Kalapse

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 4, 2010 -> 05:08 PM) Of course our opening day starts off with a poster who gets banned.. This is a very good omen. Last time a banned member created the Opening Day Game thread we won the World Series. YoungstownIndians came on here spammin' it up, lasted about 45 posts and his initial thread was turned into the Game Thread. I now officially have a good feeling about 2010. EDIT: Found it: http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29431

Anyone who accessed the chat via a secomdary program last year can do the same tomorrow, I assume.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 4, 2010 -> 08:38 AM) It could easily also be they don't want to start the arbitration clock on a guy they'd actually like to use in the future. They can't be worried about that sort of thing, you pull that s*** with elite prospects not Tyler Flowers, that's the kind of s*** awful organizations worry about. If he's the guy they believe can best help the team right now and that it wouldn't necessarily stunt his growth then he needs to get the call, no waiting until June. You don't call those (elite prospects you want to keep around for that extra year) guys up in September of losing years and that's exactly what they did with Tyler last year, they cost themselves a month with that one.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 3, 2010 -> 07:28 PM) bull pen S***, people have been talking up our pen (on paper that is) on here for months now and I've yet to see a fight about it. Interesting.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 3, 2010 -> 01:25 PM) A lotta Sox love in that piece. If he posted here for a couple days, we'd beat that s*** out of him. Yeah because there's so much hate on here for our starting rotation.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 3, 2010 -> 12:28 AM) How do you define "hell of a year?" Well, if you base it solely on tonight's performance: .750 AVG, 1.500 OPS, 486 R, 324 SB/0 CS

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:19 PM) Case and point: Anderson: Game 163. If BA is in the game earlier, I'm not sure he throws out Cuddyer at home the way a declining Griffey did. Griffey knew where to be, took his time to set up correctly and made the throw under control. Anderson, would have made the catch, but he also would have gotten crazy excited to show off his arm and probably would have air-mailed AJ. That ties the game. Everything changes... Again, my point is in his prime or now, Jones still has more positive impact effect on plays in CF based on his experience and ability than another player on the Sox roster. You can take a kid like Jared Mitchell who (without injury) has more athletic skill than Jones does, but I would still play Andruw in CF more often. There is so much more that goes into playing CF than the speed/arm component. That's what makes the position so unique. And the last time he played a decent amount of games in CF he was average at best, just getting in shape isn't enough to proclaim him back he needs to prove it in the field over a sufficient number of innings. To rate his defensive ability at this point would be nothing more than a gut feeling. Think about the sample from which we are working with here: today was Andruw's 18th spring game now subtract all the games in which he didn't start in CF from those 18 now subtract all the innings he didn't play because he was pulled halfway through the game now how many of those games were available to be seen by those not in attendance? now in however many innings he did spend in CF (it can't be too many at this point) how many balls were hit to CF and were playable? Over the last 3 years Jones played in CF he averaged a ball in his zone about once every 3.29 innings. now how many of those plays could any one person who has been anywhere but Arizona for the past month possibly have seen and got a good enough angle from which to judge reads? now how many plays are we actually talking about here?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:40 PM) Oh come on, the only reason they sent Cuddyer is because Griffey Jr's defense had become such a joke. That ball wasn't more than 75 feet into the outfield. It was a pretty bad throw, too. He was very lucky to get Cuddyer at the plate.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:21 PM) Jones can play CF better than Rios. Read on... You see, that doesn't read as an opinion, it reads as fact. That's sort of the problem here.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:54 PM) He's still 32...for a few more days. I'm not saying Jones is the CF he used to be. I'm saying he's better than any other Sox CF. And you're basing that on what? There's no way in hell you've seen enough of him over the past month to state that as fact.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:52 PM) Watch the black-out game final play. I was there. He broke like 3 steps into LF before he scrambled into that diving catch. Glad he made it, though. That game was as loud as the 2005 WS. That was 1 play. I watched him all throughout that '06 season and he was unbelievable and the numbers backed it up. It did seem like since around the halfway point of 2006 when he wasn't getting a lot of playing time his defense just wasn't the same.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:42 PM) Bad reads=bad jumps=diving catches. That doesn't make you a good CF. Brian Anderson definitely got outstanding jumps, he was never one for the makeup-diving catch. He made a ton of plays look easy that your average CF would be diving for.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:35 PM) I dunno, I thought BA was a pretty damn good defensive CF... Aside from that first half of '06 he paled in comparison to Jones. It's silly to proclaim him the best defensive CF on the team when the last time we got even a decent sample of him in CF he was just average and now he's 33 but it's certainly not plausible given his incredible abilities. It's just going to take a little time before it can be said definitively.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 06:16 PM) Carlos' heel injury can certainly be attributed to this time in the field. It's not insane logic, the less time he's exposed to having to run around, dive, make difficult throws the less stress will be put on his body. I also find it a bit shocking to hear the argument that Carlos is so mentally weak that he needs the distraction of playing the field to, what? Prevent him from killing himself? Because I can't think of many self-destructive things he can do on the bench outside of punching a wall and kicking the s*** out of the Gatorade cooler, and who hasn’t done that from time to time. Carlos said he’s working on his anger issues, and I trust that he can control himself long enough to allow this team to put the optimal defensive lineup in the field. You're taking it to some incredible extremes. Off the top of my head I know Jason Giambi would tell anyone who would listen that he absolutely hated DH'ing, it would take him out of the flow of the game and give him far too much time to think about his ABs, he'd go up there and over think everything, playing the field would serve as a bit of a distraction for him. This is a fairly common complaint from hitters and is one of the reasons why you'd see some very good hitters stick in the field for far too long because they'd be fighting the move in the clubhouse. Vlad Guerrero's another one, he fought it for a while in Anaheim of course he was eventually forced into the move since he just couldn't physically play the field semi-regularly anymore. It's not exactly hard to figure out what I'm trying to say but since you're invoking suicide I suppose you're having trouble. So I'm about done with that. Yeah, playing the field couldn't have helped his heal but he did aggravate it rounding first in Anaheim, that won't change as a full time DH. Same goes for the Hammy he strained running the bases, the wrist he broke punching a bat or the left shoulder he tore up swinging a bat. Like I said: if he's really as fragile as people believe then moving him to DH isn't going to keep him from spending time on the DL, he's already proven that he's quite proficient at hurting himself away from the outfield.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 05:55 PM) If you talk about someone who deserves a statue at the ballpark, Nancy is it. Perhaps they could alter Harold's.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 05:17 PM) Look, i know Carlos is intense. I know he really gets down on himself, but you can't tell me that the guy is going to have a mental breakdown everytime he strikes out just because he has to sit next to Kotsay, Castro, Nix and Vizquel for 9 innings, as opposed to going out to RF. It's not like he's doing yoga exercises out their anyway. This isn't some new concept. It's an incredibly difficult transition to make that some players -- especially those who are as intense as Carlos -- struggle to make. It's an entirely different game when you're only asked to compete a handful of times throughout a game. Mental breakdown? Probably not. Extended slumps? Good possibility. And if Carlos is as fragile as people believe him to be something tells me a move to the DH position will not be enough to save him from shattering into hundreds of pieces upon his next catastrophic injury. Hell correct me if I'm wrong but his last 4 injuries (if we are to believe that Carlos hurt himself punching a bat) either took place or were aggravated on the offensive side.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) In event of the first, we move TCQ to the OF, and then play Kotsay at DH while weighing the options of calling up Flowers or making a trade. In the event of the second, we send the guy to a mental ward because he must be crazy if he can't handle his s*** while sitting on the bench all game. He wouldn't be anywhere near the first player to not be able to handle a designated hitter role. (I just couldn't make this sentence sound good, off day I suppose) Some players just can't take sitting on the bench for 9 innings only getting up to participate 4 or 5 times in a game. If Jones does start off April looking really good at the plate why in the hell would you want to push him hard right away and possibly lose him for an extended period of time forcing you to go with a sucky plan B? Working him into the outfield slowly doesn't hurt you at all as far as I'm concerned and it could pay big dividends later in the season.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 04:40 PM) A lot of of my concerns about this team would be lifted if we moved TCQ to DH and Jones to the OF. It's the more optimal defensive lineup, and would decrease the injury concern that perpetually looms over Quentin's head. And what happens when Jones breaks down physically or Quentin breaks down mentally? I like Andruw to give us quite a bit defensively this year but I'm not asking him to provide it in the first month or 2 of the season.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 02:58 PM) Dude, what are you talking about? He didn't apologize for anything. He flat out said the White Sox might have the best pitching staff in the AL. "I think the White Sox are terrific" if that's not apologizing I don't know what is.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:44 AM) Rosenthal is one of the best in the game. Anyone that calls him an idiot is a dumbass. Same with Gammons, Heyman, Olney, Nightengale, and Kurkijan. And yes, there are a lot of people on fan sites that are dumbasses and rip on good sports reporters because they don't say what they want to say or because the rumor that came out didn't turn out to be true. It's ridiculous. Hurray for stating opinion as fact! Yeah, I have big problems with both Heyman and Nightengale and it's funny: I don't feel like a dumbass for holding such opinions.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 31, 2010 -> 09:47 AM) I believe that in ST, the starter doesnt have to go 5 innings for the win. He can go 1 or 2 innings and if he leaves with the lead, they give him the W That's exactly right.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 1, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) It will be interesting to see what Johan does this year. This numbers all took a turn for the worse last year, and that was most likely due to elbow problems. That kind of stuff is really scary, especially for a guy who has mad major surgery already in his career, and has about $100 million plus still left on his contract. The whole complexion of that team take a hit if Santana isn't #1 and on top of his game. He had the same surgery (bone chip removal) after the '03 season. 2004 was his best year as a pro. Does this mean anything? probably not.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 1, 2010 -> 11:40 AM) The Mets are the reason I can't agree with people who say the Cubs are the worst team $140 million can buy. At least when they're healthy (I know that's asking a lot but they should be by late April) they have 2 elite outfielders, 2 elite infielders, a true ace and an elite closer. The Cubs by my count have 1 elite infielder, a great 1B who's known to have elite seasons and that's about it in terms of great baseball players unless Marmol blossoms this season which could very well happen.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 31, 2010 -> 10:08 PM) He's been average or below in three of his last four years in Boston. Average to below average? No, not even close ('06 is his only truly bad year). As good as Halladay? No, not even close.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 1, 2010 -> 07:43 AM) Don't you know, the AL East is only the Yankees & Red Sox. The Blue Jays and that pitcher named Roy don't count in the discussion. Thank you.