Eminor3rd

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) For the record, I do not support losing the rest of the way. I would not be upset with a top 11 pick, but I want them to end the year over .500. This is where I am too. I would love for the team to convince Hahn that he needs to improve the MLB roster this offseason. While having a protected pick reduces the pain of signing top free agents, it also substantially reduces the incentive.

Hamels is a market-rate asset that someone else needs much more than us. Therefore, what we'd have to pay wouldn't be worth it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 03:05 PM) Danks pitched 7 innings last time out and gave up 4 runs, but actually pitched well. Sometimes QS is a QS, sometimes it's not and vice versa. To tweek it and say it matches what "should" happen to me is just coincidence. We don't know what "should" happen. If we did, there would be no reason to play the game. I have always loved stats. I used to play Stratomatic and one of my favorite parts was doing the stats. (Now it's done on a computer for you). But I am starting to agree with the poster who said the advanced stats are taking the joy out of it. If a guy has a good game, some stat that has nothing to do with hits or outs or strikes or balls or errors or pitches or runs will say, no that's a bad performance, and then you can have the Jeff Samardjiza performance last year where he was yanked after giving up 9 runs in 4 innings, but had a lot of K's so his xFIP that game was 3.70 or something like that , and no, he didn't pitch bad. Look how hard he threw and how many strikeouts he had. Forget everything else. A soft tosser like Danks, it's the opposite. Forget all the outs he got and the lack of runs. He didn't strike nearly enough out. He was only throwing 89. That's not a good performance. The fact is Danks is on pace for close to 200 innings pitched and most of the time pitches a pretty solid game. If the peripherals say he's one of the league's worst pitchers, the peripherals are wrong. He's no ace, but he's no bum. Dude I LOVE it when our guys get lucky and win. It's edge-of-the-seat baseball. I don't give a s*** if they earn it or not. But then when we start talking about what we actually HAVE for the future, reality sets in. I'd rather know what to expect than to be disappointed that Phil Humber didn't turn out to be legit. EDIT: He's not one of the league's worst starters, he's just not anything special and he's paid like he's special. The key to trade value is surplus value, and guys that are overpaid don't have any.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 02:02 PM) You pay Tyler Flowers? It's a major drain on my finances

I hope they prove me wrong and at least pick up a serviceable upper minors C for Danks. Doesn't have to have much ceiling, but I don't want to pay Tyler Flowers anymore.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 12:46 PM) Beckham has more value than Dunn by quite a bit. Why? What value does Gordon Beckham have to anyone?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 09:40 AM) No player can sustain their production while "hot". The definition of hot is to be playing better than their norm. If you expect that of any player you will be wrong. Right, I'm calling them hot streaks as opposed to "figuring it out" or whatever you want to call ti where he becomes a legitimate MLB player.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 08:10 AM) Why do you think the Royals are interested in him?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 07:11 AM) I don't get it. Why are you saying that I think Beckham is a really good player? I've said NOTHING of the like.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 01:27 AM) Aren't most catchers horses*** hitters in this day and age? Is Tyler really hitting .245? That's not bad for a good defensive catcher like him. The MLB average line for a C is: .250/.314/.387 (96 wRC+) Tyler Flowers' line is: .243/.299/.350 (80 wRC+) Also, reports are mixed on how good he is at defense. I think it's safe to say he's improved a lot, but I'm not sure we can call him a guy who makes an 80 wRC+ "worth it."

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 09:45 PM) It is but thats not the point. I'm willing to give him some rope I'm arguing with those who think he is what he is. And he very well probably is but even if he does hit well the rest of the season there will still be those guys saying it's a fluke. But they aren't saying it's a fluke just to hate on him -- it's because even when he's hot he isn't showing any signs of sustainability.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 09:18 PM) Tank the Hippo wants to be in the water but instead he is rolling around in the brush after misjudging the location of the river. Maybe if we just had a water feature out there somewhere, he'd be less aggressive.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 09:04 PM) And if you want to know what a hippo looks like actually playing a position, there's always Dayan Viciedo! Hey-o! lol

Wow, why?

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 05:09 PM) What's the fascination with JR Murphy? Just that he's half decent and cost-controlled and we have Tyler Flowers.

0-1 fWAR players aren't "huge upgrades" over anything.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 03:46 PM) MLB Trade Rumors ‏@mlbtraderumors 2h Indians “Very Willing” To Trade Justin Masterson http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=40180 That's like us being willing to move Beckham "in the right deal."

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 03:13 PM) It's funny how far some people will go to mock or disagree withy greg rather than actually admit they are in agreement with him. BTW where the f*** is Matry? You guys do this stuff to hima ll the time too. Also I agree with the pares about hippos & all the pqarts about hippos. Thank you have a nice fday., Greg started it! Wite said that Beckham wasn't the biggest bust in franchise history because he actually managed to hold down a job in the MLB for a while, whereas many other high draft choices never even made it that far. Instead of reading anything, greg saw that wite had said something NOT negative about Beckham, and goes "well the SABR guys think Beckham is good, wtf is up with that?" So then we decided to see how long it would take for greg to actually read a post.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 26, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) Caufield, you are a reasonable mind. What do you say to the metrics that indicate Gordon is a damn fine ballplayer? My eye test has told me otherwise. Greg, you have to understand GPx99+, which factors in simulated metrics based on imagination. Basically, what would Beckham produce on a context neutral environment if we has credited with the runs he was "willing" to produce? Then, consider a typical aging curve, temper that with what you think his favorite color says about his personality type, and then scale it to 100. It's park-adjusted, league-adjusted, and bias-adjusted. GPx99+ has Beckham at 82.12, which is roughly equivalent to 3 imagination wins above what you'd expect if a hippo played the position. That's a B- ballplayer no matter how you want to slice it.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 10:47 AM) I think you need to read the defences more carefully I don't think anyone actually reads what we write anyway.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 11:57 AM) Steverson is getting a lot of credit, but what does the White Sox offense look like without Eaton and Abreu? Pretty bleak if you were to ask me. He would be considered just another stooge. I have no idea how much a hitting coach helps or hurts -- I suspect it's a lot less than we like to think. That said, I liked the lip service from Steverson regarding forcing pitchers to come to your zone much, MUCH better than I liked Manto's bit about expanding the zone for the sake of RBIs. Don't get me wrong, I get where the latter makes sense in situations where simply putting the ball in play is the primary goal -- but those situations, IMO, are much rarer than we like to think, and I think that attitude can get our young hitters into bad habits. If it's a tie game and there's a runner on third with less than two outs, then sure, slap at it outside to get it in the air the other way somehow. But in most conditions, I want our hitters to understand that they'll do more damage by getting themselves into a hitters count and forcing the pitcher to throw something that can be barreled up. It didn't seem like ANYONE was doing that (except Konerko) when Manto was around -- there was even that month where he got Dunn to swing at everything. Maybe they were all destined to be hacks with or without Manto, and maybe the hitters are just more talented now that Steverson is here. Distinct possibility on both accounts. But the results have absolutely lined up with the philosophies on both accounts so far.

If the Yankees would give us JRM/Sanchez/O'Brien for Danks, we'd have done it already.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 02:53 PM) I'll get back to you on that. Seriously, I will. Heading off to an actuarial exam now. Enjoy the day. Good luck on that!

The biggest difference, IMO, between Kershaw and Sale/Hernandez is HR/FB%. Kershaw's is right around his career average, while Sale/Hernandez's are substantially lower than their respective averages. It's likely that both Sale and Hernandez will see some regression here at some point, which would widen the gap between them and Kershaw.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 02:50 PM) League-adjusted yes, but these are still relatively blunt instruments. When you actually dig into the formulation of the metrics, you realize that not every single aspect is being accounted for. Which aspects aren't?