witesoxfan

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 11:53 AM) I already said that you thief. I have this thing where I take something someone else said, use more words that don't really add anything, and call it my own. I call it Plagiacasso

Yeah, this late in the process, you can't buy anything they're selling you. Teams are bringing guys in that they have literally no intention of drafting. It's all mind games at this point. The Bills have brought in 15 guys who are expected to be drafted in the first round. They know who they want to take with #8. They probably knew a month ago. They still have to do this so they can make sure and prepare for emergency situations, and they also want other teams to be confused as to what they're doing.

Is it really ever too late for a season preview? AL Central by the Numbers

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:57 AM) You just named like... half of the NL I actually named them all. Just saying that there are really only 7 good teams in the NL, where there are at least 7 in the AL (Tampa, Baltimore, Toronto, Detroit, Texas, LAA, Oakland) without including teams with a fair amount of talent in New York, Boston, Chicago, KC, Cleveland, and Seattle. There, between two posts, I've named every team in the Majors.

That looked as intentional as it gets to me. 3-2 count, don't wanna make a mistake, want to put him on 1st base anyways, have recent issues with him...may as well just hit him and send a message. Wouldn't be surprised if some of it is about Quentin crowding the plate, but Quentin obviously feels it's his plate and he's willing to fight for it. I realized 2 things when I watched it - #1, Quentin looks good; #2, I miss TCQ

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:31 AM) Sizemore's performance before he went on the DL is irrelevant. You don't seriously think that he's a .220 hitter, when healthy, do you? His only issue is health. I'd rather gamble on that, then Dunn learning to make contact at this late date in his career. Also, I just read this. Saying the only issue with Sizemore is his health is like saying the only issue with Juan Gonzalez is his health, or the only issue with Barry Bonds is his steroids, or the only issue with Carlton Fisk is his age, or the only issue with me is my talent. Oh sure, everything else checks out, but that issue? Yeah, that's why it won't work.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:29 AM) It wasn't the trade for Ritchie itself. There's no doubt that Kip Wells wouldn't have enjoyed the same success for 2-3 years in Chicago he did originally with the Pirates, pitching in a non-stressful environment and looking almost like an ace at times. It was seriously undervaluing Fogg and never being able to find a place for him (was he a starter, reliever or closer) and also dealing away more depth in Lowe, who wasn't getting along well with the coaching staff at the time. That put us into a three or four year period (2001-2004, along with David Wells getting injured/non-performing/fighting with Frank) where we just didn't have a reliable 5th starter at all...to the point it was such a black hole that it largely cost us the division in 2003 (Kenny Rogers vs. our fifth starters, look up the stats). The reason that trade was bad was because of Josh Fogg? And not Kip Wells?? Josh Fogg never put up an ERA+ of 100 as a starting pitcher. The best ERA he put up was 4.35. He was a back of the rotation starting pitcher. Between 2002 and 2003, Kip Wells put up an ERA of 3.43 over 395 innings. He was an incredibly good starting pitcher. Then he encountered injuries and his career fell by the way side. If you don't think the Sox could have used him in either year, you're crazy. No, the reason they lost the trade was because of Kip Wells.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:31 AM) You guys are really funny. So you agree that we have to get rid of Dunn no

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:23 AM) Yeah guys, I wish we never signed Adam Dunn. Remember how much better it was when we had Mark Kotsay? DOOD DEY WON 88 GAMES W/ DA KOTSAY MUSTA BEEN GOOD --- I honestly have no problem if people complain about how much Dunn is making because the Sox could have made other additions and he is overpaid anymore, but to complain about his production is like complaining about Konerko's production last year.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 08:22 AM) You're under the assumption BOTH Keppinger and Gillaspie will be 750-800 OPS hitters for 2 months against all pitching in everyday play. I'll believe that when I see it. Who is under that assumption?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 10:35 PM) Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL. I don't agree that the NL has caught up at all. You have your cream - Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, LA, and you can throw Arizona in there as well - but the Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team, the Mets are SCRAPPY but not a talented bunch, the Marlins are one of the two worst teams in baseball, the Pirates are going to be .500 or worse, the Brewers are mediocre, the Cubs are terrible, the Rockies are terrible (even if they've played well to open the year), and the Padres are not very good. I'd say Philadelphia is probably at the top of the best of the worst, and I would say only Minnesota and Houston are definitively worse than them.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 12, 2013 -> 02:53 AM) Time to trade Thornton to the Royals for Johnny Giavotella (sp). That's the trade we want. Throw in some money if we need to. /facepalm

Todd Ritchie was just mediocre talent being traded for bad talent. Nobody should care about that deal. He gave $19 million over 4 years to Scott Linebrink to set up for a year and a half, pitch mopup for a year and a half, and then he ate salary to move him for nobody in the 4th year. That was by far a worse move. The entire Nick Swisher debacle was an unmitigated disaster. Oh, and mind you, Adam Dunn still hit 40+ homers last year. Anybody complaining about Adam Dunn's production on the field needs to look elsewhere because there are far more people not doing their jobs. Adam Dunn has done about what was expected of him coming in, he just hasn't quite lived up to exactly what he was billed to do. These are the same exact people who b****ed about Jim Thome too. Dunn isn't going anywhere, he's still a productive hitter, and you're going to have to accept him for what he is - a guy who is going to hit home runs, strike out, and walk. Also, 9 games into the season and we're talking about getting rid of Adam Dunn for Grady Sizemore. Come on man, GTFO with that s***.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 04:28 PM) Didn't Rios try stealing last night while Dunn was up? If he did, he's an idiot, even if he has a perfect read and plenty of time. Dunn is going to walk or hit a home run in about approxmately 1/4 of his plate appearances, making any sort of stolen base entirely ineffective. He's going to strike out in 1/3. You are seriously looking at more than half of his plate appearances ending in a situation where a stolen base does absolutely nothing. He's also rarely going to GIDP too. He is absolutely the worst player in the entire game to steal a base when up to bat.

Keon Barnum had his right hamate bone removed earlier this year. Here was ptatc's analysis regarding that QUOTE (ptatc @ Mar 4, 2013 -> 05:35 PM) Easy to recover from. Just need to let the bone heal so it doesn't injure the ulnar nerve as it goes through the tunnel of guyon of the the hook of the hamate (the part they remove) makes up one of the sides. About 1/3 of all MLB hitters have this done at one time or another.

Welcome to the show Carlos Sanchez (SPECULATING)

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 12:24 PM) Nats too good. 6-5 Nats. Which flavor you gonna like next year?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 03:26 PM) Beane's thing was looking at factors other people hadn't caught onto, and getting extra value for his smaller budget out of it. It has less impact now that everyone's more or less onto that, though. This is exactly it. Moneyball != sabermetrics. Sabermetrics is an in-depth and advanced look at numbers in baseball. Moneyball is finding factors in the market that help your team win ball games or at least improve over the long haul. In the early 90s, it was OBP and just getting fat dudes who could hit homers or walk. Beane found another market inefficiency he could take advantage of - trading players with arbitration eligible years remaining and flipping them. Teams don't want rent-a-players anymore and won't give up much for them. They will for players with years left. Hence, Dan Haren, Trevor Cahill, and Gio Gonzalez all get traded, and the A's load up on prospects. Regarding the previous Moneyball thought, there are similarities today - the A's were 5th in walks last year as a team - but there are clear differences too - the A's had the 8th most stolen bases in the majors last year. The other thing that gets lost in the shuffle is this 75% steal rate. That number has become the rule of thumb, but it actually changes from year to year and all depends upon run expectancy. How likely is that run to score from first vs second? Right now, because offense is down across the majors, it actually makes a lot more sense to take risks stealing bases simply because offense is so depressed around baseball. Now, if you have Adam Dunn up, stealing is probably the stupidest thing you can do, but if Jeff Keppinger is up? If I even have a 60% chance of that runner getting there, I'd probably take it.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 12:44 PM) OoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO There's nothing wrong with rambling here and then taking that content and expanding upon it for an article. 99.99% of our views are non-soxtalk. I dont wanna, you can't make me, I WILL BAN YOU

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 11:57 AM) That's a good point - I see no reason why the 7-day DL can't just be used universally. I guess it would negate the 14-day DL because teams would just keep putting players on the 7-day DL to give themselves more flexibility. See, you say stuff like this, and then you get me rambling, and I want to save my mad ramblings for stuff that can be published. So he's a picture of a duck in a tuxedo

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 10, 2013 -> 04:59 PM) NO IDIOT

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 11:46 AM) Oh, I completely get it. I just find it shallow and nothing more than a dog and pony show. And since you love tradition so much, if you do this, I sure hope you waited until you were married to have sex for the first time, too. Oh, wait, you like one tradition but not the other? I forgot...it's all about respect. Some girls really like that and, in a lot of cases, I think it serves as a confidence booster too. If you've asked the father for his blessing, and he's given it to you (begrudingly or otherwise), you'll go into the proposal itself with a full head of steam. It really is to each their own. If you do it, great; if you don't do it, great - just make sure you're happy.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 11:14 AM) He beat a guy who had played for Syracuse the year prior, though. EDIT: dominated, not beat As I recall, that was the closest match, and it was still like 11-5 Scal. And that's the last guy on the bench for an NBA team. Jordan took Kidd-Gilchrest to school earlier this year in 1-on-1 (though all I've seen is rumor and speculation). We are talking about the #2 overall pick in this past year's draft after a year of developing at college. There might be a lesser disparity in talent level between ME and those kids.

I just like the kids that say that Jordan would sleep on their jumper. Like hell he'd sleep on your jumper. He knows you're going to pull up before you do.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 11, 2013 -> 09:53 AM) Some of the responses by these kids are hilarious. There are actual NBA players who still have a hard time beating MJ one-on-one TODAY and he is 50 years old. http://www.usatodayhss.com/st-louis/articl...-on-one--374380 Only Williams-Goss got it right