Wedge

I guess I don't get it. Aren't the A's in contention? Why are they trading their Ace?

QUOTE(Benchwarmerjim @ Jul 25, 2006 -> 09:25 PM) Carlos Zambrano hit ANOTHER homerun tonight he has got 4 on the year he should be the Cubs DH in interleague play enjoy second place and the wild card

Between maturing a bit and the championship last year, it doesn't quite hurt as bad. I don't get as pissy for as long, although I do get pretty ticked off when we blow a game.

except the 05 red sox got some men on base occasionally before the home runs were hit.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jul 25, 2006 -> 09:23 PM) I just wish Thome would destroy the clubhouse. He deserves better than this. He's been around long enough and has performed well enough to kick some ass. We're wasting a helluva season by Jim. He needs to kick some ass while we're still even in the wild card race and not 5 back. Does he deserve better than this? Maybe he's a part of the problem. I just hope over the last two months of the season that he's the solution.

we are the 2004 Cubs...

I guess this is what the Twins went through early in the year.

this is even worse than last year...

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Jul 25, 2006 -> 01:41 PM) Vazquez has had one "good" year in the last four and it was for a mediocre national league team. Beckett has had "good" years pretty much his entire career, including exceptional years between 2003-present. He's three years younger than Vazquez, has proven himself as an elite pitcher on the center stage, and makes a fraction of what Vazquez makes. Vazquez doesn't deserve any hype. He's been a below average pitcher this year, Beckett has not. I'm not sure you'll find anyone on this site to debate with you that Vazquez sucks.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jul 25, 2006 -> 11:52 AM) A very good set of comments. I want to add a 6th beef. 6. Total misuse of Brandon McCarthy. This has been the yoyo man of the Sox staff this year. First he's long relief, then short, then long, then short, then what?? He seems to warm up a lot and not make it into games. If we aren't going to start this guy, then use him like a starter -- to start the 5th, 6th and 7th innings as relief for starters -- Buehrle, Vazquez, Freddie, and Garland early in the year -- who don't have it that day, or (in Vazquez's case) are due to melt down the third time through the lineup. Granted, we had problems with Politte ruining our rotations, but that doesn't excuse the way Ozzie has completely failed in his handling of McCarthy. This guy could have helped Vazquez win his last two starts had he been inserted in the 6th innings of both games before Vazquez started giving up hits. You could make a case last year for forcing starters to go long. We had no long man in the pen. But this year, with a guy who you WANT to give 100 innings, to fail to use him in long relief when so many games would have been won or remained competitive if we had only gotten our starters out of the game in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th innings, is just terrible managing!! MANAGING REQUIRES A MANAGER TO ADAPT HIS STYLE TO THE TEAM HE HAS, NOT THE TEAM HE WANTS. We have more than enough runs to be successful. But Ozzie has to manage like Bobby Cox -- who, when asked on Sunday Night Baseball weeks ago how he was going to turn the Braves around said the only thought on his mind was how he was going to win that night's ballgame -- ONE GAME AT A TIME. WIN TODAY. The streaks will follow. In retrospect, I'd have to say that the Vazquez deal really is the killer for a gob reasons. To wit: 1) he stinks. 2) he stinks expensively; hence, he is virtiually untradeable. 3) he's keeping Brandon out of the rotation. Brandon may or may not be good, but I'm sure he'd stink less than Vazquez and at a minimum the experience gained would pay dividends in the future (sort of the Brain Anderson of our pitching staff, if you will). 4) we lost Vizcaino who might have been a decent bullpen piece this year. 5) we lost Young who might amount to something or would have been a good piece in a deal (same goes for Vizcaino). 6) we traded El Duque for him, when in reality he should have been traded for a bullpen ace to clear the spot for Brandon, which was the whole point of traded El Duque, anyways. I suppose the unfortunate thing is that the team did not seem to understand just how dire Hermanson's situation was. If they had understood, I'm pretty sure Duque would have been shopped for a bullpen guy, or at a minimum Vizcaino would have been retained.

as bad as Javy has been since May, our bigger problem right now is that our offense is basically non-functional. It seems like we can only score on homers and this just isn't a healthy offense right now. Something has got to give.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Jul 24, 2006 -> 09:30 AM) I hope your Granpa has a good recovery and I hope you get to see the Sox pound Radke and the Twins. thanks mate! we all hope that

Hey all, will be taking my grandpa to the game for his 86th birthday. He had a bad hip surgery last spring, but the Sox staff have been more than helpful in getting him and some of our family accomodated for the game. Let's hope the team can bring home a winner for the old man!

White Sox fans should make a sit-com about Widge and Politte. It could be like the Odd Couple: two guys hard on their luck move in together and tough out the world. I could definitely see Cliff being the neat guy and Widger being the messy one.

Jason Kendall

It must have been the Rally Nuns at the game today.

Widger's a great story, but like Politte, he hasn't carried his weight on the squad. I hate to see the guy go, but we really need some help.

If we're replacing Pods, I'd much rather have Chone Figgins than Soriano who would probably make this team even more "home-run hitty, 3-run blast or nothing" reliant. At least Figgins would give us an everyday player that does what Podsednik is supposed to do.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 10:08 PM) we've just about seen it all... bad bullpen... shelled starters... sloppy defense... bad breaks... duck snorts for rallies... slumping sluggers... bad coaching... bad managing... Am I forgetting something? what else can they f'n do to lose that hasn't been done? blame it on the announcers?

QUOTE(rventura23 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 09:52 PM) thats a great idea, maybe he could train with the same person that helped Maurice Clarett with his year off or John Elway.

I don't think that'd be an issue if we hit with men in scoring position.

The past 11 games have been an utter team failure. There's just no synergy. We're not picking each other up, we're not playing over mistakes. We flat out stink. There's signs of hope, but this little spell has all but killed us: we're 6.5 back, we have virtually no wild card lead, and the Twins are poised to take second place from us (very well could happen in the coming series). I don't mean to be all doom and gloom, but this is as dark a moment as it gets... I hope we turn it around soon.

Where the hell is the Rally Seizure? It worked in that game against Boston!

God hates us. I can't take 3rd place

can we get the rally seizure in the rotation?