fathom

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:15 PM) Hall vs lefties last year: .192. Last three years: .238. Again, like Mack, not the comparison to make. Against LHP, if Thome sits, Hall or Perez were the best bench options available for 1B. And Perez was not yet on the 25 (though he may be now). Hall hit .292 vs LHP last year, and is a .274 career hitter vs LHP. QUOTE(HeGone33 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:16 PM) Chris Widger was the backup when the Sox won the World Series. Enough Said. Chris Widger was actually a damn good hitter for the first half of the season.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:14 PM) what is Aj's career batting average against lefties? 0 for Santana/C.C. In all seriousness, you could tell during the 2nd half last year how much he started to tire. A back-up catcher is very important, especially in our division when you have a lefty starter and all the tough LHP.

Look, I'm not ready to crucify Ozzie for what happened. It was a freak injury. I'm more annoyed with the fact that Hall was put at 1B when there was no reason for him to still be playing. The fact that he was an above average back-up, and now will be replaced by a mediocre back-up, hurts this team a lot. Of course, we still have injury prone starters hitting in the 8th and 9th inning of Spring Training games busting their ass down the line. Hopefully the vibe gets better once the season starts.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:07 PM) Unless, as was discussed earlier, Perez doesn't make the team (he still hasn't played since he got hurt, I believe). And Mack can't really hit lefties well. Therefore, he makes sense as an occasional start over there against LHP, if he can defend the position (which I honestly don't know if he can or not). Perez played the last two days.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:06 PM) LMAO! Who knew first base was such an incredibly tough postion to play? Seriously, this is all killing me. First we hear about incredibly important Toby Hall is going to be to hitting all of the tough lefties we are going to face. Then when we try to figure out another way to get him into the line up, its the dumbest thing ever, even though we are putting him at the easiest fielding position know to mankind. It was a freak accident. Nothing more, nothing less. Yep, I can't wait to see Sandy or Wiki face C.C., Johan, and company. Also, first base is not the easiest fielding position. That would be left field....but that's something that doesn't need to be debated right now. I wish someone Tivo'd the game yesterday so they can see how awkward Hall looked at 1B on that first play.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:05 PM) I'm not an Ozzie guy, but I'm not going to blame him for Hall's injury. Guys actually play first to avoid injury. It was a fluke. At least it happened to the back-up catcher. Personally, I don't think Hall was going to make the huge difference against guys like Sabbathia and Santana. Everyone seems to struggle against them. It is a blow, but not as huge as it would have been if it were a regular or Contreras. Who do you want to see as our back-up now? Hopefully they find a way that he can rehab this and only miss a few months.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:03 PM) Now you're just picking. You know darn well that catcher is a position more apt to injuries of various kinds than 1B, and that was my point. And catchers have to move around all over the place in all sorts of awkward ways. Do they dive for ground balls? Obviously not. They do all sorts of other risky things, though. Playing a guy at 1B to see if he can play there, in ST, is not like putting him in traffic. with his hands and feet tied up. I'm not picking at anything. When you have to do something you're not familiar with, you're just increasing your chance at injury. It's similar to how pitchers can never slide when they're forced to run the bases. I was an infielder all my life, but when you go out to take flyballs in the outfield, the style of diving is completely different. When a catcher lunges after a ball, they're not exposing their shoulder to the ground, etc.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 07:00 PM) I'm not going to entirely blame Guillen here. I didn't hear anyone questioning Toby Hall at 1B during the inning. What's important is, how much experience has Hall had at 1B? Not just major league AB's, but in general; from the minor leagues through spring training. It he knows how to field the position, Guillen can't be blamed. If he had no idea how to field the position, or the proper technique, and was just going out for extra ABs -- it won't look good for Ozzie. With Dye two years ago at SS, it proves to me he is willing to mix and match. Perhaps without much concern to how they field it. When I was watching him on the first batter Russell faced, I was worried that he pulled something on the awkward stretch that he took. However, I didn't put that in the thread, so I can't quote it.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:58 PM) No, a freak injury (how often does a 1B tear something diving?) lost us an integral part of the team. And he's had more than 2 AB's as a 1B this spring so far, so it seems Ozzie was considering him as a backup plan there. Finding out if he could be useful there is the sort of thing you are supposed to do in ST. I'm as pissed as anyone else he is hurt, but blaming Ozzie just doesn't make any sense. How often does a catcher have to dive for a ball? Thus, is it safe to say that maybe Hall isn't used to having to dive?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:57 PM) And to answer your question, because it makes for piss poor discussion when every single problem with an organziation is blamed pretty much on one person. I've seen KW get more heat over the last few months than he has in the 3 years prior. If every single issue is now either "Ozzie can do no wrong" vs "Ozzie can do nothing right", then why not just have two different forums on this board?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:53 PM) I can actually tell you from experience that's not always the case. They didn't see mine until they did an chemically-enhanced MRI. The X-Rays didn't show it. Is this diagnosis from the MRI or no? Anyone know? That's what I'm saying....the diagnosis was from the MRI.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:51 PM) That's f***ing great. Now we lose one of the upgrades we got this offseason, AND we get to listen to people blame Ozzie to make themselves feel better. How dare he play Hall at a position less risky than catcher to get some time on the field. That bastard. Give me a break. He's not a first baseman, plain and simple. He has two freaking career at-bats in the majors at the position. He had no clue what he was doing there, as you could tell on the first play when he stretched the wrong way on a routine play. I'm not blaming Ozzie to make myself feel better....I'm blaming Ozzie because an idiotic decision lost us an integral part to this team.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:48 PM) Hopefully this will be like the Buerhle incident 2 years ago with them getting a second opinion. I'm not sure we will be that lucky this time though. From my experience with the labrum, if the diagnosis is made that it's torn, it's pretty obvious to see the tear.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 06:47 PM) Yeah, I'm sure another team will just gladly give away a quality backup catcher. No trades. I'd rather have Wiki Gonzalez than Alomar or Widger. And I'd certaintly rather have Gonzalez than overpaying for someone else. This will probably cost us a few victories. I'm moving my predicted amount of wins from 85 to 82 now. Hall was going to be absolutely vital for our team against the lefthanders within the division. It can't be overstated how devastating this will be. It should have been Podsednik playing first base........ Careful, I can guarantee that at least 3 people will try to defend the situation.

The downgrade from Toby to whoever is our new back-up catcher is bigger than from AJP to Toby. Nothing like facing the best LHP in baseball with a .200 hitter.

Huge blow to the Sox there. The vibe seems to be just horrendous now. Well done Ozzie, well done.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) You asked for an example and that's what you got, it was almost the exact same play as Hall too (different injury) but it goes to show that it's not all that hard to get injured at even the easiest defensive positions. Carlos Delgado was also injured while playing the position but I guess he's just injury prone as well. Cliff Floyd almost had to retire after a freak injury at 1B, and don't forget about D. Lee's injury last year. With everything included, 1B might be the most dangerous position in terms of injury out of the 4 infield positions.

QUOTE(Friend of Nordhagen @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:12 AM) But we have a lot of AA pitchers locked up for 2009. And Floyd's arm angle has never looked better! The thing about all the young guys we traded for is that only Danks has a legitimate chance to be anything more than a 4th starter in his career.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:50 AM) Why aren't you saying that Ozzie's right or wrong? You want to say he's wrong. I think it was stupid to play an integral member of the team at a position he's not familiar with. Hell, I got nervous when he had a very awkward stretch in the 6th inning on the first play he was over at 1B. However, it's pointless in getting into this argument with certain people here, because they'll defend Ozzie no matter what.

I'm not saying if Ozzie was right or wrong, but Hall has 2 career MLB at-bats at first base.

83 wins, tied for 3rd place

Hansbrough won't go pro. Wright and Lawson are as good as gone.

I can't imagine that KW is satisfied with the bullpen the way it is right now. I'm still trying to find out how we managed to not upgrade at either offense, defense, starting or relief pitching this offseason.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Mar 25, 2007 -> 11:28 PM) Congrats guys, you got your wish, refs gave GTown another game. We've all been there when we're pissed off after the game. It sucks palehose, I know.

Missed 17 out of last 18.....that's amazing.