lasttriptotulsa

Jason has been a very good play by play guy so far. He still needs a little work but that will come with experience. That being said, when the Sox are going good I would still rather have Hawk calling the games. Do some of his catch phrases get old? Yes. Do I get annoyed when he goes silent after a bad play by the Sox. Yes. Does he overly criticize umps at times. Yes. But when it's a 5-5 tie in the top of the 8th inning and Todd Frazier gets into one would I rather have Hawk making the call right now versus Jason? Hell Yes!! Watching the game with Hawk calling it is like watching a game with your buddies. He feels all the same emotions you do during the game and while it may not be the most professional way to call a game it helps provide some very memorable calls that will stick with me as long as I'm alive. The man has also come up with some of the better nicknames in the history of the game.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 2, 2016 -> 10:20 AM) Eaton is now very similar to Heyward. The one difference is at most, the Sox will owe him $41,150,000 the next 6 seasons, although they have a couple of cheap buyout years if he gets hurt or falls apart. The Cubs owe Heyward $140,000,000 over the same period. It's unbelievable how much surplus value there is between the Sale, Quintana and Eaton deals right now. 14.6 combined fWAR for a measly $10.25 million last year. On pace for 23 fWAR this year for just $17.3 million or roughly the same as the Cubs are paying John Lackey alone.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 2, 2016 -> 10:18 AM) The thing that jumps out to me is that his reads seem SO much better in RF this year. Basically by the time the camera is on him, he is already moving towards the ball. I can't think of a single time this year when I saw Eaton break the wrong way on a ball. Yep. I've noticed the same thing. There has been numerous balls hit to right that I thought "well that's a hit" until the camera switches and you see Eaton is right there to catch it. I've especially noticed it on balls that are hit right down the line that would be doubles with a lot of guys out there but Eaton catches them or at least cuts them off to prevent the double quite often.

As we all know sample size is everything when it comes to assessing defense stats, but just for fun I will mention that Eaton is on pace to shatter the single season dWAR record as calculated by Baseball Reference. Andrelton Simmons holds the current at 5.4 and Eaton is currently on pace for 8.1. I'm not expecting it to hold up but it's fun to think about. He is also on pace for 43 defensive runs above average using Fangraphs method. That is an absurd number.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ May 1, 2016 -> 12:45 AM) Would be really dumb to be in the race all year and get to the end of the season and say "Wow if we only gave someone other than Danks a shot in the first half, we only came up a few games short". Give someone else a chance. 60 day DL fine but I don't want him seeing another start unless he has an ERA below 3 in Charlotte in at least 2-3 rehab starts. Zero chance they would put him on the 60 day DL. You can get away with a 15 day trip due to a phantom injury but not a 60.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ May 2, 2016 -> 09:29 AM) He hit 16 last year playing half his games in Oakland, so 15-20 this year shouldn't be surprising at all. Also had 12 in 2014 in just 282 plate appearances. That's about a 25 homer pace for a whole year. 20 wouldn't surprise me at all.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 08:17 AM) Planning my 15 minute break at work around watching the end of this game. Any suggestions/guesses? 915-930? Or do you think it will be later? I guess it depends on how many runs you expect to be scored. Sox are only averaging 2 hour and 53 minute game times this year if you take out the extra inning game. To watch the last 10-15 minutes of the game I would say more like 8:45 if there are no delays.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 08:12 PM) Chuck Garfien ‏@ChuckGarfien 43s43 seconds ago Seriously, Navarro's last triple was 2012 with the Reds. He caught that day for...Mat Latos. Also Todd Frazier hit a game tying home run with 2 outs in the top of the 9th in that game.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 09:38 AM) Can of Corn ‏@ThatsaCanofCorn 3h3 hours ago If the Sox win tonight, it will be their first sweep in Toronto since 2005. I like the sound of that for obvious reasons. Also in 2005 they were 16-6 after their game on April 27th. If they win tonight they will be 16-6 after their game on April 27th.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 02:14 AM) Their Cy Predictor is garbage. It's 15/20 over the last 10 years and 9/10 over the past 5. I'd say that it's pretty accurate overall.

f***ing WGN. Gets real old having MLB refuse to let me pay to watch a game. Guess I have to resort to less than legal means yet again. Thanks MLB.

QUOTE (GOD @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 02:48 PM) We have 5 starters hitting under .200 LOL. How are we 10-5? Because they have insane pitching. It's not that hard to win when you only give up 2.5 runs per game.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 12:11 PM) The Sox are 2nd to the Rays in O-Swing% as a team, so that's not really true. And the 15, 16 ranked teams are at 28.5% and 28.4%. A difference of 3% or about 2 more swings a game out of the zone and just 4 or 5 more than the best team in the league at O-Swing%. Hardly significant.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 11:44 AM) It obviously isn't about the logo, that is just silly. It is about the match up itself. There is a reason that Weaver has pitched well historically again us, and that is we have a team full of free swingers who chases a lot of stuff out of the strike zone. Avi Garcia is absolutely one, but so is a guy like Jose Abreu. Think Bruce Chen. This team has problems against this type of pitcher historically. The average O-Swing% (percentage of pitches swung at thrown out of the zone) for the entire MLB is about 30% Today's lineup with 2016 O-Swing% followed by career O-Swing% Eaton - 30.7%, 29.4% Rollins - 30.1%, 22.7% Abreu - 33.1%, 39.6% Frazier - 27.7%, 35.2% Cabrera - 30.9%, 31.7% Lawrie - 29.3%, 31.9% Jackson - 24.2%, 26.2% Garcia - 44.3%, 44.9% Avila - 14.3%, 21.7% Average - 29.4%, 31.4% So while you may think it appears that way to the naked eye, the fact is that the Sox are no more of free swingers than the average MLB team.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) Danks aside, how about this turnaround on defense? Defensive numbers so far: DRS: 6th ARM: 5th UZR: 7th UZR/150: 6th Overall Def: 5th Should also note the Sox currently have the 5th ranked defensive catching tandem. Atlanta is 26th. Hell even Melky has graded out as a positive defender by both bWAR and fWAR this season. Obviously 15 games is too small a sample size to show much validity for defensive stats but hey it's better than the flip side.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:37 AM) lol, @ the agenda. Weaver has historically owned us, and has also done so recently. Even taking Danks numbers into account, Danks numbers this year are worse than Weaver's, as are his numbers against the Angels when compared to what Weaver has done to us both recently and historically. So I am still not following what you are selling. Hopefully I am wrong and all, but it really seems like the more garbage a pitcher throws up there, the worse this team does against them. My guess would be it is because we have a team full of guys that swing at junk they can't hit, which plays right into the hands of a guy like Weaver who throws nothing straight or in the middle of the zone. All the dead weight from last year has been moved aside from Garcia. I really don't care what a guy did to us years ago when those guys are not with the team anymore. It makes no sense to think otherwise. Do you think seeing that White Sox logo sparks something in Weaver that magically makes him pitch better? Also, Weaver has a 6.05 FIP this year versus 4.64 for Danks. How is that better again?

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:31 AM) In case anyone is curious, here are the AL fifth starters best to worst by FIP. Danks is not middle of the pack, but his FIP is not too different from the median guy (Sabathia) We dislike Danks but this is the reality of a fifth starter -- most are bad, period. This. I don't think too many teams would complain about having a fifth starter that will give you 170+ innings of a 4.5 ERA. He'll go out and give you a chance to win pretty damned often. If it weren't for his salary, from a contract he signed before major injury when he was one of the better starters in the game, nobody on here would be complaining about his performance the past couple seasons.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:16 AM) Doesn't matter. Last year he shut us out over 6 1/3, giving up only 5 hits and getting 5 K's. And this year Weaver is 3 MPH slower and the Sox have 5 different guys in the starting lineup than they did in that game last year. His history against the Sox means little to nothing at this point. But if we want to play that game, Danks has a 3.12 career ERA with a 1.177 WHIP against the Angels in his career and a 3.14 ERA and a .977 WHIP against them last year. Funny how I don't see you mentioning that. Oh yea, doesn't fit the agenda.

QUOTE (Sockin @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 09:33 AM) Looks like its supposed to rain throughout the game. Hope they're able to get it in. 1:00 - 15% 2:00 - 35% 3:00 - 15% 4:00 - 45% They should be good to go.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 09:08 AM) Weaver career vs the White Sox. 10-2 1.99 era 86IP 84K 15BB 65H 0.93 WHIP That is not the same guy that the Sox will be facing today. Weaver barely cracks 80 MPH now versus 90 in his prime. This new version of Weaver had a FIP higher than John Danks last year.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) Independents shouldn't have any right to vote for a party's nominee. I echo all the previous sentiments posted by Tex/SS2K etc Again. I have no problem not allowing people not in the party to vote. The problem is that people shouldn't have to decide 6 f***ing months in advance if they what to be in that party. It's ridiculous.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 02:07 PM) yea but it raises your OBP. Just like getting a hit but getting thrown out going to second raises your AVG but not your OBP. wait, is it really a fielder's choice on a dropped 3rd strike? Huh. Thought for sure it was just an error. Reaching on an error doesn't raise your OBP either. How long have you been watching baseball? OBP is simply (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+SF+BB+HBP)

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 02:07 PM) yea but it raises your OBP. Just like getting a hit but getting thrown out going to second raises your AVG but not your OBP. What the hell are you talking about? You are wrong on both points here.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 01:33 PM) guys. If you weren't previous registered, you had until March 25 to register to vote in NY. 6 months is only for SWITCHING parties. That doesn't make it any better. You are still forcing an independent voter to decide 6 months before the election. At that point in October there had only been a couple debates and there were still 15 or so Republican candidates and a half dozen Democratic candidates running.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 20, 2016 -> 06:22 AM) The Democrats are picking a candidate. Their group is selecting a candidate. There are mechanisms in place for people who do not wish to join the Dem organization to select and run for president. Why should people who are not Democrats have any say in which candidate that group nominates? "I'm not a Democrat but dammit I want a voice in who they nominate!" Does that even sound right? I have zero problem with closed primaries but forcing people to decide who they are voting for 6 months in advance is just flat out wrong.