Kalapse

He's already tweeted 5 times in the last hour.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 04:10 PM) I agree, and the whole strategy in pinch hitting or double switching is why I prefer no-DH. And you have also pitchers like Zambrano and Owings that give you an advantage. Just some of those pitchers are so damn bad at hitting, it frustrates me. And Carlos Zambrano is only a lifetime .236/.243/.396/.639 hitter, meaning the Cubs have a big advantage because they have right handed Wilson Betemit hitting 9th for them.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 03:57 PM) Getting paid millions of dollars to play for about 5 minutes per game seems ludicrous to me. For that money they should be working out year round to be in amazing shape so that they could play the field. Most of these guys have to work their asses off year round just so they can DH for ~130 games, it can only do so much when you're body is failing you in your mid 30's. 1.) I'm not giving up 7 or 8 years of Edgar Martinez's career, without the DH he would have been forced to retire in his early 30's. Cutting in half the career of one of the greatest pure hitters I've ever seen, I'm not trading that for anything. 2.) I hate watching s*** relievers pitch for 4 innings because the team had to pinch hit with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the top of the 5th. 3.) A team taking a big hit defensively because they have to keep a big bat in the lineup despite the fact that he's an absolute butcher in the field just lessens one of the main aspects of the game. Personally, I have no interest in watching Adam Dunn play left or David Ortiz play first. 4.) There's few things in sports more annoying than watching a pitcher try to hit. I watch baseball for entertainment purposes and for me watching starting pitchers go deep into games instead of being lifted for Lenny Harris in the 6th and seeing guys like Edgar Martinez and Jim Thome continue to wreak havoc on pitchers into their late 30's rather than being relegated to a golf course does a lot more for me than Dusty Baker pulling double switch in the 7th.

I can't believe they determine elimination games via shootout.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) Well... it's two years Kalapse. There you go. If he goes back to his 08 stats in discipline then you can comment on it/bump this thread back to me. But as of right now he's improved. 2 years is not a trend.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 03:58 PM) Agreed completely. And I like Alexei as he's improved his discipline (and SB) each year. He's been in America for 2 years, how the hell do you find a year to year pattern from that sample size?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 03:52 PM) I told you a couple months ago that Ozzie would have Vizquel at DH and it wouldn't take that many games to happen. Assuming Liriano is the Twins' 5th starter we should get him in the 4th game of the season. Assuming probable 5 man rotations hold up for the first few weeks of the season our next game against a left handed starter would be in the back end of the 4 game Toronto series on the 14th or 15th of April, they have couple lefties that could make up the back-end of their rotation, we play 6 straight days going into the series, could be a good time to give Pierre a rest and Vizquel a start.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 02:59 PM) Some more confirmation that Kotsay is getting the bulk of time as the DH, and Omar Vizquel will add his incredible defense versatility to the DH position. "For now, this means that Mark Kotsay will get the bulk of at-bats against right-handed pitchers. Guillen also didn't rule out Omar Vizquel batting leadoff as a DH against tough left-handed pitchers, meaning Juan Pierre would get a break." http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...ft-handers.html Thank god the vast majority of starting pitchers in the AL are left handed, right?

Scott Reifert providing us with an early glimpse of spring training: Quentin in the cage: Beckham at second: . And PFPs:

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 05:10 PM) He does? Yeah, his mechanics aren't great. Terrific link: http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseba.../JakePeavy.html Another great link from Carlos Gomez (who I believe still works for the Diamondbacks after they hired him in '07): http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...fort-mechanics/

Eric Gagne admitted to past HGH use, shocking the baseball world.

What an amazing game, I've never seen anything like that before. Ryan Miller was a madman out there.

Just 12 more days until the first Sox video broadcast. The March 5th game vs the Dodgers will be shown on whitesox.com most likely featuring the epically bad color commentary of Bill Melton.

Halfway through the first and this game is already insane.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 06:31 PM) I see what youre saying and i agree but at the same time hes been able to get himself into what sounds like tremendous shape after seemingly a string of knee injuries and that right there shows he has the drive to play at a high level and still has the strength in him to do so. Just looked up Mel Otts stats and he was still receiving mvp votes up until age 36 and i believe people now a days are stronger than people back then so i dont think its that big a deal. He did the same thing in '07, got into the best shape of his life to the point where teammates were saying they didn't recognize. Competitive fire and dropping weight are great and all but that can't make up for 1800 games played in the field and the wear that comes from pushing your body to its limit at such a young age.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 06:08 PM) Hm, I wonder if they are thinking Jones/Nix platoon for DH, since Nix hits lefties so well. You don't platoon 2 right handed hitters.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 06:06 PM) You could be right, but he kept getting hurt because he was out of shape more than likely so there is no reason to believe now that he is in shape that he'll get hurt or at least hurt in the same way that he has been getting hurt which has been his knees. I know I'm a big active guy and running around takes a toll on my knees and if you resort back to my post about hitting i believe youre knees play a big part. Or it's because he's had an incredible amount of wear on his body. He's been in the majors since age 19 because of this he's 1 of only 11 outfielders in the history of the game to log 1500+ games played before the age of 30 and 1 of 2 to reach 1600+ before age 30 (Mel Ott being the only other). That kind of wear takes a tremendous toll on the body, it's no wonder he started to break down physically right around age 30, he's hardly alone in this fact. I'd be surprised if he were ever again play a full injury-free season, this is the #1 reason why extrapolating out an older, part time player's numbers for a full season and using that as some sort of benchmark is completely ludicrous.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 01:41 PM) .290 batting average, .766 OPS. Lat 3 year splits, .275 average, .738 OPS. I dug up these numbers a few months back, gotta put them in multiple places so I can find them easier in the future. Kotsay's 3 year splits vs RHP: .275/.335/.403/.738, 654 PA, 10 HR Kotsay's 4 year splits vs RHP: .276/.339/.394/.732, 1088 PA, 14 HR Kotsay's 5 year splits vs RHP: .272/.330/.397/.727, 1525 PA, 26 HR His last healthy season (2006): .278/.343/.379/.723, 434 PA, 4 HR And his last healthy season before that (2005): .261/.310/.404/.715, 437 PA, 12 HR

What sane organization is going to allow their top starting pitcher to take a 2 week break from MLB baseball at the end of July/beginning of August to pitch in a 2 week highly competitive tournament? If Jake Peavy were to participate in such an event I'd be downright furious, even if he were representing my homeland.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) According to Baseball Prospectus. If we trade Flowers, Viciedo and Danks. Our top ten looks like this: 1. Daniel Hudson, RHP 2. Jared Mitchell, OF 3. Brent Morel, 3B 4. Clevelan Santeliz, RHP 5. Trayce Thompson, OF 6.Santos Rodriguez, LHP 7. David Holmberg, LHP 8. C.J. Retherford, 2B 9. Jhonny Nunez, RHP: 10.Josh Phegley, C: We have a decent draft pick this year, a nice collection of young guys at the big league level, and a good market over in Cuba. I ‘m not too worried about this organization’s prospect future. There's no way you trade for AGon right now and not surrender Daniel Hudson in the process.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 04:28 PM) Konerko and AJ are both off the books next year. That is $18 million right there that can be used towards an AGon extension. Then you have $67.8M committed to 10 players: Buehrle Floyd Peavy Linebrink Thornton Pierre Ramirez Rios Teahen Viciedo And Danks, Jenks and Quentin all due large raises in arbitration, that's another $22M, so $87.8M due to only 13 players. Add on Gonzalez's pay and you're over $93M to only 14 players and dealing with a completely decimated farm system. The only decent young player on the 40 man roster right now who's pre arb and would still be around after that deal would be Gordon Beckham, that's 15 players. 2012: Floyd, Peavy, Rios, Teahen and Viciedo = $44M with Danks, Pena, Quentin and Ramirez all arb eligible and once again; all of your top prospects going into the 2010 season are gone, better hope a few prospects left over after the trade fly through the system.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 02:48 PM) If the Sox do sign Damon, is there a chance the deal includes an option for 2011, or will he be strictly viewed as a stop-gap? I highly doubt it, Scott Boras almost never agrees to include team options in his client's contracts. He hates giving someone else control over his client's future.

QUOTE (PlunketChris @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 01:37 PM) my thread is only at 29 pages right now.. what's the usual post per page ratio because I think I have 50/page Page 20 for me, I think I have it set to 75 posts per page, I can scroll through a thread getting the gist of the conversation in no time. I can't imagine reading some of these super treads with only 10 to 25 posts per page constantly clicking the next page.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 01:47 AM) Of course not. However, assuming this dude is just making it up, it's kind of odd that he'd just randomly make up something like that, especially since it appears he's more an NFL guy. It's just unbelievable enough to be believable.