SB Nation User Blog: furby2056

carl's new comics, link below to...

furby2056 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:03:21 -0000

carl's new comics, link below to 2nd

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3589/3680282763_6a8b98ae07_o.jpg

little interview with Tyler Flowers from mouthpiecesports.com

furby2056 — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:47:59 -0000

little interview with Tyler Flowers from mouthpiecesports.com

Mark Buehrle vs. C.C Sabathia...what?

furby2056 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:18:54 -0000

When C.C. Sabathia first accepted the offer to join the New York Yankees, I remember someone on ESPN saying that C.C's well on his way to the Hall of Fame. Well, that made me think some. Don't we have a southpaw that has put up some impressive numbers with his time in the league as well? Let's take a look at Mark Buehrle compared to C.C. Sabathia and just figure out who is indeed the better pitcher.

What kind of comparisons can be drawn from Buehrle and Sabathia from looking at both pitchers' stats? They are both coming off their eighth full season in the big leagues (Buehrle's ninth year...rookie reliever in 2000). Buehrle has started 14 more games than Sabathia and sports 5 more wins in his career as well as 14 more losses. Both ERAs are in the same ballpark with Sabathia's being slightly better. Looking at other stats, Buehrle looks better in some and Sabathia in other (for obvious reasons). Both of these lefties have put up double digits in the wins category every season as a full starter. Of course Sabathia dominates in the strikeouts category and hits given up as well, but I'll get into that later.

Mark Buehrle, as we all know, has never been one to blow a hitter away. He has always been the guy who can scatter 10 hits over 7 innings and give up only a run. Well, I can't say always because there are the times where he gets on a roll and gives up 4+ runs each time out. Burls has five pitches in his arsenal but only loses his slider sparingly. He mainly uses a fastball, cutter, and change while mixing in a curve. Looking at his fangraphs page, Buehrle relied on his cutter more than the change this year which goes against what he's done in past seasons. Apart from 2006, we pretty much know what we're getting from Mark Buehrle. In 2006, he sported a very unimpressing 4.99 ERA (some of which if I recall were bad luck streaks of hits falling, but for the most part he had a down year). Other than that little hiccup, his highest season ERA has been 4.14. Also, Mark has thrown no less than 204 innings every year since 2001. He's turning 30 this March, and I believe he can only improve on what he's already accomplished. In my opinion, he is the modern day Mike Mussina or perhaps even a lesser known Greg Maddux. If he can continue to take velocity off his pitches to create more movement, more success will be right around the corner. He's averaged roughly 15 wins a year in his career, so if you take that over say 12 more seasons that will put him at 302 wins for his career. This would be quite the accomplishment for a guy that was cut from his high school team at one point.

C.C. Sabathia, on the other hand, is more of a power pitcher. He can dial it up in the upper 90s and get a key strikeout if needed. Sabathia is essentially a 3 pitch pitcher, using a fastball, slider and change. This year he used a curveball .1% of the time, according to his fangraphs page. Taking a look at his track record, he is essentially in the same ballpark with Buehrle in every category. Is he really worth the amount of money he was given? Yes, no, maybe? Sure, he dominated the National League circuit in his short time there this year, but can he bring that dominance back to the AL? He was Mark Buehrle with more strikeouts in his time with the Indians in 2008. C.C. has thrown close to 500 innings the past two seasons as he's entered his prime. Like Buehrle, I believe he can only get better with time. In my opinion, he now has everything going in his favor with today's signing of Mark Teixeira. A huge offense with the likes of A-Rod, Tex, and Nick Swisher (hahahahha) what isn't to love? Barring any injury setbacks, he should average about 235-250 innings and 18 wins over his next few years before he hits a small wall and has to learn how to drop velocity to get more movement like Buehrle. He will be 29 next year and say he averages the same amount of wins Mark does over 13 more seasons; C.C. will be over 310 wins. Let's just say when it's all said and done, Sabathia should have a win for every pound he weighs.

So, who in fact is the better pitcher. To be completely honest, I would say they are even. That's my opinion and from what I've seen, I would take either one of them to throw a game with the season hanging in the balance. Sabathia has the clear edge in head to head battles (couldn't find the stats but at the start of the 2008 year...Buehrle was 0-2 with a touch below 7 ERA in his last 4 starts against him). Buehrle's got the great fielding ability and pickoff move and C.C. has the firepower to get that much needed strikeout with ducks on the pond and nobody out. I will project C.C.'s ERA to take a jump this year with him being in the AL East. Here are my projections for both of them this upcoming season.

Mark Buehrle---(18-12) 34 GS, 229 IP, 3.71 ERA, 5 CG, 1 shutout

C.C. Sabathia---(19-11) 35 GS, 244 IP, 3.63 ERA, 8 CG, 2 shutouts

Poll

Who will have the most success over the rest of his career?

Mark Buehrle

43 votes

C.C. Sabathia

38 votes

81 votes | Poll has closed

Ice is slippery? Who Knew?

furby2056 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:14:10 -0000

Ice is slippery? Who Knew?

Let's Keep Danks and Floyd away from the ice...kthxbai

General Soreness Goes To Washington

furby2056 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:07:08 -0000

General Soreness Goes To Washington

The General will..."talk to young people and to spark their interest in America and in our culture."-Condoleezza Rice

here's some video of our new boy Jeff Marquez

furby2056 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:52:10 -0000

Jeffrey Marquez - Arizona Fall League - 2008-10-31 from David Pratt on Vimeo.

here's some video of our new boy Jeff Marquez

The Four Horsemen...pt3

furby2056 — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:54:09 -0000

Where is Javy Dent? We all believe in Javy, but this year has been full of inconsistent starts and stretches of suckitude worse than washburn the past 3 years (see kenwo's posts in the recap from a few days ago or something)...so here's the highly anticipated pt 3 of the 4 part epic saga lolz....enjoy it dudes kthxbai...

Javier Vazquez

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I could make this entire thing maybe a couple sentences based on Javy's last two starts. We'll carry this one on for a little bit though and delve into why Javy's season has gone the way it has to this point. Basically, we're either gonna shower the guy with flowers or be on suicide watch whenever he pitches. Or sometimes you get a mix of the two and that's just too much for some guys (ssh mainly but that's neither here nor there).

When Vazquez is at his best, he's not using all five of his pitches on a consistent basis. What he does is establish his fastball early and use his ability to paint the black with that fastball regularly. Although he uses the slider more than the curveball and change, I would argue that those last two pitches are more ef fective than his slider. He tends to leave the slider up at times and it looks like more of a get-me-over pitch at times and hitters don't miss it. This year it's killed him especially because when he hangs that slider on 1-2, 2-2, it's with guys on base and that's the big inning that kills him. When he has his big loopy curveball going, it's devastating. Looking at the speed difference, hitting around 93 mainly with the fastball and then that curve getting clocked sometimes at 67 on the gun is sick.

Now, not that Javy has pitched great all year (which he hasn't), but a few times he's received little or no support from the offense in a losing effort. He's received two runs or less or support 7 times including the offense being shutout twice back in May. Pitching the way he has this month (he gave up 5 ER against Detroit but he wasn't the worst we've seen him be). Another stat you gotta love from Javy is the fact that he has not made it out of the fifth inning only once in 25 starts. So he's almost a lock for 6-7 IP out there everytime. If the offense continues on this hot streak, he can relax even more and not worry about throwing 8 scoreless all the time.

As much as we all hate it, we all must learn to live with the fact that Javy will go out there and will have that occasional big inning where he gives up 3 or 4 runs and dominates the rest of the way. It's going to happen and we'll want to shoot him because he's one pitch away from ending it and he throws that god damn slider and the hitter fucking smashes it.

Hawk said something a few weeks back that sounded like a great observation and it makes a lot of sense: Javy throws five pitches, which not many pitchers do. But a lot of the time, Javy will go out there and in the first couple innings he'll throw all 5 of his pitches to every hitter. It's a mixture of him trying to hit corners and being too fine with his pitches when he's ahead in the count and overthinking about what to throw in what situation. If hitters see what you have in one at bat, they can recognize what's coming the next time up and gear up for something they can knock the piss out of. From watching Javy pitch, he's at his best when he uses the fastball like I said earlier and then also works with his change and curve, and mixing in the occasional slider. If he can continue to work with his three bread and butter pitches, then he'll continue to open up a spot to throw the slider. Because when a hitter has 4 pitches to think about coming at him with two strikes, that's usually a recipe for success for the pitcher.

I expect Javy to build on his last two starts and continue to throw quality starts ending the year over .500 and a below 4 ERA along with over 200 IP and Ks for the fourth time in his career...

The Four Horsemen...pt2

furby2056 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:30:39 -0000

well since everybody loved the Danks piece yesterday....here's the 2nd installment featuring Gavin Floyd...enjoy dudes

Gavin Floyd

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Sportsline Gamelogs Fangraphs

A lot of people are beginning to refer to Gavin Floyd as the stopper for the White Sox. He's 7-1 following a Sox loss in 11 starts while posting a not overly impressive 4.84 ERA. Building off the success towards the end of last season, Gavin started off the year on fire. He flirted with two no-hitters early in the year against divisional opponents and won 7 of his first 12 starts. I remember Cheat's post from earlier in the year about how no one really knew how Gavin was doing it with such ease. When he's on with his pitches, Floyd is downright filthy. His curveball has a nasty bite to it when he's throwing it right. Looking through his stats, he's not turning into a groundball or flyout pitcher. Those two figures are basically the same. What I don't like his the 3.65 BB/9. The formula for Gavin's success seems to be simply this: Through the curveball for strikes early and then being able to work hitters to where he can through the curve out of the strike zone and get them to chase. He has used his slider more than the curve this year although almost exclusively early in the count. Sporting non-efficient pitches has led to rolling breakingballs and meat fastballs that are served out into the bleachers and make us go all ssh on the world.

Danks has developed his changeup this year. Gavin's change is still not at what it could/should be and it seems he doesn't want to use it at times. A good change for Floyd that he can use with two strikes will only lead to better success and can open up for high fastball or old uncle charlie in the dirt.

He's given up 10 ER his past two starts yet the Sox have won both of them. Gavin has the ability to win without his best stuff and has done that a few times this year, battling through rough patches from the defense to give the team a few more solid innings so that the offense has a chance to come back (see 7/25 vs. Tigers). The Sox have posted a 16-7 record when Gavin pitches which is an encouraging stat considering what we expected out of spring training. He's got a real solid chance at winning 17-18 games this year which is a huge plus. Oh and he's 3-1 vs. the twins this year, a stat that makes me smile.

It's looking like Gavin is going to prove our projections wrong by posting a sub 4 ERA this year so far but it looks like we might be dead on with the innings pitched. Who knows what to expect from Gavin the rest of the way as he's been up then down then up up up down up down. It's hard to say what you're gonna get from him. I'll just end by saying good curveball=good gavin eh curveball=4-5 ER gavin bad curveball=5/11 and 7/11 gavin (see gamelogs).

this one may not be as in-depth as with danks but i don't have as much time to do it as i did yesterday...so hopefully this can serve as your guys thread for the rest of the night to go along with cheat's recap...up next is javy vazquez.....oh boy!

The Four Horsemen...pt1

furby2056 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:27:25 -0000

Hey guys....I've been watching our four everyday starters on a closer basis lately...and I have had this piece in mind for awhile now...just never got around to writing it. Now, I'm no colin or cheat, but I gotta say, writing this has been fun and hopefully can provide some decent insight and spark some discussion the next few days. It's basically an evaluation/expectation thing about our four horsemen going into the home stretch of the season...I'll start with Danks today, then follow up each day with Floyd, Vazquez, and Buehrle respectively.

John Danks

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To say that Kenny Williams pulled a fast one on Texas trading away Brandon "the 2nd coming" McCarthy and receiving pitching prospects John Danks and Nick Massett in return is the understatement. Sure, you can say last year McCarthy and Danks were argubly the same pitcher with McCarthy sporting a better ERA while pitching roughly 40 innings less. However, the Sox can be declared the winner by 1,000 legs this year looking at the emergence of John Danks as an ace in the hole (and what the hell is McCarthy doing these days? eating pansages to rehab???). The development of two pitches has put young Johnny on the road to becoming an extremely successful major league pitcher for an extended period of time.

First off, his circle change has made leaps and bounds compared to last year. His ability to keep it down and have good downward movement with it will only lead to more success on a wider scale and really give him an even better look to his fastball. His motion on the change may seem a bit iffy at times, but keep in mind he's still a young pitcher that will continue to develop and in time this pitch will become a definite plus pitch that he'll use very effectively to LHB and RHB.

Next is the cutter which basically came out of nowhere as Danks says he learned it throughout spring training. It's become an effective pitch for him when he has it working and has helped him raise his GB% almost 10 percent from last year. His fastball still has a good jump to it and he has used his curveball a lot less this year compared to last year. When he's got the cutter, change, and four seam working for him, and can mix in that nasty curve of his along with the occasional slider, it just makes him that much more effective.

This year Danks has also sported a highly improved pick-off move to 1st perhaps taking some tips from Burls in the process. To really see the progress Danks has made this year, just read through his stats and check out the game logs and look at all the quality starts. He's given up more than three runs just six times in twenty-four starts. On top of that, Danks has yielded more than 4 ER to the opposing team just twice while also pitching into the sixth inning in all but five starts. This is a great sign for him even though the pitch count still tends to run up a lot (but this will happen as he is striking out more hitters as well). Looking through his stats, basically all of the stats that should have improved a lot as Danks has emerged as perhaps our best starter. Another stat I'll throw out is that the Sox's record is 14-10 when he starts; in seven of the games that the Sox have lost with Danks on the bump, the offense has scored 3 runs or less including being shutout three times. He may not have the impressive win totals or the under 3 ERA as other top guys in the league but Danks has definitely been among the best in baseball this year.

What should we expect from Johnny the rest of the year? After three "blah" starts to end July, Danks has looked brilliant so far in 2 August starts. He's been scored upon only in the 7th inning both starts after cruising through the first six each time through including the no-hit bid Monday. Here's his line so far this month:

2 games: 1-1 13 2/3 IP 6 H 3 R 3 ER 15 K 3 BB 1 HBP

So basically if Danks can continue to keep his change low in the strike zone and hit spots with the fastball and cutter...all while mixing in his sharp curve and slider...everyone should remain happy with him. All he needs is solid run support the rest of the way. Here are my predictions on what his lines will look like from here on out: 6-7 IP each time out scattering hits while giving up no more than 5 R or 4 ER to go along with a handful of Ks and a few walks here and there. John Danks has become my favorite pitcher to watch next to Mark Buehrle, and the two are becoming one in the same except Buehrle uses his curve more. Well I hope you guys enjoyed...writing this stuff is a shitload of fun dudes....up next: gavin floyd

Recap 7/25 Sox/Tigers

furby2056 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:12:18 -0000

Well another win comes from nowhere. Just when you think that the lead could be down to 1 1/2 games...the Indians hold on and Jermaine Dye lifts the Sox over the Tigers 6-5 with a 2 out 2 run homer to right field off Todd Jones. It's great to see them come back and win against closers two games in a row. Bobby Jenks went three up three down in the ninth while D.J. Carrasco picked up the win in relief throwing 2/3 scoreless. Now onto more points.

Gavin Floyd wasn't terrible...he wasn't great either (4 R, 3 ER in 6 IP). The numbers I don't like from Gavin are the 3 walks and 9 base hits. His curveball must be established early IN the strikezone and then he can through it down in the dirt later. The third inning is what did in Gavin tonight. walk and single to granderson and polanco to start it off...then ordonez and cabrera with back to back RBI hits...fields messes up on a play to give them another run. Other than that, Gavin didn't look bad at all, the defense has been letting him down lately making him throw extra pitches, but i can't stress enough on the importance of him establishing his curveball early.

finally the sox get to robertson in the seventh and then plate 3 runs against joel zumaya (2 charged to robertson)...Pudges throwing error let's the sox tie the game at 4...then ozzie brings in Nick Massett. I understand throwing a guy out there to boost his confidence, but damn ozzie you gotta go with what's been your bread and butter all year (a mix of dotel/thornton/linebrink in the 7th and 8th)...massett serves up a homerun to carlos guillen after falling behind hitters early and often

the ninth rolls around and after two quick outs, Q! shoots a single past polanco at 2nd which sets for the stage for JD to put the sox up

a big win to open up this big roadtrip...hopefully the offense can get it going more and the pitching can keep it going...before the game i was expecting a 6-4 trip...now i'm upping that to 7-3...

Some other notes:

Josh Fields looked lost his first AB...but got the rally going in the seventh with a leadoff single...defense needs to improve but if he starts sticking it...we can live with it for now

the rest of the offense needs to be able to get in runs when the situation presents itself...AJ looked terrible grounding out weakly to third with alexei on third with one out early in the game...Konerko looked absolutely terrible at the plate today with 2 K's and 4 LOBs..how much longer can this go on before ozzie does something about it (avg. now stands at a solid .215)

Orca had two RBI singles in the game and continues to hit well with RISP...

tomorrow it's john danks vs. justin verlander...both pitchers have ERA's over 5 career against each team...verlander career 2-6 vs sox...but 3-0 with a 1.99 ERA in his last 3 starts

anything else you guys wanna add just throw out whatever...