False Alarm

obviously we need both a starter and bats, but i voted bat. we have this reputation of being a good offensive club when we really haven't been since 2000. sure, our run differentials are always respectable at the end of the season cuz we put up several 15-0, 11-0, 15-3 games a year, but often we can't get to decent pitchers and we pretty much never do anything with really good pitchers. or rookies. or guys who throw junk. when we've been bad the last couple of years, it's usually because our offense goes to sleep, not our pitching. i forget where but i saw a stat that over the last two seasons, the cubs lead the majors in quality starts; sox were #2. say what you want about it being an arbitrary stat, but in the regular season, quality starts usually should be enough to win games (i'm sure the average runs scored per game in MLB would bear this statement out), and we've pretty consistently lost such games. our #5 starter is a crisis too, and i agree that come playoff time (which we're all looking toward), the rotation's the more important issue. but i don't think we get there without more offense.

seems like an odd question. the iraqi population comprises 26,298,900 people; i'm sure every last one of them is "bad."

productive farm system. the bastards.

FWIW, a little more on this. i took this from a BA q&a a month or so ago: he also said weaver's amazing command helps him get the most out of these pitches.

congrats, heather. fellow redbird here: ISU, English, '01.

i don't have a problem with hawk bashing sabermetrics. it's not as if sabermetric writers, GMs, et al don't take pot shots at the traditionalist view all the time, so why can't hawk fire back? i personally think there's merit in both approaches and that to some extent they do different things and are pointless to argue over. but it's inaccurate to say that several teams have been successfully built around sabermetrics. oakland is an undeniable success given their circumstances, but whether or not that's due to their building around sabermetrics isn't at all clear. and considering that their OBP was 10th in the AL (i believe) last year and 13th so far this year, i'm not even sure it's a given that they're successfully implementing a sabermetric philosophy at the moment. as for toronto, boston, and LA--give me a break. boston had all kinds of money and was good before epstein goth there; they're still good. toronto had finished third for four consecutive years before riccardi; last year they finished third (and are in real danger of losing ground this year). depodesta...one month, dude. epstein, riccardi, and depodesta haven't been around nearly long enough to determine the success or failure of their methods.

i absolutely think something's been lost. music as an art form's as vibrant as ever, but the album as an art form's quickly dying. i don't think it's a tragedy--for better or worse, some art forms just fade away--but it does kinda sadden me. concept album or not, full albums do have a signature and a coherence that's just lacking with the fragmented approach to releasing music today. also, and i know it might sound kinda silly, but i'm gonna miss good liner notes and cover art. they're totally integral parts of an album IMO. i know i'm kinda a dinosaur, but i still collect CDs (sorry--too young for vinyl!) and plan too as long as possible. that said, technology and the new methods for listening to and releasing music have a ton of benefits both for listeners and artists, and i don't blame my friends one bit for thinking i'm a dumbass for continuing to buy CDs.

i haven't read up on it too much yet, but i think it's considered a very pitching-heavy draft. unusually thin talent for position players or something. i wouldn't be surprised to see us take like four pitchers with those first five picks. rex or some of the other minor-league gurus probably know better though.

been wondering the same thing. dude's just killing my fantasy team.

beltran'll get more than that (or at least better years) from a richer team. no way we get him--regardless of magglio.

no he wouldn't. he's never been there.

i was at that odalis perez game. i remember in the sixth inning i'm in line for the bathroom, and this cub fan turns and looks at me and says, referring to perez's near-perfect game, "when do we start rooting for this guy?" i drunkenly replied that i'd been rooting for him since the first pitch and i think dude almost threw me in the trough. would've been pretty cool to witness a perfect game though.

there's plenty of good, intelligent, creative hip-hop being recorded that doesn't rely on stale and degrading portrayals of women. for a hack like nelly to catch flack for it--that's a good thing for hip-hop.

i'd kinda been thinking they'd've traded konerko for nothing and not picked up jose's option. i'm not sure whether i'd rather have those two with their numbers from last year or colon. but paulie should be better this year and i agree that colon's in or on the verge of decline, so :fyou colon.

i'm worried about buehrle, but i prefer not to think of him as definitely being in decline. with three years' worth of numbers to look at, it's tempting to just look at them and say, he's gotten worse each year so he must be declining. i think it's just as possible that his first season's numbers were inflated (for a variety of reasons), his second season is more of what we can expect to be a typical performance level, and his third was just a down year. the fact that he pitched well later on last year gives me hope that this is valid. either way, i won't really feel like i know for sure what we have in buehrle until this year's done.

juggernaut, who would you say is the greatest sox player of all time? i'm just not sure if i've ever seen anyone declare with such confidence that frank isn't. and thomas should get into the hall. his numbers are sick.

i haven't glanced at the stats and don't feel like looking them up right now, but i'm pretty sure vlad's been better (offensively) over the years. that said--and this is pretty much a hunch--i think maggs generally will be better than vlad over the next five years. i could see vlad tailing off a little earlier than most players cuz of his back, whereas i could see maggs being one of those who guys who's steady (or even improves some) well into his 30s. pretty much just bar talk though; maybe magglio'll hit .185 with 4 HR and a pair of RBI at age 31. anyway, i hope the sox keep him.

relax you guys. the only reason we beat the royals is that they were terrified of being attacked by our fans.

radio postgame said the official scorer called to consult some sports bureau and ended up scoring it 10-9.

thanks. still worried about him. can't be good to start having problems that young.

he left his first start with a sore elbow, didn't he? i should've known it'd be only a matter of time before he went the way of rauch and malone.

baseball: daryl boston craig gebeck jason bere football: don shula dan marino not quite your collection, '04, but it's not every day you stumble across a craig grebeck sig.

i wonder if they'd be willing to move roberts once hairston comes back. not that kenny'll care.

i don't like it.

i think OOTP has stolen half my life.