Kalapse

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 09:56 PM) Y'all are all wrong, it was SOFT Corinthian leather, so sayeth the Wikipediites. Alright then, explain this: I just watched and posted the original commercial in which he says "SOFT Corinthian leather" so why in the hell did I post SMOOTH??? Am I just a moron?

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) yeah but the year colon went 10-4 in both leagues he had a legit shot at the cy young had he spent the entire year in either league, so it bothers me less with colon than it does with others, but you are right awards mean jack FWIW, and its probably worth very little, Colon was 3-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 9 starts at AAA pawtucket last year in addition to his 7 starts in the bigs Eh, 2002 was the year that Pedro finished with a 2.26 ERA and 0.92 WHIP (WAAAAY better than Bartolo) and still didn't take home the Cy Young. Oh, and Randy Johnson struck out 334 batters that year with a 2.32 ERA so realistically Bartolo had no shot at either.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 08:18 PM) Yeah, but Colon had some pretty great years in Cleveland as well. He may not have been the best pitcher in the game in 2005, but he was still pretty damn good Yeah but he's also never been the best pitcher in his league for a given year. His ERA has dipped below 3.40 one time in his 12 year career.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 07:55 PM) thats fine. I just cant say that a former cy young is not proven I know what you're saying but this is why awards voting bothers me. For the rest of his life Bartolo Colon will be referred to as a "former cy young award winner" but he in no way deserved to win that award in 2005. It's like Joe Crede being referred to as an all star or silver slugger award winner, it's just not fair to the players who actually earned the title with their play on the field.

It's actually "smooth soft Corinthian leather".

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 05:00 PM) Hall is gone. Behind AJ, a catcher will get 30 or 40 games in. Armstrong has been showing some good stuff the last couple years, but, it makes the Sox really weak against lefties. I'd rather have Stewart, who will also be had for cheap, like Armstrong. Cole's biggest value right now is to another team, and we should therefore trade him if we can get something of value in return. Last year Hall got 136 PA, only 56 were against lefties. In 2007 Hall got 120 PA, once again 56 of them were vs lefties. So average that out and it's 128 PA per season with 44% of those PA coming against lefties.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 04:22 PM) Another poster says just the opposite about listening to Ole Hawkeroo. Who are we supposed to believe? I'll believe what I see and admittedly it isn't often enough, but J Dye does a good job in RF Who's this other poster? Hawk talks up everyone on the Sox, every once in a while he'll let loose with a bit of criticism when a player makes an egregious mistake that sets Hawk over the edge but more often than not he has nothing bad to say about a team that was pretty awful defensively last season. If you're judging a player's worth based on the ramblings of Ken Harrelson then you're doing yourself a great disservice.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) Then if you're not counting Crede as a surprising injury, Crede's injury replacement spending the whole year banged up (Fields) has to count. The biggest surprise would have to be the .291/.339/.451/.790 line Crede's replacement put up in his absence and how well Uribe took to the position defensively. Crede himself only hit .248/.314/.460/.774 last year while completely falling apart on defense.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) Linebrink, Contreras, Crede (while never healthy, he was very productive the first 6 weeks) and Quentin. Take the equivalent of those four from any team in the league...put them on the road in a domed stadium, and they would be in trouble, too. Then you had the 4 man rotation forcing Vazquez into Game 1, that series was doomed from the beginning, seemingly. Using the loss of an injury prone player like Crede as some sort of excuse is just silly, his trip to the disabled list last season should not have been seen as a surprise, rather an inevitability. You can't bank on players like him to stay healthy and besides, I'd argue that the Sox were just as well if not better off with Uribe as their starting 3B last season than they were with a perpetually banged up Crede.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 02:54 PM) He's ranked 31st, 35th, and 31st in +/- the last 3 years for RFers. Even if you don't believe in stats, being THAT bad tells you something. Dye is no longer an above average defender, and he'll get worse. Experience doesn't make up for diminished skills. See Ken Griffey Jr's play in CF last year. And each of the past 3 years John Walsh at the Hardball Times has released his "Best Outfield Arms of the Year" report using stats like Kill+, Hold+ and Runs/200 to judge the best arms of the year. He's yet to post his 2008 report but his 2007 edition was not kind to Jermaine Dye. His main statistic for judging an outfield arm is Runs/200 or the number of runs saved by a fielder's arm over 200 opportunities (which equates to approximately a full season's worth of opps.) Jermaine finished with a Runs/200 of -3.6 for the 2007, so rather than saving runs with his arm he allowed an extra 3.6 to score. Jermaine ranked 20th out of the 27 right fielders who had at least 80 opportunities that season, so he finished in about the bottom 25 percentile at his position. I'd guess that Jermaine finished even worse this season as his arm was even less of a factor last season from what I saw, his assists dropped from 9 in '07 to only 5 last year (26th most amongst ML RF). Sure Jermaine has a "strong arm" but he does a very poor job of utilizing it. Watching him over the past 4 years one thing has become apparent (and I believe Hawk mentioned this a few times last year) Jermaine has horrendous throwing mechanics. For a 13 year veteran with a gold glove in his resume he really has no clue what he's doing out there. I don't think he got behind and ran through a single flyball last year, everything is caught flatfooted so he's building up no momentum for the throw, he's relying entirely on arm strength which is just stupid.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 05:40 PM) So why did Mark Grace get so few votes? He was a great hitter too. . . . Don Mattingly . . . Keith Hernandez . . .

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 04:10 PM) I'd rather have Michael Young out of those 3. Even though he's: 1.) not a leadoff hitter 2.) not even close to the best player of the 3 3.) far and away the most expensive 4.) the oldest 5.) the biggest risk of the 3 to struggle away from his former home ballpark 6.) on the decline The only thing he has going for him is his ability to play SS and thus not block Beckham (if he needs to be moved from short) or Viciedo.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) Haha, I don't doubt that at all. Exactly

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 11:40 AM) I completely disagree. That movie was terrible and predictable. I figured it out just watching the trailer.

QUOTE (bschmaranz @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 02:43 AM) Get your facts straight buddy. Dawson played center the first 7 years of his career, 3 of which were gold glove seasons. While I agree that the voting for Raines is extremely pathetic, Dawson deserves to get in just as much. Actually, he took home a gold glove in 4 out of the 7 seasons he played CF. 1980-1983.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Jan 13, 2009 -> 12:56 AM) Konerko has never won a MVP award, Rice has. Konerko has never led the league in hits, home runs, RBIs, slugging, triples, but Rice has done all these things. Konerko has been to three All-Star games, Rice went to eight. Konerko has batted over .300 two times, Rice seven (he's very close to a lifetime .300 average which is a big milestone.) These are the kind of important baseball events separating the two players Rice finished in the top 5 of MVP voting six times. That's HUGE. Voters always look for dominance in your particular era when mulling over a player's HoF merit and in Rice's case, the writers felt he was one of the 5 most valuable players in the American league in 4 out of his first 5 years in the league. Konerko on the other hand has only received an MVP 3 times in his career and his highest finish was 6th in 2005, that was the only time he finished in the top 15.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jan 12, 2009 -> 05:44 PM) Career OPS+ Rice: 128 Konerko: 116 Dawson: 119 Baines: 120 Maggs: 129 (+ 6 AS games, 3 silver sluggers, 3 top 12 finishes in MVP voting (finished 2nd in '07), a batting title, career .312 AVG and a 106 HOF monitor)

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jan 12, 2009 -> 05:14 PM) Didn't one player get 100% on his first ballot? Maybe Seaver? Tom Seaver - 98.84% Nolan Ryan - 98.79% Cal Ripken Jr - 98.53%

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jan 12, 2009 -> 04:21 PM) Jeter is in all likelihood going to retire with around (and i'm being conservative here) over 3000 hits, 1000 walks, 250 home runs, 325 to 350 stolen bases, an OPS around .850 as a top of the order hitter and middle infielder, 1800 runs scored, over 2000 games, 500 doubles, 1200 RBI's, a .315 batting average and .385 on base percentage. All of those numbers don't include his postseason work. He also has (although undeserved) 3 gold gloves, 4 world championship rings, a .309/.377/.469 postseason line in 123 games and 495 at bats, 9 all star apperances, a rookie of the year, an all star game and world series MVP, and 3 silver sluggers. Although his regular season work is overrated, he's one of the better postseason players of all time and will retire with many records of the most succesful organization in sports history. He will be a 1st ballot hall of famer, and I have a hard time arguing it despite my dislike for Jeter. He also finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 6 times out of 13 MLB seasons and 8 times in the top 13 of voting. These are the sort of things people look at when filling out their ballot.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 12, 2009 -> 03:11 PM) Way too early to tell if he even gets in. Derek Jeter would be a surefire 1st ballot inductee if he retired right now.

Henry Blanco's brother was murdered in Venezuela about 3 weeks ago, I assume that has something to do with the lack of rumors involving Hank White.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Dec 22, 2008 -> 05:57 PM) Cabrera was an idiot to not accept arbitration IMO....and he would have made this team better despite what a lot of people feel about him. I can think of much better ways to spend $10M+.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Dec 22, 2008 -> 06:01 PM) Still scratching my head as to why the DBacks took the catcher from the Tigers in the Rule 5...but they now have 3 catchers on there roster. I honestly doubt they'd find anybody to take Chris Snyder and his $1.85M salary...but I'd be interested in Miguel Montero. They need pitching badly. If the Diamondbacks would be willing to give away Snyder for one of our s***ting AA/AAA pitching "prospects" I'd do it. At least Snyder has some good power and plate discipline against left handed pitching and can throw out >30% of would be basestealers.

QUOTE (TheBlackSox8 @ Dec 21, 2008 -> 06:27 PM) MLB '09:The Show, exclusive first look I think with the additions and improvements made, this game will be awesome.....March 3rd can't come soon enough. 'Bout f***ing time.

QUOTE (scenario @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 05:40 PM) According to John Dewan, Bobby's average fastball in 2008 (over the entire season) was 93.8mph. It was about the same in 2007 but 95.8 in '06 and 97 mph in '05.