Balta1701

Again, the ballpark effect is hitting you there. If the Sox were average on both pitching and hitting, they should be in the top 3-4 teams in the league in offense and bottom 3-4 teams in the league in pitching because they play 81 games in a ballpark that is a home run hitters haven. If the Sox are putting up slightly above average pitching numbers in the Cell...that's really good. If the Sox are putting up average hitting numbers in the Cell, that's pretty bad. If the Sox are the worst offense in the league playing in the Cell, that's historically bad.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 01:46 PM) Although if you simply lined up AL Runs Scored and ERA or WHIP during those years, it would be a lot closer than it appears. The main point is that playing 81 home games at USCF, you have to get at least average offensive production...it won't matter how good your pitching staff is. The problem is that "average offensive production" at USCF will give you a below-average WAR if everything else is equal because of the park adjustment.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 01:29 PM) Hopefully he's listening to someone other than those who talked to him about Keppinger. There are a lot of hit and misses, especially with catchers. I think the Sox are better off going after a guy like Soto if he's available and sticking with Flowers and/or Phegley and continuing their search for an everyday catcher, than locking themselves into Salty for several years. I get this perspective just fine...but if they're signing a backup he absolutely must be able to hit left-handed. There's literally no reason to sign a right-handed backup catcher...we might well already have 2.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 01:21 PM) Salty has red flags. He can't hit right handed. His OBP and batting average were significantly higher this year than the past 3 previous seasons. You would have to think a regression is likely. It's not the type of player I think the White Sox want to commit decent money towards for 4 years, if that is what it takes to get him. I think I lean this way as well but I'm not privy to insider scouting reports. If Hahn is sitting there being told by every scout that Salty finally figured it out and might darn well get even better next year, and the same people are saying that Phegley and Flowers are complete lost causes and if you run them out there they'll be lucky to hit .200...what do you do? If the Sox don't think either of the guys they have are legit starting catchers...I can't say they'd be wrong based on what they showed at the big league level last year. I'd like them to get shots because I want to see us successfully develop some hitters, but if the organization thinks these guys can't cut it...they have no one obviously coming up in the next year+ who can fill the catcher's spot. That would leave this position a gaping hole unless a FA deal was made or Ricky pulled off a trade.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 01:18 PM) Apparently the Sox starting something here. That is the third manager hired in the same circumstances. No experience at all. Here's hoping that in 2 years the Tigers look exactly as sloppy as the 2013 White Sox.

An excerpt from one of those Mark Halperin "insider" books. This one kinda fun...the inside reaction to them actually finding the President's long-form birth certificate in boxes belonging to his late mother.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 09:58 AM) So the Dodgers are going to have a rotation of Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, Tanaka and Josh Beckett? Is Beckett still under contract? If so I could certianly believe that, although I'd expect they'd still try to improve on their 5th starter depth somehow.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 09:47 AM) The vacation/golf stuff doesn't bother me either. We want the president to be working hard, for sure. Very hard. Do you think that working on literally world-changing matters every single day for most hours of the day is going to leave you working optimally? I'm happy for these people to take some leisure time. I want them rested, happy, and thinking clearly, not overworked, bitter, unhealthy, etc. I do get great amusement in the fact that the Republican presidents since 1980 have taken many more vacation days just because people freak out every time the Obama family goes on vacation I agree with you with one notable exception:

Long NYT piece worth your time.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 09:20 AM) I don't, for a single second, think Obama, Bush Jr, or anyone else was purposefully trying to sabotage our economy or destroy the world. I don't think one of these guys could have done better if he'd been trying.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 4, 2013 -> 07:07 AM) I think "favorites" is pretty misleading. The guy is predicting the Sox will sign Salty, but even acknowledges he doesn't like that prediction very much. It's simply just a guess based on positional need. If you guess based on a combination of that and how much money teams have to spend, you'll at least have a decent number of correct guesses. Makes sense.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 09:52 PM) I think even I would rather have De Aza and his contract than Granderson and his contract. I love Granderson, but I don't want him unless he's signing a 2 yr/$24M deal at the most. He should be a 3+ WAR player, but he had an injured 2013 and his defense, sabr speaking, is all over the place. But a 2 yr deal doesn't really make a difference, so I'd rather not sign him at all. I'm ok with Granderson getting money but I don't think he's an everyday CF, or at least probably not any more. Maybe for a year. But...I could put up with it if they are able to get good value from De Aza in a trade.

QUOTE (soxfan-kwman @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 08:33 PM) If healthy 4-5 million a year for 2 years. He's your proven 4-5 pitcher, plus one of the other righties has to step it up. Better value then getting a free agent righty. Plus, I heard he's already throwing & should be ready. Bottom line, money saved by signing Floyd helps us sign some more LH hitting. Yeah, every part of this is a terrible idea.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 07:24 PM) Personally I love the total value of the contract being quoted to make it seem so much worse. AH SCARY BIG NUMBER!!!! If he accepts the qualifying offer, the Red Sox will have paid Stephen Drew $23.5 million between 2013 and 2014. In bWAR (cause I'm at the page) Alexei put up 2.6 last year, Drew put up 3.1.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 06:31 PM) I feel like our perception of all this is based on the premises of: 1. White Sox desperately trying to dump Alexei and 2. Cardinals only kinda sorta listening With no clear replacement for Alexei and his fair and long-term deal, it seems unlikely that we were actually desperate to dump him. He could easily be a part of a rebuilt White Sox team. It makes even more sense for us to exercise caution while we don't know what we have in Semien (who had hardly broken out at the time of these negotiations). Beyond that, his trade value was unlikely to go down if we waited. The contract gets shorter, we move into the offseason when teams have more money and more teams might bid, etc. He was a guy we had no reason to dump for nothing and I have a feeling we were asking for a lot. The Cards, on the other hand, may have very well been rather desperate for him but were unable or unwilling to pay a very high price for him. Who knows, perhaps after their frustrating finish they'll be even more emboldened to up the ante for a guy like Alexei. That's 1 person's perspective.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 06:19 PM) Depending on how precisely you think the advanced defensive metrics gauge value, but yes he would likely get that money on the free agent market. My point would be more is it worth it to the Sox to be paying that much for a guy unlikely to be the shortstop on the next Sox playoff team. I suppose that depends on whether or not Hahn is constructing a team to legitimately hope to contend in 2014 or whether he's putting in place people he hopes to be the long term solutions (Avisail, Abreu, Semien) but who probably are not there yet. He seems to be suggesting there won't be any big free agent signings, so people's hope of an upgrade to McCann seem less likely. We'll see what happens. But if the team is more like 2 years away, I say move Alexei's $$ because a) it's kind of a lot and b) we probably wouldn't have to eat any of it. I have no issue with moving Alexei...but there's no reason to be in a hurry to move him. He's signed for several years, his performance isn't deteriorating and if there's a coach who can focus him there's reason to believe it can improve again, his baserunning numbers got a lot better last year for example, and frankly, $9 million dollars on the FA market isn't going to make a huge difference for this team right now. The Sox can sit and wait until someone pays a really premium price for an affordable SS signed long-term. If they hold him for now and wait for a really good return...what's the downside? Semien and Johnson get more time to work on their games in AAA and AA, which is where they belong anyway...and they have to hit their way into the big leagues. This isn't a bad thing. If somehow both of them hit their way into the bigs shortly, then maybe we have 2b and 3b actually filled as well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 05:48 PM) If something was done productively with De Aza I'd be game, but I keep stressing, De Aza is a solid player and shouldn't be given up for nothing. I don't see how spending money on Gutierrez is an obviously better option than Jordan Danks as the backup OF unless someone is moved beforehand. They're both basically backups right now - Gutierrez has played 92, 40, and 41 games the last 3 seasons, and even in his good years you're downgrading OBP from De Aza by quite a bit. I'd also ask this...what's the long term plan with him? If Gutierrez is great for us for a few weeks, what happens to him? Isn't the best result basically he's traded for a minimal return? Even a solid season from him they'd be unlikely to offer him a Q.O. for $14 million for the next year...he's not going to be traded for an all-world return given his injury history even if he is being successful, and a long-term extension for him would be very risky even if he was having success.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 05:33 PM) One guy I would really like them to look at, and it opens the door for a couple of trades, is Franklin Gutierrez. He has been banged up for a few years and was at one time one of the best defensive players in baseball, and he has a lot of power. I think he could be a poor man's Jermaine Dye type of signing. If something was done productively with De Aza I'd be game, but I keep stressing, De Aza is a solid player and shouldn't be given up for nothing. I don't see how spending money on Gutierrez is an obviously better option than Jordan Danks as the backup OF unless someone is moved beforehand. They're both basically backups right now - Gutierrez has played 92, 40, and 41 games the last 3 seasons, and even in his good years you're downgrading OBP from De Aza by quite a bit.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 05:21 PM) One thing is for sure, this is going to be a much more fun winter for Sox fans than the past couple. That makes me come up with this one. Ricky did the #1 thing I wanted him to do already with Abreu. Now I want him to....surprise me. Come up with something I'm not expecting.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 04:34 PM) All I want is people to rank him 1-10 and nobody will take me up on it. I give him a 2.5 or 3. 5.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) Honestly, I didn't watch last night's game until the 4th, definitely saw a lot of sloppiness in his ball handling. But the basketball smarts I wanted to see from him in the first 2 games would have been play more of a distributor when his shots weren't falling, rather than forcing the issue by driving to the hoop. If defenders have to pay more attention to his teammates, shots will open up for him. He hasn't been taking a ton of shots per game yet, has he? I know his minutes have been a bit limited but we're nto talking about him going 9/30.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 03:43 PM) Good posts, but are u defending Obama or just pointing things out? You can't possibly think he's even been a 3 out of 10 as a president, can you? I think his absolute biggest failure was deciding to listen in 2010-2011 to the people who thought the deficit was a huge problem. We've cut the deficit in half and like you said, we've seen 3+ years of a completely stagnant economy since. Anyone who thinks the deficit is a major problem should love this president, anyone who thinks that jobs are important should have the reaction you're having. These website problems are embarrassing and should be a fireable offense for a lot of people, but if they keep their word and they have a functioning system by the end of November it'll be a footnote to an otherwise successful program in the long-term. If they're having issues into December then they will absolutely have no choice but to begin delaying the deadlines in the bill - the plans can't go live January 1 if no one can buy them. That would be a worse failure than failing to have it working on October 1.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 03:20 PM) Well, then I wish more would follow Romney and bring it on regarding Obama. He's got to be battling Ulysses Grant for worst president of all time. He's done absolutely nothing except completely obliterate the economy and changing people's vision of the future. Nobody except the truly rich believe they'll be better off financially than their parents were. LOL, actually US Grant wasn't nearly the worst of that century, particularly compared to the people who came before the civil war and the inept ones who followed him. And frankly, I'm seriously impressed that you've managed to completely forget who it was that the economy was actually obliterated under.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 03:13 PM) Was that before or after he got elected? I'd be surprised if his hometown paper blasted him like that while in office. I can't fathom the lack of respect shown Obama, except by the press and voters near and on Election Day. Put Obama in an election and him winning (for no good reason) is the biggest lock of all time. Way to get our economy going and health care, Mr. President. Thanks for nothing. A lot of those were responding to his first inauguration. Yes, his hometown paper blasted him that way while he was in office. Papers all over the country did. This is how the world works. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but man, it seriously needs burst. The insults heaped upon presidents are legendary. I don't know of many writers or orators who come anywhere close to the impressive insults tossed at presidents in this country's first century. Andrew Jackson's "pipe-smoking woman of ill-repute" wife is still one of my favorites.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 3, 2013 -> 02:49 PM) I'm so disappointed in myself for voting for Obama and the public being fooled by superficiality every time. Read this about Romney calling Obama a liar. The fact people find it so necessary to blast the current president, never showing him an ounce of respect, shows how unqualified Obama was/is to be our leader. http://news.yahoo.com/romney-meet-the-press-140953473.html So wait, if I call any elected official a liar they're clearly unqualified to be a leader? The standard you use to judge whether or not someone is a leader is literally "what his or her opponents say about them and how much respect there is"? You must know absolutely nothing of U.S. history. This is actually kind of fun, it motivated me to find some of the stuff written and spoken about Lincoln. Here's his hometown newspaper: Man this Lincoln guy must have been awful. LOL some of these are great Here's a couple of his nicknames: