witesoxfan

Andruw Jones would look pretty good in LF tonight.

QUOTE (Yoda @ May 3, 2011 -> 04:26 PM) Don’t get me wrong, I have a feeling the Indians will “come back to earth” and the Royals will inevitably hit a wall sometime soon as well. The Sox just need to put together a nice stretch where they can show some offensive consistency and have the pitching staff keep them in the game. With that being said, once those two teams (CLE&KC) do hit that wall, the Sox will need to take advantage and we’re looking at a whole new article by the start of such month. I agree. What they really need to do in May is to stay relevant, because this is a month where they could fall off pretty drastically. 19 of their next 27 games are on the road (and after this series with the Twins, it's 19 of the next 25 games), and the worst team they play during that stretch is the Mariners who do have a pretty good pitching staff. If they go, say, 11-16 during the next 27 games, that puts them at 22-35 and in drastic need of a miracle. 13-14 puts them 24-33, which is about where they were last year when they went on their run. I can go through doomsday or miracle scenarios for while, but these next 27 games really dictate what the Sox do this season. I've been amongst the choir talking about how early it still is and that this team is too talented to continue to struggle as much as they have, but it stops being early in May. At the end of this month, the season will be 1/3 over and they only have another 1/3 until the trade deadline.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 3, 2011 -> 05:55 PM) What do you mean accountability? If Walker comes to work, he does more than is asked of him, he is well liked and respected, what should he be held accountable for? Results do not always mean who was the best. I would have no problem with Walker working in the front office, by all accounts hes a solid well liked guy. I think they did this with Gary Ward. He was relieved of his duties as hitting coach (and Greg Walker was hired), and within a year or two he was the hitting coach at Charlotte. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, just that (if I am remembering correctly), there is precedent for such a move.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 3, 2011 -> 05:56 PM) OK, where is the evidence that he is an ahole? It's all hearsay and mostly comes from his one year stint with the Giants by a couple of people who some others may consider aholes themselves. Someone else said he is a bully. Where is the evidence of that? All we ever hear are vague statements about him being an asshole from someone who heard it from some other unnamed friend or "source." I can only judge people by what I know and what I see. If there is a lack of evidence I give people the benefit of the doubt. And what I said about how he comes across in interviews is he doesn't seem like an ahole. He seems like a nice guy. The only time he seems to be trying to act like an ahole is during games when he's trying to get in an opponent's head. I write that off more to gamesmanship than anything else. If AJ were such an ahole I'm sure by now there would be many documented cases of blowups and incidents with teammates. But in fact it's usually all quiet on the AJ front except for the occasional anonymous gossip from unnamed sources that he's an "asshole". You don't think he's an asshole. I think he probably is. We each have our reasons. Let's just disagree.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 3, 2011 -> 04:52 PM) Anyway, if you ever hear AJ do an interview he comes off as personable and it is clear that he has above average intelligence for a professional athlete. He can articulate coherent thoughts without inserting "you knows" and "I means" between every other word. He sure doesn't come across as an "asshole." Maybe it's the one or two "sources" who allege that his teammates don't like him who have the problem and are the real "assholes". You can tell he's not an asshole because of how he interviews? Personally, when I see him do an interview, I always kind of get a "I'd rather be somewhere else" vibe from him. But that's my feeling, and it doesn't prove a damn thing, because you can't tell anything from interviews. And just because he has above average intelligence for an athlete doesn't mean anything about him being or not being an a-hole. There are plenty of smart people who are huge pricks and plenty of dumb people who are the nicest people you will ever meet.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 3, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) Wow Collaro is a name that completely faded out of my mind. Gac certainly walks more than Collaro. To be fair, I think you or I would walk more than Collaro. We might strike out less too.

QUOTE (Yoda @ May 3, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) It amazes me how some of you live and die by stats and refuse to look at the current situation and possible future. I personally do acknowledge that Dunn has amazing power and has the ability to make a lineup look completely different but right now he is not scaring anyone and teams will recognize that and make him swing the bat. Sure nobody knew his appendix would be removed so early in the season, but at least everyone should know to expect the unexpected and that’s what we’ve seen so far in the first month of baseball. Something stats won’t even tell you. I would also venture to guess that after a large enough sample size, these outliers will regress back to the mean and the most talented teams in the division will rise to the top. Depending upon certain circumstances, that could easily be the Royals and Indians. I'm still going to take my chances on the Twins and White Sox. At least Detroit is where they should be.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ May 3, 2011 -> 02:52 PM) Right, which was someone else's point, to which I was making the point that anyone would be better than Walker (the point of the thread) and that I would certainly take my chances on a good hitter with no track record vs. an average hitter with a poor track record. Regardless, you win. I would not be a better hitting coach than Greg Walker. Your point is invalid.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:52 PM) I've never actually looked at CERA in my life, so don't get the impression that I live and die by it. I just thought it'd be a way to either support or refute the idea that AJ improved pitchers. But wouldn't CERA be a good measure to distinguish between two guys on the same team? That is, unless one of them is the personal catcher to a certain pitcher or two. If you can hold everything constant, it might help distinguish who is better, but ERA itself is a flawed statistic because it can fluctuate greatly by how a ball bounces in a particular situation, so CERA is going to have those same flaws as well. And much of that still depends on the pitcher and his ability to locate and there may be a day that one particular pitcher just doesn't locate, which throws everything off again. QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ May 3, 2011 -> 01:32 PM) You're right, calling pitches and locations doesn't help the pitcher. Especially those like Buehrle who never waive-off a pitch... Well every catcher has to put his fingers down and force the pitcher to stare at his crotch. Maybe pitchers are inspired by AJ's manhood? When I think of helping pitchers, I think of getting them throwing the ball better and more consistently, adding a pitch, working on footwork. I don't think about calling pitches and locations, because every catcher has to do that. AJ may do it better than others or he may not; I don't know the game well enough to really know the difference. I assume he's pretty good at it, otherwise they wouldn't have resigned him. I wouldn't give him the lion's share of credit for the 2005 pitching staff though (I'd give most of that to luck). Nor would I blame him for the catastrophe that was 2007. Nor would I give him credit for turning John Danks into a #1 or Gavin Floyd into a #2. Nor would I blame him for guys like Mike MacDougal and Tony Pena pitching like garbage. At the end of the day, it's impossible to determine something so intangible. I have to believe the pitchers and coaches when they say that he calls a good game. I wouldn't say he adds wins to the team with his game calling, but I might be wrong. Then again, I might be right. I don't think we'll be able to determine something like that for a very long time. So to definitely say he helps pitchers? I don't think you can say that with any level of confidence.

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:44 PM) If AJ had a serious problem with Sox, he would have signed with Dodgers. They aren't saying AJ has a problem with the Sox. They are saying other members of the Sox have a problem with AJ. They're grown ups. They'll live.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:25 PM) Hasn't Castro had a lower catcher's ERA since he's been here? I just tried looking on Fangraphs, but I don't see CERA on there. Because it's a generally circumstantial and worthless statistic...my opinion of course. If you catch good pitchers, it's going to be low; if you catch bad pitchers, it's going to be high. A catcher only has so much effect on that. ESPN still has CERA (and I think it and MLB.com may be the only ones who keep track of it anymore...not even sure of MLB). Castro's CERA was 4.48. That tells me two things. 1) Freddy Garcia (probably) pitched better to Castro than he did AJ. 2) AJ had a lower CERA I do think Castro is a better option because he will atleast provide some power, but that will never happen, not with Ozzie's respect for AJ nor with AJ's contract.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ May 3, 2011 -> 09:55 AM) This is total crap ... if there was a real clubhouse issue, they would not have re-signed him. Additionally, AJ has made average starting pitchers outperform for years and we all know that at a minimum Buehrle respects him. GMAFB May I refresh everyone's memory: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3657165 AJ is the one that helps starting pitchers perform over their head? And here I thought it was Don Cooper preaching the cutter, control within the strike zone, and working within a pitcher's limitations. Who needs a hitting coach...more like, WHO NEEDS A PITCHING COACH? Seriously, I understand that AJ calls a good game, but he doesn't *make* these pitchers perform well.

QUOTE (Tuna @ May 2, 2011 -> 12:04 PM) I'm not sure why anyone can assume the Twins will be in it at the end of the year. They let their bullpen go to FA, Mauer has aids (or whatever disease that made him lose all that weight and not hit), Morneau hasn't seemed to fully recover. This year is the first in awhile that they couldn't plug in some no name jerk off that suddenly becomes a star. My argument (in my circle) to every Cub fan I know is that I've never hated the Cubs, I hate that their fans allow themselves to be exploited by inept management, follow their team like sheep and have no backbone to say "enough is enough, field a competitive team or I'm not going to pay to see the garbage you throw on the field". With that being said, if I continue to show up after JR has proven that his friendship with Ozzie and KW are more important than the good of the team, then I'm no better than the people I despise. http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-88371276646969_2155_37718325 (saw that joke on the Norm McDonald Sports Show...I laughed a lot)

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 3, 2011 -> 09:18 AM) you really think they wanted to retain Jones and Kotsay? Kotsay was a joke. I'm pretty sure that at some point during the offseason, Williams or someone connected to the Sox made mention that they wanted to retain Jones, but didn't think they'd have room in the budget for him. He signed for $2 million, and considering all of the additions they made, I'm not sure they do have room for him at that price. I also think they were planning on him signing for a bit more than that - I figured he'd be able to wrangle a $4 mill contract from someone, potentially even with an option included. There's just not a very strong market for middle aged outfielders who swing for the fences and can really only connect on those swings consistently against left handed pitching.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 3, 2011 -> 09:13 AM) If the clubhouse is such a trainwreck with the Ozzie's and AJ's why do guys keep coming back, the nice weather?.....who was the last Sox player that left that the Sox wanted to retain? JJ Putz? Andruw Jones? MARK KOTSAY? Guys keep coming back because they get paid.

Just posted this in the AJ thread, but as of June 2nd, the White Sox will have played 35 of their 57 games on the road. I think if they can be anywhere around .500 at that point in time, things will start looking up very quickly. It may also just be the optimist in me, but it seems that the schedule gets much, much easier from June 3rd and on too.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 3, 2011 -> 08:48 AM) Actually there are very few people who do not like Guillen. He is a very fun and entertaining person to be with. He is a very likable person. He is the loudmouth friend at the end of the bar that everyone has fun with. Now, his in game strategy is a totally different thing. I've always assumed that. I remember when he came on in 2004 the players were a little confused when he was swearing constantly and trying to push the players into swearing too - I remember a quote from Buehrle, something to the effect of "if we swore 3 times, we'd be in trouble, but now if we don't swear, we're in trouble." To some degree, you have to wonder if that's good or bad for the clubhouse (though I tend to think it's probably some of both, just as it will be with any manager). You want a level of comfort in your players, but being too comfortable can lead to problems within the ship itself and can see a team tailspin pretty quickly, and really, it can lead to complacency. On the other hand, being too uptight can lead to problems within the clubhouse and sometimes insubordination. Personally, this is where I think Ozzie excels. I think he gets his team as mentally prepared for each game as possible, knows when to let them remain comfortable, and knows when he needs to get the team to buckle down. You can't win them all (bet you've never heard that one before), and this team has gone through a pretty tough stretch. They've gone through similar stretches before, and .500 ball from here until the end of May gets them to the same spot that they were in last May - not that it's good, just that it's atleast some sort of common ground. And, at the end of the day on June 1st, they will have played 35 of their 57 games on the road, which also means that they will have played almost half of their road games by the 2nd of June. Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a "grass is greener" sort of post, just that Ozzie came up and I wanted to talk about him. Ozzie's a fun guy, and I'm honestly still glad he's the manager of my baseball team.

QUOTE (since56 @ May 3, 2011 -> 07:49 AM) Sale came from a small college. Had success and immediately went to the majors. He confused hitters who only got to see him once for 1/3 of a season. I think he needs some time in the minors to become a professional pitcher. Thornton? Use him in non pressure situations and get him back to where he has had success. Setting up. It is too early to call this season lost but not too early to be concerned about falling any further behind. Time to start creeping to 5 or so games back by the end of this month. Small college or not, Chris Sale has ridiculous stuff. He's going to have success for a long time. He's not some junkballer like Ehren Wasserman or Shingo Takatsu or John Ely that came up and dominated their first time through and then they started struggling. He is seriously just having troubles with his command. Outside of last night, he had been pitching much, much better lately. I think that will continue, as opposed to him being mediocre. Oh, and Thornton is in the same boat. Pitching better, still just struggling a bit with his command. He'll be fine too.

I've finally realized how stupid it is to give teams draft grades. Mel Kiper says the Seahawks draft sucked, but they got 2 offensive lineman with their top 2 picks, went defense (or special teams) with 6 of their next 7, and then brought in a receiver to a group that is collectively pretty untalented. They'll do more in free agency when it rolls around too, but I don't see a lot wrong with that. Then they talk about the Raiders too and how they overdrafted a few players. I understand that you want to maximize the value of your choices while getting the players you want, but isn't the most important part of that formula getting the players you want? Oh yeah, they also went 8-8 and lost games by scores of 24-23, 31-24, 17-9, 38-31, and 31-26. People make fun of them for drafting track stars, but it looks like it's sort of panning out. There are teams that you see where you are just like "they seriously didn't do anything they needed," especially when it regards a general area rather than something specific (like a team has older linebackers and they're thin anyways and they completely ignore it...that's stupid). I don't mind it as much when a team passes on a QB too when they have a pretty big need there, like the Dolphins or Bills, especially when they have a suitable option and they didn't find the guy they had in mind at that spot. That's a pretty important position and if you mess it up, it is almost assuredly going to cost you your job as a coach. Why would you draft someone you weren't comfortable drafting? It just bugs me that these analysts say "OH THEY DRAFTED THAT GUY 10 PICKS EARLIER THAN HE SHOULD HAVE" (exaggerating, but barely) when really it's a bit of crapshoot too. So many teams were chastised last year for passing on Jimmy Clausen, but those teams look pretty smart now, don't they? Teams were dumb for passing on Matt Leinart too. Teams were smart for passing on Chris Johnson and Jamaal Charles, but really, neither may be nearly as good in a different system. That's the main point that bugs me - these guys (generally) look at all of these players and teams in a vacuum and don't consider their actual preferences. This isn't a video game though, and you can't just plug and play these players and everything works out fine. Some will fit better in specific schemes than they will others, and that covers more than just a QB running an offense or a linebacker in a particular defense. Three different teams had Big Mike Williams and nobody got anything out of him, and then his old coach Pete Carroll comes in and he has a pretty damn good season. How about that? Everything I've read about Stefen Wisniewski suggests that he is a mauling run blocker. The Raiders were thin on their offensive line, the focus of their offense is going to be to running the ball, and they used their top pick on someone to help them out specifically in that area. That seems smart, even if they did "draft him a round or two too early," doesn't it?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 3, 2011 -> 01:06 AM) Jerry Owens? Were you describing two guys there or just one? There is just the one fast black guy that played WR at UCLA that also played for the White Sox, and that would be the one and only Jerry Owens. He transferred to The Masters College to focus on baseball, as I recall.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:42 AM) Thomas Collaro is a mongoloid and an a$$hole, I doubt Ian Gac is that bad. Ha, I'm sure he's a much better person. If it makes anybody feel better, Tom Collaro finished 7th in the Golden Baseball League in home runs last year. Of course, Julio Ramirez and Larry Bigbie were stars - Ramirez put up a .322/.411/.576/.987 line with 18 homers, and Bigbie put up .403/.500/.732/1.232 with 16 homers. Fun tidbits.

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:30 AM) Danks' FB is down 0.3mph Floyd's is down 1.8mph Buehrle's is down 0.5mph Santos is down 1.2mph Ohman is down 0.7mph Jackson is down 0.8mph Crain is down 0.9mph Notice a trend? Fastball velocities are almost always down at the start of the season. That's not the problem. Floyd's is down the furthest, but I think his stuff has the highest fluctuation. I seem to recall a start or two last year where he ended up topping out at around 96 too. As the season goes on, pitchers' arms get in better shape and they start throwing harder. Oh, and you will find similar trends to that all around baseball. I can pretty much guarantee it.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 2, 2011 -> 11:51 PM) I know he is not a prospect, but you should still reward players for great play. And like I said, if they are't planning on promoting him, I hope they are just going to let him dominate the lower levels and then trade him somewhere where he can get a chance. Well nobody would trade for him where he would get a chance. He'd be granted minor league free agency. He's Tom Collaro. He doesn't walk and he strikes out a bunch. If he ever gets to AAA, he's probably a .200/.250/.350 kind of player.

Honestly, there is a part of me that is upset that people died. To put it quite bluntly, the thought of people dying sucks. I'm not happy Osama bin Laden is dead. In all actuality, I don't care about that. Instead, I am happy that the force that caused the most horrific attack in the history of the United States has been eliminated. It sucks that he had to be killed, but I don't think any sort of means was going to be moral or just; I don't think it matters. In this instance, the end justifies the means.

You think the Tigers are concerned about Max Scherzer's velocity? His fastball is down a full mile an hour, his slider down four miles an hour, and his changeup down 2. Velocity, especially this early in the season (and yes, a month into the season is early, though not enough to worry about a 9.5 game deficit nor the factors surrounding it). That will come up as pitchers continue to get stronger and stronger.