Kalapse

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 06:14 PM) He can throw, there is no doubt, he also calls a very solid game. That is the only reason he ever got a chance, was not his overwhelming offensive talent. Supposedly he has 90 stolen bases against in the minors and threw out 53, good for 37% like you said. In the majors he is at 33%, 38 stolen bases against to the 19 he threw out. I wish caught stealing percentage numbers were kept track of in the minors better. I really want to know where baseball cube (boy are they unreliable many times) got corky's 43 % cs% in 2004. They credit him with 35 caught stealing in 81 attempts... get this... for the cincinnati reds. That might be possible if not for him only playing 12 games in the majors that particular season. They could have possibly meant those numbers for the minors, but he only caught 54 games that season in triple a, which would just be a god damn ridiculous rate for the staff to get run on... especially if he was throwing them out at the rate baseball cube claims. I am just leary of any minor league cs# numbers, that is all. Baseball Reference has him down for 46 stolen bases against and 27 caught stealing, good for 37% CS in his big league career. The problem I see comes from his rookie year in 2001, BR has 8 SB to 8 CS in 16 GS and 139 INN but ESPN has him at 16 GS, 0 INN and 0 SB/0CS. Corky's DT Card on BP also has 8 SB and 8 CS for 2001 so I'm thinking ESPN f***ed up on this one. You'd think they'd make sure to accurately display something as important as Corky Miller's career fielding statistics.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 04:32 PM) Can the Sox DH for Corky and let the pitchers hit? I'm only half joking. Well Bartolo Colon is 10 for 85 for his career, compare that to Corky's 13 for 142 over the last 5 seasons and you may be on to something.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 04:08 PM) You are full of neat tidbits Of all pitchers with at least 60 IP last season Matt Thornton, tied with Jonathan Papelbon, had the 6th highest average velocity on his fastball at 95.3 MPH he trailed the leader (Jonathan Broxton) by 1 MPH. Brian Wilson, Manny DelCarmen, Jose Valverde and Brandon Morrow are the others ahead of him but only .5 MPH separated them all.

Chris Getz is the balls.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) It will be entertaining watching Corky look retarded at the plate facing the likes of Liriano this season. The Corkster has 35% more K's than hits against left handed pitching in his career. He also has more double plays than doubles in his career. One more: Against lefties, Corkaroo has reached on an error as often as he's managed an extra base hit.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 03:55 PM) A negative OPS+??? I didn't think that was possible. That's what happens when you go 13 for 142 over a 5 year span. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he doesn't get a hit this season.

Corky Miller looks like an awful hitter.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) He is piss poor all around, what else is there to expect. That's only if you choose to acknowledge his -12 OPS+ since 2004. His 37% CS% led me to believe that he can throw a little.

Piss poor throw by Corky right there.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 03:18 PM) The real question should be if Lillibridge should start in AA or AAA. He was overmatched in AAA last season. He's never really proven he can hit AA pitching.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 03:15 PM) Wise thrown out by a mile trying to get a triple. This team is a terrible base running team so far. Oh, and Wise is faster than Owens. Still waiting for Jeff Cox to leave his mark on this team or perhaps he has?

God damn it. HUZZAH!

It's not really rumblings, Ozzie has pretty much come out and said that Anderson will make the team being the only right/elite defender of the bunch an given that the other 2 candidates blow ass you'd figure Brian would see his fair share of playing time in CF. (25% of the PA in a straight platoon)

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 12:15 PM) I guess need is relative. Does anyone know how our OBP out of the leadoff and 2nd position compared to the rest of the AL last year? I just had to check. And shockingly the Sox were 3rd to last, thank god for the uber-incompetence of Toronto and Oakland. TEAM OBP1 OBP2 SB1 SB2 OBPa SBa OPS3 RBI3 Baltimore 0.372 0.350 40 4 0.361 22.0 0.862 110 New York 0.364 0.349 38 15 0.357 26.5 0.863 112 Detroit 0.359 0.351 13 8 0.355 10.5 0.766 92 Kansas City 0.358 0.343 20 8 0.351 14.0 0.700 78 Boston 0.322 0.377 49 18 0.350 33.5 0.915 131 Texas 0.357 0.338 27 7 0.348 17.0 0.837 130 Seattle 0.361 0.329 44 11 0.345 27.5 0.822 107 Cleveland 0.372 0.317 39 10 0.345 24.5 0.686 88 Tampa Bay 0.352 0.326 10 41 0.339 25.5 0.851 103 Anaheim 0.364 0.302 39 6 0.333 22.5 0.789 100 Minnesota 0.318 0.335 36 15 0.327 25.5 0.837 89 Chicago 0.339 0.301 15 13 0.320 14.0 0.878 113 Toronto 0.336 0.300 12 5 0.318 8.5 0.782 83 Oakland 0.285 0.306 14 14 0.296 14.0 0.688 69 OBP1 = OBP from #1 hitter OBP2 = OBP from #2 hitter SB1 = SB from #1 hitter SB2 = SB from #2 hitter OBPa = (OBP1+OBP2)/2 SBa = (SB1+SB2)/2 OPS3 = OPS from #3 hitter RBI3 = RBI from #3 hitter Sure OBPa isn't a clean average but there isn't a huge difference in PA between the #1 and #2 hitters and there's no way I'm going to do the leg work required to come up with a clean average.

Getz also has an inside the park homerun, it doesn't get much more speedy/grindy than that. We'll just have to wait until May, then Getz and [hopefully] Alexei can be thrust into their new slots in the lineup. It's good to get Wise all this work in the leadoff spot, a year from now the Long Island Ducks/Portland Beavers can thank Ozzie for keeping him fresh. And you just know Brent Lillibridge -- since he just HAS to make the 25 man roster -- will get more than a few starts at 2B/SS/CF in the leadoff spot this year, he's just too damn fast and short to hit anywhere else.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 11:40 AM) Respectfully disagree. Honestly, how many teams have a true leadoff hitter i.e. high OBP base stealing threats??? Jose Reyes, Sizemore, Victorino, Ichiro, Ellsbury, Figgins, Brian Roberts. Am I missing anyone?? The rest of the league gets by with guys who have some deficiencies in their leadoff capabilities so I'm just not too concerned going into the season with Getz or Ramirez in the 1 spot. Jimmy Rollins, Curtis Granderson, Denard Span, BJ Upton didn't lead off much last year but he's an outstanding top of the lineup hitter, Ian Kinsler ledoff off the Rangers last year, Ichiro Suzuki, Hanley Ramirez has been the leadoff hitter for the Marlins, Gregor Blanco had a .371 OBP in the leadoff spot for the Braves last year now they have Rafael Furcal, hell even Alfonso Soriano managed a .350 OBP and 19 SB last year (plus he knocked himself in nearly 30 times), Skip Schumaker (.370 OBP and good speed in the leadoff spot for the Cardinals), Nate McLouth, Brian Giles (.400 OBP, I'd pay to have him in at the top of our lineup), Matt Kemp, even Stephen Drew managed a .360+ OBP in the leadoff spot, Fred Lewis and Randy Winn are both head and shoulders better than any of our centerfielders. This is just depressing. If the Sox stick with Owens/Wise at the top they'll likely have a bottom 3 leadoff man in baseball this year. Oh, I almost forgot. Derek Jeter and his .387 career OBP will be leading off for the Yankees this year. Johnny Damon and the .375 OBP he put last year has been relegated to the #2 spot.

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 11:23 AM) As a lefty you mean? Yes. Look at his career splits... As a left-handed hitter - .269/.339/.460... a .799 OPS. Not great but okay. As a right-handed hitter - .232/.276/.360... a .636 OPS. Yikes. This spring? I'm not sure, but I think all of his homeruns were hit left-handed. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this. Bottom line... he has no business switch-hitting because he SUCKS as a right-handed hitter. He's Jose Valentin As a Left-handed hitter - .253/.331/.486/.817 As a right-handed hitter - .209/.283/.310/.593 Jose actually went 6-19 (.316 AVG) w/ 1 HR as a left handed hitter off left handed pitching. Did he truly believe he could OPS any lower than .593 off lefties as a lefty? The novelty of switch hitting is a dangerous one. Luckily 75% of pitchers throw right handed.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 10:50 AM) Timo Perez? Darin Erstad? In situations like this, I really don't know if KW and Ozzie have a real good track record. You read my mind, I was about to post both names. If you're looking to make yourself sick just go ahead and read some of this. It really takes you back. It's the middle of May 2007, Darin Erstad is hitting .259/.304/.347/.651 and the White Sox brass has nothing but good things to say about him, he injures himself at the end of May (hitting .264/.311/.341/.652 at the time) and from the way people talked about him you'd think the Sox had lost their best player (I think Phil Rogers actually called him one of the bright spots of the season). Sickening.

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 26, 2009 -> 10:41 AM) Good. All set to slide into the leadoff spot if and when the other options puke out. It's really sad that we'll likely have to wait until then.

Eh, Clemens.

The Chicagoland area might get some accumulating snow on Saturday. Kill Me now.

Your Spring strikeout leaders: B. Lillibridge: 22 K, 1 BB, 57 AB C. Davis: 21 K, 9 BB, 58 AB K. Blanks: 19 K, 10 BB, 59 AB C. Rasmus: 19 K, 7 BB, 60 AB It's going to be kind of funny when Lillibridge makes the Opening Day roster after leading the team in strikeouts (10 more that #2) and errors, drawing only 1 walk, sporting a .035 ISO and even failing to show any sort of base stealing ability (1/3 in SB). You know, you can usually find guys off the street who won't make a complete ass of themselves at the plate while playing competent defense in the middle infield. The thought of Brent Lillibridge getting 20+ starts and probably leading off some just shakes me to my core.

Lillibridge struckout again? Wow, that's a 1/22 BB/K for the spring.

Any word on a buyout to go along with that 2013 option?

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 04:26 PM) Where the Wild Things are looks like a movie I will enjoy bringing my daughter to. It looks terrifying.