I really think Anderson is gonna end up being a plus SS. He's got all the tools you can ask for and I actually think he's a quick learner considering the circumstances. 

It is hard to understand how the front office thought that it was a good idea to rush Anderson to the Big Leagues, when they completely understood that he was "raw". You would think that he would have been kept in the Minors, while he was learning the nuances of the game. What was the big hurry? I guess that was when they thought that they were going to be competitive, before they committed to a rebuild.

7 minutes ago, Lillian said:

It is hard to understand how the front office thought that it was a good idea to rush Anderson to the Big Leagues, when they completely understood that he was "raw". You would think that he would have been kept in the Minors, while he was learning the nuances of the game. What was the big hurry? I guess that was when they thought that they were going to be competitive, before they committed to a rebuild.

Maybe they thought it would be more beneficial to get reps in the big leagues and coached there. Major league fields play way better. 

3 hours ago, pcq said:

There is both too much ignorance and too much sensitivity out there. I try to tolerate everyone doing their thing. Some whites flip out when you say that flag is not allowed here. Tolerance within reason. I support Kap and diversity. Baseball has had strange diversity. I wish Tim had more friends in his club to hang with. What would Jackie think. 

I like that girl in your avatar.  I reverse image searched her and found her IG.  She's a THOT, but she's cute.  

Anyways,  the demographics of baseball have changed dramatically and as a white dude I lament that there are less blacks in the game then when I was a kid.  I dunno, it's probably a racist thought of mine but black players just have more charisma most of the time imo.  

It surprised me to to see folks talk about big frank and racism.  has frank ever spoken about it?  I was too young to really understand it but man Frank was just a hero to me.  I always though Bonds got treated poorly because he was a surly black.  I guess frank probably did too.  one thing I think the media (overall, now) appreciates about frank is that there was never a whiff of roids around him.  that probably wasn't a factor at the time he played, at least for the most part.

58 minutes ago, TaylorStSox said:

Maybe they thought it would be more beneficial to get reps in the big leagues and coached there. Major league fields play way better. 

 

1 hour ago, Lillian said:

It is hard to understand how the front office thought that it was a good idea to rush Anderson to the Big Leagues, when they completely understood that he was "raw". You would think that he would have been kept in the Minors, while he was learning the nuances of the game. What was the big hurry? I guess that was when they thought that they were going to be competitive, before they committed to a rebuild.

Guys you know the answer to this. It was 2016 in May, Jimmy Rollins was the starting SS, the Team that Rick Hahn had convinced himself was a competitive roster got out to a 10 games over .500 record then realized that Rollins was a terrible starting SS and, as their record was collapsing, they made desperation moves.

The 3 desperation moves made that May/June were:
1. Calling up Anderson to take over SS after 2 months in AAA
2. Calling up Carson Fulmer to save the bullpen when he had an ERA of 5 in AA
3. Trading some no-name minor leaguer and Erik Johnson for James Shields.

Same pulse of events involved them acquiring Miguel Gonzalez and waiving Danks and Latos. Those weren't as bad of moves, but still same basic concept. They turned over 20% of the big league roster in a month to try to stop that collapse.

All 3 of those were terrible moves, in all honesty Anderson probably was the least bad of them as he had a decent start to his career, but he still has had some struggles since. All of them did long term damage to the franchise in order to save Ricky's 2016 juggernaut.

These are the kinds of mistakes a GM makes when he convinces himself he has a competitive team and he does not.

Anderson will be fine. Remember when Alexei stunk? He got better, too. We can live with Anderson booting routine balls in 7-1 games when we're a contending team. He'll probably always have a focus problem, but should be good enough for a WS caliber team SS.

34 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

 

Guys you know the answer to this. It was 2016 in May, Jimmy Rollins was the starting SS, the Team that Rick Hahn had convinced himself was a competitive roster got out to a 10 games over .500 record then realized that Rollins was a terrible starting SS and, as their record was collapsing, they made desperation moves.

The 3 desperation moves made that May/June were:
1. Calling up Anderson to take over SS after 2 months in AAA
2. Calling up Carson Fulmer to save the bullpen when he had an ERA of 5 in AA
3. Trading some no-name minor leaguer and Erik Johnson for James Shields.

Same pulse of events involved them acquiring Miguel Gonzalez and waiving Danks and Latos. Those weren't as bad of moves, but still same basic concept. They turned over 20% of the big league roster in a month to try to stop that collapse.

All 3 of those were terrible moves, in all honesty Anderson probably was the least bad of them as he had a decent start to his career, but he still has had some struggles since. All of them did long term damage to the franchise in order to save Ricky's 2016 juggernaut.

These are the kinds of mistakes a GM makes when he convinces himself he has a competitive team and he does not.

Don’t forget drafting Burdi with the idea he would contribute to the playoff race right off the bat...

What a strange thread. If I had a nickel for every time a Sox player was called a mental midget here on this board. I'd, well, I'd have a shit load of nickels.Black white brown etc everyone gets torched here.

Oh and don't forget Kenny Williams and Big Frank didn't get along great either.

10 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said:

I like that girl in your avatar.  I reverse image searched her and found her IG.  She's a THOT, but she's cute.  

Anyways,  the demographics of baseball have changed dramatically and as a white dude I lament that there are less blacks in the game then when I was a kid.  I dunno, it's probably a racist thought of mine but black players just have more charisma most of the time imo.  

It surprised me to to see folks talk about big frank and racism.  has frank ever spoken about it?  I was too young to really understand it but man Frank was just a hero to me.  I always though Bonds got treated poorly because he was a surly black.  I guess frank probably did too.  one thing I think the media (overall, now) appreciates about frank is that there was never a whiff of roids around him.  that probably wasn't a factor at the time he played, at least for the most part.

Steroids were a huge factor in baseball, during Frank's career and he was very vocal about the fact that he didn't use any.  In fact, he probably lost the MVP award to Mark McGwire, because of PED's. This article might be of interest:   http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1917409-how-frank-thomas-brilliant-career-was-overshadowed-by-the-ped-era  

2 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Steroids were a huge factor in baseball, during Frank's career and he was very vocal about the fact that he didn't use any.  In fact, he probably lost the MVP award to Mark McGwire, because of PED's. This article might be of interest:   http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1917409-how-frank-thomas-brilliant-career-was-overshadowed-by-the-ped-era  

In 2000 he came in second to Jason Giambi I believe. 

11 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

 

Guys you know the answer to this. It was 2016 in May, Jimmy Rollins was the starting SS, the Team that Rick Hahn had convinced himself was a competitive roster got out to a 10 games over .500 record then realized that Rollins was a terrible starting SS and, as their record was collapsing, they made desperation moves.

The 3 desperation moves made that May/June were:
1. Calling up Anderson to take over SS after 2 months in AAA
2. Calling up Carson Fulmer to save the bullpen when he had an ERA of 5 in AA
3. Trading some no-name minor leaguer and Erik Johnson for James Shields.

Same pulse of events involved them acquiring Miguel Gonzalez and waiving Danks and Latos. Those weren't as bad of moves, but still same basic concept. They turned over 20% of the big league roster in a month to try to stop that collapse.

All 3 of those were terrible moves, in all honesty Anderson probably was the least bad of them as he had a decent start to his career, but he still has had some struggles since. All of them did long term damage to the franchise in order to save Ricky's 2016 juggernaut.

These are the kinds of mistakes a GM makes when he convinces himself he has a competitive team and he does not.

While I don't disagree that the decision to call up Anderson was affected by our MLB situation and our hopes for competing, Anderson's call-up was definitely the most defensible of those moves. He really was close to ready for MLB, at least as close as we were likely to get him without exposing him to big league competition. He was and is a work in progress, but I'm not sure that a couple more months or even the rest of that season would have made him better off at this point.

Fulmer, on the other hand, has been jerked around so badly it's remarkable that he's been competitive in MLB this season.

Edited May 1, 20187 yr by Jake

It's hard to make the case that an infielder's defensive development was ruined by an aggressive call-up.

5 minutes ago, Eminor3rd said:

It's hard to make the case that an infielder's defensive development was ruined by an aggressive call-up.

Ruined? No. Could the kid have benefited from more time in AAA? I would say absolutely. 

Just now, Balta1701 said:

Ruined? No. Could the kid have benefited from more time in AAA? I would say absolutely. 

I think it could have done a lot of his development as a hitter, but I don't see a substantial difference in the process of learning SS at the AAA or MLB level. Yeah, the balls are hit harder and the runners are faster, so we're going to see him have to develop in a more physically demanding environment, but I can't see how it would actually be stunting him in any way.

It's not like he's going to pick up bad habits or anything as a result, you know? 

Just now, Eminor3rd said:

I think it could have done a lot of his development as a hitter, but I don't see a substantial difference in the process of learning SS at the AAA or MLB level. Yeah, the balls are hit harder and the runners are faster, so we're going to see him have to develop in a more physically demanding environment, but I can't see how it would actually be stunting him in any way.

It's not like he's going to pick up bad habits or anything as a result, you know? 

Oh, ok, so you were only focusing on that side of the ball whereas I was combining both. I think we agree on that.

14 hours ago, TaylorStSox said:

I really think Anderson is gonna end up being a plus SS. He's got all the tools you can ask for and I actually think he's a quick learner considering the circumstances. 

I agree. This is a developmental season or two from the Sox and with that, I want to give TA the time, because he absolutely has the tools and seems to also have the work ethic, etc. I also like the edge he plays with. The fact that we've seen him improve his eye at the plate is another positive as well.  

3 hours ago, Lillian said:

Steroids were a huge factor in baseball, during Frank's career and he was very vocal about the fact that he didn't use any.  In fact, he probably lost the MVP award to Mark McGwire, because of PED's. This article might be of interest:   http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1917409-how-frank-thomas-brilliant-career-was-overshadowed-by-the-ped-era  

Mark McGwire never won an MVP.

Lillian what I meant WRT to Frank and the media is that at the time he was playing, at least earlier in his career, Frank didn't get any "points" from the media for being clean.  Everybody was "clean" or nobody cared if they weren't until Sosa and McGuire did their thing and McGuire was pictured with the andro bottle (now an illegal substance but it wasn't at the time).

Until the cover was blown off the Steroid Era Frank was mostly seen as a grumpy, standoffish "asshole" with the media.   Later in his career and as a HOFer the narrative changed on Frank and a lot of the same media types that didn't like him now praised him for "respecting the game" or whatever.

It's all a bunch of nonsense imo (media narratives that take on a life of their own) but I'm glad that Frank had some redemption with the media late in his career and as a HOFer.

And hell, now he gets paid to pitch legal supplements every other commercial break on the sports radio dial...!

FWIW I never heard any racism at Comiskey directed at Frank.  Maybe he got it more on the road or maybe I was too young to really be listening.  I do not doubt that he experienced some racial abuse during his career.

Edited May 1, 20187 yr by chitownsportsfan

14 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

What a strange thread. If I had a nickel for every time a Sox player was called a mental midget here on this board. I'd, well, I'd have a shit load of nickels.Black white brown etc everyone gets torched here.

It's not worth the energy of being offended at everything or trying to suspect the motives of others. We are all subject to our own circumstances and objective to nothing.

I stand corrected. Of course, it was indeed Giambi who won the MVP, when it should have gone to the "Big Hurt". Giambi was another PED user.