Chisoxfn

QUOTE (b-Rye @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) Thats why he needs to be fired.... the vets haven't hit since 05. This team hits more lazy popouts in one game than any other team does in a week. They need to make adjustments because pitchers get scouting reports and hitters have to make adjustments so they're not getting pounded with a pitch they can't or in there redzone. There ABs are crap for being so talented.. The thing is the vets have hit. Dye has played above his career levels, Paulie has been relatively consistent while healthy, Thome has been what he is for an aging slugger. AJ is having a career year and had always played up to his career levels.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 25, 2009 -> 05:59 PM) Only the third one is true. First one did indeed happen, two rounds of them, and I've seen them closed in town. Another round may come though. Second one already partially happened, and likely will get worse, but supports will be there for development too, so it won't be as horrible as the broader crash was. Inflation, though, I'm right with you there. When the economy does kick back up in a year or two, inflation will go up big, IMO. Its why now is a very good time to buy a house if you can. Get a great rate locked in before inflation hits. Of course than you have a whole nother potential issue that will keep the housing prices very stagnant for a long time because people won't look to move due to the cost of financing. It will be an interesting next 10 years, imo.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 01:03 PM) Apparently, an article I think it was, came out and stated Walker doesn't handle the vets, just the new guys coming up. So with guys like AJ, Thome, Dye, PK, it's all on them. Walker handles guys like Getz, Alexei, Fields, Beckham(though I wouldn't tinker with him at all), Quentin, and god knows about Rios. I'd say, although I'd like to see Walker fired, he's done somewhat decent. I think there is better out there though. And I want a hitting coach who isn't afraid to coach older guys. Bring back Hriniak. Vets need to be in pretty long slumps before they tend to go to the hitting coach.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 07:03 PM) but... he's ozzie's good buddy.... The Sox don't keep guys around because they are friends with people. Walker was very very upset with Ozzie last year for a long time. Walks a professional.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 02:43 PM) Since 2005 the only guy he really turned around was Thornton. He gets way too much praise IMO. Gavin Floyd made huge strides with Cooper. John Danks has grown a lot with Cooper (Buehrle has helped as well). Javier Vazquez was better under Cooper, although he wasn't as good as we all wanted him to be. Jose Contreras was at his finest with Coop. On the offensive side: Uribe (while never great) had his best offensive years with Walker Crede made strides with Walker (injuries effected him from ever having multiple good offensive seasons though and he really only had one good offensive season) But as a whole, Walker hasn't had a lot of young players to work with so you can't really say he's had a chance. And don't tell me Andy Gonzalez. His only big failures so to speak are the Nick Swishers of the world and it was well documented that Swisher didn't listen to Walker anyway. I really think Walker gets a lot more hate than he should, but I also think Coop does deserve a lot of credit, but it doesn't mean he's always perfect.

We changed the sports-pub up and set-up specific sub forums for basketball, hockey, and football. That way all of those threads went in there but there is still a sports forum for the more generic sports. It breaks stuff up a lot and maybe that is a bad thing, but it would also keep things clean and maybe encourage a lot more generic sports debate as opposed to sticking stuff in these one massive threads. What do you all think?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 02:39 PM) I just find it odd that people are so inconsistent between him and Walker. AJ, Pods, and Beckham are having nice offensive years and Walker gets no credit. Just about the entire bullpen and 3 out of 5 starters suck and no one criticizes Coop. I personally am consistent. I don't call for Walker to get fired, nor do I call for Cooper to get fired. I like both of them and in general I'm relatively happy with the coaching staff.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 01:45 PM) They're watching the make-believe version of Tony Pena because it helps them when they complain about the Pena-Allen trade over and over, and over, and over... And if anyone sees a straight fastball, don't you see the downward plain he gets on his pitches, as well as the run. He rarely throws anything straight (hell, he's known for his sinker). He just hasn't had any command for it and the sinker is starting too far up in the zone (so that it stays there) and the movement is running into the bats and the middle portion of the plate. He's just a mess right now, but the guy has a dynamite arm. So did Aardsma and MacDougall, but I never have a problem taking a chance on guys with Pena's arm and I think an off-season with the Sox and some minor tweaks could make him a well above-average set-up men (which is a very very valuable commodity).

QUOTE (joeynach @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 11:10 PM) Has anyone else noticed that Tony Pena has terrible stuff. After watching him pitch for over a month now I believe his pitches can best be described as floating 90-92 mph fastballs. Is it not obvious that all his pitches tend to naturally HANG, especially over the middle of the plate. He needs to get off this team for good!! I don't know what Pena you've been watching, but I've seen him hit 94-96 relatively consistently. I'm not sure what its been the past couple outings but I've seen numerous game with his velocity in the mid 90's. He also gets great sink, but the problem is he doesn't have good command of the "run" on the pitches. He has a lot to learn but stuff wise he's above average.

Hey Guys, just a message, make sure we stay on par here. In terms of fan support, I think some of us are being a little too harsh if we don't think playing in front of a packed crowd cheering for you doesn't have a positive effect on a guy. You can talk to plenty of guys and they'll tell you how much better the experience is playing in front of a full-house at your home stadium getting cheered, etc. But I don't think us as fans booing guys when they fail has an impact on the results. If they aren't getting the job done I don't fault anyone for booing them and it doesn't impact the resulst on the field (the key is that the fans are there and as a player you know if you do well and your playing in front of packed home houses, your going to get cheered). If we thought fans mattered, than the Yankees would be perennial losers since they have the harshest baseball fans out there (yes, you New York...and Philly fans can piss off cause there just moody pricks, Yank fans will boo there star players).

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 11:00 AM) Do you really have that little confidence in the kid? Furthermore, when do we stop preparing for the playoffs and start getting ready for next year? We're not very good. I'd rather give a kid the thrill of pitching in Yankee Stadium for his 1st start then see Torres getting his ass handed to him again. Well its already clear from his AAA stops that he still has some work to do in the minors so ya, I do think it would be a huge mistake and I don't have confidence in him kicking butt right now. Hudson has struggled at the highest minor league level with his command a bit and we are asking him to go face one of the best offensive teams in all of baseball (full of hitters with very good eyes) and put him into that. That is absolutely absurd. I don't care how strong and how poised someone is. It is the manager's job to put guys in a position to succeed and by starting Hudson you are doing nothing but putting him in a position to fail.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 08:37 PM) Hudson hasn't made an Major League start yet. Torres has and has proven that he is unable to throw strikes. I'll take the road less taken at this point. And you don't give a guy his debut at Yankee stadium in a playoff race. The Sox made that mistake with Neal Cotts and I sure as hell hope they don't do that again.

QUOTE (Hanky Panky @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 06:11 PM) I figured that, but his pal mentioned his "professional" debut. I may just be getting overly excited. Professionaly homecoming means the first time he's pitched professionally in his home-town (AAA would count as professional ball).

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 10:13 AM) If the Sox are statistically eliminated, I'd limit him to bullpen sessions and would also shut down a couple of other starters. There's no point in fielding your best team after you've been eliminated. Hell, Peavy just took a line drive to his pitching elbow in a rehab start. Why subject highly-paid veterans to more injuries when you're no longer playing for anything? If he's healthy, let him pitch. If anything it will keep the rust off of him and let him begin to get acclimated to the American League. I don't believe in shutting guys down just because. If the ankle's healthy and Peavy's ready, he should be pitching.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 08:21 AM) It would be a shame if Ozzie did not surpass Jerry Manuel in time spent as sox manager. There are quite a few people on this forum who know they would do a better job as sox manager. Anyone know how some of these message board posters can score an interview with KW? Ozzie does a tremendous job handling his players and he's really awesome at handling starting pitchers and I actually think he's pretty good at handling the pen as well. Plenty will b**** at me for saying that, but when every guy you trot out gets lit up (excluding Thornton), how the hell is it Ozzie's fault?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 08:15 AM) I agree with his statement that Ozzie can't handle a bullpen. Yes, sometimes the pieces he has to work with suck, but I have never liked his timing for taking out starters and switching relievers. I am also tired of the team always appearing to be too tight. If the other team beats you because they are better, you tip your hat to them. If they beat you because you make stupid mistakes that you shouldn't be making, that just sucks. THAT said, unless something really bad happens the last part of this season, Ozzie probably should get a full year with this squad. Or half a year, if he really sucks. IF the team plays tight, I think you have to look at the so-called leaders of the team and ask some questions cause there is no way that the team plays tight because of Ozzie. Quietly I think Konerko's leadership style will be put on notice. No guy on the team plays tighter than him (well, maybe Q) and I think having that style coming from your leader hurts. Not sure how Thome is but he doesn't seem like the vocal leader either and in theory I really think the offense lacks real leadership. Hopefully Beckham can become that guy in time. And no, I'm not saying that Thome/Konerko/Dye aren't good character guys, they are, but none of them are the type of leader I think this team needs. In the pen, well the whole f***ing thing is a disaster. Thornton is starting to get over-worked and how can you blame Ozz, he's the only guy whose worth a s*** right now.

Rios and Dye have really struggled and I think both need to get things fixed. However, when it comes to Dye, I don't see how anyone can question his character. The guy is one of the classiest guys in baseball and up until this recent stretch has been one of the most consistent Rf'ers (and by consistent, I mean consistently good) in baseball since he put on a White Sox uniform. Has his era ended, maybe, although I still think he's got some good baseball left in the tank and I hope he can get out of this ugly rut.

He's healthy and you can tell. Fastball velocity is in the 93-95 MPH range but the problem is guys are sitting on it because he's never throwing the splitter or anything else other than the fastball for strikes (or at all).

Lets do it Gavin!!! Lets go SOX!!! Time to rip off a 6 game winning streak

Awesome article Mario and to me it really is why it is so frustrating to be a White Sox fan right now. The club has filled all of its pre-season holes and continues to be a better team (on paper) yet the results have been the same month over month and it gets to the point that you really have to openly start to question the leadership of the club (and I’m not pointing at Ozzie, rather the veterans that have been here for a while). The errors and poor baseball have just gotten absurd and its why the club has lost so many 1-run ball games. Leaving runs on the table is huge in those games and had the Sox done the little things (or as I call them, the routine things) they’d easily have at least 4-6 more wins, had the club held leads, they’d have another 4-6 wins and unfortunately they haven’t. They’ve been paid when it matters most and it gets sad and tiring because a lot of what they’ve been bad at should be routine.

Need for Peavy: Does it Matter? By Mario Scalise SoxNet Heading into his fifth inning of work in his third rehab start, things were looking good for Jake Peavy and his pending return to the White Sox. He was throwing pain-free and like a guy ready to take the mound in New York this Saturday against the Yankees. And then he was hit with a line drive off his throwing elbow. He finished the inning, but you knew the swelling to follow would put the decision on his first start on hold. So now Saturday is up in the air. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it doesn't really...Rest of the Story

He won't be in Chicago but it has nothing to do with him being in the Fall League. He's not ready and the Sox aren't going to spend 66K to call him up cause he really adds zero value to a bench (he's not ready to hit ML pitching and he isn't a good defensive player or base runner so I see no value added in promoting him).

A fielding error isn't a mental mistake most of the team, it is a physical error and unfortunately the Sox have just made a lot more than normal but they also have guys new to the majors and/or playing new positions.

I actually heard that the big thing preventing Harrison from signing is the fact that he's not a practice player and because of that he looks poor in workouts and teams are hesitant to give him a shot. If Dungy is talking him up that is a good thing though since he was his coach for a few seasons and knows him pretty well.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 25, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) Palehose just said it (rearrange deck chairs on the titanic), and I asked it. You watch the games more then I do. Do you think that Oz has lost the team? When I do watch, the mental mistakes are just brutal, yet, that's what Oz is supposed to NOT put up with. I think there are a lot more physical mistakes than mental mistakes and I really don't think Ozzie has lost the team.