SI1020

The main problem is lack of MLB quality players. I also think at this point that they dread playing at home, get wound up tight as a drum, play lousy, get booed by smaller and smaller crowds, and the situation just continues to spiral.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 23, 2012 -> 12:02 AM) It's April 22nd guys. There are 162 games in a season, lets pump the brakes one way or another. Just enjoy the team doing well right now and lets take it day by day. Exactly. It's way too early to tell if any of the questions have been answered.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Apr 22, 2012 -> 11:52 PM) I agree. I was cautiously optimistic going into 2005. So was I. Podsednik completely changed the dynamic of the team. Within a month I thought they had a chance to go deep in the playoffs.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 22, 2012 -> 11:48 PM) Hawk knows who butters his bread True. If you want to know what the brass thinks Hawk will let you know. He got run out of Boston for being too blunt and abrasive on the air and learned his lesson. You're not going to have broadcasters like Bob Prince and Harry Caray (pre Cubs) who aren't afraid to criticize the team they broadcast for.

QUOTE (K-Rock @ Apr 22, 2012 -> 11:41 PM) Hawk just continuously s***ting on Ozzie... "what a change" "the mentality of this team is so different than last year" I'm glad Ozzie is gone but Hawk is always going to say the company line, whatever it happens to be at any given moment.

QUOTE (Baron @ Apr 22, 2012 -> 11:39 PM) He has played like this before for us In Toronto too. His problems have been attitude and consistency. The talent has always been there.

I agree with all of the above. I'm going to stick with this team no matter what happens. I think that whatever they have, Robin and his staff will get the most out of them.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 21, 2012 -> 11:31 PM) He thought he was walked. So glad this was on FOX so that I was able to see (most) of it. I missed all of Buehrle's. I didn't get to see any of it. Nobody was cutting in their regular programming. Just got finished watching the highlights. Only 95 pitches and a lot of them looked really nasty if you're a hitter.

I hardly ever boo a White Sox player but I did say I'd trade Dunn for a bag of balls. I only saw one other player fall off a cliff like Dunn did and he was a pitcher. I figured whatever happened, it was all over for Dunn. I'm happy that so far he is proving me wrong. Make it one of the biggest comeback stories in the history of American sports donkey.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Apr 21, 2012 -> 12:42 PM) I noticed that on the double, his body didn't go all haywire his head was on the ball. Donkey with a vengeance get all that anger and frustration out, take it out on the opposing pitcher I've been one of his biggest critics but he does look totally different at the plate this year. Even in the games he struggled he looked different. working the count and not looking overmatched. IIRC Beckham, Morel and Dunn all got hits in the same inning. Keep that up and it could be an interesting year.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) Since when is "almost 31" considered too old to go out and party? Maybe if he was 51. Speak for yourself. I'm older than that and allow myself to go out and have a good time every now and then. I try my best to live my life to the fullest, no matter what I'm doing.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 12:54 PM) Frank breaks down Gordo's swing http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago...tm_medium=email Great clip. It's a wonder he ever gets a hit now. Some may find this interesting too. After a solid rookie year Beckham started his nosedive the following year. Perhaps this clip will helped show what happened. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...gordon-beckham/ Beckham at Georgia. The leg kick and the hitch are there, but the hesitancy isn't and the bat speed looks good. http://www.baseball-intellect.com/Articles...kham-swing.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 18, 2012 -> 07:01 PM) It was disabled a long time ago as it really slows down board functionality. If you want to search something go to google and put in site:soxtalk.com at the end of your search. I feel dumb now but how can you learn if you don't ask? Thanks much for the tip.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 08:47 AM) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07...useum-babe-ruth This thread was QUITE the find. Seems pretty incredible now. Amazing how everything in life comes down to money and greed (see story above). I wasn't a member here, I was just doing a search (the name of the Sox board member Pogofsky) to see if this story was somewhere in the archives...and we have this amazing thread written the year before we spent just $65 million dollars and blew through the playoffs and World Series. Remembering the mentality of Sox fans at that time, the frustration, things have changed so much from back then. The search function hasn't worked for me since a long long time ago? What am I doing wrong?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 18, 2012 -> 08:24 AM) "I'm not down on myself," said Beckham, who was batting .115 with 11 strikeouts entering Tuesday night's game against the Orioles. "I know I had a good spring. I felt good in spring. I know it's right there. "It's just small mechanical stuff. For me, it's just being able to get my foot down and let my hands do the work. The hands are my money maker." Beckham said he started putting his front left foot down sooner after striking out in his first at-bat Monday. He went hitless in his next three at-bats but didn't strike out and believes he is making progress. "I'm making sure I'm on time to hit the ball," Beckham said. "There are a lot of ways to say that, but that's what we're going for. It's not about the hands or anything like that. It's getting my foot down." Beckham claimed he was unaware of suggestions he should sit, and manager Robin Ventura backs his embattled second baseman. "People can think what they want to think," Beckham said. "It's (nine) games." Ventura emphasized the focus on Beckham is on this season and not dwelling on his struggles the last two. www.chicagotribune.com/sports Haven't we all heard this before? To me this confirms that the guy really is messed up, and quite possibly it won't get better. I've long believed that thinking and hitting don't go together. From the time the ball leaves the pitchers hand until it approaches the batter's hitting zone is short and the less intellectualizing the better. Everyone's style is a little different. As for the back and forth on Beckham's swing it was a thing of beauty at Georgia. The hitch with the hands was very slight, followed by a quick fluid swing. He hit the ball everywhere. He seemed to carry that swing into his rookie year but after that I don't know what the hell happened. Now the hitch and the length of the swing are both longer. He can't catch up to a decent fastball and he chases all kinds of bad pitches out of the zone. I'm not a big fan of KW, but with Beckham he has it right I believe. Just go back to what you once were, find it somehow in the recesses of your mind and quit over thinking.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 06:15 AM) where young players are overhyped/overvalued and yet our cupboard is nearly barren? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writ...ball/index.html When reading that article, it made me think of J4L and what his arguments would have been with Verducci. On the other hand, we certainly can't spend our way to success, as the $127 million payroll last year proved, especially when three of the biggest financial bets or risks don't pay off. I was disappointed in the article and me for being dumb enough to click on it. I'm so tired of homage to all things named Beane and James. They did not reinvent the wheel. By the way, how much mention did Zito, Hudson and Mulder get in that Academy Award winning movie? As for the Sox, not much on the roster and even less on the farm. It looks like at least several lean years ahead and KW may have played out his string. Not much on the farm and everybody hoarding prospects means the Sox have to draft better and KW needs to remember how to find those diamonds in the rough. When he goes for the big name he usually fails.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) All of this is pretty ridiculous and revisionist, but the bold part is definitely the dumbest. I wish I could say that I knew this move would be a bad one, but I can't. I was mildly enthusiastic about it. While no one could have predicted the complete meltdown, some were sharp enough to see that this had a good chance to be a lousy move. Dunn is very one dimensional, more suited to the now defunct steroid era. He had a drop off in the second half of 2010, and seemed unhappy to be a DH. Kenny almost always seems to screw up when he gets lusty after some big acquisition. His tenure started off rocky, and then improved when on a budget he was forced to improvise. He did a great job of putting together the 2005 team and then reverted back to swinging for the fences. Like Dunn, he strikes out a lot. As for Dunn I just hope that somehow he has a decent start so he can be moved. I do appreciate that he's not a surly loser like Rios, or overly talkative like Peavy, but I'd still like to see him go.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 10:05 PM) The thing the Sox did right during the 2005 season was beat up on the AL Central. They were 30 over .500 vs the divison 6 over vs. the NL and were .500 against the AL East and AL West. They have to get back to beating up their Central Division foes. That is of course correct. They also came out of the gate strong and built enough of a cushion so that they could survive 2 lousy months of baseball. I never understood why Ozzie was so successful having his team ready his first few years and such a failure at it for the most part the last 5 years.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 08:31 PM) You have to go back nine decades to get a better winning percentage over a ten year period.White Sox W-L records and winning pct. by three selected decades. 1950's 847-693 .550 4 90+ win seasons (1954,55,57 and 59), all in 154 game seasons. 9 winning seasons total, including 1 AL pennant. 1960's 852-760 .5285 3 90+ win seasons (1963-65) 8 winning seasons. 2000's 857-764 .5286 3 90+ in seasons (2000-05-06) 7 winning seasons, 3 AL Central championships, 1 AL pennant, 1 WS title.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 01:55 AM) Well, his wikipedia pic shows him in a Braves uni and not looking severely obese. I think the era was different than today. Yes in spite of today's much better knowledge of nutrition and the more advanced training techniques, nobody wanted a ball player in the shape of a Prince Fielder or a Bobby Jenks back in the day. Edit: Let me modify this. There were some exceptions and I just thought of one. http://bb_catchers.tripod.com/catchers/burgess2.htm

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 4, 2012 -> 05:38 PM) There is no way a guy of that height and weight could possibly be considered fat. What one is listed at and what one really weighs is sometimes far apart. You might find this interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Surkont

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) I didn't bash the Ventura hiring but I don't like what I'm hearing about Dunn playing the field and Thornton closing . Me either.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 01:08 PM) I'm okay with Hawk. To me he's entertaining, and he will lay down some criticisms. But he does ramble, you have to admit that. How often does he start talking about guys no one has ever heard of? It's your own fault you never heard of them. Hawk has his supporters and his detractors. He has declined and become more cliche ridden and cranky as he's aged. I'd still take him over the modern day blow dried phony assholes that populate the TV and airwaves these days.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 23, 2012 -> 05:31 PM) Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall and they fired them Harry Caray was not fired. He was offered a contract extension but did not wish to go on Sportsvision where he correctly assumed he would mostly be announcing to himself. Harry took the Cubs job where he was pretty much ordered to tone it down and be a houseman, which he was.

There's a stat for everyone. His DWAR was in plus territory in 2011 as were other metrics. Am I saying he's a stud defensively? No. At best he'll be somewhere around adequate with limited range.