shysocks

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 12:48 PM) I typed in "Barry Bonds steroids" and "Barry Bonds PEDs". Nothing. It works in Bing though. But now Bing is in my browser history, so that's a shame.

GOOGLE AUTOCOMPLETE IS IN ON IT. Actually, the "steroids" option won't show up with any baseball player I tried. Wonder how much money MLB is kicking Google's way to make that happen.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) IT'S HAPPENING!!!! That phrase is not allowed without the accompanying gif.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 27, 2016 -> 11:30 AM) Cruz names Fiorina his VP candidate. Hilarious. Can you get any more desperate? Was this the 'major announcement' I've been seeing rumblings about? This is like me naming my running mate.

Jay Bruce will continue to be named a lot. He's negative WAR right now because of defensive metrics, but that shouldn't be a problem if we move him to DH. He's hitting more or less like old Jay Bruce - a little worse, but certainly better than the performance we've gotten out of DH. The Reds would still love to shed that salary and he isn't good enough for them to be asking for Fulmer or Anderson for him.

Playoff odds at fangraphs featured in this piece. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-white-s...rt-they-needed/

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 26, 2016 -> 12:18 PM) I'm fully aware of that, but not when they're under twice his ERA. If he throws like that again he probably doesn't give up 5 runs in 5.1 innings. You think if he throws the exact same pitches to that exact same lineup again, they still produce a .526 BABIP? It's not like everything was smoked either, Fangraphs has it at a 45% hard hit rate and 15% soft hit rate as opposed to his career averages of 30% and 18%. 4 of the 11 hits were groundball hits. I think if you run that game back, the BABIP might be lower because the balls that hit off the fence might have gone for homers instead. Throwing the way he was to that lineup, he would have been extremely lucky to get out with two or three runs. Like I said earlier, I think he earned the next spot start. His stuff had life and he got it together well enough. But it was meatball city for a few innings there.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 26, 2016 -> 11:55 AM) Let's not exaggerate, it shouldn't have been worse. His ERA for the start was 8.44 while his FIP, xFIP and SIERA were 4.39, 4.54 and 3.94 respectively. It wasn't a great start by any means but he was a bit BABIPed, and at least showed he could strike guys out and his velocity was back up from the 86-88 stuff that apparently influenced the Orioles to release him. If you're using FIP and the like as measurements of a single start, you're doing it wrong. They're models, and models lose accuracy with fewer inputs. He was terrible. He was BABIPed because everything came off the bat at 200 miles an hour.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Apr 26, 2016 -> 12:38 AM) Should the Sox go 6 deep? what kind of question is this QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 26, 2016 -> 08:32 AM) Gonzalez got hit pretty hard a few times, but I actually thought his stuff looked better than advertised. Eh. He had some lively stuff but he made so many mistakes. I think he earned more work but I don't expect much.

That was just his clever way of changing his nickname from Fat Albers to Cat Albers.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:31 PM) Well obviously it was just a mechanical issue if it continues. Don't you think it's a good idea to try him before we gut the farm for another pitcher? Fulmer is not an option. All I've been posting about all night long is perspective on 5th starters. I think if we're gonna gut the farm for anybody it should be a hitter, while we survive with a mediocre back end of the rotation like the rest of the world.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:30 PM) He was never a realistic option anyway, no matter what fans thought. I think people took those Cooper quotes and ran away with them.

QUOTE (soxforlife05 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:24 PM) He had 2 bad starts at the beginning of the season where he walked a lot of guys but he's been fine since. Yeah there's no amount of rationalizing that'll make me think calling up the rookie with the 6 ERA in Birmingham is a good idea.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:18 PM) That if Danks didn't suck so bad, he would have started tonight. Sort of, but not this game's lesson... QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:23 PM) The Baltimore Orioles released him. That was probably all we needed to know. I know everyone hates Danks, but there just aren't enough good starters to go around baseball. Unless you are extremely lucky, your staff is always going to have one or two guys you are looking to upgrade on. Correct answer.

Fulmer has a 6 ERA in Birmingham. Please, stop with the Fulmer.

I feel like tonight's game was formulated in a lab for the purpose of giving Sox fans perspective about 5th starters. What have we learned?

Well guys, with the wealth of available alternatives such as Miguel Gonzalez, and given that all the other teams in baseball employ five good starters, I can finally see why everybody has been so eager to dump John Danks.

Ump is looking a little shaky tonight.

Shut up Tulo.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 03:01 PM) Being a big time Twitter NBA/Bulls guy....These last few weeks have been one heck of an Unfollow fest on the Bulls people i have who are Cubs supporters. I am throwing dat Unfollow around left and right lately Ha. Friedell failed that test with me years ago.

https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/724684257117884418 Chills every time. Even better if you tune out everything besides the crowd noise.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 10:53 AM) I put zero stock in those. Not to be all Hawk about stats, but playoff percentage means nothing to me. I'll do it by the eye test. Right now if I had to revise my pre-season prediction: Royals 92 Wins Tigers 86 Wins Sox 86 Wins Indians 83 Wins Twins 72 Wins Sox until they can get a bat I cannot take seriously. Pitching wont always be this good. Bats wont always be this bad. However counting on Ajax, Garcia, Sands, Saladino, Rollins, Avila to win us games consistently doesn't work in my mind. Get one more bat and I'm a sold believer. Doesn't even have to be an OF. Just a bat. I think it should be possible. Yeah, they're just for fun, especially because they can't predict which teams will be buyers and sellers in July. There's just no way to know. I guessed 83 wins before the season. If I'm completely unconvinced by anything that has happened so far and thought they were still the same 83-win team - just with a 13-6 start - that'd put my new guess at 86. And I'm unconvinced by most of what's taken place. The major exceptions are Sale and Quintana. I feel like Sale is going to be the best pitcher in the AL by far this year, and Quintana will have his best season as well. Part of this is that they finally have a competent defense behind them - the third major exception. The hunch I have about that stuff bumps my guess up to 88 wins for the Sox.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 10:41 AM) This team is not going to have the luxury of only pitching bullpen players when the game is out of hand. We are going to be in close games, so we need to be able to trust everyone, and sometimes they'll fail but we'll be better for it. I haven't had a problem with bullpen management with Robin. The only thing I don't like is Rollins/Saladino at #2, but melky behind Frazier has been pretty great. That and the sending people to steal with Abreu up. Yeah I thought the Good Version of Melky would have been the ideal #2, just as I did when we signed him. But you'd have to be insane to want to mess with him right now.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 05:46 PM) KC's got them by a run. Run differential really paints the disparity in the NL. Brewers and Reds staffs are just getting pounded. There are five NL teams with worse differentials than the worst AL team (Twins, -21) and five NL teams with better differentials than the best AL team (KC, +15). That seems absurd.

Would love to just take this Toronto series nice and smooth like as I don't have high expectations for the Baltimore part of the trip. That's our new Oakland and it has been for a while.