LittleHurt05

All the talk about Pac-10 only getting one bid is well deserved, some of the results in the conference are f***ed. Washington beat Seattle (1st season in Division 1) by 47. Seattle won at Oregon State by 51. Oregon St. won at Oregon, who won at Washington.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) Nice win for Illinois. Thought they were going to lose yet another game they were leading, but they weathered the storm and controlled the last 10 minutes. I think the biggest problem with this team is Jordan. He's awful. He's less of a threat on the offensive end than Frazier, and that's really saying something. Teams practically ignore him, so it's really 4 on 5 and the offense just stops. Cole is a threat, Keller is a threat. I dunno why Jordan gets any minutes at all. I understand that you gotta give Richardson/McCamey/Paul a breather, but those three should be the guard rotation, and Tisdale/Griffey/Cole/Davis/Keller should be the front court rotation. I agree, the kid only shoots if he's wide, wide, wide open. If he could somehow drive to the basket or hit an occasional slightly contested shot, which I dont know if hes capable of, then maybe the defenses would show him a little more respect. Turns out the injury to Bertrand hurts more than anyone realized. It would be nice to have an extra guard in the rotation, cause as awesome as Bubba is, he still shouldnt see the floor. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) (1) These guys have the talent and the tools to be really good. You can tell that. They look like robots sometimes, that just do what the coaches have tought them. This was evident when penn state made their run and got up by a couple baskets. Illinois ran set plays, got the ball to Tisdale, who made a 6-8 foot hook shot. They need to have more of an edge though, which has been lacking all year. They need a killer drive. They become content with a 10 point lead. They need to get up by 20 before they do that. So often they look just like the offense last year. The difference is we have way more players who can create their own shot this year, as opposed to Meachem & Frazier, but it still hasnt changed much. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) (2) The expectations for this team were unreasonable. This team relies on two freshman and three juniors, with another freshman coming off the bench. As talented as Paul, Richardson and Griffey are, they're not the John Wall type recruits that can lead teams. They need to mature and continue to learn the game. Next year should be a good year, but even then expectations can't get out of whack. Unreasonable expectations are pretty standard from the Illini fanbase, but I think the overachievement of last years team led to that. Especially with Richardson/Paul replacing Frazier/Meachem. With all these players getting one more year of experience and a few top 100 freshmen, especially Richmond, next year should be good, will see what Weber can do with all the talent. If this years team wins the next two vs. Indiana & Iowa, then somehow goes at least 2-2 vs. the top four after that, maybe they have a chance for the tourney, but I'm definitely not holding my breath for it.

So the team with Brian Anderson, Chris Getz, Josh Fields, & Scott Podsednik is going to score more runs than the White Sox, huh?

The AL Central: Mediocrity at its finest

The blackout rules do suck, but I guess I can kind of understand not getting Sox/Cubs games if you live IN Chicago. But according to the website if you live in Des Moines, Iowa, you dont get games for the Twins, White Sox, Cardinals, Royals, Cubs, and Brewers. You live over 200/300 miles away from the nearest team, but on any given day 6 of the 15 games could be blacked out for you. What the hell?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 08:42 PM) Young vs RHP 2009 .271/.301/.383 Young vs LHP 2009 .310.321/.512 Interesting. Then it would make sense to have Kubel in the OF & Thome as DH vs. RHP, then Young in OF vs. lefties. Although, I wouldnt expect a team like the Twins that counts on playing such fundamental baeball all the time to play a butcher in the OF like Kubel for over 100 games.

The thing that interests me about the whole Kubel/Thome DH situation is that neither of them can hit lefties very well. I dont think they will bench both of them in all the games vs. lefties. Kubel vs. LHP 2009: .243/.299/.345 Thome vs. LHP 2009: .209/.314/.429 And against righties, Kubel was way better, so I don't know why you'd even want Thome in there. Kubel vs. RHP 2009: .323/.397/.619 Thome vs. RHP 2009: .262/.383/.498 Kubel is horrible at defense and is much better served as DH, I dont know what their plan here will be.

Wow, that actually works??? Sounds like something from the old Mafia days of Vegas, that I thought would have went away with the corporatization of the town. I'll be there second week of March, gonna have to try it out.

SI says both Arenas and Crittenon suspended for the rest of the season

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:17 PM) LOL. How good is Damon in the field? He doesn't have a very good arm, no? Would he be willing to DH fulltime? He actually has arguably the worst outfield arm in the entire league. This is a good article about why hes still out there. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...amon/index.html

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) I'd love Gay + bosh since i've always been a big fan of Gay, and let Luol walk (TRADE HIM!), that guy seems selfish from all the reports I've heard. I take it you're a big Gay guy???

In the past five seasons, only one AL team each season has scored over 900 runs. (NYY 3x, Bos 1x, Tex 1x) So now I am supposed to believe that the Twins due to the addition of 39-year old Jim Thome are gonna score over 900 runs and become one of the top 5 AL offenses of the last 5 years????? Wow, 2nd place here we come!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 11:24 AM) http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/Lin...362&Model=1 With Punto (322 OBP/324 SLG) substituted for Thome, it knocks the Twins down to 900 runs scored (a difference of 39 runs per year having Thome over Nick Punto as DH, haha). Factoring in that we can't really expect Konerko to hit his career averages, it knocks the White Sox down to 800 runs scored. Which means we only need to pitch at 0.617 ERA below the Twins. Perhap the most interesting result (not to many) is that Gordon Beckham is the leadoff hitter in every scenario and Juan Pierre's the #9 hitter. Not that we'll ever see that happen. Didn't we already go through numerous threads in the past years about how every simulation said Jim Thome should be the leadoff hitter, due to his OBP??? Pass that info on to Ozzie...

Cuddyer hasnt played a single inning at 3B since 2005.......

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 03:07 PM) How many times have the White Sox come back and beaten Nathan (the game you referenced)? It happened once last year. There was another game Carlos Lee homered off him (must have been 2003 or 2004) at USCF to tie the game but they ended up losing eventually if my memory serves me correctly. He's 24 of 27 in save opps vs. the Sox. That video actually wasnt meant to prove any points, just wanted to relive one of the best moments from last season.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 02:49 PM) No, I used 10 years of listening and watching to the Twins, almost as many as White Sox games. I could pull out and quote all the individual save/opportunity stats, 7th inning leads blown, 8th inning leads blown, blown saves for the bullpen overall. We just have a difference of opinion. You are "selling" the company line that the White Sox bullpen has enough pieces that COULD BE GOOD, even without Dotel and with JJ Putz's health uncertain (such as Pena and Linebrink), that it makes the margin between Jenks and Nathan at the end of games minimal or negligible. I disagree, respectfully. I think everything flows backwards from the closer and Joe Nathan can make a "meh" bullpen committee look better than it really is and a shaky reliever can turn great set-up guys into... Let's just put it this way, when Joe Morgan made his remarks about the White Sox having one of the great bullpens in 2008, you knew his hyperbole would eventually come back to bite him. Both him and KW. We'll see how determined Jenks is to get his career back on track again in 2010. This is what Gordon & Paulie think of your Joe Nathan talk... http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/media/vide...29&c_id=cws

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 01:16 PM) Why not expand the list to AL playoff teams instead? It helps to have a larger sample size. Of those that you think are comparable, Floyd was pretty good in 08, Fullmer was pretty good, and Justice had a massive drop in numbers that year, and he's only five games from the cutoff. Change the cutoff to 95, which isn't really major, and you have 5 of 10, with at least three of the other rotations clearly outclassing what we can expect from Jones/Kotsay. edit: Thames is definitely better than Jones/Kotsay and that 2000 rotation is pretty good too. The latter two had good years and Spencer's numbers are easily the ceiling of what you can expect from either of Jones/Kotsay. Honestly, it really looks like every single one of those rotations is way better than the Sox rotation. Wow, looking over some of the numbers, a lot of those platoons had way better numbers (especially power) than I would have expected from the names, especially Eric f***ing Hinske. But I guess that is part of winning championships in baseball, getting some luck/career years. In 2000, Glenallen Hill hit 16 homers in 132 ABs, a .735 SLG, wow. Of the last 10 years of AL playoff teams, only 15 of 40 teams had the same player start at DH over 100 games, and 5 of those 15 were Big Papi in Boston. If you make the cut off 90 games, its still only 18 of 40. The platoon can definitely work. I also think the DH spot will consist of way more TCQ than people realize, especially considering his heel injuries & how much better Jones is at defense. Our DH spot might not match some of the other groups, but they can still be productive. Whether or not Rios can play up to his talent and if TCQ can stay healthy and play like its 2008 are way more important factors for our offense, IMO.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 12:38 PM) I didn't ask to compare Jones. I think Jones is a decent gamble for us, if Q is the DH. I'm asking given the circumstances, our full roster, can we afford rolling the dice on the DH spot on guys like Kotsay and Visqeul picking up AB's as part of a platoon. The Yankees could back in 01 and 02, because they had elite offenses. As did the majority of these others teams. I dont see Vizquel getting very many AB's as DH. He'd be more likely to start at 2B/SS while Beckham or Alexei fill the DH spot on a day off from the field. When all of our projected starters are in the lineup, its only gonna be Jones or Kotsay DHing.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 12:42 PM) But onto the bolded statements. I think you consider the Twins a potential playoff team, correct? You then equate Brendan Harris to Mark Teahen (and I agree, that's being generous, but not to the guy you think), yet you say Teahen couldn't start on most playoff teams. There is nothing worse than "playoff teams can't have _____ as a starter" arguments. It's baseball, yes they can. People used to say the same thing about Juan Uribe. You can look at just about every playoff team every year (except the Yankees, because their worst infielder was Robinson Cano) and you can find a starter that you might consider a bum. It's just a poor argument. IT can happen and it does happen. Like a certain afternoon radio show on the Score..."You will never win a WS with Juan Uribe as your starting SS!!!"

If Sheets stays healthy all year and pitches like hes able to, $8 million is a good deal. However, thats very, very, very, very big IF.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 12:00 PM) And yet none of them involve players like Mark Kotsay, and Omar Visqeul. They all involve viable major league options for the DH. I'd say there are at least 4 or 5 that compare somewhat evenly with Kotsay/Jones 2009 - Matsui (116 games at DH), Posada (9), A-Rod (9) 2008 - Cliff Floyd (72), Gomes (24), Hinske (18) 2007 - Ortiz (140), Ramirez (11), Lugo (1) 2006 - Thames (43), Dm. Young (40), Monroe (30) 2005 - Everett (105), Thomas (28), Konerko (11) 2004 - Ortiz (114), Ramirez (18), Millar (8) 2003 - Giambi (69), Nick Johnson (30), Sierra (27) 2002 - Brad Fullmer (90), Salmon (21), Shawn Wooten (18) 2001 - Justice (95), Knoblauch (22), Spencer (14) 2000 - Spencer (33, Jose Canseco (26), Glenallen Hill (23)

QUOTE (G&T @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 11:30 AM) Matt Spiegal read an interesting stat. Of the last 10 ALCS champs, only 4 had a player start 100 games at DH and 2 were David Ortiz. So actually, the concept is perfectly acceptable. Of course, if you have the Yankees production at other places, the decision is much easier. From baseballreference.com 2009 - Matsui (116 games at DH), Posada (9), A-Rod (9) 2008 - Cliff Floyd (72), Gomes (24), Hinske (18) 2007 - Ortiz (140), Ramirez (11), Lugo (1) 2006 - Thames (43), Dm. Young (40), Monroe (30) 2005 - Everett (105), Thomas (28), Konerko (11) 2004 - Ortiz (114), Ramirez (18), Millar (8) 2003 - Giambi (69), Nick Johnson (30), Sierra (27) 2002 - Brad Fullmer (90), Salmon (21), Shawn Wooten (18) 2001 - Justice (95), Knoblauch (22), Spencer (14) 2000 - Spencer (33, Jose Canseco (26), Glenallen Hill (23)

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 02:26 PM) The Hornets have reportedly agreed to trade guard Devin Brown to the Bulls for center Aaron Gray. NOOOOOOOO!!!! The White Panther is gone!!!!!!

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 10:28 AM) Am i the only one who read this side of the story? "A former relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets has been sued for allegedly assaulting a Woodlands man during a New Year's Eve party in Dallas. Randy Sorrels, attorney for 25-year-old Ivan Pinney, said his client's left eye was severely damaged when he was punched and kicked by Lance Broadway, currently a minor-league pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, and Cameron McGuire, who plays for United League Baseball's Edinburg Roadrunners. The fracas began, Sorrels told Hair Balls, when Pinney spotted McGuire giving some undue attention to a friend's girlfriend on the dance floor of the Pegasus Room. Pinney had a quick word with McGuire, Sorrels said, and figured things were resolved. But apparently, this upset Broadway. As Sorrels tells it: "He's taken his shirt off, he takes a running start from Ivan's left-hand side, punching Ivan in the left side of the face, knocking him out. It broke his orbital socket, broke his cheekbone...shattered his nose, detached his retina...." Sorrels said that McGuire kicked Pinney in the face after he had dropped to his knees. Afterwards, according to Sorrels, a brawl broke out and Broadway punched several women, knocking one out. (A Dallas Police Department spokesperson told Hair Balls that an investigation is ongoing). "Right now, he can see motion -- he can't see people out of his left eye," Sorrels said. "....They're not certain if he's going to regain any eyesight....His retina has a risk of being detached [again] and losing all eyesight. He is facing three more eye surgeries, one more surgery for his cheekbone, nose and teeth area -- his teeth may be cracked in the...upper left jaw." Pinney, a petroleum engineer with Chevron, will be off work until at least the middle of March, Sorrels said. Right now, we can't find any information" http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...yer_lawsuit.php Wow, thats a way different story then presented in the first article. Disclaimer: Don't look at page 2 unless you enjoy seeing gruesome pictues...

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 09:35 AM) The final score is usually plenty of evidence of what team is better. Very true. So of course Tampa Bay >>> New Orleans. They beat them in the Superdome in a game that mattered, when the Saints weren't resting players.