BearSox

I would do or give anything to get Joey Votto. He is probably my favorite player in baseball right now, along with Justin Morneau.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ May 29, 2010 -> 09:08 PM) Dontrelle Willis...gone. from twitter I think the Tigers are crazy for trying to turn Scherzer into a starter. He's got fantastic stuff, but he has had more shoulder injuries than you would like to see and his fastball loses a ton of velocity as the innings build up for him. However, he could be a dominate relief pitcher and give him the best chance to stay healthy. His herky jerky motion will be tough to pick up late in games, and his fastball will more likely be in the 95-97 range instead of the 90-92 range. Also, he's got a great change and good slider when he can control it.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ May 30, 2010 -> 12:45 PM) I read that they'll actually move Brandon Wood there to give him a shot first. That won't last long cause Brandon Wood is a terrible MLB hitter. They should have traded him back in 2007 when he still had some value.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 30, 2010 -> 11:05 AM) That's cute and all. And if PK is willing to come back at a significantly reduced contract over a couple years, I'd love to have him back. If he wants to get paid like it's 2006, see ya! Agreed 100%. No one loves Konerko more than me, but this is a business and unless he is willing to sign something like a 3 year 21 million dollar contract, he's not worth bringing back. And even if we do trade him, that doesn't rule out bringing him back in the offseason as a FA. But we gotta do whatever is best for the club. And the same goes for Buehrle to.

I'm assuming Married & Whipped

Congrats to Halladay on the feat, but in all honesty, the Perfect Game and No Hitter are only going to become more and more common. With the home run being the main focus on offense and all the hitters with open stances trying to pull the ball now, it's getting easier for good pitchers. If you noticed, the pitchers who have gotten the perfect games aren't the ones with electric stuff but rather the pitchers who know how to pitch, don't throw anything straight, change speeds, etc... all the things that are like kryptonite to players who try to hit home runs and pull the ball.

Is someone gonna predict Quentin to break out everyday until he does, if he does?

You do know why he changed his stance right? (It's not even that much different, he's just straight away now which is better for hitters anyway)... its because it wasn't working anymore. If his old stance and approach still worked for him, do you think he would have changed it?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 29, 2010 -> 12:36 AM) Miguel Cabrera had himself a night. He and Evan Longoria have been the clear-cut best players and leading MVP candidates to this point. It disappointed me to see Longoria dog it down the first base line when he hit that double. Hopefully this is something he learns from, not builds on as he gets more experienced and becomes even a better hitter.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 29, 2010 -> 01:08 AM) That will never happen because there isn't a stat that exists that is flawless. But do we really need stats to determine that Pierre/Pods are roughly the same player? It pretty much comes down to preference. My preference would be neither of them would play for my team. I was being sarcastic. And yes, I think everyone has established that they are pretty much the same player, and everyone would pefer a different option oppossed to those two. However, this thread and argument is about who is better for this team, Pods or Pierre, and I'll stick with Pods over Pierre.

Call me a crazy old tradionalist, but I'm not gonna throw all my eggs in one basket with a stat that I doubt many people fully understand. Is WAR a legit stat to look at? Sure. Should it settle all disputes especially in cases where the differences are so minute? Hell no. I know I'm a crazy old tradionalist, but I think people value stats way too much as oppossed to just the basic and fundamental human element to the game. Stats can never take everything into account, it's impossible. When you find a stat that is flawless and undisputable, let me know.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 28, 2010 -> 02:59 PM) Most legitimate scouting publications suggested that Ely didn't have the stuff to make it in the majors. If there is ever a question of whether someone's stuff is good enough, they immediately lose value. Beyond that, if his stuff really is mediocre but his control is good, then he's much better off in the NL where a pitcher can get away with that sort of thing. There's a reason Carlos Silva got absolutely destroyed in the AL and is pitching his ass off in the NL. We f***ed up in our scouting then cause he's shown to have one of the better change ups in the league so far. And when you combine that with his incredible control, you are going to get a lot of quality starts, AL or NL.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 28, 2010 -> 01:06 PM) Exactly. You can't bargain hunt when it comes to your starters. We waited on DH and look how that ended up. I'm pretty sure they planned on going with Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay as the DH right from the start of the offseason. And it's not a matter of bargin hunting, it's a matter of being smart. Both are similar players, but Pods has shown a much more improved hitting style in the past year. If we waited him out, I guarantee you we could have brought him back for less than what we are paying Pierre.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ May 28, 2010 -> 10:52 AM) or KW could have waited lost both Pierre and Pods and have Beckham lead off. Pods was signed in January, and clearly there wasn't a huge market for him. We had time. And never getting Pierre in the first place would have been better in the long run cause that would have forced us to sign Johnny Damon.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 28, 2010 -> 11:20 AM) Swisher actually was a Rick Hahn type move when you think about it. He is the definition of a saber player. A guy like Juan Pierre on the other hand, is known as a saber nightmare. Hahn most certainly has a better understanding of Sabermetrics than KW, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is a sabermetric disciple like Theo Epstein. Hopefully he uses both sabermetrics and traditional scouting equally.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 28, 2010 -> 11:16 AM) I'd say 2 guys in 10 years is a pretty good track record, wouldn't you? If we are going based on just that fact, sure. But he's also rushed into moves, with the two most recent being trading Swisher for garbage. Also, trading a solid pitcher in Ely for the expensive Pierre (8 million is too much for him) before letting the market play itself out with Pods. Then you have the fact he's held onto players way too long. Jenks should have been gone a couple years ago. We probably should have traded Dye in 07. Now look, we got nothing for Dye and are willing to ship Jenks to whichever team is willing to pay his salary. Also, under KW we have consistently had one of the worst farm systems in baseball. Things have been a lot better after the past 2 years, but they should not excuse KW of sitting back idle while we consistently had s***ty drafts and terrible (and corrupt) scouting in Latin America. I think for a four year span we had horrible baseball players drafted with our first pick (Anderson, Fields, Broadway, McCulloch). KW has been just as much miss as he has been hit, IMO. While he certainly isn't one of the worst GM's in baseball, he hasn't been great either. However, he is a good baseball mind and I'd have no problem with him becoming President or something along those lines. However, I strongly feel there is a need for change in GM spot.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 28, 2010 -> 10:44 AM) Who did he not do his homework on? Nick Swisher and Todd Ritchie are the two that come to mind right away.

It'd be nice to have a GM who doesn't rush into things and only focuses on bringing in good, solid ball players. No matter what your viewpoint is, sabermetrics or traditional, it doesn't matter as long as you do your homework and bring in the best players possible. That is what I want to see out of our GM.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ May 26, 2010 -> 11:17 PM) that would be debatable if he was still with the Sox, the Sox wanted him back but he reportedly wanted multi-years to return to the White Sox, so it might not be fair to use his KC contract as a gauge... also, Pierre is a much better OF'er IMO than Pods, both their arms suck, and Pierre is better at fielding. Their 2010 WARs to this point... Juan is .5 and Pods .4 but as I've stated before, with how the White Sox 2 and 3 hitters started the year Pods vs. Pierre isn't really what crippled this offense KW, IMO, rushed into things. Instead of waiting to see how the market played out with Pods, he goes and makes a trade for Pierre. However, if he waited a little longer, the Royals would have emerged as the only contender for Pods, and it would have been an easy sign. Maybe a little more expensive than the 2 million he is making this year, but certainly a lot cheaper than the 10 million we owe Pierre for the next year and a half.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 28, 2010 -> 08:43 AM) Alex Gordon once again obliterating minor league pitching: .375/.519/.688/1.207 in 104 PAs. God I wish the Royals would make up their minds on what they're going to do with him. I'd give up anything outside of Hudson/Flowers. I agree. I wanted Alex Gordon last season. I wish the Royals would have traded him instead of dicking him around and moving him to the OF. He was a solid 3B (hell of a lot better than Teahen), and he's still very young (what is he, 25, 26?).

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:07 PM) Plus, over the history of the game, with all the changing of the strike zone via the rule book and the strike zone, every year the MLB average has been around .260. Seems like they know that they are doing in that regard. Look at the batting averages in the major leagues from 1920-1940. I didn't do the official math but the average was somewhere in the .280's with the high being .292 in 1925 and the low being .267 in 1940, and mainly ~.280's in between. The official high in AVG was 1930 with .296, but lets not count that cause that is the year the National League juiced up the ball and hit .303 as a league. However, do you know what the strike zone was before the 1950's? The top of the knees to the top of the shoulders. Think about how tough it was for the hitters back then compared to today... yet, they seemed to get by fairly ok.

Get rid of them both. Let the Rick Hahn era begin!

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 27, 2010 -> 08:24 PM) When Ozzie puts Linebrink in during a close game, is he conceding the game? Yes.

I think our left side of the infield has double the amount of E's than the Twins do this whole season as a team.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 27, 2010 -> 07:54 PM) Take a f***ing pitch, Kotsay. Why don't any of these bastards work a count? Its like asking why our hitters don't use the opposite field. Our hitters are either extremely dumb or are so money driven that they want to each hit 50 homers a season. There's a fine line between aggressive and stupid, and our offense collectively is stupid.