Jack Parkman

That was just a good piece of hitting by Martinez, and the game is tied on the next pitch with a hanging slider. Sigh. I understand why you guys think he's a mental midget. On the plus side, Gio did strike out the side.

Geez Gio. Quit hanging pitches when you're ahead in the count.

That was some little league bullshit.

That was a fuck up I thought only the Sox were capable of pulling off.

They're correct probably about 90% of the time, the other 10% are pitchers like Mark Buehrle. In other words, they're pretty reliable. They don't account for outliers because they're outliers. Reynaldo Lopez is another good example of xFIP being reliable.

Crap, I didn't know his peripherals were that bad. As we saw with Lester, xFIP doesn't lie.

I hope the Sox can get a similar package for Rodon this winter.

Obviously they'll have to spend about double that to pick up someone of note. I still maintain they can't afford to waste another season of their window waiting for Q to get his shit together. If they do pick up his option they shouldn't count on him to be anything more than their 5th starter. Or they pick it up and trade him to try to recoup something back. It isn't working for Q on the north side. I'm not sure they can afford to have two starters in Q and Darvish trying to get their shit together next year. I'd love to see it though. The more seasons the Cubs waste of their window, the better.

No shit. The fact that Hahn was able to pull that off was a fucking miracle. Quintana isn't the same pitcher he was from 2014-16 with the Sox, that is for sure. He's completely lost his command which is what made him a TOR starter. The question is now, if Quintana continues to pitch like a 5th starter in 2019 do they even pick up his 2020 option? Hell, do they even pick up his 2019 option? They're right in the heart of their competitive window and the prudent thing to do is to launch him and spend that money on someone else, if they're smart enough to realize what sunk cost is. We'll see how big Theo's balls are by whether or not they pick up his option.

Again, I'd love for AJP to replace Stone but I don't think he wants to do it.

I have a strong opinion and am very vocal about it. I look at how hitters react to their pitches. When Giolito stays closed in his delivery and doesn't fly open hitters aren't on him at all. He has #2 stuff at the very least. For Giolito, it is all about not flying open and getting his delivery out of whack. When he does that, he's fine. Go look at the first two innings vs. the Yankees and you'll see it. He was doing a good job and making hitters look silly for the first 3 batters or so. Then he got out of whack and got shelled. The good thing is that the amount of starts that he gets out of whack for an inning or two are getting fewer. It is really obvious to me. Stuff isn't just having a big fastball. It helps, but there are other things besides just pure velocity. Giolito is going to take some time. I think it is going to click for him around the ASB next year. Where he is now is night and day from where he was in April and May.

MLB.com player page. If I can't find it there then I go to fangraphs.

I agree with this, but if I was a betting man, I'd put more money on Giolito than Lopez. Giolito has to throw strikes. If he can do that, he'll be fine. I can't say the same about Lopez.

Lopez doesn't have unbelievable stuff. If he had a high spin rate on his fastball, he might be able to get away with more but his fastball plays down in velocity to hitters. He might be throwing 96-97, but it only looks like 92-93 to hitters. His secondary pitches are non-existent. I'm just not sure he's good enough to be anything more than a #5 or a long reliever. His stuff(or lack thereof) won't play in the bullpen.

He's got a high velocity fastball with a low spin rate and nothing else. I said this even when Lopez was going good and Giolito was terribad, that Giolito has infinitely better stuff than Lopez. Lopez doesn't have an out pitch, Giolito has 3 if he can get them over the plate and that is why Giolito's ceiling is TOR starter and Lopez is a fringe starter. There are plenty of pitchers that have come along with good control of a big fastball and nothing else and a 96 mph FB alone isn't enough to get hitters out in the Majors.

If that is the case, they might be players on short-term contracts in FA this coming offseason.

They're probably not contending for sure until 2021 as is, so I don't know how you can say that. This wasn't going to be a short process, and the majority of the talent that the Sox have accumulated wont get here until late 2019-early 2020. The Sox probably won't be ready to rock and roll until 2021 as it stands. The Sox are a currently a 100 loss team, and that is with Rodon. If Moncada/Giolito or Lopez take a step forward next season and Eloy/Kopech come up full guns blazing that would probably only be enough to get them to 75-79 wins. 2020 is the best case scenario, with 2021 being the most likely. 2021 is Rodon's 3rd and final arbitration year. They'll be ready when his contract is up, but I don't know if they'll want to keep him around with his injury history. The bottom line is that he'd be a one year rental for a contending team, after that, they're probably getting the draft pick. If they want to hang on to him, they can be my guest, but I think the more prudent move is to trade him in 2019 for a haul, and use some of the players acquired to in a trade for a pitcher of similar stature under contract from 2021-2024 during the height of the window. The other rabbit hole is that they might not play in 2022.

The wild card right now with the Sox rebuild is Rodon....Nobody knows whether he'll be here for the Sox contending years or not. Most likely the answer is No. Just like those who wonder "Why does everyone want to trade Rodon?" I wonder "Why does everyone want to let Rodon go for nothing?" Rodon is more valuable to another team than the White Sox, because, if everything goes well, Rodon will be in his walk year when the Sox are ready to contend.

Agreed about Call. With Madrigal, He has to have a 70+ hit tool to make up for his lack of power. Dude probably needs to hit .320+ every year to have value. .290 isn't going to cut it from him. I hope he's Tony Gwynn Sr. or Rod Carew. I only say this because the guy hates striking out so much that he's probably going to make a lot of outs and have a small difference between his BA and OBP. I doubt the guy will walk much if he's afraid of striking out.

Fucking Cubs, they pulled that one out of their asses. AAAA scrub David Bote with a walkoff salami. Cue the sausage party.

Covey sucks. More velocity, and it doesn't matter.

+infinity. Excellent post.

I doubt it vs Carrasco. He's been nasty lately.

Their pitching is only slightly better than the Brewers. Their lineup is what is going to put them over the top. All of their pitchers have big names, but they all suck now. Lester has been their best pitcher in terms of run prevention and his ERA is 3.89. Hendricks is next best at 4.02. Quintana at 4.28 and Hamels has a 4.38. Darvish, when he was pitching had a 4.95 ERA. Their pitching has been a joke, given how highly thought of they were to start the season. The issue is that Nobody in the NL race is much better. Whichever team comes out of the AL already has at least one pitcher better than anyone coming out of the NL with the exception of the Dodgers with a healthy Kershaw, and in 2018 I'd take Sale over him. The only team with pitchers I'd actually trust in the NL is the Nationals, and that is if Strasburg gets healthy, and they make the postseason. Scherzer is studly, I'm so glad he got the fuck out of the AL Central.

Can you blame him? It must be really annoying to watch 150 ish games of horrid baseball.