chitownsportsfan

This is why Al Gore invented the Internet. This thread, right here.

Konerko OPS+ and age last 4 years: 2005: 134 (29) 2006: 136 (30) 2007: 116 (31) 2008: 82 (32) I think it's reasonable to say that Kong is on the downside of his career. That said, he's proven to be an above average hitter in his career, so even those he's past his prime should still be a decent hitter. I think it's reasonable to assume he will finish with an OPS+ around 100 this year (given enough PA), and that will be two years in a row with significant drop off. I'm in favor of benching Kong is he does not find anything by the middle of August: the team is so much better defensively with Swisher at 1st and BA in CF that it just doesn't make sense to give him anymore time to find it this year.

I like baseball mostly because my dad likes baseball. He had me playing pickle with my little sister as the baserunner when I was 7. I'll never forget going to Sox games with him when I was little and getting early so we could watch how the good players carried themselves and how I should play the game. I never made it past small time college ball, but I'll never forget how much I enjoyed playing and how much my dad enjoyed watching me play. That said, I've come to appreciate the discrete nature of baseball, how it lends itself so well to analysis and yet continues to amaze and surprise. It really is a beautiful game on many levels.

Who really cares that he made the All-Star game? Jason Veritek made the all-star game. Marmol made the all star game. Crede has consitantly proven that he'll give you a) an injury risk, B) an OPS+ around 100, and c) good to great defense. Now that he's up for a big contract and is a Boras client I don't see any "hate" -- I call it being realistic. I'm a fan of the White Sox, not a fan of Joe Crede. If he has to go to make the team better I'm not going to shed any tears.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Jul 15, 2008 -> 05:12 PM) So you want them to spend their money wisely, while at the same time go after soon to be vastly overpaid guys like Tex or Dunn? Doesn't make much sense. Considering how some other teams in our 'league' spend, i'd say the sox are fine: Tigers (Cabrera, Dontrell, Shef) Yankees (almost entire roster) etc. -Swish, a guy comparable to and higher priced/younger Hunter and Rowand, for pennies. -Q - pennies, many years of service -Alexi - dirt cheap, 4 years -2 top 3 starters in Danks and Floyd for nothing -Guys waiting in the wings like Fields, Owens (a trade chip), Getz, Beckam. Based on that, I'd say we have much more "deals" than overpaid guys. Uh, Contreras, Kong, that's 22 million right there. The White Sox aren't among the most efficient spending clubs, but they aren't the worst either. Having a large payroll allows for a greater margin of error, which is why they are in 1st despite the money wasted on Kong and Count. That is alarming though that so many fans want to sign Crede to a long term deal. He's an above average all-around 3B with a history of back problems and will demand every penny this winter. I'm thinking he'll want like a 4-5 year deal at about 8-10 million per. If some team wants that than fine. I"ll take Fields and his 325,000 and spend that other 8-10 million somewhere else.

What is this, satire? Thome has been ON FIRE the past month. He has been our best hitter over the last 3 years and in no way should he ever be in any rotation with Kong. If anything, Kong needs to start rotating with Swisher at 1B and get BA into CF 2-3 times a week. I give Kong until the first week of August to find something, anything. If he can't get his OPS above .725 by then he should be riding the pine most of the way out. Forget any fantasies of any other team picking him up, we are stuck with him.

Dye needs to settle down. I'm not worried about this little tiff at all though. In fact, Ocab is starting to grow on me. He's 14/16 (I believe) in SB this year, and his defense has been f***ing impeccable since about 2 weeks into the season, he has made all the plays. I don't even care if he finishes 270/330/350, his defense at SS is saving runs. Great win, and big props to Q for busting out big time and giving the team a chance to win it. If he doesn't hit those two home runs this is almost certainly a bad loss instead of a great win. Javier on the other hand continues to suck. I've rarely seen a guy with such great stuff pitch so poorly for long stretches. He just seems to be a mental midget. I don't even believe in that s***, but for a MLB pitcher, he has no fortitude on the mound.

This is really just Cowley trying to play some ignorant agenda. He's been pushing for Uribe to move on for awhile now. It's pretty great how the beat writer has such a petty agenda against one player and for another. I seriously doubt JC was that upset, this is just Cowley playing up his agenda. He is obsessed with Ozuna and somehow thinks he's a better player than Uribe. Thank god the Internet exists so Cowley can get his f***ing roasting. SSS has put him in his proper (dunce cap) place. Uribe offers much, much more value to this team. Cowley is dumb if he thinks Ozuna can play more positions competently than Uribe. I mean, the only thing Uribe has goign for him is his defense. If the Sox cut Uribe they would have nobody capable of playing SS outside of OC, and that would be disastrous.

QUOTE (Felix @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 12:20 PM) A sandwich pick at the end of the round doesn't replace Matt LaPorta, who was the seventh overall pick. They gave up six years of a player who is going to hit the majors in a year or two for a half a year of an ace pitcher. If they had any chance of resigning CC it'd be a much better deal, but as is I'd much rather get the six years of a player than the half year of a pitcher and unless the pitcher is the one thing that hands them a World Series, I don't like the deal (especially for a small market team that needs to value young players in their first six years of major league service time more than larger markets). How many more tickets will they sell now? How much payroll will they add in the offseason because of those tickets? How many more wins will it get them next year? How many more fans will that bring in? It's a great feedback loop, one that the Sox started when they won the the WS and upped themselves into the top 5-7 payrolls. There are more variables to this move then just a pure talent for talent swap and that's why I think the Brewers come out winners.

So we are winning 100 games and will only lose twice in the playoffs. Cool.

Well those geniuses were spot on last year. Who could have forcasted the breakouts of Q and Danks?

QUOTE (TCQ @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 12:04 AM) That trade was not a steal the brewers gave up a top tier prospect and three other prospects for a great pitcher for half a season. He wont resign, so they threw four prospects to the indians who are out it, and could technically sign him back next year with the prospects (They wont resign him tho i dont think). It was a steal for the indians if they get anything out of these four prospects because they dont need him this year, and they wouldnt have resigned him anyway. Yea, but as I told my good friend Joe Morgan, (who also doesn't seem to understand how baseball works): if CC leaves the Brewers get the compensation picks, probably 2 of the top 50. That replaces their prospects right there. It's the same reason the Sox traded for Cabrera even though they probably weren't going to resign him. This is a great trade for the Brewers.

I see Ramirez peaking at about 300/340/500 when he's 28-30, and that's great production from a middle infielder, especially a defensive wizard. His range is simply incredible at 2B. He makes those difficult pop-ups look like child's play. I am loving this signing by KW.

Although I'm a firm believer in sample size and guys like Wise don't suddenly "break out" at age 30, in the case of bench players I do think there is such as thing as "riding a hot hand". The Sox should ride Wise until he starts to suck again (and it will happen), at which point BA should be the usual backup for defensive purposes alone. I've come to the sad conclusion that BA is never going to be a good MLB hitter, his peak seems something like 250/310/480, which with his defense would put him as an above average starter. And that, IMO, is his peak.

I don't know, if you really want to get into the math of it all you should look at BP's 3rd order wins: Sox are only behind the Red Sox, Cubs, and Rays for 4th best.

This is not a big problem. The team is built to play in US Cellular field. The best way to score runs in baseball is to get on basel and mash the baseball. I'd love to see the team average over 5 runs a game and have a great offense, but it just isn't going to happen. As long as they finish in the top half of the league in offense the pitching should carry them to the playoffs.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 24, 2008 -> 06:14 PM) If I were Jim Thome, I'd blow up Soxtalk for getting on my case when I've been the 4th best hitter for the White Sox. DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WATCH GAMES OR LOOK AT NUMBERS? no, Jim Thome just strikes out a lot and he's kinda ugly and he's old so therefore he must suck Thank god, some sanity here. Thome will likely finish the year with around 30 homers and around a 250/350/490 line, which is about A BILLION TIMES MORE production than Willy Taveras is going to give us. I exagerate, but come on people!

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 24, 2008 -> 03:56 PM) It was a very good article.. puts many things into perspective. Our sluggers and pitching have the ability to put together 2 or 3 more 7/8 game winning streaks. However when we dont hit, we can easily lose 3 in a row. When the Sox runs into good pitching, it starts to become more difficult to score runs. This team needs to finally start thinking about manufacturing runs every once in awhile. Unfortanately we really dont have too many players to do such a thing. This is why i want KW to make a push for Willy Taveras. His average maybe a little down this year, but he has 35 SBs and he would change the entire look of our team. Where would he play? Thats the problem, we have no room for him. However, if Thome continues to struggle, i would seriously consider trading him before his option kicks in for next year. Teams like Boston, Angels, or even the Rays could be looking for a DH down the road. This team has pleanty of power w/o Thome in the lineup: Quentin 17HR, Dye 16HR, Crede 15HR, Konerko 8HR, Swisher 8HR. With Taveras leading off a lineup such as this can actually manufacture some runs and switch things up a little bit. Willy Taveras CF Orlando Cabrera SS Carlos Quentin LF Jermaine Dye RF/ DH Paul Konerko DH/1B AJ Pierzynski C Nick Swisher 1B/RF Joe Crede 3B Alexei Ramirez SS Willy Taveras makes Uribe look like Ty Cobb. Career OPS+ of 75 and 55 (FIFTY f***ING FIVE!) so far this year. I don't care is he steals 100 bases, dude can't hit for s***. He is getting on base 29% of the time, seriously, he sucks. Replacing Thome with Taveras would be disastrous.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Jun 10, 2008 -> 12:35 PM) Based on his past numbers, you knew he would come around. He had been extremely unlucky, and probably had some problems when he was moved into leadoff, which further entrenched him in a slump. I never thought about cutting him, but giving him a couple of days off wouldn't have hurt. LOL @ anyone who suggested the Sox DFA Swisher. Yea, cause 27 year old outfielders with career OPS+ above 110 with reasonable contracts are easy to find. All of his underlying stats were fine, he was just getting unlucky. Swisher is never going to be a high average guy but he can still easily finish with his typical 265/365/450 line. With his average CF defense that's a good and useful player.

LOL, The Angels, also in 1st place, are giong to trade Figgins and Santana AND Kotchman for a 32 year old PK who is clearly declining? GImme some of that good stuff!

Griffey is a mediocre hitter at this point who can't play CF anymore. Konerko is sucking ass but Griffey isn't the answer, and who would trade for Kong at this point anyway?

Jesus, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I love the Missile but let's see a full season or so before we annoint this guy the 2nd coming. He just moved his OPS over .700 tonight. Uribe is a super sub but far from ideal as an everday player. Richar I like also and he showed good plate discipline in his call up last season -- but he at best is a league average 2B playing for cheap.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 10:09 PM) The HD is not kind to some of the girls they showed today at the game. One girl looked like she was coming down from an 8 day coke binge... However there was one HOT girl they showed right toward the end of the rain delay coming back to her seat. I swear the camera man stayed on her for like 5 mins, it was awesome. The camera guys are such pervs haha Back in the day, when I was growing up, (talking 1992-7 here) my family had one of those huge satellite dishes. They also knew a guy who put a decoder chip in it so we got like every channel for free. Well, I'd always watch what was called "the back feed" on some random satellite. During the commercials the feed stayed on what the production team was seeing. Needless to say it was pretty much tits and ass all the time.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 09:03 PM) we have now scored 60. yes, SIXTY more runs than we've allowed. a thing of beauty. The RD dominance and the road record are a couple of big indicators that quite possibly this team is for f***ing real!

QUOTE (RibbieRubarb @ Jun 7, 2008 -> 08:56 PM) coughtheyplaymondaycough the devil is in the details, fixed.