Kalapse

It's Ks. His K/9 is over 14 in his 7 outings. He's also leading all pitchers in walks.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 02:28 PM) If Wise winds up struggling at the top of the order and Getz is doing well at the bottom, I don't think it'll take Ozzie long to start making switches. At least last year he was far less stubborn with lineup slots than I thought he'd be. It took him all of a couple weeks in April to move that Quentin guy up to 3rd, AJ up to 2nd, Cabrera up to 1st, and Swisher down in the order when Swisher wasn't hitting and TCQ was. It's just a poorly constructed roster. When your only options for the top of the lineup are your sub .300 OBP career minor leaguer CF, sub .320 OBP catcher and SS or the unspectacular rookie 2B something is wrong. No matter who the Sox go with in the 1 and 2 spots on opening day they'll have by far the lowest combined 2008 OBP of any 1-2 combo in the AL Central.

QUOTE (DABearSoX @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 02:19 PM) How many years was Scotty Po in the minors before making it to the bigs? He was a full time starter by age 27, he spent less than 2 full years in AAA. His biggest problem was injuries and getting out of A ball.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 17, 2009 -> 09:01 AM) He's a 29 year old in AAA. People here deride guys like Owens (27) or Cook (26) for being old, this guy is a few years older than that, and has spent a lot more years at AAA before figuring it out. He's been 28 for about a month now.

So it's really looking like we're going to see a Wise, Pierzynski, Quentin top 3 to start the season. Poor, poor Carlos, hit those 2 in front of him for an entire season and he'll finish with 60 RBIs. The Sox's brass is so f***ing two faced, they're always preaching OBP at the top of the lineup and yet we're probably going to start the year with 2 guys at the top who could easily combine for a sub-.300 OBP in 2009. I hope none of the run producers in the middle of the lineup have incentives for RBI in their contracts because those situations should be few and far between at least to start the season. Sox 1. Wise - .293 2008 OBP 2. Pierzynski - .312 Twins 1. Span - .387 2. Casilla - .333 Indians 1. Sizemore - .374 2. DeRosa? - .376 Tigers 1. Granderson - .365 2. Polanco - .350 Royals 1. Crisp - .344 2. Aviles - .354 Yep, the Sox will start the season with BY FAR the worst combo at the top in terms of OBP in the AL Central. It's not even close. Luckily Wise and Pierzynski will make up for their severe lack of OBP skills by doing "all the little things" which we all know is all that matters. I'm glad we're going to hit Chris Getz at the bottom of the order to keep the pressure off him, it's a shame that you can't hit rookies/young players at the top of the lineup, just don't tell this to Ron Gardenhire.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Mar 16, 2009 -> 07:51 PM) Thank you!! I mean seriously it's f***ing stupid. I love Griffey but he was in a declining stage and I would still take him over Edmonds anyday. I just read this thread and thought originally that people were agreeing to let him play full time, but I see it's just for righties and it makes it tolerable but I'm still against it. Edmonds is comming to the superior AL, in pitching, hitting, etc.. just like Griffey did, late in his career and as someone pointed out, will be a DL stint waiting to happen. I guarandamntee he will not come close to his numbers, even just against righties this season. Just give the damn job to BA and get it over with. The sox have already screwed up his development enough for trotting Erstad's ass out there. Unless Edmonds is signing for the minimum then... perhaps but even that is iffy for a guy who is probably going to decline across the board, not to mention defensively (though he is still better than Owens) ONLY for the league minimum. Wise is going to log some serious ABs in CF whether we like it or not, Brian isn't going to be given the full time starting gig. If you had to choose between the 31 year old Dewayne Wise who put up a low .800 OPS against righties over the last four seasons in AAA or the 38 year old Edmonds who put up a near 1.000 OPS against them with the Cubs last year who do you go with? Edmonds doesn't even have to match those gaudy numbers from last year, an .830+ OPS would do just fine. The idea is to find a platoon partner for Brian who is better than Dewayne Wise and Jim Edmonds should be substantially out produce him next season.

The biggest thing with Josh is his bat speed, he's finally catching up to fastballs, something he couldn't do in 2007. That's the sort of thing that tends to carry over into the regular season.

How does a guy put up a near 1.000 OPS against right handed pitching for 5 months if he's done? Don't get that one.

The WBC extends ST an extra week.

Lillibridge 0-5 w/ 3 K. That's a 1/14 BB/K ratio for the spring. That's well over 200 Ks over a full season's worth of AB. He has 4 more strikeouts than total bases. Wouldn't be surprised to see him reassigned to minor league camp early.

Betemit is going to be a huge asset off the bench working deep into counts and hitting bombs off righties. Can't wait to see what he does with a small ballpark as his home.

Lillibridge's BB/K is now 1/13 after his 2 Ks today. People actually thought he was a candidate to leadoff?

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 10:18 PM) Anyone ruling out Owens as the favorite right now is probably wrong. I heard a radio clip tonight where Ozzie said Owens is swinging the bat great right now, he's just not finding holes. Unfortunately for Owens, most big league teams field a second baseman.

Against righties with the Cubs last year he actually hit .269/.383/.612/.994 w/ 18 HR and .80 BB/K over 265 PA.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 11, 2009 -> 12:15 AM) MHizzle is commishing league 2. He posted the league info here: http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=1846531 Didn't see that, thanks.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 04:06 PM) How many(if ANY) extra base hits has Owens had this spring? I cannot think of one He doesn't have any, it's sort of his thing.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 03:59 PM) Then, any DLing will be proactive to that week. I'm just saying that if Marquez makes the club, it'll be as an injury replacement. Or as the 7th man out of the pen and long reliever.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 03:50 PM) Marquez will probably be the temporary #4 starter while Colon and Contreras start the season on the 15 day DL. They'll only have 4 SPs to start the year since they won't need a #5 for a few weeks. After that off day on the 7th (second day of the season) the Sox play 12 straight games, unless they start the year with a 4 man rotation (which they won't) they'll need the 5th starter within the second week of the season. It also seems rather silly to start making assumptions about Contreras and Colon's status for Opening Day when there's still 3 weeks left in ST.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 03:46 PM) I don't trust him at SS, but he's showing us this spring that he can hit a little bit. In a given season he only has to start at SS what? 8-10 times at the most? He shouldn't kill you there.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 03:43 PM) 9-0 Sox. 3 run HR for Betemit. SEA radio guys already calling for the mercy rule. Love that guy. I'm sure it was a bomb.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 15, 2009 -> 03:34 PM) Look how our 38 year old future hall of famer worked out last year. Like Griffey, Edmonds also has declining legs, so his defense is pretty bad. He takes good routes to balls, but he doesn't have the legs to run down those great plays he could have made 5 years ago. He's still a decent hitter, he hit very well with the Cubs last year. But that was not on a day-to-day basis as he platooned in center. Plus, he had much better protection in that Cubs lineup as he batted in the middle of the order. I don't know how we can ask him to lead off. We've already seen that going with the Oakland idea of putting a guy at leadoff who can do nothing but walk does not work (Swisher). Now granted, Edmonds can do a lot more than walk, but at this point in his career, he's a .250-.260 hitter. I don't see anything more than a Griffey clone with a little bit more power and healthier legs in Edmonds. I wouldn't be against this move as long as he is signed for a reasonable price. But I really don't think we'll get the production he had with the Cubs last year. Just as Wise should be absolutely no where near the leadoff spot neither would Edmonds, he'd hit down in the order and PLATOON against righties just as he did last year. All he has to do is play league average defense and put up an .830+ OPS against righties, I fail to see how that's out of the realm of possibility. He'd be a better platoon partner than Wise, that's all he has to do is be more productive than a 12 year career minor leaguer. And Griffey put up an .841 OPS against righties last year, if Edmonds could match that in a platoon role with Anderson then he'd be well worth the

According to Cowley Contreras was sitting between 90 and 93 for that first inning.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Mar 14, 2009 -> 06:21 PM) Given Williams interest in the past regarding Edmonds, it has to be fairly safe to assume he has checked back in with Jim this off-season. If something was going to happen, it probably would have been taken care of a few weeks ago. Quiet you. We still have like 3 weeks of Spring Training left, I'm not ready to accept Dewayne Wise as the starting/lefty platoon CF (75% of the league is right handed, that's a lot of AB and CF innings). I will hold out hope that Kenny expected Owens to come into camp and blow everyone away, winning the starting CF and leadoff job. No need to have Edmonds around if Jerry Owens is going to be your starting CF.

An Edmonds/Anderson platoon is looking better and better.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Mar 14, 2009 -> 05:09 PM) Wise had a very nice year pinchhitting last yr, albeit not being here the whole yr Sure Dewayne and Brian were both good in their limited pinch hit opportunities last season but neither has the pure power or ability to work the count like Wilson Betemit, especially against right handed pitching.