ScottyDo

Wow, I knew he came up early but I forgot he's only 25. This could be a great signing. Also, when it was previously mentioned on this board, I didn't think a $500k mL deal was a possibility. At that price, how could you say no??

QUOTE (hi8is @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 10:02 PM) I just wanna know why they named the song so well - but have such horrid music =P Maybe they're deaf?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 07:47 PM) Yea, I lived there 8th grade through high school through 2008. So I was a sophomore when they won the WS, I was the only Sox fan that I encountered in Ann Arbor, but then again I wasnt going to bars to watch the games. There were actually a few Astros fans lol. The worst was 2006 when the Tigers became good again, talk about bandwagon fans. And some of the dumbest fans out there too, went to a few games at Comerica and every pop up all the fans thought it was a HR, even on ones that didn't leave the infield. To be fair, they hadn't seen a homer since the early 90's at that point. I went to pretty much every Sox game at Comerica and you're right, they're terrible. Worst hecklers EVER, too. "Hey, Sox guy, the Sox are stupid! You're stupid! IDIOT! HAHAHAHA!" Apparently, that passed for good heckling to the other fans also, cuz they would actually laugh. It was pretty astounding. They'd usually shut up when the Tigers started losing, though. Which was always.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 12:32 AM) If Teahen's 2007-2009 seasons, where he was a full-time player for the Royals with at least 544 at-bats in each of those seasons, coupled with what we all witnessed last season, comes across to you as "average" offensive production, what body of work from other MLB players with similar amount of at-bats and at the same positions Teahen has played would qualify them as "less than average"? That's really my point, here. What some may be charitably willing to classify this guy's production as "average", I am saying it seems to me as "below average". Remember - if there is "average" production out there, there then has to be "less than average" production somewhere. I believe that's what Teahen has provided throughout his career to date. He is the definition of average to me. If you really want a list of below-average players, I can give you one, but it's not going to be a very interesting or enlightening list of names. Aww, heck, let's just grab 10 of them with their career OPS+'s: Chris Getz (69) Cesar Izturis (64) Mark Gruzielanek (72) Jerry Hairston (85) Jamey Carroll (85) Adam Kennedy (88) Gabe Gross (88) Bobby Crosby (80) Reggie Willits (80) Adam Everett (66) THOSE guys are all below average. People at or near Teahen's OPS+: Mark Ellis Kevin Kouzmanoff Nate McLouth Delmon Young Are any of those guys great? Probably not. Would you complain if they were on your team? Probably not. Go look at salaries for league-average guys like that and tell me why we're complaining so much about Mark Teahen. He's fine. He's adequate. He's meh. He's not awful.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 10:02 PM) Unfortunately I was in Southeastern MI, in Ann Arbor. I was one of 2 Sox fans that I met (Im sure there were a few studnets at UMich that came from CHicago and were Sox fans) but 99% were Tiger fans or Cubs fans. Gross. Did you live there during the WS? Cuz I only remember meeting 2 sox fans while I lived in Ann Arbor, and I met them both during the 2005 WS in the place that's on top of Good Time Charlie's.

QUOTE (since56 @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 08:41 PM) I have spent significant time in S.F. Bay area the last few winters. I see many White Sox hats and logos. I think the look attracts people in general including gang members, and rap fans, but most wearing the Sox stuff are not necessarilly White Sox or even MLB fans. Also Raider fans seem to gravitate toward the White Sox. Maybe the Sox should try to cultivate the bad boy image. But then the good guys wouldn't wear black!

QUOTE (GREEDY @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 05:28 PM) I am now convinced Sale is going to the rotation. I am a believer that the Dunn money came from Peavy insurance, and that Ohman was added because Thornton is going to close. Haven't they all but said that he'll be in the bullpen? Because Coop is dead-set against the idea of flip-flopping Sale between starter and reliever mid-season. I dunno, maybe they haven't explicitly said anything, but that sure seems to be the implication.

Whoever shall grind for us?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 04:49 PM) Cubano would be the ultimate reference, but I am pretty sure that Alexei played mostly outfield in Cuba but did play some infield. Regardless, to say that the White Sox have not developed him into the defensive shortstop that he is would be wrong. Well, we got him at like age 26, right? I mean, we partially developed him, but we did so at the major league level almost entirely so there couldn't have been that much work to do. I'm not one of those people that think the White Sox are the worst developers ever, though. I just think we trade more than other teams do. I could go either way with him, I just see the acquisition kind of like a more raw version of Iguchi.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 04:12 PM) With all of the criticism KW has received for not grooming homegrown prospects, do we consider Alexi to be a homegrown shortstop that is a full product of our system? Personally, I'd say 'no'. He played SS in another league for years before we picked him up. I do think it reflects well on our overseas recruitment efforts, though.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 11:14 AM) Free agent pitchers left according to MLB trade rumors... Jeremy Bonderman SP Doug Davis SP John Maine SP Pedro Martinez SP Kevin Millwood SP Brian Moehler RF / SP Jamie Moyer SP Andy Pettitte SP Jarrod Washburn SP If the Sox are looking for a stop gap, I think Lucas Harrell might be the guy. Maybe some early in the season major league experience will do him some good. Which of these guys do we think might be best out of the bullpen, since that's their ultimate destination (that, or DFA I guess)? I'm thinking Bondo, maybe?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 04:17 AM) As mentioned before, the point of signing a stopgap, back of the rotation starter is that you are assured that they will make starts. The White Sox have a good rotation when it is healthy and they don't need to look for a high risk, high reward type of guy. Perhaps it is a sign that the White Sox feel that Peavy really won't miss much, if any, time at all. That's not a bad thing. I don't think you'll be as angry when Sale is closing out the the division clinching game in late August. Fixed.

Is Mark Teahen really that different from Tony Graffanino, aside from handedness and expectations? His contract isn't actually that far off from Graff's when he last played.

QUOTE (PeavyTime @ Jan 31, 2011 -> 12:59 PM) I'm sure you guys have seen this, but for anyone who hasn't: Teahen's D flowchart Hahaha, I haven't seen that, and it's amazing. Flowcharts make my soul hurt, though. Stupid biochem.

Like 80% of my friends are Tigers fans and none of them are all that excited about their offseason acquisitions. I think the general consensus is that Dombrowski is making moves just to make moves, and lacks direction. Just reporting what I hear. Also, we're a looong ways away from 20011 (aught-eleven)...like, 18,000 years

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 31, 2011 -> 01:39 AM) I don't put any stock whatsoever into CERA, but here's Olivo vs his team's totals 2006 - Olivo 4.45, Marlins 4.37 2007 - Olivo 5.04, Marlins 4.94 2008 - Olivo 4.42, Royals 4.48 2009 - Olivo 4.49, Royals 4.83 2010 - Olivo 3.89, Rockies 4.14 Like I said, if you put anything into that, he's improved over the years, but there are about a million other factors that can be involved with that. For instance, if Olivo caught Greinke or Jimenez more often than the other starters in 09 and 10, that is going to drastically decrease his CERA. In 07 and 08, he could have been involved in double switches more often and the other catcher(s) could have been catching the relievers, who typically put up better ERAs than starters do, or he simply could have been catching the worse pitchers more often. Basically, this was an insight into a rather pointless statistic and I think considering that the pitching staff is comfortable pitching to AJ, he's still a solid hitter, and he does hit from the left side, bringing AJ back was the proper move. Not to mention that the level of disparity depends on the quality of the backup catcher, too.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jan 31, 2011 -> 02:00 AM) Yep - I listened to about 30 seconds. Why oh why is it called "Chicago white sox?" Me confused. I guess all those lyric-less songs (unintelligible, anyway) need titles, right? Might as well pick the right team

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 10:23 PM) Do these people buy tickets though? Because that's all that matters. There are tons of these people at sporting events, and they definitely add up in attendance at the end of the year, but are they there because they really want to spend somewhere between $80 to upwards of a $1000 to see a game where they really don't care who wins, OR are they there because their friends/relatives/co-workers/company got them tickets and they felt it would be fun to go? I mean how many of these "any Chicago team" people actually initiate the ballpark experience? I can't think there would be enough of them to justify running Sox Pride TV spots at 2pm on TLC. Some of them want to go to ballgames of their own accord because they enjoy the experience and want to root for a Chicago team, yes. Even people who claim to "hate baseball" enjoy going to baseball games much of the time, since they get to drink a little and casually watch some stuff happen in front of them. Even though that would seem to make their decision between the Sox and Cubs arbitrary, most of these people would rather attend a W than a L. The money's there. FWIW, growing up, my parents fell under the category of people who didn't give 2 craps about baseball but took me to games because I did. We ended up going to Toledo Mudhens games, rather than Tigers games, because the tickets were cheaper. We were pretty much equidistant between the two (Ann Arbor). They could have been swayed one way or another, though, by pretty much any passing wind. The appropriate buzz (e.g. a playoff race) could have provided that impetus. PS Thank god they didn't take me to Tigers games or I might be a Tigers fan....ugh. EDIT: I'm entirely aware that my anecdote is not a good analogy for Cubs/Sox for a lot of reasons. Just saying.

It's a real toe-tapper.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 10:13 PM) What the f*** did I just listen to? You got all the way through it??

I can say from experience that there are quite a few people out there who purport to cheer for "any Chicago team", and given the choice between a competitive team and non-competitive team, will choose the competitive one. While I agree that the relationship is adversarial amongst much of the fanbase, there are the ever-elusive few who can go either way and whose money is still green. I think there's got to be some competition for their dollar sign, albeit less than in Los Angeles. Why wouldn't you try to get their support if you could?

QUOTE (cws0591 @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) this is mostly what i meant. I'm not saying that the only reason the sox increased payroll was for this. that would be ridiculous. I'm saying that for one the sox have a chance here to take on a larger market, and i would imagine that when discussing a possible payroll increase this was brought up. I wouldn't be surprised if it entered the equation. In your basic risk-reward analysis, the Cubs' rebuild-ish thing adds a little reward to the balance sheet if you go for it. The benefit might not be THAT sizable, and I doubt it was a centerpiece in their decision, but it's a nice little bonus.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) Delmon Young had one good month. Some Pierre defensive highlights: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12056381 http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12130089 http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=11387065 http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=11220661 http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10639239 http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=10217991 All those videos are from a two month span. It seems like you must not appreciate great range, but rather poor range and then some diving catch to make it look good. Say whatever you want about Pierre's offensive game, but his defensive game certainly isn't lacking. Pretty much all of those plays feature strong instincts (good lines to the ball) and some makeup speed in the case of the KC robbery. Good stuff. Definitely solid defensively. Don't care much about the noodle arm since you have to catch the ball way more often than you have to throw it.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 11:28 AM) post 59 paul assenmacher Heheheheh you said ASSenmacher... D'Angelo Jimenez

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) Wasn't D.Young's July better than Pierre's entire career? I don't remember any Juan Pierre highlights except that one catch running to the line, but I remember D. Young carrying the Twins for a month or two. In this case, I say WAR/SHMORE. IMO, you don't remember any of Juan Pierre's defensive highlights because he was usually there waiting for the ball. Another question would be, when do you remember JP really misjudging a ball? I don't know that I can recall more than a handful, and I can recall quite a few from D. Young in limited exposure. They're really such different players, though, that it's hard to call. I gave Young the edge but I don't think it's extreme.