SI1020

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 07:52 PM) Nor do I. What I find hilarious is not realism. Well reality is they just lost 5 in a row and can't put a horses*** Tigers team away.

I've been a fan since 1957. Stuck with them from 68-70 when it was to say the least a lonely proposition. Stuck with them through more lean years and heartbraking years than I care to count. As long as I'm alive and they're in Chicago, I'll be a Sox fan. That being said this is an average to a little above average team with more than a few holes and weaknesses. If they weren't in the ALC they would already be making arrangements for their October tee times. I'll keep watching, hoping and rooting because that's what a fan does. In my heart of hearts I expect very little of this team. I would like nothing better than to have this post thrust back at me a little bit more than a month from now, but I really don't expect it. Lastly, I never find realism hilarious. Even as the littlest of kids I was attracted to the harsh but knowledgeable realism of Sox fans.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 09:47 PM) Another big thing going on these days is that the pitchers are simply pushing harder. More velocity, sharper break on their sliders, more strikeouts, more movement on their cutters, and on and on. I think I agree with you. The K/9 ratios are insane when compared to previous eras. When I was a kid there were MLB pitchers that threw as hard as anyone today, but overall there is just a higher percentage of power pitchers today.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 01:23 PM) The same thing was said after 2011. Good point. It's possible that Hahn/KW can pull some rabbits out of a hat. Possible, but to me things look tough in the immediate future. It sure would be nice to at least extend this season a little bit.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 12:55 PM) This is our last hurrah. It will be a very different team next year, and probably not in a good way. Unfortunately this post I agree with completely.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) 2007 223.1 IP 2008 173.2 IP 2009 101.2 IP 2010 107.0 IP 2011 111.2 IP 2012 203.2 IP Why are today's MLB pitchers so fragile? Nobody has even come close to giving me a satisfying answer. Everybody in the sporting world everywhere seems bigger, stronger, and faster than those in the past. Advances in training and nutrition are stunning compared to what we thought we knew when I as a kid. So why is 200 IP such a staggering load? How did pitchers in the past string together consecutive years of 300+ IP and come back for more? Inquiring minds want to know. All that being said SS2K5 does have a point about Jake. He may be hitting the wall. In addition to of course not in any way being a big game kind of guy.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 04:08 AM) Jake's next start is his biggest in a Sox uniform. Ace or not, he needs to be one tomorrow night. Guess what? He still isn't. I'm having Javier Vazquez flashbacks.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 21, 2012 -> 06:17 PM) Um, that's delusional. The Sox nearly choked the division away. We were on pace to win a lot more than 99. I remember the atmosphere on this board quite well. On July 18, 2005 the Sox were 62-29, 13.5 games in front. After losing to Minnesota on September 22 they were 91-61 and only 1.5 in front. However then they turned on the afterburners going 8-2 to finish the season and an incredible 11-1 in the playoffs. Yes, when the lead was down to a game and a half there was lots of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth among Sox fans. As for this year's team, I've enjoyed them greatly but they in no way remind me of the 2005 team. I fully realize that MLB has embraced NFL style playoffs and many hope the Sox will be like the 87 Twins or 06 Cardinals.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 06:09 PM) Finding an alternative solution would be preferred, but if it boils down to having Brent Morel as the starting 3B or paying Youk $13M, then pay Youk $13M. I just looked at Morel's 2012 minor league stats. Yikes. I was hoping that when his back felt better he could live up to the promise he showed in September of 2011.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 19, 2012 -> 04:15 AM) I may owe the board an apology for all my hatred of Rios in the past just as many of you owe me an apology for your hatred of Wise in the past. He's been quite a savior. I'm guilty of the same thing with Rios, Greg. I wonder if he'll let me buy him a beer and apologize in person.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 20, 2012 -> 03:01 PM) I listened to the MLB broadcasts of the Tigers/A's game the other night in between innings of the Sox game. It was a complete snoozefest. I couldn't even tell whose feed it was. The KC broadcasters I listened to the other nite, Ryan Lefebvre, Rex Hudler, and Joel Goldberg were dry as toast, bland as vanilla and in general bored me to tears. Seriously, is that what some of you want?

In order to maintain the #1 position in the ALC it would be wise to win the series against KC. If they had handled them the way they have should this division race would be ovah. For some reason KC hurlers turn our hitters into mush. It needs to stop now.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 09:36 PM) Explain. Beyond that, bWAR and fWAR have never been calculated the same anyways. Using both is a pretty good idea. I thought about if I should reply, because it's a contentious subject and people will call you an idiot or worse no matter you say, but I'll give it a try. It may be long, so skip this anyone not in the mood. First of all I've loved to study various statistics since my maternal grandmother bought be an Almanac when I was 6 1/2. In my teens a local (Chicago) sociologist Pierre DeVise was in the papers regularly with his continuing demographic research on Chicago and suburban communities. I found his work so fascinating that in the summer of 1966 I visited every Chicago neighborhood but one and started my own little demographic study. By the time the 1970 census came around my estimates and projections turned out to be very accurate. I'm not a scientist, engineer or actuary but do have some experience with detailed statistical research at the graduate level. I've tried to keep up with the new statistical approaches since I first became aware of Bill James a couple of decades ago. When he came out with his Total Baseball I noticed that some players thought to be stars like HOFer Jim Bottomley turned up in the negative. The Total Baseball approach left me totally unsettled and Bill James himself seemed to contradict Total Baseball when he published his all time rankings which showed he valued players like Bottomley more than his Total Baseball rankings ever did. I came away thinking that James was a very knowledgeable baseball historian even if I disagreed with some of his methods. By the way the last time I looked retrosheet.org still used a formula similar to the old Total Baseball method. I continued to follow the whole Sabermetrics thing. CHONES, PECOTA, VORP, Win Shares you name it. Slowly I came to believe that this was an attempt to reinvent the wheel. Many times I've read true believers talent evaluations that to me didn't jibe with real baseball reality. Then there is one thing after another. BA doesn't count it's OBP. Long live Billy Bean and Scott Hatteberg. Strikeouts are king and any pitcher without a high K ratio stinks. His UZR is low, he must be suspect fielder. One stat I did manage to hang my hat one was WAR. Then I noticed little things like before last year Adam Dunn's WAR was higher than Konerko's. In May baseball-reference totally blew up its methods of calculating WAR and many players slid up and down the all time rankings. It reminded me of Winston Smith and his department constantly rewriting history in the novel 1984. As for Peavy I noticed his 2012 WAR was above all the starters in the MLB leading Nationals and once again I thought to myself really? Peavy is better than every one of them this year? So I've probably bored anyone who read this. I could have gone into much greater detail but as for now, count me out. I'll rate players my own way, no matter what Fan Graphs or BP has to say about it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:02 PM) Now there is an impossible standard. OK fair enough. If he could remind me of a recent White Sox pitcher who had "big game" as a nickname then I would be content.

Sorry but in big games Jake Peavy does not remind me of Bob Gibson. I appreciate how hard he has worked to become competitive again, but I still wish he could back up his bravado when it really counts. As for WAR, it's a dreadfully flawed stat, and baseball-reference greatly changed how it was calculated this May.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) I'm pretty sure Youkilis doesn't know how to bunt. That by itself makes it a bad move. Surprise? He's squaring around for a sacrifice. That's not a surprise, Cabrera's standing halfway to the plate. He's had exactly 0 successful sacrifice bunts in his career. It was a terrible terrible decision by our manager. I like a lot of thing Robin has done, but he has a ways to go with some of his in game moves that have dumb fans like me yelling in frustration.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 4, 2012 -> 05:19 PM) Unless we're both crazy, I think you're right because I remember the same thing. There was another board/site that we migrated from. Soxnet.net was somewhere in there. Can't remember if it was before or after the Soxtalk.com name was given to this board. When I first started posting it was soxnet.net. Just Jason, Mario and a small cadre of regular posters.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 28, 2012 -> 08:31 PM) I like Stone, but he's put on a God level just because he's even-keeled and speaks in absolutes. He kills me by frequently calling pitches incorrectly. The best thing he does is hit you with some dry humor when you're not ready for it and the next best thing he does is narrate some of the things that Hawk would be too pissed to say. Gimme some Darrin Jackson, he ended up being a great match for Hawk by the end of his run. Now DJ is stinking up our radio broadcast, the only redeeming quality of which is the frequent awkward back and forth between Farmer and DJ Wimpy made the best partner of Hawk by far I think, and DJ, though he may be a nice guy was lousy on TV. I do not listen to the Sox radio broadcasts. Farmer is not a good PBP guy, but the Rooney and Farmer team was one of the best. This is just a topic that is highly subjective in nature.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 28, 2012 -> 06:20 PM) He isn't even one of the all time "goods", IMO. He's pretty awful. I'm just getting into this thread so I apologize if you've answered the question, I'm curious as to what baseball announcers past and present have met your approval. Although I may or may not seriously disagree with you, I'm not baiting you in hopes of having a chance to rip you. I'm genuinely curious.

Bob Elson and Don Wells, Harry and Jimmy, Hawk and Wimpy, Rooney and Farmer. Those are my all time favorites. As for the series, a welcome 3 out of 4 against a team that has given the Sox trouble in recent years.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 31, 2012 -> 06:04 PM) I would add a few months for a pitcher after surgery. I think he's having surgery. The guy has no desire to throw right now. They need to find out what is really going on. I believe the same thing. It seems apparent to me that he is hurting and afraid of making it worse. He is also, regardless of the market a guy who peaked in 08 and has gone downhill since then. Teams are between a rock and hard place in today's market. On another note, why or why are MLB pitchers so fragile these days?

If parity hadn't come to baseball in a big way we wouldn't even still be thinking about the possibility of an extended season for the Sox. Things do look grim at this point. Win the series against the Twins and restore my faith a bit.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 22, 2012 -> 08:59 PM) If they don't make the playoffs I don't see KW being brought back. I don't see JR ever firing his favorite son.

Add me to the chorus. Paulie is hurting and trying to play through it. I don't believe this is one of his garden variety slumps.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Jul 19, 2012 -> 08:14 PM) Ah another refugee. One time they went crazy and started doing lifetime bans for those with multiple email accounts. We live in a transient society and people still use gmail, yahoo and hotmail because they lose their other accounts switching ISPs. They operate on fear since it is a large site. They are no where near as popular anymore since the participation is quite small. You might see 10 people participate on a thread at the most. I don't like how their mods do things but I like reading some of their posts. I got banned there for 6 months for violating the political correctness religion. There are still some good posters there, but I agree that participation seems to be way down from past years.