chw42

QUOTE (3E8 @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 11:26 PM) Seven teams above us, six below, i.e. the middle. Well not exactly the middle. There was also a huge drop-off after Kansas City.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 06:57 PM) No, we were in the middle of the pack DH-output wise. Only because Konerko, Quentin, and Manny got ABs there. Seattle had a .609 OPS from the DH spot, ouch. .758 was the average last year. I'm not so sure .728 was middle of the pack.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 06:50 PM) Well technically there is a pretty good chance of that happening again this year... Rephrased: At least there won't be somebody who will have an OPS under .700 getting half the PAs at DH this year.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 04:46 PM) No doubt they're better, but it isn't why they lost. Pitching (especially the bullpen in the last couple of months) screwed them last year more than anything else, and this year the outcome will again rest mostly on pitching. The 2010 outcome really had very little to do with Kotsay. The pitching would have been less of an issue had there been somebody who didn't hit .230 getting half the PAs at DH. White Sox pitchers led baseball in FIP and fWAR last season. That wasn't the team's weakness. The White Sox had the worst OPS and wOBA at the DH position last season, that is a weakness. I would say the latter had more to do with the White Sox losing than the former.

Buehrle starting opening day against Cleveland = bad memories.

I'd actually like to see D. Rose and Westbrook in a dunk contest one day. Rose's alley oop in the Detroit game would have been a pretty damn good dunk in the contest. I'm pretty sure he'd be able to pull off some sick dunks. He can twist his body in the air so well.

QUOTE (T R U @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 12:21 PM) Yeah it was really no problem at all to beat Bioshock, 1 or 2, they were both pretty short.. nope, never played Alan Wake.. for some reason the game just didnt appeal to me.. I will say this though, I JUST bought Borderlands the other day and man I feel dumb for not playing that sooner.. its awesome I like the co-op campaign on that.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Feb 19, 2011 -> 10:41 PM) Serge Ibaka's first round free throw line dunk was the best of the night. He was actually behind the line. I don't know if anyone has actually done that. The famous free throw line dunks were just inside or on the line. Ibaka got screwed. I felt that he and DeRozan had the best dunks, but didn't get the scores because they lacked a bit of flair in comparison to what McGee did. Blake's dunks in the first round weren't that good. His first one could have been better, but he changed it up and simplified it when he actually made the dunk. I think Griffin was destined to win the thing from the start. He was at home, so the judges weren't gonna give him low scores. And of course, when he got to the fan vote, it wasn't gonna be a contest.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 19, 2011 -> 08:19 AM) Yeah, I guess technically Hamels is a 4, but he's really a 3. I'd consider Halladay a 1. Lee and Oswalt are 2's, and Hamels is a 3. I consider Buehrle a 4 because of his production the last 5 seasons. On a championship team, he's the guy that you'd want pitching the 4th game at this point in his career. We need Danks, Jackson, and Floyd to step up, and man, if we get 25-30 starts from Peavy--and a postseason, then we have a shot this season. Buehrle's a second starter on most teams. 3-4 WAR pitchers don't grow on trees.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 19, 2011 -> 02:03 AM) I love Buehrle. I'd really love to see him one day win a Cy Young, but that's probably not gonna happen unless he takes some of Paul Konerko's career revitalizing potion. His only Cy Young caliber season was 2005. And TBH he deserved it over Fartolo. Too bad Johan was actually better.

Believe it or not, ESPN might actually be more progressive in terms of advanced stats than MLBN.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 18, 2011 -> 04:18 PM) All the Sox had to do to shut us all up, and make us all optimistic for the season is to sign Dunn and get rid of Kotsay. That's it. To a lesser extent, getting rid of Bobby also has silenced all the naysayers and put everybody in an extremely positive frame of mind (although I still love Bobby). Many of us don't like Teahan, but there's not the unabashed, vicious hatred especially with him likely being in a platoon role. Can you ever recall an offseason where all of the Sox fans on this board have been so pleased? The only thing that could wreck this feeling is if the Sox start slowly, then there will probably be a lot of anti-Ozzie stuff beginning again. But this has been a nirvana off season for Sox fans. If I lived in Chicago, I definitely would have bought in season ticket wise for this season. He will continue to suck as long as everybody keeps spelling his name wrong.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 18, 2011 -> 09:12 AM) Rich Harden shuts down for 2 weeks with lat-stiffness. At least there's a precedent if he somehow gets the whole thing torn off. If Harden is injury-ridden like usual, B-Mac could become the 5th starter in Oakland.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Feb 18, 2011 -> 01:39 AM) I really need to get a ps3..... anyone know if somewhere has them for a little cheaper than the normal price? Killzone 3 + 160 GB PS3 bundle is coming out next week for $300.

Played the Killzone 3 demo today. Really impressed actually, it feels a lot better than Killzone 2 and I feel the controls are better. That + the co-op campaign makes me want to buy it.

QUOTE (PeavyTime @ Feb 17, 2011 -> 10:40 PM) Man the Bulls are so damn good. And they will only get better with Noah in and Kurt Thomas back to DNP: Coaches Decision. Kurt's been a pretty good fill-in. I don't know if I want to see Omer Asik starting every night. Thomas is a good defender and will annoy the hell out of the other team.

That should be game. What a monster game by Rose on the national stage.

Rose just proved why he should win MVP. He's ridiculous.

Bulls starting to open this game up a bit.

This has been a very fun game to watch.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 08:35 PM) Jays and Bautista near 5 year 65m extension, they postponed their arb hearing trying to finalize it per Heyman Wow, I'm surprised. Didn't think he'd get that many years.

QUOTE (GO CHI SOX! @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 10:42 PM) Looks like Brandon Allen is as good as gone in Arizona. Branyan signing seems like yet another indication the Dbacks don't see Brandon Allen as a fit anymore. http://twitter.com/nickpiecoro/status/38015940180312064 Branyan's deal was a MLC. That doesn't mean Allen's gone. Probably just insurance in case Allen doesn't do well to start the year.

So FanGraphs just introduced this thing called "ottoneu" Fantasy baseball. One of the games it has is a linear weight scoring type. But that costs $10 bucks to join, so I figured...why not just take their scoring style and use it on a Yahoo! league for no charge? Draft time is scheduled to change, but right now, it's in 10 days, as in February 26th. Scoring Type: H2H total points 10 teams, top 4 make playoffs Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL Batting At Bats (AB) -1 Hits (H) 5.6 Doubles (2B) 2.9 Triples (3B) 5.7 Home Runs (HR) 9.4 Stolen Bases (SB) 1.9 Caught Stealing (CS) -2.8 Walks (BB) 3 Hit By Pitch (HBP) 3 Pitching Innings Pitched (IP) 5 Saves (SV) 3 Home Runs (HR) -13 Walks (BB) -3 Hit Batters (HBP) -3 Strikeouts (K) 2 Holds (HLD) 1 These values are modeled after wOBA and FIP - two of the essential stats in WAR. With this weighting, hitters and pitchers are pretty much valued equally. I had to include saves and holds in there because of Yahoo's stupid eligibility system. This system rewards heavily for innings, so long relievers or starters/relievers tend to have the most points amongst relievers. That's kind of absurd, so I had to have some way of valuing the good closers and setup men. However, I didn't overvalue them. There's a study done on Beyond the Boxscore that said saves worth anywhere from 0-5 points have a .8-.85 correlation with WAR - so it's within reason to include them, I guess. Anyways, if you're interested... League ID: 43516 Password: jennings

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 05:03 PM) Someone has a sick sense of humor. That's awesome.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 16, 2011 -> 06:35 PM) But you said "bad". I think they could easily be the second best team in the AL behind Boston. Bad as in not good enough to be a playoff team. I think Texas and Oakland are better. When you look at that lineup, nobody wows you at all. Hunter, Wells and Abreu are .340-.350 wOBA guys. Morales is a .370 wOBA guy. Those are all decent hitters, but that's the middle of their lineup. No to mention they're trotting out bad hitters in Boujos, Aybar, and Mathis. One of those guys might even lead off. Plus, they still lack a closer. Downs could be a decent one I guess, but outside of him and maybe Jepsen or Walden, what makes that a good bullpen? Rodney is extremely mediocre and they have a bunch of slightly above replacement guys to fill the other holes. Like I said, the rotation's good. You got two front end starters in Haren and Weaver and then two solid #3 starters in Piniero and Santana. But then you have the gaping black hole of Scott Kazmir and his near 6 FIP. It's a team with a lot of holes at important places, more specifically, the lineup. Best case scenario, they do win the West. But that's best case. I see them as a 83-85 win team.