chitownsportsfan

No kidding, good old ESPN. I mean come on, they must be going by games 3 and 4 of the world series only. Do they even look at career or season stats? Marte and Viz were our two WORST relievers, not 2nd and 3rd best. ESPN is so bad.

"But the sox team isn't exactly filled with overachievers, who had career yrs. They have plenty of room for improvement, esp offensively." huh? Career Year: Contreras, Buehrle, Garland, Konerko, Politte, AJ... I mean, not everyone had a career year, though they certainly had their share of overachievers, but as you note, the offense can still get much better.

Kong has had one bad season out of 7 in the Al, and that came in 2003. Look at the stats, Kong has been very consistent in slugging .500 and having an OBP of .350. I think we can predict at least that out of him the next 3 seasons. Last season he had an ops of over .900. He is essential to this lineup. I favor a frontloaded contract that pays him less in the final two years. 6 years 70 million seems about right, paying him 13, 14, 13, 12, 9, 9 He can slide to DH in the last year or so of the contract. I really don't think it's that bad of a deal for either side. Kong gets his big deal, the sox get their slugger, and everyone goes home happy.

Yea, this team did have injuries, but it had injuries where there was depth, which is a credit to KW. The bullpen had plenty of depth to make up for hermie, and Carl was an adequate stop-gap when big frank went down. The pods injury hurt, but overall I think we were relatively healthy. As for the BP prediction, I don't think anyone could have predicted a career year out of contreras and Garland, but hey, s*** happens as they say. Incredibly awesome s***.

I'm not sure If I can do this, but here goes. I'll post portions of some premium content from Baseball Prospectus. "So it seems that part of the White Sox' success that needs to be emulated by potential copycats is the capacity to remain healthy, which is always a goal, regardless of the "-ism" fueling the roster construction. Don't misinterpret what's being presented here. This isn't a dig at a team that "shouldn't have won," or some such thing. The White Sox (and Ken Williams) built a winner, and no amount of Pythagorean reshuffling will take that away... Tip your cap to Herm Schneider, Brian Ball, Allen Thomas and the rest of the training and medical staffs, who haven't gotten much press, but who performed absolutely crucial roles for the championship team. Compared to the rest of the league, the White Sox did an amazing job of protecting the investments they made. That's Smartball." And another one about Juan Uribe and the rest of the Sox Defense: "Peralta had the best single-season numbers, but he’s a rookie (well, no, not really; everyone forgets 2003). Cabrera came back from an off-year to post reasonably good numbers, although I’d probably pick Jeter if forced to choose between them. I think Uribe is probably the best fielder of the lot, and that he probably deserves some of the RAA that wound up in Konerko’s column." Overall, Konerko placed 2nd in their rankings of AL 1B, Uribe came in 4th in the AL SS, Crede, 4th at AL 3B, Pods and Rowand top 5 AL outfielders. AJ, dye, and the Gooch didn't rank, although the Sox took the top team honor.

Ok, a typo doesn't negate the rest of my argument. Jesus.

The backlash against sabretrics is understandable, as it threatens old ways of thinking, but many of the claims against it are simply false. The stat geeks don't argue that their methods are infallible, but they do give a often accurate prediction for teams and players. And if you look at it closely, the stat geeks actually like the white sox. They have our defense ranked number 1 in effeciency in 2005. Jermaine Dye was top 5 in VORP for left fielders in the AL. Our pitchers have great whip's and excellent groundball to fly ball ratio's. Hitting wise, we have a bunch of average hitters, a few good ones, but everyone plays + defense, which undoubtable helped Contreras and Garland and the bullpen to career years. It's dissapointing to see such knee-jerk reactions to Billy Beane and his disciples, all they are doing is looking at the game in a new way, in an attempt to figure it all out. They don't claim to know it all, and you would be laughed out of the room if you suggested they wanted to do away with traditional scouting.

Um, ESPN reads the same articles we all about this stuff. Paulie's had some quotes about how hard it would be to leave and how he loves playing for the sox, but blah, blah, blah. He says this now, but I doubt it means much come negotiatiaton time. Of course, I'd love to be pleasantly surprised. I don't think we can't afford Konerko, and I want him back, but I expect to pay for it.

I don't think people are worrying about just Frank's ankle. He's entering his upper 30's and he's put a lot of mileage on his entire body. It isn't likely that he can give us more than 300-400 AB's next year. Of course, I don't think anybody would complain about that. The problem with the DH spot right now is that a healthy frank is more than likely the best and cheapest option. But this plan needs to be backed up with something else, a contingency plan is definetly needed. If Brian Anderson is the answer coming out of spring training next season, he can play right on days dye is off or playing 1st, and split time with Frank at DH, and provide possibly a stop-gap if Frank is injured. I'm really worried that Frank comes back, plays great, and then Kenny is forced to make yet another mid-season trade for Carl, and the position is still a weakness.

Furcal, you have got to be kidding me. Why would we want to move Uribe to 2nd and Tad to dh? A healthy Frank likely puts up a higher ops than Iguchi, easily. Furthermore, Uribe's VORP next season will probably be about 1/2 to 1/3 of Furcal's (it was almost 3 times Uribe's this season) , furcal doesn't get on base often enough for the contracit he is going to sign, whereas Uribe is a cheap contract, average hitter with a little speed and possibly the best defensive shortstop in the league--which VORP does not factor in to its equations. He's under 27 to boot. Likely to improve on all his career number in the upcoming seasons. If we could get Furcal for 8 million, wich makes him a bit more than twice as expensive as Uribe, then I would say go for it. But I think he's likely to get more than that, maybe 10 or 11 million, which is almost 3 times Uribe's salary. If Furcal 3 times the player? I doubt it. I don't see how we can afford to sign Furcal, especially when shortop and 2nd base are not positions of weakness for the team. And all this sabremetric crap doesn't even acount for how much it could possibly screw team chemistry to move the whole infield around for a player coming in with a huge contract from free agency. NO way should Kenny pursue Furcal, unless JR suddenly desides a 110+ million dollar payroll is realistic for the next 3 years.

"Boston looks on there way to becoming a perennial playoff team" What? Perhaps because they are playing in what has turned into the easiest division in the league, but that is the only reason I can think for them being "a perenial playoff team." They have serious holes in their starting pitching, bullpen, and infield, Theo Epstein just resigned, Manny is threatening to go AWOL (that's just manny being manny), and they have an aging centerfielder who might leave town, and isn't a great option at the price if he does stay in town. Compared to teams like the Sox, Indians, Twins, Angels and A's, the Red Sox have a ton of questions. I mean, their GM just resigned and their (arguably) best player is demanding a trade out of town. Not exactly a great way to start the offseason coming off a sweep out of the playoffs in a year they barely made the playoffs in the last series of the season.

Yea, they could provide much needed depth, especially Gload, as he is left handed, relatively cheap and more ready than Rogowski most likely. I think frank will be brought back, but there needs to be a plan a, b, and c at first base and dh next year. Perhaps dye could get some time there, and if Anderson shows enough in spring training then he could come in and play right on days Konerko sits. Just an idea. Considering 1st base could go from a team strength, to black hole, I think the balance rests on signing Konerko and going from there.

Gload is not the answer at 1st. Konerko must be resigned. Frank will be back, hopefully healthy and productive either as a platoon DH or otherwise.

It wasn't a great performance, but it got the job done. I'm starting to think though, that if the starters can at least make a game of it, the bullpen and bats will come through enough as well.

Yea, well despite what Jay Mariotti says, hyperbole is not the way.

"He also spoke how it was difficult to be involed with removing the Comiskey name from the Park." You sound like this guys PR agent. He was the happiest man in the ballpark? Maybe the richest--wait, check that--probably not. The rich aren't heroes. I'm glad he bought the naming rights so we could afford some stadium upgrades, but I'm not going to deify the man.

I have no problem with bashing the national media for being ignoramus'. It's just with Mariotti around here, it's hard to find the time. Whats wrong with wanting a little respect? I mean, I just read this terrible, poorly researched article by Skip Bayless (who is a complete idiot, I hardly ever bother to read him) and it makes me want to puke all over him. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=bayless/051020 The article says that Ozzie found "Bobby Jenks, who was the closer he lacked." Um right, I'm pretty sure Hermie was on the team at that point. He could be referring to Hermie's bad back, but I doubt it. His back was only an issue for 2 weeks or so, and by that time Ozzie seemed to have gone to closer by committee, then finally Jenks. He goes on to say that the turnaround to World Series after the near collapse was "the most shockingly unexpected 180-degree turn I can remember in sports." Perhaps he didn't watch Red Sox/Yankees last year? I think we have the right as fans to call the media out when they are writing or talking out their ass.

Who cares, the more s*** Ozzie talks, the less the players have to talk. He's a genius in his own way, making all the news while his players go about their business. He's a Pennant Winner on a team that was almost universely thought to be mediocre, let him talk s***.

Come on guys, batgirl is hilarious. Hate the fan, don't hate the person and writing.

Freddy always scares me on the mound. I'm not sure why. He just seems so...wild some times. But, like usual, he proves my fears irelevent and goes the distance with a great performance. It didn't look like he had his best stuff, but the way the Angles are swinging, it was more than enough for a dominating performance. I tip my hat to the man for staying focused throughout the game.

The last two nights have been surreal, because after the 3-0 lead, it just seems like the other innings are just academic. I haven't been stressed out like I was in the first two nailbiters.

"We're gonna regret not scoring that run from 3rd." that should be in green, shouldn't it?

a double play is NEVER a given...

It's not a "poor" play. Christ, give it up. Its not a good play, just average, so what, freddy worked around it, like a good pitcher should.

I've seen that called 90 percent of the time in my experience. Hell, I've seen a guy make a swipe and be a foot off and get it. Oh well, I always disagreed with that interpretation anyways. The rules says touch the damn bag, so touch it.