Chisoxfn

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 12:38 AM) If Oz thinks Swish at first and BA/Wise platoon is better for the team, then why not trade Paulie to the Mets? I love Paulie but if it is time to run him out of town, why don't we make some kind of deal? Other teams make deals during the season. I prefer keeping Paulie but it is going to grow old seeing all the rips of the Sox legend the second half of the season. He's been so good in a Sox uniform I'd think he'd be exempt from such harsh criticism. Delgado has finally been hitting so the Mets wouldn't have any interest in a first baseman.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 12:06 AM) .246/.377/.491/.868 w/ 4 HR, 2 2B and 13 RBI over 57 ABs Pretty awesome. Is that sarcasm? I just don't believe a guy can be doing awesome without having an average in the .270 to .275 range. Just my two sense. I love his periph's as they are very solid, but that average prevents him from being awesome.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 09:56 PM) Everybody knows about his 17 errors, but he's starting to look lost at the plate too. For the simple point of question, I bring up the Los Angeles series. On June 24th and 25th, he missed games out there with "back spasms". At that point, he was .275/.348/.521/.869. As of today, Joe is down to .253/.325/.466/.792. Also, since June 19th, Joe has a grand total of one double and one home run. Is he just in a slump, an offensive regression to the means, or is his back bothering him at the plate now too? The more I think about this, the more I worry because Joe is useless right now if he can't hit because his defense has been pretty bad. It just seems like back problems carry on forever, and I wonder how well the surgery actually fixed things. He's in a slump, but he showed some signs of coming out of it in the Texas series. You can see he was making some adjustments to his approach and working on staying back on the ball. You never know the effect the ASB break will have, but I think we'll see him have a very good finish to July.

Alaca...all star break....Shazam.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 11:39 PM) Jim Thome has already turned his season around, he's been kicking ass for about the past 6 weeks or so and especially of late (12 for his last 23 and 20 for his last 51 (.392)), not sure what more you want him to do. He's now sporting the 14th highest OPS in the American League and the 3rd highest on the Sox. (about 100 points higher than #4 Joe Crede.) Jim Thome and Paul Konerko are in completely different stratospheres right now. I've been the biggest knocker of Thome on this site and I'd be the first to say that rotation him with Konerko right now would be stupid. Thome deserves a spot in the lineup with the way he's been playing and Paulie deserves another 15 games. At that point, if he's still stinking, Paulie can start seeing the bench relatively often.

QUOTE (aprec32 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 11:30 PM) Best way to look at this: If you were told that we would be in 1st place in this division at the All Star break, four months ago........everyone would have been ecstatic! Yes, we should win this division.....no question. But we are only two games back in the loss column for the best record in baseball. The second half will be exciting, we are at least guaranteed that is something we should all be looking forward to. Exactly. This team has lost at least 10 games which they should have won, imo. I'm sure they've won a few that they shouldn't have won either. Bottom line the squad is in first place and I have little to gripe about when it comes to something like that.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 08:32 AM) That may very well be true, but don't you think a decision would have to come pretty soon? Garcia might like the Sox better than say the Tigers, but at what cost? We have heard this stuff before about the Ozzie factor when Latin players make their decisions, but it always seems to not pan out. Financially Freddy isn't going to be breaking the bank (unless he's already throwing in the 90's). I think as long as the Sox told him he's a starter if he pitches okay and shows that he's healthy (and the money is similar), than he'd sign here before he signed in Detroit.

I'll play anywhere, but if you stick me in the middle-infield it just means we have a lefty playing there, however, I'm happy to do it cause I have pretty good range (although I've played 16 inch one time ever).

QUOTE (shipps @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 06:56 AM) Gage you left Molto off the list.He told me he is a definite go.Edit:Didnt see the little guy was on there my bad. He prefers the term, miniature italian.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 08:16 PM) no, they be stealin mah ideas And a damn good idea twas it.

So I played one on one today against a guy who was a redshirt freshman last year on the University of Arizona basketball team and beat him to 11 (we were playing to 15 and I eventually lost, but it was a zillion degrees and I got fatigued, I was up 11-6). I have absolutely no idea how it happened but he kept complimenting my basketball moves (and for anyone that has seen me play, I am a typical white guy on the court, ie very unathletic). I have a nice step back jumper though. Regardless, I felt like a legitimate basketball player after such a performance. He also had some cool stories talking about how happy him and the players are to have Lute Olsen back (he said he wasn't around Lute much, but when he was, the difference was huge from the guy that had replaced him).

My Car has a 6 disc in dash and I used it all the time early on, but than I got a tape deck which connected to my IPOD and since than I play about a CD a month. I never listen to FM radio (unless I'm just sick of whats on my IPOD or am going to listen to a morning talk show). My next car will likely have satellite radio (but I'm not in the market for a car currently) and at that point I may use that a bit more (mainly for sports purposes as well as high quality random music stations).

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 08:47 PM) Sounds good to me. He's horrid right now. I don't know why I want to stay with Paulie and dump Jose, but that's how I feel right now. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot from Oz about Jose in the papers tonight/tomorrow. Time to check the Websites. I think its because you have a legitimate thing to point at for Paulie's struggles (ie, injuries). You really can't even think about putting the past 5 days as any reason to cut Paulie consider they are the first games back from the DL. His early season struggles occurred when he was playing with an injured thumb (which significantly altered his swing). Bottom line, there is at least some reason to think Paulie can be the player he once was (since it appears injuries were the cause of his problems, not a physical decline). In Jose's case, it clearly appears that he's just gotten older and has lost a lot of his physical ability.

He would be a tremendous acquisition. His offensive numbers will increase leaving Seattle (I'd say you are talking about a .280, 30 HR, Gold Glove 3B). He's similar to Crede in the sense that he has a poor eye and in fact you could really compare the two pretty evenly throughout there career (aside from Beltre's contract season in LA, which was the greatest season any NL 3Bman has ever had). I know If I were the Twins I'd go after Adrian and as a Sox fan I'd be bummed if you guys got him. In fact, I think Beltre will be one of the best acquisitions a team makes (assuming they need a 3Bman). The guy is incredibly talented. I want the Sox to get him cause he'd absolutely rake at the Cell and make us all forget about Crede.

They were grooming him for the pen, IIRC. Rodriguez has a very live arm and is one of the few relievers in our system that I consider a "prospect". Others include Omogrosso (very good live arm, although he was starting in Bham and I thought he got hurt but I honestly haven't been paying a ton of attention to his stats as of late).

Daunte Cullpepper (when he was in Minny).

Anyone else very excited about the Xfiles movie. I f***ing loved that show as a kid (didn't follow it as the show got older as there was a 4-6 year period where I didn't follow much new tv shows (than DVR's came out and I was able to figure out when new episodes were and just record em).

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 08:16 PM) Then where will Dye be? Left Field next year. In two years he'll be the DH (if Konerko is moved this off-season, which I suspect happens, and than Thome retires or goes elsewhere after the 09 season).

I usually don't buy into the hype, but there is no denying the history of Yankee stadium and I'm pretty excited to see the derby there. Plus it will be very friendly for lefties to put up some massive home run totals.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 08:12 PM) He's 26 and is hitting a solid .295 in Charlotte. Why is that so bad? It's not like we have tons of great OF prospects. Dye can't play forever. Bourgois isn't a starting RFer. If you want to talk about potential starting RFers, please throw out the name Shelby/Danks (although both are more CF). In fact the Sox really don't have a strong corner hitting OF prospect in the system currently (Jose Martinez may develop that power though). Oh and another note, next year Dye won't be in RF (Quentin will).

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 05:10 PM) The Getz/Richar fight for the 2nd base job next March should be interesting to watch develop. The question IMO will be if the Sox want to go with the toolsy guy or the "baseball player" guy. Everybody that reads the minor league posts on here knows I'm as big a Getz fan as you'll find, but Richar has so much talent. Whoever plays next to Ramirez in the middle next year will be important though, that's for sure. I want the Sox to get a stud CF and a stud pitcher and utilize the money they will have to make sure money isn't an object (they should clear OC's contract (~$10M), Thome or Konerko's (~12M), Uribe (~4.5M), Crede (~7M) and Contreras (~10M). They won't have to worry about replacing OC, although there will obviously be some growing pains with Alexei Ramirez moving to SS (Getz/Richar battle for 2B). Swisher will slide to 1B, so you don't have to worry about which of Konerko/Thome gets replaced, Uribe gets replaced by whichever of Getz/Richar don't make the team (Bourgois replaces Pablo). This basically means that you are talking of about 43M (with payroll staying about the same) that can be spread out to a stud CF and starting pitcher (which would be the only holes). I'm talking about being one of those teams that actually trades for two guys that are entering there prime and near arbitration years and inking them to extensions that keep them here (plus other money going to locking up guys like Danks/Floyd or whomever else is deserving of a raise). The lineup will be a little bit worse early on (Crede > Fields, OC greater than Richar/Getz) but you'd be upgrading at 1B (Swisher > Paulie's production) and CF (a stud CF >>>> Swisher) plus the rotation would be immensely better (another ace plus Vaz/Buehrle/Danks/Floyd). Pen should still be rock solid. Bottom line thats my plan (the lineup would be very young, rotation would be pretty young, pen would be veterans and you'd still have vets in the lineup (Dye/Thome/Swisher/AJ).

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) Contreras was in 2005 for the two first months of the season. Since June 10th, his starts have fluctuated, most being poor. That doesn't take away what he did in the first two months. No one is going to convince me that there is anyone in the White Sox farm system that can produce a 3.03 ERA over 74 IP, which is what Jose did in April and May. Thats my point. He is going through a very rough stretch here, but has had major success as recently as last month. I'm not saying Williams shouldn't be keeping an eye out for starting pitchers, but given what Jose showed early on this season, I'm willing to give him a few more goes at it. IMO, there is no such thing as a one year albatross contract in baseball. I would agree with you on the terms of one year not being an albatross, but the Sox are going to have an opportunity this off-season to have about 20-30M to play with (depending on what they do with at least one of Paulie/Thome, Crede, Count, OC & Uribe). If you can't move Count than it makes things much more difficult. And that money can really help fill this teams final holes (ie, getting a legit, stud, CFer as well as pick up one more front line pitcher because i"d like to build this rotation and I think the one final piece its missing is a legit ace). 30 million and a few prospects should be enough to make that happen (Getz will slide in at 2B, Ramirez at SS, Fields at 3B; this means you'll have a very young everyday lineup with Dye and one of Thome/Konerko being the vet bats). But when it comes to Contreras and his good 2 months of the season, the big issue is his velocity. Pre-Slump he was hitting 92-93 on the gun on a relatively regular basis (and was always throwing in the 90's). In this start I didn't see him top 87 and his changeup velocity was in the low 80's (that type of differential is horrendous, especially when Jose throws a changeup that has very little downward movement). Bottom line, Jose's stuff is just horrible. Jose's struggles are the exact opposite of Vaz. I look at Vaz and he's still got very crisp stuff, good velocity, solid breaking pitches and because of that I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him dominate. I would be stunned to see Jose dominate given what he has to currently work with (he's a 2 pitch pitcher, changeup is no longer a pitch given his low velocity on the FB and his FB is easy to hit without the velocity and the lack of velocity also allows hitters additional time to react to the forkball and thus means they are more likely to take it and let it be a ball than swing through it). So unless Jose is hurt or going through a dead-arm, he will not come close to posting what he did earlier this year (in fact I'd be stunned if he was even serviceable). I really hope I'm wrong and this is far more drastic than anything I said about Thome. Cause I recall saying that at the end of the season Thome's stats would be impressive. I just happen to prefer a different type of ball-player.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 04:26 PM) Do we beat ourselves the most in the majors or does it just appear that way since I am a Sox fan? And vice versus, do the Twins beat themselves the least amount of times in baseball? Please show me another team that does this more than us... Teams that play great defense, execute offensively (and have some speed) plus have a solid bullpen rarely lose. The Sox possess one of those three things and the pen helps them a lot, but the lack of defense (even though they have some talented defensive players, the team defense has blown balls) and execution/speed (not just speed, but executation, ie, making solid contact and moving the runners over and in when all you need is one run). Having that ability helps you pull out lots and lots of one run ball games and games that you shouldn't even win. And when you dont' have that ability, you put your team in a spot where it loses a good share of games that it should win.

I will point one thing out. Contreras struggles mean the Sox will keep and even closer eye on Freddy Garcia's progress. You can bet your ass if Garcia shows a healthy arm and some decent velocity in a workout that Ozzie and Kenny will be on the horn and Garcia will be back in a Sox jersey making rehab starts down in AAA.

One thing I want to point out, a lot of you are calling for Swish at first. Yes Swish gets on base better and is better defensively (Swish is awesome at 1st defensively) but Swisher isn't exactly what I consider a great run producer. Konerko had one ab today with runnesr on where he scolded the ball (and Byrd was in the right spot). He obviously didn't get the job done and had a very costly error but he wasn't the only guy to fail in key situations today, nor was he the only guy to play shtity defense. Clearly he had the worse game of everyone but there were plenty of opportunities for various team members to pick things up and no one was able to. Bottom line, the team battled and battled and lost a game it shouldn't have but they will recover. Heck, this team has lost more games that they shouldn't have than any Sox team in recent history (because of there absolute piss poor abilities to execute and get guys in when you get a runner on 2nd and 0 outs or a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs).