Half way point.

[LITTLE NELL]

33-48 after 81 games, so far one of the worst seasons since I've been a fan.
I don't get to see as many games as most of you but here are my grades for this team.

Hitting..........................D (12th in Avg, last in runs in AL)
Power...........................D+ (13th in HRs)
OBP.............................F (last)
OPS.............................F (14th)
Fielding.........................F (14th)

Starting Pitching..............C (8th in quality starts)
Relief Pitching.................C (Reed has 4 blown saves but Crain had been great)

Manager.......................D (OJT is not working)

Intangibles....................D
Stuff you don't see in the box score, like being picked off, missing the cut off man, hitting with RISP, bad base running, etc, etc.

PS. No grades for individual players, what good would it do. Half of them will be gone by the end of the month.

[sox1970]

The Tigers lead the AL in quality starts with 54.

The Sox are 8th in the league with 43.

If that changes your pitching grade. I'd say C.

[Fastball23]

Hitting..........................F

OBP.............................F
OPS.............................F
Fielding.........................F

Starting Pitching..............C
Relief Pitching................B
Manager.......................F
Intangible................... F

[LITTLE NELL]

Originally Posted by sox1970

The Tigers lead the AL in quality starts with 54.

The Sox are 8th in the league with 43.

If that changes your pitching grade. I'd say C.

You are right, I was looking at the wrong column.

[fisk4ever]

The honor roll is bleak this semester.

[Paulwny]

Intangibles/fundamentals-F
I don't believe I've ever seen any team, as Lip has previously stated, this baseball stupid.

[roylestillman]

I'm generally not a black cloud, but I do have to agree with Nell that this has to be the worst Sox team I have seen in 50 years of following them, explained a bit by the fact that expectations were fairly high going into this season unlike some bad teams of previous years.

As I watch the games I ask myself who on this team is an All Star. Outside of Sale nobody. Also ask yourself what player on this team would cause a fan in any city outside of Chicago to go out to their stadium and pay to see. Again nobody, including Sale. Finally of the current 25 man roster, how many players do you think will be playing Major League Baseball two years from now?

Fundamentally they are awful. They lack any strategy in approaching the plate. They seem leaderless. They lack personality that would result in anyone connecting with them. Any Andrew Shaws or Bryan Bickells on this team? Gillespie comes close, but he always seems distraught for some reason. I'll grant you injuries have taken their toll, but it just points to the lack of depth in this organization.

Off the field I really do think some improvements have been made. I think a lot of the new pricing strategies have paid off. My recent visit on a Family Sunday was one of the nicest and vibrant days I've spent at the park. It is rare now that attendance falls below 20,000 even with this team. Now just straighten out concessions and that bum's rush attitude and your home free.

[StillMissOzzie]

My head tells me that starting pitching deserves a B, but ranked 8 out of 15 is hard to argue with "average". That double header / double stinker sure didn't help any. The rest of those grades, I agree completely.

And this projects out to 66 - 96. Yay, they won't lose 100 games!
Although any sell-off can change that as well


SMO

[JB98]

Originally Posted by roylestillman

I'm generally not a black cloud, but I do have to agree with Nell that this has to be the worst Sox team I have seen in 50 years of following them, explained a bit by the fact that expectations were fairly high going into this season unlike some bad teams of previous years.

As I watch the games I ask myself who on this team is an All Star. Outside of Sale nobody. Also ask yourself what player on this team would cause a fan in any city outside of Chicago to go out to their stadium and pay to see. Again nobody, including Sale. Finally of the current 25 man roster, how many players do you think will be playing Major League Baseball two years from now?

Fundamentally they are awful. They lack any strategy in approaching the plate. They seem leaderless. They lack personality that would result in anyone connecting with them. Any Andrew Shaws or Bryan Bickells on this team? Gillespie comes close, but he always seems distraught for some reason. I'll grant you injuries have taken their toll, but it just points to the lack of depth in this organization.

Off the field I really do think some improvements have been made. I think a lot of the new pricing strategies have paid off. My recent visit on a Family Sunday was one of the nicest and vibrant days I've spent at the park. It is rare now that attendance falls below 20,000 even with this team. Now just straighten out concessions and that bum's rush attitude and your home free.

That's an interesting question, actually. There are some guys on this club (Viciedo, De Aza, Gillaspie) who might still be in the big leagues two years from now, but they probably won't starting for the Sox or any other team. Keppinger will still be playing, but only because he's got two years left on his contract after this.

Among position players on the current 25-man, I don't think Flowers, Gimenez, Wells, Danks or Morel will be playing in the majors two years from now. Among pitchers, I'd say Axelrod, Troncoso, Castro and Purcey will not be in the majors in two years. Also, I think Thornton will be retired by then. He's on his last life.

So there's 10 guys, or 40 percent of the roster, who probably will not be in the majors in two years. And that's probably a conservative estimate. There are others on this team who will still be playing, but probably in a more limited role than what they have now.

[DSpivack]

Originally Posted by JB98

That's an interesting question, actually. There are some guys on this club (Viciedo, De Aza, Gillaspie) who might still be in the big leagues two years from now, but they probably won't starting for the Sox or any other team. Keppinger will still be playing, but only because he's got two years left on his contract after this.

Among position players on the current 25-man, I don't think Flowers, Gimenez, Wells, Danks or Morel will be playing in the majors two years from now. Among pitchers, I'd say Axelrod, Troncoso, Castro and Purcey will not be in the majors in two years. Also, I think Thornton will be retired by then. He's on his last life.

So there's 10 guys, or 40 percent of the roster, who probably will not be in the majors in two years. And that's probably a conservative estimate. There are others on this team who will still be playing, but probably in a more limited role than what they have now.

De Aza is good enough that I think he could be starting somewhere, or at least a 4th OF with some team. I'd be very surprised if Viciedo is in the big leagues. Gillaspie might be a utility guy somewhere. In addition to those you listed, I think Konerko will be retired by then, as well.

[JB98]

Originally Posted by DSpivack

De Aza is good enough that I think he could be starting somewhere, or at least a 4th OF with some team. I'd be very surprised if Viciedo is in the big leagues. Gillaspie might be a utility guy somewhere. In addition to those you listed, I think Konerko will be retired by then, as well.

Yeah, didn't include Paulie because he's not on the 25-man right now. I think he'll retire after this year.

[LITTLE NELL]

Originally Posted by DSpivack

De Aza is good enough that I think he could be starting somewhere, or at least a 4th OF with some team. I'd be very surprised if Viciedo is in the big leagues. Gillaspie might be a utility guy somewhere. In addition to those you listed, I think Konerko will be retired by then, as well.

Disagree on DeAza, no way does he start for any other team, the best he will be is a 4th outfielder, if that.

[24thStFan]

Originally Posted by Fastball23

Hitting..........................F

OBP.............................F
OPS.............................F
Fielding.........................F

Starting Pitching..............C
Relief Pitching................B
Manager.......................F
Intangible................... F

Agree, with exception of the starters, who IMHO, also deserve a B. Without our pitching (SP and RP), this is the worst team in MLB.

[Domeshot17]

Originally Posted by 24thStFan

Agree, with exception of the starters, who IMHO, also deserve a B. Without our pitching (SP and RP), this is the worst team in MLB.

They don't deserve a B though. They have been very average, as has been pointed out, 8th in quality starts, very vanilla, C is perfect.

This team is a joke

[Brian26]

Originally Posted by LITTLE NELL

Disagree on DeAza, no way does he start for any other team, the best he will be is a 4th outfielder, if that.

The New York Yankees have given significant playing time to Jayson Nix, Chris Stewart and DeWayne Wise over the past two years, so anything is possible.

Speaking of Wise, what happened to him? Is he injured? I may have missed it. Danks has been the 4th outfielder of late.