Wedge

QUOTE(sircaffey @ May 11, 2005 -> 05:28 PM) Also, reminds me of the Angels when they won the World Series. Their pen was scary good and really carried their somewhat average rotation. Washburn pitched very well in the post-season, but you're right, they were largely average.

QUOTE(flippedoutpunk @ May 11, 2005 -> 03:27 PM) You're a diehard fan if you've ever shot somebody for hating on the sox.. I almost got in a fight in a bar over the Sox... whoops...

We also lost a game to Detroit. Also, two to the A's. We have to be the worst 24-8 team in the majors.

QUOTE(ISF @ May 10, 2005 -> 07:45 AM) Miles hasn't walked much, otherwise his numbers are quite acceptable for a 2B. I love having Uribe on this team, but Miles is hardly terrible. That RotoWorld guy is judging him solely on one stat: OBP Horrible way to do analysis of any player. I agree his average and slugging % isn't terrible, but that's not why this is funny. What's funny is that Billy Beane's stated philosophy is that OPS is the most important statistic in baseball: you want hitters with high OPS and pitchers that have low OPS against. What's funny is that consistently his teams rank in the bottom 10 (typically bottom 5) for OPS. Billy Beane is basically a fraud. His theory may be true, in fact, it appears Boston's team last year applied it and reaped the benefits. However, Oakland has won with the formula we're all familiar with: "put a better starting pitcher out there than the other team every 3 days out of 5 and you'll win a crapload of games". (by the way, Miles's OPS looks to be about .414, which isn't what we like to call good. For all the emphasis placed on OPS by Beane, why does he have a role on that team?).

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 9, 2005 -> 09:59 AM) Looks like this: Thursday: Garland vs. Chen Friday: Buehrle vs. Lopez Saturday: Garcia vs. Cabrera Sunday: Contreras vs. Bedard These match-ups are in our favor, right?

I disagree. I like the way Ozzie is managing the pen this year, particularly the closer situation. Marte was brought in to face the other guys (lefty vs. lefty, I believe) and there's no sense bringing in Shingo since Marte had handled the other guys well enough. The only reason to be mad is if you have Shingo on your fantasy team...

Instead of worrying about ESPN, let's be productive: get wasted, light a fart on fire, hug your wife, slap your girlfriend on the ass, write a computer program. The media will say what it wants... just enjoy the team.

Jabroni, you stole my old avatar from when I was "MoreCowbell" And to answer the poll: NO! You never trade a cheap and capable bull-pen arm, much less an established closer.

No love for Pods?

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ May 6, 2005 -> 11:48 AM) Hasn't Santana thrown against the Yankees in their 5 game playoff series? How has he done? Did he throw 2 or 3 games in each?...I don't remember. I believe last season he threw 2 games against the Yankees. He won one game and should have had the win in the other, but the Yankees scored 4 runs late off of Rincon. In game one, he went 7.0 and gave up no runs. In game four, he went 5.0 and gave up one run.

Each of these guys has had some role in this team's success so far this season, but who's contribution has been the most valuable so far? I think the field gets narrowed to Iguchi, Hernandez, Pods, Hermanson, and AJ. I personally will vote for El Duque because adding a good fifth starter (not in the "fifth starter"'s role, per say, but rather, just getting a fifth major league pitcher) makes a huge difference from last season. We aren't just losing 20% of our games because we can't field a whole team.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 6, 2005 -> 11:43 AM) Luckily we can't face them in the first round, so even if we did see them in the playoffs, it would be in a 7 game series. True. However, given I was an AL East or West team, I think I would dread playing the Twins more than the Sox in a five game series, purely because of Santana. Garland has been dominant for us, but I don't know if he will be "play-off dominant" if we reach that point.

QUOTE(mmmmmbeeer @ May 6, 2005 -> 11:35 AM) And, not to jinx us or anything, but come playoff time I'd gladly put MB, FG, and JG, with OH and JC coming out of the pen, against any staff in the AL and be confident we'd have the best playoff rotation, with Anaheim being the only team coming close. I'd like to agree with that, but if the Yankees' rotation gets healthy, they are pretty damn good. Also, Johan Santana in a 5 game series would be deadly, regardless of the other pitchers starting.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ May 6, 2005 -> 11:28 AM) Usually the members creating the media threads are not the same people who repetively post on media biasm. Although recent Jabroni threads may indicate otherwise. It's the person turing on the TV and noticing Baseball Tonight covering our club. Or the member feeling John Kruk unfailry questioned the loyalty of our fanbase. We're slighting these members with arrogant "Who Cares?" posts. Alright, I can't really disagree with that

In an article I read on ESPN, an AL GM was quoted as saying that he thinks a team is "going to have to mash" to win the AL. Since that wasn't KW, obviously the guy isn't in charge of the best team in baseball, but this month will go a long way to show just how strong (or weak) our pitching and bullpen are.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ May 6, 2005 -> 10:57 AM) Does it really effect anyone personally whether or not their are Baseball Tonight or "ESPN SUX" threads? No, but it gets really old to see one basically every day. There is definitely a subset of Sox fans that wants to feel slighted by the media. You need look no further than today's Mariotti thread. Jay basically summarized our season so far and played pretty nice and we see a number of posters go off on him for slamming our team. I guess it's just irritating to me because there are some really good fans here who really appreciate baseball, and yet it seems like half the threads that end up getting generated are about the media and "how they rip us". I guess this is why I'm a proponent of a separate "media" or "ESPN" or "BBTN" board or some combination.

QUOTE(KWs OK for Me @ May 6, 2005 -> 08:30 AM) When it comes to Mariotti his message seems to get lost in his words. Because of his personality on his old radio show, his outspoken riff between him and Hawk and Jerry it creates a general tone that seems to seep into anything he writes when concerning the White Sox. Even this article had a good amount of legitimate concerns to it (although I disagree that the bullpen is bound to "level out") it is the manner in which he writes it that seems to anger so many of the Black and White faithful. Mr. Mariotti needs to learn that its not always what you say, but how you say it. What did he say in this article to piss you off? He made fun of Ozzie with the "Italian (bleep)" comment, but that was in good spirits, I thought. He didn't even attack Jerry this article. He was only mentioned for liking the '55 Dodgers, a team that this year's Sox apparently resemble. Mariotti is an ass; I'll agree with that premise. However, this was a pretty decent column.

I actually thought this was a pretty good article. He really didn't slam our team, he just raised a lot of questions that a lot of people on this board have raised. He more or less stated: 1) Our starting pitching is winning us games (lots of 1 run starting pitching efforts) 2) Our offense blows (at least statistically) 3) Our bullpen has been successful, in his terms "credible", but is due for a fall off in comparison to its stellar performance 4) There could be chemistry and "who's on the bench" issues when Frank gets back 5) We haven't really played anyone yet (Twins and As are it, basically) 6) Our attendance is low 7) We are slowly receiving national attention, but nobody really thinks this team will make the series... yet. All of those are pretty much facts. This was a good column. I don't think anybody has anything to complain about. He even tells us to hold it over Cubdom, but in moderation EDIT: For spelling

QUOTE(DonkeyKongerko @ May 5, 2005 -> 06:18 PM) That video is funny-bad, like DJ. You can tell when the teleprompter goes off and he goes "Oh no". We're going to make a new ESPN forum soon for all ESPN posts, and then lock it forever. I was thinking this might be a very good idea.

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ May 5, 2005 -> 04:05 PM) I hate to say it and I know it won't happen but I would like to have Jeter on our team. I was going to suggest that at well. Having him on our team would be tremendous! Also Rivera would be a nice addition and maybe Posada instead of Widger, too.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ May 4, 2005 -> 08:39 PM) Oh my god.....your f***ing crazy for that prediction! For my next display of clairvoyance... I will also predict a new BBTN thread in the next week. Maybe it's the Force?

I predict Juggs will post a stat in the next week.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ May 4, 2005 -> 07:34 PM) Let the b****fest begin...... let's not forget BBTN

Again, I fail to understand why you all care about BBTN. We're not a big market team and we don't have a national fan base. Showing the highlights of a game we have against KC isn't going to appeal to most of their fan base. Who really gives a crap. If you want to watch our great plays from the game, then tape it. If you want informed commentary about the White Sox, read the threads on this board that aren't relating to BBTN. If you want attention, then dance naked in the middle of Lake Shore Drive.

As somebody keeps mentioning on the board, using a closer for a closer's sake makes no sense. If you're taking out the starter going into the 8th and you have the heart of the line-up coming up, obviously we should put in our hottest reliever (at present that is Hermanson). Likewise if we're going into the ninth and the batters coming up + the bench are like .330 against righties, but only .178 against lefties, then we should obviously use Marte. "Set-up man", "closer" those are all meaningless monikers that might actually hurt a team's chance to win.