joeynach

My friend sent me this link. It from weather.com that projects wins and losses based on certain weather conditions that are expected throughout the 162 game schedule. Wind vs. Calm, Day Vs. Night, Warm Vs. Cold, etc. Its pretty cool, doubt it should be taken that seriously, but nonetheless a nice little sox piece.

Ramirez needs to be sent to AAA, the way this is right now there is not going to be much playing time for him. He needs to get his ABs and adjust to American style of baseball, everyday, he needs to play. The good thing is that the team has found a nitch with the current starting 9. Im fine with BA as a 4th OF, but send Alexi down. Id be fine for letting Richar play 2nd when hes healthy. Uribe is fine defensively, but hes constantly an auto out in the lineup. He is definition of poor At Bats.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 14, 2008 -> 07:32 AM) Streaming technology wont work in a realtime TV environment. Multicast will work on saving packetting on the backbone pipe, but will do nothing for the end node. Comcast is fiber to your block, but the last run to your house is over a coaxial run. I could care less about the compression ratio, as long as they built in a device at the set top level that can handle the buffering, and decompression of the signal. As far as the 19mbs per channel just take a look at the DOCIS 3.0 standard and what they are getting on a new protocol/compression standard. Video compression is okay as long as you have something on the other end that can reassemble the signal, buffer it, clean it up, and present it in the format requested. The only problem is when you dont have the technology at the end node to perform that type of quality clean up, thats when you get carrier issues. Well at least so far that has been a huge problem. You can tell when its a problem when you watch an HD live feed, usually sports and your video stutters. The images get all choppy, like they drop frames and the motion becomes all sketchy. The problem is the MPEG2 encoder in those motorola boxes sucks and doesn't contain enough memory buffer. When the memory and buffer gets cloged with junk over time the encoder cant catch up with live feed, and thus it drops frames and you see the image get all choppy and slow mo like. From what I understand this is a problem at least on 50% of comcast HD users. There is an easy fix, though comcast has no clue when you call them and just like to schedule a technician to come out. They did this to me when all my live HD feeds had image stutter, which I knew from not being a retard was an encoding/frame dropping problem within the box. Moesha, at comcast tech support had no clue what I was talking about and tried to send a technician out. If you are wondering the fix is to turn the cable box off (keep the tv on) and hit the menu button, if it doesn't work the first time turn it on off a second time. You get to a blk/white user setting screen, then you use the arrows on the box to toggle to the setting for HDMI/YpbPr output. Just flip through the choices for that setting, leaving it actually set on what it was orignally (usually 1080I for HD users). The action of flipping through the options is a method to clear the memory and buffers from the box, this will cause the stuttering to go away, temporarily. Its something you will have to repeat as the problem re-occurs over time.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 13, 2008 -> 09:10 PM) I find your comments about compression as if it was a bad thing interesting. You should re-read that thread. The native TV feed comes out at Gig speeds, then is compressed, bounced off a bird in space, then recompressed into a format that can be distributed. The medium at the end has its issues, but the idea of ripping up everyones backyard so they can notice a slight fractal difference in their HD is beyond me. You forgot to talk about the FIOS fiber distribution cabinets that regenerate the light signal, and retransmit the feed to the houses on your block. Cable providers are rolling out DOCIS 3.0 this year, which will support at lot more per channel on the cable plant. Fiber is not the end all and be all cabling to the node. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS I have no issues with my Comcast HD channels on my HD tv's in my house. Then again, I wired my house with high end cable rated for HD, not the house cable crap you get from RadioShack. The channels look great, and I have no issues. My only issues is that the current HD box is a bit flimsy and breaks at least once a year. Also Analog channels look like s***, but thats more with the Mottorola chipset and their digital to analog conversion than the cable plant itself. I have done a lot of work with compression algorithms with Video retransmission as well as large multicast designs. You can get a lot out a crappy coax cable. And for those who have talked about Wireless as the last mile. You are on the right path. I have been running a pre-Wimax 100 mb link for disaster recovery for the last 3 years. We had such great success on the 100mb wireless link, we have transitioned it to our primary. It is the most reliable thing I have used yet. No fiber cuts from Joe Jackhammer missing his mark, no local loop charges. Its great. I am using that type of technology as the primary now in 5 of my locations. I understand that compression is something that happens by default, my gripe is more with comcast's public claims. Of course they have no problem tauting their increasing offerings of HD channels, as to compete with the dish, but would never make an acknowledgment for at what cost. The article makes its very clear that 2 HD Channels per QAM created the acceptable true HD images, and the new 3 Channels per QAM thus reduces selected HD channel quality. I can very easily notice the difference of watching HD on say un extra compressed ESPN-HD than watching the extra compressed AE-HD. The bitrates of the stations show the reduction from the normal 19Mbps per channel. Anything below that is a reduction is quality. The point is every channel could get 19Mbps with the 2:1 ratio comcast was using prior to this year, but the new 3:1 ratio has probably started a never ending cascade of bitrate reduction. If its 3:1 now what is it a few years, 4:1, 5:1, where does it end. Where does comcast stop cramming more reduced quality content onto coxial and build a new fiber network, or adopt streaming technology? So far all these seems to be about is the fact that comcast can market "more HD programming" than anyone else, but knowingly leave out the notion that their "programming" is not going to be the pure crisp true HD images they had previously been exposed to. In that sense it sounds seedy, like a used car salesman.

The short version is that comcast is making an active effort to keep adding HD channels and content, and they make this very clear with their advertisings. What they dont tell you is that in order to keep adding HD channels to the cable system they need to constantly reduce the quality of their HD feeds, via compression, in order to keep up with Satellite in the HD offerings war. It has become quite apparent on HD cable channels, AE-HD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, History-HD, Discovery-HD, etc. They dont seem to compress and reduce bit rate quality as much on sports and local channels. Nonetheless the evidence and the whole story is listed here. IMO, the problem is inherent with coaxial cable as technology. It offers a certain maximum bandwidth and for all intensive purposes that max has been reached. The only thing left for comcast and cable companies to do is sugarcoat the whole thing with campaings highlighting their additions of HD channels, while keeping mum on the fact that in order to so they must sacrifice HD image quality of many stations. The details are referenced in comcast's decision to now supply 3 HD channels in 1 QAM, where as it used to be 2, thus reducing quality. The theory was 2 Channels per QAM supplied the mimimum bitrate, 19Mbps, that was needed to produce true HD images. Since they recently enacted the quantity over quality policy that notion went out the window, which is somewhat understandable given their HD war with satellite. I dont really know capabilities of satellite systems, but it seems an easier problem to fix. If satellite needs a massive bandwidth upgrade all the consumer has to do is get a new dish/box, where as for cable we are talking about region wide hard infrastructure, whole different ballgame. So the solution, yep its fiberoptics. Fiberoptic technology is nothing new, but getting it to your home and community will take a comprehensive infrastructure investment, as was cable 20-30 yrs ago. Fiberoptic cables will basically supply all the present and futuristic communication needs you can think of. Its already being rolled out in select markets by Verizon's FIOS and ATT's U-Verse. As soon as these services are offered in our area I say we all jump on it and send comcast packing.

QUOTE (Maverick0984 @ Apr 13, 2008 -> 01:20 PM) Anyone else getting some static in the audio today? Yes I am and the HD video is all laggy and choppy too.

Is anyone else having a problem watching this game on WGN-HD. I have comcast cable in flossmoor and watching the WGN-HD is awful. The picture is all choppy, like its skipping or missing frames every few secs. The sounds is also terrible, there is this static like buzz constantly coming through . I noticed the same problem watching the Cubs on WGN-HD last night as well. Is anyone else experiencing this situation.

Well if the speed is back on that makes sense, I found this very hard to believe, espeically b/c it was from some ticket rep on the team. As for its accuracy, its never been accurate, its always off in one way or the other. Still, its nice for a new age park to have new age features, including pitch speed, I would like to see pitch type too, I think they have it in Philly, SD, Cle, etc.

Some of us having been talking about how they no longer display the pitch speed in the park. The board that used to display pitch speed out in RF now displays the Pitch Count. Which seems strange since pitch count is already displayed on two boards, on both UD corner boards, so a third seems out of place. I asked a friend of mine who works for the sox in their ticket and group sales dept and he told me he heard from someone else that Don Cooper requested they no longer display pitch speed in the ballpark. Assumable b/c he doesn't want his guys worried about their velocity and checking it constantly. Now keep in mind this is just a rumor, but if its true I find this extremely lame. The pitch speed is there for the fans, not the players, nobody really knows how accurate it is anyway. If the sox pitchers are so concerned with checking their velocity then grow up. Either way this is very strange, these are professional ballplayers, I find it hard to imagine the sox pitchers constantly check the pitch speed board and thus allow their play to be affected by it. I find it very hard to believe that of all the 29 or so stadiums with a pitch speed its only a problem for the sox pitchers, all the other pitching staffs seem to have no problem with something that has been part of parks for years now. Any thoughts on this rumor?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 11, 2008 -> 05:07 PM) Sure, they wanted to break them up. But when a team is batting barely .200 against lefties, throw all you got out there! You can always change the order up again in a week or two with the days off or rained out games yet to come. Meanwhile the A's are facing Sabathia right now and teeing off. They have 9 runs and 12 hits against him after 3.1 innings, WOW.

What the hell didn't the sox say how they wanted to break up Buerhle and Danks in the rotation becuase they have similar pitch styles. I agreed with that principle dont give them the same guy back to back, weird now they flopped on that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 9, 2008 -> 07:47 AM) What do they need to acknowledge? The Sox have the 5th highest payroll in major league baseball. It has gone up very close to 50% since 2005. For the one Chicago franchise that puts all of its profits back on to the field, that means they need to get the money from somewhere... Yes winning has its price. For all of the people who were pissed when we had a middle of the pack payroll, this is the price you pay the piper. We could go back to having cheap concessions, cheap parking, and a half empty stadium, but that would also require the team to go back to a $75 million payroll. There is cost for everything. You want to run with the big dogs, it will cost you. All i was saying is that there seems to be a very outspoken and understood link between ticket sales/ticket prices and payroll, which everyone seems to understand. I just haven't encountered the same hardcore link between concessions and parking to payroll as I have to ticket sales/prices. Economics tells us its there, but its just not as established among the media, fans, organizational releases, etc. And BTW I would much rather have $20 Parking and $6.50 beers with a $115 Mil payroll than $12 parking $4.75 Beer and a $70 Mil payroll, hand down.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 09:55 PM) Well, I don't necessarily agree either, but it's nice to at least have someone giving us a little credit. The fact that the national media, as well as most fans, are judging us as a 72-win team is really foolish. Southsidesox.com has a piece on Crede. He seems healthy which is great, especially for his defense, but his batting is inflated. I think it said he has something like 8 infield pop outs in 7 games, and something like 4 or 5 of his hits were either infield singles (very rare for crede) or duck snorts, and his line drive rate is way down. If that continues there is no way he keep up this pace, regression will take place.

QUOTE (max power @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 04:39 PM) Do the sox make money off the beer or does the stadium owner, whoever that is? I believe everyone does, everyone gets a cut. The team, the concessions contractor, the stadium owner, etc.

QUOTE (tonyho7476 @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 03:10 PM) Its mind-boggling how fast the price is going up. Seriously it is, inflation is like what 2-3% on average. Yet the price of a beer has gone up 75-80% in the last 3 seasons. Sounds more like greed than simple economics, though we have seen much higher payrolls. Yet, no one from the team has acknowledged any sort of link between the price of concessions and parking to the amount of payroll the team can absorb.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 03:12 PM) Heard back from my ticket rep. As he understands it, the pitch speed being replaced by the pitch count is not permanent, and the speed indicator should return soon. Thank You Sir.

QUOTE (tonyho7476 @ Apr 8, 2008 -> 01:07 PM) Anyone know when the statue outside will be unveiled? Supposed to be Friday Night.

Anyone know an email address we can ask someone in stadium or baseball operations of the sox we can ask about the pitch speed. I would be really disappointed if they all of a sudden decided to get rid of the pitch speed in the park. I dont think Boyer is the guy to ask, I believe the VP of Stadium Operations is Tim Buzzard, but most likely its someone else in the dept who would need to be contacted. I guess some ppl here can also ask their ticket reps to ask on their behalf.

QUOTE (DaveBrown85 @ Apr 7, 2008 -> 10:04 PM) man you are lucky i am glad i didnt drink to much. But seriously my girlfriend went to the bathroom and got out before i did. now thats just not right

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Apr 7, 2008 -> 07:52 PM) Anyone is better than when Tom Shaer replaces Gene Honda. I didn't have one but they have a couple of new hot dogs as well. A footlong hot dog for like $8 and a Comiskey dog (basically a chicago style hot dog) for $5. That new Legacy Brick area is pretty nice and the TV's will be cool, but they didn't have the ones in the Upper Deck by the concession stands on for some reason. Dumb. I also saw people with loaded fries, fries with chilie and cheese served inside some foil wrapping. I also saw ppl eatin the comiskey dog, it looked like a Chicago Style dog with it was loaded with something red and chunky, could have been salsa, not exactly sure.

QUOTE (Soxpranos @ Apr 7, 2008 -> 07:45 PM) Food prices are up and in the fundamentals part, they still have Pods running the speed drill. Get rid of him and put up Quentin or Swisher, also the club seats have changed their menu dramatically. No Gene Honda ? Gene Honda is doin the Final 4, he will be back.

Today at opening day I noticed some new stuff for the 2008 season. First of all the new Legacy Brick area is awesome. Its not just bricks, there are new statues, bricks, landscaping, lighting, flower boxes, ornamental brick and ironwork, etc. It really looks great and well done. Also I noticed they implemented a host of new LCD TV's around the ballpark, little ones at the food concessions and larger ones hanging from the Beer Stands in the outfield. They have some new big billboard adds in the outfield, not a big deal but actually looks good. I also noticed some sort of Marble like memorial built into the side of the Gate 5 complex (the ticket office part) on the side closest to Shields Ave. I didn't get a good look and Im not sure what it is. The sox intro video had some nice additions; Buerhle's no hitter, Thome's 500th Homer, and Bobby's Consecutive Innings Streak. On the not so good side I noticed the prices for Beer and Food were up, shocker, at least Hot Dogs and Polish's. Im sure the price of parking is up, that seems to be a favorite thing of the sox to do. And I noticed there was no Pitch Speed being displayed at all, in the normal location where it usually is was just pitch count. Which is strange cuz then thats 3 separate displays for pitch count, doesn't make sense. I hope it was only a fluke and the pitch speed will be back, its basically a mainstay of the modern ballpark. In fact a lot of other stadiums display not only the speed, but the pitch type, that would be nice. Anyone else have any stadium observations to add.

I see Buerhle is back to his 86 MPH fastball that apparently plagued his 2006. He seems to be doing fine now, Im only worried about what happens later in the game the 2nd and 3rd times through the order when they sit waiting for an 86 MPH fastball.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Apr 2, 2008 -> 06:34 PM) after konerko walked and dye got ahead in the count....its nice to see AJ and alexei going after the first pitch and grounding out Thats why I said earlier Swisher is wasted leading off, b/c he provides what Ozzie is looking for in that 6th spot. When the sluggers at 3,4,5 get on base its obvious Ozzie is looking for someone that is patient, not a liability with speed, and can hit. Thats exactly what Swisher provides, and thats why Ozzie juggled AJ and Alexi in the 6 hole today and yesterday. Alexi hitting 6th to breakup the lumberjacks and slow pokes on the basepaths, and AJ hitting 6th today cuz he can hit, unlike Alexi, but AJ is slow and doesn't work counts so thats where Swisher comes in. I understand though we dont have a leadoff hitter with Owens hurt, but when owens starts Swisher should be batting 6th hands down.

Somebody want to let the sox know they are on pace for the OVER in GIDP, sheesh. Two fly balls there would have scored a run.