Eminor3rd

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 01:59 PM) This is hysterical. The guy who twice said he was leaving this site until KW and/or Ventura got fired, is now so upset the Sox have won 10 of 14 and are right back in the playoff hunt, he can't leave Rick Hahn alone. Now the organization was in good shape when Hahn became the GM. When it was the anti KW narrative, something totally different. Always need a scapegoat.

QUOTE (FT35 @ Jul 5, 2016 -> 11:10 AM) True. But they are "losing" trade value on guys like Robertson and maybe Melky if they are sellers and keep them for 2017. If we were out of it we could dangle Robertson for sure to a contender--almost all contenders need as many back-end arms as possible and overpay for them at the deadline. You're not worried about burning trade value if you're trying to compete. Balta's point is a good one -- unless we're in a position to make a serious run, we should probably try to shore up in the offseason and take another shot. If 2016 and 2017 both fail, I can definitely see a retool/rebuild in 2018.

The most meaningful get from that list is Lucroy. I don't how how teams feel about adding catchers midseason, though. Also, Fulmer is in any deal for Lucroy.

Super nice start for Anderson. I don't mean to be a downer, but he is going to HAVE to learn to take a walk. He's currently at a 0.9% walk rate against a 30.8% K rate, and those numbers are both very bad. Right now he's doing enough damage on contact that it works, but that's not going to last. Couple reasons: 1. The BABIP is going to fall. He's currently sitting at a robust .418. Even a guy with his wheels that hits the ball hard will rarely be able to sustain .350 or so. Pull 60 points off that and he's suddenly a .260-270 hitter with a .280 OBP. Also, he's currently slugging .519. I believe he's got pop, but even a .450 SLG would be a great outcome for his profile. 2. We've seen it a million times -- pitchers adjust to guys in year two, and for free swingers that usually means throwing a bunch more pitches out of the strikezone. Right now, Anderson does NOT look like a guy that does well with junk pitches (a la Vlad or even Abreu when he's on). He's swinging at bad pitches at an Avisal-ian rate of 44.3% (league average is 30.3%), but only making contact with those pitches 57.3% of the time (league average is 62.5%). I'm not ripping the guy -- I know he's a rookie with a ton of development ahead of him. But we should remember that that development IS still ahead, and we should steel ourselves for some bumps in the road. This current version of Tim Anderson is not the one that will go on to have a long, star-level career.

Benetti has been a touch corny, even for me, but I think he ABSOLUTELY makes Stone better. I like the move to Benetti. I respect what Hawk was, and enjoyed most of his career, but it's just time for it to be over. That's okay, it happens to everyone.

Oh good, this thread again.

EAT THE HAT

Yeah, this has been a disaster. Makes my excited catcher SoxNet article from the winter look dumb.

Literally every pitcher in this game has pitched like garbage. The bad ones and the good ones. Are you guys seriously still trying to blame this loss on the manager? Like I get being mad and frustrated, but not blaming the players for playing like s*** is baffling. Robin put righties against righties and lefties against lefties. Wtf else do you want him to do? It's the AL. Players have to execute.

Ok that was a f***ing strike

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 02:48 PM) You wouldn't prefer to have Jennings, who hardly broke a sweat, stay in the game? Not against the right-handed Pedroia and Bogaerts.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 02:42 PM) what's your deal? He inserted Chris Beck into a high leverage situation. he does this repeatedly. It's playing with fire. It's also very unbecoming for a mod to troll like this imo. I'm not a mod. And this is hardly trolling. Also, you can't have the same guys pitch every single night. Otherwise we wouldn't even have Chris Beck on the team in the first place.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 23, 2016 -> 02:41 PM) I like the RV bunt call for Bradley. Yeah, the pop-up was an underrated call for sure. A lot of managers would be content to go with "throw out the lead runner." He's subtle, man.

YEAH ROBIN! GOOD CALL!

Good call by Robin there, having him throw a sac fly instead of a grand slam. I would have called strikeout, though.

Great job by Robin there, having Abreu hit that three-run homer. Would have been easier, admittedly, if Robin just would have had Shields keep pitching well in the first place, though, so the homer wouldn't have been necessary. Oh well, guess he doesn't deserve to be fired today -- unless he makes Jones or Robertson blow the lead, of course.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Jun 21, 2016 -> 11:42 AM) This is fine and dandy, but bunting in certain situations makes sense for a team like the White Sox that has trouble scoring runs consistently. I don't necessarily agree with their philosophy either, but I'd rather play for one run than not score any at all. Pretty much the only time it actually increases the likelihood to score is when you're bunting a runner from second to third with no outs. That's also pretty much the only situation the Sox NEVER bunt in.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 17, 2016 -> 01:04 PM) That's awesome. Let us know how it goes. I'm basically at the point now where they are finally implementing serious shifts and new theories. Can' t believe this player in the league that homers like every at bat. So insane. Yeah, you'd think that would be impossible at ANY pro level, considering it doesn't even happen at college.

This is a killer book, one of the best baseball books I've ever read. I've got Ben Lindbergh coming to our ballpark for an event on Sunday, I'm excited to pick his brain about it a bit.

QUOTE (harkness @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 09:35 AM) Why keep ventura? What's to lose by trying someone else? Other than the support of the entire baseball team?

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 07:28 AM) Fire Robin, don't....I don't think that's going to really matter. This team needs hitting - particularly against RHP. No manager in the world can cover up that glaring fact.

If Ventura is fired, the players will clearly start hitting. Obviously Ventura is the problem.

It's miserable watching this team at this point.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 12:54 PM) If his last start wasn't as bad as it was, would you be saying that? He had a bad start. It happens. Every other game this season that he's pitched, he's always less than 4 runs with the exception of two (four each game). Is he the same pitcher he was 3 years ago? Obviously not. No one gets younger, but "cooked" is harsh. Yeah, I would -- I'm never too worried about ERA. The signs I'm talking about are a dramatic increase in walks and homers given up over the last year and change, to go along with an expected decline in strikeouts in 2016.