SCCWS

I should have said for the White Sox. The Sox at this pace would get 84 wins. Check the predictions pre-season and see how many people had 84. Now the question is do the Sox get worse by being a seller or better w addition of Cease and probably Robert at some point. In addition, more games out of Eloy, Moncada and Anderson in 2nd half.

42-44 is a damn good 1st half.

Actually Martinez has played more RF than LF this year. But I hope they find a left-handed hitting RF to give the order another LH bat especially if Collins struggles.

Actually Martinez will be 32 next month so he will be 32 next contract. He is only 6 months younger than Abreu if he is 32. I understand your position but I think JD gets at least 4-5 next winter.

I have seen numerous posters on here saying they want JD Martinez. Does that mean you would not want him if he hits FA this winter? I think he will get more than a 1-2 year.

I would think Hahn is on the Cubs radar. It appears the Shields trade may not look as bad as Eloy and Cease for Q in a year or two.

They are #1 and #2 in highest ERA in majors for qualifiers

Nova is close.

We agree. From all indications he will be going into ST fighting for a position. But next spring he could find himself like Gio has and turn it around. We all hope Cease, Kopech, Gio and Lopez are 4/5 of our rotation next year. But all four are still question marks although Gio sure looks like he is on his way.

That is kinda drastic. Hopefully Lopez has a strong 2nd half. If Lopez has a bad year this year, he can still come back next year and win a rotation spot. You only have to look at Gio's numbers last year which were horrible especially the walks. McCann is hitting 100 points higher than last year. What a difference a year makes. What we have to hope for next year is that Gio and McCann don't regress and Lopez bounces back.

Sure it is............................

Actually we are not. Houston got a new owner who hired a new GM who hired a new manager for the 2012 season. They struggled the first 3 years and now have had 4 straight winning seasons.

Balta: I think you missed my point. You have to combine players promoted from your farm team w either FA and/or trades. My point about Boston is they obviously have a flaw in developing pitching prospects. So they went out and basically traded/bought a rotation. The Yankees have had a great stretch of bringing up talent. But they also then plug holes outside their organization. Both systems have flaws. For every Bertran, Sandoval, Heyward etc. there is a long line of Top 10 Draft picks that have fizzled. The Twins are a great story because they are winning w/o going after the top tier FA. But we will see how long they can sustain it. Teams like Boston and New York just "write off" top tier mistakes and find a replacement.

But even teams like the Astros, Red Sox and Yankees who have gotten solid results from their farm system spent in FA. Boston, for example churns out positional players but they have 1 home grown starting pitcher who is 5th in their rotation.

In fairness, The Red Sox had some bone-headed plays this series as well.

Great comeback--twice. Abreu had to impress Dombrowski, especially w the 2 shots over the wall, but I still think they have too many 1B types. But as I posted going into the series, they have no closer as we saw today. I am sure Colome will interest DD but I hope we hold on to him.

He is a stud. RF problem solved

Lopez looks better than Sale ...................so far

Good news. Moncada a bruise. Day to day. Bad news. Lopez is struggling.

A crap roster certainly helps though. A poor manager w a crap roster is not a good formula.

I was thinking the same watching them last night. Certainly Anderson and Moncada have taken a big jump offensively. So has McCann coming over. I would guess we have to give Steverson credit for some of their success. But the overall SO problem w this team also rests to some degree w him as well.

Agree.

He also was a hack in the field although he has supposedly improved the last couple of months. But I think the bat was what made them switch from Moncada being untouchable to available

I had season tics for college basketball for over 20 years. That is why I said I follow Kris Dunn. But I only watch NBA and mostly just playoffs since it is after college season. Paxson became GM in 2003. In 16 years they have struggled postseason and never have advanced past the semifinals and only made the semis once. He has also turned over coaches pretty regularly w 6 in 16 years. Not sure he would have survived in most franchises.

I don't think this game goes on tonight. It has been raining since noon and supposedly will be heavy rain early evening.