2012 player grades

[BainesHOF]

A.J. Pierzynski (A) – Career year with the bat and improved defensively.
Alex Rios (A) – The team’s MVP.
Donnie Veal (A) – Almost perfect versus lefties.
Jesse Crain (A-) – Reliable and effective most of the time, when healthy.
Nate Jones (A-) – The nice surprise was durable and effective.
Jake Peavy (A-) – Excellent stats with the exception of his record, which deserved to be much better.
Chris Sale (A-) – Terrific year.
Alejandro De Aza (B+) – A true leadoff hitter and quality defender.
Adam Dunn (B+) – Produced runs, but Ks and average still a problem.
Alexei Ramirez (B+) – Awesome defender who eventually woke up with the bat.
Addison Reed (B+) – Better than you could have expected, but shaky at times.
Brett Myers (B) – A valuable addition.
Dewayne Wise (B) – A nice pickup.
Gavin Floyd (B) – Respectable stats, but needs to win more.
Jose Quintana (B-) – Super start before he may have gotten tired.
Dayan Viciedo (B-) – Power and better-than-expected defense, but too many droughts.
Kevin Youkilis (B-) – Provided an incredible lift, but then faded.
Tyler Flowers (C+) – A serviceable backup with potential to do more with more time.
Paul Konerko (C) – Fell off a cliff after great start.
Hector Santiago (C-) – Hung in there through different roles.
Gordon Beckham (D+) – Great glove, terrible bat.
Jordan Danks (D) – One great homer and nothing else.
Philip Humber (D) – All downhill after his perfect game.
Francisco Liriano (D) – Very disappointing.
Orlando Hudson (D) – Temporarily plugged hole and then nothing.
Leyson Septimo (D) – In over his head.
Matt Thornton (D) – 10 losses out of the bullpen says it all.

[Brian26]

Agree with you on everything except Alexei. He continues to decline with the bat. The numbers are bad. He gets a C.

[central44]

Gavin Floyd should get a C. When he was bad, he was flat out awful, but he also had some decent games here and there. Pretty much the definition of a C

[ohiosoxfan]

have to disagree with a few. . .
Crain - should be lower- not as dependable as his salary dicates

Peavy - is paid like an ace (see Verlander) pitched well but not ace-like

Sale - don't know how he doesn't merit an A

Paulie- C is too critical, yes, he struggled down the stretch, but I think injury prevented him from being as effective as he might have been. . . B or B-

Beckham saved a lot of runs with his defense, especially with DP's. Granted, his offense isn't where we liked or expected, have you looked at AL secondbaseman???? should be at least a C overall. .

That's my two cents worth. . .

[Boondock Saint]

Originally Posted by ohiosoxfan

have to disagree with a few. . .
Crain - should be lower- not as dependable as his salary dicates

Peavy - is paid like an ace (see Verlander) pitched well but not ace-like

Sale - don't know how he doesn't merit an A

Paulie- C is too critical, yes, he struggled down the stretch, but I think injury prevented him from being as effective as he might have been. . . B or B-

Beckham saved a lot of runs with his defense, especially with DP's. Granted, his offense isn't where we liked or expected, have you looked at AL secondbaseman???? should be at least a C overall. .

That's my two cents worth. . .

1) Salary shouldn't factor in when grading performance. You either do well or you don't. So I disagree with you on Crain and Peavy.

2) Sale gets a lower grade because of a poor September. Can't blame him for running out of gas, but those games still count.

3) If by "down the stretch", you mean "half of the season", then I agree wholeheartedly on Konerko. If you're too hurt to produce, you're too hurt to play, and Konerko wouldn't acquiesce on that. He was a burden on the lineup for a long time, and he deserves blame for that.

4) Beckham was terrible at the plate, and very good on defense. I might have given him a C-, but that's really nitpicking when you're talking about a C- or D+.

[LITTLE NELL]

Beckham gets a C+, great defense and his power numbers for a second sacker were not bad; 16 HRs and 60 RBIs. If he could hit .270 he would be dangerous.

Dunn gets a C+, a pathetic BA with either a HR or a K, a guy who hits 41 HRs should have 120 ribbies. Still an improvement over last year when he got an F minus.

Did not realize that Thornton lost 10 games.

All your other grades are hard to argue with.

[johnny bench]

Originally Posted by Boondock Saint

2) Sale gets a lower grade because of a poor September. Can't blame him for running out of gas, but those games still count.

I agree with Sale's A-. I'm not so sure that Sale had a poor September as much as he didn't live up to the high expectations he created based on his excellence in the first 5 months of the season. In September, the Sox were 3-3 in games started by Sale.

[SOXSINCE'70]

Originally Posted by Brian26

Agree with you on everything except Alexei. He continues to decline with the bat. The numbers are bad. He gets a C.

I'd give him a B- .

[SephClone89]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

Gavin Floyd (B) – Respectable stats, but needs to win more.

Huh?

[BainesHOF]

Originally Posted by SephClone89

Huh?

Floyd's 4.29 ERA was good, especially as an American Leaguer. He allowed fewer hits than innings pitched and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was better than 2:1. He finished above .500 at 12-11, but, with his talent and even his stats, he should win more games. But that's pretty much the story of Floyd's career. He's good, but should be better.

[SOXSINCE'70]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

Floyd's 4.29 ERA was good, especially as an American Leaguer. He allowed fewer hits than innings pitched and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was better than 2:1. He finished above .500 at 12-11, but, with his talent and even his stats, he should win more games. But that's pretty much the story of Floyd's career. He's good, but should be better.

I can only wonder what this team will be like with a healthy John Danks in 2013.God knows they could have used him in 2012.

[SephClone89]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

Floyd's 4.29 ERA was good, especially as an American Leaguer. He allowed fewer hits than innings pitched and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was better than 2:1. He finished above .500 at 12-11, but, with his talent and even his stats, he should win more games. But that's pretty much the story of Floyd's career. He's good, but should be better.

You're taking data and coming to the complete wrong conclusion. You're finding other stats that suggest Floyd's decent, then saying "oh, well his K/BB ratio and ERA are fine, but his record isn't, so there must be a problem with Floyd as a pitcher!", rather than the more rational "well, his K/BB ratio and ERA are fine, but his record isn't...maybe win-loss record isn't that telling of a statistic."

[SCCWS]

Originally Posted by SephClone89

You're taking data and coming to the complete wrong conclusion. You're finding other stats that suggest Floyd's decent, then saying "oh, well his K/BB ratio and ERA are fine, but his record isn't, so there must be a problem with Floyd as a pitcher!", rather than the more rational "well, his K/BB ratio and ERA are fine, but his record isn't...maybe win-loss record isn't that telling of a statistic."

Floyd had one very good year, 2008 where he went 17-8 w a 3.84 era. For the last 4 years he has been a .500 pitcher who will give you 30 starts. However his ERA the last 2 years has jumped a little from 4.00 to 4.30. He is an average # 4 AL starter on a decent team.

[doublem23]

Originally Posted by SCCWS

Floyd had one very good year, 2008 where he went 17-8 w a 3.84 era. For the last 4 years he has been a .500 pitcher who will give you 30 starts. However his ERA the last 2 years has jumped a little from 4.00 to 4.30. He is an average # 4 AL starter on a decent team.

The point overall is that a pitcher's W-L record is kind of a pointless stat; Floyd may be .500 since 2009 but in that time, he's also had only 5 cheap wins (wins in non-QS starts) and 11 tough losses (losses in QS). The Sox bullpen has also lost more games where he was in line to win than the offense has come back to win games for him over that span.

Floyd's certainly had his struggles, but citing his W-L record doesn't really show anything of value.

[russ99]

To me Viciedo and Beckham should have the same grade. Both going into the season with good potential, and both being huge disappointments.

I'd give each a C+/D-, a bit higher than I'd like for Beckham's defense and Viciedo's power which seem to be the only thing these guys can do consistently. And both with some of the worst approaches at the plate I've seen in supposedly major league regulars.