Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/15/2022 in all areas

  1. Sox have question marks at every position. The only way we can expect to compete for a ring is for everyone on the current roster to play to their full potential. We need career years out of Moncada, Robert, Jimenez, TA among others. For that to happen, we need a manager who can instill a winning culture and inspire 100% effort and performance (a Francona or Cora type). We also need leadership among the players to emerge (I like Abreu but am not convinced he is the a leader of men). As far as trades, I'd look to the Dodgers and see what it takes to get Lux...maybe in combo w/Bellinger and hope for a bounce back. I have no problems sending Giolito to the west coast as part of the package.
    3 points
  2. Yeah as if Swag matters as manager. We need a guy who knows how to manage a game.
    3 points
  3. The long-awaited SoftBank Hawks ace, Kodai Senga, is finally free. There's a TL;DR at the end. After begging his team to post him for at least five years to no avail, he used his domestic free agent leverage last offseason to get him an extension with opts outs every season, and after one year -- to absolutely no one's surprise -- he announced his intent to exercise promptly after the Hawks were eliminated from the playoffs. Senga is NOT the typical NPB import starter -- he's had the best raw stuff in Japan for most of the last decade, rivalled only by Ohtani and just recently by the 20-year old phenom Roki Sasaki. By contrast, his control is not strong. I've had a pleasure of watching a TON of his innings over the last five years, here's my personal breakdown: Summary: He's a 30-year old, mid-sized, true three-quarter right hander who bends the bill of his hat at nearly a 90-degree angle. Arsenal/Stuff: 4-Seam Fastball -- sits 96 - 100, has topped out at 102, and holds the velo well into the late innings. Legit MLB plus Slider -- very bendy, usually relatively hard, high-spin rate, two-plane slider. Gets strikes by locking guys up rather than by deceiving them, also likes to backdoor lefties with it. Think more like a Chris Sale-style slurvy thing rather than a Carlos Rodon-style late-breaker that drops out of the zone but looks like a fastball for the first half of it's trajectory. It's not as good of a pitch as either of those aforementioned comps, but I think it's a pitch that will be plus at times but often play down when he's not locating it. (NOTE: Sometimes he seems to try to throw it soft, maybe this counts as a cutter as I've seen people write that he has one over the years, but whatever it is he shouldn't do it because the slows his arm way down and it just doesn't move a ton, which I've always imagined should telegraph the pitch.) Splitter -- This is his best pitch, it even has a nickname: "The Ghost Fork." This is, effectively, your Rodon slider: goes straight until it gets like 50-60% there and then just abruptly shifts 30 degrees down with a bit of fade. Incredibly effective in conjunction with his hard fastball. MLB plus pitch. Curve -- It's a hard, tight breaking 12-6 that doesn't drop quite far enough to be a consistent swing-and-miss offering. This is effective as a show-me pitch, good for grabbing strike one and for the element of surprise 5-6 times a start, but it's not going to carry any of his appearances. Command/Control: Not good. It's not Nuke LaLoosh or anything, but he misses the glove as often as he hits it, and often by quite a bit. Early in his career he would meltdown occasionally with walks, but it's more "wild in the zone" these days. I'm am nothing even remotely close to qualified to diagnose mechanical issues, but if I was a betting man, I'd wager that a lot of his challenges stem from his pretty extreme "head whack." Notice how violently his head jerks as he starts his follow-through, especially on fastballs: He's crushed the NPB because his stuff has been overwhelming, and even though it's good even for MLB, it's a real question as to whether it'll be dominant enough to make up for the location issues, particularly if he's going to continue to be a starter. I will say, from what I've seen he very rarely HANGS anything, but his pitches frequently end up in places they should not. Health/Durability: He's been nicked up a bit the past few years, but the injuries have been scattered and the serious ones haven't been arm-related (though a couple have been shoulder-related, mostly earlier in his career). The most notable was a freak accident of years ago, he had started the year on the DL for some vague reason, and in what I want to say was his FIRST start back, he got drilled by a comebacker and landed awkwardly on his ankle, resulting in some kind of sprain or fracture that cost him like half the season. Doesn't seem to have had any long-term effect on his stuff. He holds his velo very deep in starts. I've seen him hit 100 in the 8th inning multiple times. Interestingly enough, he was somehow not drafted as an actual prospect (he was picked up as a "development squad player," which is essentially the MLB equivalent of an undrafted free agent) and began his career as a reliever, so he's got relatively fewer innings on his arm than the typical 30-year old NPB ace. Other Notes: For whatever it's worth: A couple years ago, Hawks broadcasts used to show spin rate on every pitch along with velo. It was amazing, and I hate that they stopped. But I used to compare his rates with what Statcast showed, and every pitch was comfortably above MLB average. I am legitimately worried about his control, but I can't help but think that if he fails as a starter, he could be a very safe bet as a high-leverage reliever because you so rarely see a starter's arsenal in that role these days Unlike a lot of NPB pitchers, he does NOT like to f*** around with breaking balls high in the zone. I think this is one of the things that helps him get away with the poor control. If he would have been posted at 26 or whatever when he originally started asking, he'd have been a $100-200m arm with no doubt. At 30 with a touch of injury-history, I think he's looking at a shorter deal but still with some real money because the spin and velo are legit. The arsenal isn't nearly as deep, but the stuff is every bit as good as Darvish/Ohtani when they came over. You never know, but I tend to doubt that there's much that can be done to substantially improve to location stuff, just given his age and the head-whack thing. If you only watch one video, watch this next one -- real good look at the splitter and a close-up of the head-whack at 1:22: TL;DR -- MLB #2 starter-level stuff/arsenal, 7th-inning reliever-style control. I think a LOT of teams will be in at 3 years/$45-60m because he's a very safe bet to be a contributor -- even if he can't start, he can almost certainly set-up or close -- but if some sees something they think they can fix that would improve his control, I wouldn't be shocked if they gave him up to 5 years. The White Sox will, unsurprisingly, not even kick the tires.
    2 points
  4. And Tony would have walked him with 2 strikes.
    2 points
  5. God knows Grandal would have called fastballs
    2 points
  6. 1. Espada 2. Beltran 3. Bochy 4. Grifol 5,432. Washington 6,749,530. Maddon 7,645,980,610. Shildt So it will be Shildt
    2 points
  7. I'm sure the Phillies regret signing Harper when they could have traded for Gavin Sheets and AJ Pollock instead.
    2 points
  8. Bruce has never been right about the white sox, he staked his reputation on the white sox signing Omar Vizquel and 6 hours later he signed a 3 year deal with the giants. He doesn’t break news about them, he has zero sources
    2 points
  9. White Sox looking to infuse some youth into the managerial spot I see.
    2 points
  10. Don't you understand that the next manager has to have his favorite color as purple and have a dog named Duke?
    2 points
  11. What does winning have to do with where Harris grew up?
    2 points
  12. Bruce Levine is the TLR of journalism, out of touch and barely cognitive.
    1 point
  13. I’d love to see Quantrill just have the game of his life tomorrow night.
    1 point
  14. Kwan has to be hitting .600 this year when I watch them
    1 point
  15. All I know is that if Schmidt keeps throwing those low breaking balls against Gonzalez, he's gonna walk it off.
    1 point
  16. Mariners could have easily swept that series
    1 point
  17. I'm sure this time hiring a manager in their 70s, who the game passed by over a decade ago, will actually work out.
    1 point
  18. Ron Washington would be a substantial upgrade over what Tony La Russa provided the last two seasons
    1 point
  19. Look at the original statement by Hahn on the qualifications and then his latest version of that. If an older manager is hired, then you know Kenny and Jerry are truly running it and Hahn is a GM in name alone. Fancy title for the same role he has had in the past. The contract guy. Decisions are made up at a higher level.
    1 point
  20. I know the cheating scandal happened, but you can't deny the talent on that roster. It really is astonishing to see where that club is in Houston compared to our White Sox and to see the trajectory of both clubs since they met each other in the 05 Series. Just night and day difference.
    1 point
  21. Wife and I now are betting on which game ends first, the one in the 5th or the one in the 15th.
    1 point
  22. At least he can play the outfield and first decently.
    1 point
  23. Is this just a ploy to get a better hitting coach?
    1 point
  24. Bruce was probably the most accurate during the Machado "pursuit" Bob and Bruce are wrong a lot in general, but when it comes to the White Sox I'd believe them over anyone else in baseball media.
    1 point
  25. You and me both. What's particularly painful is listening to Harper talk about *his* interest in signing with the Sox when he was a free agent. It was obvious the idea of signing here really appealed to him, but fortunately for all of us, Jerry made sure that wasn't going to happen. ? “I was like, ‘They could be a good team.’ They’ve got a lot of good arms. They’ve got (Michael) Kopech, they’ve got (Reynaldo) Lopez, they’ve got (Lucas) Giolito, two guys they got from the Nats in the (Adam) Eaton trade. They’ve got really good pitching. They’ve got Dane Dunning, as well, who’s a minor league guy. He’ll be in the big leagues this year, possibly. So they had a lot of good prospects coming up. (Nick) Madrigal, I think. “So they had a lot of good guys, and I was like, ‘Hmm. Who’s going to hit behind me? Oh, shoot, big ol’ first baseman (Jose Abreu)’s going to hit behind me.’ That’s huge for me because he just kind of goes about his business, hits .280 every year with 25 (home runs) quietly and nobody really talks about it. But he’s a very good guy to hit behind me, so that was a big thing, as well. https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/bryce-harper-raves-about-2018-meeting-white-sox-during-mlb-free-agency
    1 point
  26. The playoffs are more fluky than ever, especially this new format. None of the teams that got a bye have played well. The Astros would be down 2-0 if it wasn't for Yordan Alvarez. All you gotta do is get in and hope your team gets hot. The Sox could have done that had they made a change at manager in June or July.
    1 point
  27. Certainly possible but keep in mind this is Bruce Levine, Chicago's answer to Nightengale. (I.e. a guy who more often than not is wrong...)
    1 point
  28. Let them have him. The Sox need to construct their roster to win and already have a 1B for the future.
    1 point
  29. 1 point
  30. For what it's worth I was told the Ron Washington interview went very well.
    1 point
  31. The Jackie Robinson thing is an interesting fact. The swag thing isn't much of an attribute IMO. We don't need a pal for the players...just a teacher.
    1 point
  32. I’d prolly say most of us on here are baseball “nerds”
    1 point
  33. Let Benetti go. He is a terrible baseball broadcaster. Bring in AJ or someone that is actually good
    1 point
  34. Totally agree with you regarding the regular season. The thing that keeps me coming back (like a sucker) is the guaranteed playoff tickets in the event of a deep playoff run, and the stinging memory of getting myself and family members shut out of World Series games because I couldn't find tickets for less than four figures. That was 2005. If that happened again nowadays the guaranteed face-value WS tickets you get with season ticket packages would be an absolute goldmine.
    1 point
  35. Again, if they don't want to pay him, they non-tender him.
    1 point
  36. This. Much like the sentiment across this thread, I told my group I will not be renewing my portion which was 12 games. We had 4 seats, 5 rows behind the dugout plus parking/stadium club. I generally use half for work, half for personal. This year I couldn't find work or personal to take (free to all parties invited ... expensed for work, free for friends). I ended up giving away tickets to 2 games, selling the other 10 games and getting about $50 per ticket on a $80-90 face value. My perspective is such: a) why lock into any specific game? you're stuck with weather, with work obligations, family obligations, etc. etc. Locking into games lacks flexibility b) there is absolutely no cost savings. See above. StubHub has them cheaper for 80% of the games. c) I was part of a group that have had tickets since new Comiskey opened. Even with 12 games I was only able to negotiate getting an ALDS game, so playoffs don't add anything to my incentive. On top of that, last year when they went on sale i was able to grab tickets for all the ALDS games at face value. Now they weren't my seats and right next to the field, but all were generally good and in between the dugouts. No reason to get season tickets when you can still buy your way into the playoffs d) i had no fun. even beside the losing. stadium club was an absolute joke for the 3rd year in a row. stale bread that falls apart, no service, poor food quality, over crowded. Hell i went there on an April game. 45 degrees out. maybe 8k fans at the park, slight mist/rain. I took my parents. To sit in stadium club on the glass cost $5 per person ...What is that? Insanity. You pay for a ticket to the game, for stadium club access and then $5 to see the game? Buy a $15 beef that falls apart ... To me there's absolutely no value left to season ticket proposition. And you know what? I'd love to sit down with a Brooks or anybody high up in the organization and have them experience the process. From getting into games to food, to stadium club, etc. etc. And I'll give the Sox some credit ... they did a lot of things right this year. The bathroom and beer lines in my section were always moving. They staffed concessions well. The people were generally courteous, etc. But they also did a lot of things wrong -- to me Stadium club, parking, season ticket appreciation events all lacked massively. I'll take my $5k and park it anywhere else. Probably end up buying a few scout seats game on stubhub, but that's it. If they go to the playoffs, I'll use the other $3k and buy those games. No reason to waste my time going to pointless games.
    1 point
  37. Swag w/o results is just hubris. This org has that in spades.
    1 point
  38. Talent will always win out, but this type of stuff makes a difference
    1 point
  39. These boys have zero swag. Sorry Willie.
    1 point
  40. I get trying to make each season profitable but, let's be honest, with few exceptions we see the biggest gains in franchise value through simple asset appreciation. Reinsdorf and company bought this team for $20M....it's now worth (conservatively) $2billion. And they want to stick it to the fans after a b.s. season? They want to whine about payroll? Here's a helpful hint to ol' Jerr...you're about to die soon. If you want this team to climb in value on your way out the door, get to spending and improve your product. Build the fanbase, increase the TV deals, sell more STs. Dicking over fans while your initial investment has grown nearly 10,000% over the past 40 years is just disgusting, especially given the lack of competitive seasons this franchise has mustered over the decades under Reinsdorf.
    1 point
  41. I think most who are not renewing probably still intend to attend some games. It's cheaper on stubhub. They have taken away most of the season ticketholder perks. My invoice is actually less than $1 cheaper. I'll hold out and see what their first moves are. Who knows, they may bring back the Ballpark Pass.
    1 point
  42. These are trash posts and don't deserve to be shared. If they really didn't want Gio, they could just non-tender him.
    1 point
  43. Orlando making s%*# up again
    1 point
  44. I will renew. It’s baseball and where else am I supposed to go?
    1 point
  45. They don't give a s%*#. I find it hilarious that the word f*** is so versatile that random variations evade the swear filter. Lol. f*** those fucking fuckers and their fuckery.
    1 point
  46. Just my opinion, Jose isn't a 4 war player. Don't know how they figure WAR. Putting up an .825 OPS and being a mediocre defensive 1B doesn't cut it. His 60+ walks a year do not make up for 15 homers as a 1B. He has been a helluva player for a long time. But it's time to cut bait.
    1 point
  47. Brooks Boyer is in the White Sox front office, he's just not on the baseball side of the operations. I'm not saying by the way this situation has anything to do with him one way or the other. It should also be noted that at least in the past JR has been involved in this area, that's the reason Dave Wills left and took the Tampa Bay job. People in the front office wanted him to start doing the Sox games but JR never gave his approval for some reason. Dave got tired of waiting which I certainly understand.
    1 point
This leaderboard is set to Chicago/GMT-06:00
×
×
  • Create New...