Fotop

And Garland is still in...Ozzie is really driving home this confidence in his starters business.

5 fouls for Uribe already this at bat. It sounds like he's really hackin' up there.

CWS, I'd agree with you if we had more than a one run lead, but Garland has been shaky tonight (granted his last two innings were good). I say we let him hit the showers and let marte and co. shut this game down.

alright I'm all about confidence in our starters, but Garland needs to leave now. It's a one run game and he's thrown 90 pitches. 6IP w/the lead is good enough, let's let our bullpen hold this one down.

another 10+ hit performance from the offense. pretty good.

ugh all this first pitch swinging...worked for Lee, but c'mon be more patient guys!

Well as much as we'd all love to believe that these games should just be ours, we still have to play them. This is just another case of our team playing down to lesser teams.

Time to get Cotts up.

Wow Belliard first pitch swinging against a bad Garland. That was a gift.

ok if that were the case (i'm watching gamecast) and arow was close enough to dive then yes I agree. In positive news we're still up a run and D'Amico is pitching just as bad as Garland. I like our odds in a slugfest against cleveland.

white sox in '04, you don't want to always dive, especially with runners on because it could lead to extra bases if you miss.

For those watching, how flat do Garland's pitches look? Is it just his control or is it the pitches as well?

drilled Broussard for the Wahoo's first run. Not good.

bases loaded no outs. Uh oh Jon.

Double Sidenote: Toronto jumps out to a 2-0 lead over Minny. EDIT: Lol shuf, you beat me to it.

Wow. I hate seeing guys swing 3-0 because it usually doesn't lead to anything good, but it looks like it paid off this time. Btw, I assume everyone has realized that Juan did played the leadoff role perfectly from the 2 spot while willie put the ball in the air on the first pitch of the game? Maybe there will be a shakeup soon if this continues....

GJ getting out of the jam...even though it's the Indians. Now let's jump on D'Amico.

hopefully this will be a quality thread tonight, no WCIU over here... Let's go White Sox! Hopefully Garland stays on track tonight.

I'd have to disagree about Jose "sucking" defensively, I don't know about you but I don't look at errors as heavily as others. An error is a rather subjective stat, and I rather worry about range. And if range is the question then Jose is well-above average, the man covers a lot of area and people may not notice it because his "hard" plays are otherwise unplayable by other shortstops. So is it fair to say a guy is bad defensively if he gets to more balls than others, yet makes more errors? I say no. If you want to watch some bad fielding watch the team across town, walker/gonzalez is quite possibly the worst ss/2b combo in the majors (defensively). As long as Jose keeps his arm angle up, he'll be a great defensive shortstop. It's that simple.

I haven't been around much, but I assume "BabyBerroa" means Uribe. If that is so then I concur my friend, this guy can rake. Plus, that at bat in the bottom of the ninth was unbelievable for a guy who is know to be a free-swinger. Like I said earlier in the week if he figures out how to have some sort of plate discipline he'll be a great player, and he showed flashes of it today. So I guess that prompts the question of will this guy play everyday with jose back? I sure hope so because if this guy played in the national league he could be mentioned in the running for an all-star bid when the time comes. I may be a bit over my head with the praise, especially for a guy who hasn't been able to put a full season together in his career, but yet again he's only 24. If anything he's going to be fun to watch and to me he should play 2nd everyday when jose gets back. Juan es muy bueno!

Young players need time. I hate to synthesize your thoughts into a simple statement, but you can't say after a couple of weeks as regulars these guys are "busts." Personally, I'm not high on harris either because of what I've seen of him in person, but the kid is hustling. That hustle play into 2nd tonight to keep the inning alive is the type of stuff we need. However, for willie to be effective he needs to keep the ball on the ground. He needs to take advantage of his speed and force the defense to get him out. Popping up to short right doesn't do that. However, he possesses above average range and athleticism at 2nd and his speed has to be top 5 in the AL. You can't write a guy off this quick that possesses talent like that. As for Uribe, even though he's taken my favorite White Sox player of all-time's number (Ray Durham), I think he'll surprise a lot of people if he gets the chance. Believe it or not this guy is only 24, but was rushed to the majors so he's seen a lot of major league pitching. To give up on this guy at only 24 and only two weeks into the season would be a mistake. He hits the ball with authority, and if he develops any semblance of an eye at the plate- Watch Out. If he can't cut the strikeouts down then I'll agree that he's not an everyday player. However I think the strikeouts may be a product of his violent swing. I can't remember someone with such a violent swing that had prolonged success, the only name that comes to mind is Jeromy Burnitz, and he had maybe a good 2 years. Walker would be coach of the year in my mind if he could find a way to harness Juan's swing. The key here is youth. As I stated somewhere earlier today, youth may be my achilles' heel when it comes to assessing potential and players but you can't deny it. Especially not even a month into the season. Maybe this isn't a good example, but look at Jon Garland. The kid has been in the league since he was 20 and has struggled mightly, but have we given up on him? No. And judging by his first three starts it looks like he'll have a solid year if he keeps his head on straight. Only the special players make impact immediately. Arod, Pujols, etc. So yes it may stink that we have to watch players grow in front of us, but it's pretty much the only choice we have because our team cannot buy players that produce at every position. I do agree that seeing them at 1-2 is no good. The lineup could use a shake up so we don't have two hit or miss guys setting the table for our RBI men. Maybe Rowand/Lee/Olivo could get tryouts in the 2 hole? And about Reed, He's going to be one hell of a two hole hitter...next year. This kid has never played past AA, so he's probably better off getting a solid year of AAA under his belt. I would feel much better if this were the action taken with Reed because we don't desperately need to rush him right now. Alright that's my two cents, I really need to stop being so wordy.

Ok ok we're all missing someone here. And that man is.... Tim Fortugno (sp?)

Yea I've been around the sox boards on the sox homepage, but those boards are defintely not the place for me. Too much yelling and screaming, not enough depth. Plus it's troll city. I've been around the team pretty much all my life, my family has had season tickets for about 9 seasons now, so I'm always looking for a place to discuss the white sox. I'm really glad I've found this site, the warm welcome from everyone is appreciated. Hopefully I'll be able to particpate is quality discussions with all of you while providing my own insight. Now let's get a winner tonight against Vazquez.

Thanks for the compliments Cheat, I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I would have to disagree with you though about MB not being worth the 6mil at the end of his contract. Maybe it's just because I place a TON (maybe too much) importance on age but Buerhle's only 25. For someone to have that much success before his middle 20's is a sign of a good pitcher to me. Sure, teams may have figured some of his stuff out to a certain extent, but this is a sport of adjustment and I have full confidence that Buerhle can adjust because he doesn't just get up there and throw, he pitches (cliche, I know). Guys that just throw get figured out and there's a spike in there stats because they lack that "magic bullet" pitch that once got them their outs. I think the prime example of this is F-Rod (Angels), who people are starting to recognize his slider and lay off of it because it breaks so hard that he can't throw it for strikes. Granted I think the kid is a great pitcher and will be down the road because the problem isn't all that magnified in the bullpen; people only see the pitch for an inning or two. But if he were a starter people probably would be wondering where all of his playoff magic went because his slider wouldn't cut it past the first time through the order. But anyways, back to Buerhle. He'll be 28 when he's in the last year of this contract. Unless the market gets even tighter when it comes to contracts (and as long as the Yankees exist, I doubt this happening), Buerhle's value should be near par at the tail end. Maybe it's just me but I can't say a guy who pitches 200 innings a year with a decent ERA (for the AL) won't be worth 6mil in two years. And even if he's not, I doubt we'd be stuck with him in his final year because some team would be willing to trade for him at the deadline because of his past "workhorse" numbers and the fact that he's left handed. In conclusion, quality lefties in their mid 20's are worth their weight in gold IMO. I really liked the contract when it was signed, I doubt I'll have a hard time with it down the road. Geez I'm a wordy guy.

Ok because I'm a big fan of getting players for value and I read a lot of Rob Neyer, I think that the Sox could have done a lot worse than buerhle for the money they have invested in him. If I am correct, Mark's getting paid 3yr/18mil. By comparison Andy Pettitte is getting 10.5mil per year. I think everyone can agree that neither of these guys are the typical "ace." But let's look at some statistics (I'm not going to include this year because the sample size is not large enough yet): Buerhle (2001-2003) Age:25 Stat Categories: Year, IP, R, ER, HR, BB, SO, W, L, ERA, AVGagainst respectively (sorry I don't know how to make this look pretty at all but hopefully you'll all get the drift) 2001 221.1 188 89 81 24 48 126 16 8 3.29 .230 2002 239.0 236 102 95 25 61 134 19 12 3.58 .260 2003 230.1 250 124 106 22 61 119 14 14 4.14 .278 Pettitte (2001-2003) Age:31 (same categories as above) 2001 200.2 224 103 89 14 41 164 15 10 3.99 .281 2002 134.2 144 58 49 6 32 97 13 5 3.28 .272 2003 208.1 227 109 93 21 50 180 21 8 4.02 .272 These guys are about as close as you can get in a comparison. Has Andy Pettitte had better postseason success? Sure. BUT, Mark hasn't had the same opportunites as Pettitte. Does this justify the extra 4.5mil? Heck no. Mark is also 25, about to reach his "prime." Is there concern that his arm may be tired? Of course, that is a common concern with all "horse" pitchers (high innings guys). However, a pitcher that has a quality record of good control, no serious injuries, and consistent production (even though it is in slight decline) makes me feel like the sox have gotten a great deal with MB. I know this may not be what everyone is discussing, but I'm just trying to put this into perspective. It's 3 starts into the season for MB, two good outings and one questionable outing against arguably the best team in baseball (in which the defense could have helped him). I think it's a bit too early to cry wolf, because MB will get his consistent numbers IMO. He's proven that he knows how to pitch, he just needs some good d behind him and a decent shrink to fix his head MB is probably one of the safest bets in baseball because of his history and the fact that he's not eating up a majority of the sox's payroll. In comparison these players are getting paid as much, if not more than MB: Aaron Sele (8.45mil per), Brad Radke (10.75mil), Joe "Sox Killer" Mays (I had to put this even though he's slightly under at 5.75mil), Jamie Moyer (7mil), Freddy Garcia (6.875mil), Chan Ho Park (13+mil), Mike Hampton (12+mil), Paul Byrd (7mil), Matt Clement (6mil), Denny Neagle (9mil), Darren Driefort (11.4mil), Jeff Weaver (6.25mil), Tom Glavine (10+mil), Al Leiter (10+mil), Eric Milton (9mil), Kris Benson (6.15mil) There are few I've missed probably, but just looking at that list makes me feel as though Buerhle is better than most of those pitchers. Granted there are better pitchers getting paid less and better getting paid more, but the point here is at the end of the day we will all be happy with the amount of production we get out of Buerhle for what he's getting paid. He's no Billy Koch Like I said this may be a bit off on a tangent, but it makes me feel a hell of a lot safer if Buerhle struggles a bit.