tray

The tanking thing has gotten old. We are well beyond that and with almost a third of the season gone, it looks like the Sox can stay around .500 and play good entertaining baseball to attract fans and provide the team with revenue. I have a few acquaintances who are cubz fans. They are crapping their pants because the team is only playing .500 and looking very beatable. There is a positive vibe among Sox fans right now, like we are looking ahead with hope while cubs fans are looking ahead with apprehension and perhaps even fear of starting another epic WS drought.

After reading about Dale Earnhardt Jr. today, the subject of PEDs by athletes came to mind. Do you suppose Robert has been tested in Cuba for PED use? Isn't a drug test for performance enhancing drugs something that would be part of the physical that the Sox gave him before they signed him? I hope so. he looks like a very nice young man and he is ripped with muscles. This guy could be a game changer for our Sox and Keith Law could end up sucking on it.

But with high expectations and pressure for a repeat, that time has come and gone.

witesoxfan post Apr 18, 2017 -> 03:39 PM I would trade Garcia to the Cubs for Schwarber so fast it would make your head spin. ----------- Rowand44 post Apr 18, 2017 -> 06:02 PM Schwarber has outproduced Avi at every level and when I say outproduced, he's destroyed his numbers at every level, he's about 2 years younger, is under contract for a few more years but you wouldn't trade Avi for Kyle because you think he's fat. Got it. ---------- southsider2k5 post Apr 19, 2017 -> 09:59 AM Wow. Apparently the heroin epidemic has hit Soxtalk. Extending Avi? Trading Avi for Schwarber? Step one is admitting you have a problem. Get help. ----------------------- Oh yea, Schwarber is great and anyone suggesting that Avi is as good or better is on heroine and should get help. Well, Schwarber was just demoted to a platoon role since he is batting .147, yes a dollar forty-seven against LH pitching and well under .200 against RH pitching. Avi looks like he is on a different path, improving offensively and defensively this season.

Jerry, KW and Hahn made a decision to go balls to the wall for Luis Robert. Apparently anything that had to be done was done to get him. I smiled today when I got a text from my son "We got him" :-)

"Effectively... Chris Sale = Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basebe, Victor Diaz " That is a good way to think about the Sale trade. Kudos to Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams Rick Hahn, and everyone on our international scouting team that helped get this done. Don't stop now boys !

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ May 18, 2017 -> 01:15 PM) I feel like wherever Moncada is best is where he winds up. There's no reason to force him into a position on a bad baseball team. No one is forcing him to do anything. He is substandard defensively at second...no where near as good as Sanchez or Saladino. Scouts have suggested that his skills might be better suited to CF. A few of us fans would like to see him simply try CF because we see what the scouts have noticed. Moncada has the speed and arm to play CF while his defense at second has been lacking. Another way to put it is this - Moncada's quickness, speed and arm strength, would be maximized as a CFer.

I don't understand why Moncada is not at least exploring the possibility of playing Center Field or third base.

QUOTE (soxfan18 @ May 16, 2017 -> 12:15 PM) He should check Stubhub on a weeknight. Very easy to get into Wrigley for $15-20. Even if I was interested in the cubz, I wouldn't waste time driving back and forth to the North side and shuttling back and forth to my car if you gave me a ticket. It is a cluster ph_k starting in traffic and then once you get there. Only worth the bother for the die hards.

Cub glory is already fading. Someone here laughed when I suggested that Avi Garcia might be more valuable than Kyle Schwarber. If the early trends continue, that might prove to be the case. Arrieta appears to have come back down to Earth or perhaps he has stopped juicing. Cubs are not going to repeat and when they don't the bandwagon will start to unload.

Caulfield: I don't see many minority people in the stands at professional baseball games and certainly not very many at Sox park or Nuveen field on the North side. Yes, minorities attend in numbers, but not anywhere near the percentage of minorities in the City, which consists of about 33% black and 30% Hispanics. That may change over time, but until then, there should never be anyone hurling ethnic slurs at black players from the stands. That was done a few years back at Wrigley and more recently at Fenway. So, race has lingered as an issue long after Jackie Robinson was allowed to play, but let's not drag politics into the Sox/Cubs thing. That rivalry exists no matter what one's politics are and regardless of race/ethnicity.

Primarily Sox fans attend to see the team play competitive baseball around .500 and to never quit when they are behind. Another reason - overzealous cub fans have also spiked interest in the White Sox. Sox fans have really grown sick of the cubs and their fans. I see a lot more people this year wearing White Sox hats and jerseys around town. Being a Sox fan seems more special than it has for a long time.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 10, 2017 -> 04:30 PM) Everyone can spin it anyway they like, the bottom line is the results have to get better or this guy is a bust. It is always easy to blame messing with mechanics and it takes a while to get back to the old way, but remember the old way got him a TJ surgery at a young age. This stuff is still fluff until he starts pitching better. Precisely.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 10, 2017 -> 01:06 PM) What? Giolito would be best served by simply pitching better than he has thus far in the minor league. There isn't much more that can be said by him or by others to excuse or to explain poor performance. (0-5 7.31 ERA in the Minors).

Frazier isn't blocking anyone. Davidson can't hit enough to be an every day player and Delmonico cannot play mlb level defense at any position. We need home runs. Hopefully Frazier starts hitting a lot of them.

Giolito needs to let his performance speak for itself.

Please don't mention Trea Turner. I wanted the Sox to draft him so bad in 2014 and they passed on him for Rodon.

Most minor league player will never be "ready" for the majors no matter how much seasoning they have. Others don't need more than a quick stint in the minor league before they are promoted and prove that they belong. IMO Moncada is in the SECOND category. I expect that he will be promoted next week, some time on or soon after May 14. Fulmer? He reminds me of Erik Johnson in a lot of ways. Hopefully Fulmer's career is not on a similar trajectory. I think Reynaldo Lopez profiles better as a major league starting pitcher than Fulmer, even though his record in the minors has not distinguished him to this point. I just don't know what to make of Giolito. He looks polished but the results have thus far been unremarkable.

Small sample size but great start. Much better than schwabber's .196 batting average.

There isn't anything magical about Avi's improvement. He focused on weight loss and conditioning in the off-season and it has paid dividends with his offense, defense and with his confidence. Several big clutch hits already this season including a home run and a triple against Detroit.

An alternative to tanking - Continue to play good baseball. That will put fans in the seats who will drink beer. Then spend the beer money on Luis Robert.

Great win against division rivals. Renteria exposing how bad Ventura truly was.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 27, 2017 -> 09:41 AM) I missed the home run because I was in the middle of a post criticizing him, so glad that was cleared up. I get it. hahahaha. omg so funny!

Those who spend more time criticizing the White Sox than watching them might not have noticed that Avi has improved markedly as a hitter and as a fielder. Part of his improvement is due to substantial weight loss and physical conditioning. Avi has made adjustments at the plate with his approach. He is taking more pitches that are away and outside the strike zone. That has made pitchers throw him more pitches in the strike zone after they get down in the count. I don't know what the exit velocity is on Avi's hone runs but that missile he launched to center fired yesterday was one of the longest home runs I have seen to that part of the ballpark in a few years. He is waiting on pitches and watching the ball until contact. It has been impressive thus far.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 03:43 PM) Albers was lights out at this time last year. I guess you missed the point of the post. Well OK the White Sox might go into a season long dive like last year and Swarzek might blow up like Albers. That is one way to look at it. My own view is that our bullpen is deeper this year than last, there are reinforcements available in the minors that we didn't have last year, and most importantly, Renteria actually knows how to use a bullpen. This is a different Manager, a different team, and a different season. My own opinion is that the Sox are better right now than they were at the same time last season, regardless of the record or Matt Albers.