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Hard to answer that question. Glad we don't have to choose.

THe premise of the post was how difficult it is to watch him pitch. You have to admit it is pretty maddening watching him pitch. I wonder why more pitchers don't copy Mark B and get the ball and deliver it. I thought Oz gave a good quote in the AP story: “He’s got to figure it out,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “It was a pretty bad game, walking people, not getting guys out. He walked the leadoff guy in like three different innings.” Guillen said he has not decided whether Contreras will remain part of the rotation. “I felt fine,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “The last three innings, I left the ball up and they took advantage. That’s when the runs came.”

I also assumed you were joking. MacDougal turned 32 in March. His Wikipedia entry had some interesting comments: "A former star pitcher for Wake Forest University, MacDougal began his career as a starting pitcher, but suffered a fractured skull late in the 2001 season when he was struck in the head by a bat that had escaped from the hand of Carlos Beltrán. He lost feeling in his right arm and was unable to pitch for three months." -- Man that was a tough break. The bat hit him in the head. Wow. I hadn't heard that story before, but I'm sure I'm just out of the loop. "In 2003, the Kansas City Royals turned him into a closer. He recorded 24 saves by mid-season and made the American League All-Star team." -- Probably the best year of his life. 2003. "MacDougal struggled with flu-like symptoms in spring training in 2004, causing him to lose weight and, as a result, to lose velocity off his fastball, which had been clocked as high as 103 miles per hour. He lost his job as the Royals' closer to Jeremy Affeldt and spent much of the 2004 season in the minor leagues. However, early in 2005, he was reinstalled as the closer after Affeldt himself was injured." -- Tough break for MacDougal getting the bad case of the bug, but Jeremy Affeltdt? Wow. "MacDougal battled injuries again in 2006, starting the season on the DL and not returning to the field until mid July. After only about a week after his first appearance of the year, he was traded for minor-league pitchers Tyler Lumsden and Dan Cortes by the Chicago White Sox on July 24, 2006. [1]. The addition of MacDougal was to be a move to bolster the White Sox bullpen as they vied for playoff contention, and while the team ended up missing the playoffs, MacDougal was quite effective in his 25 appearances. Combining his appearances with both teams, he finished the year with a 1.55 ERA. MacDougal's 2006 performance earned him a new three-year deal with the White Sox." -- That dreaded 3 year deal. "His nickname is 'Mac the 9th." -- If I was him, I'd ask to be a starter. What does he have to lose? Send him to Class A and try to reinvent his game.

Isn't it amazing when a guy is hot like Paulie it seems like he's confidently attacking the ball and then a guy is scuffling so bad like Lexi it seems like there's no way in hell he's gonna get a hit.

Was everybody also tired of Cabrera, Boone Logan? I'd be shocked if Swisher was that bad a clubhouse influence, but it's obvious he made a big mistake moping or doing whatever he did to anger Oz when Oz finally wisely gave up on him in September.

Gotta love Gavin striking out seven and walking none and not allowing a run til the late bomb. Nice outing. Forgot to mention that comment was in Mark Gonzales' game story on today's rout.

Is anybody else getting excited about Paulie's production so far as well? I almost started a Paulie thread but don't want to hex him. Also it seems AJP and Thome have hit well the days after their days off. I'm all for resting them against some lefties.

Swisher has not hit on this current Yankee homestand after his torrid start.

I don't mind seeing AJP and Thome get rested against lefties sometimes. Nice job CQ! Mark, wow! Anybody worried about Alexei? He looks almost sad when he makes the out. Paulie!!!

He's such a f***ing good pitcher. Thanx for your excellence, mark.

Somebody jinxed us on one of these threads yesterday saying we were going to sweep. Not quite. What a crappy way to lose, blowing a nice lead on the road.

Sad about Gordon. He certainly is off to a terrible start to his career. Most in KC thought he'd be the next Brett.

Nice to have Longoria absent though you hate to wish a death in the family on anybody. Nice to see Danks continue to excel. Nice to see Dye continue to excel and tie Ron Kittle for ninth on the team's all time HR list. Now it's Colon v. Shields in Game Two.

I find it surprising there was so much negativity in the Associated Press article about our victory tonight. The Rays are the AL champs and they had as frustrating a night as the Sox hitters did. By FRED GOODALL AP Sports Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Ozzie Guillen doesn’t know what it is about Tropicana Field. His Chicago White Sox just don’t seem to be able to score a lot of runs in the domed stadium. Even on a night when they had 14 hits, including Jermaine Dye’s two-run homer that highlighted a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. “It’s hard to believe,” Guillen said Thursday night, noting the problems his team had here last season, including a pair of losses to the AL champions in the opening round of the playoffs. “We come in here and get hits, and you only score three runs. ... It’s kind of like: ’There we go again.’ It’s something about this ballpark, I guess.” John Danks (1-0) pitched six strong innings, limiting the Rays to two hits and had a shutout until Carlos Pena homered with one out in the sixth. Dioner Navarro had the other hit off the left-hander, a two-out single in the second inning. Dye, who was 3-for-5, homered off Jeff Niemann (0-2) in the second. The White Sox wasted several opportunities to break the game open against the right-hander, including the sixth, when they loaded the bases with one out and failed to score. Chicago went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position, and only one of the hits — Josh Field’s infield single in the ninth — produced a run for a 3-1 lead. The Rays, who have lost three straight, struggled in key situations, too. They were 0-for-8 against Danks and relievers Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton, who escaped jams in the seventh and eighth with the tying run on second base. “Every run is important in this ballpark. That team led the league in comeback wins last year, and you can see why,” Guillen said. “They get guys on bases. They steal bases. They make a lot of things happen.” Though not lately. Tampa Bay loaded the bases in the ninth against closer Bobby Jenks on a single, an error and a walk. Carl Crawford grounded into a force play, driving in a run before Jenks got his third save when Gabe Gross grounded to first. “We’re just not on top of our game offensively,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon, who has watched his team struggle since having 17 hits in consecutive games and scoring 26 runs in victories Sunday and Monday over Baltimore and the New York Yankees. Danks walked four and struck out eight and improved to 4-1 against the Rays, with all four of the victories coming at Tropicana Field. Pena’s homer, the slugger’s fourth in five days, is the only run Danks has allowed in 12 innings this season. Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon was ejected during the sixth inning for arguing an umpire’s decision. Maddon contended that Dye hit a grounder fair to third base rather than fouled the ball off his foot. The player hopped and limped out of the batter’s box as if the ball hit his foot before rolling up the third base line, where Willy Aybar fielded it and threw to first for the apparent out. Dye complained, asking plate umpire Brian Gorman to look at his left shoe. The umpire crew huddled briefly, then inspected the ball and ruled it a foul. Maddon thought he had a good argument. “You can’t use the mark on the ball as a review because some players use black bats. Furthermore, the guy was wearing gray shoes. So it was pretty difficult to get a black mark on the ball from a gray shoe,” the manager said. “And the last point I made is, none of them saw it. None of them called foul ball.” Television replays appeared to confirm the ball struck Dye’s shoe. Niemann struggled in his first start of the season last week, allowing five first-inning runs, including Melvin Mora’s grand slam, in a 6-0 loss at Baltimore. He got off to a better start Thursday night, fanning two in a one-two-three first. But he walked Jim Thome leading off the second and then gave up the 301st home run of Dye’s career. A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez singled with one out, then advanced on a wild pitch before the Sox stranded them scoring position. Niemann also worked out of tight spots in the fourth and fifth innings to keep Tampa Bay in the game. “Overall, it was a decent start, other than the one pitch,” Niemann said. “But that one pitch was enough to beat us.” Notes: White Sox 2B Chris Getz was back in the lineup after missing three games with a bruised right triceps. ... Rays 3B Evan Longoria missed his second straight game because of a death in the family. He’s expected to rejoin the team on Friday. ... Injured Rays RHP Jason Isringhausen is scheduled to pitch two innings in extended spring training Saturday, then head to Double-A Montgomery on Monday. The plan is for him to pitch a couple of times there, then head to Triple-A Durham. ... Dye’s homer was his 140th since joining the White Sox in 2005 and moved him into a tie with Ron Kittle for ninth on Chicago’s career list. ... Pena has four homers and nine RBIs in his last five games. ... Attendance was 13,803. The Rays drew 99,117 for a three-game series against the Yankees that ended Wednesday.

I thought that was kind of a contrived story about the racism. It implied heavily that everybody knows Wrigley crowds are racist. I find it hard to believe in this day and age fans at Wrigley would laugh and condone racist jokes by people sitting in their section. I would think if the paper wanted a story on racism they probably should have spent a lot more time on it and polled players on many teams about playing in Wrigley and the Cell and asking them if they had any problems. And also go in the stands and talk to some fans in both ballparks and get some off the record comments if fans didn't want to go on the record. I am not a Cub fan, but I find it hard to believe that park is as racist as the article implied.

Do any of you think Girardi will be first manager fired this season?

a.) Interesting how Minnesota is off to a blah start, including dropping a lot of early games in the Dome. Thanks to the Blue Jays for kicking their ass. Do they miss Mauer this much? Or is it simply a slow start? The magic doesn't seem to be there out of the gate. Liriano 0-3 is pretty wild in itself. b.) Interesting how Cleveland is off to a pretty blah start. Lee pitched better today. Chicago, Detroit and KC at 5-4 and playing reasonably well. Do you all think Minnie will be rejuvenated once Mauer returns? Do you think Cleveland will suck all year? Do these first nine games mean anything in terms of who our prime Central adversaries will be this season?

Does Lillebridge deserve to be on a big league roster? If I spelled his name wrong, too bad.

Hopefully we'll play .500 on the road and start winning series at home. That said ... just end the MacDougal experiment. Just kick him out the door and let the Yankess pick him up so he can finally rejuvenate like Swisher.

Joe Crede. Always was good third baseman who was streaky at the plate.

Manny must be one of those zany interviews. That was a wild interview about his love for Cleveland. I can't see it happening. I'll have to see it to believe it in terms of him returning there. That will be interesting to see where Thome concludes his career. On a side note, hard to believe Big Hurt still has no job. I guess the fact he can't run has ended Hurt's career. He'd have to hit it off the wall to get a double and could never at this point score on a single if he's on second base.

That is cool. Sis is an emotional fan. Nice. It's also nice to see Josh starting off pretty well. If he keeps it up, he's gonna have a job for a while in the big leagues.

First we hated on Wise; now Owens. Let's see how it plays out. My god. BA will be given the chance. Hopefully he'll do well.

Yes I am. Because he thoroughly, completely sucked. There was no reason in the world to bring him back. He was horses***. He also acted like a pussy down the stretch when Oz wisely benched his ass. I would never blast KW for trading him even if he hits .395 this year. He was scum on the White Sox.

Wow, Carlos has another big game. Paulie and Dye. Love it. We win on a day the pitching is suspect. 1-0 on the road. Gotta love it.