witesoxfan

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 10:40 AM) Happity Birthday!!! And what the hell are you guys doing up at 5 and 6 am on a Sunday??? staying up past mah bedtime

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 07:12 AM) What did you have last night? That would be a god awful trade, even if Beltre does raise his average to .260 with an OPS just above .800 (with an OBP around .320-330). Why would you trade a thirdbaseman with the offensive upside of Fields, plus a decent pitching prospect and a good but not great reliever for a guy who MIGHT have a good season due to it being his contract year. Come on now, that trade would be beyond stupid. Yeah I was drunk, but I still think Beltre is a sleeper to be a candidate for 3B.

sucks dog

to continue with my domination of this thread, I'll also throw out Adrian Beltre as my sleeper to take over at 3B for the Sox next year. He should be cheap to trade for, depending upon how much he improves his OPS over the next 3 months (crazy 1st half-2nd half splits in his career - .745/.827 1st/2nd half OPS in his career) and if he's still even on the Mariners come a month a 3 days from now. However, it's his walk year next year, and the only other walk year he had, he set all-time records for 3Bman. I wouldn't expect 48 homers, but 30 or more homers and potentially a draft pick or two out of the whole deal would be pretty sweet. You could also potentially get Seattle to take the $6 mill Dotel is earned in 2009 too, but I imagine that would cost a bit more. If I had to throw it out there right now, I'd say Fields, Dotel, and Broadway for Beltre and some so-so prospect who is in A ball for them right now come the offseason.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 02:30 AM) We NEED to sweep this team. Lose tonight and this series was a failure. How many times have we taken the first two games of a series against these guys only to take a dump on ourselves the third game? I'm sick of that s***. They've swept us twice the last two years. It's time to repay them. Forget that 2/3 s***. I say do it in fashion. Beat them 13-0 or something crazy like that.

on another, more pleasant note...after today's game, only two of the Sox hitter's in the lineup they put out today are hitting below .270; what's better is that only 1 of them is not a regular. Oh, and Alexei Ramirez is right at the .300 mark. He's gonna be really good. Bureau said you don't find a steal for $4.75 mill over 4 years, but, at this point - given, it's been half a year - I'll disagree. He's not going to be Soriano in the power department, but a lightning quick swing, good power to all fields, and improving defense at 2B - yeah, he's a super keeper. Consider me a huge fan of Alexei now that he's gotten a bit used to MLB pitching. I'd like to think his average will stay at .300 all season and that, come sometime shortly after the ASB, he'll be moved to the 2 hole with Pierzynski moved back to his traditional 6 or 7 hole and the lineup could be crazy good.

anyone gotten GH Aerosmith yet? if so, is it basically the same as GH3 but different songs?

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 12:25 AM) I believe this was the case. Looking at his numbers, he absolutely had to have been. Drafted in 98 but was able to make 20 or whatever appearances in A-ball...it wouldn't make sense any other way. So yeah, it's too bad that the draft-and-follow was eliminated.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 11:32 PM) Wow, who's he kidding. Moronotti writes his column on Chicago civic baseball pride. Cmon. The guy needed to jump on the Cubs' weaknesses after the two losses like he would have had the Sox lost. What a dope. He hasn't yet figured out if the Cubs are a 100 win team this year and runaway winner, so he's waiting to start to bag on them. What a jerk. It also has to do with the fact that he absolutely hates anything and everything the White Sox do.

So does that mean Buehrle was a draft-and-follow? Cuz that would make a hell of a lot of sense.

only the 4th time ever, and the only one where two pitchers combined on the no-hitter The last time was Matt Young in 1992, and the time before that, the Sox were no-hit by Andy Hawkins and scored 4 runs.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 01:47 PM) Are you for real? Jimmy Rollins is a better leadoff hitter because he is about 100x the hitter! Uh, how are you going about determining who the better hitter is? Rollins career average is .277 and his career OBP is .331; Castillo is at .292 and .368. You wouldn't happen to be, you know, using SLUGGING PERCENTAGE, would you? Thanks for the cliche, I've heard that before. Let's talk about individual performances here first, because other than win shares, there is no form of keeping track of "wins" among individual position players. If you want me to clarify, AMONG INDIVIDUAL HITTERS, on base percentage is far and away the most important stat, but it's not the end all be all. That better? Then WHY ON EARTH would you not look for a leadoff hitter that can get to second base without the aid of a stolen base or a another hitter moving him over? QUOTE (beautox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 08:47 PM) OPS isn't how you should go about judging willits, his job as a leadoff hitter is to set the table and extend the inning, he has that speed that we sorely lack and he isn't one dimensional hes a great contact hitter that can actually draw a walk. OPS doesn't work for every hitter. It's hard to score from 1B on a single, even if we're talking about the fastest man in the world running from first. OPS is relevant. I'm not looking or expecting a .900 OPS from the leadoff man, but something respectable in the area of .750-.800 is what I'm looking for. If Willits could do that, then by all means, sign him up, but he shouldn't be acquired with the thought of having him leadoff in mind. I'd much rather acquire him to be a 4th OFer that gets perhaps even 300 PAs next season, and if he takes the job during the season putting up incredible splits, than good for him and good for us. If I ever said that a double is equal to a walk, I apologize, because a double is far superior than a walk. A single is superior to a walk. The only thing a walk does is get you on base...it only advances runners one base at a time and is very inefficient. It does get a baserunner, and that's crucial to the game of baseball. A single can advance runners 2 or 3 bases, and a double almost always advances runners atleast 2 bases.

sure, 5th outfielder, AAAA journeyman, whatever you want to call him...he's not a starting caliber player and never will be.

Getting behind in the count and going for the strike out sounds a bit like he's throwing rather than pitching. I'd love to see an outing from him where he strikes out 3 or fewer and goes 7 or more innings. Just pitch within the zone and have faith in your defenders behind you. That's why the creators of the rules of baseball allowed them to be put back there.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 06:45 AM) OPS my ass. When you have a leadoff hitter, you want someone who can get on base, and has some speed to steal a few bags and advance from 1st to 3rd on certain hits. You tell me why Jimmy Rollins is a better leadoff hitter than Luis Castillo then. And, if you look up and down this thraed, you'll never see where I said OBP isn't important or that it's not the most important stat. It is by and far THE most important stat in the entire game. But to completely ignore slugging percentage is like looking at a guy who can hit 40 homers and inserting him into cleanup spot despite the fact that he'll hit .220 and never walk. All you're looking for is power, right? So "OPS your ass" is complete s***

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 06:50 AM) Well, you said you'd take a guy who can hit 30 homers over a guy who can hit 150 singles. Did you expect the guy with 150 singles not to have any extra base hits? And as for a DH, who wouldn't take the guy who can hit 40 homers with a .290+ average? No I wouldn't expect dude with 180 hits to walk 65times too, because that's pretty much what he's doing in your scenario with 550 at bats.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 03:02 AM) I disagree, as if he bats .275 with an OBP of .365, I think he'd still be plenty productive. As someone else said earlier, I'd love Willits in a platoon type role. QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 12:50 AM) OBP is important and all, but it's not the end all be all for a leadoff hitter. a .275 average would be a .320 slugging, which would be a .685 OPS. OPS is more important for leadoff hitters than a lot of people realize, and .685 is absolutely god awful. Even considering that, he hasn't hit this year - probably because the Angels outfield is absolutely loaded and he hasn't had many opportunities - but I just don't think he's a good bet going forward and I don't think he's the right guy to leadoff for the Sox next year. Not only that, but you'd be stepping down from a .900+ OPS in Thome to a .725 or lower OPS in Willits. I'd rather give David Cook a shot in CF rather than acquire Willits and depend upon him to leadoff for the Sox next season, and that's not even considering the possibility that Anderson is still on the team. Willits is overrated as hell because he can draw a walk. A glorified 4th outfielder.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 02:58 AM) I seriously doubt that. If you are a decent power hitter, you'd have 20 homers, 25-30 doubles, and maybe 1 or 2 triples. Hell, lets say said player had 150 singles and only 30 extra base hits. That'd give him 180 base hits in lets 550 AB's, giving the player a batting average of .327. I'm sorry, but I'd take the guy who bats .327 and is a hitting machine (This player surely could have gotten 200+ hits if he was a decent power hitter) over the guy who hits 30 homers but for a lower average. I don't think I've ever argued against a .330 hitter. That's a bit extreme, seeing as how all of 5 players in the majors are hitting over .327 currently, while there are already 5 players with 20 homers in late June. You are basically saying you'd rather have Joe Mauer, not considering he's a catcher, over Joe Crede. Thanks, I had no idea. To follow your guidelines, I'll take a 40 homer hitter that gets 170 hits a season. Would you rather have Ryan Braun DHing for you or Joe Mauer?

This Twins team is good and quietly confident, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they are a good bat away from competing the rest of the way. That said, they could also have the world come crashing down on them in August considering how many young pitchers they have on that team. I just think it's a very streaky team that will be much, much scarier next year and the following years. I'd also say that the biggest wild card for the future of the Twins is Carlos Gomez. If he can develop into a .300 25/40 threat while playing good defense in CF, they could easily be one of the scariest teams in the game. If he fizzles and fades into mediocrity, they'll still be searching for a CF and another bat in the lineup. So much of the future rests on his shoulders. He's still only 22, so there's plenty of time for him to develop into a monster...which I would NOT like very much.

I would have a problem with Willits as the leadoff hitter for the Sox. If he doesn't hit .300, he's not going to score many runs. I'd rather see Alexei leadoff than Willits next season. It's weird how Soxtalk falls in love with certain players that are quite overrated. Luis Castillo is another. OBP is important and all, but it's not the end all be all for a leadoff hitter.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 27, 2008 -> 11:43 PM) Agreed on this, I am embarassed the rare times I see dumb Sox fans at The Cell. Just leave the people alone that like the other team, and if they do something bad, tell an usher. As for the Cubs home/road splits, it's just been a weird year. Almost everybody is good at home and bad on the road for some reason, I don't buy they are cheating. They are just built perfect for Wrigley, as are we for The Cell. I actually think cheating makes a hell of a lot of sense, personally. And I bet most teams do it.

I'm gonna go ahead and credit his sideburns for that one.

Dewayne Wise is a 4th outfielder. Let's end this conversation.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:50 PM) I think any sane person whould choose the home run over the singles... however, find me a player that can hit 100+ homers in a season. I'd bet that 30 homers is certainly going to be more productive than 150 singles.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 27, 2008 -> 06:42 PM) Actually he said that is nine, because that was the 9th grand slam hit in the crosstown series. And he said Steve Swisher because he was playing on his father's name and his father playing for the cubs, which was kind of dumb. But the nine thing made perfect sense. It was also Swisher's 9th homer of the year too, though that may just be coincidental.