TLAK

Javier Vazquez is a loser. He was a loser before KW traded for him, he was a loser last year and there is no reason to suspect he won't be a loser in the future. Despite his great 'stuff' he finds a way to lose. Cooper did a great job with him, he avoided his usual 1/2 dozen 2 inning blowouts and he still lost more than he won. More often than not, he can be counted on to find the key moment to get lackadaisical and give up the big hit, no matter how good he looks early in a game. No personal attack, he seems to be a fine person and certainly cares about the games, but on the diamond he has the heart of dog instead of a lion. Move Vazquez.

QUOTE(GaelicSoxFan @ Oct 3, 2006 -> 04:14 PM) I'm going to miss the clown sound effect that Mike Murphy uses when he refers to MacPhail as "Andy The Clown". Andy the clown MacFail beep! beep!. Love Murph.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 2, 2006 -> 07:20 PM) On any of these topics though...there are 2 issues. One is the net immediate loss from going from one of, if not the best third baseman in baseball to a rookie. The other side though is the net gain we we would get by trading away the best third baseman in baseball while his value is still potentially through the roof, thus getting ourselves new players and saving money. You do not have to be in rebuilding mode to trade away a veteran player, insert a rookie, and have your team get better. Just as a hypothetical example...pick the one guy in baseball you think would help us the most. Don't care who or what position. Throw in a Crawford, or an Ichiro, or a Verlander, or whoever it is you would love to have on your team. If you could get that guy...but it cost you Joe Crede to do it...that is the evaluation you have to make. Would going from Podsednik to Crawford counteract the loss from Crede to Fields? It may very well do so. Or if you add in a pitcher. Etc. You can win with all of Fields, Anderson, and Sweeney in your lineup next year if you have to. But that can only happen if you are smart about what you do with the pieces you do have. If you turn the guys you remove into exceptionally valuable pieces...you can get better the next year. There is virtually no one on the White Sox who is totally untouchable if the right offer were made. But you can not just sell a guy like Crede for nothing...you have to get back something valuable enough to offset the loss of him if you want to remain competitive next year. I bolded the line that caught my eye. Sweeney has played in 15 MLB games, Fields in 6. Over the last 50 years there have been exactly 12 players who appeared in more than half of a World Series Champions games, that had equal or less experience than Ryan Sweeney. There are some pretty special names here. I like Fields and Sweeney but the odds of winning with even one rookie as a major contributor, let alone two are slim. It is so hard to win a Championship, you need guys who already know how to play. There just aren't any games to give away due to on the job training.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Oct 2, 2006 -> 12:56 PM) The worst thing in the world for Sox fans would be a good baseball mind in the Cubs front office. Bolded to accentuate the green. The last guy I remember coming out of the booth to take over a MLB GM job was Ken Harrelson. Remember how well that worked out?

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Oct 2, 2006 -> 05:14 PM) Chisoxfan I know you live near the Angels and everything but you are the only person ive ever heard call it a hitters ballpark. Everyone I have talked to about it and whenevr I hear about it on ESPN its moreso refered to as a pitchers ballpark. Now not to the degree of Seattle/Oakland both in your division but still benefits pitchers more than hitters. Baseball Reference calculates a Park Factor for this purpose. 100 is average. The last year available is 2005 and Anaheim came in at 96 for batters and 96 for pitchers. Compare to US Cellular at 103 - 102. Going by the numbers, the big A is definitely a pitchers park.

QUOTE(Friend of Nordhagen @ Oct 2, 2006 -> 05:53 PM) Is Fields really ready, though? Could be, but I didn't see a guy who looked ready -- yet. The good: Seemed to handle himself pretty well at 3rd, especially for a guy who's relatively inexperienced. Has some pop. Appeared to have pretty good strike zone recognition, again especially for a pretty inexperienced player. Had a good season at AAA, much better than in lower minors, which might demonstrate an impressive learning curve. The bad: Seemed totally overmatched by fairly pedestrian fastballs, with a long swing. We've seen this movie before. So, I'm not sure what we have there. He's no doubt talented, but I question whether he's ready right now. Spot on. Josh is a 'project' who may turn out to be very good but at this stage would be learning his trade at the MLB level. That might be acceptable for a team in rebuilding mode, trying to get to .500, but I think the White Sox have a chance to get back to the Series next year and have to put more weight on immediate results. How the White Sox handle this matter will be telling.

QUOTE(3 BeWareTheNewSox 5 @ Oct 1, 2006 -> 06:34 PM) But the world could end Oct 20 and it'd still be ours Always the optimist.

Line ups Chicago WSox Ryan Sweeney RF .233 Pablo Ozuna 2B .324 Ross Gload 1B .329 Jim Thome DH .290 Josh Fields 3B .125 AJ Pierzynski C .296 Alex Cintron SS .285 Rob Mackowiak LF .286 Brian Anderson CF .227 Javier Vazquez P (11-11, 4.77) Minnesota Luis Castillo 2B .295 Nick Punto 3B .292 Joe Mauer DH .346 Michael Cuddyer RF .282 Justin Morneau 1B .321 Torii Hunter CF .278 Rondell White LF .246 Mike Redmond C .349 Jason Bartlett SS .307 Carlos Silva P (10-15, 6.07)

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Sep 30, 2006 -> 02:17 PM) Sweeney continues to impress. Fields not so much. The piranha’s directly challenged Fields with consecutive bunts in the 6th. He got both Bartlett and Punto on good plays. Overall, 9 balls were hit to him and handled them all. One more he dove for on a ground ball in the hole to his left, I don't know if Crede would have got there or not, it was hit hard. He showed me good hands and feet, a good arm, no fear and his head was in the game. Need more chances to assess his range. Add a double, walk and run in 5 trips to the plate and I'd say he had a good day for a rookie. Sweeney was very good with 5 chances in right including one spectacular catch. He went 2 for 4 with 2 knocks but also cost a run with a base running boo-boo in the 2nd. He didn't read a ground single to right properly and pulled up at 2B, when Cuddyer's throw to third was wild (Cuddyer and everyone else in park thought the runner would go to 3rd), he made third but should have scored on that play had he been running. St. Brian Anderson only had 2 touches in the field, he handled them both. He was 0-5 with 2 Ks. He reached on an error in the 6th and promptly got thrown out stealing.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Sep 30, 2006 -> 01:43 PM) TLAK, interesting numbers as always. The only thing that does not make sense is the runs scored. The player is only going to score if someone else drives him in (except for HR), so I don't see the relevance of runs scored, since they would get credit anyway for that game with a hit or RBI. It seems like you could just remove that and not much would change. The most surprising numbers are Podsednik at 14% and Crede at 24%. It seems like that means Pods did just enough not to get an 0fer, but not much more than that. He probably had the most 1fers, like 80%. That would be interesting to see how many games players had 1 or 0 positives at the plate. I bet Pods % which jump up more than anyones. Runs is if you got on with an error and scored then at least you did something to help the team. An Ofer is a totally disastrous day, no justification for even being on the field from an offensive standpoint.

What a ridiculas start time after a night game for a team playing for the Division title. This should be the best baseball of the year but you have Kong, Thome, Dye, Pierzynski, Mauer, and White not in the game. These line ups look like they are from Arizona. Chicago WSox Scott Podsednik LF .262 Brian Anderson CF .230 Ross Gload 1B .320 Josh Fields 3B .083 Rob Mackowiak DH .283 Tadahito Iguchi 2B .278 Alex Cintron SS .286 Ryan Sweeney RF .192 Sandy Alomar C .209 Jon Garland P (17-7, 4.61) Minnesota Nick Punto 3B .295 Luis Rodriguez 2B .234 Mike Redmond C .351 Michael Cuddyer RF .282 Justin Morneau 1B .320 Torii Hunter CF .279 Jason Kubel DH .244 Jason Tyner LF .312 Jason Bartlett SS .310 Matt Garza P (3-5, 5.32)

Some of the most telling baseball statistics are negative. My definition of an Ofer is a game started where the player has no runs, hits, rbis, walks, hit by pitches, sacrifice bunts or sacrifice flies. This guy did nothing discernable at the plate to help the team. With two games to go, here are the White Sox 2006 Ofers. This year I added splits between pre all star break and post because of the difference in the team's success, and because any time Brian Anderson’s name is mentioned on this board many posters claim he became Joe DiMagio in the second half. Actually BA’s percentage of bad offensive games went up in the second half. I know this is only the batting side, I’ll post the starting pitching later with the same split. All data from Baseball Mussings Day by Day Database

Quite a flair for the dramatic, that boy Bobby.

Those of you wallowing in your depression are missing a GREAT baseball game.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Sep 29, 2006 -> 08:09 PM) Does this mean Owens might actually be a fallback plan in LF next year? How's he looked? Think CF, Owens showed more baseball instinct tonight than BA has all year combined. This kid looks like a baseball player.

Lets Rock Chicago WSox Scott Podsednik LF .260 Jerry Owens CF .286 Jermaine Dye RF .316 Jim Thome DH .290 Paul Konerko 1B .313 AJ Pierzynski C .296 Joe Crede 3B .285 Alex Cintron 2B .285 Juan Uribe SS .235 Freddy Garcia P (16-9, 4.65) Minnesota Nick Punto 3B .295 Alexi Casilla 2B .250 Joe Mauer C .349 Michael Cuddyer RF .280 Justin Morneau 1B .322 Torii Hunter CF .277 Rondell White LF .245 Jason Tyner DH .315 Jason Bartlett SS .313 Boof Bonser P (7-5, 4.15) Umpires: HP: Chuck Meriwether. 1B: Jerry Crawford. 2B: Brian O'Nora. 3B: Phil Cuzzi.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Sep 29, 2006 -> 06:01 PM) We will win 1 of 3. I like the chances tonite with the way Freddy is pitching and they should be able to wack around Bonser. They have nothing to play for, the pressure is on Minny to take this series. IMO Minny is the team to beat in the AL this year. Tonight Garcia Vs Boof Bonser, RHP (7-5, 4.15) Saturday morning is Garland Vs Matt Garza, RHP (3-5, 5.32) Sunday is Vazquez Vs Scott Baker, RHP (5-8, 6.37) By the numbers, Boof is actually the best of the bunch. Just have to play the games and find out.

I can think of no man who accomplished more in baseball than Frank Robinson. Youngest player in MLB 1956. Oldest player in MLB 1976. Rookie of the year 1956 NL MVP 1961 AL MVP 1966 AL Triple Crown 1966 WS MVP 1966 ASG MVP 1971 2 World Series rings 586 career HR Player Manager 1975 HOF (Player) 1982 ML Manager 16 seasons Manager of the Year 1982 Presidential Medal of Freedom 2005

Jacobs is freaking empty!

The 'everyday' lineup. Chicago White Sox Scott Podsednik LF .260 Tadahito Iguchi 2B .282 Jermaine Dye RF .316 Jim Thome DH .290 Paul Konerko 1B .315 Joe Crede 3B .286 A.J. Pierzynski C .297 Juan Uribe SS .238 Brian_N Anderson CF .231 Jon Garland P (17-6, 4.37) Cleveland Indians Grady Sizemore CF .292 Jason Michaels LF .266 Victor Martinez C .315 Ryan Garko 1B .291 Shin-Soo Choo RF .277 Casey Blake DH .283 Joe Inglett 2B .287 Jhonny Peralta SS .253 Andy Marte 3B .222 Cliff Lee P (12-11, 4.58) Umpires: HP: Kerwin Danley. 1B: Tim Welke. 2B: Gary Cederstrom. 3B: Jim Reynolds.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Sep 24, 2006 -> 03:17 PM) Buehrle getting hit like all over the ballpark like a pin ball machine caused those runs. Don't make excuses for Buehrle's pathetic showing. Mark didn't overcome the situation, I grant you that. But a vulnerable arm out there, even the aggressive Mariners wouldn't have run on anybody else, is just like an error everytime the ball goes to him. Turn a singles into doubles and even Cy Young is going to give up runs. Mark was bad to begin with and Ross just made it worse. You can't win wth Gload in left.

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Sep 23, 2006 -> 02:00 AM) I wish Gload got more playing time. I thought he did well when he played. Did you see him throw? I was hoping that he would slowly improve after last year's shoulder injury but he showed yesterday that he still cannot survive as a regular major league outfielder. His weak arm directly led to 2 runs against Beuhrle. 1B and DH are the only positions where he can get playing time without hurting the team, despite his fine hitting.

Seattle Ichiro Suzuki CF .317 Adrian Beltre 3B .265 Jose Lopez 2B .289 Raul Ibanez LF .283 Richie Sexson 1B .258 Eduardo Perez DH .253 Mike Morse RF .389 Rene Rivera C .154 Willie Bloomquist SS .252 Felix Hernandez P (11-14, 4.68) Chicago WSox Ross Gload LF .331 Juan Uribe SS .236 Jermaine Dye RF .317 Jim Thome DH .288 Paul Konerko 1B .311 AJ Pierzynski C .293 Joe Crede 3B .287 Alex Cintron 2B .281 Brian Anderson CF .230 Mark Buehrle P (12-13, 4.79) Umpires: HP: Eric Cooper. 1B: Gerry Davis. 2B: Brian Gorman. 3B: Bill Miller.

Ryan and the regulars Detroit Curtis Granderson CF .261 Ivan Rodriguez C .293 Sean Casey 1B .248 Magglio Ordonez RF .294 Carlos Guillen SS .309 Omar Infante 2B .288 Craig Monroe LF .259 Marcus Thames DH .254 Brandon Inge 3B .251 Jeremy Bonderman P (12-8, 4.14) Chicago WSox Scott Podsednik LF .261 Tadahito Iguchi 2B .287 Jermaine Dye RF .320 Jim Thome DH .287 Paul Konerko 1B .314 AJ Pierzynski C .292 Joe Crede 3B .291 Ryan Sweeney CF .235 Juan Uribe SS .234 Jon Garland P (17-5, 4.30) Umpires: HP: Alfonso Marquez. 1B: Mike Everitt. 2B: Tom Hallion. 3B: Larry Young.

From the Sun-Times