Eminor3rd

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 28, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) What's the stat for straight fastball? And since you asked, Pitch F/X records movement for every pitch. In 2012, his fastball averaged 6.8 inches of horizontal movement and 7.8 inches of vertical movement. In 2013, his fastball is averaging 6.8 inches of horizontal movement and 7.4 inches of vertical movement. His fastball is practically exactly the same. http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?play...&position=P

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 28, 2013 -> 02:43 PM) What's the stat for straight fastball? Marty -- the gist of what I'm saying is that regardless of how straight you think his fastball is, he is striking out nearly the same amount of guys, walking nearly the same amount of guys, giving up nearly the same amount of homeruns, and giving up nearly the same amount of hits on balls in play. The ONLY difference is his strand rate, which is currently freakishly low, as in no one EVER has a strand rate that low over an extended sample, and so that will likely regress with no change at all to his performance or approach. Basically, if his stuff has changed, it isn't showing up in how well batters are hitting him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 28, 2013 -> 01:58 PM) The contrast between the 2 previous posts could not possibly be more stark. lol

Check this page out: http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...&position=P When comparing this year's line and last year's line, I conclude that he's just fine and will be better going forward. Here's why: 1) 48.3% strand rate vs. 85.8% League average strand rate is around 70%. There are instances of pitchers that are who are worse consistently either because they can't focus on the batter with runners on or because their stuff diminishes from the stretch. Typically, however, RPs are NOT among them, given that most of them always pitch from the stretch and come in with runners on base most of the time. Given Jones' success last year, I have no reason to believe he is below average. To me, it's a safe bet that this number will regress toward 70% going forward. 2) 7.01 ERA vs. 3.55 FIP DIPS theory is not infallible by any stretch, but this difference is absolutely stark. Furthermore, his component rates (BB%, K%, HR/FB) are all very similar to last year's rates. The K's are down a touch, but the homeruns are better, resulting in a FIP that is very close to last year's 3.39. This is absolutely ripe for regression. 3) 11.9% walk rate vs. 10.6% If Nate was really having major control issues (as compared to last year), this rate would be much higher. Overall, I think this is a case of some bad luck in sequencing for Nate. I don't ever expect him to put up the same baseball card numbers as last year, but the peripherals are showing him to be essentially the same pitcher in terms of process and stuff. I think he's fine.

I think that because Cubs fans have embraced their rebuild, they don't care if they lose anymore. This won't be interesting again until there's at least SOMETHING at stake.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 27, 2013 -> 03:03 PM) Nobody outside of Rios has been hitting consistently well enough to say that it matters that much where they hit in the order. This ^

Read somewhere a week or so ago that the Sox were scouting Chi Chi heavily. Sounds like he may be our guy if he gets to us.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ May 23, 2013 -> 04:01 PM) He never reminded me of Norberto Martin or D'Angelo Jimenez (still playing for Newark Bears allegedly) or Tony Graffanino. Paco Martin!

From a Law blog today: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/...aw-on-southland

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ May 21, 2013 -> 11:37 AM) Manaea was scratched from his start today. s***ty timing for the kid. You have to figure there's a very real chance he falls to us now. I wonder if it'd be worth gambling on that upside at 17 considering that this is such a weak draft anyway.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 22, 2013 -> 02:30 PM) Santiago not in a position to succeed . Starting on short rest between starts and throwing bullpen session yesterday. If he fails it makes putting him in the bullpen easier. Would love to see him make it a hard decision for the Sox by pitching at least 5-6 good innings. Unfortunately the Sox need 7 after taxing the bullpen the last few days. Seems like a throw away game so a win to complete the sweep would be huge. Yeah I'd honestly rather start a AAA scrub on full rest.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 22, 2013 -> 10:24 AM) Christ, it's tendonitis. MILD tendonitis. He probably f***ing slept on it wrong. DOESN'T MATTER! SHOULDER!

SHOULDER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 21, 2013 -> 03:18 PM) Then you missed my point then. =) Perhaps I did. We need to get other guys in the lineup to hit too, was mine.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 21, 2013 -> 03:14 PM) Not batting with two black holes on either side of him he won't. Exactly my point.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 21, 2013 -> 03:04 PM) Match up smatch up... he's been one of the better hitters on the team and playing decent defense too. Kepp does not deserve to start with how atrocious and lackadasical he's been. Keppinger needs at-bats against good match-ups in order to get going. It's not a Little League team -- if we're going to have a shot to win we need more guys to find a way to produce. I like Gillaspie, but he's not carrying us into the postseason on his back.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 21, 2013 -> 09:39 AM) Axelrod as a starter at the MLB level: 19 games, 108.1 IP, 4.32 ERA, 75 K, 35 BB, 1.33 WHIP, 14 HR Personally, that looks like a 4th starter to me. It's not a large sample size by any means (which his minor league numbers are, and those are phenomenal), but there's enough there for some stabilization. The Sox have a lot of talent in their rotation, but Axelrod really should be in a rotation somewhere in the majors. The jury is still out for me until he gets at least 30-40 starts. Remember how good Phil Humber looks for 15-20 starts?

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ May 18, 2013 -> 03:56 PM) My Top 8 2013 MLB Mock Draft: 1. Houston Astros- Appel 2. Chicago Cubs- Gray 3. Colorado Rockies- Bryant 4. Minnesota Twins- Stewart 5. Cleveland Indians- Shipley 6. Miami Marlins- Moran 7. Boston Red Sox- Manaea 8. Kansas City Royals- Stanek Top 3 Mock ChiSox Picks: R1. Dominic Smith, 1B, CA HS(most agreeable between KW, Hahn, and Co.)/ J.P. Crawford, SS, CA HS/ Austin Wilson, OF, Stanford/ Alex Gonzalez, RHP, Oral Roberts(confirmed scouted)/ Phil Bickford, RHP, CA HS R2. Alex Gonzalez, RHP, Oral Roberts / Michael Wagner, RHP, San Diego/ Stephen Tarpley, LHP, Scottsdale CC/ Stephen Gonsalvez, LHP, CA HS R3. Ryan McMahon, 3B, CA HS/ Christopher Rivera, SS, CA HS/ Jeremy Martinez, C, CA HS Mayo is saying Smith won't get past the Mets, and consensus seems to be that Manaea will fall further. I wonder if Hunter Renfroe may be available at 17, which I think would be nice. Also, I've been all about Aaron Judge, but I saw some video and I don't like his swing now. He somehow looks off-balance and like he doesn't swing very hard at the same time.

QUOTE (Jillian Michaels' Abs @ May 20, 2013 -> 02:04 PM) I've heard that this trade is agreed upon in principal, pending a brain scan and psychological evaluation of the Diamondbacks GM. I mean it wouldn't be the first, second, or even third Kevin Towers move that seemed to make absolutely no sense to anyone at the time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 20, 2013 -> 08:29 AM) As bad as the red sox starting pitching was last season, that's how as good they've been now. Excellent Tim McCarver impression! You forgot to start with, "In MAH opinion..." though

That would be a coup for us. No chance.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 17, 2013 -> 12:15 PM) I honestly just don't think he ever really liked the Sox system, and it's not like they've proven him wrong. There are a few throughout that we could look at, but I think the biggest one he was wrong on was Dan Hudson, and then Hudson's elbow ended up exploding. He never said he didn't like Sale, he just said he didn't see him making it as a starter. He's been proven wrong thus far, and I'm grateful for that. Yeah, with Sale particularly, I think we often misrepresent what people say. We think to ourselves that Law and others say they "don't like Sale", but really what they're saying is that they don't like the PICK of Sale at 14. Everyone always acknowledged his stuff, but felt that his frame and delivery made him a big risk as anything but a reliever, and so there were safer bets available. The Sox gambled and have thus far been fortunate, but it could have easily gone the other way. We can't forget that these pundits are giving opinions on futures; their opinions are on decisions being made now to gamble on a range of outcomes. No one ever claimed, for example, that Sale was going to be a bad pitcher, just that he was high risk. The fact that he's been good so far doesn't make Law or anyone else wrong about him -- he was and probably still is high risk.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 17, 2013 -> 08:05 AM) Not really that....just the fact a guy predicted to be a sure-fire top 10-15 draft pick and top of the rotation major leaguer one year can quite easily go to questionable the next. There's no sport like that, not the NFL, not the NBA...the line between success and failure is so delicate. Baseball, unlike the other two sports, it still take 2-3 years for most collegiate pitchers to make it to the big leagues. I understand what you mean. It's because there's so much projection involved. Unlike the other major sports, none of the guys drafted possess the skills to play -- you're always betting on them to develop those skills. That's why they love the radar guns, because it's hard to tell who is going to be able to learn, so you miught as well choose the ones that have huge arms.