Kalapse

It's worth noting that Steve Stone floated the idea of trading CQ to Atlanta on the Score just now. Such a trade doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense IMO but Steve Stone doesn't just say things to say them.

Steve Coogan is pretty awesome.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jul 3, 2011 -> 02:25 PM) No offense to CQ, but his inclusion on the team is kinda like Crede's '08 selection. A head scratcher.... 3rd highest wOBA among AL outfielders tied with fellow All Star Matt Joyce and behind All-Star starters Bautista and Granderson. He's also 6th overall in HR on the AL leaderboard and 4th among AL OF behind Granderson, Bautista and Nelson Cruz who's done nothing but hit HR this season. I'd say he deserved it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 3, 2011 -> 01:47 AM) What would that trade accomplish? OBP and a little pop at the top of the order. It'd be a nice offensive upgrade though Fukudome isn't much with the glove his arm would still be an upgrade.

This is only the 2nd time the Sox have won 4 games in a row all year, take care of business tomorrow and this'll be the longest winning streak of the season and I believe their second 3 game sweep.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2011 -> 08:18 AM) Keeping Viciedo in the minors longer is likely to save the Sox money in arbitration though. Then we're not seeing him until a few weeks into August at the earliest. IMO they're either waiting until the break to get an extra year of service or someone has a lot of faith in Juan Pierre and they legitimately think there's no where to play Viciedo. If Super 2 is playing into this then that's just sad and I just can not see that, you don't leave a potential impact bat in the minors about 2 full months longer than you should in the middle of the damn season (this isn't the usual waiting until mid May scenario) in order to maybe save a few million down the line especially when everyone's job should be on the line and this team is in desperate need of an offensive spark.

It's next to impossible to put into words just how much Adam Dunn is killing my baseball buzz. Can't read threads on here, can't read some of my favorite baseball blogs and sites, can't watch highlights most nights, can't even turn on sports radio in the car because there's a damn good chance they'll be talking about the Donkey and it absolutely kills me. I went through baseball hell with the Jim Thome bulls*** but at least he was putting up big numbers, this is a whole other animal. If you had told me 3 months ago that Joe Pos was going to do a writeup on Dunn in June, I'd have been stoked, well it's happened and I can't even bring myself to look at it. Gut wrenching f***ing hell, that's what this baseball season has been.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 27, 2011 -> 08:51 PM) Do you think JP is DFA, or something else happens? Yeah I kinda do see it being Pierre, there's Really no other move to be made. Though it could just be wishful thinking, it's also common sense and if common f***ing sense is winning out in the White Sox organization then KW is looking for NL trade partners right now in an attempt to save a modicum of face. The sentence 'the kid forced our hand' should suffice in the end when it comes time to dump Juan in favor of a scalding hot 21 year old.

So Viciedo's at 83 days of service and there's about 93 days left in the regular season so if they called him up today he'd finish the year with something like 176 days of service which is 1.004. If they want to wait the 5 days or so to grab an extra year of control I'm cool with it. They've somehow managed to hold off calling him up despite 2 weeks of strong pressure from the media, fan base and I'm sure their consciences so what the hell? What's another week? I guess we can only hope that this is their plan, that Twins series before the break is probably going to be pretty f***ing ugly with our current lineup, adding a potential impact bat could change that. Though I'd say the 15th is far more likely than the 4th.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jun 25, 2011 -> 06:24 PM) Since returning from his surgery - hasn't he been regularly between 90 and 93? I don't remember seeing or hearing anything about his velocity being vacant. His velocity is definitely up from his last outing. June 22: 90.47 avg - 92.7 max 4 seamer 91.47 avg - 93.9 max 2 seamer today: 92.3 avg - 95 max 4 seamer 93.1 avg - 95.1 max 2 seamer His max cutter was up 2 MPH today. His average fastball velocity for the season was 90.8 coming into today.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) Brent Morel is not terrible and repeating it doesn't make him so. He's a rookie and he's hitting .282 since May 3, and playing excellent defense. .266/.277/.330/.607 since May 1st (his May wasn't too embarrassing with the .297 wOBA, only about 25 points below league average) .250/.246/.286/.531 since June 1st .154/.150/.205/.355 since June 8th. (6 for his last 39) /joining in the cherry picking fun At least his defense has been good.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2011 -> 11:58 PM) Does that count tonight's 0/6? Yes, he was at .042 prior to the game.

.041 ISO, right back on last year's record tying pace. One of the least useful everyday players I've ever seen.

The Beckett, Lowell for Ramirez, Sanchez trade went down about 2 months after McKeon retired in '05.

Update: Pierre's ISO is now down to .042 just 1 point off last year's record tying pace when he sported the lowest ISO for an Outfielder since 1920. It's also been 2 weeks since he last stole a base, he's 1-2 for the month of June.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jun 19, 2011 -> 11:47 PM) Paul Konerko has to be the most underrated player in the majors. Eh, he did finish 5th in AL MVP voting last season not far behind Jose Bautista.

I'll give Juan Pierre credit for one thing: he's kept me interested in White Sox baseball and statistics just by being himself. And now I'm going to keep piling on because I find this s*** interesting Quick refresher course: ISO stands for isolated slugging, it's calculated by subtracting a player's batting average from his slugging percentage, this number gives you a good idea of a player's power and extra base hit prowess, the higher the better, the lower the worse. EX: Albert Pujols' career ISO is .289, Alex Rodriguez .267, Alex Rios .160, Dustin Pedroia .157, Denard Span .102, Juan Pierre .067. Juan Pierre is unlike any other player in baseball in that he has absolutely no pop in his bat, like none. That super fluky 2009 season where he put up a .084 ISO saved his ass because he's right around .045 in the other 3 seasons since 2008. Dating back to 2008 only 5 players in baseball have 1500+ PA and a cumulative ISO under .085, the second lowest is Ryan Theriot at .060 that leaves Juan Pierre all alone at the bottom sporting a .052. If he'd have played everyday in 2009 and put up his usual garbage numbers he'd be a good 16 or 17 points below the next lowest player and I'm not sure I could handle that. The other 3 players under .085 are Kendall (retired), Figgins (ha) and Andrus (dude's 22), not the best company. I'm really not entirely sure how Juan Pierre is still in major league baseball, there aren't any players like him in the game anymore: no pop, no BB, decent average, speedy, noodle armed everyday outfielders. Here's a fun list, the bottom 15 players in ISO since 2009 (min 900 PA), in a way I suppose I was subconsciously being kind to Juan when I chose 2009 rather than 2008 since it includes his fluky '09 but not his awful '08 season, you're welcome Juan: .052 Cesar Izturis - A relic, Izturis is a throwback SS, harkening back to the days Mark Belanger manned the same postion for the same club. Oh and the Oriols GM is Jim Hendry. .053 Jason Kendall - No longer in major league baseball .054 Juan Pierre - Starting LF and leadoff man for a club with a $125M payroll .059 Jamey Carroll - NL supersub capable of play 4 positions .064 Ryan Theriot - Odd starting middle infielder for a Tony LaRussa led ballclub .067 David Eckstein - No longer in major league baseball .069 Elvis Andrus - 22 year old elite defensive SS .071 Chone Figgins - One of the bigger free agent busts of the past decade, still playing everyday in one of the worst lineups in baseball seemingly because of his contract .071 Emilio Bonifacio - NL supersub capable of play 7 positions .075 Alcides Escobar - 24 year old elite defensive SS .077 Tony Gwynn Jr. - 4th OF in the NL .078 Edgar Renteria - Platoon SS, on his last leg in the majors .078 Nyjer Morgan - I don't even know anymore .081 Omar Infante - NL supersub capable of playing half the postions on the field .082 Skip Schumaker - Odd starting middle infielder for a Tony LaRussa led ballclub Keeping with the main theme of ISO and playing everyday in the outfield lets see how many players have logged 600 PA in a season, played the majority of their games in the outfield and managed an ISO of .045 or less which he did last season, is on pace to do once again this season and was 200 PA short of accomplishing in 2008. 2010 Juan Pierre .275/.341/.316/.657, .041 ISO 1995 Otis Nixon .295/.357/.338/.695, .042 ISO 1992 Luis Polonia .286/.337/.329/.666, .043 ISO 1989 Gerald Young .233/.326/.276/.602, .043 ISO 1979 Rick Manning .259/.323/.304/.626, .045 ISO 1959 Richie Ashburn .266/.360/.307/.667 .041 ISO Six. 6 total players since 1920 have played everyday in the outfield and displayed similar ineptitude in the power department as Juan Pierre. How about for his career? As I stated earlier his career ISO is .067, now how many players could possibly have managed 3000 PA (about 6 full major league seasons) playing the majority of their games in the outfield with an ISO at or under .067. .044 Otis Nixon 1983-1999 .056 Johnny Cooney 1921-1944 .062 Bill North 1971-1981 .064 Greg Gross 1973-1989 .067 Juan Pierre 2000- .071 Tom Goodwin 1991-2004 .072 Darren Lewis 1990-2002 .072 Jo-Jo White 1932-1944 Four. Only 4 outfielders since 1920 have amassed 3000+ PA and managed a lower career ISO than Juan Pierre. Only 19 have a career ISO under .080. I really have no idea how this guy still has a job in major league baseball. I feel like I've said this before.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 03:58 PM) Viciedo has acquired some service time, so wouldn't they have to keep him down longer to avoid the super 2 cutoff? He has 83 days of service, they'd have to keep him down there until like August to have a shot at avoiding super 2.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jun 18, 2011 -> 11:06 AM) As usual, don't let actual reality interfere with your hyperbole: Beckham last 28 days: .265/.351/.718 Perfectly acceptable for a 2B. Eh, there are much higher expectations for Beckham than old man Polanco or Skip Schumaker type numbers. He was the #8 overall pick, #20 prospect in baseball in 2009 ahead of guys like Porcello, Smoak, Santana and McCutchen. I think we expect numbers similar to what he put up in May (.303/.379.421/.800) instead of the incredible inconsistency we're getting from him now (.205/.286/.364/.649 in the month of June) along with the frequent awful at bats (1 or 2 a game where he just looks clueless at the plate, even when he's going well). He's supposed to be one of the best 2B in the league, not an average to below average offensive second baseman especially with the league averages as low as they are right now (AL: .680 OPS at 2B compared to .719 last year and .764 in 2009).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 17, 2011 -> 05:06 PM) One problem is that Rios's SB %age fell off a cliff last year with the Sox. More CS's in 2010 than the previous 2 years combined. Well there was an increased focus on base stealing when he arrived in Chicago. “I told Rios, I said, ‘Get on base twice in the game and give me two stolen bases. We don’t need 40 home runs from you,’” - Ozzie, December of 2007

Justin Upton disagrees.

One of the problems I have with yesterday's riots is that it was 100% premeditated. I was watching the live coverage last night on CTV and a reporter noted that some of the fans she talked to before the game were looking forward to recreating the '94 Vancouver riots if the Canucks lost. It only lends credence to Steve's comments, the police were "ready" for rioting, not nearly as prepared as they needed to be but they were well aware that some s*** was going to go down if the Canucks lost, there was plenty of buzz before the game even began. It's not totally out there to say Vancouver can not be trusted, they seem to be the rioting type and now it's becoming a tradition.

Jason Michaels

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 13, 2011 -> 11:56 PM) I liked The Master a lot and David Tennant is my favorite doctor of the three so far. The writing is at its best now, but the best part about the early ones was Rose. I thought she was a great companion, though Amy Pond is my new favorite. Having to sit through season 4 and Donna will be harsh though. I was thinking about season 4 when they mentioned her as a possible replacement for Michael Scott on the Office, I mean, that show's bad enough already. And yeah, Tennant was just awesome, he sold me on the show. Doctor Who can be pretty bad at times, the episodes that miss tend to miss by a mile but David Tennant tended to make them watchable thanks to his energy and comedic timing. It does seem like the Matt Smith era has been pretty strong, not many duds in there so far.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 13, 2011 -> 11:33 PM) What dream world are you living in? Release a guy out of "respect to a veteran player?" I know you want him gone, but that is a total reach. The guy is hitting .260 which is not worthless no matter what you Juan-haters think. You don't just release the guy. You trade him or add Dayan and platoon him with Juan. I am assuming Viciedo is playing left in the minors. If he's playing right we really have problems cause Dayan probably will be a butcher in left if he's used to right. .260 isn't worthless when there's a good ISO to go along with it, Juan's at .046 so yeah, that insanely soft .260 is worthless. If you're gonna hit .260 try keeping your ISO away from the very bottom of baseball (2nd LOWEST!) oh yeah, and the 9 times he's been erased from the basepaths in a futile attempt to swipe a bag makes that .260 just that much weaker. Penalize his batting average for the 9 CS and he's hitting .224, boost his SLG for the 10 SB and his first slash stats are .224/---/.308 putting his ISO at .084 which would be good for 23rd worst in baseball just ahead of AJ Pierzynski. Jonathan Sanchez has 1 less double than Juan Pierre this season. Where's the payoff? .260 hitter going about 50/50 on the basepaths, sporting a league worst ISO and a walk rate in the bottom 30 percentile of baseball. Yeah, that's not donin' it for me.