witesoxfan

QUOTE (kevo880 @ Aug 4, 2009 -> 12:39 AM) is it just me or is Ely having a very quiet great season in Birmingham this year? Why doesn't he get more recognition as one of our top prospects? I would venture to guess that his stuff is very run of the mill and doesn't project to the majors. Doesn't have great peripherals either...very mediocre K rate and control. Yeah, he has an ERA under 3, but I'm pretty sure that Egbert put up better numbers at that level too, and he's nothing more than a AAAA pitcher for the Sox who wasn't able to convert to a reliever.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 07:52 PM) Dipsh*t in Cincy has a sign that says "Wrigley Field South". Someone needs a geography lesson. He meant in the standings

I think you guys are being a bit harsh. Heck, Gordon Beckham's OPS this season is higher than Phil Rizzuto's when he won the MVP!

I agree, but let's give it 20-30 years before we make our final decision.

QUOTE (BlackBetsy @ Aug 2, 2009 -> 10:04 AM) I just fear this is our Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell trade. Kenny Williams hasn't had a big trade bite him in the ass yet (Kip Wells and Fogg for Todd Ritchie was bad, but neither were perennial All Star players). Anderson pitched half a year in Boston, and he was 37. And I imagine you must have some pretty lofty expectations of Brandon Allen if you are willing to compare him at all to Jeff Bagwell, who had a hall of fame career.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 07:22 PM) We're 5-7 against them now...it's not like it's a 2001-2004 spread in this match-up. It always ends up almost exactly even when all the home and away games are completed. The White Sox scored 6 runs against them in a 3-game set at the Dome. The next 3 games, Los Angeles scored 35 runs against them in the Dome while the Sox beat the Yankees 3 out of 4. Not sure exactly what that has to do with anything except that the Sox have some sort of weird inferiority complex when they play the Twins at the Dome, and they have 3 games left there this year. I will say that if the Sox are within a game or two of 1st place by the end of August, they're almost certainly going to win the division. A healthy Peavy is going to make a world of difference.

QUOTE (bighurt574 @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 11:27 AM) The really impressive thing to me so far is that he's not trying to be something he's not (as of now at least) by trying too hard to hit HR's. He's perfectly content lacing line drives all over the place. and as he grows accustomed to hitting in the majors, he's going to learn how to take wise home run cuts every now and then. You can just see with how hard he hits the ball that he has a ton of power. As he ages, he could very easily turn into a 30+ homer kind of hitter.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 09:32 AM) I f***ing love Shark Week. I really don't know anyone that doesn't. Just yesterday, we had it on in the bar. Robert: (turns off TV) Brennan: What the f***?! Dale: Dad! It's Shark Week! YOU'RE f***ING HIGH

so long as everyone else beats up the Twins other than the White Sox, the Sox should win this division.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 01:10 PM) Not a fan of this article. It was a weird way to frame the salary argument. Why bring up Carlos Lee as your example when he is meeting expectations, and therefore, arguably, living up to the numbers on his deal. Why not bring up a real suck contract with a bad player. They are using statistical analysis to determine how much a player is worth. Carlos Lee makes $18.5 mill for the next 3 years following this one, in which he is also making $18.5 mill. I imagine they believe his offense is worth $15 mill a year due to the statistics he puts up, and that his numbers are inflated due to the ballpark he plays in, and with that extra $3-3.5 mill or so, they could get a very solid reliever on the free agent market, which will help win them more games if Lee is being paid a relatively good salary. This same argument goes for Peavy and the White Sox; both players could do well, but they won't live up to the stastical performances that their contract would demand. It's a pretty dumb line of thinking and goes against basic economic principles. As has been mentioned, there are times when this article is correct, such as when a team is much older, is tied down to bad contracts for a while, and has absolutely no minor league system. The Sox are in a transitional period, but are not in any 3 of those phases in particular.

Todd Hundley for Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros.

I really don't think this offseason is going to be all that busy. I think you may see one or two new starting players, but you aren't going to see the Sox go out onto the free agent market and bring in 2 offensive starters when they have had as much luck as they've had with Beckham and Getz. And I don't think they'll open the checkbook for a big time infielder unless they have intentions of either moving Alexei to CF (and I highly doubt that) or trading him (which I could see as a possibility). I think the only offensive player they'll have big interest in is Chone Figgins, and I'm not sure that they'll actually make a serious bid if his price tag is very expensive.

As has been mentioned, making Thornton the closer might hurt the bullpen, and righties that can hit a fastball are going to hit him. He has the stuff to be an average closer, but that's about it. If you do that, you then need to find a lefty who can replace him in the bullpen while also having another lefty behind that one. That is the one and only time I believe that your best reliever does not necessarily have to be your closer. If the Sox can somehow find a very dependable left handed reliever within the next 7 months, then you can look to Thornton to close. Heath Bell is an interesting name even if there are concerns about him pitching outside of Petco and the value it may take to get him. Tony Pena is another legitimate option within the organization, and even if his ERA has been bad with the Sox, he's had 7 of 9 scoreless appearances, and his peripherals have been pretty good overall. All that said, I think the organization will stick with Jenks for one more season unless something comes up that really doesn't allow it with Pena moving into the Dotel role, Linebrink sticking around and hoping he can become solid again, and Nunez/Link and Torres coming up to pitch in the bullpen too.

If the Sox had been getting that fastball 3 inches off the corner all game, they might be winning. Good call blue.

SUCK ON IT PENGUIN

QUOTE (BlackBetsy @ Aug 1, 2009 -> 06:17 AM) I don't get that. Danks shut out the Twins in the playoff game last year. Danks had the only victory in the series against the Rays. To me, Danks is the clear choice. keeping Danks' 5.2, 3 ER performance out of the picture, here are their lines since interleague began (according to B-R)... Gavin Floyd - 2.33 ERA, .538 OPSA John Danks - 3.45 ERA, .658 OPSA use any analogy you want to, but Floyd has been the FAR better pitcher since late May, even if Danks has been good. Point being, as of this moment right now, I want Floyd starting game motherf***ing 2 of the playoffs for me, if only to break Buehrle and Danks up. All 3 have proven their worth, and all 3 give me hope and reason as to why I believe the Sox will win the division this year.

BTW, not sure if it was mentioned here, but the White Sox traded for Jake Peavy figured it was worth mentioning

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Jul 31, 2009 -> 11:17 PM) Sox pick up Cy Young pitcher to complete the perfect roster dont trade the farm cubs lose cards win twins lose tiggers lose not gonna beat this baseball day for al ong time who are you and what have you done with Jimbo?

I'm drunk. Statistics aren't. Gavin Floyd has been the far superior pitcher to John Danks for the majority of the season. I am throwing Floyd before Danks in a must win game. I will also throw Buehrle before Peavy, so there are quite a few great options there, and I'm happy to be part of all of them.

That was a gutsy game. Great performances from many. Linebrink still looks terrible, his stuff just looks flat, but outside of that, it was a great performance. A nice balanced offensive attack...you can't ask for much more than that.

Yeah this doesn't surprise me at all. Doesn't feel as awesome the second time around, what with the injury and all, but it'll still be pretty damn neat.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jul 29, 2009 -> 11:02 PM) It is a legitimate question. Think Javy Vazquez. We will see. speaking of the devil himself, he gave up 3 ER in 7.1 IP tonight and his ERA for the season rose (from 2.98 to 3.01). He's been filthy and the Braves are only 4 out in the Wild Card.

To be fair, this Sox team has been pretty banged up most of the season and it's a realistic possibility that they could begin getting healthy within the next month or so just in time for a September run to get them to the postseason. Maybe a move happens within the next 11 hours that could help this team immensely. I agree that it's not very likely, but pretty much every World Series winning team has a bullpen that pitches well (the Sox pen has the talent but has pitched like s*** recently), atleast a 1-2-3 of starters who show up and give good (or gutsy) performances, and an offense that can score runs in bunches but also can manufacture a run. I would say that the 2005 season proved that you don't need to manufacture runs, as the Sox relied pretty heavily upon the 3-run homer (or grand slam, if you prefer), but even the last run of the season was manufactured. The other thing World Series teams do is play good defense, and that could very easily be the downfall of this year's White Sox.

Floyd's K/9 on the year is now 7.62. BB/9 is at 3.08. HR/9 is at 0.85. Since interleague began (13 starts) his ERA is 2.44, K/9 of 7.52, BB/9 of 2.44 with a fine and dandy WHIP of 0.96. He's allowed 7 homers in that stretch, and 5 of them came in back to back starts (Minnesota and Tampa Bay).

Lillibridge flying into Chicago isn't a big deal. He would have played very sparingly and was only in town in case the team felt it was necessary to DL Alexei, meaning that Nix would take over full-time SS duties and Lillibridge would have become a once a week player with the occasional pinch running appearance.