The Sir

At least Minnesota figured out how to lose again. They were freaking me out with that whole 15-2 thing.

Someday, I'm gonna punch Mother Nature in the face for this. Crap.

Humber vs. the Hernandez': Outduels Felix. Outdueled by...Livan? I'd say that's more damning of our offense than Humber.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 02:03 PM) Olerud's .465 career SLG vs. Loney's .428. Plus Olerud's Isolated Power: .170. Loney's: .141. I don't think Loney's even a poor man's Olerud. I don't even consider them in the same stratosphere. Olerud had some seasons where he displayed very good power. He had a .236 ISO and a .600 slugging in 1994. Loney hasn't displayed much promise with the bat since his rookie season. Ok, maybe I was getting carried away by comparing Loney to Olerud. But nonetheless, Loney does not deserve to be compared unfavorably to Adam Dunn. Even suggesting Dunn as a replacement option for Loney is inappropriate as far as I'm concerned. Loney is far better, and cheaper too.

Well, you can't fault Humber for this. Our offense is garbage.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 02:04 PM) http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/misc/war/ Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is pretty darn all-inclusive and provides a handy reference point. WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth 6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth 3.5 wins. If you are curious. That whole bit about making sure the numbers are based not on league average but on replacement level, does that mean that a player is going to have a higher number if his replacement is worse? Of two otherwise equal players, one will be rated higher because his replacement is lousier? That seems silly.

I say Humber does the seventh, but I hope Ozzie goes to the pen for the eighth. Humber's at 86 pitches, so he should be on a short leash IMO.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) Laughing at a stat doesn't make it useless. Why is "WAR" any wierder than "ERA"? Because I still haven't figured out how on Earth WAR is calculated. Maybe I'd respect it more if someone could explain the concept. ERA, to me, at least measures a concrete thing.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:55 PM) Olerud hit for a lot more power and got on base a lot more. There's a huge difference between a .400 OBP (Olerud) and a .340 OBP (Loney). Plus, Olerud was a great defensive 1B. Loney's just above average. His career high in HRs was 24 and he only hit 20+ bombs in a season five times. He only had 100+ RBIs four times, and his career high was 107. And again, I realize the difference in OBP. This is mainly why I said the whole "poor man's" thing.

I hate Jerry Hairston. Never paid much attention to him, but he really put me off with that silly temper tantrum he threw Friday night. What a putz.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:45 PM) For a 1B, he has no power. His OBP isn't that good. He's an adequate fielder and that's the only thing he does well. He's a gap power hitter playing 1B, which makes him very below average. He had 35 doubles in 2008 and 41 last year. He won't come close to that this year, I'll admit. But to say he's very below average really isn't fair. He's sort of a poor man's...John Olerud? OBP is a lot lower, but other than that, they're quite comparable. Or maybe a Wally Joyner. And nobody ever gave those two any slack for their lack of power. I'm not saying Loney's one of the best first basemen in baseball. He's decent, for sure, and when talking about having a guy with .174 BA and record-breaking K pace replace him, he definitely doesn't deserve to be called below average.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:41 PM) Dunn actually makes a bit of sense for LA. James Loney flat out sucks. Umm, Loney's hitting .280. And he has three straight years of 88 or more RBIs. He's not a superstar, but he doesn't flat out suck...

Don't get me wrong, I love Humber and what he's done for us so far, but does anyone else think his inability to get through the eighth inning hurts his legitimacy in terms of Cy Young and All Star voting? I don't personally care, he's been terrific and he's helping us win games...I just think that might be used to separate him from the Weavers, Becketts and Verlanders of the league.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:25 PM) I can do a search and get the numbers from baseball reference but I can't give you the full list without a subscription. Bummer. I didn't even know you could subscribe to Baseball Reference. Is it worth it?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:20 PM) No, because the 4th and 5th all star positions are a crapshoot. If the Sox were winning more and putting more fans in the seats he'd have more votes. Hell, I haven't even put in my 25 votes yet and I'm not sure if I will. I haven't voted either and I won't. I just think the ASG voting is a silly popularity contest. I'm dumb for expecting fans to be honorable and vote for whom they believe are the best players, and not simply for who plays for their team, but still. It's just a matter of who has the more vote-happy fans. Now, do you have that list of sub .600 OPS' since 1980?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:17 PM) You're getting angry about all star votes? You're not angry that a guy with 21 RBIs has more votes than Konerko?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) There are 139 different players who have put up a sub .600 OPS over a 400+ plate appearance season since 1980. Cesar Izturis put up a .545 OPS last year. Do you have this list handy? That's something I'd be interested in seeing.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:14 PM) Phil Humber ERA watch at 2.78 now. It's going to be hard to leave him off the all-star team if he keeps this up. Too bad there are a lot of quality starters in the AL. I can't care about the All Star Game at all anymore. I don't see Humber going, sadly, and last time I checked, Mitch Moreland had more votes than Paulie. So did Teixeira and Cabrera, which is still hogwash. But the Moreland one is by far the most offensive. The AS Game can shove it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:09 PM) Dunn 8th, sounds good to me. Juan ninth. Becks seventh. Balta are you serious or joking? He's got to be right on that. Dunn's stats have to be some of the worst in 20 years or more unless baseball is full of whiffers. That's no hyperbole. Maybe you were kidding. How about Mark Reynolds last year? Or Carlos Pena last year. They had power, but both were under the .200 line. And Reynolds was striking out at his normal lunatic rate.

I hate this Roger Bernadina guy. No more perfecto.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 01:01 PM) I love the booing for Dunn. Ditto.

I don't feel bad for Dunn. He's making millions of dollars a year to suck like this? I'd say that's a thief.

Paulie! 1-0 Sox!

That was the silliest looking attempt at a catch I've ever seen. Oh, nevermind...I've watched Juan Pierre in left.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 12:50 PM) I'm confident that Humber is Loaiza part 2. That's a pretty harsh judgment. Loaiza great that one time, but he fell apart after that. I'm gonna give Humber the benefit of the doubt.