Jordan4life_2007

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:44 PM) Also this is all opinion, not fact. The only way to see if this is true, would be for Pablo to begin a platoon in LF which more than likely will not happen. But remember, until there's any actual proof this is simply opinion being displayed as fact in some cases. LOL. Give me a break, Kalapse. I know you don't believe for a second Ozuna could do what he's doing now if he was an everyday player. You hate Pods. You make that clear every single day. You'd have D.J. give up the booth to play LF if you could.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:42 PM) You asked the question, there is your answer. Clearly available, and clearly a significant upgrade from Podsednik. But it's not realistic. So what's the point of even bringing him up? The point of this thread, I guess, was to point out that Pods sucks (something I don't agree with) and we need somebody better. So who could we realstically get that's better before the 31st? The answer is no one. So I don't see the point in b****ing about a guy that we one, won a title with last year as our leadoff man, and two, have a pretty good chance of winning another title with this year. I'd be much more concerned with our starting rotation and replacing Cliffy.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:40 PM) For the first half last year, his statistics were off the charts, almost a .300 average, a .370 OBP and a jillion steals. His second half he was injured, which became a convenient excuse to explain away how he forgot how to steal a base, how he forgot how to take a pitch, and how he forgot how to hit singles quite as well. I think he was like a .250 hitter in the second half. I excused this as him just playing hurt. He actually hit .284 in the second half (including a .337 September) last year. His second half wasn't the same as the first half because he was hurt. It wasn't an excuse. It was fact. You could clearly see he was laboring. He wasn't placed on the DL for fun.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:37 PM) I absolutely guarantee you that Rob would be better in LF than Pods. I f***ing guarantee it. And Ozuna would be a wash at best, but would be much better offensively. Except Mack is not, nor should he ever be, a starter. And it's easy to slobber over Ozuna while he's hitting over .400. Ozuna is a bench player, that's it. If he were to start playing as much or close to as much as Podsednik, he would be exposed.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:34 PM) Carl Crawford? Yeah, he sure wouldn't cost a lot.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:31 PM) Why does Podsednik deserve any respect? Statistics don't lie. The only thing the guy does better than other qualified AL leadoff men is steal bases and score runs, and both of those statistics are clearly overvalued, as one has a smallish chance of contributing to a victory and the other is the product of the hitters behind you. So it took you a year and a half to come to the conclusion that Pods sucks? OK. So did you think this last year? Like I said, other than defense, he's either as good or slightly better in '06 than he was in '05.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:24 PM) Right now we could replace Pods with about 25-26 other team's leadoff hitter and we wouldn't lose a step. A great majority of them would be a major upgrade as well. So which one of these 25 or 26 leadoff hitters is Kenny gonna go out and trade for?

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 03:20 PM) We also won a title with Timo Perez on the bench. So what? Yeah, everybody knows Timo was as important to our success last year as Pods was. Was Widger as important as A.J., too? Afterall, Widger was on the team. Maybe Willie Harris > Iguchi? No argument here.

I'm hopin' Dye wins this thing, obviously. I've gotta go with Ryan Howard, though.

Pods is our leadoff man. We won a title with him as our leadoff man. That's all that really matters. Is he great? No. He wasn't great last year. The only real part of his game that I'm dissapointed with this year is his defense. I don't even have to go into how bad it's been.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 02:54 PM) They kicked the crap out of us in, I think, the first game. And just to avoid the sweep, we had to play for 19 innings. We easily take 2/3 if we don't choke away multiple scoring opportunities in which we could've blown each of the two games we lost wide open. Boston is a good team. I didn't need to see them take 2/3 from us to know that. But winning a series in early July doesn't make them better.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 02:45 PM) D- Damn women are so hard to please.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 01:55 PM) Incomplete...ask me in October. The thread title is asking for 1st half grades. Anyway, I'd give us a solid B+. 57-31 is a damn good record. However, other than the offense, we've slipped in every key catergory from a year ago.

QUOTE(shoota @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 07:38 PM) I can't believe the Sox are only 2 games back with as bad as its bullpen and starting pitching has been. I'm looking forward to the second half. The bullpen (save for Politte) has been stellar of late.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 10:47 AM) The Angels are only 2 games out. Oakland has scored fewer runs than it has given up. I don't think the Angels need to add any trade pieces to win the West now that they have fixed their rotation. And, frankly, I hope they don't add any pieces, since they will likely be our first round playoff opponent, but with much better pitching than they had last year -- Colon, Lackey, the better Weaver, Santana. You're assuming we win the division, right? Wouldn't The Tigers play the Angels if they won the central?

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 02:15 AM) I think thats about right Heads, but I don't really want Riske in there with men on honestly, I'd rather have Thornton or Cotts in there....which leads us to the 2nd issue....who is our righty that can be thrown out there for that BIG out with men on base? We don't have one. Which is why I think Kenny will make a move for one.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 01:08 AM) We have 3 legit team MVP's. That's rather neat. 4 if you throw in Konerko.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 01:05 AM) WITHOUT being snarky....what is your level of trust in the bullpen...rank each member from best to worst. Jenks - still the best arm in the pen Cotts - I still want him in there for a big out.... Thornton - A little prone to the single at times, but still tough to hit Riske - Been fantabulous with us when throwing strikes Mac - Rather hit or miss Cliff - mostly miss Sounds pretty accurate. I'm hoping B-mac is a little more consistent in the second half. I just want one more quality right-handed reliever in the mix.

Matt has easily been our second best reliever the last two months or so. I'm so happy we've got this guy.

QUOTE(bschmaranz @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 12:45 AM) I guess all I wanted to know was do you guys think something perhaps could be in the works involving Garland/Garcia/Vazquez? Very doubtful.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 08:56 PM) Wow, I don't know how this thread got hijacked for awhile into a discussion about Mark Prior, so let's get back to the topic at hand -- whether the Sox pitching is going to get fixed in the second half. Today was certainly a heroic performance by all concerned. Jermaine Dye hitting a HR off Papelbon in the bottom of the 9th to avoid a sweep. The Sox getting two back in the bottom of the 11th after Jenks got tagged for two two-out runs in his third inning. McCarthy going 4-1/3 innings of scoreless ball -- isn't that exactly the role he should have played all year?? Politte contributing a perfect inning for the win. Even Vazquez coming out of the pen to help out. In all, the bullpen pitched 13 innings and gave up 2 runs. That's tenacious. That's what the Sox are made of. Whereas other teams may go out and improve themselves at the trade deadline, the Sox really don't have any obvious place to turn for improvement. We aren't shipping off any of our starters or McCarthy. They are just going to have to find a way to do better. I tend to agree with those who believe the pitchers above their career averages -- Garcia, Vazquez, and Garland -- will all pitch better in the second half. For one thing, if our bullpen continues to improve, I think we'll see Ozzie much less often leaving them hang out to dry when they don't have it. So, in the pitching department, we're going to have to find a way to get our starters sharp again. Would adding a deeper bullpen help? Will Hermanson make it off the DL to contribute? Is there a bullpen arm out there who can reprise Cliff Politte's role from last year? (David Riske isn't it. He's helped us, but I wouldn't trust him that much with the game on the line.) I don't know what we're going to get from our pitching staff out of the break. I'm just glad we won today's game going into the break, and now have 4 days off to get ready for the second half. Good post. I think you're right. We're not trading any of our starters. It's just not gonna happen. We're gonna have to roll with them, atleast through this year. I still see Kenny going out and trading for a right-handed reliever. There's nothing Politte or Hermanson can do from now until the 31st to make me feel confident in them. Knowing Kenny, even if Politte and/or Hermanson pitched well over that stretch, he would still want some insurance in case one or both of them either started pitching like s*** or got hurt again. I believe Kenny when he says he's not shopping for a CF. We're gonna roll with Brian Anderson. Maybe you'll see Ross Gload moved. That's about it. So, basically, yeah, the team we have now is the team we're gonna hopefully win another title with.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 10, 2006 -> 12:22 AM) His average so far this month doesn't even tell the whole story on how well he's hitting the ball. Good point. He's been spraying the ball all over the place.

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 06:43 PM) i hope we dont trade him. put him in left field. im so scared that we will wake up and hear "roberti hernandez for josh fields" That's NOT gonna happen. QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 9, 2006 -> 09:32 PM) no doubt but the point is that LF is an easy position to learn and Fields is athletic enough to play in the OF and play it well. Scott Podsednik says hi.

We simply couldn't go into the break getting swept by these clowns in our crib. This was the biggest win of the year, IMO.

It's either Thome or Jenks. Thome has been the main ingredient in transforming this offense from above average to argubly the best in baseball. The impact he's had has trickled up and down this lineup. If not Thome, it's gotta be Jenks. Words can't describe how dominant he's been.