chitownsportsfan

QUOTE(greg775 @ Dec 19, 2006 -> 02:18 AM) Do you all think Pods is capable of a strong comeback year, or is he finished? I think his 40 stolen bases and 19 caught stealing would indicate his days as an ultra productive leadoff man are over. His .261 batting average, 45 RBIs are pathetic numbers. He did, however, score 86 runs which isn't half bad. Do you agree with me the 86 runs scored is acceptable? My other question is ... the signs are we are getting an aging, slower Pods for this season. If he does suck, who do you think will replace him in lf? Our team is pathetically slow on the bases and Pods getting caught 19 times shows he may be another plodder this season. Who cares how many runs he scored? He scored a bunch of runs because Kong, Dye, and Thome are REALLY REALLY SUPER GOOD. I look at rate stats that show he had a .683 OPS, which was so good that on a scale with 100 being completely average, Pods scored a 73. That sucks. Get this guy off the team.

QUOTE(Keystone @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 04:04 PM) The Sox re-signed Podsednik to a one year deal today. How does everyone feel about that? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2682603 haha, you're on the delay...

QUOTE(103 mph screwball @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 03:05 PM) Me too. Sox may still make a move in LF but at 2.9, they should be able to move him somewhere if need be. It reminds me of when the Sox had to choose what to do with Ben Davis. They ended up upgrading to AJ, but at the time they had to make sure the position was covered first. Now, KW can just tell teams he is dealing with that he will just stick with Pods unless the offer is to his liking. I don't buy that line of arguing. The position is not "covered". This isn't football where you need "x" amount at every position. Anyone on the roster could currently fill in for Scott Podsednik and do a better job: Gload, Mackowiak, etc. This is a wasted 3 million dollars, there is no other way to look at it.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 1, 2006 -> 02:55 PM) Fair enough. And I expect nothing more than "hey guys, everything's going to be just fine" from the homer/apologist crowd. Personally, I'm not writing off this offseason or the 2007 season. I'm just commenting on what I've seen so far, and the Cotts trade wasn't good and this signing stinks to high heaven. KW has a lot of room for improvement this offseason. This signing sucks now. Whether he is the starting LF or not, giving a horrible player $2.9 million is a waste. Spending that on a decent player or even pocketing it and spending it on the draft makes a hell of a lot more sense. Exactly. There is NO REASON to sign Podsednik because every team in baseball has mimimum salary guys that can do a better job of being a MLB player than Scott Podsednik. He has no value, and now, instead of pencilling in Ross Gload or Sweeney, who will give you at least what Pods will for the major league minimum, the Sox have given a worthless ballplayer 3 million dollars that could have spend on any number of things usefull to winning. What a waste, I really hope there is a trade coming.

I certainly would not be opposed to Durham, mostly for two reasons: 1) He mashes lefties, which will allow Thome and his pathetic hitting against lefties to take more days off at DH 2) He's a damn fine hitter. OPS+ of 115, 107, 127 the last three years. He isn't in his prime anymore by any stretch of the imagination but he's a solid bet for a 280/345/480 line next year. That's a major, major upgrade over Pods and it's not a stretch to say he could produce something like a 290/360/510 line, which would make him a real asset in LF. I'd say the Sox come at Durham with a two year incentive laden deal. Give him a base salary in the 4-5 million range and insert clauses where he could earn up to 7-10 million if he reaches certain statistical marks: 550 PA, 20HR, etc. Give a mutual option at around 9 million for 2009 that goes down into the 5-6 million range if the club declines. I'm really in favor of this move.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Nov 27, 2006 -> 07:36 PM) .276/.363/.532/.895 in the friggin PCL. Hall of fame talent, are you kidding me? He'll likely be an all-star, but I seriously doubt he has any real chance of being a Hall of Famer. Is that a joke? Delmon Young, Brandon Wood, Alex Gordon, and Andy Marte mean nothing to you? You're guessing it's better, while I know it's the worst. You don't trade Vazquez straight up for Milledge in this market, because that's flat out dumb. It's not like the guy doesn't have stuff. It's a matter of putting it together. Jose Contreras did it, so it is possible. The thing about Young is that he's essentially Mike Cameron except with the potential to be better. A gold-glove worthy CF that smacks around 25 homers and gets on base at a decent clip and steals some bases is damn hard to find. Chris Young has the potential to be that player as soon as next year and will probably be a very good players for the next 10 years. I was against the trade at the time and I'm still against it. Young might not be the best pure hitting prospect in all of baseball but as a valuable CF I think he might just be the surest bet for a good career.

I thought this was a joke at first. Hawk is barely tolerable as a White Sox fan, I can't believe anyone else would vote for him.

The Hard Ball Times lauds Young for his increasing contact rate, flawless CF defense, and steady power and patience at the plate. They argue as a premium CF, he might be baseball's most valuable prospect. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...at-chris-young/ Those projections for 2007 hurt to look at...250/330/500 with 21SB

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Nov 24, 2006 -> 06:00 PM) Do you think Frank can wait until he hits his 13th home run (500th) until May 31st when we play Toronto? I'm guessing he'll have 20 by then... but that would be appropriate if that would happen. He's moving into a hitters park from a pitcher's park but I doubt he has more than 10 to 12 dongs by May 31st. Frank is a slow starter and I look for him to have a big 2nd half and hit number 500 around mid july. It will be a great moment.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 26, 2006 -> 01:46 PM) By your logic, a team's best hitter should then hit leadoff because he'll have the most PA's, regardless of power numbers, speed, OBP? A team needs a mix of hitters [esp. the sox] or they'll be too much like the 2000-2004 sox, a station to station softball team that's susceptible to slumps and overly reliant on the long ball for scoring runs. Lineup order is very important. If you don't have guys on base or in scoring position for your RBI's guys, a team will have trouble scoring runs. Most winning teams place a heavy emphasis on lineup order to maximize their chances of scoring runs. To say it's overrated [in the pros at least, maybe not little league] is kinda silly. I never said Iguchi hitting leadoff was absurd. But Ozzie and KW have never talked about Iguchi hitting leadoff--only hitting lower in the order like he did in Japan. Only armchair coaches and GM's have talked about Iguchi leading off. The Sox have had chances to put Iguchi in the leadoff spot but haven't done it. 1st) He's saying lineup order is overated because over the course of a season the optimum lineup will yield 20 or so more runs than the least optimum lineup. There was a lot of work done on this least season by Beyond the Boxscore and Baseball Musings. Of course you want the best hitters to see the most PA, which is why they usually bat earlier. However, changes in lineup matter little to RS at the end of the year. Maybe it's worth a win or two. 2) I don't think us "armchair gm's" really care if our ideas our plausible to the guys running the show -- that's the fun of being an "armchair gm". If I was GM I'd order Ozzie to bad Iguchi leadoff, it's that simple.

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 05:42 PM) Podsednik was 27th in MLB in pitches seen per plate appearance. Only Thome and Dye had higher P/PA. OK, on a list of things "important to winning baseball games" I'd rank that about #123 -- especially since all those pitches aren't leading to many walks. As you could have guessed, A.J. saw the fewest pitches/PA on the team, followed by Uribe. There is so much silly, irrational, emotion-based talk about Podsednik being a major problem, a major reason for the Sox failure to make the playoffs, a terrible player, and now even not fast (while he was one of 10 players to steal 40 bases, and didn't even play every day). Really? I'd say most of it is fact based objective analysis that sees a career Ops+ of below 90 and a terrible defender by any standard. Whatever detriment Pods was with his subpar year, it is certain that he did not cost the Sox as many runs as Mark Buehrle, who gave up 31 more earned runs in '06 than in '05 in 32 less innings. or Jon Garland who gave up 20 more runs this year in 10 less innings. or Fred Garcia who gave up 21 more runs this year in 12 less innings. or the entire pitching staff who gave up 151 more earned runs in 06 than in 05. So Pods, if he's with the Sox next year will have little effect on whether or not they make the playoffs compared to the effect of the starting pitchers rebounding from last year's failure. There is no desperate need to improve the 3rd best offense in baseball. We won the World Series with the 14th best offense in baseball. With Pods upside; being one of the few elite speed guys in baseball (who stole 44 bases in the 1st half of '05), who lead the team on batting in '05 (yes better than Dye, better than Konerko, better than Iguchi) and cheap salary compared to comparable players (Pierre $9 million dollars a year) is certainly a good option and a bargain in left field. I still think Ken Lofton would be a better choice and probably relatively cheap. Last time I checked Pod's s*** defense helped quite a few runs score for the other team last year. Yes, there is desperation to improve every aspect of the team. If the offense gets better it puts less pressure on the entire pitching staff -- and vice versa. There is no simply saying, "well, Pods is good enough". No, there is no "good enough". The one position on the Sox that is manned by a replacement level player is LF. And no, he's not an "elite speed guy". Elite speed guys don't get picked off so much and have such a piss poor successful steal %. He's medicore at speed and terrible at baseball.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 09:43 AM) The problem is not in finding a superior left fielder. It's in finding a superior leadoff hitter. I think there are really two seperate issues that people are conflating: 1) Sox need a better LF 2) Sox need a capable leadoff hitter. On issue #1, Sweeney or Fields could probably give replacement level offense and defense in LF next season just as in house options. Now personally I don't think that's a great move when you've got a 90-95 win team on paper and an upgrade in LF might put you over the top, but if it comes down to it I won't be that upset for giving young and cheap players a chance. On #2, it's certainly harder to find a good leadoff hitter then a good LF and seemingly every other position player on the Sox isn't fit for leadoff. My solution? Plug Iguchi into leadoff and take care of finding a new LF. Iguchi gave a 281/352/422 line last year and while not a huge threat on the bases he runs well enough to stretch singles into doubles and he goes from 1st to 3rd well enough. Iguchi will be 32 next year and in his 3rd year of MLB. IMO it will be his "career" year. I'm thinking a 290/370/450 line isn't out of the question. Basically KW needs to tell Ozzie whatsup and if he doesn't like it he can find another job. Bat Iguchi leadoff and find a good LF -- get creative: find a platoon partner for one of the youngters perhaps.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Nov 24, 2006 -> 11:28 PM) Pods dropping a ball near the third base line and getting a bunt single was part of his game. Of course that makes his BABIP higher and makes Scott "luckier." BABIP is a worthless stat. Pods was only good for the Sox in the first half of 2005 (.369 OBP 44/53 in the stolen base department.) He was hurt afterwards and his performance on the basepaths that half made it obvious. The Left Fielder in a home run hitters park shouldn't be dropping in bunt singles then getting picked off -- He should be lacing doubles, taking walks, and hitting the ball out of the park. I'm not offering any quick fixes but Pods is def not the answer and it will be easy to upgrade that position because pods sucked so badly. I'd be willing to bet Gload could play slightly worse or the same defense while posting a 280/350/445 line. And that is just in house.

I took a look at some of Pods underlying offensive stats and they actually surprised me a bit. His LD% has steadily been going up which actually means he's becoming a better hitter (literaly) of the ball, however all his other indicators are stagnent or in decline. His ISO is just pathetic -- he's the definition of a "slap" hitter. If you subscribe to the "on year off year" theory I think it's more a case of Pods relying alot on luck with BABIB to drive his batting line. He doesn't take enough walks and he has no power. His BABIB is only good when he's completely healhty and beating out ground balls. But he's almost never completely healthy and he's getting old.

Scott Podsednik plays relatively the easiest position on the field, a position where good defense isn't worth that much relative to good offense. While doing this he hits 261/330/353! Not only that, but he plays terrible defense. So he can't hit and he can't field and he's going to cost more than the minimum and he can't stay healthy as well. Why does anyone one want this guy back?

Really the market is right where it should be according to supply and demand. Demand is way up as MLB is swimming in cash and most of the middle market teams have risen along with the tide. Even small market clubs like the Royals are making good money -- they just aren't investing it back into the club. Add to the mix the already cash laden large market teams and demand is sky high. Take into acount that the market has "checked" itself the past few years after the A-Rod year bonanza and that their aren't that many quality FA's and it makes perfect sense.

Like all great competitors, when doubted -- he rose to the occasion. Congrats Frank on finally earning over 10 million a season and congrats on extending a sure thing HOF career even longer. Frank was one of the absolute best hitters in the 90's and the stats back it up. 6 times he posted an OPS north of 1000. Career OPS of .990 for a career OPS+ of 160 with no hint of 'roids. Truely a great hitter and the best hitter the Sox have ever seen.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 2, 2006 -> 02:08 PM) Ozzie is our manager, he wants speed, therefor you get him speed. Plus offense can be shutdown by top notch pitching, speed can't be (if its in a player that has actual abilities). And yes I am probably the biggest Thome hater on this board because I see him really falling off over the next couple of seasons and think now is as good a time as any to move him (while we can get top notch value and not have to pick up any of his contract). Don't tell me about BA, I am BA's biggest advocate but if Ozzie isn't going to play him I'm going to get someone who can play damn good CF defense day in day out (cause I don't want another day of Mack). Fact of the matter is Ozzie isn't a big fan of Bmac so again its time where I make a move while one of our guys value's is at a peak (Brandon's) and get a guy whose signed to an insanely affordable deal with HOF potential (whose already playing at an All Star Level). Yea I def undertand the "pragmatism argument" with Ozzie. I just feel that it's important that KW lets Ozzie know that he's the GM for a reason and it's because he knows more about succesful team construction then Ozzie. I also hope that KW lays down the law and tells Oz that if he doesn't insert BA as his starting CF in 4/5 games next year Ozzie can find some different employment. I do agree about Thome though and if he can be traded for pitching prospects I say do it. He's unlikely to have another season like 2006 and I here your point about him dropping off substantially. All in all I like that you responded reasonably. I avoided this place for about 4 months mostly because of the attitude of ppl around here when the Sox aren't winning is a major turnoff. It's good to see this offseason so far has been marked by civility.

Yea but I can try. As for Ozzie getting what he wants I think KW has shown in the past that he's the man in charge not Ozzie and I hope he continues with his ideas on how to score runs because they are a lot better than Ozzie's. I like Ozzie as a motivational guy but he's a poor tactician and has some crazy ideas about how runs are scored in baseball.

Forget Sarge, he has a career OPS+ of 96 and last season was a career year. I don't know why the Sox would want to sign a guy that is coming off a career year that he will hard pressed to ever duplicate. I also don't know why you want to get rid of Thome. Thome posted a top 20 VORP last year and although he's crap against lefties he mashes righties -- and last time I checked -- most pitchers are right handed. Crawford for McCarthy is a silly deal because the Sox were 2nd in MLB in RS but middle of the road in RA. BA was one of the best defensive CF in baseball last year and we need all the defense we can get. I'd much rather trade FG or Javier for pitching prospects and insert BMAC into the rotation. The lineup doesn't need more speed, the lineup scored a ton of runs last year. Run prevention was the problem, mostly because the defense wasn't as good as 2005 (thanks Ozzie for playing Mac so much in CF) and because the pitching went from a strenght to a liability. The Sox need to focus on run prevention and replace Pods with a live body out in LF and everything will take care of itself otherwise on the offense. Thome/Dye/Kong is as good of trio as their is in baseball and they don't need speed in front of them as much as guys that can get on base.

Why in the world would the Sox sign a guy coming off a career year at 34 that he's not at all likely to ever repeat? You don't "buy high", especially for a guy with a .344 career OPB. The Sox need someone who can get on base more than that with the big boppers in the middle of the order coming up.

QUOTE(Damen @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 12:55 AM) More importantly, since June 11 (the game in which he had a ninth inning homer against Cleveland), he has posted a .287 BA with an OBP of .339 and OPS of .791. He has been productive for much more of the season than his ineffective first few months. And yet he still sits every third game. Since the All-Star break, BA has started 28 games in center, Mack 14. Why would you ever sit a gold-glove caliber center fielder who's hitting .300 that often down the stretch? I honestly would like to hear the logic behind that. Somebody needs to interview Ozzie, and not just ask why Mack has started over BA so often despite Mack turning around his offense numbers in early June, but present the numbers to Ozzie. He really needs to defend the indefensible, and hopefully one of his kids will read his quotes back to him so Ozzie understands how ridiculous any argument in support of his decision making sounds. Yep. Ozzie is costing this team games with his waffling on BA. Anderson has been a solid hitter for two months now and he's one of the better defensive CF in all of baseball-- WTF is he thinking trotting the incapable of tracking down a ball Mackowiak out there so damn much? Not much. Guillen needs to be informed that BA is the CF of tommorow and today.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Aug 24, 2006 -> 10:44 PM) How does that suck? Are you out of your mind? 2 out of 3 at Toronto lost to LAA 2 out of 3 against the Yanks Swept 3 against Detroit Split 2 of 4 against KC Took 1 out of 3 AT Minnesota ( I don't know how you expected to do more than that at Minnesota. The Twins are play .700 (.6875 to be exact) baseball at home. To expect anything more than that is crazy) Split 2 of 4 AT Detroit I would say, considering our opposition, it has been a great 24 game stretch. The combined records of our opponents during this stretch is 411-350 (.540 Winning PCT). Take away KC and it was a 365-268 (.576 Winning PCT) stretch. I don't think you will find a better record during a stretch like that against those types of teams. We played 5 of the top 8 teams in the AL and went 10-7 against them. You are freaking nuts if you think that is not great. Blasted Royals series might come back to bite the Sox in the ass. Should have taken 3 there.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 19, 2006 -> 10:57 PM) Glad to hear that Cliff is going to get taken care of. Once he heals up, he will be a great set up man again for someone. I doubt it, his career as anything but a mop up man or back end middle reliever is done IMO. He had his career year, and god bless 'em for having it with the Sox.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 19, 2006 -> 11:26 PM) While Freddy might be beyond frusrating right now,teams like Cinny, Texas, Tampa, ect could use some veteran help in the pen. I really beleive you could still find a deal that could get you back some mid to upper level prospects for Freddy, a team desperate for some help. We might need to cover some, if not alot of the tab, but with the sellouts this season, along with me not seeing us go after any big money names, I dont think that would be a problem. Yea, I would not at all be opposed to throwing some team around 5 million to take him off our hands in return for some decent pitching prospects. The farm is bare right now.