Beefs with Cubune's newest nonsense

[cburns]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....home-headlines

After reading this article, I must say I am enraged.

[MUsoxfan]

I don't know....I'm only slightly annoyed. You HAD to know they were gonna give the edge to the Cubs (coming from the source), but they gave the Sox credit where credit was due. The fact is that the Sox have unproven guys on the staff (Iguchi, Crede, and Scotty Po...sort of).

In the words of Lou Brown....let's give them a big ****burger to eat

[SomebodyToldMe]

I guess they didn't know that Rowand's in center and Pods is in left. Because if they did know that, the Sox would have won both of those.

[jake27]

i dont care what the media says any more about the sox because they always get shated. let them have their predictions... come the season.... the sox will make them eat their words

[HebrewHammer]

First off, he gets our outfield wrong. Last I checked ARow in center and Pods in left, but I may be mistaken.

Second, our bullpen is BARELY better than the ScRubs? I see two guys that are at all reliable in theirs and no one capable of closing. Shingo played a full season last year and it never looked like the league was catching up to him. The ScRubs don't have anyone better than Marte, let alone Zero-san.

Catcher, to me, is a wash, they're basically the same player. Except I think AJ is more of a gamer than Barrett.

If he's not going to do his homework on Tadahito, why bother? We know he's faster than Walker, has a better glove and will, most likely hit for a higher average than Walker, who has never been much better than a servicable second baseman. Does Todd Walker get you excited about baseball? Me neither, The Gooch does.

To not give us all three outfield spots is asinine. The ScRubs have possibly the worst OF in baseball. Show me one worse, please. You wouldn't take Milwaukee's OF or Pittsburgh's over the ScRubs in a heartbeat? Maybe Houston, just because Berkman will be out for a while. Detroit, possibly worse. KC?

I also don't get his point about the ScRubs being built on OBP, defense and pitching. Pitching, fine, they have a great rotation, but nothing after that. No legit emergency starter, no closer, average(at best) middle relief. OBP? I can think of two guys on their roster who will have an OBP over 350. Nomar and Aramis, other than that, strikeout kings and dp's waiting to happen. Defense? They're OF D could be among the poorest in baseball. They're weak up the middle(Walker is adequate, but Nomar has never been anything special). Derrek Lee would be the only player I'd consider a DEFENSIVE upgrade over the Sox.

The ScRubs also have NO BENCH. Hollandsworth(and he'll be starting most of the time) and Hairston are the only two options off the bench. Everyone else is a vaccuum. The only thing the Sox are missing is a legit backup SS, if that's our biggest problem going into the season, fine, I'm thrilled to have backup shortstop as our top priority. It beats needing to find a closer, a left fielder, a bullpen and a bench.

End rant.

[Jabroni]

Left field

Nowhere is the new direction of Williams' White Sox shown more dramatically than in left field, where speedy, defense-minded Aaron Rowand replaces the offensive numbers of Carlos Lee. But ditto the Cubs, who are replacing the production of Moises Alou with Jerry Hairston/Jason Dubois/Todd Hollandsworth, et al. The new looks in left are gigantic gambles for both teams.

Edge: White Sox.


Center field

The position of "ifs." If Corey Patterson lives up to his potential and finds a comfortable spot in the batting order. … If Scott Podsednik can get on base enough at the top of the order and steal bases. If neither of them do what is expected, the Cubs and Sox could be pondering "what-ifs" in October.

Edge: Cubs, but only on potential.

They did it this way because they knew if they compared Rowand to Patterson in CF and Podsednik to Hairston/Dubois/Hollandsworth in LF the Cubs would have lost out at both positions.

The fact is that:

LF Podsednik > LF Hairston/Hollandsworth (most likely one of these two will start in LF)
CF Rowand > CF Patterson

I also love this one...

Designated hitter

When the teams meet at the Cell, the Sox have the advantage, with Frank Thomas (assuming he's healthy) vs. Hollandsworth/Dubois. In Wrigley, the Sox lose Thomas' bat but have a speed-defense team that should be comfortable.

Edge: White Sox.

No mention of Carl Everett??? Even if Frank is not healthy, we still have Carl to fill the role. I'd take Everett over Hollandsworth/Dubois any day of the week and I'm sure many Flubs fans would as well.

[santo=dorf]

Barrett might be worse defensively than Pierzynski, and Maddux looked like he was going to kill him whenever he had to pitch to him.

Barrett is a career .260 hitter with a .316 OBP whereas Pierzynski is a career .294 hitter with a .336 OBP.

The Cubs can shut down any team with pitching.

I'll have to remember that one Dyckhead the next time Prior strikes out 16 Reds players and still can't win the game.

I also get a kick out of flub fans and Homefish ripping on Pods having a .313 OBP in a down year when Corey Patterson's career OBP is .303!!! Podsednik also stole 70 bases in his down year last season, yet Patterson has managed to steal 71 bases in his entire career.

[Banix12]

I figured most of the positions they had to give it to the cubs because some of our players aren't exactly proven over a good stretch of Major league time.

I'd say the most objectionable concept is that the cubs are rebuilding around defense and OBP. The team they are going to be starting next season is essentially the same team they ended with with the exception of swapping Burnitz for Sosa and Dubois/Hollandsworth for Alou. Alou and Sosa both have higher OBP than the other three unless i'm mistaken. The only OBP guy they added is Hairston and likely he is going to be warming the bench a good chunk of the season behind the other OF and Todd Walker.

So in all they should see a drop in OBP from last year.

They improved the defense a bit in the OF, not that it could have gotten worse than Alou and Sosa, but none of the infielders other than Lee are all that great defensively and Barrett is no prize behind the plate.

Even pitching, they have good pitchers but arguably their pitching got worse over the offseason not better. Clement last year: Rusch this year. Merker last year: Stephen Randolph this year. Closer last year Hawkins/Borowski: This year hawkins/borowski/dempster/Closer by committee?

Pitching, OBP. and Defense. It's just a phrase to hide the fact that they cubs did nothing of note to improve their team this offseason and have the same problems they always had.

[StillMissOzzie]

I agree with the LF / CF analysis mentioned above - the Cubune manipulated the comparison so the Sox wouldn't outrank on all three positions.

I think the C spot may be a push, as I see AJ > Barrett offensively, but
Barrett > AJ defensively.

And I think the Sox bullpen is WAY better than the sCrUBS bullpen. They still have no closer, La Troya stinks, and they have a few holes in middle relief.

Other than that, another fair and balanced reporting job by the Tribune.

SMO

[Jjav829]

Ehh, you had to figure the Cubs would get the advantage from the Cubune. I'd probably go...

C: Barrett over Pierzynski, but barely.
1B: Konerko over Lee, though it's close.
2B: Walker over Iguchi, simply because Walker has proven what he can do.
SS: Nomar over Uribe, self explanatory.
3B: Ramirez over Crede, no-brainer.
LF: Podsednik over Hairston, though I can see this changing.
CF: Rowand over Patterson, how long has Patterson been getting by on potential anyway?
RF: Dye over Burnitz, with Dye hopefully increasing the gap
DH: Thomas/Everett over Dubois/Hollandsworth, pretty obvious.
SP: Cubs over Sox, though I hope the Sox can make this a close race.
RP: Sox over Cubs, and not "barely."

So that's Sox 6, Cubs 5, though since the DH category is kind of pointless, it's really about a tie, which is what I would expect from the season series.

[Jabroni]

Pierzyski vs. Barrett? Well, let's see...

Pierzynski
.294 career AVG
.336 career OBP
.438 career SLG
.773 career OPS

Barrett
.260 career AVG
.316 career OBP
.409 career SLG
.724 career OPS

Obviously, Pierzynski is better than Barrett offensively.

I won't go into the details (because it involves too many stats) but neither is that great defensively. I do know that neither Pierzynski nor Barrett have good throwing arms. I have heard that A.J. is good at stopping balls and we all know he is good at blocking the plate. I'm not so sure of Barrett's abilities. I guess we will be able to make defensive comparisons between the two this season.

[nccwsfan]

Originally Posted by Jjav829

Ehh, you had to figure the Cubs would get the advantage from the Cubune. I'd probably go...

C: Barrett over Pierzynski, but barely.
1B: Konerko over Lee, though it's close.
2B: Walker over Iguchi, simply because Walker has proven what he can do.
SS: Nomar over Uribe, self explanatory.
3B: Ramirez over Crede, no-brainer.
LF: Podsednik over Hairston, though I can see this changing.
CF: Rowand over Patterson, how long has Patterson been getting by on potential anyway?
RF: Dye over Burnitz, with Dye hopefully increasing the gap
DH: Thomas/Everett over Dubois/Hollandsworth, pretty obvious.
SP: Cubs over Sox, though I hope the Sox can make this a close race.
RP: Sox over Cubs, and not "barely."

So that's Sox 6, Cubs 5, though since the DH category is kind of pointless, it's really about a tie, which is what I would expect from the season series.

Catcher being the exception I agree with this 100%.

[DumpJerry]

My reaction when I saw the promo piece (I can't call it objective journalism) was "the Cubune thinks the Flubs will beat the Sox? Knock me over with a feather."

[ondafarm]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...-sportsnew-hed

Like this guy knows anything about baseball?

[JUribe1989]

White Sox relief pitching better, maybe? What has this guy been smoking. Basing everything on nearly no facts whatsoever. And do your research, Ozzie has said Rowand will play center and Podsednik will play left.