chitownsportsfan

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ May 28, 2008 -> 10:44 PM) There's absolutely no reason for this team to have a major change. We're a tweak or two away imo... I would be against gutting the already barren farm system to make any major moves as well. If anything, a minor move should be made to aquire a cheap corner player with some pop to take a seat on the bench -- but those guys don't go on trees. I still am in favor of signing Lofton at the midway point.

I'd love to see the team sign Lofton once Uribe gets back from the DL. DFA ozuna, send down Wise, and bring up Fields. Fields can get some start sat 1B, some starts at DH, some starts at 3B. He can play 2-4 times a week. Lofton is way better an option in the outfield than Ozuna and Wise. If Lofton could give 175 PA or so of 280/345/400 ball it would be a nice boost coming off the bench.

The White Sox should just thank themselves they don't have to play in NYC. It's 10 times worse here for the Yankees and Mets. That said, I have no patience for these hadget job stories. Too often the beat writers and columnist forget that their readers are actually fans of the clubs they are reporting on -- we can make up our own minds and don't mind a little bad with the good.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 26, 2008 -> 11:15 PM) Anyone see this statistical stuff on Chicago Sports? Pretty cool http://chicagosports.inside-edge.com/white...2&dt=052608 That's pretty cool that they are doing that. That said, Fangraphs is still about a million times more useful. I"d rather see the beat writers start to incorporate some easy (but important) stats like OPS and K/BB ratio into the writeups. Until the casual fan realizes how much more important OPS is than stolen bases and average we will continue to see calls for Jerry Owens.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ May 26, 2008 -> 10:33 PM) not completely, b/c this situation is an execution problem, whereas this situation (the HR swings on a hit and run) points to a lack of player preparation You put your players in a position to succeed. Ozzie is a master of giving his pitchers just enough rope to hang or save themselves. He should know that Ramirez -- who should be in AAA -- is not a guy you hit and run with in a critical spot.

Other than stupidly calling for the hit and run with Ramirez I thought Ozzie was fine. His handling of the pitching staff remains his biggest plus as a manager. His biggest detriments -- a fondness for smallball and slap hitters -- he seemingly has put on the shelf mostly. I'm pretty happy with Guillen so far.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 26, 2008 -> 10:19 PM) Well, I disagree. I think you're right most of the time regarding trades in a vacuum, but we've heard anecdotal evidence now that developing good relationships with GM's can help with making deals in the future. Kenny has this sort of solid relationship with Gillick and Josh Byrnes. Byrnes is certainly not a bad guy to have a good relationship with. I agree. KW clearly has a good relationship with the Diamondbacks it it helped facilitate the Q trade. We as fans never really get to see the interpersonal side trades, but having a good relationship with your fellow GMs is certainly something that helps faciliate these sort of "everyone wins" trades. That said, I think if you asked KW and Byrnes if (at the time) how highly they valued the "relationship" part of the Vasquez/Young trade they would have put it pretty far down on the list -- but it's a factor to consider when dealing for sure.

It's a bad idea to start doing this whole, "well if we never...then we never get CQ" kinda logic to trades. This is the sort of logic Knicks fans use when they talk about the Curry trade. You look in trades, the great majority of the time, in a vacuum. Javy for Young looks like a win for both sides right now. Javy has given the Sox almost 500 innings of above average starting pitching. Young sucked up until this year but there is no doubt he'll be a 850 OPS guy with gold glove defense in CF for the next 5-10 years. Long term I think the DBacks win, but it's pretty close. I was for the trade at the time despite loving Young. I thought Javy was the inning eater high K guy that would push the Sox over the top in 2006. They came up short be he continues to pitch quick well and reliably. Really this is one of those trades that both teams walk away from feeling like winners, and rightfully so. Although damn would Young look awesome as our everday CF for the next decade.

Cabrera is quickly becoming the most unlikable player on the roster. In addition to completely sucking at the plate and his mediocre (at best) defense we now have to put up with his big mouth too. What a joke this trade is turning into. This guy can't be sent packing soon enough. I just pray he somehow does enough to maintain his type A status before his ass leaves town.

Just goes to show what a dumb f***ing organization the Jays are and how smart Billy Beane is. Yea, Matt freaking stairs over one of the great hitters of all time who is a NOTORIOUS slow starter. I hope the Jays continue to flail about with no offense while Frank mashes his way to another great year with Oakland.

Hmm, Quentin's not even on the map here in NYC. Hopefully a few more big performances and the rest of the nation (outside Chicago) will wakeup and realize how damn good this guy is.

Let's see, a well built player with a crouched stance (very much like Conseco) and a Latin last name gets the nickname Consequito. A diminuative, and a awesome one at that. Give me a break, the testing system is much harder these days and Q has never tested positive for anything. He had no history of injuries while in H.S. and College and then ran into some bad luck -- that doesn't mean he's juicing. It's sad that we even have to talk about this. Christ, I'm as suspicious as anyone, but CQ is just a good player hitting his stride after battling injuries early in his career. He takes good care of his body and has always been a 5 tool player. This is just dumb logic to use his NICKNAME as a basis to suspect the guy is on roids.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 25, 2008 -> 09:33 PM) It's strange, whenever Carlos does something amazing I feel a strong sense of pride come over me. I'm not just happy that my favorite baseball play is doing well or that he's helping my favorite team win, I'm legitimately proud of the man. Everything about him makes him easy to root for. He's a rare athlete, blessed with great size, speed and hand eye coordination. He's a quiet and polite guy that doesn't say much but when he does it's all "team team team". He's tough as nails and isn't afraid to give up his body for the team. Oh, and he leads the AL in OPS and his crouch at the plate is BADASS.

Yea, I couple more weeks of hot hitting and there is no way he won't make it as a reserve. Still though, it would be great to vote him in! He's unreal!

Without CQ this team is probably under .500. Seriously, he's a one man wrecking crew. 3-3 2HR, 3RBI 2R and another HBP. I love how on the HBP he didn't even flinch when the ball hit off his hand. This guy is AWESOME. And Contreras! HOLY s***! He's been getting lucky this year (not to say he hasn't been good though) but tonight he was DOMINANT. Such a great game to watch him pitch just beautifully. Team avoids the sweep and picks up some momentum headed into CLE against a desperate Tribe club.

What more can be said about CQ? This guy is a 5 tool player in every sense of the meaning. He can do it all out there. Still can't believe the Sox got him for a A ball player. Indians lineup is not imposing and the Sox pitching shut them down. Great job pitching and the offense pitched in enough!

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 19, 2008 -> 10:02 AM) I would change Dotel to an C. He's provided some big strikeouts in high leverage situations. Yesterday I can excuse as he looked tired and the defense wasn't helping him out. Looks about right other than that. There are two ways to grade of course: straight up and compared to expectations. Straight up Swisher has probably been a "C", but according to expectations (a 900 OPS corner guy) he's been bad. MB deserves a D IMO. He relies on defense and the defense has been horrible behind him. Touche.

I would change Dotel to an C. He's provided some big strikeouts in high leverage situations. Yesterday I can excuse as he looked tired and the defense wasn't helping him out. Looks about right other than that. There are two ways to grade of course: straight up and compared to expectations. Straight up Swisher has probably been a "C", but according to expectations (a 900 OPS corner guy) he's been bad. MB deserves a D IMO. He relies on defense and the defense has been horrible behind him.

I have no idea how Floyd pitched 6 shutout innings. Oh wait -- the Giants lineup sucks worse than the Sox' even. A good team punishes Floyd for the dozen or so hanging breaking balls he left up and over the plate. A bad team fouls them off or makes outs and that's what the Giants did. Credit Gavin for having the guts to keep throwing strikes though. He smartly realized that only way the Giants were going to get a big inning is if he gave it to them with walks. Turns out they couldn't even get a run. Sox' inability to hit LHP is ridiculous. Perhaps Ramirez will find something against them. I have to say, other than Cabrera and Uribe back to back I'm enjoying the new lineup, feels much more balanced all the way through.

A couple walks, some extra base hits and everyone's happy -- right?

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 11, 2008 -> 01:13 AM) Quentin looks to be the real deal. What a huge imrovement in LF over the last two seasons! As I said in another thread, Ozzie should keep starting Brian Anderson in CF against left-handed pitchers, with Dye and Konerko taking turns at DH. It improves the Defense as well as the Offense against LHP and Keeps Thome fresh, hopefully lessening the chance of his recurring wrist and back injuries allowing him to be more productive with less playing time. Uribe is an excellent defensive infielder, whether at SS or 2B and can even play a good 3B in a pinch. Because of his poor approach at the plate the past two seasons, he has become a whipping boy to a lot of fans and every miscue he makes becomes magnified and overblown. But Uribe is still one of the better defensive middle infielders in the game. Hopefully he keeps improving at the plate with his new stance and approach that he has shown the past week or so. GP. Uribe though, he is what he is: a player who deserves time because he plays an excellent middle infield but needs to be covered up for in the order. He's the best option at 2B right now. I'd much prefer him in a bench role but at this point it is what it is.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 9, 2008 -> 12:00 PM) I think you mis interpreted the article. I was pointing out that the organization's sudden emphasis on OBP had them neglecting players who hit for high average. It was all about walks, and they brought in three guys who likely won't be .300 hitters. The point of your article is that the Sox don't can't score because they don't have enough guys that hit for average (and can run), because in the off season the Sox over-emphasized OBP and power at the expense of average and speed. The point should just be that the Sox don't have enough good hitters, whether they be slap hitting speedsters or lumbering sluggers. The vast majority of runs are scored by not making outs and hitting for power. All other things being equal I'd love to have a lineup of .300 hitters. But I'd much rather have nine 250/350/500 hitters than nine 300/340/420 hitters. The higher OPS team will always score more runs than the slap hitting team, I don't care how many hits they "string" together or how many bases they steal. It's not about speed, or average, or even OBP, in isolation. It's about having too many players who aren't good hitters period. Cabrera, AJ, Crede, and Uribe are not good hitters. Swisher, Dye, Thome, Kong and Quentin are all average or above average hitters, but none of them is a particularly great hitter. Overall, you'll see that the Sos have a teamwide OPS of .714, well below the league average. Go through the sortable stats from last year and this year. Just by glancing you can see that OPS correlates to RS better than average. I'm not arguing that speed and average aren't good and virtuous in and of themselves. I'm just saying that they aren't as important as power and patience (again, in isolation).

Back to the OP, this argument is dumb. The Sox have a team wide OBP of .319, (tied for 10th and below league average by 10 points) they aren't "doing a good job of getting on base". You can't talk about average and OBP in the same breath and not realize that most guys with a high OBP also hit for a decent average. Not 300 hitters necessarily, but not .240 guys either. I'm not happy about the slumping offense either, but blaming it on Moneyball and an emphasis this offseason on OBP is just dumb. I guarantee that if the Sox OBP was .369 like Boston's we'd be leading the league in RS like Boston. Nothing (of the simple rate stats) correlates better to RS than OBP, not average, that's for f***ing sure.

Why is this stickied? Nick Swisher is a better hitter than Orlando Cabrera. He should get more PA. Replacing Uribe with Richar is another matter entirely and should be done ASAP.

The next time Carlos gets HBP with the bases loaded he will set the record with 4 times in one season. Carlos Quentin, only 12K to 14BB and his average up to .312. Showing great power and patience. I am still in shock at how well this trade is turning out, granted it's early.