Kalapse

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 30, 2009 -> 04:01 AM) First full 9 seasons, who's who? .334/.427/.628/1.055 366 HR 387 2B 811 BB 570 K 172 OPS+ .320/.439/.581/1.020 337 HR 350 2B 1144 BB 781 K 168 OPS+ It's easy enough to figure out, but considering Thomas was entering his post-prime seasons after the huge offensive explosion with only one huge year between 98-02, it's amazing the first 9 years he had and the career he had. I said it in the Thomas HoF thread, and I completely stand by the thought that he was the top right handed hitter of the 1990s, the second best offensive threat of the 1990s, and I'm sure I could come up with some type of argument as to why he was the best pure hitter of the 1990s too, but I'm drunk and tired. For more fun, consider Thomas's seasons before 1998... .330/.452/.600/1.053 257 HR 246 2B 879 BB 582 K 182 OPS+ Suck on that, Pujols! Only 3 right handed hitters put up a .320+ AVG and .950+ OPS in 3000+ PA between 1990 and 1999. Frank Thomas (.320/1.013), Mike Piazza (.328/.966, didn't play in '90 or '91) and Edgar Martinez (.322/.962). It's not much of a contest.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 30, 2009 -> 01:42 PM) IIRC, the Sox' bullpen FIP (fielding independent pitching) was 3.92. That was the 6th lowest in all of baseball. So that suggests with a little better team defense (we were arguably the worst defensive team in 2009) our overall bullpen ERA would've been considerably lower. The bullpen LOB% was 74.3. Good for 11th in all of baseball. Overall, I'd say the bullpen was slightly below average. Nothing like the disaster that was 2007. But I agree with you. I've had it with relievers and their volatility. People that are suggesting we go out and spend legitimate change to upgrade the bullpen are the same ones that are criticizing the team for overpaying for Linebrink/Dotel. I'm content going into 2010 with Bobby (assuming we don't trade him), Linebrink, Thornton, D.J., Pena and some combination of Hudson, Nunez, Link or Santeliz. If we can get a guy like Saito for cheap, I'm all for it. But whatever financial flexibility we have left should go into upgrading the OF/DH. This post is very much out of the ordinary for you. Your numbers are sound, their bullpen FIP was indeed 6th lowest in baseball but only 1 of the 5 teams ahead of them was an AL ballclub (Oakland), so the White Sox's bullpen had the 2nd lowest FIP in the AL this is due to their great K/BB (4th best in baseball) and middle of the pack HR/9. You're absolutely right, spending big money on bullpen arms is a losing proposition, rarely does a team shell out an 8 figure deal on a 30+ year old setup man and get anywhere near full return on their investment. Last season 7 years and $27.25M were shelled out to Damaso Marte, Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz, 3 of the 4 highest paid non-closer relief pitcher's in free agency. 2 years ago it was 13 years and $54M for Scott Linebrink, David Riske, Ron Mayhay, Luis Vizcaino and Masa Kobayashi. 3 years ago it was 19 years and $95.3M for the top 6 relievers: Miguel Batista, Danys Baez, Justin Speier, Jamie Walker, Scott Schoeneweis and Chad Bradford. You don't fix a bullpen through high priced free agent middle relievers.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 29, 2009 -> 10:32 AM) http://www.i-yankees.com/?p=11938 A couple of things: 1.) Could the Sox top offer better the Red Sox? Trading for Ramirez, signing Nick Johnson, resigning Pods. Lineup: 7 Pods 4 Beckham 6 Ramirez 3 Johnson 9 Quentin B Konerko 2 AJ 8 Rios 5 Teahan I estimate that Ramirez, Johnson, and Pods would add $16M to the payroll which could be partially offset by saving $7M and non-tendering Jenks. Payroll would be at ~$90M pending arbitration cases 2.) If the Red Sox do trade for Ramirez it would have to take them out of the running for Adrian Gonzalez based on the prospects they'd have to give up opening the door for a trade to the Sox. I really expect KW to find his #3 hitter for the next 5 years this offseason. Ramirez, Gonzalez, or Upton. No, no they can't. The Marlins aren't trading Hanley Ramirez and if they do it won't be to the Sox unless they're absolutely head over heals in love with Gordon Beckham and our top 5 to 7 so prospects.

Induction into the Hall of Fame isn't a right, it's a privilege and precedent has been set that if you're believed to have used steroid -- regardless of the lack of a positive test -- you're not going to be elected. It's not a court of law, it's a vote so public and personal opinion are the only things that really matter here and when you have as much smoke surrounding you as McGwire does there's got to be a fire and that's more than enough to keep him out. Add in the fact that he's not considered an all-time great and doesn't even have an MVP award on his resume he's not even going to come close.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Nov 27, 2009 -> 09:34 PM) The Sox had an above average lead off hitter just last season. Above average compared to what? The average line for an AL leadoff man in 2009 was .284/.355/.420/.775 and a 76% SB percentage.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 27, 2009 -> 07:52 PM) I don't see why McGwire should be penalized by the media if there is no proof of a positive test. When you're asked directly if you used and you refuse to give an answer you're not going to get a lot of sympathy.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 27, 2009 -> 09:06 PM) Roberto Alomar is a near lock IMO regardless if people did vote for him cuz he rocked a sox uni. His numbers compare favorably to some of the greatest 2B of all time (Joe Morgan), he was unbelievable at his peak and he's one of the greatest defensive 2B of all time. Yeah, he's a lock. 12 All Star games (9 starts) 10 Gold Glove awards 4 Silver Sluggers 5 finishes in the top 6 of MVP voting 1 World Series ring (hit. 480/.519/.640/1.159 during the series, if it weren't for Molitor he would have been the MVP) .313 career postseason hitter Over a 10 year span ('92-01) he put up a .315/.393/.482/.875 line and won 9 gold gloves, he had four .900+ OPS seasons in the time span

All I said was I'd take that TYPE of season from my leadoff guy every time, I didn't say anything about signing Scutaro.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 10:04 PM) Seriously, Swisher is exactly who he described. Average speed/.370 OBP ...and a horrible lead off hitter for the Sox after April of 2008. I was thinking more along the lines of what Marco Scutaro did last year, good contact (.282 AVG, 75 K), very good OBP, decent speed and not much in the way of power.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 02:09 PM) Well yeah. I mean that goes without saying. I can't support criminals. But Bonds is certainly no criminal. Not even close. Well technically he is. All the illegal drug use aside; perjury is a felony.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 01:59 PM) JJ PUTZ is a "gap" signing? REALLY? Are we now the NY YANKEES? It'll be interesting to see what kind of attention he gets, he's been hurt the past 2 years, terrible last year and bad in '08. He can't be considered a big time reliever at this point. 1.6+ WHIP the past 2 seasons combined with a BB/9 of 5.6. Though he's definitely not a scrapheap guy.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 02:00 PM) He's one of my idols. I've never cared about "character." Can you help my team win baseball games? That's all that matters to me. I really can't cheer for Brett Myers, anyone like him or any team he plays for. You really need to draw the line somewhere.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 01:58 PM) I don't either, but neither do I think they have a terrible reputation or where as guilty as other teams. I believe Bonds would change the reputation for the worst. Which unlike pre-caught Clemens, no teams where really beating down the door to add him for a stretch run. Then we shouldn't have signed Andruw Jones.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 26, 2009 -> 01:50 PM) With one signing the organization would go from one of the cleanest to one of the dirty ones. No thanks. I prefer Thomas' legacy of 'roid free to having the poster boy wearing a Sox uniform. Now, if Ricky thought Ricky could still lead off, let's bring Ricky out of retirement Our catcher of the future is a roider, god knows how many others on the current roster and more than a few have gone through our organization in recent years including a couple from the '05 team. I don't think the Sox are all that clean.

Alex Gonzalez signed with the Blue Jays; 1 year, $2.75M.

3 shorties in 25 minutes?

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:41 PM) I have just watched season one and two in basically week. Onto season three as we speak. Though it might be harder because I had my friends DVDs for season two. I'm doing the same thing with Mad Men right now. I've been pretty sick for the past 3 days so I decided to finally get around to watching the show. I've burned right through the first 2 seasons watching one right after the other. There being only 13 episodes a season makes this less impressive (sad?) I did the same thing with Lost last year and a few other shows in the past. TV shows in general are just so much better when you watch them all for the first time in a marathon fashion as opposed to 1 episode a week. I had been watching Dexter since the beginning but I stopped midway through the 3rd, I'm looking forward to catching up.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 09:24 PM) After April he hit below .200 the rest of the year. I really wonder why Texas didn't want him back. As long as he doesn't play too much, its fine, they can always release him if he struggles and JR won't have a heart attack. I just hope Quentin and either Pods or Crisp or whoever else they get to play in the OF can stay healthy. I really don't think Danks will be ready to play regularly in the big leagues in 2010. Aside from April and May he didn't hit for much of an average, that's never really been his thing, he's going to draw walks and hit homeruns significantly more so than Josh Fields. He was great in April, respectable in May, bad in June, great in July and then he strained his hamstring at the beginning of August and struggled in his 76 AB. He was streaky, that's kind of why he's a bench player.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 08:07 PM) How many 40 man spots do we have available still? 1 with a couple of duds on there that should probably be dropped.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 07:06 PM) Maybe you should check the numbers. The last 3 years he's 220 for 1062 a .207 AVG. with 46 homers and 286 strikeouts. Over the sam period, Fields was 149-644 with 30 homers and 218 strikeouts. Sorry he's not a huge upgrade. He's a slight upgrade, and that might be optimistic. I certainly wasn't complaining. .338 wOBA last year from Jones. Fields put up a .336 in '07 and a .287 last season. Chances are you're getting an upgrade here. Even if you could get Jones's .317 from '07 that's a substantial upgrade from Fields. I don't think Andruw Jones is anywhere near as bad as he was in 2008, all his peripherals were way off from his career norms, those corrected last year and he produced nicely.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 07:01 PM) i know,i was saying we need a leadoff hitter,that speed at the top Speed be damned. Give me a guy with average foot speed and a .370 OBP and I'm golden.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 06:47 PM) then why all the talk about having a "leadoff" guy? Because he bats in front of your best hitters, that's why OBP at the top is so damn important, you need to get guys on base for your RBI men. The word "leadoff" refers to leading the top of your order, not batting first in an inning. That's why the phrase "he leads the inning once a game" is irrelevant, he's not batting at the top to get your inning going, he's there to kickoff the best part of your lineup.

John McDonald re-signed with the Blue Jays; 2 years, $3M.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 05:53 PM) Sadly, with our current line up, he could be a late inning defensive sub. We only have 1 corner outfielder right now and our CF is an elite defender, little early for this kind of thinking. I'd also say the Vizquel signing improved our team defense quite a bit.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 05:48 PM) The difference in price between flowers and any other backup C should be miniscule. The league minimum is $400K and Henry Blanco made $750K last season.