Vance Law

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Feb 21, 2008 -> 07:50 PM) If Uribe can play solid D at 2B and hit 25 dingers, I think the Sox will be a force in the central. something tells me this move to 2B could be a wake-up call for this guy (at least i hope so). Richar is a better hitter than Uribe already and should be at least starting against all righties over Uribe, if Uribe isn't traded.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) Therefore a single and a stolen base can not be equal to 2 TB. ...when someone is on first base ahead of that hitter, and to a somewhat lesser degree, second base. So, we can give someone 2 TB for a double based on the possibility knocking runners in or moving them ahead (56% of at bats were with no one on base in '07), but we aren't giving hitters any credit for their ability to score once on base through superior base stealing or base running. Mike Cameron went 1st to 3rd on a single 15 of 22 times; Todd Helton did 5 out of 42 times.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 12:28 PM) But a stolen base does not move anybody over That is true. The converse of that is, Jerry Owens is a lot more likely to score if he is standing on second base than Frank Thomas is.

Pods Year-----------SLG----------"Adj." SLG 2003----------0.443----------0.502 2004----------0.364----------0.453

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 11:50 AM) He better not get enough plate appearances to get anywhere close to 65 SBs, unless its at AAA. precisely. But I would love to see him set the record for most stolen bases with fewest plate appearances. Leave the getting on base to the good hitters, and let Owens pinch run if it's late and close.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 09:20 AM) I'm certain some stat head has done this, but for example, what would have been Pods Slugging % if you credited him with a double on all his SBs and took away any singles when he was caught? By brain starts to hurt figuring that out, but I think it would be interesting. I've asked this before. I believe I was told that there is a stat called Total Average that incorporates steals/caught stealings, but I've still never seen Pods or anyone else's numbers for this. I'd be interested in seeing a stat that can incorporate batting, basestealing, and base running.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 20, 2008 -> 09:50 AM) Actually the difference is Colon has proven he can be an ace, I believe that Cy Young would be credential enough. At the time of signing Loaisa, he had a handful of mediocrity. I believe that makes this even less of a risk with a known upsides. I'm not expecting 20 wins or even 15 but it wasn't that lomng ago we had a revolving 5th starter who couldn't get out of the 4th. I think Dick Allen's point is, how could signing anyone with any kind of upside to a minor league deal (no risk/high potential reward) be dumb? It kinda can't.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 10:28 PM) You can hate a move and still be a fan, I hope. Of course you can. And my comments were complete sarcasm (if that wasn't clear) in response to the common type of Soxtalk posts that are not only an absurd overreaction.......but an absurd overreaction to something that has not and may never happen. Anyway, if we trade Konerko to the Cubs for Ryan Dempster and Ernie Banks' bar tab (as I've heard rumored) I will eat my television, then s*** my tv poop into an envelope and mark it, "not buying season tickets," and mail it to Kenny Williams. Because I think that is a not-smart move that I fear Williams will make, which I would not. And I'd like to add that this, then, would have been an offseason over which to fire him.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 09:38 PM) how can anyone say this is a terrible deal having not seen the terms of the agreement? Yes. The agreement that does not now, and may never, actually exist.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 10:05 PM) Im all for this move... its a minor risk worth taking. Nothing is a minor risk. Everything is the end of the world. Everything is, "when this thing that is a rumor happens, I'm never watching another Sox game again."

QUOTE(knightni @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 09:13 PM) 2. Move Garland, a solid #3 SP who is 27 for a 35 y/o SS Actually, Garland is 28 and Cabrera is 33. So therefore, Garland is 31 and Cabrera is 29.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 9, 2008 -> 07:01 PM) Half the sexiness of Johan Santana. Seriously, Santana is so rico suave, it's amazing. I bet by the end of his nights he is batting women off him left and right He gets that impossibly precise goatee airbrushed on him every day.

If Crede comes out and is playing amazing, and Fields is playing terribly with bat and glove. I wouldn't have a problem putting Fields in AAA for whatever stretch of time. Crede can be traded 1 week into the season, 1 month into the season, 2 months into the season or whenever. Potentially this leads to us getting even greater value with Crede hitting great, and/or a third baseman on a contending team coming up with a major injury. That said- I think there is a 10% chance of Crede coming out playing "unbelievably" and Fields playing "horribly," and instead, Crede will be traded to the Giants before opening day. And to whoever started the "I bet the Giants will pick up Inge before we can trade them Crede because we always have all of the bad luck and all of the other teams have everything go right for them like when the Tigers won the World Series in 2006 and made the playoffs last year and the Sox didn't win the World Series in '05." The Giants had a better version of Inge in Pedro Feliz if they wanted him, and rather than Inge's ridiculous $19.1 mil over 3 years, they could have gotten him for $8 mil over 2 years.......and they didn't want him.

QUOTE(kjshoe04 @ Feb 19, 2008 -> 12:35 AM) I love pablo. I'll never forget his walk off bunt single to win the game in Frank's first game back at the cell. I missed watching pablo for most of 2007. That was one of the best plays of '06. Perfect bunt. May 22 http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/multimedia...s&ym=200605

If they are smart enough to pick up Bonds, Seattle could contend in the West. They have two legit aces now. They have one of the most dominant closers in the game. If they get league average pitching from their 3-4-5 (Batista/Washburn/Silva were 39-40 last year. 101/100/103 ERA+), they are well above .500.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Feb 18, 2008 -> 07:03 PM) All I'll say on Walker is this. The Sox hitters have 3 months to perform. And you can throw out the excuses with cold weather, new players etc., but Walker has had plenty of time to get this group to perform and he hasn't gotten the job done with quite a few players e.g Juan Uribe. I bet Walker wouldn't get the job done if he was coaching me either.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 18, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) Ron Gardenhire, playing career 777 career PA's...thats why hes good Yes I recalled seeing baseball cards of his. At somepoint, someone surely doctored it into "Ron Gardenhose" and sent it in to Beckett.

We shall see what happens. I don't like how Walker batting coached Konerko into a subpar year especially after he made him have 3 consecutive very good years. Bad strategy on Walker's part, he should have just made him have a good year. I did, however, like it when Dye wasn't a good hitter anymore in the first half of the season, Walker decided to batting coach him into have a great second half. That's the kind of batting coaching I want to see out of Walker. And Walker's been pretty consistent in batting coaching Thome to do well for 2 straight years which is a smart strategy that I hope he sticks with. A.J. should have a good year because it looks like Walker is alternating years of good batting coaching and then bad batting coaching with him.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Feb 18, 2008 -> 10:45 AM) Then I can give him the blame for the crappy hitting of 2005. That was glossed over because of the championship. That offense was rotten. You can call it rotten. I'd say it was on the bad side of medium- finishing 8th and 9th in OPS and runs out of 14 in the AL. A healthy Tank Thomas likely would have pushed us into the top half. I hope you have increasingly bad-sounding adjectives for the 5 or 6 worse offenses. Whatever we do, we shouldn't blame the hitters for their hitting.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 18, 2008 -> 10:13 AM) The main reason Walker should not be coaching is the results with the hitters over the past couple seasons and the lack of success throughout the system. Past season. If you want to give Greg Walker all of the blame for the Sox poor hitting last year, you're going to have to give him all of the credit for their great hitting in 2006.

QUOTE(Disco72 @ Feb 15, 2008 -> 07:10 AM) I'm not as concerned with "leadoff hitter" as I am "hitter that is in front of Thome-Konerko-Dye." I agree with Wite that we don't need a 'fast' player, just someone that can get on base and score runs. I also agree that the Sox have some interesting options at 2B after Richar, but Roberts would look nice as the "hitter in front of Thome-Konerko-Dye." Obviously, the Sox can't get him, so I'm contributing to a somewhat useless discussion here. I like Roberts, but I honestly think a platoon of Richar and Ramirez/Uribe/Ozuna can outperform Roberts at the plate.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 05:26 PM) But really KW shouldn't have made the move in the 1st place if it weren't for the fact that Uribe is better than the other weak free agent shortstops, and he needed to make the move by Uribe's contract deadline so that the Sox wouldn't be stuck with Eckstein or Alex Cintron as starting shortstop. enhanced

Soxtalk posters continue to be masters of pointing out "why we suck" while completely failing to rationally note how every single other team also sucks, because that doesn't affect them emotionally. Gavin Floyd wins 14.

Did players ever have career years in, like, the 1950s or 60s or 70s or 40s or 30s or 20s?

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 13, 2008 -> 11:32 AM) While I certainly don't wan to take anything away from the 2005 Sox, because I am forever grateful for that season, but the entire team had a horseshoe up their collective ass. The entire pitching staff did (save Shingo and Duque). If the entire team had horseshoe ass, we may have won 140 games.