Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 02:30 PM) How many teams have six major league ready starters? That is a ridiculous standard with price of pitching in this day and age. If we're going into next season with Peavy, Humber, and Sale in the rotation and expecting to compete, having someone in AAA who can fill in is a necessity. However, I find the odds that having Santiago up with the big league team for 3 weeks and pitching a few times will screw him up to be lower than the odds that the Sox will be able to find an additional 6th starter, either from another surprising rise or from the scrap heap elsewhere (a-la Phil Humber).

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 02:03 PM) Except he's arguably a top five SP prospect in our system and one of the closest to being MLB ready. If we need a starter in the next year or two, for whatever reason that may be, he'll definitely be high on that list. We're not exactly overflowing with SP prospects. So him coming out nowhere is irrelevant. He needs to continue to develop as a starter in the minors, so wasting a couple weeks in our bullpen as an insurance policy is just delaying his development. That's the purpose of having guys like Harrell around, so we can avoid using our better prospects for these type of crap roles. To be fair though...a "top five SP prospect in our system" really doesn't mean all that much, and you know that. If he turns into something valuable it's like hitting the lotto. If we change the odds slightly, it doesn't bug me, especially since I can make a few arguments for the odds going either way.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) actually, I wouldn't be surprised if we're looking up at MIN by the end of the weekend. This offense just doesn't have it. Hasn't had it all year. This feels like the worst point too. We're 10th in the AL in runs in July, we were 9th in June, 4th in May, 8th in April.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) Yeah, but Big Jim was still pretty awesome in 2007 and 2008 (hello monster CF bomb in blackout game). I don't expect every season to wind up in a World Series, but I do hope that big time acquisitions can perform. Jim Thome was an absolute monster in 2006.

Still, for a guy who was on no one's radar at the start of the season, there's probably benefits to being up in the big leagues, dealing with big league scouting reports, big league hitters/pitchers, and the big league coaching staff. A top flight prospect on everyone's radar, I'd be more annoyed about having him and throwing him once or twice in 3 weeks out of the pen. A guy who came out of no where...if he doesn't gain anything from this experience, then we haven't really lost anything.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 01:29 PM) The only thing I'd argue with here is your opinion that our CF has been a defensive disaster. Maybe average to slightly below average but definitely not a disaster. Depends on how we're defining disaster, I guess. I think Rios has been at best fully below average. He's made more than a few bonehead plays that directly affected games and turned into runs, and I struggle to think of many games where he's impressed me out there. Since I'm linking to it for everyone, UZR has him at -5 for the year, where he was +2 for the full season last year. I guess that counts as "Slightly below average"...but I want better than that out of a CF who can't hit my peak weight.

QUOTE (lord chas @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 01:20 PM) hard to judge in my IMO. just because we dont have many errors does it mean we are an elite defensive team? too many misplayed balls in the outfield, botched pick-offs, not holding runners on, and juans noodle arm just a few off the top of my head I think we have a really good infield, especially up the middle, and we have a 1b who is good at picking up balls away from him. With that, we save a lot of errors and when the ball is hit on the ground we have a good shot. We also have some liabilities. We can't throw out a runner to save our lives. Our 1b has limited range, and whether we think that's important or not compared to picking the ball, it means he's not the greatest 1b in history. Our RF has been decent and better than expected, but our starting LF and CF have been defensive disasters. Also, we have 2 backups who are solid defensively (Omar, Lilli) and 1 who is not (Teahen), so our backups are at best a wash. We show up well on errors because IF's tend to be the ones who rack up the most errors, but we're solid on the IF and PK14 helps with that. But the defense costs us games in the OF and on the basepaths more than we want to admit.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 01:18 PM) Oh I don't know. I've followed a lot of games on Gameday this year. Seems like he's having another good year but maybe I'm mistaken. In general I think I agree with fathom that Alexei was more impressive last year, but UZR thinks that his 2010 and 2011 defense is practically identical.

.710 OPS, 71% on stolen bases. Yeah, that's irreplaceable.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 10:56 AM) I really think you are being intentionally obtuse for the sake of squeezing a few more posts out of this. I think you are. You're adamant that something is being done wrong but you can provide zero evidence for it. I think Ozzie probably ought to use his bullpen guys more, not less, and there is very little blame on this manager for bullpen guys who get hurt. I'd also be convinced if someone could prove to me that our key bullpen guys get hurt more often than those for other teams, but again, I'm still waiting.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 10:41 AM) No other teams have relievers who get hurt? Well clearly not the 40+ relievers who have had more appearances than Crain this season.

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 10:33 AM) I'm actually surprised that outside of Pierre's dropped balls early on, the outfield defense hasn't come back to bite this team in the ass more often. I think it actually has...it just doesn't show up as unearned runs. I think Rios cost us a few runs with a play he should have made the week before the AS break, for example. OF's don't get credited for errors on broken plays nearly as often as IF's do.

So please give me something, anything, the slightest nugget of evidence to suggest that Ozzie is doing that in a way that the other 29 managers in MLB aren't rather than just repeating it.

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 10:25 AM) I mentioned this in a different thread a while back, but outside of the injury concerns and terribly streaky offensive output, his defense leaves a lot to be desired and he's not getting any younger or cheaper. You know the amazing thing? Carlos's defense has probably been the most reliable this year out of any of our OF's not named Brent Lillibridge. UZR actually likes Carlos's RF defense this year and thinks he's been slightly above average, for example.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:57 AM) Then we need a 9 man bullpen, because we're picking up guys who can't cut it with moderate use.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 10:00 AM) You really have your head in the sand over the definition of moderate use. A guy who is tied for 42nd in the league in appearances is not being heavily used unless somehow Ozzie is the only manager in the league who warms guys up without bringing them in.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) I really think the players association folds quickly in the NBA. I can't see those guys holding it together. I think they'll be in a position to hold out longer than they did in '99 if it comes to trying to break them. At least now, if a guy is really in trouble, he can go play in Europe for a salary.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jul 19, 2011 -> 10:44 PM) The gov't will be able to service its debt. So they will not default. Really CK. Let me ask you this...if the U.S. government stops sending out social security and military paychecks because it's at the debt limit but maneuvers to pay off the bonds that are due... If you were a bond investor, would you want to buy into the bond issue that came out at that time? Or would you judge that there was a much higher risk associated with those bonds because of the fact that the Congress is already considering a bill saying "Fund Social Security first" and demand a much higher risk premium on those bonds?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:57 AM) Crain doesn't have to be a leader in a statistical category for him to be overused. Then we need a 9 man bullpen, because we're picking up guys who can't cut it with moderate use.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:55 AM) Certain guys in his pen do get used disproportionally at times. Jesse Crain is the big one this year. And as I've pointed out repeatedly, Crain is no where near the top of the league in usage. Your guys' response has been "But he warms up and doesn't come in!" without many examples of that happening...and somehow you're also sorta alledging without saying that other managers don't warm guys up without bringing them in as well.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:54 AM) Huh? How is that hyperbole? You just listed why we should, in fact, tip our cap because he had good stuff. What other definition is there for "tipping your cap" when it doesn't apply to a scenario where the opposing pitcher pitched a great game? I think you;re being overly sensitive here. Why does acknowledging that you're facing a tough pitcher mean you should tip your cap?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:51 AM) It is not a useful reference point. Fans have no idea what is going on in the dugout, clubhouse, or anywhere else. Of course they want the top relievers in. We all want the top relievers in. If we used the fans as a reference point, Paul Konerko would have been cut in 2003, Mark Buehrle would have been cut in 2006, and we'd have a great collection of draft picks that busted, but we paid assloads of money for, along with about 87 hitting coaches in the last 2 years. The reality is very different, and Wite pretty clearly demonstrated why. Throwing a guy every other day for eight days is a different workload than throwing him twice in back to back games over eight days, yet it shows up statistically as the exact same thing. My whole point is that guys don't throw every 8 days. It doesn't happen. They rarely warm up/pitch 3 in a row. And Ozzie does as good of a job with that as any manager. He way overblows his starters. His bullpen simply does not get overtaxed.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 19, 2011 -> 11:47 PM) I love Pablo Sandoval, such a joy to watch. The swinging the bat part or the running the bases part?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) Jeter's offense doesn't get nearly enough credit. The whole "overrated" defensively thing stems pretty exclusively from the idiots voting for Gold Gloves. You don't really hear other people talking about him being a great defender anymore. The guy is a slam dunk first ballot HOFer, and deserves to be so. One of the reasons his offense doesn't get as much credit is that his offense at SS is historically great, but weak compared with the era he was in. A mid .800 OPS out of the SS position would be looked at as great right now. A mid .800 OPS out of the SS position when guys like Tejada were roiding it up there was good but not great. The year he put up a .989 OPS at SS he only wound up 6th in the MVP voting.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 20, 2011 -> 09:46 AM) So what you're basically saying is that we should just tip our cap. Do I need to bump the hyperbole thread? Of course not. Just admit that the guy had some decent stuff. This wasn't an 89 mph junkballer.