ptatc

QUOTE (Steff @ Jan 16, 2009 -> 10:22 PM) http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9090020...ling-for-Hudson Encouraging news for the White Sox: Right-hander Jose Contreras, recovering from a ruptured left Achilles tendon, has lost 25 pounds and already is throwing off a mound. Contreras was expected to miss at least nine months after undergoing surgery in August. His timetable could be accelerated. Wow, I'm really surprised that they are moving him that quickly. His rehab must be going really well. Looks like he can be the 4-5 starter. Maybe this was part of KW plan for the experience in the back of the rotation.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 03:49 PM) For the price they paid it should have turned the franchise into a money making machine. Instead the team gets off on the cheap invests little into the facility and reaps the rewards from guaranteed sell-outs and a great television contract. They can raise ticket prices as much as they like because of the long waiting list for season tickets and the mere fact that you are still only buying 10 games. This just means the city signed a bad deal with the team. It has nothing to do with the facility itself. The stadium is a good facility, the city politicians are idiots(what else is new) for signeingoff on the crappy deal.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 11:44 AM) They are cheap because they will not pay for real assistant coaches or to make Soldier Field a real NFL facility. Do you know that the Park District makes zero money on the Bears. If the Bears left that facility it would cost the Park District zero revenue lost. As a season ticket holder, I like Soldier Field. It's a heck of a lot better than the old one. The seat a better, they are closer to the field, the noise level incrased because of the up instead of out design. It is not the best looking stadium but once you are insde it is a stadium comparable to most in the NFL.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 09:59 PM) This will definitely be a make or break year for Lovie. Won't have anyone else to blame if the defense underperforms. I like Lovie, so hopefully it works out. he can alway blame it on Angelo for not getting him the players he needs. Lovie will be here at until there is only 1 year left on his deal.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 12:54 PM) IMO, Poreda should only be on the MLB roster if he outright wins the 5th starter spot in Spring Training. If not, send him to AAA and let him keep working on his secondary stuff. He's our best pitching prospect, and a pretty damn good one at that. Don't let him waste away in the bullpen. And don't bring up Buehrle either, totally different pitchers and scenarios. Sandy Koufax? Power Lefty, only a couple of pitches, refined from thrower to pitcher in the pen?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 12:37 PM) The one downside of that is that it would bury 2 of CR, JM, and AP in the minors, while the other is consigned to the pen. I'm something of a believer in a pitcher needing a chance to work the kinks out in the big leagues, most of the time, before they can move on. Floyd and Danks had really good 08 campaigns...but both of them got the chance to struggle in 07. McCarthy, for example, was pretty rough in his first campaign in the bigs in 05, but then was dynamite when he was called back at the end of the season. You get the occasional Verlander who just comes up and destroys people based on raw stuff, but if a guy needs to learn to pitch in the big leagues, then they need time to learn to pitch, and the 5th starter spot can be a useful place to do that. this is a really good point. At some time you need to break the pitchers into the MLB and they will suffer for a little while but you can usually see the ones who can make the adjustment. So ,even though they have a tough year, you know they will improve. The question then is, how many of these do you want in the rotation? If you break CP/AP in the bullpen in may benefit them and they can hit the ground running in the rotation later.

QUOTE (Steff @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 11:09 AM) Nope. But he had surgery mid August and according to WebMD normal folks start rehab after at the most 7 weeks. http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ruptured-tendon?page=5 Achilles tendon Surgery to repair your Achilles tendon is recommended for active people who desire near normal strength and power in plantarflexion. An additional advantage with surgical correction is a lower rerupture rate of the tendon. After your operation, your foot will be immobilized with your toes pointing downward for 3-4 weeks and then progressively brought into neutral position over 2-3 weeks before weightbearing is started. Surgery carries with it a higher risk of infection than closed treatment. since he had surgery in mid- August, it will probably be around that time when he will bw with the Sox again. That is a conservative estimate based on rehab and throwing progress. But I don't see it any earlier than late July in the very best scenario. This is a return to the sox so he will be throwing earlier and getting ready.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2009 -> 10:22 AM) I haven't heard anything new, but it makes sense. A full achillies tear is a major rehab. They go in and stitch the thing back together in the surgery. Then you have to wait a long ( I want to say like 8-12 weeks) to make sure that it grew back together properly. Once you have that, then they begin a very basic rehab to get you back simple range of motion and strength. Once that is done, then you actually start to resume some normal activity. After that, then you can get into some more challenging activities. The problem is that once you have a tear, it is very easy to re-tear, which is why every step take so long. When they say a year to recover, that is very realistic from my experiences. Hopefully Ptac sees this and can give some more medical details. that's pretty accurrate for someone his age. The difference will be that they will use an augmentation device to help the repair heal faster and have more tensile strength later on. So he will begin moving a little earlier than the 8-12 weeks. As I've stated before with all of his variables (size,age etc.) I would guess it to be about a year from surgery that he will be pitching for the Sox at the MLB level. I don't remember when he had surgery but that should be about the time frame.

Looks like our pitching staff is complete. Starters (5) Buerhle Danks Floyd Colon Marquez Bullpen(7) Jenks Linebrink Dotel (kids from the yankmees) Thornton Richard Poreda

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 01:39 PM) A question to think about: did KW intend for this to be what his roster would look like on January 14th, or did he misjudge how the economy/market would play out? I have a very hard time believing that he wanted a roster with so many holes at this stage of the offseason. I disagree with this to an extent. I don't think he believes there are many holes in it. In the lineup he is confident in Fields based upon the performance two years ago before the knee injury. Second base has youngsters but both Getz and Lillibridge are highly thought of prospects. The Sox believe Ramierez can play short. C,1B,LF, RF and LF are manned by veterans. This leaves CF as the only hole with the team getting younger. The bullpen has Jenks, Linebrink, Dotel, and the kid from the Yankmees from the right side and Thornton from the left side. there are only 2 lefty spots remaining. The rotation is where he may still add. You have Buerhle, Danks and Floyd as locks with Marquez as a probable. Richard is either in the rotation or in the pen as an additional lefty if KW acquires an additional starting pitcher. I think plan all along as stated was to get younger. This team will have a good mix of veterans and youth if another pitcher is acquired. I think the eceonomy with so many players not signed and the options KW has because of this is the surprise. I'm not saying this team will contend this year but I think this is the plan with Thome and Dye coming off the books soon the team will convert from an old slow team to a more athletic younger team in a 2 year span. This doesn't bode well for this year (although there is no way they will finish last in the Central) but will get them to being a very good team with a young nulceus in a short period of time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 14, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) You sound like you're outraged by that. I think that's how most teams seem to build title contenders lately. The problem is most people use the Yankees version of building a team. Get all the best plyers and you'll have the best team. This doesn't always work. With the Yankees that extra 80 million dollars per year of media money helps them. Most teams need to get the parts to fit together. Case in point a player like Podsednik. No one will say he was a great player but in a given game he stole a base advanced on a bunt and scored on a sac fly and we won 1-0. Now would I rather have Johnny Damon, Grady Sizemore or Brian Roberts? YES. But that just isn't an option with those players weither not available or not available unless you were bent over barstool. Picking up good players who fit their roles is the way the Sox will win.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jan 11, 2009 -> 08:55 PM) An injury like that can change the pitcher drastically. Everything will be out of synch, and it would take a tremendous amount of time just to learn how to pitch again. If he were younger, I wouldn't be talking like this, but he's probably about 40 right now. I think his career is done. An injury to his achilles shouldn't change anything as long as he regains the flexibility and there isn't any reason he shouldn't. I've had many patients come back from this injury and do fine. This includes patients in baseball, football, rugby players, triathletes and marathon runners. The only reason his career would be over is that he was declining before the injury.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jan 11, 2009 -> 08:52 PM) The thing is, what makes you think Garcia would magically be able to fill one of those spots? He can barely hit 80 on the radar gun, and there is no indication of him being able to hold for any significant amount of time. He had a flare up in the shoulder over the winter as well. So who knows how the rehab is coming. It generally takes a full year of throwing to top out at the shoulder strength again. Who knows where that top will be and he still needs to throw more before he gets there. I could see him being a 5-6 inning guy until he rebuilds the arm but he is a big question mark and not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jan 11, 2009 -> 06:39 PM) I don't think we should plan on Contreras coming back anytime soon, if ever. At his age, that injury potentially ended his career, IMO. the injury shouldn't end his career. An achilles tendon repair is a fairly easy one compared to most. even in the general orthopedic population the rehab is 6-9 months. With getting back into pitching shape and such I would guess he could be ready at about one year post surgery. Wasn't it around the All-Star break that we lost him? That being said, he wasn't really pitching well last year so who knows how effective he could be this year.

It's obivious that many of the players are seeking an advantage by improving their focus and concentration. This is what many of the ADHD drugs do. However, many of them with have the opposite effect on patients who are misdiagnosed. It will be interesting to see how many of the players have the opposite effect.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 31, 2008 -> 03:41 PM) Frankly, I don't like that health insurance is a for-profit industry. I won't go so far as to say I want socialized insurance (YET, because I haven't become convinced it's the wrong idea yet either), and definitely not full-blown government-run healthcare, but this is somewhere I don't think the pure free market is the answer. the only problem is that the socialization of medicine maybe economically better but is horrible for the consumer and the provider. There isn't a single country that has socialized medicine that is approved by it's citizens. Everyone I know from those countries wants a job they can in which they can climb the ladder high enough to get private insurance. The medical professionals don't like it either because more often than not their hands are tied and they cannot provide the care they should. Socialized medicine doesn't improve medical care. It only prescribes that all people will have mediocre healthcare and will bring the ceiling and floor of care to the middle. Kind of like the current state of the NFL, lots of mediocre teams with many holes in them and nothing particularly great. (I had to bring sports in somehow).

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 24, 2008 -> 11:22 AM) So, Yonder is not far away huh? I always wondered where Yonder was. I thought it was over. And here it is near Cincinnati. Who woulda thunk it.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Dec 24, 2008 -> 10:55 AM) I tend to agree with you and as stupid and simplistic it may seem I think a lot of it comes down to genetics. For the most part you are going to get hurt or you aren't. Of course some of the crazy poor whiplike mechanics have something to do with it, but I look at a player like Zambrano. The guy has started at least 30 games the last 7 years. Javy is another example of a guy who just goes out there year after year and throws 30 games and gives you either 200+ or close to it, year after year (Since 2000 he's made 30 starts and thrown over 200 in 8 of those.) On the flipside there's a guy like Harden who just can't stay healthy. I believe I saw a stat that this season was the first time he made more than 10 starts in a row and then he ended up having to skip starts again. Again, I'm oversimplifying it to make a point, but I just think there are guys who are horses who you can run out there and count on and others that no matter how much you baby are going to run into injury problems. this has alot to do with it and I don't think there are enough to fill on the spots on all of the teams.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Dec 24, 2008 -> 09:59 AM) Ryan is right, pitchers are babied in today's game. It's funny how people assume because you throw more innings or pitches in an outing your arm is going to fall off. That's a load of bull. Pitchers get injured because of poor mechanics and stuff like that, not because of fatigue. Everyone always says Kerry Wood's injury problems lead back to his high school days where he pitched an "abnormal" amount. But that's completely BS. Anyone who throws across their body with the type of velocity he has is going to have injury problems. Perhaps the injury happened a year or two sooner then it could have because of all the work he got in HS, but it was inevitable none-the-less. Also, if the Ranges do shift to a 4 man rotation, they'd be wise to sign Jon Garland. He could do wonders in a 4 man rotation. It's not a load of bull. Some pitchers can handle it and some can't. There aren't enough of the ones who can to go around. Even the ones who can handle it haven't been conditioned to do it. You will need to sacrifice the next MLB season working the pitchers into condition to do it, unless you start it in the minors which he is not proposing. You can't just change it, the body doesn't work that way. Believe me I've worked with enough pitchers to see the conditioning and work they do. Kerry Wood's problems did begin with poor mechanics, however some pitchers canpitch with them, in my opinion Nolan Ryan was one of them. However, Wood's problems were defnitately accelerated by his high school coach with pitching him in both games of double headers.

QUOTE (tommy @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 08:51 PM) I'm sorry but I think representing your country should be a little more 'selective' than simply choosing what team you play for. I can see if a player is a citizen of two countries, he picks one and plays for that team forever. Just my two cents. They use the Olympic qualification rules. I believe it is if someone in your family as recent as your grandparents was a citizen of a ciuntry you can play for them.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 01:02 PM) I've studied his philosophy and I disagree that it decreases stress on the arm. I understand what he is trying to do but i don't agree. He is a qualified person to make the remarks with his research. His philosophy is drastically different than House's. While agree that certain things that Houses espouses are detrimental to a pitcher, I don'y fully agree with Marshall's philosophy either. I think there is a middle ground between the two. I'm not a fan of saying that everything needs to be done in a rigid way. As long as it's biomechanically sound without adding too much stress to a certainarea of the body, you should let the pitcher do what's comfortable. These to philosophies are too rigid for me.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 12:02 PM) Ex-Dodger Mike Marshall has a web-site where he discusses the biomechanical problems of the pitching delivery. He has a theory that pitchers should change their delivery to reduce stress on the arm. It's pretty interesting. http://www.drmikemarshall.com/BaseballPitc...ionalVideo.html I don't think the 4-man rotation would work for an entire season because of the way pitchers are handled, but I do think there are points in the season where the fifth starter (or anyone who's struggling) could be skipped becasue of rainouts or some kind of scheduling quirk that would allow the 4 top guys to pitch on normal rest. You could probably get 3 or 4 more starts out of your top 4 guys and reduce the work load of the fifth starter just by periodically going to the 4-man rotation. I've studied his philosophy and I disagree that it decreases stress on the arm. I understand what he is trying to do but i don't agree.

QUOTE (The Critic @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 11:21 AM) I heard an interesting theory on this on the Boers & Bernstein show. I can't remember if it was Bernstein or a guest who mentioned that these days pitchers use a lot less of their lower bodies and legs in their deliveries than they used to back in the 60s and 70s. This makes their deliveries more arm-based, and might be why pitchers tire sooner and have to leave games. It was stated that they believed this could also be a factor in the increase in arm injuries over the years. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it was an interesting discussion anyway. There are a few philosophies that espouse this but most don't and shouldn't. What this person was probably was referring to was the Drop and Drive technique that was the most common back in that time. Most biomechanical models show the extra stress this puts on the shoulder and elbow and it has fallen out of favor. However the newer models do not de-emphasize the lower body. They just incorporate it differently. i would bet this person said this due to a the straying away from the Drop and Drive and not so much of looking at the newer ideas because you need to use the lower extremities to protect the arm.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 10:58 AM) Sorry, I'm just point out Kotsay isn't the OBP machine you suggested. I would rather have Anderson and Owens. I like BA, and don't like Owens, but Erstad was a mistake, and Kotsay would be making the same mistake twice IMO. He isn't the GG quality CF he used to be. Doesn't run. Doesn't hit with power and will most likely wind up on the DL. Unless KW is going to get a legit CF, he might as well see what BA can do. If he had 500 AB last year he probably would have had 20 + homers and we all know what he can do defensively. Why banish him to the bench for a guy who isn't as good? Not saying BA is a star in the making, but there's no doubt in my mind if he played everyday he would have better numbers than Kotsay. that's fundamental part of baseball philosophy. Do you want the guy with the lower average and OBP with more HR's or the guy with lower HR but with less strike outs higher OBP. Neither is necessarily right or wrong just your philosophy on how to construct a team. Me I would go with BA due to the defense but both option habe thier advantages and disadvantages.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 23, 2008 -> 10:33 AM) I like this part from him: Take note, ozzie, most baseball fans feel this way! I for one disagree. There aren't enough quality starters to go real deep into games during the long season. You need to use the bottom of the bullpen guys to get to the post season with a relatively fresh and healthy staff. Once the short series begins, these guys should be sent away.