QuickJones81

Can someone explain to me why home runs are so rare, and hitting seems to be so far behind pitching in general in that league? It strikes me as really odd because I feel like that country is more known for producing exceptional position players.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 07:37 AM) I'm sorry but Jake Peter being rated so highly is ridiculous, although not quite as bad as Semien being in the the sub category. Marcus won the AA MVP last year, has performed extremely well at AAA other than being unlucky, and yet you judge him based on a month or so of big league plate appearances when he had essentially skipped AAA? On the other hand, you base Peter's high rating on a small sample of inflated Pioneer League stats. I know these lists are just for fun, but the above bothers me greatly. Peter dominated rookie ball, and the fact that the Sox promoted him straight to Winston Salem might indicate they see more than a guy who had a flukey streak in rookie ball. We shall see...

QUOTE (BaconOnAStick @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 11:16 PM) It's been obvious for a while now he's gone. I really don't know who takes his place, in his absence the show has wavered between so bad it's awesome (Peggy Kusinski) and passable (Abbatacola). Personally, I think Jason Goff is coming back to SCR and it'll be announced at B&B's extravaganza. Whether he takes Mac's spot I don't know, he's probably the only piece of on air talent theyve had I'd be interested in giving a try. The station is in a really bad way right now, Holmes sucks, Mully and Hanley is garbage, Spiegs is doing OK and their traditional anchor (B&B) has all but collapsed since Goff left. I like Holmes, Mully is Ok, and B&b has become way to holier than thou lately. Bernstein has always been arrogant, but I feel like every issue is completely black and white to him with his opinion being the only right option, and no room for discussion. And for once I would like Boers to have an opinion of his own. I find waddle and silvy much more entertaining these days.

Can somebody explain the manometer on Boers and Bernstein to me?

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 13, 2014 -> 12:21 PM) The little sports talk I listened to, I've put them on just to hear something different. You almost forget Jared Payton is on, because, well, he doesn't talk much. Jarrett Harry and Spike are awful. I somehow enjoyed listening to Harry on 1000, but now just cringe listening to him. Jarrett too can be cringeworthy but I feel like he'll get better with time. I really like Connor McKnight and Mark Carmen.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 12:07 PM) Sammy Ayala was released. Good thread ideas though, I may put lists in here too. I missed that news, good catch.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 6, 2014 -> 12:00 PM) I agree, but it also depends on how we're laying this out. Like, if it's ceiling, I think you can say both Hawkins and Anderson have the talent to be superstars, but the likelihood either gets there is slim. However, I think the odds of Hawkins reaching starter capabilities is far worse than that of Tim Anderson. Personally, I'd probably drop Davidson down to starter and Semien up to star/above average, though I think those two should be separated. In my eyes I take initial perceived talent, then offset by track record to date. This is where young guys get the benefit of the doubt. With less data, projections can still point you towards a high ceiling. Inevitably with time, and info, the ceiling naturally comes down, unless they are that ultra rare player who lives up to their hype. Think of how good Trayce's ceiling looked a few years ago. Now, with time, and more info you'd be hard pressed to find someone as high on him as they were back then. My take on Semien after seeing limited time in the majors is that he lacks the consistency at the plate to start everyday. He still in my mind could make a fantastic utility guy who could have his off days blend into the background, yet put together enough memorable moments to justify keeping him on the big league roster.

Instead of a ranking I wanted to look at the farm system from a tier perspective. I am splitting this into two posts, one for pitchers and one for position players. I created my own tiers, and players are binned based on my own subjective projection (fully ready to be torn to bits by you guys). As you'll see my method gives young guys a much bigger benefit of the doubt. Here are the position players, let the debate begin: Tier 1: Superstar None Tier 2: Star / Above Average Tim Anderson Courtney Hawkins Matt Davidson Trey Michalczewski Micker Adolfo Adam Engel Jake Peter Micah Johnson Tier 3: Starter Cleuluis Rondon Rangel Ravelo Carlos Sanchez Brett Austin Jose Barraza Zach Fish Tier 4: Bench/Role Player/AAAA Marcus Semien Tyler Saladino Jacob May Josh Phegley Toby Thomas Mason Robbins Andy Wilkins Jason Coats Trayce Thompson Keon Barnum Nick Basto

Instead of a ranking I wanted to look at the farm system from a tier perspective. I am splitting this into two posts, one for pitchers and one for position players. I created my own tiers, and players are binned based on my own subjective projection (fully ready to be torn to bits by you guys). As you'll see my method gives young guys a much bigger benefit of the doubt. Here are the pitchers, let the debate begin: Tier 1: Ace Carlos Rodon Tier 2: 2-3 Starter Tyler Danish Spencer Adams Francellis Montas Tier 3: 4-5 Starter / Top Reliever Jace Fry Chris Beck JB Wendelken Victor Done Andre Wheeler Tony Bucciferro James Dykstra Luis Martinez Jordan Guerrero Ben Brewster

Zach Fish with another homer. He has been quietly on fire in July, and really burning up the last 10.

Zach Fish with another homer. Riding a hot streak.

No Adolfo again tonight?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 19, 2014 -> 08:45 PM) Andrew Mitchell has struck out 5 batters, and has only gotten 3 outs. 1ip 3h 4r 3er 1bb 5k 1hr 3wp Quite the line right there.

You know if the Sox take Nola that the Cubs will take Kolek. If he ends up being an ace it will be awfully tough watching him pitch on the North side.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:07 PM) Why are you subtracting hits twice? You correct for BABIP and then subtract hits a second time. Hits / BABIP = batted balls in play, multiplying by .295 determines how many hits they would have if they had an average BABIP, subtracting hits again gives you the differential between actual hits and expected hits given a normal BABIP. Those additional hits (or negative) are then taken away from the actual outs recorded since the outcome would have changed. Not sure if I explained my logic well.

Part of the fun for me in following baseball is diving into the stats, and thinking through new ways to skin the cat and understand performance. I wanted to bring up one stat I’ve developed to get some critiquing. One approach I’ve been tossing around is something I'm calling CPE (corrected pitcher efficiency). The logic is that the main purpose for a pitcher is to get outs as efficiently as possible. One crack at measuring this is to look at batters faced per out produced. Similar to WHIP in some respects, though this takes a little bit more into account. Further diving into efficiency would say that you probably want to look at things from a pitch / out standpoint. This would value a contact Buehrle type pitcher over a strikeout pitcher, but to me I am OK with that as the former projects to last longer in games, and maintain longer careers, and therefore in the end, to me at least, offer more value to a team. Since I haven’t found a site that offers pitch counts in an easily digestible form (if people know of a good site for milb let me know) I initially stuck with the BF/O approach. I then took the step of removing the defense of the players behind the pitcher, or luck factor if you will, and created a correction factor whereby actual outs is reduced by the number of hits that should have occurred if the balls put into play were retired at a BABIP of .295 as opposed to the actual BABIP for the pitcher. The resulting equation is: CPE = Batters Faced / { Outs – [(Hits / BABIP)*.295 – Hits]} I then applied this stat against the White Sox minor leaguers with at least 10 IP (I eliminated some people from the list due to my own subjective non-prospect assessment made mostly because of age at level). With all of this factored in, your leaderboard would be: 1. Euclides Leyer: 1.27 2. James Dykstra: 1.31 3. Andre Wheeler: 1.33 4. Jeffrey Wendelken: 1.34 5. Tyler Barnette: 1.36 6. Tony Bucciferro: 1.42 7. Tyler Danish: 1.43 8. Chris Beck: 1.43 9. Robinson Leyer: 1.46 10. Brad Goldberg: 1.48 Your Bottom 5 would be: 1. Nick McCully: 1.64 2. Jefferson Olacio: 1.60 3. Andrew Mitchell: 1.57 4. Braulio Ortiz: 1.56 5. Myles Jaye: 1.54 Thoughts? Do you find this useful? Did I inadvertently rip something else off that works better?

Is anyone concerned about the general trend in this farm system of striking out at an unbelievable rate? Hawkins gets all the attention in this regard, but there is a good group that makes him look good: Jared Mitchell 56.8% Keon Barnum 47.5% Keenan Walker 46.8% Matt Davidson 45.3% Jacob Morris 41.1% Trey Michalzewski 39.2% Adam Engel 33.9% Tim Anderson 32.8% Courtney Hawkins 31.3% Only Anderson, Mitchell, and Hawkins counteract this with a decent OPS.

On the scary side: Andrew Mitchell: ERA = 6.00, FIP = 6.99, BABIP = 0.217 Myles Jaye: ERA = 5.50, FIP = 4.66, BABIP = 0.259 Chris Beck: ERA = 5.91, FIP = 4.57, BABIP = 0.217 I have high hopes for all 3 of these guys and they are off to pretty brutal starts.

Looking at FIP and BABIP, I thought we could see who is pitching over his head right now and should be expected to come down to earth, and vice versa. Small samples sizes for all, but BABIP is usually a good indication of whether or not someone should be expected to regress or improve. Curb Your Enthusiasm on: Kevin Vance - FIP = 1.85, BABIP = 0.071 Jake Sanchez - FIP = 1.4, BABIIP = 0.105 Tyler Barnette - FIP = 2.54, BABIP = .207 Kyle Hansen - FIP = 2.61, BABIP = 0.231 Buy Low on: Robinson Leyer - FIP = 3.37, BABIP = 0.448 Nestor Molina - FIP = 5.18, BABIP = 0.420 Brad Goldberg - FIP = 3.02, BABIP = 0.414 Scott Snodgress - FIP = 4.60, BABIP = 0.390 Braulio Ortiz - FIP = 3.84, BABIP = 0.349 Guys Getting it Done: Jefferson Olacio - FIP = 2.51, BABIP = 0.366 Cody Winiarski - FIP = 1.97, BABIP = 0.415 Bryan Blough - FIP = 1.99, BABIP = 0.381 Tyler Danish - FIP = 2.31, BABIP = 0.326

I don't believe I've seen somebody get a similar thread going, so he we go. Who is your Dark Horse 2014 prospect pick? Someone on the outside looking in who could crash the Top 15 prospects for the White Sox by season end. For this year I'm taking Wendelken.

Snodgress shelled. Not a good start to an important year for him.

Pretty sure that picture for Sanchez isn't Sanchez.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Micah Johnson is still in big league camp isn't he?

What is your future 2016 White Sox 25 man roster? Rules: You can only compile your 25 man roster from players currently with the White Sox, in their farm system, AND your prediction/wish for the 2014 1st round pick if you so choose. No future free agents or trades allowed, the name of the game is building from within. Here is mine to get things rolling C: Adrian Nieto 1B: Jose Abreu 2B: Micah Johnson SS: Tim Anderson 3B: Matt Davidson RF: Courtney Hawkins CF: Adam Eaton LF: Avisail Garcia DH: Dayan Vicideo Bench: Marcus Semien Bench: Carlos Sanchez Bench: Jacob May Bench: Josh Phegley Bench: Keon Barnum SP1: Chris Sale SP2: Tyler Beede SP3: Jose Quintana SP4: Erik Johnson SP5: Tyler Danish CL: Brad Goldberg RP: Daniel Webb RP: Andre Rienzo RP: Kevin Vance RP: Eric Surkamp RP: Jefferson Olacio

Hearing they're chasing Lamarr Houston now. I wonder why they aren't seemingly in pursuit of Michael Johnson.