RockRaines

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Nov 6, 2006 -> 03:37 PM) I thought Tressel called an awful game, especially in the 2nd half...and it almost cost em. There is reasoning behind him tucking his playbook away for the rest of the game, and I believe it is the game coming up in 2 weeks.

Liriano=Kerry Wood. Lots of talent, no way to fix horrible delivery. The only way to get him to stay in the league is make him drop the slider. The twins have some holes to fill and I really hope they bring in Suppan or Weaver or someone of that nature that we can absolutely kill.

QUOTE(shoota @ Nov 4, 2006 -> 06:35 PM) I don't understand the disbelief that Crede didn't win the Gold Glove. Must be a homer-based emotional reaction, because Crede's certainly not worthy of a Gold Glove. Hahahahahahaha. Thanks for the laugh.

QUOTE(whitesox61382 @ Nov 4, 2006 -> 06:14 PM) OSU is certainly the best team in the country, but no team is immune from a bad game. It is funny that you talk trash about the ND's performance, yet OSU was outgained and needed to hold on against a two-eight UI team(although they have played better of late). ND's win, as unimpressive as it was(although they did outplay them and probably could have ran the score up in the fourth quarter if they left their starters in), was probably more impressive than the OSU's win. Just goes to show you that anything can happen on any given Saturday. If you watched the OSU game at all, Tressel put the playbook away for the second half, also the d didnt give up much all game.

QUOTE(knightni @ Nov 5, 2006 -> 03:11 PM) There goes the undefeated season, looks like. Hope Grossman takes off the petticoat vs NYG and NE. Its impossible to play over 6 turnovers, Rex played like s***, but the d line didnt get much pressure and the fumbles killed us.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Nov 3, 2006 -> 11:58 AM) You know my stance on Uribe, he's a negative to this deal from Texas' perspective. Was your stance that he should have two gold gloves by now? Wait, that was roto.

Hes young cheap and a longshot. No significant news really.

They should be worrying about their strike zone judgement and mastering offspeed pitches instead of about their old AAA coach and current 3B coach's part time job.

JD is so clutch its ridiculous.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Nov 3, 2006 -> 08:51 AM) Oh, and errors can be a good way to tell if someone is good at fielding their position or not, but you have to take other things into account such as his awesome first baseman saving his ass from having 3 times the number of errors that he should have. There is not a better defensive first baseman than Derek Lee and he saves him a lot of errors. This is a luxury no other 3rd baseman has and he still looks horrible playing his position. Kinda funny how you think thats true, yet D Lee was out most of the season, and playing first base were alot of first time players of that position.

Roto is pretty spot on there.

Interesting tidbit http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/15906064.htm whoops can someone fix my spelling.

I hope we dont unload Cintron, he was one of the more clutch performers on the team last year.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 2, 2006 -> 12:13 PM) Ozzie is our manager, he wants speed, therefor you get him speed. Plus offense can be shutdown by top notch pitching, speed can't be (if its in a player that has actual abilities). That makes no sense BTW, if the guy cant get on base, his speed means nothing, plus we wont be stealing home very much next year, I am willing to bet on that. Our offense produces a ton of runs, and we have one of the best middle of the order lineups in all of baseball. If you want to improve the club, you focus on the more glaring weaknesses, markedly the starting rotation and the bullpen. Getting prospects and unloading more offense for speed does nothing to fix the major holes in this team.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 2, 2006 -> 12:22 PM) I see lots of money talk, so I am curious exactly where people are thinking the Sox 2007 payroll is going to settle out? 115 million.

QUOTE(bmags @ Oct 3, 2006 -> 07:36 PM) If Eko died...i'll stop watching the show. whoops.

Pitching still beats offense, unless you see another way for us to pick up a solid pitcher, you still cant do this trade.

QUOTE(thedoctor @ Nov 2, 2006 -> 08:53 AM) this show just never really disappoints me. who the flock is the eye-patch guy? have we seen him before? and iirc, didn't locke and eko find a glass eye when they first found the pearl hatch? I thought he was radizinsky or whatever, the guy pushing the button two guys before Desmond. Also the video from Juliet absolutely blew my mind. Unreal.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 11:47 PM) Fielding Percentage makes you a good fielder? Since when? Having less errors makes you a better fielder? Since when? There is no way to realistically base the quality of a players defense with statistics. Use your two eyes instead of stats. Like I said, get your stathead out of your statass. He also has one of the best and tallest defensive 1st basemen in the game which helps him out a lot. He is without a doubt a dog on the basepaths and a dog in the field. There is no doubt about that. He is the Carlos Lee of 3rd basemen. If you think that is a good thing then so be it. I don't. Any team without Carlos Lee and/or Aramis Ramirez is a better team. No it doest make him a good fielder, as i said, he isnt that great, but he isnt a dog either. And errors does contribute to what kind of a fielder you are, and its one of the ways to look at how good a player is at his position. Your cub hatred has gotten in the way of recognizing that A-ram is actually a really good player. He is one of the better hitting 3B and is passable at 3B.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 08:14 PM) The Bulls runs stop after timeouts, it's a law. it hard to beat a team that is shooting 70 percent from the field any night of the season.

2006 should have been a lesson to everyone on here that no matter how much offense you get on a team, its the pitching that will ultimately decide your fate.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 07:06 PM) What was his ERA in his other performances? You can't just totally ignore that. Do I think he will be as bad as he was in the bullpen last year as a starter? No, I don't, but that doesn't mean you can ignore that performance in his evaluation. If he goes out and has a sub 3.50 ERA this year you can say the bullpen results were a fluke and not the month or two at the end of '05. Of course we really won't have a good idea of that until a couple years down the road. The point is, you dont know what you have, and in his starts he was a totally different pitcher than coming out of the pen. Carl Crawford is a better player hands down, no doubt about it. But in today's market for an SP, and the upcoming contracts we need to extend to keep key pieces of our org, BMAC's salary and talent are extremely valuable to us. To the D-rays it doesnt mean as much, but to a team like ours who needs a key piece like BMAC and who cant afford to go out and sign Vincente Pedilla just to fill a spot in our rotation, BMAC is EXTREMELY valuable. He may well be our 2nd or 3rd best starter next year, if that happens, would it then make more sense to some of you people why we should keep him?

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 03:48 PM) Pretty ignorant? No sir, that would be you. You are ignoring the fact that he plays horrible defense after I have repeated this fact time and time again, yet you have no defense for that. That is ignorant. Did it matter in the end last year when he produced? NO! If it did and he produced then I would say he produced when it mattered - in the end when he was counted on. The Cubs season only had a chance in the beginning. He did not produce, for whatever reason that may be, when the season actually mattered and his team had a chance. He flat out rakes when the season doesn't matter any longer. Other than that - he is a bum both defensively and offensively. Deal with it. Oh yes, lets just ignore the defense part. Not great? He is HORRIBLE! I don't care what the numbers say. I have two eyes. I have seen him play a lot of games. He is a dog. Get your damn statheads out of your statasses and watch him play a freaking game. Use your eyes. Seriously? He is a bad player because he had a slow start, hilarious. I guess once the two months were over and the cubs were out of it he decided to start playing, because thats how he is, he only plays when it doesnt matter. Lets totally ignore his career numbers of .275 .330 before the all star break and .285 .335 after the break, because of course, he only plays when it doesnt matter. Of course in 2004 when it didnt matter pre all star break he was .326 .374, and post .308 .372, because of course, it just didnt matter. 2005 .298 .356 before the all star break was terrible because he only plays when it doesnt matter. I mean, one year of having a slow start and now his career is defined by only playing when it doesnt matter. Defensively he is not the best player on the field, but a dog? Hmmmm. Well lets see who had a worse FPct at 3B than A-ram: Encarnacion C Tracy A Rod B Inge P Feliz G Atkins D Bell D wright C Jones M Cabrera M Mora A boone T Glaus M Teahen M Izturis B upton H Blalock M Ensberg C Figgins N Punto A Marte He also had the same Fpct as S Rolen and R Zimmerman. A-ram also had only 3 more errors than Joe (Gold Glove) Crede. Overall he ranked 5th in FPCT by a 3B who played more than 100 games. Those in front of him: E Chavez, M Lowell, J Crede, A Beltre. Does that do enough to address your point about his defense?

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 03:26 PM) If we hold off trading for a guy like Crawford, I surely hope BMAC is better than he was last year. I think that will be the case, but I don't buy the coming out of the bullpen argument. Hopefully he gets a little movement on that straight as an arrow fastball, or locates 100x better than last year or he is gonna be much like last year, and then his stock is gone. I think BMAC can get to where everybody thinks he can, but he surely isn't a lock. We don't know what he is going to do next year. You have a pretty good idea what Crawford is going to do next year, and the years after that, and it is pretty awesome. In other words, I hope we are not looking back next year at this time saying, "Man, I wish we would have traded BMAC for Crawford." All that said, I think BMAC can get there. Here's to hoping he does. He started 2 games last year and had a sub 4 era. Thats all we have to go off of his performance last year. BMAC is more valuable because he is a pitcher, its harder to find good pitchers for his price. Why do you think TB would be willing to give up "a potential hall of famer" for BMAC? Because BMAC is worth that price.

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 02:46 PM) I'd trade McCarthy for Crawford in a heartbeat. Crawford has Hall of Fame potential, and McCarthy isn't a "can't miss" prospect. Considering we're scouting young pitchers around baseball, I'll take my chances with KW finding some young arms for this team. There is more of a chance of us finding young Of'ers and FA of'ers than finding a cheap, young, good starting pitcher. When you factor in the team's financial flexibility and the barren landscape of available FA pitchers, you dont trade BMAC.