WCSox

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 11:50 AM) And just because a hitter is fast doesn't mean he shouldn't be expected to pick up extra base hits. That's all OPS is, a combination of how often you get on base and how often you're getting yourself beyond first base via the basehit. So if Owens put up a .340 OBP, stole 48 bases out of 58 and slugged .320 that would be acceptable? That's not a very productive offensive player. If he steals 48 bases, his slugging percentage omits the fact that he's effectively turned 48 singles into extra-base hits. There's nothing wrong with an above-average OBP slap-hitter at the top of one's lineup IF he's a proficient base-stealer. Pods slugged .349 in '05 and he was most certainly a "productive offensive player" prior to the groin injury.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:05 AM) Jerry Owens had the worst OPS out of any player on the White Sox roster last year with 300 ABs or more, and the only player with 200 PAs or more that was worse than him was Andy Gonzalez. I realize that you hate Owens, but your OPS argument is silly. OPS isn't terribly important for a base-stealing leadoff-hitter. OBP is a lot more important for somebody with his skill set. And Owens got on enough to amass 32 steals in just 356 ABs last year. IMO, he needs to get that OBP up close to .350 to hit in the leadoff spot, but it's not like he's that far away. And speaking of OPS, Anderson is about .637. Not very good for a guy who is supposed to be the next Torii Hunter. I like that Ozzie is giving him more at-bats now, but he needs to start getting on base.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 08:57 AM) Brian Anderson is also a much, much better defensive player...like gold glove caliber defensively. Pablo Ozuna can hit for average, steal a base, leadoff, and bunt too. Jerry Owens really doesn't do anything for this team at all. I hope the only time Owens is called up is in the event of an injury to an outfielder, and even then he should be riding the pine. I find it interesting how Uribe is trashed here because he can't hit, yet Anderson is supposedly a better option at CF because of his defense. The guy whiffed on a freaking bunt yesterday. Anderson is essentially the OF incarnation of Uribe. Owens has hit reasonably well at the ML level and stole 32 bases in just 93 games last year. If he can get his OBP up to .340 or so (a modest 0.016 increase over last year), he's a legitimate leadoff hitter. And the Sox could really use a proficient base-stealer. Anderson had better start hitting soon, because Owens can bring a heck of a lot more to the table than him at this point.

QUOTE (Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:48 PM) This game reminds me of the 25 inning affair between the Brewers and White Sox in 1984(?), which was the trivia question on the radio today. Anybody else remember that game as well as I do? I remember trying to stay up to listen to the final on the radio. Didn't quite make it, LOL. IIRC, Harold hit a walk-off homer at like 4 in the morning or something.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:10 PM) I don't see what was so wrong with trying to let Anderson make contact and pick up that easy RBI Since Anderson isn't especially adept at placing bunts, it's not exactly an easy RBI. Ozzie picked a really bad time to roll the dice.

WTF?! A squeeze? Are you kidding me???

I'm starting to get a man-crush on this dude.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 02:34 PM) I thought Javy was well above the 100 pitch mark. I'm actually surprised we didn't let him try to finish. I'm not. When you have a Jenks and Linebrink in your pen, there's no need to push your starter back out there after 100 pitches. And of course, we wouldn't even be in this situation if our offense could score more than two runs against the freaking Orioles.

Something tells me that '08 Bobby isn't going to be the same as '07 and '06 Bobby.

QUOTE (southsidehawkeye @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 03:19 PM) I thought he was expected to start rehabbing in May sometime, has something changed? I'm assuming Balta means that Richar will be doing a rehab stint in May and be in Chicago sometime in June.

Maggs Jr.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) Crede is going to make more than 13 million per year im guessing, and its going to have to be more than 4 or 5 years. For his production, that cripples a team. We have zero young talent coming up in our system, we need to buy at least one pitcher, possible an infielder and maybe a catcher within the next few years. One year from this winter, the Sox will have freed up $52 million in payroll due to attrition alone (Contreras, Dotel, MacDougal, Dye, Thome, Uribe, Cabrera). Paulie's contract is up one year later, freeing up an additional $12 million. That's enough to support $14 million/year of Crede and a couple of high-tier free agents, in addition to rounding out the rest of the team. It'll ultimately depend on what the Sox's payroll ends up being (I'm assuming around $90 million). However, I do agree that Crede is not a good investment with Fields ready to play. And taking Fields out of the equation, I agree that Crede probably isn't worth that kind of money production-wise.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 12:17 PM) Signing Crede long term will cripple the club financially I don't agree with that at all, especially with the Sox recovering over $13 million in payroll flexibility from Cabrera and Uribe this winter, and Contreras, Thome, and Dotel coming off the books after next season. Agreed with the rest of your post. Investing in a (younger) veteran SS might not be a bad idea, either.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 06:59 AM) Clemens is the stupidest man in baseball for filing his suit and insisting that he be allowed to testify in front of Congress. QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 07:18 AM) In other news, Barry Bonds sent a huge thank you to Roger Clemens for being a bigger target then himself. Amazing. If anything, Barry is a hell of a lot smarter than Clemens.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 04:28 PM) an ideal situation would be to probably move Dye in the offseason, move Quentin to RF, Swisher to LF, and in trading Dye, get a CF who can leadoff. Unlikely, but highly ideal situation, IMO. Agreed that the Sox should move either Dye or Thome this off-season. I suppose the decision between those two would boil down to who is more productive/healthy this year. There are just too many aging sluggers on this team right now who can't play the field very well.

QUOTE (scenario @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 10:50 AM) No chance. There are $11 million reasons they won't release him. Yikes, I thought that his contract was worth maybe half of that. In that case, yeah, he's not going anywhere. Dotel is a shell of the pitcher that he was in Houston. He's been a mediocre reliever since blowing out his elbow a few years ago (WHIP consistently above 1.30), and I'm not convinced that he's going to be any better than MacDougal. He's lost a good 5 mph off of his fastball since Tommy John surgery and I'm not sure that he has enough raw stuff to compensate for it.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 09:42 AM) Walks have hurt as well Yep, and Mac's 7 BBs in 8.7 IP don't help. Neither does his propensity for the wild pitch. Agreed about Dotel. I wouldn't be surprised if he were eventually released and Mac were brought back up for mop-up duty.

MacDougal hasn't been terrible, but I think it's obvious that he isn't going to return to '03 or even '06 form. We've seen his best and he's really not going to be much more than an innings-eater when we're down in the 6th and 7th. I'm not sure if Wassermann is BETTER than MacDougal at this point, but he's probably not any worse. So why not let the kid develop in the bigs?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 26, 2008 -> 08:57 PM) Kind of reminds me of Maggs or somebody like that. QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 27, 2008 -> 06:52 AM) If the Dbacks werent giving up on him and knew he was going to be great I would think they would have got more for him. If Quentin continues to develop at this pace, he'll be almost as big a steal as Maggs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 26, 2008 -> 09:20 AM) Maybe push Vazquez back to face the Twins instead of having it be Masset. When you have a game postponed like last night, it makes it so someone would have to go on 3 days rest. IIRC, they like Javy to stay in an every-5-day routine (apparently he performs better that way), so I imagine that if anybody gets skipped, it'll be him.

QUOTE (max power @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 12:06 PM) A buy out doesn't really apply to this situation. Franks option became guaranteed with his PA. They don't get to buy out of that. Its smart not to have a buyout because teams typically won't eat 7.5 million dollars to avoid an option like that. Furthermore, even if they had the buyout, I don't think they would have to play him because he didn't get those at bats in toronto, just as they won't have to pay him for the entire year next year. Toronto might have kept him because of a buyout, but frank didnt want to stay and ride the bench. I've always thought that it's better for both sides to include a buyout, rather than a plate-appearances clause. Organizations can always find ways to limit a player's at-bats and those clauses also can destroy a player's trade value. But they can't get out of a buyout. If Frank had a $2 million buyout for 2010, I imagine that things would've gone down differently in Toronto, as he would've been much easier to trade. And even if they didn't, Frank would've received that $2 million on top of this year's $8 million.

The one area where I do agree with DA is that Frank and his agent were stupid for not including a buyout in his contract for that last year.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 22, 2008 -> 05:46 AM) I think if the following things happen: 1. Crede stays healthy 2. Crede has a good year 3. The Sox make him an offer that is within spitting distance of those likely in free agency Then Crede may well stay with the club. Also, if someone makes a huge offer for Fields, that makes it probable. But, I don't think the Sox will make an offer, in years or money, that will be competitive. I wouldn't dismiss the possibility entirely though. I pretty much agree with that. I could easily see Kenny offering Joe $55-60 million over 4 years with an option for a 5th. But I imagine that somebody else will offer him 5/70 or something. Joe hired and stayed with Boras for a reason: To get paid as much as possible. And given his age and back problems, this may be his one and only opportunity to get a big contract. And as much as it would suck to lose him, I wouldn't fault him at all for signing elsewhere. Joe's done a lot for this franchise and I want him to get paid, one way or the other.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 08:20 AM) That Gatorade H2 low calorie stuff is awful.It tastes like medicine. I don't know about "awful", but it's not very good. My wife has the bad habit of purchasing the "diet" versions of my favorite foods and drinks, as if they taste the same and I won't notice or something. I told her that if she purchases diet Gatorade again, it was going directly down the sink.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2008 -> 05:16 AM) I take it you missed the Trib and Sun Times articles last week about all of the different crap in Chicago's drinking water... Uggh, sorry to hear that. I haven't lived in an area that used Chicago's city water since the mid-'90s. Back when I lived in the area, it at least *tasted* pretty good. Then I take it that it's even more dangerous to eat Lake Michigan perch now. I used to go fishing in NW Indiana with my grandfather all of the time. Too bad the next generation won't be able to do the same.