hawksfan61

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 27, 2013 -> 09:59 AM) Anyone who would describe the Sox going on a run against weaker competition as a "False Positive". Bingo!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 27, 2013 -> 09:53 AM) Whose plan is that? Dick Allen said what good would Hudson do on this year's team. I answered. There are 15-20 teams out there that would trade us a reliever or veteran catcher (or both) for controlling Daniel Hudson's rights for 3+ years. He has 2 years, 117 days so service time accrued, so I'm not 100% sure if it would be 4 or 3 years (and how it works with time on the DL, etc.), but who exactly are we going to be able to trade to improve either the bullpen or catching position at mid-season? Wait. Time out. I need to find some good drugs to sustain me through this argument. Doesn't matter that there's the death penalty here in China for that sort of thing, lol. Plus, it's hard to find anyone to preach to on the street corner since 1) nobody believes in God, 2) there are no homeless to minister to and 3) everyone else is either enjoying the nice weather or watching Iron Man 3 in the theatres. If I was preaching, I would also be jailed (thankfully, not executed, just a hard labor/re-education camp in Xinjiang Province). What type of reliever or veteran catcher are you going to get for a guy coming off of a major arm injury? Please name one, because I think you are overstating the market for guys coming off of arm injuries that have not proven they are 100% back, which is the type of asset Hudson would be this year.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 27, 2013 -> 09:47 AM) I think you might be the ONLY person on this site who assumes we're going to roll over the Royals for the rest of the season...and completely discounts the past. There are usually certain teams we always struggle with, say the Blue Jays on turf, or the Orioles....a decade ago, we constantly went out to Anaheim and Oakland and struggled just to win a single game on a road trip. Those weren't single season anomalies. They were consistently things you could count on, like the White Sox not beating Johan Santana or CC Sabathia. Same thing with beating the Twins down the stretch in the last decade. We didn't even do that in 2008....we got swept big-time and only beat them because of Rick Hahn's son's fortuitous coin flip call. There are certainties like death and taxes. The White Sox struggling against rookie pitchers, against soft-tossing lefties (see Bruce Chen) or almost any journeyman pitcher who relied predominantly on off-speed stuff. Where did I saw we would roll over the Royals? Please show me. You are completely missing my point on the Royals. My point is they are a bad baseball team who will be 10+ games back by the trade deadline comes around, so why are we even talking about them as far as competition for a playoff spot go? If the Sox roll over for the Royals again this year then we won't be making the playoffs again this year, its pretty simple. Time will tell, and every year is a fresh start. All I know is right now the Sox bats have somewhat come alive, the starting pitching has continued to dominate, and we have a leaky bullpen we are going to have to fix at some point. All of that said, I still like our chances better than anyone else in the division not named Detroit.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 27, 2013 -> 09:34 AM) You mention 2 names often, I haven't kept up with them, but how have Hudson and Santos been the last couple of seasons? How would keeping them around hve improved the chances for last year and this? I am sure the 45 innings Hudson pitched last year with the Omogrosso-like ERA would have blown us right past the Tigers. The Hudson injury doesn't make that trade good, it was still a dumb trade, but I am not sure why anyone is lamenting the loss of Hudson like it is going to help us now. Even if he does come back this year the rest of the year is a throwaway, so he MIGHT be decent again in 2014. If all goes to plan by then we will have a low payroll with a roster full of fringy prospects and bad veterans, so we wouldn't have needed Hudson anyways.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 27, 2013 -> 02:48 AM) With your repeated references to drug use, are you sure you're not sampling some of it yourself? I feel like I am with a lot of these posts around here itching for five years of 90+ losses all so we can get some more names on the BA Top 100 list.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 27, 2013 -> 01:31 AM) What was the Royals' record against the White Sox from August 7th on last year? 9-3 (6-12 overall) How many games did we lose the division to DET by? 3 games. What was our record in 2011 against the Royals? 7-11 Seeing a trend? What is our record inside of the division now, without having played the Tigers? 7-9 What are the odds that the Royals will play .318 ball for the remainder of the season and not have a burst of momentum from hiring a new manager? 0.00% As for the Twins, Morneau will be gone after this year, they have 2 of the top 25 position prospects in the game and three potential front-line aces in Gibson, May and Meyer. They're 50% of the way there in terms of getting ready for another run again. Unfortunately for their fans, it's hard to be patient in Year 3 of a rebuilding project in a brand-new stadium. The White Sox also haven't cut their payroll all the way down to $70 million. Ironic, because Pohlad is individually perhaps the richest of all baseball owners, but one of the most penurious. Who cares what the Sox record was against the Royals last year? Records against teams from previous years have no impact on our performance against them this year, you know this right? The Royals probably won't play .318 ball the rest of the year, but they sure are playing it now and its not because of Ned Yost, its because their beloved prospects for the most part can't hit major league pitching. I know this is going to come as a surprise to some, but Top 100 prospects do not all turn out to be all stars, and the Royals have a handful of them on their roster right now. As far as the Twins go......who cares? Their team is horrible this year, was horrible the last two years, and will probably suck for two years after this. If the Sox has Mauer on the books at 23 per until he was 35 years old a lot of people on this board would crying and throwing their toys out of the playpen that we didn't trade him five years ago for a boatload of lottery tickets. I won't deny that the Twins have some nice pieces in the minor leagues, but prospects are NEVER a guarantee, and you don't change the long term strategy of your team based on the lottery tickets that a team with 96 and 99 loses the past two years hold.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 27, 2013 -> 12:31 AM) J) Hawksfan61 has all the answers (by the way, make sure to capitalize the names of sports teams) Thanks for the compliments. We'll see if Jake Peavy still looks like a #1 in August and September. What was his record against the Tigers last year? Which team do we play the most in the 2nd half? Hopefully you'll still be around in the 2nd half of the season to pop up and continue touting him as a #1. It's one thing to beat up the Marlins, it's quite another to take out the Angels or Tigers. Oh I don't capitalize sports teams names, better not listen to anything I have to say, because that is pretty important s***, as opposed to the king of the useless tangent act you have perfected around here. Wins in May count the same as wins in April and September chief, and right now Peavy looks like a number one while Verlander looks like a number two or three. At the end of the day if the numbers at the end of the season says they are both pretty good starting pitchers isn't that a win for the White Sox? Why are you even bringing up the Angels? They are hot garbage with a s***load of money sunk into mediocre aging players. Even if they were a 110 win team, they are in the west not the central, so cares what they do? All I care about is what the Royals, Twins, Tigers, and Indians do. The Twins are dogs*** with a ton of money tied up in non-superstar players like the M&M boys. The Royals, who guys like you love to give rub and tugs to every year, are spotting a big time .318 winning percentage in the month of May so I think we can forget about them being a 100 win team. That leaves the Tigers and the Indians, and we have a s***load of games left against both, and with a lot of pretty good starting pitching on our side I will take our chances from now until September. All I ask is that this team stay competitive all season, because the 100 loss BS a lot of you are screaming about is no fun, and I would rather see the Astros and Twins of the world go that route.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 26, 2013 -> 06:49 PM) Free agency replaces Peavy, Peavy and Rios bring in position prospects. Replace Peavy in free agency.....LMAO. You thing you are going to replace a guy with #1 stuff signed two a two year contract at market value in free agency. All I have to say is, Marty........ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTgWDu9Sxkw

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 26, 2013 -> 08:46 PM) H) Wait until it's actually close to the trade deadline and then see where the Sox stand. I) Caulfield is high as a kite 24/7 and everyone should probably ignore his "homeless man on a streetcorner preaching about how the aliens are going to come take our lunch money"-esque rants about white sox baseball or whatever topic du jour is being discussed on any given day. What is the most important thing in baseball.......good starting pitching. What do we have........good starting pitching. I would almost say great starting pitching considering we have two guys with #1 capability. Do you think anyone wants to face this team in the playoffs? Sure we may have to win every game 2-1 and bite our nails down to bloddy nubs by the end of the season, but this team has great starting pitching. If you could pick any area of a team to be great......offense.....starting pitching......relief pitching.....beer pong capability.......dong size.....anyone who has watched five minutes of baseball would say starting pitching is the area you want to be great, you worry about the rest later. You have Peavy for this year and next, as long as him and Sale are healthy, you do anything you can to win.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 1, 2012 -> 07:28 AM) By all means, don't let reality get in the way of a good old fashioned temper tantrum. What is the reality, that guys were hurt? Do you not think there are a lot of guys playing hurt in baseball right now? We are the only team dealing with injuries, gotcha.

I am already tired of all the whining about injuries related to this “collapse”. You think every team in baseball is not dealing with injuries to key players at this point in time? Dunn is what he is, a streaky all or nothing hitter who got cold when it matters just like every other veteran on this team the last couple of weeks. I don't want to hear about Konerko's wrist or hand or whatever other excuse we are going to come up with to explain away a horrible performance by a highly paid veteran player. Second half performance this year: Konerko: 255/324/426 Dunn: 202/306/442 Dunn in September: 210/319/419 Pathetic. The thing that drove me the most insane about this whole "collapse" was the total disappearance of solid fundamental baseball by everyone on the team. Stupid errors, throwing to the wrong base, bad base running, swinging in horrible counts, pop-ups with guys on third base and less than 2 outs......these are all things that we had come to expect under Ozzie and they are big reasons why we have 3 playoff appearances in 12 years. When the year started out we WERE playing smart fundamental baseball and playing good smart defense and it was FUN to watch. To see the team disintegrate in this manner is the most disappointing end to a season in a long long time. That is not to say that this team was super talented or anything, 2003 is still the greatest miss of the KW era, but this was a golden opportunity to make the playoffs, and when you make the playoffs anything can happen....etc. If nothing else it would have been nice buzz heading into the offseason and to kick off next year. Instead we get to talk about how the team played sub 400 baseball in the last month of the season in a division that was theirs for the taking.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 11:53 AM) A lot of your posts lately are of this nature, almost like you aren't included as a fan. I find it interesting. I'm pretty sure the fans care. Just because the attendance isn't great, doesn't mean they don't care. That's not exactly the best measuring stick. As has been covered, it's hard to get people to come out this week when you are watching the team suffer a slow, painful death. Here's a good read, especially towards the end. http://www.southsidesox.com/2012/9/28/3421...te-sox-tailspin Completely agree, I am getting tired of people killing the fans for not showing up for the last week. Anyone who has followed the team all year knew that the season was over the minute they relinquished the lead to Detroit. We have seen a lot of impressive chokes/collapses whatever you want to call them in the past 10 years, but this has to be one of, if not the worst. I know I could barely watch the games the last 5 or 6 days because it was so pathetic, and if I can't watch it on TV, how can I expect anyone to shell out good money to watch this crap in person? I buy the extra innings package every year, go to games when they are in Baltimore, try to go to at least a game a year in Chicago.....I like to think I am a pretty good fan, and if a pretty good fan can't stomach watching it on TV, why would anyone but the top 1% of diehards shell out good money to see these clowns embarass themselves again.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 11:46 PM) IT was awful. They should have protected Jay and the pass game early by rushing. They could have ran it all day long against GB. The game plan and execution offensively were just brutal. Capers panced Tice/Cutler. Its been happening every time we play the Packers the last several years but for some reason we keep getting surprised by it. The Bears coaching staff has no idea how to deal with Green Bay.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 11:42 PM) No. He didn't play well at all, but the rest of the offense could have made this game close. Hard to say what happens from there if some of those catches and/or blocks were made. This was a total team loss on offense. No one played at an acceptable level with the exception of possibly Michael Bush. What remains true is that Jay Cutler is by far the best QB in the history of this franchise. I don't think anyone will dispute anything written here. However, can we also stop pretending that Cutler doesn't continually wet the bed against our biggest rival twice a year? His performances are embarassing and frustrating to fans, and quite frankly I am getting tired of it. I am a Cutler guy by the way, so don't lump me in with the Orton derps. Also, how much longer is Lovie going to get a pass in this town with fans and media? Year after year his teams embarass themselves in big games or against rivals, and all we keep hearing is taht he is a good coach. Good coaches make adjustments during the game, good coaches don't hire incompetent offensive coordinator after incompetent offensive coordinator. This team for the last several years has had deer in the headlights looks against the Packers far too much. I am not one of these meatballs who think being 2-14 and beating the Packers twice is a good season, but this is a team we play twice a year every year and have to fight for the division. These games are REALLY important, and we look unprepared for them year after year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 09:52 PM) So just how bad is the Colts defense? Part of the problem is the game plan this coaching staff has against Green Bay. 49ers ran the ball all over Green Bay last week and we come out with the pass happy Martz offense I thought we got rid of last year. Run the freaking football and maybe their pass rush eases up a little bit.

Cutler's s*** the bed performances against Green Bay are getting real old. This is such an infuriating game to watch.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2012 -> 10:17 AM) That is the other thing. Unless you are going to make a run at Hamilton, which is pretty risky, who is left to go after this year? Free agent market is very weak this year, and I don't think either Grienke or Hamilton would go there. However this gives them to take on contracts via trade or trade for a guy at the end of their contract and sign them to a big money extension. I don't expect Boston to sit on this pile of cash and wait until 2014 to spend it. Their fans will go nuts if that happens.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 26, 2012 -> 10:03 AM) I think if Valentine stays, it WILL mitigate some of the money lure to Boston. Valentine pissed off every star player on that team it seems. Agreed, but I would also be stunned at this point if Bobby V is back next year. He has been a huge disaster and it seems like all the players hate him.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 26, 2012 -> 08:58 AM) http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-leag...Y3Rpb25z;_ylv=3 Valentine in hot water again, leading to a 3 game suspension for Aceves... ........Does this trade mark the end of Boston as a destination for big-time free agents? . Kaduk is nuts if he thinks that players are going to avoid the Red Sox in free agency. 90% of players will go to whoever is offering the most money, and the Red Sox have a lot of that to throw around now. I can't see many people turning down money just because they got rid of two underachievers and a whiner with big contracts.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 25, 2012 -> 01:06 PM) The only thing I am seeing holding up this deal right now is Carl Crawford waiving his NTC. Seeing how he has never been a favorite in Boston, and he hasnt really had a good experience in Boston, I dont really think it should be long. I believe it was Heyman that reported Crawford only has 3 teams on his no trade list.....and one of them is the Dodgers. However, I have a hard time seeing Crawford volunteering to stay in Boston at this point.

This is the worst trade I have ever seen. I wouldn't take on those two bums even if I was getting Miguel Cabrera, let alone an overpaid Adrian Gonzalez. The Dodgers are really bailing the Red Sox out here, as this allows them to be big players in the free agent and trade markets this offseason. 2 more years of Beckett with his bad back and fried chicken addiction along with 5 years of an injured Carl Crawford......dear lord. Are we sure that the Dodgers ownership isn't being advised by John McDonough, because this is awfully "splashy".

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 25, 2012 -> 12:40 AM) I read elsewhere that Reed didn't start warming up until Veal was brought into the game. If that's the case, then Ventura/Cooper should have stalled a bit before bringing in Reed. Yup, I think it just shows how badly Ventura and Cooper managed that 9th inning. Bringing in a guy cold with 2 men know base is a recipe for disaster. They should have let Humber go at least one more batter. Bringing Veal in still makes no sense to me.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 24, 2012 -> 11:14 PM) Reed with the most ridiculous victory in the season. Poor Jake...can't blame him for not wanting to stick around next year with how consistently our bullpen and offense has screwed him over this year. And Wilhelmsen was great for most of this year. Inexplicable. That's why baseball is so great....it's like ABC's Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay in the last 10 minutes, thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I am sure he will feel just fine sleeping on his mattress filled with $100 bills. Do you really thing the bullpen blowing games for him is going to be the reason why he leaves? It wouldn't have anything to do with some crazy team throwing 4 years of guaranteed money at him....nope....it will be because he is too devastated by our crummy bullpen to pitch another year in such squalor and filth.

Craziest 9th inning I have seen in a long long time, but in the end.....2.5 up!

One thing you have to love about this team is that you never feel like they are ever totally out of it. I may have lost a remote to the top of the 9th but in the end a win is a win.