Jake

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:44 PM) Is there anything such as a low ceiling high floor guy? If so, let's target that guy. His name is Lance Broadway

If you told me in 2006 that Matt would stay until 2013 and never win a WS with the White Sox, I'd have told you you were lying.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:17 PM) Pretty good value for someone who's now a overpaid mediocre reliever. Don't speak so ill of the dead traded!

Puig-mania on hold: Yasi leaves game early with apparent injury

I'll have some info up on Yahoo! when their publishing server un-crashes

Those times when your publishing server crashes right as breaking news happens

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 09:54 PM) Viciedo part deux.... I know we weren't gonna get much for Matt, but the sox need a change in philosophy within the org. This guy looks like the same type the sox always end up with... Only time will tell, it's a gamble I guess I don't think he's all that similar to Dayan. Maybe a poor man's Dayan. Less HR production, less batting average, more striking out, more walks.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 09:48 PM) Brandon Jacobs: #13 prospect for Boston entering this season. Former Auburn recruit, signed for 700k in 10th round of 2009 draft. Had breakout season last year in low A after a slow start to pro ball, hitting .303 with 17 HR, 32 2B, 80 RBI in 115 G for an .881 OPS. 30 SB. High A this season, not so great: .244/.334/.443, 11 HR, 25 2B, 44 RBI in 81 G. 10/14 SB. Recent promotion to AA Richmond, 2/6 w/ 3B in 2 games. Plays LF, supposedly has just gotten to "okay" defensively, even getting some reps in CF. Good athlete, considered an extremely high upside bat. Recently lost a lot of weight which led to the high SB total last year and improved defense. 22 years old. [summarizing Baseball America paid content] Forgot to mention, he had a hamate bone injury last season and most chalk up the disappointing numbers to that. Take that FWIW

Best wishes to Matt. Arguably the best reliever in the history of the franchise. An unprecedented run of dominance and consistency. Hopefully father time will hold off long enough for him to have a fun finish to his season and eventually, career.

Brandon Jacobs: #13 prospect for Boston entering this season. Former Auburn recruit, signed for 700k in 10th round of 2009 draft. Had breakout season last year in low A after a slow start to pro ball, hitting .303 with 17 HR, 32 2B, 80 RBI in 115 G for an .881 OPS. 30 SB. High A this season, not so great: .244/.334/.443, 11 HR, 25 2B, 44 RBI in 81 G. 10/14 SB. Recent promotion to AA Richmond, 2/6 w/ 3B in 2 games. Plays LF, supposedly has just gotten to "okay" defensively, even getting some reps in CF. Good athlete, considered an extremely high upside bat. Recently lost a lot of weight which led to the high SB total last year and improved defense. 22 years old. [summarizing Baseball America paid content]

Daryl Van Schouwen ‏@CST_soxvan 38s Thornton and cash to Boston for Brandon Jacobs.

Not sure what to do. It's like he has the yips

There are a ton of international players that put up scary bad numbers in places like the DSL

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 06:30 PM) You're not accounting for positional scarcity. There are only 25 roster spots and not many players can get you 6 or 7 WAR in a given year. Having a guy like that, signed to a below market contract no less, makes building a legit World Series contender that much easier. This is a good point - worth pointing out that Chris had a 4.8 WAR last season. He is on track for a bit higher than that this year. How much more do these players need to produce to make us feel better about position scarcity? In a situation when there is (presently) a scarcity of WAR, do we care so much about position scarcity or is that too short-sighted?

A bunch of us in Soxtalk chat got accounts to troll over there 7 or 8 years ago and I was rightfully insta-banned. I probably could sign up again without my IP being blocked by now since I've moved. It doesn't seem like a good place for me.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 06:05 PM) what does fangraphs have his "official" FB velocity increase as from 2012? About 1.5 mph

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) It's Google Adsense - so since you are using AdBlock Plus provided as an add-in for Google's Chrome, it makes sense that they do not block. I didn't realize they were AdSense ads...I just read a story about AdBlock Plus whitelisting AdSense as their ads are never intrusive ("intrusive ads) are technically the only type of ad that AdBlock Plus seeks to block). They were, however, paid handsomely for this whitelisting. Some debate has ensued about whether that is good practice or not. I say, why not? Non-intrusive ads being whitelisted and ABP making money doesn't seem like the worst thing. It helps websites like Soxtalk, too. Also, I accidentally clicked the banner the other day...so enjoy my 5 cents.

Decide what WAR you are likely to get from Chris Sale over the next 5-7 seasons. Decide what chance the package in return matches or exceeds that WAR. If you get a 3 WAR/year guy, two 2 WAR/year guys, you've already won in grand fashion. But can you do that?

We talk about prospects as if they are all created equal. Some prospects have an extremely low probability of busting (say, lower than the likelihood of Sale's arm exploding) while others are extremely high. You can't just say "prospects" and have an understanding of the risk. Good talent evaluators will do a good job of assessing a particular player's risk.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 04:44 PM) Quintana's stuff is severely underrated. The Buehrle comparisons were asinine. The increase in velocity is kind of strange though; Hector threw harder than reported when he came up too.

When Gordon was drafted, Baseball America had this to say about Gordon's defense: At the end of the 2008 season: During the 2009 season: Overall, it seems the concern was his overall fielding ability, which has proven excellent. Nobody really questioned his athletic tools to be a shortstop, short of that brief comment about his speed (not really relevant?). Those are far from the complete reports, for those worried about copying things behind a paywall.

Another thing I think about: did Zimmerman have an opportunity to try to inflict NON-deadly force? I know this may not pertain legally, but it still makes me wonder. The prosecution has shown that the deadly shot was a picture perfect one for killing a human being - self-defense or not, Zimmerman meant for Martin to die when he fired the gun at his heart. Is it reasonable to expect someone to try to defend themselves with a gun without shooting to kill? I'm not sure. You certainly don't want to miss or hit the person harming you in such a way that it doesn't stop them from harming you.

I thought we liked concealed carry because it defends us from death, yes? When evil people try to kill us (particularly "criminals with guns,") we are allowed to use our concealed weapons to defend ourselves, even if it necessitates deadly force. This sounds great. I think most people in the Zimmerman camp are thinking about the possibility of getting their ass kicked, wondering if a blow the head will kill them, and feeling happy that their gun can diffuse things very quickly. But what I can't help but think about is...does this confrontation ever occur if George Zimmerman isn't armed? Do we feel emboldened to confront people that we believe to be dangerous if we don't feel that we have an easy means to kill them? I don't carry guns with me when I'm out and about and I know that I don't normally feel compelled to prolong my time near people I think could be dangerous. I think it is fair to say that I'm much more likely to listen to the side of me that is annoyed with local crime when I have a gun than the side of me that fears criminals; this is not to say that sometimes fear won't still override other emotional/logical considerations, of course. It's messy. This is why I'm highly skeptical of people that believe that concealed carry and maybe gun ownership in general is an unequivocal good. I don't mean to paint the picture that concealed carry/gun ownership are unequivocally BAD, either.

It's pretty simple. He had no track record since he was drafted. That wasn't necessarily his fault (this has been talked about at length), but there just wasn't a strong back catalogue of success for us to look back at to be sure this isn't "just" a really great hot streak. The fact he's ranked 5 shows you that we're pretty darn sure he's for real.

You want to be able to go into negotiations for an Alexei trade and say, "look, you're trying to acquire our number 2 hitter. There's a price for that."