Balta1701

QUOTE(Sox Hustler @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 07:13 PM) Very true, had that ball to Rowand been caught he would have probably been out of it but I don't remember how many outs there were when that happened. I don't remember how many outs there were either, but I do remember Rowand's drop led directly to the tying run scoring.

The Rally Crede is actually all of the members of the band "Steam".

I think that with the press coverage Ozzie is getting this postseason, he's rapidly being built into an icon in Chicago. And 2 more wins will absolutely cement that. If he were to walk away, there's a chance that over time, some of what he did will gradually start to fade away into the mists of history. But in my book, right now he's on the verge of earning a free pass from me for whatever crazy move he might make or thing he might say for the next few years. That's got to count for something.

QUOTE(GSH @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:37 PM) Thanks for welcoming me...I am going to check out the Crede thread now. You will never laugh as much in your life. I believe we were all possessed by the Rally Crede when we created that thread.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:18 PM) It depends on what happens. If these next few games are fairly insignificant in terms of events, the Pods homer is HUGE. I do think that this series has some more memories waiting, however. That's what the END of October means. Yeah, there are more memories waiting, but given that there's a walk off home run about every 5-10 years of world series play, the odds do say that it'll be a memory of a different sort than that. Especially since it would take it getting back to game 6-7 for us to have another walkoff.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 04:43 PM) If the Sox go back to being an annual runner up, then Ozzie is ripped into for being a bad manager. He goes out now...he never EVER has to deal with that. On the other hand though...even if he keeps winning, there will be people who complain about him being a bad manager. On the other hand, there will be far, far more people who would be willing to bow down and wash his feet if he wins us 2 more games.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:25 PM) I had it in undergrad, now taking it in grad school. Fun times. Not. That's probably why "kapkomet" appears in about 10 threads in a row on the front page. I've had plenty of days like that this summer. How do you think I got to nearly 6000 posts when I just started when the season opened?

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:16 PM) LMAO That's our lecture in an hour. STOP IT! I did that class about 2 years ago now

Gosh...this one is fairly disturbing, yet somehow, totally unsurprising. Since we have so many folks from the Lonestar state hanging around here, i figured this was especially worth posting, since it looks like our newest Supreme Court nominee actually ripped them off and still to this day owes them money back. Knight Ridder news services If you want full details, go read the article...suffice to say, the State made several offers on how much to pay her for the land...then in the late 90's, a Texas district judge who had received campaign contributions from Miers appointed a new judge to the panel looking at Miers's case, and that judge just happened to be a close personal friend of Miers. Suddenly, the amount the state was offering shot through the roof.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:10 PM) oh, brother... sample sizes, t values, z values, rejecting hypothesis testing... do you think we can set up a statisitic sample for Bobby Jenks? Can you tell I'm in stats class? And what we're talking about? LMAO Do an ANOVA table and get back to me.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:59 PM) thank you for the explanation, just sucks that uribe / crede not going to get it IMO, they been great this year for us. Also, I think Uribe will have a great shot at one next year. I can't get the data to sort like this anywhere I look, but if memory serves, he had quite a few more errors early in the season than he did after the first month or two when he really settled in at short.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 06:02 PM) Grinder rule # 5698 Never try to prove a point on SoxTalk using a cub player for your example. Dude, sorry, but it's the most obvious combo of terrible defensive player and incredible defensive player saving his ass in all of baseball.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:59 PM) thank you for the explanation, just sucks that uribe / crede not going to get it IMO, they been great this year for us. The one that really sucks in my opinion is Crede not getting it. He doesn't have the range Chavez does according to the numbers on the season, but he's very very close, and he had a better %age than Chavez by a fair amount also. Barring a big increase in range, CHavez would probably have gotten it anyway just based on offensive numbers/name recognition. If you take into account that Crede played a lot less fewer innings than Chavez, Crede only would have had a handful fewer attempts/putouts than Chavez (by like 10 over the entire season) and 4 fewer errors, and those #'s in my book would have earned it for him.

I've seen Jenks lose velocity from inning to inning, but not from day to day...maybe I just haven't been home to see radar guns enough but the only real trend I noticed this season with him was that later in September it started to look like he was losing an mph or two, and I was starting to think it was probably due to the sheer length of the big league season. Is there any chance we're seeing two different trends interfering upon each other there, and we're each looking at the data in a different way? (Lousy small sample sizes)

QUOTE(TLAK @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:53 PM) The downside of an error, by definition a play the pitcher should rightfully expect to be made behind him, is so devastating that I'm starting to feel it's more important than the occasional sensational play. I've been preaching since spring that any team where the guys all just do their jobs is hard to beat. I might just be overreacting to guys the media hypes the hell out of but, who, when I watch the games, cost their teams wins -- guys like Torii Hunter. Its just me, don't read too much into it. The problem with an error is that you could have it where Aaron Rowand gets a great break on the ball, gets right under it, and has it bounce off of his glove turn into an error while Ken Griffey Jr. or Bernie Williams would run after that ball and be 20 feet away from it when it lands. You just can't tell everything from an error. When you have more range, you have more errors. If you've got a flyball pitching staff and youre an outfielder, you have more errors. Or if you have a cutoff man who doesn't know how to catch the ball, you get more errors. Think about this...how many errors would a guy like Aramis Ramirez have at 3rd base if he didn't have Derek Lee at 1b? In fact, I can tell you: 2003 (with the Pirates for 2/3 of the year:) 33 errors 2004 : 10 errors 2005: 16 errors. Just by putting him with a 1b who could dig out his throws, he became a much better 1st baseman. All these things work together. More range versus less range, better arm versus weaker arm, accuracy, ability of your teammates, etc.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:38 PM) in a perfect word CF aaron rowand 3b Crede SS Juan Uribe SP mark buehrle C Aj Pierzinsky. But that wont happen, but im my mind they are incredible fielders, i know im a bit biased maybe, but based on watching them all year, and not on stats, id love to see any one of them win it . tho most liekly the only one who will - will be aaron. Crede had a couple of key drops this year that cost us games. That really hurt him in my book...especially when he's trying to overcome an entrenched guy like Chavez. Uribe had too many errors, especially early in the year when he was still getting used to being at short every day. Rowand would not win if Hunter was healthy. But Rowand deserves one. If MB doesn't win one...the only reason he wouldn't would be that 1 bad throw in the game against Oakland which led to a big inning. That's the only one. Aside from that 1 throw he's the best fielding pitcher in the AL. Pierzynski needs to get better at blocking balls in the dirt in order to win a gold glove. A lot better. Catchers aren't charged with errors when the balls go through their legs, only when they throw a ball away or misplay something when the ball is being thrown to them. Wild Pitches/Passed balls have to be taken into account with catchers in addition to errors. That's why AJ falls down my list a lot.

QUOTE(OilCan @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:38 PM) Oswalt's stuff is as the same as John Lackey's. Remember how the media was trumpeting how much trouble the Sox will have to hit his "94 mph" stuff??? Also, I don't buy into ESPN's Baseball Tonight's garbage that the Sox can't hit the fastball. What the heck have they been watching all year long? Garland will have to do another Game 3 performance just like he did in Anaheim. And Roy Oswalt will have to have a so-so game in order for the Sox to win. The stadium will be rocking and rolling, so it will be fun to see what happens in the next two games. I loved Harold Reynolds on SC last night showing clips of the 2 Angels home runs by Konerko on breaking balls and saying how at the time they were yelling that they should throw Konerko a fastball...and then showing the clip of him seeing the fastball last night.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:34 PM) Up to this point, I'd agree. If they finish this deal off and win it all, I don't think people are going to remember Pods homer as the biggest single moment. Maybe not the single biggest moment...but if your if comes true...it'll be at least in the top 2-3 moments of this series, no matter what else happens. Think about the other walk-off home runs in recent series history. Fisk, game 6 75. Gibson, game 1 88. Puckett, game 6, 91. Carter, game 6, 93 Jeter, game 4, 01. Aside from the Jeter/01 case, where the biggest moment was clearly the defeat of Rivera, all of those ones would have the walk off be either the single biggest or 2nd biggest moment of the series.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:38 PM) Wite and i have been thinking for a while that cotts is our best option to close. I am really hoping he gets a shot to next season ( not likely because of everyones fascination with jenks). But imo cotts had the most upside out of anyone in out pen and he gives us the best chance to close out games if there our 3-4 days in a row we need a save. Jenks loss of velocity after one inning and another inning is quite disturbing. Over the regular season i can only see him converting 65-70% of his save attempts. It's also worth considering that Bobby is at the end of a long season 1 year off of major arm surgery, and I doubt he's had many 15 day breaks in his career to deal with in terms of staying fresh. I think we could all agree that Jenks has by far the best "Stuff" in our bullpen. I think we can also agree that with a decent bullpen outside of the playoffs, save opportunities that last more than 1 inning are fairly rare. I think we can also agree that guys having to come in 3-4 days in a row to close out games is also fairly rare - out here in LA, I saw K-Rod break down a couple of times doing the same thing. Bobby needs time to settle into the role and grow up as a big league pitcher - getting used to when to throw the curve ball/changeup, learning how to climb the ladder with that fastball with 2 strikes in order to make batters grab some bench, and so on. I know we don't have time now, but we got past his problems last night, and I think he'll come back even better on Tuesday/Wednesday if we need him. I doubt he'll put together a Gagne-like streak, but there's no reason he can't be as good as Billy Wagner, if not better, once he learns a few more th ings about how to retire major league hitters.

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:21 PM) Not a chance in hell, and I'm fine with that. Good man.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 05:21 PM) Wonder how many threads we can have about this? The more threads about this it seems we have...the more bombs Konerko hits, and the more games we win. Make like 6 more! Wait...it also seems like the more Mariotti threads we have, the more games we win. Quick! Everyone! Start making threads about how Mariotti should start paying Konerko's salary and cleaning his toilets!

That list uses so many definitions of the word "Shocking" that it's basically pointless. Saving Private Ryan is so not shocking in the way that The Usual Suspects is shocking. How can you judge whether a surprise ending is more shocking and a lot of violence? That makes no sense.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 24, 2005 -> 03:56 PM) So it all was a Republicans fault, and the Clinton administration went along with it just because. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Wow, I so didn't read that in that block I excerpted. Not in the least.

I'm afraid I don't know the 1917 world series well enough to answer this question.

AJ Pierzynski will not win a gold glove. We not only had the pitcher with the highest wild pitch total in the league...we had 2 different pitchers tied for the highest wild pitch total in the league. AJ's arm throwing out guys was nothing extremely special, and his work stopping the ball in the dirt wasn't incredible. Don't get me wrong, I love the work AJ has done this season, but he will not win a gold glove behind the plate.