SoxFan562004

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 1, 2008 -> 10:46 PM) And again, why is a guy who gets on a few more times per season and hits a few more XBH's more valuable than a guy who gets on less and hits for less power but does more damage when he's on? League average OBP and league average SLG% in CF isn't going to get you a whole lot anyway. At least Willy has a tool to use when he does get on base. Please look at my post about RC, it has a definition in there, even with him doing all the "damage" on the path he isn't a very productive offensive player. Also, I made a mistake, his career average RC/G was 4.3, last year he had a 3.8! Also, who are a few other players not on the White Sox roster you would compare him with?

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 1, 2008 -> 10:43 PM) Listen... I don't know what you think you know... but ix-nay with the upid-stay. You obviously like Taveras, but that is not a good reason to take shots at people making reasonable arguments. OPS is a well established measure of offensive output. The fact is that players who score low on OPS have to do something else extremely valuable to justify their spot in a lineup. If it didn't mean anything for a leadoff hitter, then where are the other leadoff hitters on the list? In fact, where are the other 'good' offensive players? The fact is that practically every player on that list is considered 'marginal' as a starter... because of their low offensive output. Good post, also look at his RC and RC/G which includes things like base running and he still isn't very good.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 1, 2008 -> 10:32 PM) What is your point? We all know he doesn't have power. Why do you need power to hit at the top or the bottom of a lineup when you're not expected to have anyone on base ahead of you? Dick Allen summed it up well for me. He's a bad offensive player.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Dec 1, 2008 -> 10:25 PM) More stupidity... Obviously he'll rank at the very bottom in a stat that accounts for a tool he does not possess, and a tool which BTW is completely unrelated to his job as lead-off man. How stupid are you people? He will be guaranteed to lead-off exactly once a game. He has zero power. http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/taverwi01.shtml His RC last year was 55, and this incoroporates his base running RC - Runs Created - A runs estimator created by Bill James. A runs estimator attempts to quantify the entire contribution of a player's statistics to a team's total runs scored. It typically involves some positive value for things like hits, walks, steals, home runs, etc. and negative values for outs, caught stealing and GIDP. There are 24 different versions of RC depending on the stats you have. In general, I am using the tech version which incorporates baserunning, HBP and other offensive events. When those aren't available I use the SB version, and when those aren't available, I use the basic version, (H + BB) * (TB)/ (AB + BB) from baseball-reference.com Nick Swisher had a RC last year of 69 and a slightly better RC/G of 4.5 compared to 4.3. In '05 Pods had 67

http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/taverwi01.shtml he's played at least 97 games and has had at least 372 ABs in each of the last four years. Every year he has been a below average offensive player, PEAKING with a OPS + of 89. He is a bad offensive player and the White Sox don't have a magical spell that will make him a quality MLB offensive player.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Nov 26, 2008 -> 09:01 AM) FWIW, ESPN on the scroll has been reporting that the Cubs won't pursue Peavy anymore. They cited an interview with Pinella where he said roughly "We don't need starters, we're set." I'm not sure if they were just going off of that or not, but they were reporting it. Quoting myself, but today ESPN is reporting through Gammons that a Padres source said a Cubs deal could get done but it would have to involve a 3rd team. So all of you who thought the Cubs rumored package wasn't very good were probably correct and the Pads need things the Cubs can't offer right now

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 26, 2008 -> 03:11 PM) No, see that's the thing. Andy isn't better than Javy, at all, and if you adjust for park I'm sure their numbers are a lot closer. Basically, Javy had a bad year. We all saw in 2007 what Javy can do in a good year. We all have seen what Javy's ceiling is. In his first year, Sonnanstine has already surpassed his ceiling IMO. When the league adjusts to him he's going to suck, and his stuff is so poor that unlike Javy he's not going to have to the stuff to keep him out there. Look at that BAA, watch the guy pitch, and tell me he's better than Javy. Javy has been doing his thing in the Majors since 1998, and Javy's struggles are mainly because the opposition just waits on him to throw a lot of pitches and start leaving his offspeed stuff up in the zone. Andy Sonnanstine got away with hanging his offspeed stuff every single time he pitched against us last year, and as soon as our hitters took the right approach against him, he started getting hit and then was pulled. He's not going to get away with that next year IMO. it's a rough stat, but ERA + is league and ballpark adjusted, with 100 being an average pitcher... http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sonnaan01.shtml AS pitched about 190 innings last year and put up a 102 ERA+ http://www.baseball-reference.com/v/vazquja01.shtml Javy put up a 98 ERA+, so using that stat they were both about league average pitchers. Obviously it's hard to compare them using stats since AS has pitched only 2 years, 130 innings in his first and 190 innings in his second. For his career Javy is 105 pitcher, but he goes up and down i.e. having a 127 the year before.

FWIW, ESPN on the scroll has been reporting that the Cubs won't pursue Peavy anymore. They cited an interview with Pinella where he said roughly "We don't need starters, we're set." I'm not sure if they were just going off of that or not, but they were reporting it.

Dye would be a ridculously good fit for the Rays

QUOTE (Mr. Showtime @ Nov 20, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) Fitch is back according to Meltzer. http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/7503/ Link to his story on it and... http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/7501/ Link to the daily update, about halfway down he says this was brewing between Dana White and Fitch's manager long before any of the fighters invovled even fought in the UFC. This is one of the reasons one of the Feritta brothers stepped down from Station Casino's to devote full time to the UFC, looks like he is the one who put out the fire.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/update-uf...anagement-15235 Looks like the UFC is talking to Fitch's management now

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 19, 2008 -> 11:56 PM) http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/ufc-cuts-fitch-15235 The UFC cut Jon Fitch for refusing to allow the UFC to use his likeness for video games. It says more AKA fighters may follow. This is a pretty big loss for their WW division and I certainly hope Koscheck, Cain, and Swick don't follow. Also, Dana is considering bringing Gina Carano into the WEC and Fedor wants to fight Lesnar. More bulls*** from Fedor's camp. They still won't sign any reasonable deals so it's all just talk. It's his loss though. Aside from Barnett there are no HW's in Affliction that pose even the slightest threat to him and there are no big money fights there at all. AA is going to get crushed. While Affliction's HW division is better on paper, Brock, Randy, and another Nog fight would make him a lot more money and provide a stiffer test than anything Affliction can offer, plus it would give him a hell of a lot more exposure. The UFC even has such a deep LHW pool that they could pull someone from there to fight him too. Yet it won't happen because his manager thinks M-1 is a viable organization that is somehow going to expand internationally during an international economic crisis, and do it around two reality shows that nobody gets on TV that focus on one guy who casual fans in the hottest MMA market in the world right now don't know about or care about. Dumbass. Yeah, you've got the bargaining power, sure. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how the video game thing plays out. Fitch is an awesome fighter, but he never got over with the casual fan, which ultimately is what matters to the UFC. The next month or two will be important to see who else goes. If Kos loses to Yoshidain Dec, then that will be interesting. I think the more interesting test is that I've heard that St. Pierre is against signing over his likeness, the UFC always has the champions clause in their contracts to fall back on, but if Penn beats St. Pierre I don't think he has very many fights left on his contract. The Fedor thing annoys me. I love Fedor and IMO he is the P4P best fighter in the world, but he and his camp have decided not to accept the limitations the UFC put on their fighters (as we see with Fitch those can be cumbersome) but some of Fedor's camp demands are over the top too. So that's a two way street as to why Fedor doesn't fight in the UFC. I think Fedor and his camp shouldn't issue grandstand charges to UFC fighters they have about 1% chance of fighting under the current circumstances and I wish Dana would stop putting down Fedor. There's no way the UFC would promote M-1, Fedor and Affliction for a one fight deal, it would be a ridiculously bad move considering their position in the U.S. MMA landscape

QUOTE (MO2005 @ Nov 19, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) And everyone PLEASE stop referring to stats all the time as your reference. Stats don't mean s**t! Pods had a very low OBP when he came here the year before? What did he do again in 2005 for this team? Ha

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Nov 18, 2008 -> 10:59 PM) Blow is a waste of time and money. If I need to be that wound up to do something, I probably have no business doing it. Pot is fun when you're young and care free. You laugh your ass off, music sounds phenomenal and sex is out of this world amazing. Later in life when you have real responsibilities on your plate, it just makes you paranoid about all the s*** you have going on. By the way, I say energy drinks will be banned in a year. I've never had the desire to do anything stronger than pot, and only that I tried a couple times in college. Alcohol as always provied me enough of a thrill!

Sounds like my reaction I stupidly took some ephedra and then drank a few hours later, I was shaking and heart going a mile a minute. It was a mistake and would never do that on purpose.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Nov 18, 2008 -> 08:50 AM) Holy crap what an opportunity! Prime of your life, excellent job skills, no major debt, and the freedom to do almost anything. For the next two three years do something f***ing amazing. Pick a cause. Get involved in something real and make it happen. Concentrate on a job somewhere you always wanted to travel to. Go help some people that need it. Go help some animals that no one is helping Go save some land Stop an injustice or start one. Get a job on a cruise ship or private yacht Worry about your career in a few more years, worry about your life now. Kids and mortgages will happen soon enough. You truly are at a great point in your life. Grab it and do something amazing with it. You will not regret the things you do nearly as much as you will regret the things you did not do. Thanks for the positive advice! I am trying my hardest to take this opportunity and make the most of it. I think, if I can swing it financially, which I believe I can, I will to to broadcasting school, something I always wanted to do.

OK, this is my situation. I'm 29, single, no mortgage and no huge debt other than student loans. I have a B.A. in Psych and a J.D. from DePaul with about 3 years experience as an attorney. I left the firm I was with because I didn't feel comfortable there. I have some money saved up and I figured that this is the point in my life I better decide what I want to do for awhile so I can settle down some. A few questions... Anybody have any resources I can look into for alternative legal careers? Anybody have any suggestions on how to look for jobs out of state, which I am entertaining as possible alternative/option? Those are just initial questions, if anyone has anything that might be helpful let me know, i'm all ears!!

It was a great site. I think the guys who ran it are TV writers. Well, as long as Deadspin keeps chugging along...

This goes under the "other bits" subheading... ESPN reporting NYY will offer CC 140m, but they're not saying how many years, also saying they will make big offers to Burnett and Lowe. Kind of expected it, but now it's being reported

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 05:03 PM) There's a good chance we get him, he's one of Kenny's guys. I just hope to f***ing God that Kenny doesn't trade Brandon Allen for him. He almost traded Chris Carter for another one of his guys, Akinori Otsuka, last year prior to the Quentin deal. When I read that I almost had a heart attack. I trust KW, but that would be put in serious jeopardy if he gives anything of value up for Taveras

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:47 PM) Strawman. No, you trade Garland for a package of younger players, or a REAL CF. Just don't trade a SP rental for a SS rental when you already had an option there (with similar defense and OPS but cheaper and a better attitude.) In a perfect world yes, but Garland was also going into a FA year. We don't know what KW was offered for him

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:40 PM) What does that mean? That Swisher is a 34% better hitter than Uribe? He should be. Uribe is a fringe starting SS while Swisher is supposed to be a corner OF/1B. I don't care what anyone says, Nick Swisher had one year that is the type of year you want from a corner OF/1B. Everything else was sub-par. I just compated Uribe and Swish because their names were tied together in another post. Swisher was an OBP guy, something the Sox were horrible at in '07, Swisher didn't produce this year, but his OBP was still OK. He filled a need in the batting order. The Sox still led the league in HRs with Swish as a corner and 1b player. Sometimes you can break traditional roles if it's being madeup in other places.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:39 PM) Just a hunch? I really believe we'll trade for Wily and it wouldn't shock me if we blow other teams out of the water and sign Hudson. Wily would be a horrible move, he's not a very good offensive player

QUOTE (striker62704 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:37 PM) I'm only trying to say that Swisher wasn't as awesome as some people make him out to be. Some people say the Sox got fleeced and I don't thinnk they did. You mentioned that Swisher's OPS was 11% better than average, which is kind of what I was saying, he's average. You just presented it better. well, that's with a 92 thrown in there. If you take 06 and 07 his OPS + was 126, with a good OBP which the Sox sorely need The reason I liked Swisher a lot was his OBP and his quality ABs. The Sox need to address that with the moving of Swisher. Like I said, I trust KW, I will judge him at the end of the offseason

QUOTE (striker62704 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:22 PM) I'll probably get killed for saying this but if you look at 2005-2007 and compare Uribe and Swisher offensively, Swisher isn't that good. 2005-2007 hr/rbi/avg/obp Uribe 19/70/.240/.281 Swisher 26/82/.251/.358 I'm not saying Uribe is as good as Swisher, I'm just saying if you compare Swisher to Uribe you'll see he's isn't going to be missed. OK, this is a basic, down and dirty quick stat, but an OPS+ of 100 is an average hitter, league and ball park adjusted, with ever number above or below 100 basicaly meaning the player is a percentage point better than average. http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/swishni01.shtml 05-07 Swisher's OPS + was 111.25, including his 92 from 08, meaning he was 11.25% better than an average player http://www.baseball-reference.com/u/uribeju01.shtml over the same years Uribe's OPS was 77, 23% below average. You can make the argument that Swisher was a 34% better player over those years, and that's including 08.