Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera
Yea... it's beyond regression with him, though. He's playing well below what anyone would expect.
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There are still some Sox fans who remember that Paulie has done this sort of thing before. In 2003, at the All-Star break, he was hitting
.197 with 5 home runs and a .567 OPS. The knock on Konerko at the time was that he was a crazy streaky hitter. Apparently, Streaky Paulie is back after being gone for most of the past 3 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera
Freddy Garcia has had a VERY unlucky year in Philly, that being said I did underestimate what Danks could do this season. Their performances aren't that far off though. Garcia's FIP is 5.41 while Danks' is 5.38. When you account for the likely regression down in Garcia's 17.4% HR/FB while Danks just has a problem with the longball because he's a fly ball pitcher (even accounting for the fact that US Cellular is not kind to fly ballers) then It's not crazy to say that Garcia will likely be more effective than Danks from this point on in the season.
Of course, in the long run, I'd much rather have Danks, but I was talking strictly this year. He does need to harness that long ball though.
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Garcia went into a pretty severe decline last year. His velocity was in the toilet, and he literally came out and admitted that he had difficulty getting up for "unimportant" games (the Royals tagged him to the tune of a 5.93 ERA in his two starts against them last year). Danks pitched very well at first, and is definitely coming back down to earth as the league starts to get a handle on him. The other x-factor in the Garcia trade is Gio Gonzalez (Baseball America listed him as the
72nd best overall prospect back in February, so the Danks/Gonzalez pair may be a cornerstone for the Sox in the very near future. As to Freddy's HR numbers, those have been climbing steadily since the Sox acquired him in 2004, so I'm not surprised to see he's given up 12 in 58 innings this season.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera
Yea, I didn't really foresee the awfulness of that bullpen, but that came from a lack of research in that area.
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Well, I think the main problem is that all of them (at least the guys who started the year) are all the same type of pitcher - fastball fastball fastball. MacDougal is probalby the most disappointing, especially since he was lights-out for the Sox last year. Aardsma was somewhat of an enigma - he pitched well for the Cubs last year. This year, we're seeing the Matt Thornton that the Mariners got sick of (and traded to the Sox for Joe Borchard). Nobody was surprised by how poorly Sisco did. Massett isn't ready for the majors (he has walked 21 batters in 32.3 innings so far). Really, Jenks and Boone Logan have been the only reliable guys out of the pen this year. Oof.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera
I'm not sure why you're dissing on Valentin. He was pretty good in a White Sox uni!
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As shortstops go, he sure had a great moustache!
Code:
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG *OPS+ TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
2000 30 CHW AL 144 568 107 155 37 6 25 92 19 2 59 106 .273 .343 .491 105 279 13 4 1 4 11
2001 31 CHW AL 124 438 74 113 22 2 28 68 9 6 50 114 .258 .336 .509 117 223 8 3 2 3 7
2002 32 CHW AL 135 474 70 118 26 4 25 75 3 3 43 99 .249 .311 .479 104 227 3 5 2 2 9
2003 33 CHW AL 144 503 79 119 26 2 28 74 8 3 54 114 .237 .313 .463 103 233 7 2 4 3 6
2004 34 CHW AL 125 450 73 97 20 3 30 70 8 6 43 139 .216 .287 .473 88 213 6 2 4 3 5
Basically, he had one good year (2000) one pretty good year (2001), and every year after that was a more and more pronounced decline. And he was an absolute butcher in the field, which is the one thing that Uribe does well with some consistency. But that .216 average would fit right in with the '07 Sox, though!