debunking assumptions

[Princess Dye]

Everyone seemed to indicate (all offseason) that the season's success or failure would rest on what kind of year Rios would have

 

It's entirely plausible that Rios can hit the ball hard all year and we'll still be bad in any number of other spots in the lineup.

[daggins]

These assumptions all generally held that AJ and Pierre were locks for .725 and .700 OPS respectively.

 

Most of them also included a Q clause.

 

Yeah, Sox can be plenty bad even if Rios is good. It is nice that he is hitting well, however, since we are stuck with him.

[greg775]

Everyone also seemed to sort of think we'd be OK because of our great starting staff. Read the prediction thread for the season. Lots of high win totals in there.

Deep down most figured we'd be a reasonably good team with any offense at all.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Everyone also seemed to sort of think we'd be OK because of our great starting staff. Read the prediction thread for the season. Lots of high win totals in there.

Deep down most figured we'd be a reasonably good team with any offense at all.

 

And this could still be the case. They're 150 games left in the season.

[greg775]

True Jordan, but if we seem to be at least one big bat short.

[caulfield12]

There's no way this team can lose 90 games.

 

That said, I'll stick with my original prediction of 78-84 wins.

 

The scary thing is that the Mariners and Rays are playing as well as any teams in the majors...whereas the Twins are coasting now after starting out on the West Coast.

 

Yes, it all evens out...I get that, it's early, yadda yadda...but has a White Sox team ever recovered to make the playoffs after being 8 games or more back in a season?

[Marty34]

Scary thing is Teahen, Jones, and Konerko have all been better than expected these first two weeks. At least they're getting on base, but I wonder if that's just a function of the opposing pitcher pitching around them because there are so many holes in this lineup. Quentin has to hit a lot closer to the MVP candidate he was in '08 than the way he has since he broke his hand. Pierre needs a permanent seat on the bench and AJP needs to be put on notice.

[kapkomet]

Scary thing is Teahen, Jones, and Konerko have all been better than expected these first two weeks. At least they're getting on base, but I wonder if that's just a function of the opposing pitcher pitching around them because there are so many holes in this lineup. Quentin has to hit a lot closer to the MVP candidate he was in '08 than the way he has since he broke his hand. Pierre needs a permanent seat on the bench and AJP needs to be put on notice.

 

 

lol wut?

[GREEDY]

Scary thing is Teahen, Jones, and Konerko have all been better than expected these first two weeks.

 

All Teahen has shown me is that he sucks defensively.

 

Even if he reaches his ceiling offensively (something like 25/.280/.825), that will not make up for his glove.

 

I know we desperately needed a LH bat, and OFFENSIVELY Mark sure seemed like a relatively inexpensive option that could blossom at The Cell; But KW really screwed the pooch by yet again plugging another guy into a position he can barely play.

[caulfield12]

Teahen can't be considered a plus offensively simply because of his walks...because getting on base for Alexei or Juan Pierre doesn't really do much good these days.

 

Beckham's come up short in a lot of RBI situations too so far, although it is only 12 games, he and Pods were nails with RISP last year.

 

Konerko is Konerko. He is what he is at this stage of his career, a slightly above average offensive 1B and slightly below average defensively who's making about $6-8 million more than he will on the open market in 2011. He did ALMOST tie the game up yesterday...he's certainly far from being anything resembling a problem compared to our other pressing issues.

 

It's really Pierre, AJ and Ramirez that are damaging the offense the most...

 

FINAL THOUGHT: Pick a philosophy and stick with it KW. SEE MARINERS, SEATTLE.

 

Teahen is not and never will be a good defender, see Fields, Josh. If the White Sox had an infield of Uribe, Ramirez, Beckham and Orlando Hudson, we'd at least be a .500 ballclub, GUARANTEED. It would give us at least a 50-75% chance to hang with the Twins all season long. (One other problem...the Twins have the resources now to go out and address any flaw in their ballclub, which means they can easily add a 3B and middle relief or even closer at the break. We simply cannot make a significant, $5 million plus or more, addition...)

 

Plus we'd have the flexibility to rest a struggling player. We can't really sit Alexei because neither Vizquel nor Nix are long-term options at that position.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2010 by caulfield12

[NorthSideSox72]

Well what I kept harping before the season was... pitching looks great, bullpen will be a strength, defense is improved, speed is improved, DH hole is a big mistake, but the biggest factor in the success or failure of the team would be the OF/DH rotation and how those bats do (Quentin/Rios/Pierre/Jones/Kotsay). I said if all of those guys (or even 4 of 5) did well, the Sox win the division.

 

Well... Quentin and Rios look decent. Jones is on-and-off. Kotsay and Pierre look atrocious. 50/50 on that group right now, which isn't good enough.

 

[Knackattack]

Did I really just see a post clamoring for the return of Juan Uribe?

[JorgeFabregas]

Teahen can't be considered a plus offensively simply because of his walks...because getting on base for Alexei or Juan Pierre doesn't really do much good these days.

I don't agree. He's second on the team in runs.

[caulfield12]

Teahen also knocked us out of one Indians game (erasing the good of the superstar performance for one game in TOR)....his defense has been poor, to put it gently/mildly.

 

 

[caulfield12]

Did I really just see a post clamoring for the return of Juan Uribe?

 

 

Yes, 100%, absolutely.....he and Jose Valentin have been two of the most underrated and underappreciated White Sox players in my lifetime.

[SI1020]

Yes, 100%, absolutely.....he and Jose Valentin have been two of the most underrated and underappreciated White Sox players in my lifetime.

I would agree with that.

 

[DBAHO]

Yes, 100%, absolutely.....he and Jose Valentin have been two of the most underrated and underappreciated White Sox players in my lifetime.

And Uribe had an absolutely horrible OBP in his last few seasons with the Sox, and unfortunately his defense slipped a little also, which really negated his value. And the Sox had to move away from that "all or nothing" mentality on offense obviously.

 

The Sox had to move on, and they got a guy in Ramirez who albeit made some boneheaded decisions, but has at least shown he can develop some plate discipline.

[whitesoxfan101]

lol wut?

 

Teahen has on on base pecentage of .436 and an OPS just above .900. He had a bad several days, but he's been absolutely on fire lately. Andruw Jones is also raking, Rios has been pretty solid, and we still don't even have anything resembling a decent offense. The offense is somehow even worse than I thought it'd be, and this coming from a guy who thought this offense would finish 11th to 14th in the AL in runs scored.

Edited April 19, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[NorthSideSox72]

Teahen has on on base pecentage of .436 and an OPS just above .900. He had a bad several days, but he's been absolutely on fire lately. Andruw Jones is also raking, Rios has been pretty solid, and we still don't even have anything resembling a decent offense. The offense is somehow even worse than I thought it'd be, and this coming from a guy who thought this offense would finish 11th to 14th in the AL in runs scored.

And a bunch of guys in the lineup are hitting well below where anyone would expect them to hit for a full season.

 

The offense may not be good enough, but there is zero chance it stays this bad. .220 AVG and .196 w.RISP isn't going to last.

 

[elrockinMT]

True Jordan, but if we seem to be at least one big bat short.

 

 

You and Jordan are both right in my opinion. Once again I feel strongly both ways about the argument

[Whitewashed in '05]

And a bunch of guys in the lineup are hitting well below where anyone would expect them to hit for a full season.

 

The offense may not be good enough, but there is zero chance it stays this bad. .220 AVG and .196 w.RISP isn't going to last.

I agree with that. However, we've been through this already in 07. There were many more problems on that team than the offense, but everyone was saying the same thing. I just hope we actually turn it around rather than still saying it in early June...

[Princess Dye]

Everyone expects the team hitting stats to look way better at the end of the year. But that's totally immaterial if we fall too far behind here in the early going. It can very easily be out of our grasp sooner rather than later if Minny keeps doing what they're doing.

[Balta1701]

It can very easily be out of our grasp sooner rather than later if Minny keeps doing what they're doing.

Seeing teams overcome mid-season 10 game deficits has been the norm over the past few years...not something abnormal.

[striker]

True Jordan, but if we seem to be at least one big bat short.

Our entire team is batting .218 and you think all we need is one big bat? I think 9 little bats would help.

[Controlled Chaos]

And a bunch of guys in the lineup are hitting well below where anyone would expect them to hit for a full season.

 

The offense may not be good enough, but there is zero chance it stays this bad. .220 AVG and .196 w.RISP isn't going to last.

Agree and when the hitting gets better...unlike other years when we needed the HR to get runs...we should actually see more runs produced simply with that better hitting.