Jack Parkman

Honestly, if they could get their hands on Tucker or Whitley I'd do it straight up. It isn't like the Astros have room for their prospects anyway, as 1B is the only position they have not filled with at the very least a solid MLB hitter.

Farmer and DJ are the worst Radio team in MLB. It would be a better broadcast of they just played audio of Bennetti and Stone on the TV call

My opinion is that it is all about a) if he trusts his mechanics and can repeat them. And b) how much velocity he re-gains if he can get his delivery under control. If he can do a) he can still be a #3-#5. If he does a) and starts sitting at 94-95 and topping at 96 he can still be a TOR starter. If he doesn't get his delivery under control he'll bust.

Is it something about the way Moncada stands on the plate that gives Umps the illusion that balls are strikes? Moncada had to take 5 balls there to get the BB.

Embarassing display of defense.

Same old Shields(gopher balls) , and Castellanos has suddenly become Miguel Cabrera vs the Sox. It is already 2-0 kitties with Castellanos hitting a 2 run bomb.

If he has 3 good starts, I still want to see more before I'm sure. Go look at his line from earlier in the week. 3 IP 5 ER 2H 8 BB 2 K. Does that scream ready to you? Furthermore, I have heard that Kopech is losing velocity and is sitting in the 94-96 range instead of 97-100 and that affects things too. I don't know what the Sox are doing but it is concerning that their two fireballing SP prospects come here and lose their velocity.

Imagine how bad the Os will be when Machado and Jones get traded.

His xFIP is 4.14, meaning that while he's expected to be better, an ERA over 4.00 isn't going to cut it at AAA. He needs to stay down all season. MAYBE the guy could get a cup of coffee in September, but I'd err on the side of caution.

LMFAO. Just think of all of the similar innuendo during a USC/Oregon State football game. Hilarious.

I too am tired of the b****ing just to b**** about the Sox major pieces sucking. It seems like the Sox guys are the only ones throughout baseball who are coming up and not having immediate success. It actually makes sense because most were acquired via trade, and there was a reason they were available. Unless we're going to have an intelligent discussion about the players and not Moncada/Giolito suck they need to go to AAA, Fulmer is a bust, Lopez has the highest xFIP in baseball and probably will suck eventually and Kopech needs to go to AA, etc. , it just sounds like everyone is complaining. It is not necessarily all hyperbole, but at the same time it adds nothing to the conversation. You have to stay positive during a rebuild. Do you expect everyone to come up here and completely bust? If you do, then just quit watching now and do something more constructive with your summers. Go fish, camp, work out, hike, stargaze do something else.

Yes. only 2 BB and 6 K in 5.1 IP is progress. He's starting to miss bats, which is good, his stuff seems to be returning both with velocity and crispness on the curveball. I'm pretty sure his problems are physical(meaning mechanics) and you have to give him time to fix it. It is going to take time. It is going to be really bad at times during the process, but if he figures it out and be comes a top 3 pitcher in a rotation it will all be worth it. Sending him to AAA accomplishes nothing in his development. It can only hurt, and does nothing to help. He made 2 mistakes today to the same guy and it cost him 5 runs. That could happen to anyone.

I hope all of those who want Giolito sent down understand that you're punting on him at that point. You're saying that he's not going to figure it out here or ever. He's going to get caught in a numbers game next year in the spring, while being out of options. They can afford to give him every opportunity to figure it out in the Bigs. Why lose that flexibility?

Lopez/Hendricks are causing me to re-evaluate my view on stuff. For some reason Lopez has great velocity, A good FB-CH split and decent movement on a breaking ball and he still doesn't miss bats. There has to be something more. I know there have always been pitchers that have thrown less than 90 and get hitters out. I'm trying to figure out what it is that cause pitchers with all of the right velocity metrics to just not miss bats and those who have "nothing" to get hitters out on a regular basis.

Not to say that, you get a small reprieve in Games 3-4 but you don't usually stack up 7+ days of ace quality pitching during the regular season.

Think about the quality of pitchers the Sox have faced in the last week. They've drawn the top of every team's rotation, save for Cleveland where they got everyone but Kluber, and Cleveland probably has the best starting pitching in the AL. Plutko is the only one of their pitchers that isn't lights out this year. In the last two weeks the Sox have faced the following pitchers: Berrios, Sale, Price, Porcello, Carrasco, Bauer and Clevinger. Good luck to any rookies facing that group. No wonder Moncada is in a slump, because he's facing some of the best the AL has to offer every night. They faced the Indians right before the calendar turned to June, where they had Kluber and Clevinger in that series, and also when facing crappy pitchers, Moncada has been outright brutalized by umpires calling pitches strikes 6+ inches off the plate.He was doing just fine until having to face Kluber and Clevinger back to back, and he hasn't had much of a break from quality pitching either.

As we reach the halfway point of Hawk's last season in the booth, feel free to post your favorite Hawk calls/moments in here. I honestly can't believe this thread hasn't been made yet. This is a good compilation of more recent stuff

I think we all need to re-think what "good stuff" for a pitcher actually is I think it is a combination of the following: 1. Spin on pitches 2. Achieving swings and misses from MLB hitters on a given pitch 3. Being able to achieve the backwards K vs MLB hitters. I think velocity is secondary to these three things. I bring this up to start a discussion on how to define "stuff" and why sometimes a pitcher with great velocity and movement on breaking pitches continues to get hammered and not miss bats, while someone like Buehrle could get MLB hitters out for the great majority of his career, even without gaining tons of strikeouts.

Out of this whole list, I'd bet you get 20-25 guys who stick on an MLB roster for the entirety of their 6 years of control.

You'd like to think so, but I would be. I don't count Rodon really, because he has proven he can get MLB hitters out at the very least at a bottom of the rotation level. If 2/4 of those pitchers stick in the rotation, let alone become #1-2 level guys, we should be ecstatic. There are going to be more out of this group that don't cut it at all in the Majors than do. Expecting to have the same success rate as the Cubs and Astros is like expecting to win the Mega Millions or Powerball with one ticket. It happens, so you know it can, but the odds are incredibly stacked against you. It is more likely that none of them stick in the majors than one of them becomes an ace.

Nope. my version of "hit" is very minimal, and that is just sticking on an MLB roster for the entirety of team control. In order to get to your level of expectation, they'd need 15-20 good to great pitching prospects alone, not to mention position players. Roughly 20-30% even on a top 100 list stick at the MLB level.

I disagree. The Sox are roughly ~20 deep in good to great MLB prospects. If they get 2 all stars, 3 solid MLB regulars and 2-3 bench players/relievers out of the whole group of 20 that is actually an incredible scouting job. If they get 3 or 4 MLB players total, that is average, and if they get 5 MLB players total out of the group that is really good. Scouting hasn't become so accurate that you hit on 50% of these guys, that isn't how it works. If they hit on 30% that is incredible under most circumstances. The fact that the Cubs missed on virtually nobody and the Astros missed on 4-5 guys only is incredible generational luck.

Both statements are true. Success in the minors =/= success in the majors. You don't know anything about any minor leaguer until they get to MLB. Look at Byron Buxton. Consensus #1, can't hit above .200 for more than 1/2 season. Moncada is struggling, Delmon Young was the consensus top prospect in baseball at one point and he was a below average major leaguer. I guess that the best thing you can say is that the Cubs and Astros got incredibly lucky.

If Lopez's changeup continues to get hammered like this I do think it is more likely he's a reliever. He could be a damn good one with that fastball/slider combo. Not to say that they shouldn't give him every opportunity to start for the time being. It is kinda weird because Lopez was getting lots of swing and misses on his changeup last season when he was called up. Also, effectiveness of pitches has a lot to do with spin. if he's getting low spin on his fastball 98 looks like 92 to hitters. Spin is everything. Remember Rafael Betancourt, the reliever for the Indians? He threw 91-93 but got tons of swing and misses with fastballs in the zone and out of it because his spin rate was much higher than average. Lopez has worse spin on his fastball than Giolito does, so it isn't surprising that he gets hit. If they could have a "portable trackman" that they could bring with on scouting trips, it could completely change scouting pitchers. It is shocking that teams don't understand how much spin affects a pitcher's effectiveness, even now that they have that data available. Lopez supposedly has great stuff, but he doesn't miss bats enough to justify it. We all have to adjust our perception of what great stuff is.

You're way too negative about him. Go read my PSA in the Giolito thread.