witesoxfan

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 20, 2013 -> 07:52 AM) Yes. Because he has the most control over it. Does he have it all, no. However, he is the most significant variable in it. It obviously doesn't tell everything and can't be looked at only for individual games but needs to be over a season and multiple seasons. The advent of specialzed relievers has made it less important as the starter pitches less. The pitcher, especially in the AL, controls like half of the game. Let's compare sports here. Drew Brees went 7-9 last year. How much of that was his fault?

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Aug 19, 2013 -> 04:43 PM) When Ben Zobrist ranks as one of the best players in baseball, you know it's a flawed system. I've heard they are going to combine in to one exact calculation at some point, but it hasn't happened yet that I know of. The only flaw I've seen w/ fWAR is that they sometimes favor defense too heavily, but overall everyone seems to agree fWAR is overall far superior than bWAR, which, OF COURSE is the on ESPN cites, so people often discredit WAR all together once they see the funky things like Ben Zobrist being an MVP candidate. Since the beginning of the 2009 season, only Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Evan Longoria, Joey Votto, Cliff Lee, Robinson Cano, and Felix Hernandez have better fWAR totals than Ben Zobrist. Ben Zobrist is one of the best players in the game and anyone denying that is incredibly short sighted and ignorant. He is by no means a flashy player, but he is an incredibly good player.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 19, 2013 -> 01:36 PM) I meant that the edge from pick to pick between 2 and 5 is not as great. In other words, getting a top 5 pick is important, but winning a couple more games and getting the 5th pick instead of the 3rd isn't that big of a deal. Sorry, misread it. Yeah, but I don't think that should really be that surprising.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Aug 19, 2013 -> 12:42 PM) So basically, there is a fairly decent edge in having the #1 pick, but not nearly as big of a gap from 2-5. No, a 2:1 edge (23 with 30 bWAR still at 2-5) is still incredibly substantial, and that's just counting guys ranging from perennial all-stars to Hall of Famers. If you look beyond that, guys who get drafted in the top 5 are also far, far more likely to have contributions at the MLB level too. It won't matter, as the Sox are all but assured of a top 5 pick.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 19, 2013 -> 12:24 PM) What an asshole. That's all that article says. "My stupid stubborn ways". What a boner. Get the hell off our team. Not exactly a surprising comment from a Sox based based on a left handed slugger who strikes out a lot but has put up a .282/.385/.548/.933 triple split over his previous 84 games.

Just to point out...top 5 picks since the inception of the draft to put up at least 30 career bWAR #1) Harold Baines, Darryl Strawberry, BJ Surhoff, Ken Griffey Jr, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Darin Erstad, Adrian Gonalez, Joe Mauer (there are 4-5 others with 25-30 WAR) #2) Reggie Jackson, Will Clark, Greg Swindell, Josh Beckett, Justin Verlander (again, several between 25-30) #3) Robin Yount, Lonnie Smith, Paul Molitor, Matt Williams, Troy Glaus, Evan Longoria #4) Jon Matlack, Thurman Munson, Darrell Porter, Dave Winfield, Barry Larkin, Kevin Brown, Ryan Zimmerman #5) Dale Murphy, Dwight Gooden, JD Drew, Mark Teixeira, Ryan Bruan (Buster Posey is at 16.9, but has also won an MVP too) TOTAL: 32 Now 11-15 #11) NONE (Andrew McCutchen will almost certainly get there) #12) Kirk Gibson, Nomar Garciaparra, Jered Weaver #13) Frank Tanana, Manny Ramirez (Gary Nolan, Garry Templeton, Paul Konerko, Aaron Hill, and Chris Sale are here too) #14) Derrek Lee #15) Rich Hebner, Jim Rice, Chris Carpenter, Chase Utley TOTAL: 10 Does this make it clearer to anyone else why Sox fans want a top 5 pick?

They replaced her character about halfway through.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/players-vie...luate-pitchers/

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 18, 2013 -> 11:16 PM) Addison Reed is so good on a bad team that it's scary. He's our team MVP by far, even ahead of Sale IMO. wat

The problem is that we don't know that. As a 16 year old - 16! - Dayan Viciedo hit .337 and 14 homers in the Serie Nacional, and he's been a huge disappointment thus far. If the scouts say they like what they see and they think the tools will translate, then throw a boatload of money at him.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 02:25 PM) I guess I was trying to tell Soxtalk what I thought it wanted to hear re. DeAza. I thought he was generally pretty despised on here. I don't mind the guy. Don't like his defense and/or baserunning very much. Now that's just silly. I frankly don't care what anybody on here wants to hear, I just follow the rules and say what I want. If you like De Aza, just say it and don't worry what anyone else says. I don't care that you hate Dunn and Rios and you have a man-boner for Konerko. I am still going to call you on it when you're being hypocritical or holding guys to different standards too.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 02:10 PM) Danks is coming off the injury and just getting the arm going again, so I figured he was doing all he could to earn the cash. DeAza ... I figured I better account for his incredible number of stupid mistakes/misplays this season. Danks has been quite bad and has made a lot of money, regardless of injury. You can't account for De Aza's mistakes because that introduces a sample bias because you are simply recollecting what he has done based off you memory. Alejandro De Aza has actually been one of the Sox best players.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 01:49 PM) PTATC can you comment on whether Paulie's back pain is affecting his sleep? haha

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 01:14 PM) This year's team and whether player is overpaid or not.... Kepp-Overpaid. Lexi-Overpaid. Becks-Earning his money. Paulie-Overpaid. Flowers-Overpaid. DeAza-Earning his money barely (I wouldn't argue if somebody thinks he's overpaid). Viciedo-Overpaid. Dunn-Overpaid. Sale, Quintana, Santiago, Danks-Earning his money. Reed-Earning his money. Gillaspie - Earning his money (assuming he is paid very little). So John Danks is earning his $13 million putting up a 4.54 ERA and a 5.10 FIP while De Aza is barely earning his league minimum salary putting up a .275/.331/.423/.754 triple slash with the second most homers on the team.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 01:19 PM) Uh oh. I'm sensing somebody doesn't like Paulie very much. We'll never know how badly his injuries have been. My guess is they've been really bad. If so he'll probably retire. Funny how you can excuse a player having literally the worst season of any 1B in the majors.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 11:37 AM) I'm ready to say goodbye to Paulie. Great career, no reason to drag it down into zombie territory. Yep. Thanks for the memories, but it's time to go.

So THAT'S where all the white women at

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 09:21 AM) Not enough TWTW Don't you remember when Juan Pierre won a World Series with the Marlins his first year with the team? COME ON MAN

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 04:58 PM) It'd be interesting to walk up to a fan at the Cell and do a word association. Other ballparks, too: "When I say "Adam Dunn" what comes to your mind?" I'd utter something negative. Yet here people are pointing out he has moderate HOF numbers when he's done playing. Interesting. No, really? Oh, and it's because he does have hall of very good numbers. Because he's been a very good player during his career.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 04:04 PM) Big Hurt somehow hit for power and also walked a lot. Wonder why Juan Pierre didn't try that

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 16, 2013 -> 09:06 AM) Since no one else has posed the question yet... steroids? Not sure you can inject a needle into bone

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-Leaf-300-Fran...11#ht_178wt_917 That card is damn near perfect, and it's selling for $22. Ten years ago, that card would be $220. It doesn't matter what kind, cards just aren't that valuable anymore.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) Lol. Axelrod should come in the 8th every game and just pitch until it ends. You spelled Troncoso wrong

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 04:35 PM) It'd be like putting Dave Kingman in the Hall. Kingman was the same as Dunn wasn't he? Pathetically bad for stretches with a ton of K's? Then he'd get hot and blast some bombs. Like Dunn, Kingman never played for a playoff team did he? Also didn't Kingman have years where his average was under .200 for a long long stretch? -Only once over the course of his entire career did Kingman have an average over the course of a full season under .200. -He played in the postseason in his 1st season in the majors. He never did again. -Adam Dunn walks approximately 400% more than Dave Kingman did -Kingman ended up with 442 homers at the age of 37. It's certainly not likely, but 5 more seasons of playing could lead to Dunn ending up with 600 homers. Ultimately, Dunn is going to end up as the "Fred McGriff" of this generation as a guy who hit a lot of home runs and was generally a pretty good player but was never good enough for the Hall no matter what his final numbers indicate.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2013 -> 03:24 PM) I know. And I tried to play it cool. I get it now. I feel like an idiot. Atleast I don't have ED