Eminor3rd

I heard they just cancelled the post-game show. The advertisers will not be happy.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) Before he got hurt a couple years ago, if someone asked me to name the best *current* athlete in the world that I had ever seen compete I probably would have said UFC Bantamweight Champ Dominick Cruz, and probably no one would have agreed with me. In fact he's white, how could a white guy be the best athlete in the world? It's a fact that the mind and body are one and act on each other all of the time, and I think the mind is way too often overlooked as a key component of an athlete. That's one of the reasons people seem to s*** on baseball players as athletes because they can't appreciate the level of extreme control your mind must have over your body to barrell up a 96mph fastball in a fraction of a second really after you pick it up or to spot a fastball off the mound or locate a sharp breaking ball roughly where you need to throw it. Also, the extreme level of control you must have over your mind in pressure situations or to get through a slump, this is the kind of thing that takes a player like a Tyrus Thomas with an athletic ceiling of a superstar and b****slaps him down to inconsistent role player. What I like about combat sports is that just like baseball you have to think, react, control your mind *and* body, and you only have a fraction of time and space to operate, and if you f*** up then you are the one that gets KTFOd or at least put in a very bad spot, and none of your training partners or coaches or teammates can do anything to help you. The thing about Cruz was that cardio-wise he was off the charts, he maintained the type of pace that would be very rare even for terrific endurance athletes. I'll never be a great athlete but I'm a runner, because there's such a mental aspect there that is so badass to get under control, and when you see a guy like that just go go go beyond anything you could ever do it's inspiring. And the way he would just f*** with his opponents, he'd always be in range but they couldn't hit him, he could take them down but they couldn't get him down, he could land knees, kicks, punches forward and back, everything was in combos, always was new and interesting and impossible for the opponent to figure out. He could fight everywhere, and get the better of it everywhere. He was very explosive athletically, but probably not super fast in a straight line race, and strong in terms of leverage and body control but probably not weight lifter strong, so he definitely wouldn't put up numbers in some NFL combine or something. But I'd probably have to throw a guy like that out there in the convo as "best athlete" because the areas in which he is truly elite are far more functional in real life (and impressive to me personally) than short-burst superhuman acts or doing the same things over and over and mastering them. A fighter needs to always be ready to instantly react to a thousand different possibilities and the consequences of an "error" or whatever come at his own peril. All that said, I would undoubtedly say that the most game-changing athlete in any sport is LeBron in basketball. I imagine he's probably more head and shoulders above his peers than anyone else is in any other sport, but part of that I think just simply has to do with height and how the game scales up. You could be an amazing athlete in every stat that matters but if you're under 6' you're probably not going to play in the NBA. There have of course been exceptions but those are really too few to consider seriously. And I'm inclined to agree with Hawk whenever he talks about a short player, "anybody can play this game." And that's one of the things that is great about baseball, because the skills of the small guys make their statures a positive and when those skills are in abundance they become a weapon for a manager that the opposition just can't match. An excellent argument. You're so obviously NOT drunk The thing about LeBron and height: that's exactly it, except it's amazing because most guys that are that big are lumbering, uncoordinated, and injury-prone. The COST of raw size is typically very steep, but it just doesn't seem to apply to him. He's like a scaled-up point guard. It defies physics -- his bodily infrastructure should be suffering for the stress of his mass at the speeds he is able to move. QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 04:42 PM) It's amazing how quickly threads can turn into something irrelevant to the original topic It is a common characteristic of a conversation.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 07:59 PM) Hawk must be watching a different Gordon Beckham than everyone else. Sad to see him overpowered by Feldman's 89 mph fastball. Hawk hasn't been watching the same GAME as us since about 2007.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) Dan Hayes ‏@DanHayesCSN 9m Alexei Ramirez in lineup, hitting 2nd. Said before All-Star Game he was worried about how his back would respond. Felt great. #WhiteSox Read: "Teams should be interested in trading for Alexei still"

I love the "overall best athlete" debate. I have a friend who argues with me constantly about it. We both agree that the best individual is probably LeBron, but we disagree in the aggregate. I say it's NFL Wide Receivers, he says it's NBA Small Forwards. Both of us think that strength is a big part of the equation, much moreso than those who think soccer players are the best.

I'm still surprised that Davidson has fallen so far in everyone's eyes. But these guys are as legit as it gets outside of an actual team, so I'm willing to admit that I'm the crazy one.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 12:48 PM) Braves are releasing Uggla. I think they like La Stella, though.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 10:36 AM) Wait, so Ubaldo Jimenez isnt working out? Shhhhhh!

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 11:18 AM) Sale for Machado & Bundy I honestly don't think I'd make that deal.

Deck seems a lot like Axelrod at this point. Seems like we'd have claimed him if we didn't just get Wang.

DeWayne Weiss lol

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 07:50 AM) This doesn't really seem like a good defense of Kemp being a good fielder. It basically says that he doesn't read the ball well and has a slow first step. Any defensive value he's really accrued in his career has come from his athleticism and a good arm. The arm might not fade, but the athleticism surely will. He's basically the anti-Jim Edmonds. Either way, there's way, way too much risk involved with Matt Kemp to even be thinking about this. The only way I'd consider it is some sort of 1 for 1 swap with John Danks with the Dodgers picking up money in years 4 and 5 of the deal, and even then I'd be hesitant. Lol, I know. It says he's awful. Sorry, I should have been clear that I was posting this link to corroborate Feeky's claim that I was wrong.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 05:55 PM) No chance is he a better defensive left-fielder than De Aza. He's been in left most of this year and been horrendous. As if on cue: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/matt-kemps-...affs-nightmare/

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 11:04 AM) Has anyone ever seen him smile? He's got heavy, burdened eyes.

I think the trade deadline is pretty quiet. Abreu is def ROY now that Tanaka is down.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 01:22 PM) Viciedo would fit right in with KC. Undisciplined hitter who doesn't draw walks. And he'd be a total disaster in the vast outfield there. Talk to your people in Kansas. Let's get this done. Can we still get Chris Getz back? I think he retired.

QUOTE (venom4789 @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 02:29 PM) I personally hate keith law. I hope no one is wasting their money on insider. It's like $3 a month and it gives you access to way more than Keith Law.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 01:12 PM) Actually, he's still getting better, across the board, so this is premature. While he's definitely regarded as one of the best in the game currently, his ABSOLUTE ceiling is the best-of-his-generation, IMO. Kershaw is the guy with the best possibility of achieving that status, but does Clayton, or anyone, have more raw talent than Sale? I don't think so. All of this is beside the point I was making. Yeah, okay, maybe he develops a way to shoot lasers out of his eyes that distract the batter and he throw 9 straight no-hitters or whatever. He's a consensus top 4 pitcher in the Majors, that's about as high a "ceiling" as anyone has ever layed on a prospect.

I don't have one.

I mean it's gonna be "cash considerations"

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 12:26 PM) He hasn't sold me on this quite yet, was that just a result of him being rushed? Yeah, it looked to me like he was just overmatched. To my eyes, he struck out a bunch because he got TOO deep in counts and wasn't able to handle big league wipeout pitches.

Weird. Good luck to Dylan

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 12:37 PM) He has. I've read Law answering questions about poor deliveries in prospects and saying something to the effect of "Well it worked out for Sale..." Chris Sale's sucess has obviously rocked Keith Law to his very core. I don't know, he wrote a pretty empassioned All-Star snub piece on Chris Sale that made him seem almost like a fanboy: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/...ses-and-snubs-2 I still think everything Law said about Sale in draft was totally reasonable. Sale DOES have a funky delivery, unconventional body, and a low arm slot. Those things typically lead to relievers with durability and platoon issues. We're all aware that flukey things happen and guys occasionally reach their ABSOLUTE ceilings like Sale has, but on paper (where, let's be honest, most of us are forced to get most of our info), Sale was a guy who ends up as a lefty-specialist 95%+ of the time. Sox gambled and won, and I'm glad they did and I'm glad to give the credit to their scouting dept., but it was still a gamble and thus the argument not to make the gamble in the first round is defensible.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 12:05 PM) Who was the last prospect the Sox had ranked in the top 10? Gotta be Joe Borchard, right?

Sale ranked #11 in FanGraph's trade value rankings, the highest rank pitcher in the majors: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-trade-value-20-11/