fathom

Please do not use Jim Thome at 1b! One game isn't worth him possibly getting injured and being out for an extended period.

Marcus Thames has put the Tigers on his back and is carrying them to a near .500 record.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 06:07 AM) I blocked streaming video and audio on Thursday night and then was out of the office on Friday to go to the game. Some of the voicemail that was left was pretty comical. Some douchebag Cubs fan at work today kept replaying the Len Kasper calls on all of the homers in the 4th inning. He was doing this for 20 minutes, and had it as loud as humanly possible.

Can someone open up the positive game thread again? We were doing damn well with that.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:00 AM) I don't understand you worrying about this. You dont live in Chicago, its not like you run into those with the cubby chubby all the time. Just mention 1908 and move on. I could care less about that its the cubs, I worry more about the division getting closer. I would be just as upset if the Rockies were doing this to us. The only annoyance factor is some moronic cub fans who run their mouth at work. I keep this in the back of my memory and get my revenge when I block all those fools trying to buy tickets when the cubs tickets go on sale every year at my company. Why don't you bust everyone for excessive internet usage who followed the game yesterday?

QUOTE (lord chas @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 03:23 AM) I was sitting in the left field bleachers and security was constantly telling sox and cub fans to sit down. I found this very odd as it is a sporting event and you should be allowed to support your team. I have been to a ton of other parks and have never heard of this before. Did anyone else have security hassle them this weekend? They probably didn't want people getting injured by flying baseballs in the 4th inning.

QUOTE (soxfn4life @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:12 AM) I was wondering if maybe juan had effects on how well some of our guys our doing in the 'pen. I was also wondering if he has done anything different than art kuschner did in the past Juan's greatest achievement is getting Jerry Reinsdorf to pay a lot of money for bullpen parts.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:56 AM) You posters who know your stats, you know who you are. How does this pitching matchup shape up? Is Vas capable of shutting down these assholes on Sunday night? Can we hit Dumpster? No one has hit Dempster...he has the best batting average against in all of baseball (among starters).

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:55 AM) Amazing minor league development we have here. How does a guy like Ryan Sweeney go from not being able to adjust to inside pitching here, to poof a guy hitting .299 in another organization. I wonder what changes another team will make to Anderson when he gets run out of here. The talent is there, we just don't see that talent at the major league level. Ryan Sweeney has a higher OPS than Nick Swisher....unless Sweeney was allowed to use an aluminum bat, I would have never seen this coming.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2008 -> 05:53 AM) Yeah we'll have our chance at redemption if we win all 3 games. The odds of that will be slim if they sweep us. You may not care bout bragging rights Tony, but believe it some of us do. Why wouldn't we? We're Sox fans. They are the f***ing Cubs. It's pretty simple greg....as of right now, the Cubs are a better team than the White Sox. Let them have their fun, there's only one time standing at the end of the World Series. If it's not them, then they won't really care about what happened in June.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 09:27 PM) Carlos Zambrano has an interesting take on the Sox/Cubs rivalry from Chicagosports.com: I don't like to pitch in American League ballparks," he said. "I feel bored. The games are too long. I like the National League. You're competing and you do something for yourself. No one has to come in for me and do the DH part. I like to compete and play against the White Sox. It's good. Every time I go to U.S. Cellular, or Comiskey, or whatever is the name of the ballpark, people starts screaming at you and saying all kinds of things, calling you all kind of things. "That's good. They say something like 'Homosexual.' Sometimes I'm in the outfield and they say bad words. 'You're a homosexual.' I say 'I'm going to show him I'm (not) a homosexual on the mound.' That's kind of like a good feeling between the Cubs and the Sox." Yep Carlos, constantly grabbing your crotch on the mound makes you a heterosexual.

If the Sox get swept, the Cubs will have bragging rights for exactly 4 days. After that, the Sox have their chance at redemption.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) This reminds me of a game last year where David Aaardsma just sucked it up and we lost big time after we had a lead. Aardsma's actually been good this season...too bad we couldn't at least kept him in the minors.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 07:10 PM) I can only wish... I HATE Ron Santo with a passion. Oh, how I wish for something really bad to happen to him.

I have to go to a wedding now (at least she's a Sox fan). Everyone, try not to kill yourself tonight. We're still in first place, and we only have to play at Wrigley one more time this season.. For the rest of the game, not everyone that strikes out should be released or sent down, and if a pitcher allows a run, it's ok.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) I've REALLY been rooting for him. But yea, he needs to go down to the minors. He's a perfect 4/5 outfielder...there's nothing for him to do in the minors.

Bad series so far for OC...1-9 against two pitchers I would have thought he have a lot of success against.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 08:02 PM) The sad thing is the wasted opportunity we had earlier this year. We could of put up a lot more wins if our offense didnt suck. We would have a large cushion we could ride while we face the cubs. That and our one trick pony offense is going to be our deathfall this year. We are letting everyone back into the race, and we dont have the minors to pull off a trade to get anything. I think the AL Central will be clustered no matter what. Simply put, we're not that much better than the other teams. For people to complain about our offense, then you have to think we were lucky as hell to have the pitching we did.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 08:00 PM) his remastering of the line up that lead to that hot streak earlier in the year was genius. I agree, and he's done a great job with the bullpen. He needs to realize that our starting pitching has been stressed so far this year, and he might need to watch out and try to limit their innings. I had zero problem with him pulling Danks yesterday, as Danks has struggled late in games.

FWIW, I apologize for saying fire Ozzie now. I was caught up in the moment. He is doing a terrible job this weekend so far, but on the whole this year, he's been good.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 07:56 PM) I'm very skeptical of Soto. He's doing things in the majors that his numbers in the minors wouldn't suggest he ever had a chance of doing. Don't be skeptical of Soto...be certain.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) Massett at least looking like he cares. Thank you Nick for saving the pen today. Well Javy likes big games and tomorrow will be the biggest of the season thus far for momentum purposes, gotta hope he brings his A game. If he throws like he did against Pittsburgh, we'll be seeing another one of today's games. Javy likes big games? That's a new one.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 06:52 PM) History of injuries, hasn't pitched over 100 innings in over 5 years, his ERA+ for his career is below league average. Just a few thoughts as to why people might think he isn't going to be that good all year. As RockRaines and a few others were stating in the Cubs thread, Dempster's seemed to have found the "fountain of youth". Maybe it's the same magic that Soto and Gallagher (who went from throwing 91 mph last season to 95 mph this season) found. I'm always suspicious of older players that bounce back from surgeries and seem to have found a lot of success. It's also a reason that I think we'll see older players hit the wall more quickly in the past, as players that don't take performance enhancers will age like they're actually supposed to (case in point, Thome).

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 06:51 PM) You can still hear the buzz in that stadium over the embarrassing inning. Must be horrid to be a Sox fan in Wrigley today, especially after we led early. Must feel like they got hit with a hammer in the head and now all the mocking. You couldn't pay me $1,000 to go to a game at Wrigley, no matter who they're playing.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 21, 2008 -> 06:48 PM) Unforutanely, only one team in the NL can score with the Cubs and its the Phillies, and unfortuntely they can't pitch that well--starters wise. Cole Hamels dominates them, at least.