OmarComing25

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 28, 2015 -> 11:23 AM) Not surprising. I wanted Hector Olivera, too. Moncada was always going to be unrealistic. That book's on my reading list. Seems the Dodgers are really hitting the pitching market and realize paying Greinke even with his smooth, repeatable delivery into his late 30's isn't very wise even for a $300 million payroll team. Interested to see how much Greinke gets paid this offseason. Given his age though I think he'll easily be the worst contract handed out this year when it's all said and done.

I went to two playoff games that year, the drop third strike game and Game 2 of the World Series. I don't think I could have picked two better home games to go to. Crowd was louder after Konerko's grand slam than it was after Podsednik's walkoff. Also, when Crede hit the game-winning double the stadium was completely silent until the ball hit the wall, then it was complete bedlam. Good times. Was only 15 when it happened.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 05:23 PM) So is momentum, keep/ing the line moving and clutch...but try to convince players and managers these concepts don't exist and are just random statistical anomalies or white noise. It's not that those concepts don't exist or have zero importance (mainly talking about experience and momentum here, still skeptical that clutch is a thing) but their importance pales in comparison to pretty much everything else, so they're not really worth giving much attention to.

QUOTE (Soxfan90 @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 03:35 PM) I could care less. I think it's the Royals year, though. Last year got them the experience they need to pull this off. Nothing is ever so overrated as experience in my opinion, especially in baseball. If Lester had shut down the comeback last year, I think the Royals would have almost the exact same chance of hitting that Mets' rotation as they do right now.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) I had to blink three times to confirm this wasn't a caulfield post. Why are you undervaluing Jose Quintana so much? He was 14th in pitching WAR this year, has a strong track record, & is under contract for the next five seasons at $8M per. He's without question one of the most valuable SP assets in baseball. The fact that you think Theo wouldn't trade Javier Baez, a guy who hasn't proved anything in the majors and has a history of contact issues, straight up for Quintana is beyond mind boggling IMO. Are you actually suggesting Baez is the more valuable asset of the two? And are you actually suggesting they might not trade Scwarber or Baez for Sale? If so, wow is all I can say. I think the Tyson Ross to the Cubs deadline deal fell through this year because Theo was unwilling to include Baez. Q is better than Ross but Cubs might still balk at that trade even though Quintana at this point is much more valuable. I also wouldn't trade Q for Schwarber but I don't think the Cubs do that trade either. I really don't see us being a match.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 10:17 AM) It's Donaldson, Encarnacion, Bautista and Tulo, with Martin to a lesser extent. Those four are much better than any ind. hitter on KC, but Tor doesn't have guys like Perez and Gordon hitting 7th and 8th, either. Opposing pitchers can relax more with Collabello, Goins, Pillar and Revere. Toronto strikes out a lot more....the Royals thrive on making contact when they get in two strike situations. They also don't have as many basestealers, more station to station with exceptions in Revere, Pillar and Pompey. Losing Reyes hurt quite a bit in that category. Except KC doesn't do anything better offensively than Toronto except hit more triples and strike out a bit less (it's not like Toronto struck out that much either). Toronto had a better batting average, hit more doubles, hit way more homeruns, had a way better OBP, performed better with RISP, and while KC had slightly more stolen bases, Toronto led the majors in CS% and was fifth in baserunning value while the Royals were 19th. I don't care what they did in the small sample size that is the postseason, Escobar, Perez, and Rios are not good hitters, no pitcher is afraid of them. Unless you're ready to tell me that Daniel Murphy is now a power threat.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 08:24 AM) On one side, the Royals have homefield. They've got the balanced offense to manufacture runs instead of scoring in bunches. Teams like the Cubs or Blue Jays would be even more susceptible to dominant pitching. The Royals make a lot more contact and they have experience From lasy year as well. Basically, it will come down to the Royals' pen vs. the Mets' starters. Obviously the Royals have to start out 2-0 or 1-1 or they be in danger of getting blown out of the series early. Volquez, in particular, hasn't pitched well against the Mets in his career. Cueto's around a 4 ERA in 65 ip. Volquez is closer to 6. How was the Jays' offense not balanced? They were elite in literally every offensive category, including baserunning.

I like the Mets but there were a lot of people this year that acted like the top of the AL couldn't compete with the top of the NL, and I'm sick of the circlejerk. f*** the NL.

QUOTE (flavum @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 12:41 AM) f*** the NL. +1

http://i.imgur.com/H9H2TgK.jpg http://i.imgur.com/rWVoeoP.jpg Just terrible. Blue Jays didn't help themselves going 0-12 with RISP, but those were two huge blown calls. Can't wait for robot umps.

Don't like KC but I really don't want the NL to win the Wotld Series either. Damnit Blue jays.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 06:12 PM) Unfortunately Robin felt threatened by his presence and wouldn't want him back. What?

Problem is speed is all he has, and it's the first tool to decline. Plus it feels like he got 20% of his stolen bases just due to Lester.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 02:36 PM) You are right. Posey beats out Salvy on production with .318, 19, 95. Amazing stats. .379 OBP. Who's better than Perez in the AL? Russell Martin

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 01:28 PM) Buried in this graphic... The Cubs saw 3 of the 7 biggest declines in fastball velocity in the post-season, including both Lester and Arrieta. Hendricks led the way. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/edinson-vol...-velocity-bump/ Is a 0.4 mph drop really that meaningful though?

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 12:43 PM) I assume you're signing Zobrist or Wieters in this scenario then, right? It's not going to matter how they patch up next season anyway. The legitimate FA options are out of our price range, and even those below cannot all be signed with our limited payroll flexibility. Anything short of an incredibly lopsided, franchise changing trade immediately benefitting us, a career resurgence from nearly the entire lineup, AND our pitching staff staying healthy, we're not going to compete in 2016. Yes it could happen and this offseason could be Hahn's miracle that goes down in lore as the period we began our resurgence; but the White Sox haven't earned that optimism from me. I'll expect failure until proven otherwise If LaRoche had finished the season with what his slash line was at the beginning of June and Samardzija hadn't gone into the toilet at the beginning of August there's a decent shot we could have won the second wildcard (and at the very least we would have been "competing"). It's not looking likely that we'll compete next year at the moment but we don't necessarily need a miracle either. You catch a couple breaks and you can easily make a 10-game jump, tons of teams do it every year. After 2007 things looked pretty grim too. That doesn't mean we should make more risky moves and bank on those breaks happening, but it's not like we just had the season the Phillies or Brewers had.

I'm not sure Asdrubal Cabrera would be an upgrade over Alexei. Alexei had a completely dreadful first half, but actually put up a 105 wRC+ in the second half.

Arrieta made $3M last year. Is there precedence for such a big jump in arbitration? I could see $15M but $20M seems like too big a jump, even though he would deserve it. Also googling his name the first result said Theo is looking to give him an extension and resign Fowler.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 10:14 AM) Couldn't of said it any better. Only thing I would change is that by any metric you want to go by, Quintana is clearly better than a solid #2.

https://np.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/3...derstand_xpost/ Satire post by a Giants fan in response. Awesome.

https://np.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/3...derstand_xpost/ Another cringeworthy post. The Cubs don't have the monopoly on heartbreak, especially when it's not like Chicago has exactly been starved of sports championships in the recent past.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/...d_hitter_whats/ The posters on the /r/baseball subreddit are usually level-headed, but this thread is annoying the hell out of me. Cubs fans act like Schwarber has untouchable trade value, a few of them even said they'd turn down a hypothetical Schwarber/Archer swap. An Indians fan was downvoted to hell for saying he wouldn't trade Carrasco for Schwarber, and I got downvoted for saying I wouldn't trade Quintana for him (which another poster suggested). In the article that's linked, it says he's projected for 2.0 WAR at DH. Schwarber put up a 131 wRC+, same as Kendry Morales, who had 2.1 WAR. And now Quintana isn't good enough for him?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 08:09 AM) The problems are: 1. These projections are using the White Sox 2015 roster. That will change. 2. As I pointed out a couple of times, but you ignore, even when they had the up to date rosters, when they projected standings this year on April 1st, none of the teams they projected to make the playoffs, made the playoffs. The Yankees made the playoffs and they were projected to be the 7th best team in the AL. They weren't quite as bad as PECOTA who had first place teams finishing last and last place teams finishing first. 3. The Royals, Blue Jays and Mets would all have punted on 2015 if they took Steamer projections very seriously. That is all I was pointing out. Discuss away, the thing is, why, at this particular point in time, would you have expected the White Sox projected WAR to be any different than what they listed? If anything, it looks a bit higher than I would have expected. I wouldn't bet money based on these early projections, and I doubt you would either, but there is a certain faction that will take them as gospel if it paints the White Sox negatively, as we have already seen. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-201...ections-failed/ That article shows that projection systems have been getting worse over time, and for your point number 3 you could also include the Rangers, Astros, Cubs, and Pirates, none of whom the projections liked this year.

If Thompson can hit he'd replace Avi not Eaton. And if we trade Eaton for two young prospects/players pretty much best case scenario is that one of them turns out as good as Eaton. It's a lateral move at best, opening up a huge hole at worst.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 22, 2015 -> 10:04 PM) The postseason isn't even over and we've already written off 2016. Some have written off the next five to ten years.