OmarComing25

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 11:29 AM) It's not unprecedented. The Sox had one of the best pitching staffs in AL in the early/mid-90s and, when they didn't win, they traded away Blackjack, Fernandez, Alvarez, and Hernandez in a two-year period. The Sox will need two SPs, a CF, a DH, a SS, and at least one veteran C next season. (Fulmer and Anderson will fill two of those positions, though it remains to be seen whether either will be better than replacement-level in the majors. And, no, Latos is not "the real deal." Look at his career numbers/injury history.) The following season, they'll need a 3B, a 2B, and a LF. There's no way that they can fill all of those holes with acceptable talent. They're going to have to overspend on free agents (again) and put up with a couple of guys who can't hit (again). That's what happens when your minor league system doesn't produce players that can hit ML pitching. Personally, I'd like to see the Sox stay in go-for-it mode until July of 2018. All bets should be off at that point. If they're not getting to the playoffs by then, I'd trade Sale, Quintana, and Robertson. I'd try to extend Abreu and Frazier in 2017. Thankfully, the Sox are currently 13-6, so there's a decent chance that we may not need to worry about that scenario. This past offseason, the Sox got a new 2B, 3B, CF, SS, 2 C, and a SP without spending much money or giving up much talent, so I'm not sure why you say there's "no way" to fill all the holes with acceptable talent when they literally just did that with more holes to fill. It'll be difficult, sure, but not impossible. A lot can happen in 2 years too, seeing as how literally no position player from opening day 2013 is even on the team anymore.

Hawk annoys me more often than not these days, but I will miss him for the big moments, there's no one I'd rather have calling the game more when a big play happens.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 05:38 PM) Right handed power heavy line-up. Makes sense to get a righty in there against Toronto. Yeah the Jays crush lefties, so this makes a lot of sense.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 05:38 PM) Sox defense is elite so far. Frazier, Eaton, Lawrie and (believe it or not!) Abreu have all looked like like elite defenders. Eaton and Lawrie particularly. With Saladino in the rest of the defensive unit is pretty damn good as well. Melky has played a solid LF too so far.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 02:03 AM) It's not a matter of being overrated, people want to see them try something else. Coats may not be the answer, but he's never had an OPS under .747 in the minors and he plays above average defense. That allows for a lot more flexibility with this team. If you want to slot Melky into DH, you can. If yo want to DH Coats, you can. Avi had great numbers in the minors that ultimately meant nothing. What has he earned at the major league level to continue warranting ABs? Throw s*** at the wall and see if it sticks at this point. Yeah this has less to do with optimism in Coats and more to do with how useless and bad Avi is.

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Apr 23, 2016 -> 10:53 PM) Who here wrote that fans discussion the negative aspects of the team are the biggest fans? Post source from this thread. No negative posters here are telling people what and how to post. The only people who are doing so are you and DA. Its old. This is a Sox discussion board where we discuss the Sox in detail. Yes, that includes scuffling players. Discussing internal and external options for Avi is not "being miserable". Get off your high horse and put aside your "holier than thou" attitude. They do kind of have a point. There's a ridiculous amount of complaining and moaning on this board for a 12-6 team. The game threads are pretty much unreadable.

This game certainly helped our team walk total.

Phew, a loss in that game would have been infuriating, should have won 5 different times. But man, this game thread was a train wreck.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 08:02 PM) Another awful showing for the prospects tonight. Adams gives up far too many hits to be a big prospect. All I really care about with pitching prospects is peripherals, especially at the stage Adams is at. Not concerned in the slightest about the hits.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 10:46 PM) Ideally a RF; while Eaton's played a good RF, he doesn't have the arm. Status quo is okay too. Nah keep Eaton in RF, he's been fantastic there so far. And his arm looked good gunning down the runner at home the other day. Not sure how long it will last but Melky has played a pretty good LF this year.

Damn I thought that was going to drop.

QUOTE (daggins @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 04:58 PM) The Royals don't really look impressive on paper, aside from a few guys. Projections have flaws built into them that seem to drastically underrate the ability to not strike out. Not striking out seems to build cluster luck, which leads to the Royals winning 90 games. The problem is the Royals aren't the only team that doesn't strike out. The Braves were 2nd to the Royals last year in fewest number of strikeouts but had well below average cluster luck and scored the least amount of runs in baseball.

Funnily enough, his problem seems to be not swinging at balls inside the zone, rather than outside. His O-Swing% is the lowest it's ever been, by a lot (32% in 2016, 38% in 2015, 42% in 2014), so he's cut down a lot on swinging at balls. However, his Z-Swing% is also the lowest it's ever been (63% in 2016, 67% in 2015, 75% in 2014). So he needs to swing at strikes more, he's missing some good pitches to hit. According to Fangraphs he's also seeing slightly more pitches in the zone this year compared to both 2015 and 2014 (though Pitch F/X says the opposite). Either way, I think he actually needs to swing the bat more, not less.

Weren't a significant percentage of Abreu's walks in Cuba intentional?

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 04:30 PM) No it's the classic case of using WAR as a argument whether we should get a guy or not. Do you guys actually sit here and say" well i wish we had Justin upton on the Sox" but I'm not sure what is his WAR"? If i wish i had a dollar for every post when someone here said we should get Ian Desmond because he had a plus 2 or 3 WAR or whatever. Well i look at his his last 3 year average of 170 strikeouts and his 25 errors to realize he doesn't fit out team. But i look at a guy like Fowler or Markaikis and their OBP and say i wish we had one one those in the 2 hole no matter what there stupid WAR is. You are too narrowly focused on just a handful of stats. 170 strikeouts and 25 errors don't tell me much about whether a guy was good or not. Kris Bryant and Chris Davis led their respective leagues in strikeouts last year but they were two of the best players in baseball in 2015. Josh Donaldson makes a lot of errors every year but he's one of the best defenders in the game. On the other hand, being good at one stat doesn't mean you're good overall. Markakis's .370 OBP last year was very good, but when packaged with no power, poor defense and bad baserunning, it doesn't make for a very valuable player, particularly coming from a corner outfield spot. WAR isn't perfect, but it allows you to see the whole picture. It also takes into account stuff like league, ballpark and positional adjustments, which means you can't just take all these stats at face value.

Sigh, a few more feet and then there's a rush of "We don't win this type of game last year" comments.

I don't really have a problem with the intentional walk.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 03:14 PM) They are all meatballs when it comes to Jeff Weaver. If you never swing at the first pitch pitchers will catch on and you'll start off every AB down 0-1. If you get a good pitch to hit swing away.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 03:11 PM) The swinging at the first pitch is the dumbest thing in the world. Even if you get a meatball?

I don't mind first pitch swinging if you get a good pitch to hit, but that wasn't one.

You think these guys know how to hit elsewhere, then come here and Steverson makes them suck? Really?

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 12:09 PM) The average O-Swing% (percentage of pitches swung at thrown out of the zone) for the entire MLB is about 30% Today's lineup with 2016 O-Swing% followed by career O-Swing% Eaton - 30.7%, 29.4% Rollins - 30.1%, 22.7% Abreu - 33.1%, 39.6% Frazier - 27.7%, 35.2% Cabrera - 30.9%, 31.7% Lawrie - 29.3%, 31.9% Jackson - 24.2%, 26.2% Garcia - 44.3%, 44.9% Avila - 14.3%, 21.7% Average - 29.4%, 31.4% So while you may think it appears that way to the naked eye, the fact is that the Sox are no more of free swingers than the average MLB team. The Sox are 2nd to the Rays in O-Swing% as a team, so that's not really true.

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:56 AM) Again forget about WAR. Austin Jackson has a better WAR than Fowler but who do you want on your team? A guy who gets on base at a 370 clip or a guy who can't get on base. We need a 2 hole hitter not a number 9 hitter. Sure Jackson is a better fielder but thats why we have defensive replacements. We need a 2 hole hitter that won't cost us our minor leagues. He fits the bill perfectly no matter what his WAR says. And flowers was a great pitch framer, lol. Meaningless Sounds like a classic case of "this stat doesn't fit my viewpoint, so I'm just going to ignore it". And no, Austin Jackson doesn't have a better WAR than Fowler, not sure what you're looking at.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 11:44 AM) It obviously isn't about the logo, that is just silly. It is about the match up itself. There is a reason that Weaver has pitched well historically again us, and that is we have a team full of free swingers who chases a lot of stuff out of the strike zone. Avi Garcia is absolutely one, but so is a guy like Jose Abreu. Think Bruce Chen. This team has problems against this type of pitcher historically. Abreu is a free swinger but the good news is that his O-Swing% is by far the lowest of his career so far this year (33% this year vs. 38% last year and almost 42% in 2014). So it seems like he is improving in that regard, and swing rates are the quickest to stabilize so it's good news, unfortunately the results just aren't there yet.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) Danks aside, how about this turnaround on defense? Defensive numbers so far: DRS: 6th ARM: 5th UZR: 7th UZR/150: 6th Overall Def: 5th Should also note the Sox currently have the 5th ranked defensive catching tandem. Atlanta is 26th. Obviously defensive stats in a small sample size should be taken with a huge grain of salt, but it's interesting that Eaton and Melky rate as our top two defenders while Jackson is by far the worst (by either stat). Looks like UZR and DRS disagree on Frazier and Lawrie, Frazier looks bad by UZR but good by DRS, with Lawrie the opposite.