chitownsportsfan

Without CQ this team is probably under .500. Seriously, he's a one man wrecking crew. 3-3 2HR, 3RBI 2R and another HBP. I love how on the HBP he didn't even flinch when the ball hit off his hand. This guy is AWESOME. And Contreras! HOLY s***! He's been getting lucky this year (not to say he hasn't been good though) but tonight he was DOMINANT. Such a great game to watch him pitch just beautifully. Team avoids the sweep and picks up some momentum headed into CLE against a desperate Tribe club.

What more can be said about CQ? This guy is a 5 tool player in every sense of the meaning. He can do it all out there. Still can't believe the Sox got him for a A ball player. Indians lineup is not imposing and the Sox pitching shut them down. Great job pitching and the offense pitched in enough!

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 19, 2008 -> 10:02 AM) I would change Dotel to an C. He's provided some big strikeouts in high leverage situations. Yesterday I can excuse as he looked tired and the defense wasn't helping him out. Looks about right other than that. There are two ways to grade of course: straight up and compared to expectations. Straight up Swisher has probably been a "C", but according to expectations (a 900 OPS corner guy) he's been bad. MB deserves a D IMO. He relies on defense and the defense has been horrible behind him. Touche.

I would change Dotel to an C. He's provided some big strikeouts in high leverage situations. Yesterday I can excuse as he looked tired and the defense wasn't helping him out. Looks about right other than that. There are two ways to grade of course: straight up and compared to expectations. Straight up Swisher has probably been a "C", but according to expectations (a 900 OPS corner guy) he's been bad. MB deserves a D IMO. He relies on defense and the defense has been horrible behind him.

I have no idea how Floyd pitched 6 shutout innings. Oh wait -- the Giants lineup sucks worse than the Sox' even. A good team punishes Floyd for the dozen or so hanging breaking balls he left up and over the plate. A bad team fouls them off or makes outs and that's what the Giants did. Credit Gavin for having the guts to keep throwing strikes though. He smartly realized that only way the Giants were going to get a big inning is if he gave it to them with walks. Turns out they couldn't even get a run. Sox' inability to hit LHP is ridiculous. Perhaps Ramirez will find something against them. I have to say, other than Cabrera and Uribe back to back I'm enjoying the new lineup, feels much more balanced all the way through.

A couple walks, some extra base hits and everyone's happy -- right?

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 11, 2008 -> 01:13 AM) Quentin looks to be the real deal. What a huge imrovement in LF over the last two seasons! As I said in another thread, Ozzie should keep starting Brian Anderson in CF against left-handed pitchers, with Dye and Konerko taking turns at DH. It improves the Defense as well as the Offense against LHP and Keeps Thome fresh, hopefully lessening the chance of his recurring wrist and back injuries allowing him to be more productive with less playing time. Uribe is an excellent defensive infielder, whether at SS or 2B and can even play a good 3B in a pinch. Because of his poor approach at the plate the past two seasons, he has become a whipping boy to a lot of fans and every miscue he makes becomes magnified and overblown. But Uribe is still one of the better defensive middle infielders in the game. Hopefully he keeps improving at the plate with his new stance and approach that he has shown the past week or so. GP. Uribe though, he is what he is: a player who deserves time because he plays an excellent middle infield but needs to be covered up for in the order. He's the best option at 2B right now. I'd much prefer him in a bench role but at this point it is what it is.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 9, 2008 -> 12:00 PM) I think you mis interpreted the article. I was pointing out that the organization's sudden emphasis on OBP had them neglecting players who hit for high average. It was all about walks, and they brought in three guys who likely won't be .300 hitters. The point of your article is that the Sox don't can't score because they don't have enough guys that hit for average (and can run), because in the off season the Sox over-emphasized OBP and power at the expense of average and speed. The point should just be that the Sox don't have enough good hitters, whether they be slap hitting speedsters or lumbering sluggers. The vast majority of runs are scored by not making outs and hitting for power. All other things being equal I'd love to have a lineup of .300 hitters. But I'd much rather have nine 250/350/500 hitters than nine 300/340/420 hitters. The higher OPS team will always score more runs than the slap hitting team, I don't care how many hits they "string" together or how many bases they steal. It's not about speed, or average, or even OBP, in isolation. It's about having too many players who aren't good hitters period. Cabrera, AJ, Crede, and Uribe are not good hitters. Swisher, Dye, Thome, Kong and Quentin are all average or above average hitters, but none of them is a particularly great hitter. Overall, you'll see that the Sos have a teamwide OPS of .714, well below the league average. Go through the sortable stats from last year and this year. Just by glancing you can see that OPS correlates to RS better than average. I'm not arguing that speed and average aren't good and virtuous in and of themselves. I'm just saying that they aren't as important as power and patience (again, in isolation).

Back to the OP, this argument is dumb. The Sox have a team wide OBP of .319, (tied for 10th and below league average by 10 points) they aren't "doing a good job of getting on base". You can't talk about average and OBP in the same breath and not realize that most guys with a high OBP also hit for a decent average. Not 300 hitters necessarily, but not .240 guys either. I'm not happy about the slumping offense either, but blaming it on Moneyball and an emphasis this offseason on OBP is just dumb. I guarantee that if the Sox OBP was .369 like Boston's we'd be leading the league in RS like Boston. Nothing (of the simple rate stats) correlates better to RS than OBP, not average, that's for f***ing sure.

Why is this stickied? Nick Swisher is a better hitter than Orlando Cabrera. He should get more PA. Replacing Uribe with Richar is another matter entirely and should be done ASAP.

The next time Carlos gets HBP with the bases loaded he will set the record with 4 times in one season. Carlos Quentin, only 12K to 14BB and his average up to .312. Showing great power and patience. I am still in shock at how well this trade is turning out, granted it's early.

Taking walks is not mutually exclusive with hitting for a high average. (see: Williams, Ted) Averages will rise with the temps throughout the summer. The real key will be continuing to take walks and hitting for power.

Nicely lays out the case that Thomas is one of the 30 or so best hitters to ever play the game. When you think of the tens of thousands of players that have gone through the game, that's an astounding statement. Frank Thomas, out of tens of thousands of players, is in the top 30 in terms of MASHING THE BASEBALL. The Blue Jays are retarded for giving him the contract in the first place. I hope he goes on to have a monster 2nd half and beats in the Blue Jays' heads while he's at it.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) Just realized how bad Furcal's 2007 was: OPS+ of 76. For only 13 million! Christ, makes Uribe look like a diamond in the rough.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 01:12 PM) The thing is, the Sox have absolutely nothing at SS, unless they truly believe in Ramirez and right now while I see some tools I think it is far too early to pencil in Ramirez as a SS of the future. I'd consider him a role player of the future with the upside to turn into a starter (but why he can't end up being a 2B is beyond me, because I don't think he's even close to being ready to be a major league starting shortstop, defensively speaking). I think the Sox would be more than happy to give OC a 2-3 year deal, the problem is OC is probably looking more at a 4 year deal (which would be a risky deal since he's already getting older and the more steps he loses the less valuable he becomes since his best asset is his defense). What's going to be available on the 08/09 FA market for SS? You're right, the Sox have NOTHING here. Ramirez is not going to be ready (if ever), Uribe should not be starting anywhere near a good team, and OCab is not the long term answer and the Sox would be best served letting him walk and getting the sandwich pick. It's going to be another rough offseason trying to figure out the SS spot.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) I'd actually say that the difference between Iguchi and Cabrera is quite large. On top of what Balta mentioned, the defense has improved dramatically too. Even with Cabrera potentially being worse than Uribe defensively at SS, Uribe is an absolute monster defensively at 2B. You also have to imagine that it's Uribe and Iguchi up the middle right now...their combined OPS would be something like .520 right now, you'd have a downgrade defensively, and the entire pitching staff would be worse too. I would say at this point, yes it's absolutely worth it. Funny things is, if Ozzie would man up and tell everyone he's doing what's in the best interests of the team than OCab would move to 2nd and Uribe would go back to SS, where you can actually tolerate a sub .700 OPS from a guy with a laser beam and good range.

It helps that we aren't planning on giving 1000 PA to black holes like Pods, Erstad and Gonzalez like last year. Instead we have Quentin, Swisher and OCab who should put up a combined OPS of around .800 for 1500 PA. That's a huge improvement. It's most effective to shore up the worst areas of a team as you get the most bang for your buck. Kudos to KW for making the changes (and in some cases like the Owens injury being forced into it) that would improve the team most effectively.

Well, that's the good news. The bad news is that only 4% of balls hit in the air are leaving the yard. That's unsustainable. It's been proven that about 10% of fly balls will leave the yard over a course of a season, give or take a few percentage points. It's great that the Sox have gotten of to a great start in run prevention, but some regression is inevitable. John Danks' and Vasquez's solid peripherals are certainly encouraging along this front.

Why does anyone think the missile would be better than Uribe overall? Granted Uribe sucks at the plate, but he's also a known commodity defensively -- a good defensive player. Ramirez is not ready to play league average defense at 2B and his bat, at least until he sees more PA, isn't going to be much better than the torpedo boat. Our best option is to ride Uribe out until Richar is healthy and re-evaulate at that point. I'd be in favor of bringing up Richar and sending Ramirez down to Charlotte. Let Ramirez get a season full of playing time in the states and let Uribe and Richar battle it out for 2B. I'd give preference to Richar with Uribe spelling him every 3rd day or so.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 21, 2008 -> 12:01 PM) I'm not the biggest fan of Iguchi. I love him for what he did in 2005, but he's just a mediocre 2Bman. I'd say he'd be an option for the Sox to consider from July or so on if he's still playing pretty terribly for the Padres/whoever at that point, but I think you either need to get a big upgrade or see what the guys in house can do first. Pretty much my thoughts. He's on the wrong side of 30, is not at all good in the field, and is slightly better than league average (and who knows now that's he's getting older if he even maintain that) with the bat. He's mediocre. Richar is a better option and he's under our control for the foreseeable future at basically no cost. God bless Tad for his contributions in 2005 but it's time to move on with new players.

Can't make any complaints about the bullpen except for Masset being on the big club. Octavio, Boone, Thornton Jenks and Linebrink have been rock solid.

Once again Sox get ahead early and have great pitching and mostly great defense. Jenks pretty much looking unhittable against a bad Baltimore lineup. No reason the Sox shouldn't continue to beat this team.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 07:40 PM) I actually not ready to write Contreras off yet. He doesn't have the 95 MPH fastball and 87 MPH splitter anymore, but he's still about a league average #3 or #4 starter, and he's pitched well in pretty much every clutch situation put forth at him. If he can stay healthy or if the Sox can keep him rested well enough throughout the year, he'll be just fine, and that I have no doubt about. Well there you have it! Great performance by the Count tonight. He had his fastball in the 92MPH range even into the 7th (Jenks at 94-95), and had great command and movement on his pitches. If he can just be league average and stay healthy it will be a huge boost to the pitching staff.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 11:19 AM) The conversation started with pr, and really that's all I'd want Owens for. I agree it's minimal, but that's the reason it's being discussed. Owens has had a better obp in the majors, but it's still not good, and he has zero power. Since we're talking about guys with pretty small MLB track records, I think it's useful to look at what they've done in the minors. Anderson's MiLB obp is .361, Owens's is .362. Anderson obviously has much better power. So I don't think they're really all that close in terms of ceiling. I'm well aware of how bad Anderson was in 2006. But there's no truth to the idea that Owens was at least serviceable last year. Anderson's ops+ in 2006 was 65, Owens's in 2007 was 67. They both royally sucked. Anderson's hasn't approached his ceiling, sure. But neither has Owens. At least, for his sake, I hope he hasn't. Good post. I'll just add that somehow for the first half of 2006 BA's defense singlehandedly made him a worthwhile player, even while having an OPS south of .700. And right, there is no question that Anderson is the better player now and has more upside. Owens is a career minor leaguer or 4th outfielder on a bad team sort of player. He's fast, but not very good at baseball. I still think Anderson got s***-canned by the organization unfairly (looking at you Ozzie), you give him another full season and I think he'd be much improved, at least OPS+ around 90 with good defense. That's an adequate CF for the price.

What happened 3 years ago in the playoffs should have zero influence on signings going forward. This team should get younger where they can, and one of those spots is 3B. That said, I came into this thread to voice my concern about how bad Contreras is looking. Is he hurt? Just sucks? I think he's washed up personally. I'm glad for that great half season or so he gave us, but it's time to show him the door if there is a move to be made at the deadline or sooner.