BearSox

QUOTE(joeynach @ Apr 5, 2007 -> 02:19 PM) Something I noticed about Massett's fastball is that it tends to run a lot, but it tends to run right into a right handed hitters swing place or hot zone. Im pretty sure its a two seamer with a lot of zip and movement, which I like, but I dont like it being thrown to RH hitters and being a pitch that runs to middle in to in. That is indeed the power spot for most RH hitters and so far it has seem to hurt him. I think a little location adjustment would fit him well starting the ball much further away and letting it run to be an outside fastball or throwing a strait 4 seamer to RH hitters when he wants to throw in. Anyone else notice the same. Hmmm??? That makes absolute no sense, no offense of course. That homer he gave up to Michaels wasn't because it was in Michael's hot zone, it was because Michaels yanked his hands in, and got the barrell of the bat out and just hit a homer. That was actually perfect location, but like Hawk did say, Masset just got beat. My question is where is this 97-98 mph fastball he supposedly has?

This is pitiful. This Sowers guy is pretty bad, but he is owning this team. He has a 87 mph fastball, a so-so change, and just a rolling curve. How is the score not 10-2 in favor of the sox right now, I dont know.

I hope the Royals destroy "Dice" That guy is the most over-hyped thing since, well I dont know, but he is over-hyped like no other. I hope he gets rocked. I hate the Red Sox more then any team, except for the other teams in the AL Central. They are the cubs of the AL. I really hope JD Drew gets injured within a month and Dice sucks.

how long did you have this post ready, just waiting for the clock to turn 12?

I doubt it.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 10:27 PM) Or It could just be the fact that we have some really good lefties in our division. That would negatively effect our guys stats. It could also be the fact that we have a few lefties in key positions in our lineup that are going to naturally struggle against left handed pitching. It should also be noted that we have a righty in Iguchi that is just a terrible hitter against lefties (and he wasn't any better in Japan). That means we have Pods, Erstad, Anderson (whose just a terrible hitter at this stage regardless), Thome, AJP, & Iguchi (with all of those but one in the starting lineup often against lefties) meaning that over half of our lineup can't hit left handed pitching. Luckily Pablo will step in from time to time and he mashes lefties but we clearly are not a team built to destroy left handed pitching (albeit the offense is still capable of getting enough runs against lefties, but the pitching will also have to show up). Bottom line is that the players are to blame for the squad not being able to hit lefties and more specifically I think the strong left handed pitchers in our division are to blame. Lets remember we had teams that hammered left handed pitching when Magglio and Caballo were here. By the way, I'll take the Sox offense over the Twins any day. And should we blame the Twins hitting coach for Ortiz leaving Minny and becoming Big Papi? (No we shouldn't, since Papi was hurt in Minnesota, but he also said he wasn't able to drive the ball in Minnesota because there hitting coach wasn't a fan of that). And let me tell you a little secret, the reason the Sox hit so many homers is because we have a lot of power hitters on this squad (more so than any team not named the Yankees). Have you not noticed everyone pulling open trying to hit the bomb? Instead of stepping into the pitch and driving it? And for 4 years since Walker has been the hitting coach, that problem has not been fixed. Yes, the hitters have to take some blame, but who's job is it to recognize this blatant faults and correct them? If you guessed Greg Walker, you guessed correct.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/stats/indi...&statType=1 see the 2000 numbers??? Well Erstad is going to blow those numbers away this year!

Erstad is a beast... How long before god, aka Ryan Sweeney, gets called up, and rocks our world?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 10:13 PM) Neither of them should be fired. Both are above average coaches at what they do in this league. Coop is probably the second best pitching coach in baseball and Walker would rank among the top 10 hitting coaches in all of baseball (if not higher). I've just came to realize Sox fans b**** and whine more than any other teams fan. And while I personally get tired of the negativity a lot of Sox fans show, I also realize they show that negativity out of love for there team and that love makes Sox fans some of the best in baseball. Heck, I can even tell you almost every team in baseball would love to have Ozzie as there manager or Kenny as the GM. I think a lot of people here should learn to enjoy what we have because even though I rip Ozzie from time to time (not near as badly as some do) we truly have one of the better front office/managerial combo's in sports (so do the Bears and Bulls for that matter). Just because the offense puts up good stats doesn't mean Greg Walker is the reason. Who else is there to blame for the inability of this offense to hit lefties or be able to go with the pitch. I'll admit, it isn't just Walker, but he is a big part of the problem. look at a team like the Twins. They teach simple hitting. Hit the ball where it is pitched. And don't go for the homerun, but try and make solid contact. That is what it seems like Joe Vavra and the rest of the Twins do. Someone needs to be accountable for this, and I blame Greg Walker. Even when he was down as the Knights hitting coach, he preached home runs. I find it funny how Kenny and Ozzie always say how they try and emmulate the Twins and Angels, but they have complete different coaches who have different philosophies. QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 10:20 PM) He smoked the ball. I dont' see any reason why we should complain about that at bat and it took a solid play by Michaels to prevent the Sox from winning that game. Maybe we should notice how much better Crede has became under the tutilage of Walker. Or how Konerko has become such a better hitter or even the strides Uribe has made compared to his days in Colorado. Rowand improved when he was here (he was never amazing, but he improved under Walker). I don't understand the negativity, I've seen improvement in hitters when they come to Chicago and I think Walker deserves a lot of that credit. I can also tell you that Greg is one of the more well respected hitting coaches in baseball. I don't see how he smoked that ball. He hit it off the end of the bat, and if the wind was blowing like 30 mph out, that wouldn't have come close to the warning track. If he went with the pitch, and drove it into the gap, the White Sox would have won. Same thing with Thome and Dye.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 10:10 PM) The twins also won by scoring 7 runs without a homer. Scrappy gap to gap hitting. Watch the final out of the sox game. We have men in scoring position, and Crede tries to lift and pull a pitch on the outter half. He is quoted as saying that with the wind he thought it was out. He was going for a dong, and we needed a single or a double. the minute our hitters figure out how to hit a single when we need it instead of trying to hit a 500 foot shot. We will be okay as a situational team. On our pitching staff, throw strikes. We need to do that. If we throw strike and get ahead we will be fine. Oh, I know. It seemed like I was the only one who realized that all Borowski was doing was throwing junk breaking stuff on the other part of the plate. If they would have went with the pitch, they would have drove a ball right into the gap for likely the game winner. The whole offense looked pretty bad today, even though they did score 7.

I highly doubt Coop gets fired... Greg Walker on the other hand...

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 06:23 PM) Todays game...made my want to seriously kill myself It made me want to throw the remote through my very expensive tv, which would have ultimately lead up to me killing myself.

I don't care about "honorable mentions" aka, the losers. I want to see the top guys!

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:53 PM) I just got home from the game. First off, Now, for the game. I have a really hard time getting too upset, just because how much excitement I have for the season to start, and just the hope I have for this team, but I just hate the vibe this club has given off for the last 8,9 months. This is the exact same s*** we saw the 2nd half of last season, and all of Spring. The pitching just isn't there, and I can't beleive I am the one saying it, but it seems as if we have turned into a full blown softball squad. I am one of the biggest Earl Weaver backers you will find, and I love the 3 run HR, but there is a time and place for everything, and some of the swings I saw today(Crede-Dye) in particular made me sick. Aside from the Crede base knock, the execution today was horrid, and one of the most frustrating games I have watched in a long while. Please White Sox, give me some hope for this season. You really haven't given me any since June of last year. Please. Was the wind blowing hard out? Too me a lot of balls that weren't hit really good at all were making it the warning track.

Ryan Sweeney will pwn once he makes it to the show...

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:33 PM) As one of like, well, I'm the only Pods supporter on this board. I can't even excuse or justify that. Pods should just forget about stealing bases right now. Get on base. That's it. I only saw a couple of his at-bats. But I did like that he was atleast working the pitchers. If you call barely taking 2 swings working the pitchers... well then pods really worked them over!

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:27 PM) I'm confused as to what that means? Say Player A is on base, and Player B and C both fail drive him in. That counts as players individually leaving 2 on base? Can we pull any positives out of the first two games? Erstad and Aardmsa... MacDougal looked pretty sharp as well.

Grady Sizemore looked practically lost against Garland, popping out all three times. And Nixon only had one hit off of Garland and that was on a cookie. And if you tell me that those 3 walks to Hafner were bad, then your nuts. I'd rather see Garland walk Hafner then see Hafner take Garland yard. Garland isn't getting paid 10+ million a year to be babied. He is getting 10 million to pitch ball games. Ozzie took the ball out of Garlands hand. Listen, I'm not saying leave him in there for even the whole inning. But Garland deserved a chance to at least face Grady. And if got Grady out easy, let him face Nixon. But if Nixon gets on, then it would be the right move to go to the pen. It was just too early to take out Garland.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:20 PM) Question: I didn't see Aardsma's first inning of work. Was he around 89-91 with his fastball that inning? I didn't see 1 fastball clocked over 91 in his second inning. He was at 93-94.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:10 PM) do you understand the terms "control" or "pitch count"? Pitch count. Only 105 pitches. He should have been able to go to at least 120. And his control wasn't that bad after the 2nd inning. After all, 3 of his 5 walks did come to Hafner.

QUOTE(TheOcho @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 05:08 PM) Yes. How so? Grady hadn't hit Garland all day, and Nixon only got one hit. You have to let him finish that inning. It was his game, not Sisco's.

Am I the only one who thinks it was an idiotic move by pulling Garland so early?

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2007 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 04:58 PM) Well, it's nice to see Soxtalk hasn't lost it's touch. Season's over, folks! So who should the Bears draft at #31? I don't think anyone is giving up on the season, but mainly just pissed at the piss-poor execution by this team. Not to mention Ozzie's wonderful management of the pen, and Greg Walker's get lessons on how to hit the outside pitch.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 04:54 PM) I can't wait until minnesota comes into town. We look absolutely pitiful , and guess what -- tomorrow we're facing the quintessential Sox killer in Jeremy Sowers. It could be a sweep. Young, good looking lefty tommorow... we have basically no chance tommorow. And I can wait until Minnesota comes to town, because they would have a feast off of us as well.

Oh yeah, I now remember why I hate Podsednik, I can't believe I was at all hoping for a good season out of him. He looked like a bum at the plate, and when he did attempt a steal, he gets thrown out by VICTOR MARTINEZ, but not only that, it was a HIGH THROW as well. How come Erstad, old aging Erstad can steal 2 bases quite easily, but you get gunned out looking like Eduardo Perez running to second? And this offense and hitting coach are complete jokes as well. Especially from the 7th inning on. I especially found it amusing how everyone was swinging for the fences in the ninth innings, trying to pull the ball 1000 miles. Was I the only one to notice that Borowski was just basically throwing junk breaking stuff on the outside part of the plate?