whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 10:27 PM) The object of hitting is to get hits and the object of pitching is to prevent runs. The object of an at bat is to not make an out, or to get on base. Whether you walked or singled, you have not made an out. Now obviously, with 2nd and 3rd 1 out you'd rather have a two run single than a walk to load the bases, but the object of hitting is to not make outs, because you only get 27 of them a game. I'd MUCH rather have an Adam Dunn who hits .230 but has a .380 on base percentage than an Alexei Ramirez who hits .310 but has a .330 on base percentage. And that doesn't even take into account the power/run production difference. To me, OPS very well may be the most important stat, since if you have a low OPS, you aren't getting on base or hitting for power, and that makes you completely useless right off the bat as an offensive player.

I would be somewhere in between crestfallen and baffled if the Twins trade for Beltre. I doubt that one is going to happen big time.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 11:55 PM) What are the park ratings like for Great American compared to the Cell. Both are launching pads, and most of the Donkeys shots aren't cheap, but would/should his stats improve in the Cell? GABP is very similar in HR park ratings to The Cell IIRC, both at the top of baseball every year. Not that it matters, most Adam Dunn home runs go about 83532854324 feet anyways. As for this idea, PK is going nowhere and we will likely have Thome through 2009. Combine that with Dye and Q in the outfield corners, and there is nowhere for him to play. So this won't happen, although I'd love it. But it won't happen.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 10:21 AM) Crede is in a slump. Baseball players do that from time to time. To say he is through, or that his back is the reason doesn't make any real sense - only to those that have been convinced since last year that this is the problem. If we made trades and other moves based on what someone has done over a month or less this entire team would have been gone. Joe is still doing a god job and I really think the fact he just isn't 100% comfortable is because of his being off the field for almost a year. It takes awhile to get the edge back and apparently others think he still has it or he wouldn't be an all-star. You had me until the bolded. He's been playing for over 3 months now, it doesn't take THAT long to get back to being comfortable playing. The players who voted Crede in also voted Jason Varitek and his .218 batting average and .653 OPS into the game too, so that doesn't matter. It's possible Crede is just in a slump of course, but anytime he slumps with his back history, people are going to wonder about it and I think that's a fair concern. QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 10:48 AM) Is that sarcasm? I just don't believe a guy can be doing awesome without having an average in the .270 to .275 range. Just my two sense. I love his periph's as they are very solid, but that average prevents him from being awesome. Ever seen Adam Dunn during one of his hot streaks? Batting average is the most overrated mainstream stat in baseball (if not the most overrated stat in general period), outside of wins for pitchers and ERA's for pitchers out of the bullpen.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 10:40 AM) The same things posted about Konerko were posted about Thome a few weeks ago. He's done, his bat speed is gone, etc. etc. You'll all be wrong again. Paulie could certainly get red hot, but the season is more than halfway over and between his injuries and poor play, it will be very difficult for him to rebound in 2008. At least Thome had been in the lineup almost everyday and pretty healthy, thus having the everyday rhythm to make it favorable for him to recover from his bad times. He needs to get hot to cotribute at all though, because as much as he could turn it around at the plate, he can't in the field. His 1st base skills have eroded him for good, and if nothing else, his defense is going to cost us quite a few runs as opposed to even an average 1st basemen, let alone a good one like Swisher. And the other thing I'll say is nobody should boo Konerko. That WOULD be as low a moment as we've had since 1919, just because he's horrible right now doesn't change what he's contributed to the franchise.

The only thing they should be embarassed about is the brand of baseball they played yesterday when Texas was batting. Don't worry about the other team, just win and they won't show you up.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) One thing I want to point out, a lot of you are calling for Swish at first. Yes Swish gets on base better and is better defensively (Swish is awesome at 1st defensively) but Swisher isn't exactly what I consider a great run producer. With Jim Thome looking like the hall of famer he is again the last few weeks or month, we can afford to have Swish's lack of power but great fielding and eye at the plate playing 1st, with Anderson/Wise in CF.

Jim Thome must be in the lineup at DH everyday right now. The concerns of age catching up with him that a lot of us had look pretty silly right now. To compare perhaps our best hitter the last three weeks or month (either he or Dye) to Paul Konerko, who can't hit or field right now, is a bit silly.

QUOTE (Maxwell @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 12:49 AM) Not that much when we have josh fields. Don't try to argue this years stats with me. Josh has been beat up. He will be fine with a little time. I think we have enough. I am talking about 2008 and 2008 only with this post. And with as beat up and in and out of the lineup in the minors as Josh has been, I wonder how well he'd do if we needed to call him up in the case of a Crede injury.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 12:42 AM) I don't really agree with this. This year has been the only year Quentin has looked anything like below average defensively in his career. Every report you read on him says he's at least average as a corner outfielder with the potential to be very good. I'm just looking at his rate2 from the past two years in Arizona and he's at 104 which would suggest he's been slightly above average in right. So to say he'd be an "unmitigated disaster" is just ever so slightly over the top, but then again I have come to expect that from the majority of posters on this forum. As for Dye, his range may be down from the last two years but it's just about in line with the rest of his career (going off his range factor here) and his rate2 (my favourite of defensive statistics) is at 113, which is fantastic and is better than supposed stud right fielders such as Alexis Rios, Nick Markakis and Ichiro (when he played there). Well Dye has been great, realistically, outside of his range, so i'm not surprised by that. I am surprised (and relived) to hear of Quentin's defensive reputation from his Arizona days, and maybe he is just having a bad year. He certainly has a good arm by what I've seen, but he just seems very poor at getting to the ball and the angles he takes while it's in the air. And if that's the case in LF, it'd only be worse in RF.

Everybody knows about his 17 errors, but he's starting to look lost at the plate too. For the simple point of question, I bring up the Los Angeles series. On June 24th and 25th, he missed games out there with "back spasms". At that point, he was .275/.348/.521/.869. As of today, Joe is down to .253/.325/.466/.792. Also, since June 19th, Joe has a grand total of one double and one home run. Is he just in a slump, an offensive regression to the means, or is his back bothering him at the plate now too? The more I think about this, the more I worry because Joe is useless right now if he can't hit because his defense has been pretty bad. It just seems like back problems carry on forever, and I wonder how well the surgery actually fixed things.

Q in right field would be an unmitigated disaster, he's pretty mediocre to bad in left field. Add in Dye and his diminishing by the day range, even in left field, and our stud center fielder better be an AMAZING fielder. Dye has done his best and made some good plays on defense this year, but he looks more and more like a DH everyday.

Charlotte beats Richmond 3-2. Fields, Richar, and Cortez all go 1-3 with an RBI. Ohka was ok, Derek Rodriguez, Wassermann (win), and Childers (save) all great in relief. Birmingham on the all star break until Wednesday. Winston-Salem falls 7-5 at Kinston. Sanchez went 2 for 5 with a run, double, and 2 RBI. Shelby 2 for 4 with a run, double, RBI, and walk. Santeliz takes the loss and struggles a bit (5 IP, 5 hits, 7 runs, only 3 earned, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 2 homers). Texeira lowers his ERA to exactly 1, is Birmingham in his near future? Kannapolis had their game at Rome rained out. Bristol leads 6-1 at Greeneville in the 8th. Gregory Infante with another very good start, lots of contributors on offense. Great Falls visits Ogden at 8 PM.

The Getz/Richar fight for the 2nd base job next March should be interesting to watch develop. The question IMO will be if the Sox want to go with the toolsy guy or the "baseball player" guy. Everybody that reads the minor league posts on here knows I'm as big a Getz fan as you'll find, but Richar has so much talent. Whoever plays next to Ramirez in the middle next year will be important though, that's for sure.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 07:00 PM) Option Russell to AAA, bring up Broadway, and let him spot start. Have Jose pitch out of the bullpen for a week, and see if his velocity improves at all. If it doesn't, DL him with "fatigue" issues. Broadway has a 6.02 ERA his last 10 starts, and has posted 4.58, 4.68, and 9.39 ERA's in the months since his dominant April ended. He is not the answer.

He's a 5th starter, which means if you make the playoffs, he really wouldn't be a factor. I think you could consider skipping a couple of his starts when they are days off/rain outs instead of giving other rotational guys 5 days rest, but I think Jose can rebound a bit and be an adequate 5th starter the rest of the way. That is unless of course we can trade for a starting pitcher, but that is unlikely. Jose is our best organizational option as a 5th starter though, unless you want to stretch out Masset, but I wouldn't mess with him as he's really rebounded this year and been solid in the pen.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 06:44 PM) There is nothing to address with Konerko. It's either they trade him somewhere or he's starting at 1B for the Sox. They're not going to have the $12M team captain sitting on the bench. I agree, and he really can't be traded. They won't bench him, and he'll probably continue to hurt the team. It is a very bad spot, but there is nothing any of us can do about it.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) Also would be nice to figure out what's going on with Linebrink. I'd really like to see if we could find a decent starter. With Konerko, I'm thinking no matter how horrible he is, they're not going to pull the plug on him. I mean, the Captain riding the bench? Just can't see it. Oh no I agree, they'll never bench Paulie. And I think it's going to hurt the team and cost us some games in the 2nd half that we obviously really need. It's a bad situation, since we seem better without him but he's the captain and literally can't be traded. I think Linebrink will be ok. All of his issues pretty much have been when he closed, he just seems like one of those mental cases that can only pitch in the setup/8th inning role.

We're fine, but the Konerko issue has to be addressed. He can't field anymore, and he gives so many horrible at bats. I've never seen a guy ruin a 4 for 4 with a walk day by being twice as bad the next day as he was good the previous one like PK did today. We look so much better with him out, and with Thome hitting now, you can even moreso afford to have one of the defensive minded guys like Wise or Anderson in CF and Swish at 1B.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 04:06 PM) I completely disagree, especially when Soriano returns. Their lineup of Soriano/Fuku/Lee/Ramirez/Soto/Edmonds/Derosa/Theriot is just ridiculous. Marmol is struggling, but at the same time, the rest of their non-Wood bullpen is performing well. Gaudin was a hell of a pick up for them. We're a better team than the Cubs, and you give their bullpen WAY too much credit. Piniella is a horrible manager of a pitching staff too, so Gaudin is probably going to be used improperly and I'd bet the ranch Harden gets hurt. Watching Lou manage them shocks me, because I thought he was a very good manager but he's really not. His horrid managing of Marmol has perhaps ruined him at least for the rest of this season.

I'm almost ready to say Detroit can't catch us or Minnesota after what they did the last 4 days. I will now admit Minnesota is our biggest threat obviously, but I like our chances.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 03:15 PM) He clearly doesn't deserve to be there but I think Varitek takes the cake on least deserving player. Marmol's ERA since June 1st is about 10, so he's pretty close. I'm glad Marmol is going though, he needs the time off mentally and physically and isn't getting it.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 06:30 PM) And Contreras. But you are right, we have been pretty good about blown saves, so I guess it could be much worse. I think I am just really frustrated as everyone else is. Jose is our 5th starter, and he'll rebound to an extent. He's never going to be 2005-2006 Jose again, but as a #5 starter he'll be fine. Our biggest pitching issues are getting Jenks back healthy (which sounds set to be done Friday) and getting Vazquez back on track. Javy is our closest thing to a pitching problem right now, but he's shown he can rebound from bad stretches before. Hopefully the extra several days off does him good.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 06:26 PM) Do we beat ourselves the most in the majors or does it just appear that way since I am a Sox fan? And vice versus, do the Twins beat themselves the least amount of times in baseball? Please show me another team that does this more than us... A lot of teams blow games they should win all the time due to a bad bullpen, something we don't do hardly at all, so in that respect we have a big advantage. We played horrible on that road trip, yet we went 3-3 and saw our division lead, which was 1 game when we flew to Kansas City Monday, move to 1.5, so we are fortunate. We just need to get rested over the break and come out playing well in the 2nd half, starting with the home series against the Royals. This team is fine, with the exception of Paul Konerko.

Well, that sucked. To be honest, had we tied it or took the lead, I still think we'd have lost with the way that game was going. However, Paulie had what was literally the worst game I've ever seen a White Sox position player have. For as good as he was Saturday, he was twice as bad today. I don't think this team can make the playoffs with Paul Konerko in the lineup everyday, that might be the move that this team needs to make, but I doubt they do it. He obviously can't be traded at 10/5, and we'd never release him, so we're stuck with him anyways. I wish we'd at least put him on the bench where he belongs. Just a horribly played game, we had 3 errors plus three more plays where we gave away outs that weren't errors (the blooper to/miscommunication in left that dropped and gave them a run, the easy double play that Uribe bobbled into one out, Contreras missing 1st base which I think gave them another run). If you do that and give up 12 runs and 18 hits or whatever it was, it's not easy to win. Oh well.