NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:58 PM) Watch it be someone like Dave Bush or something odd and pointless. If it is a cub, I could see Dempster or Lilly as well. I really don't see it from Dempster. That would seriously surprise me.

There is a thread in Diamond Club.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:19 PM) It depends what you're expecting from him. Players can have success with that kind of K% but his upside may be something along the lines of .260/.340/.420. What players have been successful major league starters who were K'ing at a 25%+ rate in AAA?

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 12:09 PM) I know I am being stubborn, but until I see significant improvements in that K rate (28% k rate is not improvement in my books) I cannot take him seriously as an offensive player. Yes, I understand that I will be ridiculued by overlooking his extra-base hits, great average thus far, ability to walk and stolen bases, but I do not have faith he can do any of that at the major league level with such a poor contact rate. Flame away. Its definitely worrisome. You'd hope he could be something akin to Sizemore, in that he can hit a bit, run, field his position very well, but still K a lot. As a comparison, Sizemore had 72 K in 418 AB in his AAA year, for a 17% rate. So Danks is well above that.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 11:56 AM) We ran statistical calculations until we were blue in the face...projecting this offense. I don't think anyone is really surprised. It's the off performance by Peavy that has everyone the most concerned, although he did bounce back his last start. So you expected the team to hit .218?

D2 2-for-3 now, plus an SB. Up to .320. Currently at 14 K in 50 AB on the season though, that's still very high.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 11:26 AM) It makes perfect sense. The Red Sox are desperate. They're 4-9, same as us. They just got swept at home. Epstein won't stand for that very long...their fans are too spoiled. And they have the pieces and financial ability to make a trade happen. You've got to be kidding me if you think we couldn't have added Damon, Matsui, Thome, O-Dog or Vladimir Guerrero to our roster...the "will to win" is usually blocked with financial reality, in BOS, that financial reality is in a different stratosphere altogether. Plus they let Jayson Bay go and didn't seriously pursue Holliday. You're telling me that KW can go to JR AGAIN after taking on Peavy and Rios with mixed results (at best) and expect to get the go-ahead to sign Adrian Gonzalez to an $80-120 million dollar extension? REALLY? I don't think so. Maybe I should have chosen my phrasing more carefully...it's not that we don't want to win, of course we do, we just have more limited (and now dwindling resources), and most of KW's bullets are already spent...as we saw the last 2-3 weeks of the offseason when we missed on any targets we might have had. Losing Mitchell further complicated our compass of which direction to go in (adding/subtracting). As we've heard a million times, our offseason was Peavy/Reason, not Teahen/Pierre/Vizquel/Jones/Putz. Although I think both Putz and Jones both have the chance to be among the five best steals of the offseason...at least one of them. KW's specialty. I'll use another image. Minnesota always had the "WILL TO WIN" but they were always 2-3 players short of competing with the big boys. That was 100% on Pohlad, who despite being one of the richest owners in baseball, was very very penurious with the pursestrings. No way I could ever say Brad Radke or Mientkiewicz didn't have the will to win, they just didn't have the ability to add superstars to their roster and keep them. Now they do. Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th graf of your verbose post, you get to the point. If you are saying the Sox don't have the minor league bullets, or cash, to make the moves necessary... then I agree for the most part. Your original post, saying it was about will and desire, just didn't make sense.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) AGREED about A-Gon. 100%. We're too far away that one player simply isn't enough to offset the margin of error in the ALCD. Maybe we'll change our minds again, but right now, 10% chance. Besides, the Red Sox have the will and desire moreso than we do after the Rios and Peavy moves last year. KW's bullets are mostly spent, and Mitchell going down further damped enthusiam for dealing Jordan Danks. That makes no sense. You really think the Red Sox have more "will and desire" to win? They may indeed have more money to spend, but that is a different argument. Its just silly to think the White Sox somehow lack the desire to win as an organization.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 09:21 AM) I happily have the data readily available. Worth noting is that this year has had considerably better weather than previous years. That probably means 2 things; first, more people have been able to go out to games, and second...there have been more games earlier in the year due to fewer rain/snow-outs (which probably actually help overall attendance by pushing more games into the summer months). So despite the unusually good weather, MLB outside of the Twin Cities is again significantly down in attendance this year. Not a good sign for MLB. If this keeps up, I wonder if you might actually see some teams lower prices next year for tickets.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 10:15 AM) And 1 of our DH's has a 1.073 OPS right now. If Jones turns out to truly have that kind of comeback year, then that's great. If he does, and if the rest of the lineup (more or less) gets back to what you'd expect them to do... then this offense will be around league average, and could even be a little better than that. Right now, many of them just aren't there. Additionally, they are hitting .196 w/RISP, which makes what little production they do have even less useful. Everything about this offense, DH aside, looks like they are going to come around sooner than later.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 09:57 AM) The team won't be disillusioned into thinking they can just win despite having one of the most pathetic offenses in the major leagues like they were this offseason. They'll have to make some actual moves to improve the offense in accordance with the standards of the American League this upcoming winter. That's over the top. Right now, they certainly have that. But it won't continue. Looking at what these guys are expected to produce, they have average or better bats at 2 of 3 OF slots, SS, 2B and C, which is 5/9 of the lineup. 3B and 1B, along with LF, look below average, but with potential for better. DH is the only serious hole they left.

Durham @ Charlotte with an early start, 10:15am CT, Marquez on the mound Jacksonville @ Birmingham, 7:05pm CT, Nunez (0-1, 4.50) starting Winston-Salem @ Myrtle Beach, 6:05pm CT, Jones (0-1, 2.79) starting Kannapolis @ Rome, 6:00pm CT, Doyle (1-1, 0.69) starting

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 20, 2010 -> 01:34 AM) No idea there actually (don't catch enough games he pitches, even though I saw him make two good throws over there in the 2 games he pitched) but he's solid at fielding his position, though he will never be Buehrle-like. But his overall defense at the position is (or was) awful, since he seemed incapable of throwing to first base.

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 06:28 PM) Looking to get my mom an Amazon Kindle 2 for Mother's Day but they are hell-a expensive. Any of you dorks know a place where I can get them cheaper? Well, unless I am missing something... isn't the Kindle an Amazon product? Its kind of their thing, I doubt they'd distribute them elsewhere. Best bet would be to try E-Bay for used or purchased/not used, but then you are rolling the dice on how well it might work.

Dash rolling as most expected they would. They are now 8-3. Edwards/Rem combined line of 9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 11:53 AM) I've done it once this year, but its different for me. It's 16-17 miles each way, which means leaving two hours early to catch a shower before work. My goal has been once a week, but my schedule has kept that from happening. Well you have to shower either way, just a matter of doing it at the gym or at home. My walk/train commute is 40 minutes door-to-door. Bike is 25 minutes, plus a few minutes walking from the gym to work. Have to get ready in either case. So I guess I'm lucky in that my biking total commute is shorter than my regular one.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 12:16 PM) If we're -2 runs with Quentin sporting a .727 OPS and Becksy 6...that's plenty of reason to stop panicking. Run diffs in the ALC: MIN +22 DET -3 CLE -5 KAN -8 CHW -2 And just for fun... WAS is 6-6 right now, with a -17 run differential.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 12:16 PM) If we're -2 runs with Quentin sporting a .727 OPS and Becksy 6...that's plenty of reason to stop panicking. I agree. That's why I've been saying... nervous, yes. Panic/season over, no.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) Wait, that's it? We've lost a lot of very close games, and won a few by large margins. So its possible.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) Teahen has on on base pecentage of .436 and an OPS just above .900. He had a bad several days, but he's been absolutely on fire lately. Andruw Jones is also raking, Rios has been pretty solid, and we still don't even have anything resembling a decent offense. The offense is somehow even worse than I thought it'd be, and this coming from a guy who thought this offense would finish 11th to 14th in the AL in runs scored. And a bunch of guys in the lineup are hitting well below where anyone would expect them to hit for a full season. The offense may not be good enough, but there is zero chance it stays this bad. .220 AVG and .196 w.RISP isn't going to last.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Apr 18, 2010 -> 08:50 PM) Fact or Fiction: *Beckham hits over 290 on the season *Peavy wins 15 games *Jenks finishes the season as closer *Quentin Hits 30 home runs *Scott Linebrink will be on the roster come august * Freddy Garcia will be the 5th starter come July * KW will make a major trade mid-season (A-Gone type of deal) * White Sox make the playoffs *Fiction, but barely. I think he struggles in the first half, adjusts, and gets back into the 280's. 290 is not out of the question. *Fact. Dude is fanstastic, and unless he's hurt, he'll get it back together. *Fiction. Jenks struggles, and is demoted to a setup role. Trade won't happen. *Fact. TCQ. *Fact, and I think he has a very good season. *Too close to call, depends on how the team is doing, as much as it does how Freddy is doing. *If the Sox are in the race in June, KW WILL pick up a big bat. No doubt in my mind. But if they are out if it in June-July, they won't bother. *Way too early to say.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 10:02 AM) ....broke his face ...again.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 10:20 AM) Am I over-reacting to suggest that the season is on the brink of being over....in April? Being 5 games out with a bad offense, a starting rotation that is showing some inconsistentcy and having TB coming in, if something doesn't change quickly, this team is going to find itself 7 or 8 games back by the end of the month. I know some will read this, and laugh, say I'm over-reacting, etc, but seasons have been lost before in April, and I'm not sure this team has the capability to play catchup beyond a certain point. Overreacting, yes - if you are saying the season is over. If you are saying you are nervous and very concerned, then I'd agree.

So last summer, from about mid-May to sometime in September, I rode my bike to work basically every day. Carried work clothes etc. in a backpack, showered/changed at the gym near work. 6 miles each way, on a mountain bike with knobbies, riding as fast as I could ride and still make it home at the same pace (not quite a sprint, but close). That had me losing 20 pounds last summer. Gained 10 back in the early winter, then lost 10 again with diet changes. I plan to be back up to full time riding to work by the beginning of May. Its great, because you have to commute anyway, but this makes good use of the time. 12 miles RT every day at a fast pace on knobbies, and I burn an extra 700-1000 cals a day, enough to lose a pound a week with no other changes. Anyone else going to bike-commute?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 19, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) Didn't we have a thread a few weeks ago asking who the emergency 3rd catcher would be? Yes, its the 7th thread on the main page here in PHT, and someone already posted this in that thread.