almagest

Five words... three hundred million lotto tickets.

I didn't even know this was in here. Thanks guys!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 06:08 PM) BS. Uribe never bought me dinner. A couple of cocktails, but no dinner, and I liked him before that. In fact, just about everyone did. I just remain loyal, just like I'm sure you are with Fields, Richar, Owens and Broadway. He didn't slip any roofies in those drinks, did he?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:51 PM) Yet 3 games after a DL stint, after playing the season with a hand injury is enough to say Konerko is done? If he goes 1-4 tonight, wouldn't that technically be an uptrend for Paulie? I'm not Paulie's biggest fan, I just think this is an unfair thread. I didn't say that. If you read my other post, you'll notice I talked about giving Konerko time to get back to form. I think all this player bashing is silly...except for Juan Uribe. He stinks.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:00 PM) Almaguest you didn't respond to Dick's post. He pointed out Swish had ONE GOOD MONTH. He also pointed out some major flaws. No, I did. Swisher's most recent full month was extremely good, and represents an upward trend over the previous months. They've also played, what, 8 or 9 games in July? It's a little early to declare him as suck for this month, and it's a little ridiculous to say he's terrible again.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:48 PM) That's what I don't understand as well. Paulie has sucked with his meager 8 homers in a year he's been hurt some. Swisher has also been average at best and I don't think he's a great centerfielder. I want Swish lovers to respond to Dick's two posts! You got it. Swisher's June: .315/.402/.630/1.032 Don't really need to say anything else. Also, Konerko needs to be given a chance to play out of it. His career numbers suggest an OPS around .850 is a reasonable expectation for the rest of the year, which is just fine with me. If he continues to struggle through July, bench/platoon him. I really don't get all the whining going on around here, especially since we're in first place and the team has looked very good lately.

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 02:08 PM) So it's official, we want the Twins and Tigers to both lose all four and then spontaneously combust. Sounds good to me. Maybe the Metrodome could also somehow implode, or maybe turn into a non-crappy stadium?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 7, 2008 -> 12:15 PM) What does that tell you besides giving up outs via sacrifice bunts and getting caught stealing to "manufacture" runs isn't really the best way to score? Good OBP + doubles/ HR's = great offense. There is a ton of research showing that bunting is only really useful in close and late situations, and that basestealers need to steal at >75% success rate to contribute positively to runs scored, yet people continually assert that what the Sox are "missing" is this nebulous concept of run manufacturing. I really don't understand it, especially since the Sox hit over 200 home runs in 2005, and slugged their way through all but 2 or 3 games in the playoffs. Our problem this year has been a couple of black holes throughout the lineup (Swisher, Cabrera, Konerko, Thome, Uribe) that only now are starting to produce, or are on the bench/injured. We weren't struggling offensively because we weren't bunting with a runner on first or second in the 5th inning. Anyway, back on topic. The Twins are unbelievably annoying. But they won't continue to be this good. I really think that 90 wins is the benchmark for winning the division, and all the Sox need to do is focus on winning at least that many games. The rest will take care of itself.

QUOTE (ChiSox35 @ Jul 5, 2008 -> 09:56 AM) " I understand Dye or Quentin have done enough good to get a free pass from time to time, but failing in a clutch situation is just that. " I wasn't comparing Uribe to Queye. If it's 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth and two outs in the World Series and Jesus Quentin dribbles it to the pitcher. Do you want to hide behind your stats then? Baseball is a game of hit or miss. One day the team MVP will win a game, another day the mascot or bench coach will. It's obvious that there are people who believe that Uribe could end up winning a game here or there for the team. If there weren't, he'd be talking to his bats and bickering playfully with Ed Farmer in Colombia instead of the bench. But you know what? I kind of like a lot of your guys approach. Let's DFA STFU LULZ him and bat with 8 guys instead of 9, and lets just put one of those bp ball screens at short on defesnse. Okay, odd ramblings aside, Quentin gets breaks in situations where he doesn't succeed because he is good. Juan Uribe doesn't, because he is bad. It's pretty simple. I don't remember suggesting to DFA Uribe, either.

Juan Uribe 2008 OPS+: 57 Carlos Quentin 2008 OPS+: 136 Jermaine Dye 2008 OPS+: 139 Yep, certainly a valid comparison there! Juan Uribe = Carlos Quentin = Jermaine Dye. Uribe for the 2008 All-Star Game! Sometimes I wonder about some of you...

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 4, 2008 -> 09:50 PM) Also in attendance at the game tonight. Just seemed like a bad game plan tonight against Blanton. No one had a clue. Oh, and what the hell was the IBB to Ellis about???? Not sure either. That and the bunt in the 5th inning made me think Ozzie didn't have much of a game plan, either. Still amazed Oakland only managed 7 runs on like 17 hits. I think they wore the middle of the field out tonight.

I was at the game tonight. Blanton was throwing consistent first pitch strikes, and actually didn't look too bad. He was sitting around 89 with his fastball, and 82-83 with the change, which he threw A LOT. On a positive note, I got a Quentin jersey today at the game.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 4, 2008 -> 09:03 PM) Ramirez is 3 for his last 18. His OBP is a whopping .309. Someone explain how he would have made up the 6 run difference? Yeah, and Uribe's OBP is a whopping .264. And it's not like we went out there knowing we'd lose 7-1 either. That's a silly rationalization.

Speaking of cost-effective solar power generation... Inkjet-printable solar panels

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 1, 2008 -> 03:00 PM) MacDougal had one very good season (2006), but even that year, signs of his head problems were there (every year, including that one, he's worse in situations like close-and-late, RISP, Runners On, etc.). He was bad in 2007, pretty bad in ST this year, and bad to start 2008. And now he's bad in AAA. MacDougal probably has a little value still, because of his skills. But he's a head case, and he's really only had one good year. He won't fetch much by himself. He's had 2 partial seasons at league-average (ERA+ 99 and 103 in '01 and '02), two full seasons that were very good (ERA+ 120 and 132 in '03 and '05), and one obscene partial season (in '06 he had an ERA+ of 305). Believe it or not, but when he's got his head screwed on right, Mike Macdougal is a dominant reliever, and could bring SOMETHING decent back in a trade.

Nothin' like Barry Zito and the Giants to pull you out of a losing streak.

QUOTE (BobDylan @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 11:11 PM) That's a stat worth figuring out -- which I won't do -- how many runs have scored via the homer? If it is anything under 2/3rd's, I'll be surprised. Heard a blurb on TV today that it was a bit under 50%.

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 04:35 PM) He only said it was a guess... As I said, what I've seen doesn't reflect that, so I was interested to see if he could produce any evidence to show it. Otherwise I'm not going to agree with something based on a guess.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 01:40 PM) Start looking at standard deviation of runs scored instead of average. That will tell you how consistent they are. I'd also guess that as your runs scored deviates more and more, your run differential becomes less and less accurate at predicting wins and losses. Link or evidence, please? The only research I've seen is that teams with a standard deviation of runs scored & runs against close to the league average for a particular year fall closest to their Pythag record.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 11:55 AM) We will look great in some games and pathetic in others. When the offense is bad, it's really, really bad. Nobody here is saying we should be a juggernaut offense and that the Sox suck because they're not one, they're saying this team is unbalanced and inconsistent. Which is really obvious when seeing the records of those other teams without HRs. Boston Red Sox Offense 84 games played 19 games scoring 2 or less runs 5 games shutout 5.04 R/G Chicago White Sox Offense 82 games played 24 games scoring 2 or less runs 8 games shutout 4.83 R/G So the Sox average roughly a quarter run less per game than the Red Sox, which is a team most consider to be very good offensively on a consistent basis. The Sox also have only 5 more games scoring >= 2 runs (6% more), and have 3 more shutouts against (~4%). I haven't looked into it beyond the Red Sox, but I'd bet the White Sox are not as inconsistent as you think, at least as compared to the rest of baseball. We also have the second-highest run differential in baseball, as someone mentioned previously. That's a far better measure of W/L records than offensive "consistency."

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 09:34 AM) As evidenced by Jackie Hayes' and a couple other posts, this is a pretty gross misrepresentation of what people are saying. I don't see how what I said is a misrepresentation of this thread at all. The observation that we don't win when we don't hit homeruns as presented is an obvious complaint against our offense and the way it's built. My response was that we play to the strengths of our park, we average more than a HR per game, and when given the evidence presented in this thread, this is a pretty good indication that we'll keep winning consistently, as long as the pitching holds up.

Why is this such an issue for people? We've been at or near the top of MLB in home runs since like 2003. Our park is a hitter's paradise, so we build our team to take advantage of that. We're on pace for about 215 home runs this year, meaning we'll average roughly 1.33 home runs per game. We also average 4.83 runs a game. The offense is fine. Inconsistent at times, but every team has the same problem. I sure would like us to start scoring in different ways and become one of the best offenses of all time and score like 900 runs a season, though. Unfortunately, that's probably not going to happen.

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 02:45 PM) Nobody has done the ol' "yeah, you guys would kill for a chick that looks like this" or "lets see your (girlfriend or wife) yet. ...Until you said it. Hahaha! Soxtalk is not maturing at all! Now let's see some gf/wife pics plz.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Jun 26, 2008 -> 05:37 PM) Please. A blow-up doll would be less plastic than that lady. It'd be like having sex with a real doll. ...Eh, I'd still do her. Even better if I could get the house, do her a couple times, then kick her out and keep the house.