Chisoxfn

QUOTE(Craig Grebeck @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:46 PM) Erstad would have at least hit that to the right side! f*** Why isn't he playing, by the way? Just got in. Erstad is DH'ing tonight and before you rip him you should know that he had a big two run double that put the Sox in the lead. Than the Sox pen blew things and Crede tied it back up this inning.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:44 PM) Well, he's shown he could throw an off-speed pitch last year. He's not throwing it so far but could that be because it's not working for him at the moment? That's why I think we might need to give him a couple non-pressure situation appearances. His slider has looked a lot better this year, but his last couple outings I haven't seen much of it.

We can only hope he has a good AB. I don't care the result, just have a good AB. He had a good AB yesterday. However, its funny no matter whose broadcasting when Anderson is up people talk about him as if he's a pitcher at the plate (as much as i don't respect some announcers, I still consider it a pretty telling thing).

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:42 PM) I like our pen a lot. I'm glad we've been agreeing again. It means the baseball worlds have realigned themselves

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:38 PM) I think the bullpen is better than what they've shown statistically. I completely agree with you

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:38 PM) But that's part of the problem having such a young bullpen. If Ozzie is going to use them like a lunatic, they need to be more consistent. They've done a good job of throwing strikes this year, but they're not getting the crucial outs. I didn't see a problem with what Ozzie did. He went to his lefty and went to his righty. He didn't want to go MacDougall...lefty...than another righty, instead he was hoping he could get another out from Vazquez before turning it over to the lefty and than using Mac (made sense to me). It didn't work out but I had no problem with the move. I think he's been a bit too reliant on the lefty/righty matchups but I know there are a lot of smart people in baseball that live with things like that.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:35 PM) It's a credit to this team they have a record above .500. They should have a few more wins than they already do. This is a very very good ball-club. And Crede ties it back up!!!!

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:29 PM) 6 blown saves in first 19 games is bad. Nearly every single reliever has s*** the bed in a big spot so far. The stats may show 6 blown saves but as a whole this pen has pitched pretty darn good. It didn't work out great the past two games but the pen has done very good, especially compared to last year. And everyone should have realized you will have ocassional down games considering the lack of command/experience some of these guys have.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 04:32 PM) So here is the car buying report. I went to the dealership to test drive a brand new model they just got in. I drove it, loved it and sat down for the dog and pony show. First they brought over the sales manager, the guy basically had zero sales skills, so I basically ignored his statements. As usual they offered me about 4-5k less than my trade in was worth. Now I own my car outright, which is sort of a bad idea when you want a new one every couple of years or so. Then this finance mgr comes over and tries his hand. He actually made some progress with me as we both agreed most likely I would want a new car in about 2 years. Leasing may be the way for me to go, anyones thoughts on that? Given the situation there is absolutely no reason you should buy the car. Considering how often you want a new one its absolutely pointless to pay the sales tax on the full car amount (when you lease you only pay it on the portion you utilize which is a big plus). Plus you can work out a real good deal typically on leases. I purchased my last car simply because I got pretty much 0% interest but if that weren't the case there is absolutely no reason why you should buy a car (unless you are planning on keeping it for a long time). I've been told the same thing from both my dad (whose in the real estate business, but also does real estate finance so he's familiar with financing stuff and he swears by leases as does my best friends dad (whose a finance manager at a Mercedes Dealership). Rock...two years, you never drive your car...your basically the perfect fit for a lease. I'd also pass on all that mileage. Why have it since you aren't going to drive that many miles per month (considering you said you only drive on rare occassions). If you drove a lot I'd say buy the maximum miles but in this case I think you'd be better not paying for the mileage and getting the lease calculated with something like 12,000 miles (if you assume thats about all you'd drive).

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:24 PM) Again, if you have MacDougal warming up, let him start the inning against the #9 hitter before their top of the order gets up. And Mr. Thornton....if you're throwing 93 mph, you might want to develop another pitch. He was also clocked at 95 a couple times. I think he's having some back problems, but thats just me going with a hunch.

f*** yes...another win by the Bulls. Now lets take care of business on the road cause I dont' want a repeat of the Wizards series from two years ago.

f***....I doubt they throw him out either way, but thats still a costly error by Pablo as it puts the go ahead run in scoring position. Thornton was hitting the mid 90's but he just doesn't have the pop and I wonder if he's being bothered with some back issues or something.

Thornton just doesn't look confident.

Is anyone else worried that Pablo is still out in the field?

QUOTE(knightni @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:14 PM) Dunn's a lot like Thome. Pena has a freakin double. Aside from the fact that Thome has a career average thats 37 points better than Dunn's.

I love hearing your guys feedback. Dan is going to be our guest on this weeks show so you can expect some good minor league discussion. I'm also working on getting a blogger in for a segment.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:12 PM) I thought most of Anderson's homers took place when his batting average was extremely low. IIRC they did. Anderson looked just as bad at the end of the season as he did at the beginning of the season (his avg was better and I do happen to think given how bad Mack was in CF that he should have still been playing, but this year Erstad is as good defensively, if not better, and offensively he's a far better player). Its one of the reasons the Sox were quietly looking for CF's all off-season. In fact I'm quite surprised nothing happend with Tampa or Milwaukee considering the Sox were constantly in talks with them.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:09 PM) For two years now, I've been hoping to go online during the offseason to see we traded him for Adam Dunn. Cubs fans are already pencilling him into their lineup next year. I'd freaking throw up if the Sox acquired Adam Dunn. That guy is the reason why I think stat people are absolutely fools. People rave about his ability but I rave about how completely over-rated he is (not saying he's a bad player, but he isn't the god statisticians make him out to be). QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:09 PM) For two years now, I've been hoping to go online during the offseason to see we traded him for Adam Dunn. Cubs fans are already pencilling him into their lineup next year. Cub fans can have them. IT would just mean they have a bit more offense to go with that awful rotation.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:07 PM) My Dye to LAAAA for Saunders, Saunders + prospects for Baldelli is clearly a pipe dream. I have one hope this offseason -- that the Sox go full out after A-Rod if he becomes a FA. I'll say one thing, if the Angels don't finally get off there asses and acquire a bat I may officially protest them. Stoneman has continued to be an absolute moron and he's refused to give up any kids in order to protect these team for the future. However, during that entire span he's had a team thats a bat away from potentially winning another world series and the longer he waits the lesser the chance of something like that happening. This year the Angels have a loaded rotation, a deep pen and they have a nice influx of young players/veterans in the lineup but they still lack that major bat to put with Vladdy. If they weren't willing to give up Saunders and a couple prospects they'd be absolutely morons. Quite frankly that woudln't be enough to convince me to move Dye. My price would start at Weaver or Santana (and I realize there are some injury concerns with Weaver and obviously Santana has struggled on the road but I don't care, he's got a far better up and much more upside than Saunders) and I'd also demand Figgins (this is mainly because I absolutely love Figgy) and a prospect. There is no reason the Angels shouldn't overpay to get a bat like Dye's.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:06 PM) Jason, I hope you're right. I was hoping this offseason we'd deal Jose with his new high(er) value. He had a no trade clause.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:03 PM) Not really. When he started hitting well in the second half -- and it was clear his defense was helping the pitchers -- he was still platooned. Thats cause at that point he had already buried himself and while I realize his average improved, all you had to do was watch the games to realize his approach and swing were still god awful.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 08:58 PM) I just worry about how Ozzie uses him. A great example of my concern is how he let him face a good LHP in 7th inning with a RISP in a tie game when he had Ozuna on the bench. The whole 6 million dollar option is scary also. Frankly I'd agree about the option but I think if he gets 600 Ab's its because he's playing fantastically and in that case so be it.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 08:57 PM) Baldelli had an OPS+ right around 120 last year. He plays better defense than Dye and runs the bases better. It would hurt us a bit for the rest of the season -- I agree with that -- but we'd still be getting three+ years from Baldelli as opposed to the three months left of Dye. I'm definitely not opposed to Baldelli, but I'm not about to trade Dye for him nor am I about to say that Dye won't be back with the organization. In fact, I think the odds of Dye returning are about 50/50 and I even feel the same way about Buehrle/Iguchi. I think Contreras will be moved this off-season with Buehrle resigning (call it a hunch) but I do expect Buehrle to have one of his best years so that could make things difficult. However, when Crede is moved this off-season that will free up a bit of cash that can go to Dye/Buehrle (albeit not a ton). But back to Baldelli, if the club wants to get him, they should give up some of its pitching prospects (not Gio/Danks) but some of the other crop (there is a ton of depth there, plus some pen depth and a few of those guys could translate into the Sox answer in the outfield and top of the order for a good long while).

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 08:56 PM) Not really -- the platoon began in the second game of the season, IIRC. Platoon or not he was playing 4 games a week for the first half of the season and that is more than enough playing time to get into a rhythm.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 08:55 PM) How does that improve our team? Dye>Baldelli Who knows. I want Dye to stick around because if the Sox get rid of Dye this outfield will look absolutely horrendous. It is already pretty bad overall (luckily Erstad and Dye are both pretty good defensively, even if Dye is a bit slow). And the idea of the club losing Dye and having both Sweeney/Anderson in the outfield with Erstad or Mack would make me absolutely vomit/cringe. That would be a flat out disaster. You'd think people would have learned there lesson after seeing BA struggle in his first full season but I guess not, people still seem to think you can just plug in a guy from the minors and expect him to produce like his minor league stats indicated. I got news for people...very rarely does that work, usually at best it takes guys a couple years to develop and even than there is a good chance they don't pan out or at least don't come close to reaching there minor league production.