chw42

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 12:52 PM) Buster Olney thinks Thome would be a wasted roster spot for us. Olney is really an idiot sometimes. A lot of outside people think this, I don't know why.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 10:41 AM) The fact we couldn't match 5.5 million in an offer for Nick Johnson pisses me off even more than we're wasting money on Mark Kotsay. And Omar Vizquel... Teahen + Vizquel + Kotsay pretty much pays for Johnson. I'd rather have Johnson than those three. I think Kenny has something up his sleeve, he usually doesn't BS like this.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 10:37 AM) Kenny Williams said that he made a multi-year offer to Bobby Jenks before they settled on the contract for one year that he got at $7.5 million. They also chased after Nick Johnson, but couldn't match the Yankees $5.5 million offer. They also couldn't afford Chad Tracy, all according to the CHicago Tribune. This is BS. Chad Tracy would have cost a couple million at best.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 02:38 PM) You say that but there are plenty of people who don't want to see Thome back. People don't like that he clogs the bases. Apparently having men on base is a problem. Who knew. And Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay are light years faster of course... It's not like you're replacing him with anybody that much faster.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 07:51 AM) Got a 9.6 on IGN yesterday for the XBOX360. I'm more of a PC gamer, but currently my PC isn't good enough to play Mass Effect let alone Mass Effect 2. Gonna upgrade with the new Radeon 5850 on a new PC pretty soon though. Nice!

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 07:48 PM) I'm f***ing psyched for Mass Effect 2. Anyone else? I played it for an hour yesterday. It's definitely more geared towards the casual crowd this time. I felt like I was playing a combination of Halo, Gears of War, and Mass Effect during my one hour sit down yesterday.

QUOTE (The Beast @ Jan 23, 2010 -> 01:23 PM) Someone at SoxFest rag on Guillen and KW to get Thome signed. What do you guys think about the platoon at DH? Looking at the Sox roster, does it make sense to re-sign Thome? It doesn't sound like KW is too enthused about the possibility of bringing Thome back... Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay or Jim Thome... I think it's obvious who we'd all rather have.

So I see that Cowley's written an article saying that getting Thome is Ozzie's call...oh lawd.

Angels really wanted him gone I guess.

Ugh. Ozzie, I hope you're happy when Jim Thome kills us next year.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 04:21 PM) I can remember when KW talked about Jones and Kotsay as bench players. And now they are part of the DH. Awesome. You can tell that Kenny wants to sign a DH, but Ozzie's getting in the way here.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) Ozzie: Sounds to me like he's basically saying, hey, I can have fun with the lineup as is, and do a lot of things. But he's also not saying, anywhere in there, that we won't have a DH. This is why headline writers drive me nuts. The headline says one thing, his quotes say another. Ozzie is driving me crazy, I seriously want to yell at him right now. A rotating DH is fine, but having a rotating DH consisting of Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones is nowhere near fine. I don't know what's not to get here, Ozzie, it isn't 2004 anymore.

Just sign him back already, he even wants to come back. Come on Kenny...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 10:29 AM) For Jones, there's more to it than being in shape, he has some serious technical things with his swing (see his 2005 season). Although that'd be a great sign. He was really good in 05 though... This is good news, but you're absolutely right, it doesn't mean success.

On an NL team, Dye has little to no value because of his bad defense. His bat won't be as effective anymore as he's starting to regress. The second half of last year showed that. So if any NL team is willing to pay him money, let them do it. He'd make a decent DH, but not a decent RF.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 01:13 PM) Colby Lewis, 2 years, $5 mill This guy put up monster numbers in Japan. Let's see how he transitions back to the Majors.

Coop can definitely fix Cabrera! (sort of green).

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:23 PM) I just don't like this exception that people make for leadoff hitters. I want the player who receives the most PA's on my team to be a good hitter, who is also capable of getting on base, hence why I'd go with Beckham. If Pierre bats 9th he'll still be coming up to bat in front of the 1/2/3 hitters but he'll get significantly less PA's in the process. Surely that's the best of both worlds? Doesn't that describe a very good two-hole hitter? I understand your logic perfectly about Pierre hitting 9th and I'd think that it might be worth a try. However, we'll never see that in action so we'll never see if that would ever be the case, unfortunately.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 11:10 PM) If CHONE says Pierre is a good bet to put up a .340-.345 OBP then that's just one more reason for me to dislike that system. Pierre's OBP is pretty much all batting average with HBP thrown in to help out his s***ty walk totals. The fact that this guy puts the ball in play SOOOO much and still can't hit anything with authority is troubling as hell to me. If Pierre is going to post an OBP around .340-.345 he's going to be hitting somewhere around .300-.310, and I don't see him doing that here. He definitely could hit .290-.300, which would put him at around a .340 OBP if you're semi-optimistic. Pierre hits twice as many grounders than he does fly balls or line drives. I don't think it's really going to matter what kind of conditions we have here. Most of his line drives will be base hits and those 25% of fly balls have a better probability of traveling, which could actually help his XBHs. If you argue that he has no power and that those will get caught, fine, but I'm sure some of them will also travel and drop. A league adjustment can't always be predicted correctly. Quentin and Podsednik adjusted to the AL fine, and it was actually stronger when they got here than it is now.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 09:50 PM) I'll rattle off some quick projections. (wOBA): Teahen- .330 A.J.- .315-.320 Alexei- .330+ (although I think he can take a step up to the .340 range) Konerko- .355-.360 Beckham- Hopefully .360+ but .350 is probably more realistic Quentin- anything less than .370 will be disappointing Rios- .345-.350 Pierre- .310-.315 So the roaming DH monstrosity aside I expect Pierre to be our worst hitter. He's not a .340/.350 OBP guy, he had a good '09 season but in all likelihood his OBP will return to ~.330 next year, and that just doesn't cut it, especially when you have zero power. I would bat Beckham leadoff. It definitely wouldn't be ideal and I'd prefer to see him in the 4-5 hole but I just don't see a viable option other than Beckham. wOBA is a great stat, but Pierre's a leadoff hitter. Honestly, I think OBP is still the best way to judge a leadoff man since his job is to get on base. If he gets extra base hits, awesome, but I don't think measuring how far on base he got is the right way to gauge his job. If he gets on base, he's done his job. Anything else is extra. If you want to talk about him as our "worst" hitter/run producer (not in an RBI sort of way), then fine, he is. His lack of power and his barely above average OBP don't mix well for that. However, he's a leadoff hitter.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 09:26 PM) Pierre only got on at a .365 clip last year because he hit .308 in the NL and got hit by a pitch 8 times. Pierre's career OBP: 2000: .353 2001: .378 2002: .332 2003: .361 2004: .374 2005: .326 2006: .330 2007: .331 2008: .327 2009: .365 He'll be playing in the AL for the first time in his career and he will also be playing in a small ballpark. I'd expect something more like .280/.325/.360/.685 out of him next year, but with a ton of SB and CS and a lot of hot air from the Hawkaroo. I can't argue against his 4 straight seasons of mediocre OBP, but you can't treat last season like it didn't exist. He definitely won't put up a .365 again, but I think we can expect .340. If you're going to weigh his previous 3 seasons altogether , with a 50% weight towards the most recent one, you're staring at an OBP around .340-.345. And since he's moving to the AL, we can maybe take 5 points off of that, but the thing is, you don't know. CHONE hates him, but that's pretty much expected. You got that line from CHONE, lol.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jan 12, 2010 -> 08:32 PM) Damon/Beckham/Quentin works great for me at the top of the order. Pierre should bat 9th. I really don't understand why anyone wants him leading off. He's our worst hitter, so we give him the most PA's? Seems completely devoid of logic. How is he our worst hitter? Sure, he doesn't hit for power, but when it comes to getting on base, he does it at an okay clip. I'm pretty sure he can put up a .340-.350 OBP, which is around what Podesdnik gave you last year. It has been made clear that Gordon Beckham will not be a leadoff man. He has too many other tools that could be useful in other spots in the lineup. Other than Beckham, you really have no other viable option to leadoff. Now, if we get Johnny Damon, it would be another story. Although I'd like to have Damon in the two-spot given his combo of decent power and good OBP. I like sabermetrics just as much as the next guy, but the SABR community's constant bashing of Pierre is getting annoying.

It just gives Flowers some more time to develop. Perfectly fine with me.

We all knew this.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 10, 2010 -> 07:53 PM) It doesn't seem as bad as it was spread over 10 years...this deal intrigues me. Yeah I just read that, I guess it's not that bad then. Still, you're committing at least $25 million to a raw player who might not be ML ready in a year or two. Seems like a bit of a stretch.