almagest

Reviews on Newegg look pretty good. I'd read through all of those, at least. Also check out ZDNet for reviews on this company's other products.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 6, 2008 -> 11:40 PM) Jim Thome had the 3rd highest OPS+, 3rd highest SLG%, and 2nd highest OBP on the White Sox this season, and he hit .245. Why do people want to get rid of him? He hits homers, he walks, or he strikes out...you can deal with players like that when they're as productive as Thome is. Dye I understand, because his value is high, his contract is reasonable, he's a generally impatient hitter when it comes to walks, he struck out 104 times this year, and he's mediocre defensively (when there's a superior option in RF). Add to it that the Sox have (including Dye) four right handed hitters in the lineup that have considerable power...unless you count Griffey or Pierzynski (and it'd be dumb if you did), the Sox have one left-handed hitter that has good power. Why people want to get rid of Thome is beyond my comprehension. He doesn't hit for average, I guess. Of course, if he was still hitting ~.300 at age 38 he'd probably be considered one of the best of all time, so that's probably not a valid criticism. Oh, and he's also not "clutch", whatever that means. I guess a 3 run homer in the 3rd is like 15x less important than a 3 run homer in the 8th. Seriously, I'd like to see what most people consider a valid option at DH Dye? Konerko? Someone else? And since Thome's option vested, where's he going to go?

19" Recertified Viewsonic HDTV Envision 19" HDTV Sceptre 19" HDTV Those are all under $250 before tax/shipping. I'd go with the Viewsonic if I were you. They make decent TVs, and its 19" should be enough for gaming (XBOX360/PS3 would be in HD as well), TV, and you should be able to use it as a computer monitor, too. Just don't expect to sit any further than a foot or two away and be able to see anything.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 07:51 PM) Figgins is not a free agent. He'll be arbitration eligible in '09 and hit free agency following next season.Everything I've seen shows that he's a free agent following the 2008 season.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Oct 5, 2008 -> 07:37 PM) Ok...is Figgins a FA or not?!? A lot my hinge on whether Texiara resigns with LA IMO.... Nothing is a a given...but I really think prying Figgins over to this team is a priority for Kenny this offseason. Either Figgins or Roberts. Just my 2¢...He signed a 3 year deal on Jan 14, 2006, so he should be a free agent, since I didn't see any other contract info on him since then.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 11:31 PM) Uribe was one of the key reasons we won in 2005. For that reason, I would never call him a "dog" or disrespect him. He's limited offensively, is a streak hitter, and has virtual no patience. He is what he is...which is a good back-up, but not a starter for 75-85% of the teams in MLB. I also think he's been exposed a little defensively at 3B on turf. He doesn't have the quick first step that Crede used to have...don't get me wrong, he's made some great defensive plays to save us down the stretch, and we wouldn't have made the playoffs with Fields playing 3B, but the time has come for KW and Uribe to part company and say thanks for the memories, particularly that catch down the line going into the stands in the final game of the World Series, and the first two months after we acquired him, when he was hitting about .400. The thing about Uribe, no matter what, he consistently drove in runners from 3rd with less than 2 outs, he always managed 20 homers and 70+ RBI's, and those are respectable numbers from a SS. Put that together with his defensive ability and arm, he has nothing to be ashamed about as a player. We've had this discussion about Uribe before. He gets hot for short stretches and can almost carry a team during them, but he also disappears for long stretches, becoming an almost automatic out. All in all, he posts a mid-high .600 OPS which isn't acceptable from a starter. He's proven to be best at the super-sub role, and I wouldn't mind keeping him next year in that role. But not as a starter.

QUOTE (MO2005 @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 10:07 AM) Did or did not all of those world series champions string hits together or were they homerun first approach? Boston hits homeruns, but do you notice their approach? It is different than the Whitesox. All good and winning teams will be tops in homeruns, but it's when they are hit and how crucial of a situation it is? It's called being a smart team!Getting hits with RISP isn't small ball. Also none of the past 7 world series winners were small ball teams. Not sure where you got that idea. There's no sure-fire answer to win the world series -- even if there was, I'd vote for a good bullpen or dominant starting pitching more than I would small ball.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:40 PM) I never said he was bad. But he isn't a good HITTER. He is a good all around offensive player because of his good eye, not because he rips singles all over the park.Semantics. Dunn doesn't hit for average, but he does everything else. Add in hitting for average, and you start talking a hall of fame caliber player. That's an awfully high benchmark. So, based on that, do you think a player who ONLY hits for average is better, or something? You really aren't making any sense.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:26 PM) Yeah, that's all he does. He hit what, .245? I never said he doesn't get on base for us- that would be the reason I'd want to keep him actually, if his AVG wasn't so bad. So yeah, he isn't a good hitter. Probably 75% of Adam Dunn's hits were extra base hits, does that make him a good hitter? Don't think so.So all Thome does is get on base and club doubles and homers. Man, what an awful DH! And, yeah, Adam Dunn is a good hitter. I don't know what metrics you rate good hitters by, but someone who has a .381 lifetime OBP and a slugging percentage over .500 is pretty good. Seriously I can't believe you thought Adam Dunn being bad was a valid point. Do you pay attention to ANY stat besides batting average?

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:15 PM) Did Thome almost break the record? All I'm saying is that Cust is like 10 years younger or so and that's something he can improve on. Thome's K's will continue to rise due to his bat getting slower, he still can't hit a LHP, and he just isn't a good hitter. All of those things, however, Cust could improve on. Thome "just isn't a good hitter?" On whose authority? Yours? Please. He got us into the playoffs. He still put up an .865 OPS at the age of 37. He gets on base a ton and more than half his hits were extra base hits. You probably want to come up with some actual legitimate evidence before you post.

Why does this topic keep coming up? It's pretty simple -- Young isn't very good. Maybe he will be, but he hasn't posted an OPS+ over 100 yet, and he still strikes out like 4x more than he walks. Also, for comparison, Nick Swisher had roughly the same OPS+ as Young this year (93 vs. 92), and Swisher has been a huge disappointment. Would we want another outfielder putting up those stats?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 03:14 PM) I'm not home yet, but what do you mean TBS is blacking it out? For real?Since the game is on TBS, it's blacked out on MLB.tv.

Damn mlb.tv and TBS blacking this one out. Anyone watching it on a stream?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 01:01 PM) I'm not going to defend Wise' defense but to compare what Delmon Young did on the Dye hit and what Wise' did on the Cuddyer hit is ludicrous. Do they have the same speed ( the hit ball and the outfielders)? Were both outfielders in the exact same spot when the ball was 1st struck ? Did the ball roll in the exact same line of travel ? Did both balls have the exact same spin ? Unless you can answer yes to those questions you can't compare why Young got to the ball and held Dye to a single and why Wise couldn't cut off the ball and Cuddyer got a double.Michael Cuddyer in his career has the overwhelming majority of his hits between the left field line and left-center. The defense was likely shading him to left/left center. Dye, while playing for far longer than Cuddyer, has similar splits as far as hit location. I'd imagine the defense would play him much the same as Cuddyer. It's impossible to tell if both balls were hit the same way, but they were close as far as I could tell. Also, even neglecting the stats, if you watched the game, and watched the way Wise ran at that ball, didn't get himself into good position to cut it off, then overran it and fell down, I don't see how you could argue that he played it extremely poorly. I can't remember a left fielder fall down as much as I've seen Wise fall down over the last 2 weeks or so.

The Gomez triple that went off Wise's glove, and the double last night by Cuddyer on almost the same ball that Delmon Young was able to cut off told me all I need to know about Wise's defense.

Okay, so we're working on the rent for the place in Bucktown/Humbolt, but we found another place in what the agent termed as "Old Irving," on Addison and Pulaski. It's about 4-5 blocks from the Addison blue line stop. Does anyone know anything about this area?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 29, 2008 -> 11:42 AM) You stated this: And no, I wouldn't want him on the Sox. He's all attitude, no ability. You constantly harp on his performance and say he has no ability. Your words. I also never said he would be Rickey Henderson II. That was Hawk, I think he be below that. All I said was Jerry Owens couldn't hold his jock and you won't change my mind. His performance is mediocre. All I've seen from him is speed and attitude, with nothing so far in his entire career to back it up. Maybe Owens can't hold his jock potential-wise, but potential means nothing if he hasn't backed it up with performance yet, and most assuredly has a long way to go to live up to it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 29, 2008 -> 10:37 AM) Please read the post I responded to. It wasn't even yours. I copy and pasted the quote in my answer. Then you tell me I'm cherry picking. The post said nobody. I mentioned a few off my head. I will say this, for a guy who never has had success and never will, he's pretty highly coveted around baseball. For a guy who never will have any success he sure did look pretty good last Thursday a game where if the White Sox won, they wouldn't have to bother with today or tomorrow. He's 22 years old. You think he sucks and always will, I think he'll turn into a good ballplayer and has already contributed. Why don't we leave it at that?You continually miss the point. I don't think he sucks and always will. He sucks this year, and has had a mediocre minor league career. I don't see what about this means he'll become Rickey Henderson II.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 29, 2008 -> 07:07 AM) Considering the post I was answering included this: Any player who can't post a .800 OPS in the minors has no chance of ever being a useful Major League hitter. Why is it "cherry-picking" when I find 3 off the top of my head? Wouldn't just 1 suffice? Strawman. I never said a player who didn't post an .800 OPS in the minors had no chance of being a useful major league hitter. I said there's no reason to hype a guy who never posted an .800 OPS in the minors, because he hasn't come close to realizing the potential that made him a high-ranked prospect. You also continually miss the point that the players you mentioned have ALL had success either in college, Cuba, the minors, or very early in their major league careers. Carlos Gomez has had none of this so far.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 28, 2008 -> 05:23 PM) Robin Ventura didn't. Carlton Fisk did in low A ball, in 195 AB, but didn't after that. Jason Varitek never did. The only time Brian Roberts ever did was a 29 AB stint in rookie ball. Put things into perspective. Gomez is 9 months older than the latest White Sox #1 pick. He still hit .260. Stole 30 bases. Maybe that's not useful to you, but for a 22 year old its not bad. His OBP is .014 lower than Alexei Ramirez. It obviously needs some work, but he's only 22 with a ton of talent. I don't think he's as good as Hawk says he is, but he's certtainly a lot better than Jerry Owens.You can cherry-pick former and current player stats all you want, but ALL of the players you mentioned had seasons in college, the minors, Cuba, and/or the majors early in their careers that justified their hype. Nothing Gomez has done so far in 5 years of professional baseball has merited any recognition. He's had a couple of decent minor league seasons, has a negative runs contributed value (-.145 MLVr), and is overall playing at replacement level (0.6 VORP) in the majors. He needs to vastly improve on his contact rate, his selectivity at the plate, and he needs to start hitting for more power before he comes close to the hype given to him as a prospect, and by himself. That's a pretty tall order, and lots of players with as much or more ability as him can't do that, so what makes him worth such a vehement defense?

What we need is for our pitching staff to stop giving up 12 runs a game. Work on patching the bullpen a bit, maybe shore up the starters, and we're fine.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Sep 27, 2008 -> 10:52 PM) Almagest, I don't think that is too bad an area. You are pretty much in Bucktown/Wicker Park there. The area of Humboldt that you really want to avoid is west of Kedzie. Used to be anything west of Western. However, that area has been yuppified in recent years and I think you should probably enjoy it. What agent did you meet with? I'm planning to check the area slightly east of you in the upcoming weeks. Yeah, that's the conclusion we came to as well, after a lot of research. We'll probably take it, as long as it's still available. Urban Domain is the agency. They have a couple listings in the West Loop/Bucktown/Wicker Park area. Check 'em out -- should just be http://www.urbandomain.com

QUOTE (Steff @ Sep 27, 2008 -> 08:33 PM) I played with the iPhone a bit and Lord does it suck. I text at lightening speed and that thing has severe lag. It would end up out the window fast. I like the Curve a lot. They didn't tell me about the Storm though. I'll have to read up on it. I told them I would be back on Tuesday after I did some more research. Is the internet slow on the BB? They said that was the only thing faster on the iPhone.Mobile Safari is a much better browser than whatever Blackberries use. I doubt the speed is any different though, if both phones use 3G. Do Blackberries use wifi if it's available? If not, the iPhone would be faster when connected to a wifi network. If you text a lot, though, I'd highly suggest a sidekick. Easiest device to text on. Not sure if AT&T offers those, though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 27, 2008 -> 02:47 PM) "Oh no the corn! Paul Newman's gonna have my legs broke!" - Simpsons quote.Fixed that for ya.

I love these threads that blame our "HR or nothing" offense for this losing streak, yet in the past three games we've scored 6, 8, and 6 runs, yet lost all 3. Really the only game we had a chance in & our offense let us down on this losing streak was the second game in Minnesota. You can argue the third Minnesota game was also the offense's fault because they didn't score after the 4th, but the pitching staff blew a 5 run lead. You can't do that and expect to win.