Reinsdorf tid-bits

[SoxFan1]

Tuesday morning at White Sox Fantasy Camp, we had a special visitor.

 

Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

 

He joined all the campers and coaches in the clubhouse for a one hour question-answer session. No topics were off limits. Reinsdorf spoke openly and candidly about the team, he told stories, and displayed his very underrated sense of humor.

 

His most eye-opening comment?

 

"The Sox could have one of the best starting staffs in the history of the American League."

 

Quite a statement.

 

Later, I sat down with Mr. Reinsdorf for a wide-ranging interview hitting on a number of topics.

 

Among the highlights:

 

Not counting the 1-year deal with Ramon Castro (signed Tuesday), are the Sox done making moves?

 

Is there money left to be spent?

 

"If we have the opportunity to get really better, the money will be there," Reinsdorf said. "I wouldn't hesitate to take the chance if something really good comes along."

 

Jim Thome?

 

"I would love to have Jim Thome back on this club, but I don't make the roster. Kenny and Ozzie do. Ozzie has made it very clear that he likes the team the way it is. He doesn't want to have a full-time DH. If you're going to hold a man accountable for him to do his job, you got to get him the team that he wants."

 

The Sox relationship with Scott Boras?

 

"We have no problem with a player who is represented by Scott Boras. The problem we have is that most of the time Boras makes it impossible to do business with him because he likes to drag things out. You can't wait indefinitely to make a deal, and that is why you don't see us working with too many Boras clients."

 

Reinsdorf also said that he's "really surprised" that Jermaine Dye is not signed yet. "He's still a front line player. He'll hook on someplace."

 

Just not the White Sox.

http://www.csnchicago.com/pages/soxdrawer

[flavum]

If they're going to spend some extra money to get better, I'd like to see Johnny Damon join the team. I think he'd be a wise investment if they can talk him into a one year deal. Pierre and Damon batting 1-2 in either order, then Beckham and Quentin batting 3-4...that would be nice.

[Ozzie Ball]

If they're going to spend some extra money to get better, I'd like to see Johnny Damon join the team. I think he'd be a wise investment if they can talk him into a one year deal. Pierre and Damon batting 1-2 in either order, then Beckham and Quentin batting 3-4...that would be nice.

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.

[joeynach]

If they're going to spend some extra money to get better, I'd like to see Johnny Damon join the team. I think he'd be a wise investment if they can talk him into a one year deal. Pierre and Damon batting 1-2 in either order, then Beckham and Quentin batting 3-4...that would be nice.

 

Not that I dont like Damon, I do. But if we are trying to add a DH typically we go after more power. Dont get me wrong Damon has some power, his 24 Hrs and 82 Rbi last year were quite impressive but no really near his career norms. Hes always been more of a 15-20 Hr and 60-70RBI guy that being said do we need another alexi ramirez in our lineup holding down the DH position?

[witesoxfan]

Not that I dont like Damon, I do. But if we are trying to add a DH typically we go after more power. Dont get me wrong Damon has some power, his 24 Hrs and 82 Rbi last year were quite impressive but no really near his career norms. Hes always been more of a 15-20 Hr and 60-70RBI guy that being said do we need another alexi ramirez in our lineup holding down the DH position?

 

Johnny Damon is a far better hitter than Alexei Ramirez, and I'm a guy that thinks Alexei could put up .825 next season.

[fathom]

With Ozzie wanting his slappy leadoff hitter and rotating DH, if this offense fails, he better be held responsible.

[kapkomet]

/waits on the arrival of one Dick Allen... hell I'll make the post...

 

He has to say that, but they won't spend the money on anyone or anything.

 

Sound about right?

[GreatScott82]

With Ozzie wanting his slappy leadoff hitter and rotating DH, if this offense fails, he better be held responsible.

The only way I promote the whole rotating DH thing is if its rotating Konerko and Gonzalez between DH and 1B.

[Kyyle23]

With Ozzie wanting his slappy leadoff hitter and rotating DH, if this offense fails, he better be held responsible.

 

the torches and pitchforks are already raised

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

Johnny Damon is a hell of a lot better than what we have penciled into the DH slot, so if there's any way to bring him on I'd be favor of that.

 

Edit: Although I don't think Johnny Damon is the kind of player JR is talking about here.

Edited January 13, 2010 by Kenny Hates Prospects

[GreatScott82]

Johnny Damon is a hell of a lot better than what we have penciled into the DH slot, so if there's any way to bring him on I'd be favor of that.

he's probably going to cost 7-8 million per season. he would be the perfect DH for this team though. .

[chw42]

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.

Edited January 13, 2010 by chw42

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

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.

 

I like sabermetrics just as much as the next guy, but the SABR community's constant bashing of Pierre is getting annoying.

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.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

^I'll also predict right now that next year Chris Getz hits for close to the same average as Pierre, gets on base at a higher rate than Pierre, and also steals with a better percentage than Pierre, basically being a better lead-off hitter than Pierre at a savings of about $7.2M over the next two years.

[Ozzie Ball]

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.

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.

[macsandz]

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.

 

As a .301 career hitter, Pierre will BENEFIT by hitting in the AL by not having a pitcher giving away at bats 3 times a game in front of him.

I'm projecting a line of .290/.340/380/.700 with 50 bags and quality defense in LF.

Edited January 13, 2010 by bucket-of-suck

[macsandz]

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.

 

A .301 career hitter is the worst hitter on the Sox?! ...OK.

[Ozzie Ball]

A .301 career hitter is the worst hitter on the Sox?! ...OK.

 

 

This is from The Hidden Game of Baseball (which I picked up a few weeks ago- definitely a fun read and I highly recommend it), and I honestly wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for Patriot. Innings Batted are outs made divided by three, since there are three outs to an inning. I’m not sure how Palmer defined “outs,” but I do it as (1-OBP)*PA. And I measure accuracy through Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). I’m doing it this way because it gives us the average difference between the estimated value and the actual value. The lower the RMSE, the better.

 

Rate, RMSE

 

Batting Average: 46.15

 

On-Base Percentage: 37.94

 

Slugging Percentage: 38.14

 

On-Base Plus Slugging: 25.60

 

(Data is based off of 2000-2009 data only. This gives us a good sample size to work with- preferably, I’d go back even further to get maximal accuracy, but I just wanted to illustrate my point.)

 

Batting average is usually within 46 runs of the actual runs scored, while OBP and SLG are around 37-38 runs. OPS takes the lead at 25.60. So let this be a lesson to you batting average lovers- batting average does not relate very well to run scoring at all. In fact, it’s downright terrible compared to other simple methods such as OBP, SLG and OPS. It tells us very little about the value of a hitter, aside from whether or not they’re good at making contact. And really, this is all that batting average should ever truly be used to measure- a player’s contact skills. I should note, however, that OPS, while much better at estimating the run scoring process that any of the individual “slash” rates, is still extremely flawed. This is because we’re adding two rates with different denominators: OBP is a per-plate appearance rate, while SLG is a per-at-bat rate. It is this reason that OPS should be used as an offhand method of player evaluation only. If you’re looking for a rate statistic that is strong at predicting runs, there are two that stick out

 

http://triplesalley.wordpress.com/2009/12/...atting-average/

 

That is all.

 

 

 

[witesoxfan]

As a .301 career hitter, Pierre will BENEFIT by hitting in the AL by not having a pitcher giving away at bats 3 times a game in front of him.

I'm projecting a line of .290/.340/380/.700 with 50 bags and quality defense in LF.

 

That adds up to .720

[greg775]

Well Oz is getting what he wants: No Dye or Thome to clog the basepaths.

I'm thinking Oz is going to be pretty frustrated with this lineup at times. CQ better stay healthy; Beckham better not have a sophomore slump and Rios simply needs to rake at the plate if we are going to be productive. Teahen needs to have a breakout year now that he's escaped lowly KC.

If CQ gets hurt this year, our lineup will be f***ed.

I'm thinking Lexi will have a good year at the plate and Paulie and AJ similar to last year.

 

[Jordan4life_2007]

That adds up to .720

 

LMAO. Wite,you are the greatest of all time. I love you, bro!

[BearSox]

^I'll also predict right now that next year Chris Getz hits for close to the same average as Pierre, gets on base at a higher rate than Pierre, and also steals with a better percentage than Pierre, basically being a better lead-off hitter than Pierre at a savings of about $7.2M over the next two years.

I would have to agree. However, losing Getz was worth getting Teahan (I still wish we could have pulled some magic and get Gordon though, but that was just a pipe dream).

 

I still think closing the door on Pods so soon and dealing for Pierre was a huge mistake. We bought high on Pierre and lost two quality pitching prospect.

 

If we could have gotten Pods down to even 2 years, 7 million... I think it would have been wiser than getting Pierre.

 

Still, the smartest move would have been to forget about both and go for Damon... but this team isnt that smart.

[ScottyDo]

I would have to agree. However, losing Getz was worth getting Teahan (I still wish we could have pulled some magic and get Gordon though, but that was just a pipe dream).

 

I still think closing the door on Pods so soon and dealing for Pierre was a huge mistake. We bought high on Pierre and lost two quality pitching prospect.

 

If we could have gotten Pods down to even 2 years, 7 million... I think it would have been wiser than getting Pierre.

 

Still, the smartest move would have been to forget about both and go for Damon... but this team isnt that smart.

Imagine yourself before last year began asking for Pods at 2 years, $7m.

 

I know it's not last year anymore, but still...Pods at 2 years, $x is a bad signing. Pierre may be more expensive, but I trust his career over Podsednik's by a bunch.

[MiddleCoastBias]

It looks like I'm in the minority here, but I have never wanted Damon. I posed the question a few weeks back of why the Yanks were even considering who they would bring back for DH (if it came down to Matsui and Damon). I'm well aware of his recent numbers, but I want no part of Damon as a DH on this team. My impression of his performance is that his numbers are a product of his environment ie being a Yankee: he's not even the third best hitter on that team so he has no pressure. He's sandwiched in a huge lineup. If he comes here as DH, it will be a different environment with inflated expectations. Yes, I know we have some serious bats... But top to bottom, we don't have a lineup to compete with the Yanks that would warrant having Damon at an inflated price for numbers I don't think he can duplicate in our lineup.

[BearSox]

Imagine yourself before last year began asking for Pods at 2 years, $7m.

 

I know it's not last year anymore, but still...Pods at 2 years, $x is a bad signing. Pierre may be more expensive, but I trust his career over Podsednik's by a bunch.

 

Fair argument. It's pretty much a lose-lose. Im just biased cause of my mad 05 crush on him.