Eminor3rd

Rallies. Huh, I forgot what those were. Man, those felt good.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 11:47 AM) Jesus, you forget everything, what the hell is wrong with you? I can't remember

Well, so much for this idea. Phillies announced that we cleared waivers. So strange -- there's obviously more to claiming players than I am aware of.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 11:01 AM) Do you consider Downs and Surkamp an upgrade over Heath and Morel? At least those two have a purpose within the system, which is more than you can say about Morel and Heath. Oh god, I forgot Morel is still on the 40 man

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 10:32 AM) Don't get all defensive. My point was that any stats (traditional or advanced) aren't always the best indicator of how a player or team will perform in the future. As I said, I understand why the stats are looked, and I admit my lesser knowledge of them. The 2014 White Sox are going to look very different compared to the 2013 Sox. If you compare the teams on paper before their respective seasons, most people (statniks and casual fans alike) would say the 2013 team would perform better. Now, I doubt there's anyone that is going to say that the 2014 Sox will perform worse than the 2013 Sox. There's something to be said for injecting youth into a team, and changes in venue, and other factors (personal - I'm looking at you Keppinger and Alexei) that affect player's and team's performance. And I'm on this board, like you, to talk about my favorite baseball team. I never said I didn't want to talk about what has happened and what will happen. Quite the opposite, actually, if you go back and read my original post. I was just pointing out that stats aren't always the best indicators. There are other factors, and one of the biggest factors for the 2014 Sox is the number of changes. Sorry

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 10:29 AM) That would mean they would need to open up two roster spots when you include the Downs signing. Good point. Zero sum game.

Giants just DFA'd Eric Surkamp, which seems really strange: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/12/gian...assignment.html He's been beat up in the Majors, but he's only pitched 28 innings. Seems like a really nice controllable depth piece -- he's dominated the minors, after all. But he's a 26 yo lefty, and young lefties are something we have. I sort of think the more depth and competition, the merrier. Would be a nice way to replace Hector Santiago for next to nothing, no?

Standing in the way of your employees' opportunities to make money is not a good long-term strategy for a business. Holding him for another year is asking him to put his future career and earnings at risk. Poor taste, bad for morale.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 07:40 AM) Threads like this are always entertaining. They are filled with opinions and conjecture and arguments, and in the end we all know that how a team looks on paper doesn't always translate to actual performance. Yes, this is why we are on this board. QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 07:40 AM) And in my opinion, the advanced stats make it worse. In every thread that talks about the future or potential is riddled with acronyms like WAR, bWAR, UZR, FART, etc. To many fans, myself included, the advanced stats don't mean much. Don't get me wrong, I understand their usefulness. But, often enough, the advanced stats don't end up being good indicators of how a team/player will perform in the future. In the end, a post saying "they're just not good enough" may be as accurate as a post that looks like a college thesis. The advanced stats don't make anything worse. If you think advanced stats are bad for discussion because they can't predict the future with 100% accuracy, then you must also think that traditional stats are bad for discussion. Because they predict the future with even less accuracy. I don't get it. If you don't want to discuss what has happened with our team and what we think will happen with our team, what are you doing here on the board?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 20, 2013 -> 08:04 AM) With all the caveats said though...that low number for Eaton does mean that he didn't tear CF apart when he was out there. He could rapidly improve, that number could be dominated by a few mistakes...but it's not 100% useless. Correct. It isn't that UZR isn't "accurate" at small sample sizes, it's that it isn't "predictive" at small sample sizes.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 06:49 PM) I see, thanks guys. What about defensive WAR? Defensive WAR is calculated using UZR

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 04:22 PM) The biggest area of concern is not enough quality innings from the starters. I think there are a TON of unknowns on this team -- I'd put Sp, bullpen, offense, and defense as equally concerning. Lots of new players, lots of guys expected to bounce back to some degree. It's really a huge unknown.

It CAN contend. It just probably won't. But there's a chance, and that'll make it fun to watch. Better still, you'll be able to enjoy it knowing that the team on the field is going to keep getting better instead of falling off a cliff as a last hurrah like last year. Next year is going to be a better year for the fans, very little doubt in my mind.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 12:58 AM) Japanese pitchers tend to do better outside of the spotlight. Irabu ended up killing himself, Igawa was a disaster in NY, Hideo Nomo was successful for a couple of seasons until hitters figured him out. Then you have the Dice-K fiasco. The under-the-radar guys like Iwakuma with the Mariners have tended to fare better. Of course, it helps to pitch at Safeco or in the NL West. Kuroda's been decent, but the only contract that has worked out (so far) was Darvish, and it's not like he's single-handedly led the Rangers back to the promised land, either. One thing he has done was improve...instead of starting off well and then nosediving or getting injured. There's not anywhere near enough of a track record to make a generalization like that.

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/gavin-floyd-m...vyawn-floyawnd/

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 06:05 PM) I thought he improved a bit in the 2nd half, but definitely a work in progress. Until the Morneau deal, I thought they might move him to 1B, but it seems the Rockies believe he can be adequate. The bat will play somewhere. Indeed, but with our roster, we really, really need it to play at C

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 05:45 PM) Looking at Javy's WAR numbers versus what we all saw in his performance will make one question the very concept of WAR. I happen to think the FG method overvalues/assumes luck a bit too much, and that the "truest" performance evaluation is somewhere in the middle. It is, and they adamantly and frequently admit that. But it is the most accurate system that exists currently; there are fewer outliers like Javy Vazquez than exist with others.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 04:30 PM) What's the consensus here? If we had to pick one, Grandal or Rosario? Grandal for me. Lots of new attempts at measuring C defense have rated Rosario as either one of, or in some cases, the absolute worst defensive C in baseball.

It's difficult to argue that the Sox shouldn't be heavily involved in due diligence for Tanaka. He should be considered an option. Whether or not they choose to enter the bidding depends ENTIRELY on their internal assessment of his abilities and upside -- an assessment to which we have no insight and which may or may not be completely different from public or even internal club consensus. If they don't get him, it won't necessarily be because they didn't think they had the payroll space.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 17, 2013 -> 10:00 PM) I'm really starting to like the idea of Jason Castro. A solid left handed catcher that could hit too all fields and good defensively. What would Sox have to give up to get him? There's just absolutely no reason for the Astros to move him. He is the thing they need the most -- an MLB-ready building block with several years of team control.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) I was thinking it was different in the past. Oh well, not the first time I've been wrong. But undoubtedly the last!

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 03:18 PM) Give him the Beckham treatment. Keep him around forever no matter what he does?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) Javy Vazquez is my favorite pitcher to look at Yeah -- Matt Cain, Ricky Nolasco, Zack Greinke are fun ones, too.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 01:48 PM) When used to describe performance, I have no problem with it whatsoever. You just have to realize that is all it's doing - for the most part, it doesn't care how you got to that 2.75 ERA, just that you got there. fWAR says "HOLD UP YOU LUCKY f***" and does some correction for luck It's more accurate, I think, to describe it as attempting to strip influence of defense. Which, it is lucky to have a good defense, but it's more than just normalizing BABIP. Because FIP based metrics are more stable, they correlate better year to year, and are thus a better measure of a pitcher's true talent. If you're evaluating player value for the purposes of rosterbation, fWAR is the way to go. If you want to find out who contributed most on the field whether they earned it or not, use bWAR.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Dec 18, 2013 -> 01:40 PM) Or because it is easily accessible due to b-r. It's not any more or less accessible than FanGraphs. But don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing you of anything, I was just trying to defend Chili's blanket hatred of bWAR.