ZoomSlowik

Florida said they wanted a left handed OF and a MR? Those are some pretty specific requests, especially since I don't know why they'd be looking to trade him until they are out of contention. Are they just trying to rape another team in a trade like the Penny deal? If the latter is the case, I doubt our package would work. I'd think that if they were shopping him they'd get at least a better player than Everett, and/or a better reliever than Shingo.

Actually, after looking at his splits, I'm pretty sure I found the reason. He's hitting .189 with runners in scoring position. :puke Still, I can't imagine that the fact that he is batting 5th helps. Also, he's got a pretty good number of runs (51), which makes sense with his OBP. Edit- He does have quite a few fewer opportunities. He has 92 at bats with runners on and 53 with runners in scoring position. That's a fairly small sample size. Compare that to Paulie, who has 131 and 74.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 11:11 PM) Oh, I dunno the Reds order but if he did have more people in front of him on base, he would have more than 39 RBI's. Lopez, Aurilia, Casey, Randa: 350/300/372/371 Thats actually pretty good lol. Then you tell me why he only has 39 ribbies! lol He usually bats 5th in the lineup. That hurts his chances because he doesn't come up with guys on as much. You need at least two men to get on in front of him for him to bat in the first inning, meaning he bats first or second in the 2nd more often. I know that that's only the first inning, but that counts for about a quarter of his at bats.

That'd be pretty awesome to get Adam Dunn. I'm not sure where he would play right now however. I'd go after him like mad in the offseason though. He's the kind of guy I'd love to see in the middle of the order: a left handed bat with ridiculous power and a high on base percentage. You'd like to see a higher batting average, but everything else is great. As for my previous Sweeney comment, I know his other numbers are good, but he's not exactly a speed and defense type of OF, so power would be a benefit. I know he's young and still has a good chance to develop power, I'm just saying we probably shouldn't count on him any time in the near future.

I gotta go for now, so I'm going to make this really simple. Jason Schmidt's ERA this season is 4.81. He's had only 4 good starts and loads of other mediocre to poor starts. Until he drops that number quite a bit or can string together 3-4 more good starts, I don't even want to consider giving up our top two prospects and eating a bunch of money to acquire him based on the CHANCE that he could pitch like the Schmidt of old and get us to the Series. Until I see some indication that he can consistently pitch like Garland or Garcia, I don't want to give up that much for him.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:50 PM) How many World Series have the Yankees been in since 1996? How many AL Championships? How many times have they gone to the playoffs? How many times did they win their division? The Yankees have gotten the short end of the stick this year, but they have no problem mortgaging the future for the present, if the present means a World Series. Most importantly, the Yankees have put themselves in a position where their minor leagues arent as important any more because "everyone wants to be a Yankee", and they can stack their team in the offseason. I dont think the Yankees are the example you want to give when proving that you should not trade away your prospects. And the season isnt even over yet, I wont kick dirt over the Yankees until the playoffs start and the Yankees are officially out of it. How many titles have they won with this current group of players? They haven't been able to win the big one since they started signing every free agent in sight, which also happens to be where their farm system dried up. They haven't been producing guys like Jeter, Rivera, and Williams for a while. Also, considering how high their payroll is, they should win more than the Sox. The Sox can't go out and sign Sheffield when their outfielders start looking like s***, or trade for A-Rod when their 3B get hurt, or afford to have an $18 mil a year 1B start hitting like a middle infielder. Even if they make the playoffs this year, they're probably going to have a tough time acquiring anyone of import at the deadline, and their outlook isn't going to get any better as these guys get older and they start making more money.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:49 PM) His merit will be tested when he faces a good hitting team. So far he has 15 starts. He has faced only two good hitting teams DET and Arizona. Since when are Baltimore, Minnesota, and the Angels (twice) bad hitting clubs? He wasn't dominant in those games, but he wasn't awful either. Also, he absolutely dominated Detroit when he faced them.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:36 PM) Comparing Chan Ho Park to Jason Schmidt? WOWIE WOW! QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:42 PM) Oh boy he pitched 2 good games against the Royals? Great job El Duque!!!! Are you going to learn how to read sometime soon? I already responded to both of those points, and the latter quote is about Contreras, not El Duque.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:44 PM) Gio's made one start in Winston Salem not Birmingham. Tracey had dynamite numbers but he had one terrible outing that really raised his era. I agree about Young and Sweeney they still have a long time to go but both have enormous potential. My bad on Gio.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:34 PM) Garland pitched 6 innings against that same lineup and gave up 6 hits, 3 walks, and 6 runs. El Duque against AZ pitched 4 2/3 and gave up 8 hits, 3 walks, and 6 earned runs. The Count pitched 6 innings against them and gave up 9 hits, 3 walks, and 8 earned runs. This was all at home. Needless to say, against the same exact team, Schmidt pitched better than all of them. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 9 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs. This was an away game for him. Give me Schmidt instead of any of those 3 that pitched against AZ for us. I would love to have Burnett, but if you are worried about spending money and prospects then you will pay a lot more for him than you will for Schmidt. Way to use one start for each of the pitchers as a basis for comparison. How about their other 12-14 starts apiece, huh? I doubt Burnett costs anymore than Schmidt will because he is a pending free agent. There is at least an option on Schmidt.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 03:33 PM) That Young kid is behind Anderson and Sweeney, right? And Liotta, Gonzalez, and even Tracey behind B-Mac. Young isn't even close. The guys hitting .254 and striking out a ton. Sweeney isn't even that close yet. He's hitting .273 at AA, but he has NO HOMERS! That tells me he still has to develop some power before we even consider it. Gio has made one start at AA, Tracey is only doing okay, and Liotta is still in low A. All of those guys other than Anderson and McCarthy are at least two years away.

Take a look at the Yankees for what happens if you keep trading all of your prospects. They've got a lot of old guys on their roster, and no one in the minors. They have no one that can really help their major league team, and no real ammo to add another player in a trade. They're pretty much stuck with what they have. And the Sox can't afford to keep adding FA veterans like the Yankees do to replace them. Not all of them pan out, but those that do are of upmost importance, especially for a mid market team.

The problem is we'd be stuck with Vizquel for two more years after this for $6 mil per. That's money that the Sox could use to retain more valuable pieces like Garland, A.J., Konerko, and Thomas. Uribe is a lot cheaper. Vizquel is definitely a better hitter (he's a bit above his career marks again this year though), but I think the D is about a draw. Plus, the Giants don't really have a need to move him, or Schmidt for that matter. If they're going to try to compete next year when Bonds and Benitez get back, those two guys are key pieces. That's why I'll believe Schmidt gets dealt when I see it.

The point of the Royals/Colorado thing was a response to the comment that he can't win close games. Shutting down Colorado in Coors is fairly impressive, since that is an extreme hitter's park. As for the bad teams comments, he also dominated Cleveland's highly touted lineup early in the year, Detroit's lineup which was similarly touted, and the Cubs. He's had 4 starts against what I would call good teams. He allowed two earned runs in a short outing against Minnesota (high pitch count in the 5th), 4 earned in 6 1/3 against Baltimore, 3 earned in 7 at Anaheim, and 4 runs (2 earned) against Anaheim. He didn't exactly get shallacked in any of them, and if the Sox had any offense in those games the could have gotten him wins in a couple of them (lost by 1 in two of them, the pen got spanked in one of the Anaheim games, he got the loss in the other).

I'd like to see them bring in Morris (he's a project, but he could be good), although he might not fit what they are looking for. Anderson, Azubuike, and Basden could all be nice fits at SG, and maybe Banks. I'm not really a fan of any of the other big guys (although I'll admit I don't know much about some of the foreigners).

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:57 PM) Minute Maid. Whatever. You're right. I wanted to say Enron, but I knew that wasn't what they called it. Some damn orange juice brand.

QUOTE(upnorthsox @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:55 PM) Contreras will not start ahead of El Duque in the playoffs unless El Duque can't go. EOS. I'm not against this trade but I can definitely understand people being hesitant because there's a risk involved and if you're clearing off the top shelf to get him there's should be no/little risks. The last thing this team needs is for San Fran to do a flip of the Sidney Ponson deal on us. I think that remains to be seen. I personally doubt that they are going to throw El Duque just because of his past performances if he is still recovering from injury or pitching like crap. I think if Contreras grossly outpitches him (which he has been doing most of the year) he'll be the 4th starter. However, we'll see. I certainly doubt that either will start ahead of Buehrle, Garland, or Garcia at this point.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:52 PM) I don't think anyone questioned Iguchi, did they? And Contreras won 2-1 against Rockies in Colorado, right? Not saying he could do it again, just playing devil's advocate. He also outdueled Grienke twice in close games (think one of them was 2-1, the other was 1-0). I'd like to see a couple more starts before we condemn him. He was pitching great before his last two starts. I don't see how everyone can be so concerned about two bad starts from Contreras and so excited about two good starts from Schmidt when both go against their norms for the season.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:46 PM) And how has El Duque faired lately? What is his prognosis? Rest didn't help him last time. Schmidt has won 3 in a row. Using your logic, Houston would never have traded for Randy Johnson in 1998. He was horrible in Seattle that year, and was going to a bandbox where he dominated. If Schmidt is consistanly throwing 94 or 95 then its a pretty good gamble to go for it all. Those two dominant starts in extreme pitcher's parks were followed by a rather mediocre one in a hitters park, and he's had a lot more starts like the latter than the former. Also, I'm pretty sure your Johnson comparison doesn't work out too well because I'm fairly sure that trade occured before both teams moved into their new parks. Safeco is a much better pitcher's park than the Kingdom was, and Tropicana is a better hitter's park than the Astrodome was.

I disagree that our WS hopes depend on El Duque. It's highly unlikely that he's going to pitch more than 2 games the way that the Buehrle/Garcia/Garland trio has pitched. It's going to matter what those three guys do a lot more since they are going to pitch the bulk of the games. Thus far I have no reason to doubt them.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:42 PM) Even though everyone is saying Schmidt might be hurt and he was last year and this and that, look at the numbers. Schmidt still pitched 225 innings last year with a 3.20 ERA. Hernandez career high, when he was HEALTHY was only 214 innings. Schmidt is a horse, and Hernandez is a big game gamer, nothing else really. If you look at the past three years without even knowing the names, who would you want? The pitcher that is averaging 200+ innings a year, or the pitcher who didnt even pitch two years ago, barely pitched 80 innings last year, and barely 90 innings 3 years ago? Whats the point of having a "Big Game Pitcher" if he is on the DL more than he is active? Being better than El Duque isn't the issue. look at my last post. Also, if he were pitching like he were last year, I'd be less opposed to giving up the farm to get Schmidt. The problem is he isn't even close.

Schmidt is better than El Duque. I don't think you can really argue otherwise. Their ERA is similar, but Herndez's WHIP and BAA are higher, and Schmidt strikes out a lot more guys. That's not the issue though. Hernandez is going to be relagated to the bullpen in the playoffs. It is somewhat important if he is better than Contreras or not, since the 4th starter will have to pitch probably twice. Statistically, this isn't even close. Contreras has a much better ERA, a much better WHIP, a much better BAA, and a decent strikeout rate, although it is lower. The comparison that is really important is whether or not he is better than Garland or Garcia. I'm not even going to bother with those comparisons, because outside of K's it's not really close. Schmidt has shown little this season to convince that he can consistently be better than Garland or Garcia, which is key since we would be cutting their use in the playoffs at least in half. Maybe Schmidt can get back to his old form, maybe he can't. So far since he came back he's got several poor starts and two very good ones in extreme pitchers' parks. I'd really like to see more before we give up anything significant and diminish the value of Garcia or Garland.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 02:05 PM) You're right...Pitchers never go through small stretches where there don't perform. Pitcher's never go through a period of dead arm or something of that sort. 12-13 starts and suddenly he's Chan Ho Park...Wow. It's pretty rare that guys add a run and a half to their ERA from the previous year, at least unless there is something wrong. This is especially true of guys like Schmidt, who have been among the top starters in the league for the last few years. Apparently you haven't grasped the concepts of sarcasm and exaggeration.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 29, 2005 -> 01:52 PM) Well according to people on the SF board he was hitting 94 and 95 on the gun last night. Granted its not the 97 he was throwing last year, but I would take him throwing 94 over El Duque and his 84mph any day of the week and twice on sunday. His velocity is still down a bit, which is usually a concern. The more important part was that his performance this year is about the same as El Duque. As I said, unless he puts together a couple of good starts in a row, I'd rather hang onto our top two prospects, unless we could get them to take Contreras in the deal (since their periferrals are similar and cost about the same, I'd rather go with the guy with a better history), and try to acquire some guys that will help our offense a bit and another solid arm in the pen, since our top 4 guys are going to get a ton of work throughout the playoffs.

People have already said my top 2: the NU/Michigan game in 2000 when NU pulled it out 55-51, and the U of I/Arizona game this past season. One other really fun one was a Bulls game I went to. I won club level tickets to the first or second home game of the 1997-1998 season. We were playing the Spurs, who just drafted Tim Ducan, and the Bulls were without Scottie Pippen. It was a close game most of the way, but the Bulls were down 3 with a couple of seconds left. They ran a play for Michael. He got a wide open look and buried the 3 to tie the game. The place exploded. Then in overtime, hit hit another buzzer beater to send it to double overtime. The Bulls ended up winning in double overtime with Michael scoring about 8 points in that period.