mmmmmbeeer

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jul 2, 2010 -> 07:43 PM) The only way you could have enough cap space to sign three max guys is to completely clear your roster. Three max players is just barely under the salary cap, so keeping anyone on the roster would make it impossible. There's no way the Bulls could get all three, it'd only be two of them. I'm pretty much a idiot when it comes to NBA salary cap rules......with Bosh being a sign and trade, does he count against the cap? If JR is willing to pay a luxury tax, how does that fit in with obtaining the "trifecta"?

First and last pitches in that sequence were strikes earlier in the game

Maybe they're scouting a LH RP like Burnett.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 01:48 PM) I will put a finer point on it. This does not seem like Kenny's m.o.: an article comes out saying Kenny is in talks about a specific player, that he is targeting that specific player over and above other similar players (as the "sources" say), and then picks up that player. The Rios example does not apply (though, you're right, I did not elaborate to describe exactly what I meant). Putting in a waiver claim on a player does not involve any negotiating or jockeying for position and bidding among other GMs for the services of the player. You simply put in a waiver claim. With Peavy, I don't recall (and I could be wrong on this) too much discussion before we heard, "the White Sox and Padres have agreed on a deal for Peavy. Now it's up to Peavy to accept or reject it," in May. Again, I could be wrong in that case, and if so, it seems to me one of the few times that has occurred. It seems to me that Kenny operates more frequently in more secrecy to get deals done a la Swisher, Teahen, Quentin. But then again, we haven't been in this situation before with Kenny- midseason, in the race, and with one huge, obvious, glaring hole to fill and a lot of clear options to fill that hole. Either way, Dunn, because of his expected cost in $$ and prospects, particularly if we're making the first big deal of the trade deadline season, would surprise me. If it happened, nothing would then make me happier than if Ozzie made his gut apologize to us for not getting Thome and then resigned (yes, person, obviously not going to happen). If this deal goes down in the next 24 hours I think it still fits KW's MO.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 08:14 AM) Which could account for the decreased walk rate, he's only walked 8 times in the month of June but he's hitting .300, he's been making a conscience effort to put the ball in play more, not sure how long that will last since it's just not his game. I could care less about strikeouts when he's putting up a near .400 wOBA. I don't see much more upside in an infield popup compared to K. With Dunn also comes the shift which means next to no double plays, keep that in mind also. I was watching the Nationals broadcasts against the Sox and a couple of Strasburg starts as well....one of the broadcasts they talked about exactly what you said here, that Dunn is consciously attacking in his at-bats as opposed to his typical selective approach. Whether this is something he would continue to do in a different uniform, eh, who knows? Personally, I'm not sure that as an AL DH I necessarily would want him continuing this new approach. I've always been a big Adam Dunn fan...mostly because he's one guy I target every year for fantasy baseball so I follow him fairly closely. I would absolutely love to see him in a Sox uniform. I think if you make a fair offer he could extend....there's certainly no evidence that salaries will suddenly skyrocket for high OBP power hitters who are pretty poor defensive players (aka Jim Thome).

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jun 26, 2010 -> 08:14 AM) I recall him throwing batting practice one year to our guys at the cell, let's hope we can pull it off again. Let's get one of our research staff to pull up the numbers. I have to say he's been really impressive this year for the Scrubs, however. I don't recall him having the PINPOINT control he's had in the few times I've seen him when he was with the Twins even though he's always been a guy that would RARELY even walk ONE guy in a start, so he's always thrown strikes. But this year especially, to me, he's rarely hit the middle of the plate if ever it seems Lifetime vs. Sox 4-11 5.33ERA 1.45WHIP 140 hits in 108ip with 17bb and 36k and a ridiculous 23 hr I'd say we hit him well.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 03:50 PM) LHP: .364/.426/.800/1.226 4/11 BB:SO ratio (55 ABs) RHP: .268/.298/.443/.741 4/41 BB:SO ratio (183 ABs) Thanks.... while his numbers against RHP look terrible compared to those ridiculous LHP numbers, his OPS against righties beats Kotsay's .706 OPS vs RHP.

Are Viciedo's splits vs. RHP and LHP that drastic of a difference? I'd look myself but I'm not sure where to find ml splits

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:47 AM) Guillen has always seemingly maintained the philosophy that occasionally resting players refocuses them. Seems to have worked pretty well this time. If scoring 1 run against JD Martin is considered as having "worked pretty well", what exactly is not working well? I mean we got the W, but it had nothing to do Oz's gut being right about resting Alex and Paulie.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) As much as we blame Ozzie for making stupid in-game decisions, I'd like to point out three instances in which his hunches seemed dead-on * sitting Rios and Konerko on Saturday, which arguably gave them a breather they needed to bang out multiple hits each on sunday. Rios had been 5 for his previous 24 after that 4-4 at Wrigley, and although Konerko had hit in the previous three games, he was on a 5 for 19 cooler with no XBH. * putting in Putz in the ninth on Sunday * leaving in Peavy in the ninth proved to be the right call What others? Ozzie gets credit for those? Really? It was just plain ignorant to sit both Paulie and Alex on the same day when you're already running without a DH. Ozzie gets credit for having Peavy on the bump to bail his sorry ass lineup out after they scored 1 freaking run. He gets credit for putting a former closer in to close out a game in which his regular close was unavailable? Peavy was at what, like 90 pitches heading to the 9th...why wouldn't he stay in and, even if he didn't, we've got a pretty good bullpen. I hate to be an OG hater, but I think he's pretty much had nothing to do with this streak, nor has KW....this is all on the players starting to perform.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 19, 2010 -> 02:26 PM) You don't rest your two best hitters on the same day and you don't call up one of your top prospects to sit on the bench. It's just stupid. ESPECIALLY in an NL park where you're already without the DH. I'm in the camp that says Oz is ****ing with KW with this move.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 17, 2010 -> 07:18 PM) Looks like his mechanics have caught up to him. Crap. Do you say the same thing when a centerfielder gets fluid on his knee?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jun 14, 2010 -> 06:37 PM) Sure he's been worth his contract, but the team is still languishing. KW put together an offense that could not afford a bad year from it's big hitters (i.e. Beckham and Quentin) because there were holes other places. Konerko and Rios are having MVP type seasons and the offense is still one of the worst in the league. We've got an expensive ass starting rotation and bullpen that should be performing...they weren't. This offense was never expected to produce big numbers because the pitching was supposed to make that unnecessary. But in your world, this past offseason we would have traded Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, or Floyd in a salary dump then use the money to sign a backup RF and backup 2B just to hedge against bad seasons from CQ and Beckham. I'm glad you're not our GM.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 11, 2010 -> 07:13 PM) Cowley said Garcia and Konerko confirmed the blow-up. Also, both Stone and Cowley suggested Hahn will be replacing KW sooner rather than later, and Ozzie's going nowhere. I would have a tough time dealing with that decision as a fan.

Even going back as far as 2005, the benefit of having Ozzie Guillen as manager was never his ability to manage a ballgame and be an x's and o's guy. Ozzie's contribution has always been his ability to motivate, deflect negative attention, and keep a clubhouse loose. Well, I'm not seeing much motivation from our players, there's plenty of bad press about this team and Ozzie's antics are no longer putting that bad press on page 2, and, from the looks of it, our team is far from loose. So what exactly is it that Ozzie is providing this team? And I don't mean to imply that KW is without fault for this dreadful season; ultimately all roster decisions are on him regardless of what Ozzie requests. But, perhaps it's just me, I would have never put this team at 9 games under .500 in mid-June given the opening day roster and early season schedule. There were plenty of threads on this board and articles in the national media talking about our rotation being in the top 5 of MLB. We were also supposed to have a decent pen. So yes, the offense didn't look great coming into the season, but with the pitching we were supposed to have we'd be in it to grab a bat closer to the deadline. The pitching flopped and you can't put that on KW. So yeah, mark me down as wanting Ozzie canned for being a sh*t manager, not because of his roster requests.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ May 30, 2010 -> 10:28 AM) They just lost their best offensive player for I'm guessing at least 3 months, maybe the whole year. They play in what is probably the weakest division in baseball, the division and a playoff run are in their sights, Rob Quinlan is not going to get it done at first base. They need to make a move here, is it reactionary? Absolutely, but that's what you do when s*** happens, you react to it. I just don't see any way that they can secure the division without their best hitter, their offense is lacking bite this year even with Morales. Without him they become overly reliant on a pitching staff that probably isn't up to the task at this point. I read that they'll actually move Brandon Wood there to give him a shot first.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtOk...g=jp-rays052110 Pretty good Passan article putting the first quarter of the Rays' season in perspective. They're definitely for real and could actually get better as Davis matures and Zobrist starts getting his power stroke back.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Apr 29, 2010 -> 05:40 PM) Entirely different type of gun. Several times more in depth than a standard radar gun. Sportsvision created pitch f/x... they are the same company that created the 1st and 10 system (yellow line) used in football. Thanks, dude....that definitely lends a bit more credibility to the numbers on that site.

AZ and MIL could sure use closers...and Jenks would probably benefit from a move to the NL.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 29, 2010 -> 05:04 PM) I don't know if anyone posted Peavy's pitchFX numbers from last night but his average fastball was 90.12 MPH and he topped out at 91.7 MPH. In his previous outing he was at 91.77 avg. and 94.5 max. Do they use the same gun for these pitchFX stats as the TV crews use? Toronto seemed to have a slow gun as well. Or maybe the cell is just fast, I don't know. But I find it hard to believe that all of our pitchers are seemingly losing and gaining several MPH from appearance to appearance.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:36 PM) No, but NL hitters will make a lot of pitchers look a lot better than they are. What about all the scouts worried in the Spring about how much his stuff had seemingly deteriorated. Very few pitchers can throw as many sliders as he did for so many years in their 20s without losing their stuff quickly. Smoltz is basically an anomaly, and that's only cause he went to the bullpen. You're right, dude...he's washed up and I too wish we still had Clayton Richard.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:36 PM) Peavy is a good pither in a funk. Buerhle has been in flunks too and is also in a mni one now. They can pull out of it but I want it to be NOW! That's one of the things about having an offense that puts this much pressure on the pitching staff...it just doesn't allow time for a guy to have a few bad starts to figure it out. Don't get me wrong, Jake has been a huge disappointment thus far, but I'm with you, it's just a funk. I'd make that trade again tomorrow if I were KW.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:34 PM) His slider is very average so far. And no I'm not stretching it, go back and view my posts around the first trade last year. In 4 starts..... what about all those years in San Diego, did he have an average slider then? Was it the seats behind home plate at Petco that made his slider look like one of the best in the league?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:31 PM) His track record was in the NL in a mediocre division in the greatest pitcher's park ever invented. His numbers could be a lot worse this year, as there have been a ton of hard hit balls against him right at people. If you believe a guy with as nasty of a slider as Peavy has coupled with a 95MPH heater with movement got by on nothing but a big ballpark and weak division, eh, I can't convince you otherwise. Seems you're stretching to have his performance fit your narrative, imo.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 08:29 PM) Yeah, it seemed like he was pissed. We won't hear the last of this. He should be pissed....AJ had plenty of time to get in position to make an out at first. AJ is really starting to piss me off both behind the plate and at the plate, he doesn't even look like he's trying to frame pitches tonight to get some generous calls.