ThunderBolt

The Sox have a pretty mixed history in recognizing decline. In the past, i'd be willing to write off a lot of it on KW taking gambles, and i was fine with that as long as it wasn't for the detriment of the team. I find Jones and Kotsay to be beyond reason. I could potentially see the percentage in starting Jones everyday, if he was in shape and playing the OF, but a straight platoon with Mark Kotsay is unacceptable.

QUOTE (shakes @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 04:33 PM) You don't seem to be able to see past this Thome or DH thing. Thome is exactly the type of guy who is falling off from injuries and decline, due to age. Of all the areas of Sox management to trust, I trust their training staff. It was made clear when Jim was traded last year, Thome wouldn't be back, because they didn't think he could do it anymore. I don't know why people were surprised when he wasn't brought back. Decline is an issue that every baseball team needs to deal with. Some players decline slower than others, and still managed to replicate similar valuable statistics they had during their prime year. Some even increase. Like On-Base Percentage. See: Jim Thome. Some players, however, due to injury and age fall off a cliff and should not be counted on to anchor a major league DH rotation in a home-run hitter’s ballpark. For solid examples of this kind of decline please see: Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay.The Twins seems to understand decline, and embrace it. They sign these players to cheap contracts, and take reasonable risks. Having Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones as your only options to anchor the most potent offensive position in baseball is not a reasonable risk, it's a ludicrous attempt by Ozzie to cling to a misconstrued opinion on versatile baseball.

COLLEGE SNOW DAY!!! And it hasn't even snowed at all yet here, god bless the feeling of impending doom.

Can we move past the weather? I think it's been played out at this point and It's going to be a factor for both teams anyway.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 04:10 PM) This argument again? The one that applies to every single team in baseball? You cannot argue how good or bad a team is saying there are no guarantees, when that applies to all teams. Just the same way you cannot argue any team is guaranteed good. Its about likelihoods. See my earlier post. Show me, down the line, how the likely scenarios show this team to be worse for 2010 than they were in 2009. Because as far as I can see, there are a lot more likely positive changes than likely negative ones. The fact is that their are players on baseball teams that are almost guaranteed to put up their numbers, year in and year out, Thome wa a guy like that, AJ is a guy like that, superstars like Pujols and A-Rods are like that. It's simple their are some players you can project out on paper that barring injury or devastating decline they will put up numbers consistent to their career averages. The White Sox have exactly one such player (AJ), two if you'd prefer to make the case for Paulie. The fact is that everyone else is a question mark, baseball is full of them. I'll concede that every damn team has these kinds of problems. But not every team would willingly couple these problems with a flimsy excuse for a DH.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 03:32 PM) I'm fairly certain that he was stated as one of them. It was Garcia and T-Pain (Pena), wasn't it?

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 03:01 PM) It's the internet, petty is commonplace. It goes back to Javy Vazquez, those who disliked him felt misspelling his name was a fine way to belittle him, spelling his name "Vasquez" was a fine way of showing how inconsequential he was and just how little they thought of him. Since you've done it in a few threads I just assumed. I'm actually just really crappy at spelling. I usually run names through google before posting them. Vizquel just passed over my head.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 02:31 PM) So I bought an authentic Aparicio to wear for this season and essentially its been completely ruined for me. I'm curious as to why that is for you. How does it devalue what Aparicio contributed to the team? To the game. It's a number, isn't it?

It's hard to believe i used to be considered an optimist around here.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 12:48 PM) So are you intentionally misspelling his name out of disrespect or are you just oblivious to the correct spelling of the surname of the hall of fame SS who's likely been in the league since you started watching baseball? It was a mistake. I had no intention of offending anyone, and I could do a lot worse of an insult on someone then to misspell his name. Although, substituting a V for an S is a pretty damning accusation. I hate every hall of famer including Babe Tuth and Ricky Mantle.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 02:10 PM) Hopefully you can also add normal Rios replaces Sucky Rios plus Wise plus Anderson plus Pods plus whoever else we threw out there in CF last year. That's a hell of a lot of hope to have. We have no guarantees on this team. No one to unequivocally count on, on the offensive end but A.J. That's a problem. I hope that Beckham will take off this year, i hope Rios will produce and Q will stay healthy. All i know is that it would inspire me with a lot more confidence to have an offensive force in between the maybes.

QUOTE (shakes @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 12:31 PM) The controlled temperature is a huge part of the dome, so it is also about the weather. I have no idea how you think the Sox haven't improved their team from last year. The Twins haven't addressed their biggest weakness which is the starting pitching, and their defense may be weaker. The offense is improved, but that was a strength already. Why are so many people ignoring their starting pitching? It was one of the worst staffs in the AL, and has done nothing to improve. They also lose the advantage over visiting hitters in the dome, and have question marks with their defense. If the Sox had their rotatation I would be very pessimistic about their chances. Once again, the Sox had one of the better rotations in baseball last year, we still finished in third place. The problem was our offense. Of which, Jim Thome was our best player, and Dye was likely in the top 5 even despite a miserable second half. We have replaced players like Thome and Dye with Juan Pierre an OBP-challenged lead-off man who will maintain a better defensive advanatage then Pods, but struggle to get on-base. Next we will be counting on Alexis Rios to bounce back, Beckham not to have a a sophmore slump, Teahen to turn into the guy Billy Beane projected him to be, Konerko to fight off decline for another year, Kotsay to repeat a three week hot streak from last year, Jones to become the player he was 4 years ago, and Ramirez to stop being a space cadet and shape up for the first month of the season. If all these work out, we might have a better team. Right now, I'm smelling a whole lot of if coming off this plan.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 12:26 AM) Seeing this ESPN INsider headline; Indians might be considering former Sox, Dye. Don't have access, but we might be setting ourselves up to see a lot of Thome and Dye, just with the wrong jerseys on. It's cool we have Omar Visquel.

It's very simple. It's not about the weather, it's not about the dome. It's two things. The Twins have improved their team, we haven't. The Twins won the division last year, we didn't.

Bit off topic, but I wish every franchise would have an old-timers game like the Yankees do. I love the enthusiasm that the old timers take to the field with. Kind of makes you appreciate the game a bit more.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 08:58 PM) I agree, but it's not like they have never played baseball outdoors before. Not to mention that Mauer grew up playing outside in Minny, Mauer in Canada, Thome in Illinois, and Cuddyer in Virgina. None of these guys will freeze to death with a little fresh air.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 08:47 PM) The Sox will play Kotsay/Jones interchangeably one a time. The Twins are counting on Hudson as a starting 2B and Pavano as a starting pitcher. Big difference. They were counting on players with a hell of a lot less talent then Hudson and Pavano to win the division last year.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 08:28 PM) I thought about Watchmen characters, but I thought that not many people would get the reference. I dunno. It's pretty much the Citizen Kane of graphic novels for whatever that's worth.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 08:17 PM) How about reading or watching Watchmen? There are at least three characters that would make for good conversation (Ozymandias, Comedian, and Rorschach). I like that a lot. Ozymandias would make a hell of a case study.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 06:58 PM) Just like Vizquel improves ours. Give me a break. They're the favorites (and they should be) because of Mauer & Morneau, not because of OC. Are you really trying to equate Omar Visquel and Orlando Hudson? That discussion might have had meaning a decade ago, but it's ludicrous at this point to argue that Visquel will have even a 1/4th of the impact that Orlando Hudson will have starting EVERYDAY for the Twins. Hudson is twice the offensive player then Visquel ever was, and ever will be.

Every single character on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 04:56 PM) Thank God, someone here has some sense. Orlando Hudson makes the Twins the favorites in the central? Really? Really? No, the Twins were already the favorites to win the central, Hudson just increases the chances.

Daniel Plainview.

QUOTE (OsweGo-Go Sox @ Feb 8, 2010 -> 02:24 PM) I tune out whenever I see UZR, VORP, etc. Hell, OPS is a bit much for me. That’s a damn shame. All of these are relevant terms in modern baseball discussion.

I like Brentz a lot too. His bat is coming along really great.