A.L. Central Smack 2015

[Fountain City Blues]

Apparently Wrigley Field is now Kauffman Stadiun North.

 

[dougplayer]

Apparently Wrigley Field is now Kauffman Stadiun North.

yes nothing like winning a game to puff out your chest...after losing 4 straight

 

[dougplayer]

castellanos is a big piece of cow dung.
every at bat he swings at 1st pitch(in the dirt).. then he watches strike 3 go by in the middle of the plate
he sucks!
even Inge was not as shitty. thats saying a lot

 

[richig07]

Watch out if the Sox start hitting.

 

[podsox]

Watch out if the Sox start hitting.

cant believe they won that game with flowers and soto in the lineup. time to put laroche at first and beckham at 3rd. i cant stand how bad the corners are on the defensive end

 

[navamind]

Watch out if the Sox start hitting.

White Sox do have some underperformers (Alexei, Eaton, Melky in particular), but even if they return to their career norms, it just isn't a very good lineup. Too many holes elsewhere. I do think Abreu takes a step back from last year, though he's still a fine player.

Sale/Samardzija/Quintana should be fine and their ERAs should improve. But the back of that rotation is pretty bad. Noesi is legitimately awful and Danks has looked pretty toasty for a few years now. Rodon has a lot of talent, but he's walked 19 batters in 28 innings so far (though he didn't walk anyone in 6.1 IP last start). He's got work to do.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Well, that was just a bad fucking loss.

 

[dougplayer]

Watch out if the Sox start hitting.

watch out if the TIGERS start hitting....

 

[da55bums]

cant believe they won that game with flowers and soto in the lineup. time to put laroche at first and beckham at 3rd. i cant stand how bad the corners are on the defensive end

Needing to call up Dan Black, he is hot right now. LaRoche is hanging on like Adam Dunn...hope he hits a homer.

 

[da55bums]

yes nothing like winning a game to puff out your chest...after losing 4 straight

and moving into 1st place.

 

[richig07]

White Sox do have some underperformers (Alexei, Eaton, Melky in particular), but even if they return to their career norms, it just isn't a very good lineup. Too many holes elsewhere. I do think Abreu takes a step back from last year, though he's still a fine player.

Sale/Samardzija/Quintana should be fine and their ERAs should improve. But the back of that rotation is pretty bad. Noesi is legitimately awful and Danks has looked pretty toasty for a few years now. Rodon has a lot of talent, but he's walked 19 batters in 28 innings so far (though he didn't walk anyone in 6.1 IP last start). He's got work to do.

Well, Rodon (their first round pick) is pretty much their #4. Pitched in Houston in that game and did a great job against one of the league's best lineups. He's raw, but pretty nasty when he's on.

The Sox also have had a very good bullpen, aside from struggles in Toronto. I don't see how the White Sox lineup is subpar. I don't see a hole outside of Flowers/Soto if all parties are hitting to their potential. Johnson/Sanchez have shown promise at 2B, and should improve. Beckham/Gillaspie have been solid at 3rd since they began platooning it.

 

[richig07]

cant believe they won that game with flowers and soto in the lineup. time to put laroche at first and beckham at 3rd. i cant stand how bad the corners are on the defensive end

Abreu is subpar at first in your mind? He's come up big more than a few times. I don't recall him costing the team that often defensively, at all. Is this because you think the finger injury is worrisome?

I'm game for Beckham at 3rd though. Gillaspie almost cost them that game with the grounder off of his glove.

And can someone explain to me why Flowers is still this team's starting catcher? Soto outplays him every time he gets an opportunity. Flowers is utterly hopeless, both defensively and offensively. There's no way he calls such a good game, that he should remain in the lineup every day because of it.

 

[richig07]

Needing to call up Dan Black, he is hot right now. LaRoche is hanging on like Adam Dunn...hope he hits a homer.

LaRoche has actually been hammering the ball lately. Hit safely in safely 23 of 26 games. Had four hits in the double header yesterday and two more today.

 

[podsox]

Abreu is subpar at first in your mind? He's come up big more than a few times. I don't recall him costing the team that often defensively, at all. Is this because you think the finger injury is worrisome?

I'm game for Beckham at 3rd though. Gillaspie almost cost them that game with the grounder off of his glove.

And can someone explain to me why Flowers is still this team's starting catcher? Soto outplays him every time he gets an opportunity. Flowers is utterly hopeless, both defensively and offensively. There's no way he calls such a good game, that he should remain in the lineup every day because of it.

we have a gold glove 1st baseman dh'ing while our first baseman has zero range. that bouncer over his head tonight was a routine play that he completely messed up. he is decent getting the right hops on throws but that's about it.

 

[richig07]

watch out if the TIGERS start hitting....

1st in OBP in the AL

2nd in BA in the AL

5th in slugging in the AL

2nd in OPS in the AL


Doesn't seem like they're struggling. Who are you waiting on? Cespedes? I know he recently got hot for a short period of time, but you'll be waiting a lifetime if you think he's ever going to be anything special. He's not that good. Cespedes is an ever so slightly better version of Dayan Viciedo, barely. Maybe…

Most guys are hitting around their norm. Martinez won't be back for a while. Not trying to be a dick, but I don't see where there's this big underachievement going on.

 

[podsox]

Needing to call up Dan Black, he is hot right now. LaRoche is hanging on like Adam Dunn...hope he hits a homer.

im not worried about laroche. he is like Ramirez. starts off every season slow. he has been murdering the ball the last wk with very little to show for it. laroche has never looked overmatched at the plate like dunn did on a regular basis in a sox uniform.

 

[richig07]

we have a gold glove 1st baseman dh'ing while our first baseman has zero range. that bouncer over his head tonight was a routine play that he completely messed up. he is decent getting the right hops on throws but that's about it.

I'll have to watch it again, but that bouncer did not look like a routine play to me. Looked like a god awful and unexpected hop that nobody could have done much about.

As far as range, maybe. He has pretty good hands fielding hard hit balls though. I'm fine with inserting LaRoche, don't get me wrong. However, I've just never really sat watching the Sox going; "God… Abreu is killing us. Get him out of there!".

Again, I don't disagree, necessarily.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Well, Rodon (their first round pick) is pretty much their #4. Pitched in Houston in that game and did a great job against one of the league's best lineups. He's raw, but pretty nasty when he's on.

The Sox also have had a very good bullpen, aside from struggles in Toronto. I don't see how the White Sox lineup is subpar. I don't see a hole outside of Flowers/Soto if all parties are hitting to their potential. Johnson/Sanchez have shown promise at 2B, and should improve. Beckham/Gillaspie have been solid at 3rd since they began platooning it.

A lot of teams would have good lineups if you just went off potential.

Shit the twins might never stop hitting.

 

[navamind]

1st in OBP in the AL

2nd in BA in the AL

5th in slugging in the AL

2nd in OPS in the AL


Doesn't seem like they're struggling. Who are you waiting on? Cespedes? I know he recently got hot for a short period of time, but you'll be waiting a lifetime if you think he's ever going to be anything special. He's not that good. Cespedes is an ever so slightly better version of Dayan Viciedo, barely. Maybe…

Most guys are hitting around their norm. Martinez won't be back for a while. Not trying to be a dick, but I don't see where there's this big underachievement going on.

9th in the AL in runs scored. Some of which has to do with RISP stats, which are random.

Cespedes might be a low OBP/power hitting OFer like Viciedo, but that's about it. Cespedes is a much better hitter (career 116 OPS+, 114 this year) than Viciedo (career 96 OPS+). And Cespedes is a much better fielder.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

That's a lot of DINGERZ in Anaheim...