Transmogrified Tiger

STOP OBSESSING ABOUT THE WHITE SOX

My favorite is when he clears off the plate with the water bottle, mimics the catcher catching the ball and the umpire calling strike, then spikes the water bottle on the plate. Absolutely classic.

I don't buy that. Neill slid well before Grosso even touched the ball sideways. Then he touched it and let himself fall over Neill, who again was there before he changed his dribble, instead of following the ball. There was another defender coming towards the side dribble, so it's not like he was alone with the keeper if he doesn't fall. Like USS said with regards to the US-Ghana PK, you're essentially saying he had a clear go at goal without the "foul". That's not true in this case, it was a bad call. All that said, in the brief replay I saw of the red card, that didn't look like a red. I could care less if Neill had been shot and was writhing on the ground in pain, the fact remains that Neill impeded the progress of Grosso. It's highly likely that Grosso would have had a decent chance at goal or could have passed to a teammate that had a decent shot at goal. Neill prevented that from happening. It doesn't matter in the least whether the foul was accidental or on purpose - the referee dealt with that by not handing out a card which he likely would have had Neill pulled him down - a foul occurred on the play. And please, don't use the US-Ghana PK as a corollary because absolutely no foul occured in that game. Sure, Grosso likely embellished the play a bit but there have been hundreds of more pathetic dives with less contact than this play in the World Cup this year. A foul, albeit not a bad one, occured on that play and the referee definately made the correct call. Grosso doesn't have the right to go anywhere on the field. Neill slid in front of him, beat him to the spot. Neill made it to the spot first, so Grosso is keeping himself from a decent chance at goal. If Grosso doesn't touch the ball in the other direction then there's no fuss at all. Just because he chose to run into the guy who was already at the spot instead of following his dribble doesn't earn him a PK, especially in the 93rd minute.

I was thinking more along the lines of team construction. I'd like to see Pie in CF next year, and if EPatt comes along with him, then you've got Pie and EPatt with unsure production, plus Cedeno who probably will hit like a 7/8 hitter. We also don't have any very good corner OFs, which sets up an awful offense for '07. Of course, if Pie can't hit his way out of a paper bag for the rest of this year and needs some more time in AAA next year, and for some reason the Tigers trade us Guillen or we get Tejada or A-Rod or something, and EPatt continues to rake in AAA, I don't have a problem easing him in next year at the bottom of the order. The problem is the lineup is very weak as is, and breaking in two rookies as well makes it nigh impossible to have a good offense without relying on one or both of them to be great offensively.

http://msn.foxsports.com/fe/img/MLB/Jellies/Large/14.gif

Hopefully not.

Roberto Baggio had an 86% success rate with penalty kicks in Serie A which was, apparently, the highest success rate of anyone ever. There's presumably a cut-off point of number taken. I stand by my statement. :D You pick your spot and shoot. The more you think about the PK, the better the odds are that you'll think yourself into a stupid shot. I'm happy to say I never missed one in 18 years of organized soccer. Bah. That's crap. Caveat #1: Like you, I've never missed a PK. Caveat #2: I've saved multiple PK's as a keeper. As a keeper, you can read the shooter. If you watch how he sets up, the approach and the location of the plant foot, you can get a pretty good idea of which side he's targeting. If you watch the hips, head and the shoulders, you can get an idea if the striker is going up or down. If you can analyze all of this in the instant that you have to decide, you too can be a World Cup goalie. As a keeper, if you just guess which side to cover and commit yourself, you might get the lower corner on the dive, and you might save the ball if its poorly struck. Upper corner -- no way. As a forward, I always tried to put the ball in the side net at a reasonable level of power. I blanked my mind until the whistle, picked my side on the approach, and went. No thought. As a keeper, I would always outthink myself if I tried to read the shooter. I would be slow reacting because I was concentrating so hard to find a sign. In practice when we'd practice a bunch of PK's around tournament time, I'd stuff my team at about a 50% rate, sometimes more. Of course that's because I knew them and got in their heads, but still.

I guess BP doesn't actually watch games. BP isn't the greatest, but they're at least as good as any of our hazy recollections. Again, he's not a hack by any stretch. If BP said he is gold glove caliber, then I will state they have never watched a game. No one else in the world would say he is gold glove caliber. I think he has a fine future, but he is slumping and until he gets some success he will compund the slump. Sitting for a while is a good thing, not a bad thing. Back to BP, how can you honestly give credibility to a publication that says he is gold glove caliber? You need to read closely. According to BP's fielding statistics, Murton is doing very well defensively. Having referenced it multiple times, I concluded that a rate of 117 would probably rank him among the top left fielders, aka gold glove caliber. It's not based off anything BP said, just the metric that they provide. And again, I've already said that BP isn't a great measure, but it's not so poor as to completely disregard, especially when it finds something contrary to what we think it should be. I think PMR from Baseball Musings is much better, as is the BTF(that ranked Murton middle of the pack defensively, not a hindrance to the defense) link I provided before. Hyperbole railing against BP isn't going to help anything, no matter how excited you were to find something from them you found ridiculous.

You are my favorite poster to start posting here in quite some time.

More EPatt fun. Thru the 23rd.... Home: .283/.335/.386/.722 Away: .311/.375/.538/.913 v. LHP: 303/.341/.487/.828 v. RHP: .293/.359/.441/.800

I guess BP doesn't actually watch games. BP isn't the greatest, but they're at least as good as any of our hazy recollections. Again, he's not a hack by any stretch.

I don't really understand the fascination with Heilman.

BP's fielding metrics have Murton well above average in LF, probably gold glove caliber. BTF has Murton above average but middle of the pack overall. No matter how you slice it he's not a hack.

Cripes, how do you go 0 for 3 you schmucks

haha, eat it shevchenko

woohoo, on to PK's! Let's go Switzerland!

I don't buy that. Neill slid well before Grosso even touched the ball sideways. Then he touched it and let himself fall over Neill, who again was there before he changed his dribble, instead of following the ball. There was another defender coming towards the side dribble, so it's not like he was alone with the keeper if he doesn't fall. Like USS said with regards to the US-Ghana PK, you're essentially saying he had a clear go at goal without the "foul". That's not true in this case, it was a bad call. All that said, in the brief replay I saw of the red card, that didn't look like a red.

You think they fire him before the White Sox series? With no offday in between?

Check rivalries

OBP is listed in the WGN graphic this year.

Cool story, good to hear Hill is a nice guy.

wtg Felix Also, it's become apparent Wuertz is going to have to kneecap multiple Cub bullpen guys to get another shot.

So I missed Beckham puking/scoring and another cardfest? Crap.

No doubt, with the way they use minor league arms. Word.

gritssss