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QUOTE (Vance Law @ May 25, 2016 -> 11:37 PM) 4% more Right. Decimal in the wrong place.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ May 26, 2016 -> 12:08 AM) It's been awhile since I read The Book by Tom Tango, and unfortunately most of what was written in it can't be found on the web. But I believe the general rule of thumb is that each lineup slot receives an extra 18 PA per year. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a big deal. But this is something that's entirely in Robin's control. An extra win that could be gained from batting someone like Abreu or Lawrie in the #2 spot compared to Rollins/Saladino/Sanchez could be the difference between them making the playoffs and not. Again, batting order isn't the be all end all. It's not the difference between 95 wins and 81. But it makes a difference on the margins, and the Sox aren't good enough to turn down opportunities to improve themselves on the margins. I agree that they will bat more. However, I'm not convinced that will lead to more runs within games due to the" lost inning" of having all of the worst hitters in a row. If you space out the probably outs of the bad hitters throughout the lineup, they have a lesser chance to disrupt the inning. On the other side, if they put all of the good hitters together there is a better chance of scoring there but almost no chance of scoring when the bad innings comes around.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 25, 2016 -> 09:50 PM) Roughly .9 plate appearances per game from leadoff to 9th. So .9 X 162, it's pretty darned significant over the course of a full season. Really? That doesn't seem right. Even if it is we are talking the 2 spot vs. probably the 7th or 8th because the wouldn't bat him right in front of eaton. Plus rollins hasnt and won't play everyday to get to 162 ganes which really minimizes the difference in plate appearances. Regardless, it just doesn't seem to make sense to put all of the worst hitters in a row to maxmize the useless inning.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 25, 2016 -> 08:33 PM) Call him up in September and let him play daily and roll with him next year at SS from day 1. Agreed, if he continues to progress.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ May 25, 2016 -> 08:29 PM) It just defies logic (to me at least) to willingly give your worst hitters more PA's than your best ones. We also know that hitters perform better when there are people on base, and pretty much any hitter on the Sox lineup is more likely to get on base than Rollins/Sanchez/Saladino. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest there's a benefit to balancing a lineup rather than stacking it, but maybe you're on to something. I guess it's two different perspectives. I see what you are saying over the season the better hitters will get more at bats, honestly how many more per year? 50? Rollins has an OBP of 290 so if you replace him with ahitter getting on base at 330 that 40% more. So thats about 20 more times over the course of the year or once every 8 games? However, if you separate the bad hitters you have less chance of running into a strong of outs. If Rollins strikes out with Eaton on first, the next hitters can drive him in as opposed to 3 straight outs with all of the bad hitters in a row. I see advantages to both but it seems worse to put all of the bad ones in a row to maximize the bad innings.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ May 25, 2016 -> 07:43 PM) Would you rather have every Eaton-started/continued rally end with Rollins batting and Frazier or Abreu on deck? Yes. If eaton started it, odds are abreu and Frazier still have a chance to drive him in.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ May 25, 2016 -> 06:51 PM) Yes. Maximizing the number of PA's given to your best hitters while minimizing the number of PA's given to your worst hitters sounds like optimal lineup construction to me. OK. Just remember to not complain about wasted innings when there is a deadspot every third inning.

QUOTE (Deadpool @ May 25, 2016 -> 06:25 PM) As long as Williams is in the front office, it's the Williams/Hahn front office and they are both at fault. Correct

QUOTE (He Gawn @ May 25, 2016 -> 05:02 PM) Whatever we do, please stop batting Rollins second. He is a momentum killer. It makes 0 sense to have an automatic out batting in between or best hitters simply due to the fact that we cling to some outdated traditional notion of what a 2 hitter should be. Where should the worst hitters bat in the lineup then? Do you put them all in a row at the bottom to make sure there is an inning where nothing happens?

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ May 25, 2016 -> 05:38 PM) If you wait to promote Anderson until he has a *good* BB/K ratio, there's a chance he'd never get promoted to the majors in the first place. He's posting an above average batting line in AAA and he fills a position of need. Not all development needs to occur at the minor league level. If they think his defense wouldn't be a downgrade from the Rollins/Saladino duo, then I'd be in favor of promoting him very soon. Maybe that's the key. Remember Josh fields? He was ready except for the K rate. Maybe they learned their lesson and will leave him down there to at least work on it at AAA for more than 40 games.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 25, 2016 -> 04:55 PM) He turns 23 on June 23. He had experience playing in college. Why isn't he "ready?" I'd bring him up on June 23. Age does not determine readiness. He isn't ready because he isn't playing the way the organization wants him to when he is ready for the MLB.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 25, 2016 -> 05:50 PM) I see this has become KW's fault again on here. Can always count on that. Like clockwork.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 12, 2016 -> 03:03 PM) That's why NFL teams have been upgrading their in-stadium WiFi and some offer little TVs at certain seats. The Bears offer season tickets holders free NFL RedZone on mobile phones so they can watch at the game. If you have verizon you get more access plus the views of all of the stadium cameras.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 12, 2016 -> 12:23 PM) I go to Bears games for the people watching and stay for the football. At times, I definitely think about how it would be nice to watch at home (and more closely follow my gambling/fantasy action), but I just enjoy the atmosphere of sporting events. I'm with you. I really enjoy going to the games.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 12, 2016 -> 09:52 AM) Soldier Field also sucks to get to. Unless you have a waldron deck pass its awful. I prefer tailgating and leaving to actually going. College games on the other hand... It's easy on the train.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ May 13, 2016 -> 02:36 PM) from Abreu's plate discipline tab in fangraphs (and other notes): -His swings at out of zone pitching are way down. His swinging-strike % is lower than either of his other two years. (he is seeing his usual/career normal amount of in-zone pitches) -Overall contact is higher than it's been in either of his previous two years, as is the case for his in-zone contact. -Compared to the rest of his career, line drive % and ground ball % are both lower than ever. More flyballs. He's more judicious than ever this year. Striking out less than ever, but he's hitting it less hard and when it lands, it's in a glove. Seems to me these go together. Hit it softer, defenders have more time to get to it.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ May 10, 2016 -> 08:03 AM) Nats will regret this contract. They should be saving every dime for Harper right now. He'll be worth the biggest contract in baseball. Pitching is more important than hitting. Also, maybe Washington has already realized that Harper will be beyond their finances with New York, LA and Anaheim fighting for him. It would not surprise me if they already know he wants to go to ones of those primary markets.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 10, 2016 -> 08:22 AM) Looking at the 670 lineup: Mully and Hanley: Mully and 1 of the producers are huge Sox fans. They talk Sox a ton. Speigel and Goff: Goff is a Sox fan and Spiegel loves baseball and talks both. They talk a ton of Sox. Boers and Bernstein: Bernstein and their lead producer are both Sox fans, the team is good, and they talk Sox. Laurence Holmes: Is a Sox fan and talks a ton of Sox as well. Levine and Bernfield: Talk mostly Cubs on Saturday mornings but Sox tough to ignore now. Hit and Run: They talk the whole time about both times. Joe O is a Cubs fan but writes about Sox in Daily Herald. I guess we listen to a different Mully and Hanley. This morning it was how they were wrong on Garcia but it has been against the twins and texas where it's a hitters ballpark so he should hit well there. The next topic was how the attendance is awful even for a good team like Boston in town. Granted I only listened to 10 minutes while shaving but that was all they discussed at that time and none of it was a positive.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ May 5, 2016 -> 09:38 AM) Over the past two weeks, Abreu is hitting .308/.373/.462. As I said in this post, his problem has not been swinging at the offspeed low and away, it was always not swinging enough at pitches in the zone. Over the last two weeks he's still swinging at balls, but now he's swinging a lot more at strikes. After swinging at just 63% of strikes after the first few weeks, he's swung at nearly 80% of strikes over the past two weeks (numbers similar to his 2014 season), with great success. Abreu is successful when he swings the bat more often. You can live with him not laying off the pitches low and away as long as he's swinging at the good pitches to hit, which is what has happened during his current hot stretch. He currently has a career-high walk rate and a career-low strikeout rate, so he'll be fine. Keep swinging, Jose. In other words, he has been guessing too much instead of seeing the ball and hitting it. This tends to happen when a player is in a slump.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 5, 2016 -> 07:08 AM) Bruce Wolf, Rich Koz, and Dan Bernstein are the same guy. Prove me wrong. I think you're right! The only difference is the character. One blames the democrats for everything another blames republicans for everything and all three just do whatever they can to get attention.

They won't need one as they usually only use 4 during the World Series.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 10:23 PM) Really sounds like Kyle Long is moving to LT at long last. I think the Bears were dissatified with Grasu and will use slausson at center more if not start him there.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 04:15 PM) If he was bad enough to smoke WEED as a teenager and take MONEY as a college athlete he's likely to be COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROOOOLLLLLLL Every player in this draft has done both of these things. They just don't have asshole stepdads ruining their lives on it. Sad state of society today if that's true.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) I must be in the minority here. I'm happy the Bears ignored Tunsil. Not worth the hassle/baggage. Agreed.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 10:34 AM) and I imagine really stupid. Usually. I avoid them as well with my season tickets. I sell them on stub hub and make a good dent in paying for next year's season tickets.