Jordan4life_2007

This also bodes well for us. I'm liking our chances more and more to win this thing.

I like.

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Oct 20, 2005 -> 07:21 PM) Anyone else think we are going to tag the Rocket for 3 or more? As dominant as he is, I think Paulie, Crede, and co. are peaking at the right time and might send one of those 95mph four-seamers on the Dan Ryan. Feel real good about our chances v. Clemens and Pettitte...Oswalt, not so much. I feel the same way. Clemens just hasn't looked that good for about 6 weeks now. And we've had a lot of success against Pettite when he was with NY. Oswalt is Oswalt. It's funny to me that it seems like people are just now starting to take notice on how good this guy is. He's been doing this since he entered the league. I remember having a big time argument with Witesox fan on who was better between Oswalt and Carrie Wood.

Why are you a sucker? That bat is nice as hell.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Oct 20, 2005 -> 06:44 PM) I'll never understand why some Sox fans are so f***ing obsessed with the media and the "lack of respect" that they show towards the Sox. I personally don't give a s*** what Dan Patrick says, he is noone, I have no interest in his opinion. Some people should just try to enjoy this while it lasts instead of getting upset everytime they hear something on the radio that could be construed as a slam towards the Sox. We're in the f***ing World Series, enjoy it. That's what I'm saying. And you know what's really funny? When some of the media/experts/ect do start giving the Sox some love, the same people start complaining that they're just jumping on the bandwagon.

QUOTE(tts1stros @ Oct 20, 2005 -> 04:52 PM) Greetings from an Astros fan. When I saw a topic called "Keys to beating Houston" I had to reply. A lot of what y'all are saying is true, but I wanted to correct some misinformation: --We will be pitching a four man rotation, not three. Count on the Game 4 starter being Brandon Backe. Backe is NOT as dominant as Oswalt/Pettitte/Clemens, but do not underestimate him pitching at home. He's a completely different pitcher at home vs. on the road, with an ERA more than two runs lower. The difference was even more pronounced last year. Clemens does fatigue earlier and earlier nowadays, but with our pen, that hasn't been a problem. And just because he's tired doesn't mean he's not effective: he'll still shut you out, it'll just be over 5-6 innings instead of 8. I wouldn't assume just because he's 43 and fighting some leg issues that he's an easy win. Pettitte had a bad outing in Game 1, but that was mainly because due to him taking a line drive of his leg in batting practice (he says it didn't affect him, but anyone watching could see how different his mechanics were.) He was back to normal in Game 5 and pitched great. I'm not worried about Pettitte. Oswalt is the best pitcher on our staff, and I'm sorely disappointed he won't pitch Game 1 because of Pujols's HR. --Our pen is very, very good. Our starting rotation gets its share of press, but I think it's even harder to score off our bullpen. Definitely, definitely "worth writing home about." Lidge had 3 bad games in the LCS, which was frankly astonishing, but I'm attributing that to overuse (he pitched multiple innings outings 4 games in a row!), and even 3 bad outings by Lidge only meant 1 BS (The Shot by Pujols). Qualls and Wheeler have been Lights Out as setup guys (and you will certainly never see them in the 5th/6th), and with the exception of Lidge, who we still would trust with a 1 run lead, certainly no one's looked bad. At any rate, don't think you're going to feast on mediocre pitching if a Houston starter only goes 6 innings. And this is a distinct possibility with Roger. --Don't let Lance Berkman beat you. That's the absolute, number one thing I would say to a Houston opponent too. Funny thing is, it didn't turn out to be true: he only had 3 RBIs and 6 hits against the Cardinals. Even if he's not hitting HRs though, he has an excellent batting eye: he'll crush any mistake and will walk his ass off. He hits for a high average from both sides, but nearly all of his power is from the left side of the plate. You'll probably use Cotts/Marte to turn him around in an RBI situation late in the game. Hitting-wise, you need to keep Berkman, Ensberg, and Biggio in check. Ensberg did a pretty good job of that himself in the LCS (he went AWOL against the Cards). Watch out if he brings his bat to Chicago. Willy Taveras is overrated as the "key to our offense" and all that nonsense. He's fast. That's it. He can't hit. Jason Lane is either hot or cold, and nothing in between. I sure hope he's hot. And watch out for Brad Ausmus, our catcher; he stinks offensively, but is somehow hitting very well in the playoffs/post-All-Star Break timespan. Our offense is not the best, but IMO, too much of that is influenced by the first two months of the season when we were terrible. -------------------------------- This is going to be a low scoring series. I don't see any team scoring more than 5 or so runs in a game. If they do, they'll almost certainly win. Best way to beat the Astros: suffocate the offense. Don't allow more than 1 run. Score as much as you can off the starters, because you won't score multitudes of runs against the pen. My two cents. Looking forward to a good series. I think I'm going to go make a "Keys to beating the White Sox" post and let y'all tell me what you think of it. Nice post. I agree with most of it. As somebody mentioned, Freddy Garcia is money on the road. Whatever Backe has done at home, Garcia has done that and then some on the road. And, not to take anything away from the Astros pen, but I don't think it's as good as the Angels pen. Shields, Donnelly, Escobar, and K-Rod is as good as any pen in the game. And in games 2, 4, and 5 of the ALCS, we did plenty of damage against those guys. I'm not saying the same thing will happen against the Astros, but we are battle tested when it comes to going up against good bullpens. Other than that, excellent post!

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 11:23 PM) Gammons picked up to win on Baseball Tonight, dangit. Keep in mind at the begining of the year he picked the Twins and the Cubs to be in the World Series. Everyone on baseball tonight picked the Sox to win. Gammons also picked us to beat the Red Sox and Angels.

Keep the speed guys off base like we did with Chone Figgins. Try not to let Berkman beat you if at all possible. Make Clemens and Pettite work, work and work some more. Clemens hasn't been pitching well of late. He'll gets really fatigued if you make him work. Sox in 6.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:59 PM) Konerko: -Vs Clemens - .444/.450/.1056, 5-18, 2HR -Vs Pettite - .391/.440/.652, 9-22, 1HR AJ: -Vs Clemens - 1-11 -Vs Pettite - 4-11 -Vs Oswalt - 5-8 PWNAGE I like.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:48 PM) This is the only decent one I could find. http://p078.ezboard.com/fevilwontwinfrm3 Thanks man. This is a very cool board. They've also got links to a bunch of other ones. I apperciate it.

QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:53 PM) i know there are some good stat grabbers out there.....can anyone see how some of or hitters have faired against Clemens and Andy. I cant see anyone on the team with stats against Oswalt except maybe AJ And Podsednik. Besides that, you're not gonna find much. I'll try, though.

Anybody know of any good Astros message boards?

Wtf? That's very strange. Was she a Sox fan?

I like the Astros as well. But now? They are my mortal enemies. I don't feel anything towards them with a White Sox World Series title on the line.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:39 PM) Rocket hasn't looked right in a while... Indeed. They key with Clemens is to make him throw a lot of pitches. He WILL get tired. He hasn't been going past the 6th inning of late.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:36 PM) They weren't being jerks or anything. They were just chanting "Lets go Cardinals" while the Astros were celebrating. It was actually kinda funny. I think that's classy. They could easily be booing the Cards right now. They were terrible in this series.

QUOTE(FlaCWS @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:36 PM) My only concern is this: Minute Maid is very similar to the Cell, and we've been much better all season when playing on the road in a bigger ballpark. Busch would've been a better fit for us. I still think we are a slightly better team than Houston, but I'm definitely more concerned about them than I would've been about the Cardinals. But hey, that's why they play the games. Bring it on. That works both ways.

http://whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/ar...t=.jsp&c_id=cws

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:32 PM) Well...if we manage to beat a team with Clemens, Oswalt, and Pettitte, no one will be able to say we didn't earn it. That's gonna be almost as tough as beating a team with Contreras, Buehrle, Garland, and Garcia. I like our chances better.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 09:24 PM) Cardinal fans trying to spoil the 'stros party. What do you mean? I think they've been pretty classy so far. Did I miss something?

Astros and White Sox it is. A true champion welcomes whatever challenge is put in front of them. And the Stros will indeed be a challenge. A challenge this White Sox team will meet.

It's only fitting.

I don't see why they would change anyway. Go with what got you here.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 07:16 PM) Did any sox fans here get pissed when our fellow sox player Carlos Lee did it? Just wondering. If I remember corectly, there was a thread created about it in 2003. Carlos used to seriously piss me off when he would do that.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Oct 19, 2005 -> 08:15 PM) Some folks fail to recognize the big contribution Frank made this year. The team was 20-8 with him as DH, 21-9 overall when he appeared in the game. Some of the articles make it seem like he's not a part of this team, the quoted one has one sentence about this play this year. They make it sound like he's just an old guy that the players say kind things about because of his long history with the team, like Minnie Minoso being on the field after game 5 in LA. Baloney, Frank Thomas helped THIS team THIS year on the field. Without Thomas I don't know if they get to a 15 game lead, and without a 15 game lead I don't know if they survive Cleveland's great streak. Frank doesn't deserve to be with the guys and share the glory just because he is a great historical figure, he shares the glory because he contributed to it on the field. Not to mention the fact he won 3 games for us this year with clutch hr's.