Kalapse

Duaner Sanchez has lost 3.5 MPH off his fastball. No thanks.

QUOTE (SoxFan101 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 03:11 PM) The negative about it though is Alexi isnt exactly a high OBP guy so he isnt going to be on base as much as you'd ideally like with the big boppers coming up behind him. Also Alexi has the ability to drive in runs, and the 2 hole isnt the most ideal spot for that either. I kinda like Ramirez towards the bottom because in my opinion helps makes the entire lineup dangerous and probably gives him more chances with runners on base. We don't have an over abundance of high OBP non-power hitters. If Alexei is the starting SS then Owens, Wise or Anderson is in CF, none of them should be anywhere near the top of a major league lineup. Jayson Nix doesn't belong at the top of a lineup so that leaves Chris Getz who shouldn't kill you up there. There is no one. It's Alexei, Owens, Anderson, Wise, Getz, Nix, Pierzynski or Fields to fill 2 spots. Only 1 of those guys looks like a top of the order hitter and he's a an unspectacular rookie. Alexei is my #2 hitter. And no the Sox aren't going to move Alexei to CF and put 2 rookies at the top of the lineup, it's just not going to happen.

I wish we never traded Alex Escobar. This still doesn't work for me, Jerry Owens shouldn't have a job on a major league club because he's not talented because he has 0 major league tools not because he's struggling in March. He shouldn't have a job because he's not good.

The best case for putting Alexei in the 2 hole is that you're adding another excellent offensive talent to the top of the lineup rather than a poor hitter who may have a little speed. Giving your best hitters more plate appearances over the course of the season is never a bad thing, if he's hitting 2nd there's going to be more than a few close games where he gets an extra PA compared to the bottom of the order where they may not make it back to him. This is definitely a good thing.

Heh, Ryan Ludwig van Beethoven.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 08:41 AM) It's not so much numbers to refute those things so much as the fact that it didn't happen... AJ simply does not take pitches, period. Never will. He just happened to be on fire when he first got put in the 2 hole, but that ended a few weeks later, then we had nobody else that could do it (Cabrera, but he was leading off). AJ is great to have batting 6th, 7th, but not 2nd. I don't think it's coincidence that the Sox started winning on May 15th. Sure AJ was placed in the 2 hole where he immediately floundered but a young man by the name of Alexei Ramirez took over at 2B on that day and proceeded to hit .360/.391/.558/.949 over his next 24 games.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Mar 10, 2009 -> 05:50 AM) It seemed like we started winning when Ozzie put AJ in the 2 hole.... A .307 OBP isn't impressive at all, but it was the little things that helped, like getting the man over, taking pitches etc.... I'm sure there are #s to refute those things, but sometimes its more than #s to change a lineups production and outlook. Alexie and Quentin are our best players but i think Alexie has more tools than CQ. Speed, defense, power etc... Quentin is pure offense! Not that he's a bad defender. I guess you can say they are pretty much equally important to our team. No, I'd say Quentin is much more valuable. Alexei is pretty fast but not blazing fast and he didn't show any propensity for the stolen base and I think Quentin proved to be a very smart and skilled baserunner with average speed. Defensively neither was above average overall but Alexei did show some flashing of the spectacular, both have excellent arms and if Carlos ever makes his way back to his natural position he's supposedly a plus defender. Not sure why you'd mention power, Carlos was one of the best power hitters in the game last year and much more explosive than Alexei. .283 ISO for Carlos and .185 ISO for Alexei, that's a rather large difference. Similar contact hitters with Carlos being an infinitely more disciplined hitter and a year younger than Alexei. Again, I'm not seeing it. Hawk may like to say it but he also never backs it up, perhaps he places greater value on glove flips than myself.

Supposedly Alexei only spent 1 season at SS, the majority of his time in Cuba was spent in CF. At least that's what I seem to remember Cubano saying. There's absolutely no way any of his can know how Alexei will handle SS or whether he's better than Beckham at the position, the sample size is minuscule. I do agree that having Alexei, Beckham and Getz all in the same lineup is probably our best way to go since it puts 3 good hitters (at least they should be) at 3 positions without sacrificing too much on defense.

Pierzynski put up a .307 OBP in the 2 hole last year. That's horrible. And I still don't know what makes Alexei a better "all around" player than Quentin.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 07:10 PM) I was at the game today. I’m in a hurry so I’ll just give you a few highlights (and lowlights)/ 1) Aaron Poreda, he had a shaky first inning, but his fabled slider really worked for him starting in the second. If he can throw that pitch consistently for a strike he could be nigh unhittable. Definitely the highlight of the game 2) Wilson Betemit cannot field AT ALL. He either has no range or is extremely lazy. Make of that what you will. 3) Getz has some serious wheels, and a nice level swing. 4) Vicideo will chase after any slider, no matter where it is. This really needs to be addressed. 5) Owens is awful. (Barring one great defensive play) moving on. 6) Michael Restovich finds it awkward that I knew his name. Deal with it, Restovich. I know everyone 7) Lillibridge, Getz, Walker were nice enough to sign autographs. Got a good picture with Lillibridge, and told him “Keep hitting, man and you’ll make this team.” He smiled, good for him. 8) Kenny Williams looks awesome in his skybox. That’s an intimating figure. 9) Harold Baines looks oblivious when you call him out. Hilariously so 10) Jeff Cox is awesome. They showed the view from behind homeplate, it was a horrendous jump, even the clueless Bill Melton called him on it. Thankfully for him he has pretty good closing speed.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 05:25 PM) At least Erstad was respected throughout baseball, and everyone admired how he gutted it out playing through numerous injuries. I don't think Owens will ever have a season of 200+ hits. What did Erstad have that one season? Something crazy...the season he was actually healthy for a full year. PROWESS TO BE WILD BILL? Prowess tends to be a POSITIVE word, with a good connotation, you don't have a prowess to be wild. Maybe proclivity/tendency. OUR version of Darin Erstad was king of the 4-3 groundout.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 05:19 PM) owens with 3 weak grounders to the right side and a K looking....good news Apparently Erstad never left.

What an awful baseball player.

Alright, did Chris Getz have a knee injury because Melton is getting pretty specific here. Talking about scopes and rehab, he can't be THAT wrong can he?

QUOTE (scenario @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 05:04 PM) Free broadcasts... they had to cut costs somewhere. I'd do it for a free trip to Phoenix and lodging.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 05:00 PM) ?? elaborate please Melton was trying to compare Josh Kroeger to a 1B/OF on the Royals and for like 5 minutes and hemmed and hawed trying to come up with the name. He couldn't remember Ross f***ing Gload. Oh, he finally got it. Good for you Bill, here's a star.

QUOTE (Cubano @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) Oh, like some in here wrote. This is just ST and he is a veteran player. Give him a free pass. 5 years of regular season ball in which he played steady defense or a few bad spring training game? Yeah, I'm going with the 2 game sample size. If Anderson dropped a few balls in CF on Wednesday would we have to question his defense? How about John Danks? A few errant throws to first get you worried?

ROSS f***ING GLOAD YOU ASS CLOWN

He sure does love those GIDP.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 04:45 PM) Oh f***. Owens just made the team. TREMENDOUS speed says Bill. Terrible read and react says actual eyeballs. How can you get a simply horrendous jump and have it be a terrific play? I don't get it.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 04:41 PM) Melton was right about one thing. We couldnt't beat Sabathia. And the fact that he can now pronounce Viciedo's first name. That's marked improvement there. It's official KW. We have no CFer. Just in case you hadn't noticed. Take that back...Wise 2/4 with a homer and extra base hit in the B game against the Dodgers in the morning. He's officially the first option right now in Guillen's mind at least. 9-12 since 2002. That's not a bad record against another team's ace.

4-3 one more time.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Mar 9, 2009 -> 04:35 PM) I can hear you getting angry I'm actually laughing at this point, I find Melton's ignorance entertaining.

1 more time. According to Melton the Sox improved their holding over runners last year. Teams stole about 30% more bases against the Sox last year and for a higher percentage than 2007. 19% CS for Sox catchers in 2007 went down to 17.8% last year. Sorry Bill, wrong again.

That didn't appear to be a very wild wild pitch.