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Everything looked pretty bad. The team swung at a ton of bad pitches, Samardzija was up in the zone way too much.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 6, 2015 -> 11:43 AM) Alright, someone needs to hook me up with a streaming link while I decide if purchasing MLB.tv is worth it. You gotta get it.

Do not fear Yordano.

Conor Gillaspie is near worthless, loses starting job.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Apr 6, 2015 -> 08:01 AM) - Bill Melton steps in for Hawk and repeatedly calls Rodon "Mothra"

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 09:25 PM) If it's time to talk about Danks it's time to talk about the rest of the rotation. Who cares about tonight? Abreu went hitless. A couple of relievers were terrible. THE GAME DIDN'T COUNT.Relax. Because tonight was the ONLY indicator of Danks being bad.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:56 PM) Another good sign management wants to contend this season. Keep bringing in bodies in case it's like last year and guys are effective for 1-2 appearances then get lit up. Hope Coop is enthused and ready to manage some bodies. Agreed

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:17 PM) *both middle fingers extended towards Jose Paniagua* I'm not sure why, but Scott Linebrink might be my least favorite Sox player of all-time. In my head, it feels like he single-handedly robbed us of two or three World Championships. No idea why his impact is so hyperbolic and overstated in my head.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Micah if he wins the job and opens 1-for-35 or some such horrible start. Seriously ... Flowers of course. Third would be the new guys (at least that's been my style in the past) if they pull a Dunn and start oh, so slowly. I don't think we'll hate on Micah -- I think that most of us have accepted that he may simply not be ready yet, and there's no reason to believe they'll keep him up and let him fail all year like they sort of did with Semien.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 02:42 PM) Regarding the first issue, where does Rodon fit in here? I agree that if we're relying on Danks and Noesi for the whole season we're probably doomed, but if Rodon can come in and hold down the #4 spot we should fare much better, at least that's the hope. I see that ZIPS projects Rodon to strikeout everybody but to have a ton of control issues. How should we take projections on guys that have no ML experience? IMO, we should take them as really high variance guesses. I think that, in a way, things like the Rodon projection are the "x factors" in that they can skew the team wildly in each direction. He could really be the difference between being dragged down by a bad back-end or being vaulted to the post-season by an unexpected ace that gets use two or three extra wins in a tight division. Awkwardly timely, here's this article about the "most vulnerable rotations," essentially an attempt to quantify rotation depth this year: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-most-vu...tations-in-mlb/

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 10:18 AM) Funny, those aren't the 3 worst guys on the team. And the point I made was people praise s***ty players. Look at Bonifacio. He makes almost as much as Flowers and Beckham combined, and he is a pretty s***ty player, yet gets praised, and we get the "if he is used properly" crap. I would love to see someome in this board "use" a guy "properly" and only have him face pitching from one side. You can't seriously believe that "if used properly" means that a guy LITERALLY has zero at bats against the platoon split. bonifaciotalk.com

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 07:42 AM) 2 of them make about 50% of average, and one of them that makes a lot had an injury. What's wrong is even when they do well, it is basically totally ignored, and if others do just as poorly, that is ignored no matter what they make. Why are you so worried about what they make? The point is that the s***tiest, most overpaid players on a team are ALWAYS the "whipping boys." This isn't some massive conspiracy to slander the Beckham family name. He didn't kill any of our dogs nor steal any of our girlfriends. People just hate the bad players, man, it's normal. Let's give it a rest.

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 09:28 AM) ok, i need a little info to help me sort out this thing i am having a problem with. can someone, using the advance stat formula or whatever you use, can some one figure out the sox standings in the central with det and cle. i don't know if that can be done or not. i am not too knowledgeable with all that advance stat lingo. my problem is, am i being too much of a white sox homier that i can't see the truth. i keep reading on how many are picking det to win and sox coming in 3rd in the central. with price being a better pitcher than sale. It's complicated and fuzzy. It's really anyone's race. Any of the four AL Central contenders can dominate if "everything goes according to plan," but none of them are well equipped to deal with any significant issues, such as a key injury or two or a star player not living up to expectations. So the team that wins will be the one that mostly "does what they think they'll do." The Sox biggest issues are that (1) John Danks and Hector Noesi both suck, seriously, no matter how much we want them not to suck, so they're going to have to perform significantly better than what they are likely to perform in order to not hold us back (which definitely CAN but probably won't happen), (2) we're a "stars and scrubs" team, in that we rely heavily on our core players to provide transcendent, elite level performance in order to be successful, so if one of them sucks or gets hurt, we see a huge dropoff in production in the replacement (and just by the law of averages, usually SOMEONE gets hurt), and (3) players that do what Avisail Garcia has done are usually terrible, so he's not projected well. We know he's got the tools and he could very well buck the trends, but we have to admit that historical precedent shows us that it's unlikely he does so. It's a vague answer, but it's also the beautiful part of this sport. Anyone can take this thing. Just rest assured that this team has a real shot this year, because that's what matters most. Don't stress, LDF, it's baseball time!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 04:05 PM) Flowers, Beckham and Danks are the punching bags. Flowers and Beckham can go 3 for 4 and the game if lost will come back to the time they made an out. AKA the worst players on our team that aren't making league minimum. What is strange about that?

RIB HELMET is an awesome band name

Just remember that expectations actually have nothing to do with what is going to happen on the field. I think it's fair to be skeptical -- this team is far from bulletproof -- but don't fear the optimism, because any correlation it has ever had with results is purely coincidence.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 08:07 AM) Besides Mauer, what the heck are the Twins spending all that money on??? Seems crazy their numbers are so high with a rebuilding franchise. A bunch of #4 starters.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 08:26 AM) That Dodgers payroll is just ridiculous. You only have to go down to #9 on the list to find a payroll that's less than half of the Dodgers.

Chris Cwik is a White Sox fan, FWIW

I hadn't realized how high the Royals have crept up.

Lol, was wondering who would be the first to do something like this.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 31, 2015 -> 06:07 PM) I think so. They point out of the obvious flaws in the team (4-5 guys)....possibilities for regression from Abreu and reasons for that, and also how much of the line-up's hopes are pinned on Avisail Garcia being a 20-80-20 SB guy....another example, Eaton also had very high BABIP, and low walk rates, not unlike Abreu (around 8%)...so both need to pick up their walk rates to the 12-15% range to compensate for expected falls in BABIP/returns to normative numbers. Concerns about Gillaspie's late season fade and platoon splits, the catcher's spot and Micah Johnson's ability to make an immediate impact. A bit about the bullpen....not much analysis yet of the impact of Petricka being on the DL, and who will step up to take his place, whether it's Putnam, Guerra, Albers, Leon, etc. Crain I guess had that shoulder setback but should contribute as early as May or June. Thanks for the TL;DR, I can't bring myself to deal with slideshow articles

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 31, 2015 -> 09:21 AM) http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2408778...-season-preview Very comprehensive preview...best ive seen. Wait, what? Bleacher Report? Best preview you've seen?

Omg season please just start.

80-82. I don't believe in Avisail Garcia, I don't believe in the back end of the rotation, and I have to predict that a couple guys get hurt just because usually a couple guys get hurt. If those things happen, the team has some real holes. That said, I'm absolutely hopeful for an awesome season, and even if the team jumps from 60-something wins to 80 wins, it'll still be a very positive thing. A playoff appearance very much COULD happen. But I think it's less than 50% that the team makes the playoffs, so my my best guess seems a little negative.