lasttriptotulsa

It would be cool to see Quintana lead the league in ERA regardless of whether he wins the Cy Young. Unless of course dumb f*** Torre decides to steal it away from him like he did to Sale two years ago.

They've both been pretty damn good this year. Their FIPs are almost identical at 3.35 for Sale and 3.34 for Quintana. Sale averages just over 7 IP per start, Quintana is at just under 6 2/3. The biggest difference this year has been the consistency. Sale's been up and down a bit this year, Quintana has been pretty consistent. Quintana has just 2 games this year where he has given up 5 or more runs (5, 6). Sale has had 5 (6, 5, 5, 8, 5). So Quintana has only had 2 games where he made it real tough on the offense (they won 1 of the 2 games). They lost 3 of the 5 for Sale. I think overall Quintana has had a slightly better season due to the consistency but Sale will finish higher in the Cy Young voting due to the name recognition and the numbers of wins he has. Yes, I know wins don't mean much for pitchers but voters still look at it.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Aug 29, 2016 -> 07:25 AM) What is a stud?? Jones is a very good set-up man. He struggled as the closer but that was really a few years back. I think he is very valuable and a key guy in the pen as we learned last year when he was out. Stud..................that is kinda exaggerating his value. QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Aug 29, 2016 -> 08:14 AM) Didn't he only close for like 2 games before getting hurt for the year? Or am I remembering incorrectly. He's never been given a chance to be closer. He has not entered a game in the 9th inning or later in a save situation even one time in his career.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 26, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Those are all national brands, living in Iowa I have never heard of "Guaranteed Rate". This is a bad deal for the Sox. Not to seem like I'm defending this deal but Guaranteed Rate is a much larger company than many on here are giving them credit for. They have offices in all 50 states. I see their tv commercials with Ty Pennington as a spokesman nearly everyday.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 24, 2016 -> 02:37 PM) You based this entire post on assuming I was asserting what I posed as a question about someone else's ridiculous line of reasoning. Based on your subsequent posts it is perfectly reasonable to assume you were asserting everything you said in that post.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 24, 2016 -> 01:15 PM) Who knows? He's maybe having his best month ever....right now. But to your point....what's exactly the line of thinking, here? That we built this entire team around the expectation that Jose Abreu would be able to automatically duplicate one rookie season's worth of elite numbers? That Jose Abreu would absolutely clobber everything at that same .317/40 homer clip, and that he's somehow a "disappointment" for not doing so? That he f***ed the Sox because the front office built the whole team around that ridiculous expectation? Did this fanbase and front office learn absolutely nothing from Gordon Beckham and his rookie year/subsequent years? Or any other player with standard dropoff type things? I mean...does this front office know anything about the game of baseball, in general? This is one of the more ridiculous posts in awhile. Yes it was just Abreu that they centered their rebuild around. It had nothing to do with Eaton, Sale, Quintana or Rodon. Does the front office know anything about baseball? That is such a clown question. Reinsdorf has owned the team and been involved in the day to day for 25 years. Williams played professionally for 10 years and has been a GM or higher for 16 years. Hahn has been with the team 12 years as an Assistant GM/GM. Not to mention the rest of the scouts, coaches, assistants and advisers who have been around the game their entire life. But yes, some schmuck on a message board knows more than they do about the game of baseball.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Aug 24, 2016 -> 12:14 PM) If Abreu rakes through the end of the season, I wouldn't mind trading him in the offseason for a boatload of young studs. Abreu won't age well with his body structure, IMO. He's 29 years old. I think he'll be able to handle playing 1B/DH until his contract is up at 32.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 23, 2016 -> 04:40 PM) haha oh man this is so so so bad: Narvaez 2, Garcia 9, Sanchez 4. Rodon 1. Not sure why you included Rodon there. He's not batting.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 22, 2016 -> 09:36 PM) Maybe. But you guys can't deny our bullpen is simply INCAPABLE of covering the 7th, 8th and 9th. If our starter gets to the eighth, and Robin isn't having a bad day, our pen has I'd say an 80 percent chance of covering the 8th and 9th. If our starter goes six, forget it. We're losing. If they actually could get him one or two GOOD non closers to go with the closer, we might have a chance to make the playoffs some year. As it stands now, no chance. Aside from Robertson, our next three best reliever this year are Nate Jones (2.50 ERA), Dan Jennings (1.79 ERA) and the departed Zach Duke (2.63 ERA). The back end of the bullpen is fine. The biggest problem with the pen was the losses of Putnam and Petricka and Albers falling flat on his face coming off his dominating stretch. Had Putnam and Petricka not gotten hurt our bullpen would be fine. I'm not saying we would have been good enough to make the playoffs but we would have been better. Overall the pen has a 3.76 ERA which is better than our starters and is not too bad considering some of the guys we've had to call up to make up for injuries.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) What a horrible post. When did anyone ever say Robin was the difference between making & missing the playoffs? Seriously, I guarantee you couldn't provide a single post from this forum stating that, let alone multiple of them. But yup, those of us in favor of firing Robin are the delusional ones. And is that really your argument for keeping Robin? That because Robin isn't worth 9+ games, which is what it would take for us to make the playoffs this season, we should keep him? If so, all I can say is that's some f***ed up logic. If replacing Robin makes us even a single game better, then it's a move worth making. I'm so sick of the same old "managers don't matter" defense for keeping a garbage one. If managers really didn't matter, which is incorrect, then you shouldn't give two s***s if we replace him. At this point in time, there is no defense for keeping him. Maybe a change doesn't add much value, but it simply can't hurt. Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning? Where did I say to keep Robin? Four straight losing seasons, yea he probably should get fired. Many poster seem to think that a new manager is just going to magically make the team better. The fact of the matter is that Robin has been given very flawed teams and yet is expected to make chicken salad out of chicken s***. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 01:49 PM) You are delusional if you think it suddenly makes this team any better. All he was saying was great fire Robin. The reality is he is the least of the White Sox problems. There are several players you should hope get "fired" before him. This. 100%

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 01:03 PM) I can't believe Robin still has supporters. He's accomplished NOTHING in his tenure here and quite frankly there's no logical defense for keeping him. Thank god the front office finally realizes this and the pointless argument can end. I think it's more that many of us aren't so delusional that we think a managerial change is the difference between this team making and missing the postseason.

QUOTE (Coach @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 10:28 AM) If you look at successful teams, they hunger to win. Part of that comes from the manager who states early on with players they better play the game the right way. They are not my teams so if that is the way they want to play, that's their problem. As i have said in previous posts, I coach a certain age group and have a very successful record. Part of that is I tell the players what I expect from them and if they don't they don't play. It's really that simple. What I have a problem with is paying my hard earned money to see players who don't hustle and/or play the game correctly and then complain about not winning. I don't want to pay to see grown men who play a kid's game get paid a lot of money and then not play hard. I, am by no means, condemning the whole team but come on, now, it would be nice to see Ventura and management have a pulse and the stones to send a message. I can watch the same crappy baseball on tv for free with beers costing a lot less but if you are ok with it, go right ahead. It appears you and I will not agree on certain things. I respect your opinion.l These guys aren't 12 year old kids. Do you really think a manager has that much influence over the way a guy whose been playing baseball for a minimum of 15 up to 30+ years? Come on. The difference between the best managers in the game and the worst is maybe a few wins a year. And besides, how the hell do you know what goes on in the locker room? For all you know Ventura could be preaching the kinds of things you're saying day in and day out. Are you honestly advocating benching a guy like Adam Eaton because he doesn't run out one ground ball?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 10:49 AM) Could actually depend on the CBA negotiations right? As of right now if they kept him down for a little while next year that buys them another year before he's a free agent. Currently 1 year of service time is 172 days so a player has to stay down about a week and a half. If things don't change in the CBA the Sox would just have to keep him down that week and a half plus how ever many days he spends up this year pushing his first arb year to 2021 and first FA year to 2024. I really think they are going to go the Sale route with Burdi though. In that case if he is up from the start of next year then a September call up doesn't effect anything.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 10:43 AM) I don't know if I missed it or not, but is there a logical reason to call Burdi up this season? He was just drafted this year...but more importantly, the Sox aren't in playoff contention anyway. Why start up his service time now on a mediocre team when he could still be developing in the minor leagues? I just don't get it. They were arguably still in the hunt when they called up Fulmer, so that is at least a little more understandable., but this is ridiculous. Minor league season is over the first week of September. If the Sox plan on him being in the Majors next year, which I'm guessing they do, him coming up for a month or so this year does absolutely nothing to effect his future arbitration and free agent status.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Aug 18, 2016 -> 10:29 AM) That is my opinion. You have a screw loose if you don't question this org's decision making process. The weight of evidence is much more substantial on the "inept" side of the scale rather than the "brilliant" side. Much like your posts.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 17, 2016 -> 01:22 PM) Alec Hansen is looking like a nice pick. 3rd in K's in the Pioneer league just 2 shy of the leader. The two guys ahead of him have 23+ more innings pitched. Pretty damn impressive.

QUOTE (FT35 @ Aug 12, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) Yeah that was my stretch. I don't think he will make their opening day roster, but I think they may call him soon. I put him in there because he'll be 22, he has 3 years of college under his belt, he's already on the mature side as far as his hitting. But mostly I put him in there because they rush any sort of value in their system and having him on the roster makes it possible for them to only sign 1 cheap, low level backup catcher as a "Jimmy Rollins place holder" till they call up Zack. I figured we got a full year of Adrian Nieto and he was only 24, below average defensively and couldn't hit at all--why not Zack? Apples and oranges with Collins and Nieto. Nieto was a fringe prospect who was acquired through the Rule 5 draft. Had he not been on the roster he would have had to been offered back to the team they acquired him from. Collins will be a top 100 prospect with sky's the limit potential. If he's here he's playing. He'll never be up to sit on the bench.

QUOTE (FT35 @ Aug 12, 2016 -> 10:25 AM) Bench: Tyler Salidino Charlie Tilson Zack Collins No chance in hell Collins will be on the bench. If for some reason he is in the Majors next year he will be starting everyday. Otherwise he will be in AA/AAA working on his catching.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2016 -> 01:12 PM) I don't know what the Sox can do except keep the same starting rotation and tinker again. Frazier is acceptable at third; he's been a good fielder and home run hitter; Anderson is OK at short, though he'll probably have to bat ninth; trade Lawrie and hope Abreu busts loose at first as a power hitter. Trade Melky. Trade Avi. Keep Eaton. Try to get some outfielders who can hit the long ball. Keep Morneau. He's an OK DH. Then trade both Navarro and Avila. Keep the starting pitching intact and see what happens again. That's all the Sox can do. Keep Robertson cause we waited too long to dump him and now he's not going to bring anything of note. Change the culture of the starting rotation. Those guys simply have to take the next step and be able to go seven innings minimum every night. Sox bullpen seemingly always will reek and if you are bringing in relievers in the seventh, that game is lost. Bring them in the eighth and Nate and Jennings 'might' get us through the eighth leading up to Robertson. Good luck to the White Sox. There's really nothing they can do but what I said: Keep the starting rotation intact and pray. Who are you replacing Lawrie with? Saladino or Sanchez are both significant downgrades as everyday players and there is nobody better on the market. Melky is one of the very few batter carrying his weight this year. Why would you want to trade if you're going to try to contend? Avi has little to no value. You may as well keep him and hope he turns a corner. Navarro and Avila are both free agents after the season. Trading them would be quite the coup. Robertson has two years left on his contract. He could easily be traded this offseason. Do you really believe it's possible for a team's rotation to go 7+ innings every night? There are exactly two qualified starters in baseball that average 7 or more innings per start. Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw. But yes, it's totally reasonable to expect your entire staff to do that.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Aug 11, 2016 -> 11:40 AM) I'm starting to think Hahn is a big p**** because the first thing he should have demanded when he was named GM is his own hand picked manager. I mean that is just new GM 101 you pick your own manager. Seattle did it this offseason. Since Hahn was hired in 2012 there have been an additional 17 teams that hired new GMs. Of those 17 new GMs, 10 have been stuck with the manger they inherited and only 3 (Dave Stewart with Arizona, Jerry Dipoto with Seattle and Matthew Silverman with Tampa Bay) were allowed to hire a new manager from the get go. So I would definitely say it's not new GM 101 that they get to pick their own manager. As a matter of fact it's not all that common. Just 17% of new GMs have been allowed to immediately hand pick their own manager since 2012.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 10, 2016 -> 09:29 AM) So now blown saves are only significant if the team loses...not affecting the overall confidence of the team or starting pitchers in any way? By that argument, Danny Wright was a highly valuable of the White Sox rotation when he won 14 games with a 5+ ERA in 2012. You pay David Robertson elite money...you better get something close to that. And with a sub .500 team, he's irrevelant except for soaking up payroll dollars that should first go to catcher, DH and CF. In 2002, not 2012 Dan Wright threw nearly 200 innings with a FIP- of 106 (just slightly worse than league average) and an xFIP- of 100 (right at league average). That was good for 1.7 fWAR. So yes, Dan Wright was a pretty valuable member of the 2002 Sox though it had nothing to with his win total.

I have no problem with them bringing him up here in a couple weeks. There's only like 3 weeks left in the MiLB season and neither Birmingham nor Charlotte are going to the playoffs. Bring him up and see what he's got. It's not like it affects his service time or arbitration clock in any meaningful way.

QUOTE (Scoots @ Aug 10, 2016 -> 08:16 AM) Just curious as to everyone's thoughts. After last night's 4 hit performance, in 70 at-bats Morneau is hitting .300 with 3 homeruns, 9 RBI, OPS of .851 While 70 ABs is a small sample size, I think that Morneau has proven that he is still capable of hitting well at the professional level. The power may not be there, but he is still finding holes and putting the bat on the ball which is waaay more than any other recent Sox DH has done. Should the Sox strongly consider offering him a contract for the DH position next season? He does solve a hole in the lineup...good left-handed bat and a DH (2 birds one stone). If so, would a 2 year deal be too much? He's 35, turns 36 in May 2017. I don't think so...not a big fan of these 1-year rentals and it's not like Morneau is 38, but maybe they need to see how he hits the rest of the season. I'd be okay with Morneau in 2017 if they plan on trying to compete, which it appears they do. I don't think I'd give him a two year guaranteed deal for any significant money but a one year with an option and buy out wouldn't be bad. Not sure why you're saying the power isn't there. He has 5 doubles and 3 homers over just 70 at bats. That would be 38 doubles and 23 homers over the course of a 526 at bat season, which was Morneau's average number of at bats the 3 seasons prior to his injury.

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Aug 9, 2016 -> 08:02 AM) We are stuck with Shields, nobody is going to want to deal for him this offseason. 2017 rotation: Sale Quintana Shields Rodon Fulmer We better hope Shields and Rodon are good next year We still have one year of control on Miguel Gonzalez yet. I bet they don't throw Fulmer into the rotation from the get go. Barring a trade our opening day rotation will be Sale, Q, Rodon, Shields and Gonzalez. That's a pretty dang good rotation.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 8, 2016 -> 06:17 PM) Does anyone think Abreu will opt-out and go to arbitration at the end of the season? Not a chance. The current record for a 1st year arbitration eligible position player is the $10 million Ryan Howard received in 2008. By that point he had already won an MVP. Abreu is due $10.5 million next year per Cot's Baseball Contracts. He may break Howard's record as that will be a nine year old record at that point but even if he does it won't be by much. It would be dumb in my opinion to give up a guaranteed $23.5 million in 2018 and 2019 to possibly get an extra couple in 2017. Especially considering the year he has had. I think you'll more likely see him opt out after next if he has a better year. At that point he could stand to make an extra $3 million or so in each 2018 and 2019. That might be more worth the risk.