GreatScott82

Roberts doesnt make sense for us this year, but next year it does. Especially with Crede AND Cabrera being unrestricted free agents. Hopefully we can keep Crede, but i think we all know Cabrera is gone. But this year he is too valuable to our sucess to trade him. So next year is where you put Alexie at SS and make a strong push for Roberts during the offseason.

It will almost be impossible for a team in contention to aqcuire Ichiru. The Mariners would want young big lead ready starters and we all know pitching wins. If you look at the teams in contention, not one of them can afford to give up a front end starter in their rotation. I can actually see a team like the Giants make a run at Ichiru, if not now, than in the offseason. The Giants have Lincecum and Cain, two of the youngest best pitchers in baseball, im sure they would be fine to offer one of them in a package for Ichiru. The Sox simply CANT trade Danks or Floyd let alone both. I still would love a true leadoff hitter in place of the sluggish Pauly, but im guessing (unless we aqcuire another SP, we are what we are and maybe thats a good thing)

If Contreras shows signs of life again in his next 2 starts i say sign Freddy as a spot starter/ long man. (AkA El-duques role heading down the stretch and into the playoffs in '05) Loaiza is done, i'd rather give Freddy a shot over Estaban for that role. If Contreras continues to struggle, than I really hope KW attempts to get another strong arm (Blanton, Duscherer, Cabrera etc...)

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jul 14, 2008 -> 05:07 PM) thats fine, but we did jack s*** to reload our farm system in teh last 3 drafts....the mets traded a better package for santana than we did for swisher, and still have enough prospects to be going after matt holliday and alot of other big names on the market.. lots of teams trade packages of prospects and still have something left on teh farm....the fact that trading 3 prospect depleted our farm of anything relevant and left us with the worst system in the majors is sad Well if you get Duchscherer (some how, since he is dominate) you'll have a set rotation for the next 3 seasons: Buerhle signed through 2011, Vazquez signed through 2010, Danks and Floyd through 2012, and Duchscherer through 2010 i believe? Most of the time when a team is in the race they trade away pieces from the farm system to acquire pitching. Everything else usually happens during the winter.The Sox will have the next 2 seasons to build up that farm system again since im thinking we will trade Poreda, Broadway, and a guy like Owens or Getz.

after leaving 9 runners on base yesterday, here is what he said. "It's just the ups and downs of the game," Konerko said. "Just one hit could have changed the game. I didn't feel much different than yesterday." Not many players in there life can say they went 0-6 and left 9 runners on base. This after fridays 0-5. Yea he went 4-4 on saturday but that was against Millwood, he's good vs aging veteran pitchers, sucks vs the new young bloods. Not to mention he is a defensive liability now also. Oh i wish this guy spent the rest of the year down in triple -a.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jul 12, 2008 -> 09:09 PM) this is a message to vazquez and contreras more than anything yep and a possitive message to Danksy and Floyd because lets face it, they got us here. None of us expected these guys to do what there doing. Kudos to KW and Coop on this one. However, I am worried about Contreras. Now maybe he will do what he did in the 2nd half of 2005 and dominate, but i would love to get another starter some how to beefin up our rotation for a playoff run.

Happy birthday!! Lets get you a Danksy style Sox bday win!

Swish needs to be at 1b.. Obviously Paulie has done nothing but good things for this team since joining in '99. However, it maybe time for KW to start thinking about a new direction. Swisher plays an incredible 1b and the team was doing fine with the platooning Wise/BA thing in CF. Now i hope Paulie can snap out of his all around funkness and get back to form, but i just dont see it happening this year. He struck out 3 times vs a guy with a 7+ era last night. It now has come down to a point where Ozzie needs to start thinking about whats best for the team and if it means benching Paulie than so be it. On a bright note- Thome is looking much more comfortable behind the plate, im thinkin he is starting to find his groove. Swisher was finding his groove when he was playing 1b.... i say you put him back there Ozzie.

. . . Wow is right. Kudos to ESPN (i dont say that often) for recognizing the Sox and their young ace in the making - Danksy!

O.C. and Dye will kiss and make up, its all good. In fact did you see Ozzie congrat O.C. for his baserunning efforts? It was clearly JD pissed off because he was 'distracted'. Its all good, im glad we have pationate players on this team. This team shows a lot of heart, sumthing we missed ALL of last year. Lets get the sweep tommorow with Buerhles!!

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 03:01 PM) Oh goodness, this is beginning to remind me of Cubs fans thinking they were better off when Soriano was gone. Haha yea it is kind of. But you have to admit, Swish was stellar defensively at 1b, im not sure if that helped him offensively but he did pick up his game. And having Anderson out in CF was nice. THe platooning Wise/BA combo was working. Swish is decent out in CF, but his #1 possition is 1b. I just hope Pauly can turn it around and help us win games. Maybe that 20 day break is just what he needed to rejuvinate his all around game.

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 02:28 PM) Lets do it!!! Lets get 5/6 leading up to the break screw that.. how about 6/6 and head into the ASB 20 games over.

Im happy Pauly is back for the most part. But moving Swish to the OF kind of makes me sad... i had a lot of fun watching Swish play 1B. I really hope Pauly is our DH next year and Swish is our fulltime 1b.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 10:53 AM) Ozuna's specialty was hitting tough lefthanders like Santana and Sabathia. And now with his defensive woes, it doesnt look good for Pablo Yep and dont forget with Wise's speed and baserunning abilities im not sure if there is any more room for Pablo. Uribe is a much better defensive replacement than Ozuna. It would be a shame if Wise was sent back down after he proved he can contribute to win ballgames.

Comparing teams from the previous years is like comparing apples to oranges. Obviously the first half of that year was better, but you also have to take into account that not only were KC bad that year, but Detroit was also horrible. I guess you can say Cleveland is out of it, but they aren't horrible and the Twins and Tigers are much greater competition this year. Each year is different. If you look at the A.L. you have 10 teams .500 or better and realisticly 8 teams will be in the hunt for a playoff spot the rest of the way: Rays, White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, Twins, Yankees, Tigers and even the A's. In '05 it was pretty much set in stone that 4 of 5 teams would make it to the playoffs at the beginning of the 2nd half: White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees, Angels and Indians. So 2008 is a much greater challenge based on the competition around the league... good news for us is that we have K.C. 15 more times. We have to take advantage of the last place teams while there on the schedule, that is something we did often in 2005. We started the year going 10-0 vs the Royals.

Soxtalk alone can get get JD in if we all tried... im sure it helped for Pods in 2005 and AJ in 2006 I Voted for Dye and will continue to do so...

Danks is a MEGA-stud! OC! DWEEZY FOR SHEEZY! This is by far our best win of the season.... im soooo pumped right now.. HELL YEAH!!!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 05:40 PM) You lost me right there. A .301 OBP is terrible and is a mile from a .351 OBP. And on Thome, in the middle of his decline you say, his OBP in June is .386 and his OPS in June despite all those pinch hit appearances is .972. I hope Thome keeps proving me wrong. And if we keep him (we probably will keep him) i hope he turns his year around full circle. However, there will be a time when the bats cool down and with the inability to manufacture runs, we maybe in trouble down the road. So we need one more guy who can set that table for those types of situations, obviously nobody likes Tavarez, than who else is there? And if you dont think we need a true leadoff hitter, how are we going to win when the bats cool off in August or September?

What a great weekend! Now lets keep it up vs the Tribe.... Hopefully Detroit wins 2 of 3 vs Minny and we win all 3 vs the Tribe to cushin that lead a bit.

Brian Anderson is awesome... he's really coming around as a true team player. He's the best 4th OF in baseball by far, well at least defensively haha.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 04:38 PM) Willy Taveras and his amazing .252 average and .301 OBP (and that's with him playing half of his games in Colorado!)...? I'll pass. He's actually hitting .311 in his last 10 games so he's moving that average up. He's also 36/40 in SBs. This guy is a career .287 hitter, he hit .320 last year. And his .301 OBP is not too far from Thome's .351 OBP. In 234 ABs this year Thome struck out 73 times, according to my math he strikes out once every 3 ABs. Not good, he's clearly on the decline, I wish everyone would realize that instead of honoring him for being 'so nice and classy'.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 29, 2008 -> 01:50 PM) If the Sox can find a way to replace Thome and/or find a true leadoff guy, that should be the target. I'm happy with the pitching staff. agreed... when Pauly comes back, move him to DH, and find a leadoff hitter.... My guy is Willy Tavarez!

Danks... what can you say about this kid.. he's a gamer! It was frusterating to see all those runners stranded once again, but a Win is a Win. Bullpen looked good, defense was ontop of things. A rare road series win. Thats a great sign!! The Twins keep winning so were going to have to keep pace with them... Lets win the 1st tommorow vs the damn sCrubs.

Ughhh... im tired of the Slugging/Slow duo of Thome/Konerko. We need speed in this lineup... im fine with having Konerko as he can be our DH the next 2 seasons but if Thome comes back next year, it will be a tragedy.

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Jun 24, 2008 -> 01:19 PM) nice article It was a very good article.. puts many things into perspective. Our sluggers and pitching have the ability to put together 2 or 3 more 7/8 game winning streaks. However when we dont hit, we can easily lose 3 in a row. When the Sox runs into good pitching, it starts to become more difficult to score runs. This team needs to finally start thinking about manufacturing runs every once in awhile. Unfortanately we really dont have too many players to do such a thing. This is why i want KW to make a push for Willy Taveras. His average maybe a little down this year, but he has 35 SBs and he would change the entire look of our team. Where would he play? Thats the problem, we have no room for him. However, if Thome continues to struggle, i would seriously consider trading him before his option kicks in for next year. Teams like Boston, Angels, or even the Rays could be looking for a DH down the road. This team has pleanty of power w/o Thome in the lineup: Quentin 17HR, Dye 16HR, Crede 15HR, Konerko 8HR, Swisher 8HR. With Taveras leading off a lineup such as this can actually manufacture some runs and switch things up a little bit. Willy Taveras CF Orlando Cabrera SS Carlos Quentin LF Jermaine Dye RF/ DH Paul Konerko DH/1B AJ Pierzynski C Nick Swisher 1B/RF Joe Crede 3B Alexei Ramirez SS