OmarComing25

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 12:09 PM) You said before that Arrieta is having a once-in-a-generation year. Look at his 2014 stats on fangraphs. He was just as good, although he only had 25 starts (check WAR per start). Predicting injuries is meaningless, why even say anything? Dexter Fowler is a 110 wRC+ hitter at this point - very replaceable. Fangraphs says Arrieta is outperforming his FIP by a significant margin. He's obviously very, very good but it's just highly unlikely he'll put up another season with an ERA well under 2. Same deal with Greinke.

QUOTE (MindGame2004 @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 11:22 AM) Tim Anderson's K to BB rate for AA is alarming when you project him to the Majors. I know he's new to baseball, and the Sox like those type of toolsy athlete types, but I have reservations as to Anderson being all he can be in the Majors. 114 K to 24 walks. 125 games played. He doesn't have the power to hit like that either. If they trade him, what would they get back is the real question. Look at his month by month splits. His K to BB rate after April and May was significantly better. Still has a lot of work to do but he's still pretty young, raw, and has shown improvement.

If we hadn't taken a shot this past offseason and made 2015 a rebuilding year instead, then 2016 probably wasn't going to have high expectations either. The only move that could potentially really hamper us past 2016 was Melky and that's just for 2017. Other than that it's the two draft picks and Semien (who would be nice to have right now). At least we didn't gut a top farm system and hamper ourselves with horrible contracts like the Padres did.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 15, 2015 -> 11:51 AM) I just think that they will crash down to earth especially Arrieta. Arrieta is arbitration eligible after this season and is going to cost a ton of money. He screams TJ surgery in spring training to me. Fowler will be gone via free agency. Everything has gone right. I wouldn't be surprised to see them only win upper 86-90 games next season (Arrieta's ERA regresses to high 2s, Bryant can't sustain his super high BABIP, sophomore slumps, etc.), but 80 would mean absolutely everything went wrong, especially if they pick up a top SP in the offseason.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/jose-ba...lue-jays-101415

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 08:20 PM) Looking at the lineups of the playoff teams it's a gut punch of how far we have to go. We have a bunch of players that we say "well they'd be good enough for that position", but that's what you say when you have 4-5 star players to offset the "good enough". You can't have good enough at every position! On the bright side our playoff trio of Sale/Q/Rodon would easily best any of the other AL playoff rotations, and is at least on par if not better than the NL playoff rotations.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:08 PM) I was referring to pre-steroids Bonds. Well, never mind. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-cubs-are-...-032206186.html It's starting. Passan basically arguing that the Cubs in the NLCS and World Series will be one of the first times in recent history baseball has gotten more attention in October than football, probably going back to the 2004 Red Sox championship...oxygen remaining for the White Sox in the media, critical and failing. Despite the playoff series win the sports radio talk this week so far has been mostly about the Bears.

Toronto in 6, Royals have suspect pitching.

The manager isn't meaningless but his importance is always vastly overstated. The Rays won more games this year than last year and that was with largely the same roster sans Price and Maddon and being decimated by injuries. There's not a lot of evidence that managers matter all that much. Scapegoats and undeserved accolades pretty much describe the majority of managers (especially Maddon this year). The Cubs' rookies didn't play well because Maddon managed them to play well.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 09:12 PM) A blind squirrel. That's all Cueto is. Let's see Cueto do this against the Jays.

Damn it Astros. f***ing Rios.

Almost feels like more casual baseball fans know who Rick Hahn is than Jed Hoyer with how little attention he receives.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:43 PM) Never said that. I just find it odd that there are so many things people would usually consider fire able offenses, and for some reason, the GM is getting a pass, he has nothing to do with it, although when it was thought the team was a contender, it was all him. It will be interesting to see if the Sox make a couple of trades, sign a player or 2, and have a young player actually develop, and they make the playoffs next season, if that will then be all of Rick Hahn's doing. I imagine it will. Although the Sox are set up in the same type of dynamic as the Cubs, although KW doesn't have Theo's title, all the good stuff that happens to the Cubs, no one ever mentions Hoyer. Theo gets praised for everything. I wonder why on the Sox, neither are ignored, but KW is responsible for the bad and RH for the good. It really makes no sense. You would think Hoyer doesn't do anything at all if you listen to the media/Cub fans here.

Third time through the order, come on Jays, you're supposed to kill LHP.

QUOTE (shipps @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:42 PM) The woooo! is where he reeeeeally lost me on that one. Speaking of wooing, is Ronnie Woo Woo still around?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:08 PM) Yankees would be a good spot for him and go back to their former ways of overpaying for average to below average players/pitchers. Do tell what average to below average players the Yankees have overpaid for in the past.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 04:09 PM) probably already discussed, but I now see the Cubs and the Jays "stirring the drink" I thought the Cubs just did the rubbing the helmet thing.

If Stroman gets lit up people are going to be howling about the decision to pitch Price in relief.

Rangers already on the board.

5-3 Astros win, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see Cueto finally get it together for one start.

The interesting thing to note in that article I posted is that projection systems have actually been fairly accurate in predicting individual performance (except for our guys apparently), but trying to predict team performance is where things have fallen apart. "It’s a long-held saying that baseball’s playoffs are a crapshoot, but the unexpectedly great performances of teams like Kansas City this year might indicate the regular season is headed in that direction, too."

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 02:23 PM) Not a huge fan of PECOTA but I think they had them at 78 wins. Also had us scoring 81 more runs than we did, our record might look similar to what they predicted but the path we took to get there was very different, pretty much no one on the offensive end sans Eaton lived up to their projections. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-201...ections-failed/ But according to this article projection systems have been getting steadily worse over the years.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 01:44 PM) Dodgers will maul Cubs. Cubs might beat Mets. Do you have any houses left to bet on it?

QUOTE (shipps @ Oct 14, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) I would rather have Kershaw full steam ahead for 2 starts in the series than have him tired and laboring for three games. Agreed, he just went on three days rest yesterday, asking him to do it three times in the NLCS would be just asking for trouble.

The TBS strike zone was way off for all the games I thought but I still don't like the umps. A 10% mistake rate might be normal but I don't think it's acceptable, considering the huge difference between a 1-2 and 2-1 count then those mistakes could easily swing games. Can't wait for robot umps, as it will also eliminate pitch framing, which I'm not a fan of either. We shouldn't be judging players on how well they fool the umpires, that shouldn't be a part of the game.