Jordan4life_2007

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 06:05 PM) Yeah, but noone then was talking about Wade with the second pick. (In fact... ) Some people were even saying Melo should go #1. It was 'called.' By many, many people. Saying they should have taken Wade is like saying, Wow, how dumb of them (any of 'em, take yr pick) to not take Amare Stoudamire, Ben Wallace, etc! Well, sure, in hindsight. I remember we were projected to take Wade. The Heat actually surprised a lot of people taking him 5th. "Waits for Cuck the Fubs to say we're better off with Hinrich."

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 06:03 PM) Just wait till this team goes 5-5 out of the gate, and everyone is crying that the division cant be had...... LOL. No doubt. I do think you're gonna see a calmer, more tame Soxtalk in 06.

And I thought I took rejection hard.

QUOTE(TaylorStSox @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 10:22 AM) Delgado > Thome I would have rather had Delgado. May I ask why?

QUOTE(R.J. @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 05:50 PM) Not to beat a dead horse here, but I can't believe theres anybody who actually thinks that Joe Borchard can be a starter in the majors. What in god's name have you seen from him that would even suggest that? Borchard offers power, and absolutely nothing else. Mediocre defense, mediocre arm, a BA under .200 and more strikeouts that any hitter should even come close to. You start him for a season and he'll K 200 times. He'll be out of baseball before the end of next season. I hope you're wrong about Borchard. But to this point, you're right. I do think Joe has a solid arm, though.

QUOTE(Felix @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 02:47 PM) Smart family members. Indeed.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:22 PM) Has anyone seen 'Elephant' by Gus van Zandt? It's based on the Columbine murders, although he doesn't use the same names and details. What was up with the black dude just walking the halls all casually while all hell was breaking loose only to get shot? It was like dude wanted to get shot.

It's almost over!

Good move by the Angels. Colon Lackey Weaver Escobar Santana That's a solid rotation.

This part of the aritcle gives me chills. I still can't get used to this. We are "The" team now.

Borchard over Anderson? Did Brian commit some horrific crime that I don't know about? Nobody is givin this kid a chance.

Shouldn't we give Anderson a chance to prove himself before we start asking if he's better than Rowand?

I didn't realize Mack's overall numbers were so much better when he played in the infield.

QUOTE(Drew @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 05:06 AM) Why is our bullpen in question? Because we've only one lefty and we're minus our resident headcase? It basically comes down to health and if our guys can pitch at the same level or close to it in 06. For the Indians, they actually have to replace key guys in their pen. I'd rather have our problem than theres.

Here's my favorite part of the article. I hope this now puts to rest the idea of Owens possibly starting in cf this year. As far as Anderson goes, it doesn't sound like anything serious. It is nice to have a guy like Mack in case something unexpected does happen.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 01:00 AM) I read an article that said the Pistons were going to wave Cato if they acquired him. Cato can play ok, but he needs to be motivated to do so, and he's so injury prone. I'm sure Spiff would tell you he's nothing but a bust at the money he's earning. Really? Wow. Cato was solid when he was in Houston. You can never have enough bigs when you're going up against Shaq. I think Cato would flourish in a back-up role in Detroit.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:40 AM) Not really, for 2 reasons: 1. Arroyo seems to have forgotten how to play basketball since he arrived in Detroit and had to play off the bench in limited minutes. 2. Detroit hardly uses their bench as it is, and that will only become more obvious as the games get more important (and in fact, that could be their downfall in the end). But in general, great deal for Orlando. They send a nobody like Cato and a protected 1st round pick to Detroit for Darko (who I still think could be really good) and Arroyo (who could rebound in Orlando getting more minutes). It's a good deal for both teams. You've already stated what it does for the Magic. For Detroit, they get an expiring k that will not only help them resign Ben Wallace, but put them in better position to extend Billups before he becomes a free agent in 07. Two, Cato is a very effective player in the right situation. He's a good defender and shotblocker and would really be useful if the Pistons and Heat meet up again. I'll have to wait and see what the final restrictions will be on the draft pick before really commenting on it.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:45 AM) Quizas. Then again, games in April count as much as Games in September when all is said and done. If we start out let's say 8-8, I don't think it will be because of Uribe hitting second.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:25 AM) Your going too far. Byrd to Millwood is not that big of a difference, and J.Johnson to Scott Elarton is a wash IMO. Crisp is a better player than Micheals, not huge, but Crisp does have the upper hand, but they might have a GREAT 3b of the future on there hands. There bullpen is in question, but so is ours. I disagree with Byrd and Millwood not being a big difference. You have to be pretty good to maintain an era below 3 in the al for an entire year. Millwood was a legit #1 last year. Bryd is at best a #4.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:17 AM) So what's Spring Training going to prove? Seriously -- it doesn't mean a whole lot. If Uribe hits .500 hitting in the #2 spot in Arizona, it'll make me no more or less confident than if he hits .100. Juan put up a .344/.412/.525 last year in Tuscon. If he does that this year, what exactly will that prove? It's a sticky situation that probably won't mean a whole lot in the long run. Switching Uribe/Iguchi in the lineup might mean a run here, a run there, but in the end, not enough to get worked up over. The idea is to give Gooch a chance to be the power hitter/run producer he was in Japan. I don't think Ozzie would even consider the switch if he didn't think Gooch could legitimately hit 20+ homers and knock in anywhere from 90-100 runs. If he's right, combined with a healthy Thome, they're a top 3 offense in the al. That's a pretty big jump from last year. I'm not saying I'll be convinced if Uribe tears it up in spring training. It will be encouraging, but he would obviously have to prove he could do it when it counts. I just can't see the harm in trying it out for a couple weeks. If Uribe blows, make the switch.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:03 AM) Armando Almanza Chad Bentz Javier Lopez Corwin Malone Arnie Munoz Stephen Randolph Paulino Reynoso Rusty Tucker Quantity, not quality. Fortunately for us, we just need one of them to step up and show they can get it done. I would be more worried if we had two or three slots we needed to fill in the pen.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Feb 15, 2006 -> 12:07 AM) Baseball is a game of inches. Don't go with something that doesn't really make sense and could potentially cost us wins. I get that. I just don't believe this particular experiment is so risky not to give it a try.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Feb 14, 2006 -> 10:51 PM)

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Feb 14, 2006 -> 10:52 PM) Ok, so first move he makes you disagree with I want an explanation. It can involve the sun and moon, but I need something. What part of "if Uribe shows he can't handle the 2 slot Ozzie will switch them back" don't people understand? Ozzie is no fool.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Feb 14, 2006 -> 10:39 PM) Here comes my insanely long and detailed statcentric reply. First, to use Uribe's line in 2004 when he had 260 AB's in the 2 hole is silly. 260 AB's is not enough to get any sort of strong conclusion about a player. Lets say that Juan's last two seasons with the White Sox are a decent prediction of what he will in 2006. 2005: .252 .301 .412 .713 2006: .283 .327 .506 .833 Now, lets look at little deeper into the statistics and see what the cause for Uribe's sudden collapse in 2005 might have been caused by. Was Juan unlucky? Or was he lucky in 2004? Batting average balls on balls play is a great statistic because it represents the amount of luck a player had in a given year. Obviously, some playes get more than their share of "seeing eye singles" and "ducksnorts"--and some get less. It also can be coupled with line drive data to see if a player is a really excellent hitter, or just got really lucky. Obviously players who hit alot of line drive's have higher BABIP and thus higher AVG, OPS, etc. If you to to: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.aspx?playe...age=7&type=full You can see very clearly that Uribe's BABIB was higher than expected in 2004 and lower than expected in 2005. In other words, Juan was lucky in 2004 and unlucky in 2005. I'd expect 2006 to fall somewhere in the middle. Notive that the nearly .030 change in BABIP corresponds very well to the change in Juan's batting average change from the same years. Juan didn't become any better or any worse at hitting for average--it was simple luck that made a big difference. Aren't stats interesting? Now, say that Juan's BABIP returns to around .300 this year. (which is very close to the league average). So raise his OBP by 20 points from last year and his slugging an additional twenty points. This give us .321 for an OBP. Of course, OBP is also influenced by a hitters control of the strike zone. Here, there is reason to be optimistic about Uribe's OBP and his hitting in general. If you go here: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs%5C454_batt...ll_20051002.png You see that Juan is steadily becoming a more patient hitter. This is obviously a good thing. I'd say we can expect the trend to continue, and so lets put .321 to .335 as a projected range for Uribe. (notice the lack of anything resembling a regression equation here--leave that for the serious nerds, or at least those with more energy and time for this stuff) Iguchi put up a .342 OPB last year. His BABIP was roughly .320, which not having data from Japan, I can't project to drop or rise. I'd bet on a modest drop, as Iguchi seems to hit a fair number of line drives, so lets say it falls 10 points and his OBP falls to .332. Not great, but still better than what Uribe projects. Now, those are just my amateur half-assed calculations. PECOTA, BP's mundo projection service, projects Uribe for 267 .315 .448, which seems pretty close to what I just projected. Pecota and I both think Juan will never be on on-base guy. As a fielder and decent pop from SS guy, he is a godsend. I love Juan, he just isn't going to be a good number two hitter. Just for sheets and giggles, here is the PECOTA for Gooch: 275 .346 .420 While above average for a 2B, and nothing to shake a stick at, I'd put the OBP slightly lower .340 say, and the slugging higher, up around .450, for a .790 OPS. I don't buy into the whole "let Iguchi swing away down low in the order". Iguchi is a better relative contact hitter than Iguchi, and Juan is the better relative power hitter. To confuse that would be run scoring suicide during this season. Um, I'll trust Ozzie.