greg775

I don't just mean at the top of the order. I mean 2 of our 9 hitters at any spots of the order.

This is not a flame but a question. Are Juan Pierre and Omar a good enough 1-2 punch for a playoff team? In other words can a team make the playoffs with those 2 guys in a major league lineup? They are good, but are they good enough??

QUOTE (11and1 @ Sep 11, 2010 -> 10:53 PM) Then you must like to lose. Kotsay is no prize--not by any stretch of the imagination. But Teahen is disastrously ill-equipped, and more importantly, a jinx. And I don't really believe in jinxes.....much. Over on another thread re Teahen someone posted our record with him in the game, and it sucks. He was not "directly" responsible for many of these losses; his mere prescence is enough to cost us games. Our miracle second half turnaround did not start until Teahen went on the DL. Ozzie wisely!?! benched him upon his return, and he was not in the lineup for the winning part of the last road trip. His performance against Detroit speaks for itself. Kotsay, by contrast, is just sort of...there. He doesn't help us nearly as much as he should, but losing is not automatic with him in the lineup. Don't believe in the jinx? Teahen still stinks. Not everyone agrees, but I still believe this is KW's worst signing ever. Most of the other candidates did not have the direct effect on a possible pennant that Teahen has, and he is now untradeable without choking down a big part of his ridiculous three year contract. I think everyone agrees Kotsay stinks. But some people are not admitting Teahen stinks, which baffles me. Teahen is just not very good. 5 mill a year? What a great life.

5-10 with 3 games to go. 8-10 would be bad 5-13 would be so bad it's unbelievable. 6-12 aint so good either.

Great comeback win. Good starting pitching and relief. Morel and AJ nice jobs.

QUOTE (Friend of Nordhagen @ Sep 11, 2010 -> 01:57 AM) For the second straight game, I'm checking midway -- and noticing the same thing. M. Ramirez = 0 hits. Let me say it again: since the papers noted that he had no extra-base hits -- and since Hawk noted that Walker had made some recommendations to help him drive the ball -- he is HITLESS. I think he's 0-13 now, and I'm serious. QUOTE (TitoMB @ Sep 11, 2010 -> 02:12 AM) Season. Over. I re-read the thread and most posts were pretty cool. I love those season.over posts. As far as the first post, there is no way in hell Manny Ramirez listened to Greg f***ing Walker so don't even hint Walker is to blame. Manny Ramirez doesn't take suggestions from hitting coaches, especially ones who hit like Greg Walker did in the bigs.

I agree 100 percent caufield. Nice post. So the question is ... did the Sox actually overachieve? I think our starters were good, not great. Bullpen same as last year. OK at times, actually very good during the 25-5, but overall unreliable. Hitters got off to that hellish start, totally unacceptable April and May. Did the team overachieve?

QUOTE (shrek @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 02:54 PM) Huh? Why would you worship him? I was just saying we shouldn't ignore the fact that he has been sub par this year because it has hurt us. I get your point Shrek. I was just responding to those who said I should stop discussing Bobby. My argument was if we are still talking about Thome (which has been a subject beaten to death) then I should still talk about Bobby, a subject equally beaten to death. I thought there was a double standard, people being allowed to continually say the same things about Thome and when I say the same things about Bobby, people blast me.

We actually may need his lefthanded bat. If we start Manny, Paulie, CQ, Lexi, Beckham, Rios, that's six of nine everyday players being righty. Add Castro instead of AJ that's seven. Add Tank or Omar that's eight. That leaves Juan as the only lefty and he can't drive in a run to save his life.

I say work with Viciedo all winter on his defense at third and he is the starting third baseman next year. Lillibridge proved hitting wise that you can reinvent yourself over the winter. Can't Viciedo do the same on the defensive end? Take him somewhere warm starting in midJanuary and work on his defense for a month til spring training starts. I would think the Tank can become an adequate third baseman. He already has to be as good as Teahen defensively. If Tank can't be adequate at third, then I guess we sink. But we already know Mark T can't be our regular third baseman if we hope to be a contender for the division title.

If the Sox lose one game to the Royals this weekend, they should have a ceremonial throwing in of the towel at the conclusion of said game.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) The problem with trading him away is that you need another team who wants him at that price. There's no reason to pay 1/2 of his deal to make him go away. That's what I hate about baseball contracts. Linebrink has not helped this team at all but we have to keep him around to pay him. Now the same with Teahen. Why not pay 1/2 his deal to make him go away? Don't you all agree his approach at the plate is horrible and he is a K waiting to happen at all times?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 04:14 PM) I think it's because they wanted to cut Uribe's salary from 2008 more than 20% if they were to bring him back...as they didn't envision paying starter money for a back-up (which, ironically, is exactly what they're now doing with Teahen). I know Buehrle offered at least $1 million of his money to the FO to keep Juancito around. I like your posts caufield, but I find this one hard to believe. Players don't donate a million dollars to keep anybody around but immediate family members. I mean, cmon. Juan Uribe? Offering a million of your own salary to keep a guy like Juan Uribe?

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 06:09 PM) I'm actually interested to see/hear if there will be any boos from some of the sox faithful. No boos. Manny is old news now and the team is close to being yesterday's news as well. If we don't sweep KC, as Minnie did with no problem, the yawns will continue. There will be plenty of boos for the team if we lose tonight, though. Minnie kicked the living s*** out of KC. If we play around with the Royals and lose, we will hear boos. But not for Manny. He's already been with the team for a week or so. He's old news.

How can a great country like ours have 10 percent unemployment? What the f*** is going on?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 11:46 AM) Hmmmm which one of these doesnt fit into the equation I think Garland is a good pitcher. All three of these guys would be decent additions to our staff.

I concede he seems like a great guy, but I don't know how he made it to the big leagues. His defense is pathetic. He thinks he's a power hitter swinging that massive Soriano-sized bat. He needs to re-do his game, the way Lilly apparently worked on his last offseason.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 04:32 AM) Konerko LOVES Thome, so it wouldn't be a ridiculous idea. If Konerko negotiates with the Twins, the Sox will have to overpay big time just to keep him. The PR hit the Sox take if Paulie signs with Minnesota should be monumental. You might as well just concede the title to the Twins if they have both Konerko and Thome sticking it to the Sox every chance they get.

For some reason that book does not interest me. I picture him being a big windbag.

Good. So you agree it's good for me to still talk about Bobby. I still worship Bobby in a non religious way.

Thanks SII. I most agree with your first point: You said: "Not really. I thought he was asking a legitimate question and trying to stir conversation." Dat's what I was trying to do. To me it is the single puzzling thing about our team.

Is that only one lefthanded hitter in your starting lineup? I could see some prolonged team slumps with little lefthanded pop.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2010 -> 01:59 AM) One of the more under-reported stories during ST was that Konerko said he thought it would be time to leave the organization after this season. I was amazed there wasn't a lot of talk about it in the media. Due to his success this season, I say its 50/50 if he returns. I'd love to see him back, but if he's going to get 3/30 this offseason, I wish him luck. I could see him leaving as well. He might actually want that change of scenery. The warm and fuzzies of 05 are over and he might want to go to a team with a better shot at winning. Our team is simply bizarre. That was one, weird season. We were s*** for so long then had one amazing stretch and then a return to mediocrity, even though that 7 game win streak wasn't exactly conceding. But after winning seven we immediately drop 3 to Detroit. Weird weird team. He might want to try things somewhere else. I hope he decides to sign his last contract in Chicago, however, but I could see why he would want a change of scenery. I'd really like to see this team keep the starting rotation intact and go young elsewhere. Is anybody else not in love with Pierre and Omar despite their terrific seasons? I wish Flowers was not a bust because that would be a spot we could get younger. It's imperative we get rid of Teahen somehow. No serious contender can win with a guy who is that much of a butcher in the infield. I could see keeping Quentin and Manny, even though Manny could lose interest as he did in LA. Rios, Paulie, Quentin, Manny, Alexei and Beckham on paper aren't a bad little group of hitters to go with all those (on paper) excellent pitchers. I still love Ozzie, but this team needs to get its s*** together. We're like 14 games over .500 which is darn good, but to me, it seems like we were much worse if that makes any sense. Will our rotation next year finally be dominant? Can Sale, Thornton and Sergio and Putz kick ass in the pen? I don't see why not, except they ain't done it yet. I also stil love Bobby but he also needs a change of scenery. I think he'll do well wherever he lands. Won't save every game but he'll do well. I hope any guys we lose DO NOT SIGN WITH CENTRAL DIVISION TEAMS.

QUOTE (shrek @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 04:00 PM) Thome and Jenks are completely different situations. Thome is a player that was very productive and that could have been had very cheaply, but the manager botched it an hindered the team. Jenks is an overpaid player who is under performing and isn't really helping the team. It is completely understandable that people defend Thome and bash Jenks. My point was that both topics are equally old news on here.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) You are referring to Jimmy Piersall, one time great outfielder. He did so much crazy s***, you should read about him. He once got kicked out of a game when he ran back and forth in CF while Ted Williams was at bat. He got in a fight with Billy Martin BEFORE a game, got ejected once and then went and changed clothes, got into a seat behind the plate and started heckling the ump! And that's just scratching the surface. After one rant on a telecast Harry turned to him and said, "Jimmy, you're nuts." and Piersall said "Yep, and I've got the papers to prove it." He was sent to the psychiatric ward a few times in his career. Good stuff. But I'm actually not referring to Jimmy. Harry had another color man who took the fall for the two being very critical. He wasn't a former player, either. The two had a great conversation during a rain delay and after the season that color man never came back.