Greg Hibbard

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jul 26, 2012 -> 12:30 PM) You have ridiculously low standards. Sometimes bringing in modestly priced players who perform above expectations are the best acquisitions a team can make.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jul 26, 2012 -> 09:55 AM) Oh, I understand that they are human, and maybe I'm making much more out of this than need be, I just can't imagine why they would play like they were exhausted against the Tigers. Even if they were completely exhausted you have to get up for those games. Of course it is still July, not September. JMHO So you don't understand why flying to KC, then turning around and flying to Boston, then flying to Detroit within a week wouldn't make you exhausted? Those are three relatively long flights. And despite the all-star break, this team has been on the road a lot recently, playing seemingly tough series every week. Every team goes through this "dog days" routine. It's a long season and you're playing almost every day. It gets grueling after a while. I'm proud of them for responding well when they came home. I don't begrudge them one bad 7 game stretch in a month at all. Before Boston they hadn't lost a series in a month.

From the ESPN mobile recap Damn straight.

TANK!!! PEAVY!!!

Twins have bases loaded, two outs. Crain out, Santiago in. 8-2 sox still.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 03:06 PM) Kenny has no idea what he's doing when it comes to bringing in offensive personnel. That's an oversimplification. He's had some hits and some misses. Quentin, Ramirez, Podsednik, Iguchi, Pierzynski were all excellent acquisitions by Williams.

I remember when Hawk used to say "HE'S GONE!" the HE GONE thing emerged accidentally in 05, right? I love the ITS ALL GOOD.

I just don't think that we're going to find a better option for 2b in 2012. In 2013, it's unacceptable not to explore options to improve what has become a sub-standard amount of production from that position. Given that he topped out at .265 avg with a .750 OPS at the 2hole, it's clear that moving him wouldn't add enough to mess with it.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 11:22 AM) It seems that he hit a lot better after being moved to the 2-spot, then went back to suck after being dropped down. Maybe its time to revisit that. I'd think Youk, as a veteran, might be able to adapt better to hitting lower than Bacon has done. DeAza Beck Dunn Konerko Rios Youk AJ Tank Ramirez The first caller in the postgame last night brought up this point, and said that he would actually also drop Dunn to 6 and move Youk to 3 (which was interesting), but Rongey astutely retorted that Youk's OBA is too much to give up in front of Dunn/Konerko's bomb capabilities. Still, I'd rather have a more balanced lineup than 6 guys who we're hoping some combination of can score on a 3 run bomb by one of em, and then a couple guys down below who either make singles or outs. Beckham really did seem to work in the 2 hole.

QUOTE (Wedge @ Jul 25, 2012 -> 10:25 AM) From: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensa...ts/?page_id=177 Some decent options I guess, but I am of the opinion that we should keep rolling out Beckham. What about FA SS and 3B? Moving someone to 2B seems like the easiest transition, for an infielder.

I'm not trying to be drastic, but after the GIDP last night (that could have been a real momentum shifter back to the Twins), I revisited his stats. I've always been a fan/apologist, but it seems that Beckham has really been sinking recently, and sinking badly, AGAIN. Let me be clear - I don't recommend taking him out of the lineup - I think we live with him for the rest of this year. One hole in the lineup like this is is not going to kill us. However, I see no signs he'll finish any better than a .240/.300/.400/.700 hitter, and that's just not good enough. For his career - four now severely subpar splits of .245/.311/.380/.691. He's hitting as bad as he was in April in July - and July's almost over. Since the beginning of the 2010 season, his OPS is around .660. Can we live with this for his defense? I think at this point, we're pretty damned sure what we're getting. Slightly above AAAA offensive skill and a great glove. Average speed. Not enough power. Not enough plate discipline. Not enough of an eye. Not quite enough of anything else, really. I feel badly, but I think we're watching the end of his career these next two months...

I'm encouraged by the fact this slump is coming now, before the deadline when we can do something about it, as opposed to mid to late august, as it happened in every other recent playoff year. I know the tendency is to jump off the bandwagon when any team loses 5 in a row or 8 of 10, but the reality is that every team that wins a division at 90-95 game goes through 1-2 ten game stretches like this. As long as we can stop the bleeding and win THIS SERIES, I think we are still in it and still fine. If we lose a home series to a sub .500 team.....well look out below.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 10:36 AM) Actual Sox baseball in 8.5 hours...bout time. 44-33 the rest of the season, we win. Get after it. I think we could win the division at 87-88-89 games. with a good head-to-head record against DET. No way DET has the same insane second half they had last year.

we're here we're clear we don't want any more bears

Make sure you over-hydrate before ever getting out there. Use a couple of the visiting batting frames to watch from the concourse. I watched cubs-sox from the old upper deck in new comiskey when it was 100+ and as long as we took shade breaks every inning or two we were fine. Just drink lots is water, make sure he does too and you will all be fine. Oh and have fun!

In an era where OPS reigns supreme in evaluating offensive contributions, he just doesn't hit enough jacks.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 03:14 PM) In this thread? Yeah. But I've seen others say in multiple threads that Dunn can K 250+ times as long as he hits 50 or more HRs. It's not gonna happen He's on pace for 261 k's and 51 homers. Obviously, it could happen exactly that way.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 03:06 PM) Which he's done once in his career. 8 years ago. So pretty unlikely. How many other times has Dunn hit 23 homers in his first 73 games?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 03:05 PM) Wait a minute. You have the audacity to say that a guy that hasn't hit over 40 since like 2004 is suddenly going to hit 55 despite a 40% k-rate? YOU GOTTA BE BLEEPIN' ME!!!!! You were the one who brought up 55 homers in this thread. Straw man, much?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 03:02 PM) Here you were rolling and then you type something like this. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/a...od-player-ever/ It's hyperbole. I've read that article before, and I know what happened last year. I think I'll take the first 6 weeks of this season as a sign that 2011 Dunn was an outlier rather than disregard the man's entire career because of a 20 game slump after a tear to start the season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 03:02 PM) You laugh at the thread, but you should also laugh at anyone who really thinks Dunn will hit 55 homers. You want to look at his career numbers for everything else, you should probably look at them in the HR column as well. Also, 2011 did happen. I wasn't the one who originally said he was going to hit 55 homers. I think Dunn will hit about 45 homers.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) I love your confidence and hope you are correct. Should I take Paul Konerko's last three weeks and hope he isn't reverting to 2003?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 02:51 PM) Two weeks? He's .159/.293/.415/.708 since may 30. He's whiffed 41 times in his last 82 at bats (99 plate appearances). That's is Sigorney Weaver's face-like scary. We'll see what happens. But get off this as long as Dunn hit 55 HRs stuff. He's not going to do that if he doesn't somewhat cut that K rate down. If Dunn hits 55 homers, 99% of people, including baseball analysts, don't care how much he strikes out. I'm sorry that that's unacceptable to you, but most people do not share your opinion. He will not continue at his season worst 3 week clip for this season. 2011 wasn't his entire career, and these three weeks will not make for a season. This thread ought to be pretty hilarious when he hits like 5 jacks in a week soon.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 02:43 PM) Dude, I love advanced statistics as much as anyone. But stop. If you're hitting below .200, you're hurting your team more than helping. Dunn has looked like fly-covered s*** for the last month. I'm not sure what's going to happen from this point on. But there's cause for concern. I'm not really concerned if Dunn is hitting .198 or .212. .170 vs. .230 is a huge difference. .198 vs. .212 is not. His stats overall this season are still fine, and if he was hitting .198 instead of .212 with an .850 OPS they'd still be fine overall.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 26, 2012 -> 02:41 PM) It's not gonna happen at this rate. Mark Reynolds holds the record (I believe) for highest K-rate in history at 35.4%. His OPS that year was .753. Dunn is on pace to shatter the K mark. Don't get fooled by the home runs. He's hurting the team right now. At what rate? At this rate his total season OPS appears to be .879. Is it better for us to look at the sample size of the last 2 weeks or the entire season?