witesoxfan

You see that throw that Brett Favre just made? There are only about 40 other guys who can make that throw, Pat, and Brett is one of those guys.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 06:25 AM) Having grown up in Pittsburgh, I was a die-hard Pirates fan. At least until they decided to never compete again. Plus, their decision to do so happened around the same time as the strike. I lost interest in baseball until I moved here in 1999. I have since become a die-hard Sox fan. I still keep an eye on the Pirates, but it's so sad to see what has happened with that team. Awesome city with a great sports history and a beautiful baseball stadium puts out a minor league team every year. Very sad. Didn't they recently switch ownership? I thought I remembered that but I'm not sure. I know they have a completely different philosophy in the front office now, so hopefully things are turning around for that franchise.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 05:09 PM) half the time, prospects dont amount to what theyre expected to anyways(such as all the busts the sox have had, alex gordon,delmon young,etc). u do need young talent (such as beckham)but theyre there to be traded to help your team too. if we didnt get garcia then we dont win the w.s. and what did those 3 prospects we traded turn out to be? busts. Miguel Olivo's been a pretty decent catcher throughout his career, and Mike Morse wasn't anything more than a throw-in. Jeremy Reed has been a monumental bust though. For a guy who I once saw compared to Tony Gwynn and then later a simple Mark Kotsay type player, he has been pretty horrendous.

QUOTE (since56 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 05:19 PM) I once again question Ozzie's and KW's honesty with the fans. They said they could not guantee Thome enough at bats to interest him. Yet he signs with the Twins as a pinch hitter & part time DH. If they didn't want Thome, fine, go in another direction but why B.S. us? The Sox don't think he can be effective with limited plate appearances, and they don't want to mess up what they have. Further, I strongly doubt Thome is a part-time player in Minnesota. Unless they face a lefty, he'll be in the opening day lineup and he'll be a big part of their team.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 04:29 PM) Dude could you imagine the spectacle that would be Thursday Night Football on VersusHD when Favre and his Florida Tuskers teams visits Mike McMahon and the California Redwoods? Were talking 2001 Thanksgiving Day re-match, big time ratings. You have to figure that John Madden would come out of retirement just to announce that one game.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:45 PM) I see alot of question marks still, Im not saying they wont be decent to good, but theres a large chance (IMO) that this defense is pretty poor (youre really depending on guys improving). Thats the scary part to me, that youre depending on the pitching staff to carry you and yet your defense is suspect at a lot of positions. I see LF as a liability, RF could be bad depending on Quentin's health, Alexi may not improve (or be consistent again), Gordo could struggle a bit at 2b (i think itll take an adjustment period), Teahen could benefit from having one position or he could just be a poor 3b, and AJ and Paulie are good at some things but weak at others. I don't see LF as a liability. Pierre, in his career, has been a 6.4 UZR/150 LFer. He has makeup speed, and though I haven't seen how he reacts, it has to be atleast decently for him to put that up over 173 games. He doesn't have an arm, but an arm in LF isn't necessary (though something comparable to my arm isn't really what the doctor is looking for). The biggest two question marks are Alexei and Beckham. Alexei is entering his 2nd full season at SS and he was solid last year. Beckham exhibited range at 3B but it appeared he wasn't used to the speed of the position. I think the biggest thing with Beckham is going to be his footwork at 2B, and that is where the adjustment period could be noticed but I think he'll be absolutely fine. Having Vizquel on board should really help both of those two along with the infield defense off the bench period. I also envision Vizquel being a late inning replacement for Teahen at 3B if he proves he isn't a capable defender, and he may do that anyways even if Teahen does. Team defense is the least of my concerns.

Maybe Flowers is better than Napoli. Maybe a better comparison is Mickey Tettleton. Not that Tettleton produced right away (he didn't have a good full season till the age of 28 and wasn't a great player until he hit 30), but the numbers are very good.

I could honestly see Thome playing about 100 games this season, all against right handed pitching, and putting up an OPS of about .850, assuming the only time he sees the lineup is against right handed pitching. I also don't think people really appreciate how good Cuddyer and Kubel were last season. Cuddyer put up an .862 OPS and had 73 XBHs while Kubel put up 65 XBHs and a .907 OPS and an OPS over 1.000 against right handed pitching.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 09:29 AM) If that was the Sox rotation you would be calling for 65 wins. Its not good. Because the Sox offense is mediocre. If the Sox had the Twins offense, I'd say they had a pretty damn good team. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:18 AM) Baker has the stuff to be a legit 2 starter, although he regressed last season. Slowey is more like a Sonnanstine type who profiles as a 4/5 but pitched like a 2/3 in 2008. Blackburn is a 3/4, although he has had his moments against us and has really been their "big game" pitcher. Perkins, if he can stay healthy, has a "plus" arm. Pavano was suprisingly good for them, he could be anything from a 3-5. He pitched much much better than his ERA of around 5 would indicate because of one or two really terrible outings, the rest were basically "quality" starts. Yes, it's a far cry from Santana/Liriano/Radke/Garza, but they got the job done last year. Then you throw other names onto the list like Liriano, Manship, Swarzak, they have a lot of depth. That's at least 9 starters. We have six, unless you count Torres and Hynick as 7 and 8. Baker is a solid #2. Slowey is far superior to Sonnanstine. He has plus control and his stuff is pretty solid. I would say he is comparable to Greg Maddux towards the end of his career but not at the end of his career. Blackburn is good #3 pitcher as his 4.04 ERA over the past two years indicates. Perkins doesn't have a plus arm and he isn't that good. Pavano is a decent #4 pitcher right now and he pitched his ass off against the Tigers and Sox last year. From what I can see, they need Slowey to rebound to where he was in '08. If they get that, they need one of Duensing, Liriano, Swarzak, Manship, and whoever else to be a #5 starter. If they don't get Slowey to rebound, they need two from that group to be decent. In the end, I wouldn't say their rotation is good, but it should get the job done.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 10:18 AM) Dawson to go in to the HOF as an Expo, not a Cub. Probably cost Andre a little money for signatures, etc, but if you look at the numbers probably the right decision, but an argument can be made for the Cubs since he was an MVP for them and with WGN he was brought more fame with the Cubs. If he had to choose, he may have chosen to go in as a member of the Cubs, but the Hall of Fame chooses now.

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:28 PM) Wouldn't it be great if Favre plays his retirement game, McNabb gets traded to the Vikings, then Farve decides he wants to play again?? lol. He can play in the UFL then.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:20 PM) Except against the black hats with SOX on them. .356/.396/.538/.934 with 5 homers in about 140 plate appearances.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:15 PM) I would say the defense is just as big of a question as the offense is. And I say that because of the direct impact it has on our pitchers. I think our defense is going to be fine. Pierzynski is a middle of the pack defensive catcher, Beckham should be about average or so, I look for Ramirez to improve a bit, Rios is a plus defender in CF. That's generally all I consider when I look at a defense. If you want more, Quentin should improve but still be a negative fielder in right (he was regarded as a great defender in right coming out of college) and Pierre should have plenty of range with absolutely no arm whatsoever in LF. Konerko is, for lack of a better term, a brick wall at 1B - he doesn't move but nothing gets by him. Teahen's a wild card, but I'm expecting about average defense from him.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 09:25 AM) He'll get the bulk of them? LOL, and who is he going to sit then? Kubel? I bet Thome doesnt play more than 20 games at DH tops. In case you were unaware, Delmon Young f***ing sucks.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 03:07 PM) Now it ought to be interesting to see how quickly Johnny Damon's price falls and who calls. Boras is supposedly pushing him towards Oakland and Detroit. I have no idea where he ends up though, because Oakland is full at DH (Cust) and in the outfield (Davis-Crisp-Sweeney), and I don't know if Detroit has the money or if they'd even want to bring him in with Raburn, Jackson, Ordonez, Guillen, and Cabrera in the fold.

From what I have observed in my 10 or so years of watching and reading about baseball, teams with good pitching staffs and versatile yet bad to mediocre offenses generally overachieve their Pyth W-L, whereas teams with mediocre pitching staffs and great offenses generally underachieve their Pyth W-L. This is because those teams with good pitching staffs and versatile offenses will be able to win closer games at a much higher rate, whereas those teams with great offenses but mediocre pitching staffs will be able to come back from deficits, but will also give the opposing team runs right back. Essentially, assuming that Quentin and Konerko put up around .850, Beckham and Rios put up around .800 and everyone else in the lineup does whatever they want, and the rotation performs generally how it should, this season is going to come down to the effectiveness of the bullpen.

I nominate myself for every award listed.

Until of course, they save him until the 9th inning when Thornton has been pulled and Jenks is in

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 07:28 PM) The Cubs signed Chad Tracy to a minor league deal. He'll make 900k if he makes the team. Didn't the Sox not have the money to sign him too?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 02:29 PM) The sad thing is that 20 years ago, saying something like that would have been unthinkable or unimaginable. The Royals under Kauffman were always one of the "model" franchises in the game of baseball. Most younger fans don't remember how good those 70's and 80's ERA Royals teams actually were, they just think of them like they do the Pirates, Nationals, Marlins (minus the two World Series titles), Padres, etc. You can say pretty much the same thing about the Pirates. That's a team with a storied history that has hardly been relevant in my lifetime, and I turn 23 this year.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 07:21 AM) Awesome. Lemme guess... are you graduating soon? A lot of people close to me are, and I've been forced to grow up really quickly this semester and I am graduating way sooner than it actually feels like it is, so yeah, you could say that.

still sucky. Losing interest in the show very, very quickly. It's surviving based on the name of the show itself.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 03:08 PM) Supposedly the White Sox looked at every ball Teahen hit in the last two seasons, and if he continues on the same track, he can hit way more homers in US Cell. TIFWIW. I see two warning track power balls hit in Kaufman stadium that may have been gone in USCF with the wind. I am actually a big believer in Mark Teahen and think he is going to be a very solid hitter for us this year, but only time will tell. My track record last year was iffy.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 12:22 PM) Hyperbole wont get far with me. But Ill go ahead and say that today Curtis Enis is the better football player than Walter Payton. Granted Walter Payton is dead, but the point remains. Just because Thome in his prime was far better than Kotsay, does not prove that Thome this year is going to be anything more than slightly better than Kotsay. What exact statistic from last year makes you believe that Jim Thome is "significantly" better than Kotsay? I don't like this line right here, because I can say the exact same thing between Kotsay and Thome as I can with Freddy Garcia and Gavin Floyd. But what I can say is that Thome had a far better year last year than did Mark Kotsay, and if given the same number of ABs, I would, with about 98% certainty, be able to guarantee that Kotsay will hit for a better average, Thome will have a better on base percentage, and Thome will have a better slugging percentage. There's the off chance that Kotsay hits .300 and puts up a .360 OBP while Thome hits .230 and puts up a .340 OBP, or whatever in the whereabouts, but I think it's far more likely that Kotsay hits about .280 with a .330 OBP and a .420 SLG while Thome hits about .240 with a .350 OBP and a .480 SLG. I'm done arguing about Thome coming back, because it's a dead issue at this point in time.

QUOTE (b-Rye @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) Can't believe he got that much $$$.. especially from A's. Beane's made quite a few bonehead moves the past few years. Like what?