chitownsportsfan

Thank God that Jeremy Reed did not pan out or this would be even worse to stomache. I have a hard time getting mad at FG for what he said, obviously he said it after a frustrating outing. That said, dude is dead weight and he should have dealt at the deadline when he had at least some value. He has "negative value" right now and he will have to packaged with a prospect to be gotten rid of most likely. I wonder if the Sox can just buy out his contract and send his ass packing next season.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 19, 2006 -> 10:10 PM) Semi-Obvious, but looking at the standings as of right now, tomorrow is a HUGE game. I understand every game is huge for now on, but if we can get a nice 3 game lead on Minny, with the Red Sox ship sinking FAST, things look pretty good going into Detriot 5.5(maybe even 4.5) back. Javy needs to have a Toronto-esc preformance tomorrow, and the Sox have to scrap together 2 or 3 runs early. You want to become a real White Sox Javy, tomorrow is your chance. Yea both Detroit and the Red Sox are in a tailspin. Right now Minnesota (god I can't stand the Twinkies) is the main competition in my mind. The Sox play well against the Tigers and I'm not worried about winning the devision or the head to heads verse the Tigers, the goal at this point has to be to beat up on the Twinkies and play solid against the rest, let the division and wild card chips fall where they may, but keep beating the Twinkies.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 19, 2006 -> 09:57 PM) Had, had, had to take this game. Not excited about tomorrow, but you play the games for a reason, so lets go for that series win tomorrow. I said the same thing, great minds think alike in this case. I thought Count was a lock vs the Royals and that blew up in my face.

Sox needed this one and Garland came through. Honestly I think Vasquez has no shot against Santana tommorow but that's why they play the games.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 11:43 PM) Jim Thome changed the character of this team. Not knocking the guy, but it is what it is, for better or worse. He should be batting fourth, however. Instead of adding Thome to last year's team, it seems the Sox have changed their whole approach centered around Thome in the third spot. No stealing, sacraficing, hit and running, etc. in the first inning like last year. "We don't want to take the bat out of Thome's hands, you know." The starting pitching has not come through this year either. Another f***ing small ball post? You'd think leading the majors in RS would be enough to f***ing convince people that the way to score runs is to get on base and hit home runs and doubles. The problem has been pitching, it's been the problem all year. The offense IS THE BEST IN BASEBALL!!! The problem is not the offense, it's not a lack of "small ball". The problem is that MB, JV, and to a lesser extent FG, JC, and JG have all s*** the bed this year. Add Neal Cotts and Pollitte to that list as well.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 11:36 PM) I don't hate/dislike him eigher. Will always be someone I respected for what he did in 2005. But his time has ran out basically. There's nothing more he can really bring to the table like he did in early 2005. I have backed him alot as well, but we all know he probably won'nt be back. He still has Dergan though so don't feel too bad.. Pods is the classic "track athlete on a baseball diamond". He really has no baseball skills. He's fast and can slap some singles. He has no baseball intuition both on defense and at the plate. Hasn't shown anything on the bases this year other than incompetance either.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 09:54 PM) Sizemore. Ichiro isn't even a great walk guy, but his OBP is inflated due to the always high average. Sizemore is incredible, plays a great CF on defense, .300/.382 with a .912 OPS and has 18 steals along with being a lefty hitter. Sizemore is the best leadoff man in the game IMO. Yea, that's pretty amazing, a 382 OBP and a .912 OPS from a defensive standout CF is damn good. What is Pods' OBP at anyways? It can't be much over .340, and it's much lower because of all the damn times he's been picked off or CS.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 09:36 PM) Agreed, the leadoff guy doesn't have to be some guy that steals 50 bases. Just give me a professional hitter who gets on base a lot for the big boppers, speed be damned (although if he can run, I won't argue with it). Yep, the order of importance should be 1.) OBP and then speed a distant second. Ideally the best leadoff hitters combine both, but I can't name many other than Ichiro perhaps.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 12:12 PM) I'm willing to take either a high OBP or a guy with a moderate OBP but really good speed. The high OBP guy gets himself on base for the guys behind him and allows them to hit the ball out of the park, the guy with the speed gets himself on base less, but when he gets on base, he's immediately in scoring position, and the 2-3 guys behind him can knock him in with a hit or even a sac fly. Problem with Podsednik right now is he's neither. Personally I'd like to see the Sox get creative and throw tradition out the window. Sure, stealing bases is nice and all, but I"ll take the 40-50 times more per year a good OBP leadoff hitter will get on base over what Pods is giving us. Sox really don't have a lot of guys that can take a walk outside of Thome though. Obviously it will have to come from either a trade or signing this offseason.

QUOTE(spawn @ Aug 15, 2006 -> 09:40 AM) Yeah...he's the best GM in baseball, yet how many WS titles does he have? Oh yeah...none. This is a debate for the offseason, (and god knows we had it last offseason here) but Beane will tell you himself" his s*** doesn't work in the playoffs, the series' are too short. As for the Loziza move, he's not been very good, but no GM is perfect, and Beane consistantly wins with a small market payroll.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Aug 15, 2006 -> 09:55 AM) I like baseball stats, but I think these guys lack common sense. How can the Yanks be 76-21 favorites over the Red Sox with only a 2-game lead and 45+ games to go? Do you think they would lay those odds on a bet? Moreover, how can the Yanks be 82-57 favorites over us to make the playoffs when they have a worse record than we do? (Granted, they have a division lead, but it is only 2 games and if they lose it, they are out right now.) Why do the Yanks project out to more wins than us when they have fewer wins now and have a poorer run differential? I know BP has formulas for all of this, but the formulas need some adjusting. I could be wrong but I'm guessing it's all done with formulas based off of historical data. So for example at this point in the season teams with so and so lead/record have historically made the playoffs x amount and won the division/wild card x amount.

People wonder why Billy Beane is the best GM in the game, well with a payroll of peanuts, he once again has the A's in 1st place. A huge part of that is a mostly healthy big Frank, he has put up on OPS of .911 will slugging 25 HR's and getting on base at a .382 clip. The Big Hurt's base salary this year? $500,000. Frank is now only 27 homers away from 500 and will likely end the season around 20 short of 500. Does he have enough left in him to get the number? My guess is yes, one more half season of health should give him around 495 and a role as a spot starter pinch hitter in 2008 should put him over the top. That's a conservative estimate, but it still gets him the 500 and the automatic keys to Cooperstown, should he be willing to put in two more years of work. Frank remains the greatest slugger of the 90's without a hint of steroids standing between him and the record books.

Have you guys ever heard Van Slycke talk on WSCR? He has to be one of the most ignorant ballplayers I've ever heard. And that is not exactly an informed bunch. He's a complete idiot.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 03:24 AM) exactly wrong. Our team was more fresh for the stretch run BECAUSE we played our reserves so much. Players that are aging like Dye AJ, and Iguchi should be given more time off. Younger players like BA, Crede, and Uribe should be ridden for all they are worth. A better backup catcher might be worth one full win from this point on.

QUOTE(soxpride77 @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 09:56 PM) I disagree, at least for this series against Detroit, which is the cause of all the panic. The reason we lost two to Detroit is because of our inability to score runs. PK even said it after the game last night, he said that you can't expect to win scoring only two runs. Well, last night we scored 2, and today we scored 1. Detroit is us last year. They have great pitching, and can manufacture runs when they need them. Up until these last 2 games, 2 games in an entire season, "manufacturing runs" didn't even enter into the equation. There is only one time smallball has been proven to help a team win a game: that is when trailing or tied in the 8th or 9th innings with the leadoff man aboard. I'm too lazy to find the link to the run expectancy tables, but it's been proven literally tens of thousands of times through empirical evidence that intentionally trying to make an out in an inning is just not a good idea unless you only need 1 run to tie or go ahead in the late innings. Like someone (sorry you) said, the problem was that whenever someone was on, there was already one out. (on a side note, it's amazing that Farmer and Singleton can bring up the "leadoff walks score 40% of the time" stat--which comes from run expectancy tables, and not take the next step and use the same basic idea to show that bunting runners over lowers the mean run expectancy for that inning.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 09:52 PM) The fact that most announcers suck (which is true) doesn't make Hawk any better. Indeed. The soft bias of low expectations...

QUOTE(stretchstretch @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 12:42 AM) perfect example, 4th inning, bases loaded, 1 out, chance to kill em, Uribe swings at first pitch in the dirt, then pops up to catcher on the second pitch, no pressure. Widger next, first pitch in the dirt, swings, no pressure on Rogers, then pops up to left. Last year, in that situation, NEVER EVER EVER EVER FU*KING swing at the first pitch with bases loaded. We would walk in runs and find a way to score people without relying on a killer double to deep center. Every guy in our lineup was able to take first pitch and force the issue. When you lose a game 2-1 on a stellar outing by your starter, you HAVE to look to this kind of thing..... Oh I agree with this. Anyone other than Thome, Kong, Crede, and Dye need to be given the "take until you see a strike sign", with runners on. That should have been the plan today. Oh and never playing Widger again and DFA him would help things too. I'll just keep repeating that till I die.

I think he eats a bat before the next game and then spiffs it into his son's mouth. Paul Konerko will ask, "wow, that's really something, but whaduya call it?" And Ozzie will say, Los Aristicratos"

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 08:43 PM) Thome also has a 1.150 OPS this month alone, his best so far this year. Thing is, only a .747 OPS against lefties, which was always going to be the problem with him. Thank you for pointing out that very fair critique of Thome. Ozzie loves him damn lefty/righty matchups so much, you'd think he might realize this once and awile and ask KW to go get him a decent platoon partner for Thome, or at least a guy that can pitch hit. This team has no righty bench threats right now.

You just compared Crazy Carl and his .650 OPS to Paul Konerko and his .1000 OPS? Booooo stupid comparisons. Hurray Jim Thome and his 31 HR.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 06:10 PM) Or not. Our pitchers were out-of-their-minds good last year. We scored a large percentage of our runs off the homer. We had ONE fast guy. None in the 2nd half. Smallball has nothing to do with the Sox then or now. (Nor should it...) Ding Ding Ding!

Best Thread Title Ever.

QUOTE(chisoxdavid @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 05:40 PM) Im sure Ozzie will try to get the team to play small again. Another freaking "smallball is the cause of our problems thread"? Get the fish out of here and look at the stats. Pitching is the freaking problem. Edit: loving the new censors.

How the hell did this place even function pre-2005?

QUOTE(CWSOX45 @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 03:24 PM) So.....i dunno if this has been stated yet today but... CHRIS WIDER SUCKS. I'm beyond frustrated, between last nights game and todays game I'm literally ripping my hair out. Chris Wiger needs to be DFA about a month ago.