CWSGuy406

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 12:52 PM) I'll wait and see where they both are in a couple years before I decide if it was such a terrible decision. Suzuki did pretty well offensively for a rookie this year, but he's never going to be the defensive player Lucy is now. That said, if Suzuki comes out in 2008 and 2009 and puts up numbers like his AA and AAA numbers at the major league level, then he is probably a better hitter than Lucy will ever be. "Probably a better hitter than Lucy will ever be" is selling it WAAAY short. Lucy hasn't produced at any minor league level. His career minor league line is .257/.332/.347. That's crap. It's even worse because Lucy was a college player and, as such, was never considered "young" (for a real prospect, anyways) for any level. If Soxfest didn't (now) cost a lung to attend, that might be the first question I'd ask in the Q&A. Talk about an absolute travesty of a decision.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 06:49 PM) Better year at the plate? J-Rolls was a 20-20-20-20 guy. A-row could never sniff that. Not to mention Rollins was their lead off hitter and igniter at the top of the lineup. I was wrong to say "better" -- similar would've been a more choice word. Rowand finished with a higher OPS. But I'm not (and didn't) saying that Rowand had a better year when taking everything (games played, defense, offense, baserunning) into consideration. I'm just saying they had seasons that are comparable, within the same ballpark. And, because of that, I'm surprised that the Rowand's name doesn't get mentioned (even in passing) while Rollins looks, at this point, to be a shoe-in. I'm also surprised with so many people here picking J-Roll. Are people aware of how much better a season Hanley Ramirez had compared to Rollins? I guess that gets into the "What is your definition of MVP?" talk, though, so...

Is this who the writers are going to pick or who's we actually thinks should win it? Anyways, I'm thinking the latter, so: AL MVP: A-Rod CY Young: Sabathia AL ROY: Petunia (Pedroia) AL MotY: Seattle's interim manager (don't know his name) NL MVP: Bleh -- if Utley doesn't get hurt this is any easy call (in my mind). But since he got hurt... David Wright? Hanley Ramirez? Utley is still right up there. Stick a gun to my head and I'll go with Utley*. CY Young: Peavy NL ROY: Braun (this shouldn't be close -- if Braun had the ABs, he'd be a legit MVP candidate, too) NL MotY: Manny Acta *It's a shame that the writers, year after year, seem to focus in on one guy. In this case, that guy was Rollins. I find it rather funny, too -- if Rollins ends up winning the MVP, that has to mean Aaron Rowand was pretty close. Afterall, he plays a similarly difficult defensive position as well (or better) than Rollins does. Rowand had a better year at the plate and gets the same "intangible" label that Rollins gets.

Roster is basically set (these aren't the lines, just me getting the players down someplace): Samsonov - Lang - Havlat Kane - Toews - Ruutu Williams - Perrault - Sharp Bourque - Burish - Lapointe Koci Richmond Seabrook - Keith Wiz - Vandermeer Sopal - Zyuzin Barker Johansson Khabi Lalime Zyuzin's got a groin injury. Skille got sent down. Pilar was placed on waivers (again). I have 24 listed and I'm pretty sure you can only carry 23. I don't know what's going to happen to Richmond. Barker is probably here only till Zyuzin heals up. Neat. Let's drop the puck.

QUOTE(GOD @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:28 AM) wow why even bother playing the season, BP can tell us the standings before the season starts. That is really impressive. Pretty tough to disagree with God, so I'm thinking baseball should definitely go that route.

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 02:22 AM) AAA, but that's only if you're trying to win the division. I think you're expecting too much from second base. Dan Szymborski has the average second baseman hitting .276/.331/.411 -- Richar, in his first taste of big league action was right there slugging percentage-wise but a ways off in the OBP department. I guess I can understand your comment if you expect absolutely no improvement from Richar, but I do, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Richar match that .740 OPS (something like .250/.310/.430).

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:40 AM) We better hope the wind is blowing in for game 3, as Livan might give up 10 homers if the wind is blowing out at Wrigley. I would love to see the Phillies make the WS....but as I told my dad tonight, I'd root for my mother-in-law to beat the Cubs right now. You'd almost hope that the D'Backs would go with Owings in game three, if only to get his bat in the lineup. Either way, game three should be high scoring on both sides -- Hill had an ERA over 5.00 in September. It's also good news that Pinella has committed to Kendall has his playoff catcher -- would much rather see him behind homeplate than Soto. Having Kendall behind homeplate means Chris Young needs to have a big series (OBP-wise).

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:26 AM) Haha, just pathetic. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-0...1&cset=true How you feelin' about the D-Backs/Cubs series? You gotta be reasonably happy that Webb will be able to pitch twice, although talking bigger picture, it sucks that there's no powerhouse in the NL. If you put any of the four AL teams in the NL, they'd pretty much be WS locks, too.

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 1, 2007 -> 01:20 AM) Wow, kudos to BP. Looks like they did a real quality job this year. Here's what Flash posted as the projected 2007 standings: Nailed the NL East; undersold Cleveland and 'oversold' Minny; undersold both LAA and Seattle but still had the Angels atop the West; nailed Philly over the Mets; nailed the NL Central; nailed Arizona and San Diego while underselling Colorado. Damn. That's impressive.

I don't care to comment on the Griese/Grossman f***fest that will certainly pop-up over the next couple days. What I will comment on, however, is Ron Turner. I hope to hell this guy starts taking a LOT of heat. The Lions defense allowed 56 (!) points last weekend and you put up 13?!?!?! 13 f***ing points? Are you kidding me? There is absolutely no creativity on Turner's part. Bears line up in the i-formation? Probably a run. Do the Bears ever run counter plays? Do they ever run quick hitters out of a one back set? What happened to running Hester around on the reverse on those handoffs, even if you have no intention of giving him the ball? At the very least, every time you run Hester around, you take their DE out of the play (or their OLB) because one of the two will have to play contain. More absurdly, where was Greg Olsen today? Why is he only on the field one out of every ten plays? For anyone who has listened to OB and Doug, was that question answered?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 01:37 PM) The move was good anyway, he's still relatively young 30 ain't young for a catcher. I think the bad thing about this deal is that it doesn't eliminate the deal for next season -- it's two years BEYOND next season. For catchers, 32-33 is when the cliff gets real, real close. Sigh... f*** the scout(s) who recommended Lucy over Suzuki. He/they ought to be taken out back.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 09:35 PM) I really wish this team didn't even focus on competing in 2008, and focus more on competing in 2009-2011, etc. I could live with them telling us they're going to try and compete in 2008 if they do it the right way. And by do it the right way I mean sign Bonds. (Yep, get used to it -- until Bonds signs somewhere I'm going to be like Pratt is to JS and the Braves or Fathom is to the Cubs' 'greatness'.)

If Holliday homers here, does he win the MVP? Or does Rollins already have it locked up?

Today's game is also on Comcast. I'll be watching it on NHL.tv. Sopel is in the lineup -- the bad news is both Ruutu and Havlat are out and there's speculation that Ruutu will miss the season opener. These f***ing injuries are already pissing me off.

Okay, barring a ten-run ninth, we'll be 8th. Not ideal but we'll still have a shot at getting a very good player.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 06:11 PM) Classy move by Ozzie there. Great job. What happened?

Ubaldo (sp?) Jimenez has some filthy stuff. I'm surprised his minor league K/9 is so low -- it's gotta be a command issue because that slider combined with that mid-90s fastball is nasty.

I f***ing hate Ron Turner. -Where the f*** is Greg Olsen? -Where the f*** is Devin Hester? -Run game? Hello? How about some f***ing creativity? And seriously -- you call a timeout on that second-to-last drive... Why?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 08:15 AM) So I got some good Halo action in tonight. We had two xbox's linked up and god damn is Halo 3 awesome. THan went into some NHL 08 and its even better than ever. Not quite as arcadey as 07 (which was such a fun game) but the CPU is just so much smarter which allows better puck possession. If you're on Live, let's play some time.

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 03:00 AM) Also, Pods was an every year type player, producing well in those opposite years. His past trend told he would have performed this year if he could have stayed healthy. Unfortunately he couldn't. BAHAHAHAHHA -- hilaripus. Absolutely hilaripus. Every other year player -- that's golden!

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 06:27 AM) So now Josh Fields isn't playing LF this offseason? http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines Am I reading too much into this quote? Did anybody else read what Williams said there and think of one guy? (His name need not be mentioned -- most everyone should know who I'm talking about.)

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:52 AM) Why not, they should have been winning the whole time Yeah, a team that starts the year with Podsednik and Erstad as starters should've been winning. NOBODY saw the years that they actually had coming. Just a big ole mystery. Maybe we should try it again in 2008.

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:43 AM) So you're saying you don't want the players to give up, you just want them to finish poorly for a draft pick? Finish poorly? No, I want them to do what they've done all year. This is a team that's starting Podsednik and Erstad -- they shouldn't be winning.

QUOTE(SEALgep @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:37 AM) Come on, you expect them to lay down and just play like s*** for a draft pick? You do that, and that's exactly what you become, s***. One pick, whatever... Besides, what about the fans going to the games, are they supposed to just go in knowing the teams laying down after paying good money. It's stupid, they should play to win and set some momentum for next year. Why is this constantly brought up? Can you find a spot where someone said they want the players to lay down and play like s***? I haven't seen that. It's just frustrating that a team that is clearly better than us NOW loses to us. I mean, come on, twice this week -- we beat Santana and Buehrle? I don't want Sox players to do bad, but wins mean nothing at this point. We all want meaningful guys to do well -- Fields, Richar probably the biggest two but there's others -- but it still sucks. One spot will almost definitely make a difference, because it is, you know, the Sox.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 30, 2007 -> 02:22 AM) Didn't we all come to the conclusion that the slot position is only important if you pick #1 or 2? For all this time we heard "the past 15 years of the Sox not having a top 10 pick is showing" yet here we are with the Sox having a lock for at least the 10th pick and people are still whining. who cares? There are no locks in the MLB draft and I am sure there we be plenty of great players to choose from when the clock starts. Really not that hard to understand. The higher you are, the more you have to choose from. Is it a lock? Nope. But I'd still rather have the chance to pick 7th than 10th. But keep spewing the company line. Yay for 73 wins instead of 72 wins -- woohoo! Flash, I got my standings info from baseball-reference -- apparently they were wrong.