witesoxfan

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 05:26 PM) I rarely count Walsh (dead ball era), I always imagined Buehrle would be just like Lyons stat wise if he played back in the day, and for Pierce, I don't really know why I've always counted Mark above him. Don't really count Black Jack, Hoyt, Fernandez, Bannister due to length with team, and while Black Jack and Hoyt we're good, they weren't as consistently good (has Buehrle had a bad season other than 06?) Just because a guy pitched in the deadball era doesn't mean you get to completely ignore his career 1.82 ERA. Besides that, Walsh's career ERA+ of 146 is far and away better than Buehrle's 122. And Ted Lyons is better at this point simply due to longevity. If, in his career, Buehrle puts up 4000 innings with an ERA+ in the same range (Buehrle's is actually better than Lyons'), then he'll probably pass Lyons too. Pierce is probably better at this point, but that could change very easily. Personally, I think Ed Walsh is undoubtedly the best pitcher in White Sox history and it won't end up being close at any future point in time. The very best I could see Buehrle finishing up is 2nd.

QUOTE (heirdog @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) I think they signed Putz to close with the hope they could move either Jenks or Linebrink. If you look at it this way: Linebrink usually good early and sucks after all-star break and Jenks usually slow starter (low velocity) until he works himself into shape and weather warms, then you have 1 good set up man for the whole year. I think they try again earnestly to trade Jenks now, use Linebrink to set up. Trade Linebrink in June when he value is high (hot start) and trade for a more dependable set-up man or look in-house for that role (Pena). I know its a lot of movement but in the end you get the best bullpen results over the year. Rarely do relief men have outstanding seasons from start to finish. This mitigates the chances of collapse based off the historical evidence of performance. If we can get a valuable piece or two from Jenks it will help offset the lost prospects the other trade I think will happen will cause: AGon! The thing is, the Sox won't be able to get a valuable piece for Jenks at this moment. His highest value is to the White Sox as a closer, because he's either a setup man or is fighting for a shot at closing in any other organization. I can think of places where Jenks would be an upgrade, but the teams that would really want a pitcher like Jenks to push them over the top - meaning teams with even a shot in hell at competing - aren't going to give a hell of a lot when they could sign a guy like Octavio Dotel (even if he is about to go to the Pirates) for half of that without giving up anything of value in terms of pieces. The odds that Jenks is dealt before the season starts are probably about the same as Alexei Ramirez being traded during the same time frame. I could also either Jenks or Linebrink, or both of them, dealt during the season if the time called for it. Linebrink would be if his value was actually high, and Jenks' would be if he was disappointing or he was doing well and the Sox disappointed.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 05:10 PM) Best Pitcher in Team History vs. Guy Who's Started 3 Games, but Better Pitcher. I like Peavy, but Opening Day really should be given to the player who means the most to the franchise, on and off the field, and quite frankly, Buehrle is still the face of the franchise. Ehh, no. Not even close really. Ted Lyons, Ed Walsh, hell, Billy Pierce, and that's just the surface.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 01:28 PM) Verlander Porcello Scherzer Galaragga, Bonderman, Willis, Robertson. If Scherzer shows development, that could be a promising front 3 with an ace at the top and a potentially good 21 year old #2 (who is still seriously young though). The back end of that rotation though...p-u. Their bullpen is far superior as well. Valverde, Schlereth, Coke, Perry, Zumaya, Seay, and several other decent arms (including Ni). Hell, the Tigers have like 4 decent LH options out of the pen, opposed to the Sox 1.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 09:48 AM) It's a less risky roll of the dice than Shrek Colon. Maybe in the sense that Daniel Cabrera won't disappear. In the sense of good pitching on the MLB roster, then Colon is far less risky because Daniel Cabrera is bad at pitching.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 08:29 AM) Wow. He has the best year of his career last year in the AL and proves he's a more than capable long man/mop up man and the best he can find for himself is a minor league deal with the Pirates? it's a split contract and he can make up to $1.2 mill It's a bit surprising, but he didn't have good peripherals and it's questionable whether he can continue to repeat that success.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 07:29 AM) johnson has a ridiculous arm, and was very good last year and a few years ago, but i think the marlins overpaid a bit....10 mil per year is alot for a guy who has only made 50 starts in the last 3 seasons ....its very possible he will be worth every penny (and maybe even more) but i think its more likely that at least 1, if not 2 of those years he will miss significant time due to injury, and 10 million is a fortune for a team like the marlins to be spending for a guy sitting in the trainers room QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 08:32 AM) Think Josh Beckett or AJ Burnett here. All he needs to do is put up a complete, healthy season and suddenly the big boys will come knocking if they want to deal him. MLB got on Florida's case about not putting the revenue sharing money back into the team, thus, the extension for Johnson and Uggla still being on the team. They might deal him at some point, but I doubt it's this season and it might not be next.

The Tigers offense is worse than the White Sox, but their pitching staff could end up being better.

Colby Lewis, 2 years, $5 mill

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 12:54 AM) If Cabrera can be "fixed", he'd be a better option over Williams as a bullpen lefty. Is that a shot at how bad Williams is, or a simple mistake? Cabrera is right handed

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 10:15 PM) He's been one of the best closers in the NL the last three years. I just don't get how a team supposedly looking to shed payroll (the Granderson trade) would make this move. Well, they don't have to pay for a first round pick anymore.

2 perfect games and my best 3-game series is 760

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:25 PM) On the one hand I agree, but on the other I think that it should be Kenny held accountable for listening to Ozzie and building an NL team in the American League. But I really don't want either Ozzie or Kenny gone, I just want them to build a balanced baseball team - or at least pick a philosophy, stick with it, and if it doesn't work, try something else and don't go back to the old philosophy again. I will give a quick amen to this, though... The only starters the Sox have acquired this offseason were Teahen and Pierre. I don't know what to think of Pierre - he's as crazy as they come to predicting stats, though I envision him putting up a disappointing season - but I really do think Teahen is going to have a good season. Not middle of the order good, but I am thinking .280/.340/.435/.775 good, and potentially better. Teahen's performance is going to mean a lot to the Sox. All that said, there are several players that either showed good peripheral numbers (Alexei), or were complete disappoints (Quentin and Rios come to mind). I expect this team to be underwhelming offensively without a true left-handed power hitter, which is why I still expect either Gonzalez or Thome to come on board. That said, I'm putting 50:1 odds on Thome over Gonzalez, but probably 5:2 odds on neither being brought in. QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:33 PM) He definitely could hit .290-.300, which would put him at around a .340 OBP if you're semi-optimistic. Pierre hits twice as many grounders than he does fly balls or line drives. I don't think it's really going to matter what kind of conditions we have here. Most of his line drives will be base hits and those 25% of fly balls have a better probability of traveling, which could actually help his XBHs. If you argue that he has no power and that those will get caught, fine, but I'm sure some of them will also travel and drop. A league adjustment can't always be predicted correctly. Quentin and Podsednik adjusted to the AL fine, and it was actually stronger when they got here than it is now. Quentin is completely different, and you should know that well enough. He finally got healthy and put up monstrous numbers and was the MVP until he didn't play in September, in which case the writers had to give it to someone who played the last month of the season (because the first month doesn't count, especially when you put up numbers like Mauer did). Podsednik had a lucky year. If he puts up the same or better numbers, I'd be completely and utterly surprised. QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:35 PM) Pods got 1 year, $1.75M. We could have given him $2M and beat out the Royals by quite a bit. And while I wanted something much better than Pods, I'd much rather have Pods at $2M for 1 year than Pierre for 2 years and $8M. It'll be interesting to see what Winn signs for since, given his defense, he's the best of the bunch. Have you even bothered to look at Randy Winn's numbers last year? against the "inferior" NL pitching? Add to the fact that he's an older player too. Randy Winn should be no where on the White Sox radar and should rather be on the Newark Bears radar. Have you looked at how bad Pedro Feliz is? with a coach who is supposedly really good? Pedro Feliz is a backup player at this point and will be lucky to put up a .700 OPS this season as a starter. His only retaining quality is his ability to play defense, and that would be lost on Sox fans very quickly. But it's quite aware at this point that you have essentially written Teahen off, which is completely cool. QUOTE (BearSox @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:37 PM) I realize what Pods got, but I figure we would f*** it up anyway and still overpay him. And thank God the Sox didn't, because I didn't want him getting picked off 10+ times while regressing to the means in the leadoff spot. It's pick my poison at this point, and I'd much rather take Wild Turkey than Everclear. QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Jan 13, 2010 -> 12:38 AM) Full time DH is someone who is not capable of playing the field. Getting a guy like LaRoche or Damon, they can rotate with other players getting rest where rest is needed. You can't do that with Thome. He either DH's or he is on the bench. Nobody knows how LaRoche is going to play next year. He could be fantastic, he could be horrible. I'd be less upset about his signing than I would if the Sox signed Hank Blalock. Johnny Damon isn't a good outfielder at this point, and I think if the Sox wanted him, they would have signed him by now. Maybe they have him in their sights and they have an offer of like $4 mill on the table to a certain date and are waiting to see if Boras bites on that and waits till someone else offers more (hence, Reinsdorf's comments) and have an offer for Thome on the table. Speaking of Thome, and I commented on this earlier tonight...for f***'s sake, the Sox can quite easily have a rotating DH with Jim Thome, who really can't play the field, on the roster. It involves a 5-man bench and a 6-man bullpen. I think the problem with that becomes Ozzie's second lefty and Sergio Santos, who the Sox obviously like a hell of a lot, considering they sent him to the AFL. They have Jones, Kotsay, Vizquel, and Castro on the bench right now, and you can probably include Nix onto that list as well (and a combination of Nix and Jones would be serve for a nice platoon to Thome at DH). We'll see though. The closer and closer Soxfest gets, the more and more I don't think Jim Thome is coming. If it came right down to it, I think I'd rather have Jim Thome than about 10 players on the 40-man, including several on the edge. If Sergio Santos makes the roster in the Carrasco role, and Thome's not on the roster, I will be pissed. I'll take a proven talent over someone who could be a great reliever, especially considering the Sox outlook on pitchers and the current state of the offense. Santos is fun, but he's not worth scoring fewer than 750 runs.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:04 PM) Fair argument. It's pretty much a lose-lose. Im just biased cause of my mad 05 crush on him. Which is, admittedly, a huge problem. I don't think you'd want Carl Everett DHing, just as I'd hope you wouldn't want Podsednik patrolling LF or for God's-sake, CF. And if you think he's about to put up another healthy .300/.350./.375/.725 year, I'd say you were crazy. Dude didn't even do that in 2005. He probably had the 2nd best season of his career offensively, and considering the metrics I recall seeing, probably the 2nd best season he's ever had. Entering his age 34 season, and the baserunning blunders he was making last year, along with constant complaints from the fans about his defense (haven't seen his Tango score, but I imagine it's below average for 2009), a Podsednik resigning would have been a total PR move with high risk and little reward. You don't make those types of moves. QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:05 PM) I don't see the logic behind this. Are you making the protection argument? Because the protection argument (and there are those that say this never applies anyway) only gets made when you're talking about really good hitters (RBI guys). The AL is going to be tougher because it's a tougher league with better pitching. AL pitchers aren't going to f*** around with Juan Pierre at all. They're going to go right after him the way pitchers go after weak slap hitters with no power and no real ability to draw a walk. Whether there are men on base or not, Pierre's game is to put the ball in play and run, so the opposition is just going to do that and get him to ground out. The IF here isn't all that fast so I don't expect a whole lot to get through, and the OF here is pretty small and straight-forward in dimension and lay-out which makes it easy to cover ground, so since his XBH ability is pretty much all due to his legs, I don't see him getting many XBH either. That is huge because when you look at the years he has had good OBP numbers you find he has hit well over .300 all those years. I don't see that happening here. Of all the parks where Juan Pierre might be successful, the Cell has got to be one of the least likely of them all. I don't see any reason to be optimistic about this guy. And I don't care about projections and all that SABR stuff either, but it's hard to argue with those guys about Pierre. They pretty much call it like it is in that regard, and the consensus is he's really not that good. Haven't looked at the numbers, but the AL has always been a league of not only good fastballs - which the NL features - but also good breaking balls. If you don't have a plus fastball and a plus breaking ball, or multiple plus pitches along with fantastic control (looking mainly at Buehrle here, but there are others involved, while now looking at Minnesota in particular), you can't make it. I haven't looked at the numbers, nor do I care to now, but if Pierre is a good breaking ball hitter, then most AL pitchers haven't seen that. He doesn't strike out much, so I think it's entirely possible that a lot of his outs have come on fastballs. Besides all of that, he is a singles hitter, and the outfield dimensions mean little to a player like Pierre. He's going to get his hits, or he's not. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised to see him accidentally putting up a career high in homers, accidentally or intentionally. QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:05 PM) Just a reminder: The 1 year in this decade where we didn't focus on power we won the World Series. Although there are a million ways to chop up this statement of mine, I still give it weight. You mean the 200 homers they hit? Yeah, weren't focused on power at all. -Frank Thomas arguably saved the 2005 White Sox from a relative catastrophic fall from grace with his June, where he hit like .210 but put up a .900 OPS because he hit about 10 homers. -Some character named Joe Crede saved the White Sox from falling into 2nd place in what would have been the biggest collapse of all time with a game winning homer -That team hit a few homers in the playoffs Maybe, just maybe, maybe that team succeeded because it had 4 starters with ERAs under 4, Dustin Hermanson not allowing a run until like late May and not blowing a save until like June, the rise of Bobby Jenks, magnificent years from Cotts and Politte...hmm, what would I be trying to say? Maybe...PITCHING? Get f***ing real. The White Sox had one of the worst offenses in the league that year, and their ability to pitch, to play fantastic defense, and come up with a clutch hit (which cannot be measured from year to year because it's generally fluky) had much more to do with them winning the World Series then their supposed "lack of power." QUOTE (jphat007 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:13 PM) If we go into this season with Andruw Jones/Mark Kotsay as our DH because Ozzie doesn't want a 'full-time' DH he better be gone if we don't make the playoffs. And this is from one of his biggest backers. I can't imagine KW would actually listen to him tho. I agree, and Ozzie has grown on me the past few years. I think Williams becomes accountable too, as KHP has stated too, as it's Ozzie's job to manage the players given to him, not to make the decisions. If I'm a cook, I'll listen to advice on how to cook a pasta from a server, but I won't let tell me exactly how they want it, especially if I KNOW it's wrong. QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:15 PM) wOBA is a great stat, but Pierre's a leadoff hitter. Honestly, I think OBP is still the best way to judge a leadoff man since his job is to get on base. If he gets extra base hits, awesome, but I don't think measuring how far on base he got is the right way to gauge his job. If he gets on base, he's done his job. Anything else is extra. If you want to talk about him as our "worst" hitter/run producer (not in an RBI sort of way), then fine, he is. His lack of power and his barely above average OBP don't mix well for that. However, he's a leadoff hitter. So Jimmy Rollins is chopped liver? QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:23 PM) I just don't like this exception that people make for leadoff hitters. I want the player who receives the most PA's on my team to be a good hitter, who is also capable of getting on base, hence why I'd go with Beckham. If Pierre bats 9th he'll still be coming up to bat in front of the 1/2/3 hitters but he'll get significantly less PA's in the process. Surely that's the best of both worlds? amen

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 09:55 PM) As a .301 career hitter, Pierre will BENEFIT by hitting in the AL by not having a pitcher giving away at bats 3 times a game in front of him. I'm projecting a line of .290/.340/380/.700 with 50 bags and quality defense in LF. That adds up to .720

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 08:07 AM) I think the idea about Viciedo playing 1B is simply due to his size...he's not the most mobile guy in the world, I'd have to watch him playing LF or RF for 10 games to see if he's more limited than JD in terms of range. As far as the height thing goes, it would be nice to have a 1B with a strong arm, but it's not integral. Sure, you'd rather have the tall, rangy, LH type at that position, because even if he has the ability to leap in the air (vertical has to better than Paulie), usually those plays are beaten out by fast or average runners at the major league level. There's also the possibility they bring in another hitter like Tejada or Blalock for 3B and shift Teahen to the super-utility role where he could play 3B, 1B, RF, LF and DH some. Although that idea replicates the value of Kotsay, in that the only difference is Kotsay couldn't play 3B. Williams has stated that Teahen is the starting 3Bman.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 05:18 PM) The Braves DFA'ed Brandon Jones. He's only 26, maybe worth a shot as a NRI or for AAA? QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 05:40 PM) He was a big prospect as recently as last year. I'd love to have him. I would too, but I think he's going to have about 30 minor league offers on the market and he's going to take the best offer for him, and I don't think that's the Sox.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) Why wouldn't they come here? It's the best city in the country Obviously, best city in the country is arguable and arbitrary and quite irrelevant in this discussion. You obviously mean football here, because the Lakers, Dodgers, and Angels would disagree with that. They just might last long enough to get him fired or in deeper s*** if he (now Kiffin, but when the post was made, it was whoever) further dip into a dirty well.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 07:58 PM) Hank Blalock is still a f/a right? He can be our primary DH and at times play 3B/1B which allows Ozzie to have an open door at DH and everything still, not too mention another lefty bat in the lineup. .736 OPS last season, 65 games played in 2008, 58 games played in 2007, .726 OPS in 2006, .749 OPS in 2005. That's 5 straight bad seasons.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 01:06 PM) Or for that matter, Branyan, Blalock, or Delgado? I do consider Blalock a not-so-good hitter. A team with intentions of winning a division and World Series should not bring in such a glaring question mark player to be the full-time DH.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 08:52 PM) Not that I dont like Damon, I do. But if we are trying to add a DH typically we go after more power. Dont get me wrong Damon has some power, his 24 Hrs and 82 Rbi last year were quite impressive but no really near his career norms. Hes always been more of a 15-20 Hr and 60-70RBI guy that being said do we need another alexi ramirez in our lineup holding down the DH position? Johnny Damon is a far better hitter than Alexei Ramirez, and I'm a guy that thinks Alexei could put up .825 next season.

So then Ozzie needs to show a little discipline and not make Thome a full-time DH. Thome's an old man in baseball terms, and he can use 2 days off a week and every game against left handed pitching. That leaves plenty of time for others to get involved in the game, and if someone's hot and Thome's struggling, sit Thome down. If Thome gets banged up, rest him for 5 days. He doesn't have to be an everyday DH. Ozzie is the manager, and should manage the team he is given; Williams is the general manager and should put the best team on the field that he can. Guillen should not tell Williams how to do his job and vice versa.

on the original XBox, it was retread after retread. On the 360, Madden 10 was vastly different from Madden 09.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 05:53 PM) It will be a Jones and Kotsay DH platoon, its fairly obvious, Ozzie has been saying it all along. Show me one time where he has said that, and I'll stop advocating for the Sox to bring in Thome.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 01:51 PM) 13.5 inches? Is that noodle or stick? QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 02:34 PM) I gotta be honest. I would have thought the biggest one in the world would be bigger. I'd say that's noodle...NSFW that doesn't really look like him though