chw42

With this current defensive setup, minus Quentin, just about every White Sox defender is either above average or around average. Pierre is a +9 in LF. Rios is a +7 in CF. Alexei is a +6 at SS. Gordon is a +2 at 2B. Vizquel is a +3 at 3B. Konerko is currently a -4 and Quentin is a -13 in RF, but overall, this current defense is actually above average.

They're panicking big time in front of the goal. How do you miss this many shots?

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 08:35 AM) Switch Beckham with Ramirez and you have yourself a hell of a lineup. Seriously, if we get Dunn we go from Division contender to W.S. contender! He's the perfect fit!! Alexei in the two spot makes me sick. I know we don't have any good OBP guys, but damn, no. I'd rather see Vizquel there.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 09:05 PM) He said Quentin has been great and Pierre has been a 7.5 out of 10. He's slow, but I love him. I thought Hawk loved Juan.

We're teeing off on their best pitcher, the haters can stop it now, for at least one night.

After seeing France, I have a feeling that England isn't going to win tomorrow.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 04:23 PM) The defense actually hasn't been miserable. I also would say that 2005 has completely blinded some people relating to Ozzie. But you know what...he can keep letting Buehrle pitch to Vernon Wells with the bases loaded in the 8th inning of a one run game as long as my 2005 CWS WS DVD keeps working! Quickly, somebody burn all the 2005 World Series DVDs in existence! On a side note, that DVD was horribly produced.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) Most here on Soxtalk wouldn't know a good manager if they hit them in the face. The starters, the offense, and defense have been miserable so far and people honestly think Ozzie should have them up by 5. He hasn't helped any of that by batting Mark Kotsay 5th whenever he can and keeping Randy Williams on this team. Yes, when your players suck, that's not all your fault. But when you know they suck and you keep playing them just because you can, that's bad managing.

Argentina and South Korea in.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 03:02 PM) You guys who first guessed or second guessed ... that's fine. But with all due respect your right to first guess or second guess was erased when Oz won the game. You continue to harp on that game and we won. Oz won. You guys lost this argument because Oz and the team won the game; why not move on? Is he being graded on style points, margin of victory? Ozzie didn't win the game. If anything, he had a negative impact on that game by sitting our two best hitters. How else do you think we only got one run off of freaking J.D. Martin?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 02:44 PM) It would probably be something like "one game doesn't make or break a season". What's funny is that one game has meant just about everything in this division the past two years.

It's because Ozzie loves to play bullpen matchups.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 11:35 AM) Williams hasnt pitched since 6/11, I think Ozzie knows that Williams is not to be trusted. The problem is that when Thornton has no rest, he has to go to a lefty sometimes and Williams is all he has. I know, but I just needed something there to go along with the bad lineup making.

Argentina and Spain are so good that it's not even fair.

John Lannan was probably the worst pitcher we faced this entire road trip.

So yeah, Mexico and Uruguay in.

And oh, if you want a good defensive 3B that can't hit too well, Kouzmanoff could be another guy to look at. The A's got him for Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham, nothing too pricey.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:58 AM) So the consensus seems to be "Ozzie deserves no credit for players performing, but plenty of blame when things go wrong" The consensus is that Ozzie isn't any different now than he was when the team was losing. He still can't make a good lineup and he still likes Randy Williams too much. So in essence, Ozzie made little, if any difference.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) As much as we blame Ozzie for making stupid in-game decisions, I'd like to point out three instances in which his hunches seemed dead-on * sitting Rios and Konerko on Saturday, which arguably gave them a breather they needed to bang out multiple hits each on sunday. Rios had been 5 for his previous 24 after that 4-4 at Wrigley, and although Konerko had hit in the previous three games, he was on a 5 for 19 cooler with no XBH. * putting in Putz in the ninth on Sunday * leaving in Peavy in the ninth proved to be the right call What others? I'll tell you what he did wrong: *Not pinch hitting for Gavin Floyd in the first game *Sitting our two best hitters on Saturday and putting out one of the worst lineups in baseball. Thing is, when your players perform, anything you do wrong can look good. But even if some of these things look good, they can still be bad decisions. Right now, the players are performing, but had Adam Dunn caught the ball Zimmerman slightly overthrew and had the Nationals been able to score more than 5 runs the entire series, this thread probably wouldn't exist.

They need at least one more goal and Uruguay needs to kill Mexico.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:25 AM) I agree 100% on Alex Gonzalez, which is why I'd like to have him. Everyone in baseball (at least I imagine) knows this is a one year thing, and that combined with his impending FA should make him cheap. MIF and good 3B are expensive, so with Alex Gonzalez we'd be paying for the always undervalued defensive aspect primarily. We'd pretty much get him to do for us what Uribe did for us in 2008 and what Uribe has done for the Giants since. I'd rather make a short-term move for a solid player without surrendering much than go after a top name, especially with Teahen's contract still on the books and Morel not too far away. Edit: This move is nothing but insurance on Vizquel and protection from rookie Viciedo's defense. Anything we win this year will be won on pitching and defense, so Gonzalez helps there. The power (which has always been there although his surge isn't going to last) just helps make the 3B position a bit more respectable, that's all. We'd still be a below-average offensive club at 3B. But at this point, you'd be buying high on him, no matter what everybody really thinks of him. The home run numbers and the slugging% talk for themselves.

According to linear weights, a stolen base adds about .25 runs to your scoring probability, whereas a caught stealing costs you nearly .7 runs. So in order to have positive run production in stolen bases, you MUST be at least a 75% SB guy. Pierre's at 80% right now. And he's contributed around 1.5 runs with his stolen bases so far. Nothing drastic. I think the thought of somebody who could steal at first is almost more valuable than the stolen bases themselves. Rios, despite having 20 SB, has only contributed around .8 runs with his stolen bases.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) This is good?? I don't know if I agree with this either. I don't think he'd be light years better than Pierre. I know Pierre has been bad, but he has actually started to show a little life. And I love that he's a base stealing threat (Fukodome isn't that much of one). Pierre gives provides distractions to opposing pitchers whenever he gets on base. Plus, Fukudome would probably go through a bad bad adjustment period moving form the NL to the AL. No thanks. I thought he TURNED DOWN more money from the White Sox to play on the North Side when he was a free agent coming from Japan. Was this true? To be fair, a .355/.381 slash is light years better than Pierre.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 09:12 AM) IMO: 1. Trade Pierre + Linebrink + prospects for Fukudome. Pierre makes a prorated $3M this year + $5M next year, Linebrink makes a prorated $5M this year + $5.5M in 2011, and Fukudome makes a prorated $13M this year and $13.5M next year. The Cubs save a bit of money this year, they save $3M next year, and they'd get some prospects plus a spot for Colvin. For us, we get Fukudome at a very good contract value ($3M above what we're flushing down the toilet in 2011 for Pierre and Linebrink), we improve our OBP and defense while adding a lefty bat and getting a legitimate lead-off hitter, and we get to screw the Cubs too. Great move. 2. Trade prospects for Alex Gonzalez of Toronto. Alex is a natural SS but we could use him at 3B. He'll give us great defense where we need it without having to take on a lot of salary or surrender a ton of prospects, and along with Vizquel he should turn our backup SS/everyday 3B situation into a positive. Alex doesn't add much for OBP but he does have pop so that would make the 3B position be a bit more respectable offensively. 3. Deal prospects for Adam LaRoche. He was traded for pretty much nothing in the past, but he's a very underrated player who performs well in the second half, and in terms of prospects he should come cheap. IMO he could be just as good as Luke Scott in the second half, if not better, but for half the price or less. The DBacks should eat some salary. 4. Release Williams and call up Threets temporarily until Sale is ready. Call up Hudson to replace Linebrink in the bullpen. Make a decision between Jones and Viciedo as the RH pinch hitter. If it's Viciedo then we don't have a backup CF meaning Kotsay would have to play there if Rios gets the day off. So Ozzie wouldn't want to give Alex a bunch of days off, and when he did they'd have to be at home and not at, say, Comerica. Lineup: L Fukudome RF R Gonzalez 3B R Rios CF R Konerko 1B L LaRoche DH R Quentin LF L Pierzynski C R Beckham 2B R Ramirez SS Bench: Castro C Vizquel 2B/SS/3B Viciedo 1B/3B/DH/LF (try it out, why not?) - RH PH Kotsay OF - LH PH Pen: Jenks CL Putz SU Thornton SU Pena RSP Threets/Sale LSP Santos MR Hudson LR Much better team IMO, and we should be able to afford all these guys without draining the farm. **Edited contract info If the Cubs eat Fukudome's contract, I'd definitely take him on this team. And absolutely no to Alex Gonzalez. This year's nothing but a fluke. He'd be just like everybody else on this team, bad at hitting and getting on base. The power you're seeing from him isn't going to last. And I agree on your last two points.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 09:01 AM) This is the second time I've had plantar fasciitis in my life, I got it from playing badminton everyday here in China. It sucks, it's not as bad as a kidney stone or a pulled rib cage muscle, but ALMOST. The thing is, you can't survive in everyday, commonplace life without putting some weight on your foot. Imagine an athlete and how much more pressure there is on the foot/feet. Mine is at the back (tissue/ligament at the bottom) of the left heel. The first time I hurt it, I think it was pretty mild, I went back to trying to play badminton and then I really tore through quite a bit of the ligament the second time. You can take pain killers or have a cortisone injection, but it takes months to go away completely (the first time I did it hitting the 1B bag akwardly and also landing with all my weight at the heel instead of evenly balanced landing). It's why I have a lot of sympathy for Quentin, the wrist and the foot can really affect you. You start overcompensating to relieve the pain and protect the injury and then you end up straining another part of your leg. So I think selling low on CQ would be a huge mistake, just like buying high on Corey Hart. I'm starting to think I have Plantar Fasciitis, my foot acts up all the time during basketball or any sport that involves agility.