chitownsportsfan

Maybe it's no so much the drafting and teaching, but the willingness of KW to trade the best prospects for estabilished major leaguers? The Reed trade has been a "win" for the Sox every year, and probably will be this year. 2007 and beyond though I think the Mariners will have the upper hand. Not a bad deal for either club IMO.

Uh, over the course of his MLB career Pablo has managed an OPS+ of 67! That is Neif Perez territory. It was a pretty reasonable comment if you ask me. Even a blind squirrel...

One thing Ozzie could be thinking--although I doubt it--is that he'll give Uribe the day off with the strikeout pitcher Vasquez on the mound and try and ride the hot hand of Cintron at the plate. That's the only reason I can wrap my mind around this one. Uribe is a streaky hitter and isn't going to get hot sitting on the bench. His streaks will even out to his career average 730 OPS by the end of the season at the worst. I just shake my head at him being on the bench two games in a row. Nothing like having those slap hitters at the top of the lineup!

At this point yes, I'd have to agree. As for the Sweeney/Owens call-up idea--no way Jose. Sure, we'll burn an option year on two talented young players just so they can rot on the bench 6 days a week--that is a terrible idea. Young players need minor league AB's, not pine riding in the majors. I don't know what the answer is here. I'd probably have to say just keep Gload, have KW scan the waiver wire like he does so well, and dump Ozuna in Charlotte if he finds someone.

Yes, for now--I like him as well. Although I'm halfway to drunk drinking the Thornton spiked Kool-Aid from KW and Cooper.

I've also been to Comerica, my dad and I had seats about 10 feet from where (at the time) newly signed big contract Juan Gonzalez was playing RF. Needless to say we heckled him quite a bit about the contract and him sucking. The seats were 2nd row down the 1st base line--really close to the field, good seats. Parking wasn't a problem as we were able to park for free about 2 blocks from the stadium. Overall I thought it was a good park. Detroit is still pretty barren outside of a few blocks downtown, but at least sports wise, the city is doing a good job. Good sports town IMO.

Yea, the Tiger radio guys are a good bunch IMO. I listen to them quite a bit here in MI, and they are always very complimentary towards the White Sox, even saying that the Tigers aren't in same class as the Sox, and until they take a series, have no grounds to stand on. They mentioned time and time again what a great approach Iguchi, Thome, Konerko, and Dye have at the plate, and weren't afraid to rip into their own players if they saw something they didn't like. Furthermore, they seemed quite knowledgable about the Sox, mentioning the surprising spring of Logan as a factor in his making the team, and they even were familiar with the stories that came out of the Thornton signing--i.e. Williams and Cooper's thinking that he had a few mechanical flaws they could figure out. In general, they praised the job KW has done finding waiver wire guys (or in Thornton's case, about to be) like Jenks and Thornton that were low risk high reward types. I'm not sure either of the guys' names that do the broadcasts, but evidently one of them is an ex-player, and unlike Singleton, he brings a good deal of knowledge to the table. It was a pleasure listening to them today.

Yea, it kinda does look that way now, although I hesitate to make any solid conclusions after 9 games. Good to hear though that he seems to be making some progress. Even if he can get to respectability for a LOOGY, that is worth Borchard IMO, given the teams needs this year.

Thornton, from all I could tell from the Tiger's radio broadcast, looked fairly sharp, and was victimized by a bad read by Dye, and a couple of bloopers. He did buckle down though and get that big strikeout to finish it. He was working ahead of the count (imagine that) and displayed a nice breaking ball--again, going off the Tiger's radio feed. So, those that got to see the game live or on TV--any observations worth noting?

Frank 2-4 today with 2 RBI's as the Twinkies were all over Oakland 8-2. Twinkies take the series from the A's.

Yea, you paraphrased me by mocking my post as having that message. I really don't care anymore though. I just wish people would read things more carefully. In the 2nd freaking post of this topic I said it's too early to worry about Garland. However, it's my reponse to a poster that said in essense, that he didn't care if Garland sucked this year because the Sox could just trade him at mid season that gets misunderstood and blasted. I said, if that was to happen, it would be difficult to trade him. I didn't say it would happen, just that IF it did happen, trading him would be very difficult unless JR paid out some cash. Oh well, just another misunderstanding on the internet. I've learned not to lose any sleep over them. GMAFB as well.

Again, please read my posts more carefully before assuming how I feel. I just posted earlier in this same thread that I'm not that worried about Garland. My response in the post you referred to is to a poster that stated that if Garland continues to pitch like crap, then the Sox will just trade him no problem at midseason.

Do you read posts before you respond, or just glance over them? I said "if Garland is still..." In what part of that did I say, as you put it so originally, "the sky is fallling"? Sorry for the tone of this response, but I don't like being taken out of context so egregiously.

It's more complex than that however. Google uses a secret algorithm to determine their page rankings, but one of the most important things is the number of page links to your site, obviously a good measure of popularity and relevence. In fact, this has been used successfuly to "gimmick" the ratings--where a campaign is started to link the name "George Bush" (for example) to a negative site, and then that site pops up high in the results. To counter this, Google continues to tweak their methods monthly. When you say optimize, I assume you are referring to things like this: # Page Title Link text PageRank Heading Tags ALT Tags Domain names Filenames Directory names Link popularity Keyword density Those things all factor in, and "optimization" could certainly help a page improve their search ranking --even it's "pagerank" (incoming links) isn't that high. However, Google's exact weights remain a mystery, so to say for sure that any of those (or even all of them combined) will necessarily lead to success is probably misleading IMO, although certainly it doesn't hurt to make sure you're designing the page to suit what is known about Googles methodology.

Ok, so if Garland is pitching like crap through July, how exactly is a trade going to work? Garland for a bag of balls and a fungo bat? We better hope JR is feeling generous, because paying some of his salary seems like the only way.

LOL, what a play by the Tiger's Pitcher.

It's too early to say that Garland is in trouble. It seemed like today the story was bloop single followed by a HR/2B. Oh well, I'm just mad the Sox signed him to that big contract following but might be a "fluke" season.

Ok, Rock, I don't usually post without first looking up the stats. You should know this by now. Furthermore, I'm willing to admit when I made a mistake. However, this is not one of those times. Lets look at the stats: Papelbon: Year Level IP SO 2003 A 32.2 36 2004 A 129.2 153 2005 AA 83 83 2005 BO 34 43 BMAC Year Level IP K 2003 RK 101 125 2004 A- 94 113 2004 A+ 52 60 2004 AA 26 29 2005 AAA 119.3 130 2005 Sox 67 48 So Brandon posted slightly better K/9 numbers than Papelbon in the minors (against somewhat inferior competition until AAA), and in a very small sample size for both pitchers, Papelbon posted a fairly better K/9 in the majors. So far, that trend has continues this season. In an even more rediculous sample size, BMAC has struck out 4 in 6 IP. Papelbon has struck out 5 in 5 IP. Pabelpon's heater is 2-3 MPH faster than Brandon's when both are on their game, and he relies on it more than Brandon to get hitters out swinging. I don't think this is a case of "I don't know what I'm talking about". I think it's a case that you're reading my conclusion totally wrong--it WAS NOT that BMAC is not a strikeout pitcher. It was a relative conclusion: relative to Papelbon, BMAC relies more on finesse to get hitters out.

Yea, I kinda like it like that though. Although it relies on a certain amount of confidence that someone within the organization can get it done, it also doesn't overpay for relief pitching, which is notoriously unpredictable. Look at Foulke this year, he's pretty much lost the job to Papelbon--so he's a 7.5 million dollar setup man.

More finesee doesn't necassarily equal he's not a strikout pitcher. I meant that he's not as reliant on the K as Papelbon, which I should have made more clear. I agree though that BMAC certainly has the ability to strike guys out. I was thinking about that 2004 stat when I wrote the post--I should have mentioned that so far he's been hitting basts more often in the majors--which is expected with a move up the ladder. Here's a question: Verlander or BMAC? I don't think there is a wrong answer at this point.

Yea, the ironic thing is that BMAC is 2/1/2 years younger than Papelbon, posted better numbers in everything except ERA and K/9 last year (WHIP, BB/9 K/BB) and yet gets drastically less hype. Somehow Papelbon managed an ERA+ of 166 with a WHIP of 1.471. Granted he's a strikeout pitcher )which makes his WHIP less important) whereas BMAC is more finesee, however it's a mistake to think Papelbon is better than BMAC solely on K/9. When Papelbon was 23 (like BMAC will be on June 7) he was in A ball! Let me repeat: McCarthy enters this season only 22. That is pretty damn remarkable.

I thought I'd point out this amazing early season line from Thome: 32 PA: .333/.515/1.000/1.515 Dizamn! Those are little leaguer numbers.

I worked in radio too for a couple of years--very fun work if you can get it. Doesn't pay much, but very laid back. That said, I agree that Singleton will never be good. He doesn't have anything going for him in the voice department--even through miles of digital processors, he still sounds like a 13 year old boy waiting for puberty. His "insight" into the game isn't anything special either. Farmer really doesn't bother me. I agree he's a big sourpuss who probably thinks too highly of himself, however, I find his dour tone rather amusing most days. That said, he really struggles as the play by play guy. JOHN ROONEY WHERE ART THOU? The Score is a joke for not paying whatever he wanted. Remember that great USA Today article in which Rooney and Farmer were ranked the best in the AL? I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same article again and Singleton and Farmer are dead last.

Alright, I'm going to the bar to watch the game and get drunk in the afternoon. Sounds good to me. Go sox!

Pods sucks when not 100% healthy. He should have been on the DL to start the season. Furthermore, Gload should be taking his spot in LF. Furthermore, I'd rather have Borchard out there than anyone currently on the roster.