chw42

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ May 3, 2011 -> 08:38 PM) Maybe we shouldn't swing the bat and see if he walks the bases loaded? It would probably yield better results.

QUOTE (T R U @ May 3, 2011 -> 08:38 PM) oh man, what the hell is wrong with this offense Happy 7777 post, lol. It's too cold, that'll be the excuse, lol.

Unbearably bad.

This is depressing...

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2011 -> 08:12 PM) Haha, can't believe we're getting no hit again by one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Greg, you're doing a great job. He's not exactly on either. Almost has thrown as many balls as strikes.

Way to take some pitches after Liriano appeared wild to Pierre...

QUOTE (fathom @ May 3, 2011 -> 07:18 PM) What's the crowd like? It's 43 degrees, so nobody's there.

Watch Liriano regain his 06 form against us tonight...

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ May 3, 2011 -> 06:22 PM) Figured you'd guys would get a kick out of this blog as much as I do, my Dodgers fan brother linked me: http://emojuanuribe.tumblr.com/ What was the actual story behind that pic? I know the Onion had something about how Uribe was left out by teammates or something, but I don't get why all this is happening. Sox players loved Uribe and his horrible English.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 3, 2011 -> 05:54 PM) Andybody watch the MVP press conference? He was so sincere & humble, it was something neat to watch. I don't know how anybody can dislike Rose as a person. He could be the biggest douchebag in the world, but he chooses to remain humble and grounded despite his accomplishments.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 3, 2011 -> 03:05 PM) Ugh. My biggest worry would be that it hurts his ability to elevate and cut, which pretty much makes him TJ Ford. This series isn't even my biggest concern. The Bulls can still win without a dominant Rose. But there's no way in hell they can get past Boston or Miami with him shooting 3s all day and not being aggressive.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 3, 2011 -> 03:37 AM) Still not really saying much. If you're paying a guy a max contract to give you only 14/8 with pretty poor defense, that's MLE production at best right there. He's got to be better than that, especially in games when Rose isn't allowed to drive and score at will at a good shooting percentage. There's something wrong with him physically or mentally. He hasn't been the same player since Kwame Brown made him fall weirdly on his ankle.

I thought everybody on the team loved A.J...?

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ May 3, 2011 -> 12:53 AM) I remember him being 95, 96 pretty consistently last year. And I think you might have mistook my post about velocities being down. The whole point was there's no reason to worry about that this time of year unless it's massive. It's cold, guys arms aren't as loose, and they don't have the muscle strength/memory built up yet. So I'm not worried about Thornton or Sale's velocity being down. That's not the issue. It's location and confidence, which are almost definitely intertwined. He's averaging 94.7 on the fastball.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ May 3, 2011 -> 03:12 AM) Well I think tonight's game was certainly an eye opener. Boozer playing badly in the Conference Semi - Finals, not like I haven't seen that before. Josh Smith didn't even shoot well and they still won, so that's quite interesting also. Can Atlanta keep shooting that well? Well, most people will say no, but Crawford had a tremendous series vs Orlando, they'll back that matchup of him vs. Earl Watson all series long. Don't think Joe Johnson can play that well again though, he was 5-5 from downtown. I still like the Bulls to win in 5 or 6, but I think Atlanta certainly causes them some matchup issues if they don't rectify it. And Chicago needs to do a better job on the boards also, if Atlanta split the boards as they did today, that's a win for em. Boozer actually had a good game in comparison to what he's done recently.

QUOTE (joeynach @ May 2, 2011 -> 10:57 PM) Obviously these two guys have really been struggling lately. The simple eye test can tell neither looks right, they are pitching way too many balls and always seem behind in the count, the gun on the TV shows their velocity down from what we are used to, and everytime they come in they seem to get hit hard right. Well I took a look at Fangraphs PitchFX data and Saber data to take a closer look and the results are pretty sick. Thornton's FB velocity is down from 96.1 in 2010 to 95.5 MPH so far this year. His slider velocity is up from 83.4 in 2010 to 84.2 this year. So just stuff wise Thornton's FB velocity is down 0.6 MPH, and the difference between his FB velocity and SL velocity has narrowed by 1.4 MPH. So that alone explains performing worse than last year right. Wait till you see his periphrials. Thornton's K Rate is down about from his awesome 12K/9 from 2010, hes at 10.8/9, but his BABIP is crazy. His BABIP in 2010 was .286, for his career its .294, this year its somehow .406. Thats INSANE!! Furthermore, his GB% is actually up this year too (a good thing), its at 48.5%, up from 39.2% last year. The most amazing thing yet, his HR/FB% is 28.6%!! Thats absolutly crazy, no pitcher on earth gives up a HR about 1/3 fly balls, its almost not possible. Now look at Chris Sale, his FB velocity is down from 95.9 to 94.2 MPH this year, thats a nice healthy 1.7 MPH drop. Definately a reason he is worse this year. Sale's GB% is basically the same at 51%, his HR/FB% is up from 11.1% last year to 16.7% this year. His BABIP is also way up from .277 to .344, thats a huge difference. No wonder he has been bad too FanGraphs says Sale should post an ERA around 3.17 (his XFIP) based on his periphrials this year. His real ERA is 5.91. Fangraphs says Thornton should post an ERA of 3.72 (XFIP) his ERA is 8.64. So how can you go from having a career of being lights out to all of a sudden sucking? Lose velocity on your FB for some unknown reason, get really unlucky, and also give up a lot of HR's in a small sample size. BOOM...Thornton and Sale. Its The problem with Thornton is that he's falling behind. He has been getting unlucky (due to Pierre, mostly), but the fact of the matter is that he's getting behind, becoming incredibly predictable, and hitters can just sit on his fastball. They were also doing that before, but Thornton was usually getting ahead, not falling behind. An 0-2 fastball at 97 is probably a whole lot different than a 96 MPH fastball in a 2-0 count. Both should progress back to the mean, but there needs to be some fixing before that happens.

QUOTE (Andrew @ May 2, 2011 -> 11:21 PM) Yeah, lol...or you could have watched the game with us and saw he was getting away with his s***ty, bloopy, slow, s*** and called out for it when it was really happening. ...lol... xGFY And you can interpret this from the boxscore too, since he didn't give up many XBHs or HRs.

QUOTE (Real @ May 2, 2011 -> 10:51 PM) ERA is meaningless if you're trying to evaluate a pitcher. There are better stats to look at, like xFIP and WHIP that remove things like defense helping him out Look at those and you'll see Buehrle got out of a LOT of jams tonight thanks to his defense (8 hits, 4 walks in 6.2IP = ~1.8 WHIP) lol Mark was due to have his ERA get lowered a bit. His FIP wasn't nearly as bad as his ERA was before this game, neither was his xFIP.

QUOTE (Felix @ May 2, 2011 -> 10:02 PM) Luol Deng was -9, and frankly, I don't buy that at all. He was a huge reason why the game was as close as it was at half. Yeah +/- is very flawed. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the Bulls played better with Korver out there today. Giving Bogans more minutes than Korver is really silly to begin with.

Kyle Korver was a +17 today in 16 minutes. Bogans played some decent D on Johnson for a stretch, but it speaks volumes how good the Bulls were when Korver was on the floor tonight.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ May 2, 2011 -> 09:55 PM) Was that considered a save? Tying run was in the hole...so maybe?

Why does our bullpen make every 9th inning so dramatic? Nice win right before the Twins series.

Come on Sale...you have a 4 run lead. Get one more freaking out.

At least the offense got their heads out of their asses.

QUOTE (Felix @ May 2, 2011 -> 09:41 PM) Hawks played great defense on Rose tonight. They went under screens and dared him to shoot the outside shot, which really stopped him from going to the rim as much as he should. They were happy to give him that shot, which he hasn't hit consistently all season long and has been dreadful at in the postseason. He didn't have the mid-range shot today either. Rose also seemed reluctant to go with scoops and hard finishes at the rim. A lot of push shots from him today.