OmarComing25

I hope Alexei has better luck today.

25 pitches already. And now our guys will see 8 total next inning.

I loved him in the past, but Hawk really needs to retire.

Quintana doesn't have a win against the Royals I believe, let's change that tonight.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 04:28 PM) Gordon Beckham signs with White Sox - January 28th, 2015 OmarComing25 signs with Soxtalk.com - March 26, 2015 I see your point but I've been on the WSI boards since 2004, and in my time here so far I've seen nothing to suggest that the posters here hold drastically different opinions than over there. Beckham's been a whipping boy for years.

I haven't heard anyone talk about Beckham like he's Brooks Robinson, in fact I haven't heard anyone say anything good about him period except Hawk for the last couple of seasons.

What did Micah do? I can't see the game.

Wow so much pessimism in here already.

So who's the player who has a good game that we overreact to and who's the player who has a bad game that we overreact to? I'm going with Avisail for the former and Micah for the latter.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) The bullpen is so critical. It has to do a complete turnaround from last year for the Sox to sniff .500. Other factors then have to combine for the Sox to finish 10 over. If we had even a slightly below-average bullpen last year, this team probably finishes close to .500, I don't think a "complete turnaround" is necessary to reach .500, but around league-average would be a huge improvement.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 02:53 PM) If the Sox win 2 of 3 against KC, I'll start believing. If the Sox win 1 of 3 against KC, I will try not to get mad. Somebody remind me I said this if we go 1-2. If the Sox get swept, it will be very annoying and the only reason I might not freak out is because the Royals did reach the World Series. Right now would I take 1-2 if it was offered to me as a certainty? Probably not. I'd want to play it out and see if the Sox can scratch out 2 of 3. That said ... will any of you absolutely freak out if Sox go 0-3? 0-3 I'd be a little worried but that's because this team needs a fast start with so many divisional games early. However, I wouldn't change my judgment on the team over one series (unless we get outscored/outscore them by like 30 runs), especially over a small difference like 2-1 and 1-2.

I hope his contract isn't a factor on where we put him (even though I'm not naive enough to think it isn't), it's a sunk-cost, we have to pay it no matter what happens, so if he sucks and Rodon is killing it in Charlotte then bring him up and banish Danks to the bullpen. If someone like Beck or Johnson is pitching well and both Noesi and Danks are trash, I'd hope by June we'd consider replacing both of them with our internal options and not be too afraid to pull the trigger. I'm going to be pretty upset if we miss out on a playoff spot by a game or two because we waited too long to bring up Rodon/get Danks out of the rotation.

This really couldn't hurt, maybe he does have something left.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 11:01 AM) It's complicated and fuzzy. It's really anyone's race. Any of the four AL Central contenders can dominate if "everything goes according to plan," but none of them are well equipped to deal with any significant issues, such as a key injury or two or a star player not living up to expectations. So the team that wins will be the one that mostly "does what they think they'll do." The Sox biggest issues are that (1) John Danks and Hector Noesi both suck, seriously, no matter how much we want them not to suck, so they're going to have to perform significantly better than what they are likely to perform in order to not hold us back (which definitely CAN but probably won't happen), (2) we're a "stars and scrubs" team, in that we rely heavily on our core players to provide transcendent, elite level performance in order to be successful, so if one of them sucks or gets hurt, we see a huge dropoff in production in the replacement (and just by the law of averages, usually SOMEONE gets hurt), and (3) players that do what Avisail Garcia has done are usually terrible, so he's not projected well. We know he's got the tools and he could very well buck the trends, but we have to admit that historical precedent shows us that it's unlikely he does so. It's a vague answer, but it's also the beautiful part of this sport. Anyone can take this thing. Just rest assured that this team has a real shot this year, because that's what matters most. Don't stress, LDF, it's baseball time! Regarding the first issue, where does Rodon fit in here? I agree that if we're relying on Danks and Noesi for the whole season we're probably doomed, but if Rodon can come in and hold down the #4 spot we should fare much better, at least that's the hope. I see that ZIPS projects Rodon to strikeout everybody but to have a ton of control issues. How should we take projections on guys that have no ML experience?

He does this next week, yeah then I'm worried. But otherwise meh.

I wouldn't be surprised at 75 wins, and I wouldn't be surprised at 90 wins. But if this team is to make the playoffs, Avisail needs to have a good year and Rodon needs to be in the rotation before June.

I'm not worried about the Spring Training numbers of guys who are guaranteed for the roster and have nothing to prove to anyone. As others have pointed out, Quintana and Kershaw both got rocked in 2014 in March, and they turned out fine. However, if Abreu wants to hit .520 this year, that's fine by me.

If Rodon isn't in the rotation by May 1st I'll be shocked.