fathom

Anyone else notice that Quentin's uppercut seems pretty severe so far this season? He's a lot more effective when he tries to hit line drives all over the park.

Sox hitting a cool .145 on the season so far! You have to work Masterson's pitch count, as he dominated us last season at the Cell but threw a lot of pitches.

Ironic thing is tonight would be a great time to get Vizquel in the lineup for Alexei

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 09:07 PM) Have we always had this much second guessing this early in the season? Seems to me a lot of people are tired of Oz. Do people in St. Louis complain about LaRussa this much? Well, if LaRussa told his GM he didn't want a DH so he could have "versatility", and the result was an inferior lineup, then yes they would be second guessing. Greg, you had to know Ozzie would be in the spotlight this season with what he demanded during the offseason.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 07:50 PM) Kinda odd that the first start Jones gets is against a guy with a semi side winding motion. That being said, I'm happy he's in there and I'm interested to see how his swing looks. Agreed, he would have matched up better against Carmona. Masterson's pretty deadly on righties, IIRC.

Jenks lack of velocity on his fastball has hurt his curve as well. Since he can no longer throw a high fastball past hitters, he no longer has the hook as a weapon. It's well beyond the time when we should have gotten rid of him. Who didn't know he would allow a run in the 9th last night? BTW, Matt Thornton is amazing!

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) You can't compare Kotsay and Wise. Kotsay is a much more valuable player. He still shouldn't be batting 5th, but that is a whole other debate. Kotsay is a legitimate major league bench player when healthy at this point in the career (he is even a solid platoon option as a starter when healthy). The guy knows how to play the game, can handle a bat, uses all fields. He's a very solid role player. How's he a good platoon player when his numbers against RHP aren't even that good?

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 04:56 AM) What did Teahen do in the field that was so bad? Just really slow feet. I thought he could have positioned himself better to get Choo out at 2nd on the force in the 7th, which could have saved a run. His reaction time on Peralta's line drive was awful, as if he lost the ball in the lights.

I went to the game tonight, and it seemed like everyone we have questions about coming into the season proved why tonight. Teahen's swing is all sorts of messed up, and his footwork at 3rd base sucks! The Indians were hitting bullets off of R. Williams, and Peavy had pretty mediocre stuff (for him) tonight. This offense is a disgrace right now, and we better hope Andruw has something in the tank. The 8-9-1 is pretty awful, especially with Alexei's early struggles. The good news is that Rios and Konerko are right on every pitch.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 03:28 AM) reeeeally? dude the fact that it's NOT an epilogue, not a lot of things people theorized about, but something tangible that widmore and eloise know about. something viscerally connected to the "real world". Two different times wherein Penny is once again Desmond's constant, and he can travel between. ps - i told a friend last week that i thought constants would come back to play a role. totally right. I wasn't being sarcastic with my question, FWIW

Nice stuff badger

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 02:18 AM) I was hoping that the alternate time line would have a payoff, and it did. And that would be?

QUOTE (Brian @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 02:11 AM) All these characters that are having revelations in the ALT, outside of Eloise, died in the show. Maybe this ALT is where people on the island go after they die, meaning lots of casualties the rest of the season? Who are you referring to?

So what does Desmond what to show the passengers?

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 11:48 PM) This. If I had extra innings year-round, I'd end up dropping out of school. Channel 720 on Directv is the greatest invention ever.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Apr 7, 2010 -> 12:29 AM) I seriously think we need to stop overvaluing this DH thing, I do not believe it will make or break them. Who cares what position it is, if you keep playing individuals who are well below average at that "position", it's going to have a negative impact on the lineup. This is like when people used to say who cares about the 5th spot in the rotation, as long as the other spots are fine. We all know how that worked out.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 11:06 PM) What else is great is that this thread never even gets started if he goes 2-3 with a BB yesterday. Not even really defending the guy, just sayin let's give it some time; we are the class of this division and it ain't even close. The exact same arguments were made last year after Wise went 0 for in the first game.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 10:23 PM) And there's going to be right handed pitchers that bother Kotsay as well, so that point is kind of moot. He needs to be batting lower in the order and there's just no doubt about it. Having him hit behind your 3 best hitters especially when 2 of them are going to get on base a ton is just one hell of a terrible idea. Just imagine being down a few runs in the 6th or 7th inning, 2 on and 2 out, the opposing team brings in a tough lefty and Ozzie has to decide on keeping Mr. .500 ops vs. left handers in or losing the dh. Two pretty terrible options and something tells me that's going to happen a decent amount this season. I love this post

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 09:38 PM) I think there's a major difference. Illinois' team did mesh, they just didn't play well in a lot of games, and they relied on some pretty average to below average players (including freshman). Those average players will be replaced by 5 star recruits (Richmond and Leonard in particular, who are every bit as good as the other top 50 incoming freshman), whereas UNC was just downright awful for the entire season despite having highly rated players. I totally expect UNC to be back next year, but i dunno about elite level. Leonard's not going to do much during his freshman season statistically, and Richmond is likely to be more of an average statistical player than some offensive dynamo (I still haven't seen him it more than one jump shot in any game that's been on TV, and that's something he's going to need to do in Illinois' motion offense). Someone like Harrison Barnes is much more likely to come into UNC and just light it up. I'd also take UNC's bigs of Zeller and Henson over Davis/Tisdale any day. Losing Davis, Thompson, and Ginyard is definitely a positive for UNC.

Nolan Smith is returning to Duke. If Singler returns, they're going to be far and away the #1 team in the preseason polls.

I love seeing all the optimism in here....my team Georgia Tech will suck. Going from one of the best frontcourts in the country to one of the worst, but I'm sure Paul Hewitt will coach them up!

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 08:30 PM) If Ozzie and Hawk can be blinded by Kotsay mania, I'm sure that some may be blinded by his hot wife or the perception that he used to be a good hitter with a good glove. The biggest misconception about Kotsay that I can't stand is that he's fast. He almost got doubled up yesterday with the bases loaded on a slow chopper to 2nd base that wasn't turned quickly at all.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 07:23 PM) Kansas will have most of their talent returning with 5 star guys on the bench waiting to step in. If Selby or Doron Lamb pick KU and Henry stays, I could see them at #5 to start the year. Nova is losing Reynolds and Redding and isn't bringing in much to replace them. They will still get eaten alive inside. Pittsburgh should be the class of the Big East next year. 'Nova has Yarou, Armwood, and Sutton, all of which showed flashes of being above average players during the season. Losing Redding will be addition by subtraction.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 07:35 PM) Personally, I'd put them in the next tier below the list I posted with teams like Villanova, Vanderbilt, Syracuse (assuming Johnson goes) and Tennessee. They could be quite good, but a lot depends on one of Richmond, Paul and Richardson producing relatively consistently since their frontcourt can be quite unpredictable. Ogilvy's supposedly leaving Vandy to go back to Australia, and Wes Johnson is interviewing agents. Good call on Villanova, they have a ton of young talent and Yarou has a world of potential. I think Florida St. could be a very strong team next season, but there's rumors of Singleton/Alabi going pro.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Apr 6, 2010 -> 07:31 PM) What are the chances that ST Johns has a better record with Lavin than DePaul does with Prunell over the life of their contracts? 99%, but St. John's is a much better job and already in much better shape than DePaul is. Of course, the 1% chance is if Purnell continues to have the easiest non-conference schedule every single year.