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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 25, 2014 -> 10:15 AM) Conveniently, we have a way for both of these to happen known as the bullpen! The only problem is, it means the Sox need 6 new bullpen pitchers. That is a tall order in one year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 11:32 PM) Today the Sox gained a game on.... Rangers, Rockies, Cubs, and Phillies. Sox are now 8.5 GB of the #1 pick, and 4.5 GB of the #5 pick. How did the #8 pick in the 2008 draft turn out? The Sox better lose a lot more to get a "guaranteed" good pick.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 11:09 PM) Maybe between DH and playing a position, but I simply cannot see how playing 3b or 2b or whatever affects the ability to take your bat and either hit or not hit a pitch coming at you. There's no logic behind it. The game doesn't know. The logic behind it is being comfortable during the game. What's the difference between a postion and DH. Theoretically, a DH can study the pitcher more between at bats because while the team is in the field he could go to the video room and study the pitcher etc. so logically he should be more prepared. It all has to do with comfort level. If the player is worried about screwing up at a defensive position it may distract from his concentration. I'm not saying it effects everyone but there are players that it does effect. edit: Guess I should have read other posts before replying. Others have said the same thing.

There is a new study out that was published in Sports Health about cumulative head trauma and concussions in retired NFL football. The download was too big for me to attach here but this is a part of the conclusion section. The present study indicates that MRI detects evidence of probable chronic brain injury related to football in up to 13% of the retired players and neuropsychological testing detects evidence of isolated cognitive impairments not rising to the level of dementia and related to multiple factors, not only football/head trauma, in 24.4% of the retired players. There is no clear evidence of chronic brain damage on depression testing or neurological examination. These results need to be reconciled with the prevailing view that a career in football frequently results in chronic brain damage. The CTE findings in post-mortem studies may not be as clinically relevant as once thought. It's like the MRI studies that show up to 60% of people who never had back or leg pain show positive for bulging discs. Here is the reference if people can get access. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary http://sph.sagepub.com/content/6/5/384 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/1941738114540270 Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach 2014 6: 384 originally published online 25 June 2014 Ira R. Casson, David C. Viano, E. Mark Haacke, Zhifeng Kou and Danielle G. LeStrange Is There Chronic Brain Damage in Retired NFL Players? Neuroradiology, Neuropsychology, and Neurology Examinations of 45 Retired Players Edit: maybe this should be moved to the sports injury section. It dealt with the NFL so I out it here first.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 10:17 AM) Do you know what 3,000 plate appearances is called? A large sample size. Defensive position makes zero difference on being able to hit a baseball. I disagree with this as an absolute. It makes a difference for many players. However, in this case, I agree. Beckham always had that "hitch" in his swing. I t prevented him from hitting good fastballs Once the league figured it out, he refused to make an adjustment.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 04:48 PM) Should have punched his wife and halved it. That's one of the problems with a CBA. The punishment for violations is concrete, no options.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 10:16 PM) Chicago radio on Monday should be full of meatheads calling for Urlacher to return, etc. Im not sure he would be worse than this group.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 09:27 PM) I don't think he has the range this team needs...it's a ground ball staff (and that's not changing) and too much gets through. I agree that he's a good platoon hitter. (and you know you're a platoon hitter when Flowers pinch hits for you). That's why I'm thinking LF....he should be able to play OF if he can play 3B. I'm not giving up on Davidson. I just don't give up on talented young players after 1 bad year. I'm not giving up on Davidson either. I'm just saying it doesn't look like he was ready. I'm not sure Gillaspie can be a 3B either. however, I think he can be a good hitter in the MLB.

QUOTE (TRU @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 08:06 PM) lol, Gillaspie is not a starting position player at the MLB level. Get his two month hot streak out of your head, jesus. No one knows how Davidson would have played had he started in Chicago, so your argument that he wouldn't have been ready is just as "illogical" as me thinking getting sent back to AAA didn't have something to do with him struggling, even if its not the only reason. I disagree. Gillaspie has shown he can play over a full season. All Star no. Solid regular, sp far. You can say you think Davidson would have done well. However, there are 2 things we know. 1.Davidson had a bad year. He could very well have had a bad years if they kept. 2. Gillaspie had a good year at the MLB level. Everything else is just guessing.

QUOTE (TRU @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 07:35 PM) Nope. This was a 99 loss team, there was no reason for a guy like Gillaspie to be starting at 3B for this team. Davidson was ready and played well in his call up with Arizona the season before. Just because it "worked out" doesn't make it the right move. Gillaspie is worthless to this team, and he will never be on a Sox playoff team. Davidson should have been up here from the get go. Instead, they shipped him to AAA when he shouldnt have been and that to me seems like the biggest reason for his struggles as most of his stats line up with what he did in the minors before. Yes ,there was. The Sox found out they have a real good hitter in Gillaspie. Davidson has proven nothing yet. If he is so weak mentality that this ruined his career, he wasn't going to have anyway. The plan was probably to let Davidson play a month or so to get him on a roll and then bring him up. However, he proved he wasn't ready.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:13 PM) Mike Caruso. Sammy Sosa. Mike Cameron. Kenny Williams. Caruse would be there but at least he had 1 really good season. Sosa was a good player. Cameron was just getting good before he was traded for a really good player. KW brought 2005. He had one shining moment.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:09 PM) Beckham's defense has been poor the last couple years. Borchard never did what Beckham did right after being called up. That's what I mean at least Beckham showed something for a little. Borchard never showed anything in the MLB with more money invested. Beckham's defense wasn't as good lately but earlier he played well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 05:01 PM) Thus ends the most disappointing career of a white sox player I can remember. Borchard? I believe his bonus was a lot more and he did nothing, except hit the longest HR I've seen in a game at the Cell. Beckham at least brought defense.

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 03:19 PM) Does anyone believe a system that places so much power to a "corporation" that works me 65 hours a week for a meager salary and shoddy "health insurance" while pocketing all the profits I produce for the "corporation" is fair? MLB and its owners are no different than any other Capitalism-empowered moneygrabbing machine. They put up the money and took the risk to start up/acquire the "corporation." You took no risk. With the risk comes the reward.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 04:55 PM) We should know shortly who's getting promoted, as Charlotte's game starts at 5:30. L. Garcia the new White Sox 2B.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) How many survive prostate/breast cancer v ALS? Without getting into the one vs. the other, one of the true problems with ALS is that the medical community cannot figure it out. There have no significant advances since the time that Lou Gehrig died. Hopefully this new fund raiser gives the research a jump start and people with ALS hope.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:14 AM) He has had big problems getting the ball down for multiple starts now. The pitch with the greatest velocity is the 4 seamer up in the zone.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 11:09 AM) His average velocity has been at 90 or above in two of his last three starts. That's a 2-3 MPH improvement from where he's been most of the year. If he can be in the low 90s next year, I have no doubt he can be a valuable starter for us. I'm just not sure that's a reasonable expectation at this point. The problem is his command has been off as well. I wonder if he is trying to overthrow and it's causing the problems.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 08:04 PM) I'm shocked it was upheld. Logically it makes sense for it to do so, but by the letter of the rule, it doesn't make any sense, there's nothing in there that supports it. I have no idea how they got away with that. A tarp is not mechanical. One of the guys moving it had a prosthetic arm.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 04:38 PM) If Jake Peavy was the only ticking time bomb we acquired that blew up, then we'd be in good shape. We wound up with a lot that exploded simultaneously. Probably, but the trade really didn't cost much either. It was worth the price. The Sox did have a lot explode. however, it regards to the GM, they really any that you even have a hint of occurring, so during his evaluation I really wouldn't say they were bad moves.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 04:26 PM) He missed a month in 2008 with a sore elbow Ok. That would be a caution. However, it doesn't seem to have caused any issues down the road as I don't think he has missed any other time because of his elbow.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 04:05 PM) You cannot possibly tell me that Jake Peavy had no injury history prior to the Sox acquiring him. I don't believe he had any shoulder or arm issues. I could be wrong but the only one I remember is when they acquired him and he had an ankle issue that was resolved in an appropriate time. One injury not to his arm, that was resolved in an appropriate time is not a history of injury.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 03:51 PM) The post I replied to did not assign fault, it simply noted that Dunn and Danks were the 2 biggest problems in the last 4 years. I felt Rios's failure and Peavy's injury have to be on that list as they sabotaged the "all-in" season as well. And of course, its worth noting that "deals which seem good at the time" isn't a standard by which a successful GM will be evaluated, but instead it's going to be whether in the long term those deals were correct. If your team spends $100 million per year and half that money is spent on people who get injured or massively underperform their expectation, then a reasonable conclusion is that your GM isn't doing a very good job of making player decisions even if they appear solid at the time. I agree that the GM should be evaluated based on the players under performance. However, I disagree that it's a reasonable conclusion that injuries should be held against them, if there is no injury history. That is an impossibility to predict. Especially, when the deals were team favorable at the time. the only deal that was really a calculated risk that failed was Rios. when doing evaluations you are really assigning praise for good things and fault for the bad things. If you say bad things happened but did not assign them the fault, then it isn't their fault and the evaluation of the GM would have to be positive.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 03:45 PM) Eduardo Escobar has turned himself into a solid defensive shortstop and has already put up 2 WAR on this season. He's effectively been a $10 million+ player this year. His OPS this year is also >700, which isn't bad from the shortstop spot. It's not bad. But he is still mostly a part time player. I don't think anyone still looks at him and says "I'd really like to have him." He was still worth the chance that Liriano could have helped. The Sox aren't really worse off without him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 03:25 PM) Peavy's injury and 2011 Rios fit on that list also along with the other 2 deals blowing up. How can fault a GM for weird injuries in pitchers without a history of arm injuries? Neither deal was one of the crazy 7 year deals. They were considered good deals at the time.