BobDylan

I don't give a s***, get Eddie.

He's still smacking us in the face. I don't care what he says, I hate every player on that god forsaken Twins team.

To Jon Garland. I've always liked him, always thought highly of him and never wanted to see him go. Now he's proving a lot, A LOT of people, including many Sox fans wrong. And I hope he's enjoying every minute of it.

The best record in baseball. 5.5 game lead over the Twins. Top ERA in the American League. A closer that has yet to give up an earned run. And yet, I see posts about firing Greg Walker, calling for Konerko and Dye's head, calling Freddy Garcia and El Duque crappy, etc, etc, etc.. It's as if this team has NEVER had a 3 game losing streak or a funk and 28-12 is rather crappy for this team. I feel like a goddamn Yankees fan around this board b****ing about things that aren't happening right now for the Sox. Seriously now folks, how many have you realized that the White Sox are 28-12! Raise your hands please, I want to know what posters to follow after the White Sox, god forbid, lose a game. Is it that hard to enjoy success? I've never seen a perfect baseball team in my life. Have you?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ May 17, 2005 -> 12:23 PM) Walker is a complex subject. Everytime I have heard him talk he states on preaching his hitting to all fields. Yet I see nothing from this team over the years to back this up. Last year anyone and I mean anyone who was a soft tosser who could spot the fastball on the outside corner would shut this team down. Why is this. Well look at our players hitting stances and styles. Hands high up, standing away from the plate. If a pitch is inside they murder it foul. On the outside corner they still try to pull that slow pitch and either pop up or roll their wrists over for a weak ground out. Its hard to square up a ball when our hitters are putting hitches and archs in their swings. How many hitters over the last 3 years have had BA's that sit around the .200 level. I have never seen this on a major league team. Yes one player can slump, but groups of our hitters slump at the same time. Konerko is completely lost now. The minute you start changing your stance every single time you go up to the plate you are going to K. He doesnt even have pitch selection right now to go with. This is a mirror of where Crede was last year. Always 0-2. Kong has been a good fastball hitter, however is getting beat this year on 89 mph fastballs down the middle. This is exactly what Crede did last year. Crede would come up with the big home run late in games last year because pitchers would get 0-2 on him and would throw a 12-6 pitch down and in. When you have a hitch in your swing a curve that plays into your upper cut swing is the best remedy. Now Kong is doing the bat resting on the shoulder routine. This is a Walker thing. He had Miggy doing it, Crede and now Kong. The hitting coach should be able to use video of good swings to help a hitter find his swing again. When our hitters get lost they are completely lost and for like 3 or more months at a time. What Walker should be doing is to try and get Konerko's back elbow up a bit. This would stop the upper cut swing and allow him to square up a ball or to for a hit. Watch Arow, his back elbow is up again( which is not where he started the year off with). His hitting is more mechanical than others but very effective. He has great oppo power. Gooch has a goofy open stance, but watch his hands through the hitting zone. Its a line drive swing. This is what I would expect Walker to be teaching the guys. Line drive swings. Line drive swings are less likely to get into slumps. Yes they dont hit the monsterous moon shots, but the BA comes up and the homers will come. Our team has been remade into a smartball team. Its time for them to start to hit like that. Smallball teams dont have a group of hitters hitting below 200. Rob Deer, Jose Valentin teams are the ones with the 200 averages and the upper cut swings. And before we state that Walker helped Carlos get into the 28 game hitting streak lets look to the tinkering he did to get him out of that approach. Walker helped Carlos Lee change his stance and extend his arms at the end of that hitting streak so he could hit for more power. Before Walkers tinkering Carlos had a very tight compact swing with opposite field power. After Walker helped him change his swing, a longer swing that allows Carlos to pull the ball. A month later we are all upset watching Carlos swing for the fences and trying to pull the outside pitch. This is cause an effect. Remember the press was hounding Carlos about the power numbers. Well guess what he changed his swing, told the press he would hit 30 and did. At the expense of situational hitting during a strech in August. Remember when Kenny made the comment about "If I ever see another guy swing for the fences when we need a basehit I will puke." Yea, that Greg Walker knows nothing. Fire has ass on the spot. :headshake

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 17, 2005 -> 11:50 AM) At the All-star break last year, I was calling Greg Walker one of the better (if not best) hitting coaches in the league. Last year, Juan Uribe came to the Sox, and his bat absolutely went wild the first half. On top of that, Paul Konerko managed to turn around his terrible 2003 season and was on fire in 2004. Thomas was hitting hard until he got hurt, and so was Ordonez, although I doubt Walker spent much time with them. Carlos Lee had a nearly 30 game hitting streak. Aaron Rowand suddenly found the bat everyone was saying he had. And even guys like Gload were hitting .300 off the bench. Last year I was ready to bow down and worship the job Greg Walker was doing as White Sox hitting coach. When guys turn around their entire career with a new hitting coach, I felt that was saying something. This year, my confidence in Walker is rapidly turning into concern, and I want to hear other opinions on it. This year, we started very hot with some of our key bats. Crede was hitting over .300 for a while. Konerko was on Fire. Everett came back from a terrible 2004 and was driving in runs left and right. Podsednik was improving from his dismal .240 average last year. But that only lasted a few weeks. Now what do we see? We see Jermaine Dye mired in a month and a half long slump that he can't seem to find his way out of, despite receiving help from Walker. We've seen the surge from Konerko completely disappear, and both his and Dye's averages have dropped below .200. We've seen Crede lose about 40 points from his batting average with a slump of his own. We've seen Aaron Rowand start off another season slowly, even though it seems he may be hitting his stride this week. We've seen Uribe have his own difficulties, and his average has dropped below .270. And Podsednik has been both up and down - his average was in the .250's a week ago. Not to say there haven't been successes this year. Tadahito Iguchi is clearly one, although I doubt Walker has much input there given the language barrier. My question then is this; how long does this go on before if nothing else, we start considering whether a new hitting coach might get through to these guys better? In 2003, we dumped our hitting coach after a few months of our hitters playing like they are now. I had a lot of confidence in the job Greg Walker was doing after last year. But this year, I'm really starting to wonder. With guys like Dye and Konerko seemingly unable to pull themselves out of slumps, and quite a few comment-writers here saying they have seen decent flaws in their hitting technique, how long should we let this continue before we start wondering what Walker is doing? Hitting coaches aren't the reason hitters hit or don't hit. It's the hiters that make it happen. Generally a hitting coach is just there. Players will come to him when they want to, or Greg will go to them only if something really needs to change. Walker will give hitters a plan at the plate and tell them about the pitcher, his tendency's, what he throws, etc. That's about it. Walker has little to do with Konerko and Dye hitting sub .200. That's on Konerko and Dye, given what they've previously done in their careers. And regardless, 7 out of our 9 starters are where they likely will be all year and to see that we've won 28 ball games with a crappy Dye and Konerko says a lot about this team. Imagine if Konerko and Dye both hit their stride and we get Thomas back. I don't think anyone will be b****ing about a hitting coach then.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 17, 2005 -> 01:12 AM) Konerko and Dye have both had success at the major league level where Borchard has not. That's like comparing apples and oranges. Agreed.

Looks fine to me, better than the new Xbox if you ask me.

QUOTE(DonkeyKongerko @ May 16, 2005 -> 09:12 PM) Viz I think his slider his easy to recognize. I wouldn't say to recognize...it's just that he throws it every damn time.

Aside from his average, he's the most productive hitter on the team. Not sure what that says about their offense.

I predicted this months ago. Luckily we get a free upgrade in offense when Thomas comes back, but it may not need to stop there.

Aside from his 27 RBI's and not overwhelming 5 home runs, Carl Everett has been everything but good. I'll use Paul Konerko, a player most of us have fallen hard on, as a comparison. And to further the argument, I'll show Dye's stats as well. All stats coming into May 16th AB: Konerko - 131 Everett - 122 Dye - 125 Average: Konerko - .197 Everett - .270 Dye - .200 OBP: Konerko - .338 Everett - .321 Dye - .248 RBI: Konerko - 27 Everett - 27 Dye - 14 HR: Konerko - 9 (1st on team) Everett - 5 (3rd on team) Dye - 6 (2nd on team) R: Konerko - 19 (one less than team lead) Everett - 14 Dye - 12 OPS: Konerko - .768 Everett - .761 Dye - .640 After typing all that out, I'm not sure I have much of a point. Maybe just that Everett has been highly overrated. Aside from his amount of RBI's, he really hasn't done jack s***. He doesn't get on base all that often, and doesn't score many runs (Well, Dye and Konerko have something to say about that). He's not exactly your prototypical 3 hitter, let alone 5 hitter. Unfortunately, neither are Konerko and Dye right now. In conclusion, I have no point, I just miss Frank and think Carl Everett is overrated.

No to all three. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't like Donyell Marshall forcing shots like Marcus Fizer when he was here.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ May 16, 2005 -> 02:10 PM) Brian has finally figured out that if the Sox lose, just stay away for about a half hour and then I am fine. He is the same way when Ricky is knocked out of a race or the Mariners lose (not so much the Royals as he has come to expect them to lose lol). I normally have people around me. I've just found people that will get angry along with me and therefore we discuss why we are angry and it all works out.

I have to warn everyone every year that I'm no cup of tea after a White Sox loss.

A good start was batting Rowand 3rd. I would keep Rowand third and drop Everett to fifth in an effort to split Dye and Konerko up and in an effort to get both of them better pitches. I might also consider putting Uribe before Dye in the order. Perhaps even 4th if you're feeling saucy enough. Right now the best hitters in our line-up are obvious, and they aren't the players they should be. Mix the line-up. Konerko doesn't really deserve to be fourth, Dye doesn't deserve to be fifth. I could also try out Rowand 3rd, Uribe 4th/5th, Everett 4th/5th and see if Dye and Konerko can get anything going at the bottom of the order.

I hate that woman.

Some of these kids have better grammar then some of the older people I know. That is, of course, if these answeres weren't edited and tainted.

1. Frank Thomas 2. Minnie Minoso 3. Herbert Perry 4. Juan Uribe 5. Roberto Hernandez 6. Bo Jackson 7. Joey Cora 8. Kelly Wunsch 9. Ron Karkovice 10. Keith Foulke

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) Final Fantasy VII (PS1) Metal Gear Solid (PS1)

QUOTE(quickman @ May 9, 2005 -> 04:08 PM) If he is anything like he was in spring training, he is not worth it.Robin the player and robin the broadcaster are two different things. I thought Robin was hysterical today. He has a very dry sense of humor and I loved it.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ May 4, 2005 -> 01:09 PM) Mark Buerhle B+ (needs to slow down hes rushing) Freddy Garcia B (not impressing me with his control) Jose Contreras C+ (hasnt got a win yet) Orlando Hernandez B- (allows to many base runners) Jon Garland A (nothing more to say than cy young) Jesus, nobody is perfect.

Buehrle - B

SHOOT ME NOW! I'LL HAVE TO TAKE ALL MY PAULA POSTERS OFF THE WALL AND START QUESTIONING THE PAST IDOL WINNERS! OH NO! OH NO! Here's a suggestion...not only take Paula off the show...take the entire thing off.

Is this Mariotti an assclown or what? What a goddamn hypocrite. Wasn't it his yap that got him booted off the radio? Where does HE, of all people, get off telling ANYONE to calm down. Unlike what he said, if I were Kenny Williams I'd call Ozzie into my office and tell him to speak his mind whenever he damn well pleased. You don't take away your managers greatest tool just because there is a little more focus on your team. That's absurd. Janus Mariotti is absurd.