SB Nation User Blog: xian

Listen up, %$#aying that$%%#$#$s...!

xian — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 04:59:29 -0000

...the season is not "lost", this is not the final descent or whatever.

We have an excellent team. All teams go through down stretches. I'd rather have one in early September than late September.

I'm not saying that the Sox are "in". I'm just saying that they are an excellent team with an excellent chance of making the playoffs--it could go either way--so let's just do our best to enjoy it, yes even the games that make you want to set your own head on fire.

Guess the BP quote:

xian — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:04:57 -0000

Here's the game:

I will post a BP player comment each day.
You name the player.
?????
Laughter

From 2005:

Wishcasting can lead you in so many directions. I mean, who doesn't have an active fantasy life? So when you hear some analysts saying that [he] will be a good #3 or #4 starter, just keep in mind that he's been a bad fifth starter for two years, and he's no spring chicken. There's nothing exotic that's preventing [him] from succeeding. He just doesn't find the strike zone that often.

BP backs Guillen

xian — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:05:11 -0000

An unfamiliar name at BP, Caleb Peiffer, has an interesting article on the Sox today, evaluating Guillen's proclamation that the club is best with little league hitter/HoF glove TGAH! in center.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5200

What I found particularly exciting was the author's balanced treatment of last year's Sox, referring to the oversights in their analysis of the Sox last year.

I hope his prediction comes true!

1/9 of the way through:

xian — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 02:14:06 -0000

Kenny Williams hoped that his moves through the off-season would upgrade the Sox's World Champion below-average offense, while also improving what was already one of the best rotations in the game.

This was vital as it was pretty unlikely that the Bullpen could repeat its performance from last year.

So, small sample sizes aside, here's how they stand so far:

Offense:
4th in runs per game.
4th in AVG
7th in SLG
T-2nd in OBP
__
Pitching:
4th in runs allowed per game
3rd in Opponent OBA
7th in Opponent SLG
T-4th in WHIP
___

Defense:
BP's stats page is down, but according to MLB.com
8th in DEF EFF

Of course, BP does only have us at a 42.6% of making the playoffs...

Fun in hindsight

xian — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:36:10 -0000

I had forgotten about this article from BP last year. (They linked it today).

It helps explain why I was so bitter towards BP last year.

No one picked them above 3rd and most of them picked the Tigers to finish above them. Good stuff.

While a lot of it WAS luck, I think the fact that there were logical signals that pointed to a Sox improvement that many of us could see in April and BP couldn't is what has made me continue to question what they are missing in their analysis for this year...

A book, "Small Ball? Our colossal screw-up that was predicting the 2005 White Sox" would help me regain my confidence as well as dispel the accusations of BP's self-absorbedness.