jackie hayes

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 04:51 PM) Exactly why it's time to trade them. If you believe this is finally the year those two fall off a cliff, okay. Smoltz has shown no signs of slowing down, and Rivera, for all his inconsistency last year, was still solid overall (with a good k rate, to boot). Sure, if anyone actually thought Rivera was as great as he was 10 years ago, you could do well trading him. But noone thinks that anymore, and that's why he was drafted closer to the 10th round than the 5th.

You people, teasing my #1 waiver wire priority with yer Cuetos, and yer Saitos... It's f***ing cruel. I hope everyone gets boils.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 02:03 PM) Unless Longoria has some sort of chronic medical condition, I think this was a bad move on his part. He really looks like one of those "can't miss" prospects and from what I understand, his performance in the minors suggested just that. BTW, I wonder how many of the vets call him "Eva." He would be fun to haze in the clubhouse. I thought they called him Mrs Tony Parker... Actually, type "mrs tony parker" into google (with quotes), and Longoria's baseball-ref page is one of the top 5 results.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 18, 2008 -> 12:51 AM) Does anyone even still care about the abortion debate? The Pro-Life extremists have not killed a Doctor in years, no bombings, etc. No thousand cross displays marking each death. The pro-choice extremists haven't tried to convince us that third trimester, partial birth abortions are fine and the baby doesn't feel any pain. Actually a certain time it's a dead issue, no candidate is pandering for votes on the issue. You're wrong, Tex. It's still a very loaded issue. I had no clue what Bush meant when he referred to the Dred Scott decision in a 2004 debate against Kerry, but found out later the pro-life association. Some of the key moments in the Roberts confirmation hearing were his statements regarding Roe v Wade. Noone's retreated from his position, they've just accepted the stalemate. BUT -- in terms of this project, I think it's wrong to see it as any sort of comment on the political debate.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 06:29 PM) There are many reasons to be skeptical about the literal truth of this. I think the artist would say that its literal truth is beside the point, and I'm inclined to agree with that. Damn, I'm good.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 10:41 PM) Haven't people from the University and the girl said that, no, this isn't literally true? Regardless, it is absolutely disgusting. Yes: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8041702519.html Though I couldn't find that article earlier today. It's interesting -- the story getting out today really changes the way it'll be seen. More people might go, but it'll be a wholly different reaction now.

There are many reasons to be skeptical about the literal truth of this. I think the artist would say that its literal truth is beside the point, and I'm inclined to agree with that.

Alright.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 02:20 AM) I'd pawn off Smoltz, Rivera or Hoffman on someone who's still living in 1998. No... Smoltz and Rivera are still producing and Hoffman would be a fire sale. Depends on the size of the league (is it roto?), but I wouldn't miss Meche or Blanton much. Low-strikeout pitchers, and I still don't trust Meche, good year or not. Try a package swap, or you could try to trade for a better pitcher who's injured, someone you can stash on the DL -- Meche or Blanton for Pedro (who'll be out for a while), Wilson for Rafael Soriano. Maybe even Cordero for Soriano -- depends how worried you are about his velocity. And then if you can't get a good trade, I'd drop Meche, personally.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 02:32 PM) I don't think you can look at Crede's career averages en masse and get an accurate picture. I think going into this season, there were 2 big questions. One was, is he going to be healthy (and for now, the answer is yes, but that could change). The second question then was, which Joe Crede is the real Joe Crede? 2007 is pointless to even put into your stats analysis for Joe, he played only a short while and was injured. Looking at the rest of his career, you had two versions - the 2003 through early 2005 version, which is a .250/.300/.425 guy - mediocre offensively at best. Then there was his most recent 1.5 seasons, where he was more like a .280/.320/.500 guy - pretty good for a 3B offensively. And since they occurred in that order, I think the question was very much up for debate - did he improve and "figure it out", as many hitters do at some point? Or was late 2005 and 2006 a fluke? That question is still up for debate. But if he has numbers like the latter, then I think the verdict is in - he's matured into that player. In that case, I think looking to re-sign him to a reasonable deal after the season (if you can) is a very good idea - especially with his plus defense. If he walks, fine, Josh is waiting. If his numbers go back to 2003-2004 type numbers, then he gets traded or left to free agency, and that's fine with Fields in the wings. I simply do not think you can look at Joe's career averages in total and project his value. You need to look more closely at the history. Looking at the 'optimist' side of that -- you're plucking out what happens to be the very best stretch of his career, when he was also at his peak productive age, and setting that as a standard for years when he should be on the decline, anyway, and ignoring the injury risk. And the start point in 2005 has to be picked just so -- after a swoon in May but early enough to balance out the wretched August. This sounds more hopeful than anything. Even completely ignoring his previous history, given his age and the injury risk, I don't see how anyone can look at .280/.320/.500 as a reasonable expectation. As a 'best-case' scenario, okay. But no more than that.

Is Egbert over his elbow troubles?

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 01:38 PM) well, if you want to quibble with semantics fine. that wasn't my intent. i think you understand what i mean. Well...no. I don't know what you mean by his "current pace", unless you mean his current pace. If you mean his career pace, then I don't see why he'd be resigned. Even taking a little off his pace this year -- it's not gonna happen. A career .260/.300/.450 hitter is not going to hit .290/.350/.550. At least, it's damn unlikely.

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 01:04 PM) if crede keeps up his current pace, no way kw deals him this year, nor should he. with the division suddenly looking more winnable today than it did two weeks ago, you need a guy like crede if for no other reason than his defense saves runs. i think many would agree this team's greatest question marks lie in its starting rotation, and with that in mind it pays to have a defensively superb team, which we have right now. fields, who is an outstanding prospect, is not great defensively. not horrid, but not near crede's level of play in the field. few are. i do think he is our starting third baseman on opening day next year, regardless of what happens with crede this year. but in the interim, particularly if we remain in the race (i expect this) i don't see a scenario where crede is dealt this season. that would run contrary to the win-now approach williams has taken. Crede did not suddenly become Miguel Cabrera. His current pace is not even close to sustainable.

QUOTE (Balance @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 08:17 PM) That probably also works. I've never tried it myself. I have to admit, though, there's a definite sense of satisfaction that I get when I make something from scratch. I don't doubt that at all. But I'm more familiar with the definite sense of dissatisfaction that I get when my dough ends up a sticky, uneven, rock-hard ball of uselessness. And whoever posted about the fennel seeds -- that does sound good. I'm gonna give that a shot next time.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 7, 2008 -> 09:11 AM) Actually, they are all my candidates since one of them will be President. And yes, I have read plenty of negative articles on Clinton and McCain, but the job of posting those has pretty much been filled by a good portion of the posters here. As to jackiehayes remark about starting a new thread, I rarely start new threads. I started this one because the other pastor one was closed. And as for this most recent article, I didn't think it had much to do with the pastor or church except for the ending. It was more a comparison of Obama and King. Juan Williams is a black liberal and isn't as easily dismissed as some extreme right wing writer like Ann Coulter or something. I thought the article was informative and didn't want it to get lost in this thread. Anyway..I'm off to the game. Go Sox. I just want to clarify something -- I was talking about the separate thread that you created for post #23, not this thread that the new one was merged into. To the mods -- I know I'm not licensed to post in this forum, I just wanted to clarify a remark directed at me. I hope that's all right, but if not, please delete this post.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 11:44 AM) Fair enough. The fact that the D-backs parted ways with him so quickly is a red flag, IMO, but I'm really interested to see how he'll do over the course of a full season. So far, I'm impressed. The Dbacks of is really loaded, though. That really doesn't worry me much.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 11:02 AM) You keep going back to the PR role, but that's minimal and not the primary reason why you keep a guy on the roster. Its just a nice bonus. As I said, you should play your 4th OF (whether Anderson or Owens) a couple days a week as a general guideline, so the value equation isn't about PR versus OF - its about OF versus OF. Anderson is the better defender hands down of course. But Owens has a history of higher OBP, plus the speed is a nice added bonus. Anderson is said to have a higher ceiling, but that has yet to manifest itself. So I think its a pretty close draw between the 2 for that slot. At the moment, since the team is doing well as-is and Anderson has been just fine in a minimal role, my tendency is to keep things as they are. But if Anderson struggles, I think its a good idea to replace him with JO. The conversation started with pr, and really that's all I'd want Owens for. I agree it's minimal, but that's the reason it's being discussed. Owens has had a better obp in the majors, but it's still not good, and he has zero power. Since we're talking about guys with pretty small MLB track records, I think it's useful to look at what they've done in the minors. Anderson's MiLB obp is .361, Owens's is .362. Anderson obviously has much better power. So I don't think they're really all that close in terms of ceiling. I'm well aware of how bad Anderson was in 2006. But there's no truth to the idea that Owens was at least serviceable last year. Anderson's ops+ in 2006 was 65, Owens's in 2007 was 67. They both royally sucked. Anderson's hasn't approached his ceiling, sure. But neither has Owens. At least, for his sake, I hope he hasn't.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 10:52 AM) I wouldn't be pissed if either Owens OR Anderson got 2 or 3 starts a week. That means relieving Quentin in LF once and Swisher in CF once each week, with Quentin or Swisher sometimes playing RF or 1B/DH (respectively) on those days anyway. In fact, I think its a good idea to do just that. The question is, should it be Anderson or Owens who does that? Anderson. If you're talking about actually giving a guy some pt, you pick the guy with a higher upside at the plate who's a better fielder. That advantage over 200-300 abs plus the better innings in cf is a much bigger difference-maker than the occasional pinch running opportunity, especially when you have Ozuna and Ramirez anyway.

Crede's career ops+ is 93, below average. His best full-season ops+ is 107, above average, but not by much. We really don't know how long his back will stay healthy and next year is his age-31 season. I'm sorry, but that's not worth $10+ mil per year for 4 years. Just like Thome's not going to have a 52 ops+ over the rest of the season, Crede's not going to maintain a 162, healthy or not. You just don't sign aging injury-prone below-average hitters to huge extensions. I'm grateful for everything Joe's done for the Sox, but next season at the latest it'll be time to move on.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 10:17 AM) True. However, having a lefty bat who can play LF and CF occasionally off the bench, AND pinch hit and pinch run, does have some value. I'm sort of torn on the Anderson/Owens question. How "occasionally"? I'd be pissed if Owens comes up and gets 2 or 3 starts per week, cutting into the pt of a much better player in Swisher or Quentin. (And if he actually got enough time to rack up 50 steals...) But if he barely ever plays, his value is just that of a pinch runner. Either way, I don't see any point in bringing him up.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 11:05 AM) 9th inning, Sox down by one with 1 one out. Thome/Konerko/Dye/AJ/Crede/Hall/Uribe whomever singles or gets walked. Time for a pinch runner... I want Owens on this team as a 4th OF. A marginal improvement over Ozuna/Ramirez in the pinch running department isn't worth the loss of a player who's better in every other aspect of the game.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 01:11 AM) great, another lefty pitching against us tomorrow, when will the madness end? edit: i hope he doesn't make our hitters look foolish, his stats are very bad, he had a WHIP last year of about 1.6, and he's off to a really bad start this year (9.2 IP, 7.45 ERA, 1.84 WHIP, 3 HR, 7BB, 8K) this should be the exact type of pitcher we need to face with contreras on the mound, to have a chance Loewen's stats aren't good, but he's no slouch. He has control problems, but he's a good strikeout pitcher, so on those days when he finds the strike zone he's a tough matchup. Hopefully the Sox can be patient and let him pitch himself out of the game.

QUOTE (FlaCWS @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 09:10 PM) Since the Sox played a day game today, how about a light topic for the night: When and why did the black uni's go from being our alternates to our primaries? Personally I hate it, as I think the home pinstripes are one of the classiest uniforms in MLB, and the road grays with script "Chicago" convey hometown pride. The black was always cool once a week, as a nice change of pace, but seeing them everyday makes it feel like we're still in spring training. So I was just curious if I missed an announcement about this... OK, end of rant. Play ball! It's to honor Jackie Robinson. Duh... You don't like it? Fine, be a racist.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 06:18 PM) If he got the surgery when the Sox wanted him to, chances are he doesn't sign the 1 yr. contract for '08 and he's hitting grand slams and making dazzling plays for another team already. No, he was under Sox control for 2008. At worst, it would have gone to arbitration. QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 06:21 PM) Honestly wondering, should I just stay out of this thread? Nah...

Someone in one of my leagues just dropped Hunter Pence. He somehow decided that Ryan Dempster is more valuable than Hunter Pence. Just, wow. WOW.