witesoxfan

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Nov 1, 2010 -> 08:56 PM) It's not about the best team. It's who is hottest at the moment and how they match up. That happens in the NHL, NFL, NBA. Not nearly as much though. I don't think there is any question that the two best teams were in the Superbowl last season, considering they started out like 13-0 and 14-0. I think basketball is the absolute best example of the best team winning it, because it is such a superstar driven league, and the team that has that superstar player with a good supporting cast almost always wins it. I don't follow the NHL nearly as much, but I do know that if you get a goalie who starts playing well at the right time, he can carry you a long way as well, so that, along with the limited scoring, is probably the closest example to baseball as there is...but those teams still have to win 16 games (and can play as many as 28) to win. That just isn't present in baseball.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 1, 2010 -> 08:35 PM) I said "no", but there aren't many good options out there. Astros Braves Cubs Rays Giants Indians Rangers Tigers White Sox Pena, Huff, Berkman, Dunn, Lee, LaRoche, Branyan, and Overbay are all solid, if unspectacular options, and that's not include Nick Johnson either. Beyond that, the Sox could easily go with Quentin or Viciedo at 1B. I don't think the Sox will bring Konerko back. As much as he's done for the organization, I just don't see how the Sox will be able to afford him, nor do I think they should commit $10+ mill annually, even if just for 2-3 years, on a mid 30s 1B who, prior to this past season, had put up like 3 straight seasons of ~.850 OPS seasons (good, but not spectacular by any stretch).

Viciedo seems to be the type of guy who swings at the first good pitch he sees, which is where the thought of him having good at bats and appearing to see a lot of pitches comes into effect (and I believe that to be true too). The problem with that general concept is that, eventually, pitchers will figure this out and they will start throwing him pitches that look good to hit but really are not, and the easiest way to do that is for righties to throw breaking balls down and away and for lefties to throw breaking balls down and in.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 1, 2010 -> 01:26 PM) I think Ozzie will manage another WS team I don't believe it will be in Chicago Some team will need some fire for a great, but underachieving team. They will hire Ozzie He'll get them over the hump. Think Doug Collins to Phil Jackson but in reverse. Bevington has no mlb value, he is managing in an Independent Leage Jerry Manuel is still out of baseball, again that is no mlb value Ozzie, since a team wants to keep him and another team wants to talk to him, has value. Jerry Manuel just got fired from the Mets, and really it was no fault of his own that the Mets were a mediocre team this year.

Not quite there yet, but it's close enough. Anyways, this bugged me. This is Rotoworld's entry on Casey Kelly... Red Sox pitching prospect Casey Kelly finished with a 6.75 ERA over four starts in the Arizona Fall League. Kelly actually pitched pretty well in three of his four outings, but he was torched for eight runs in a fluky two-inning start last Monday. The 21-year-old righty averaged a stellar 7.7 K/9 over 21 appearances this year at Double-A Portland and remains a top pitching prospect. With a little polishing, he should be a high-impact big league starter for a long time. Since when is a 7.7 K/9 stellar? I understand that he was a 20 year old in AA this year, so in that regard it is impressive, but overall a 7.7 K/9 is not that great, and in fact is just slightly above the league average there (7.3). His ERA was also 5.31...again, more understandable because he was a 20 year old...which is well above the league ERA of 4.21. And all of those 21 appearances was a start, and he threw 95 innings this year, which means he averaged less than 5 innings a start, after throwing 95 innings in 4 fewer starts last year. He also focused exclusively on pitching this year too, so you would think that he would have increased his work total, not decreased.

What I've realized really sucks about baseball is that the only way to determine who is truly the best team each year would be to have, like, best of 11 or best of 13 series for the playoffs (and honestly, that's probably not enough either, but it would be a better representation than a best of 7), and holy hell would that be drawn out and boring by the end. The ultimate goal at the end of the year is to win a World Series, but when so much of it depends on it you are hot at the right time or not and not the overall talent level on your team, it's ultimately hard to base whether a team is successful solely on them winning a World Series. That is why White Sox fans envy the Twins. People can suggest that the White Sox are better because they have a World Series trophy and the Twins do not - and it's true and it's still awesome - but a World Series title is perhaps the least meaningful championship in all of professional sports. The Twins are constantly in the playoffs, and as a result are constantly bringing in additional revenue to their franchise.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 1, 2010 -> 12:12 AM) I just read a feature in ESPN the Mag saying Brett Gardner was ordered to never swing til he had a strike on him in the minors. Said it helped his development greatly. If Tank doesn't fix his plate discipline, he's never going to have a good OB percentage or batting average. Do we all agree on that? It will need to improve, but, in theory, if he hits .320 with good power, teams will pitch around him, and he will draw more walks as a result and he will walk more without ever actually having improved his plate discipline.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 11:32 PM) Don't you guys who want to run Oz out of town at least agree he's very very very likeable?? If you don't mind crude or offensive behavior, then sure.

I'm pretty tired of Favre in general and I think he's stayed in the league about 1 year too long, but it is still pretty incredible that he went out there today and I'm sure will go out there next week too. I'm not sure that there would be any other QBs doing that.

Ozzie Guillen had enough hitting ability to play at SS and he never had an OPS+ higher than 85.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 11:01 PM) I understand we differ big time on this, but how can you watch TV the past couple nights and not love Ozzie Guillen? You guys say he gets outmanaged every game? I beg to differ. Nobody but Bevington gets outmanaged. Managers all make the same moves. They play the lefty/righty crap; they bunt sometimes, sometimes they don't. Unless you win it all or at least win the AL, you are a bum. Somebody on here was calling Ron Washington a clown. Players win games. Again, unless they are clueless morons like Bevington. So I go with intangibles. Ozzie is a funny motherf***er. How can you not love this guy and want him to be our manager for a long time to come? He's already proven he can hit lightning in a bottle and win it all. Sports should be fun; he is fun. I guess I'm different from some who just want to be miserable even in victory. A lot of fans on here were even ripping Ozzer-roo on games we won this season. Ozzie won 88 games with that horrific offensive team and bullpen that doesn't believe in pitching well after the all star break. My god. (I do realize he wanted some of those awful offensive players; I never said he was a good GM). Just to clear it up, the White Sox offense was actually decent. The league average for runs scored was 721, and the White Sox scored 752. It's not a huge difference, but it was a better than average offense.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 01:39 PM) That seems to me more like the dog is reacting to you, rather than being proactive and actually doing something about it. touche

QUOTE (Brian @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 04:01 PM) Good as time as any for his first time, don't ya think? No, I really don't want to see how a pitcher performs on short rest when he hasn't done it in his entire career in the World Series. Some guys handle it really well, and others get the s*** knocked out of them. Washington would look really dumb if he started Lee in game 4, Lee bombs, and then you're down 3-1 with either CJ Wilson on 3 days rest or Tommy Hunter. Washington is making the right call here. If it gets to a game 7, you can use Lee out of the bullpen.

QUOTE (mcgrad70 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 06:53 PM) I wish to heck sox fans would stop this nonsense about payroll. The White Sox owners are not poor. They just believe in pocketing profits rather than reinvesting them. A successful season for them is staying competitive until the Bears start dominating the news in late summer. You've never explained yourself with actual facts as to why you hate management so much. Instead, you've held onto this pre-2005 philosophy that management doesn't spend money to help the team, nor do they really spend money at all. Why? QUOTE (mcgrad70 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 07:01 PM) The way they played, I don't have to see them again for a long time. Yeah, 88 wins is chopped liver. GMAFB

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Oct 31, 2010 -> 01:58 AM) So by that logic, no team that ever wants someone mistakenly thinks they are worth more than what they will give up? So anyone wanting someone and thinking they are good or worth something valuable is never wrong? That basically equates to thinking there's no such thing as a bad trade. Yeah, someone try telling me any of that is true. You have a banana. Norberto has pudding. You generally prefer pudding to bananas. Norberto prefers bananas to pudding. You trade your banana for Norberto's pudding. You believe you have improved yourself through this trade, and Norberto believes the same. You do not know if you have improved yourself - hence, the reasoning behind a trade. You see that the pudding is tapioca, and nobody likes tapioca pudding, not even people who claim to like it. Why would a team make a trade that they believed they lost the second they made it? When you go shopping, would you buy spoiled bread that is expensive or non-spoiled bread that is cheap? Obviously, the non-spoiled bread, because you believe it will improve yourself. Turns out that mold on the bread was penicillin, you have a major respiratory infection, and the cheap bread you bought actually contains a meningitis bacteria, and you lose the ability to lose your legs due to the ingestion of that bread. Initially, you believed you had made a good trade of money for product, but instead you made a poor one and did not know it. How is this hard to understand? --- Are you just trying to justify a point that you know was wrong and now you don't want to admit a mistake? No matter your feelings about Ozzie Guillen, if the Marlins tried to trade for him, then he has value. If Ozzie Guillen were viewed as a mediocre or bad manager around the game, such as Ned Yost, the Marlins would not ask to talk to him. Is that hard to understand? --- I am not arguing whether he is a good manager or not - I believe he is a terrible in-game manager who gets outmanaged about 75% of the time and that his non-game skills have eroded due to family issues - but instead about his value. If the Marlins asked to talk to him about their manager position, then, according to the precedent set, he is a well respected manager. They would not ask to talk to him if they believed he was a bad manager. Is that really that hard to understand?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 07:44 PM) There's a kicker for Buehrle if he gets traded, so it would be about $15 million next season, plus Quentin will be around $5 million and Rasmus will make peanuts. No way that deal gets done. If Buehrle is traded anywhere, it's either going to be a contract for contract type situation (where the Sox will be able to shed anywhere from $5-10 mill) or it's going to be for peanuts. He's also a 10-5 player, so he's not going anywhere he doesn't want to go. I think the Sox float Buehrle's name around this offseason, but I don't think anything gets done. QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 10:22 PM) Rasmus to the Sox has been out there on this board for weeks. I wrote it before and I stand by it. Any serious deal of Rasmus to the Sox starts with John Danks to St. Louis. Why would the Cardinals want to add a $7 million starting pitcher when Dave Duncan has turned around about a zillion pitchers, give or take a gillion, they have 3 very good starters in Carpenter, Wainwright, and Garcia, and they still owe Kyle Lohse a boatload of money? I'm sure the Cardinals exact plans are to sink more money into their starting rotation while trading a very talented and semi-proven outfielder who is still going to be ridiculously cheap next year. Teams that will have a strong interest to acquire John Danks will be teams who need starting pitching. The Cincinnati Reds could be a perfect fit.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 10:12 AM) Does he admit to it though if the pictures don't leak? Do you honestly believe it was a one-time deal? Hamilton hit .268/.315/.426/.741 last year, and missed almost half of the Rangers games. Perhaps the entire organization - from the teammates, coaches, manager, trainers, janitors...ANYBODY - found out about it and stepped up and did something about it before the pictures even made it to the public.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 07:02 PM) I think that you're right to an extent, but I was refering to the X's & O's of baseball. Handling someone's mentalality and emotions requires a little bit of intelligence, beyond baseball, IMHO. Yes, a dog may be able to discern when your happy or sad, but probably wouldn't know what to do about it. I don't know Ozzie, he just doesn't appear to be all that dumb to me. My dog runs around and is generally excited when I am happy. My dog whimpers and comes to console me when I am sad. My dog goes to his kennel when I am angry. They know exactly what to do about it.

That is the first World Series game won by a team in the state of Texas...they are now 1-6 in World Series action.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 02:33 PM) Yet when I suggested 2nd tier free agents to improve the White Sox offense instead of trading John Danks, you ripped me for the thought. Because the Giants offense is bad.

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 02:09 PM) I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here. I'm not necessarily saying it makes him look bad per se, but considering everything that happened this year and how much in the hot seat Ozzie was, from a different perspective this could look embarrassing. I don't think you can agree to disagree. That is like agreeing to disagree that you need to stop at red lights. Seriously, the only precedent available for managers and coaches being traded is that the acquiring team is under the impression that said coach is pretty damn good. Bad coaches are easy to fire and hire and teams don't want to trade for managers they believe will be fired soon or are poor. They will trade for managers that they believe will take them to the next level.

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 10:48 AM) I wouldn't be against checking into Berkman as a DH platoon partner for Quentin, if the price is right of course. I'm not about to spend $5.5 million on Carlos Quentin to have him face lefties when, in fact, he hits lefties worse than he does righties.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 12:54 PM) If you'll note...we were substantially ahead of the Cardinals coming in this year. And then the White Sox minor league system had a pretty terrible all around year. Morel was one of the few players who had a really good season, and he's a guy who could fit in really well with St. Louis; I think trading Morel would be a huge mistake for this team.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 12:31 PM) Unless things remarkably changed this season...BA had the Cardinals ranked as the 29th out of 30 systems coming into this season. Basically, the Cardinals system makes the Sox's system look solid. Or the Cardinals system is the same as the White Sox system, and they're both s***.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Oct 30, 2010 -> 11:59 AM) I think that has a LOT to do with protection. Paulie has batted in front of some good players. I can't think of one good batter Dunn has batted in front of. I'm also not much of a Reds/Nats expert. Over the past two seasons, he's batted in front of Josh Willingham most of the time. Willingham isn't exactly a slouch, but he is right handed, which is a large factor in this. Hitting left handed works to Dunn's advantage.