Kalapse

Sneak Peek at the 2009 Version

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 10:16 PM) That curve by Bobby was fricking amazing to whiff a good hitter. Wise can play big league baseball. He's earned a job with a team, if not us, somebody. He's as good a player as a lot of guys wearing big league uniforms the past several years. He is not a stiff. Nice job by AJ who never gets a day off. Good job, SOx. One more please. Let's take it to Tampa guys!!! My biggest problem with Wise: defensively, he's pretty much Scott Podsednik reincarnated in LF. And over the course of a 162 game season his bat isn't anywhere near strong enough to make up for his awful glove.

The more I watch K-Rod, the less I like him as a closer. On the other hand; the more I watch Papelbon, the more I love him as a closer. 1.) Rivera 2a.) Nathan 2b.) Papelbon -Soria -K-Rod -Jenks -Lidge -Wagner -Valverde -Fuentes As soon as Soria brings his act to a non-sub-.500 team he'll separate himself from the rest of the second tier.

QUOTE (almagest @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 08:55 PM) Everything I've seen shows that he's a free agent following the 2008 season. Figgins' service number will be 5.145 at season's end. That'll put him 27 days short of free agency meaning he'll have to wait another season before filing. He'll be a free agent following the 2009 season, anything or anyone that says otherwise is either wrong or is under the impression that the Angels will non-tender him this offseason.

QUOTE (knightni @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 08:41 PM) Danks didn't do anything that Buehrle didn't do. He just got run support and a decent bullpen. And if Buehrle were a 23 year old with only 2 year experience under his belt pitching in his first playoffs then yeah, he'd get a pat on the back too. Unfortunately for Mark he's an 8 year veteran making $14M a year with World Series experience, he's expected to go out there and shutdown the opponent.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 08:48 PM) If we win on Monday do you think Ozzie brings back Vazquez to pitch in TB? Not a chance in hell. It'll be Buehrle on normal rest.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 08:37 PM) Ok...is Figgins a FA or not?!? A lot my hinge on whether Texiara resigns with LA IMO.... Nothing is a a given...but I really think prying Figgins over to this team is a priority for Kenny this offseason. Either Figgins or Roberts. Just my 2¢... Figgins is not a free agent. He'll be arbitration eligible in '09 and hit free agency following next season.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 08:23 PM) Ordonez came to the majors too late to do much more than get 2,000 hits in his career. 2) He's not a true home run hitter, and the players with the homers get the most attention from voters (if the voters speculate those are legit #'s) 3) He's an average (at best) outfielder...certainly not Roberto Clemente or Vladimir Guerrero. Actually, I think Carlos Lee will end up with higher HR and RBI numbers when both their careers are over...but neither will get even 10% of the votes to gain HOF entrance. There's just a difference between very good/almost great and the Hall of Fame. That's why I said borderline. He's not going to get in but a career .300-.310 AVG, ~350 career HR, ~2,400 career hits, 6 All Star appearances, 3 silver sluggers, a batting title and a second place finish in MVP voting is more than enough to garner consideration.

Carlos Quentin is not a sub par defender in RF. Before arriving in Chicago he played exclusively in RF and was considered to be an excellent defender. Carlos spent the 2008 season learning a new position, LF. After spending his entire professional baseball career on the right side of the OF he had to learn the angles of the left side, he's definitely had some growing pains out there but that's to be expected, it is a totally different position (hence why Griffey isn't comfortable playing LF, he has no experience at the position.) And his arm strength is definitely comparable to that of Jermaine Dye (Edgar Renteria says hi), actually one could argue that Carlos has a more dangerous throwing arm since Jermaine's fundamentals f***ing suck. (if you're going to teach your kid how to throw from the OF whatever you do, do NOT let him watch Jermaine Dye)

Thome's option already vested, he'll be under contract next year for $13M whether the Sox want him or not.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 12:20 AM) Are you still waiting for Magglio to be healthy as well? Uribe is a dog. Pure and simple. A clueless hitter who swings sooo hard and misses so often (or fouls the ball off). Please Sox finally say bye to Juan. 1.) Magglio Ordonez is 100X the player Joe Crede ever will be, they're not even comparable. Magglio Ordonez will be a borderline hall of famer by the time he retires. 2.) Totally different injuries. There's nothing that says Joe Crede will ever be healthy again, the same was not said about Magglio.

You know what really sucks? The regular season no longer matters, AT ALL. How can a Cubs fan take any pleasure in a regular season win? So what if they win 95-100 games next year? It means absolutely nothing at all because once that first playoff game roles around you start to see a whole new side of the Cubs. I don't even know how these people can go on being Cubs fans, there is absolutely NO pleasure in it anymore.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 10:59 PM) And I refuse to vote for Pedroia. I hate him. You can irrationally hate him all you want, the guy is f***ing good at baseball and he put up the most impressive 6 month stretch of any AL MVP contender. There's a reason why he had the highest VORP of any AL player not named Rodriguez or Sizemore. Oh he also led all major league 2B in fielding win shares and it wasn't particularly close.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 12:07 AM) K-Rod has really lost a lot of zip on his fastball over the years, and he's starting to hang more and more breaking balls as time goes on. His career is going to take a precipitous fall in the near future. Red Sox win. The sooner people realize the regular season DOES NOT MATTER once the calendar turns to October. But a lot of people still don't get it, so maybe they never will. He's a fraud and someone is going to pay through the nose for him and regret it 2 years in. Can't say I won't take a little pleasure in watching his career fall apart before he reaches 30.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 11:28 AM) I obviously am a big fan of Joe Crede's and would like to him his sign again with the Sox. I really think we have abetter shot with Joe than making a trade for someone that can do the job at 3B. It will be intersting to see how his medical condition progresses over the winter. If you could have either Joe Crede or Adrian Beltre at 3B next year who would you take? How about Chipper Jones?

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 10:38 PM) No, Crede is just not nearly as good as you think he is. I'm not going to miss seeing him pop up 15 times a week to the right side. I guess when you don't get to see many Sox games and pretty much ignore stats (save 2006) and medical reports, you're going to have an unrealistic idea of the man's abilities. It's kind of funny because Joe Crede's "clutch stats" have been pretty unspectacular for the past few years (rather average really) but he still holds this reputation for being this unbelievable clutch hitter. Personally, I think he's more "memorable" clutch than he is "consistently" clutch. Aside from his 2006 RISP numbers he hasn't hit over .300 in any of "RISP", "RISP w/ 2 out" or "close and late".

I won, by the way.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 2, 2008 -> 10:52 PM) Was Joe spraying champagne in the stands? That's so cool. I always loved that guy. So was Swisher and I believe Boone Logan as well.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 10:10 PM) How is a 8 day stretch back in April of someone who doesn't play anymore compare exactly to someone who is currently in a two week freefall? It's true that they nearly have the same OPS, but Swisher leads in the more important category (OBP) by 39 points. Then there's the whole deal with Swisher playing below his career norms and Wise as a career minor leaguer playing way above his. Then there's the fact that Nick Swisher is sporting a 20.9% line drive percentage and .249 BABIP, he's been VERY unlucky this year. He's hitting the ball hard but right at people. At least if you get Swisher out there you have the chance that these line drives are gonna start falling.

Jesus Christ Furcal, you have to lay off that s***.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 07:28 PM) How many DPs has Lee grounded into this year? Jeez That would be number 28

Yet another clutch DP from Derek Lee.

And here come the boo birds.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) I thought for sure Loney was going to K. I didn't think it was gone due to his reaction on the swing. After the way he looked on those first 2 pitches it seemed like a K was inevitable. It looked like he got too much lift on the ball and knowing James Loney's strength I thought for sure there was no way that ball was getting out.

QUOTE (knightni @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 06:35 PM) How about Ramirez #2? Ozzie said he didn't want to put that kind of pressure on Alexei during a playoff race, why would his opinion change now that we've made it? You'd also be moving one of your best run producers into a non-run production slot in the lineup, a place where he has to give up ABs and take pitches that he'd normally jump all over, something Alexei really shouldn't be doing. So in other words; not a good fit.