Southwest Sider

I think the potential upside to Avi continuing to do what he's doing is worth more than a relief arm and a lotto ticket. I only trade him in the offseason if an offer bowls me over. If not, I am more than happy to roll the dice and see what we get out of him next year. If he keeps hitting like this, his value only goes up. Perhaps next years trade deadline would be a more appropriate setting. Even if the right offer never comes along, all things remaining equal he could be a nice piece to have on the next competitive Sox team. It'd be nice to see the Sox patience with him pay off.

It is good, sometimes, to be drunk.

Off screen activity after Tyrion recognizes Cersei is pregnant could be where he betrays Dany. It is a reach, indeed, but it might be another theory rabbithole to go down in the next 18 months. Cersei played him like a fiddle, got him to feel like horse s*** about Tommen and Myrcella, then "reveals" her pregnancy, and Tyrion feels the need to protect the unborn Lannister at all costs. Not to mention he repeatedly said he didn't want to end his family and so on. I think it's worth nothing also that Cersei refused some wine, while Tyrion gulped a glass down and began his second, thus potentially hindering his wits. Cersei knew she needed to be clear minded for this engagement. I think, if any of this is true, that Tyrion will try to act as a mediator between sides and try to broker Dany becoming the ruler while somehow saving the unborn Lannister.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Aug 27, 2017 -> 10:48 PM) Pretty dissapointed with the episode and the season. Tonight was super predictable. The Littlefinger death should have been cool, but felt completely lacking. What else really happened? The only part I liked was Euron pretending to be scared and Cersei plotting her next move for once the war against the dead is over. Otherwise, this was a pretty forgettable episode given there are only six left. Several large plot points were realized, a new one seemingly legitimized with Tyrion potentially betraying Daenarys. Jamie BAILS on Cersei, Qyburns zombie-boner is raging, Cleganebowl pretty much confirmed, Baelish finally got what he has had coming for 7 f***ing seasons, Bran finally listens to what Lyanna was saying to Ned ;-) bad ass blue fire breathing dragon even deadlier than regular fire breathing dragon pwns the wall... forgettable indeed. You will have forgotten all of this even happened by the time you are making your popcorn and nerding out to the season premier in 12-18 months. Christ some people are hard to please. It's not without its faults but if you really wanted to turn off the show while Baelish was finally getting his... or when Mountain might be killing Jamie.. because it was TOO predictable then guess what, you are THINKING too much. Predictability isnt necessarily a bad thing. How do like 90% of shows and movies that all have good and evil usually end? Guess what, good prevails over evil. Since the bible, since stories in general, because guess what.. good is cooler than evil. Here's unpredictable for you, a giant meteor crashes into Westeros and does the majority of the NKs work for him. Littlefinger mindf***s Sansa and Arya into killing each other. Cersei wins over a dragon by sheer political prowess. Edmure Tully finds his way to the dragon pit and kills everyone. Ahhh yes, instant satisfaction due to the unpredictable nature of the show? If you are expecting unpredictability with 1 season left at this point, you are fooling yourself.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 14, 2017 -> 12:16 PM) Why can everyone else travel from one side of the continent and back in the same time it's taking the Night King to march from Hardhome. He's got to go about 1/50th of the distance. He was waiting for his dragon.

If Fulmers stuff is as underwhelming as everyone has been saying, converting him to a reliever will not work. You still need at least 1 good pitch to possibly be a quality reliever. At this point, the Sox and Carson just need to stick their noses to the grindstone and try to get his stuff back to where it was when they drafted him. It sucks to see him struggle so much being that he's one of our first rounders, but you can't give up now and the Sox need to find a way to keep this kid confident in himself as his struggles continue. Sadly, I can't see him being very confident right now, so I hope the Sox can help him as much as possible over the offseason to find his "stuff".

Some of the Astros looked like they had lost a playoff series after that game. They looked dejected. Not the look of a team that will go far in the playoffs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 10, 2017 -> 11:10 PM) https://mobile.twitter.com/robbiemoncada/st...4991873/video/1 Thats Moncadas boy saying "You suck Astros!"? I like him already.

I can't read the article, but the title suggests that the Sox may be laying a new blueprint for baseball. If it all works out, and we achieve at least one World Series victory, we will look back at this as one of the most amazing rebuilds ever, given the incredibly quick turnaround for our farm system. As everyone knows, a turnaround like this is quite probably not possible if the White Sox didn't shrewdly sign elite players to reasonable contracts. The Sox needed a lot to go their way for this to even happen though. Most notably is that Sale's arm was able to stay intact throughout his White Sox career. It is true that the White Sox utterly failed to surround their elite players with good enough players. This is an issue with the farm system and the development of guys, as well as the inability to sign impact free agents. With the farm system, it is the hope of the fanbase that money that used to pay for the MLB payroll is being used to enrich the farm development team. Bringing in guys who can develop players and teach them what it takes to be an MLB contributor are absolutely necessary, and if it means paying them the big bucks, it is absolutely worth it as it could pay incredible dividends down the road. Look at teams like the Red Sox and Cubs. When almost ALL of your top prospects actually pan out in some way, shape, or form, thats not just good luck. That's having an elite development team working with these players each step of the way. It is the hope that the White Sox are identifying people like this, and aggressively adding them to the team. If not, we could still be looking at a normal prospect situation for most teams: "We will be happy if 50% of our top prospects actually pan out". If the White Sox fail to have elite talent development people, their shots of making this rebuild a success will be drastically diminished, in my opinion. There are signs of progress in that area. Despite some of their recent struggles, there are signs that players like Saladino, Leury Garcia, Yolmer Sanchez, Omar Narvaez, Matt Davidson, and Tim Anderson could be somewhat valuable MLB contributors in their careers. These are all, for the most part, completely homegrown players, or players who spent some time in the system. It is a good sign that the team can turn meh prospects into decent players, and actually help Davidson hit his apparent MLB ceiling. This trend will need to continue. If you are able to hit on most of your position player prospects, hit and get lucky healthwise with your pitching prospects and parlay the bright future of the team into luring a few big name free agents to the South Side, then we have a real shot of being the happiest we have ever been as Sox fans. Also, as an aside, as much as it would suck for Rick Renteria to have it happen twice, I hope the Sox don't pass on a better option if one becomes available. Mike Scioscia's contract ends after the next season and I think it would behoove the White Sox to add him. The man is a proven baseball winner, and I highly doubt he will want to stay with the Angels given that their upper management doesn't seem interested in giving him a baseball team he can win with. I definitely don't think the Angels problems are because of Mike Scioscia. Adding him would add a manager with a World Series winning pedigree, one that could take a young, incredibly talented team to the next level. The White Sox cannot afford to shortchange this rebuild and this team at all, and if it means hurting some feelings by dismissing Rick Renteria to add a manager like Scioscia, I think you absolutely have to do it.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 04:18 PM) How long has his thumb been injured? Could that explain his recent slump? I think it might have something to do you with, along with normal regression. I like this move. Let it heal completely, come back, finish his slump and hopefully finish the season strong. This has been an awesome year for Avi, sans the injury/slump.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 20, 2017 -> 09:17 AM) When I first got news of the players involved in the trade, it looked as if Polo was the fourth player, the guy thrown in as the so-called lotto pick, and the two real prospects in the trade were quickly added to the Sox Top Thirty list. Not so for Tito Polo. Then, I look at his stats and his scouting report here, and he looks pretty damn good. Good enough to easily make the Top 30 List. Why, for example, is he not listed ahead of Basabe? Same with just about every other prospect from Basabe on down. I hope they keep him at AA, at least. My guess is his age (he's almost 23) in A+ ball is what was keeping his prospect status down. It looks to me like his ceiling is a right-handed Adam Eaton-eque leadoff hitter, who perhaps could be a better base stealer. I think he was a savvy addition to the farm given that the Yankees didn't want to part with anymore big name prospects. If he continues to hit in AA with the Barons, I certainly think you will see him gain helium and become a top 30 prospect for the Sox. In that scenario, he will be in a more age appropriate league and it will be hard to ignore a guy hitting .300ish with speed. One thing I am not sure of is his defensive ability. If he is good to elite defensively that will only help his case. This guy is the kind of depth the Sox need in their system along with the guys in the top 15 for the system to truly be the best in baseball. Since we're probably done acquiring blue chip prospects, it is important for any other trades to target more unheralded prospects like this.

Heard Tito Polo is indeed in the trade.

Ripe avocado + Eggs + Toast = Bliss

Mind = blown

That whole play was just hilarious. From how that ball even made it to where it did, to the home plate umpires mid-ring-up change of mind. Epic.

QUOTE (miracleon35th @ May 16, 2017 -> 12:23 AM) Another reason - overzealous cub fans have also spiked interest in the White Sox. Sox fans have really grown sick of the cubs and their fans. I see a lot more people this year wearing White Sox hats and jerseys around town. Being a Sox fan seems more special than it has for a long time. With all the Cubs stuff I saw everywhere, and the fact that I would go to major retailers and not see a single piece of Sox merchandise, I started wearing my Sox stuff more. Need to represent in these tough times and show that logo off for the younger generation who might not still be swayed by Cub glory.

QUOTE (ron883 @ May 10, 2017 -> 09:43 AM) Nicky D is knocking on the door, and matt Davidson needs ABs. What we do to move Todd? Keep playing him for trade value? That's my stance. It's really a shame he hasn't hit at all. You gotta play him and hope he gets hot at the right time. If he doesn't get hot, and you can't trade him for anything, then as the deadline passes I bench him all but 1-2 games a week and let the kids play as rosters expand.

This thread. I definitely want Southpaw sitting on the Iron Throne... may go to this game

Thanks for sharing your experience in Nashville. I may not agree with their antics there.. and I'm not a big fan of goalie taunting or their "Hey! You suck!" chant, but at the same time it's whatever keeps their fans into the game. It's fun to hate on the big boys and right now, we are the big boys. De-troit sucks! But they still kicked the Hawks ass every year... but to us, they still suck! That's a perfect example of the reverse role situation.

Damn it's nice to beat Winnipeg.

If it's true that the Astros want Quintana, but at not even close to a fair price, well then....

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 06:43 PM) We are the people you hate, ha. Our seats are in 3 and 4, the guys on the aisle miss several games a year, we always just move over to gain some elbow room. Haha, there's definitely some deception there if you are sitting in 2 and 3. Makes one think that their "buddies" are getting using amenities. ...and another meltdown. f***ing Winnipeg. I thought the Hawks may have finally exorcised that demon.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 02:42 PM) SRO are going for like $25 right now for tonight's game. I would never pay to stand though anyway. I dunno, if I ever get SRO tickets I try to find some seats that aren't being used. I went to one of the playoff games vs. the Blues last year and found a couple aisle seats center ice with no seats in front and luckily enough they were never claimed.

As I suspected, our farm is very very top heavy to a guy like Law. We gotta hope Hahn can come through for us with successful trades of our secondary pieces in the time leading up to the trade deadline to fill in the depth of our farm. It's not easy pulling off a rebuild, but you could argue that the hardest part is getting the top of your farm in order. This is why Hahn isn't messing around with the Quintana deal. He wants to add 1-2 more top pieces and then go for the best-available pieces for guys like Jones, Robertson, Frazier, Melky, Lawrie, Gonzalez etc. Hopefully in one years time there will be more White Sox on this top 100 list.

Appreciate the comments fellas. I'm not interested in getting into tournaments because I simply don't have 4-5 days a week to dedicate, but definitely looking to join some local league for competitive fun. I did buy a $200 ball, got it drilled at the pro shop I got it from. Everything feels great and I'm really enjoying my ball so far. This might be a really good thing, but I have been doing incredibly well at picking up my spares. I don't often string together strikes, but I did put together another mid-500's series this past Tuesday and another 500 this past Thursday. I felt pretty good on Thursday because in my final two games I left only one open frame and that was with few strikes. As you said, the games were like 185 and 195. As of now I'm inconsistent with my first ball. I've just recently started to actually get hook on my ball, but it's inconsistent yet. Sometimes it doesn't make it to the pocket, sometimes it gets too much of the head pin, and sometimes it drifts to the backdoor pocket. Sometimes it hits the pocket right on the money, though, and those feel nice. I'm just working on the repetition there and no doubt I'll make some progress soon enough. If I can get some more consistent strikes and keep up my propensity to pick up spares, I'll be really happy with the progress I've made in only a few months. As an aside, my buddy is an absolute freak of nature. Last time he seriously bowled was in high school (~10 years ago) and he started joining me twice a week and throws his dads old ball the same way he did in high school, which is thumbless. His accuracy is insane. He has had several 200+ games in only a couple of months, and just this past Thursday had a 277 which was part of a 700 series. Everything I read online says thumbless bowling can be very inconsistent but he's just got his style down and it works for him. He started worrying me with talk of learning how to bowl like everyone else, using the thumb and everything. I argue that it might be a tough transition for him, especially since we're bowling mostly for fun and maybe for competition some time this year. Furthermore, I argue that he is enjoying great success with his style of bowling and why fix what isn't broken? He did mention that he wants to be able to adjust to different lane conditions should he go to different bowling alleys since one time we went to a different bowling center and his ball had almost no hook at all despite the revolutions he puts on it.