Kalapse

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Nov 29, 2007 -> 11:22 AM) Yes, Linebrink is awesome in the "stressful innings" department. He's blown 26 out of 30 save opps. in his career. Riske could never compete with that. 26 out of 30 is actually pretty damn good. A blown hold goes down as a blown save, so in reality Linebrink has 26 BLSV in 148 HLD/SV opportunities which is an 82.5% success rate. Go ahead and compare Linebrink's 26/148 (82.5%) over 442.7 IP to some of the other great setup men in the game today. He fairs well. Riske for the record has 18 BLSV in 90 HLD/SV opps (80%) over 431 IP. Scot Shields who is widely considered to be the best/most consistent setup man in the game has a career 86.5% success rate with 21 BLSV in 155 HLD/SV opp in 570 IP.

Cashew butter and Cherry preserves.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Nov 29, 2007 -> 12:36 AM) I fear a Crede for Crisp deal. That's a pretty irrational fear seeing as how the Red Sox are about the last team in baseball looking for a 3B since you know, they already have 2 of them that are better than Crede.

I was surprised by something I just heard on ESPN news, it was just a lead-in to a Tim Kurkjian piece but the anchor says "the usual big spenders are taken a look at Santana with the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Angels are reportedly putting together packages for the 29 year old left hander." I know it means absolutely nothing at all and the Sox really don't make much sense as a possible suitor for Johan (in the same division, lacking a big time pitching prospect, starting pitcher looking for a 6+ year deal) but it was just odd to hear the White Sox mentioned.

Twins would receive: Delmon Young Brendan Harris Jason Pridie Rays would receive: Matt Garza Jason Bartlett Juan Rincon

A little more information on that deal: Twins would receive: Delmon Young Brendan Harris Jason Pridie Rays would receive: Matt Garza Jason Bartlett Juan Rincon Source

If Raines were playing today he'd be the best leadoff hitter in baseball. His numbers are just insane. Very high OBP, tons of SB, incredibly high SB% and a little pop. He's the prototypical leadoff hitter. I'd vote for him.

From Rotoworld: They did not note a source. f***ing crazy if true.

What exactly is a "solid" OBP? .320? .330? A solid AVG? .265? Covelli has been a terrible offensive player over the past 2 seasons.

I really don't get your love of Shannon Stewart, you know he can't run, field, throw or hit for much power anymore right? He'll probably put up a .340 to .350 OBP but that's really about all he can do.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Nov 27, 2007 -> 10:33 PM) Why Fuku ? Am I the only one who has some concern about giving a guy $10+ who hasn't played in the majors, and hasn't made a decision about whether he's coming or not ? Granted, I don't want to overpay for Rowand either, but why Fuku ? OBP baby. He's probably going to get a 3 year deal which is so much better than giving 5 years to any of the others, he's going to make $3-$5M less a year than either Jones or Rowand and he's an OBP beast. I'd stick him in the leadoff spot and watch the runs role in. Big time Japanese position players have a pretty damn good track record, aside from Kazuo Matsui I'm having trouble thinking of any other busts.

1.) Fuku 2.) Andruw 3.) Row

Apparently there was a knife found on Taylor's bed following the first robbery.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 10:51 PM) He was actually pretty good in 2005, even aside from his ridiculous 2 month run...he had 2 dreadful months that really brought down his overall numbers, but he had 4 months with an OPS of .825+ (or .824 if you want to split hairs) That said, I think you can pretty much throw that all out the window with a back surgery...nobody knows how he'll come back. You can do that with A LOT of players. There's a bunch of guys who's numbers at the end of the season will be pretty unspectacular (think .750 OPS) but if you look at their monthly splits they'll have 2 months with a .900 OPS, another 2 with a .750 and those other 2 around .600. It's the guys that can maximize the great months while minimizing incredibly s***ty months that you want to hold onto.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 08:46 PM) This thread is a goldmine. Crede at 1B, the Sox getting Crawford for a whole lot of crap, Nick Masset having any trade value whatsoever... Classic Soxtalk. Personally, I find the notion of Heath Phillips having trade value even more humorous than Nick Masset.

QUOTE(Lemon_44 @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 07:29 PM) What i'm saying is that Crede can/has put up what are considered very good numbers for a 1b. His .290 with 30 HR's in 2006 is better/similar to Konerko in '07. That's why i don't get all "he would have terrible offensive numbers for a 1b" argument. Lowell(2006) .284 BA, 20 hr, 80 rbi, .339 obp, .475 slg% Crede(2006) .283 ba, 30 hr, 94 rbi, .323 obp, .505 slg% I guess you guys are right, Lowell's numbers are a ton better . That's pretty funny, did you seriously just compare Joe Crede's best season to just a random year in Lowell's career? Don't you find that sort of silly? What if I compare Lowell's '07 numbers to Crede's '07 numbers? Or Lowell's '04 numbers to Crede's '04 numbers? Or Lowell's '02/'03 numbers to any year of Crede's career? Lowell kicks the s*** out of him in every scenario. Take a look at what Mike Lowell does over an average 162 games season: AB: 591 | R: 80 | 2B: 41 | HR: 23 | RBI: 97 | .280/.344/.468/.812 | OPS+: 110 now compare what Lowell does on average to Crede's career year: AB: 562 | R: 76 | 2B: 31 | HR: 30 |RBI: 94 | .283/.323/.506/.829 | OPS+: 107 So yeah, just an average season from Mike Lowell is better than what Joe Crede can do when at his best. The part of your post that I put in bold is just plain wrong. Even in his very best season Joe Crede only managed an .829 OPS. So lets say Joe Crede was the 1B for the Cincinnati Reds in 2007 and posted an .829 OPS that would be the 16th highest OPS out of 20 qualified 1B. So Joe Crede at his very best is in the bottom 25 percentile for 1B when it comes to the most important basic offensive stat. That's not good. And stop posting Crede's '06 AVG as .290, last time I checked .283 is not equal to .290. If I use your silly logic then I suppose I could post his '06 AVG as .276 and that would be acceptable.

Mike Piazza does not have a defensive position, he has negative defensive value anywhere you put him, especially behind the plate where he struggles to even catch the ball let alone throw anyone out or make a tough stop in the dirt. So you would have 2 guys on your roster who can not play anywhere on the field and a third who can only play 1B.

QUOTE(BaseballNick @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 03:23 PM) Why not? Would you need to replace Sweeney with DLS? I think that's a pretty nice return for Cabrera. There's only about 1.5 good young players in that proposal. The other 3 are just filler really.

Stoneman was the GM when the Angels went hard after Konerko and it was the Rangers that made the last second offer to Dye.

QUOTE(max power @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 08:27 AM) I read somewhere on this board that the guy is like ridiculously rock solid and if anything he over trains. Not sure if "fatty" is accurate at all. This is true, the man is a beast.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 26, 2007 -> 09:50 AM) Sorry Tex, No Christmas Vacation, no dice. Tis a staple in the Kalapse household around Christmas time.

QUOTE(soxfan3530 @ Nov 25, 2007 -> 09:10 PM) That is the point though. I dont think he will be in in similar price range at all. I would rather take Rowand, save some money that we could spend elsewhere (if we plan on making other moves after that). Jones is a very good player but i just think we depend on the long ball too much as is. Jones would just add to that. Aside from a slight edge in batting average what has Aaron Rowand proven he can do better than Andruw Jones offensively? I'd say doubles and triples are a wash while Andruw Jones is a much more prolific HR hitter and draws a s*** load more walks. Aaron Rowand doesn't really steal bases anymore so I don't see that as a win for him either. Even if the Sox are too HR reliant adding Aaron Rowand to the mix isn't going to help matters, at least Jones will bring walks to the table and while the team will still be HR reliant at least they'll hit them a little more often with a huge power hitter like Jones manning CF. And with the Dodgers going hard after Rowand I don't think there will be a big difference in $$$ when the two CF sign.

QUOTE(soxfan3530 @ Nov 25, 2007 -> 04:39 PM) Then when we sign Jones, a lot of you guys who are saying you want him the most will be complaining when Jones is jacking some HRs and striking out all the time like a lot of the batters currently on the Sox. I'lll take Rowand. Over the past 3 years Andruw Jones has struck out once every 4.57 AB and Rowand over that same time period has struckout every 5.12 AB. Yeah, there's a HUGE difference. At least during that time Jones managed to hit a HR once every 14.6 ABs which is nearly twice as often as Rowand. (30.7) But what about walks you say? Jones has drawn one once every 7.98 ABs while Rowand has gotten a free pass only once every 16.44 ABs. If I have a choice between Andruw Jones and Aaron Rowand and the money is similar I take the hall of famer and superior player in Jones.

QUOTE(max power @ Nov 25, 2007 -> 06:16 PM) I wouldn't say that for sure unless his back stopped hurting him late in 07. You are insinuating that his back is why he sucked. I'm insinuating that his back had a negative effect on his performance. I'm sure it wasn't the sole reason he's been terrible. It's not like he was ultra dominant in the month of September either,he he gave up 9 ER in his final two outings and had a WHIP near 1.50 for the month. He had 1 great outing, 2 pretty good and 3 bad outings in the final month.

QUOTE(max power @ Nov 25, 2007 -> 03:17 PM) So he has had it at least since may of 2006. He wasn't exactly terrible in 06, so I am not sure what to think about it affecting his pitching. Then again he was s***ty the second half of 06 right? Following his return from the DL near the end of May 2006 he put up a 5.11 ERA to finish the season. So yeah, the back has bothered him.