WCSox

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 01:01 PM) Taveras hits for better average and is a better situational hitter. Anderson has more power, and I like the guy by the way, but he's not a better hitter, especially for his role in the lineup. We don't need more pop-ups and home runs, we need guys that can move runners along and come up with clutch base hits. Brian in his MLB career has been the type of guy you hide in the lineup for his defense, whereas Taveras in his career has been used both for his bat/speed offensive combo and his defense. Taveras is worthless as anything other than a leadoff hitter. And if he can't consistently put up a .350-.370 OBP, his only option is to lead off for a team that has crap defensively in CF. That's not the 2008 White Sox. And Owens pretty much equaled Taveras' career numbers in his rookie season. They're the same at the plate, with Taveras being better in CF. The silly comparison was Thome and Borchard. My point is that Taveras doesn't consistently get on base enough to lead off. And neither can consistently get on base enough to be solid leadoff hitters. Taveras can't get on base enough to play the "speed game." His OBP is freaking .305 right now, with a career average of .334. That absolutely sucks for a leadoff hitter. Taveras isn't "great" in CF. He's above average, and not nearly as good as Anderson. FWIW, I don't want Owens in Chicago right now either. I'd love to see Paulie sit on the DL until mid-August to let his hand heal and see how Anderson shakes out, but I don't see that happening. I'd also strongly consider releasing Thome, but I don't see Kenny doing that either. You're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Taveras is a nice player, but there's NO ROOM FOR HIM on the 25-man roster right now. The Sox already have four legitimate starting outfielders, and Taveras doesn't bring enough to the table to merit roster space as a 5th. And he doesn't hit well enough to merit demoting Anderson. The Sox need a legitimate leadoff hitter with some base-stealing capability. But it's not going to happen this year. They don't have the prospects to give up for said player and their roster is already overcrowded.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 01:17 PM) Anderson is a better CF, but he's not a better hitter. Considering that Taveras has no power at all and a career .334 OBP, he's not really a "better" hitter. I didn't use Owens' minor league numbers. And that's a silly comparison, especially considering that Owens almost equaled Taveras' career numbers in his first season with a meaningful number of at-bats. Pods was also limited with a groin injury over the past two months of '05 and Taveras has never had an OBP over .333 outside of last year. So why do you want him leading off again? I don't consider the 2005 Pods as anything more than an average leadoff hitter. His only real value was his speed. The only thing that Taveras has over Owens is that he's better in CF. The two are pretty much equal at the plate, and one could argue that Owens has better upside as a base-stealer. But given that the Sox have both Anderson and Swisher available to play CF and that Taveras has too low an OBP to be a legitimate leadoff hitter, I don't see Taveras bringing anything special to the table that makes him worth trading for. Taveras might be useful to a team that has nobody remotely capable of playing CF and too few outfielders in general. That isn't the case with the Sox. There's nothing that Kenny can do at this point without giving up Quentin, Danks, Floyd, or Fields. This is probably Kenny's best bet for the remainder of the year. No kidding. That's why the Sox are going to have to suck it up and deal with Swisher or O-Cab leading off this year. Willy Taveras isn't the answer and Kenny would have to mortgage the future to get a guy like Reyes or Ichiro.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) Yeah I don't get all the Luis Terrero hate. He was among our team leaders in OPS for a while. I get that he's not an everyday player, but he was better than most of the other crap the Sox were trotting out there last year. No, you're missing my point. I mentioned Terrero because he started out hot when brought up, but then went on to hit .231. In other words, don't get too excited about a career journeyman hitting well over a short period of time, as there's usually reason that player keeps bouncing around from team to team.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 03:40 PM) Taveras is a monumental improvement over Jerry Owens. Willy is a fantastic CF. He's got the range, the make-up speed, he gets good reads, he's got an arm, he has proven himself at the MLB level, he has better instincts on the basepaths, and he has more power, even if it's not HR power. Taveras is a good CF, but Anderson is better. QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 04:14 PM) Check his track record. It's not uncommon for good players to have bad years. We've got a few on our team this year. Does anyone think that Eric Hinske is a better player than Nick Swisher? Taveras is a better player than Anderson, Owens, or any CF in our minor league system so far. Taveras and Owens have very similar career numbers. Pods had a .351 OBP in '05. Taveras has a career .334 OBP. Owens has a career .324 OBP and stole 32 bases in just 356 ABs last year. Taveras is a decent player, but not worth trading for when we have a carbon-copy of him in the minors. The Sox are better off keeping Owens in the minors this year. Neither he nor Taveras get on base enough to qualify as a true leadoff hitter.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 09:29 AM) TBH, if we win this game, I will breathe a lot easier this week. Mostly because we'll be up 2.5 games going out west and we'll be 9 games above .500, not 7. And we would snap our 8 game losing streak on the road. Yep, it's better to focus on the AL Central than to care what the idiots in the media or Cubs fans with inferiority complexes think.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 05:14 PM) Are you afraid your Cubs buddies are gonna scream crap in your ears for a whole week? Why would one care if they did? Cubs fans can't say crap until they win a pennant. And even then, they can't say crap to Sox fans until they win a ring. End of story.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 09:27 AM) Wise hit a homer Saturday. Unfortunately, some people's memories here don't go back further than that. Luis Terrero (another journeyman) looked pretty good for a while last year as well. BA is alright. Still strikes out too much, but has had a number of timely extra-base hits this year in limited plate appearances and is a bad-ass in CF. At the very least, the lineup is stronger with Uribe on the bench and BA occupying his spot.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 02:23 PM) they stranded waaaay to many runners... it should have been at LEAST 6-1 going into the 7th... Oh well. Have to get them tommorow. +1 You're unlikely to beat the Cubs or any other good offensive team when you only score 3 runs. Lots of blame to go around today, and the offense deserves just as much as Dotel and Ozzie.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) I understand Linebrink is our best guy but you really have to bring your closer in for that situation, thats a closer type situation. Not really. If Jenks shuts them down in the 9th, you can't put him back in there in the 10th, 11th, 12th, etc. This is what happens when you don't take advantage of a mediocre pitcher like Lilly and leave too many on base.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 02:09 PM) What's Barry Bonds doing now-a-days? Anyone? Getting ready for his trial next month.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 01:02 PM) We sacrificed Danks for Juan Uribe. Even though Uribe got a hit, that's LOL worthy. I could see pulling Danks for Thome against a righty in the 7th, but certainly not Uribe.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 20, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) I like Dotel and all, but he has shown he can't be trusted late in close ball games, IMO. He's way too streaky. Dotel is OK, but I seem him as more of an innings-eater than somebody you throw out there to cover the 7th in a close game. I'd rather they put Thornton in that role. He's tough on righties and Logan is still available as a LOOGY.

I hope that Dotel just lost his job as 7th Inning Guy. He doesn't have the stuff to make up for the fact that he can't throw 96-97 anymore.

Way to back it up with your arm, Danksy. And LOL at AJ shutting up the boo birds.

What a classless tool. I hope that he and Gibbons get the axe this year... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3453059

Sweeping the Pirates, Twins, and Royals more or less makes up for the disasterous performances against the Tigers, Rockies, and D-Rays. I'd prefer that the Sox were less streaky, but it's certainly nice to carry this momentum into Wrigley tomorrow.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 18, 2008 -> 06:04 PM) Again, I never wish upon injury, but I'd love to see this put him out for 3-4 starts. +1 The Sox could use a confidence-building series right now. Beating up on the Royals and Pirates doesn't mean much. QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 18, 2008 -> 07:13 PM) Zambrano has a 5.68 ERA with 13 strikeouts, 12 walks, and 33 hits allowed in 25 and 1/3 innings in his 4 starts since Lou kept him out there for 130 pitches against the Dodgers... Gotta lose the battle to win the war sometimes, Lou. Ironically, this is the same Lou who prematurely took Zambrano out of last year's NLDS to save him for the game that was never played.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jun 18, 2008 -> 05:21 PM) I'll ask it again; would it be smart for the Giants to give up Lincecum to rid themselves ofZito's entire contract? If you were the GM would you take Zito and his whole contract if you knew you were getting Lincecum? If I'm Sabean, I don't deal Lincecum. It's not like the Giants will struggle financially if they continue to pay Zito to suck. And I don't think that a GM would want to take ALL of Zito's contract, even if they got Linceum with it. Half of Zito's contract and Lincecum might be doable, though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 18, 2008 -> 04:24 PM) Unless we're willing to trade Q, Danks, or Floyd, there really isn't going to be anything big that the Sox can do this year. If the Sox can't win with their current roster, they need to blow it up this winter and start over. Outside of lacking a true base-stealing leadoff hitter, there's no significant need anywhere.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 18, 2008 -> 01:23 PM) I think a lot of the reason that he is not good in "close and late" situations is because the opposition so often brings out a lefty specialist to get Thome out specifically. It's unfortunate that he is so susceptible to LOOGY's, but that also shows how dangerous opposing teams think he is. He needs to work on drawing more walks, if possible, in those situations. Thome needs to work on drawing more walks in general. His BB/K ratio this year is 0.57, compared to 0.71 and 0.73 over the last two years, respectively, and 0.71 career.

QUOTE (DABearSoX @ Jun 17, 2008 -> 12:38 PM) I gotta say the hall will choose an Indians cap...but you'd have to wonder if the choice would change if he won a ring on the south side and maybe WS MVP honors... It'll be an Indians cap regardless. He, Kenny Lofton, and Omar Vizquel were the heart and soul of those mid/late '90s Tribe teams, and the former two aren't getting in. Manny is typically associated with the Red Sox now and nobody wants to be associated with Albert Belle. QUOTE (north side chi sox fan @ Jun 17, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) Frank >>> Thome Frank has 2 MVP and a World Series not too mention all those ball park frank hotdog commercails I'd say it's more like Frank > Thome. Frank was more dominant in his prime, but I wouldn't say that his career numbers are multiple tiers above JT's.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 17, 2008 -> 10:53 AM) I don't like any of em really. And I hate the Konerko one...particularlly when I see it right after he hit into a double play with his trot. +1 I've been disappointed with this year's commercials. IMO, the ones back in '05 and especially '06 were the best in recent memory. Too bad they fired that advertising company.

That's funny, considering their long and storied history of post-season collapses. I remember the windbags at the Sun-Times saying the same thing back in 2003.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2008 -> 09:05 AM) I don't know which part had less class, the way he was fired or they way they kept him dangling for so long at the end of a string. This is an obnoxious finish, but the obnoxious way they handled the last couple months could easily have cost them their season. Skip Bayless suggested that Minaya hung on to Randolph to deflect blame from himself. I don't exactly hold his opinion in high esteem, but he may have a point.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 17, 2008 -> 05:11 AM) Jerry Manuel is not a bad manager This is true. He's actually a pretty good manager for a young team, where patience is required. That said, the Mets aren't that team and I don't see him doing much better than Randolph. And nice move by the Mets to fire Randolph via a press release in the middle of the night when he's 3,000 miles away. They rival the Blue Jays in the class department.