Chisoxfn

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 01:14 PM) You don't waste a top prospect for a full season in the majors as a fourth outfielder. You may as well keep him at AAA if that's the scenario. Why not ease a player into a situation. With Ozzie the 4th outfielder gets tons of Ab's and it takes pressure off the youngster. That said I'm not a proponent of this trade. I'd rather stick with Anderson over the long haul.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 01:10 PM) What are we really looking for from our centerfielder this year? Either way anderson is very good defensively. He will be one of our three fastest guys... he is a good base runner... just not a base stealer. He will struggle with the bat but in the end all that the sox are looking for is really good defense from him, which they will get. This season Anderson won't be much different than Arow was last season. Arow will be better offensively and defensively, but over the long haul Anderson is going to be the better player, imo. He's got the ability to be similar to Torri Hunter (in fact I think they have similar swings). However, those pencilling him to put up these amazing numbers, well I think they are wrong. For some reason people always expect rookies to come in and live up to there hype. They will develop.

QUOTE(JimH @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 12:51 PM) Jason, what a great post, one of your best. Nice job. I just hate how people can pigeon hole a player based on a couple stats. If we looked at stats we wouldn't have acquired Juan Uribe. He's not a statiticians dream but what he is is a very talented shortstop that can play some defense and hit for power (and I think we'll continue to see him develop offensively). Sure Uribe has flaws, but I for one am glad we traded a stat type player (Aaron Miles) for a scouts type of guy (Juan Uribe). In general, good baseball players with skills are an asset to a club.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 12:04 PM) The downside to stealing bases is greater than it is not to. But no one here will ever believe it ( well most). http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2607 I know stats show that, but I stick to my guns that stats don't show how the style of play changes when you have a speedster on 1st. You don't have accurate stats (just showing what someone hits with a runner on 1st doesn't do that) that can account for a hitter seeing more fastballs when a quick guy is on 1st. You don't have stats that show how a pitcher gets rattled when he's worried about changing his move to the plate as well as varying his pickoff move to 1st so he can keep the guy close. There are a lot of things statistics can't take into account. Now I dont' think everyone should steal and sure there is a point where its not worth it, but I don't agree with any one particular percentage. I think it varies. You also don't have a stat talking about how in a hit and run you open up a full side of the infield allowing a good slap hitter to get a much easier basehit (and in result you 1st and 3rd them). There is a lot of the game that can't be determined by stats. If this game was won by stats, than some robot programmed with all the stats would be better than any manager out there. And that isn't the case. You also can't show me defensive stats the say a guy has a great arm. Defensive stats are for the most part very imperfect. The eye and a good judge of talent is way better at telling how good a defensive player is than the statistics statheads spout off (such as Range Factor and Zone rating). There is a lot more to the game of baseball than stats. For example...offensively Juan Pierre >>> Aaron Rowand if you are looking for a leadoff hitter. If your not, than thats another story. Everything fits into a mold. Whose the better all around player, I feel its Aaron and I think most would agree with that. That said, Pierre has his value and to some teams he'd be more valuable than Rowand. It all depends on what a team needs. If you are the Yanks or Cubs and are desperate for a leadoff hitter, than I think you'd be better off with Pierre than Rowand. I'll take a good mix of both stats and scouts and use them to come up with what works. Hell, if we listened to stats you'd have a lot of those stat people tell us how the Sox shouldn't have won the world series. We ran ourselves out of tons of runs and didn't walk enough to score effectively. However, stats would show we had great pitching. The mix was good enough to be the 5th team in baseball history to go wire to wire and win it all I'm also glad that Ken Williams isn't Billy Beane. Last I looked Kenny has one of what matters (a World Series Ring as a GM). Edited: For some reason I typed in Juan Uribe instead of Pierre

QUOTE(WCSox @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 11:40 AM) I haven't watched much of Sammy since he went to the O's last year, but he had a freaking cannon back in his prime. If you don't know that, you haven't been paying attention. Exactly, whats 5 years ago matter. He doesn't have an arm anymore, which is exactly what I said.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 11:37 AM) ESPN echoes what Chisoxfn said... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/scouting?statsId=4344 You arm strength tends to get a lot worse when you aren't injecting roids into it anymore.

QUOTE(Cerbaho-WG @ Dec 31, 2005 -> 11:25 AM) I'm dead serious here, do you huff gas before watching baseball? Pierre and Damon are atrocious center fielders and Sammy does not by any stretch of the imagination have a cannon for an arm. Maybe 5 years ago Sosa had a good arm (couldn't throw it accurately though). Just like a few years ago Damon was a pretty good fielding Cfer (basically during his A's days) but he's never had anything but a total noodle arm.

Thats pretty cool.

From the Trib. Thats a pretty damn good offer assuming Bmore is willing to add the payroll (and I think they are). Clement has good stuff and he stunk after getting drilled with a baseball in the 2nd half. Before that he was pitching quite well and will help there rotation. And than there is Ramirez, who is in my opinion the best run producer in baseball. Obviously this has to do with freeing up payroll but talent wise (and salary/attitude asside) Manny >>> Miggy and than to add Clement to it, I think this is the deal Bmore makes. They improve the offense and pitching staff in one fell swoop and Angelos has never had problems with adding payroll.

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 07:40 PM) yeah, part 6 was a joke. Ah good. I didn't nkow if maybe you meant to say some other name there or who knows. But I agree, lets pass that info to Boston Gammons. I like the idea of them thinking Munoz is a can't miss stud.

LSU does whatever it wants to do. Miami BLOWS.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 07:20 PM) Jas, couldnt they leave him as a player to be named later if there was a timing issue, and then complete the deal officially after the term was complete. Often times you can go that route, but I think there is a limit on how long a player can be a PTBNL and in this case that would be one long time for that to happen. I always forget the rules when it comes to this things. I have a couple different variations in my mind and I forget which is the right one.

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 06:40 PM) so the way i understand it the white sox have a few clear advantages in the tejada talks. 1. we seem to be the only team offering a ss in return for tejada. 2. we are not trying to cripple baltimore with payroll add-ons. 3. the count seems to be the second best (or best if you hate prior) pitcher offered. 4. the sox are not in the AL East. 5. tejada wants traded to a contendor. 6. arnie munoz was just rated the best prospect in baseball by baseball america. I'm confused on part 6. Otherwise I agree with you.

QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 06:31 PM) O okay, thanks. Its either a full year from the draft or something like until May 15th. The draft is in June in case people are curious.

QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 06:26 PM) There's a rule on when you can trade a player from the draft? That's news to me. Ya, I forget what it is. I almost thought it was a year, but that is probably too long.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 05:56 PM) I think if Denver can't get Flip Murray, they'd have serious interest in Ben, but I don't know what they would give up besides Nene or Earl Watson. Maybe a team like Charlotte who don't have a bonafide good SG? Nene is out for how long (I thought it was the season but maybe I'm wrong??). But I know the Bulls have interest in Nene so I don't know if them getting them now would help there chances at getting him the next couple years. He would fit in nicely here though.

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 05:08 PM) The Sox aren't asking for Bedard. Which is why I think Bmore may like the Sox proposal. They get two guys that they can pencil in. One becomes there ace, while they can keep Bedard (so that would give them a formidable rotation) and the other comes in and plays near gold glove defense with a solid bat (whose still developing and is signed for at least 2 more years at an affordable rate). Of course it will be interesting who the prospect would be, but I do think this deal makes sense for the O's. Especially if they want to keep Bedard. A rotation of Bedard and Contreras is better than one with only Prior.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 04:27 PM) NU totally blew that one. Well another year and another year without a bowl win. Might be NU's last bowl game for a year or two, who knows what their QB situation is gonna look like. Sutton will have to carry the load, it will be interesting. Teams are probably going to be able to key on him without the balance in the NU offense. At least Missouri somehow won. I'm not only shocked Missouri won, but the fact that they were down 21 points twice in the game and came back is even more shocking. Go Mizzou! They almost salvaged the day. Holy s***, I left thinking both of your teams were going to go down. USC was just ripping into you guys in the 1st half (I was out the door at halftime). I guess Smith must have redeemed himself. He looked horrid in the 1st half (but he wasn't exactly getting any pass protection).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 04:23 PM) I'll give you Mario Kasun for him. I'd take a 1st rounder for him. Or package him and Tim Thomas cause I still think you could get something worthwhile for them.

Is Ben Gordon one of the worse/overhyped players in the league. I think so.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 02:50 PM) Problem is it's not that big of a homecourt advantage when 1/4 of the crowd is wearing orange. Which means 1/4th of the crowd will have a really long, sad car ride home

QUOTE(SnB @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 01:52 PM) i believe you came damn close to beating us here in champaign, not iowa city Ya, thats the game I was talking about. In Champaign, I swear we had you guys but you pulled it out in the end only to go down to OSU (I think thats who you lost to at least).

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 30, 2005 -> 01:17 PM) I think people have stopped listening to you when it comes to college sports predictions. I'm right more than I'm wrong Well, maybe not, but I'm no SNB

God NU sure pissed this one away in the 1st half. Really exciting game though. UCLA just recovered the onside kick for a TD to end the game.

Alex Woodson participated in the 2003 National Pre Draft Showcase via Perfect Game. He threw a fastball as hard as 88 MPH (Avg 84-86) and his breaking pitch was around 70 MPH. It indicates he didn't throw a changeup at the time. He was selected in the 29th round by the Oakland A's following this workout. Ryan Sweeney also participated in this workout throwing a fastball as hard as 89. Woodson didn't sign. Instead he attended Porterville College. His fastball has moved up to the 87-88 MPH range and he throws a good tight curveball. If you go here and scroll down you can watch video of him pitching. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/d...?sc=round&sp=16