Kalapse

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 01:41 PM) So, who's stepped up? By default...it's Wise. Who else could it be? Who out there is THAT much better? Obviously, both Swisher and Cabrera burned their White Sox bridges, so they are out. Pierre and GMJ, as I said, are expensive and don't have fantastic OBPs either. So, Kalapse...who? And can you tell me for sure that KW didn't kick the tires to see if they were available/teams could match up in a trade? I'm disappointed too, but Pods surprised all of us, and all of baseball, by having a good year. Who's to say Wise can't do the same for a year? He's never been a full-time anything...so don't give me his past numbers. ANYONE. I don't know who was available because I'm not a f***ing general manager, throwing names out there would be a pointless exercise since each can be shot down with a simple "how do you know he was available? How do you know he didn't try?" All I do know is that it's his job to find competent players to fill the major roles on this club and plugging Dewayne f***ing Wise into an incredibly important role like leadoff hitter/centerfield (THE #1 DEFENSIVE POSITION ON THE FIELD) is a complete and utter failure. How about this: Coco Crisp. Comparing Scott Podsednik to Dewayne Wise is a joke, you do realize he was one of the better speedsters in the NL in 2003, right? Wise is a 31 year old failure. I don't know for sure that he'd fail but I have a damn good feeling, there's a pretty good track record to follow. Hell, Williams could have thrust Lillibridge, Pablo Ozuna or a 50 year old Rickey Henderson into the role and you could use that line. "How do you know Rickey will fail? It wouldn't be the first time an old guy had a good season."

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:47 PM) Dislike: Jurko and Harry Like: Not listening to the show. Concise and quite accurate. Defalco is harmless and forgettable while the other two are just offensive. Also, Dan Hampton might be the dumbest man on the Chicago airwaves which is saying a lot. Talk about completely clueless. Can't say I listen to a lot of Sports radio but if I were to tune in I'd probably go: Mike & Mike (assuming Kuselias isn't filling in and they're actually talking sports), Waddle and Silvy, sit in silence until 2 o'clock, Boers and Bernstein (easily the best show of the 2 stations).

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 01:14 PM) Here's the problem with your argument...you don't know what happened behind closed doors. Perhaps Kenny did nothing and decided to see what would happen if you opened the competition up between Wise, Owens and BA. OR, he knocked on doors, picked up the phone and tried to find said lead-off hitter? It takes two to tango. Pierre is passed his prime and more expensive. GMJ is not a lead off hitter either and more expensive. Who are you willing to give up for the Dodgers or Angels to pick up 90% of said salaries? Floyd? Danks? Alexei? Because you are going to have to give up a proven or way high upside commodity for that to happen. Enough with the hate people! The market did not dictate going out and spending money this year. What this says to me is that the organization didn't develop a lead-off hitter. Or can't. But, now with the change of direction in the minors, hopefully that will change. To me, it's a lot harder to fault a GM for something they DIDN'T do, than something they DID do. Give me a break. The Sox were very nearly the worst team in the AL in terms of OBP in the #1 and #2 lineup spots last year (3rd to last), borderline wasting the very best full-time #3 hitter in the league. Not only did he fail to upgrade these two spots but as it stands right now it looks like he managed to downgrade. Get creative, find someone, anyone that can get on base at a decent clip and maybe run a little to hit in at the top of the lineup, no excuses. Hell, he removed 2 players from the 2007 ballclub in Orlando Cabrera and Nick Swisher that are better top of the order hitters than what we have now. It doesn't take much to upgrade from Dewayne Wise, believe it or not these players do exist. I think he envisioned Jerry Owens or even more so Brent Lillibridge as his 2009 opening day leadoff hitters, unfortunately for him both proved this March that they're not major league quality hitters. When you say things like this just 2 weeks ago then turn around and hand the job to a player who's nearly the complete opposite of what you've described you deserve as much criticism as the fans can muster.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) He's still arb-eligible next year? Wow, that's surprising. Guess it's all the time he spent in the minors. Trade him if we can. Only 4.156 days of service going into 2009, 16 days short of 5.000 so he won't be able to reach the 6.000 required for free agent eligibility until April of 2010 at the earliest.

There are actually people out there who don't think this is an awesome look? I absolutely love the high socks, even better if there are stirrups involved. Man, I can't remember playing a single game without my pant legs rolled up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) He is with us for at most one season. If he pitches lights out, he might be able to work himself back in to being a type B free agent. Looking ahead to the 2010/2011 offseason already? Because that's when he hits free agency.

It's just so frustrating when you hear the White Sox brass preach OBP and pit/pa at the top all offseason and even into S/T and yet Opening Day is just a few days away and our leadoff hitter is a bad baseball player with an especially low OBP and no patience. I really thought KW was going to make it a point to upgrade the leadoff spot after the departure of Orlando Cabrera and yet he somehow managed to downgrade. I just wish it didn't have to be this way, there's a rather large percentage of teams that don't have to worry about s*** like this, it'd be nice if KW had gotten creative this offseason and added us to that list of teams.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) Out of my 9th place hitter, don't really care. I wish I had your standards.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 05:19 PM) Swisher put up a .743 OPS last year. Wise put up a .742 OPS. Really, this is the definition of the tallest midget argument. And yet there was a 40 point difference in OBP. The biggest argument against OPS is that it treats OBP and SLG as equals when they're really not. OBP is so much more important.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 05:31 PM) This spring, Wise is hitting .302 with 3 triples, 2 homers, and 10 RBI. Anderson's hitting .283 with 4 homers and 9 RBI in more at bats, fewer total bases. And frankly, Anderson didn't look good for quite some time to start the Spring. I'll tolerate a platoon until i'm convinced it isn't working or I'm convinced one of them is outplaying the other in real games. I just don't want to see them anywhere near the leadoff spot. Still waiting for Wise to draw a f***ing walk.

QUOTE (chisox2334 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 05:16 PM) the situation is what it is... no matter what w sox need contact guy with speed get on base ... everyone knows after first inning that its not gurantee he will start of an inning later in the game But that #1 hitter will always get the most PA of any hitter in your lineup and hit in front of your best offensive players. It has nothing to do with leading off the inning.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 04:58 PM) McD could have been trade bait. No, not really.

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 04:30 PM) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ FWIW, here's Scott Merkin's version of the story... Owens likely out; Wise, Anderson in Center-field candidate says he was put on waivers; duo to split time TEMPE, Ariz. -- The White Sox roster has been all but set as of Monday, following six moves announced by the team. It's the one move that was not announced, though, which carries the greatest weight. Jerry Owens, one of the three candidates for the team's center-field job at the start of Spring Training, told reporters he was put on waivers, meaning he has 48 hours to be picked up by another team or be outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte. That move also means Dewayne Wise and Brian Anderson will share center-field duties, with Wise being told by manager Ozzie Guillen that he will lead off and play center on Opening Day against the Royals. I guess we'll have to wait and see what Ozzie says. Now on the Sun-Times website:

He's fine.

Kenny Williams just 2 weeks ago: In what f***ing world does this describe Dewayne Wise? He of the .254 career major league OBP, .309 career minor league OBP, low minor league doubles total and well below average pitches per plate appearance numbers. That's some two faced bulls*** right there.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) Defense will be a weakness. But, I think you overdoomed them a bit here. I think Fields can be an average 3B this year, and better in future years maybe. CF will be above average when Anderson takes over, which I am convinced he will. And I wouldn't call Dye "well below" average, but, thats just my opinion. I also have a feeling that Getz will be pretty good. There's a reason why every defensive metric has Dye as the worst defensive RF in the game over the last 3 seasons and he's only getting slower. I also think he has one of the least threatening outfield arms in the game for a non-speedster. I'm cautiously optimistic about Josh's defense but I can't in conscience project him to be anything but below average this year. We're probably going to have a bottom 3 defense in the AL this year.

C: Average to below average defensively 1B: Average to below average 2B: Likely average 3B: Probably below average with the potential to be WELL below average SS: Who the f*** knows? Could be well below average, could be well above. My guess: below average LF: Below average CF: Below average RF: Well below average HUZZAH! Luckily we have a high strikeout staff. What? We traded away the only real strikeout pitcher we had? f***.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:31 PM) Should I worry that DWeezys' .341 spring BABIP won't maintain itself? No. That's a perfectly sustainable BABIP especially when you're as talented a hitter as Dewayne Wise.

In case you didn't read the back end of the pinned "roster move" thread; Dewayne Wise has been named the starting CF and leadoff man by Ozzie. Let the White Sox optimism commence! http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....-white-sox.html Then from Cowley's twitter:

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) Yeah but we both know these critics will continue doing so after opening day. Then they're spiteful fools.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:13 PM) Well it looks like we're stuck with a s***ty CF unless KW pulls the trigger on a trade. Why hate just for spite? Might as well hope he does well. Eh, if someone wants to cheer against a player -- for whatever reason -- in spring training I'm not going to tell them not to or look down on them for doing so.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:09 PM) Yeah if only he could suck more. I want to see our players fail. In spring training, when bad baseball players are awarded starting jobs if they put up decent but meaningless numbers? Sure, why not?

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) According to Mark Gonzalez... which means nothing. When Ozzie has been talking about this possibility in the last couple of weeks, he's been talking about starting Anderson against lefties. It's according to Cowley and he used the word "official". Also, 75% of the league is right handed.

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 02:54 PM) I'm not a big fan of having Wise lead off, but I'm warming up to the idea of a Wise/Anderson platoon in CF. Wise's career stats suck, but his splits against right-handed pitchers suck significantly less than his overall average. And I believe this paves the way for Anderson to become the full-time CF sometime this year (if he hits respectably enough to earn it... which I think he will given enough at-bats). Except Dewayne Wise has officially been name the starting CF, there is no platoon. I'm wondering how Brian Anderson is supposed to prove anything as a bench player. And an OPS a little over .800 since 2005 against right handed pitching doesn't make me feel any better about Dewayne Wise in center, that's still awful (hell Anderson had similar minor league splits against righties).

Kenny Williams is a f***ing clown. He actually managed to downgrade from Orlando Cabrera in the leadoff spot. The Sox were 3rd to last in OBP from the 1 and 2 spots last year in the American League (OAK and TOR were lower), inserting Dewayne f***ing Wise in the leadoff spot is only going to make that worse. Nothing quite like wasting the best full time 3 hole hitter in the AL last year, he's going to have very few RBI opportunities.