OmarComing25

QUOTE (ron883 @ Apr 22, 2017 -> 12:16 PM) Wow that's pretty crazy lol. But yes, I have been saying it since last year. People tore into me for saying it, but it turns out I was right. Jose isn't the same as he was. The league has adjusted to him, and his age has something to do with it in sure. The dude just has no pop in his bat anymore. Huge disappointment. Reminds me of gordo's great start and disappointing finish. But you weren't right last year, Abreu was a top 20 hitter in baseball in the 2nd half, so it wasn't clear that the "league adjusted to him". He's been bad to start this season, but if the league has adjusted to him then prove it. From a quick look he's being attacked exactly the same way to start this season as he was in the 2nd half of 2016 when he had a 142 wRC+ - lots of pitches down and in. He's had a dramatic spike in strikeouts and a big fall in walks, but it looks flukey to me because he's seeing the same percentage of pitches in the zone as always, and his O-swing rate is actually down a couple percentage points from last season and he has a career-high contact rate, so he's actually improved his plate discipline. What seems to be the problem is that his line drive rate is extremely low and his flyball rate is sky-high, though none of those flyballs have cleared the fence. None of those things are likely to continue. The main issue seems to be he just isn't making as hard contact as he used to (though he does have a career low soft-hit percentage), but whether that's just a bad stretch or because he's lost some bat speed remains to be seen. Either way there's no evidence pointing to the league "figuring him out", because pitchers have not changed their approach this season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 01:15 PM) I don't know, I could go either way on that. Galarraga - 4.78 ERA, 5.43 FIP Humber - 5.31 ERA, 4.60 FIP By fWAR, Humber has it, by bWAR, Galarraga has it. They were both pretty terrible pitchers outside of a season or so either way. You're right, it's basically a coin flip.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 01:02 PM) Worst pitcher to ever throw a perfect game in history? Looks like it, though if that call wasn't blown for Galarraga he wouldn't be.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 11:17 AM) Is this compared to his minor or MLB numbers from previous years? MLB numbers

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 10:34 AM) Small sample and all, but if Kahnle has indeed improved his command, he's a good pitcher. Pitch f/x says he's not throwing more pitches in the zone, but instead he's almost doubled the swings on pitches outside the zone. However his velocity is up a couple ticks and he's doubled his swinging strike rate, so this is definitely an encouraging start.

Matt Cooper made Fangraphs' list of "Baseball's Most Compelling Fringe Prospects" http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-fringe-...e-prospects-84/

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 20, 2017 -> 01:18 PM) Chris Sale ERA at 1.01 and falling unless he was just jinxed...since no longer on ST banner, should be okay. He's been completely filthy to start the year. I can't believe we ever tried to make him into a pitch to contact pitcher, the strikeout-machine Sale is just simply better.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 20, 2017 -> 08:07 AM) Some posters are too infatuated with strikeouts. I guarantee if Giolito had 10 K's instead of 8, we wouldn't be hearing nearly as much regardless of the 3 runs he gave up. It's probably the biggest indicator of future success for minor league pitchers, so the infatuation makes sense. Compared to what we have at the MLB level, there's far less reliable data on minor league park factors, batted ball data/exit velocity, and the quality of defenses, so I pretty much take everything beyond peripherals with a massive grain of salt.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 19, 2017 -> 03:16 PM) How's that data look on the Indians side or the past Champions/Runner ups in the Series? I legit have no idea and it'd be interesting to see if that whole extra month really hurts in that regard. Kluber, Tomlin and Bauer are where they usually are in April. From 2015-2016, on the Mets Thor's velocity went up, Colon remained the same and DeGrom and Harvey saw similar dropoffs to the Cubs' SP. For the Royals, Ventura and Volquez stayed the same, Young's went up, while Cueto was down about 1 mph. So it seems like there's a mixed bag of results. I'll probably look at some of the other past Champions/Runner ups later. It's just weird to see Hendricks throw 84 mph fastballs out there today.

So every single Cubs starter is down at least 1.5 ticks in velocity, with Hendricks and Arrieta down almost 3, and all 5 are in the top 20 in the MLB for velocity loss compared to last season. It seems pretty odd that all of them would experience such a big dropoff, so it has to be intentional, right? Are they easing everyone in after the long playoffs last year so that their arms are fresher later in the season?

What I love about BCS is that even though the Breaking Bad universe has had its share of scumbags/lowlifes/absolutely terrible people that have done things way worse than Chuck has, none of them have left as much of a visceral negative impression on me as he does.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 16, 2017 -> 08:28 PM) As much as I want to see Vintage Shields, dude has a 1.69 era and a 5.28 FIP. That walk total has to come down by like half if he is going to be decent this season. EDIT: just saw that was only his first two starts, and not including today. My guess is that five hits and three more walks isn't going to help that FIP at all. Hits don't factor into FIP unless they're homeruns. But that actually brings up a question, as I'm not sure if inside the park homeruns factor in because they're in the field of play. Does anyone know?

Both HRs were at 109 mph exit velocity.

To those mentioning his contract even if Anderson completely busts it's not like his contract will be a problem, a minor inconvenience at worst.

I still don't understand why people think Beckham was rushed. It's not like he was overmatched when he came up, he hit .270/.347/.460 in his rookie season in over 400 PA.

Final line is 5IP, 5H (all singles), 1ER, 1BB, 9K. Nice bounceback, the lack of walks is especially nice to see after that first start.

Through 5 Hansen has 9K and only 1 walk.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 11, 2017 -> 10:42 AM) I'm not complaining just to complain, but thank you for your feedback. You seem to admit that he's a warm body, but when I say a different warm body would help us either lose more or win more, you seem to take exception to that. A worse minor league would help us lose more. Do you dispute this? A proven ML free agent would help us win more. Do you dispute this? Since it's the DH position, literally ANY ML free agent who was at the end of his career, or fourth outfielder type, or fifth infielder type, or.....anyone would have been fine. My point is that the the TYPE of player he is is WRONG FOR OUR PARK. Could you please respond to THAT POINT? Thank you. It's hard to take your complaints seriously when you can't even name one player you'd rather see on the team than Asche. You have yet to even give one name.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 10, 2017 -> 03:36 PM) I've been asking that for a month. There no upside. He fulfills none of the requirements for being on this roster. He's not someone who can be peddled; nor is he someone who has a future. I think it's likely an extension of a FO bad habit of loving proven veterans, no matter how bad they are (although they usually favor the ones who were good at some point in their career; not always though - they had a long love affair with DeWayne Wise, e.g.). Who should get his roster spot instead?

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 10, 2017 -> 03:01 PM) I think you are missing the point here. I have no problem losing; I have a problem not getting quality development FOR that losing. Asche has dead end written all over him, mainly due to his # of years of ML experience. He has a pretty long track record at this level already. He's not blocking any development though. Who do you think should be getting those ABs instead?

QUOTE (Soha @ Apr 9, 2017 -> 09:33 PM) I guess, but it also seems to count strikeouts, which aren't anymore 'in play' than home runs. The formula for BABIP is (H-HR)/(AB-K-HR+SF)

I'll go with 68 wins. If we do somehow win 75+ hopefully it's because Moncada/Giolito/Lopez/Burdi/Abreu/Anderson/Rodon/Frazier/Quintana are vastly exceeding expectations and not because we got some run differential luck.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2017 -> 04:36 PM) A .500 team is not a playoff contender. That is what everyone on Soxtalk has said about every single season for years now. Why is it different now? This year Baltimore, Detroit, KC, Anaheim, Texas, Seattle, NYY are all .500 teams and one or more of them is going to make the playoffs. I'm not saying put your bets on the 2019 playoffs (2020 is obviously what we should shoot for) but just saying it's not that crazy of a scenario, especially if the division is as bad as I think it's going to be.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2017 -> 04:11 PM) Within a few games of .500 either way seems realistic to me for 2019. And a .500 team in an awful division only needs a few things going right to be a playoff contender. I know that's been the slogan of the past few years but the difference here will be that we're an up and coming team centered around youth and not patchwork mediocre veterans.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Mar 23, 2017 -> 04:01 PM) I'm not saying payoffs in 2019, but it is not out of the question. Detroit is getting old and does not have much of a farm system. Cleveland is in it's prime right now. Kansas City's prime is ending. The Twins are stuck rebuilding, but I like the Sox farm better. The weakness of the division is probably the best reason we might have a shot in 2019. If the rebuild is going well we should be a roughly .500 team, and our division is probably going to be awful. KC and Detroit are probably going to be rebuilding, the Twins still don't really have a path to get pitching, and Cleveland will probably be in its decline phase by then. I wouldn't be surprised if the ALC is by far the worst division in baseball in 2019.