Jake

QUOTE (fathom @ May 21, 2016 -> 05:00 PM) So Soria this year is getting crushed by righties (.840 OPS compared to .560 by lefties). Jimmy Rollins has an OPS below .500 vs RHP this year, and Avi is at .753 vs RHP. Letting Rollins PH for Sands there is a decision that makes no sense on any level. Since I was feeling curious, I checked Rollins' career numbers against Soria. 1 for 1 with a 2B, probably not a major factor in the decision. Avi was 1 for 7 with a 2B and a K, again probably not something that stood out to the decisionmakers. With that said, Avi's numbers over the past week/2 weeks are not so good while Rollins's are...okay, a tick better than his season averages. With that said, Rollins's struggles against RHP vs LHP is not something that has been consistent over his career, so I'm not sure how much I would be thinking about it

He's getting very hard to watch. Slumping is one thing, even getting worse is one thing, but right now he has some elementary problems. It's not just that it feels like he's being pitched very consistently and predictably inside, the numbers bear it out as well. Nobody sees as many inside fastballs in the league as Jose. But he can't lay off of them and he can't hit them hard. I'd like to see him at least look like he has a different strategy. Go up there looking for inside heat and pound it...or, if he just can't do that, then try to go up there refusing to swing at anything that looks to him like it's on the inside third. Right now it looks like he's up there trying to be able to cover any kind of pitch, but he's only seeing one kind of pitch and he can't handle that one.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 14, 2016 -> 10:17 AM) So Lebron trying to start s*** with Warriors. I think Lebron is best when he keeps his trap shut. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/05/steph-curr...h-cavs-warriors I don't even understand his point. It sounds like he's saying that Steph was the best player but not the most valuable, when I think the opposite argument would be the most helpful to LeBron. A lot of people would still say that LeBron is the best player even if Steph appears more valuable right now. In any case, he makes it really unclear what it is that he's trying to say.

It's clear that the airport security measures are heavy-handed, inefficient, and if recent news stories are true, not even that good at what they are supposed to do. I think it is very clear marker of the way we have been willing to give up our freedoms in the name of a war on terror. Of course, this isn't a matter of no security vs. the status quo, it's a question of whether you should be lining up and taking your shoes off, being subjected to random strip searches and whatever profiling may go along with that, spending all the time it takes to go through these processes, etc.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 14, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) Don't think Eaton had a chance at that liner. It does concern me just how slow Abreu is on anything to his right though, which the next single was. His defense is bad (2nd worst defensive 1b in baseball) I thought the ball to center was played even worse.

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ May 12, 2016 -> 12:57 PM) I'm not giving up on Sanchez in my mind. I'd rather see him in AAA though getting AB's. The guy is still young.. like 23 or 24. He does well at AAA everytime he's down there. In reality his ceiling might be a very good bench player. Top out at a Chris Getz career. 2-3 years starting, then backup for 2-3 more years. Shuck has been playing 1b in the minors I believe. By the time we play Houston at home next week I think he'll be up. You have to at least play him as often as Saladino has played if you're going to keep him up, that's for sure.

It's not clear to me to Saladino deserves PT over Sanchez. I can see reasons why (probably the better defensive SS), but I don't think it's clear cut that he would outhit Sanchez if both are given opportunity. In fact, I think there's a chance Sanchez would outhit Saladino by plenty to make up for whatever defensive differences there are. Saladino finally got a couple hits yesterday, so that helps his cause. Both players botched a must-have-contact situation in that game

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 11, 2016 -> 09:11 AM) I think it should be one of 2 things, either get technology to call balls and strikes or make the best balls and strikes umpires permanent home plate umpires. Let the Laz Diazes of the world work the bases. Now with replay, balls and strikes is the biggest umpire issue. Everything else can be reviewed. If they aren't going to do anything about it, they probably should ban pitch trax. All it does is makes the umpires look bad. And these are the best in the world. It shows just how tough of a job it is. QUOTE (Tex @ May 11, 2016 -> 09:25 AM) Great point. These are the best in the world. Again, does anyone have evidence how reliable and accurate pitch trax is? Pitch F/X is extremely accurate. With that said, I do not know what technology powers the graphics you see on the broadcasts. AFAIK, only MLB (and their Gameday app on the web and mobile) has real-time Pitch F/X data, I believe it is not available to others until the next day. I could be wrong about that, but I've never gotten an answer out of any TV station about the tech behind their pitch tracking graphics.

Weird game. Tough matchup tmrw, hope we can leave town on a high note. Just about every other 1 or 2 game bummer we've had has been followed up with a nice run.

A big encouraging factor to me is his plate discipline. Last year his o-swing%, which is the percentage of non-strikes that are swung at, was 45.2% which is astronomically high. His first year with us it was 41.1%, also very high. This year it is at 36.4%, which isn't exactly patient but way more conducive to be a non-horrible hitter.

The quality of his contact over the past 10 days or so is crazy

If Jackson had so little interest this offseason, I don't see any indications that he will do anything this year to make the interest much higher next offseason

I like Robin. I also think that continuity, both in the clubhouse and front office, is underrated.

I swear that every time I look at Robin since ST began, he's wearing a different set of glasses. I don't even remember him always having worn glasses? Gameday glasses in and of themselves may be new. I've seen: Transition lenses Thick rimmed glasses Sunglasses Thin metal rimmed glasses Oakleys with clear lenses Just going off the top of my head. What's the deal? We like you just the way you are Robin, you don't have to find the trendiest eyewear.

He was never going to be an absolute team-killer so long as he was in the DH spot. His floor as a hitter isn't unbelievably low and I think it was never optimistic to say he'd be within shouting distance of league average at the plate. That's a huge problem when you're the worst defender around, but you can be patient when he doesn't play defense. And when he hits a bit better than average, he's a useful DH rather than a still-not-good-enough RF again due to his poor defense.

He just didn't look remotely good enough, reminiscent of most of his other recent MLB appearances and spring training starts

QUOTE (hi8is @ May 1, 2016 -> 10:11 PM) Dude embodies who I would be if my career went to the MLB level. Every aspect of his character on the diamond is a carbon copy of the hi8is way. I haven't seen him take a single dump

5th starter was disappointing, but the offense is a much clearer problem with much murkier solutions

It would have been a real disservice to someone in the bullpen to have their spot taken by John Danks. Only worth consideration if we had somebody hurt.

By all accounts a pretty good dude and he did plenty of good things for the Sox over a very long period of time. He goes out like a lot of others, seeing the toll on his body costing him his effectiveness. I don't think the Sox have any reason to feel like they didn't give him every chance to prove himself, we treated him right and gave him a very long look but it just wasn't going to work. I doubt he's got much production in him, but I'll wish him well if he can find it.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 2, 2016 -> 03:41 PM) I could see you taking exception to what he did in camp with Milwaukee but I am not sure, and I am a probably in the minority, you should pin the amphetamines suspension against him without context. I'm much more forgiving of amphetamines than steroid-type substances. Amphetamines are out of your system in a hurry and the benefits are mostly mental and go away as soon you cease use. While you can't stay massive for too long after you quit steroids, your body is very much changed by it in a way that for most pro athletes wouldn't be possible without the substance. It's also more believable that you could be fooled into having amphetamines in your system without knowing exactly what it was or that it was illegal. For instance, does every ~20 year old kid know that Adderall is a mixture of amphetamines? I suspect not all of them do–not to say there shouldn't be punishment.

I honestly thought his arm looked like s*** a week or so in. He hadn't made many throws but most that he did were straight into the ground. They're looking pretty good now, though

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 1, 2016 -> 09:04 PM) Love Sale, but he's not even the best pitcher in Chicago currently. Yep, that's Quintana

Well, the guy is heating up now isn't he?

I don't wade too deeply into game threads, so I'm curious how people are feeling about this guy. Obviously, his numbers are pretty good, but it's early. The way I see it, there are some reasons for optimism, but there's also no single part of his game where I feel like I know for certain what he's got. He's never had a terrible bat, so I'm not worried about a Beckham-esque slide into terrible-ness, but it's also far from certain that he keeps up his current pace. Even beyond that, I'm not sure if he's going to continue to show some pop, draw walks, or strike out so much. On defense, he's made a few very high-difficulty plays, but especially here in Baltimore a few boners. It could be the bias of the recent gaffes, but to me he doesn't look very natural receiving the ball. Maybe it's that he looks like a 3B playing 2B, I'm not sure. And I haven't even decided what I think about his attitude. I was never a huge fan of him as a non-Sox, but he does seem to bring some nice balance to the mix of personalities. With that said, I'm not sure if any of us would be surprised if we heard that he was really irritating people or started playing poorly because he lost his cool. What are other folks thinking about Lawrie? Was this a steal? Will he be a fixture going forward?