eickevinmorris

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:53 PM) This first comment is moronic. Speed is an asset if....? Speed is an asset in itself. Every single tool is an asset in itself. You don't need high average or high walk totals or big power in order to run fast. That is ridiculous. As long as you can play defense and help your team in the field, then the speed you offer on the offensive side of the baseball is an asset in itself. Besides, power is dependent on contact. OBP is dependent upon contact. Contact is the most important plate skill despite what you may think, and Willy makes contact. That actually increases his usefulness as a speed player, even though his speed is not entirely dependent upon contact because he can put down a bunt. Look at our roster. AJ plays a premium position and his asset is contact. That's all he does really well besides defense. Fields' asset is power, and right now that is all he does well. Thome has two assets offensively - eye and power - and can't play the field. Uribe, who we started for years, has zero assets aside from defense because his power actually depends on his contact rate which was abysmal. The point is no one tool trumps the other. It is about fit and that's it. Willy plays defense and offers more than anyone we have and anyone we had last year, because he can actually play CF. Your statement that AJ plays defense "well" ruins any shred of credibility you still had. 1. Not all tools are equal, that statement is f***ing amazingly ignorant. 2. Not really sure what you're getting at with this contact argument. Sure, Willy makes good contact, but he doesn't walk or make good contact, as evidenced by his horrendous XBH totals.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:47 PM) Tavares offers speed and defense, plus an arm. He hits for decent average and can steal 30+ bases. SLG is not important, but OBP is. If he can get .315 OBP, he can bat 9th for all I care. If it means that he can take the extra base on a base hit, I'm all for it. Then just put Jerry Owens out there if that's your requirement.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:43 PM) They're not the greatest players on their teams or the greatest lead-off hitters, but they did lead off a lot for their teams. So what's the point? Because other teams do something completely stupid, we should do it too? Also, those players, despite their low OBPs, offer something valuable -- something you can't say about Taveras (relative to the White Sox, as we've already got a no-hit, great defense CF in Anderson).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:40 PM) The haters will counter that some of those guys either hit of power or have power potential. The haters seem to think that SLG% and OBP are more or less equal, which is why they parrot that OPS stat for everything, and as long as a player either slugs or gets on base at a high rate he's an acceptable lead-off man. Completely ignore speed and the way it affects a ballgame because real baseball games that count in the standings are not played on the field, they're actually simulated in Baseball Prospectus' offices. Seriously, why do you have to be such a douche about the fact that everyone thinks (read: knows) Taveras is a below average ballplayer? And no, nobody believes SLG and OBP are equal; if they do, they shouldn't be commenting, as anyone with half a brain knows OBP trumps SLG by quite a bit. Problem is, your boy Taveras offers neither OBP nor SLG skills. Also, the "hater" in me will note that the guys posted above are actually good at other facets of the game or are extremely young.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:35 PM) Taveras is worthless. We shouldn't trade a bag of balls for him, no, we should trade Fields, Getz, and Poreda for Roberts instead. That way we can spend a bunch of money on a 3B and deplete the farm in the process. Great idea. You're basically comparing Anderson's value to us to Taveras' value to us, and Taveras has accomplished much more in his career than Anderson may ever will, and he also fits a need. Who else should we get? I dunno, but someone with great OPS. Speed is only okay unless a player has to rely on it, because if a player has rely on his speed that that player is garbage. Speed is not a real baseball tool, it's nothing but smoke and mirrors, and it does not affect a baseball game in any way. Only OPS do. Way to play the strawman. Speed is an asset if you do something else remotely well. Taveras hits a bunch of singles -- fantastic, that's great. He doesn't take walks, he doesn't hit for power, he doesn't get on base a great amount of the time. You can't steal first base.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 05:30 PM) BTW- the OBP of some other prominent leadoff hitters this past season Ellsbury- .336 Pierre- .327 Carlos Gomez- .296 Crawford .319 Gaithright .311 O Cabrera- .334 Chris Young .315 Adam Jones .311 Now I obviously was picking and choosing with that list but there's some big names on that list that haven't done much more than WT. Nobody thinks those guys are prominent hitters at this point in their careers (sans Crawford). I have no idea what stretch of a point you are trying to concoct.

QUOTE (Shadows @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 04:06 PM) Thats just flat out wrong Wily T is FAR from being on of the worst in the league at the plate Please, go on.

No thanks. I'll take guys that can actually hit.

Cabrera will sign before the deadline. It won't be an issue.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 10:23 AM) Those were two utterly horrendous articles. The logic isn't even there. Clearly Swisher was the best player in the deal, but there are a lot of other things to evaluate when making a trade and it is laughable how people continue to ignore the job Kenny and his scouts have done when it comes to trading for former top prospects (Marquez wasn't a true top prospect, but he's definitely a prospect). It isn't as though Kenny isn't prone to mistakes. Cunningham for Richar, Cortes/Lumsden for MacDougal, Contreras extension, Garland for Cabrera, etc. It's easy to be skeptical of this deal because, as of now, on the surface, it was a terrible one. Swisher was not stopping us from signing anyone, save CC (which obviously won't happen). If we're dumping salary, why not get rid of Dye? His defense is absolute trash and his bat is due to cool down any time now. He'd fetch more value than Swisher and save more salary. The trade looks better in people's eyes because the organization pulled their usual "toss player X under the bus" routine. Marquez is a prospect in that he plays minor league baseball, but it'd be foolish to consider him in the same mold as our other famous "failed top prospects" on the roster: Floyd, Danks (to a much lesser extent, though he had his fair share of skeptics), Quentin (who really was more undervalued than anything). He doesn't have that type of talent, and his ceiling at this point is probably that of a swingman. Don't forget we needlessly tossed in Texeira, sweet move.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 08:14 PM) oh dear god will you just look at the freaking stats? he's had like... zero quality starts in the last month and a half. that's pretty f***tastic. Except, you know, 2 of the 3 starts he's had prior to today this month.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 05:52 PM) If Javy hates pitching on a winning ballclub so much why doesn't KW see what any of the bottom feeders in baseball will give up for him...i'd imagine he'd be a 20 game winner/cy young candidate on a team like Washington, San Diego or Seattle. Right. I forgot all those interviews where Javier was begging to be dealt to a team out of contention. This s*** is so tired.

This is just what I was expecting from our stellar fanbase. Not only do people insult Javier's intellect for being unable to have a good game against one of the most dangerous lineups in the game, Milkman insinuates Javier has no genitalia (par for the course on his part). I would bet anyone that Javier finishes at 4.20 ERA for the season and over 200.0 innings. This is such bulls*** on everyone's part. He's our third best pitcher right now and that's not debatable. I'll take him over any other righty we've got for the rest of the season.

QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Jul 26, 2008 -> 04:10 PM) It's a thorough and intellectual criticism of a faulty claim. "Five to ten years." Yeah, for a guy who's been good but not that good at all. Get over yourself. You're not going to garner any praise or support when you come off this pompous. The description you put forth for your own work was the most smug thing I've read since Built to Win.

God I hope the M's hold off until the offseason. I would LOVE Beltre.

I'm not sure who we could fetch for Fields. I wouldn't mind Jeremy Guthrie. I would love for Matt Cain but we obviously lack the ammunition. I don't see too many teams who would want him.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 04:52 PM) My god, does EVERYTHING have to be stats for you? Why does EVERYTHING have to be base statistics for you? There are explanations for strange and/or fluky performances. I understand he goes the other way, I understand some scouts are high on his swing, I understand that he has the potential to be a mediocre corner outfielder.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 10:42 AM) It's too bad, I wish we had a singles hitter who can hit balls through the holes and drive in some big runs. Why would you want someone whose success is totally dependent upon luck?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 10:37 AM) It's not a myth, it happened. The reason we led in every one of our first 37 games was because of Scott Podsednik. He would get on, steal a base and get knocked in. Sure, we depended on the home run more than anything. But we could produce runs when we needed to. We won opening day 1-0, we won the last game of the WS 1-0. Doesn't that tell you something? When we didn't hit the long ball, we scratched out runs. That offense was a lot more consistent too. We also had a historically good pitching staff and the most unbelievable bullpen of the last twenty years. But, if you want to give the lion's share of the credit to a mediocre offense, be my guest.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 10:14 AM) Why don't you just watch tape of him instead to draw your conclusion? http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player...&statType=1 look at his hit spray chart @ Oakland. He's very good at going the other way. You don't need to have a high LD% to do that. Ok. He goes the other way. That doesn't explain the inconsistencies in his MiLB statistics compared to his MLB statistics. He's still a singles hitter whose success is dependent upon hitting it through holes that won't always be open.

I'm still not convinced Sweeney's numbers are legitimate. His LD% doesn't correlate very well to his BABIP.

I think citing Michael Savage when having a political debate is one of the most hilarious things I have ever read. That guy is a f***ing nut. He's in a league of his own. Also BearSox, I'd be happy to know how gay marriage being enacted in CA adversely affects YOUR life.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 5, 2008 -> 11:36 PM) What a terrible draft after round 1. KW kid give me a f***ing break he is not even a 25th round worthy selection and Sox wonder why there farm system is so f***ing poor. Guiilen kid last year who is f***in terrible now Williams lets just let the Sox support both the families for life. So, how many times have you seen him play? What can you tell me about him?

FWIW, in the BP roundtable one guy mentioned how much he LOVED O'Neill from Penn St. The guy is a groundball machine. Perhaps we can convert him into a starter?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 31, 2008 -> 05:44 PM) Huh? Not really. Alexei has been range defensively and has more tools offensively. I would say they really arent that close to the same player. Agree to disagree.