What a shitfuck way to end the 1st half.

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I feel good about the pitching staff but the offense continues to hold the team back.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Pshaw. Once we get Morneau, we'll be scoring twelve, thirteen runs per game. Minimum.

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Agreed, but I'd downgrade to feeling "ok" about the pitching staff. 1 and 2 are good but 1-5 it's not as strong as it needs to be.
the offense is horrible.

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Also agreed on the pitching.

Just a shitty on base percentage overall and no DH. I like Lawrie, but 100 strikeouts? Just too many damn holes. A couple guys seem to have a penchant for big hits, but that's not gonna carry a team.

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Need some of the guys in place to step up. Mostly Abreu and Eaton. Eaton needs to start scoring more runs. Lets see what Morneau can do with DH.

I bet that Frazier raises his average, and that a couple of other guys get hot. Less Avi alone should be worth a win or two.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I do think Frazier will improve over the 2nd half. Eaton is holding pretty steady from last year and isn't the problem. Abreu is down a bit and needs to step it up.

Avi has to go, but I doubt Morneau is enough of an upgrade. They really need more guys on base and better BA across the board. It's a very underwhelming lineup as a whole.

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Morneau has had fantastic OBP over the last three years, albeit in the NL

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

and in Colorado

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It's going to take more than Morneau.
CF, C, and 2B do not get on base...and they don't have power numbers to compensate.
Tim Anderson has a bright future, but he's not a starting SS on a playoff team.

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bookmark this one

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

lol...I mean THIS year at his age, with his inability to take pitches.

Yes, he will be a very good starting SS in the future.

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But Addy Russell is cream of the crop. Don't worry.

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Elections have consequences.

What does Addison Russell have to do with Tim Anderson?

Better.

go on

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

What are they up to now. 24 innings without scoring a god damn run. Real hard to win baseball games without scoring runs fuckheads.

28. I short changed the assholes.

Hawk: "Ya gotta score."

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But just remember that Jose Quintana is the problem.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Because apparently every pitcher they face miraculously channels Nolan Ryan just on the days they face the Sox, and thus Quintana doesn't "compete" as well.

Except that isn't really the case. The Angels aren't some offensive juggernaut. Shields allowed them to get the lead and the other guy shut down the Sox. You seem to be discounting Shoemaker's performance.

I wouldn't say Quintana is a problem. He's just a mediocre pitcher.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Let's say the Sox field a replacement-level team. Lineup completely made up of "AAAA" guys and the like...does every pitcher they face suddenly get "better" in your mind because they (the Sox) become an offensively derelict team? Where does a bad batting order end and a good pitcher begin?

Matt Shoemaker has a 4.20 FIP and 87 ERA+ over the last two seasons, averaging 9 hits per 9 and more than 1 HR per 9, with no complete games in his MLB career. Yet today he was lights out and went the distance. Did Shoemaker suddenly discover how to be an Ace in the MLB...or did he happen to face an offense made up of average-at-best veterans with poor approaches at the plate? Which scenario is more likely the apt description of what caused his performance?

I don't know what a "replacement level team" is. It's not something that exists in the real world.

But in the actual world, the Sox average 4.13 runs per game and the Angels average 4.55, a very insignificant difference within the space of a game. But maybe you know a way for a team to score .42 of a run that I haven't heard of. Maybe that .42 of a run exists in the place where they store the replacement players.

If Shields doesn't allow that run in the first inning maybe they're still playing. And now comes the point in the discussion where someone (probably Darkside) chimes in to say, "You can't expect your pitcher to pitch a shutout every time out" and I answer by saying that Shoemaker had to pitch a shutout to win tonight.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Where does a bad batting order end and a good pitcher begin?

For instance, this scenario exists in the real world: The Atlanta Braves average 3.43 runs per game, by far the worst in the MLB. Are they just a bad collection of hitters, or do they face incredibly good pitching more often than other teams in the league? How do you know which?

They're bringing up worthless shitfuck Jacob Turner to start today. Morneau and Turner. What an indictment of a fucked up organization. Fuck this fucking team.

That really is the question, isn't it? It's kind of like a chicken and egg argument. In most seasons there may be a team or two that have offenses that average more than a full run less than an average team. Occasionally there are teams that average two runs less than league average. But in the vast majority of games the difference between any two big league offenses is going to be a fraction of a run.

And I'll say this for last night's game with regard to "run support". Shields pitched well. There's no arguing that. He had a 1.13 ERA for the game. The Angels average 4.55 runs of offense per game. So he held them 3.42 runs below their average. Shoemaker held the Sox to 4.13 runs less than their average. That's what I call outpitching your opponent.

Let me ask you this question. If you had to make a bet to save your life, would you take Kershaw facing the '27 Yankees lineup or Wayne Franklin facing the 2010 Mariners?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

And here's one more thing. I don't hate WAR. I think it's a work in progress- particularly on the defensive side- but the development of an aggregate statistic doesn't offend me. I know and understand SABRmetrics. But I think most people want to use advanced stats just to try to show others that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than the person they're talking to. There may be some value in more esoteric numbers for a general manager, but for the fan it's really kind of meaningless. I'll give you an example. Before the Cubs-Rangers series began I heard someone on the radio give a preview. The guy mentioned Price Fielder and said something like, "He's having a terrible year, minus whatever WAR, if you like WAR." Well, I don't have any emotional feelings about WAR one way or the other, but is it really necessary to talk about the guy's WAR when he's hitting .200 and slugging .350? Of course his WAR sucks. The guys you think are good are the guys who are good. I know you want to dazzle all your friends in your fantasy league with the secret guy no one has ever heard of, but that just means you're probably going to lose your fantasy league.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Same to start the 2nd half.

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I'm glad.

Don't give any hope that this team could do anything like make the playoffs and try and make a deal at the deadline to "go for it".

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