Eminor3rd

I would say they are hedging their bets with depth, but neither of those guys are anything like a major league starter now or in the future.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 7, 2013 -> 10:14 AM) I don't know what % of his 86 pitches were swung at, but I would guess his swing & miss % was around 10-15%, which isn't too far off from his normal numbers. He was never the type of pitcher to strike out 200 in a season. This link may not answer this question directly, but I think a ton of relevant information of the same type can be found here: http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?play...&position=P

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 7, 2013 -> 08:07 AM) The White Sox trading for Giancarlo Stanton would be similar to the Mariners trading for Erik Bedard. Erik Johnson is Chris Tillman Courtney Hawkins is Adam Jones Alejandro De Aza is George Sherrill (sort of) Trayce Thompson is Tony Butler Carlos Sanchez is Kam Mickolio...? Whatever, the principle works. This is giving up a lot of future value for a player that does not make them favorites at any point in the next 3 years. That package wouldn't get it done at all. Stanton has no leverage to control his destination and isn't even arbitration eligible yet, so there's not even a rush to move him before a better offer comes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 6, 2013 -> 04:20 PM) And yet, somehow the Braves wound up with Upton, and did so without parting with their highest value guys. Because he had a no-trade clause and made it clear he would be picky, officially vetoing at least one more realistic package.

I'm so tired of this ridiculous hacking approach. Alexei is swinging at pitches that Little Leaguers know to take.

QUOTE (Jillian Michaels' Abs @ May 2, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) If the White Sox arent going to contend this year (duh) and the Braves are contending, Rik Hon needs to trade Gordon Beckham to the Braves. Braves need a 2B and the Sox need a whole lot of stuff. What would it take from the Braves to make this deal work? Kris Medlen? Mike Minor? Brandon Beachy? All 3? wat

QUOTE (Cali @ May 2, 2013 -> 12:49 PM) Might take a while for the team to admit they're out of contention, if ever, this season. They're very stubborn about that kind of stuff. Especially with always finishing around the middle so it appears like they had a shot to catch the Tigers (or Twins of the past) when we all knew they didn't. it's part of the curse of playing in the Central. I wish the team would just pick a lane, if they're going to be in contention they gotta start ripping off 8 of 10 kinda streaks, but if not, just fall into such a dep hole that they're forced to evaluate the possibility of selling off Peavy and Rios and giving Conor a shot at starting everyday (possibly calling up Erik Johnson if Gavin is done for the season too) Might not be too much longer with no Peavy, Floyd, or Danks.

TOON until Beckham shows that his hot start was a fluke, then a DFA for Beckham and Gillaspie as the 3B of the future.

Sox suck

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 30, 2013 -> 03:58 PM) Even less reason to watch. Even less? Yu Darvish has arguably been the best pitcher in baseball this year, and Quintana has arguably been OUR best pitcher so far. This is going to be an awesome game to watch.

QUOTE (Andrew @ Apr 30, 2013 -> 12:25 AM) We staff our ballclub with PATHETIC OBP players...year in, year out. When we OVERPAY for OBP, they turn to crap as soon as they wear the uniform (including and ESPECIALLY - Greg Walker days). I don't know what to say - have seen it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, again..... If you don't get on base, you'll be a BAD hitting team. It's a fact. Runners rattle pitchers - we all learned this in little league... Yet the A's and Rays and all these no-$ teams draft and play smart while we flounder without a single .300 hitter and one guy (who is a complete flake) OBP'ing over .350....(won't last) Joke. I don't agree with every hyperbolic detail, but I think the gist of this is true. Our team does seem to encourage free swingers that fail to get on base. There are several benefits to having runners on base outside of the fact that they must reach in order to score. For example, a substantial number of starting pitchers pitch worse from the stretch, losing both velocity AND command.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Apr 29, 2013 -> 12:49 PM) Part of the problem is drafting by who are their agents. Better players will get better agents. The strength is pitching but it doesn't seem to last long. Coop's results are not long term. The last time I seen Sale pitch makes me wonder if he will have arm problems from throwing junk instead of a fastball. I did not see a pitch clock past 92. Nearly all pitchers lose velocity every year. It's a highly pronounced trend that velocity peaks in the early twenties. Presumably, a lot of that is due to time and wear, but a lot of it is also due to trading power for command. Coop is famous, specifically, for taking guys with good stuff and giving them enough command to be effective. Naturally, those types of changes are bound to cause loss in velocity, but they are also the difference between wildness and effectiveness. http://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/...Curves_All1.png

No. We were good under Walker, sucked under Walker, were good under Manto, and now we suck under Manto.

Is that Quintana? He looks weird without his wings.

This is a good flyer. He's bound to be as good as Danks/Tekotte but is right-handed.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Apr 29, 2013 -> 01:23 PM) Courtney Hawkins has his strikeout percentage up to 55%. There have been 8 games where he had 3 or more strikeouts, and his season just started on April 5. Our top prospect, correct? Lovely. Guys is f*cking April, he's 19, and he's among the youngest guys at his level.

Good work

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 26, 2013 -> 09:02 AM) Fun with numbers.... Adam Dunn's BABIP is .095 right now. LESS than 1 of every 10 balls he puts in to play are resulting in a hit. Wow. That's crazy.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 26, 2013 -> 03:21 PM) I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to get players to be more patient. Of course, there should be a restriction as to how much it's done. You don't want to end up with a bunch of Adam Dunn's with no power on your team. But when you look at guys like Alexei Ramirez or Dayan Viciedo, they need to learn how to be more patient and they need that to be a constant idea in their head early in their minor league careers. In fact, I'd say there are a lot more impatient players in baseball today than patient ones, which is why those who can get on base are so sought after. Yeah, I think most of the arguments on TV miss the main benefit of patience/plate discipline. The pundits tend to argue the value (or lack of value) of a walk, and/or the value of OBP. But the real reason patience is important is because you are better of only swinging at good pitches. If you swing at bad pitches, two things happen: (1) you tend to get out, either via K or weak contact, and (2) pitchers never throw you good pitches, because they don't need to do so. If you are patient and willing to take a walk, you force the pitcher to choose between throwing you good pitches to hit or sending to to first base (which may not be ideal for a big hitter, but it is certainly better than making an out). So through patience, a hitter is really establishing a zone for himself. A hitter is forcing a pitcher to give him something to hit. To me, the perfect case study for this is Paul Konerko. He has unquestionably lost bat speed, but has avoided steep decline by becoming a better, more disciplined hitter. He has to cheat on a fastball, but that's fine because he forces a pitcher to give him one. If you don't, he takes his base, or, if cornered, pokes one to right field. I don't want Adam Dunn to GET walks, necessarily, I want him to ACCEPT walks so that he spends more time mashing fastballs for dingers -- or if the pitcher decides to pitch around him -- standing on first for Paulie. When Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci says good hitters should expand the zone to put the ball in play, I'm just baffled. Yeah, sure, we want our best hitters to swing at bad pitches. Let's help the pitcher out. I don't know why it doesn't make intuitive sense to prefer your hitter being on first to him being out.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 26, 2013 -> 02:04 PM) Yeah, but coaches and managers use advanced stats to develop players differently and to employ strategy differently...look at Oakland and Boston for instance, I have heard that organizationally, they started pounding it in to the heads of their minor leaguers to look at more pitches. That absolutely changes how players play. Yeah, that's an instance where the organization discovered that they valued OBP. They almost certainly arrived at that conclusion through the use of sabermetrics, but that isn't any different than the Twins or Phillies ramming bunting and aggressive baserunning into the head of their minor leaguers. In both cases, the team could be right or wrong and a player could thrive or fail, but organizational development philosophy was not something borne from sabermetrics. If Hawk is afraid of players becoming robots, maybe the true culprit is not letting their personal styles thrive. You can point to guys like Daric Barton as casualties of passivity as an approach, but you can point to guys like David Ortiz as casualties of the "Twins Way" too. Just so you know (since we probably agree with each other on most of this already), I was making my point in response to Hawk's "robot ballplayer" argument and Hawk's "sabermetrics get people fired" argument.

Players don't create advanced stats or traditional stats. Player just f***ing play and we use advanced stats to understand their performance better.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 26, 2013 -> 12:24 AM) Hawk definitely still uses a typewriter. Haha no way, he talks about his MLB At Bat sponsored iPad every game.

"How can a team get a W if the pitcher can't get his W, Brian?" LOL

Two of these threads on the front page at the same time!

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 02:46 PM) Adrian Gonzalez is by no means in the same category as Ethier and Crawford. A virtual lock for 155+ games and 100+ RBIs. Lifetime line: .295/.372/.507 and he is a gold glove fielder. You don't want to be in a position for paying a guy for what he was, you want to pay him for what he IS and WILL BE. He gets paid too much to be the 3-4 WAR guy of 2012, and the fact that that is post-shoulder surgery makes me afraid that he won't ever be the same. Plus he's getting older.