southsider2k5

4-2 after 2 1/2, not to mention Tallet is around 55 pitches.

Jones is killing the ball off of Tallet.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 06:58 PM) You do realize he pretty much never throws his slider in the spring. I heard an interview with Peavy where he mentioned that he threw less than 15 sliders all spring, so I'm hard pressed to see how scouts could make a judgment on his slder. And it was very well reported on top of it all. It's not like that should be a surprise to anyone who remotely read about the team during the spring.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 06:15 PM) Not to be a dick, but Pods had another monster game today. Obviously he's not finished and it doesn't look like Thome is finished, either. We coulda had both on the cheap. Any regrets? I'll stop with the Pods talk if it's making anybody mad, but it's easy for me to notice him since I am in Royals country. Pods was looking for two years and $15 million when he approached the Sox about a contract. Were we really supposed to wait all winter for his price to come down and hope that it did? That isn't really smart.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 06:48 PM) Yeah, he should be throwing a shutout every game. No joke. OMG IT HAS BEEN ONE START PLUS TWO INNINGS HE SUX!!!

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 03:58 PM) Get back to me in July. I'll make it Memorial Day.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 05:32 PM) The regular season and the playoffs are different for a team like the Cavs and Lakers. They know they're going to at least be the best in their conferences and they pretty much coast through the course of the season. At most, we will get one win. The rest will probably be blowouts unless you consider being down for 15 most of the game, then losing by 8 playing a team solidly. Also, for those that want the Bulls to get in, are you rooting for Benjamin Gordon tonight? He's averaging 23.8 PPG and 5.6 APG on 45% shooting as the starting PG since Stuckey went down and the Pistons are 2-1 in their last 3 games which were all against playoff teams. The Cavs were second in all of the NBA with double digit wins trailing only Orlando. In other words they blew out a lot more teams that almost all of the NBA.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 04:43 PM) Or if you're a sitting senator. Honestly, they should have at it. It is more important that a potential President be investigated than a Senator. And at the end of the day, more often than Dems, Repubs usually do the decent thing and step away. I don't ever remember a Dem doing that.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 03:31 PM) I'm just saying the "odds" of the bulls having a good series against the Cavs is about the same as them getting a top 3 pick, in which case I'll still gamble with the pick. Our second best player has been hurt a good chunk of the year and the soon-to-be fired coach is an idiot. Even if you throw out the last win against Cleveland, the Cavs are only 2-1 this season against Chicago, One of those losses was by 14 when the Bulls had both Hinrich and Tyrus hurt, the other loss was by 7, which included the Bulls missing Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, and Joakim Noah. There isn't a blowout in the lot, even with the Bulls playing the Cavs twice extremely shorthanded. I'd say the odds of the Bulls playing a solid series against Cleveland are pretty good as long as we are healthy, especially if you actually look at the Bulls body of work against Cleveland this year.

I will be interviewing the Indiana Secretary of Education tomorrow on my regular radio spot during the afternoon drive show. If anyone has a quality question they want to try to get asked, let me know!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 12:29 PM) My local newspaper yesterday featured a 2 page spread on the scandal of a corrupt current Senator paying off his mistress's family. Oh, wait, wrong John again. As usual, ignored until irrelevant. It would have been nice to know this 2 or 3 years ago when Edwards was lying to everyone in the country about how important his wife was to him as a central campaign issue.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 01:17 PM) Robert Shiller (yes, that one) on the Housing market. The government supports for the housing market pretty much all end over the next month or two. After that, you've got a couple of months while things that close are absorbed into the data, and by the middle of the summer, we may start getting a sign about whether or not I'm right and the housing market still has a decent ways to fall. I want to see at least 6 months of growth after the housing credit expires before I will considering it recovering nationally. Even then you are going to have some major markets that will lag for quite a while just because of the NASDAQ like boom and bust they had.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:55 AM) Anything is better than 0%... and that is the chance the Bulls have of beating the Cavaliers. That's just it. The Bulls don't have to beat Cleveland 4 times to look like a team on the rise and a spot where a superstar could put them over the top. All the Bulls would have to do is play the type of game that they are capable of over a seven game series. Where as if they have the edge in the playoff race in the last week, yet lose to NJ, and blow a game lead to the Bosh-less Raptors in two games, they look like a team that need a lot more than one player.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 01:16 PM) So you're saying that if for example Wade or LBJ were seriously considering the Bulls....they'd be much more impressed with a team that got 1 win against Cleveland in the first round than the team that got a lottery pick in the draft*? The bulls already proved what they have in last years playoffs and with Rose and Noah progressing into legit stars *(if you consider the odds of competing with Cle to be about the same as getting a top 4 pick) The Bulls can only end up with a 1-2-3 or 11 pick. There is no such thing as 4-10. I am saying the odds are much better of the Bulls attracting a superstar player with a good playoff series against the best team in the East than they are for a team having an absolute choke job in the last week, missing the playoffs, missing the lottery (which is the 25 to 1 scenario if the Bulls don't make the playoffs), and still attracting a superstar player.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 01:07 PM) Hopefully Alex has a big series. He should be pretty fired up about this considering the Jays gave him away for nothing.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:35 AM) One play doesn't define a whole week though... +/- and UZR usually agree on a lot of things. It was more than one play.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:31 AM) It's the biggest thing people don't realize about 2005. We simply didn't blow games we led after 6 innings. I would love to know what our record was in those situations in 2005. Which was the 100% biggest fluke about that season. There were pretty much no duplication of those great seasons from anyone except Jenks.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:22 AM) Unless they're going to win the title this year, I'll take the draft pick not matter what the odds. This offseason is a 1 in a million, and I'd rather take my odds with another miracle that lands us Turner to help persuade a big time FA. The thing you are completely leaving out is the odds of them getting a big named player. The better the Bulls can look, the better a chance that an established someone will come here to pair with Rose. The worse we are, the smaller that chance is. If they can go out and look like a serious threat to Cleveland, it makes it a more attractive destination for a free agent, than if they flame out to a Bosh-less Toronto team. Odds are pretty huge that if they miss out on the playoffs they lose the draft lottery, and it makes them look bad in the free agency market.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 11:29 AM) our bullpen has performed admirably giving the amount they've been asked to do early on. exception: linebrink, but that surprises no one. on a mildly-related note, I was very encouraged to see bullpen guys throw 3 innings of solid relief. we need that. The amazing thing is that Linebrink hasn't given up a hit yet, and has a WHIP under one.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 09:58 AM) Huh? Do you not know how the lottery works? 1.Bulls in playoffs = draft pick to Bucks 2.Bulls miss playoffs = Bulls get lottery pick and get to keep it if its in the top 10. I'll take option 2 over a first round embarrassment anytime. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 10:02 AM) You do realize the only way the Bulls get to keep their pick in either case is if the Bulls ball comes up 1,2, or 3? The chances for the Bulls to get those picks from the 11th spot are, in order: 0.008 0.009 0.012. The Bulls would have a 0.3% chance of not having Milwaukee swap picks. Exactly. The chances are miniscule. Heck the Bulls probably have a better chance of beating the Cavs than the do of getting the #1 pick.

TCQ

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 11, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) FanGraphs has some new defensive stats up. They're very interesting. They've now included +/-, revised Zone Rating, and some other cool stuff. What's great is that these are updated nightly, unlike UZR, which is updated weekly. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/r...-fielding-stats Some nice tidbits... This week, Rios has made two plays out of his zone. He's made all the plays that have been in there, giving him a RZR of 1.000. With all of this he has saved 1 run in center so far. Interestingly, Teahen has made 4 plays out of his zone, while he has failed to make 2 plays that are in his zone out of the 6 in total. Regardless, he has also saved 1 run on defense so far. Beckham's made 12/14 plays in his zone, he's been a neutral player at 2B on D. Konerko's 2/4 for plays in his zone. I think one of them was the hit Hafner got that Paulie failed to make a play on. Even though Alexei had a blunder yesterday, his defensive metrics are currently the best on the team. He's saved 3 runs on defense thus far, with 3 plays that were made out of the zone and a perfect 9/9 within his zone. Quentin's been a -1 DRS so far. Pierre is a 4/4 so far on balls within his zone and is a +1 DRS. I don't know what the cutoffs were for these, but I think the last time they were updated was yesterday. Anyway, these new fielding stats were available before through Bill James' site, but now they're free. They look to be great in the way that they tell you the specifics of the player. Like how many scoops a 1B made or how many bunts did so and so field well or not well. It breaks it done a lot better than UZR. However, the end result is usually the same. With this, you can dig a bit deeper, find out what players do well and not so well on and really understand the player's defensive abilities much better. That right there is enough to make me doubt the validity of the metric. Alexei has had an awful defensive start to this season with his stupid play.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) I hate that people are actually rooting for the Bulls. I also hate that I'm forced to root against them for the better good of the franchise. Hooray for first round sweeps at the hands of LBJ and co. How is missing the playoffs better? We don't even get the benefit of a better pick.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 08:58 AM) Thome was so late on the two fastballs it wasn't even funny the second one was in the mitt. It was a guessing game and Thome guessed right. If Jenks gets it a little higher it is a K. My guess was AJ was thinking that Thome could not catch up to the high heat. Like I said in the game thread... I believe the pitch call was fine, there was just no way that pitch was supposed to be anywhere beneath the belt. That was supposed to come in hand high or higher. We all saw Thome's weakness up there, and judging by the previous pitches and Thome's being overmatched by them, there is no doubt in my mind that is what AJ was trying to get Jenks to throw.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 12, 2010 -> 12:51 AM) If the Bulls win their next game, and Toronto loses, the Bulls clinch/are in no matter what both teams do their last games. Yeah, the Bulls magic # would be two.