Went to my first minor league game EVA at Victory Field last night.  Few Impressions:

Nice park, seats are right on top of the field.  Nice view of skyline. Good beer available, even the vendors working the aisles offer Sun King, a fine microbrew made in Bloomington.  Major League prices, they wanted $6.50 per beer.  Hot dog was solid, a good all beef dog that hadn't been boiled gray.  And the onions at the condiment table were actually freshly chopped instead of a soggy mess - impressive!

The thing that surprised me the most is that the players are physically much smaller than major leaguers, bunch of sub-6' runts running around for both teams.  Maybe they don't get fed well enough on their meager per diems.  When they make contact it doesn't sound nearly as solid. Double plays aren't nearly as smooth.   Huge gap in the quality of play between AAA vs MLB, IMO much greater than college football vs NFL.

You'll be happy to know that Ozzieball is alive and well in Charlotte, saw four bunts in less than 6 innings.  And they all succeeded, that's petty good.

De Aza can fly, legged out a triple on a fly to right.

Torres started, which was a pleasant surprise.  Got into one jam, and couldn't K his way out of it.  Man on third no outs, and then a PB/WP, whatever, don't let that happen please.  Flowers came out to talk with him, assuming he was saying my bad.  My seats were behind 3B dugout so couldn't tell much about his stuff or Flower's agility (or lack thereof).  Flowers walked once and K'd a couple times.  

The legend Brent Morel was at 3B.  I didn't see him make any plays.  Biggest impression of him is that he's slight, he's going to have to hit the weight room if he's going to generate enough power to play a corner in the majors.

All in all in was a fun night, cheap and easy to get to.  But if I need a baseball fix I'd prefer running up to Chicago or down to Cincinnati for the real thing.

After a long struggle, the Sox have finally gotten the .500 watershed woohoo!

Just like 2008, the fate of the season hinges on the play of the youngsters.  Last year, KW hit his inside straight when we unexpectedly got huge seasons from Q and Alexei, and Danks and Floyd broke through.  This season was looking like a bust, with Fields proving once and for all that he can't hit the fastball and Getz looking lost in the field and at the plate.  But, now Pods (WTF, Pods?) has given the O a huge lift, and Beckham and Getz seem to have figured it out before the halfway point.

The SP looks really solid, and the BP is above average.  Looks to me like the CWS are going to score a LOT more runs in the 2nd half.  They've managed to play .500 ball while only averaging 4.36 RPG playing half their games in the Cell.  Hopefully when Pods comes back to earth Q is healthy enough to pick up the slack.  And I might be over-optimistic, but I think we'll see + production for the second half coming out of the previous black holes at 2B, 3B and SS. 

This is the first time this year I've been excited about this team's chances.  88 wins might not be unreasonable and that should be enough to win this division, keep our fingers crossed that we stay healthy the 2nd half.  Kudos to KW, final results aren't in but looks like he's done a great job rebuilding this team on the fly and keeping a contender out there.

In support of the courageous  Fanposting of dasox, I too shall stand up to the brutal Gestapo tactics of the editorial board and put up whatever I want as a fanpost whenever I want to.   Never again!

Hey, any Wireheads on here also into "The Shield"?  I'd never watched the show, but read a few of the rave reviews being written for the final episodes and decided to DVR a few of the shows and check it out.  HOLY SHIT! 

The final two episodes were just insane.  They just kept raising the stakes and going all in every 15 minutes, and just when you thought they couldn't push it any further they jacked the stakes again.  Unreal, that was some of the most intense television I've ever seen.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to digest all 7-whatever seasons, but was hoping I could get some advise on how to optimize viewing.  eg, I'd say if you had to condense the Wire, then watch Seasons 1 & 4 only.  I heard the season with Forest Whitaker (love him) was awesome.

Hey, does anyone have an extra for opening day?  Begging and pleading didn't help, I've been cut off from my corporate supply.  So now I'm begging and pleading as a civilian.  Go Sox!

Hey, does anyone have an extra for opening day?  Begging and pleading didn't help, I've been cut off from my corporate supply.  So now I'm begging and pleading as a civilian.  Go Sox! = 75 words

He a lieutenant, maybe.  Kenny tell me dees keed play shortstop real good, but you don't play shortstop like that for Ozzie Guillen.  He play like a rookie and throw like my wife.  Ozzie Guillen not going to look at this all season.  I don't care what Kenny Williams say, I don't need Jerry's money.  I got my money, I don't need to do this job.  I give Jerry Reinsdorf his money back right now, today.

Here's a timely article in The Hardball Times about the Ten Worst Leadoff Hitters in the past 50 years.  Can Jerry crack this list of immortals?

Buried in this article is something Bill James came up with a while ago about how to measure baseball smarts.  His criteria were:

1. The tendency to not make errors
2. Command of the strike zone
3. Effective baserunning relative to speed
4. Consistency
5. Growth

Come on Kenny, do something...Drums fingers.

In the category for best diary, first nominee is Brush Back for his soul-wrenching "This Season - I'm Tired Rant".  A disturbing journey into the mind of a Sox fan during the darkest days of the Jerry Owens/Angel Gonzalez era in mid-August.

In the category of best game thread, first nominee is Game 69 Sox vs. Cubs @ Wrigley. This game marked Darin Erstad's heroic return off of the DL after his devastating ankle injury. Shame on omnipotentgrab for wishing harm upon him within the first four posts.

The final tallies are in, and it's not pretty:

NAME                       PA%          VORP

Jim Thome                 8.8%          47.4
Paul Konerko             10.4%          25.4
Jermaine Dye              9.2%          12.2
A.J. Pierzynski           8.3%           9.6
Josh Fields               6.8%           8.2
Tadahito Iguchi           6.2%           6.4
Rob Mackowiak             4.4%           6.1
Luis Terrero              2.3%           0.1
Jerry Owens               6.4%          -1.1
Danny Richar              3.4%          -2.5
Ryan Sweeney              0.8%          -3.2
Pablo Ozuna               1.4%          -3.9
Scott Podsednik           3.9%          -4.9
Darin Erstad              5.7%          -6.2
Alex Cintron              3.2%          -6.8
Juan Uribe                9.2%          -7.1
Toby Hall                 2.0%          -9.6
Joe Crede                 2.9%         -10.8
Angel Gonzalez            3.5%         -18.6

Couple notes before I move on:  

-40% of our Plate Appearances were taken by negative VORPs.  
-Ozzie favorite AGonz is going to learn how to play CF in fall instructional league.  So not only does he give you amazingly negative offense, now he can give you shitty defense at RF, CF and 3B.

The Runs Created Formula is a simple calculation that estimates how many runs a player/team will score.

For the White Sox 2007, using OBP × SLG × AB

RC = 699 (versus 693 actual)

Pretty slick eh?

So let's get grindy!

Continue reading this post »

Cheat posted this most excellent table back in the day, perhaps someone else can update and format it:

http://www.southsidesox.com/story/2006/12/7/163834/066

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I'll admit it, I was one of those arrogant Sox fans who laughed and laughed when Hendry went out and paid through the nose for any warm body in last year's FA market.

But who has the last laugh?

Barrett, Michael $4,533,333  
Blanco, Henry  $1,775,000    
Cedeno, Ronny $400,000
Cotts, Neal  $825,000
De Rosa, Mark  $2,750,000
Dempster, Ryan  $5,333,333
Eyre, Scott  $3,833,333
Floyd, Cliff  $3,000,000
Guzman, Angel  $384,000
Hill, Rich  $400,000
Howry, Bobby  $4,500,000
Izturis, Cesar  $4,150,000
Jones, Jacque  $5,633,333
Lee, Derrek  $13,250,000
Lilly, Ted  $6,000,000
Marquis, Jason  $4,750,000
Mateo, Juan  $383,000
Miller, Wade  $1,500,000
Murton, Matt  $415,000
Ohman, Will  $900,000
Ramirez, Aramis  $9,000,000
Soriano, Alfonso  $10,000,000
Theriot, Ryan  $390,000
Ward, Daryle $1,000,000
Wood, Kerry  $1,750,000
Wuertz, Michael  $415,000
Zambrano, Carlos  $12,400,000    

This is how they came into April, total payroll $ 99,670,332.  Hendry also found a way to unload the bad contracts of Barrett & Izturis.

The Cubs were HORRIBLE last year, but the Sox are going to end up with the same record they had.  The big difference between the organizations is that instead of bullshitting their fans and telling everyone it was just a blip, Hendry admitted to the gravity of the situation.  He got rid of their idiot manager who somehow had gotten a reputation as a winner (Dusty Baker) and overhauled the roster.

If you look at their roster, they don't have a third of their payroll tied up in negative VORP players:

Derrek Lee 35.7
Aramis Ramirez 32.1
Alfonso Soriano 25.0
Mark DeRosa 15.3
Ryan Theriot 15.3
Daryle Ward 9.6
Mike Fontenot 6.4
Jason Kendall 6.3
Carlos Zambrano 6.1 (wow!!!!)
Michael Barrett 5.6
Cliff Floyd 4.7
Angel Pagan 3.2
Jacque Jones 2.3
Matt Murton 0.0 (ahem)

Craig Monroe -0.7
Henry Blanco -2.4
Cesar Izturis -4.1
Felix Pie -5.2
Rob Bowen -5.5
Ronny Cedeno -7.0
Koyie Hill -7.1

I'm not a Lou Piniella fan, but he's been pretty ruthless about his assessment of their talent.  If the guy sucks (Izturis, Cotts, Hill, Bowen, Pie) he doesn't play or gets cut/traded.  He saw Hill & Bowen hit for two weeks and that was enough, he told Hendry get me a catcher.

Granted, they've got some long term contracts that are going to bite them in the ass - but I respect the fact that they honestly identified what was wrong with the team and then went out and rectified it.

We, on the other hand, tell our fans to look at the back of their baseball cards and hey - don't worry, it's only an aberration.  Our guys suck, and we tell Hawk to fluff them up (ahem, Owens & Erstad).

It's become a running joke whenever the day's lineups are posted, but that's what it is - a joke.  Watching a steady parade of Ersucks, Pods, Cintron, Jesse, Toby and AGonz  (pardon me if I've missed a few of your favorites) has at least given this waste of a season a comic dimension.

I WANT TO SEE REAL BALLPLAYERS NEXT YEAR!  And no excuses KW!

Here's what we've got coming back that I consider bonafide major leaguers next year:

AJ - C
PK - 1B
Thome - DH (vs. RHP)

And that's it, sad.

Then we have youngsters that show promise that I can live with:

Richar - 2B
Fields - 3B

I do NOT want to see these guys next year:

Uribe
Erstad
Crede (I know, I know - but he's chronically injured, I don't want to have to rely on him being healthy)

So on the shopping list we need:

SS
LF
CF
RF

Per Cheat's payroll spreadsheet, we're committed to ~$72.5mm next year.  Dump a starter (preferably Jose) and you're down to ~$60mm.

Keeping the payroll ~$100mm, that means we can add four players each for about ~$10mm/yr for $40mm/yr total.  Given KW's skill at dumpster diving, that seems like a reasonable accomplishment.  I don't care if it's Rowand, Eckstein, Dye and whatever cheap grindmeisters they want to sell us on, just get us some guys who can play at least OPS+ 100 baseball.

If they send out anything resembling this same parade of clowns next year then a mass boycott of the Cell should be organized.  Watching these lineups day after day is an insult to the fan base.

Pods mislabeled, misunderstood, just plain old miserable after Ozzie takes a giant shit on his head:

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/468071,CST-SPT-ssep14.article

I'm surprised that Erstad has been immune to criticism so far.  At least Pods was an instrumental part of the WS teams, what has Erstad done for the Sox - other than take three months to recover from a sprained ankle?  If you're going to lay into someone, go after that wuss.

What the hell happened?!?!?

This is where we were at the 20% mark of the season:

ERA -    3.78 Ranks 5th in the AL (League Ave = 4.32)
K/9 -     6.59 Ranks 6th in the AL (League Avg = 6.41)
WHIP -  1.22 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 1.38)

Here's where we are a little past the 30% Post:

ERA -    4.48 Ranks 8th in the AL (League Ave = 4.41)
K/9 -     6.54 Ranks 7th in the AL (League Avg = 6.34)
WHIP -  1.37 Ranks 8th in the AL (League Ave = 1.39)

The pitching has become middle of the pack, while the offense is solidly worst in the league.  If our starters start slipping, head for the bunkers. Mercy!

I'd thrown this out here at the 10% mark of the season:

ERA -    3.64 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 4.13)
K/9 -     7.20 Ranks 4th in the AL (League Avg = 6.54)
WHIP -  1.18 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 1.32)

Here's how we look at the 20% Post:

ERA -    3.78 Ranks 5th in the AL (League Ave = 4.32)
K/9 -     6.59 Ranks 6th in the AL (League Avg = 6.41)
WHIP -  1.22 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 1.38)

We've slipped a little but this ain't bad, not bad at all - especially considering we've had probably the toughest schedule of AL contenders so far.  Bosox pitching has been insane though.

If we keep pitching like this and Mrs. Pods stays aggressive, who knows....GO SOX!

Sox get a total gift, and we'll take it.  Tigers blew it in remarkably ugly fashion, read all about it tomorrow.

IMO the major news of the game was the stunning 180 about-face on Erstad the Magnificent today by our intrepid announcers - STOP THE PRESSES!  I suspect KW smacked Hawk upside the head before the game and told him get with the new program pronto.

Instead of squealing about DE's intangibles while he continued his poor imitation of a batter (0-5 again), Hawk & DJ shocked the world and started talking about how badly he's been sucking.  I kid you not my friend.  For the first time this year, they pointed out how sick and lost he looks at the plate (this was during his pitiful AB vs. Zumaya, I actually felt sorry for him he was so overmatched).  And on top of that they start talking about what a great second half BA had last year - HUH????

You can tell their hearts weren't into it though.  Hawk is much happier when he's slobbering all over Erstad's nutsack.

But then it got even more interesting:  Ozzie pulled a major WTF??? move, pinch running BA for Thome in the 7th.  Why burn BA instead of Mack at the DH position when you might need to make a defensive switch in left for Ozuna if we take the lead?  And on top of that, when BA was due to bat in the 9th Ozzie pinch hit Mackowiak.  So now he's burned two players in a tie game headed into extra innings.  Ozzie is deliberately fucking with BA, to the detriment of the team.

This is turning into a battle of wills between KW and Ozzie over the BA situation.  Ozzie's always said go ahead fire me I got money and don't give a shit, so he better be careful or KW might call his bluff.  I'm sure JR has KW's back.  Deliberately mismanaging the team over some personal beef he has with BA would be cause for dismissal in my book.

Small sample size so far, but we've just about run through the rotation 3 times (except for Danks tonite), and have completed almost 10% of the season:

ERA -    3.64 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 4.13)
K/9 -     7.20 Ranks 4th in the AL (League Avg = 6.54)
WHIP -  1.18 Ranks 3rd in the AL (League Ave = 1.32)

BOOMSHAKALAKA!  I love that K/9, makes me think it ain't no fluke and we can sustain this.  Tigers are struggling a little on offense, so these numbers should improve after a weekend in Comerica.

GO SOX!!!!  Let's start hitting the ball now!