BrandoFan

If he gets a chance to play, that is. Remember, he is an automatic out against LHP, so he will sit against them. And against RHP, he'll have to outhit Jose, whose 970 OPS against righties leads the team. Willie has positively surprised me a bit latelty, but he might not get many starts.

James Baldwin was a mediocre pitcher even when at his best. The only redeemable quality is that he pitched a great game in Game 3 in 2000 while injured -- he gave up 1E even though it should have been no ER if Ray Durham could field worth a damn.

Small Poppa Willie is faster than Podsednik. He should run at least as much.

The 'rest of the world' has some kickass hazing rituals of its own.

Am I missing something here? Hudler looks like a very mediocre player. Now if we're talking about 23rd pick....

Have you seen Big Thighs' road splits, esp with RISP? Sox just don't see the ball on the road for some reason. Staying on the ball longer, shortening of the swings and using the entire field may be the only remedy. Garland falls apart in the 7th? Then get Kelly Wunsch back here and begin to make up for those innings. 3.50 ERA is always better than 11.00. Marte blew 7 slaves in last season's first half alone. Kinda makes you appreciate Gagne more -- low era AND can save a game. Still Dambasso is the least of our worries. Until Sox get a big-time closer at the break, Cliff Politte is gonna have to pitch his ass off, and right now he is an unqualified failure. As is Koch. Garland and Buerhle have been crap. With Mark, it started with him not running out that ball in the 1st against the Yankees. 259 with RISP won't get it done. I am not expecting 309, but 280 is a must. Pitching is bad. Offense is unacceptably mediocre. If Sox keep this crap up, expect a big ass NOSE DIVE. Been there in 2002. And 2003. The sweep in Toronto was but a mere warning shot across the bow of complacency. It was baseball gods' way of saying, "you motherf***ers better start bashing and raking like a playoff team should, or that 10-1 record in 1-run games will get reversed in no time". Now let's go 5-1 in the next 6 games and build on that momentum.

He is an 80% career base-stealer. If you can't run him, who are you gonna run, Joe Crede? Run Harris every chance to maximize his OBP. Run Uribe, Olivo, Rowand -- maybe Lee ocassionally in front of Kong. That's it. Sac bunts are a waste of outs, esp when the team can't execute them. Small ball is BAD when it's not done right, esp in the modern game. It wastes precious outs - last game in Toronto showed what happens. 70% is the break-even point on SB. Pick-offs are counted as CS, btw. The exception of course if a team is full of light-hitting Pierre types who steal A LOT, including 3rd bases with < 2 outs, and generally wreck havoc on the pads.......in which case I guess such team could "subsist" on sub-70%.

Botched H&R = botched Ozzieball. Players' fault. Ozzie's fault. Matters not. Uribe should be running. Lee should pick his spots. 3 SB, 2 CS is bad. Last year he was very good. All others years -- bad. Rowand should be 1-1, not 2-0. He got picked off and was safe at 2B on a lousy throw. If I am an official scorer, somebody is getting an error on that play. But yeah, Rowand should be running as well. As should Olivo and Harris.

What was Splinter's OPS+? What is Bonds's? Granted, since Bonds is better defensively, infinitely better on the basepaths, and hit into less GIDP.........Williams's OPS+ be MUCH higher for him to be a "better LF". Who was better a hitter with RISP or RO? If both are tied, the fact that Williams fought in the War in his prime is a tie-breaker. If Bonds is proved to have taken steroids, then Williams wins by disqualification.

20 SB, 9 CS, 4 pick-offs. 20 steals and 13 outs? And Rowand had a fluke steal where he got picked off, so it's more like 19/14, which is awful. None of the steals are of 3rd base with < 2 outs, so it's even worse. Are hit-n-runs up? No. Are GIDP appreciably down? Not really. Sac bunts are getting botched left and right. Ozzieball is definately hurting this team so far. IF Scott f***ing Posednik can swipe 20 bags already, Willie should be running on everybody. Crede, Magglio, Konerko and Thomas on the other hand? Not so much. The only thing this team is successful at so far is MEDIOCRITY. Sox must shape the f*** up and fast. Like NEXT 6 GAMES "fast".

I suppose your Cantonese made it possible for you to understand the nuances. Besides, the movie looks and feels great, if you're into this whole genre. Plot is secondary.

Oh no s***! I am sure it's gonna get butchered Solaris-style, but still. It's gonna so awesomely mockerific.

They took out Dudaev 10 years ago. A cell phone call. He picks up. Rockets make a nice little crater. Good times.

No, I think you confuse me with MurcieOne. LMAO....

Rick Ankiel

So he's a Matt Clement clone -- or is he closer to his scumbag brother?

You're talking about a generic ZR; UltineZR (UZR) is something else. Secondly, even if you still want to use the regular one, Crede is at 818 while Valentin is at 915 despite his usual slow, error-filled April start. You still need to use other defensive evaluation approaches to get a fuller picture (sometimes they may even contradict one another as measuring defense, especially from a small sample size of 30 games is far from a straighforward process), but the basic point remains: if you only use Fielding %, a player's Total defensive contribution gets skewed. Hell, look at the basic RangeFactor: Joe is at the bottom of the league -- and it's not as if Sox don't give up groundballs because Uribe, Valentin and Harris all rank up there in range factor (5.19, 5.29, 5.44 respectively), so the ball must be magically avoiding Joe's glove (2.06). And I don't need allies, nor was I being condescending. I have explained this stuff many, many times, provided links and stats and whatnot.....after a while, it's clear people prefer ignorance -- hence the countless "Crede is a great fielder" and a "stud hitter" proclamations every time he hits a GW sac fly or makes a diving stop on a groundball. Joe had 3 plays in Baltimore and Toronto alone that weren't scored as errors but should havebeen. Runs scored. People conveniently forget those plays, only remembering the occasional high-light. His reads, jumps and closing speed (esp. on bunts and short choppers where a play at 1B will be bang-bang, so the littlest hesitation costs you) are just average. Joe has a strong arm but doesn't throw particularly well off balance, he doesn't throw from his knees at all; he is not quick to set his feet and his release is notoriously slow. A few times he got eaten up by a hop and took forever to make a decision -- I think it was Toronto loss at home -- the bases were loaded the ball was hit right at him and instead of quickly stepping on the bag and gunning to 1B, he took 3 or 4 steps and only then made a safe throw. No DP, run scored. I got a ton of similar examples, but if people want to believe the Golden Boy hype, it's their prerogative. Joe could become a Gold Glover, he has the tools for it no question about it.......but my post doesn't deal with 'coulds' or 'shoulds' but rather with 2003 and 2004.

Why are people only talking about this now, 30 games into the season? Esteban hasn't had a 93-94mph heater since the dominant start in NY last year.

No need to put the self-deluding, homerific spin on this. Sox have been very mediocre since the KC series. They got outscored by Cle and Tor and barely survived TB at home. Baltimore series, too was full of mediocre pitching, awful defense and lack of clutch htting. Sox were a Tejada error and Botch meltodown away from being swept. This was painfully obvious way back when the Coprseball thread got started. Last 3 games are what happens when Sox stop getting every bounce, when the luck runs out. It will continue happening until Sox literally improve at every facet of the game. it's not up to Ozzie. It's up to every single player not named Thomas, Shingo, Cotts, Olivo and Uribe. "Thank God for ALC" should be the 2004 Sox slogan. Now let's take 6 games from the O's and Minny and go from there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are a lot of people of influence interested in Cubs hegemony. Cubs = popularity = big money = bigger story for the media Complaning will get you nowhere.

Does anyone know what Jared Weaver throws, velocity and pitch-type wise?

Yes, because errors are a great way to judge a fielder's worth. Are you familiar with, say, Ultine ZoneRating or Pinto's Probabilistic Model of Range? How about something as rudimentary as Defensive Win Shares? Nothing substitites game-watching of course (which is why one is underrated and the other -- overrated, watch the game sometimes) but it helps to understand some of those statistical methods if you want to assess a fielder's worth? Or you can stay in the dark age of fielding %. Choice is yours.

But that's the point: you DON'T know how "good" this draft is gonna be until 3-4 years from now, if then. It may end up being very weak as they predict, or it may end up producing 5 HOF'ers. 12 Mill bonus? lmao

Boone Jr High? Why would I be there?