Chisoxfn

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:52 PM) Seriously dude. Analyzing is okay, but why the hell are you sitting there cheerleading on our board. He's done nothing wrong, so leave him be. This place is for Sox fans, but we always welcome other teams fans as long as they are amicable. He's been nothing but class.

You guys realize that Cintron led the NL in pinch hit Hr's last year. He's a damn good PH and should be our first guy off the bench in these type of situations.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:51 PM) LOL, Hawk praying for a wild pitch. I don't blame him, Anderson has looked awful all game and didn't have one good cut that AB. Its going to happen though, thats part of him still having to develop.

If Mota can have this control all season, look out cause he'll be a big help to that pen if he throws strikes. Anderson can't beat out an infield hit and the Sox blow a GOLDEN opportunity.

Not saying that was a bad take, but how the hell does BA take a pitch that close again. He could have went down looking for his 3rd straight AB with runners on.

QUOTE(rventura23 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) did the tribe loose anyone from the bullpen besides bobby Wickman got a year older and is even more out of shape. I think he (the closer position) will be the achilles heal of the Tribe pen, but that may very well be true of the Sox pen (which could definately struggle). We'll find out a lot these next few weeks.

Mota got the job done. Cintron had a good AB but failed in the end. I don't like the idea of Anderson here, but maybe he'll surprise me. This is the type of guy where being agressive could be a good thing.

QUOTE(GoTribe @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:42 PM) Very good game so far. Lee had it going but nearly made this thing a blowout in the Sox's favor. Kudos to the tribe pen for keeping it close. Sox offense is so clutch, thats why they are so tough IMHO... This MOTA-CINTRON matchup should be a good one. Both from the National League... I'm sure they faced eachother before. Casey Blake is your true hero. He doesn't get those jumps on a few of those balls (balls there were knocked down by the wind) and this is a 3 run lead for the Sox. However thats part of the game.

QUOTE(sox-r-us @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:43 PM) You make good points Chisoxfn and I would be lying if I said I did not think of it too. I wish though that he would use it in his "throw away" game 3s (you know where we are up 2-0 and we really do not need to win game 3?). I would prefer that when we are against probably our #1 rival at home for an early division lead, we send our freaking aces to take those guys out. Confidence is a HUGE part of this game. I do not want to see the Indians taking 2 of 3 here ....too early in the season but still. None the less, good points still 2 out of 3 would be great, but I'd rather find out what we got now so Kenny and company know what to do (in terms of finding guys) than not figuring it out and being in big trouble. If Ozzie doesn't have faith in guys like Jenks and Cotts last year and throw them in pressure situations, we aren't world series champs. Sure that could have blown up in our faces, but worse case those guys blow a few games and Ozzie goes to someone else. Best case they become studs. I say give players chances to succeed or fail.

QUOTE(sox-r-us @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:38 PM) No he will not. Ozzie will do whatever Ozzie wants to do....which is fine, since he has earned the right to do it with the ring. No issues there. But it is fair that he get called out if it seems like a dumb move and then it turns out to be a dumb move. Just because Boone is lefty does NOT mean he is good at pitching against the best lefty hitters out there (aka Hafner) on the opponent's team I swear sometimes Ozzie reminds me of Jim Riggleman with his match up theory. Which is strange because Ozzie is pretty vocal about how he does not care for matchups, theories etc and goes by gut most of the time Lets not forget just yesterday he got Hafner to induce into a DP. Bringing out McCarthy against a few lefties/switch hitters didn't seem like a good managerial move. Ozzie wants to see what Logan will do. For christ sakes this is a learning period for both player and coach as the player needs to learn and understand what his role will be and the coach needs to learn and understand how his player will perform in varying situations.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:41 PM) I really cant imagine it can be, he didnt do anything today. I think he caugth a lazy fly in the 1st, thats about it... Ya I couldn't figure it out. I didn't even remember him catching that fly. I was surprised when he came out. My guess is its just super precautionary. NO reason to risk losing him for an extended period of time.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:40 PM) Steal with Juan. Test Martinez. I doubt he will even throw. Has anybody seen Neal warm up? Is he available? That would be awful. Juan doesn't get good jumps. I have no problem with being agressive, but you got to pick and choose the situation and doing it now, this late in the game would be a poor move, imo.

Good call, I like the idea of a pinch hitter here Ozz. And if Anderson is out I'd think hard about PH him, but at the same time I'd also think hard about what it says to your youngster by doing that. Anderson has had two straight AB's with a big no no, going down looking with runners on.

Any mention on how severe it was? I never heard Hawk or DJ say anything during the game aside from when they announced Mack was coming in.

QUOTE(sox-r-us @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:25 PM) It is a one run game, and with Travis Hafner on, he decides to sit McCarthy after one great inning to get Boone freaking Logan???? Yeah I understand the lefty-lefty matchup but come on Ozzie.......this was asking for trouble.....and the game is tied Kenny better find a way to improve this bullpen somewhere at the deadline. Or we are not going anywhere. Why was trading Marte for Mackowiack that important????? You got to see what Logan can do. Ozzie doesn't baby guys, he finds out what they have and whether they have the right mindset. He seems to have a knack for figuring out whether players will be strong enough to hold up in crunch situations or whether they won't. Thats why Marte is now gone and its a big reason why Munoz never got a shot with the club this spring. Ozzie is going to give these guys shots to fail, but what you have to remember is guys may fail with shots, but they can't succeed without a skipper being willing to take a shot. There is a grander scheme of things to Ozzie than just winning 1 game. He wants to win them all, but he's going to do what he can to best prepare this team to win more games and not just 1 game.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 5, 2006 -> 12:34 PM) I actually like what I see out of Boone to be honest. Thornton still worries me more then Logan. Boone is going to be solid this year for us. The nice part was that after he gave up that homer, the first pitch he threw was a damn good slider to Victor Martinez. While I would have preferred to stick with the hot hand I have no problem in Ozzie giving these guys shots to prove themselves. He did it last year with numerous guys and it left us shaking our heads, but as the season went on he figured out who would crap there pants in those situations (and they would be gone or seldomly used) and who would rise to the top. It may cost us some games early on, but it'll also better prepare us for the latter part of the season.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 08:19 PM) They probably mixed 'em up. I think the Joshua Fields is still recovering from off-season surgery. He's probably in extended spring training. Yeppers

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 04:32 PM) Nah I was more thinking of PK. I could be way off base but he seems like a guy that goes through terrible slumps where he is trying to yank everything for a bomb. Then when he is hot he can spray the ball all over. I totally disagree with Paulie. He's one of those power hitters who goes to right field very well. Every once in a while he'll get in a funk and get locked in towards left, but when he does that you'll see him try to jam himself and hit the ball to right field in order to get out of the funk and it leads to him being able to drive the ball to all parts of the field.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 04:10 PM) Another guy comes to mind that if I bring up I will get crucified. I have no idea who your speaking of. I assume you refer to Thome cause he's a pull hitter. However I have been very pleased with Aj's approach the first two games. He seems to be hitting the ball hard to the opposite field. I expect a good year from him at the plate (avg wise).

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 04:35 PM) I scored a 30, but it would be lower if not for some of the multiple choice TV/movie/book/comic questions. I needed a none of the above for both books and comics since I have never read comics in my life and quite frankly school has ruined any interest I once had in a good book (thanks for making me read horrific text books and awful awful books). I used to read 2 books a week and now I read maybe 1 a year.

53 Probably thanks to this website.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 03:33 PM) Jas, We have to give boone a few outings before we know what we have out there. I was watching him warm up and he threw one that hit the wall. He was obviously very nervous. I completely agree, most of my writeup was based on his spring performances. Granted it was spring, but I think it was nice seeing how people rarely square up on him. And it was no surprise he was nervous out there today, but considering the situation he came in on I couldn't complain with how he pitched. He gave up a double, but I think Mack had a bad jump. I don't think Anderson would have caught it, but it would have been closer. One thing I wasn't impressed with was Mack in center or Mack at the plate. He tries to PULL everything. Granted this is just one days observations and it takes a while for me to formulate any sort of opinion on how I think a player will do/be.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 03:17 PM) See, I still dislike this sort of posts...where you presume that steroids wouldn't have been as much of a help to 1 guy over another because of some reason. Why? Because there are a lot of steroids out there, and there never as far as I know has been a double-blind study on the effects of heavy use of each particular steroid under each circumstance. You can find steroids like Winstrol, which don't make you explode as much (Palmeiro), or you can use THG (Bonds) and turn into a giant. All we really have are rumors about what steroids can and cannot do for any particular player. For crying out loud, in the mid 90's, you could find plenty of people who would say "Steroids aren't a problem in baseball because having huge muscles won't help you in baseball like it would in football" (See: what people say about basketball these days). For all we know, you could easily find a steroid that would help you get your arm in better shape, or not lose as much stamina during 120 pitches, etc. We just don't know. I for one can think of several guys who are starting pitchers who I really think were juicing a few years ago and have since stopped (and have fallen off accordingly). Freddy, is not one of them IMO. I base my stuff on what I've heard from various people close to the game. And I've never heard of many of those people suggesting many starters were on roids. Your right there are different kinds of roids, after all olympic sprinters use them to get faster and body builders use them to get bigger. There are tons of variations, but from what I've heard for starting pitchers there isn't one that would really make a great difference. Thats not to say there aren't starters that use them, cause I'm sure plenty do, just not as much as relievers and hitters.

Part of it has to do with the fact that Farmer isn't any good. This may not be a good radio duo, but at the same time I think a lot of people overhyped Rooney/Farmer. Rooney had some amazing calls during the post-season and by and large they were a good crew but It wasn't as if they were Vin Scully or anything like that. Give me Vin Scully in his old and senile days anyday of the week over anyone the Sox run out there. It was a poor move on the Score's part, but the poorest part wasn't hiring Singleton it was trying to move Farmer to a position he stinks at, instead of keeping him at a position he was mediocre at and finding someone to come in and replace Rooney (leaving Farmer as is).

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 4, 2006 -> 02:51 PM) Garcia's velocity has been gradually decreasing over the past 3-4 years. People act like he was throwing 94 mph constantly last year. That's not true at all. He was in the 91 mph range on average last season with his fastball. His FB was just fine last year. He would throw 91 and bring it in at 93-94 when he needed it. I figure in a couple weeks he'll be back to that point for the Sox. After the 1st inning he was in the 88-89 range althoug he wasn't throwing it enough, so its just a matter of getting another 1-2 on that and than being able to rare back and jack it a little more. Give him 2-4 more starts and I think he'll be in-season shape.