witesoxfan

Holy Jesus, the Bills did something right.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Oct 4, 2010 -> 02:04 PM) I can't figure out what the organization sees in Pena either? That he atleast averages 94 with his fastball as opposed to the 87-90 MPH stuff Torres throws up there? And that they traded Brandon Allen for him instead of nobody and they want to atleast attempt to get a decent return on their investment, even if it's killed them up to this point?

I quote Rounders quite a bit too.

I really don't care. I just want to see good playoff baseball. A 7 game series at some point would be nice too.

Mark Reynolds did it too.

Liriano

Arian Foster is so good.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 25, 2010 -> 10:41 PM) 1. The Reds win the NL Central. 2. The Rays win the AL East. 3. Boston fails to make the playoffs. 4. The Rangers win the AL West. 5. The Giants take the NL West. Andruw Jones wins come back player of the year. Rios has a 25/25 season. Juan Pierre posts an OBP above .350. Matt Thronton leads the team in saves with 32. Jake Peavy wins 20 games. Pretty much spot on with everything. QUOTE (SoxAce @ Mar 25, 2010 -> 11:41 PM) Diamondbacks will win the WC (dark horse/Reds surprise but fall just short) Mariners will win the AL West. White Sox will win the central when KW trades for a bat by the deadline Royals will finish higher than the Indians this year. Rockies will win the NL West. Diamondbacks win the W.S. in an upset. Teahen will explode (.850+ OPS) I will not hate Juan Pierre as much as I expect. Tony Pena becomes our new 8th inning guy with Thornton. Dan Hudson (who we won't trade) will take over the 5th spot over Freddy by mid-season (either by Freddy sucking or injury) Completely wrong with absolutely everything

How'd we do?

I am not disappointed in how the Sox performed, because I don't think anybody here could have expected 88 wins from this team in March, but it would have been nice to beat the Twins 2-3 more times.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Oct 3, 2010 -> 11:31 AM) You can't use a counting stat for Bautista because before this year, he had exactly one full season in the majors. So don't look at it like, "he never hit X number of home runs before", because he didn't really have the same chance as an everyday player. I looked at ISO, a rate stat, which implied the power has always been there (around .180 before this season for all professional ball). Another reason we should not be surprised by a late breakout is that Bautista's development path was f***ed up by the rule 5 draft. First promotion to the bigs came with no experience above high A ball. He spent 2004 with four different big league clubs getting 88 ABs. That kind of inconsistency at age 23 season will tend to throw a wrench in your career trajectory. And we should stop putting Bautista's size into the discussion as an argument. The biggest factor which a hitter has control over in the resulting distance of a hit is bat speed. Yes, larger/stronger guys can swing heavier bats which results in more momentum, but a guy like Bautista may be able to generate more bat speed with a lighter bat to hit for distance just the same. A good indication of bat speed is how well a player hits fastballs. Looking at pitch type values against fastballs on Fangraphs, only four players rank ahead of Bautista. The guy at the top of the list is Konerko, who we know has tremendous bat speed and is nearly impossible to throw a fastball by. Number two is Hamilton, and since I live in Texas and watch several Rangers games can say definitely have above average bat speed Hamilton might have the quickest bat in the league. It seems like the ball is on his hands before he even loads up, but he gets the bat through the zone every time.

Is this the first video game Jordan has ever appeared in?

Living 500 miles away, I'm obviously not going to be able to make the last game this year, nor probably any next year. BUT, I would strongly suggest making a Facebook fan page.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 2, 2010 -> 11:59 PM) I am the biggest Choo fan, but people on this board need to realize that Cleveland is not that stupid. Considering Sizemore's injuries, he is their most important franchise position player, even at his age with his military commitments. The Indians WILL NOT trade him for anything not including Beckham. Seriously. Choo is a top 25 player in the game right now. And if Cleveland did decide to deal him, they'd shop him around and do whatever they could to deal him outside the division. They could get a massive haul from another organization that is most certainly not the White Sox.

QUOTE (beautox @ Oct 3, 2010 -> 03:47 AM) Going into next season im looking forward to the white sox defense, between morel, ramirez and beckham it could be very exciting. If the sox decide Viciedo is going to man 1B, i think he could be above average there as well. I think Viciedo is going to be far worse defensively at 1B than Konerko. UZR doesn't do Konerko justice.

I know you guys don't care about D1-AA, but USD beat UND for like the first time in 5 years (I'm about 99% sure it's the first time they beat them since I've been here), and it's more awesome because it's homecoming week. Dante Warren is a beast. I haven't seen him play, but judging by the numbers, I think he could've played D1-A.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 3, 2010 -> 12:10 AM) I get what you are saying but Ryan Howard was a 25 year old who hit 22 homers in half a season, then hit 58 the next full season, while Bautista never hit 20 before this year at the age of 29. Not to mention that Bautista is 4 inches & 60 pounds smaller than Howard. Hank Aaron - 6'0 180 Jose Bautista - 6'0 195 ...even better... Manny Ramirez - 6'0 200 Mark Kotsay - 6'0 210 Height and weight really mean very little, because if a guy is a good hitter, he's a good hitter, and if he's not, he's not. This is not football where you have to be 300 pounds to play a certain position. Beyond that, Jose Bautista's season is very possible. I really don't think you are going to say that Davey Johnson was on steroids, considering he has been one of US baseball's biggest ambassadors throughout the times, and he hit 43 homers a year after he hit 5 and never hitting more than 18 in any other season. Seasons like this can and will occur, and have occurred before. I think it is very wrong to assume that Jose Bautista has used steroids or HGH. There has been no indication of body change, there has been a definite change in his hitting mechanics, there is a definite statistical outlier within his numbers that can be explained by randomness (and through regression will almost certainly even itself out), and there have been developments before him that are similar to his. People really haven't considered that it's a possibility that Bautista may have been better before but all of the pitchers were on steroids and were outperforming him due to an unfair advantage. It's very easy to throw accusations around at one individual, but when there are several indicators that he is probably clean, then I am going to assume he's clean.

QUOTE (Jeremy @ Oct 3, 2010 -> 12:59 AM) He's pretty much *always* thrown strikes. His BB/9 was 2.3 heading into this season and then he walked fewer than three batters per nine innings in Charlotte this year. Hawk drove me nuts when Hudson pitched by - as he typically does with young pitchers - disregarding Hudson's minor league track record and assuming he had problems with control and/or challenging hitters because he was walking guys at the major league level. Yeah, his control was abominable on the whole in his three starts with the Sox but the sample size was minuscule. In the long run, you've got to imagine a pitcher will come close to replicating the style - if not the success - he demonstrated in the minors. It would be pretty silly to assume Hudson would walk a lot of guys based solely on those three starts in light of his performance in the minors. Aside from the theory that the Sox base everything on their scouting - which is inevitably often wrong - I don't have much of an explanation for why the team made this trade but I sure hope those three starts for the big league club were taken with the appropriate grain of salt. I agree with absolutely everything except the bolded. I think their scouting has proven to be more right than wrong, and I think Gavin Floyd is by far the best example of that. Other than that, I agree fully, and the trade did not make sense from a baseball or financial point of view.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 08:58 PM) That's the thing. I can see the change in his swing making him go from 17 homers to 30-35. But from 17 to 54 at the age of 29? Really? If you look at the list of 50 home run guys, they are either obvious roiders and just huge guys like the Fielders, Thome, Howard. Bautista is 6-0, 195, which is not too big. He had to have been luckier than almost any other hitter in history. Maybe he is 100% clean, but considering the era we are in, I just have such a hard time believing it. A lot of it is fluky stuff, like his 22% HR/FB, but really, it's not out the question for any good power hitter to jack 50 in a random year. Ryan Howard is typically a 40 homer guy, but when he won the MVP, he hit 58...that's a monstrosity of a jump in itself, so yes, it is definitely possible to go from a 15 homer, mediocre hitter to a 50 homer, great hitter season just like that.

Houston, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 04:27 PM) If you put Teahen in RF and Quentin at DH, then where will the actual offensive upgrades come from? Not a lot of spots in the lineup still open. How many runs will you have saved not having two of the worst fielders at their respective positions in the game at the same spots again? Think of how many runs Quentin and Teahen have cost the Sox playing RF and 3B respectively. It's not a sexy option, but with the resources the White Sox have handicapped themselves with, it's not the worst decision in the world.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 07:34 AM) Carl. Crawford. Will. Be. A. Yankee. Really? Cuz their outfield of Gardner-Granderson-Swisher is already pretty good. I am thinking more along the lines of Angels, Red Sox, or perhaps even a different sleeper team. I'm not sure I really see the Yankees interested. Of course, if they did sign him and then subsequently made Brett Gardner available, the Sox should be on the phone with Cashman immediately.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 12:58 PM) I'd like to be the one responding the way you are...but my brain just can't be convinced that completely unexpected 50 HR seasons are clean yet. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 01:37 PM) I'm with you on that. After what I have seen the last 20 years and knowing that there is still stuff out there that MLB won't detect in drug testing, I just can't believe that fixing a sudden hole in his swing can add that much power. I wish I could believe it, but the McGwires, Bret Boones, Clemens & Co. make it impossible for me right now. I feel bad for you then. I wouldn't be able to watch baseball if I assumed everyone were still on steroids, or that every single big, freak of nature season were due to PEDs. FanGraphs had an article about Bautista today and they mention that he is hitting breaking balls better this year (along with his continual murdering of fastballs). Personally, I like to believe that a talented player can make a mechanical adjustment and be able to judge breaking balls better and have that contribute to his success rather than immediately pointing towards steroids.

I'm actually really looking forward to the next roast, because I could see them tearing into Greg Giraldo, and he would have loved that.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Oct 1, 2010 -> 12:37 AM) Whatever pharmacist Jose Bautista hired, I hope he's being compensated very well for his efforts (as long as he doesn't get caught). I don't think it has anything to do with steroids. I think he just genuinely made a correction in his swing mechanics and he's been hitting the ball with a ton of power. On top of that, his confidence is through the roof, and that has to help his psyche at the plate.