Eminor3rd

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:53 AM) If do a deal with Pittsburgh they have Jose Tabata. Not really a "build around" kind of player but comes with cost certainty & would give us a "plug-in" type should we trade Rios. BTW holy s*** at Jason Grilli's numbers. My GOD. Who saw that coming? We had him once ya know. Damn KW, should have been psychic & held onto him. He's just this year's Fernando Rodney, who was Jose Valverde the year before, who was Kyle Farnsworth the year before. These guys show up every year, and die, it seems.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:44 AM) Who could have ever seen that coming. I love the idea of regression, because Nate Jones is probably about a 3.00-3.50 ERA pitcher with about a 1.2-1.3 WHIP who gets by based off of electric stuff. Based on his overall numbers, he's expected to come back to earth from that 1.38 ERA but he's also expected to keep it up, because he's not a 5.00 ERA pitcher. As a result, he's both pitching normally AND over his head at the same time. Yeah it just comes down to the myth that events are evenly distributed. People see a 3.00 ERA pitcher and expect him to give up precisely 3 runs during each 9 inning set that he pitches, when that's just not true. All sports (probably all performances in general) are made up of hot streaks and cold streaks.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:37 AM) Meanwhile, Nate Jones has put up a 1.38 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 12.5 K/9, 18 K/BB, and a .506 OPSa in his last 10 appearances, 13 IP. Indeed! http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88772

QUOTE (MaggsOrdonez @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 08:26 AM) Unless Crain suffers a devastating breakdown/injury he will likely be traded. I'd like to see us get at least a near-ready prospect and another with a couple years to go. Maybe a trade with the Red Sox for Xander Bogaerts and Garin Cecchini? rofl

BP with an updated scouting report: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/20924#hawkins

Crain to the Orioles July 12th

Thanks for posting this, I was sorta wondering if there was a game tonight.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) The best comparison I can come up with off hand for a Rios deal is Hunter Pence for Seth Rosin, Tommy Joseph, and Nate Schierholtz last deadline. Rosin and Joseph look like mediocre prospects (though highly drafted, 4th and 2nd rounds respectively) and Schierholtz left in free agency to the Cubs (and is having a great year). All I'm going to say is that dealing Rios is risky. His contract is much better. Teams getting him will get an additional year plus an option year at slightly below market rates for a 3-4 win OF. That's substantially more valuable than a 2 month rental. Meanwhile, keeping him will just a dd a few wins to our garbage year. If we're going to be bad for a couple years, I want to be able to watch some players develop -- that's the only thing that will keep any interest for any of us.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 01:10 PM) If Ventura was actually doing any of this, I could agree with you. The team isn't. The White Sox expanded their payroll by somewhere in the range of $20-$30 million this year depending on how the bookkeeping is done. What is really happening is they tried to field another competitive team this year and it has absolutely blown up in an explosion of stupid play, poor focus, poor preparation, and a few injuries to boot. This is important, I think. This team isn't great, but it SHOULD be better. Much like they played close to their peak potential most of last year, they are playing close to their floor so far now. It's been a .500ish team in true talent for a couple years, IMO.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 01:38 PM) I have to admit I also hate watching them. I've been a Sox fan forever and I know bad baseball is better than no baseball, but I pretty much can't take our anemic offense. I guess it's because it has been the same for so long. The difference is this year we can't even hit enough home runs to win home games. I have no desire to turn on my mlb.com and watch the Sox fail to hit and lose so many close games. It all started with that Cub series. The team just sucked so badly. It's hard to watch. Same. I still start with every game but I'm finding myself slip away to do something else earlier and earlier. At first I felt guilty, like a fairweather fan or whatever, but the reality is that watching them just puts me in a bad mood. It's a frustrating end to my day, so I go find something else to unwind with.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 02:17 PM) I also hate to say this, but trading Jesse Crain right now is a great idea. He isn't going to last like this all season, and will return to the mean. Let someone else deal with that. Yes, this is the case with all hot relievers aside from the absolutely elite, I think. Towers acquired a ton of talent selling off his bullpen every year in SD for a while. RPs just don't last, they are volatile commodities. Crain will never be more valuable.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 01:47 PM) Home runs are fun, definitely, but I think Dunn is almost an exception to that rule. He's been so lousy that just seeing him stride to the plate is buzzkill. Am I in the minority on this? I just think Dunn is about the worst player in White Sox history and I hate seeing him walk to the plate. If there are any Dunn fans out there, I stand corrected. Man, how soon we forget Mark Kotsay and his 85% groundout-to-2B rate.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/forget-jona...et-jesse-crain/

Who cares?

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 11:58 AM) We must win this series. We can't afford to lose another game the rest of the season #winout

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 02:24 PM) I never once said DFA the guy. He simply sucks. I just wanted to point that out because at the time of that thread there was a lot of talk about him not sucking. You also went WAY out of your way to personally insult the intelligence of anyone who had been excited about his hot start at all. You presented your argument in such a way that even if it was a good argument, people were still going to be upset about it and react in a negative way that would cause a heated flame war. That was a garbage post, man -- really bad communication. I'm guessing you were both slightly drunk and in a surly mood.

Hawk just keep muttering, "I love this game..." despondently when things are darkest.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 08:56 AM) According to the BA website the Blount and Goldberg signings have the Sox $259k ahead in the bonus pool games. Michaelczewski money?

Why does everyone think it's still 2009? Alex Rios does NOT have a burdensome contract AT ALL anymore. He's under contract for one more season at $12.5m, with a TEAM OPTION for 2015 at the same price. It's a GOOD contract at this point. The f***ing media is just so lazy and bad, it blows my mind.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) Can someone change my thread title back to "Conor Gillaspie sucks"? No, we get it.

We're grasping at straws though, you know? Like Morel sucks, really. SO if he hits his ceiling he;ll be a serviceable backup on a mediocre team? I think we've already forgotten what it feels like to have a real offense. I mean just watching the Blue Jays this series -- like Bautista and Encarnacion are f***ing LEGIT bats. They are a threat to homer and double constantly. You just trust them to do it, and they do it. We've had those types of guys a lot, we just don't right now. We have Zombie Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn. We're a team right now where our "hero" in a win can be Dylan Axelrod or Connor Gillaspie solely for the reason that occasionally people do exceptional things in baseball. Success is the exception rather than the norm for nearly all of our guys. The resulting compromise between our brains and our hearts is projecting a ceiling that looks like that line you just typed for Morel.

Was worth a shot... No, no it wasn't. You're right.

Let's stop worrying about the attendance, please.

Done

When we finally awaken from the dream, we'll still be 5 games below .500