2016 White Sox

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#26      
qcillini13
Bailey said:
Rodon is gonna be a 9 figure guy when he eventually hits the market - provided he stays healthy. The Sox have to capitalize while we have these three on the same staff.
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Exactly what I was saying. We need to capitalize within the next 4 years we still have Quintana.
 
#27      
Bailey
Man...do we really have no better options at DH than Avi?

To go ahead and double down on his suck, he's starting in RF tomorrow.
 
#28      
Soxfreak64
Bailey said:
Man...do we really have no better options at DH than Avi?

To go ahead and double down on his suck, he's starting in RF tomorrow.
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Pray to god Davidson's ST mashing is the new norm.
 
#29      
Deleted member 533939
And if Fulmer is the real deal...that rotation would be nasty.
 
#31      
Soxfreak64
Next three pitching matchups favor the Sox. Maybe even next 4. Take them all, especially the weekend games please.

Sale vs. Cleveland's #4 & Q vs. Launching Pad.

Cleveland Question: Have they moved Trevor Bauer to bullpen full time?
 
#34      
Bob Christiansen
Bailey...Q's had pretty damn good stuff the last couple years, ya gotta convince the bats to have a breakout year when he's on the mound!
 
#35      
Bailey
Bob Christiansen said:
Bailey...Q's had pretty damn good stuff the last couple years, ya gotta convince the bats to have a breakout year when he's on the mound!
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I'm talking about ascendance to 200K, Sub-3 ERA/FIP, +5 WAR breakout season. His W-L record doesn't really have much bearing on his value.

His pitches look sharp, but it could also be the fact the Twins and A's are possibly the two worst teams in the AL.
 
#36      
Bob Christiansen
Another excellent outing by Latos last night, sure as hell was needed after that miserable performance by Rodon Monday.

Avi don't look too good at the plate right now...
 
#37      
Bailey
Bob Christiansen said:
Another excellent outing by Latos last night, sure as hell was needed after that miserable performance by Rodon Monday.

Avi don't look too good at the plate right now...
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It's a shame we're in a situation where Avi is even walking to the plate right now. That hole should have been patched this winter. Here's to hoping Frazier finding his footing will at least boost us to a league average offense.
 
#38      
Bailey
Bunting Melky with Frazier on 2nd, no outs, and the lead in the 8th.

Shocking; nobody scored.

Robin is really clueless sometimes.
 
#40      
oscar
More good pitching again today. I was not thrilled when they signed Latos. Glad I was wrong (so far) on that one. The bullpen has been a very pleasant surprise.
 
#41      
Bailey
I'm not sure if it's sustainable, but it's been fun.

14-6
 
#42      
Bob Christiansen
Bailey said:
I'm not sure if it's sustainable, but it's been fun.

14-6
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In all honesty Bailey, I had pretty much written off last night's game...boys proved me wrong! Interesting matchup tonight, Sale VS Dickey. Opposite ends of the pitching spectrum...
 
#43      
qcillini13
Bailey said:
I'm not sure if it's sustainable, but it's been fun.

14-6
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The thing that I believe stays throughout a season is pitching. Our batting has been awful but I truly believe that Abreu will rebound and I'm hoping that Frazier will rebound some (seems to be working that way). If we can get some production out of the DH (believe it is time to make a change maybe Sands) then I think we are in this for the long haul. We will see when we come up against the likes of the Royals, Nationals, and Cubs (series not until after the all-star break) but right now I feel really good about this team. We have timely hitting, great pitching, and really solid defense. Lawrie is quickly turning into one of my favorite players.
 
#44      
champaignchris
I'm still semi-amazed you guys didn't sign another bat. Pedro Alvarez or Steven Pearce would have been perfect. Both signed one year deals for less than 6 million. Neither a superstar by any means, but at least a competent power hitter for the DH spot and a step up from Garcia.

Actually, Dan Vogelbach, currently with the Cubs' AAA squad is who you need. He's 23 and putting up a 362/456/552 this year to go with his 287/385/476 in his minor league career. In 81 games in 2015, he walked more than he struck out, and has a 248 career walks to just 313 Ks in 428 minor league at bats.

He's a bat without a position, a big tub of goo that can rake. The Cubs don't have anywhere to play him since the only spot he could remotely fit in, in the NL, is at 1B. The Cubs are eventually going to have to deal him to an AL team and the Sox are a near ideal fit.
 
#45      
Bailey
champaignchris said:
I'm still semi-amazed you guys didn't sign another bat. Pedro Alvarez or Steven Pearce would have been perfect. Both signed one year deals for less than 6 million. Neither a superstar by any means, but at least a competent power hitter for the DH spot and a step up from Garcia.

Actually, Dan Vogelbach, currently with the Cubs' AAA squad is who you need. He's 23 and putting up a 362/456/552 this year to go with his 287/385/476 in his minor league career. In 81 games in 2015, he walked more than he struck out, and has a 248 career walks to just 313 Ks in 428 minor league at bats.

He's a bat without a position, a big tub of goo that can rake. The Cubs don't have anywhere to play him since the only spot he could remotely fit in, in the NL, is at 1B. The Cubs are eventually going to have to deal him to an AL team and the Sox are a near ideal fit.
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You're not getting Jose Quintana off us ;)

But really, if you're semi-amazed, most of us are flat out baffled. I'm thinking (hoping) that we were going to see where we were come the deadline and make a move accordingly. Grab a Braun, Bruce, CarGo type for the stretch, but there were so many options we passed on this winter.

A Garcia/Sands platoon at DH(!!!) just isn't going to cut it. These are minor league players.
 
#46      
Bailey
qcillini13 said:
The thing that I believe stays throughout a season is pitching. Our batting has been awful but I truly believe that Abreu will rebound and I'm hoping that Frazier will rebound some (seems to be working that way). If we can get some production out of the DH (believe it is time to make a change maybe Sands) then I think we are in this for the long haul. We will see when we come up against the likes of the Royals, Nationals, and Cubs (series not until after the all-star break) but right now I feel really good about this team. We have timely hitting, great pitching, and really solid defense. Lawrie is quickly turning into one of my favorite players.
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The defense (Eaton!) and pitching has been incredible, but when you size up our lineup against the real contenders - we're not equipped to stack up. Too many holes. We have to assume some of that pitching will deviate back to the mean as well, namely Latos and Albers.
 
#47      
qcillini13
Bailey said:
The defense (Eaton!) and pitching has been incredible, but when you size up our lineup against the real contenders - we're not equipped to stack up. Too many holes. We have to assume some of that pitching will deviate back to the mean as well, namely Latos and Albers.
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Depends what Latos we have. Latos that was one of the best pitchers in baseball not to long ago won't deviate to far back to the mean if he is back to the pitcher that was putting up ERAs near 3 for 5 years in a row won't come to far back. He will have his bad starts but if he can keep us in games we have shown that we can score runs late and will not go away. Albers proved over 30 games last year he has good stuff and is comfortable in with the Sox. Why would he have to come back to far? He has the best pitching coach in the business working with him maybe they fixed some of his flaws. I do agree that we do not have a lineup at this point (with Abreu and Frazier not hitting that well) that can stack up but if our better hitters start to hit and join in with Melky, Eaton, and Lawrie then I think we will have enough to compete with anyone. Also, stay on top of the central or be within striking distance and you know we will make a move to bring in a bat for the home stretch.
 
#48      
ILL in IA
qcillini13 said:
Depends what Latos we have. Latos that was one of the best pitchers in baseball not to long ago won't deviate to far back to the mean if he is back to the pitcher that was putting up ERAs near 3 for 5 years in a row won't come to far back. He will have his bad starts but if he can keep us in games we have shown that we can score runs late and will not go away. Albers proved over 30 games last year he has good stuff and is comfortable in with the Sox. Why would he have to come back to far? He has the best pitching coach in the business working with him maybe they fixed some of his flaws. I do agree that we do not have a lineup at this point (with Abreu and Frazier not hitting that well) that can stack up but if our better hitters start to hit and join in with Melky, Eaton, and Lawrie then I think we will have enough to compete with anyone. Also, stay on top of the central or be within striking distance and you know we will make a move to bring in a bat for the home stretch.
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Its hard to think we will get a full season of the Latos from a few years ago, why he isn't the pitcher he was a few years ago. He is a brand new pitcher with his velocity and how he has to approach guys. I think the key to his season will be him accepting his role as the go out and pitch 6 innings and hit the showers type of guy. If he is ok with that, I think he can be good. I still think they need to get a guy who can DH. Sure Avi had a good game last night, but he just hasn't panned out to be the guy we thought he was going to be in that trade. I just wonder how much they are willing to give up for a guy like CarGo.
 
#49      
Bailey
qcillini13 said:
Depends what Latos we have. Latos that was one of the best pitchers in baseball not to long ago won't deviate to far back to the mean if he is back to the pitcher that was putting up ERAs near 3 for 5 years in a row won't come to far back.
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In comparing 2016 Matt Latos and 2010 Matt Latos (arguably his best year), we may as well be talking about different pitchers entirely. In his prime, Latos had a fastball that sat pretty firmly in the mid 90s, and used a wipeout slider nearly 27% of the time.

2016 Latos has an average fastball a tic above 90, while reducing his slider % to roughly 13% - and for good reason - it's been getting crushed for a while. Here's a chart of his pitch values over the course of his career:

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Long story short, he's getting by right now with two pitches that have been far below average for some time now. So how far back is the hypothetical mean? Pretty far. I'll also mention the disparity between his FIP and ERA, which suggests he's been incredibly lucky so far in 2016.

Albers - whom I freaking love - is on a hot streak. He's 33 years old and enjoying by far the best stretch of his career, albeit over the court of roughly 40 innings. Temper expectations with the fact that prior to last year, he never had a WAR above .8. This isn't a young kid with knockout stuff just now proving himself. One could possibly attribute the life left in his arm to the fact he hasn't had a serious season-long workload since 2013. (10 IP in 2014).

Then again, if you believe in the mythological powers of Don Cooper, you can throw all the advanced stats out the window. Maybe its #TWTW
 
#50      
Illiniwek06
From Fangraphs:

On Opening Day, Chicago was projected to have a 26.1% chance at making the playoffs out of the Central; three weeks and a few days later, those odds are now over 50%. The reason we should feel hopeful about about that start and give it some possible legitimacy is because the White Sox are ticking off the necessary boxes for them to produce a successful season.
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http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-white-sox-have-gotten-the-start-they-needed/

Bailey said:
Then again, if you believe in the mythological powers of Don Cooper, you can throw all the advanced stats out the window. Maybe its #TWTW
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I found this on the White Sox subreddit and could not stop laughing:
TWTW = ((Yellow Mouthguards + Eye Black)^GRIT - Drake LaRoche) x A Good Summer
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