Greg Hibbard

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 1, 2010 -> 01:47 PM) A .261 on base, particularly when paired with a .248 average, doesn't really resemble a major leaguer IMO. Forgetting about expectations and skill sets, a .692 OPS isn't disasterous for an infielder.

Since May 22nd, Beckham is 27/109 (.248/.261/.431/.692) with 7 doubles, 1 triple and 1 homer. Not entirely horrible...for all the hemming and hawing about him seemingly having it and losing it, that resembles an actual major league line for a little over a month.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) I don't know of any easy way to compile this, but is it possible to look at first/second half pitching and first/second half run production stats? I'm wondering if there's an "overworked pitcher" effect somewhere buried in there. Team ERA Pre Post 2004 4.59 5.26 2005 3.62 3.60 2006 4.44 4.82 2007 4.58 4.98 2008 3.55 4.77 2009 4.16 4.13 Runs Scored/Runs Allowed by Half Pre Post 2004 462/403 403/428 2005 413/339 328/306 2006 520/415 348/379 2007 354/420 339/419 2008 465/383 346/346 2009 407/405 317/327 OPS by Half Pre Post 2004 .812 .765 2005 .743 .752 2006 .829 .778 2007 .697 .750 2008 .779 .781 2009 .755 .723

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 30, 2010 -> 02:56 PM) I blame it all on the LaRocheFactor. Well, in all honesty, that 2005 team, they simply HAD to cool off a bit, it happened the same way with the 2000 team as well when injuries started to take their toll. Another reason would be playing most or all of the interleague games in the first half. 2006, same thing, the injuries and wear-and-tear on the pitching staff started to show in the second half of the season. Not to mention the White Sox have had older, more veteran teams that were susceptible to wearing down in the Chicago summers. Finally, Manuel didn't do such a great job in 2003, they still faded down the stretch when it really counted and the Twins blew past them. Taking out the interleague games, the Sox have a .566 winning pct against the AL in first halves during guillen's tenure, and .480 during 2nd halves. Still seems like a huge difference, and still no 2nd half is better than its corresponding 1st. I agree that they have had some players prone to breakdown.

Something that fills me with a lot of apprehension...the White Sox under Ozzie Guillen are are 345-229 (.601) as a first half team, and 214-232 (.480) as a second half team. That seems like a huge disparity. Here's the breakdown: 2004 46-38 37-41 2005 57-29 42-34 2006 57-31 33-41 2007 39-47 33-43 2008 54-41 35-33 2009 45-43 34-40 I was surprised to learn that during the final four seasons under Jerry Manuel, the White Sox were an above-.500 team in the second half of every season. 2000 55-32 40-35 2001 41-44 42-35 2002 42-46 39-35 2003 45-49 41-27 Is there something about Ozzie's managing style, or the organizational approach in general that lends itself to first half success, and not second half success? It seems odd that over six seasons he's never had a better second half than first.

For the first 378 ABs of his career, in 2009, Beckham hit .270/.347/.460/.807 For the first 254 ABs of his career, from 2000-2002, Joe Crede hit .276/.304/.469/.773 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the 2003 season, through July 4th, Joe Crede hit .223/.266/.340/.606, bringing his career average down to around .249 through about 550 ABs. For the 2010 season, through June 29th, Beckham has hit .202/.268/.276/.544, bringing his career average down to around .243 through about 600 ABs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the second half of 2003, Joe Crede hit .308/.349/.543/.892...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 02:25 PM) Or if we go 11-0 in the post season this year. Hell, I'd be willing to take 11-8 in the postseason this year, but I'm an easier sell.

one other note: 12 of these 26 streaks come in the same 45 day span. I was also really surprised to see that 5 of the streaks were in mid-late sept, as none of the teams involved won the world series... 2010 Tex: June 12-24 Sox: June 14-26 1) June 4-14 2) April 9-19 3) Sept 16-27 4) June 22-July 3 5) July 29-August 8 6) June 16-June 29 7) June 9-June 22 8) Aug 27-Sept 8 9) Sept 13-24 10) June 18-30 11) Aug 13-Sept 4 12) Aug 2-Aug 12 13) May 23-Jun 8 14) Aug 9-19 15) May 19-Jun 2 16) Apr 16-May 2 17) Jun 19-Jul 2 18) Sept 3-14 19) Sept 7-22 20) Aug 27-Sept 7 21) Jun 7-Jun 17 22) May 29-Jun 9 23) Sept 12-22 24) August 4-14

Very surprising that there have been so many great Yankee teams from 1995 til now, and not a single one of them had an 11+ game winning streak...

Below are win streaks of at least 11 games from 1995-2009, and their record and playoff results. Don't overlook the hilarious number 7, as well as 17,19 and 23, although I think this team is much better suited to now win 83-86 games and be right in it all year, mostly because our starting pitching is so good and we don't exactly square off against world beaters in Min and Det. Of course, we do have some BRUTAL second half stretches. One note - that Rays streak in 04 came at the expense of some bad NL teams, as they beat the crap out of the NL west to get back to .500 and then regressed big time against the AL, going something like 36-50 the rest of the way. Obviously, the White Sox are not those 04 Rays, but there's another team that did feast on some bad NL love. I am sunshine and rainbows and over the moon about the streak, but I thought it was really interesting to see that results were all over the map. 9 of the 24 teams listed didn't even make the playoffs! Most surprisingly, no team with an 11+ game win streak has won a world series in the wild card era... 1) 2009 Colorado Rockies (92-70, Wild Card berth, lost nlds 3-1 to Phillies) 2) 2009 Boston Red Sox (95-67, Wild Card berth, lost alds 3-0 to Angels) 3) 2007 Colorado Rockies (90-73, Wild Card berth, lost world series 4-0 to Red Sox) 4) 2006 Minnesota Twins (96-66, Won AL Central, lost alds 3-0 to A's) 5) 2006 LA Dodgers (88-74, Wild Card berth, lost nlds 3-0 to Mets) 6) 2006 Boston Red Sox (86-66, third place in AL east) 7) 2004 Tampa Bay Devil Rays (70-91, last place in AL east) 8) 2004 Houston Astros (92-70, Wild Card berth, lost NLCS to Cards) 9) 2003 Minnesota Twins (90-72, Won Al Central, lost ALDS 3-1 to Yanks) 10) 2003 Arizona Diamondbacks (84-78, third place in NL west) 11) 2002 Oakland A's (103-59, Won AL West, lost ALDS to Twins 3-2) 12) 2001 Oakland A's (102-60, Wild Card berth, lost ALDS to Yanks 3-2) 13) 2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46, Won AL West, lost ALCS to Yanks 4-1) 14) 2001 St. Louis Cardinals (93-69, Wild Card berth, lost NLDS to Dbacks 3-2) 15) 2001 Chicago Cubs (88-74, third place in NL Central) 16) 2000 Atlanta Braves (95-67, Won NL East, lost NLDS to Cards 3-0) 17) 1999 San Diego Padres (74-88, fourth in NL West) 18) 1999 Houston Astros (97-65, Won NL Central, lost NLDS to Braves 3-1) 19) 1999 Baltimore Orioles (78-84, fourth in AL East) 20) 1998 Toronto Blue Jays (88-74, third in AL East) 21) 1998 San Diego Padres (98-64, Won NL West, lost World Series to Yanks 4-0) 22) 1998 San Francisco Giants (89-74, second in NL West - lost one game playoff to Cubs) 23) 1996 Pittsburgh Pirates (73-89, last place NL Central) 24) 1995 Boston Red Sox (86-58, Won AL East, Lost ALDS to Indians 3-0)

The thing that surprises me the most about that WHIP chart is that Williams somehow got 72 major league hitters out at some point.

Well, is Randy Williams 50 years old and 200 lbs? Seriously, I was dumbfounded. This guy got visibly angry and defensive.

A guy in the bar I was at last night got really angry when I brought up the WHIP stat - he said "they all stink when they first come up, that doesn't mean anything, you don't know what you're talking about"

Kotsay looking pretty good in the three hole today.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 02:25 PM) When you have this lineup, you don't deserve to have any luck. Also, luck didn't cause AJP to take a 2 strike pitch down the plate with bases loaded and 1 out. The strike zone has been pretty ridiculous. Gavin is looking absolutely filthy.

Would love to hear a broadcast with Cooper and Santo rambling at each other, jesus. Don might be the best pitching coach in the biz but articulate over radio he ain't

QUOTE (onedude @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 12:32 PM) rios with basically 3 days of rest in the last 6 days? Someone said in another thread that Rios is 0 for 10 against Lowe.

Floyd just needs to do what he's done his last three starts and the rest takes care of itself.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 11:06 AM) If you trade Flowers, are we really sure we want to take a chance with AJ for one more season at his age, and at that salary range? I just think you have to get solid contributions from Dayan, Beckham, Quentin, Hudson and Flowers for us to have any chance in 2011 and beyond. Konerko might take a short term deal at a reasonable rate.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 08:31 AM) Seriously though, this NL s*** is waaaay overblown. The Sox are playing great defense all around. This hadn't happened this year. The Sox are getting key hits with two outs. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seemed like just Paulie and Rios were doing that before. The Sox are pitching GREAT - and look at their stuff. s***, look at how sharp Floyd was against Strasburg. We didn't luck into that victory. Floyd simply can pitch like an ace when he's on. Our pitchers are ON right now, not just facing weak hitters. Bobby Jenks seems to be back, and everyone else in the pen except Williams and Linebrink are still very strong. The Sox are beating GOOD YOUNG PITCHERS! Yes, the pitching is allowing them do it, but the key here is we are winning baseball games - even against the NL - that we shouldn't be winning normally. The Sox aren't supposed to beat Strasburg and JD Martin back-to-back like that. They're supposed to get Fisted like against the great Doug Fister. But they've been doing it with the bat, just enough. The Sox are also making good pitchers pay for their mistakes. Look at last night against Hanson. Knowing that at any point the guy could find his groove and start mowing guys down, the Sox jumped all over him as soon as they could. EVERYONE IN THE LINEUP was drilling the ball off this guy. When's the last time we saw that?! Look, the horses*** NL in general may have been what this team needed to get rolling, but now they're f***ing rolling. You don't sleepwalk through the type of road trip the Sox have had, no matter how good you are. If what the Sox are doing right now was so easy then everyone would be doing it - like, for instance, the Tigers and Twins, who I seem to recall had the dogs*** stomped out of them last night. What's happening is the defense is winning the pitchers over. The pitching is winning the offense over. The offense in return is winning the pitching over, and the pitching is winning the defense over after that. Everyone's relaxing, everyone's showing up to the park confident. Struggling players are starting to let their natural talents work for themselves. There is an energy in the way Omar is f***in' it up over at 3B. There is energy in the way Viciedo is swinging the baseball bat, and the way Chris Sale spoke last night about hurrying the f*** up and getting here so we have an even more dominant bullpen. Kenny is paying attention now, he's not sleeping anymore. Hudson will be up soon, it's inevitable. Kenny's about to go shopping. This summer is going to be fun, f*** the haters. I suggest you get the f*** onboard right now unless you want to be left in the dust as we pass the Tigers and Twins. Go Sox. Awesome post, but I have one question - Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) I know an overwhelming majority of us in here "know" he'll eventually turn it around but what makes us so sure that he ever will? I'm certain "Slappy" Caruso will get alluded to a lot in the next three months, but Gordon has a bit more going for him than 27 infield singles, or whatever it was. His offensive game is pretty versatile and should respond well to rebuilding, provided he has the mental makeup to withstand this sort of thing. I still believe he'll eventually turn it around, but maybe not this year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) Right now, we're probably pushing our luck in how hard we're riding Vizquel. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get to Teahen's return and then if GB is terrible, I'd have Teahen take his roster spot. I just don't think there's much else you can do but rotate Viciedo/Vizquel/Teahen for the rest of the season at 2b/3b and hope for the best defensively

Well, he's down to an OPS of .527, which is a majors-worst for qualified hitters. At this point, does anyone think he'll survive Teahen's return?

Jenks was not facing the tying run, but still got the save?

This isn't really a June thing, but I just noticed that assuming Ozzie finishes July as Sox manager, he will surpass Larussa as the longest tenured Sox manager since Al Lopez (in terms of games managed)