3E8

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 21, 2010 -> 11:11 AM) ...and of course hotties makin' out. QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 21, 2010 -> 11:18 AM) more than making out, lol. Mila goes downtown Yes. Clip below doesn't have nudity, but it is NSFW. And it kinda spoils a bit by revealing one of Portman's neurosis. link

Black Swan is neurotic, but beautiful at the same time. Portman does an amazing performance as the ballerina trying to hang on to her ultimate dream while psychologically spiraling out of control. There are actually many similarities between Black Swan and Aronofsky's last film, The Wrestler, which was my favorite of 2008. I like the story in the Wrestler better, but Black Swan is aesthetically more impressive (a lot of black/white, with interesting use of mirrors) and the tense nature of the film allows the score to build more effect. ****

And the fact that he kept mum about feeling pain which cost him and the White Sox significantly is kinda a dirtbag move.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 20, 2010 -> 12:33 AM) Even if 'balls in play' went up at a higher rate than ABs, that wouldn't have any effect on how many of those 'balls in play' became hits. There would be just as many additional outs on balls in play as there were additional hits. The effect of fewer foul ball outs would be a larger sample size, not a change in ratio. You have to consider which part of the park is in question. In a ballpark with very little foul ground, you are likely eliminating a certain amount of pop-ups which are in-play around the infield and short outfield for other stadiums. These areas for pop-ups and some short flies are zones which have a very high degree of turning balls into outs. By decreasing the size of these areas that tend to lower BABIP, the ball then instead must head to an area of higher expected BABIP, or a walk could be issued. It's no coincidence that Oakland, stadium with the most foul ground, has had the lowest BABIP in baseball two of the last four seasons.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 19, 2010 -> 10:48 PM) [/b] I don't believe that for a second. It doesn't make any sense. You would be giving up fair ground to cover area where the batter is not attempting to hit the ball.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 19, 2010 -> 10:39 PM) less foul territory means players cover more of the regular field. Less foul territory means more balls end up in the stands. This lowers potential ABs (denominator of BABIP calculation) while at the same time gives hitter another chance at a hit (numerator of BABIP calculation) or a BB. Players are not positioned to try and make extra outs in foul ground for stadiums with more of it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 19, 2010 -> 10:15 PM) There is no foul territory Less foul ground would only lead to a higher BABIP over time.

The larger percentage of hits which are home runs, the lower the BABIP will be. Pretty simple explanation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 19, 2010 -> 04:53 PM) Baseball America had Escobar as their #12 prospect coming into 2010. A prestigious honor once bestowed upon our own Joseph Borchard.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 19, 2010 -> 03:27 PM) John Axford, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, and Carlos Villanueva? Axford was pretty good last year, but the rest I listed were meh at best. The Brewers haven't had a good bullpen for a while. Villanueva was traded to the Jays for a PTBNL

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Dec 16, 2010 -> 11:54 PM) there are always a few floating out there, and this may be the one you're talking about, but there is a jewelry store that has a couple at a cabin and it's storming out, and the guy is just insanely creepy and weirds me out. QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 05:23 PM) yup, that's it! Hard to describe why, but creeps me out... Hopefully the guy in that commercial isn't opposed to Buick advertising, because he's gonna need a huge trunk space to stuff that girl into.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 01:42 PM) Really? They actually did hit Young? I don't even remember, but I sure as hell remember when Young hit AJ in the face and when PK was hit in the mouth, only to have Buehrle come in with his mid 80's fast ball to retaliate. Yes. On Sept. 14 when we were 3 games back. After Young had hit a home run earlier in the game. And now that I look at it, the HBP came on an 0-2 count, so it probably wasn't even intentional. QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 01:42 PM) If I were Ozzie. the very next twins batter would have been looking at a 100mph fastball high and tight from somebody. f*** "respecting" the twins. Respect them while you're getting ready for the playoffs and they're sitting at home in October. Ozzie is the guy who praised Torii Hunter after he went out of his way to give Jamie Burke a concussion. The attitude needs to come from the players themselves. I've seen benches clear for much less than what Young and Pavano did to our players last season.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Dec 16, 2010 -> 04:42 PM) Carlos Quentin stats for the SEASON 131 453 73 110 217 doubles 25 triples 2 homers 26 RBI's 87 50 3 83 2 2 .243 .342 .479 .821 0.80 Me thinks you try and analyze too much and see only the black cloud of despair. CQ has a ton of talent and was coming back around last year after those injuries. harness that drive he has and we will see a 30-40 homer 100 plus RBI man again. Be patient instead of calling for the beheading of every player who has an off year at times. There's nothing wrong with analyzing the future roster. It's more prudent than assuming a player will repeat his greatest season ever, about 3x more productive than he's been in any other season, after he just "harnesses his drive" (whatever that means). I didn't have despair or call for a beheading. But I don't think we're a playoff contending team without a more significant contribution from Quentin/Peavy than we've seen from them the past two seasons. And how can you have an off-year at times? I can understand forgetting something at times or feeling lazy at times, but if you can have an entire bad year at times, that's not good.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 17, 2010 -> 10:47 AM) IMO, the ENTIRE problem is psychological, which explains why every year the Twins destroy us and make it into the playoffs they get destroyed by any team they play, even if it's NOT the Yankees. Their team pitching and hitting were marginally better than ours last year, but they somehow won just about every game they played against us in grand blowout fashion. Statistically, being that they are marginally better in every way, that should result in them being 1 or 2 games better in head to head play...but it never turns out that way, because every time the Sox play them (no matter how good the Sox are), it's like Superman playing a solid block of Kryptonite for who knows what reason. Though if I had to venture a guess, the reason is that Hawk (and many others, including Ozzie Guillen in the Sox organization) gush over s***ty players like Carlos Gomez and how great he is -- when he sucks in every way possible -- not to mention build up the Twins as an invincible enemy. They need to take a queue from the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Coach, Herb Brooks with the Twins. Rather than coming in and building the Russians up as an invincible team and telling them that in comparison they suck, he chipped away at the Russians, making fun of them in every way he could think of, belittling them just enough every day that their aura of invincibility was dimmed in the eyes of the players. In contrast, if you ask Hawk, Ozzie, or anyone else in the Sox organization, the Twins are better than the Sox -- in every way, every single year -- so there is no point in trying. This entire conversation infuriates me, and serves as a lesson in exactly how you DO NOT COACH your players into thinking their opponents are better than they are. Hawk will give praise to Twins when it is due (Mauer) and sometimes when it is not (Gomez), but he's not the problem. I feel like he wants to beat the Twins more than our players do, which is troubling. When Delmon hit AJ in the face, the person most upset was Hawk (rawlings in his earhole). The team just put their heads down and shook their heads when it happened, then we beaned Young weeks later in a meaningless game after the Twins had all but eliminated us.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 16, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) Last year, I'd have agreed with you, but I'd have done so because I though, with no DH and Jenks in the closer's spot, that we were counting on those 2 for a lot. This year, with Sale as the current 6th starter option and Dunn in that lineup, I don't think we're counting on those guys for nearly as much. "Counting on" them or not, they will provide a certain level of production that the most difficult to estimate and has potential to variate the most. The rest of the current roster is more consistent and easier to accurately estimate. I'm not saying these two need to have the pressure on their shoulders to carry us to the postseason. Simply, they have both displayed the talent in the past that hopefully reappears in 2011 to help us eclipse 90 wins. Sale as a 6th starter option is not comforting. First, his value to the bullpen is removed for whatever length of time he would start. Then, his value in the rotation would have to be more than that in the pen to be beneficial. Which is very dubious when he suddenly has to throw 6 innings instead of 1. But I don't worry about that because Sale won't be starting for the Sox.

The difference between the Sox being a 90+ win playoff team and sitting at home in Oct in this current roster are Peavy and Quentin. All players have variation in performance throughout their career, but that range of Peavy/Quentin is large. If you combined their best seasons, the two alone would be worth over 10 wins. But both are injury prone, Quentin's range in RF is detrimental, and both could cause their contribution to be next to nothing. A conservative estimate of their 2011 combined worth is 3 wins considering Peavy has to come back from a serious injury and Quentin's defense remains quite poor. Projecting the rest of the roster out, those 3 wins from Peavy/Quentin leaves us at a high-80s win team currently.

Watch this and try not to smile.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 07:06 PM) I'm really curious to learn more about the details of the vesting option and what would Lee get if he met the criteria. I'm hearing $20+ million? I'm getting sick of all the praise Lee's getting for "taking less" money. If the numbers are anywhere close to said $20 million, then he's not really taking less money at all. $27.5M with 200IP in 2015 or 400IP in 2014 & 2015.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:06 PM) I think Tosh.0 starts up again in January https://twitter.com/#!/danieltosh/statu...423589834985473

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:47 AM) Yeah it's pretty much bulls*** when comparing hitters to pitchers. It holds some relevance between like players. 100% worthless when comparing Brett Gardner to Gavin Floyd. It's not worthless. Position players produce runs through offense and can prevent runs with defense. Pitchers prevent runs based on how effective they are. All about runs. Measure how much better each is at providing/preventing runs than a replacement player, and you have a gauge for the value of each to a team. One can be more valuable to a team than the other, or worth more. As chw42 said, the defensive WAR component can fluctuate significantly from year-to-year. Hence Gardner's impressive WAR total from 2010. But he has shown to be a plus-defensive player and always maintained an above-average walk rate. I don't see either of those skills going away, and those along with his speed are what make him such a valuable asset.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:27 AM) Wait. So slightly above average OF's are as valuable as established 3rd starters? Gardener was worth more than Floyd last season. A full win more (fangraphs or B-R.com). QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:27 AM) Again, I'm still waiting for someone to tell me who starts in Floyd's sport and gives HALF the value that Floyd is worth. This is somewhat of the original point I was trying to bring up. Any trade of our pitchers for other major league ready talent is likely to end up as a wash since we are in 'win now' mode and on a budget. Just reshuffling wins, borrowed from the starting rotation.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:22 AM) The Yankees need pitching a lot more than on base percentage in the 9 hole. They probably need to not trade a piece for another of equal value costing 10x more.

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:19 AM) There's the answer to your question. I just don't believe a sold 3 is worth a hitter without any power who is a slappy OBP guy (were talking about a guy who projected a bench guy pretty much his whole minor league career). You should read the comparative value between a point of OBP and a point of SLG.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:09 AM) It's potentially 3 years...there's a club option for 2013 in Floyd's deal. Floyd has been a 4 WAR pitcher the last couple of years and has a pretty friendly contract. I don't think the Yankees will trade gardner, but I don't think the deal is hugely lopsided given that Gardner has had 1 great year so far, pitching is scarce, and the Yankees have to be concerned (Floyd would be more valuable to them than lots of other teams). I could see the Sox trading Danks or Floyd for Joba and a catching prospect (Romine?). Not saying that I think that would be wise, just that it could happen.... The 2 years I stated was the amount of service time Gardner has accrued, not the length of Floyd's remaining contract.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 14, 2010 -> 01:02 AM) 2.1 of that WAR was due to UZR. I think Gardner is a very, very good fielder, but I don't know if he's THAT good. DRS had him at +13. FSR had him at +12. I think he's a +12-15 fielder on average. So you can probably shave off a whole win off his WAR. Floyd's also highly affordable for the Yankees for the next 3 years. Fine, call Gardner a 4-win OF. He's still making the league minimum (which in turn means he's club controlled longer) and younger than Floyd while being of equal production. And that was just in his first full season at the major league level. It doesn't make sense for the Yankees to let him go for Floyd.