Eminor3rd

He's also becoming injury prone and is pretty bad defensively in CF. Still a nice player probably but he's not going to be the best use of that money for this team.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 31, 2013 -> 08:33 AM) Every year it's the same thing with the Soxtalk Meatheads, yes the SOXTALK MEATHEADS, I have defined you. You adopt some crap player on the roster and act like he's better than he really is or is finally figuring it out or just needs more time. We're not even including players like Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo that you SOXTALK MEATHEADS refuse to see for what they are. Conor Gillaspie is the latest in a long line of scrubs who got a couple hits and you SOXTALK MEATHEADS adorned our great solution. Now there's a thread in which people discuss claiming another turd Juan Francisco and "the one thing we don't need is a solid hitting lefty 3B". Yeah, because that's Conor Gillaspie. Listen, this is baseball. Very rarely does a player like Gillaspie get released and all the sudden figure it out with a new ballclub. Conor Gillaspie is the 2013 Danny Richar. You will realize he sucks balls soon enough. Oh, his OPS for the month of May is .672. Moving forward, when I read something silly about a garbage player wearing the pale hose that is ridiculous, I will be replying to the poster declaring them to be a SOXTALK MEATHEAD. You've been warned. Gillaspie is a one-time first round draft pick that got knocked around a bit and was on the verge of busting. He's 25 years old, which is a perfectly reasonable age to start breaking out into the Major Leagues. Also, he's looking exactly like the player people projected when he was drafted except with better defense. There's a lot of reason to believe that he's just one-year late on his development path. He was available because SF was not going to bench Sandoval to give him a chance. He's not worse than f***ing Luis Valbuena.

Gordon Beckham gets the defensive edge over reigning Gold Glove and Fielding Bible award winner Darwin "One Error" Barney? The Darwin Barney fresh off a +14 UZR season that both SABR and "scouting" guys agree is an elite defensive second baseman? NOTE: While I think 2B and 3B are ridiculous, I agree completely with your opinion on the rotations. Not sure why everyone is laughing at that. SECOND NOTE: I would also say that the bullpen probably qualifies as a MASSIVE WIN. The Cubs bullpen is an absolute laughingstock, and their only decent RP just got shut down for Tommy John.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 30, 2013 -> 04:04 PM) I enjoy distancing myself from Soxtalk for awhile and then returning and reading through posts by the same members (often year to year) who cannot seem to recognize a White Sox team for what it is. I don't know if immersing yourself in every pitch of every game and then coming on here to discuss it every day removes you objectivity, but it's troubling in some cases. This is not a well constructed ballclub. They will not be winning in the playoffs. What else do you expect out of a losing game thread than venting? There's nothing more productive to be said that doesn't belong in a more focused thread.

QUOTE (Jillian Michaels' Abs @ May 30, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) The sox are swining early in counts. Obviously want this game to be over with. They've done that all year

QUOTE (fathom @ May 30, 2013 -> 03:05 PM) I'd rather protect the health of our trade chip than worry about Nate Jones being overused today. Face it, if the Sox are close tomorrow night, it's not like Jones was going to be used. I agree with this.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 30, 2013 -> 02:57 PM) And, to think, it was 5 years ago and we couldn't believe Wise at that point in his career was a viable option over Swisher, lol. Yet here he still is... Sadly, he's just as bad as he was then. That's our team.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 30, 2013 -> 02:54 PM) I could see it being Alexei, Gillaspie or Wise tomorrow night. Yeah, I'd put Gillaspie there.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 30, 2013 -> 02:49 PM) He won't be. Who the **** else should hit there?

Sox suck. This has been a brutal series.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 30, 2013 -> 01:20 PM) 17. White Sox: Chris Anderson, RHP, Jacksonville Chicago has taken toolsy hitters in recent years, but it also has taken big, strong college pitchers. Anderson faded a bit but was really good early on and in his last start. Last mock Draft: 19 Latest mlb.com mock draft Manaea is falling even more...down to the Cardinals at 19th in this one. Have a hard time believing the White Sox wouldn't take a shot at him. Does anyone know anything about this kid? It's not like Jacksonville is a big-time college program...always a risk when you don't see them against SEC/Big 12/PAC 10 competition as much, but there's also the Cape Cod/summer leagues. Law's latest today also has Anderson to the Sox

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 30, 2013 -> 01:20 PM) 17. White Sox: Chris Anderson, RHP, Jacksonville Chicago has taken toolsy hitters in recent years, but it also has taken big, strong college pitchers. Anderson faded a bit but was really good early on and in his last start. Last mock Draft: 19 Latest mlb.com mock draft Manaea is falling even more...down to the Cardinals at 19th in this one. Have a hard time believing the White Sox wouldn't take a shot at him. Does anyone know anything about this kid? It's not like Jacksonville is a big-time college program...always a risk when you don't see them against SEC/Big 12/PAC 10 competition as much, but there's also the Cape Cod/summer leagues. Thing about Manaea is that he can go back to college and re-enter next year. I imagine if he falls to us he'll just try to get healthy for 2014.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:36 PM) It was only two games. Two and third really, really ugly games though.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:21 PM) More like devolved. I suppose that is the natural progression of a thread like that.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:18 PM) Get the feeling that so goes Konerko, so goes this offense? He was the catalyst last year. Just a thought. Well, I mean he's our best hitter traditionally, but currently everyone on the whole team is bad except Gillaspie, who is a tick above average.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:17 PM) Are we reading the same Soxtalk ? There's a current thread about a rebuild. But that thread is assuming the there is a rebuild already underway, or a "retool" and is commenting on the progress of the players. Admittedly, I haven't checked the thread in the past couple days, so I;m not sure if the conversation has evolved.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:09 PM) Judge a team off one game. Yeah, things aren't going great, but you don't sell the f***ing team off on May 29th. We have two months to figure that out. We are literally less than 2 games from the high point of this season. And no one has cried rebuild since the offseason. So not sure what you're referring to about May 29th.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 29, 2013 -> 04:03 PM) Can they please send down Omogrosso and try someone else? Running out of options. Half the board seems to want to send Jones down, too.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ May 29, 2013 -> 03:58 PM) Ackley was the second pick in the draft. Everyone on this board wants us to blow up the team so we can draft a guy like him. Are you watching this game? How is this team going to get you to the playoffs?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 29, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) I'd love to see them shake it up and move ADA down so he can continue to swing as aggressive as he has without his poor OBP hurting the team. I'd love to see them not swing at every pitch like Little Leaguers. Lineup order means nothing now.

Well, so much for THAT

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 28, 2013 -> 03:40 PM) I didn't think he was all that great last year, serviceable, but not someone I'd trust in game that needed to be won. Too many inherited runners scored on his watch for my liking. That is simply not true though. He had an 85% strand rate, which was the 11th best strand rate in the Majors of pitchers that threw at least 50 innings. EDIT: for context, here are the only ten pitchers who stranded a higher percentage of runners than Nate Jones last year -- Kimbrel, Romo, Hanrahan, Rodney, Soriano, Frieri, Gregerson, Howell, Chapman, and Hector Santiago.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 28, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) What's the stat for straight fastball? And since you asked, Pitch F/X records movement for every pitch. In 2012, his fastball averaged 6.8 inches of horizontal movement and 7.8 inches of vertical movement. In 2013, his fastball is averaging 6.8 inches of horizontal movement and 7.4 inches of vertical movement. His fastball is practically exactly the same. http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?play...&position=P

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 28, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) What's the stat for straight fastball? Marty -- the gist of what I'm saying is that regardless of how straight you think his fastball is, he is striking out nearly the same amount of guys, walking nearly the same amount of guys, giving up nearly the same amount of homeruns, and giving up nearly the same amount of hits on balls in play. The ONLY difference is his strand rate, which is currently freakishly low, as in no one EVER has a strand rate that low over an extended sample, and so that will likely regress with no change at all to his performance or approach. Basically, if his stuff has changed, it isn't showing up in how well batters are hitting him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 28, 2013 -> 01:58 PM) The contrast between the 2 previous posts could not possibly be more stark. lol