Duck-Billed Catechist

If it's "okay" in his country, shouldn't the media take it to the extreme and refer to Ozzie as a "fag" everytime he does something wrong? Apparently, it's okay with him. If it's okay to use that homophobic epithet, why

That's kind of dumb.

Yes, although he does spend a lot of time in Venezuela during the off season. Where you were raised is always your country. Kind of.

Yeah, he blames Venezuela a lot considering he's been playing/working here for 20-25 years.

Go Brewers.

Yes, he called fellow countryman Magglio Ordonez that.

Ozzie screwed the pooch pretty well. Mariotti is a jerk by all accounts, but that by no means excuses what he said. White Sox fans aren't particularly happy.

http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/vbullet...ead.php?t=73591

This feels a little like fan-fic. As such, it made me die a little on the inside.

Normally, I would be amazed the manger of a team winning a game 20-2 instructing a pitcher to bean somebody...but he's insane, so i'm not.

Well, when the other team beans two batters in a row (the first one looked intentional), it's pretty standard practice to retaliate, score be damned. Ozzie's probably sick of seeing his players get hit.

11 runs so far, 15 or 16 batters. One of the outs was on a pity strike call.

Kate is having a "I hate it when mommy and daddy fight" moment as the White Sox take batting practice off Mulder. 9 hits, 9 runs this inning.

Pablo Ozuna is hitting .438. Apparently no other major leaguer has hit that high with more than 80 ABs since the 1880s.

Any Angels fans here? How do you feel about halo's management sending Jered Weaver down to AAA?

funny, but what I've seen they draw more or as much as anyone, and they unmerchandise everyone by far. if it were my business and that's what you consider hated I'd take it.

You acknowledge that they are the most hated and then take issue when someone else considers them hated?

Ozzie says stupid things about violence sometimes. It's true. He's also friends with Ugie Urbina.

Last week, responding to the struggles of rookie centerfielder Brian Anderson, who is hitting .163/.263/.296 in 157 plate appearances, the ever-unpredictable Ozzie Guillen announced the team was going to stay the course in center. Bolstering Guillen's support was his belief that no one else in the organization "can play center field [well enough] to win a championship."

Usually, such proclamations are based upon a misguided understanding of the dynamics of winning baseball, in that run production is inherently far more valuable than defense, and also easier to accurately evaluate. Last year's White Sox team, however, revealed just how powerful elite defense can be, and thus Guillen's words can't be simply laughed off. Anderson has indeed been horrific at the plate, with a negative 8.8 VORP. Through his first 54 games in center, though, he has saved 10 runs more than the average center fielder by RAA, and 15 more than a replacement glove. Anderson is producing on defense at a RATE of 124, meaning that if he keeps up his current play he'll have saved an astounding 24 runs above the average centerfielder (think the once-spectacular Andruw Jones since 2004) over 100 games. Since 1900, no centerfielder has kept up a 124 RATE for a full season--not Willie Mays, Tris Speaker, Curt Flood, or Jim Edmonds:

Ten Best Defensive Seasons by a Center fielder, by RATE (minimum 100 games)

Player Team Year Games RAA RATE

----------------------------------------------

Curt Welch STL-A 1887 123 34 128

Eric Davis CIN-N 1987 124 26 122

Darin Erstad ANA-A 2002 143 29 121

Eddie Milner CIN-N 1984 108 18 121

Kirby Puckett MIN-A 1984 128 26 121

Thurman Tucker CHI-A 1944 120 25 121

Johnny Mostil CHI-A 1923 135 26 120

Torii Hunter MIN-A 2001 147 28 119

Otis Nixon ATL-N 1992 102 17 119

Paul Blair BAL-A 1973 144 22 118

Thanks to Clay Davenport for the defensive figures.

Anderson's work in centerfield has been worth a full win to the White Sox over an average defender (10 runs=roughly 1 win), thanks to catches like the running grab he made last Friday, so that he's managed to compile 1.1 WARP despite the fact he's been worse than a AAA lifer at bat. Sox fans might be shocked to note Anderson has been basically as good as Aaron Rowand (1.2 WARP)--notwithstanding his legendary grab of Xavier Nady's deep fly that earned him a facial fracture and the undying devotion of blue-collar Philadelphia, Rowand has not had nearly the kind of year in center Anderson is enjoying. The comparison accentuates just how much GM Kenny Williams improved his team by dealing Rowand for Jim Thome, whose 29 VORP has already doubled the total offensive output of Chicago's designated hitters last year and helped the club upgrade 2005's middling attack to the one that ranks fifth in runs scored this year.

Before gorging at the feast that is BP's unique offering of defensive statistics, one must remember that Anderson has played less than half a season in center at the major league level, a huge sample size concern. The fact that the observational data coming from Guillen and others (you can also see Anderson's prowess for yourself) agrees so strongly with the statistics is a good indication that Anderson is indeed an elite defensive player, but history and statistical regression tell us he won't continue to win games with his glove at this rate. Defensive performance is notoriously fickle, a fact emphasized by the lack of repeat performers in the above chart, and Anderson's minor league defensive translations were less than outstanding, leading PECOTA to project that he'd be around average with the glove. Then again, Anderson also won't continue to masquerade as former North Side center fielder Timo Perez at the plate, either. Given his strong offense in the minors--he put up a solid .265 EqA last year in Triple-A and garnered a PECOTA weighted mean projection of .269/.329/.468--you'd probably be better off betting on his RATE to continue than his offensive ineptitude, although the extent of his struggles indicate that Anderson's personal development would likely be best advanced with a trip back to Charlotte for a period to get reacquainted with his swing. Strictly in terms of wins and losses, however, without regard to the long term, replacing Anderson in center with Scott Podsednik (owner of a career RATE of 98 in center) or a platoon of the lefty Rob Mackowiak (90 career RATE in center) and righty Pablo Ozuna (6 career games in center), the two in-house options, would be a net loss.

Ozzie Guillen, then, can justifiably call Brian Anderson a championship-caliber defender, and if Anderson starts hitting like he's capable, it could become awfully tough for AL challengers to block Guillen from backing up his statements with a second ring.

--Caleb Peiffer

He was only in for one batter. He got a groundout. That wasn't what he was supposed to do.

In general, no, he's no great shakes and the White Sox just traded for a veteran reliever and sent him down.

Now, it happens to be a veteran reliever with nagging back problems. Ugh.

HEY, ENGLAND, TAKE CROUCH OUT OF THE FUCKING MATCH!!!! THANKS!!!

Crouch was useless against Paraguay. Is this guy really a star in the Premier League?

 

What's the use of all that height if he can't get his feet off the ground?

What the hell happened in that Sox game last night?! I saw clips on the news this morning, but didn't catch the whole thing. Padilla hit Pierzynski w/ pitches his first two at-bats (which was enough to make me smile) and Ozzie sends Tracey down to triple-A for not being able to bean Blalock?!

 

 

I fucking love it.

That's pretty much it. Padilla hit him with consecutive pitches (first pitch of each at bat) and Ozzie waited for a reliever to retaliate, so he didn't have to use the bullpen for the whole game.

Brian Anderson

 

Avg HR RBI Runs SB

 

.163 5 15 18 2

This is why he's sponsoring the thread. He needs something else to do since he's not spending any time on base. The best part is, he's not even having the worst offensive season on the team. Uribe is.

Anyway, I think Anderson will get it together and the White Sox will be/are fine. One and done indeed.

Yup.

I don't know much about football, but to me the Americans look faster to the ball, and the Czechs look like better ball handlers and passers.

I think the German dude just scored on his own net. I suspect the opposite thing happened with Germany's third goal.

edit: No he didn't

Wasn't sure if these had gone unnoticed. I assume they are getting past the email registration bit?

Here

http://forums.viachicago.org/index.php?showtopic=22143

etc.

I just got a copy of the bonus pictures.

Guess who is who.

Is the guy in the middle the manager of your tag-team?

Paul is the 7th black Wilco fan.