witesoxfan

You absolutely give Beckham through the break. Maybe he doesn't make an out, hits like 12 homers, and gets a nod on the All-Star team. YOU NEVER KNOW

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:43 PM) Case closed, your honor. Wait, there's a judge? I wasn't sworn in!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:39 PM) What were the Sox's chances of winning after Jenks gave up the tying run? After he gave it up, they were 54% (-34% wPa from 88%). After he got the final out in the top of the 9th, they went up to 65% (+11% wPa). Uribe's out was a -6% wPa, so it was down to 59%, and Podsednik's sealed the game and his wPa was 41%.

Dye was "mocked" because he sucked. Podsednik was "mocked" because he's just not a very good baseball player to begin with. If Konerko flops in the second half and he performs terribly in the second half and it's a big reason why the Sox finish in 3rd place, then he will be "mocked" too. It's not as if we don't appreciate them, but we just don't live in the past.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:27 PM) The guys's home run was one of the top moments in Chicago sports history ... period. The guy should have a lifetime pass from fans in Chicago. Case closed. When you say Pods, you should think of one of the greatest moments in Sox history. One of the best days of your sports life. If you are "critical" of him my opinion is you should feel ashamed. That's my take. Paul Konerko's grand slam had more to do with the White Sox winning that game than Scott Podsednik's home run. In fact, Paul Konerko's home run increased the White Sox chances of winning that game by 58%. They had a 28% chance to win that game before Konerko came up to home plate, and they had an 86% chance to win it after he crossed home plate. Now, why doesn't Konerko get a lifetime pass, but Podsednik does? Because Podsednik is cuter?

QUOTE (greg775misquoted @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:24 PM) Yes but we Bears fans are so much better than Sox fans. We don't care about greats like Podsednik. That was ONE YEAR! One World Series by god. We Bears fans ... we demand to win it every year! Yeah let's see how many we'll have won when we are on our deathbeds. It's not easy, folks. Bears will be lucky to win two more Superbowls in your lifetime. One probably will be more like it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) What did you do when Pods hit the home run? Don't you feel a little dirty five years later bagging on him after enjoying that moment so much? This is one of the things wrong with today's world by the way. Past performance means nothing anywhere. He gets picked off a few times in a meaningless season ... he's a bum. You have a bad week at your job nowadays. Some team meeting will throw you out on your butt. Pods rocks! I punched a hole in my TV when Podsednik hit the home run. I sat there and I screamed "I wanted the White Sox to win but not because of Scott Podsednik!" Then I soiled myself, and laid down in the fetal position and bawled.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) Do you remember the home run?? How big it was?? Anybody who cheered that home run and slugged shots and drinks after that home run and kissed hot stranger girls in the bars after the home run has no right to say a negative word about Pods. My god. Cub fans are still talking about how great those 69 Cubs were and they choked and didn't win squat that year. Pods rocks. Oh I forgot Pods got picked off a few times in a season where the team wasn't going to win anything significant anyway. Pods gets the last laugh: He has the hottest wife and has money to burn. Of course we remember the homer greg. But you can't hang your hat on that forever. Geoff Blum hit what was arguably a bigger home run, and I have absolutely no attachment to him whatsoever. He is nothing. And Pods can laugh all he wants to, because he is, once again, on a team that is destined to do absolutely nothing. The Sox atleast have a shot in hell at winning something this year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 01:57 PM) There is Pods hate. People were mocking him for ending the game with a K despite the fact he drove in 2 of KC's three runs. I still don't understand whipping boy status of guys like Pods who has provided one of the greatest individual memories in the history of Chicago sports. Just baffles me. Maybe it is the hot wife theory. I know he'd have a statue built of him if he was a Cub for what he did in the WS. Greg, that was 5 years ago. Let it go man.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) Heh, I've never said that Randy Williams is the worst reliever in Sox history, just that he's one of the worst I've ever seen, is among the leaders in baserunners allowed all time given the number of innings he's thrown and the worst reliever in baseball with at least 24+ IP (though Chad Qualls may have passed him given that he's a f***ing closer with equally outrageous numbers). Oh and I haven't evoked the name of Cliff Politte in years, I really have no idea which was worse, I haven't thought about it at all. SO I'M RIGHT

It's scary how bad the Astros are. 3rd oldest team in the league, the worst OPS in the league (.636...next closest is Seattle at .656), and, due to playing in a ballpark that is actually league average offensively, the worst OPS+ by far at 72. In 2007, we all foresaw both the White Sox and Astros falling off simply because they had older rosters, relatively immovable contracts, and no minor league depth with what to speak, and it was sad because both franchises had just been to the World Series 2 years before that. Since then, the Sox have atleast added a bit of youth and talent to the team...the Astros tried to patch holes by bringing in guys like Kaz Matsui and Pedro Feliz. That is an absolutely dreadful team, and somehow, Ed Wade managed to wriggle a contract extension out of the whole deal.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 12:00 PM) We keep saying that about the Twins almost every year and they seem to keep it up throughout the season. That's kind of what they've done this year. .272/.347/.417/.764 (OBP is tied for 3rd, OPS is 6th in the majors), and they're 11th in runs scored. They should certainly be higher than they are.

This is probably the biggest test of the season for the Sox. If they beat Greinke, they can atleast begin to show that their domination of the NL wasn't a fluke, they win their first series back against the AL on the road, and it absolutely adds to the confidence of the team. I actually have quite a bit of faith that they'll pull off the win, but that's mostly because I think they'll scratch a couple runs across the board and Peavy will continue to be awesome. It's also about time Pierre goes on one of his little 15 game stretches of adequacy. .222/.309/.264/.573 in his last 19 games (18 starts).

The Rangers also can't add any real money to their payroll, so unless they can unload a contract or two, they actually have to give up more so that any team dealing a player will eat the rest of the salary. They obviously have a much better system than the Sox, so they could afford to do this more, per se, but it's worth noting. They also have Smoak on the big league club and Chris Davis in the minors, so I think they'd be less apt to make a move for a 1Bman. The Angels also seem pretty content with letting Napoli play 1B with Mathis catching, so that may take them out of the bidding a bit. In fact, I'd say they're a bigger threat to add LaRoche than Dunn, simply because they're still scoring runs even with a generally weak offensive team, so they may not feel that a big addition is necessary. Fun stat of the day...Angels slash line is .259/.323/.410/.733 and are 6th in the majors in runs scored. Sox slash line is .249/.323/.402/.725 and are 20th in the majors in runs scored.

Seriously, the Nats are asking the moon for Dunn, and the Sox don't have the pieces to acquire him. The best thing you can do at this point is to make a smaller addition or two and to tell the Nats to pound sand.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 10:40 AM) Why cant Lebron go to Miami? I thought if the Heat found a way to shed more salary (ie trading Beasley) they would have room for all 3. Not that I know a ton about the NBA, but it seems as though Bosh is signing his Bird's right max contract in Toronto, thus making it more expensive. Miami will also then sign Wade to the same type of contract, and there will not be room for a 3rd max contract for LeBron.

Peavy is 2-0 with a 2.35 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP against the Royals in 2 starts this year. He can keep doing that.

According to Dan Le Batard, Bosh was traded to Miami in a sign and trade. I haven't actually seen where Le Batard reported this, it's all through hearsay so far, and is thus unconfirmed, especially since he can't be traded till midnight.

Williams - 22 inherited runners, 13 have scored - 59% IS% Politte - 11 inherited runners, 3 scored - 27% IS% If you add Williams' 13 that were inherited to his total runs and earn runs scored, it jumps to 29 runs and 27 runs respectively allowed in 25 innings. With Politte, his jumps to 33 and 32 respectively... thus, Williams' IS+RS average is 10.44, and his IS+ER average is 9.72 Politte's IS+RS average is 9.90 and his IS+ER average is 9.6 Kalapse may argue that Williams is worse, because it is a relievers job to get out of a jam because Politte still did a better job of it than Williams. I'd argue that he received half of the inherited runners that Williams did, and thus, with his peripherals, he would have been far more likely to allow more than 3 runners to score on his next 11 inherited. I'd also say that, independently, Politte was a far worse reliever than Williams, simply due to the tendency of Politte to come into a bases empty situation and allow runs to score, whereas with Williams, it's far more likely for him to come in with runners already on base and then allow them to score. In the end, we'd be arguing a relatively moot point. The fact of the matter is, the White Sox have had two of the worst relievers in probably the past 25 or so years within 5 years of each other. That is sad. However, only one of these guys was actually given his job in the bullpen, rather than earned. Williams had no business being on this roster to begin with, which makes his statistics all the more tragic. quick edit: Politte's WPA in 2006 was -1. Williams's WPA this year is -0.5. This has a bit to do with Politte pitching later in close games, opposed to Williams pitching earlier in blowouts, but that could really be all the more reason Politte is worse. Man, B-R has gotten completely f***ing awesome in the past year or two.

Randy Williams 2010 - 60 base runners, 57 via H&BB in 25 IP (2.28 WHIP), 0.7 HR/9 Cliff Politte 2006 - 63 baserunners, 62 via H&BB in 30 IP (2.07 WHIP), 2.7 HR/9 Atleast when Williams comes on, the base runners he allows aren't guaranteed to come home.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 09:22 AM) I agree with Balta that it could be reasonably argued that Mack's defense in CF cost us 5+ games (and thus a playoff spot) in 2006, even when you take the solid offensive year I believe he had into account (I'm just about positive his average and on base were both quite high). However, the bolded is the thing that really killed us the 2nd half of that year IMO. The offense did dropoff, and defense really hurt us, but I still think we could have ended up in the playoffs if not for our relievers dying. The '05 bullpen pixie dust picked a really bad time to run out for us. The crazy thing was that Williams actually made 3 acquisitions to help that bullpen out, and all 3 were varying levels of adequate (Riske), good (Thornton), and great (MacDougal), and it was still just terrible. Jenks blew up in July and September of that year, the league finally realized that Neal Cotts only had 1 pitch, Cliff Politte had a worse season than Randy Williams is having now, Brandon McCarthy was not a middle reliever, Boone Logan was certainly not ready to be a relief pitcher for the Sox...it was ugly all-around. In 2005, 4 White Sox starters finished with an ERA below 4.00 (and Freddy was the highest at 3.87)...in 2006, no White Sox starter had an ERA below 4.25, and Contreras was the best at 4.27 (and in his final 22 starts, he posted a 5.32 ERA). The magic had definitely worn off.

Hank Blalock blows.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 08:53 AM) Don't we usually see a separate thread in the important topics section when a prospect is called up such as Threets ? Threets is not a prospect. He's a 28 year old left handed reliever who has bounced around the minors for a good amount of time now.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 08:53 AM) Trout is tearing up A ball, low A ball at that. While it's impressive, Jeremy Reed and Brandon Allen have been impressive in the minors at higher levels. Lets hold off the superstardom tag. He's probably 2-3 years away minimum. Mitchell looked like he would be with the Sox next year until his injury. Keith Law is a piece of ****, he adored Chris Sale coming into the draft (he had him going 4th overall) and the second the Sox drafted him, he suddenly had horrible mechanics and was a horrible prospect. From all accounts, Keith Law never liked Chris Sale, but he was making mock drafts, and Chris Sale was a projected top 5 pick. Just because he is trying to portray an accurate mock draft doesn't mean he has to like a guy. Mike Trout is most definitely a legitimate prospect too. The league OPS in the Midwest League is .700...he's absolutely destroying the ball, and he's 3 years younger than the league average. You obviously want to see him do it at a higher level, but he's a monster. If his second half goes anything like his first half, I'd say there's a legitimate chance that he's in AA as a 19 year old, and with another good year there, he could see time in the majors as a 20 year old.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 08:43 AM) I'd only trade Beckham for an impact bat like Fielder or Gonzalez (back when the Padres wanted to get rid of him), and we were committed to signing said player to a 250 million dollar contract. You wouldn't have to sign Fielder or Gonzalez to a $250 million contract. If anything, they are going to get the same effective deal that Mark Teixeira, Ryan Howard, and Joe Mauer all did, which is roughly 8 years, $180 mill.