shysocks

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Aug 13, 2015 -> 11:27 AM) But where do you draw the line on that. If he a guy hits a line drive down the foul line and the ump calls it foul are the players supposed to continue until all possible scenarios have been played out? No, games are long enough as it is. So then what do you do with the runner? Do you give him a double? Do you base it off the runners speed how far he would go? Ground rule double and fan interference calls already suck, do we really want more of those type situations? If that's the way baseball wants to go (which it appears they are) then at some point a playoff game is going to be decided based off of what an umpire thinks would normally happen. I could be wrong, but I think there are non-reviewable plays, like a ball hit down the line that is called foul, for just that reason. If the ump says the play is dead, then it's dead. Some shoulda's: Last night's play is in the same boat as the above example and should never have even been reviewed. Even if they knew they were in the wrong, the crew should have ejected Scioscia the second he stepped out of the dugout again. That was some horses*** and he knew exactly what he was doing, not to mention it's explicitly against the rules. Even if he was goaded into it, Robertson should not have called it out to the media. Now teams know this sort of thing bothers him. No big deal, but something to watch.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 12, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Yikes, I hope you're kidding. He's batting 8th tonight. I am 95% kidding. I'll give him a nice round of applause though.

I can't explain it, but John Danks starting + me in attendance = Sox victory this year. Every time. This will be the 5th. Also hoping Scioscia has the tact to get Gillaspie into the game so we can give him the standing O he deserves.

Shout out to Abreu for keeping that Trout grounder in the infield.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 09:28 PM) Cotton Candy Mustache? Broadcast showed two kids making facial hair out of their cotton candy.

Just how we drew it up.

JFC Alexei SMH

Southsidesox has been harping on Rodon's splits when being caught by Flowers vs Soto. Very small sample, but he has been worlds better with Flowers.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) There's 0% chance he gets an extension. They've done nothing to prove that he's worthy. Unless this team goes on a historical run to end the season. The 2013 team lost 99 games and Robin got an extension in the offseason.

QUOTE (harkness @ Aug 11, 2015 -> 11:35 AM) I really could give a s*** who is announcing. I want to win. I want to win too, but I recognize that nothing I say in that survey is going to help the Sox win. Maybe if enough people exclaim that they want Hawk gone, we'll have an announcer who can make losing more palatable instead of the depressing old crank we put up with now.

I said nothing negative about the product on the field. They're not going to take the suggestions of a random fan seriously, and they shouldn't. I'm sure they have people who read message boards - they've heard it all already anyway. Instead I targeted Hawk, because the announcing booths are something that directly affects fan engagement, an area where the voice of the fan is perhaps the most important. He's gotta go. He gets worse every single day.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2015 -> 08:19 PM) My guess with Melky remains that he was clean for 2 months and then resumed breaking the rules and hoping the testing regime wouldn't catch him. Only possible way a guy goes from that punchless to suddenly having huge power. But aside from that, if 3-4 guys on a team in the regular lineup all struggle for 2 months and under-perform...and they're not hurt, yes, that's the kind of thing that should fall on the manager for not having them ready to go. QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2015 -> 01:09 AM) I didn't want to start a negative thread so I'll bring it up here about Robin/Melky/LaRoche. Should Robin or Jerry talk to Melky about not being a clown and LaRoche about shaving? LaRoche looks like an idiot with that shaggy beard IMO. He did hit a bomb on Friday but aside from that has been an utter failure as a Sox. Melky gets on base and bear-hugs the first baseman; then he goes to second and bear-hugs the second baseman. He starts yapping into the Sox dugout and does it a long time. Just for getting a hit. I mean if LaRoche has to have the beard, fine. But Melky is disrespecting the game. He's saying "look at me" all the time. I mean, Melky, the reason they are paying you zillions of dollars is they thought you'd help win games and get the team in the playoffs. The clown behavior has to stop at some point. It reflects poorly on Robin. We need a tighter ship, folks and that means Gardenhire! These are some hot takes right here.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 6, 2015 -> 12:45 PM) Is that stat flawed from the perspective of who he catches? He clearly gets all of Sale's starts, which helps his odds and I think he probably starts less of Danks games, which again would help those odds. That's all there is to it. From the perspective that he is a Major League Baseball player, yes, he is good.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 02:35 PM) The problem with that logic is that guys got better when they went AL to NL. It is not a huge list, but it the complete list of free agents that have switched leagues in the last two seasons (that I could find). Its not a random happening, this has been happening for a long time. There is definitely more talent top to bottom in the AL, though the NL does have a couple more high end teams than the AL does. That is exactly what it is. You are taking random events and assigning a narrative to them. Who got better going to the NL? Markakis is doing almost exactly what he did last year. Callaspo - the same. Your numbers on Gomes were off, you were only taking his slash from one of the AL teams he played for last year - he's actually been slightly worse. Pierzynski is better right now, but you conveniently forgot to mention that his performance did not change when he went from Boston to St. Louis last year. Saltalamacchia got worse. Granderson is the only one I might give you, but only if you ignore that his final year with the Yankees was pretty much a bad outlier for him. And most importantly of all, this is all based on tiny samples. This is a small collection of players who got worse, and again, I provided a plausible explanation for almost every one of them that had nothing to do with the league they were playing in. You told me exceptions were rare and I gave you a list of exceptions. I'm not convinced.

Added comments in bold. QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:21 AM) Based on a pretty extensive track record. There are few exceptions for player decline when moving to the AL from the NL. -Here are some exceptions from no earlier than 2011: Adrian Gonzalez, Russell Martin (and please don't tell me him coming down slightly from his career year constitutes decline), Prince Fielder, Chase Headley, David Freese, Logan Morrison. Mark Trumbo declined going the other way. This is based on a glance at this year's qualifying hitters. Players to go NL to AL last season Previous league last season Other league first season Pablo Sandoval .279/.324/.415 113 OPS+ .259/.305/.385 89 OPS+ -granted Hanley Ramirez .283/.369/.448 130 OPS+ .263/.304/.450 104 OPS+ -performance has been uneven his whole career Adam LaRoche .259/.362/.455 127 OPS+ .220/.312/.347 88 OPS+ -old/hurt Emilio Bonifacio .259/.305/.345 82 OPS+ .169/.200/.195 14 OPS+ -uneven whole career, 81 PA sample Evan Gattis .263/.317/493 124 OPS+ .244/.274/.449 96 OPS+ -granted, although he hadn't established much of a track record 2013 Shin Soo Choo .285/.423/.462 145 OPS+ .242/.340/.374 100 OPS+ -old, and played in the AL all but one year. Did it suddenly become too much for him? Brian McCann .256/.336/.461 118 OPS+ .232/.286/.406 93 OPS+ -had a bigger dropoff from 2011-2012 when he was with ATL than from 2013-2014 Carlos Beltran .296/.339/.491 127 OPS+ .233/.301/.402 97 OPS+ -granted, with "old" caveat AL to NL Nick Markakis .276/.342/.386 105 OPS+ .293/.371/.369 108 OPS+ Alberto Callaspo .223/.290/.290 67 OPS+ .226/.310/.271 65 OPS+ Jonny Gomes .234/.320/.250 66 OPS+ .205/.313/.319 78 OPS+ AJP .251/.288/.337 114 OPS+ .302/.339/.446 124 OPS + 2013 Curtis Granderson .229/.317/.407 99 OPS+ .227/.326/.388 103 OPS+ Jarrod Saltalamacchia .273/.338/.466 118 OPS+ .220/.320/.362 91 OPS+ -not sure what you're trying to say here. Callaspo and Gomes are scrubs. Granderson had a down year and then returned to career norms. None of this proves anything. I mean this is like ten names, not to mention we have sampling issues - we're looking at free agents, who are older by definition and thus more likely to decline; and guys who switched leagues, which means their old team didn't want them for some reason. I look at the guys you named and I can suggest a competing reason for almost every single one's performance drop, and I have just as much proof as you do that my reason is the reason - that is, none. The bottom line is you can't just blame a league switch when there are other reasons a guy's performance might have changed. The talent level of the AL and NL is basically even right now and 8 guys having down years doesn't tell me the 9th will.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 07:21 AM) Without knowing what might have been offered for Samardzija, I fail to see the point. Caulfield gets to complain about something, that's the point.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 04:11 PM) I wouldn't touch Heyward. He hits OK in the NL but would struggle in the AL (we have seen this story). A lot of his value is wrapped up in his defense which while nice, isn't really worth paying a premium for. Upton probably gets something like 7/$160M too rich for the Sox blood. Cespedes is a solid player, you probably will have to go 5 years to get him to sign, but in going the extra year you may save a little AAV. There is always the chance that once the Sox can sign Shark they flip Q for Puig taking care of that hole. Based on what? I keep seeing this refrain and I need an explanation. Something more compelling than "two guys the Sox brought over from the NL struggled," if possible.

Pile on Avi time! There are 159 qualifying hitters in MLB. Avisail Garcia is 152nd in Zone%, or percentage of pitches thrown to him that are in the strike zone. He is 2nd in Swing%, or percentage of pitches thrown to him that he swings at. Not a good combination. Nobody throws him strikes because he'll just hack away at anything. He had actually started to show progress on that last year, but it's completely fallen apart.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 11:51 AM) How far are you willing to take that "not a lot to dislike" comment? Would you go 7/$140+? What's your limit? I know I'd easily go over $100M, which was the starting point in this thread. 7/140 would probably be fine, yeah. He's really good. Heyward might try to put an opt-out clause into his contract too, if he wants to get one more big deal when he's 30 or 31.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 10:21 AM) JD Martinez would have looked nice in RF or LF and wouldn't have cost us a thing other than a waiver claim. We passed. Detroit didn't. Thirty bombs this year already. You're right, caulfield. If the Sox made better moves and got all the good players when they were available, they'd be much better off right now. I wonder why they haven't tried that strategy yet. Good lord, is there anything you won't complain about?

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 08:41 AM) If someone gives Heyward $100 million, they're the dumbest franchise today. No way is he worth that. Not even close. Lifetime .265/.351/.430, which is quite good in today's game, especially considering his career started at age 20. Defense is somewhere between very good and great. And to cap it off, he'll be 26 when he hits free agency. Not a lot to dislike.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 05:00 PM) What if Nick is actually a great choice for this job? We have no idea how good he actually is, screaming that we need to go outside the org for help without knowing a single thing about this guy or replacement options adds little to this board or this discussion. +1

Samardzija will not accept a qualifying offer unless gets seriously injured.

I want to point out that I was lucky enough to view the first reply to Klay's now-deleted tweet, and it read as follows: @KlayThompson booty muffin

Fine with avoiding the arms race and not buying. Only piece of significance to sell was Shark. If (Return - Hit to playoff chances)