hogan873

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.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 12:21 AM) Are there any real shows on right now, or just all this reality crap? I think Ray Donovan might be starting soon? Not sure how I feel about The Leftovers on HBO. Debuts Sunday. Yeah, maybe we should have a separate thread for the reality crap. As far as real shows, Falling Skies started this week, and Under The Dome starts next week. New shows I'm going to check out are The Leftovers and The Last Ship. I have Halt and Catch Fire on the DVR but haven't started it yet. And I'm looking forward to The Strain, which starts in mid-July.

He may have been a good guy, and I personally liked the signing, but he's been pretty brutal. His last two appearances were to face one batter, and he failed both times. Last night's failure was very costly. Now the question is, who's coming up?

I laughed out loud when I read Blowasavio last night. I like that one. There have been some bad ones, but I'm drawing a blank. I agree, though, that we've got to come up with a better one for Abreu.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 09:38 AM) Great, now I have that song in my head. Thanks

I'd like to see the Sox hold onto Gillaspie. Now, if Davidson proves he can hit and makes it to the team next year, what happens to Conor? He's proven to be pretty good this year both offensively and defensively. And aside from never smiling and always looking like he's ready to go on a killing spree, I think he's a great fit. I'll put in my two cents on Noesi. I'm not blown away by the guy at all, but he's been okay. He's been a good inning filler, and maybe that's okay for the fifth starter this year. Moving forward, though, does he have a place on this team? I like Alexei a lot, and I'd like to see the Sox hold onto him. But, if some team offers an insane deal that fills some future holes, Hahn will have to make a deal. Finally, I'd keep Semien over Beckham. I think Semien has a better chance to be consistently good. But, that's just an opinion based on Beckham's history.

Looks like Big-era Tom Hanks and Tim Tebow had a baby.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 13, 2014 -> 02:23 PM) A TURKEY burger?! What are you some kinda high-falootin' craft beer drinker? Votin' Obama and trying to take the LORD GOD out of the pledge of allegiance? Bet he'll try to pry your guns right out of your law abiding hands.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 12, 2014 -> 03:14 PM) "Gork hees? I don't even know hees." TBH I didn't think lork was a word, I even checked on miriam-webster. But according to urban dictionary: lork To be assisted by a female in the act of self-pleasure. After the act, the couple goes to a McDonald's where the female orders McFluries(see McFluries). Frequently, the two have never spoken. Traditionally, it occurs during the Lenten season. A regional custom of Shrinetown, Louisiana. Man 1: So, me and this girl were totally lorking last night! Man 2: So you missed Law and Order! Man 1: SVU!?!? Man 2: Man, I wish I could lork with Mariska Hargitay. Man 1: AHHHHHHHHH!I would lork with her all night long, until the McFluries got soft, if you know what I'm sayin'! by Mark Elizabeth Lorker March 06, 2009 ^So it is a word, however I do believe that the above individual who submitted this definition is a dorkys.

The Silicon Valley finale was great. The group trying to figure out how Erlich could jerk off 800 guys in 10 minutes might have been one of the funniest things I've seen.

I drink two cups of coffee just about every day. I probably use too much sugar. As far as soda, I switched to diet years ago, and I was fine with that. Recently, though, I pretty much stopped drinking any soda. I usually drink just water (aside from beer!). There are a ton of water flavor enhancers out there that a very good. And I agree with the post about MyFitnessPal. Great app.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 29, 2014 -> 09:51 PM) It's too early to grade players so I'll grade the coaches. ... Ventura: A- As much as many of us do not like him, nationally this will be the grade. A- if not a straight A. To have a team with this many key players missing time, a game over .500 is a miraculous turnaround from last year. New hitting coach: A. So many guys are better this year. Lot of clutch hits. Lot of smart plays like last night when Semien hit the fly ball to move up the runner. Lots of stuff like that and even hits to the opposite field. Coop: B. Some of the worst bullpen pitchers in history and he's been able to make them adequate much of the time. And he's gotten some very lousy pitchers (on paper) to have a lot of quality starts. Team MVP: Abreu. Inspirational MVP: Gillaspie. Didn't think he was a big leaguer and he is hitting like an all-star type candidate. Might be too early to grade the coaches, too. However, I'd agree with you. Ventura gets a bad rap, and he does make some odd decisions. But to have this team at .500 with the injuries and the ever-rotating door (especially with pitchers) is proof that he's doing some stuff right. One of the biggest changes I see is the attitude of the team. This team is tight-knit and relaxed.

Jose Abreu - A Gordon Beckham - B+ Conor Gillaspie - A Alexei Ramirez - A A. De Aza - D Adam Eaton - B Dayan Viciedo - B+ Tyler Flowers - A- Adam Dunn - B Chris Sale - A John Danks - C (but rising) Jose Qunitana - B Andre Rienzo - B Hector Noesi - C+ Leury Garcia - C Paul Konerko - D Marcus Semien - B- Moises Sierra - C+