Kalapse

QUOTE (TitoMB345 @ Mar 20, 2010 -> 05:36 PM) lol owned. Yeah, not really.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Mar 20, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) He's not a very good player, so I'm not surprised when he plays poorly, but It's still just spring training. This is a bit worse than "poor" his OPS is below .300 right now and he looks lost both at the plate and in the field but regardless, it's only 23 spring ABs.

What a tremendous clusterf***! When will the madness end? Oh wait, it never f***ing got going in the first place.

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Mar 19, 2010 -> 08:02 PM) I think they should have had to pick at least one guy who could play CF. Then I'd go with Rowand: .283/.337/.451/.788 batting line in 1823 PA and UZR/150's of 12.4, 26.3, 19.0 and 18.7 from '02 to '05.

Ray Durham hit .279/.358/.455/.814 w/ 46 HR and 68 SB with the Sox between '00 and '02 and is one of the only guys to do anything against the Mariners in the playoffs.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 19, 2010 -> 06:47 PM) In other news, not impressed with Starlin Castro in my small look at him. Has a girls arm. Didn't he only make one throw after making a diving stab in the hole? Perhaps I missed something but that's all I saw, I'm thinking 1 throw isn't the best way to judge a player's arm.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Mar 19, 2010 -> 03:41 PM) Danks leaving a lot of stuff up today. I know in pregame they were talking about Johnny going 5. We'll see. That's what it's like the first 3 weeks of spring games, pitchers are still trying to find the feel for their pitches and release point and breaking balls tend to flatten out, a lot of pitches will be left up in the zone to wail on. Hitters have a huge advantage right now.

Only 14 times did a White Sox starter put up a 120+ ERA+ this past decade: 7 Buehrle 2 Danks 1 Loaiza 1 Contreras 1 Garland 1 Sirotka 1 Vazquez The top ERA+ season is Loaiza at 159, Buehrle has a couple in the 140's and Danks is #4 with the 138 he put up in 2008. Given that he's 1 of 2 Sox starting pitchers to have multiple well above average seasons (in terms of ERA+, anyway) it's kinda hard to keep him out of the rotation. Jose Contreras had a 4.47 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 104 ERA+ in a White Sox uniform. I suppose 2005 trumps all. One could argue Valentin for SS given his .247/.319/.483/.802 line and 136 HR in 5 seasons with the White Sox compared to Uribe's .251/.293/.431/.724 and 87 HR over 5 seasons but Juan's defense and appearance on the 2005 team gives him the easy edge. The only other candidates would be Cabrera, Clayton and Alexei none of which spent enough time at short to warrant a case.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Mar 18, 2010 -> 06:29 PM) If you read Baseball Between the Numbers, by Baseball Prospectus, they devote a whole chapter of analyzed statistical information to clutchness. The result, there is no single player you can label clutch, in fact clutchness is statistical myth. Good luck trying to convince anyone that this is the case. Believe me, I've tried with very little success.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Mar 18, 2010 -> 12:01 AM) Juan Pierre loves you. Hey, if Juan Pierre could sustain a .430 AVG and 1.100 OPS over 300 AB I'd love him too.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 18, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) Because they realize how bad Dye is defensively. And AT&T Park has an enormous outfield, offense isn't everything, Dye would end up costing them quite a few runs meandering around right field.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 18, 2010 -> 12:18 AM) I don't care what the metrics say. I absolutely refuse to believe this. He's incredibly fast and had much less ground to cover upon moving from CF to LF, it's certainly conceivable that he'd be among the best.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 11:05 PM) Thats your example huh. Well Beckham and his ST looked great last year and he turned into a stud. Now your turn. David Ortiz, Josh Hamilton, Alex Rios, Brian Buscher, Coco Crisp, Josh Wilson, Wilson Betemit, Marco Scutaro, Howie Kendrick (.900 OPS last spring), Gary Matthews Jr. (.828 OPS last spring), Robb Quinlan (1.000+ OPS, 5 HR last spring), Brandon Wood (.900+ OPS, 4 HR last spring). That's a few names from the Angels who put up a .910 TEAM OPS last spring. I can name 100 players who's 60 spring AB were the complete opposite of what they gave their team during the season then you can come back and name another 100 who kicked ass during both. All it proves is that you have no idea if a player can match his spring production because all you're getting is a small sample size of glorified batting practice, it would be irresponsible to attempt to derive anything meaningful from such a tainted, tiny sample. I have hope for Andruw Jones, I have ever since we signed him but that has absolutely nothing to do with his 20 or so spring ABs, no, it's because of his talent, re-dedication to conditioning and the promise he showed last season before succumbing to a strained hamstring a little over halfway through the year. There's simply no way I can bring myself to get excited about 20 AB in the thin Arizona air.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 10:14 PM) Blah blah blah, doomsday!!! Spring training means nothing!!!! Thats what you'll hear from people that havent seen him live in a game this year. He is not pulling everything and isnt bailing out on breaking balls. He is going to have a great year. Well, that's just wrong. Alfonso Soriano and his .975 OPS looked amazing last spring too but then he came north and the breaking balls started breaking as they should and he shutdown.

QUOTE (whtsoxfan @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 09:42 PM) Jones has a mantle that is full of gold gloves and a long track record including a few decent years hitting so I am not sure the Spring Training Flash-in-the-pan analysis applies to him. Given that he's now 33 years old, sporting bad knees with nearly 2000 games of wear, hasn't had an above average offensive season since his 20's even despite 2 very good spring training performances in the past 3 seasons and put up s*** offensive numbers in 2007 despite his getting in shape prior to the start of camp I think it's absolutely necessary to proceed with extreme caution when attempting to make anything out of 20 to 60 spring ABs in unforgiving Arizona air against pitchers who are just trying to find their release points and get a feel for their offspeed pitches. There are plenty of fine baseball players that put up big numbers in March and fall flat on their face when the games start to count just as players put up dreadful numbers during the spring and rip the s*** out of the ball in April. Like I said; Spring Training is fool's gold. Your 2009 spring training home run leader was Josh Wilson followed by Mark Teahen (Craig Monroe, Corey Hart and Travis Ishikawa rode the top of the leaderboard for the NL), Brian Buscher and Coco Crisp made an appearance in the top 5 for Batting Average (flirting with .400), Josh Hamilton had the Spring of his life (he of the .660 April OPS) and David Ortiz put up a .900 OPS. Just looking at a couple of Blue Jays: Alex Rios put up a .960 OPS and Marco Scutaro finished at a rather poor .650.

I know he had an OPS in the high .800's, 3 HR and 2 SB in the spring of '07 and another outstanding spring last year. Spring Training is fool's gold, you get your hopes up based on spring performance and you're bound to be disappointed.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 06:39 PM) He had lost velocity for a couple of years now. His K rate really dropped and he makes MacDougal's control look like Greg Maddux. He was a longshot that didn't pan out. No harm, no foul. It was worth giving him a uniform to see if they could find a way they could get anything to fall into place. There's just nothing to work with anymore. http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?pla...=P&pitch=FA That right there is a noticeable decline in velocity over a 3 year time period. His average fastball velocity since '05: 2005: 96.2 2006: 94.8 2007: 94.3 2008: 92.6 2009: 90.9 Same goes for his offspeed pitches which are down across the board since the middle part of the decade.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 06:28 PM) Not that it's really worth trying, but why wouldn't Nix clear waivers? It's not like he's an uber-talented player who hasn't lived up to his potential - he got into BA's top 100 prospects one time, and it was #94 in 2004. He's pretty mediocre, and I can't see why another team would suddenly take a chance on him. As I recall, the Rockies DFA'ed him and no team claimed him, and then the Sox signed him to a contract. The only real value Nix has is as a platoon partner, and I seem to recall that his minor league career indicates that last year may have been a fluke. And it's probably not that they are trying to save time on Retherford's arbitration clock...it just might be that the club feels that Nix is more qualified to be a backup infielder than Retherford, that Retherford needs some more seasoning and they want to see him play a few games at more positions to determine what he can and can't play in games that don't really matter, and perhaps they are hoping Nix can turn into a player who looks like he could be a .260/.340/.410 everyday 2B with a great glove so they can trade him for a decent prospect or package up for a good player during the season or over the offseason. So maybe, in some small way, it has to do with their fear of losing Nix over the waiver wire, but really, I think there is quite a bit more to the equation. Given that his future is likely that of a utilityman I believe this is the last thing on their minds. I really think the Sox see something in Nix, there's a reason why they jumped all over him at the end of October last year and signed him to a guaranteed major league deal after he was released by the Rockies.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 06:26 PM) Do tell. Press the playstation button, scroll over to photos and there should be an option to save a screenshot, select it then press the X button and it'll be saved to the XMB.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 06:22 PM) You don't walk at all, huh? Like 7 times thus far. Luckily I don't strike out much either (about 20 times) if I work it to a 3-1 count and get a fastball at the belt I'm gonna swing and chances are I'm picking up an extra base hit. Also; when you have a 20+ game hit streak going your approach changes a bit, if the ball is over the plate I'm gonna try to put it in a gap somewhere, I'm not going to pass up hittable pitches for the sake of drawing a walk.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 04:25 PM) Maybe you need to put down the controller for a bit... Eh, about 300 AB, not playing defense (my guy is a 1B so fielding is boring as s***) and only running the bases when I'm the lead runner. That's not a lot of time invested. I was wrong about a few numbers: only 13 HR and 59 RBI not 18 and 70. (I just figured out I could take a screenshot about a week ago so I have to give it a shot)

I really have to go back and watch Monsters Inc. that was easily my favorite Pixar film prior to the release of The Incredibles. Given that the last time I saw it I was about 15 years old I wonder how it would sit with me at age 23, I could see myself enjoying it even more now that I'd be able to spot the nuances of the film and comprehend more of the references. (The Simpsons Effect, if you will)

I've looked over all my sliders and gameplay settings a few times and everything looks normal but my RTTS player is hitting .430 with an 1.100+ OPS, 18 HR and like 70 RBI going into August in the first year of his career on All-Star difficulty. I have something like a 50 game hitting streak going and I'm no longer receiving points for it, don't know what that's about. I'm not sure I'm actually having fun at this point, there doesn't seem to be much of a challenge it seems that in every RBI opportunity at the very least I'm good for a shot single through the 1B/2B hole.

The Incredibles was probably my favorite Pixar film.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 01:39 PM) I know Nix is out of options, but De Aza is more of an Ozzieball fit. Both of the DH's can play the outfield but Vizquel is our only backup infielder. Keeping Nix adds more flexibility and guards against relying too heavily on Vizquel. Not to mention: I really don't think De Aza is good enough to risk losing Nix through waivers, Alejandro's a pretty mediocre ballplayer who I'm not sure adds much to the tam aside from pinch running duties.