Jerksticks

Holy puke fest. Even his splits suck. Who the hell is he suppose to be an upgrade over, Tank? Sweet Moses I'll take my chances with my young Tank. My sweet young Tank. Ill eat the whole plate of s***.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 16, 2012 -> 03:58 PM) I wouldn't say great. Totally. I can't speak for Marty but in my opinion a few mph of fastball is the difference between 3.70 ERA JD and 6+ ERA JD. I fear that he's going to sit high 80s and won't have a prayer. He's not crafty nor does he possess pitches with movement. I feel like best case scenario is we get the typical John Danks who can't get through the order the third time and walks 3-5 guys. We win if the offense scores at least 4-6.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 16, 2012 -> 03:33 PM) Danks will throw less than 190 innings next year. Hey didn't you hear the news? Apparently John Danks has regained his lost velocity, learned how to pitch inside, stopped walking guys and finally learned a third pitch. All thanks to an exploratory surgery that apparently "experts" have guaranteed was a success. No chance at all it didn't work, thank heavens! Thou shall only discuss John Danks with blind optimism on Soxtalk.

I have a feeling Danks will be pretty useless as well. If his fastball drops to 88-90 he's probably screwed, since he's a two-pitch pitcher to begin with. Oh no! Watch out for Danks' 77mph change! Hope I've never been more wrong and he Adrian Petersons the league.

QUOTE (forrestg @ Dec 14, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) I was going to mention platooning beckham but he has the unique ability be able to not hit both lefties and righties equally Hey man just wanted to say this is one of the best things I've read on here in a while.

We'd be fools to trade HoTfIre though, wouldn't we?!

QUOTE (YASNY @ Dec 8, 2012 -> 06:11 PM) :whichway People have been b****ing for years about the Sox tendency to 'lift and pull'. Now we sign a line drive type hitter and they're b****ing because he doesn't hit enough HR. Count me in as super excited about Keppinger. Any player that walks more than he strikes out is Jerksticks approved, and usually on the way to a HoF career (obviously too late here). Single greatest tell-all stat to me, especially when evaluating minor leaguers and MLB success rates; it means the hitter has a chance every at bat to get a hit and can also set up pitchers. I think everybody is gonna frickin love JK.

We've spent years amassing the young talent that we have. Why is Justin Upton the guy we sell all the young pieces for? JU is really the missing piece on this team? I bet I could come up with 15-20 outfielders I'd rather have than Upton- he's no superstar. Now we all understand that he's already done a lot at a young age, and that's the path HoF-type players take, but he's shown zero ability to improve over the years. So Viciedo, De Aza plus a bunch of young guys gets us a guy who was out-slugged by Tank and Rios last year. Great. Tank hits lefties like nobody ever has. I'd bet on Tank improving more than Upton improving next year. Alex Rios was a better player last year and has the same if not better contract than Upton. AND has seen AL pitchers. PASS, unless you can convince me that JU will become a superstar.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 08:54 PM) Who exactly is more badass than Upton that is available? (Other than Hamilton) This is a 25 year old with 5 years experience, in a bad year he puts up a .800 OPS, in a good year it's nearly .900. And you would only owe him 3/$39 which is not a bad deal. I feel ya. We gotta trade everybody to get that 120K, right-handed .850 OPS though. If he played 2b or SS or CF I'd be singing your song without hesitation, but as is, it wouldn't be that easy of a decision if I was Mr. Hahn.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 08:43 PM) Well, Miggy, Trout and Posey aren't available. So I have no problem settling for Upton. This is Chicago. The smallest "large" market in the country when it comes to sports. Upton would be an amazing get. Fair enough. If this is as good as it gets for the Sox then I'm in. At least it would shake things up and he's young. I just want to win the World Series next year. 3/80 to left-handed Hammynuts sounds better to me.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 08:22 PM) What kinda s*** is this? Justin Upton is barely 25 and done things none our current outfielders or garbage minor league outfielders have done and can never dream of doing. Like Cali said, you can get Justin Upton without giving up Sale, you do that s***. Like I said, his stats say he's a nice young player that hasnt made an adjustment in 5 years. That's about it. I'm all in favor of a shakeup or a major trade but I hope it's for a more badass player. We need a #3 impact bat.

QUOTE (Cali @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 06:50 PM) If the Sox could get Upton without giving up Sale, I would lose my s***.... This isn't directed at you, but what makes Upton THAT great? The youth and room to grow that comes with it? I can understand that but right now he is far from superstar material. Based on his stats he seems like a really nice player, but worth selling a bunch of pieces for? We have some good major league outfielders and some really good minor league ones. If we are putting together a stellar package, why is Upton the best target?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 09:52 PM) OK in 292 at bats for the White Sox he hit .235 with 15 homers and 46 RBI. He did walk 37 times. For the year in its entireity he hit .235 with 19 homers and 60 RBIs. 51 walks isn't too bad. In September he hit .220 with three homers and a lousy 8 rbis. He had 22 strike outs in 91 at bats. Like most of our hitters, he choked or simply sucked down the stretch, however you wish to describe it. Those are not the stats of a 12 million buck a year player, especially at 34. He's also an average at best fielder. He was not special at all with the glove. I don't know who to compare his stats to in White Sox history, but if his name wasn't Youkilis I don't think people would be happy with that performance. Now you could say if he stayed with the White Sox an entire year in 600 at bats he'd hit 30 home runs with 92 RBIs. I guess if you believe that you give him 12 million bucks, but I didn't really see an all-star caliber player in Youk with the White Sox. Spot on. The whole Youk thing just sounded better than it actually was. It sure was exciting when we got him though; most exciting time I've had as a Sox can since 25-5.

Sanchez hasn't forced himself onto the 25 man yet, but last year sure put him into a position to do so this year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 28, 2012 -> 06:22 PM) 4 out of 6 years with an OPS of .866 or better and a career OPS in the minors of .876 along with a second half OPS .840 (even in very limited plate appearances) tells me that they need to give the guy a shot. Bring in a good veteran backstop who you know will work well with the pitching staff as an insurance policy and consider the catching situation taken care of. At some point, the guy's going to have to sink or swim. I agree and I imagine the brass wants to give Tyler AT LEAST one year behind the plate. A lot of good White Sox people have invested a lot of time and energy into Mr. Flowers, and from all accounts he works his dick off. AJ doesn't have to retire here to be part of the Sox family forever.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 06:40 PM) The Sox will need at least a couple of middle of the order hitters after Konerko is gone next year, and then Dunn the year after. There are no big impact left handed bats waiting in the minors. Why not offer Hamilton 5 years, at $20 million per year, for a total of $100 million? Sure, the payroll would be higher for two years, until Konerko and Dunn are gone, along with their contracts, but at least the lineup would be competitive with the Tigers. Move Viciedo to 3RD, put Hamilton in his spot in Left, and call it an off season. DeAza Rios Hamilton Paulie Dunn Tank Hard for everybody to be cold on a given night there. I like your style!

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 13, 2012 -> 08:07 PM) Wasn't Michael Young one of the worst players in the AL last year with regards to WAR? Probably. We should have a Soxtalk outfield wall of fame similar to the one at The Cell. Except on our wall are names like Michael Young. Who else, maybe Brian Roberts? I say Agon doesn't count because that pipe dream only lasted a year or two. This is year 8 of Michael Young getting 200+ hits per year for he Chicago White Sox.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Nov 10, 2012 -> 05:42 PM) What is the price of crack near the Cell these days? I've always operated under the rule of 1 bag of crack = 1 suckoff, with the current market determining the quality of each. Anyway, we get Hamilton and.... yeah, we're not getting Hamilton. Lol. Yea 1 for 1 is right, 2 for one is desperation-city.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2012 -> 06:59 PM) I think you are taking this a step too far. Willing to trade is much different than on the trade block. I agree, no GM in their right mind would ever announce it like that lol. Unless he sucks at poker too.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2012 -> 08:03 AM) Thornton becomes an easy target because of his failings as a closer, but in reality, he had a solid season last year. Not great or anything, but outside of closing, he did his job. That being said the loss of velocity is a red flag. Take that, plus his age, and if you can get a decent return for him, I have no problems with moving him. The loss of velocity is key to me. He's dead straight 95 now. Huge 2 mph difference. Plus the highly opinionated topic of STONES. When I measure his stones with my special caliper it reads "average to slightly below average". He lost them for a long stretch but also manned up a few times. I think him and Veal should switch roles officially but I'm not sure how that affects chemistry.

All of this "let's use Sanchez" talk is crazy to me. If you people are right then that means he's a potential HoFer given his age. I'll admit it is exciting seeing his contact rates and walk rates, but do we all need to chill the heck out? Are we really supposed to expect him to push Beckham this year? 3B seems ridiculous considering his size and approach at the plate.

But then we have the same team again minus AJ plus Flowers? Ugh

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 8, 2012 -> 02:52 PM) I think that is option 3z to be honest with you. Yea, I feel like returning to the White Sox for a year is option 3z for Youk. Dude needs to put a solid year together to get paid though and UScell is a good place to do that.

Hahn n company know how few good 3rd basemen there are in the league. What do you think option 1 is for them? Re-sign Youk?