Wedge

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 31, 2007 -> 06:44 PM) He went to the clubhouse when Buerhle took one off the hand. True

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 31, 2007 -> 06:41 PM) But he's got horrible facial hair. I don't think people don't like Erstad. What I was more frustrated with, and many others, is that it sure didn't seem like he won the job and the amount of playing itme he got for what was supposed to be open competition in CF. Well, Anderson just "won" the starter job in CF for four months, whether he won it or not.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 31, 2007 -> 06:30 PM) It took Hawk's clubhouse run to make me feel that way, blame him. And no I don't care if anybody finds it pathetic, I find most posts here pathetic too. Remind me to cheer when you have a potentially career ending injury.

We could write the text book on how to not score runs with men in scoring positoin and 0 outs.

ring ring goes the telephone and ring ring goes the umpire, Erstad k's Iguchi gets a ducksnort single to center Thome hits it to 1B... Iguchi to 2nd. 2 outs Dye grounds out to the shortstop. Inning over.

Matthew Fox as Racer X

Dumb idea: would you trade Jermaine Dye for Trevor Hoffman, if the Padres included some additional prospects?

White Sox Bullpen- Appropriate if Russian Roulette isn't dangerous enough for you

Congrats on career suicide Billy D.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:57 AM) Sorry, meant to say 3b. You play to win the game (thanks Herman). If Jenks retires Hunter, then you have our 3-4-5 coming up, and the Twins have their bottom of the order coming up in the bottom of the inning. One might argue that's still advantage Twins

QUOTE(fathom @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:51 AM) The biggest legitimate shake-up this team could make is trading Crede and bringing up Fields to play SS. I thought Fields was a 3B? I agree that'd actually be a good start. Out of Dye, Thome, Konerko, and Crede we probably need to get rid of 2 and replace them with some guys with at least a shred of speed on the basepaths. That makes Crede a deadman and my guess is that we'd keep Konerko and Thome out of that group.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:17 AM) The AJ move wont make sense. We have no depth at catcher and AJ and Hall are the tandem we will have for a while. Hall has a torn labrum, so that doesnt scream make me the full time starter. That might be true, but trading AJ would certainly shake-up the team. I was just posting possible moves to shake-up the chemistry on this squad.

QUOTE(29thandPoplar @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:08 AM) Absolutely there are changes coming. I respect though that if you somehow know something and can't say. But there is no question that mgmt staff will sit there and take it for much longer, they just won't. Obviously Steff can't say anything, but what can we really speculate in terms of big changes? Move Crede and bring up Fields Move Dye and bring up Sweeney Move a starter and put Masset in the rotation Move AJ and make Hall the fulltime starter Do something with Iguchi? Redo the bullpen? I mean, we really can't move Konerko or Thome and I think we really need to move one of Konerko-Thome-Dye. That 3-4-5 is just so slow. Not to steal a Dusty-ism, but it really "clogs up the basepaths". The best thing the team could do is move to the NL Central...

I know it's too soon to judge, but McCarthy for Danks and Masset probably deserves mention. Knocking on wood... but it looks like we got 2 starters for 1 in that deal.

QUOTE(Steff @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:05 AM) I have been warned, and I am keeping my mouth shut. Thanks.

Men doing their jobs: -The starting rotation. Sure, there have been rough outings, but these guys have been performing comparably to 2005. -Bobby Jenks -Matt Thorton -Erstad: not the greatest, but at least he's been pulling his weight -Mackowiak: the super-sub has been called into fulltime duty. So-so -Thome & Pods: both have played well when active, but significant injury time -Uribe: Given us what we've come to expect Not pulling their weight: -Everybody else. That's what, 4 guys out of 6 in the bullpen and 6 regulars in the line-up? Disgusting.

QUOTE(Steff @ May 31, 2007 -> 09:47 AM) I've heard the sound bites several times this morning and, IMO, he's not even close to having a towel in his hand much less throwing it anywhere. He's pissed at the play on the field and stated several times he is not going to put up with it. The comment about him being fired was, IMO, not a request but a (sic) "...if I'm not doing the job and there is someone better then bring them in...." That's my read on Ozzie at all. Are there any actual rumblings of major changes coming? It seems like if we had a viable bullpen, we'd actually be doing ok. Even worse than the offense, the bullpen has been killing us, especially since the Cubs series.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 30, 2007 -> 05:13 PM) Only if the Bulls are willing to give up Deng, Gordon, and the #9 pick in the draft. I could be happy with that move. Not sure the salaries match-up, though. What about Gordon, Wallace, and #9?

Kobe is apparently demanding a trade from the Lakers. Does this affect the Bulls at all?

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ May 29, 2007 -> 01:07 PM) And that can be the difference between winning the division or sitting at home for the playoffs, like last year. But you can't use a greedy approach like that. Suppose you are a manager and you can use philosophy/strategy A or B. A will win you some games you would lose with B and B will lose you some games you would win with A. You also have to realize even if A or B is "correct" choice over the other in a given situation, the player still must perform and you might still well lose. As Bill Parcells says, "You are what you are for a reason." It's no use playing armchair manager like that.

In the past, Ozzie has perhaps demanded almost too much from his starters. In 2005 it worked, in 2004 it did not. In 2006 and 2007 it is working reasonably well. As was previously indicated, I believe that Ozzie is relying so heavily on the starters this year is because he knows his bullpen isn't worth a s*** (or that is his belief which isn't unfounded). If he can't squeeze an extra out or two from his starter, he believes he's going to lose the game anyway.

I think if there's anything we can learn from the start of the season it is to never underestimate the importance of a bullpen. If this squad had the 2005 bullpen (playing like that pen did), we'd probably be in the division lead at the moment. It's so frustrating to see the starters give a QS or have to be left in a game because it's basically a 50/50 proposition at best to get any size lead from the 6th inning to Jenks via the bullpen.

ok, so new strategy. The bullpen pitches innings one and two. The starter starts innings 3-8. Jenks pitches the 9th if we're winning.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 28, 2007 -> 02:34 PM) Our staff ace with a 4.45 ERA and diminishing fastball? Sounds like 2006 all over again. Ugh. Over/under on the reappearance of that firesale thread?