The Twins ridiculous home advantage in that goofy place really has nothing to do with the White Sox. From '01-'09 the Twins were 139 games over .500 in that place and 22 games under away from it. That's a little more than a normal home field advantage to say the least. And it should be obvious they're not going to have that kind of an edge playing in a normal outdoor ballpark. That doesn't mean they still can't kick the shit out of a Sox team that Guillen purposely built to lack guys who can get on base.

You keep posting this bullshit, but nobody thought the Twins "wouldn't be able to play outside

I always thought this was such a lame excuse. The Twins always put out a fundamentally solid team that did not make errors and took advantage of speed on the carpet. That's what you are supposed to do?

Do the Twins fans bitch about the Sox moving in the fences 10 feet and then getting a HR hitting team?

Fucking Red Sox getting LH power in Ortiz to hit HR's to short RF?

Yes they did, people have posted about it around here many times.

I think you're misunderstanding what they meant. The advantage that caused a team to be 139 games over .500 at home while going 22 games under on the road is gone. The fact that a particular Twins team might be good enough to win 50 games in the new outdoor park isn't evidence to the contrary. And I can guarantee a team that does that will not be under .500 away.

The Twins ridiculous home advantage in that goofy place really has nothing to do with the White Sox. From '01-'09 the Twins were 139 games over .500 in that place and 22 games under away from it. That's a little more than a normal home field advantage to say the least. And it should be obvious they're not going to have that kind of an edge playing in a normal outdoor ballpark. That doesn't mean they still can't kick the shit out of a Sox team that Guillen purposely built to lack guys who can get on base.

In 2005, the Sox won (I think) 51 games on the road. Thats what you need to do to win 99 games.

In that same period, the Sox are 106 games over .500 at home and 49 games under on the road. The split is almost exactly the same for both teams.

But you're contradicting yourself. The Sox "normal" home field advantage led (by your numbers) to a difference of 159 games over that stretch (112 + 47, or technically 112 - -47). The Twins "freakish" home advantage led by your numbers to a 161 game difference (139 + 22). That's a difference of two games over a nine year stretch, or a little less than a quarter of a game a season. I'd imagine that the numbers look quite similar for almost every team in MLB. Colorado might be the only exception.

A caller near the end of Ranger's "Comcast Feedback Zone Postgame" on 670 The SCORE & the TOYOTA Chicago White Sox Radio Network last night mentioned something that the Sox have really had trouble doing for many, many years. The Sox have done a lousy job of developing their own players through their farm system, something the Minnesota Twins have done extremely well, even before their move outside to Target Field this year.

How would you do it, Bob?

Well, I actually read a column that pointed out that split as an oddity. I guess that should teach me not to believe everything I read on the internets.

As for ASFB's recipe, it's all well and good, but I don't think the Sox have been particularly poor at drafting and player development. It wasn't that long ago that they had a string of picks that included McDowell, Fernandez, Ventura, and Frank. Right now they've got two homegrown guys among their starters (Buehrle, Beckham) and a bunch of other guys that they acquired before they had any real big league success (Danks, Floyd, Jenks, Konerko, Quentin).