess because you guys never give it a rest . We have a permanently pinned section on it for whatever reason .All the offseason acquisitions should be pinned till at least opening day because thats what interests Sox fans who might wander into this place infrequently. What do they see pinned? FAQ's about advanced physics. We rant because we sucked at math and we feel dumb again, but even sucking it was still simple to understand ERA and fielding percentage and batting average. Now I need a degree from MIT. The reason people "don't give it a rest" is because it's an important part of modern baseball. It drives the decisions the front offices make. Why is that not interesting? Also, I don't understand why people treat this s*** like it's theoretical calculus or something. 95% of this stuff is just a simple weighted averages. It's multiplication. If you got Algebra 2, you get averaging numbers and multiplication. QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 11:49 PM) What some of you Sabes people must realize is a lot of us, including Barkley, do not give a s*** about advanced stats. I mean some of it is interesting, but I think what Charles is saying is a ballplayer knows a good ballplayer when he sees one. Believe me, I don't need advanced stats to tell me Rios or Dunn are good players. I happen to SEE them play and can tell you they are not. I'm not a big WAR guy obviously. When I see Adam Dunn whiff as much as he did as a Sox, and the fact he as our big gun never sniffed a postseason, tells me a lot. I don't need advanced stats telling me he was good or some such. Again, if you watch your favorite team all year, you know who is good and who is bad. That's my take. The Sabes people should be more tolerant of us Sabes haters or Sabes dislikers. Oh, we understand that you don't give a s***. The whole thing about having to be a good ballplayer to know a good ballplayer is elitist bulls***. If that's the case, greg, than by your own logic, you have no idea what you're talking about. All of us stupid fans should just sit in a bar and consume the program without a thought in our heads. Because we'll never "get it" anyway. QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 11:49 PM) The Sabes people should be more tolerant of us Sabes haters or Sabes dislikers. This is an ironic thing to say. Do you know why it doesn't seem like "Sabes haters" are tolerated? Because of moron rants like Barkley's "EVERYONE WHO DOES ADVANCED STATS IS JUST MAD CUZ THEY DIDN'T GET GIRLS IN HIGH SCHOOL," and the constant implication that being interested in advanced statistics is "ruining the integrity of the game" and that people who like sabermetrics "don't even watch the game." My suggestion to "sabes haters" is this: Stop slinging insults like a toddler and see if people stop treating you like a toddler.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 06:48 PM) Michael Lewis wrote a book that was a true story. Hollywood made the fictionalized version. The book is well known to have been highly "sensationalized." It's been a criticism since its release, long before the movie was even a thought.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 04:29 PM) It's only a wash if you ignore baserunning, in which Alexei is one of the best baserunning SS and Castro is one of the worst. That factor tips in the scale in Alexei's favor IMO. I'd probably choose Alexei too, but my point is that the choice is perfectly defensible, especially if you believe Castro has upside. The OP suggested it was like choosing Mark Grace over Frank Thomas.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 02:37 PM) The pick was for who will be better this season, so age doesn't matter. Alexei has also shown no signs of falling off a cliff (he always has good hitting starts to a season and gradually declines). Of course it does. A guy entering his age 33 season is more likely to decline than a guy entering his age 25 season.

I think Lind is a bit of a defensively liability as well, where LaRoche was at least considered a good defender in his prime, even if he's lost a step since.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 12:58 PM) What would "coming on board" entail. The White Sox used more shifts than most last year. They bunt fewer times than most. Hasn't Cooper been one to preach lowering pitch counts by getting guys early in the count even though he isn't a pitch count guy? I think you're illustrating the key point here, which is that this isn't a matter of a team choosing GOING SABR or STAYING OLD SCHOOL. The reality is that sabermetric research has already infiltrated the game, in that it affects every team in some way. There are certainly teams that rely more on it than others, but the best concepts have risen to the top. And this was never really about the stats themselves, but rather about the ideas that the math is uncovering. This stuff has been adopted; it has not replaced anything. Billy Beane didn't fire all his scouts. This was never about rigidly employing a mutually exclusive approach, it was just about looking to the fringes to find new ideas to integrate into the system. The "us vs. them" civil war that has ensued in the public sphere can be attributed ENTIRELY to the media, the center of which was Michael Lewis' "based on a true story" Moneyball effort.

Agreed. I mean, depending upon the extent of his health issues. Hard for us to have an informed opinion on that. Might be safe to assume that the reason he hasn't signed yet is because the teams see something really ugly.

QUOTE (WBWSF @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 09:55 AM) Taking Castro over Ramirez at short equals taking Mark Grace over Frank Thomas. Castro can't carry Ramirez jockstrap defensively. Lol no it's not. It's a completely defensible choice. Castro is a much better hitter and is way younger/less likely to fall off a cliff this year. The choice is basically a wash.

Welp. Time for another rebuild.

This is WELL done

QUOTE (Mike F. @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 07:58 PM) I just heard on MLB Network that the Sox could possibly be interested in Francisco "K Rod" Rodriguez. Would you guys be ok with him on a 2 year/$20 million deal? That gives Robertson an elite set-up guy ahead of him, and Petricka/Putnam/Duke would just have the cover the 7th inning. What do you guys think? I'll pass. Find me a reclamation/depth starter for a 25-50% of that.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 01:10 PM) In 879 opportunities to ground into a double play in his career, Alexei Ramirez has done so 113 times (12.9% of the time) In 106 opportunities to ground into a double play in his career, Avisail Garcia has done so 14 times (13.2% of the time) Obviously that is a fairly small sample size for Avisail Garcia, but there really isn't much difference between the two. With his power potential, I would rather see Avisail hit in the 5 spot and get the extra 30-40 plate appearances that are going to come with it versus the 7 spot. If Alexei is a better run producer this year that Avisail, I don't think we are going very far. I agree he should be 7th, but that's because I don't think he's going to be very good. I also agree, though, that if he ISN'T very good, we're going to have a hard time succeeding. I wouldn't worry about batted ball type though, if he's hitting at all, everything will be fine.

QUOTE (MDWhiteSoxFan @ Feb 8, 2015 -> 07:30 PM) This... what were his advanced statistics all the years he was in Pittsburgh? We're they saying he was incredibly unlucky for multiple years? I am actually curious and have no idea how to look up the advanced stats. The transformation for Bautista, from what I understand, is solely due to a change in approach and swing mechanics. Basically, he was taught to be a complete/opposite-field type hitter his whole career, but when he failed and got to Toronto, they just told him to let it rip every time, figuring he didn't have much to lose at that point. Turned out he was a natural slugger trying to be something he never was. I think David Ortiz has a similar story. Neither of them have anything to do with advanced/traditional stats at all. I don't think there exists any type of model that can predict shifts in performance based on radical changes to approach/arsenal.

All the data from UZR/DRS, to my knowledge, ARE collected by humans watching the games. The values are calculated by some sort of grid system that, combined with the human's judgement of how the type of ball it was (liner, fly, etc.) determines the difficulty of the play essentially by how often the play is made. The run values that are then assigned are based on linear weights derived from the difference in run probability from the base/out state that now exists versus what existed before. The new MLBAM stuff everyone keeps talking about IS collected by computers/cameras. That's why it's so exciting -- it's going to give us completely objective/factual data on reaction time, route efficiency, acceleration, etc. for the first time ever.