chw42

Glad to see Morel hitting for more power over the past week. I was getting so tired of him hitting singles and getting on base at a .260 clip. That was depressing.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:56 PM) At least he appears to try to earn his $9 million through hard work. One might question the same devotion in somebody like Dunn, who to the naked eye appears overweight, and Rios, who loafs. He can try all he wants, but he's not worth $9 million. Neither are Dunn and Rios, but they got their money based on talent and track record.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 10:41 PM) Nice thread. Did you see the postgame interview? How can you not like Juan Pierre? Total class. His 2,000th hit was a nice one for him to remember. A hard hit single. Sometimes I think people are jealous of guys like little Juan. He has no power but through hard work and getting the most out of his ability, he's had a very very nice career. I hope Oz brings him to Florida with him and he has another good year. He has no pop (though I do recall watching him blast 2 homers this year just nine less than worthless Dunn), and he's lost his ability to swipe bases like Rock Raines did as well, but you have to love the little fella. Oh please let that happen. You can go with them if you want. And yes, we hate Juan Pierre because we are jealous. So very jealous. I would love $9 million a year to play baseball. I am also jealous of Paul Konerko and his 16,000 sq foot home in Scottsdale, not to mention his $12.5 million salary. But do you see anybody hating on him? Pierre is one of the hardest working guys in baseball and he has to work hard to stay in shape. He's lasted pretty long for a guy who relies on speed, those guys usually fall off the earth by their early 30s. But he's no longer talented and baseball is a business where results matter, not how hard a guy works to be a replacement level player.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 08:15 PM) If a manager made every decision exactly by the stats, wouldn't that make him exactly an average manager? he would never be better than the stats, or worse, he'd be exactly average. Not really. The whole point of using statistics in baseball is to exploit weaknesses and play to the strength of your team. So you'd be doing quite the opposite.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) I don't see that qualifier anywhere... Exactly... Bieber fever J4L. Pics or it didn't happen!

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 02:08 PM) So is he or is he not a "good" ballplayer? I said he is and again there's been a lot of Juan hate on here talking about his "empty" accomplishment. Kylie I think you've lost it. I've read the stats on Juan people post. I can assess them and still in my mind come up with the conclusion he's a "good ballplayer." I read the stats people put on here and am glad to see them. People on this site turn the arguments around when I ask a simple question. Who on this team IS a good ballplayer? I was told Juan is not a good ballplayer and neither is CQ. Paulie is good I was told. Somebody thought Lexi is a good ballplayer. Some of the pitchers I was told are "good." It's not my fault this site doesn't wanna talk about generalities as I do. Is he a good ballplayer or not? When I see the answer is "no," yes I think that's a hater of Juan. Juan Pierre hasn't been consistently good at baseball since 2004. I think Pierre is now a bad baseball player, but that wasn't always the case. Juan Pierre, early in his career, was a very good leadoff hitter because he got on base at a fairly high clip, stole a lot of bases, and was a good defensive center fielder. But here are the facts since then... Pierre has posted an OBP over .350 only once since 2004 and that was during a season where he only had 400 PAs. Pierre has failed to reach the 3 WAR mark since 2007 and has only reached that threshold once since 2004. Pierre has posted a wRC+ over 90 only once since 2004 and that one occasion was in his shortened 2009 season where he got hot for two months. Pierre's fielding has taken a huge downgrade this season along with his base running ability. Therefore, he is losing range in the outfield and speed on the base paths. In other words, he's getting old. So you have a declining speedster who hits nothing but singles. Thus he must use his speed in the field and on the bases to get him value. Unfortunately, he's not even doing the things that gave him value before well anymore. Therefore, Juan Pierre is no longer a good player. He once was, but that was a long ass time ago. See if I really hated Juan Pierre (like J4L does), I would say things like "Juan Pierre was never a good baseball player" or "Juan Pierre always sucked". But that's complete subjectivity without any evidence and I simply don't roll that way. And even when J4L hates Pierre to no end, he has his reasons and he will explain precisely why he hates him when you ask him nicely.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 03:10 PM) http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80845 You were cutting it kind of close here... I'm fairly positive (without looking) that Thornton does have a better K-rate, WHIP, and FIP. And IMO, those are the only stats of the 5 that actually showcases talent.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 12:23 PM) Define empty. I agree his 2000 hits are nothing remotely close to Konerko's 2000 hits, but they are completely different players. A lot of Juan's hits would have been lead-off hits, bloop singles, infield hits, bunt singles, and of course 16 HRs. A lot of those hits may not have led to anything, especially if he got on base and no one behind him did anything. Empty as in he hits nothing but singles. His career ISO is under .07, meaning that he gets an extra base hit in 7% of his at bats.

If Juan Pierre ever reaches 3000 hits (I doubt he will), that will be the most empty 3000 hits in the history of baseball. I also don't doubt that the 2000 hits he will have soon will be one of the most empty 2000 hit careers in the history of baseball.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 09:42 AM) Let's see: Yankees? No Red Sox? No Jays? No Rays? No Orioles? No Indians? No Tigers? No Twins? No Royals? No Rangers? No A's? No Angels? No Mariners? No On to the NL: Braves? No Nationals? No Marlins? No Phillies? No Mets? No Cubs? No Cardinals? No Reds? No Pirates? No Brewers? No Astros? No Giants? No Rockies? No Diamondbacks? No Dodgers? No The conclusion? A.J. will be back next year. I like how you went through all that trouble to make a point. Well done sir.

Just shut him down. Let him finish the season on a good note and rest his arm. There's absolutely no reason to push him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 08:04 AM) ESPNStatsInfo ESPN Stats & Info Jose Bautista stole home Wed. Who was the last 40-HR player to steal home in the same season? #Elias; Answer: Adam Dunn in 2004 Adam Dunn stole a base before?!?!

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 7, 2011 -> 11:55 PM) I've been talking to a lot of baseball fans outside of Chicago and ask them what their perception is of Ozzie Guillen. They all say that he is a good manager. I ask them all if they can understand why a message board I frequent wants him fired and believes he will be fired. They say, 'No.' If we finish .500, folks, Ozzie being fired will be perceived as unfair nationally. $127 million All-In slogan .500 record in one of the worst divisions in baseball Unfair?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 7, 2011 -> 11:56 PM) It's dangerous to think Humber and Stewart are great options. Are they just Kyle Davies clones as we enter an era where we are the new Royals? No offense to them. They've been great, but they could open next season throwing BP. They have no track record of greatness. Ozzie's track record of greatness is above all!

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 8, 2011 -> 12:06 AM) Do you guys think there's any way Ozzie returns? Doesn't matter what we think, you'll insist he should stay anyways.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_...04806086589-996 Rios is pretty damn strong and athletic...too bad he can't do much with it on the baseball field. And it's also good to see that he might actually give a s***.

Soxtalk should instigate a riot during Sox fest if there are no changes made. That'll show em!

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 7, 2011 -> 08:27 AM) Is this a strange year, or what? Seems like there are an inordinate amount of teams spending and not getting results, compared to most years. 7 of the top 12 will likely miss the playoffs. LA Angels - 77-65 (5th in AL) - $138 million in payroll (4th overall) White Sox - 71-69 (7th in AL) - $127 million in payroll (5th overall) Chicago Cubs - 61-81 (2nd worst in NL) - $125 million in payroll (6th overall) New York Mets - 69-71 (8th in NL) - $118 million in payroll (7th overall) San Francisco Giants 75-67 (t5th in NL) - $118 million in payroll (8th overall) Minnesota Twins - 58-84 (worst in AL) - $112 million in payroll (9th overall) LA Dodgers - 69-72 (9th in NL) - $104 million in payroll (12th overall) And this is what happens when teams throw money around wildly. If you're not a big market and your GM isn't all-so-brilliant, all-in is a horrible strategy.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 7, 2011 -> 05:01 PM) One of the great starting staffs of the last quarter century. Last I checked, Rollins, Utley, Howard, Victorino and Pence weren't classified as boring players. Gotta be a little more specific than "least fun team in baseball." Hunter Pence is very fun to watch. And Kjshoe has a point about the Phillies. They hog all the wins... I get so sick of my roommate b****ing over a loss when they're 40 games over and I have to deal with our dysfunctional piece of s*** team.

My roommate's a Phillies fan and he watches all the games (I watch it with him at times) and I am jealous of that team. They have a chance to win every game because of the rotation and while their bullpen isn't that good, it's not going to hurt their chances to win it all. Their offense after getting Pence has also been a lot better. No more pitching around Howard to get to Raul Ibanez or John Mayberry. Once they get Rollins back, that lineup will be pretty legit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 6, 2011 -> 02:33 PM) MDGonzales Mark Gonzales Zach Stewart first rookie since 1900 to pitch shutout, allow no more than 1 runner and strike out at least 9 (Elias Sports Bureau). Would he have been the first rookie to throw a perfect game if it wasn't for Valencia?

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Sep 6, 2011 -> 05:51 AM) Maddon also has the benefit of the probably the best young pitching staff in the AL. You could argue their record should be better considering they have 111 starts from pitchers with an ERA under 3.70. He does a nice job. But his job is made much easier when the biggest decision he has to make what order a rotation of Price, Shields, Hellickson, and Nieman should pitch. I like Maddon, but put him on the Royals, and they are still in 20+ games under .500 and fighting to stay out of last place. We're not talking about the Royals here. Give any manager that pitching staff and they'll have a hard time getting to 10 below .500. But if Maddon managed this White Sox roster, we'd be a lot better than 70-69.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 5, 2011 -> 08:06 PM) The problem with the list IIRC is we'll never know what the other decision would have resulted in. Oz had a terrible year, perhaps his worst year as a manager. In my opinion, if Dunn and/or Rios play close to their career averages, this team is in the playoffs. Their performance was much more of a factor than Oz. I'm not saying Oz doesn't share in the blame. I'm not saying he's done a good job. I'm saying players make a much bigger difference than the manager. I'd rather make poor decisions with good players that great decisions with mediocre. Of course good decisions with good players wins championships. Oh Rios and Dunn have are a much bigger issue than Ozzie this season. Together, those two have cost the Sox at least 3-4 wins just by themselves. But Ozzie has also empowered them to be terrible by putting them in the lineup on a daily basis. There's something called damage control and the whole KW vs. Ozzie debacle erased the possibility of that. We don't know the specifics of that problem, but if Ozzie can say "I make the f***ing lineups" to the fans, he outta have the balls to say it to Kenny too. After all, if Kenny has absolute power over Ozzie, Pierre would have been gone in July.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 5, 2011 -> 09:51 PM) Ugh. Fathom you are a successful grown man who knows the ways of the world. And you think Ozzie has the option to truly bench $14 mill a year and $12 mill a year which, forgive me if I'm wrong, are what Dunn n Rios are making? Just because of one sentence uttered by KW in the media? That he gave Oz his blessing to bench the 2 megamillionares? So why is it that he can bench them now...?