RME JICO

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ May 15, 2006 -> 04:22 PM) Woo hoo. I'm curious what makes a Hold? Cotts got one today, but Politte didnt? Right. Nice to see Garcia, Cotts, and Politte all pitch well. Garcia is the first Sox pitcher to 6 wins. Cotts and Politte both looked solid.

The Sox are now: 25-7 when Pods plays (at least 1 AB) 0-5 when Pods doesn't play 15-3 when Pods scores 7-0 when Pods steals a base AND 1-0 when he hits a HR!

Great game to split the series. The Sox have not lost a series in May. PODZILLA!

It is amazing how a few weeks can change everything. On Apr 13th, Podsednik was batting .059 BA, with an OBP of .135, and SLG .088. During that timeframe he had 34 ABs, 3 Runs, 2 Hits, 1 RBI, 2 BB, and 0 SBs. Since April 13th Pods has been solid: .354 BA, .437 OBP, .511 SLG 92 ABs, 23 Runs, 34 Hits, 8 RBI, 11 BB, 10 SB The interesting part about Podsednik is what the team does when he is playing. For the season, the Sox are: 24-7 when Pods plays (at least 1 AB) 0-5 when Pods doesn't play 14-3 when Pods scores 6-0 when Pods steals a base Those numbers are hard to dispute. What doesn't make much sense is Ozuna is 10-19 in the five losses when he was playing for Pods, but only scored on two of those 10 hits.

QUOTE(Felix @ May 14, 2006 -> 03:49 PM) Aaron Rowand OPS: .872 Brian Anderson OPS: .603 But don't worry, Anderson isn't doing much worse! Batting Average is factored into OPS as part of OBP and TB in SLG, so if you don't look at Batting Average, the players are not that much different at the plate. Anderson has twice as many BBs than Rowand in 40 fewer ABs. That difference in OPS is mainly due to the Batting Average disparity and Rowand's two triples.

I would say the new hitters are definitely better this year just because of Thome. He has made the others around him better as well, which doesn't show up in his stats. Straight up he has more or as many RBI, Runs, and HRs as Thomas and Everett combined, in half the ABs. That is not even close. Besides batting average, Anderson is not doing that much worse than Rowand. They both hit HRs and score runs at almost the same frequency per AB, and Rowand has a slight edge in RBI. You also have to consider that Rowand is batting anywhere from #2 to #6 while Anderson is always batting #8 or #9. So Rowand has had more opportunities to score and drive in runs. For pitching, Vazquez is a huge upgrade over El Duque, and the combination of McCarthy/Logan/Thornton is pretty close to Viz/Marte at this point.

Fuq Tim Thomas.

Based off the Cy Young Predictor: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/features/cy Contreras is currently the best pitcher in the bigs.

The Sox Defensive Efficiency is currently 0.724, which is actually higher than last year (0.720). Obviously it is still early, but that is a good sign, especially with the fact that several players have already missed some games. I don't think the Sox are relying on the HR like in previous years; the biggest difference is Jim Thome is in the middle of the lineup now. I would not consider being tied for 5th in the AL relying on the HR. HRs are up for all teams this year.

Awesome:

The Sox have exceeded my expectations to this point, and the great thing is that they have yet to play to their full potential. 35-17 thru May 2005. Currently 20-8, they need to go 15-9 over the next 24 games to match 2005. That seems to be completely within reach. The best part is they have not seen the easiest part of their schedule yet, which occurs in June and July.

May: - 29 Total Games - 14 Home Games - 15 Away Games - 14 Games vs Teams with a .500 or better record - 15 Games vs Teams with a record below .500 - 12 Division Games - Only 2 days off in the entire month - Good shot at 18-20 wins for the month of May.

17-7, 34% were correct. Almost 49% said 15 or lower.

QUOTE(Drew @ Apr 29, 2006 -> 05:18 PM) Seriously. The guy is taking votes away from Kevin Youkilis ...and guys who play first base every day for everyone else. My point is if he doesn't play the position, he should not be listed there.

Kind of BS that Ortiz is on the ballot at 1B. He should have to be a write in like Thome. Got my 100 votes in.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Apr 27, 2006 -> 04:07 PM) Yea, through dumb luck or careful planning KW hit gold with Dye and Iguchi especially--among last years signings. I would consider AJ's signing in that category as well. He seemed like a considerable risk with the "cancer" talks and being on two teams in two years.

Here is what he would have to average the remainder of the season to bring his average to a certain value: Rest of Season = End of year .250 = .241 .255 = .246 .260 = .250 .265 = .255 .270 = .259 .275 = .264 .280 = .268 .285 = .273 .290 = .277 .295 = .282 .300 = .286 .316 = .300 So if he can turn it around and hit around .270 the rest of the year, he will have a year end average of .259.

Some interesting numbers. 7 batters in the top 127, and 4 pitchers in the top 57. I know it is still early, but the team looks pretty solid. VORP Rankings MLB Rank VORP Jim Thome 4 17.0 Paul Konerko 15 11.6 Jermaine Dye 23 10.1 Joe Crede 88 5.5 Tadahito Iguchi 98 5.2 AJ Pierzynski 100 5.2 Pablo Ozuna 127 3.8 Alex Cintron 225 0.9 Ross Gload 254 0.4 Brian Anderson 391 -0.9 Juan Uribe 460 -2.0 Chris Widger 473 -2.4 Scott Podsednik 520 -4.1 Robert Mackowiak 524 -4.4 -- Aaron Rowand 110 4.8 Carl Everett 235 0.8 Willie Harris 443 -1.4 Frank Thomas 540 -5.7 * out of 551 batters ----------------------------------- Pitchers MLB Rank VORP Jose Contreras 1 15.9 Mark Buehrle 7 14.2 Javier Vazquez 31 8.4 Brandon McCarthy 57 6.2 Boone Logan 158 2.9 Bobby Jenks 159 2.9 Neal Cotts 193 1.9 Matt Thornton 205 1.6 Freddy Garcia 284 -0.3 Jon Garland 345 -2.6 Cliff Politte 348 -2.8 -- Luis Vizcaino 86 4.9 Damaso Marte 195 1.9 Orlando Hernandez 301 -0.9 *out of 407 pitchers

Back spasms. http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/04/25/..._msnotes001.cfm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/267...tml?source=mypi

Thats sucks man, but thats how most of those deals work. The money you already paid was for the monthly service, which does not apply to the seasonal package. If that was the case, everyone could just pay the monthly fee until they got to $79.95, then get the rest free. That wouldn't make much sense.

QUOTE(NCsoxfan @ Apr 24, 2006 -> 05:15 PM) Is he good enough to give up a 3rd round pick????? He is worth a 3rd round pick. Now the Bears can also use their first two rounds to address other needs. A CB would have been their first round pick. Now they can go after a TE or another need.

Guard height is over-rated, especially if you fit him into a scheme. Try him at the point.

Might have been a Packers fan or someone talking trash about his contract.

Both the 98 Yanks and 01 Mariners lead the AL in both batting (RS/G)and pitching (RA/G). I don't see the Sox leading the league in scoring. Like Kalapse said, the AL Central is a tough Division, and the teams are going to beat up on each other all year long. The one thing to look at is the strength of schedule. April is one of the Sox easiest months of 2006. It will be hard to maintain their current winning rate through the entire season. I still figure they will be right around 100 wins. Here was an April's prediction thread: http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46084