Chisoxfn

Ya, I love AJ, but its not like last year where Scott really deserved to get on. AJ is an All Star catcher, problem is every team needs to have a guy and the Red Sox/Yanks (plus Vladdy) are the entire starting lineup.

Is there a way so you don't have to enter in your info ever time (not the validation part, but the email and the other stuff). I'll vote AJ just cause I think he's a great catcher who will do all the little things. Wish Crede was on the list ahead of him though but Verlander is far more deserving. No way am I voting for Hafner because there are enough DH/1B on this team and having another could really hamper things.

QUOTE(quickman @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 02:37 PM) I agree this game told Ozzie what he really needs to know about politte. He now knows undisputedly that he cannot count on him at all. gullien didn't know that after the Pirate game. That homer could have been a fluke, but now he knows. In addition, he plays the next 7days without a day off why burn another pitcher when your down by that much? He accomplished saving his pen and knowing politte blows chunks. The sox will most likely keep politte throughout the week, which would be a mistake. The all star break will be the end of the line for Cliff. Great post and I completely agree.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 02:28 PM) f*** that. This was not Cliffy's loss. Come on, let's get real. The whole staff sucked balls today, especially our "ace". That doesn't mean Cliff didn't suck. He's horrible with those bone chips. I don't care if every other player gave up 10 runs for us, the other guys have proven something good this year, Cliff has proven that he sucks this year.

I thank Cliff for everything he did with the Sox (especially last year) but its evident that he is not 100% and with his limited range of motion and the injury he is not an effective pitcher. Thats it, no ifs ands or buts about it. Its time for him to have his surgery, get the chips removed and he should prepare for next season, whether its with the Sox or somewhere else. He'll always be a key kog to that 05 team and hopefully he'll be able to return as a key kog when he gets healthy next season. Its time for Tracey to come back up so the club can see whether he can be an effective reliever, if he can't (and I assume Hermy won't be able to) than it will be time for the club to get another reliever.

The Politte experiment needs to come to an end.

QUOTE(Benchwarmerjim @ Jun 28, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) Twins win again 6-3 Mauer went 2-3 and a walk he went 11-14 for the 3 game series. At one point, he had 8 straight singles in 8 at bats He is so so good and his power is going to come as well. IF he can stay healthy (and I hope he can) he could turn into the best offensive catcher of all time (considering I don't count Piazza since he was so terrible defensively that you shouldn't call him a catcher).

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 08:34 PM) Teams that have won over 54 games by the All-Star break aren't due for anything except more winning. Both the Sox and Tigers are gonna be doing plenty of that in the 2nd half or at least I expect that to happen. I still say the Sox win by 5 games or so though in the end and thats cause i've long said (since the pre-season when I said the Tigers would be the 2nd best team in the division) that there pitching staff would wear down (Minor and Verlander specifically). QUOTE(Wedge @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) Well, we're glad you guys came. Adds a nice little "fiestiness" to the board. Hopefully everyone enjoys the give and take that this season has provided us the opportunity for. Completely agree. I know we both feel our teams are going to win the division but its great having all the discussion.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 11:47 AM) Hawk is right there, This is the worst I have ever seen Mark. This is some how worse than Minny. Way worse...especially since Zambrano capped it with a bomb. Mark was throwing everything up in the zone and I'm not a major fan of the tipping pitches argument cause its not like he'd be tipping every pitch he threw, typically its just a specific pitch you are tipping and than they wait for that. But I could be wrong.

Bhaaa, all I can do is laugh now. If you are gonna lose, might as well get your ass whooped.

Talk about an asswhooping. We f*** up that bunt defense and now its toast. Buehrle is getting shallacked.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 06:43 PM) saw elephant last week and forgot to share how terrible that movie is and how terrible gus van sant is. Longest movie ever and you just sit and wait and its just horrid. Its like 10 minutes of a movie showed over 15 different ways. Why don't I just walk down the street for about 5 minute and than show everyone else's perspective of me watching and call it a 2hr movie. QUOTE(bmags @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 06:43 PM) saw elephant last week and forgot to share how terrible that movie is and how terrible gus van sant is. Longest movie ever and you just sit and wait and its just horrid. Its like 10 minutes of a movie showed over 15 different ways. Why don't I just walk down the street for about 5 minute and than show everyone else's perspective of me watching and call it a 2hr movie.

And Brazil goes down, shutout by the French as Henrier had his 3rd goal of the cup and the game winner.

Henrier with a 2nd half goal and its 1-0 France and France missed a 2nd opportunity which was golden for them to take a 2 goal lead on the Brazilians. Game at the 73rd minute mark.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 01:07 PM) The Angels don't need him; their rotation is full with Colon, Lackey, Escobar, Santana, and the younger Weaver. If they get him, than it could open up the options for them to than go out and acquire Carl Crawford for one of there young starters (one of the Angels young starters).

WOOT...what a comeback.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 02:38 PM) Brian Anderson was the ace of the Royals staff for a time there, hard not to notice him. I remember he was actually half way decent in Arizona too, I believe he's been around for like 13 years now. Came from Anaheim and was the Dbacks first pick of the expansion draft IIRC.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:41 PM) Agreed. We would never hear the end of it even if the Sox won the next ten world series. STFU Cubs fans. They could have the greatest 3rd baseman of all time if we win 10 more world series in 10 years.

Happy Bday to one of the best posters on Soxtalk. Hope its a good one Keith

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:22 PM) Dude, just let it go. Javier has been average to bad for the last 2 years. Can he turn it around? Sure. But he needs to hurry the f*** up and get going. It's July now. IIRC, again I don't like defending Javy but I think both sides deserve to be looked at, last year he was a very good pitcher if you took away a few starts. If he picks things up and goes on another nice 2 month run, he'll have a very similar season where he has 4 good months mixed with about 5-7 just horrid starts.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:14 PM) Good lord. Were you one of those spewing the same s*** back in August of 2004 when Contreras was giving up 9 runs to the Angels? Vazquez has always been on KW's radar. Vazquez is signed through next season and is arbitration eligble in 2008. This was not a trade made for an immediate impact. What has Chris Young done so far this year Milkman? I see Vizcaino (who negative nancies like yourself threw under the bus way too early last season) is having an even worse June then Jazquez and his numbers are sky rocketing. El Duque was already traded from the D'Backs after posting a POS 6.11 ERA, and his now posting a POS 4.89 ERA with the Mets. Javy has been dissapointed this year, but do you guys hoenstly expect him to keep pitching like this for the rest of the season? The rest of his contract? How did Contreras do in the beginning of 2005? Very solid post. I think a lot of people over-rated Vazquez which is why I've jumped on this, but he's more than capable of posting a low 4's ERA over a full season while throwing a ton of innings. Right now he's really bad but what frustrates me is his attitude.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:13 PM) Do we have a starter that hasn't gotten pissed all over in a game thread? People stomped all over Contreras when he almost lost a game. Fact is, if Ozzie felt the Sox had a better option in the rotation, he'd be in there instead of Vazquez. Sox management must not feel that McCarthy is ready for it yet. Attaboy AJ! Count is struggling a bit, but doesn't deserve to get pissed on. He has been off a little bit as of late and finally got hit around by Pitt (every pitcher has a slump). Garland, while he had a horrid start, I still was confident because he has good command, can go deep into games and really has a good attitude (imo). Buehrle is Buehrle and he'll go through an ocassional few starts where he isn't as strong but you know what you got. Freddy is frustrating because of his velocity issue, but he's picked things up. Vaz, you really can't point to anything (control, not locating a certain pitch) but he's just getting hit and hit hard and his long term attitude in past seasons gives me reason to be worried. But ya, its a game thread and people are usually a bit more reactive (or reactionary) here cause its happening "now" as opposed to being able to have a day or two to sit back and think things over.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:10 PM) giving up chris young and an aged, injury prone pitcher to bring in Javy as the fifth starter is a bad deal? Luis Vizciano would look very very good in our pen. Thats and Chris Young are the key names. I could care less about Duque. I'd have given him away for free. I loved what he did for us in relief in that Boston series and he gave us enough good starts out of the 5 spot last year (until Bmac came up and took over down the stretch) to get us in the post-season. But he's not someone I'd want to be counting on to take the mound every 5th day, just like Frank Thomas wasn't someone I was counting on to be our DH for 140 or so games (this season or really last season).

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:09 PM) Something happened to Javier at the all-star break in 2004. He's been mediocre to bad ever since then. Before that, he was one of the best young pitchers in baseball. f*** Uribe! We don't need that s*** right now. I think a lot of people thought all the innings got to him. He still throws innings (historically speaking) and everything seems to be there, mentally he isn't strong (that has to be it). Its not like he has horrid control where there is something taht really stands out where you can say if he fixes this he'll be fine. The way he goes about business, he just seems to totally zone out and get way too comfortable and teams than get runners on and he steps up or tries to than, but they are on so much that inevitably your going to give up hits.

QUOTE(winninguglyin83 @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:08 PM) i said haeger over Vazquez. we only gave haeger one chance. he's been solid most of the year at Charlotte. Could trade Vaz and get a functioning part in CF, maybe somebody who could really swing the stick, hit .190 and remember to touch first base when he hits the occasional ball into the gap (See Game Three agaisnt Pittsburgh for details.) I'm not a huge fan of Haeger w/the Sox but I do think he will have a couple sucessful years somewhere (probably for a losing team) but one thing I do think you hit the nail on was the whole "one chance". Regardless of whether a start is good or bad, if your a talent evaluator you can't judge a pitcher by his "first start". You can look at his stuff and judge that a bit, but you can't look at the actual numbers. I"d look a lot more towards his minor league track record, what type of stuff he flashed consistently and than go from there. Usually in your first ml start, you aren't near the pitcher you usually are because of nerves and ocassionally you are way better than you are due to the unfamiliarity of the other team or you pitching over your head. Fans, like scouts and executives have to be patient when it comes to players making there debut.