Steve9347

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) Again, notice the last point. Gordon Beckham is at the very least still out-performing his salary. You can put together a winning team with the #4 offense in the AL with Gordon Beckham at 2b (and that's with the 1/3 of a season debacle we had at 3b as well). If your definition of saying that a player sucks includes that level of performance, then to me, your definition of suckiness has no meaning. Rather, it's just getting used on a guy you're frustrated with for his lack of development. If this is who Gordon Beckham is, then it's tolerable. We can win with Gordon Beckham being the #9 hitter and doing this. He'd actually be a better-than-average #9 hitter in the AL these days. I can live with that for another year. We have other needs that are bigger. Yes. We can live with him. He also sucks.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 03:09 PM) Where's the list of players Soxtalk has written off that have remained bad? It crashed my PC it was so large. I got to Danny Richa... and it just went black.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:57 PM) Will bite tongue on responding to this the way it deserves, which involves a whole lot of profanity. If you just want to go to the basics...right now, fWAR has Gordon Beckham as a...replacement level player. That makes him below average yes...but as I keep pointing out, replacement level players have their utility. In the bWAR world, Beckham has been slightly below average, but that's because of the defensive metric already referred to in this thread, defensive runs saved, whcih no one is buying. He's actually slightly above replacement player level in bWAR at his position with the bats. There are currently 5 2b in the bigs with >250 PA's who have produced lower OPS numbers than Beckham. 3 of them are currently on contending teams. 2 of them are guys who I listed out of people being paid more than 2x what Beckham is being paid who were available as free agents earlier this year. Yes, better options than Beckham have been available. However, they've either been part timers who have had great seasons, or they've cost more than Beckham, and thus would have required shedding additional salary (bye AJ). If this is who Gordon Beckham is, he will have another year with the Sox after this one and he'll wind up as a journeyman/part timer. If your guys standard for players who suck is that, then I contend you have a wide standard for players who suck. I count 31 regular players, with >250 PA's, who have lower OPS values than Beckham, again including guys who would have been available as his likely replacement. There are some solid names in there, names people have floated as guys the Sox could look at for other positions, like Olivo, Ian Stewart, Yunel Escobar, Damon, Justin Smoak, Kurt Suzuki. If your standard for guys who suck includes that whole list of players, that's fine, but it's become a useless definition born not out of the guy's actual performance, but out of the fact that you wanted better from him and didn't get it. And I'm sorry if "typing more than a sentence long insult" takes more time than you have available in your day. You make great points above. None of them, however, disparage the notion that Gordon Beckham sucks. WOW! 5 2b's with Lower OPS (one was just optioned to the minors, Jemile Weeks). What about the 24 in the league who are better. He sucks, it's plain and simple. Sorry about the joke about you disappearing. You've certainly done that before, but this time you at least took the time to craft a very long response that didn't really prove you correct. And yes - Ian Stewart, Yunel Escobar, Justin Smoak, and Johnny Damon suck fat balls.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:57 PM) Will bite tongue on responding to this the way it deserves, which involves a whole lot of profanity.

(This is the portion of the argument where Balta disappears. I've seen it before. We call this the "Balta Bail".)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:37 PM) Like I said before...Gordon Beckham is perfectly adequate at doing what he needs to do...which is not be awful, fill the 2b hole, play some decent defense, and be cheap. He won't be able to do that 2 years from now, but for some reason, adequate = sucks in your guys eyes. But he has been awful.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:36 PM) The average 2b in major league baseball this year has posted a .696 OPS. Gordon Beckham's numbers over that stretch would make him basically an average offensive 2b in baseball this year. Last year the average 2b put up a .708 OPS. WTF you don't even read your posts. First, his numbers were wrong. Ok, so if this year, the average 2B is putting up a .696 OPS, how is that proving that Gordon Beckham at a .644 doesn't suck? How does that excuse Gordon's .633 last season when the league average 2b rocked a .708?

Hmmm. I'm going to take the idea and run with it that these accusations are false. This lends and interesting, scary conversation for us to discuss... are kids (let's say if the coach benches them or calls them out or whatever) going to start "crying rape" due to the mega-coverage of the Sandusky affair? I hope not, but, um, maybe.

Saying "Gordon Beckham is better than Brent Morel" is in no way proving he does not suck. Also, quoting yourself like you're some big pimp is super duper lame-o.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 02:33 PM) Ok, you got me there...point made. He doesn't have to be awesome. He's not even good. No, he's not even average. In the last THREE years, he's posted this : .249avg .318obp .386slb .704ops. I know it's just my opinion...but that SUCKS. His OPS hasn't even approached .700 the last three seasons, so your numbers can't be right.

You don't even have to strive for awesome... just give us some numbers as to why Gordon Beckham doesn't suck.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 01:19 PM) Mark Mulder ‏@markmulder20 Seriously Bartolo Colon. What is wrong with these guys testing positive. U can't be that stupid. This is so embarrassing for baseball. The way that reads is rather... interesting...

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:25 PM) I mentioned Cassel yesterday and blanked on him today. Like I said there are exceptions. Cam Newton started for a junior college, thats why he played more than 1 year. http://www.njcaa.org/colleges_college_play...easonselect=459 So that is 2 years of starting. Well s***, just pull the film from high school, junior high, and grade school now while we're at it. Forget the two monster performances as a starter in the NFL, I need to see what this kid did for the Tyler, Texas torpedoes in 1992!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:32 PM) Since when is cholesterol a drug? HA!

Meh http://flapship.com/steroids-in-baseball-p...trian-interest/

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:28 PM) L M F A O

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 11:15 AM) ? Hasselbeck started 2 seasons at Boston College. (701 attempts) Delhomme started all 4 years at a small Louisiana Lafayette. (1246 attempts) Kevin Kolb started 4 years at Houston. (1565 attempts) Matt Flynn started 1 year at LSU. (437 attempts) I guess people still arent understanding how little Matt Flynn has actually played in his career. Since 2004 Matt Flynn has thrown 569 passes in actual live games. Every name you mentioned, threw far more than that prior to being given a job at the NFL level. Furthermore, Hasselbeck the closest comparison lowest amount of throws in actual games over an 7 year period was: 1051 attempts, which was slightly less than 2x the attempts Flynn has. I really can not think of any QB who has played this little and been given a starting QB job. Flynn is so untested and unproven that he should absolutely have to win the job. I dont see how you can argue that it would be smart for Seattle to just hand Flynn the job when he has thrown less than 600 passes since 2004. He's not talking about college. No one cares about college when talking the NFL except for you! He's talking about "in the NFL". Those are clearly all QBs who were NFL backups who went on to start elsewhere.

Also, reasons like tonight are why I hate blackouts. A far superior media outlet (in terms of video quality, graphics, etc) is nationally broadcasting our game, and we get the choppiness of WCIU. Also, I like getting the perspective of the Sox from the broadcasters other than Hawkeroo sometimes. I think the Sox have been on Sunday night baseball once this year?

Chris Sale hasn't lost a game at home since May 12. 6-0 with a 1.17 era in last 7 home starts. F*cking bring it.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 09:44 AM) BREAKING BAD is the one show where I don't want to speculate on what may happen or could happen. Just gonna sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. I think it's one of the few shows where they don't lead you to guess where it's going, and the audience doesn't need to care. There's only one way this will end, and that's "badly for Walt". Beyond that? Bring it on. I just wish the season weren't split, because the hubris of Walt is gaining ridiculous momentum right now.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 10:13 AM) They changed cause of death on his cert to "guilt" I figured it was "deep sadness" - I didn't sense much guilt over raped kids there, just mostly sadness that he got ousted from PSU.

Ok, this is pretty awesome. ADIDAS and Rose are launching a documentary in episodes via YouTube about his injury and rehab and #thereturn. More and the video - http://flapship.com/return-of-derrick-rose-belief-video/

The Indians suck so hard.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Aug 21, 2012 -> 03:12 PM) Yes, it is a f***ed up place. A thought just crossed my mind. The timing of Paterno's passing could prove to be a convenient occurance for some people. Stranger things have happened and who knows exacty how far up the, for the lack of a better analogy, food chain this goes. And don't fool yourself that Paterno was the top of the chain. ... Steve, not pointed at you. You're post is made me have this thought. Yeah, clearly Paterno wasn't the top of the chain. He was just a guy who had a lot of power at PSU who helped cover things up. Sandusky is the evil one here, but there's some men with REAL deep pockets involved who had better hope they're already dead or start praying they are lucky enough that their victims don't single them out.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 06:14 AM) Sources: Urlacher turned to alternative therapy before knee scope Something tells me we are going to be without the big guy this season.