hogan873

Watched the pilot of Tyrant last night. Pretty solid. I'll stick with it for now. Looking forward to The Strain starting next week.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 12:02 AM) Ugh. I didn't know Rodon was a lefty. I guess you folks are right. We need to dump one of the lefties. Don't act like it's a bad thing Rodon is a lefty. With him, Sale, and Quintana in the rotation, that's a very good thing. I hope Danks is traded, partly because of the number of lefties but also because that money can be spent elsewhere.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 12:21 PM) Moves that must be done: Hokey Pokey Right leg in Right leg out Right leg in, shaken all about Do the Hokey Pokey (turn yourself around) This is very accurate, because that IS what it's all about.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Guys we should move: Adam Dunn Gordon Beckham Tyler Flowers Guys we could move for right deal John Danks Dayan Viciedo Alexei Ramirez Hector Noesi I pretty much agree. I don't see them trading Flowers, though. DFA'd? Sure. But, they'll have to have someone else in place (AJ?) I think Dunn and Beckham will be moved, and Danks if the return package is decent enough. I'd be surprised to see Alexei traded, but if Hahn gets the right deal, it's possible.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 07:11 AM) Picking up AJ doesn't prevent you from finding a long term solution. Exactly. That's my argument for doing it. It won't do anything for the future, but having Flowers out there doesn't either. Nieto could be the catcher of the future. It's hard to tell. We won't know for a while. But, I think we can all agree that Flowers is not the catcher of the future. So why not bring AJ in, release Flowers, and go with AJ and Nieto for the rest of the year. Give Nieto a little more time than he has been getting, see what you've got.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 02:22 AM) Today's game killed the .500 talk again. If we had a closer .... Remember that we've talked about the whole closer situation in the past. There are more teams than we may think that go through similar situations. With a team that is not likely to contend, not having a true closer is not a huge problem. Last night's loss is one of the 80-90 losses this season. I wouldn't say it was because of the lack of a true closer, I would say it was because of a lack of a good bullpen.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 09:56 PM) There is it. Our solution. Bring back AJP. Tell him it's just for the rest of this season. Flowers is backup. Everybody's happy in Soxland. QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) Except Adrian Nieto If the Sox brought AJ in (which I doubt), Flowers would be the odd man out. Nieto can't be sent to the minors unless the Sox complete a trade with Washington. I don't see the Sox bringing AJ in, and this could be one of the reasons. I think they like Flowers, even with his .210 BA and 100+ Ks already. Personally, I'd rather see AJ and Nieto sharing time, but I do see the point that it doesn't do anything for a team that is not going to contend. It would be a move for the fans and for a short term (minor) gain.

Last night was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. When the 7th inning ended with Sale at exactly 100 pitches, I said to myself they should go to the bullpen because they had a 4 run lead. Sale comes out, throws 7 pitches and records two outs (and the runner on second should have been on first if not for Alexei's brain fart). I actually agreed with bringing in a reliever. But, it wasn't long before I was saying WTF. The bullpen recorded two outs and gave up five runs. Ridiculous, terrible, and I think we all saw it coming. I don't blame Ventura for the loss last night. I blame Petricka and Guerra. They're the ones who came in and couldn't get the job done.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 02:16 PM) We need a serviceable bridge until we find our next catcher. My guess is it is virtually impossible to trade for a guy that isn't a project right now. Catchers are incredibly scarce. Is AJ the long-term answer? No. Is Tyler? No. Is AJ a better player than Tyler? Yes. Will AJ cost you much? No. I fail to see the argument against. This is what makes me say, "why not?" AJ is better than Flowers. There are no other options right now. The Sox could stick with Flowers, but I think we're seeing the real Flowers now...not that guy who was hitting .350 awhile back.

I find it interesting that there's a thread asking how long it'll be before Flowers is DFA'd, and there are mentions in just about every thread about how much Flowers sucks, and then AJ gets DFA'd and there are folks saying they'd rather keep Flowers. I think we can all agree that there is not a great fix at catcher available right now. But, hell, AJ's a better option than Flowers right now.

Thoroughly impressed by The Last Ship. It's a well done action show that hasn't (so far) had any bad moments. I like to nitpik shows sometimes, and when it comes to military, shows can oftentimes be inaccurate. This show does a good job, all the way down to the ribbons the commander was wearing. Nice to see that sort of attention to detail. Watched the first episode of The Leftovers last night. I like it. Definitely a lot of mystery going on along with the overlapping storylines. I was going to cancel HBO to save some money, but I think I'll hold off until the show is over.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 12:52 PM) Your last sentence is just crazy IMO. Beckham is average at best. How can you overvalue Beckham like that? Just cause he was a top draft pick doesn't mean anybody values him. I can't imagine him bring much more than a Chris Getz type player cause he is a Chris Getz type player. OK he's a little better than Getz. This trade deadline, the Sox should dump Beckham, Viciedo and that's it (I'm assuming nobody will trade for Dunn). Get what you can for them. Why? Cause there are replacements for both. We get it, you hate Dunn. But as has been discussed elsewhere, there will be teams looking for a guy like Dunn.. Otherwise, as of right now there really isn't a replacement for Viciedo unless they throw Sierra out there everyday. Then who do they bring up? Regardless, I wouldn't mind seeing Dunn, Beckham, and Viciedo all dealt provided they can get back something decent for the future.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 09:49 PM) If Hahn was shopping Q then he'd certainly have been talking to the A's, right? I suspect we've seen the last of Beckham soon cause Semien can replace him. Shortstop will be more difficult. I have a sneaky feeling Jerry does not want any more 99-loss teams. At least with Becks there are replacements. Golly, I would hope not. And I don't necessarily agree about Beckham. I'd like to see him traded, but the Sox aren't just going to ship him off for nothing. Hahn may end up asking too much, and he'll be a Sox the rest of the season.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 12:51 AM) It's not that simple with this team. Sure it is. There's nothing about this team that makes them different from any other mediocre team. They've shown flashes of being really, really good, and they've shown moments of being really bad. The last two games have displayed some great pitching and defense. Believe me, we'll see the bad soon...hopefully for just a game. This team will most likely hover right around .500 (probably just under) all season. That's a mediocre team by definition. We can pick out the bad games and good games all we want. It's the overall record that counts.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 7, 2014 -> 06:41 AM) It's not a dumb comment. Who is going to take Dunn? Why would anyone? Furthermore, I think Dunn is done after this season. His Last Hurrah took four years. No, it was a dumb comment. To say any team that takes Dunn will no longer be a contender is ridiculous. If a contending team trades for Dunn, they will most likely be acquiring him to use him in certain situations. He can still hit the ball very far, especially against right handed pitching, and his OBP is pretty high.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 03:30 PM) Any contender that wants Dunn will not be a contender much longer after acquiring him. He'll be a Sox the remainder of the season IMO. This is a dumb comment. I'd go in depth as to why, but we'll just leave it at that.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 02:20 PM) Jesus, I pray to god Robin doesn't think like this. Careers have been ended on such stupidity, ask Johan Santana. I bet most managers think this way. As I said, unless there are special circumstances, most often the pitcher will be left to do what he does.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 02:08 PM) Johan Santana disagrees. He pitched a no-hitter on June 1, 2012. He threw 134 pitches after only making 3 starts with 100+ pitchers that year and taking 2011 off. He made 10 more starts in 2012 with an ERA of 8.26 and hasn't appeared in the majors since. This is one of those cases where the pitcher needs to be handled differently. If he didn't pitch in all of 2011 and hadn't gone deep in a game since, maybe he should have been taken down. But, hindsight is 20/20. How many other pitchers have thrown a career high in pitches and had their career end? I'm not being a smartass, I am actually wondering.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 01:30 PM) Cooper is right, though it's always been that way and always will be that way regarding fans. Arm-chair quarterback is a term that is decades old. There's a lot of yapping going on from the gallery. That's why those guys get paid so much money, to put up with the second guessing. If the move works, we shut up. All a manager/coach can hope for is to shut up the fans. That means the team is playing well and the moves are working for the most part. Pitch counts are pretty stupid to get worked up about. If a guy has a no hitter going, there's no such thing as a pitch count. Absolutely. The only exception is when a guy goes into a game with a set pitch count from the get-go, like Sale's first start after the DL. Otherwise, he keeps going. I think Edwin Jackson threw over 150 pitches when he threw a no hitter.

Man, one could get hammered pretty quickly by those rules.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 11:29 AM) Robin is also an idiot when he takes Danks out of the game and the bullpen blows it. Hindsight is great if you want to take pot shots at people about subjects you know very little about. So true. It's easy to play 10th inning manager and question everything once the game is over or after the lead is blown. Every single major league manager makes mistakes, but more often than not it's the player(s) that make the mistakes that cost the game or blow the lead. Danks threw meatballs to two consecutive hitters. He got lucky with Pujols. Not so much with Hamilton. Ask John Danks whose fault it was. He'll point at himself because he knows he threw the pitch. The problem is that if he gave up the homerun on the 120th pitch or the 90th pitch, the reaction would be the same from too many fans: It was Robin's fault.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 2, 2014 -> 02:54 AM) It's meant to boost the morale of fans of last place teams like ours. Why not have some fun and make it the highlight of our pathetic season? It would be awesome if he competed. Why not? What could it hurt? The homerun derby is not meant to boost the morale of fans of bad teams. It's meant to showcase the power of some of the homerun hitters in the league. I'll be honest, I like it, but I usually end up only watching the first half. It has taken way too long the last couple years. I voted yes for Abreu to compete, but I'm okay with him sitting it out. If he feels that it may mess up his swing, then by all means he should sit it out. And this season hasn't been "pathetic". It has been pretty much we expected (or should have expected). Remember that this is a 99-loss team entering a rebuilding year. I'm excited to see the potential of this team. We're going to see some good stuff from Sale, Quintana, Abreu, and Eaton for a while.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 10:41 AM) But it's not...simply because the majority of the talent's going to have to come from other organizations, it's nothing like what the Cubs are doing. They're telling fans to wait for 5-6 years (this is year 4 and they won't even bring up Kris until June, 2015) for Bryant, Baez, Rizzo, Castro, Soler and Almora to take the National League Central by storm. It's a restructing of the roster, but it's still more of a "win now" mode due to the presence already of Sale/Abreu/Quintana...if it was a true rebuild, they'd start completely over instead of having those three building blocks all in their primes. And they would have waited pulling the trigger on someone like Tanaka because they wouldn't want to waste the best 2-3 years of his big league career on non-contending/rebuilding/restructuring teams. Now this makes no sense. Call it a rebuild (which it is) or a restructuring, they're not in a "win now" mode. Why would any team get rid of everyone to rebuild? Three players do not a championship team make. Besides, these are guys who are young and cost-controlled (in relation to their performance). Your way of thinking (at least in this argument) is that if a guy is good, trade him for prospects now even though the guy could be around for years.

We're all forgetting the most important aspects of a manager. Do people smile when he enters a restaurant? Is he fun? Does he have personality? Does he have a fanbase in Kansas? I'm going to camp out in front of the Applebees here and conduct an informal poll. Seriously, though, I think Robin is doing fine with what he has to work with. His biggest failings (if you want to blame him) have been with the bullpen. The bullpen has been bad this year. I don't see Robin going anywhere for a few years.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 07:09 AM) All this speculation on Surkamp? Need I spell it out for you? R O D O N ....okay so it's probably Surkamp for now but Rodon is coming soon!!! Believe! QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 07:21 AM) No need to call up Rodon and start his arb clock unless the Sox are actually in it in September, which doesn't seem at all likely at this point. And there's that thing about having to sign him first.