greg775

I was going to make a new thread on this but I don't want to get ripped for it, so I'll ask this in here. I ask it humbly, not trying to be a dick. Are the Sox choking? I realize this is the same scenario sort of as 2005 when we blew the lead and I realize our highest lead was only 3 games this time instead of 11 like in '05, but I ask again ... are the Sox choking? ARGUMENTS FOR YES SOX ARE CHOKING • Our starters are not going deep into games with the sole exception of Sale. • Our offense is pretty much miserable, save for the solo home run, which is OK if you want to win once every six or seven games. • Our manager seems to have completely changed his managing mojo. Early in the year he played the same lineup every day, he never pinch hit for anybody, he ran our starters out there very deep into games, he used our relievers for a full inning at a time. Now he is pinch hitting a lot, he is mixing and matching like a diabolical chemist, he is making more moves than John Travolta 30 years ago. Many of the moves are flopping which is to be expected cause there are so frickin many of them. ARGUMENTS FOR NO SOX ARE NOT CHOKING • Our fans in not showing up seem to back the notion we just don't have what it takes to win a division. Not enough good players. • The Royals are not that bad a team. Hey, they get up for the Sox and beat us fair and square. And the fact we can't beat them again shows we're just not that good. • The team has so many injuries Robin has to mix and match and he's a genius for getting us this far. This was a .500 team at best and it's still probably going to finish over .500 even though it can't seem to win a series against anybody but Minnesota. So not only did Sox not choke, they overachieved. So are the Sox choking? Yes or no?? To not be on the fence, I'll say I think there is some choke in our team. Not all choking but some gagging, yes.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 26, 2012 -> 12:19 AM) f*** you chen. seriously. f*** you Sox should be embarrassed they can't hit hacks named Chen, Guthrie and Hochevar.And it doesn't help that KC only gets "up" to play the White Sox. Our team doesn't care that the opponent wants to beat its ass. We sleepwalk; they are fired up and they kick our butts.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 10:19 PM) How is it any less tough to win for the other team? We might have had 20,000 fans tonight who actually cared that the Sox WERE a game up on Detroit. QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 10:37 PM) This. Also seems we do zero damage with 2-0 counts. Frustrating. Our hitters refuse to be professional hitters and drill the ball where it is pitched. As we all know, it's home run or nothing. Remember how impressed everybody was the first half when the Sox at times took the ball to the opposite field? QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 11:02 PM) Less than 14k at the game today....wow Putrid. This makes you wonder if the Sox don't need to build a stadium somewhere else. Is there any room downtown? or by the lake? This is a f***ing joke. QUOTE (SouthSidePride05 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 11:22 PM) And today was beautiful! According to the seat map, it doesn't look much better for the remaining homes games either. I think the lack of a real home field advantage in the last week will play a big factor in us not making the playoffs. If this was anywhere else (except Florida), there would be 35,000 or more fans the entire week giving the team a huge push down the final stretch. Instead of the players feeling energized, they're presumably feeling disheartened and depressed with only 13K fans there. This is embarrassing. Embarrassing. The fans NEVER embraced this team. Never. That said, I do understand that the White Sox ridiculous fees for parking, etc., have priced out much of our fanbase. I'll never discount that. Build a new park and sell all the seats to the rich. The hardworking southsider can't afford the cost of parking and tickets unless they wanna sit in seats where you can't see the ball way up top.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 09:15 PM) HUH? They specifically played the game to honor his wishes NOT to be put in a position to decide whether he could play or not after sundown. If you want to take issue, it should be with the very first page of this thread. The Dodgers, back in the day, faced the exact same issue with Sandy Koufax. How else should I put it? They put winning the game during the daytime as a priority over the likelihood of having to play Lopez or Olmedo at night at it had nothing to do with religious observances or Steve Stone broadcasting either? Is that better? Hasn't anyone else seen Chariots of Fire? It's tough to sweep a team at night then in a matinee. We should have played it at night. Sad.

"Wasted a huge opportunity" ... Caufield how many times could you have written that the past month? The Sox are only going to make the playoffs if Detroit lets them. That's the only way. This team has proven it is not capable of doing it on its own. It's a flawed, beat-up baseball team. It's a miracle the team is 10 over .500. Robin is manager of the year by far.

QUOTE (Noonskadoodle @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 10:00 PM) If the Tigers fail to win tonight you would have to think that will be pretty deflating to their confidence. KC could certainly hit Anibal around a bit. Chen is disgracefully bad. He has the white Sox number, nobody else's.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 07:02 PM) Tigers next five games, they face Chen, Guthrie, Mendoza, Diamond, and Walters. They should be able to lose 2 or 3 of those....hopefully. The Royals starters are garbage.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 09:54 PM) Why not bat Dewayne Wise in that situation? I would have probably had him hit for Alexei, but certainly for Beckham. Is something wrong with Wise? He's been a very clutch hitter for us since coming over. Hasn't Beckham had a decent batting average the last few weeks? I was half expecting him to bash a single to right center. Does anybody besides Rios go the other way any more? Remember the first half when the Sox were hitting the ball where it was pitched a lot?

Are you mad that we don't put runners on base?

Lousy at bat by Beckham. Thanks, Gordon. Solo home runs don't cut it, folks. Now put somebody on base once in a while and hit three home runs and we might have a blowout win in our lifetimes again. Let's face it. We don't deserve the playoffs. If we get in, fine. But we are not a playoff team. Or we are a weak excuse for a playoff team. Case closed.

It'd be great if Chen could beat Detroit. I won't give my feeling about the game on here, sparing u all.

QUOTE (KG#1 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 09:21 PM) Okay, feeling it . . . Sox win this one 6 - 4. Just a feeling . . . We got to get a baserunner first. Since I've tuned in, no baserunners just bad at bats.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 09:18 PM) What do you think Floyd and Danks have been since 2008? The definition of inconsistency, although their good stretches were probably better than anything Liriano has done for the Sox, he at least pitched pretty well in 5 of his first 6 starts for the Sox. At least there's one cute girl in the stands today. There's that. Yeah. It's why I like Buehrle and Sale. Usually they are going to give you 7 strong innings. Peavy for the most part is like that, but has been less good the second half.

Is Liriano a free agent? I wonder what team will be dumb enough to sign him. It's one thing to have an inconsistent reliever. It doesn't work when the guy is a starter.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 09:09 PM) Bring back Ozzie Wow. I thought I was the only Oz guy on the board. Add this Cleveland pitcher to the list of stiffs who blew the Sox lineup away this year.

Do you think our team does not match up well against any Central team except Minnie? What can the Sox do to better compete against the Central in the future?

How come I can't log in and see us winning big?

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 11:02 PM) If Ozzie is fired and doesn't manage another team, what should he do next? I can think of a lot of things Ozzie could do. He definitely should come back to Chicago. How about opening a restaurant ? How about putting him in the booth with The hawk and Stoney? How about a show on the SCORE? To the best of my knowledge, the press in Chicago still likes him. Probably bc he gives them good material to work with. Please let him join the booth for 30 games or so. Have 3 in the booth. I bet Hawk would be uncomfortable though with Oz The more I think of it, Ozzie truly is dumb as a fox. This Loria and his entourage of relatives has to be irritating to Ozzie, who doesn't suck up to management. He's still an icon in Chicago and likely could get a media job in Chicago. I bet the Sox broadcast team would add him in some capacity unless Jerry feels like Ozzie has betrayed him in comments since he left. The longer Ozzie is away from Chicago, the less popular he'll be. It could be time to get fired in Miami, get all that free money and come to Chicago to broadcast in some capacity. Even a talk show. Somebody will hire Ozzie in the media in Chicago ... right?

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 03:31 AM) Keep Reed at top of totem pole, but prioritize matchups. Do what is possible to prevent Reed from facing lefties in a 1 run ballgame. I don't think Thornton woulda got the save had Robin left him in. That's kind of scary ... again. I'd go with Reed unless there are TONS of lefties like tonight.

QUOTE (sin city sox fan @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 04:03 AM) Chris doesn't seem to have the "stuff" he had earlier in the season. He seems to be getting hit harder and not overpowering hitters like he's capable of doing. I'm afraid its the early signs of a dead arm. If we are to win the Series this year, I think he's going to have to pitch on three days rest throughout the playoffs. I really think we should sit him for the final week and half to let his arm rest and liven up for the postseason ahead. We needed his gutty outing tonight to stay in the playoff hunt. We can't afford to rest him. Maybe if we get in the playoffs his adrenaline will kick in. I hope the rest of the starters can suck it up and go 7 innings the rest of the way.

Dunn definitely took the team off life support. Hopefully the squad will start playing looser now that the 5-game losing streak is bye bye. Adam Dunn certainly looked like a guy who wants to experience the postseason. Thank you tonight, Adam Dunn. Cmon Sox, keep winning.

I think ideally it'd be better to just go with Reed. But the Tribe had a lot of lefties, a ton of em.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 03:32 AM) The hero that the city deserves... I'll drink to that. Bam. Bam. Two home runs? Nice. QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 03:35 AM) Please let that be the catalyst that makes us go undefeated the rest of the way. That would be amazing. Dunn certainly saved the day. Did he wake up the offense? Huge night. QUOTE (BFirebird @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 03:37 AM) This. And Adam Dunn with probably the biggest homer of his career. Hasn't been on many good teams so it is probably his biggest. I was thinking the other day he's never been on a playoff team. Maybe his HUGE night will wake up our other veterans. Adam Dunn with a huge evening. QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 03:39 AM) Keeps him in there against the righty. Reed taking a sponge bath or something? That made me laugh. I kept watching this one unlike the Royals games. Huge, exciting comeback win. If the Sox play like this, I can handle whatever comes our way. Though that bobble at second was scary.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 02:09 AM) Good job. Good effort. Sox picked a rotten time to forget how to win a game. It really would be nice to claim a comeback win this evening.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 01:58 AM) Yes, he absolutely looks hurt. It's very rare for him to turn on fastballs like he used to. Seems like he jams himself more now than he did in the last few years combined. Sox would be six games up if Paulie wasn't injured. Tons of injuries to the team this season. Sad.