OmarComing25

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 11:57 AM) Never seen so many Wood and Soriano jerseys at work. Also, Bryant's playing LF instead of RF because of the deeper dimensions in LF at Pittsburgh. I regret not finding an excuse to work from home today.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 11:54 AM) I am more of the Castro goes 0-4 with 7 LOB. I have a trouble seeing the Pirates getting to Arrieta though. He's given up 2 runs in his last 9 starts. I can't remember a run like that. That was my "baseball rarely goes how you think it will in the playoffs" prediction.

Watch the Pirates score 3 off Arrieta, Cole gives up 1 over 7 and holds Bryant and Rizzo hitless, but then Castro hits a 3-run HR in the 9th inning.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 11:13 AM) We should bring Soler over to the SouthSide and balance out the disappointing Cubans with Viciedo vs. Abreu/Ramirez. Actually, it would be great to trade them Avi and pieces for Soler but I'm not sure the Cubs would be willing to go for that. At any rate, it will be interesting to see what they eventually end up doing with Castro, Baez, Schwarber and Soler, to name a few. Soler was replacement-level this year and that was despite a .361 BABIP. Yikes. That said, he's still better than Avi, because he could still potentially be a 2-3 WAR player. I don't see Avi ever getting there.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 10:44 AM) One thing I found interesting, as bad as the White Sox were this season, they were only 3 games worse vs. AL opponents than Houston. Speaking of which, despite all the talk going around lately about how the NL Central is so amazing, they couldn't even manage a winning record against the worst division in the AL. Not saying the AL Central is better, but good lord am I sick of the NLC circlejerk.

I know LaRoche sucked this year but he has a better chance to rebound than Shuck does of being a capable DH.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 10:26 AM) I heard Coghlan is getting benched. LaStella at 3B Bryant at LF Schwarber at RF So they're sacrificing OF defense to get LaStella's bat into the lineup? What?

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 10:07 AM) He's a guy who hits for low average and strikes out at a high rate. Pass. Also, why would you want Rasmus to face only LHP? I think you have it backwards. I wouldn't want him only to face LHP, that was my way of getting Thompson into the lineup if he doesn't earn a starting job next year. I'd want Rasmus starting full-time. And Rasmus had an .835 OPS against LHP this year with an average 20 points higher. But given his career splits I'll admit that's unlikely to continue.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 10:08 AM) Oh god, how has nobody responded to this? Please tell me you just forgot the green text. Yeah the Nationals better be throwing in Giolito too if they want to make that deal.

A name I haven't heard much is Colby Rasmus. He could provide us with some much-needed power, he was a plus defender in RF this year according to DRS (43 games at +3), and he'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than Heyward. Sign him to play RF, move Eaton to LF, move Thompson to CF? At the very least that could be the OF on days we face LHP (with Melky moving to DH on those days). That OF has OK power potential, and is significantly better defensively than this year. What would it take to sign Rasmus?

QUOTE (whitesoxjr27 @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) Madden is benching Bryant Tonight. Going all offense. Does not care about defense. So i heard on the radio this morning. I'll believe it when I see it, how does benching Bryant help you on offense?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 01:33 AM) Other than Abreu, Viciedo, Borchard, Micker Adolfo Zapata and going about $800,000 over on Rodon, they've largely been risk-averse. Dunn, Danks and LaRoche turned out to be larger risks than predicted, but after the fact. That covers about 15 years, too. I wouldn't call LaRoche a big risk, even now with hindsight. That contract was never a big risk. I'd put almost every other offseason move they made this year ahead of LaRoche in terms of risk factor.

As an ND fan, I've been wanting them to join a conference for a long time, I hate the independent status.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Oct 7, 2015 -> 08:58 AM) and thus Eaton should be traded. Sox could get a young third baseman and catcher for him. He and Trayce play the same position. Trayce is much better defensively. I doubt we'd be able to get that for Eaton.

I'm hoping LaRoche follows the Dunn pattern - completely awful the first year with us, makes the All-Star team the next. The good news is there's no years 3 and 4 with LaRoche this time.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 07:01 PM) Hmmm......from a Sox perspective I don't agree with this. And why is that? There are plenty of players around the league who are having solid offensive seasons without a high batting average.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 07:02 PM) This is why people hate Cub fans. The Cubs can't just win and be happy. For some stupid reason the entire world has to be happy for them. I wasn't happy when the Twins won. I wasn't happy when the Tigers made the World Series, why on God's green earth would I be happy that the Cubs won? Seriously, f*** the Cubs and their fans. But no one "deserves" to win more than them because of all the "suffering" they've gone through!

QUOTE (VAfan @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 05:53 PM) For all you Heyward guys, I thought this juxtaposition was fascinating. It's the ranking by OPS for major leaguers. 47 Jason Heyward STL 547 79 160 33 4 13 60 23 3 56 90 .293 .359 .439 .797 6.5 48 Charlie Blackmon COL 614 93 176 31 9 17 58 43 13 46 112 .287 .347 .450 .797 2.3 49 Adam Eaton CHW 610 98 175 28 9 14 56 18 8 58 131 .287 .361 .431 .792 3.9 Adam Eaton is basically the equivalent to Heyward at the plate. That's been pointed out already several times, but Heyward is also a much better defender than Eaton and we had by far the worst defensive outfield in the MLB. Is that enough to make Heyward's massive contract worth it? Maybe not, but Heyward's a 6 WAR player for a reason.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 04:26 PM) The reality is there is room enough for two baseball teams in Chicago and each can be successful regardless of the success. Who made the Sox horrible this year? The White Sox. The Cubs have nothing to do with this. Any fans we lose we deserve. We're garbage. Ok. But that ignores the fact that it will be harder to gain fans back when we get good again if they're already firmly entrenched on the Cubs bandwagon. Just keep ignoring reality.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 6, 2015 -> 01:40 PM) Jayson Stark ‏@jaysonst 1h1 hour ago Jayson Stark Retweeted ESPN Polled 20 baseball execs. 18 took the #BlueJays to get to the World Series. So I've got lots of company! And now that means they're going 3 and out.

I still don't trust defensive metrics (Eaton is a great example, DRS had him as one of the best defenders in the league last year, UZR had him as below-average), but if you consistently rate negatively you're probably a bad fielder. Same the other way in the positive direction. The individual metric itself I take with a rather large grain of salt though, especially when trying to compare fielders of relatively equal ability, good or bad.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 10:55 AM) Great comparison, no doubt in my mind the Cardinals are the worst of the 5 NL teams in the postseason right now due to injuries and players falling off in their performance (ie: Wacha and Peralta) They've had a great year and all but right now they look like one of the least-intimidating 100 win teams that I can remember. Not sure I'd pick them as the favorite in a series against any of the playoff teams this year, AL included.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 07:23 PM) All because it happened a couple of times. Plenty of players make the switch. Also, Dunn outside of 2011 wasn't even that bad. In 2012 he had an OPS over .800, and while he certainly wasn't worth the money in 2013 or 2014, he was still an above-average hitter those years (107 wRC+ and 113 wRC+).

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 01:37 PM) Before anybody mentions 2008 let's not forget that in reality was a battle between us and Minnesota to see who could blow it and lose the central, and sure enough even though the Blackout game was great fun we got smoked in the first round of the playoffs. 2008 also had the likely AL MVP hurt himself at the beginning of September. If Quentin doesn't throw his bat down in frustration we likely win the division without the need for Game 163 and we could have set-up our rotation for the playoffs. At that point anything could have happened, because the playoffs in baseball are a crapshoot.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Oct 5, 2015 -> 01:30 PM) Seriously, after seeing how BAD our defense was this year, I would really be curious to see us just LOAD UP on defensive talents and see how much better our pitching staff really becomes. Acquire someone like Kevin Pillar for CF. Have Eaton-Pillar-Thompson in the OF. Put Saladino at 3B, acquire Hech from the Marlins and have him play SS, or take Simmons from the Braves. Leave Carlos Sanchez at 2B. This team would continue to suck at scoring runs, but our defense and pitching would be other worldly. The thing I like about good defense is that it usually doesn't slump and is more consistent than good offense.