Wedge

I can only imagine this roster if we had landed Eckstein. Pds and Eckstein at the top of the order, ouch! Plus if we moved Uribe to 3rd full time and signed Gooch... yikes!

Let''s not forget that Pods was involved in each run scored today.

We won a game on excellent starting pitching and excellent bullpen work. Kudos to this team.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 11, 2005 -> 03:45 PM) He gone YES! Man, I miss Koch closing games.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 11, 2005 -> 03:42 PM) Alright Ozzie just f***ed up LET DAMASO FINISH IT This better not hurt us If it does Ozzie I am coming for you I disagree, I think this is a sound decision by Ozzie.

Staaaaay on taaaaarget... :-p

DP time, come on guys

This is becoming harrowing

Maybe our offense will wake up soon?

That's the difference between Garcia and Garland... Garcia doesn't cave in at the end.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Apr 11, 2005 -> 09:33 AM) Here's what I saw. I saw a team scratch out two runs against a very good pitcher. I also saw a very good pitcher step up and not allow any more. It's as simple as that. It's a man throwing a ball so as the man with the bat cannot hit it solidly. Pure baseball. You don't have to look at stats or situational averages. It's just baseball. I also saw a very good pitcher getting a lot of help in terms of a very friendly strike zone...

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 11, 2005 -> 09:14 AM) And the relievers. That zone was HUGE. It looked like on some of the pitches he got a solid extra 6" to a whole foot.

I loved Ozzie's quote on ESPN, but I thought the best part of having the game on ESPN was the K-Zone. It really showed how generous the ump was with the strike-zone for Santana.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 04:08 PM) Once again, it wasn't just one season he was great in 02 and 03 also. EDIT: He split 02 and 03 between starting and relieving here are his starting stats. 02: 74.2 innings pitched, 89 k's, 3.13 era. In 03: 110.1 innings pitched, 109 k's, 2.86 era. I agree with what all you've said that he has been excellent so far, but you're not accounting for the wear that an entire season as a starting pitcher can put on the guy. What I think Juggs is trying to say (and what I am trying to say, for sure) is that the guy will probably be good again, but most likely will not have another Cy Young caliber season this year.

I'm going to agree with Juggs here. Santana needs to prove himself again this season before we consider him an elite pitcher. We had a guy on our staff (Loaiza) last year that many were ready to give elite status to because of his outstanding season the year before. Now he's garbage. Santana looked unbeatable last year, but things happen year to year. Let's see a month of baseball to decide just how good the competition is!

QUOTE(El Piervizdyeguchansodnik @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 03:00 PM) WHy are people freaking out over OBP after 5 games when we faced a couple nasty pitchers?? That OBP will go down more today cause we're up against Santana. I'm not freaking out over a small sample size, I'm just making the statement that if this team wants to the playoffs, that that OBP has to improve. That's just a fact. Don't take me the wrong way, I like this team's make-up a lot and I think it has a lot of potential. Even without Frank, I foresee our OBP improving. If it doesn't... we could have some issues.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 01:45 PM) lol I was wondering that too. But I hope he just takes his time getting back. Better being healthy for 2/3 of the year than to just rush into the season and be hurting. Exactly. I'd rather Frank's return to have a big impact on the team than for him to rush back. If it means we have to wait until the All-Star Break, that's fine. If we get pre-injury Frank from last year... we're going to be pretty good.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 01:11 PM) Only one stat matters. Win. I disagree. It's important to not confuse success with excellence. Any team can beat the odds and win a few games and be successful. The important thing is to look at the stats so far and see where we need to improve. We're not going to win 4 out of 5 games for the rest of the season playing the way we have. That OBP needs to go up. I'd rather address that problem while we're winning than to hit a losing streak to address it.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 11:40 AM) Cubs start great by me keep losing "Great grammar" -Caddyshack

I'm going to have a BBQ with my Sox and Twins buddies... some brats, burgers, and beer. What a perfect day weatherwise, too....

This is interesting. We are definitely the healthiest team out of the four expected to compete for the Central. I think as it stands, only the Indians have a rotation that stands up to ours (even if one goes down, I'm confident in B-Mac, who might be better than Garland RIGHT NOW), and that's only if the USS Sabathia gets healthy. I think the tigers are doing good things, but I don't think they have the pitching to be serious contenders. Then again, with so many games against the Twins in August and September, maybe it won't even matter because they'll be healthy by then and if we aren't playing well, then they could make up ground then.

Billy Koch because he is an ex-Sox.

Did anyone notice that we have a two game stint with them in a week and then we don't see the Twins again until August & September? How does everybody feel about this? I think I will randomly add this smilie.

That inning was a demonstration about why our team is better offensively than last year: balance. We scored on a HR. We put a few across on some good contact hitting. We scored by taking advantage of throwing errors. I can't remember an inning where we did it all like that last year. PS- I like the new #22 better than the old one.

I think Buehrle vs. Radke and Garland vs. Santana is a better chance to get a win than Buehrle vs. Santana and Garland vs. Radke. We shall see.