Kalapse

Over his last 38 Games and 148 AB dating back to September 1st of last year AJ is hitting .196/.241/.216/.457 w/ 0 HR and 3 2B. (.020 ISO) Things change when you hit your mid 30's (this is AJ's age 33 season), horrible slumps are significantly more worrisome. There's what 4 games left in this month? Well, so far this is FAR AND AWAY the worst month of AJ's career. He's currently hitting .140/.197/.158/.355 (0 HR, 1 2B will account for that .018 ISO). He's only posted a sub .600 OPS in a month 6 times since becoming a full time starter in 2001 and he's never had a sub .500 let alone sub .400 OPS for a month of work. His previous worsts: May, 2001: .226/.238/.274/.512 Apr, 2004: .236/.267/.250/.517 Jul, 2002: .225/.257/.268/.524 Sep, 2004: .186/.255/.256/.511 Sep, 2008: .224/.258/.306/.564 Sep, 2009: .231/.268/.253/.521 So yeah, that .140/.197/.158/.355 takes on a whole new level of bad looking at those previous career lows.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2010 -> 01:49 PM) Supposedly the exact same deal that Floyd signed was offered to Danks as well. I think it's ridiculous to read anything into Danks' rejection of that offer. Floyd signed for 4 years, $15.5M on 2/24/09 and by March 15th Jon Lester (a close comparable to Danks) got 5 years, $30M. After Lester was inked the Sox's offer to Danks looked like a low ball offer. Coming off that '08 season Danks was 2 years younger than Gavin (I suppose he still is), left handed and put up better numbers, there was really no reason for him to take the exact same contract as he was worth a good deal more than that, as Lester proved 3 weeks later. A 23 year old player rejecting an offer worth far less than his closest peer going into year 3 of his major league career doesn't scream "I'm looking to test free agency" to me. It looks like a rational decision and a decent gamble on Danks' part. 13 months later and he's probably looking at at least 270% more guaranteed money.

And the precedent has been set. Fielder, Gonzalez and especially Pujols are all salivating right now, that's an ungodly amount of money. I don't even know how much Pujols is going to get at this point, the all time record will most definitely be threatened, though. 10 years, $275M would have to be the starting point.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 08:00 PM) Speaking of crocks of s***, I am shocked, that you, of all people, would put any support in the ridiculous concept that is the closer in MLB. I don't like it but much like the "leadoff hitter" I have to learn to accept it as a part of the game that will not be going away any time soon. And since the people who run and play the game of baseball are so set in their ways Bobby Jenks is going to be in the game just about every time we have a 9th inning lead this season so like it or not the manager needs to show faith in the fat man and not embarrass the hell out of him on 19 games into the season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 05:08 PM) You have to have some faith in your closer. If you take him out right there, it hurts his psyche and hurts the club's psyche and even if you win, it may be detrimental to the team overall. Putting Thornton in right there would have been micro-managing, and it's something Manuel would have done. No matter the statistics you can throw out about a situation like that, these athletes are still human and their confidence within their abilities will fluctuate depending on what you do. If it's a computer simulation, I bring Thornton in to get that final out, but it's not and leaving Jenks in to win it or lose it was the right move. I agree with you 100%. Watching the game it didn't even dawn on me to get Thornton in there vs Griffey, you just don't pull that s*** especially in April, it just wreaks of desperation and humiliates your closer. If Jenks had just thrown 3 fastballs down the middle of the plate between Griffey's belt and belly button Grif didn't have a chance in hell, it's not like he had to retire Chase Utley, Griffey shouldn't even be in the league right now. Of course I also think game to game momentum is a tremendous crock of s***.

The Sox would be rather lucky to lock him up to a deal that looks like this: '11: $6M '12: $9M '13: $12M (first year of free agency) '14: $14M (second year of free agency) That's 4 years, $41M guaranteed with no option. Allowing him to hit free agency at age 30. I think you have to guarantee 4 years, they'd be incredibly lucky to include a 5th year team option. You have to pay a premium when the player is only 2 years shy of free agency.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 23, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) Why might those guys be starting too often? It couldn't be because Beckham and Rios haven't been hitting any better than Vizquel and Kotsay, could it? Well that's not even remotely true unless you're basing this off 1 game.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Apr 23, 2010 -> 08:09 AM) -New league with more real hitters -Stadium where mistakes are badly exposed -He was never as good as many here thought Except he's allowed 1 HR in 29.1 IP at the Cell with the Sox.

I know Camden is a beautiful ballpark and the Rogers Centre is pretty meh but the 2 parks were opened only 3 years apart.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 07:14 PM) How did he end his outing against them just prior to the perfect game? He gave up a single.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 06:55 PM) One and a half pages back... terrible. You're not even in the f***ing chat. Sure you bump the thread but that means nothing when you don't show.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 06:38 PM) A Cubs fan told me that Zambrano's worst inning is usually the first inning he pitches. Nice. Last year Zambrano held hitters to a .152/.288/.250/.538 line w/ 0 HR in the first inning of games. Far and away his best inning. For his career his first inning line is .207/.313/.319/.633, once again his best inning. Typically the first is a starter's strongest inning. This also means next to nothing when you try to make correlate the numbers to success as a reliever as the first is generally the inning with the least pressure.

Pierre LF Beckham 2B Quentin RF Konerko 1B Pierzynski C Jones DH Rios CF Teahen 3B Ramirez SS

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 04:13 PM) How do you compare this to what the Phillies did, moving Brett Myers to their closer's spot a couple years ago before dealing for Lidge? That was dumb as hell too. They took a 3.5 win starter and turned him into a 1.3 win reliever and he was never the same after that season. Lucky for them they had a 900 run offense and managed to out slugged their opposition to a slim division championship despite their awful starting pitching. Then they got their asses swept in the first round including a game in which their game 2 starter - Kyle kendrick - lasted less than 4 innings in a 10-5 loss.

Honestly, this is one of the dumbest f***ing moves I have ever seen in my life. My god, I can't believe a major league team would actually do something like this.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 03:51 PM) Is he now the highest paid relief pitcher in baseball? Edit: $18.875 for Zambrano, $15 million for Rivera. I have no other guesses of who to check. By average annual value: 1 Mariano Rivera, $15,000,000 2 Brad Lidge, $12,500,000 3 Francisco Rodriguez, $12,333,333 4 Joe Nathan, $11,750,000 5 Francisco Cordero, $11,500,000

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) Agreed but who is that guy? I dont think a few weeks of Rios hitting the ball well means you can rely on him for numbers like that all season long and Beckham is struggling almost as much as Pierre is right now. At least Pierre can steal bases and score runs from first in that role. Like I said; I'd move Pierre to the 9th spot and everyone else up a slot which is hardly conventional but it would drastically reduce Pierre's PA while still allowing him to hit in front of Beckham, Quentin and Konerko. It's not a quick fix but those hardly ever work in baseball anyway, by season's end I expect Beckham and Quentin to be the team's 2 best hitters so having them at the top makes sense. It's the same exact lineup in every inning but the first, as long as the manager doesn't place extra pressure on your top 2 hitters to play like top of the order stereotypes you should be fine. Then again what the hell do I know?

Well he's today's lineup: pierre LF beckham 2B quentin RF konerko 1B pierzynski C jones DH rios CF teahen 3B ramirez SS Looks like this is what we'll be seeing on a regular basis against right handed pitching. Kotsay's been demoted.

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 01:34 PM) I still think Juan will turn it around. Is he great? No. But I think he ends the season with an average around .280-.290. Hope im right. There's very little doubt in my mind that he'll finish around .283/.328/.352/.680 even with his slow start. Thing is I'd rather the guy with the .330 OBP and .070 ISO get .610 PA rather than 750.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 12:50 PM) Pierre is definitely a #9 hitter and would be better off there. However, I don't see a clear better option, even in the short-term. I don't want Beckham or Rios to have to re-adjust their approach to hit leadoff, and then lose a ton of RBI opportunities as well. AJ and Alexei are both hitting like crap now, so they're not viable short-term options. It might make sense to flip-flop Pierre and Teahen while Pierre works out of his slump. But, again, that's only a temporary solution. At this point, I'd just let Pierre work his way out of his slump. If he eventually puts up his career OBP, he'll be a below-average-but-semi-viable leadoff hitter. How does Beckham lose a ton of RBI opportunities if he's moved up 1 spot in the lineup (Rios on the other hand might lose a few)? It's the same guys hitting in front of him, the only difference is he'll have no one on in front of him in the first inning as opposed to the 20% he's gotten thus far this year. Last year our top 2 #2 hitters (Alexei and Gordon) knocked in someone other than themselves only 4 times in the first inning. No one would have to change their game if moved to the top of the lineup, this is the American League, just go up there and do what you do best, whatever that may be and enjoy the increase in plate appearances.

QUOTE (HeGone33 @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 12:34 PM) Yet, here you are reading the Ozzie Twitter thread..... Actually I was just sharing with everyone that the prophecy had been fulfilled. QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 27, 2010 -> 08:45 PM) I predict that by April 20th I will no longer be following Ozzie due to his 10 daily mundane tweets clogging up my time-line.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Apr 21, 2010 -> 12:32 PM) I guess that would be a decent choice as well. Pierre does have good contact and he hits the ball on the ground a lot. He hit it on the ground every time last night to either the 3B, SS and 2B. Maybe some hit and run possibilities. I just hate the Ozzie slap hitters. Pierre couldn't hit it into the gap if he were on steroids. How do you know this isn't Pierre on steroids? Perhaps he has the strength of an 8 year old boy without them.

I officially un-followed Ozzie yesterday as I do not speak Spanish and the bulls*** that he does tweet in English is in no way interesting.

Personally, I'm moving Pierre to #9 and bumping everyone up a slot but then again I'm starving for an AL team to go with a non traditional lineup. In my mind this makes a ton of sense since Pierre would still be hitting immediately in front of Beckham and Quentin but he'd get a PA less per game and increase the odds that one of our better hitters in the middle of the lineup get to the plate in the 8th or 9th inning.

Luke Appling