Jake

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 01:43 AM) So I caught a little bit of The Score on the way home today and Lawrence Holmes was talking advanced stats on how BAD this team is....so I did some work of my own.... So this season, the Sox TEAM OVERALL OFFENSIVE WAR is....drumroll..... -3.3!! That's a NEGATIVE number. We are BELOW replacement level, and Jose Abreu is a stud hitter. The Phillies, the 2nd worst team in baseball is at a 2.0 WAR. POSITIVE 2.0. That's a massive difference between 29th and 30th. We are also last in baserunning, at -17.6....last in wRC+ at 78 (An average offense is supposed to be 100)....last in defensive WAR at -39.4....We beat the Padres on team OBP...by .001....We beat the Royals on BB% by 0.1%....We beat the Braves in ISO power by .005..... Basically we are the worst or 2nd to worst at....getting on base.....power.....defense....baserunning....scoring........ But how about compared to EVERY TEAM SINCE THE YEAR 1900???? 115 years of baseball? Tens of thousands of teams?? 7th worst..... Wow. Depress yourselves at your own leisure.... http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...0&sort=20,a Just a couple of weeks ago we were at -4.0. QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Jul 21, 2015 -> 02:55 AM) Well, if this is statistically the 7th worst offense of All Time and yet we have 42-48 record that might indicate that Robin Ventura's doing a pretty darn good job given the talent he has to work with. I'm just sayin'. According to FanGraphs' BaseRuns estimate, we have won more 6 games than our run scoring and run prevention abilities would lead you to expect. Only the Twins have outperformed more.

EJax wasn't pitching very badly. 3.19 ERA, 2.83 FIP. Strikeouts and walks weren't great but around career norms. Odd choice if you ask me, especially since you're adding a guy who is just as likely if not more likely to be cut in short order.

I always suspected his odd motion where he very quickly brings his arm up and then leaves it there made him less deceptive. For a guy who throws 100 with good movement, I always thought guys got surprisingly good swings on it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 02:00 PM) Such a straight shooter, tells it like it is and then sticks to his guns. You should be proud. Donald is also saying that he stands by what he said. Welcome to bizarro world. I suppose next he'll say "The McCains love me."

Since it's a DH, are they just calling him up to cover this game? He hasn't pitched all that well in Kanny..

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 19, 2015 -> 11:29 AM) Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think Gillaspie had the least trade value among Bonifacio and Beckham. Not that either one of those guys will bring back much, but 12 days from now, teams may find some value with Beckham and Bonifacio on their benches that Gillaspie doesn't have. But they all could be gone by Aug 1. My feeling was that Conor might have the most value because of those three, Conor's the one you'd most like to start. If you had a team like the 2012 White Sox that is dying for a starting 3B, Conor would be a nice option that you'd have to give up very little in order to get.

In my town, Little League worked like this (wasn't formally associated with LL, just called itself that): -There was a brief, one-day tryout in which every player who signed up was graded by each of the league's coaches. The combined scores were used to create a player ranking (only available to coaches and commissioner). -A draft was conducted, with each coach taking his or her own son in the round he was slotted. -Each team had 11-13 players, but rarely would a team both have 13 players and have 13 players present at any game. -Every player batted throughout the entire game. You'd have a 1-11 or 12 or 13 batting order, so no pinch hitting and all that. -Every player needed to play the field at least 3 innings of every 6 inning game. There may have been special exceptions for when you had 13 players there. The worst players got the least playing time, but usually the amount of kids not coming to games for whatever reason meant everyone got well above the minimum. I think most of the coaches also felt that it wasn't right to stash a kid on the bench, especially when the talent wasn't deep anyway. The worst player and the 6th worst player were both probably going to botch anything hit to left field. The time my dad coached me he had a brilliant strategy for those horribad players: teach them to bunt. First of all, even decent LL teams screw up bunts defensively. This also gave those kids a legitimate chance to contribute in important situations. And more often than not, for the kids who really did want to do well, this was a big confidence booster. If they bunted a "triple" they were suddenly taking big hacks in their next plate appearance instead of running out of the box or whatever they would normally do. The trick obviously is to make sure you don't send these poor kids up there with the instruction to bunt every single time because you want to give them the chance to get better.

Yeah I think he just didn't want to use his last guy until absolutely necessary and he didn't want to send Robertson out there until Jennings got himself into trouble. Truth be told, Jennings pitched pretty damn well.

Well this continues a trend of the team not quite breaking out but still being really watchable. After the TB series, I was about ready to check out. They've made things interesting again, I hope we can beat this excellent KC team tomorrow and start beating up on somebody else afterwards.

In my hometown I was playing ball at the Boys & Girls Club (the main host for this sort of thing in that area) when they decided to quit keeping score in basketball. Had nothing to do with hurting kids' feelings. It was the parents losing their god damned minds about every little thing when the games were played to win.

That was a fun one

I'm still bewildered as to what the plan is with Saladino. Just going to keep him indefinitely? Are we considering a change at some position--meaning someone is released/optioned--then who? And if not, then what is the point of starting the kid every day for a week of games?

The Super PACs that Walker allegedly coordinated with also spent $8 million to get the four justices who voted in favor of killing the investigation elected. The justices just recently voted along party lines to change the rules so that they do not have to recuse themselves if a case involving their campaign donors comes to the court. Walker's people weren't even denying that he coordinated with the groups, just arguing that he wasn't technically a candidate. While it's being called a partisan witch hunt, the lead prosecutor is a Republican who endorsed Walker in 2012. I don't know every in and out of the investigation, but something doesn't smell right with the way it is ending given all the substantive evidence and the conflicts of interest for those who had the ultimate say in the matter. I don't have much confidence for any state's ability to enforce campaign finance laws, even as lax as they are today.

Samardzija had neither stuff nor command all day. I'm surprised he made it as long as he did without getting hurt that bad.

I'm glad we have replay in MLB, but it needs work. Both the speed and the results leave something to be desired. I think both can be improved, but it's discouraging that it hasn't changed noticeably in either regard in its second season.

I still don't feel bad about the EJax trade. It was a calculated risk, for sure, and as it turned out it was about a wash.

Reading a lot of the trade chatter and speculation, I began wondering if we tend to approach these things properly. While in any individual situation you can't really choose the position you get back, since the trade partner may not have a player in your top need, it's still worth knowing and targeting certain spots. And while we're just people on the internet, it might be worth thinking about so we know how to react to any deals (whether that's now or in the offseason). Below is our fWAR and MLB rank by fWAR, by position, for each year since 2012. Positions/years shaded in green indicate that the primary player in that position is different than the year before it on the chart (so nothing is marked for 2012). 2015 numbers are as of the A-S break and this afternoon (I think either yesterday or today, all the defensive stats were updated on FG). So...we're dreadful when it comes to position players this year. Not included is the fact that we are dead last not just in fWAR, but each component of it -> hitting, defense, and baserunning. We are above the league average absolutely nowhere, not even 1B. Relative to league average and in absolute terms, we're strongest at 1B and catcher. 1B is no surprise, but it is worth letting the catcher part of it soak in. Tyler Flowers is competent. Geo Soto is competent. Are they good? No. But they are not players who will lead you to being the worst in the league at their position (worth noting that much of the terrible 2013 fWAR at catcher can be attributed to Phegley, who got nearly half the ABs). This year's slight uptick has more to do with Soto than it does Flowers, since Soto is replacing Nieto who was also not very good. This sort of analysis doesn't tell you everything, obviously. It doesn't tell you who is awaiting in the minors or what the potential of each player is. The shaded boxes are helpful a little bit here. Take SS, for example. Same guy every year and always good production until...this year. So what do we make of Alexei? Is this a permanent dropoff or do we expect the Alexei of last year to return? 2B has been terrible, but you have Micah in the minors who may have improved and Carlos Sanchez....well, he can't play any worse than he has and his bat has picked up ever so very slightly in the past week or two. Eaton has played better in center by quite a bit lately, so we can say that the April he had is still holding him down. You probably don't have to get a CF. Melky's play has also picked up and he has a track record on other teams that suggests he may not be holding us down much longer. They also have contract concerns to consider. Right field stands out to me as a problem, even though we have a new player out there. Avi's defense has been very bad and it makes me worry that he will have to hit an unreasonable amount to sustain value there. It's not hard to argue that he could take a step up to something like a 115 wRC+ bat, but that would only make him a replacement level player without any change to his defense. Maybe he could be an answer at...DH, where we haven't done well, especially against left-handed pitchers. My takeaway in general is that we should absolutely take any non-first baseman infielder in a trade and not care about the particular position. SS? Great. 2B? Great. 3B? Perfect. Indeed, 3B is the position I think we'll have the toughest time filling from within given all the players' poor track records there and Davidson not looking viable at this point in AAA. Micah is there for 2B and Carlos Sanchez's defensive upside and hitting track record give some hope for getting an adequate player at 2B. Alexei's history gives hope for solid production there, at least for the rest of the year. With that said, I don't think many of us would say no to a good player at 2B or SS if offered in a trade in July. Buyer or seller, it doesn't matter IMO. I think you could also add just about any position in the outfield. A RF would be simple in that you start finding Avi at-bats at DH and LF along with more bench time. Melky would also see more time on the pine along with maybe some DH appearances (but probably not unless LaRoche goes). You could add a CF and play Eaton more in LF and maybe RF. And a LF wouldn't be ideal but we could make room if it's a good player we're talking about. And I started off talking about catcher, so of course we'd take one. A prospect certainly and I wouldn't walk away from a deal if I had to cut one of Flowers or Soto to make room for a better MLB option. With that said, the marginal gain compared to adding a 1 WAR catcher vs. a 1 WAR 2B/SS/3B is significant. What does Soxtalk see as both short-term and longer-term needs? You can argue there are a whole hell of a lot or maybe you feel comfortable at half or more of the spots.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 01:46 PM) But of course Pedro NEVER used PEDs, right Pedro? I often think about how if [insert player] really didn't use PEDs, that they were truly victimized by playing in the era. So, given the context, suppose Pedro was clean. We're talking about easily the best pitcher of all time if he played today.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 07:44 AM) Yup understanding the issue is a difficult concept.. Yes, what they want is to prevent people who work for them from having any ability to get the birth control. In truth, they don't care whether or not they're paying for it. They don't want the employment to at all give the person an opportunity to have birth control. Apparently they don't think that the moral compass of the individual is enough to stop it from being used.

On the city level, I never take the crime reporting too terribly seriously. Internal policies can really affect the levels of crimes reported in any direction. More cops on the streets will see more crime, a more liberal reporting policy will make it seem like there is more, a less liberal reporting policy will make it seem like there is less, etc. I know that in my former home of Memphis, they made a concerted effort to start reporting more crimes. They admitted that they didn't want to look bad on a national stage, but realized no matter what they did the numbers made it look like a dangerous place. They began meticulously reporting, which made it seem like there was a crime surge, but it made it far easier to understand the trends going on at the neighborhood level and they've been seeing huge drops since the policy was implemented.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 01:09 PM) Harry Caray made it 10+ years more than where Hawk is now. If the Cubs hired Hawk Harrelson for next season, there'd be a statue of him at Wrigley in 15 years. QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 16, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/0...-season/400835/ They are. The station is skyrocketing in popularity. It's really a great channel. I've been watching it more and more.

I have no use for Steve Stone. I don't hate him, but I know I would if he was in the booth without Hawk. Only the ego of Hawk can keep Stone from sounding like the most insufferable big shot. But if we have to lose Hawk, let's at least get Matt Vasgersian. And either way, how about two new radio broadcasters. I love the guy who calls Cleveland games, don't have a clue what his name is.

This is the first season I've had regular access to MLB Network and I've been really impressed. They have good, original programming. Several likable personalities and the format in general does a good job of balancing the SportsCenter-esque need for repetitive news with some engaging stuff to break up the monotony.

What's the chance we just send Albers packing rather than call him up?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 08:49 PM) Johnson really struggled with his command. Didn't show much in the way of a breaking ball. Good news is his velocity was up 2-3 mph from last year. QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 15, 2015 -> 09:02 PM) ummm i wonder if he was over pitching, you know trying too hard to show something. Yeah I wouldn't take too terribly much from it. I'm mostly encouraged because his fastball velocity was good. I do wonder if he's throwing a 2-seamer or cutter or something because he seemed to have a fastball that was 91-92 and one that was 93-95. The way it would go back and forth even in the same at-bat makes me think he's intentionally thowing it a little differently, kind of like Samardzija throwing 94.5 mph heaters and 91.5 mph cutters this year. His AAA numbers tell me he's been able to get that slider over the plate this year, otherwise he'd be walking more and being hit more.