witesoxfan

2nd most productive oil state in the US behind Texas. Thankfully, everything is north and west of me. Doesn't mean I don't see the effect though...I deal with it pretty much everyday.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 03:08 PM) Meghan Montemurro ‏@M_Montemurro Hahn said at this point, OF Jared Mitchell will start season at Triple-A Charlotte. Sox want him to play everyday and get more at-bats. Is that indicating like there was someone thinking he was going to make the MLB team out of camp? That was never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to happen.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 03:03 PM) What about the elbow injury . Needed an oil change. He could probably give 110% if it were absolutely necessary, but he is usually around 97-98.3%

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 02:33 PM) The bold is where I disagree. If you look at the game logs from last year, many times after he played around 40 minutes, he would then miss a week or a few weeks. When you play through injuries and you dont let them heal 100%, there is a potential that you do permanent damage or that you slow down the recovery time. Players are humans, humans break down if you overwork them. Except LeBron. I do not believe him to be a human being.

Holy s***

QUOTE (Cali @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 12:03 PM) I still say the '13 Dodgers, since, ya know, they have most of those players from that Red Sox squad haha Add to it Greinke, a new owner that's a Hall of Fame NBA star putting World Series or Bust like pressure on them, and their bitterest division rival coming off of a World Series. Boston also had a series of success going into that season including 2 recent titles, the Dodgers have been floundering for a decade + and endured a terrible owner. It's ALL on them right now. I think part of that is because you are near them. I view the 2011 and 2012 Red Sox as much bigger failures. I'm not sure there's been a team in the majors since September 2011 in the majors than the Red Sox.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 09:49 AM) We all knew that was coming. I could do it again, but I don't wanna

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 12:54 PM) The difference is less than half an inch. I'd say that's simply "a bit bigger". .......... THATSWHATSHESAID

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 08:47 AM) Pelosi probably plays a lot of Borderlands She probably plays like a n00b

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 09:00 AM) I must have missed it when the Sox were celebrating on the field when they made the playoffs. The Sox weren't a winning team last year. 85 wins in the AL Central in the 2-wildcard era isn't good enough. If they stick with Dunn batting third, they won't make the postseason. They weren't a winning team, even though they were a winning team (which is what you just said). I'm sorry that the entire offense went into an incredible slump in the final 12 or 16 games, it must have been entirely the fault of Adam Dunn hitting 3rd. Please. They likely won't make the postseason anyways, but I can assure you it will have nothing to do with Adam Dunn hitting or not hitting in the 3rd hole. I have a pretty damn good idea. I watched about 40 games last year. He's a pretty damn good manager. He struggles with playing and managing his role players - both his bench and bullpen - but he's a pretty damn good manager. Oh, and the manager has an effect on about, at the very most, 4 games a year. Yes, he will make decisions that will either win or lose, but those tend to even out. Likely, if the Sox do not make the postseason, it will be because of the talent on the roster, not because of Ventura's managerial style.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 07:44 AM) I refuse to watch the video, but sounds like a nasty injury. Hope it's not too serious for the kid's sake. Never a good angle on camera as far as I could tell. Looked like he he just ran his knee into the padding around the lower part of the basket. I'm sure something tore, but hyperextended knees can hurt like a b**** too.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 07:49 AM) http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/11/us-...nds-video-games Nancy Pelosi becomes the first Representative or Senator to defend video games, that I know of. Certainly the most high profile. She just moved up 1 notch on my totem pole.

QUOTE (TomSeaverFan @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 02:15 AM) That is one great analogy. Fat chicks aren't my thing, though, in any instance. Neither is Spring Training, but at least it's something.

QUOTE (StillMissOzzie @ Feb 13, 2013 -> 12:15 AM) This should be all you need to know about BP and PECOTA: These rocket scientists have PECOTA'd both the Sox and the Cubs to identical 77-85 records for 2013. I think that the Sox pitching will keep them above .500, while I look forward to the Cubs going back-to-back 100 games losers. Bite me, PECOTA SMO Here's this for those who are wondering. It's merely a projection based system. It almost always says the Sox are going to be worse. You really shouldn't care too much about this.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 07:38 PM) And they made mistakes too. They stuck with Morel too long, especially when he was batting 2nd. And Dunn can't be a 3-hitter for a winning team. I'm not going to knock Ventura for one season of managing, but I have no idea if he's a good manager yet. It all seems like a "college of coaches" scenario, with Robin doing the pre- and postgame media sessions. I just don't feel like he's the guy in control yet. And when he turns down a contract extension, I have to question how much he wants to do this. Truthfully, I'd rather have Mark Parent managing since he paid his dues in the minors, and has a good reputation. Well that is the most bulls*** statement of all time. The Sox won 85 games last year and nearly won a division with Dunn as a 3 hitter. And what is this college of coaches? And wanting Mark Parent to manage? And not knowing if Ventura is in charge??? #1) Good managers surround themselves with good people. #2) No #3) Ventura was obviously in charge last year. Why would he suddenly not be in charge this year? He commands the clubhouse's respect and does everything he can for the players. Ventura is a good manager, and reading ANYTHING into that contract extension is merely pointless and worthless speculation.

Then you amnesty Boozer before the season and just let guys grow into their roles. The Heat did it the year the Bulls got Rose. Thankfully the Bulls made the right call in taking Rose over Beasley (though it's incredible to see how deep that draft really was...there were a lot of good players drafted up and down the 1st round). As is, the only way you can even save the season is if Rose comes back and you try to at least make a run.

QUOTE (Cali @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 07:40 PM) Has there EVERY been a team more set up for unmitigated disaster than the 2013 Dodgers? Like it might be really BAD. Like No playoffs, multiple games behind the division leader bad. Could be, but they have a ridiculous amount of talent. They could legitimately rock like an 8 man rotation - Kershaw, Greinke, Capuano, Billingsley, Beckett, Ryu, Harang, and Lilly. They can trade two starting pitchers and still end up with a pretty damn good pitcher in the bullpen, and their bullpen is already pretty good. That pitching staff alone should get them 85 wins.

Or could it just be that he wanted more of a guarantee than 1 year? Maybe he wants a real vote of confidence. Had he turned down a 3 year extension, then I'd be more worried. As is, I could care less about that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 04:29 PM) I actually checked this, there was basically no change on his fastball between starting and relieving last year. He didn't gain any velocity in the pen or lose any when he was starting. Yeah, maybe that changes if you try to throw him 230 innings, but we haven't seen any evidence of him throwing harder from the pen. What we really saw was that Santiago struggled more with the control of his offspeed stuff out of the pen. People could sit back and hammer it because he couldn't keep it down. Looking at his minor league stats, I don't think it matters whether he throws from the rotation or the bullpen, he's going to be erratic with his control right now. He was pretty much right around 4 BB/9 no matter whether starting or relieving in the minors, and using 4 games started in the majors as any indication that he has better control as a starting pitcher brings about sample size issues. (FYI, 5.1 BB/9 in 4 games started in the majors last year) So, whether or not he struggled with the control of his offspeed stuff (which is an incredibly small sample size) or what have you, his control was worse starting. Allowing him to relieve reduces the tendency for him to miss spots and allows him to exert more. I think they started him in the minors like how they started Nate Jones in the minors - all about getting more experience. I think he could be an absolute shut down lefty reliever, given time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 04:25 PM) 3b ought to be more than a minor upgrade. It really is hard to believe how little the sox got from that position last year. .600 ops from that position with rotten defense. Average defense from Kep and his career .730 ish ops would be like replacing one of the other spots in our lineup with an all star. -0.1 WAR from all Sox 3B. That includes 1.2 WAR from Youk. To specify, this is actually just from people who played 3B at some point. It was probably slightly above replacement level, but it was ugly. It should be considerably "not ugly" for the whole year.

I've never had any problem with that. I've changed my tone a bit in believing that he could make it as a starter, but I believe he would be incredibly streaky as a starting pitcher, depending entirely upon the effectiveness of that screwball. As a reliever, he can light it up to about 95 and then the screwball (so long as hitters don't wait on it, like Cespedes did last year) it can be extremely effective.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 02:24 PM) Mark Gonzales ‏@MDGonzales When asked who should start opening day, Peavy didn't pause in saying that Sale is the best pitcher in the Sox's rotation. Pretty sure at Soxfest, they asked them both this. Sale said Peavy, Peavy said Sale.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 02:23 PM) MLB Trade Rumors ‏@mlbtraderumors Royals Acquire Elliot Johnson http://bit.ly/XwHiiD #mlb NOW we're screwed

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 12, 2013 -> 01:02 PM) Projections mean nothing. They are good for conversation. I really like BP and get it every year. However, of the 3 teams they projected to finish in last place in the AL last year, 2 of them made the playoffs. Watch all the experts and all the systems pick playoff teams and MVPs and Cy Young winners. Then look at it the day after the WS ends. It will make you really wonder why anyone would possibly get riled up over said projections in the first place. This is exactly right. On top of that, most good projections will give an expected, an high end projection, and a low end projection. A good projection for Alexei Ramirez would be .260/.300/.350 for a .650 OPS. Would anybody be surprised if he put up .280/.330/.400 for a .730 OPS? Or would you be surprised if he put up .250/.280/.320 for a .600 OPS? Same thing with Viciedo...he could put up anywhere between .850 or .900 or as low as .675 or .700. Most of the time, these projections are pretty accurate. It only takes them inaccurate on about 4 of them for things to go either really well or really poorly. Projections give a nice baseline to compare to and they fill column space during dead periods. They should, all the same, be taken with a huge grain of salt.

I honestly think the Sox have enough on the bench - more specifically, on the bench or in the minors - that the quality of the bench players in the MLB won't matter much. The most you're going to see a bench player really ever bring is 1 win...and that is the most. Typically, they'll be between -0.5 and 0.5, so you want to find ones whose advantages and upside you can control the most. Angel Sanchez is a good fielder, and fielding generally doesn't sleep. Wise has turned into a pretty steady bat off the bench for the Sox. Can the backup come in and catch a couple games in a row if necessary? Then he's all you need. Considering Flowers, Dunn, and Konerko can all play 1B (and maybe Kepp and Viciedo in a pinch), you have all 9 positions covered. At that point, last guy on the bench is just who earned a spot in Spring Training. I'm hoping for Morel.