lostfan

QUOTE (frankie5angels @ May 2, 2008 -> 08:31 PM) I can't wait till Thome is f***ing gone. I am sick of his strikeouts. They are bearable when he's hitting.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ May 2, 2008 -> 08:05 PM) What a player tells the media to look good in the eyes of the people who hold the fate of his career in their hands, and what he really feels are two totally different things. Anderson knows what the deal is. What he feels doesn't matter. It's what he does.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 2, 2008 -> 05:56 PM) Who said anything about happiness? Besides that, Fields knows he's starting by opening day next year at the very least, and Anderson has 3 superior players ahead of him. Anderson should be happy he's finally accepted by his manager. Anderson has said more than once that he'd rather ride the bench in the majors than be a starter in AAA.

QUOTE (the People's Champ @ May 2, 2008 -> 05:49 PM) Hey, you make valid points. But everybody on this board thinks that Fields/BA are the second coming, and I'm just telling you thats the only way they are going to get consistant playing time, barring any major injuries, and/or multiple missed squeezed bunt attempts. That's so not the point of this thread.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ May 2, 2008 -> 04:18 PM) Broadway has also had problems in Canada. Bahaha that was excellent, fortunately due to my extensive experience in rickrolling I had the presence of mind to hover my mouse and look at the status bar first.

QUOTE (MAX @ May 2, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) I am being honest. We really don't need more tax. What we need is less bureaucracy wasting away all of the revenue. This country really sucks my ass when it comes to fiscal responsibility. War might be expensive but its only about half of the problem. NSS already said what I was going to say, the war is ridiculously expensive. There's really no way to downplay that. When you spend more you need more revenue to cover it. Arbitrary tax cuts aren't any more beneficial for the economy than wasteful spending because the end result is the same (where's that approach gotten this economy now, after all?). Balanced budget ftw. We had one. Now, umm... yeah.

Carlos isn't a stolen base threat but he isn't a "base-clogger" either and he is fast enough to steal a base if he wants to. He, Fields, and Anderson all seem to be around the same speed.

QUOTE (almagest @ May 2, 2008 -> 10:57 AM) I'd really like to see Dye switched over to DH against tough lefties, with Thome coming out, or Quentin switched out against lefties (he's not hitting them much this year), and have Anderson start in CF on those days. Also wouldn't mind Swisher switched (that's fun to say) over to 1B to give Paulie rest on occasion. Ideally, I'd like to see Anderson in there 2-3 times a week, and also brought in late in games as a defensive replacement, possibly getting an AB or two. As long as we're tweaking the roster, I'd also like to see Alexei sent down to AAA for regular playing time, maybe bring up Getz (though his numbers are nothing special right now), and have Getz, Ozuna, and Uribe fight it out for time at 2B, with Uribe and Ozuna able to fill in at SS/3B if necessary. Jerry Owens can come up in September or if an OF gets hurt. As long as he is in a rhythm and it isn't taking ABs away from Paulie when he's hot, I'm totally comfortable with Anderson playing CF while Swisher plays 1B. Is Getz left-handed?

QUOTE (Hawkfan @ May 2, 2008 -> 01:19 AM) good topic, good post. Such a tough decision for me though since i hate Brian anderson. There's just not a lot of room out there. Someones gotta step up, whoever it is. I think Anderson is a different player from the one you hate now. His whole attitude and mental approach is completely different and more mature than it was in '06 and he doesn't make excuses for the situation he's in. It's hard for me not to root for him.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ May 2, 2008 -> 09:30 AM) i'm not blaming anyone for anything, i just can't believe the guy finally gets into ST and then suddenly hurts himself significantly enough to miss opening day and, ultimately, the entire first month of the season what kind of injury is it anyway, and how far along until he's ready to start platooning with uribe at 2B? He broke his rib. We probably won't be seeing him up at the MLB level until at least the end of this month and knowing Ozzie maybe not until a little before the All-Star break.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ May 1, 2008 -> 08:22 PM) I agree 100%. You can't trade Fields until Crede is signed. Especailly if you're talking about in a deal for Roberts. Roberts would be nice for this year but not at the expense of Fields. Now ,if you could get Roberts for BA and a pitching prospect, then i'd do it. BUt B'more isn't going to go for any deal like that. Right... they would go for a SS, maybe they'd think about using Fields as a DH or something, but they have absolutely zero use for an outfielder. Obviously Markakis is now the franchise player, Luke Scott is legit, and Adam Jones is a future All-Star.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 1, 2008 -> 03:45 PM) Grady Sizemore's career slugging percentage is .486. Curtis Granderson's is .501. No, asking for a .400 SLG% is like asking for Owens to be more like Brian Roberts, who's at .411 career wise. .315 is absolutely unacceptable. And Brian Roberts is still an All-Star. If Owens slugged .400 his offensive numbers would look like Jose Reyes (.425 SLG) with a similar # of SBs and less home runs. Still unrealistic to expect of Owens. And btw I didn't say .315 wasn't unacceptable. If his OBP was higher it would mean he has more total bases to add to that which would mean a higher SLG. And it would also mean by extension that his hits are going to different places which would have him legging out more XBHs but that's really another discussion.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 1, 2008 -> 03:51 PM) Owens' career .315 slugging percentage says he's woeful. Slugging% is secondary when talking about leadoff hitters. What matters is OBP and then stolen bases which lead to runs. Owens isn't a good leadoff hitter because he doesn't get on base enough and because all his infield singles make his batting average pretty questionable, not because he doesn't hit the ball hard. Obviously SLG is nice to have if your leadoff hitter has it but let's be real here - if he slugged near .400 we're putting him in the company of guys like Sizemore which is kind of absurd to expect of him.

When it's in this thread, if I don't want to read it or talk about it I just ignore it mostly out of respect. However, I often do wonder if I'm expected to challenge opinions here or leave them be (hence thread title "GOP only", I feel like I sit on both sides of the fence though and I'm not a Democrat).

By "bold" I assume he means "catastrophically stupid." And by "pitchers having to worry about holding a runner or base" I guess that means "pitchers having to worry about giving up another home run."

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 1, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) What's Jerry Owens' peak? Therein lies the problem. I would say Jerry Owens' ceiling is that of a 4th outfielder/fringe starter. Sorta like Nook Logan. If his peak is that of Curtis Granderson and he has some inside information we're not aware of (like the theft of Granderson's DNA, something like that) then we're on to something.

I almost laughed out loud reading that. I want a bona fide, full-blown leadoff hitter on this team as much as anyone else, but this is probably one of the worst pieces of baseball analysis I have ever seen. Ever.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm "up in arms" about the offense like the "trade Thome, force Dye to waive his NTC and trade him, DFA Konerko and call up Fields" crowd is but I'm definitely worried about the fact that the offense seems to completely disappear every couple of games, and the team struggles badly against certain types of pitchers. I just don't feel comfortable about that. On the other hand, they are prone to light up the rest of the types of pitchers at any given time.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:55 AM) uggh....I'm not sure that's what he was advocating. Right... I'm not. If I was sure Owens could get at least a .360 OBP and hit more doubles I would be. But all the OFs on this team not named Ramirez are better than Owens. Still, with Richar hurt we need a lefty bat to PH and a speed guy to PR and Owens is both.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ May 1, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) I like it, but not gonna happen. You are correct because Ramirez is not going anywhere and that's just wishful thinking on my part. Anderson getting more PT to rest Dye might happen though if only because that's consistent with Ozzie's management style like I was saying. I also feel perfectly comfortable on the days when Anderson is in CF and Swish is playing 1B over Konerko.

So for the first week or so once Quentin became a fixture in the lineup, Ozzie was leery of making any changes to the outfield because all 3 of them were murdering the ball. This left Anderson in no man's land and not much of an opportunity to capitalize on his good spring though, which was unfortunate but obviously the right decision considering the circumstances. However, Swisher and Dye have cooled off, specifically Dye, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it started once Dye tweaked his leg either. Most people recognize that Dye is arguably the best hitter on the team when he's healthy and has a good feel for things, but remember last year when he also had a lingering leg injury it seemed to affect everything at the plate. Bat speed, strike zone judgment, etc. all added up to these terrible 3-pitch strikeout at-bats. On the other side of things, you have Anderson and Ramirez. Ramirez just doesn't seem to be benefiting from being here right now, to be quite honest. It's not helping either his personal development, or the team to have a guy struggle with MLB pitching in sporadic at-bats, and there's no real way to get him in the game and let him get over that hump either. On the other hand, when Dye got hurt that allowed Anderson to step in to get consecutive ABs and get his rhythm and timing back down, and he's been hitting pretty well albeit with no power (at least yet). I'm thinking now that Ozzie should be more liberal in giving Anderson starts to give Dye some rest. This isn't exactly unprecedented or a departure from the norm, since we're all familiar with Ozzie's managing style where he likes to use his bench guys to keep them fresh, and Anderson needs that as much as anyone. Ramirez should go to AAA to make his eventual step up to MLB easier since it's a little steep for him right now, and Owens should come up from AAA since he is both a lefty bat off the bench and a pinch runner.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 1, 2008 -> 08:50 AM) probably rob bell must be broadway to take massets spot....not that masset has done THAT poorly, but broadway has been so good so far Massett has done OK so far, IMO. I mean nothing impressive, but expectations on him were pretty low coming into the season and he's been doing a respectable job considering the role he's in.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 1, 2008 -> 08:48 AM) Visited OPACY last year for three games. Certainly the outside is beautiful, but I honestly was a little underwhelmed once we got inside. We got great seats (scalped them), but it just wasn't all that impressive. Maybe you just like what you're accustomed to... I'm assuming when you say "outside" you're referring to the field/seating area and when you say "inside" you're talking about the concourses/concession areas. In that case I would agree with you. It's kind of like Wrigley, sure it's a more attractive field but the inside of it has nothing on Comiskey (I keep typing that and backspacing to say US Cellular, but to hell with that). I was actually referring mostly to the field though, Comiskey is kind of dull IMO. I'm not really "accustomed" to Camden Yards though, I've only been going there since '05 when I moved here. Otherwise I grew up on the South Side and I've been to Comiskey countless times. So if anything that's my benchmark.

Egbert is probably a better pitcher, but Broadway seems to be ready for an MLB callup any day now.

Yeah, what the hell was that? lol