SABR Gamer

Houston will probably pass them tomorrow. (not trying to sound negative, though. it's been really fun) I know, but it's nice to know they are a pretty good team so far. Hope they keep it up.

All I'm saying is the Bears have the best point differential in football.

The WS is better, I wouldn't give it up. Having said that, it is nice to have the Cup. Also, god damn, wouldn't it be nice if the Cubs could just get lucky for once and have a bs season like Baltimore is having. aka, next year just be good even if it's completely overachieving.

What is realistic production for Rizzo's prime at this point? How about for next year?

We haven't had low expectations since 03. The 04 team won 89 games and was booed on the regular. Why do you have expectations that b2b will deal with reality/facts? You are far too optimistic.

b2b wants the Cubs to continue to be bad.

It was pretty obviously an interception and not a touchdown. I think anyone who sees something other than that is just trying way too hard to see what they want to see. This is coming from a Bears fan. Not complaining about the result, but it was still the wrong call.

September Castro has been pretty sexy. .338/.393/.506

People calling Kyle names because he said that 100 PA was a good amount to judge K rate? I am getting to the point where I am no longer interested in talking about whether or not people reacted negatively to Kyle. Back to Brett Jackson.

LOL, what does that have to do with whether or not you reacted negatively to Jackson's criticism? Just because you may have vocalized concern doesn't get you off the hook for all future, dumb, defensive comments. I'll admit I haven't re-read this thread in a while and I'll go back and try to find some examples of what I am talking about. ETA: Most of this thread is actually pretty solid back and forth discussing whether or not Brett can improve, so I may have exaggerated the negative response a bit, however there are still a few name calling and anger towards Kyle throughout the thread just for talking about sample sizes and K-rate stabilizing. I just found that to be silly.

The people who are talking about "brettjacksoning" aren't necessarily the same people who are overly sensitive. I'm not lumping everyone in this thread into one group. My comments were just in reference to those who WERE overly sensitive to it, not claiming that everyone was overly sensitive.

Your point does not stand because his struggles have caused people who pay attention to significantly reduce their expectations for Jackson and he has fallen down many a list. Kyle isn't pointing out anything that everybody else doesn't already know. Doesn't a drastically reduced expectation due to his play this year kind of imply he has been a disappointment? Also, yeah I know he isn't, I never said he was. I just said that the people getting pissed at Kyle is silly because Kyle has just been pointing out the obvious and they are mad because it's a prospect from their own team. Also, why are people getting mad at him when they already know what he is saying is pretty accurate? Also, I am well aware of the widespread belief (pre 2012) that Jackson had a high likelihood of busting due to his flaws. I know that isn't a recent development. I am pretty sure Tim had him ranked lower than most due to that belief and has been saying for over a year that he thought this would probably happen. Also, just because we have recently (or gradually and not so recently) lowered our expectations doesn't mean it's not kind of a bummer that this kid, at least so far, is looking like he landed massively short of his potential due to a glaring weakness. We are clearly fans more than we are talent evaluators, it sucks when your team's time frame for success gets pushed back due to this as well.

Except Jackson isn't the Cubs' top prospect, nor has anyone denied that the strikeouts are a huge concern. Kyle, as he is wont to do, made a few rash and hyperbolic remarks earlier, which got everyone's goat. But things aren't looking too bright for BJax, I'm afraid. Unless there is some heretofore unnoticed mechanical flaw can be found, I'm not optimistic. Yeah, he isn't the top prospect anymore because of many of the things we have discussed in this thread. Even AFTER we got Rizzo, some still had him as our #1 prospect before the season. Also, I meant it as "he is one of the the team's top prospects" not THE top prospect. Either way, my point doesn't really change. People were hoping for a borderline all-star and we have what looks like a 4th/5th outfielder. I am a bit disappointed, but it's not like we weren't cautioned.

This thread is basically Kyle being realistic and everyone else getting pissed that he's pointing out a negative fact about their favorite team's top prospect. Everyone needs to be realistic because it will a) help us deal with the likely disappointment of Brett busting (which btw Tim has been calling for a long time now), and b) if he figures it out, it will be even more awesome. We all love what Brett is good at, but his flaws are lethal. If people are expecting him to be better than Corey Patterson (widely considered a disappointment, whether or not that's entirely fair since both sides have somewhat valid arguments), they will likely end up disappointed.

Rizzo cut his rate 14% from last year Should have spelled out major league. I said he cut his ML (Major League) K rate in half, well almost. I understand that, but Rizzo was much worse than expected last year in his debut, which is part of what allowed the drop to be so drastic this year. Brett is hitting close/closer to what was expected of him coming up. Given his MLEs compared to Rizzo's MLEs, it is much less surprising and to be expected that Rizzo would have his K rate drop at least a few points. Plus, realistically, Rizzo will walk and K more next year than he is now, which will make his K improvement less extreme. I just think that Brett's task is a bit more difficult than Rizzo's, starting with the fact that Anthony is a flat out better hitter than Brett by a good amount, both the past couple years in AAA and clearly at MLB. ETA: Oh yeah, and Brett isn't going from the worst hitters park in the league to one of the best hitting parks for leftys in baseball.

I am with you, because he has so many intriguing skills that would turn him into a star (as previously said) if he can get his K rate to be merely bad. The problem is that his K rate is an astronomical issue, it's just terrible. What are the chances that Brett has a mechanical issue that can be tweaked and cut down 12%+ off of his K rate? I doubt it is unprecedented, but I would guess it is nearly impossible to pull off, especially for a guy with Brett's track record with striking out. This isn't taking a guy from 20% down to around 14% (which I assume would also be difficult to pull off), he's in the record breaking K rate zone. Rizzo dropped his significantly (cut his ML rate in half, dropped from 21-22 in the minors to 16) but even that is a small drop compared to what we are hoping for from Brett.

He's a long way away from sniffing a 30% K rate. I want him to be good so badly, it's just probably not going to happen.

And Jerry Reinsdorf is a [expletive] vile human being. You're a Sox fan anyway. Haha, there is the biggest reason I have to dislike the White Sox. I can't stand Reinsdorf and I hate that he is the Bulls owner. My favorite basketball team underachieves due to his bs.

Too late...?

Jeez. Man up and realize that that franchise isn't even on our level and thinks about it every single day. They're all LOOK AT ME because they're the neglected red-headed step child. It's just annoying. Here's as basic as I can make it: it's infinitely preferable for nearly any other team to win besides the White Sox. Seeing as there's absolutely zero upside to them winning, I see no reason to be dissuaded from this. Big upside = it's not the Cardinals. Cardinals winning is infinitely more annoying than the White Sox. The Sox are just crying out because the don't get attention, but when St. Louis wins it's another opportunity for them to remind us how vastly superior they are and have been to us, and THAT gets on my nerves. I can't stand St. Louis, their fans are some of the dumbest in the league too. Last year, I was telling a fan of the Cardinals in one of my classes how they wouldn't win the World Series (this was during the playoffs), and they responded by saying that they were too good not to win because they had Skip Schumaker and Ryan Theriot. Then when they won, they acted as if they were genius and right all along. Please no more of that.

They're just so irrelevant that I don't even think about them outside of when I'm waiting for talk radio to be done talking about them (sort of like with hockey). I'm not sure if you were living in the city in 2005, but it was awful. Even stupid things like 'Support your White Sox by wearing Sox gear to work on Friday' memos just pissed me off. Walking through downtown and seeing everyone and their mom wearing Sox gear and seeing signs and flags up everywhere. Having idiot Sox fans come up to me at the Cubby Bear of all places and making fun of me for wearing a Cubs hat during a Sox World Series game. Watching Sox fans decide to celebrate their world championship by gathering right in front of Wrigley Field and chanting 'CUBS SUCK' and '1908!'. My friend was at a bar in Wrigleyville the night the Sox won it wearing a Cubs hat, and on his way back to Rogers Park some drunk idiot Sox fan approached him while waiting for the Red Line and got in his face and yelled "HAHAHA CUBS SUCK!! GO WHITE SOX!!!". When my friend responded by saying 'go [expletive] yourself', the Sox fan jumped him and started pounding on him right there on the platform. So yeah, I'd prefer to avoid all that [expletive] again. I was in high school when the Sox won it in 2005, and it was really irritating hearing my teammates and coaches, the ones who were Sox fans, bragging and rubbing it in about winning the World Series. But then like a month later nobody gave a [expletive] anymore and it was an afterthought. Even if the Sox, win you can laugh about the fact that it will be irrelevant within a month or two.

I started reading your post and about halfway through it I looked at your info to confirm my guess that you do not live in Chicago. I didn't care about the White Sox when I lived on the East Coast. Unfortunately, I moved back to Chicago in time for the 2005 baseball season, and it was hell on Earth. I live in fear that I will have to one day live in a world where idiot White Sox fans are celebrating another World Series title and taking every opportunity to belittle Cubs fans. It's just really annoying and their fans are idiots, so it does bring a healthy amount of hate to the table. I lived in Chicago (both downtown and suburbs) for the 19 of the past 20 years, I just moved to NY in the past few months. I have dealt with the super obnoxious Sox fans for a long time, even within my own extended family. I just think that it's kind of petty when all the Sox fans try to make it into a big deal, so I don't feel like enabling the back and forth nonsense or taking their bait. I understand how annoying it is (trust me I really do), I just don't really care to give it the light of day so I don't root for their failure.

True, it would just be even more ridiculous now that he has put up a monster year.

Really wish we had traded for Chase Headley last offseason. He would cost an arm and a leg now, too bad.

Who cares about the White Sox? I mean if they do well, good for them. How they do doesn't really make a difference to me. I'd rather them win than the Cardinals, by far. The Cubs vs White Sox "rivalry" is really stupid. We are going to be playing them only 4 times a year, and used to only play 6 times a year. Good luck to them or whoever else, and who the hell cares who wins (as long as it isn't St. Louis) if it's not the Cubs. That's how I feel anyway.