TLAK

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 5, 2007 -> 09:23 AM) Its a mathematical formula based on runs scored and runs allowed that comes up with what your expected record should be. Its not quite Black Scholes theory, but it is interesing none the less. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_expectation What makes this season look 'good' is a number of horrible, embarrasing beatings. The Sox have lost games by 16 and 13 runs, and two each at 12 and 10. On the other side they have won only one game by as much as 8. So the RA column is higher than normal for a baseball team with a similar record scoring a similar amount of runs. Its just a little statistical blip. This season it's more a measure of a poor middle relief corps than a good manager.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Sep 3, 2007 -> 12:35 AM) Great post. The Royals' GM is laughing. MacDougal and Thornton are trash. Players I mean. They probably are great individuals but as players they are worthless. Just let 'em go. And Buckwheat also. He's the worst of the 3. They got Thornton from the Mariners for Joe Borchard. Bukvich played for the Rangers and in the minors since being traded from KC by the previous GM, Allan Baird. I think he was a non-roster MLB camp invite for the White Sox, so, in terms of what he cost, he was also a good pick up.

For the link impaired, here's more of the article.

I find I still enjoy watching and listening to the games even though the team is not doing well. The worst year in my fandom was 1994, the strike year. Although the White Sox played well, there were no playoffs or World Series. The last game of the season was August 10, and not another game to watch until the end of April 1995. No matter how poorly the White Sox look in the standings, it's still a lot better than no baseball.

Danks, Floyd, Logan, Wasserman, Fields, Richar, Gonzalez, Owens. 8 rookies or first full season men out of the 25 on the roster. Thats a lot.

Ozzie speaks the truth, from MLB.com Scott Merkin

RotoWorld MLB.Com Alex Gyr

Funny Ken Williams quote. Discussing Brian Anderson who thought that he received a low blow when he was sent down this spring after 17 AB (he was hitting .117 at the time). MLB.com 8/19 Scott Merkin KW went on to make some positive statements about BA, so it wasn't just a bash job.

I'm glad JD resigned, he is one my favorite players to watch. He is moving better and covering more ground since he had the 'oil change' done to his knee so it's not unreasonable to think he will be good for a couple more years. That Kenny Williams sure is a funny fellow. The team wins the World Series and he tears it apart, changing a quarter of the roster before spring training. This year they are 13 under and he's resigning everybody. Go figure.

QUOTE(GoGoWhiteSox! @ Aug 15, 2007 -> 05:51 AM) Screw Stoney....he's a Cubs Die Hard and always will be. Despite the fact that he is a tremendously talented broadcaster I don't want him anywhere near Sox games due to the fact that his true allegiance is to the North Side. Exposure to Hawk would cure that. I bet that after a month we'd get a squeaky 'Dagnab it' out of Stoney.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 16, 2007 -> 08:07 AM) Besides, I don't think he'd have much merit and it would fizzle like the last time he tried to sue someone. The only case of a guy coming close to winning one these I can think of is Bo Jackson. A Californina paper said his hip trouble was due to anabolic steroids. He immediately sued and held a press conference where he answered every question and accusation in person - no spokesman, no "no comment", just Bo in front of the mike taking on all comers. Although the case was eventually dismissed on a technicality (jurisdiction), he got a retraction from the paper and an appology. His name was cleared, no pun, in the court of public opinion. If nothing else, the case reinforced his public image of an honest man and a man's man, in addition to being a great athlete. He remains widely admired to this day. The contrast between Bo and Bonds is striking.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 11, 2007 -> 10:29 PM) Fields at short would be hideous. The guy isn't even average at 3rd defensively and I still think we will see him in left or right field next season (with Crede back at 3rd because in the end 4.5-5M is worth it for one Joe Crede...his bat is still good when he's healthy and he's a legit stud defensively). Any one think about him at 2B? If he could make the turn it would really open up some possibilities. At first blush you'd think he was too clumsy but some other bigger guys, Baerga, Sandberg or Grich for example, turned out pretty good. Fields seems to handle any ball that he doesn't have to think about and I think 2b is less 'cerebral' than 3b for a young player making his bones in the bigs.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Aug 10, 2007 -> 04:17 PM) If Pods will only garner the same crap that Kenny got in the Iguchi trade, forget it. I looked up the crap you refer to. 21 year old Michael Dubee is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in Kannapolis. Opponents are hitting .167 against him, he has 12 Ks in 9 IP. I see he also started a game. Give the young man some time.

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 05:04 PM) LOl, I wonder what Wrigley would score. I guess not everything is suitable for print though 25 vermin, not counting the coaches.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Aug 6, 2007 -> 12:02 PM) Looking at Glavine, though, he never did any of those things. He pitched 32-36 starts in a normal year, and never more than 36, and his high for ip was 247, which wouldn't be very strange today. The fact that there are more dl trips and surgeries doesn't mean that the same pitchers would have more injuries, more that guys who would otherwise be forced out of the league get another shot to play. And guys like Clemens and Maddux didn't want to retire, even though they definitely could have. I just don't see anything that isn't reproducible. I think we've just had a string of good luck in seeing so many great pitchers on good-to-great teams in such a short period of time. People look around and don't see anyone like that right now, and jump to the conclusion that we'll never see another one. It may take a while, but there'll be another 300-game winner. Spot on. I just looked up the stats for the last 5 guys to make 300, Glavine, Clemens, Maddux, Ryan and Sutton. They average between 29-32 starts per year, and 199-226 innings. I think to win 300 you have to be: A: A very good pitcher. B: Play on a competitive team. C: Avoid getting hurt. Non of these are impossible in the present era. The other thing the 'old school' guys like to bring up is the modern bullpens, saying in the past pitchers went longer which gave them a better chance to pick up a win in low scoring games. I buy some of that but it also gets them out of there with a good shot to get a win when they have a small lead. Point A is God's gift, He must give you the arm and the brain to use it properly. Point B might actually be easier today because after 6 years you can sign with a big money (and usually very competitive) team while under the old reserve clause you were stuck with who ever drafted or signed you. Point C is a mix of a player taking care of himself, selecting the right advice to follow from all the different coach's and plain luck ---Mussina might be on this list if he didn't take that liner off the noggin in 98, or Herb Score to name two guys.

QUOTE(SoxPride56 @ Aug 5, 2007 -> 07:30 PM) Tejada will never play for the White Sox... this was probably just to block other teams from getting him. Namely Detroit

2007_08_04_121853.bmp QUOTE(Wealz @ Aug 3, 2007 -> 10:02 PM) Going into tonight's game, the Sox's expected win total based upon runs scored vs. runs given up was 43. What skews this season is the large number of absolute shellackings the team and its fans have suffered. This inflates the RA column and makes the 'expected' wins lower. Attached are the number of games by final score margin. This is one stat where a bad bullpen can actually make the manager look good. Edit, added Jpeg

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 3, 2007 -> 11:37 PM) Ryan and the Twins do a helluva job scouting, but their free agent signings probably rank right up there with the worst. In 2007 alone, Jeff Cirillo? Sidney Ponson? Ramon Ortiz? In 2006 they did the same thing -- went with crappy veterans rather than trust their farm system (Juan Castro and Tony Batista). I'd say they got rather lucky by having two MVP quality players on offense, the best pitcher in baseball throwing every five days and a two-month period of pure dominance from Liriano. I don't see Ryan as being a heckuva lot better, either, and it's going to be verrrry interesting to see what they do with CF -- they have nobody to replace Hunter. In a different sense it might be a good way to introduce the guys from the minors. Bringing a kid out of spring training puts a lot of pressure on him. He's under the microscope in every pre-season team story at the same time he's adjusting to the Major League life, facing good pitching every single day and subjected to Major League advance scouts who can identify the smallest chink in his armor and absolutely pound on it. On the other hand Terry Ryan signs these retreads on the cheap. They take the glare off the kid early and give him a target to aim at, a standard to meet while still in the minors. The old saying is "All you have to do to get here is play better than him." The kid can be brought up when he's going well in one of those obscure agate type transactions, and slipped here and there into the line up against pitching he matches up well against. If the kid plays as good as you thought the retread just gets released, he wasn't making big money anyway, and now you have a kid who has already gone through a lot of the adjustment process without the whole world dissecting his every move.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 28, 2007 -> 11:48 AM) Has talent but is prone to dumb errors. Thats what they need to find out about him. A kid with his track record will hit, if not now then later. But how he handles balls in key situations with the bright lights on will determine if the Sox can use him.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jul 28, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) what did we trade for him? the whole board is excited over a guy we got for crap... there has to be a reason arizona basically gave him away. on a side note... is it ree-kar or ree-shar? This is the press release. I never saw him play but IIRC Cunningham was highly thought of by the FutureSox crew. So it's not like the Sox traded some bum to get Richar.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jul 27, 2007 -> 10:27 PM) how come Pods didn't get an error on that one play? Just home now, saw it live. It was an unusual play, meaning it's not like he dropped a routine fly ball. I marked it as a hit before it came up on scoreboard, there was really no question.

QUOTE(BigEdWalsh @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 01:23 AM) I still watch and follow the Sox because I've been a White Sox fan for 50 some years(!!). I've endured worse teams and seasons than this. I'm with you, Brother. This is not nearly as bad as it has been at times in the past. At least they are not moving the team, and the Manager isn't Don Gutteridge asleep on the bench with eyes painted on his glasses. There are no Claudell Washingtons on this team, as inconsistant as Uribe can be at short he's not Alan Bannister, who was consistant in the wrong direction. Things will need to get whole lot worse before I don't watch the White Sox.

Look at Hinske's Fenway hitting chart for GB and Singles. On the season he has hit one ground ball and one single to the left side. It wasn't dumb, it just didn't work this time.

MLB.Com The speedy Perez?

Unusual for a team 13 games back, the White Sox can still control their own destiny because the schedule is back loaded with AL-Central teams in the second half. Team - Games Remaining - Games Back Tigers - 14 - 13 Indians - 12 - 12 Twins - 6 - 5 Royals - 10 - (2) What usually kills a late season surge is the other guys keep winning too. It is certainly improbable given the injuries and struggles to date, but if the White Sox do go on a hot streak it will be at the right time to give the teams ahead of them the loses they need to make up ground. Just something to keep an eye on.