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.

Poll

How many wins?

22%

More than 88

19 votes

16%

88

14 votes

11%

87

10 votes

8%

86

7 votes

14%

85

12 votes

10%

84

9 votes

4%

83

4 votes

4%

82

4 votes

1%

81

1 votes

4%

Less than 81

4 votes

84 votes | Poll has closed

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

I nominate Juan Uribe as winner for the CWS, looks pretty clearcut.  And a posthumous award goes to Jose Valenstache.

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).