greg775

He definitely should be the everyday third baseman again, which he appears to be. Glad Omar has been sitting. Have Omar take Gordon's spot once a week or so, not Morel's any more.

This quote is why players love playing for Ozzie Guillen and why fans IMO should appreciate Ozzie. He has common sense as related in tonight's AP game story: "“For some reason, the last couple of years in April, Juan struggled on the field, offensively and defensively,” Guillen said. “I keep saying, ’Never give up on Juan.’ Never will. The guy works hard, he shows up everyday to win. He is going to be in the lineup no matter what and that’s what he’s done throughout his career.”

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:42 AM) Like how high someone's BA is when stepping up against a Sox pitcher with 2 outs and a base open just for very STARTERS. You ever actually WATCH games, greg? Which matchup bothered you? Let's say Sergio in the ninth had a bad matchup with a hitter, would it mean anything?? No, you'd leave him in. Many thought Thornton could handle closer's role this year. That would mean facing a TON of righties, including pinch hitters in the ninth had he kept the job. Would percentages have mattered, stats?? No. He'd have stayed in the game had he not choked in the role. Sometimes you just have to have guys do the job no matter the stats. What situation are you talking about? Sometimes you don't want to put the tying run on base, etc.

You touched on everybody. Sergio is awesome. In a perfect world, would be nice not to walk anybody, though. I noted only 23,000 fans on a Friday night. Interesting.

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:26 AM) "To me stats are overrated, I don't like stats because I don't want to get a headache, have to look them all up." Not a DIRECT quote, but along the lines of what Ozzie just said. f***ing wow... this f***ing guy... QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:30 AM) Yeah, I'm a little pissed after seeing some bad baseball tonight, despite the win. Great to get a W tonight, but it shouldn't have been that hard. No way we should have needed Santos for a 4 out save, and there can be ramifications of that over the next few days. You think great managers like Lasorda and Earl Weaver and Joe Torre studied stats over and over? Doubtful. What stats are bothering you that he should know? Those that are mad at the use of Thornton ... you think we can pitch Sale every night? Cmon Ohman (sp) is still a hack. Sale can't pitch every night. If we're going to have a good bullpen, we need Thornton to do something unless we give up on him and Danks takes that role. 2.) Soria used to get five and six out saves all the time before he got s***ty. If he can't pitch Saturday, too bad. Sale can try to get it done if we are fortunate enough to be in a save situation vs. Verlander.

It's nice to have a third baseman who can play defense like Morel.

I'm starting to like Juan Pierre, a lot ... I'm serious.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 04:03 AM) Werent you and I agreeing earlier about benchin Dunn against lhp because of how ineffective he's been? Isn't that the same thing? Maybe, but he's been OK of late and Sale can't do it every night. Plus Sale was as bad as Matt at one point this season. Well not quite as bad as Matt but he wasn't automatic until recently. I think it's a bit different, but I recognize your point.

That must be a helluva thrill for Juan. He really tagged that one. Congrats on a rare homer, Mr. Pierre. We did need it!

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:59 AM) Why is Hawk going nuts about Pierre's catch? Any average LF would have had it. Just because Juan shuffle-steps to the ball and gets a bad read does not mean it was a great play. I disagree. It was a great catch. And what a home run by Juan!!! Yeah people DFA him.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:57 AM) You're right, 6 straight hard hit balls off of the same person without being removed = great managing. Matt Thornton is a high paid player on this team. You use him. Case closed IMO

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 4, 2011 -> 03:54 AM) NICE CATCH JUAN! Hey Ozzie, wake the f*** up! You guys that never blame the player slay me. Matt is the goat there, not Ozzie.

LOL at Matt. Nice catch, Juan.,

Nice job, Matt, thanks for playing (geezus). Get a clue, Thornton.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 08:11 PM) We aren't talking about some fringe guy just out of the minors here. This is one of the most prolific power hitters in the past decade. There is no such thing as "past the point of letting him play through it", unless we think he's done for, which I don't think is the case. You play him until he gets out of it. Sitting on the bench only prolongs the pain and gives him fewer good-Dunn days in the Sox lineup for the season. Not to say you don't give him a day off here and there, but this is a game after an off day. You play your starting lineup, and let guys like Dunn and Rios play through it until they get better. Dunn is far too valuable to become a platoon player, and I am damn near 100% sure he will come out of this, so I would play him full time until he does. I guess this is going to become a big issue. Poor Lillibridge. This isn't going to bode well for him cause people are still in love with the name "Dunn" despite his lousy production against lefties.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 07:02 PM) Jesus Greg, you don't f***ing get it. It's a slump. I'm going to assume that you looking at a sample size that is 3.4% the size of the sample size I'm looking at says you're wrong. The sample size I look at says that Adam Dunn is a good hitter who strikes out a lot, walks a lot, and hits a lot of home runs, making him a big time Three True Outcome player. You even thinking that he's going to be this bad for the rest of the season is a joke in itself. There's a stretch in 2008 from March 31 to May 12 - .209/.352/.400/.752, 36 G (all starts). Only 4 doubles and 6 home runs. Compared to those other stretches which I mentioned earlier, he hit for a bit of power and walked more, and hit for a slightly better average...that's about it. Shortly thereafter, from June 2 to June 30th, Dunn put up this - .155/.336/.393/.729, 26 G, 25 GS. Again, walking and running into a few, and nothing else whatsoever. Seriously...he had 13 hits that month - 3 singles, 5 doubles, 5 homers. That's two 25+ game slumps within the same half of the same season where Dunn wasn't garbage, but was not good at all. The difference between those and the slump he is currently in is that he found a way to make himself useful during those ones. He hasn't done that yet. It was also in the first half for those of you concerned about it being late in the year. He's pressing right now and it's causing him to miss a lot of balls and to be overly aggressive at the plate. I think he'll calm down and he'll figure it out and he'll end up OPSing around .925 in the second half. He'll realize that being a DH really isn't that bad and that you actually get to rest as opposed to beating up your body on a regular basis and it's simply a matter of keeping busy and warm while staying in tune with the game itself. BTW, his OPS in 2008 ended up at .898. Look I hope you are right. All I see is a big guy who strikes out a ton and hasn't earned a penny of his salary yet, has fewer homers than a stick named Lillibridge and makes me sick watching him on MLB.com.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 07:11 PM) I assume your YAY is sarcastic? Dunn needs to hit his way out of this slump, sitting on the bench after an off day isn't going to help anything. Dunn deserves to sit the bench tonight. How much more do you guys have to see to realize he can't hit a lefty? Does he have one hit against one yet? Oh he draws walks. Great. I really hope people don't f***ing rip Ozzie and get on Lilly if Lilly sucks tonight. Dunn is a fat piece of garbage. Sit him against lefties!!! He can play against righties and pinch hit against righties.

Cmon it's June 3. It's more than a slump. The man has been horrific. If he turns it around, great for our team, but I wouldn't assume anything.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 06:57 AM) That is certainly something that is going to have to be re-evaluated. I agree with Maggs. Look at the guys who won 300 games. Sabermetricians who look at the peripherals and don't care about wins will have a tough time convincing the Hall of Fame some pitcher with 120 wins yet good numbers in all those other categories deserves to get in. What's going to happen with the Hall of Fame will be no modern pitchers will get in cause nobody will be sniffing 300 wins anymore. I guess some dominant closers will get in.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 04:21 AM) I think James is one of the first to really point out the silliness of the win totals, to be honest. I love James so I'd like to read that. But what starting pitchers are going to get in the Hall of Fame without a TON of victories. It's still the reason guys get in the Hall who pitch. You think they are gonna put guys in with 150 wins just cause they have good peripherals?

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 3, 2011 -> 01:42 AM) I don't care how many wins Humber gets since pitcher's win totals are meaningless. He's got 7 quality starts out of 10. If he gets 20 more starts, I'll say he ends up with 20 out of 30 quality starts. If the offense and bullpen helps him, he'll probably end up with 13-15 wins. I still think the Sox win 88-90 games. If they come up one game short no matter what, Kenny's got to go. It's funny how pitchers' win totals are meaningless when for most of baseball history they have been THE STAT to judge the Hall of Fame worthiness of a starter. Meaningless? I beg to differ. I'd like Bill James' take on this.

This team is too unpredictable to predict. It's really all about pitching and defense. If the starters are good and Sale, Thornton, Crain and Sergio are as good as they have been of late, the team should finish over .500. We actually do need another reliable righty in the pen with Pena out of the mix right now, thankfully. It'd be a risk to put Jackson there, but it might be smart. Who will be the HR leader? Paul Konerko How many HRs will Dunn end up hitting? 10 How many wins will Humber have? 10 How many wins will the Sox end up with? 3 games over or under .500 What're your thoughts? It'd be nice to beat the Cubs in both series.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Jun 2, 2011 -> 02:50 PM) With so many people clamoring that moving Beckham around would hurt his bat (not to say that you are one of them, I don't know), how can it be a good idea to move Lillibridge to three positions each week? I don't see the logic behind some arguing that moving Beckham away from 2B would destroy him at the plate, yet having Lillibridge playing as a full-time player with no full-time position is a good idea. It seems like he's good defensively wherever they stick him, especially in the outfield. He seems well suited to move around, comfortable everywhere. I'd go for a major platoon with Rios and Pierre right now and give CQ a DH assignment once in a while over Dunn.

Dirk didn't sound too happy about the finger. I stick with my Heat in 5. Sounds like progress was made today regarding the negotiations. My guess is Stern wants to remain the commish with no strikes and stoppages and they solve the issue soon. Too much money out there. And players must realize some of these teams truly do appear to be struggling. Just look in the stands during the regular season at some teams.

Hawk is funny how on one home run he can use 3-4 of his catchphrases. Paulie 'put it on the board, yes.' Paulie got a 'mercy.' And he got the new line about the house in Scottsdale. I don't know if he added 'dont stop now boys' I do like Hawk.