caulfield12

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 11:58 PM) http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/position/lf/sort/OPS http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/position/3b/sort/OPS s 12 3b above .725/ 10 LF above .725 but you look to be right as theres more 3B over .800....me thinking .725 was low confused me lol i play a lot of fantasy baseball so I dont really know squat about anything outside of BA HR RBIs and RUNs and I admit that. You have to consider that only 17/30 teams have qualifying 3B. So that also tells you the average for 3B would be a bit lower because the assumption is a lot of those plate appearances (for non-qualifiers) are ending up between 500-700 OPS (see Brent Morel, even lower) but they're not hitting well enough to play everyday, so they're showing up in the combined/aggregate stats for the position.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 09:13 PM) This doesnt make sense to me, why would he have less value in LF if the average LF has a .724 OPS whereas Im sure the average 3B has a higher one....It should be the other way around. I with you on that I was just pointing out that when you rank over 2000 minor leaguers 30's is a pretty good ranking. I could be wrong, but I would guess the average 3B OPS HAS to be lower than 724. I'm guessing 675-710.

Not to mention that Viciedo hurt his wrist in the middle of the year, wasn't able to show what he could when he was the hottest hitter in minor league baseball for six weeks (see Pierre, Juan and Rios, Alex blocking him) and the fact that we didn't see a healthy Dayan in very limited late season at-bats is being held against him now (never received regular playing time under a stubborn Guillen, except for maybe 2-3 weeks in 2010). Everyone expects or has come to expect slow starts out of Viciedo and Ramirez...whatever the reason, it always seems to happen with both of them since 2008/09.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 17, 2012 -> 09:55 PM) He needs to produce above a sub -.600 ops when he's not on a "hot streak." Beckham, Morel and finding a catcher for next season are MUCH bigger problems. And we have to hope that Alexei Ramirez isn't now completely on the downside of his career already...

[/quote Well, that is baseball. Hitters are streaky. Konerko was a slow starter and a streaky hitter for a decade. Good thing we didn't trade him. He is 23 with a very live bat. Trading him is as short sighted as it gets. This team needs a dangerous bat more than anything. He has that potential. Give him, I don't know, half a full season before this discussion. Or look at Josh Hamilton...homers tend to come in bunches, same thing with Dunn. It's the nature of sports. Carlos Lee was ALWAYS that way...some hitters are a bit more consistent than others, but most power hitters aren't also high average guys. AJ Pierzynski has been one of the streakiest hitters this season, but nobody could argue his contributions in the first 2-3 weeks of the season weren't especially valuable to getting us off to that 10-6 start.

Mitchell with his 29th RBI, at .279. The Carlos Sanchez, Phegley and Ravelo bandwagons have slowed a bit...but none moreso than Tyler Kuhn.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 17, 2012 -> 08:34 PM) Not sure what that only means but top 30's of all the hundreds of minor leaguers is pretty damn good. Are you seriously downplaying his hot streak?? And all of those guys like Jon Rauch, Danny Wright and Matt Ginter being top prospects in 2000 turned into what exactly? And where was Mark Buehrle on that same list in 1999 and 2000? Outside of the Top 100. It's like those football and basketball recruiting rankings, it's ONE benchmark or indictator, but the fact that he was rated 30th versus 15th or whatever doesn't mean much. Look at Borchard's peak rating, for example. Fields, Brian Anderson, etc.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 17, 2012 -> 08:25 PM) .649 OPS after this "monster" hot streak. .669 http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../OPS/order/true He's still in the bottom quartile, but that's among the qualified players...I think it was Balta who said the major league (don't think it was AL, maybe?) average for a LFer was a 724 OPS. I think it's very realistic to expect him to put up 725-750 this season and keep improving every year, both offensively and defensively. That said, because of the position he plays, he's not valuable enough to get back a prime infielder or catching prospect, or a major league-ready starting pitcher that's in AA/AAA. If he was able to put up those numbers at 3B, then you'd have a much more valuable asset and the comparisons to Beltre would be more relevant. But 1) Williams would never trade him as long as he's GM, 2) His upside to contribute offense to the Sox in 2013-2014-2015 and beyond has a greater value to the Sox than almost any other team, particularly knowing you're probably going to be losing offense at catcher too with AJ leaving.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...-142516062.html at USCF

QUOTE (Jake @ May 17, 2012 -> 05:53 PM) While winning independents typically wins elections, Bush Jr. lost independents twice yet still won two elections (well, one...kinda). Rallying the base has worked for Republicans in the past. Except why would that tactic work better now? He's the sitting president. All that information is already out there from 4+ years ago. Doing so will only cause the media to focus more on Romney's "personal stories" (dog on the roof, bullying episode he doesn't recollect) or the fact that their healthcare plans were virtually inseparable. In fact, Romney's was more liberal than the eventual Obama plan. If all of America can see for the next six months the disastrous results of the austerity plans in Europe (cutting budgets without doing anything to stimulate economies), then logic would dictate that the same type of dramatic government cutbacks in the US would provide a similarly ominous solution to most Americans. As Paul Krugman constantly points out, if the federal deficit was SUCH a big issue, why would our borrowing costs be exceptionally low on the bond market, and why would inflation to be so low?

Brent Morel says "Thanks, other Brent, for making my BA and OPS look better comparatively." Sample size, sample size. But Morel's heated up to 420 OPS, Lillibridge at 402.

With Trumbo an absolute beast, Morales on the mend, Trout (well, forget his defense)...the Angels are going to be there for sure as well until the end of the season. Assuming the back end of the bullpen holds up.

Poor Gordon, even when he does put a good swing on a ball, that happens. Meanwhile, 0/5, 2 K's, 6 LOB, .197 average. Ugh. Well, we have his defense at least.

Gift run there, Konerko had at least a 50% chance of being out there on that play if it wasn't cut off. 25 RBI's for AJ already.

Bad route by Wells there...gives Rios the gift hit. Viciedo only 2 points behind Dunn in the batting average department.

Beckham is clearly looking to go to the right side now on nearly every pitch. That's resulting in opposing pitchers throwing inside on him...Gordon has to learn how to turn on those pitches again. It's one thing to look up the middle or just to make solid contact, but limiting yourself to 1/3rd of the field (where it's very hard for you to drive the ball out), not such a good strategy. Gordon out-thinking himself again. Apparently, Mike Scioscia inquired about Beckham (with Ed Farmer) and wanted to know the backstory about his personality and make-up...said the Angels would be interested in acquiring him.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ May 17, 2012 -> 01:31 PM) I have my doubts that they will realize this. They should have realized it last year when Atlanta was offering legit prospects for Carlos. We might turn out okay with Hernandez and Castro, though. There's certainly no guarantee we would have gotten the same prospects the Astros ended up getting for Bourn.

I give up. The Indians will win the division going away. They cannot be stopped at home, despite nobody showing up to watch their games. And, once again, the Royals cannot hold a lead against a surprisingly good Orioles team.

The thing is, the Democrats are smart enough to know that going that route doesn't help but only rebounds against them. The biggest advantage that Obama has now is "likeability" (not relatability, necessarily) and his calm/cool/aloof nature which is actually often cited as one of his biggest weaknesses (to many), but which now comes off as a strength because his personality is so consistent. The people who will vote against Romney who are Dems or independents don't need to be reminded about his religious beliefs. But taking that attack mode (which will be perceived as unfair, especially against an incumbent when it should have been put to better use 4 years ago strategically) against a pretty popular sitting president will rebound against them with women, young people, independents and Hispanics who might be sitting on the fence. Despite Romney's record at Bain Capital, more people trust him with the economy despite it being another rehash of voodoo economics that's been tried already twice in our lifetimes and has failed miserably both times under Reagan and Bush II. However, despite their disastisfaction with Obama's policies, they would rather keep Obama as president because they like Romney even less and know what they're getting with him by now...and they feel that his ability to handle world/foreign affairs has been a pleasant surprise.

The M's just took the lead again in extras. And the Tigers lost to the Twins. Morneau's back again. Survived a bunch of solo homers against them.

Fister has given up 3 early runs for the Tiggers. M's leading the Indians 4-0 early, as well. Indians would be "only" 4 games over .500 if they lose that game, which is where we were 3 1/2 weeks ago.

The only argument for having a better AL Central division record this year is beating up on the Twins. But every team in the division SHOULD do that...and we have to prove we can, and you'd think by the time we face them, perhaps they will be healthier or playing better baseball...this happened with the Royals/Sox after their 12 game losing streak, we caught them when they were pretty hot and lost 2/3. We're about .500 in the division and clearly an inferior team when compared with the AL East and top two in the AL West.

I just don't see how that 25% of the electorate that's STRONGLY anti-Obama is going to be even more induced to vote... They're already motivated. It's always the independent voters who decide elections, and despite the overall unpopularity of many current issues (handling of economy, gas prices, which can't be directly influenced over a matter of days and weeks, the health care mandate, gay marriage, Wall Street bailouts), Obama continues to run 20-30% ahead in terms of the enthusiasm of his party. (Charles Blow wrote a column on this in the NY Times yesterday). Then you have the huge divides in the women's and Hispanic votes that were opened up in the GOP primary process and will be very tough to walk back. By all past measures, with the state of the economy being what it is, Romney should be 5-10 points ahead at this juncture, but it's basically dead even and most betting folks are still putting their money on Obama.

He said it one time all off-season, then seemed to make a concerted effort to walk it back. I think that was after the Santos trade but BEFORE the Danks contract, yes? The real question is does he have the mandate from JR to tear this team completely apart or are they going to hope and pray for a 26-5 run to bail them out (see 2010) and lull them into another false sense of complacency that the "full rebuild" can be put off YET AGAIN and that they can rebuild on the fly while still being able to realistically say the can or could compete every year in the process? Can we actually manage to do that without a couple Top 3-5 draft picks in the first round? If the team totally goes in the tank (worse than 2007) and attendance threatens 1998/1999/2002 numbers, there's going to be more and more pressure to throw in the towel on KW, especially if the Cubs' rebuilding plan seems to be taking off faster and is showing more immediate dividends.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/polit...n-obama.html?hp at best an incendiary campaign and at worst a racist one. Puts Rahn Emmanuel in an interesting position vis a vis the Cubs. The club's father's owner is trying to destroy Obama with a campaign that the campaign itself would be ashamed to associate itself, and one which McCain ended up eschewing in 2008 (Jeremiah Wright, liberation theology, linking Obama and to the middle name Hussein and questions about his religion/birth certificate)...