chw42

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 11, 2009 -> 10:21 PM) Royals to sign former White Sox IF Wilson Betemit. Hahahaha, only makes their defense that much worse.

QUOTE (ChiSox @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 09:38 PM) *insert random nba superstar here* could. that was so close that you have to just stay with the call on the floor. garbage like this is why i barely watch the nba. If that was Kobe, it would have been good no matter what. Nobody would believe that Brad Miller can make such a shot. Honestly, if the NBA was corrupt like that, the commissioner's office would have called the refs and told them to keep the damn play. That's one of the plays of the year if it stayed.

QUOTE (fathom @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 09:36 PM) The thing that sucks is there was clearly .4 seconds left when Noah called timeout after the missed FT. Officiating late in the game sucked dick overall. Anthony tripped Deng with the ref watching right on the side, then Carmelo tried to bulls*** the refs by helping Deng up. IMO, an act like that is almost worse than hacking a guy hard intentionally. Plus, Billups got fouled by Noah, shoulda been called. If anything, it might have helped the Bulls.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 09:35 PM) Honestly, could you call a timeout, catch, and shoot in 0.6 seconds? I couldn't. He didn't catch that ball, it was more of a volleyball set.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 10, 2009 -> 12:28 AM) He was pretty bad in '07 and '08 and he'll be 33 on opening day, he's not a great bet for 2010. He got injured in 07 and he was still an above league average hitter back in 08.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 9, 2009 -> 03:06 PM) Because Overbay isn't all that great and he's making $7M for a team that is looking to cut payroll and rebuild. I imagine any team willing to take on his entire 2010 salary could pick him up for a couple non-prospects like McCulloch and Armstrong. $7 million for a guy who had an wOBA of .363 last year isn't that bad of a deal. Sure, he's a 1B and a stat like that doesn't make him very appealing, but Konerko only had a .362 wOBA last year. Both Konerko and Overbay are average defenders. So basically, Overbay is being paid $7 million to be about as productive as Konerko, while Paulie is being paid $12 million. This is no knock on Konerko, but you guys are undervaluing Overbay. Given his current situation, the trade does seem to gain some validity, but if I'm Toronto, I want more than two minor league failures.

I think the Braves know what he did last year is not repeatable by Vazquez, especially if the Braves plan on contending. It'd be a great time to trade him to a sucker GM drooling over his sub 3 ERA.

Why would Toronto want to make this deal...?

What a bulls*** holding call.

My goodness this defense blows.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 7, 2009 -> 06:45 AM) Counting on USCF to be the savior and make this guy go from below average to anything close to a force, while its possible, is probably really reaching. It was only 2 years ago when the Sox got Nick Swisher out of Oakland into USCF. A lot of "experts" and I'm not digging at people here, I'm talking about guys who get paid a lot of money to talk about baseball, were predicting 40 homers, .400+ OBP, .900 + OPS. Teahen is really liked by a lot of scouts, and of course Hawk has been an admirer for a few years, although even he seemed to sour on him a little bit this past year. He could break out, and maybe playing one position will help him, but on the other hand he also was playing in total obscurity in KC and their meaningless games began rather early. How will he handle a little more scrutiny? I think there's a better chance he is what he is, but hold out the 2% hope he has a Ryan Ludwick breakout. The K's concern me, a lot. I know a lot of people think a strikeout is no different than any other out, but a strikeout doesn't get a guy at third home with one out. A strikeout doesn't make a SS boot a ball, a strikeout doesn't advance a runner especially considering the White Sox really don't have many basestealers on the roster. Obviously that can change, this isn't the big splash I was hoping for. I still think they better do something about the bullpen. Honestly, I saw that prediction very little back in the 08 off-season. I was expecting at least 30 homers from Swisher and fantasy predictions had him at around 32 from what I remember. I didn't look up his PECTOA projections that year. The problem with U.S. Cellular Field is that it changes the mindset of some hitters. Since it's known as a hitter's park and our club has a history of swinging for the long ball, it could alter a hitter's approach for the worse. This could be the case for Teahen, although the one year he did hit very well, he hit more fly balls, which is the only tell tale sign that this move might be a good one for him. However, in the back of my mind, I also think that he might be a complete bust if he changes his approach for obvious reasons. Oh and Teahen is far from a big splash. I think Kenny has at least one big signing and trade left in him.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 11:27 PM) You stat junkies ... please analyze Mark Teahen's strikeouts and overall s***ty offensive numbers and tell me he's more than a utility player. Royals fans are sooo glad to get rid of the guy. I real all these stat analysis of our players ... give me one on Teahen because he is a disaster in terms of production. 50 ribbies in 130 games or something? All those Ks. Of course the Sox are probably happy to get rid of Fields. Getz is the puzzle. It should have been Fields for Teahen cause they are similarly bad. When you say Royals fans are glad he's gone, should it really matter? I mean, they're Royals fans. There's not too many of them and I really doubt most of them care since they've been so bad for the past decade and a half. Saying they hate Mark Teahen doesn't validate anything. A lot of us here hate Alexei Ramirez, does that mean Alexei Ramirez is a bad player? Not necessarily. As far as Teahen's offensive abilities... Well, here's what Teahen is from a Sabermetric point of view: A very average hitter in terms of line drives. He's around the league average in that. However, the biggest problem with him is the amount of ground balls he hits, nearly 50% of his balls in play are hit on the ground throughout his career. Unless you're Juan Pierre, that's a very bad thing. Teahen also strikes out more than the average hitter, which doesn't make too much sense due to the fact that he's a contact hitter. Another thing to look at is Teahen's protection. Playing on the Royals definitely doesn't help you get better pitches to hit. That might be a reason why he doesn't drive in many runs. Not that RBI matters in player evaluation. Teahen's low walk rate is also incredibly uncharacteristic of a guy drafted by Billy Beane. Thus, Teahen is incredibly prone to cold streaks since he's a ground ball hitter that is prone to strikeouts and does not walk enough. Since Teahen hits the ball on the ground so much, his fly ball rate takes a huge tumble, suggesting why he's had such low home run totals even though he was projected as a good power hitter out of the draft. Part of the reason for this might be because of Kaufman Stadium, which has taken a lot of power away from guys like Jose Guillen, Mike Sweeney, and etc. over the years because of its large dimensions. This can also suggest that Teahen deliberately stopped swinging for the fences due to Kaufman, meaning more line drives instead of deep fly balls on the warning track. However, it should be noted that he had a high fly ball rate in 2006 (5% higher than his career norm), where he put up a .500 SLG%. His line drive rate that year was also extremely low while he posted his career high in average. In other words, 06 was pretty much a fluke in terms of the numbers he put up (although his BABIP wasn't that much higher than his career average). However, that does not invalidate the fact that when he hit more fly balls, the results were better. How does this benefit the White Sox and Teahen? For beginners, Teahen had a .500 SLG% at the Cell in around 150 plate appearances. Not a big enough sample size to gauge anything drastic, but it's definitely a start. Here's the kicker: he has 8 home runs in those 150 plate appearances. What's even better is that he only has 28 home runs at Kaufman Stadium in 1366 plate appearances. Talk about power sap! To simplify things, if we give Teahen 600 plate appearances this year, he'd hit somewhere near 25-30 home runs, 16 at U.S. Cellular Field alone. Of course, it is completely unrealistic to think that way, but the fact that Teahen has more than 1/4 the amount of home runs at the Cell in comparison to his home runs at Kaufman Stadium in a sample size ten times smaller is just mind boggling. We can pretty much say that Kaufman held Teahen back. Even if it didn't, the Cell is definitely a much better home for him. With Greg Walker telling him that he should try to hit more home runs, Teahen will definitely swing for fly balls more often this year. Two things can come out of this: more home runs and more strikeouts. Teahen's power numbers will go up by a lot, those doubles he hit at Kaufman might turn into home runs at U.S. Cellular Field. But since he's most likely going to change his approach to be more of a fly ball hitter, his average and OBP will most likely decrease while his K rate goes up. However, as mentioned before, when he did swing for the sky back in 2006, he had a career year where he posted an all-star caliber OPS. In my opinion, Teahen is slated for a mediocre year in terms of average and OBP. He will most likely hit anywhere from .250-.260 with a .310-.320 OBP. However, his SLG should be around .470-.480, giving him an OPS of about .780-.800, which translates to an OPS+ of around 105 and a wOBA of .340. In other words, he'd be a slightly above average hitter with good power. As a 3B, that's all you can really ask of him. In the end, Teahen should be around a 1.5-2 win player given his bad defense.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 09:57 PM) Can't steroids effect skin pigmentation? I seriously thought I read that. It appears that steroids can affect everything.

Sammy's becoming the next Michael Jackson.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 07:11 PM) Thats insane, don't you have to actually win the award to be a gold glover? Hes not that good No, because Gold Gloves are crap.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 06:28 PM) This just sucks. Beckham had turned himself into a damn good defender at 3B. Teahen sucks at third base. Move f***ing Teahen to second and platoon him with Getz. WTF with Teahen being named our third baseman? Why does KW love Teahen who can't field and is not a good enough hitter to be playing 3B?? He should be platooning with NIX at second. My god. So defensively both 3B and SS next season will be atrocious on paper. I also don't like the idea of facing Fields and Getz in so many games. They will have so much motivation against us. KC really should try to sign Dye on the cheap and have him conclude his career there where he played before. They'd have 3 Sox in the starting lineup. Weird. He's even worse at 2B than he is at 3B. You don't want that. Realistically, he should be playing RF or LF.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 05:36 PM) I just know we're going to hate seeing Getz in the 8th/9th innings for the next 5 years. He's one of those guys who will just keep burning us. Getz owned the Royals in a couple of games last year if I'm not mistaken.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 05:12 PM) Teahen To The White Soxby Dave Cameron - November 5, 2009 - Share this Article Dayton Moore has made a lot of bad trades and been roundly criticized for a lot of his decisions as the Kansas City GM. Today, though, we stand and applaud, because he reportedly kicked off the off-season with a fantastic deal for his club, sending 3B/OF Mark Teahen to the White Sox for 2B Chris Getz and DH Josh Fields. Let’s start with Teahen. He’s been rumored to be trade bait for a couple of years now, as he had been displaced by Alex Gordon at third base and split time between the infield and the outfield looking for a permanent home. A large part of the reason he hasn’t been able to land at any single spot on the diamond is because he just isn’t very good. Teahen is 28-years-old and has accumulated 2,732 plate appearances in the big leagues. He has a career .269/.331/.419 line that works out to a .327 wOBA, which makes him a slightly below average hitter. He’s just average across the board. He makes some contact, he walks a little bit, he has some gap power, and he runs okay, but he’s not good at any one particular offensive skill. A league average bat has value if he can help a team out defensively, but Teahen isn’t a great defender. His UZR at third base is downright terrible, which is why it should be no surprise that the White Sox apparently plan on using him as an outfielder. He’s okay in a corner, but he’s nothing special, and the combination of an average bat and average defense in a corner outfield spot makes for a below average player overall. That’s basically what we see with Teahen. He’s accumulated +5.0 WAR over his career, working out to just over +1 win per full season. He’s a useful major league player, but not one that should be starting regularly on a club that wants to win. When you factor in that he’s a second year arbitration eligible player, likely due for a 2010 salary of around $5 million or so, Teahen is basically a zero value asset. His cost is about the same as his contribution. That Kenny Williams gave up Getz and Fields for the right to pay Teahen about what he’s worth is kind of crazy. Both of the two players going to KC have flaws – Getz lacks power and Fields can’t play defense – but they’re cheap and have a little upside beyond what they’ve shown in the majors. Fields has serious home run power and could add some value as a slugging 1B/DH type for the league minimum. Getz makes a bunch of contact and can play second base adequately. Both are role players or fringe starters, but they make the league minimum and offer some useful skills. The two players Moore got back from KC aren’t franchise changers – they’re just useful parts to have around in spring training when putting a roster together. Teahen is just not someone that should be making significant money, and given his arbitration status, he’s basically a non-value asset. The White Sox could have acquired a similar or better player by just spending the $5 million they’ll give him in free agency without sacrificing any talent. This is the right move for the Royals, clearing payroll and bringing in some younger talent that could help the team in the future. For the White Sox, this is yet another sign of the questionable talent evaluation methods used by Kenny Williams. There was no reason to give up anything of value for Teahen. All he’s done with this move is give himself a right fielder who shouldn’t play everyday and open up a bigger hole at second base. I honestly think that around $2 million for Teahen is decent. Cameron's main argument of why this deal would be bad is that we would be paying Teahen around $4 million this year. That's not the case anymore.

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 04:59 PM) Imagine LBJ and Al Jefferson - WOAH Imagining is about as far as everybody should go. Who the hell wants to play in Minnesota?

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) Olivo, I believe, did have issues with Ozzie. Can't see him walking through that door. Hasn't Crisp been hurt several times in recent years. We have enough issues problems with CQ. Crisp sucked with the Royals. He'd be a low risk player with all the injuries he's had. Good glove, good speed, decent bat. He wouldn't cost more than a couple of million with a incentive laden deal I believe.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 07:14 AM) Yeah right, that wasnt even close to a foul. It was a correct call. But that was LBJ...

Kenny telling us that Teahen will start at 3B instead of a corner OF position tells me we're in the market for a RF. I really doubt we start the season with Jordan Danks or any other in-system prospect at a corner OF position or even CF. It also tells me that Figgins is a now a pipe-dream.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 03:20 PM) Yeah sabermatricians spent lots of time and effort to make a metric that solely devalues good players and adds value to weak players. Sabermetrics is a serious thing, people aren't just pulling numbers out of their asses, it's all (well the better stuff anyway) meticulously thought over and researched. Your statement here is actually very ignorant, just take a few minutes to look into the framework behind UZR and if you know anything about baseball it will be very apparent to you just how much sense it makes. "if you watch the players play, you can tell who is good and who is not" This really isn't the case with most people, you may think that you are forming your own opinion on a player by watching them but really you're being heavily influenced by what you hear (it's amazing how many people share the same opinions as the crackpot Hawk Harrelson). Then you have the problems of sample size, let's say you watched 10 Texas Rangers games this year, you wouldn't be in a position to form an accurate opinion on any of their players, you might watch Ian Kinsler go 10-50 in that span with a .200/.250/.325 slash line and 8 errors, would this mean that he was a bad player? No, you would need to defer to his body of work, i.e. the stats. The issue with the eye-test is exactly what you mentioned. Plus, people tend to go ape-s*** over spectacular plays. A good example is Torii Hunter. Once you make a couple great plays, you are forever a hero to Baseball Tonight Web Gems and people will forever engrave you into the awesome fielders hall of fame.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 03:16 PM) WOW so that's KW's plan. He say's it improves defense across the board but that' s assuming Beckham is better then Getz and Teahan is better then Beckham at 3rd. It's possibly true and hopefully true but at this point it's just not true. So it's a fairly young infield with PK being the lone exception and power potential of 15-20+ per man. It would be very hard for any team to take on Konerko's salary . So if he get's traded can't really expect much of anything but salary relief. Anyone think there's a chance of Paulie being non tendered ? Is that even possible and if it is, does that relieve the Sox of any contractual obligations to him ? Teahen isn't better than Gordon at 3B. Gordon improved dramatically at 3B last year. In fact, for the last two months, he played above average defense. Both in my eyes and with UZR.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Nov 6, 2009 -> 01:12 PM) DeJesus would be a pretty bad fit IMO since he's not really a CF. And for the thousandth time (from me) PLEASE no Quentin in RF. Carlos was pretty damn good in RF with Arizona. I don't know why we shouldn't give him a chance there. Besides, watching him run for balls down the line really sucks with his foot problems. He doesn't have to run as much in RF since there are far less left handed pull hitters than there are right handed pull hitters who hit rockets down the line.