Kalapse

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 08:02 PM) Didn't want to start a new thread. Williams on talking to Garland about the trade rumors this off-season. My god you're not going to find a more candid GM anywhere. That is a classic line though.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 05:32 PM) HA! I said this second half last year repeatedly: we look like the '04 Sox right now. Then, as now, I will take our 1-0 smallball squeaker wins any day over the 13 run-then-score-nothing-for-two-games days of '04 or second half last season. Quite the crock of s***. Just some food for thought. The key to your 1-0 smallball victory is the 0. You need the pitching to shutout the opponent inorder for this to work, something the starting pitching did in '05 but couldn't in '06. As for the all or nothing score 13 runs then nothing for 2 games theory. That amazing small ball team of '05 was shutout by the opponent a total of 7 times quite the accomplishment for an offense that prides itself on eeking a run or 2 accross the plate each game. Of course the '04-esque long ball stylings of the '06 team must have been shutout atleast 7 times but probably more right? Because a team that 'only hit HRs' can not consistantly score runs day in and day out. Well they were only shutout 6 times last year which isn't great but was still better than the Awesome Ozzieball of '05. Like Tony said, it takes great pitching for the smallball approach to work. If the starting pitching is holding the opponent down to 3 or less runs most every day then the offense can maybe get away with scoring 1-3 runs a game but when the pitching sucks like it did last year and 5 or 6 runs are crossing the plate on most days then the smallball approach is not going to work, you're going to need the 3 run HRs to come along. If the Sox would have gotten similar production from the pitching staff in '06 like they did '05 they would have won 95+ games and the division because of that oft-explosive HR heavy offense. And this may be said each time this subjected it debated but it definitely bares repeating it's not like the '05 didn't hit HRs, they still hit 200 that season which isn't exactly smallball, it's a lot closer to inept ball.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 05:17 PM) Small but important note...the White Sox also do have a righty in Right field, and Erstad could back him up as well. I know he didn't need it last year, but I for one wouldn't complain at all about JD getting a handful of games off this year beyond what he was given off last year (mostly because Mack was in CF every game....) I'd much rather have Mack backing up JD in RF.

QUOTE(rpmahr @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 03:30 PM) other than CC their starters havent won more than 15 games....cleveland's starters havent really had any success that the sox have had...garland is a 2-time 18 game winner...buerhle has been a cy young contender and has won 15+ games 4 seasons...i dont even no if cc has been a cy young contender yet in his career...and their bull pen is older and full of rejects from other teams...cleveland seems like another version 2000 sox I could give 2 s***s about Cy Young voting or wins. Of course if you REALLY want to use Cy Young voting as some kind of barometer of success then Cliff Lee > Mark Buehrle since the only time Buehrle ever finished in the top 5 in CY Voting Cliff Lee finished a spot ahead of him. For his final 18 starts last season Mark Buehrle was the worst pitcher in baseball post numbers so horrendous that I don't even want to think about them. Do you know why he was so terrible? No, so I really don't see how you can assume he'll go back to being an above average major league starter next season. CC Sabathia was outstanding last season above and beyond any starter the White Sox had even their #1 starter Contreras. Jose's 40+ year old body and 1 year of major MLB success isn't going instill a whole lot of confidence in me. So as for the anchors of the 2 rotations, Contreras and Sabathia the Indians take a major edge. Just to skip ahead to the next major mismatch in the 2 rotations I'll examine the #5 starters. This should be quick, Floyd the current front runner for the Sox' #5 spot has shown 0 success at the major league level and at this point in his career can only be characterized as a bust with some potential to turn things around but the odds aren't exactly in his favor. Jeremy Sowers on the other hand posted far better numbers than any White Sox starter last season, especially in the second half when he posted a 2.72 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and a 2.46 BAA in 11 starts. Another MAJOR edge to the Indians. As for the middle of the 2 rotations, I don't see any real advantages for either team with Westbrook, Lee and Byrd being roughly equal to Garland, Vazquez and Buehrle with the Sox' having more upside. As for the 2 bullpens, both a pretty big question marks despite being constructed in two totally different ways. The Indians' collections of journeyman could be fairly solid but will definitely be an upgrade over last year's joke of a pen that they were trotting out there day in and day out. The Sox' have some major upside in their bullpen with the possibility of dominance but at the same time a collection of incredibly unproven talent. Advantage White Sox. If both teams play up to their full potentials the Sox have the superior pitching staff but that is asking quite a bit of both groups especially after how pathetically last year's Sox rotation fell on its face.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 03:25 PM) I had a great time today at the Sunday soxfest. I was able to park for free 2 blocks on the street, bonus. The wierd thing was the layout. In soxfest's past everything is pretty much on one level, this time it took a while to figure out where everything is at. Using the narrow stairs between some of the floors was a bit interesting. This was about as quick of an autograph line I have seen. they strictly enforced the sign one item routine and kept the lines moving. I was able to get a good amount of autographs. Konerko, Cintron(which no one showed up for), Sweeney who stole Brian Anderson's hair and shirt from last years Soxfest, Fields, and Owens. Out of everyone Fields seem to go out of his way to personalize things. He asked me my first name, and then personalized the item for me. That was pretty cool. I won about 5 shirts and 5 hats with the silly trivia stuff from the Chevy Pride Crew. The first question to me was "Who is the whitesox hitting coach". You should have refused to answer out of protest.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 02:00 PM) Lee, Westbrook, Sowers, and Byrd in their rotation - which is better than the White Sox. This isn't mentioning a solid bullpen and one of the best offenses in the MLB. Sowers could turn out to be better then a few Sox starters next season.

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Jan 27, 2007 -> 11:00 AM) i dont think thats the case...plain and simple, buehrle doesnt deserve to be the opening day starter, yea garland should start over contreras...but it shouldnt be buehrle Contreras was the Sox' best starter last year I don't see why he wouldn't start opening day over Garland who was pretty average last season.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 10:28 PM) I think a goatee might raise his BA by at least .020. Don't you? I'm not sure it could possibly get any sexier than Brian Anderson with goatee.

I've gotta agree with Heads on this one, as big of a Sex Symbol as Brian has been come in the City of Chicago we can't have him walking around looking like that. The clean cut look works much better for BA.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 04:35 PM) ...and that based off what? Go ahead, admit that you saw it on BP in an article writtenby "clueless" Joe Sheehan. How is it 75% is "pathetic?" and 76% is "pretty good?" I don't read Baseball Prospectus all that often so no I didn't see it in any article by Joe Sheehan, it's just a philosophy I've adopted from following baseball in many different forms over the years. And when you're dealing with stuff like this it's always a problem to break it down in segments because it's impossible to say 75% is bad and 75.1% is good that logic makes no sense. I knew someone would quote that and well I'm not going to elaborate much because I don't really care. When dealing with SB% and stats like it you have to go on a case by case basis for obvious reasons. I think you're bright enough to figure out what I was trying to say instead of taking the numbers so literally. I will admit the terms I used to describe each percentage segment were poorly chosen but the post was rushed and I wasn't really thinking it through.

QUOTE(SnB @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 11:18 AM) download bit tornado http://www.bittornado.com/download.html go to torrent spy http://torrentspy.com/default.asp search for whatever you want, download the file, windows will say "open with...." and bit tornado should come up. Open the file with that and it'll download. I just learned about this stuff earlier this week and love it. utorrent is the superior torrent client. It takes up no hard drive space or memory and is incredibly easy to use and port forward. I've been using torrents for somewhere around 2 years now and it doesn't get much better.

QUOTE(rpmahr @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 01:03 PM) we have the pretty much the same core as in 2005 and 2006 and both teams were winners...we just did not produce as much as 2005 in 2006 and played in the best division in baseball....how can we not contend, especially when minnesota is weaker with their pitching and detroit will most likely have a sophomore slump and cleveland still doesnt have the pitching minus CC? the way i see it we are the favorites to win the division and possibly go deep into the playoffs if there is no key injuries. I'm not really sure how you can say the White Sox' starting rotation is really any better than Cleveland's. Both have a bullpen that's a question mark the Sox' has much more upside but is still a major question mark and Cleveland's offense is better than that of the Sox.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 10:46 AM) Am I crazy to think he should be the starting LF and leadoff hitter? This guy we got from Anaheim seems like he jumped the shark about two years ago... You're not crazy, you're 100% correct. Mack should have been leading off since mid '06.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 03:07 AM) I think most people focus on the bad coverage job their CB did on that series and the fact he was benched afterwards. There's a ton of great catches that come on terrible coverage, that's never stopped them in the past. If it were anyone else regardless of the CB ability that catch would be getting major play from ESPN. Like Wite said if Bernard had a crazy personality like most of the WR in the game this wouldn't even be an issue.

Best bench player in baseball. Currently the best leadoff hitter capable of playing LF. I think it's impossible to predict what will happen with Rob in '07, it all depends on how he's used and it's impossible to know what Ozzie wants to do with him.

You know that Berrian catch is easily one of the greatest catches ever by a Bears receiver and has to be one of the best in Playoff history I'm just surprised (or maybe I'm not) that it's really not getting much national pub. I suppose if it were Chad Johnson or Terrell Owens who made the grab it would be running on a 24 hour cycle on ESPN2 it's just a damn shame that Bernard isn't getting a little more publicity for one of the greatest catches I've ever seen.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 11:39 PM) Just try to make sure it's something that you can live with yelling around other people if the dog runs off, so you're not yelling the name of a Disney character or something fruity and embarassing like that... That's why my next dog will be named Stansworth, there ain't a damn thing embarrassing about yelling Stansworth across the neighborhood that's the a name to be proud of.

QUOTE(effectivelywild @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 10:45 PM) In a slightly different vein, I think I've read that a base-stealer needs to have a ~75% success rate to break even in terms of net runs created. Anyone else heard this? Certainly this may be a bit different in close-and-late games, in which the difference between a man on first and a man on second can be more valuable. Yes I have heard this and I personally believe in this line of thinking, 75% and under is just pathetic, 75%-79% is pretty good and 80%+ is money. If a baserunner can't have atleast a 75% SB% then they should not be stealing at all. Anything below the 75% threshold is hurting the team more than it's helping. This just makes Podsednik's 70% (99/141) SB% in a White Sox uniform look all the more pathetic.

Netherfield

QUOTE(CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 06:32 PM) I still don't get your point . Does winning a glove glove mean you're an above average fielder , an average fielder , a poor fielder ? My point was Erstad would be a better option then Mackowiak, thats it plain and simple. A gold glove signifies excellence. Wether or not you deserved it the year you won it is of little consequence. At one point in time you were one of the best at your position. All awards are debatable but they usually are deserving. I think we both agree that Erstad shouldn't be an everyday CF but its not a bad option for the 4th outfielder. Its a decent move for the money. The Gold Glove is considered the biggest joke in all of sports, Derek Jeter is in the lower 25% of SS defensively yet he's the 2 time GG winner at SS now. A GG does not signify excellence it says that you're a pretty damn good hitter and you're popular enough to garner votes. The Gold Glove award should NEVER be used as proof for anything other than a player's popularity because the award isn't even regarded as a significant honor by the people who follow the game considering how much of a joke the voting has become.

So does MLB.tv show all the spring training games or atleast a good amount of them? I was thinking about getting it anyway and this would probably put me over the top.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 05:56 PM) Uh, anyone else watching SC? Springer did seem like the next logical step for A.J.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 05:32 PM) He said otherwise on the Score. Eh, not on draft day '03.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 04:32 PM) It has been pointed out before. It's sad that the Angels screwed themselves over that badly, and it's scary that KW almost traded Garland and Singleton for him. Another guy I would have loved, but would have cost a player rather than just a FA signing, is Brady Clark. He's also a guy I would not have minded starting in CF for the Sox either. I gave up on the whole Brady Clark thing a few months ago, it's just too perfect of a fit. He wouldn't cost much in terms of talent and he's only signed through '07 so there's no long term commitment there. He usually has a high OBP, good avg, ok power and a pretty good baserunner despite not stealing many bases but best of all he can play all 3 OF positions and well with an above average arm. The Brewers currently have somewhere around 13 OF on their active roster and have been looking to move the 30+ year old Clark for a while now. It's a damn shame that the Sox never made any kind of push for a player who could very well make this team even better.

QUOTE(retro1983hat @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 02:27 PM) Mike North, while annoying sometimes, went from a regular fan to a millionaire on sports radio and probably considered one of the top sports talkers in the country. The hating on him gets a little tired on this board sometimes. Just because he makes good money doesn't mean he knows anything about sports, the man is an idiot.