greg775

That explains a lot to me, jim. Thanks a lot for the long post. I liked it.

I don't like the fact the Tigers are playing with the house's money. They have the healthy lead on us and can play loose. If they lose every game they still have first place. If they kick our ass, they are starting to pull way away. If we win this series, we'll certainly have earned it. It ain't gonna be easy with those assholes playing with nothing to lose.

By no means am I blaming Coop, but isn't it amazing how after last season the Yankees just had to have Coop. I'm sure nobody is clamoring to steal him away, now. And I am NOT blaming him. I think he's great. But when players don't perform, things change in a hurry. Is it just me, or do our starters, with the exception of Jose, not strike anybody out? Is this a sign of bad things to come? Why don't we get many K's?

Amen, Jim.

I think we'll win the wild card with a strong September. Do you think our starting pitching "problems" stem from the fact four of the five starters aren't striking out anybody to speak of? Are you alarmed at our lack of power pitching? No K's mean trouble?

Do we have any other catchers in the system who could be brought up in place of Widger, who has been pretty horrid? Do we ever win when Widge catches?

But it's still a catch 22. Why can't the guy Ozzie brings in from the bullpen get the job done? If the player (pitcher) comes through, we're not talking about this.

I'm saying the big picture is more important than "game strategy." You think if we examined Cox's games we couldn't find screw ups aplenty? The players like playing for Oz apparently and his enthusiasm is a big reason we kicked ass last year and if not for Detroit would have nothing to complain about yet this year despite a team that has a weak bullpen (except for Bobby) and some everyday personnel problems (no bat in cf; starting pitching being good, not great this year). I would take Oz over Cox. The only guy I might want instead of Oz is Piniella and like any manager he doesn't win when he doesn't have talent either.

Uh oh, better not let the national media get hold of this. Like you said, the animal cruelty people will be on fire. If this gets in the papers, look out. There will be protests at the Cell. Just kidding, but this is the world we live in now. Society for the protection of ants will be aghast.

Bobby Cox is so old our players would lose games out of boredom just looking at that guy.

Let's face it. The pathetic pathetic Royals are going to lose all 4 to the Tigers and Detroit's machine is gonna keep rolling. Hopefully we can win 2 of 3 somehow in NY and keep this thing under 5-6 games. As far as Ozzie ... players win games. Name another manager you'd rather have besides Torre, maybe. The big bad Yankees haven't exactly been dynastic under Torre. Ozzie is as good as anybody out there. La Russa? Give me a break. Dusty? Piniella? They are all the same. ROYALS SUCK GO SOX!

If we trade a starter, it better be Vaz. We do not need to be trading Freddie or Garland.

You are right balta, I just hope the second half doesn't show our guys have tired arms. Hope that isn't the case.

i was tempted to start a new thread on this but was too mad to do so. The Tigers are 10-0 versus the Royals. The Royals now that they are done playing the NL will probably resume their pursuit of one of the worst records in history. Det. is taking care of business against KC and we got to play the Yankees. This is not shaping up well to start the second half. All because of horses*** KC, who we can't seem to sweep when we play 'em. GOSOX

Fair point, but it's usually all about the benjamins. In fact it's almost always about the benjamins, though Paulie did give up an extra million to stay in Chicago.

It's a good idea to keep a catcher available for extra innings. You got to save a player or two for extra inns and it's wise to save a catcher. Did Garner also save a catcher? I bet he did.

Just like the AL has been lucky in the past 10 games, right? It's not luck when you don't give up and make things happen. Paulie's hit was huge as were the two that followed. Paulie could have popped up or tapped to the pitcher like the two guys before him did. He didn't. Way to go Paulie! Go Ozzieball, AL wins.

Shoota if you want Prior you are an alarmist. He's too injury prone. Relax our rotation is awesome.

Then you would be stupid. You get a spot on the team; you take it. You enjoy it and soak in the fun. Guys who turn down spots are losers. Buehrle is a winner.

Cmon shoota. Get a grip. Mark B, Contreras, Freddy, Jon and Vazzy is a GREAT rotation. And McCarthy is there in case of injury. They have been inconsistent, but there is no reason to replace any one of those guys!!! Shoota tell me which one of our five starters you want to be replaced and with whom? You probably wish we woulda got Weaver, right?

You are wrong about that. I thoroughly enjoyed the run and though I was concerned big time about Cleveland catching us, I was not wanting to run the players out of town. The way I see this year is ... the Sox are going to be in the race all year long and win a ton of games, probably a couple less than last year. If somehow Detroit can keep this up, Detroit will win the division. However, if Detroit stumbles some and Detroit simply has to hit a tough stretch at some point, we will again win the division. If Detroit wins it, then we'll just have to eke out a wild card spot and take care of business in the postseason. KW will be making some moves. Bank on it.

How bout Jones for McCarthy or Garland? One or the other.

Wakefield sucks. Some of the posters on this board would bury him if he was a White Sox because of his inconsistency.

I would leave the starting pitching as is. On paper it's a World Series winning staff. It has to be allowed to play out. If it fails then too bad. That's baseball. We still could use some relief help obviously. There's no way the starting pitching staff should be changed unless injury forces one of the regular starters to be shut down. On paper it's a great staff.

Exactly. Your scenario could happen but how the hell do we know Detroit is going to keep blazing through everybody? If the Tigers do, they are gonna win 110 games and nobody will be within 9 games of Det.