Chisoxfn

Sweet, I'm in class right now but I'll shoot you a message.

Kolb didn't have the stuff Turnbow has, so I think its just some minor mechanical flaw thats giving him issues with his command.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 11:10 AM) To be honest, I hadn't looked at AJP's numbers in a few weeks. I forgot his average has fallen like 15 pts. Maybe a better classification than saying players having a career year would have been to say if we thought that our guys hitting at such a high level could really keep up that level of production the rest of the way. I've said this before, and I'll say it again....I don't want our offense to just tip their cap whenever we face Santana or Liriano in the 2nd half of the season. A major hitch for this team is when they face left handed pitching. You have Pods, Guchi and Thome who all pretty much struggle against LHP. Thome will hit the ocassional HR off lefties but he also strikes out a ton and Pods is pretty febile against him as is Guchi (Guchi kills righties though and while he's not terrible against lefties he's not that good). It really puts the Sox in a hole to start the games when we do play LHP. Especially since Pablo isn't doing what he was since recovering from his injury and that Widger isn't much of a hitter whether he's facing a LHP or a RHP this year. Okay Soriano and Pods comparison. I know its dumb but I got to remind people that Soriano is just as fast if not faster than Scotty so before you think we are getting a Power hitting leadoff hitter, I'll just remind you that not only does he have 30 Hr's playing in a pitchers park, but he also has 25 stolen bases and is stealing at a 78% success rate (vastly superior to Scotty). .282 AVG, .357 OBP, 30 HR, 60 RBI (FROM THE TOP OF THE ORDER). Best of all this guy has shown he can hit HR's anywhere cause he has a .983 OPS at home (in a major pitchers park). Pods has 4 more stolen bases, but has been caught 5 more times, has a .353 OBP and has driven in 34. Oh and he's struck out 61 times, which is not that many less than Soriano has.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 10:54 AM) Yeah but do you really want to see us become the Yankees and focus on hitting only? Yes, because I think with the pitching thats available (slim to none) and the price on that pitching (ridiculous) your best suited making a strength better and reading between the lines Ozzie has not been very pleased with Scotty's play this season. Soriano would be a fast improvement and would give the club a swift kick in the butt. QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 11:02 AM) Dye, AJP, Crede, PK AJ and Paulie aren't really having career years. I can bite a bit on Dye, but Dye has had some very good years prior to his injuries and well Crede is really turning things on so I bite on that too. AJ has been able to hit for avg for a number of years and than went away from that with the Giants and Sox and Paulie has been pretty good for a long time.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 10:24 AM) I might get hammered for this, but if we got Soriano, we should just stick him at 2B. A Pods-Soriano combo would be awesome as your 1-2 hitters. I think Soriano/Guchi would be better. Both are superior players to Pods, imo. But this is coming from someone who hasn't supported Pods since he stopped running.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 10:14 AM) Now Roesnthal is saying the Sox are willing to give up top prospects to get Soriano. I've also hated how Soriano's numbers were covered by his huge SLG%, but with the year he is having, how could you not want him over Pods? Soriano >>> Pods in every which way. He's fast, probably just as good defensively (since Pods is bad out there it doesn't take much to be better) and has a heck of a lot of pop. I've never understood why so many people underrate Soriano. That said, do we really have what it takes to get him. If so, are we planning on swinging Pods to another team for a reliever???

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 09:45 AM) Anyone else see this from the Sox page on ESPN? This is exactly the type of balls Manuel didn't have a few years back when the Sox fundementals got awful. I'm glad Ozzie is out there busting these guys for the pathetic execution.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 12:49 AM) I think it's pretty updated. I'm not a huge soccer guy, so I really don't know that much, but from what I know it's pretty up to date. The game is a ton of fun though, especially when you're playing against a friend. Very intense games. Can you play in the world cup or is mainly premiere league seasons and is there any sort of franchise type mode?

Is 06 pretty current or is it semi discounted now. I may have to pick that up. last soccer game I had was the Fifa 94 or something for Super NES (I played it about a month ago).

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 12:29 AM) Just a note to everybody-Pelfrey can't be traded until a year after he signed, which was in the winter so forget about aquiring him. I think the innings have caught up to Freddy, and I would trade him or Vazquez for Gordon in a second. Also, did anybody hear about the Abreu for Milledge rumor? Is it a year after being signed, I always thought it was a year after being drafted.

Ya, I assumed it was black. I can fix it on Sunday, got class all day tomorrow. Than I got another plan which will customize this skin for people with wider resolutions so it will have a tighter graphic (in terms of fitting width wise).

Joe looks a little late on a FB up and in. 45% of our runs have came on the HR. ANyone know what the % was last year?

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 05:55 PM) Buehrle walking hitters is not a good sign. Actually I think he has a new game plan. He seems to be going with the plan of throwing first pitch balls hoping that the batters will be chasing. He's also not throwing meatballs as of yet. Still, in Mark's case with the rep he has of throwing strikes, it could be beneficial to ocassionally throw a first pitch out of the zone (since he has such good command). Rack em up, inning ending DP

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 03:26 PM) I'd like to make a suggestion to our manager....please shut the hell up about the whole Padilla thing! The last thing we need is for Ozzie to make the incident into such a big deal that the Sunday game will be played with warnings handed out before it starts. I don't know about my fellow Sox fans, but I sure don't want to see Garland face this Rangers line-up with the inside pitch being taken away from him. I actually like it, its a bit of a distraction from the Sox poor play, yet something that could be used as a bit of a rallying point.

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 05:13 PM) Looks good. Bout time you came out of the woodshed. Its been too long Ian.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 05:12 PM) If we had last year's starting pitching and this year's offense...we'd be winning at an .800 clip. I'm hoping that this years starting pitching comes out in the 2nd half. I've consistently said that I expect our pitching to really pick things up and I see a pretty hefty streak of winning baseball in our near to immediate future.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 02:11 PM) Yay! I second that.

I worked a full day for one of the few times this entire summer.

QUOTE(Pauly8509CWS @ Jul 20, 2006 -> 09:03 AM) Very strange, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were amazing last year at the World, and I've heard good things about the Strokes live shows. I've seen the Strokes live twice (got a friend whose a ridiculous fan of em) and they are awesome live.

This article was written by Cowley who I think is one of the best in the biz at covering the Sox. Coop comments on a quote that Garland made about the staff being fatigued (in general I thought Garland was talking about the team, but I guess Coop took it another way). I really liked Coop's quotes and the firey way he approached the subject. I don't like teams or players making excuses (not that I'm saying Garland is, afterall, he is pitching well right now) and I prefer that they either admit they stink and need to do things better or forget the admitting part and just go out and prove that things are gonna be better. Here's a link to the article and some of my favorite quotes from Coop: http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-sside20.html

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 04:27 PM) You never know with relief pitchers. See Cliff Politte. I agree, that said Thornton has the type of arm that as long as he throws strikes he should be in good shape (and stays healthy). The same can be said for Jenks and I really feel the same can be said for Cotts. Many relievers have career years and they can just dissapear due to overuse but I think the real good ones stay relatively consistent and Cotts is a real good one, Jenks is a real good one and Thornton has the makings to be a real good one (we'll see if they can stay healthy though).

Flash I can't make the assumption that we know the exact specifics of why the O's turned down the deal. Maybe the Sox were asking for some other reliever in return because I don't think the deal was a Cabrerra for Garcia straight up swap (especially sine the first couple sentences mention the Sox getting a reliever plus some). The O's have a lot of young arms so what they need are some vets that could potentially pitch and like I said I have no idea what the specifics are and I doubt Rosenthal does either, but I do think the O's could have interest in Garcia and I see the Sox as the type of team that would love Cabrerra in the long term (so would a lot of teams though).

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 03:54 PM) What's upsetting me the most about Vazquez and Garcia are both have been unable to atleast pitch ONE quality outing within two weeks. Not only have their efforts hurt our club, but their value has quickly dominished. All we need is for Garcia or Vazquez to respectively pitch ONE dominating game before the trade deadline. Atleast provide an organization on the fence another thought concerning their value. Wouldn't huirt if the Mets lost 6 or 7 straight entering the trade deadline, either. Here's the question flash, would Vaz or Garcia going out and throwing a complete game shutout (or 8 innings with 1 or 2 runs) make Kenny more willing to move him. Sure he could probably get a lot more value for them after just one really good start (cause teams see that they still have the abilities) but at the same time wouldn't Kenny be thinking the same thing (these guys have proven they could do it in the past and now he showed me that they could very well still do it and do it for us down the stretch). Its really why if Freddy or Javier have a really good start I can't see them dealt and if we don't get a pretty good offer for Freddy I don't see him getting dealt (a Pelfrey or Cabrerra involved in it plus a reliever) since I don't think the deal helps the Sox out as much as having Freddy turning things around could help the club. Just food for thought.

QUOTE(Colorado Sox Fan @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 08:44 AM) Phil Rogers mentioned the 1960 comparison a couple of days ago. The similarity he raised was: "the pitchers who did great in '59—Early Wynn, Bob Shaw—were expected to do the same thing the next year, but they couldn't. They were worn down from the innings, the complete games, it took to win the pennant. It takes a toll the next year." I like the moves that were made in the offseason. Vasquez looked like a good pickup. Thome is a great addition. The bullpen makeover has been a wash. Difference is, last year we ran away from everyone. This year, Tigers and Twins are fighting it out with us. I liked this comparison and I thought it was an interesting read. I also think the posters that mentioned how trading for Thome isn't what caused this (the losses of Marte/Viz/Duque) are not the reason this team isn't in 1st place right now, rather the ineffectiveness of our starters that were so dominant last year is. If we had last years offense with this years pitching staff we'd be horrible and lucky to be at .500.

QUOTE(soxpride77 @ Jul 21, 2006 -> 03:47 PM) I absolutely agree that Miller is better than Widger, but I would never give up Fields for him. It really doesn't matter anyways. Miller is not available. The Brewers are still in the hunt, and he is an important piece of their team. Don't worry, I'm almost positive Ninetrain was being relatively sarcastic. I do think he was trying to make a point about how bad Widger is and that getting a backup catcher could actually be the kind of shakeup this team needs. A backup should be out there, but I think Kenny wants to make sure he is able to get a good character and clubhouse guy first (and I don't think we'd have to give up anything of major value...heck Arnie Munoz should be able to get you some sort of catcher). In general I'd give up guys like Munoz, phillips (maybe not for a backup catcher) who you will probably lose at the end of the season via the Rule V draft or via minor league free agency.