chw42

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 09:17 AM) No team is going to come out and say publicly "yeah, we treat our latin players like dog sh*t." What is more plausible though is that other teams may sit down behind the scenes and say "oh is there a problem here" and actually give it some thought. If nothing else, that 80% of the PED positive tests being Hispanic players ought to set off alarm bells that they're missing something. It's also plausible that by going out and making issues like this public, Ozzie could give some teams an advantage in signing guys from those countries, because they might figure they have a better shot in teams that go farther to make sure they can overcome the language/coaching/PED barriers. All good points. I really didn't think the Sox were going to say they agree with Ozzie, this issue is too controversial for an organization to approve of. Just asks for trouble.

QUOTE (Frank_Thomas35 @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 02:19 AM) "Notice how the glove is a bit higher in 2009, while it hovers down by the side of his knee in 2008. I think this has contributed to Jackson’s improved control this year." I wonde if this may be his problem again this year? Jackson has pretty good mechanics from what I see. He keeps his PAS elbow below his lead elbow through his whole delivery. The height of the lead elbow does have a lot to do with control and I like how he pointed that out in the article. Not exactly the same frame in his delivery and not exactly the same angles, but I think his lead elbow is a higher in Detroit.

White Sox made a statement and said they don't agree with Ozzie. All of the Guillen family is getting up in arms about it.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 11:51 PM) I played against that Hellickson kid in high school. The kid who pitched against the Twins in his debut tonight. Threw the ball really hard back then as a 16 year old. Scout who signed him says this guy threw 90 as a 14 year old.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 07:27 AM) His AB where he eventually had a 2 RBI single might have been the best AB I've seen all season. The Rays might have found their right fielder. He's healthy again and he did something like this back with Detroit in 2008.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 09:56 PM) Wow, watching this team is certainly something else... I genuinely feel bad for them. Schlitter just hit Carlos Gomez on the helmet. I was actually a little surprised that Cub fans applauded when he got up. They probably wouldn't do it if A.J. got plunked in the head.

Matt Joyce has been killing the Twins and just about everybody who plays the Rays. Dude's got an OPS near .900.

Twins lose! 1 up.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 08:30 PM) Qualls in to blow the game. Gives up a leadoff single to get things started in the 8th. He didn't blow it. I'm telling you, Qualls is going to be very grateful that he's no longer in Arizona. Joe Maddon's leaving Randy freakin' Choate out there to dry.

Sad to see a talented guy like Santana getting hurt.

Speaking of power rankings... We go 6-1 this week and we drop two spots in MLB.com's rankings. The Twins go 7-0 and move up three spots. Does that make any sense to you...?

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 08:01 PM) I wonder if Tampa will send him down after this start. I don't see how they can. This guy is easily as good as Wade Davis or Jeff Niemann. His control is so good.

Great start by Hellickson. 7 IP 2 ER 6 K 2 BB

Hellickson looks pretty good so far. Has gotten a bit unlucky this inning with a blooper and a seeing-eye single. And he just made Thome look pretty bad. This guy's got great control of all his pitches.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 02:11 PM) I think everyone should know that I started a franchise in MLB 10 today, and the Nationals just offered me Adam Dunn for Edwin Jackson and an A potential milb player. O.O Hahaha. I like that game's AI better than Mike Rizzo.

Danks is a 4.5-5 WAR pitcher. So on the open market, he's well worth $18-$20 million. He won't have the reputation or the wins to back that money up, but his true worth is definitely around there.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 04:19 PM) His weakness seems to be the outside breaking stuff...which is not uncommon, as you said. The good thing is, he does actually get his bat on those balls quite often. But if he could just lay off them a bit more...he does seem to lay off stuff inside fairly well, but that could be because he likes to dive across the plate a bit. He seems to have a lot of success on lower pitches in the zone, from what I've seen. He ends up golfing those a lot, which is why he hits a good amount of line drives. The thing with Viciedo is that he makes contact with 69% of the pitches out of the zone, which is above average. That may be a good thing or a bad thing, since pitches out the zone usually mean ground balls or pop ups. There's a growing process with these younger Cuban players. Alexei was pretty much the same when he first got here. Let's hope Dayan learns and progresses to draw more walks like Alexei did last year.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 03:39 PM) 432 players with at least 60 PA this season: Swing% 61.4% Francoeur 60.5% Jake Fox 60.0% Vlad 59.6% Delmon 58.4% Ivan 58.2% Chris Johnson 58.0% Dayan 57.7% Mike Sweeney 57.5% John Buck 57.2% Boesch 57.1% Stavinoha He has the 30th highest "out of zone swing%" out of those 432 this season (AJ's 10th) At least my observations that he wasn't as bad as A.J. at pitch recognition were right.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 03:52 PM) For anyone curious of Edwin Jackson's inherited runners numbers this season, they're incredibly tame: (1st/2nd/3rd = where Edwin left the runner) 1 IR 1 IS (1 out, 1st) 1 IR 0 IS 1 IR 1 IS (1 out, 2nd) 1 IR 0 IS 1 IR 0 IS 2 IR 0 IS 1 IR 1 IS (0 out, 2nd) 3 IS/ 8 IR Completely eliminate those 3 runs and his ERA is still about five. You would have thought the bullpen screwed him more. It's more or less his doing. That Arizona defense behind him is also pretty decent. Johnson and Reynolds have had pretty good years (for them) defensively. Their infield UZR isn't any lower than ours.

It's certainly nice of the Heat to fire 30 people in this economy when they were clearly going to be extremely well off. More reason to hate them.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 02:42 PM) People keep talking about his lack of plate discipline. Is it really the case though or do people just like throwing around the term because nothing is more fun than finding something criticize and/or nitpick at? The guy isn't a strikeout machine and makes contact; often solid contact. I haven't seen him chase too many pitches or look foolish too often yet up there. Just because he likes to swing at often one of the first good pitches he gets, that doesn't necessarily mean he lacks plate discipline. He's the kind of hitter we want swinging, trying to drive in runs. We don't need him up there trying to get on base ala a lead off hitter or waiting up there to give the guys in front of him a chance to swipe a bag. He doesn't walk, but he hasn't exactly looked like a guy who doesn't know where the strike zone is either. The lack of discipline is true. He swings at nearly 40% of pitches outside of the zone, that's pretty bad, but not unexpected.

Happy birthday guys.

The issue with ERA+ is that it takes defense into account, which is a incredibly big factor if you think about it. It's nice that it adjusts for parks and league, but it's not exactly a great indicator of talent with a smaller sample size. If we're talking ERA+ over 10 years, then it becomes extremely accurate. However, if we're looking at it over a time period of 5 months, I'm not so sure it would be a great measure.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) The problem with that is then the Mets are basically paying out $40-45 million a year just to Jake Peavy and Johan Santana...and they still have no OFs worth a damn, especially if you assume Beltran will suffer another semi-major injury as he always does. I don't think such a trade is worth it for the Mets... Yeah, I don't think the Mets would do such a thing, but if it were up to Kenny, I wouldn't be surprised if he thought about it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:44 AM) AL Central waiver candidates per MLB Traderumors. Interesting that they brought up Peavy's name. I never really considered that as an option. If the Sox brass feel that he may never be the same pitcher again maybe they try to unload him? And it makes the Jackson deal even more interesting. Somebody over at another forum brought up the idea of Jason Bay for Jake Peavy. Both make a similar amount of money over the next couple of years, Bay has an extra year of obligation. Depending on how Jackson progresses, I wouldn't be all that against such a swap.