MattZakrowski

Elkhart

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I feel like this is the combo guard of Apple Products. I'm not really sure what this can do that my Macbook or iPod touch can't.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:31 PM) They play seasons on projections now? Good point, projections are pulled out of some statistician's ***, and have no basis in reality, and are definitely not predicated on factors like player's past performance.

Anything that knocks Avatar down a peg or two is fine by me.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 01:52 PM) I cant seem to get woba for Kotsay only on the White Sox. .334

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 01:22 PM) Hyperbole wont get far with me. But Ill go ahead and say that today Curtis Enis is the better football player than Walter Payton. Granted Walter Payton is dead, but the point remains. Just because Thome in his prime was far better than Kotsay, does not prove that Thome this year is going to be anything more than slightly better than Kotsay. What exact statistic from last year makes you believe that Jim Thome is "significantly" better than Kotsay? Is it bad that I laughed really hard at that? But exact statistics? 2009(Thome, then Kotsay): wOBA .367 .309 OBP .366 .327 SLG .481 .390

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 12:47 PM) 1. May not be a CF, but he can play the field. Thome could not play the field, so Kotsay still holds a distinct defensive advantage. Even .1 > 0 2. Thome may be slightly better offensively than Kotsay this year, its hard to tell given Thome's decline over the past few years. I think that when you account that Thome offers nothing outside of offense, there is a much greater risk with him as an asset compared to Kotsay. At least if Kotsay hits for nothing, he can do something productive. 3. Kotsay may not start, but Im pretty sure that he could find a place on the bench for the Twins. Which is the role he will have on the Sox, unless he plays like the end of last year, and then Im fine with him starting every day. 4. How can you say Kotsay's best years are behind him when we are talking about Thome who turns 40 by the end of the season? Kotsay just turned 34, which is younger than when the Sox acquired Thome. If anything Kotsay will regress but he has a lessor chance of falling of the deep end like Thome could. If Jim Thome's only slightly better than Mark Kotsay offensively, then Walter Payton was only slightly better than Curtis Enis at football. And Kotsay's best years are behind him, just like 99% of all 34 year old athletes.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 09:50 AM) If you don't give him credit to help with the winning don't discredit him for the losing. He was the manager who oversaw the winning. How else can you determine the ultimate value of a manager? In the end winning is the only thing that matters. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as it is within the rules. Is Phil Jackson a poor basketball caoch because he only won with Jordan or Kobe? Guillen has won while here and no matter how you care to look at it, he is the best manager we've had in a long time. I didn't discredit him for losing, I discredited him for not putting his teams in the best positions to win games (Wise leading off, etc.). As for Phil Jackson, his Bulls run was when I was a kid, and I really only watch sparing playoff basketball now. I don't think having great players means you can't be a great manager, but winning doesn't prove that your a good manager, just like losing doesn't prove you're a bad manager. The fact is, managers in baseball have very little impact with the exception of managing pitching staffs, and choosing who plays each day. I think in many instances that Guillen has made mistakes in regards to both of these.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 01:34 AM) Your right, why would I ever think how they played last year was more important than how they played in their career? Given that gem, why dont the Sox sign Frank Thomas because his career statistically was better than both and his my favorite player so how could you go wrong there? I think there is a slight difference between you watching a couple of Yunkiesky Betancourt ab's and Ozzie watching Kotsay and Thome every at bat last season. Maybe Im wrong, but I wouldnt bet your reputation on it. Btw, the stats do bear mentioning: Kostay on the Sox: .292 .349 .434 .783 Thome on the Sox:249 .372 .493 .864 Thome August: 238 .298 .500 .798 Kotsay August: 333 .389 .467 .856 Kotsay September: .324 .385 .493 .878 Guess my eye saw something in the last 2 months. Thome had lost something and Kotsay clearly had picked it up. (The post went to early for some reason sorry) Do you really believe that Mark Kotsay has magically become the .878 OPS player that he was in September? There's no way that wasn't just a outlier/hot streak for Kotsay. He put up a ridiculous .345 BABIP in August, and a still unmaintainable .317 in Sept./Oct. His K-Rate with the Sox was 8%. There's no way he does that again. Over the course of a full season, Kotsay will almost certainly regress to his career norms, which are worse than even conservative projections for Thome.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 10:15 PM) Win. He is the best manager in winning games the Sox have had since Al Lopez. His winning percentage is within a few points of the great Tony LaRussa and higher than guys like Tommy Lasorda. Say what you want about Ozzie's crazyness, he does do alot of crazy things during the season and during the off-season but he wins more than anyone we've had in a long time. Unless you would rather go back to Terry Bevington, Jeff Torborg, Don Kessinger, Jim Fregosi Jerry Manuel or even tony LaRussa. I kow I'm missing afew but I'm too lazy to look them up for managers since the late 70's. Ozzie's teams have been to the playoffs more times than all of the others combined or at least close to it. But in what way is the White Sox winning due to Ozzie Guillen's managing? Being associated with winning doesn't make you the cause of it. Did Robert Horry carry Houston, LA, and San Antonio to titles?

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 09:53 PM) Too bad he's right handed. That's how dire things are...

QUOTE (Ranger @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 09:52 PM) Meatballs! Yea, admittedly a bit much, I'll own that. But to be fair, how many meatballs use wOBA in their angry rants?

Fire Ozzie Guillen! I get it, he had a tremendous team handed to him in 2005, and good teams handed to him in 2006 and 2008, but he's a terrible manager. In his time with the White Sox, he has started and led off Dwayne Wise, benched Nick Swisher for old Ken Griffey Jr. and placed Scott Linebrink and Mike MacDougal in too many high leverage situations to count. Now he has decided that old Andruw Jones and MARK EFFING KOTSAY would make a better DH than Jim 'led the White Sox in OPS/EQA/wOBA' Thome. I have to partially blame KW for that last one, but KW has been a good, sometimes great GM, who is for whatever reason listening to his stupid ass, giving him the inferior team he claims to want. You want an NL style team? Go to the effing National League! You know what team is a national league style team? The Pirates. Go manage them. We play in US Cellular Field! You have to hit home runs to win at US Cellular Field! I mean seriously, give me something real and quantifiable that Guillen does well, because I'm tired of this bs off-season.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 02:55 PM) Exactly, plus it's not as though each and every society on Earth has a history of genocide and mass executions. Though some of that is a function of the society's ability to commit said acts. I feel like people are inherently bad and self serving, but that many people are aware enough to not act on those impulses.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 03:54 PM) No, I don't use velveeta. I use real, shredded mozzarella and make my own thin crust and toppings. My problem with homemade pizza is that every sauce I've tried has been bland and crappy. I do like that I can go overboard on the cheese, though.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 12:47 PM) I just want to thank you for removing that Dawson's Creek avatar. You could've put a photo of Richard Simmon's bare ass there instead and I actually would've been less revolted than I was every time I saw that Dawson pic. Honestly, the concept of Joe Borchard is more disgusting and offensive to me than any bad 90's TV character, or bare ass could ever be.

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 19, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) In the book eat to live it suggests eating one meal every 2 days. And watch as your metabolism screeches to a halt.

QUOTE (JDsDirtySox @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 10:05 PM) Thome coming back is now up to 50/50. http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2010/01..._the_sox_s.html I'm really glad, not only because we need production out of that spot, but because I'm pretty sure at some point I said I'd eat my hat if we didn't get a real DH, and I don't even like hat. Too starchy.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 08:34 PM) The street is in no way your property. Get over it and find a new spot. It's not yours in the first place. Reminds me a lot of someone being childish and saying ''seat save''. Sit somewhere else you god damn cry baby, it won't harm you any. I'm gonna guess you have no respect for shotgun protocol on road trips...

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 03:07 PM) For those who care, in MLB 2K10, you can only play the AA and AAA teams in franchise mode. There are no A teams. I think it's the same the MLB 10 The Show as well. That's a deal breaker for me. I'll stick with MLB 2K8 another season. I think I read somewhere the Show's got an unplayable Single A team for franchise mode, but I can't find it now.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 04:32 PM) I guess this has become a merged DH thread. A random thought I had. Ozzie wants a guy who can DH and also play the field. And Ozzie loves speedy guys. I want a guy who can hit from the LH side countering Jones. Playing the IF would also be a plus since Vizquel is our only backup there. Isn't Orlando Hudson still available? I kind of like it, but if you get Hudson, I think you at least consider playing him at second, move Beckham back to 3B, and DH Teahen. But I really still want Thome/Branyan (but mostly Thome)

Bryan Smith has been doing a series of articles on Fangraphs, looking for RH sinkerballers who have been undervalued in the minors due to depending on poor defenses. One of our guys made his list. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/s...lers-final-part

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 22, 2010 -> 12:35 AM) I think it's funny how all this stuff works. Branyan puts up those numbers in Seattle but can't find a job while Marlon Byrd puts up a .283/.329/.479 line in Texas and gets 3 years, $15M guaranteed. As a lefty with huge power who can play both corners and LF you'd think someone would be interested. To be fair, he hasn't play more than 20 games in left since 2002, and he was bad then, if you go by the -10.9 UZR/150. I can't really speak for his 3rd base defense (data's too sporadic), but the fact that he's mostly talked about as a 1B/DH guy has to count for something.

I am now that I know about them.

So when do the Pacers jump leagues?