gosox41

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 25, 2008 -> 10:32 PM) So aside from idol speculation and a whole mess of guessin' what exactly I'm I reading here? Instead of making assumptions why not do a little research and tell us what the other contending teams are doing in similar situations? What's Boston's record this season when they score 3 runs or less? How many times have the Angels scored under 4 runs? These questions are easily answered. What you're telling me is you're passionate enough about the topic to start a thread but don't particularly care enough to do the work. Speculation is worthless. The Twins are 6-25 when scoring 3 runs or less. This is a .193 winning percentage. They've scored 3 runs or less in 39% of their games. The winning percentage isn't as surprised as the fact that many consider the Twins offense to be worse then the Sox. And it may be, but they seem more consistent.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 25, 2008 -> 10:32 PM) So aside from idol speculation and a whole mess of guessin' what exactly I'm I reading here? Instead of making assumptions why not do a little research and tell us what the other contending teams are doing in similar situations? What's Boston's record this season when they score 3 runs or less? How many times have the Angels scored under 4 runs? These questions are easily answered. What you're telling me is you're passionate enough about the topic to start a thread but don't particularly care enough to do the work. Speculation is worthless. The Red Sox are 6-21 when scoring less then 3 runs. This is a .222 winning percetange, higher then the Sox (who are now 7-27 after the Dodger series) .205. The Red Sox have played 81 games, so in 33.3% of their games they've scored 3 runs or less. The White Sox are at 43.5% of their games. I'll get more teams as time permits.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 25, 2008 -> 09:32 PM) So aside from idol speculation and a whole mess of guessin' what exactly I'm I reading here? Instead of making assumptions why not do a little research and tell us what the other contending teams are doing in similar situations? What's Boston's record this season when they score 3 runs or less? How many times have the Angels scored under 4 runs? These questions are easily answered. What you're telling me is you're passionate enough about the topic to start a thread but don't particularly care enough to do the work. Speculation is worthless. As soon as I get some damn time, I intend to. Yes, I am passionate about anything White Sox. But to say I don't care enough isn't true.

I think this was in the Trib the other day, but haven't seen it mentioned here. The Sox are 6-26 in games when they score 3 runs or less. There's a few interesting ways to look at this number. First, we've scored 3 runs or less in 32 of 76 games. Not sure other teams have done, specially contending teams but this seems like a high percent. 42% of the games the Sox have played, they have scored 3 runs or less. Second, the Sox have the best ERA in baseball. Is it safe for me to assume that other teams that have worse ERA's have a worse won/loss percentage when they score 3 runs or less. Winning 6 o 32 amounts to a .188 winning percetange. Third, What is the Sox record when they give up 3 runs or less? Is it pretty close to being flip flopped? I doubt it. I think these numbers are more telling then talking about how many runs per game we average. I believe that it is 4.98 for the record, but someone may want to check it. But to show how bad the offense is, if we assume the Sox scored exactly 3 runs in each of those 32 games (and we know that's not the case at all) then that means the Sox are averaging 6.4 runs in the other 44 games in which they scored more then 3 runs.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jun 25, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) So yesterday after the game, Chuck Garfien was reading off the white sox lineups batting averages. I noticed outside of Swisher and Buehrle of coarse, they all were in the .260-.300 range. I was suprised and looked it up online. Over the past 30 days, our team batting average is .301. Damn. Really? I guess that includes the 3 games against Pitt and that one week they crushed the ball because it doesn't feel like they're hitting that well.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ Jun 23, 2008 -> 01:10 PM) I never gloated to my Cub friends about 2005. I just kept all the enjoyment to myself, and killed them with kindness. You could tell they were jealous anyway. Not me. My wife and I sent New Year cards out to all our Cub fan friends (and most of them are Cub fans since we live north) that has a picture of us with the WS trophy. The inside said "Have a Championship New Year" Most of my friends got a kick out of it. When we were younger, I was always the minority.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ Jun 23, 2008 -> 03:15 PM) Ramirez is a dead pull hitter as well, that's not stopping him from hovering around .300. Plus the dude has never his ML pitching before this year. Let's see how Ramirez does the second time around the league once the league adjusts to him. Remember Craig Wilson?

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:38 PM) Look, I know you don't like Taveras. You won't even say that he's capable of a Pods-in-'05 type year even though he had something very close to that last year. You think Owens is just as good at the plate, if not better, even though he hasn't proven it at the big league level. You don't think he's a better player than Brian Anderson even though he's been that through his career. You don't think a lead-off hitter is valuable unless he gets on base at a .350-.370 clip, even though you know we haven't had that for a long time and probably won't have it for a long time because, as you also know, Ozzie wants at least above average speed at that spot. Just looking around the league, if the season ended today, the following teams would make the playoffs: Boston, Sox, Angels, TB, Philly, Cubs, Cards, Arizona Looking at their lead-off hitters (players that have led off for 5 games or more): Boston - Ellsbury .358, Crisp .300, Pedroia .322 Sox - Cabrera .322, Swish .350 Angels - Figgins .422, Matthews .319, Izturis .330, Willits .319 TB - Iwamura .341 Philly - Rollins .346, Victorino .343, Taguchi .286, Werth .350 Cubs - Soriano .332, Johnson .343 Cardinals - Schumaker .367, Barton .336, Ryan .319 Arizona - Drew .306, Young .304 Out of those 21 players, there are a total of 5 that get on at a .350 clip or higher. 2 of them (Ellsbury, Figgins) are prototypical lead-off guys. Schumaker is kind of close to being that, Swisher is a middle of the order hitter who is no longer leading off because he doesn't have the speed, and Werth is a journeyman in the middle of a good year. Of those 8 teams only 3 of them regularly lead off with a guy who gets on at a .350 clip or higher, yet they'd all be playoff teams if the season ended today. You don't NEED to have a guy get on at that clip. The idea that a guy like Taveras is worthless with his speed if he can't get on at that clip is frankly idiotic. Over a 550 AB season, a hitter with an OBP of .350 gets on base 192.5 times. Over a 550 AB season, a hitter with a .334 OBP (Willy's career OBP) gets on base 183.7 times. The difference there is 8.8 times, so rounding up, the 9 fewer times Willy gets on base makes him worthless comparitively? That's moronic. Those 184 times he gets on he's dangerous, and if the difference between him and say Roberts is not only 9 successes but also two more high ceiling prospects in trade and probably $5 million plus in salary on top of that, I'll take my chances with Willy. Are these numbers their season OBP's or their OBP's while hitting in the lead oft spo? I see what you're saying, and I selected the lead off role as an example because it's the obvious source. But most of the teams you mentioned here don't have 6 one dimensional hitters with no speed behind them. Some of these teams have guys that can do things like lay down a bunt and hit to all fields instead of trying to pull everything. FWIW, as hard as it is too find, I'll still take a prototypical leadoff hiter who can steal 50 bases and maintain a .370 or high OBP. Heck, I'll take less OBP right about now for a guy who can steal a base. It's why Sox fans voted Pods on the All Star team in '05. He was far from a great hitter. But he is a game changer. He messes with defenses when he's on base and it makes thoe that hit behind him more productive. that being said, I don't want Pods again.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 05:30 PM) I think there's a good chance Thome is gone after this year, so that's something like $12 million off the books. And let's say the Sox can work out an extension for Crede, or can sign him on the market. If he gets a raise around $7-8 million or so, then the Sox could bring up Fields to DH, or they could try experiments at 1B or LF (I still think Josh can learn LF if the Sox commit to it and are patient enough with him). This opens the door to a possible Konerko/Dye deal, which would cut some more money off the books. Contreras is probably gone after this year if he can put up an ERA under 5.00, so that's another $10 million off the books. I think Cabrera is getting something like $9 million and he'll walk, with Alexei sliding over to SS and Richar/Getz probably taking over at first. Subtract $4.5 million for Uribe and that's more money coming off the payroll. Toby's option should be picked up but Ozuna could be gone, so that's another $1 million gone if that happens. A team of... C Pierzynski 1B Swisher 2B Richar/Getz 3B Crede DH Fields LF Dye CF Anderson RF Quentin Vazquez-Buehrle-Floyd-Danks-Broadway Jenks-Linebrink-Thornton-Dotel-Logan-Masset-Russel Hall-Richar/Getz-league minimum back up CF-league minimum back up SS ...is not all that expensive. There's enough left over money to go after a couple big name players on the FA market or take on salary in a trade. *Edit: Also, the $100 million dollar mark doesn't mean a whole lot these days with all the inflation. The Sox should be prepared to spend $110 million plus if they want to seriously contend. Realistically, the Sox can have $25 million coming off their $117 mill pay roll next year: Thome $8mill (What the Sox pay him, the Phils pay $4mikk) Cabrera-$9mill Crede-$4.5mill (I hate to lose him) Uribe-$4.5 mill If this team can be contenders in Sept, the attendence will be there and they're won't be a need to cut payroll. There is room to maneuever. Are there any FA's out there that are legit lead off hitters?

QUOTE (BobDylan @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 05:05 PM) I don't know that the Sox have an affordable line-up anymore. There is defferred money in there, yeah, but they're around the 100 mil mark. Also, I don't think when he says a balanced line-up he means 9 Carlos Beltran's. I think he's talking about hitters that can play situational baseball to support the middle order guys that they can afford. Like a Kevin Youkilis, or one they already have but is struggling, Nick Swisher. I'm talking about having at least one stolen base threat who is capable of stealing 50 bases and screws up defenses. I would also like one or 2 other guys who are capable of 15-20 steals just to keep the other team on their toes and not be so predictable. The non power hitting players should be able to lay down a bunt and situational hit. If you're capable of hitting 30 + home runs I can see the need not too bunt. But anything less and I'd expect the player to make his game more well rounded. Having 6 guys in the line up right now who all done one thing well--hit for power is annoying. They can't rum (maybe Swisher a little) they tend to strke out a lot, and when they're all streaky. When a speedster has a slump, it's a much shorter slump. As individuals they're capable of putting up impessive stats, but when push comes to shove in close games against top relivers they're less likely to get the job done.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) In batting average, the Sox are #5 in the AL with runners on base. #2 with runners in scoring position. Today's 8th inning is exactly what I'm talking about. How bad is that?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 12:56 AM) Tomorrow's column on there now rips Oz for taking out Danks. Fair enough. But he also blasts Oz for calling Wrigley full of rats. If you watch the video, Oz is playing the media who are laughing their ass off. It's low key funny stuff. Mariotti says he's a disgrace ripping historic Wrigley again. Ozzie goes on to call it a museum. He says, 'lots of fans like coming here; oz doesn't like to come here.' That's not in his column. How can this paper allow the vendetta to play out? Telander calls out Mariotti and the column is killed; Mariotti calls out his comrades on TV and the Trib writes bout it. Will Mariotti face the music?? Yu kidding me? No way. Oz you can tell loves when he has the media laughing; what's wrong with baseball being fun. Mariotti who may or may not have been there for the interview completely writes Oz being negative ripping Wrigley when Oz is having fun and being fair. Easy column to rip Oz for the Danks move; fine. The other stuff is ridiculous. Kudos to all other sun times sports writers; I think they do a very nice job. Didnt the Moron rip on Comiskey for like 10 years until the renovations. I guess for him it's OK.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 10:56 AM) Nope. The Sox are #5 in batting average with runners on, and #2 with runners in scoring position. Fans simply immediately forget anything that goes well and dwell on anything that doesn't go well. Start thread after thread after thread to complain about a first place team with the 3rd best offense and the best pitching in the American League. If you're going to post and complain about the team hitting .289 with runners in scoring position because, "that's totally, like, failing 71% of the time," take a moment to note that the major league average is .262 with runners in scoring position. Immediately forget anything that goes well. Dwell on any failure to knock a runner in. Stack up all of those in your head as "evidence." "I've seen the Sox fail to knock in a runner like a hundred times this year! That's got to be a record. Sure, I've seen like 70 Sox games and no more than 8 games of any other team, but that coupled with my refusal to look at the actual numbers doesn't matter. What matters is the irrational cumulative effect of my frustration every time something doesn't go well for my favorite team, and my inability to perceive their performance objectively relative to the other baseball teams." And while we're talking about hitting with RISP, it would be nice if someone can narrow the stat down to how we hit with RISP when we're trailing or have less then a 5 run lead. I'm convinved the .289 average is inflated when we get to face Mr. Garbage Reliver from the Pittsburgh Pirates to make a 10-5 game into a 16-5 game. Those 6 runs are nice and I'm not dumb enough to believe in saving runs for tomorrow like some are. But all those hits and runs in non-clutch situations against a bad teams worst relievers are pretty much meaning less. THere are 2 keys to an offense, it's quite simple, 1. get guys on and 2. get them in. No more no less. We seem to be good at #1 and bad at #2, specifically when playing against good teams. So let's see what are RISP is against the good teams like the Cubs, Tampa Bay, LA Angels, etc and not how he beat on sucky San Diego, KC, and the Pirates to inflate those numbers.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 12:47 AM) Guys and gals, we are a home run hitting team. That's it. Does anybody agree wtih me on this? Our offense is about home runs and I guess to a certain extent doubles. But when we hit doubles Friday they meant nothing. We don't move runners much; we hit home runs. Thome and Konerko who on paper hit a lot of home runs are out of the lineup. So we lose road games and will lose the next 2 unfortunately. Does anybody agree with me we should not talk about our offense, merely our power? We have no offense except home runs. If the ball was live and guys were still on steroids we probably would have run away with the division by now. What we should be talking about is why KW can't get design a team around a balaned offense. I know how our offense is and it sucks because we can't grind out games like yesterday (or the Tampa Bay series). This needs to be addressed or we're going to be spending a long October watchin the Cubs in the playoffs and complainin about a lack of balanced offense.

OK, so I'm paraphrasing Hawk's quote. It's what Hawk says when he wants to show why a lesser hitter is better then a statistically better hitter. And there may be some truth to it, so let's apply this quote to your 2008 Chicago White Sox. Back in April when this team wasn't hitting. I mentioned my usual mantra about this being a one dimensional offense and when one hitter is cold, then everyone, pretty much is cold. But since the Sox were winning, I was quoted Hawks quote by a few posters here. I wish I had the time to see who these people are so I can call them out right now and see what they think now. I will say it's a lot easier to figure out the second pary of Hawk's quote for the 2008 Sox, as they only seem to hit them in bunches and add on a lot when the game is already a blow out. But the bottom line is this team has serious offensive problems. Today's game proves it. We scored 3 whole runs and 2/3 came from a HR. We failed to take advantage of lead off doubles in the 7th and 9th innings and handed the game to the Sox. And it's not just this one game (like I need to say that to anyone who has watched White Sox baseball this year). This lack of simple execution has been a common theme for the Sox pretty much all year (or at least that 1 week the other week and 3 games against Pitt) This is pathetic. I don't know what's worse, the teams inability to execute to win these low scoring close games or the fact that outside of Pods, KW hasn't addressed the need for a more balanced offense. I have never seen a legitimate contending team lose so many games in which htey have given up 3 runs or less. I dont have the stats, but when compared to other contending teams (say 85 wins or more) over the last 10 years, this years Sox have to have lost a higher porportion of 3 runs or less games then the other teams. Or to put it another way, if someone had told you at the beginning of the season that the Sox would have a league best 3.3 ERA 73 games into the season, one would have thought this team would be running away with the division. I mean pitching is key, right? And a 3.3 ERA when you've played about 1/2 your games at the Cell is outstanding. But here we are limping along and not taking advantage of a division that we could easily have been running away with. Sure a 4.5 game lead is nice, but so is getting a B- in Calculus. Why be satisified with mediocrity. I'll take the A and set the curve and let some other poor sap muddle along thankful for not sucking. So how good/bad is this Sox offense. I think it's bad just because it lacks consistency to win day in and day out. It's nice to see the stats padded in 16-5 blow outs, but we seem to consistently lose winnable games. And maybe I'm beating a dead horse. But I'm the same person who called for this team to be broken up since mid-2007. Look it up. Maybe if KW created a balanced line up more then once in the last 8 years, I wouldn't say anything. But being as how we're the same slow, plodding, station to station, power hitting team we were from 2001-2007 (excluding 2005) I feel the need to vent until KW gets it right.

QUOTE (TCQ @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 09:39 AM) I dont know if a lot of you guys have read the sun times this morning but mariotti wrote some of the most biased tasteless trash i have ever read. He actually says in the article how members of the media are not biased and are not fans and then proceeds to put all of his focus on ripping Kenny Williams and Ozzie. He makes them out to be evil hating people, and paints Jim Hendry and Lou Pinella as world class heroes and first class citizens. I have never read anything this biased since i watched "Triumph of the Will" by Leni Reifenstahl (Nazi propaganda from the 30s". One particular thing that made me laugh was how called Ozzie Guillen a jerk because he jokingly said that it took a while to find a double for piniella in that commercial they did because of his waistline. I watched the interview yesterday he was laughing when he said it. Both managers have had nothing but good things to say about each other. There is so much bias and generally disdain for the White Sox organization in his writing its almost a joke to even read it. I am livid and i hope the Sox kick their ass even more now, but then that will make us a classless organization because no one is supposed to be the blessed cubs after their hundred years of god awfulness. Its just another year, and when September rolls around cubs fans will once again repeat their ingrained mantra, "Maybe next year." I don't read the Scuzz Times but someone left this article on my desk this morning. It was another reminder what a foold he is. Imagine this guy calling KW and Ozzie classless.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 16, 2008 -> 12:48 AM) Don't mind the fact that he's actually been an above average hitter in the majors this year while on pace to hit 30 something homers while driving in and scoring 100 runs...and mind you, he's doing all of this while hitting .220. For what it's worth - and to me, it's worth a lot - Thome's hitting .278/.357/.611/.968 in June. But yeah, let's trade the dude for some baseballs. What is with people treating every game like there's no tomorrow? There's over 3 months of the season left! I wouldn't trade him for baseballs, but I'm sick of watching this one dimensional offense not proce and be so streaky.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 16, 2008 -> 01:40 PM) There was an article on this issue today on one of the websites (chisox.com maybe) where the players say they can't figure out the lack of timely hitting either. Not good. 1. Like an earlier poster said earlier, Ozzie has to go back to match ups. No reason to start Pierzynsi against a lefty i/o Hall. When the line up hits, we can screw around with crap like that. Until then it's time to put the players in a position to succeed. 2. This team presses when things aren't going right (i'm sure most players do) and they get anxious an start hacking and trying to pull everthing. If anything they should do the opposite and get back to the basics of what made them successful over the years. Easier said then done.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jun 16, 2008 -> 03:46 PM) I voted Lofton, but I don't think he would be ready to go. So next up would be Fields. I think we need someone that can drive in runs. Don't we have enough of that? Bob

We had one of our patented offesive hot streaks for a week or so and now it's back the SSDD. No one should be surprised by this, but judging from the posts the week of the streak verus what we've seen before and after, most don't get it. One dimensional power hitting teams are notoriously streaky. We have no other balance to manufacture runs or give another team to something to think about. For those, that don't get it, I hope they figure it our soon. I hope KW figures it our soon.

QUOTE (29andPoplar @ Jun 12, 2008 -> 08:35 PM) In other news, Adam Russell is back up and Loaiza is expected to be released. Seriously??? Already???

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) It could be very seriously argued that Boras cost Jordan a ton of money last week. The reason the Sox snagged him so late was due to signability issues fueled by Scott... Good to see the rest of baseball is waking up to what a clown Boras is. I think the JD Drew incident woke up the remaining mentally slow execs as to what kind of person he is. The A-Rod was a lot more publicized and certainly didnt' help. Good to se that as salaries continue to increase, teams are less likely to play the games Boras does. Bob

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 07:40 PM) Hill is older and can't find the strike zone, Pie's playing like absolute s*** in AAA, and Matt Murton is a DH playing LF. The Cubs can try, but there are teams with better packages they could put together for Captain Cholesterol. I hope so. I'd hate to see the Cubs get CC. Bob

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 9, 2008 -> 08:09 PM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...,6132758.column But as Marriotti said when I've him years ago "Many people have called to congratulate me on my column." That's what he'll tell anyone now, I'm sure, if they rip him. Marriotti is scum and fits the Sun Times perfectly. I'm surprised well respected columnists like Telander even stay to write in that rag. It's gone downhill fast. I wonder what pix Marriotti has of his editor where the editor lets Jay Mo rip on fellow colleagues but not vice versa. Bob

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 10:07 AM) I'm not very naive. No way KW would overrule his scouts and pick his kid in the 6th round. I guess I can see your side. I mean the Sox scouts have been far from good at the draft so it's very possible they either 1. thought KW JR was the BPA or 2. Wanted to kiss KW's butt for job security because they no they're not very good at what they do.