joeynach

I thought I would take this time to tell you guys some information that’s going to be important in getting to sox games come April. I work as a Civil Engineer for a leading Transportation Engineering firm here in Chicago. We provide consulting services for design and construction of various transportation projects, one of which we have (along with many other consultants) is the Dan Ryan construction. I personally do not work on this project, but I was doing some field work with the crew the past couple days and came across some useful information. First of all the Ryan is going back to bigtime reduction starting March 1st. All the local lanes will be closed from 29th to the Skyway in order to finish the construction to the retaining walls, local access ramps, and reconfigure the lanes to match the new future lanes and alignment to the south section from 67th to 95th. The schedule for this is from March 1st to I believe November or December. It’s basically going to be the same thing as before when the Ryan was Reduced to reconstruct the Express Lanes (April 2006 to November 2006). That portion I was told actually finished 6 weeks ahead of schedule as it wasn’t slated to finish until December 31st 2006. Since it finished earlier it moved the schedule to reconstruct and finish the local lanes and south section of the Ryan, which was also originally scheduled to begin April 2007, now is moved up to March 2007. The entire south section is going to be gutted and reconstructed and a 5th lane added to 95th street, but I don’t know the timeframe for that. My job was to take a look at the Alternate Routes set up and check the signals. The Ashland Avenue route has been configured to give progressive green signals as you drive the entire stretch from 95th St to Congress, same with the Stoney Island route. It seems to work OK, took me about 35 min to drive the section on average. Furthermore, there are some problems with the 33rd St bridge construction. It was supposed to be ready by April 1st and ready to connect to the Red Line stop there was well. I know the sox route cars off the Ryan into the lots via crossing over on 33rd St, but it won’t be ready by opening day. The problem was the severe cold weather over the past month or so. It seems when they were laying down the steel beams that span the bridge, that support the road deck, the connector plates holes for bolting them together shrunk. I was told extreme cold such as the -30 wind chills we had, which they don’t work in anyway, can shrink the diameter of the holes in the connector plates that secure the span beams from each side. So new parts had to be ordered to let the beams, already in place, make a secure connection to the plates. That process put the project behind schedule by at least 3 weeks. So they you have it sox fans. If I hear anything else Ill let you all know.

QUOTE(Rooftop Shots @ Feb 21, 2007 -> 08:37 PM) It may a dumb question, but under salaries, what does AUTO stand for? The minimum? It should say League Minimum or something like that because the player earns something close to the league minimum still depending on service time. Like Miguel Cabrera last year made around 475K, I think league minimum last year was 350 or 360K. So for the first 3 years the player is paid a small increment to the league minimum, which tends to increase 10 to 20K every year anyway.

Pods and Erstad would only work against RHP. Where both hit .280-.300 in that area. Against LHP it would be awful since both Pods and Erstad are garbage against lefties. We'll see what happens but Im ok with playing guys where they historically succeed and not playing them where they historically fail.

This is my version of the AL Central preview. Yahoo, SI, and such kind of do their own, but I wanted to make a splash in what has become a hobby of mine in writing about baseball and the sox for my sox nation friends and family. Anyway, here it is, take it for what its worth and please any comments you have would be appreciated. Thanks guys!

QUOTE(Phil McKrevice @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 12:16 AM) Sorry, I usually don't correct people, but this couldn't be more wrong. WCIU is owned by Weigel Broadcasting, which is in no away affiliated with the Tribune company. The reason that WCIU looked so bad last year is that they were replacing their analog broadcast plant with a brand new digital one. They were using an older backup facility for much of the year, and then had bugs to work out once they got the new equipment in. Since the transition to the new plant, everything looks much better, both on analog and on digital. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you watch 26 this year. The national dish companies (DirectTV and Dish) have local receiving stations that they use to beam all local programming up to their satellites. Comcast has either fiber feeds directly from the stations or receives them over the air, but there is only one signal being distributed across Comcast lines. If you're getting poor reception compared with another area, it's either a problem with your house or neighborhood wiring. WCIU is not a sister station by ownership. What I meant was that WCIU doesn't have its own broadcast producation of sox games. It just re-brands WGN productions with WCIU logo and what not on their station. This is from wikipedia, "WCIU also carries selected telecasts of the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, and Bulls, produced by WGN-TV." You also kind of proved my point about comcast customer in different areas getting different signal qualities. If comcast was receiving the WCIU feed from over the air then the signal theoretically could be of a different quality depending on where your comcast recieving station is, thus different WCIU qualities on comcast cable in different parts of chicago. However, if comcast was getting the WCIU feed from a direct fiberoptic line from the source then yeah it would have no bearing on the location of the comcast recieving station. But knowing our problems with WCIU being a subpar broadcaster of sox games I would assume they probably dont supply fiber feeds, could be wrong though its just a guess.

1. Head 2 Head 2. Very Experience 3. Competitive 4. Would be commissioner

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Feb 15, 2007 -> 08:40 AM) Sounds good, I know last year I remember just some ridiculously awful bunt attempts from the team, if memory serves me right, Uribe was AB for many of those From the offensive side I remember a lot of failures. Yeah we couldn't bunt at all and got thrown out a heck of a lot of the base paths and at the plate. We couldn't hit lefty pitching at all weather it was Santana, Sabathia, or Mark Redman. We had Pods, Iguchi, Thome at 1 2 3 in the lineup most of the year whose combined BA against lefties was .235, sorry but thats just unacceptable and not going to get the job done against some of the toughest in division pitchers. We had fewer sacrifices and were worse in 1 run games and extra innings, thanks the to the bullpen for that. Point is we had too many flaws just to say well if we practice small ball more everything will be fine. Small ball execution will help but its not the answer. We cant have a lucklaster 1 2 3 against LHP, we need a bullpen that can shut the door consistently, and we need an offense that can win late in games by getting on base and manufacturing runs.

Thome needs 28 homers to reach 500. I think its going to be a great thing to watch him join the 500 home run club. I really hope he does it at home so he can have the appropriate message on the board and curtain call and such. It still is such a great milestone especially for a guy that did it the right way like Thome. So when do you think it will happen. Thome hit 42 HR in 490 AB (doesn't include BB of course) last year thats 1 HR in every 11.67 AB's. I predicted Thome to hit 44 HR's in 510 AB's this year (I think he draws less BB), or 85 AB;s per month. Thats 1 Hr every 11.6 AB. That given said Ill say he needs 325 AB's to get his 500th homer. So that puts us at about 3.83 months (3 months, 24 days) into the season he gets his 500th homer. That game ladies and gentlemen would be sometime between July 23-29th on the 7 game homestand against both Detroit and Toronto, so get your tix now.

QUOTE(shoota @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 06:04 PM) Does anyone know the technical audio/visual reasons why WCIU broadcasts are of poorer quality than CSN and WGN? I might have some insight. I checked out the FCC for explanations on WCIU's transmitter and location and then compared that to Fox-32(WFLD). From I found WCIU's analog and digital transmitters are on the sears tower. The analog transmitter is rated at 5000 KW and the Digital at 160 KW. For WFLD they have a 5000KW analog and a 200KW digital. The interesting data is the polar field plot from each transmitter. This plot shows the relative strength of the signal in all directions on a compass rose and shows are far they will reach in any given direction. What I took from this is that for WCIU there directional signal is strangely oriented, at least compared to the others like FOX and NBC. For the analog transmitter WCIU the signal is very far reaching between 30 and 290 degrees on the compass and weak in the others. Thats NE to about WNW from the sears tower would be prime areas of strength, leaving the area NW and N of Chicago relatively in poor coverage. For the digital transmitter the strength is in the directions of SE and NW, with decent coverage to the SW and poor coverage to the N and NE. When compared to fox and nbc they seem to have their transmitters oriented for Chicago, meaning plenty of coverage to the south, north, and west, Little to E and NE, (the lake). Seems better.My interpretation is that If local cable companies pick up our local channels for their system over the air from the stations Transmitter on the Sears tower then we can explain why some areas are worse than others. Again I dont know how cable companies get their Local tv feed. But if thats the case then I could see why someone in Grayslake with Comcast vs me in Homewood with comcast would get two different clarities of WCIU. Which would be really stupid. Here are the links to the transmitter info from the FCC. To see the compass rose plots click on the "Relative Field Polar Plot" links for the digital and analog. http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WCIU-TV http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WFLD

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 12, 2007 -> 01:22 PM) The best possible option for the leadoff spot next year only regarding current personel would be Mackowiak starting in LF and leading off against righties and Iguchi taking over in the #1 spot against lefties with Erstad starting in LF. I'm done seeing Ozuna play LF, there's no use for it this team has enough outfielders so that we never have to see him butcher another flyball out there again. Whenever Pablo does get in the lineup while giving someone in the infield a day off, I'd like to see him takeover the leadoff spot on those days. I don't want to see either of Sweeney or Fields to start the season and Sweeney not at all until '08. Jerry Owens will never be anything more than a 4th OF for a bad team. You say you want Iguchi leading off against lefties. I dont think thats a good idea. Take a look at these stats. Year/BA/BA-RHP/BA-LHP/OBP-RHP/OBP-LHP 05/.278/.279/.274/.337/.353 06/.281/.298/.252/.363/.335 For some reason which I cant really explain Iguchi was awful against lefties last year. With pods, iguchi, thome being 1,2,3 in the lineup last year when we faced a lefty no wonder we struggled. If he returns to show better splits in 07 great but if hes like how he was last year he cant lead off against LHP, heck he shouldn't even be hitting 2nd with those splits.

With Pods seemingly out for the start of the season or at least not 100% I think we have protected ourself pretty well against a weak LF. Last year no doubt Pods was brutal both in defense and at the plate, and granted we all expect him to rebound and be better who knows what is really going to happen given the injury and all. So we have Ozuna, Fields, Sweeney, Erstad as possible fill ins or replacements. I think its crucial that whoever plays left, and probably leads off be able to hit lefties unlike pods. Lord knows there are plenty of good lefties in our division we see consistently. Lets take a look at some stats. Career Stats: (Avg, Against RHP, Against LHP, OBP) Ozuna: .292/.282/.301/.329 Erstad: .286/.293/.271/.341 Pods: .275/.282/.254/.342 Career AAA: (Avg, Against RHP, Against LHP, OBP) Fields: .306/.291/.341/.380 Sweeney: .297/.301/.287/.350 So there we have some decent insurance options against a year of non production out of pods, granted these guys aren't guarantees. The key is the correct balance of offense, defense, and match ups. IMO fields and ozuna should be the main guys looked at against lefties, especially tough lefties. However both those guys are defensively no where near Erstad. I would say at home in our small LF its not as big of a concern. But we might prefer to see Erstad in LF in bigger outfields like KC, Seattle, Detroit, etc even against a left hander. Im fine with any of these guys against RHP since they seem to fair all in the same boat, once again with the exception of defense. Overall I think we will be fine without Pods if need be. Although I would love to see Pods return to his 05 sox form, that would be absolutely huge for this lineup.

WCIU blows which is strange because all it is is a WGN broadcast on a sister station. WCIU is WGN's sister station to carry local broadcasting when the company is showing Superstation feeds, meaning national broadcasts. So here in Chicago WGN is the superstation feed and WCIU gets the local feed, the baseball games. So its strange how bad WCIU is. And the other joke is that there is no WCIU-HD for Comcast cable subscribers what is that all about. I have been complaining about that for a while. How is that WCIU, only available in Chicago, isn't avaible on the largest Chicago cable HD lineup. Thats so dumb.....and I remember watching WCIU HD on Directv last year at bar and the official sponger of WCIU-HD was freaking COMCAST. The whole thing just doesnt make any sense.

Well they raised beer I think last year $.50. Ticket prices go up stuff happens although I kind of believe $3 is a little steep, at least compared to the rate of inflation at like 2% (which would mean a $.7 addition to a $35 seat). Point is they will raise it that much because they can, case and point. The lower deck seats are a way higher demand at this ballpark mainly becuase thats where all the attractions are (speed pitch, fan deck, ease of access to bullpen bar, gift shops, specialty food stands, ticketing area, outfield shower, etc)

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2007 -> 10:57 AM) We talked to Stewart, but his price was too high and we went with Erstad. The Stewart stuff is dead. I wonder what his asking price was. I know hes got real trouble staying healthy. I would have said 1 year deal with an option that becomes guranteed would have done it based on certain perfermence criteria. Say something like 1 year 2.5-3 Mil with incentives that could bring it to like 5 mil and then have an option for 08 at like 6 mil or so based on Ab's or something. Wonder what he demanded if it was 2 years guranteed anything over 12-13 Mil forget about it he wouldn't have been worth it. It would have been nice to have a guy at the top of the order who can actually lit lefties though, unlike Pods, Iguchi, Thome......oh wait that was our 1,2,3 combo for awhile last year no wonder we struggled.

Why doesn't anyone else, including the media peg the twins for like 86-76 and the tigers somewhere around the same 88-74. You know good but not outstanding. They have a good amount of talent but lets face it. The Tigers were just a .500 team last year for half the season. The twins too. That has to speak for something.

Bruce Levine is currently discussing. First of all he said the Erstad signing was sert long before they learned about Pods needing surgery. He this surgery is not related to various groin problems or groin strains Pods has had over the past couple years with the white sox. He said the surgery is on the other side groin where he incurred an injury 4 years ago in Milwaukee. Still didn't really label the surgery as anything specific. I would still like to find out is this a tear, a hernia, a strain, scar tissue, and other details like how long will he be out, whats the timetable, etc. I guess this make the Erstad signing look a little better. We couldn't just have Ozuna out there everyday in LF we needed a real OF with a real glove and at least Erstad brings that to the table for us.

It boggles my mind why they think limiting their broadcasts to Directv only subscribers which is only like 5 or 10 million out of 300 Mil in this country anyway is a good thing. Yes they will get a lump sum of cash but they are making it more difficult to view MLB games for tens of millions across the country, why would they want to do that. Why would they want to limit their exposure to so many fans. Any common sense will tell you this would hurt them in the long run.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:48 AM) The Sox have been looking and monitoring Darin Erstad this entire off-season. He wants to get playing time and he's obviously partial to the Angels but unless the Marlins blow away Erstad on an offer, I'd expect Erstad to be wearing a White Sox or Angel uniform. If money is the same, the only way I see Erstad taking the Sox job is if the Angels are offering him pretty much no playing time (and I kind of think that may be the case). I think its 50/50 to 70/30 that Erstad joins the Sox. How does he help our ballclub last year we said we had too many LH options and need RH options off the bench to play OF or other various backup positions. Erstad is LH.

QUOTE(Allsox @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:18 AM) Couldn't agree more. He's a better option in CF than Mack is and you hafta have a decent glove for first if Paulie gets hurt or needs a day off. And you figure Sweeney's going to be the starting LF or RF in '08 for either Pods or Dye so get him some playing time than rotting away on the bench in '07. Problem being our lineup already has enough trouble against left handed pitching and erstad falls right into that line. Pods, Iguchi, Thome, AJ, and even Crede all have considerable worse stats against lefties. Now throw Erstad in there and you just add to the problem, he has trouble hitting against lefties as well.

Hmm whats interesting is that yesterday someone very close to me had a business meeting with the white sox. It was mentioned that during their meeting they got to talking about the team, of course. The sox executive told the person close to me that "kenny is still looking for 1 more acquistion". When I was told about this I interpreted it as a signing, but I guess it could be a trade. And low and behold today there is a story that breaks about how the Sox (KW) are after Darin Erstad. If you put two and two together......ding ding ding!

Buehrle isn't worth anything near what Zito got, neither is Zito for that matter. I wouldn't give mark more than 4 years 48 mil, I think thats a perfect deal for both parties. Too bad shmucks like Gil Meche got 5 years 55 mil making it impossible. Id really like to see what MB's value is according to various statistical and market analysis like Bill James, Zips, or Petcoa. Id would gather 12 mil is about the max hes worth, but in this crazy ass market that could mean like 17-18 mil per year, which is sick. If mark wants anything more than 4 years and 12 mil per year I say fine let him go to the Mariners or Rangers or something for a a fabulous 6 years 80 mil or whatever. In relation to Dye I dont think at his age his prime for a Carlos Lee type deal. Dye should be valued somewhere between 9-12 Mil I would guess. At age 33 I dont see him getting more than 3 or 4 years so It shouldnt be that difficult to resign him. I would like to see him back, 3 years 33 mil would be good for both.

Here is the article from mlbtraderumors.com. It appears that Listin Diario, the oldest daily newspaper of the Dominican Republic, indicated earlier this week that White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe may not be out of the woods on attempted murder charges. The original article seems to have vanished, but a decent English translation can be found here. In late November it seemed like Uribe was going to be cleared of the shooting. However, the prosecution is promising new evidence that Uribe was involved. It certainly seems possible that the Sox will enter 2007 with Alex Cintron at shortstop. Hat tip to Southside Sox for the story. Here is a link to the translation of the domican story

The question you have to ask yourself is what do you expect from our rotation next year. Thats the answer to our 2007 season. If the guys like Buehrle, Contreras, and McCarthy have bad ERA's and can get outs like sometimes last year we are screwed. But I would expect them to put up more consisten #'s around their career averages, especially Buehrle in his walk year. Vazquez is tricky I think he can be dominant and he can also implode. It seems to me he got a little predictable and didnt mix it up enoguh last year and thats why he got hurt. When he figured it out, Aug to Sept, he was damn good. I dont think you will see vazquez struggle as badly as he did last year. You should expect the rotation not to be as good as 05, but not as awful as 06. That being said we won 90 games in 06. So factor in our top notch lineup and Id say we have a good chance to take the division with 90+ wins......granted we stay healthy of course.

We need this up on youtube pronto