greg775

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 08:45 PM) And look what has happened already in reality. Garcia out for the season, Jones out for an extended period dramatically weakening the bullpen, Lindstrom injured most of ST and poor out of the gates, Beckham hurt and hitting below .200 at AA in rehab stint, Semien seeming very much not ready, Eaton banged up, the one bullpen pitcher we did spend money on disappointing, Abreu needing coaching even about basic footwork at 1b. A couple guys have achieved, Gillaspie and Flowers and Viciedo for example, but this team is a really weak team right now. They might not be by the end of the season as these guys grow up, but this is a basement team right now. A couple guys overachieving would almost always be balanced by a couple guys struggling, and now we've got one of our pieces that destroyed his shoulder on a dive to boot. I am of the belief we could have an excellent pitching staff right now with the right bit of tinkering last offseason.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 08:20 PM) They are 2 games out of first...and 4th in their division, 0.5 games out of last. I guess overachieving isn't on the table in sports nowadays. If we had gotten a good starter instead of that stiff Paulino we'd have a rotation of Danks, Sale, Q, good pitcher. Not half bad. Then acquire a couple good relievers (Sox had the money) and let some guys overachieve. But no. We suck on paper so we have to suck again this year is how some people seem to feel.

Semien, but we obviously lose big again.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 02:30 PM) Hating him forever? Why do people "hate" him at all? So ridiculous. Plenty of other people in the world to hate other than a baseball player that has given his all and been a good teammate. Greg you bend over backwards to defend PK who hasn't even had as good of a career as Dunn has. Stop posting for awhile champ, you are embarrassing yourself. Konerko has had a much better career than Dunn. Is that even up for debate?

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 15, 2014 -> 06:32 PM) Did you switch teams on us, greg? Jake, with all due respect, how could you read that sentence and not realize I'm a Sox fan? That sentence doesn't come close to indicating I am a Royals fan.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 04:33 PM) With Beckham now rehabbing in AA and Semien going cold, I'm all in favor of handing the job to Beckham one more time and sticking Semien in Charlotte. I think Semien's process at the ML level has been really good, some time in AAA should boost his confidence and get him in a groove. Beckham gets one more hail mary, but I think he ultimately gets waiver-traded or DFA'd/ Stats don't lie. I would have cursed this post earlier but now it's accurate. It's Beckham time as soon as possible. Anytime a player dips under .200 there's a problem.

He's got to go. Geez there has to be somebody who can take the hill as a fifth starter who doesn't get lit up like this. Are there any Freddie Garcia reclamation projects pitching in independent ball? This is embarrassing to trot him out there as an MLB starter.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 01:27 AM) Abreu and Semien have been automatic outs as well. Oh well, my guy Semien is under .200. Will make it easy for me to take when Becks replaces him. It amazes me how our prospects struggle so much at first. Do all prospects struggle like this? Now Abreu isn't hitting. 1 for 23 and down to .213.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:22 PM) Yes. When Robin himself pitched an inning of scoreless ball for the Dodgers in 2004. Was it a tie game? I'm talking about a tie game not when one team is getting drilled 15-2 and a position player pitches. QUOTE (Vance Law @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) It happens multiple times pretty much every year in the major leagues. Last year Casper Wells pitched an inning for us. After we released him and the Phillies picked him up, he pitched in a game for them. In 2012 Dewayne Wise pitched an inning for us. He had, earlier in the year, pitched in a game for the Yankees when he was with them. Again, in tie games?? I disagree it happens every year. Blowouts, sure. QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) Instead of talking about how embarrassing it was, tell us how you would have managed that game differently so that the Sox wouldn't have run out of pitchers and we will tell you how it would be perceived on this site. Otherwise, it's empty criticism and you're not going to be taken seriously. I defer to the poster who gave you an example. But I would have done what Stoney suggested. Get a pitcher to volunteer to take one for the team. A starter. QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 09:18 PM) MLB network guys criticized Robin but you are right too. We need a bullpen that can throw strikes. We had like 11 walks? Ridiculous Hmmm, MLB agrees with me? Not all my positions are that outlandish. Seriously, folks, I find it disturbing that a lot of posters seem to again have just written off the entire season and Robin gets another free pass. So we are in a rebuild and pretty soon we're going to be hoping for all losses again. Notice we haven't won since the "give-up" game. I guess any team that is trotting Paulino out there as a starter perhaps really has given up on winning a very very mediocre division. I'm very frustrated by that "give up" game but I'll drop it if you all will consider the topic and the thread over and done with.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:10 PM) How about two teams running out of pitchers? http://content.usatoday.com/communities/da.../1#.U1GGkym9LCQ Really Greg, you are being ridiculous about this. Bottom line is, you use your bullpen to win, you aren't supposed to plan for extra innings when you are winning in the 8th You found an example. Thanks. QUOTE (MEANS @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:13 PM) so u started a thread b/c you can't remembered or do some research on your own? WHO CARES I thought it was an embarrassing mistake for a manager. When you trot a position player out there you are basically conceding a game and we were in first place at the time.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 08:31 PM) Danks pitched that night and was not eligible to pitch again because of baseball rules. Johnson pitched the night before and was entirely unavailable. So... -Sale was going to start the next day - do you want him throwing 4 innings in a rushed warm up session in a game that can end at any second, thus making him unavailable to start last nights game? -Do you want to throw Paulino in there, in a rushed warm up session, which then makes him unavailable for Friday night and forces someone like Dylan Axelrod to start? -Do you want to throw Jose Quintana, in a rushed warm up session, and then take him out of commission for Saturday's game with Axelrod or Rienzo pitching that game, or a young arm in Erik Johnson throwing on short rest? C'mon greg. Put some blame on the players. If this were your boy Ozzie, you'd have put this all on the pitchers like you should be because they walked 15 batters. My point is I don't remember this ever happening? If anybody can give me an example of a team throwing an infielder out there in a tie game, I'm listening.I'm saying this is a monumental managing mistake. Teams just don't do this.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 06:55 PM) It's really easy to second guess. It was a low-risk, high reward type move. He's being paid $1.75 million this year and he's got a team option next year with a $250k buyout. That's chump change for a guy who could possibly eat 160-170 innings for you (which Paulino still can do). Has Jon Garland retired yet? I'd rather find him and let him eat 150 innings than watch Paulino again.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Apr 16, 2014 -> 03:21 PM) Dunn's current production? He's playing himself into what will be roughly a 4 year..mmm...56M deal. Roughly What GM would risk that with his fanbase? One year 2 million is about right if his career must go on. QUOTE (southside hitman @ Apr 16, 2014 -> 04:15 PM) His small sample size slashline of .294/.468/.618 was my dream when we signed him, but not sustainable now. However, I think he'll settle in at .240/.375/.530ish and net a prospect or two at the deadline for a power hungry club. Glad he is shutting up the off-season haters. Shutting up the haters? You don't think Adam Dunn has done enough bad things in the batters box for Sox fans to "hate" him forever?

What scout(s) thought it would be a good idea to acquire Paulino? Yes I want heads to roll over that acquisition. A common fan could tell you that was a bad idea.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 01:28 PM) I especially like all the "Robin is the worst," "Robin has no business managing," "Robin never does anything right why is he still here" when the last manager made just as many or more reprehensible moves, but because the Sox had an incredible year all around in 2005, he gets a free pass as a result. All managers will look bad when their players fail, and all managers will look good when their players succeed. There are questionable moves that have been made, but someone is going to have a coronary if they continue to analyze every single move he makes under a microscope. The point of the thread is he ran out of pitchers which is flat out embarrassing if he didn't have a starter willing to help out in a pinch. I still would like to know if Robin EVER played in a game in which his manager ran out of fricking pitchers. Sad to just flat out forfeit a home game as the Sox did. But no games matter this year anyway I guess is management's mantra.

Rock, please ask your management friends why they are laughing off this season when every other team in our division is just as rotten? Do they have something against winning a crappy division? Just because we'd get killed in the playoffs doesn't seem to me a good enough reason to not take this mediocre division in which all the teams are screaming they are .500 at best. If the Sox had a bullpen better than Class A level they'd be 10-6 right now at the minimum and right there.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 04:21 AM) How old is he and how long do we have him? They could give two s***s about 2014 and that's a quote from someone in management. You have the word from management, so what's the big picture? Are the Sox supposed to have a dominant rotation in 3-4 years and have all the position players set by then? I thought most of our minor league outfielders are busts. If that's true, the outfield still needs to be rebuilt with only Eaton and maybe Garcia suitable fixtures. I guess we have a minor league shortstop phenom, right? We have a third baseman in Davidson. Semien is future second baseman. Abreu at first. We have no catcher right now. We have a bullpen that can be built in free agency year to year i guess. But what is management's plan? Just to keep sucking and drafting good starting pitchers and eventually build a kick-ass starting rotation? It appears to me defense is not a priority of management.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 02:24 PM) Semien now hitting .206 with a .275 OBP and on pace to whiff 205 times. If Beckham did this, posters would be calling for his release. Semien does it, he's a professional hitter with nothing to prove in the minor leagues. LMAO It looked like he was going to hit acceptably and make us clamor to get rid of Beckham once and for all, but you are right, at this rate he'll be sent down and nobody will care. He passes the eye test, but numbers don't lie. If he's hitting .200 and change none of us will care when he gets the demotion.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 07:00 PM) Yes, many other forms of live entertainment have gotten disproportionately expensive recently. I don't do many of those things as well, because the cost is outsized to the value I perceive of the product. Concerts, Great America, the Zoo...everything. In the early 2000s, I made about half the money I make now but I found a way to go to about 20 games a year. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I make it to one, even though I have way, way more money. Why? Because my HOME entertainment options are way better. I have better television programming alternatives, I have a better internet. I also now have a high definition huge TV and a DVR to cut out commercials. Personally, I don't go to White Sox games anymore largely because I can watch them on crystal clear high definition television - without commercials - for zero cost. Suddenly, an all night commitment...getting to the ballpark.....all night there.... at $30-$40 plus food becomes a whenever-I-want-thing for 60 minutes at no money. It would be substantially more attractive to me if the cost was more in line with what I perceive the value to me to be. That's just me, though. It could be different for different people. However, if you have a family of four, and the average cost to get them all into the ballpark is $25-$40 a ticket....plus other stuff.....for just a regular season ball game....that would seem to me to be very outsized from what most people can afford to blow on a couple hours of entertainment. Hibbard's last two paragraphs are golden in my opinion I think a lot of people have the exact same philosophy. Hibbard you hit the nail on the head. You seem brilliant. You are a Brother Rice grad right? No wonder.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 18, 2014 -> 03:06 AM) We aren't contending in 2014. That's a fact. It's sad to waste another year of Sale excellence then. If the Sox had any kind of bullpen at all, the team would be having an amazing April in terms of overall record. Since the team in no way shape or form can contend, I still don't know why we even pitch Sale once more than every couple weeks. If we can't contend, why put innings on that golden arm?

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 09:45 PM) I believe Ozzie said that he was going to send Pablo Ozuna out there in Game 3 of the World Series. Can you imagine if they lost that game? That would be infuriating. In any event, I have to agree, I hate forfeiting a game, which is what we did last night when putting Garcia on the mound. That's what I'm so mad about. The Sox elected to forfeit the game basically in the 14th by bringing in a guy you could hit. Even Stoney said this is the time a starter has to volunteer to pitch for the good of the team.

Red Sox fans are annoying. Why are there so many in the Cell? Seems like a series Sox shoulda won 2 or 3 not just one. Maybe it's just me thinking that.

Kill or move this negative thread if you wish, but last night after watching the game on MLB.com for a few hours, I found myself FURIOUS that Robin gave away a baseball game. Normally you can blame the manager, but you can't, if you know what I mean. Their decisions affect the outcomes of every game, but last night ... running out of pitchers in a tie game?? Robin Ventura single-handedly gave Boston the game by having to pitch L. Garcia in a tie game. It was one game on the schedule gift wrapped and deposited in the Sox L column of the ledger. All because of the manager. My question is: Are you as mad as me?? And my question for Mr. Ventura is ... in your long baseball career, did your manager on any level ever run out of pitchers in a tie game where you had to gift wrap the game for the opposing team by pitching a fricking infielder??? Didn't think so. Congratulations on being the first that anybody can remember. Perhaps he was upset at all the walks, but you don't throw an infielder in a tie game. How bout asking for a volunteer from the starting staff to pitch? I am disgusted by last night. Throwing a damn infielder in the 14th inning? My god. I didn't see the Red Sox running out of pitchers.

QUOTE (PorkChopExpress @ Apr 17, 2014 -> 06:19 PM) What Kenny Said: "All he has to do is call." What Kenny was thinking: "All he has to do is call and order tickets like anyone else." Yeah, Kenny owes Ozzie nothing. The shots I saw of Kenny after the WS victory were of his celebrating pretty wildly. Ozzie had a lot to do with the best period of Kenny's professional life. That wasn't all Kenny, folks.

I'll go with Flowers for some reason.