CWSGuy406

And right now, I have a real sonuvva-b**** migrane (sp?) headache. It hurts to look at this f***ing screen and the TV, yet I do it anyways. I f***ing hate headaches... Mercy. TYLENOL!

QUOTE(JimH @ May 11, 2005 -> 01:23 AM) I expect Keith to add something at any moment now. Jim, I'm not gonna act like a pompous jackass, even though many times, I do... I'm confident in Neal. If he gets the job done, excellent, if he doesn't, then oh well. The only person I'm going to b**** at after a poor job done is Timo -- but that's a given...

Keep on chuggin', Neal.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ May 11, 2005 -> 01:10 AM) Neal Cotts or Cliff Politte? Hopefully not Kevin Walker.

Damn. It's tied.

Over/under on Podsednik homers: 2. I'll take the under.

Crede doubles! Doubles and doubles and doubles! Love 'em!

You bastards. I didn't know what the hell it was, and I was at school -- and my school has a parental system, and when I tried clicking the link, it said "The site you want to go to is blocked: Pornography". I hope I don't get in trouble...

QUOTE(ISF @ May 10, 2005 -> 09:57 PM) The Moneyball philosophy isn't OPS or bust. The Moneyball pihilosophy is analyzing statistics and attempting to find value in areas that other, richer clubs underrate. OPS just happened to be the statistic that many clubs shortchanged at the time. Beane's draft picks are often decided based on these stats, whereas traditional scouting leaned heavily on body type, radar gun, and stopclock. Last year Theo Epstein used analysis of defensive stats to decide to make the moves for Cabrera and Mientkiewicz. It was a total Moneyball maneuver. Beane should get credit for devising a plan for attempting to keep up with the haves. The problem is, when the haves figure it out, money makes a big difference. That is why Epstein and Boston are so dangerous. he has been extremely efficient in doling out the Boston cash. I think Beane made the wrong choice on his pitching. Between that and Chavez' inexplicable slump, the A's are hurting as a result. ISF, that's probably the best explanation of the Moneyball philosophy that I've seen. You said it exactly correctly -- it's not finding slow fat guys who can get on base, it's looking at the market, and finding what's undervalued. Those particular years, OBP was undervalued. This year, it seems that Beane and co. think that defense is undervalued, as when healthy, they're a pretty damn good defensive club (except with Kendall behind homeplate, and he just has a bad arm). Awesome post.

QUOTE(Wedge @ May 10, 2005 -> 02:24 PM) I agree his average and slugging % isn't terrible, but that's not why this is funny. What's funny is that Billy Beane's stated philosophy is that OPS is the most important statistic in baseball: you want hitters with high OPS and pitchers that have low OPS against. What's funny is that consistently his teams rank in the bottom 10 (typically bottom 5) for OPS. Billy Beane is basically a fraud. His theory may be true, in fact, it appears Boston's team last year applied it and reaped the benefits. However, Oakland has won with the formula we're all familiar with: "put a better starting pitcher out there than the other team every 3 days out of 5 and you'll win a crapload of games". (by the way, Miles's OPS looks to be about .414, which isn't what we like to call good. For all the emphasis placed on OPS by Beane, why does he have a role on that team?). Can you tell me where exactly Beane said this? I'd like to see some proof, rather than you just pulling s*** out of your ass... I've read Moneyball twice, and I don't recall OPS being the main statistic of use. In fact, like S17 said, DePodesta did an experiment, basically, which told them OBP was more important than SLG%. And why does Oakland need Beane? 'Cause they don't have a whole lot of money in Oakland (I believe it's in the lower half, correct me if I'm wrong), and Beane has proven he can win on a small payroll... I dunno, seems to me like he's one of the better GM's in baseball...

QUOTE(southsider17 @ May 10, 2005 -> 08:41 PM) Best team in baseball for a month-and-a-half. So far so good for Kenny .... this year. Also, were Beane and Ryan handed young division winners in there first year? I'm still hopeful for Kenny but he has made a few mistakes. This team will likely need something on offense eventually. How he addresses that will go further in showing how good a GM he can be. I agree, other than the part about Kenny being handed a division winner. 2000 was such a fluke; pitching-wise, at least. Where are those guys now? Sirotka? JB (starting against B-Mac tonight )? Eldred? But Oakland has also had less to work with, in a tougher division. There's no reason we shouldn't have won the division the past few years, IMO.

R-Dub is just about done as a starting corner. I think he'll be a nice dime/nickel back, but not at his current pricetag.

That's f***ing awesome, Jim (excuse my language). I definitely hope you guys let us post a few questions to ask, that'd be excellent. Nice hookup!

Who's to say that Anderson isn't better than Dye next year? No way I make that trade, it's a gross overpayment.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ May 10, 2005 -> 02:49 AM) It's not just the bunting. I firmly believe that you need a guy or two on your team that can atleast steal a base, honestly you're going to have to manufacture runs one way or another in the playoffs whether that's stealing bases or laying down a bunt. There's going to be a critical point in each series where you're going to have to steal a base or advance runners to score a runner which could be the difference. The way they don't let any of their runners do anything, I'm very confident they wont win a world series. Maybe they won't -- but they're still in a great position, year in, year out, with an influx of new talent coming through the system. And they're always right there at the end -- on a payroll that is about two-thirds of ours (I think theirs is somewhere around $50-$55 million, though I could be mistaken). It's still the hotter team that's going to win, regardless of a stolen base or not. And, I'm still puzzled by the 'overrated' comment. Waiting for a response on that...? (and I realize you didn't make the comment, r44).

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ May 10, 2005 -> 02:27 AM) Well many people said this was the year we'd find out how good Billy Beane is and well Oakland just isn't that good. He did have the big 3 and that's what did carry that team and Depo was a big reason those guys ended up there. I can tell you one thing, until Beane changes his mind set a bit he won't ever win a world series, and I'm pretty damn confident in saying so. So, Oakland is good enough to get to the playoffs by not bunting, but the reason they lose in the playoffs is because they don't bunt? Simply put, they didn't play well in the playoffs. Usually it's the hotter teams that win, and Oakland didn't play well come playoff time. One doesn't win or lose a World Series because of bunting... I dunno... They're three games under .500 and their offense has been absolutely disgustingly bad this year. When it gets on track, it's going to be pretty good. Not many one-two punches better than Kotsay-Kendall. Right now, Kendall is really terrible. Win or lose, they're still in an awesome position for the next couple of years. Lots of young talent coming through that system, Crosby, Chavez, Swisher, Street, Haren, Meyer, Johnson, Barton (sp?), Powell. They're in a real good position... And, it's funny how everyone ripped DePodesta a new one this offseason...

QUOTE(sox-r-us @ May 9, 2005 -> 09:44 PM) Yup, Beane is over-rated. I wish Kenny Williams was as over-rated as Billy Beane is... I can't wait to see the logic behind this. If I can even call it 'logic'...

During a game like this, you just gotta sit back, relax, grab the latest issue of Baseball America, and strap 'er down.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ May 10, 2005 -> 01:15 AM) http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=674082 :rolly We get the point. Why don't you do some more PBP, huh?

QUOTE(Jabroni @ May 10, 2005 -> 01:06 AM) I didn't know baseball games were only 6 innings. Personally, I think comments like, "The Great Willie Harris!" after he makes an error, or strikes out (a la the Oakland series) are more trollish, but what do I know...

QUOTE(Jabroni @ May 10, 2005 -> 01:04 AM) He said the Sox deserve to lose. Is there really any need for stupid, trollish comments like that? We deserve to lose -- it's true. Through the first six innings, we deserve to lose. I guess I'm a troll now too, huh? Fathom may be pessimistic, but he certainly isn't a troll...

QUOTE(Jabroni @ May 10, 2005 -> 01:02 AM) Shut up. Is there really any need for that? Eww, Jermaine.

Top 7, Orioles 3, Twins 0. Two on, two outs. Cabrera is looking dynomite, already has nine K's, and has a nasty slider working. And he throws it again, filthy. .... .... Full count. Two on, two outs... The WHIFF!!!! You know, just wanted to give a game update that actually has something to do with the Sox. Going to the bottom of the 7th, O's 3, Twinkies 0.

QUOTE(Tadahito15 @ May 10, 2005 -> 12:49 AM) Or hit for that matter.... Welcome to Soxtalk!

QUOTE(Jabroni @ May 10, 2005 -> 12:48 AM) Not here. Dye can't bunt. I didn't think extreme sarcasm needed green. I guess it does.