Jake

I've gotta say, it's been several years now where every game the Hawks play, the story is about how good the other goalie is. Our goalie very often surrenders fewer goals than opposing super-goalie. Not a peep. Crawford isn't always great and we're going to hate that contract, but the broadcasting tandem had the Hawks losing Game 5 when we were up 3-1. Tuuka, Quick, Howard, Miller, whoever. I've seen our guy beat 'em. I'd like to see someone talk about Crawford as if he's not a swinging door for once. It's one of those deals where every goal allowed confirms that he sucks and no great game or series or playoffs ever matters. I hope he saves the end of our series like he did in Minnesota

That makes zero things I'll watch on WGN

I think we know that there is very little definitively known, at least on a grand scale, about pitching. We do know that doing more of a damaging thing tends to be more damaging and that expert surgeons tend to be better at guessing than random ex-ballplayers

Hard for me to pass on Rodon, but people are not giving Kolek nearly enough credit. You're not just drafting a 102 mph fastball - we've done that before, it was in the late rounds, his name was Jeff Soptic. Kolek has good command, a very good breaking ball, and overall solid pitchability. He's very refined for an 18 year old. There's still plenty of work to do, but he'd be a first rounder if he could only hit 96. QUOTE (bmags @ May 29, 2014 -> 09:49 AM) Yeah he was a really young pitcher that relied on sliders and horrible mechanics. His slider was very much a tertiary pitch in college. He was a plus changeup guy all the way and didn't mess with slider much until we put him in relief as a pro.

Yeah he's looked fine. Sample sizes, people.

Yes, I believe that was Ozney. The allegation is that nobody wanted to draft him since it was common knowledge that we were going to draft him. When we "waited" until the 20th round to pick him, that was not indicative of his true value because if his last name was not Guillen he would have been taken much higher. That's what they said, at least.

I think the Cubs should have to see the consequences of their bad business decision rather than have the rules rewritten for them

When Noesi is on, not only is he good, but he's efficient. Not all guys get efficient just because they're going good.

Never doubted you Zus! D and goalie really stepped up in OT period

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 28, 2014 -> 07:55 PM) Sanchez you mean? No. I wanted to add Semien to the "SS of the future" conversation because he is probably still the most likely candidate in our system

If you want to make an offense look bad, pitch a crafty lefty they've never seen before

Does anyone see a chance here, provided we get out of this game?

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 28, 2014 -> 07:54 PM) What happened? QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 28, 2014 -> 08:31 PM) so is kong injured or something? PK's back is "locked up" per Ventura. Has not been available to play defense for awhile

In the past two series our D has looked like the clear issue with the team, exacerbated by a goalie that rarely saves a bad defensive play from turning into a goal (last couple games in MIN series excepted)

Time to accept that our D is no good and our goalie is probably worse

Semien could very well be the SS of the future

QUOTE (fathom @ May 28, 2014 -> 07:51 PM) Some horrible swings vs House so far. Still can't get over that PK isn't facing a LHP, yet faced Masterson last night. He's hurt

I always wonder, do they warm up? I could do some crazy things trying to throw a ball 60 feet with no warmup

Hawk wears sunglasses because that eye surgery he had a while back left that eye a bit wacky. He does it so as to not be distracting people with his crazy eye. ADA has been incredibly unlucky this year. Same BB%, K%, LD%, GB%, FB%, HR/FB give or take just a little bit. He's pretty damn unlikable, I know, but chances are he's been just as unlucky. Last pitch from Beli was 96 there

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ May 27, 2014 -> 11:31 PM) That damn IPad is always giving him fits He still has to be in the 99th percentile of 70+ year old ability to use tablets

Jesus Tito, do you really want to use your fourth pitcher in the fifth inning?

I don't know what technology goes into the Menards Pitch Trax, but that pitch was too high and outside to be a strike

FWIW, when I dealt with a SLAP tear and RC fraying I rarely felt "pain" in such a way that you would think you injured something. Velocity lowered, shoulder stiffened, constantly felt like I needed more warm-up/more rest. Like dead arm that never goes away

I'm honestly totally undecided about bringing a pitcher back after delay. I know that nobody does it, but I've never been exposed to hard evidence that it's a terrible idea. I've done it in situations like this, where it is basically two relief appearances.

Usually you don't rearrange your lineup because of extremely small sample size stats against a particular pitcher