WCSox

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 26, 2009 -> 05:03 PM) I really don't find Burnett to be head and shoulders above anyone, let alone Hamels. I know Hamels has struggled, but I think facing the different league might help him out more than most other pitchers. We'll see though. I, for one, am pretty excited about this matchup for the WS. I agree. I don't think that Burnett is all that (Pettitte is better, IMO, and has a long history of post-season success). I originally predicted that the Phillies could realistically win two games with Lee pitching Games 1 and 4, and it didn't even take a bad Sabathia outing for Lee to win one of them. I still think that the Yankees take it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went 7 games.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 11:51 AM) Giving one example as justification, nice. UZR isn't completely accurate, but for the most part it works. More often than not their rating for a certain player will be accurate. But if you want to believe it is completely flawed and inaccurate do to one or few examples, be my guest. Omar Vizquel had a UZR of -6.4 in 2002 (age 35). But at age 40, it suddenly jumped to +20.2. Yeah, it's definitely works for the most part.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) Read the f***ing post next time then. I said he was bad on defense. There is nothing in the thread that proves he has good defense. I never claimed that he was "good" defensively. (In fact, I'd say average or slightly above.) My point is that he's not BAD defensively (like Pods, JD, etc.). Alexei had a UZR of +2.3 at SS this year. While UZR is a useful stat, it should be obvious that it doesn't reflect other important aspects of defensive play.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 11:45 AM) He has bad range.... He has a UZR of -5.8. I'm sure you don't believe in UZR though. Is this the same UZR that has Pods at +1.2 in CF this year (and -1.0 in LF)? Yeah, you're right. Pods is much better in LF and CF than Getz is at 2B.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 11:32 AM) Somebody sounds a little bitter. You think you would put together at least somewhat of an argument, but I guess not. Please explain how Getz is a poor defensive player. Inquiring minds want to know.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 11:27 AM) You made a sarcastic commenting alluding to Chris Getz playing good defense. Keep up the good work. Give me your drug dealer's phone number. Sounds like he sells some good stuff.

If the Sox choose to go uber-cheap to replace Dye in the OF next year, platooning Kotsay and Nix might not be a bad idea.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 10:55 AM) Ugh, why would you want players like that? Nick Punto! Oh yeah! There's a reason the twins never make it past first round... You're right. We're better off running out more expensive veterans who can't hit in August or September, can't run the bases intelligently, and can't play defense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 07:16 AM) Well obviously expect the World Series to be on a seven second delay for the first time in baseball history... No kidding. This will be entertaining, though. Even if half of the audience can't understand understand Ozzie through his thick accent.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 07:45 PM) If Hamels were pitching like he was last year and Lidge was pitching like he was last year, I'd think the Phillies had a shot against the Yankees. But really, aside from Lee, they just aren't pitching well enough right now for them to take the Yankees out with anything other than a legit miracle. I still think that the Phillies win one or two games (Phillies are hitting well, Lee will probably pitch twice, and Burnett/Pettitte are vulnerable), but agree that the Yankees should be heavily favored.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 05:03 PM) I don't understand the "luck" issue on BABIP either. If a guy throws me a slider away and I turn it over and ground out to short I'm unlucky, but if I take it the other way and double into the right center field gap, I'm lucky. It seems to me players do that a lot when they are slumping and I have never heard anyone call what Jermaine Dye went through the second half of the season as unlucky. I haven't looked, but as players get old and their skills erode, I would imagine their BABIP goes down as well. Wise and Lillibridge most likely have well below average BABIP. Does their "luck" have to change? There's no such thing as long-term "luck" (or lack thereof). People may get the short end of the stick every once in a while, but people who are "lucky" or "unlucky" over a prolonged period of time are so for a reason. QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 22, 2009 -> 07:33 AM) He was a rookie this year. He had an OBP of .340 in the second half of this year. It just completely baffles me how people continue to ride this guy. Look, he'll never be an all-star. We get it... I've said it plenty of times but Chris Getz reminds me of the prototypical Minnesota Twin little infielder that doesnt seem to have great tools but just gets the job done and we all wonder how or why. Then we complain we don't have anyone like that blah blah blah. Well now we do. I'd think more people would be happy about that and recognize that what someone does in their rookie year plagued with injuries shouldn't be viewed as their ceiling. Nix supposedly has so much room to grow but somehow Chris Getz has topped out? Sorry, I just don't buy it. Getz is a gamer, I expect him to have a solid 10 year career in this league. Great post. As for Nix, I guess it's nice to see Ozzie light a fire under his rear. But it'd be pretty silly for Ozzie to relegate him to Triple A. He's an almost ideal utility infielder who can also play the corner OF positions in a pinch. And if Getz goes down with another injury, we're going to need him.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 03:08 PM) The workplace is a very common cheating place because of accessibility. And unfortunately, Phillips has taken advantage of that fact on many occasions. He had to take another leave of absence when he was with the Mets because an employee who he admitted to shacking up with sued him for sexual harassment. At this time, Phillips also admitted to "multiple other affairs." Despite this, his wife took him back and tried to work things out. I realize that even good people can make a bad decision, but Phillips is a serial cheater. And to make things worse, he's going to have to explain his reckless and selfish behavior to his four children now that his wife has filed for divorce.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 02:30 PM) This s*** happens all over the place Unfortunately, that's correct.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 01:36 PM) Those people at ESPN need to be neutered. It's like Caligula there. There must not be sh** else to do in Bristol, Connecticut. Somehow, I get the feeling that moving their headquarters to Manhattan wouldn't help. Arrogant egomaniacs are what they are.

That's right, sweetheart. He's going to leave his hot wife, lose custody of his children, lose his house, and pay out the wazoo in alimony/child support just to be with YOU.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Oct 21, 2009 -> 11:38 AM) On a serious note Kenny, I believe that order of the lineup has a lot of pop and OBP. But it is gonna take a huge haul and part of me wants to see how our prospects develop. Can Agon be the final piece to get us into serious contention? Who knows? Not just win that easy division but World Series. It would probably take Beckham to do this deal, and that would be very dumb of us. Alternatively, Kenny could offer Hudson, Flowers, and a couple of other prospects. But I think that somebody else would out-bid him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 20, 2009 -> 08:28 PM) This is totally their year. They finally went out and signed some good pitching, instead of some flukes. It shows. I think that a Yanks/Phillies WS would be competitive (and fun to watch), but I agree that the Yankees will probably win. QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 20, 2009 -> 08:35 PM) I'm not sure that this is a result of them "buying" a World Series, well, not any more than they have tried to buy one in the past. The fact that they actually may win this year certainly does not make it a wise strategy in the overall scheme of things to spend as much as they do. They're able to buy their way into the playoffs almost every year, which certainly puts them at an advantage over other teams.

The problem with guys like Rice and Morgan (and many ex-athletes in general) is that they tend to be, at best, intellectually lazy. They became wildly-successful by playing the game, but not necessarily studying the game. And like many other celebrities, they feel that their social status lends credence to their uninformed opinions. It doesn't surprise me at all that Theo Epstein, who never played college or minor league ball, has been nothing short of a smashing success as a GM, while Hawk was a complete failure. Oh, and congrats to Gordon. I don't think that he'll win the "real" ROTY award, but it's nice to see his season recognized.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 18, 2009 -> 07:23 AM) I say this because I don't think he would feel alone in being disliked by fans, in being boo'd everywhere he goes on the road, in having a reputation as an asshole. I think that would allow him to identify with some of our other players more and therefore be part of "the team" as opposed to feeling alone and alienated. This club has a history of taking in players with poor reputations and for the most part, they have fit in well and succeeded here. Between Albert Belle, Carl Everett, Robbie Alomar and AJ, we've managed to have these guys on the south side for the most part, without incident. Despite having defective personalities, Everett, Robbie Alomar, and AJ are/were all team players. Albert Belle was not (do a Wikipedia search on what he did in the Indians clubhouse). Note that Belle was pushed out the door after putting up one of the most dominant offensive seasons in Sox history. And that's the problem. Bradley is an angry nutcase who doesn't want to be "part of the team." Like Albert Belle, he's the type of guy who sits by himself in the corner and seethes. Unlike Albert Belle, he's not one of the top sluggers in the league and he has trouble staying healthy. Teams have little incentive to put up with a player like that. A change of scenery or being around strong personalities like AJ isn't going to fix Bradley. He needs a psychiatrist and medication.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 04:07 PM) I think the real problem with Bradley here, especially with the Cubs, was the media focusing on him. he cannot take the heat, never has been able to. If you move him from one side of town to the other, the media criticism does not change, and neither does Bradley. Yeah, that's a good point. The Cubs media likely rode him a lot harder than the people covering the Ranger, A's, and Padres. And you know that the coverage would be AT LEAST the same (and likely even more intensified) if he moved 8 miles south. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 03:35 PM) Cure? No chance. However, things were awful on the North side, magnetizing Bradley's problems. Bradley getting off to a horrendous start and getting the Latroy Hawkins treatment from fans wasn't a help either. Expectations made things worse. I think a trade for Bradley is sort of an "under-the-radar" type deal now without big expectations. I think it would work for one year at least, I have no idea what year 2 would bring, though. The "expectation" is that Bradley The Human Time Bomb will explode at some point, and I'm sure that plenty of belligerent Sox fans would bait him mercilessly for their own amusement. Once you've shown that you can be baited easily, people tend to pick on you more, not less. QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 03:36 PM) I agree. I see more Artest than I see Rodman That's a good comparison.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 02:51 PM) Rodman headbutted a ref and had a huge suspension. I believe with the Spurs he used to take his shoes off at odd times. That stuff interferes with a team.... Rodman's work-related problems were limited to referees, rather than everybody around him: his teammates, his manager, upper management, fans, announcers, etc. The vast majority of what Rodman did was cosmetic (taking his shoes off at odd times, his crazy hair, the tats, the piercings, etc.) He was a freaking nutcase, but he had the ability to actually get along with people. He wasn't a radioactive pariah like Bradley. At the very least, there's about zero chance that Ozzie is going to put up with Bradley's crap, and the fallout from that is going to be a massive clubhouse problem and media distraction. No thanks. So playing on a better team is going to suddenly going to cure Bradley's problems? LOL. We had a good rotation this year and it didn't help us win. Our anemic offense could be even weaker next year. We might be competitive next year, but it's far from certain.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 02:11 PM) It worked in Texas. In other locations, it worked 'well enough.' Dennis Rodman had some big problems in Chicago, but not his biggest ones. So it worked well enough-because everything else was in place...and they took home 3 titles. I cite this just to point out that a headcase can sometimes act out but not derail the team. And still perform (and Bradley has done this some years). Eccentric people tend to cause a lot fewer problems in the workplace than people with serious anger issues.

I'd rather have a half season of a semi-effective Linebrink than an entire season of Bradley poisoning the clubhouse. (Although the inevitable Bradley/Ozzie fights would be very entertaining.)

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 16, 2009 -> 12:02 PM) Torre is old school, he wants his pitchers to work through it. Even th broadcasters(Darling?) were saying that this is a "grow up" moment that Torre likes to employ. I wouldnt say monumentally dumb either. Kershaw had 2 outs and Howard was down 0-2(he also had Utley on the ropes with 2 outs and let him off the hook) and he gave him a pitch to turn on and Howard did. They went down 5-1 at that point and lost 8-6, so it wasnt as if the bullpen could hold off the Phillies either at that point. It wasnt Torre's greatest management job, but I could see what he wanted to do. We might have to agree to disagree on this, but I don't think that the NLCS is the time for "confidence-building." If a rookie gives up a three-run jack, walks the opposing pitcher, and sends three balls to the backstop in a playoff game, you take him out. Winning is priority #1 at that point. Torre could've given Kershaw a "don't worry about it, you're still my guy" pat on the back in the dugout afterwards. If somebody could've gotten Howard or Utley out, Manny's jack would've tied the game and swung the momentum back.