gosoxgo2005

Assuming he gets a start or two, all I care about is how he receives, blocks, throws, and commands the game. Anyone have any info on him? edit: talking about Sanchez, not Smith

The second season of True Detective was dog s***

Frazier's swing is so long and slow through the zone it drives me crazy. He arm bars his bottom arm, casts his arm, and waves at the ball with his bottom arm. He totally needs to simplify his swing. Short jabs, as opposed to long haymakers.

In April 2015 I specifically remember Eaton misplaying about 5 balls terribly in CF. After that he was money. I have no data to back me up, but I'd be willing to guess if you took away April last year, Eaton was more than adequate in CF. he just started the season in a slump in all facets. People who call him a bad defensive outfielder can't use their eyes to assess a baseball player.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 12:24 PM) I'm going to go to as many as possible if the team keeps winning. Plain and simple. If the Sox can break out offensively, we might have a special team on our hands. They're hungry and have a chip on their shoulders. I've been to both home games already. I live in Chicago now, so this summer I plan on going to a game a homestand. It's a 6 dollar trip to and from on the El for me, DIRT cheap tickets, and I'll get a couple of brats. Can do the whole night for like $30 bucks if you don't drink, which I don't on weeknight games. On weekend games I'll spend $100 bucks on alcohol no problem

QUOTE (TheTruth05 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 11:52 AM) Love Hawk but man he wore that out after the 2nd time he said it. Now he has to include it at least once every game. More like 8 times a game haha

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 01:42 AM) I just read tonight he was a fan favorite in Cleveland. At his height and weight, could he hit 20 homers if he splits time at DH with Avi? No

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 10, 2016 -> 11:08 AM) Saladino can play basically everywhere on the infield. Some argue he's best at SS, some 3B...more recently, because of the presence of Sanchez/Micah Johnson in the high minors, he's probably had the least amount of time at 2B but he won't embarrass himself anywhere you put him. I'd bet Sally can play a competent OF if he was needed to play out there in a pinch, too

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 10, 2016 -> 07:58 AM) why ???? it is only 1 wk into the season. it is like me who wants another quality sp. If the sox are contending for a playoff spot at the end of the year, Jackson is hitting 9th

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 12:16 PM) I agree. His lower half is very, very strong. If everything clicks, I think he has a higher ceiling than Sale. If he had a higher ceiling than Sale he'd be Clayton Kershaw. I think Rodon is very good too, but there is about a I said this in another thread; Sale has has a much better fastball and change up than Rodon, and that is unlikely to change. Rodon has a slightly better slider. Sale is and will always be better than Rodon

Saying Rodon has "Sale like stuff" is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. 1. Chris Sale has learned to work off his changeup. He gets ahead with it and puts people away with his Fastball/slider. It will add years to his life as a starting pitcher. Carlos Rodon has a changeup that is still developing, and has a long ways to go before it's even a usable pitch, let alone the show-me pitch it currently is. Sale's is ++, Rodon's is not good. Not that it cant' be, but that it isn't right now. Ceiling for it I would say is an effective third pitch. 2. Chris Sale puts his fastball anywhere he wants for the most part, and can touch 98-99 when he wants to while doing that. It's a true ++ pitch with movement, and has been since he's stepped into the league. Rodon, though he got better at it the end of last year, doesn't have near the command of this pitch that Sale does. Not yet at least. And he doesn't reach upper 90s anywhere near as often as Sale does. I noticed towards the end of last year Rodon was consistently 90-92, but hitting spots with run, thus limiting walks better and allowing weaker contact. It's a + pitch, but not near as good as Sale's. 3. Sale's slider and Rodon's slider are both wicked nasty. Sale's wasn't as great last year, but he wasn't using it as much, either. Rodon lived off his. Rodon has Sale beat here, and I don't think his slider is going to get much better, because it really can't get much better. Sale will have a Cy Young, maybe multiple before his career is over. He has three pitches that can all be grade A out-pitches in any given count. Rodon can be a front of the rotation starter, but I don't think he's ever going to touch Sale's ceiling, which I don't think Sale has even really touched yet, and he's already a top 3-4 pitcher in baseball. Not even close, IMO.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 16, 2016 -> 10:37 PM) I think this is a pretty crappy move by the organization if its true that he was promised access. This is exactly how I see it having played out: Laroche is considering agreeing to sign with the Sox and says he will do so if his son is allowed in the clubhouse, on the field, etc. Kenny says something along the lines of "sure Adam! We love having a clubhouse that families have access to. He can shag balls, have a locker, etc. He'll be our 26th man! Other players sons, wives, etc., are involved in our clubhouse culture" He said this assuming Laroche would know where to draw a line. SOME access would be fine, but not complete and total access. Not in team meetings, team flights, etc. Laroche agrees, then his son takes part in literally anything and everything he and Adam want to take part in. Completely abuses the privilege of allowing families to be a part of the clubhouse culture. KW asks Laroche to scale it back. Laroche doesn't want to and retires. There is ZERO wrong with KW asking him to turn it down a hair. It doesn't mean Drake was "banned" from the clubhouse, just allowed in less often. Which is how it should be.

Who would ya rather have Schwarber or Rodon? (Schwarber was taken immediately after Rodon)

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Mar 9, 2016 -> 07:39 AM) Why would we want Votto? His contract is horrific and he's on the wrong side of 30. Maybe because he had an OBP of like 4 billion last year? If the Sox landed Votto and put him in the 2 hole it would be the best middle of the order in all of baseball. Jays included. Who cares how old he is. Even if his OBP dipped 50 points it's still over .400. I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday, regardless of how much he's owed or how old he is

jonn danks wins the 2016 AL Cy Young

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 3, 2016 -> 07:04 PM) Well, in fairness, they had the longest streak of consecutive sellouts in the early to mid 90's at Jacobs Field of any MLB team in history (maybe the Red Sox beat it since?)...but those fans have had to go through two quite dramatic teardowns, one beginning in 2001-02 and then the other after 2007. If there is one fanbase who has suffered the most at the hands of ownership, other than the Marlins, it's pretty hard to think of one. TB and Oakland, there's not so much that can be done about those stadium situations. The worst owners in all of sports might be the Wilpons. It's unbelievable how much Mets fans hate them.

All it did was piss off the public, so they failed at this too. Can't wait to go 78-84 and waste another year of Sale, Abreu, Eaton, and Q's primes. This organization sucks

I'll never understand people who say Adam Eaton can't play defense. In 2014 he was worth 12 DRS, which, per Fangraphs is right in between "great" and "gold glover". He has a brutal April defensively in 2015, so bad that it skewed his stats for the rest of the year. He is more than adequate defensively. I'd even say he's pretty damn good defensively for the most part.

A huge reason why, without looking at stats, that Eaton had bad defensive numbers is because his 2015 April was ATROCIOUS defensively. Bad reads, poor angles, etc. Come May he was back to his above average self in CF. He was just so bad in April his numbers could never fully recover.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 1, 2016 -> 10:22 AM) That is, indeed, a "wild card" that seems to have a chance to turn out better than expected, and it would make a huge difference to the infield. Abreu actually had +1 DRS last year (was -11 in 2014) and improved his UZR and UZR/150 a bit. If he slightly improves again, he is completely average at 1b, which is just fine, IMO.

People love to be offended and outraged these days, and it's pretty sickening quite frankly. There was absolutely, positively nothing wrong with his original tweet. I wish he would have doubled down on it.

He said something like "why does it always have to be about black and white and why can't we all just get along?" In reference to the Oscars. People completely took it the wrong way. Nothing to see here.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 26, 2016 -> 01:16 PM) Watching Avi in the cage made me wonder something you might be able to answer for me. I would have started a new thread but it's kind of random/silly and people would probably jump me. I was wondering ... during the season and spring training, especially baseball teams need men to throw BP, extra BP, so many BP pitches to hitters. How do teams get this accomplished? You'd think if coaches throw BP every single day to 40 players or more, their arms would fall off. Seriously ... who throws all this BP during spring traning and the regular season. I can't imagine 50 year old coaches' arms being able to throw 50 to 70 mph fastballs to hitters all day/every day without their arms falling off. Do teams employ 50 college kids to throw BP or ??? 70MPH is pushing it for BP... 50 is much more like it. I have coached many collegiate hitters and have thrown hours and hours and hours of BP... first few rounds of our winter workouts when I'd throw BP I'd feel it the next day, but that's because I'm old and fat. After a few days your arm gets used to it and you just experience general soreness. Once I would get my arm lose, I'd be fine. Never felt pain at all. That said, it might be a little different than throwing BP every day for 8 months or so.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 01:28 PM) Unless baseball rosters become 1 player each, I don't understand how it can ever be pass/fail. I could be incorrect, and hope I am, but to me it seems that all they have done to this point (still a a good while before opening day!) is improve a bad product to a decent/slightly better than decent product. The goal for every organization is to win World Series titles. There were players available that could (should, perhaps?) have been acquired to help aid the organization to reaching this penultimate goal, but for whatever reason, they weren't. I think the Sox can and will contend for a wild card; the World Series? Not right now, no. In that respect, I would have to say the off-season has been a failure to this point. I do, however, still feel that changes will be made and we will enter opening day feeling more confident in the Sox chances of making the post season in a long, long time.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 25, 2016 -> 12:28 PM) People saying this is some awful offseason aren't dealing in reality. They made quite a few substantial improvements. That said, what is so frustrating to me is that it WAS a pretty good offseason, and they left themselves just one major hole short that would have made it a really good offseason. That makes no sense. Why go most of the way? When Fowler was obviously so affordable? That does piss me off. I'm of the opinion that at this juncture you must grade the Sox 2015-16 offseason on a pass/fail basis. Either they pass by having made every move possible to contend for a Central Division title and World Series with their world class core, or they fail by not surrounding said world class core with the necessary personnel and complementary pieces that can help lead them to the Promise Land. At this juncture, and especially after having whiffed on one more quality upgrade multiple times this offseason, I'd have to agree, they've failed. But there's still time to "pass", in my less-than-adept opinion.