OmarComing25

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 11:40 PM) I'm always somewhat surprised when people compare pitchers such as defining an ace or the other fangraphs article from last season looking for young starting trios as good as the Mets , how pitching in different leagues isn't brought up more. Put Sale , Q and Rodon in the NL and move DeGron Syndergaard and Harvey to the AL and everything is very different. Yes a lot of people forget to properly apply the NL discount when it comes to comparing stats like ERA or strikeouts (though some AL fans do exaggerate the effect). The Mets' rotation is the best and deserves a lot of praise, but I wonder if they'd get near the same amount of hype if they played for the Rangers.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 09:19 AM) Yes, but we should hold our tongues before its official. Everyone we thought so far would sign for a discount did, but not near the level we anticipated. The discounts have come in years, not really AAV, except for Gordon and Kendrick. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2016-top-50...nt-predictions/ Cespedes, Gordon, and Kendrick signed for well below the predictions. There's no question that the QO hurt Kendrick considerably. At this point, I'd be very surprised to see Fowler and Desmond to get anywhere close to 4/56 and 5/85, at least in the years. AAV would probably only fall $1-2 million if it does.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 12:17 PM) Eddy Alvarez is the man. He's the most positive, humbled player. He was friendly, gracious and funny. When he was asked anything about his accomplishments he immediately brought up his mom and dad or Carlos Castillo (old Sox relief pitcher). When he was in the Q&A and Anderson/Fulmer struggled with a question he would jump in and bail them out by complimenting them. He is one of the best pro athletes I've ever been around and I feel like I'm going to struggle evaluating him because I like him so much. I hope he keeps up the great play. Great to hear because he was already my favorite prospect. Really hope he can contribute at the ML level in some way.

It's a shame they don't have UZR and DRS splits for home/away. I'd be really curious to see Eaton's splits.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 01:25 PM) The problem is - the numbers in CF are completely unclear. Last year, Fowler was a better defender than Eaton in CF, Eaton was a poor defender and Fowler was close to average. However, in 2014, Eaton was close to average and Fowler was abjectly terrible, worse than Eaton was in 2015. So somehow Fowler went from godawful to ok and Eaton went from ok to poor. Adding in previous years for Fowler does not help - he bounced between poor and average in years before that also. If you can predict which one of them will be better next year go ahead. I have no idea. They could both be terrible, they could both be ok, one could be ok and the other terrible, and I find no way in the available stats to offer a prediction. If you go by DRS, Fowler was considered a poor defender in 2015 as well. Big discrepancy between DRS and UZR for him in 2015, though Eaton had an even larger discrepancy in 2014.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14643947...ter-rule-coming This was 5 days after that article.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 05:08 PM) Hilarious. Despite the Sox stellar record the past few years, they have decided they cannot wait to see if they can develop these players while other teams can. Do you know what happens when a Marcus Semien is a starting caliber 2nd baseman? That's one player you don't need to trade for, OR you can use those prospects you traded for Lawrie to add a different player you want to cover the other positions of need. I liked Semien and wish we still had him, and I understand your point, but I think overall the Sox have been too patient rather than not patient enough. Beckham and Viciedo were given too long of a rope (perhaps Flowers as well), and if they don't upgrade in RF it looks like they'll have done the same with Avi. There's something to be said for knowing when to cut ties with a player. Also not sure what Erwin and Wendelken would have brought to upgrade another position of need, Lawrie was acquired for almost nothing. Two guys not even in the Top 15 prospects of a bottom third farm system don't exactly have much value.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 10:31 AM) Like bmags said, this has bad idea written all over it. IMO what is sad is that the Sox should have done a complete overhaul this off season and started from scratch and I think it would have been a better PR move than what they have done so far. This team and its direction leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I like Hahn, I think he is a really smart baseball guy but I feel like he has been mentored by KW for so many years so he will have the same tendencies as KW had. Plus I think Hahn is moved by a lot of his decisions with a sprinkle of a KW influence. I hope things turn around, but damn. I do not like that this team is going to be a day late and a dollar short in every aspect of the team. The starting staff is great for the top three and but the last two slots are question marks. The bullpen I think is going to be a great strength however bullpens are the one thing that is fickle from year to year. Its hard to judge. The offense has some really nice pieces but its not solid from top to bottom, it just isnt. Teams with championship expectations have far less question marks than what the Sox are looking at and no one gives you the feeling in the FO that they have a true vision of exactly their what they want to do. They are doing a lot on the fly here, so it seems. If we get a Fowler/Ethier, we have no fewer question marks than every other team in our division.

There's no question Soler has more value than Avi, but the Cubs probably are overrating him a bit. He's a very poor defender, was bad offensively in spite of an unsustainably high BABIP that's due for regression, and looks like he'll have ongoing injury concerns. I'd rather have Jackson or Jennings. At least they can defend well.

QUOTE (daggins @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 12:20 PM) I think the O's sign Fowler. FWIW, I'm split 50/50 on whether the Sox should sign Fowler or trade for Ethier and sign AJax/trade for Jennings. I think that over the next two years, both combos should produce similar value. I think it makes more sense for the O's to go after Gallardo than Fowler (assuming they don't have the money for both), their rotation is really bad.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 11:58 AM) Anyone know if Saladino played fall/winter ball somewhere to work at SS??? He mostly played SS in the minors, it shouldn't be a problem.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) I just can't see Fowler going back to the Cubs unless they move Soler. I really don't see any other fit for him besides the Sox. Angels still make sense.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jan 31, 2016 -> 05:04 PM) At .500 they should punt. Too far out to kick a FG The Blue Jays were .500 at the trade deadline last year. As SS2K5 wrote, we would need more context. Are the Sox at .500 because of one hot streak despite spending most of the season below .500 (like last year), or are there encouraging signs (decent run differential, key player coming back from a DL visit soon, soft upcoming schedule, etc.)? It also depends on what the playoff picture looks like. Too many possible scenarios to consider without that extra context.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Jan 30, 2016 -> 02:38 PM) Well, if we must resign ourselves to the probability that LaRoche will be the DH, I suppose it's realistic to expect him to be better than last year. It's hard to imagine him being that bad, again. He was always a pretty good hitter against RHP. You know, if he could just hit .250 with an OBP around .350, with 20 homers, all obviously vs. righties, that would be fine. We just have to hope that Robin will make sure that he sits vs. LHP. There is no reason to expect him to be anything other than a black hole, vs. lefties. But then, what gives us any reason to be confident that Robin will not start him every day? Has Ventura said anything about platooning him? Robin platooned him the last two months of last season. I don't see why he wouldn't do it again, especially if we pick up Fowler/Jackson and kick Avi out of RF.

Unless he comes into Spring Training looking completely broken down, I'd be hesitant to use Spring Training results to determine that much. It's 50 AB and guys are just trying to get back into the swing of things. Go look at the spring training stats of Anthony Rizzo or Adrian Gonzalez last year. Granted those guys weren't worried about "earning" their spot but I'd like to give LaRoche at least 4-6 weeks against solely RHP to see if he has any bounceback in him. Might as well, especially considering the other current options for DH aren't exactly promising anyway.

QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Jan 30, 2016 -> 09:19 AM) nobody really cares what they SAY, it's what they DO. And they have given out plenty of contracts longer than 3 years.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jan 30, 2016 -> 09:07 AM) Not sure I would be stunned. The good thing for Anderson is that Saladino is not a proven MLB starter at SS. So if Anderson has a great spring and Saladino has a poor spring, a big decision would face Hahn and Ventura. If neither has a good spring, then they may have to go out and get a 1 year rental. I doubt spring training is going to affect the decision much, Saladino gets it either way.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 02:54 PM) JJ Stankevitz ‏@JJStankevitz 2m2 minutes ago Chicago, IL Robin Ventura jokes on Adam LaRoche: "Sabermetrics show he has a good year every other year." #WhiteSox #SoxFest2016 Maybe he can be Alex Rios 2.0? Rios was awful in 2009 and 2011 (overshadowed by Dunn that year, but 2011 Rios was somehow even worse than 2015 LaRoche), but great in 2010 and 2012.

I never believed it from the beginning. It never made any sense, and as Hahn pointed out it's not like the White Sox have a history of reluctance to go longer than 3 years.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 02:00 PM) I also don't like it because it is a rigid 3 ER or less, 6+ IP. It has always been those numbers despite what the league ERA is that year. A 4.50 ERA in the late '90s to early '00s was pretty good. Now it's pretty bad. I think the stat should be adjusted to something resembling what the NHL considers a quality start for a goalie. A goalie gets a quality start if his save percentage is higher in that game the league's average for the season in games in which he faced 20 or more shots and has to be higher than 88.5% in games he faced less than 20 shots. Baseball could go to something similar to that. Keep the 6 inning minimum as I think that is a good number. But give the pitcher a quality start only if their runs allowed per nine (earned or unearned) are less than the league's average that year. That way the parameters for a quality start move along with the quality of pitching in the league. The better the pitching, the better you have to pitch to receive a quality start. If they went to something like this Danks would have about 5 less quality starts last year. I agree with you, I'm not a staunch defender of quality starts as a stat by any means, it was just a quick and easy way to disprove the notion that Danks was "worthless" in 80% of his starts last year. In 16 of his 30 starts, he went at least 5 2/3 innings, and gave up 3 runs (earned or unearned) or fewer. Is that great? No, but if you could guarantee me that he could do that again this year I'd probably take it, assuming the other 14 aren't all complete meltdowns.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 01:38 PM) From Wikipedia, here are some examples of why the quality start stat is worthless In July 2000, Mark Mulder went 6 2/3 innings, gave up 15 hits and nine runs — but only two were earned, so that was classified as a quality start. In June 1997, Randy Johnson struck out 19 in a complete game but allowed four runs. That was not a quality start. In July 1982, Mike Scott allowed seven hits and walked five in six innings, did not strike out anybody, gave up seven runs, but only three of those were earned. Quality start. In April 1974, Gaylord Perry went 15 innings and allowed four runs. Not a quality start Fair enough, though a quick check of Danks' game log shows that none of his quality starts involved any unearned runs.

QUOTE (TheFutureIsNear @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 01:34 PM) If we're going for the "anything is better than Avi" route Jennings is fine I guess, but if he wasn't a former top prospect would anybody care? He's 29 with over 2,000 AB's...don't think any light is going to come on. Especially in this franchise where hitting talent goes to die. I'd rather just keep Petricka honestly, guys who can play a good LF and barely maintain a .700 OPS aren't that hard to find. I think it's more people are viewing him as a guy who will likely put up similar production to AJax but is much cheaper. If we trade for Jennings we can still sign a Desmond or Latos, but signing Jackson means another move is probably unlikely (I agree with DA that he'll probably be more expensive than a lot of people think).

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 01:24 PM) Worthless was an overstatement. Been seeing too much Donald Trump in the media I guess. Buehrle had 19 quality starts and pitched like garbage for the last few months of the season. No one's arguing that Buehrle was better than Danks last year. The question is who would be better this year.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jan 29, 2016 -> 01:16 PM) Quality starts are dumb. Quality starts are also a fine way to show whether or not a guy was "worthless in 80% of his starts." That was what I was getting at. Sure a 6 IP 3 ER start is a 4.50 ERA, but even so the worst possible "quality" start is far from worthless.

I don't know how anyone can have Machado lower than #2. He's even younger than Bryant too.