Eminor3rd

Felipe "Soggy Burrito" Paulino (0-1, 7.98) vs. Martin Perez (2-0, 2.70) This is the first gamethread I've ever made. So if we can win THIS matchup, it's pretty much assured I'll take us through a 135-0 streak. O/U on runs scored against our bullpen: 4.5

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91658

This thread is bonkers. This is like stuff from the White Sox Facebook Twitter account.

God this is the worst discussion we have six times a year.

What ever happened to Leyson Septimo? He get claimed?

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) How about not bring an erratic Cleto in to start the ninth. Webb has been the best arm out of the pen. He should've came in after Downs. I can get the Downs, Petricka and veal because of the LH, RH, LH bats. The easy answer is that Webb pitched the night before.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 02:01 PM) So he brings in the guy who wasn't even on the MLB roster to begin the year in the 8th inning up 2 with a runner on first? That was stupid. That whole 8th inning was poorly managed IMO Literally every reliever we have has been bad this year. He could have flipped a coin.

You and I must not have watched the same game. What I saw was a coach trying to save a two run lead by not letting his pitchers continue to walk three of every four batters they faced. I guess he could have let Veal or Cleto stay in and actually lose the game right then and there, thus eliminating the need to play extra innings.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 01:50 PM) Yeah, Kenny owes Ozzie nothing. The shots I saw of Kenny after the WS victory were of his celebrating pretty wildly. Ozzie had a lot to do with the best period of Kenny's professional life. That wasn't all Kenny, folks. He definitely had SOMETHING to do with it.

Depends if you trust the Pitch F/X or Fangraphs discipline numbers more. According to Pitch F/X, he's laid off more bad pitches. According to Fangraphs, he hasn't. According to both, he's making MUCH more contact on good pitches. The BABIP will drop 80-100 points, so that's bad. The LD rate will drop (thought it's hard to say how much), so that's bad. He's never had a Z-Contact better than ~5% below league average, and he's suddenly 5% over. That's the thing to watch, IMO. Has he stopped swinging so hard in order to make more contact? Good or bad, that could make a real difference. I need to look into how FG calculates discipline numbers relative to Pitch F/X so I can decide which one I want to believe.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:50 AM) In what role though? I highly doubt KW is talking manager here. I loves me some Super Joe at 3B coach. Bench coach?? Not sure what to think of Parent. Infield instructor?? I'm not even sure that exists. Or just something like "Latin ambassador"? Popcorn vendor

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 09:35 AM) I didn't know Leury Garcia pitched last night. How is his stuff? Ton of movement on the change-up (77mph), decent movement on his two seamer (88mph). Completely, totally wild though. It was just luck if it landed in the strikezone.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 09:38 AM) I think someone posted this a couple of months ago, citing it as evidence that AJ was a "class act". The bar for "class act" must be pretty low with athletes.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Apr 14, 2014 -> 11:25 AM) Chris Sale on days he throws a bp session.... Not the worst idea I've ever heard, lol. Just set an exact pitches cap. If he doesn't exceed it, he stays on the field and finishes while everyone is leaving the stadium, haha.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 07:15 AM) Should have a 1 game lead but since Ventura is our manager... Yeah I can't see any reason at all to blame last night on Ventura. What would you have done differently? Let Cleto or Veal blow the game for the sake of saving more pitchers for extra innings?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:15 AM) Webb threw almost 60 pitches, didn't he? He's going to have to sit now until Saturday, probably Sunday. And he's our best pitcher in the bullpen right now. Yeah, dude battled. For sure. Took one for the team.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 07:54 AM) The umps sorta sucked last night. Yeah but like. They walked 15 batters. 13 of them were by pitchers, even.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 08:48 AM) You know who has good control? Dylan Axelrod. I say they bring him back and insert him at closer. But seriously, I don't know why Lindstrom is closing still. He performs much better in middle relief and set up. Move on with the inevitable and insert Webb into the role. He's going to be awesome. He wasn't, really. He was sent in to try to bail out Cleto.

Awesome, awesome article on linear weights and wOBA: http://www.hardballtimes.com/why-woba-works/ Probably the most complete explanation I've seen for free online. Don't have to tell people to buy The Book anymore, haha.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 16, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) The problem is K-rates that high in the minors generally lead to higher K-rates in the majors. I'm not writing him off, but unless he becomes a 30-40 homer guy, I don't think he's going to have much of a career if he doesn't improve making contact. Hopefully, he is currently just going through a bad stretch and it is not a sign of where he's really at, or this arb clock everyone is worried about is moot. Great point. If we're okay with Davidson being a ~25% guy in the Majors, we really want to see him get down to at LEAST 20% in AAA.

Yep, good offseason into a good April so far. Bullpen is painful, but the position players are playing so well that even the losses don't feel as bad.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 16, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) You wouldn't because you would be paying him to do it again next year and that is very doubtful at this point. Dunn isn't very good, but he doesn't deserve the hate and boos he has received. He seems to be a good guy, a good teammate and certainly is one of the few White Sox who has run everything out the past 3 years. It's not like he isn't trying. That said, there is no scenerio, even if he keeps this up, do I think the Sox would give him a QO, and there is no way he keeps this up. His OPS is almost 1.100. Soxtalk has removed him from the dead weight list. He is doing exactly what the best case scenerio for him would be. Hopefully, he hits like he did the middle 4 months of last year for the entire season. He'll help win more games, but I'm sure, unless he has his best season with the White Sox, and is willing to play for peanuts next year, he's done with the team at the end of this season at the latest.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 05:36 PM) On Rios: Erratic past performance, and contract are the reason few wanted him. Again, track record of erratic past performance. What about Hansen's past performance? Was it better than Rios? What about the Beltran vs. Ellsbury example from this post? Why were the Rays willing to give up James Shields for Wil Myers? Why wouldn't anyone give up prospects with no track record for David Price this offseason? He's a year removed from the Cy Young! How come the Yankees only gave Jeter $15m/yr on his last contract? He made more than that before, hadn't his track record improved? Why does David Ortiz keep getting short-term deals, even though he continues to put up All-Star seasons? QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 05:36 PM) On Peavy/Feldman: You're the one who said track record didn't matter. I'm just going to repost this until you read it or stop pretending I didn't say it. This time I'll bold parts that most directly contradict what you keep claiming I say. If you're still having trouble, maybe I'll try to come up with a way to draw a picture: 3. What I DID say in an earlier thread is that GMs should (and increasing DO) pay for players (in both money and assets) based on the performance they expect going forward as opposed to the performance that has occurred in the past. Track record is one thing that can inform a projected performance going forward, but it would be foolish to use it exclusively. Why could Carlos Beltran only sign a 2yr/$26m contract this offseason? His track record suggests he's a borderline hall of famer! Should someone have paid him $100m? Because that's what Ellsbury got and Ellsbury doesn't have as good a track record. 4. Regarding Peavy/Feldman: There are more factors that go into trade value than simply the quality of one player versus the other. Here are some examples: number of suitors, contract length, contract dollars, budget of teams involved, value of marginal wins to team involved, personality of front office, ownership expectations, near and long-term revenue opportunities, perceived window of competition, etc. You're comparing two different players with different contracts who were traded from two different teams to two other different teams at different parts of the season and expecting that their trade values should be compared apples to apples. That's like saying "if this burger isn't better than steak, how come it cost the same today as a steak cost in 1911?" Track record is definitely a factor in projection, but the ultimate measure of a player's value on the field is what he WILL produce when you acquire him. What matters is projection. This is also why team control affects trade value so highly -- you're buying future performance, NOT past performance. QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 05:36 PM) On Fangraghs: The academic version of the strike zone isn't necessarily the strike zone they use in games. It may be the "best data we have", but it doesn't make assumptions based off of it any closer to fact than those not based off of it. In terms of player evaluation, it doesn't matter, because the academic strikezone is a constant from which pitch location can be judged. Variances in umpire behavior can be expected to cancel each other out over the course of a season because each player faces a random sampling of the same umpires. Using the academic strike zone may not give us an accurate representation of called strikes on some given nights, but it will still tell us which players swing at worse pitches relative to one another or relative to the league average. Additionally, I'm still not sure why any of this makes FanGraphs crap and what it has to do with the New York Times. QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 05:36 PM) On Paulino: I don't care if they signed him for the pen, but to be a 4th starter was a ridiculous leap of faith on Hahn's part. I think that we can come close to agreeing on one thing: that the Paulino move is much worse in the context of the rest of the offseason. It is a good practice to buy low on players you think you can fix, but you must also acquire depth in order to protect against failure of the hail mary. My guess is that the Sox overestimated Rienzo's ability/readiness, and that they probably needed another back-end veteran retread.

Keppinger isn't going anywhere until he shows he's healthy.

Keppinger makes $4m per year. Gordon Beckham makes $4m per year.