fathom

Wind's blowing in a lot tonight.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 11:02 PM) And in the 14th inning nonetheless. It's like the "Don't pitch to Robin Ventura with the bases loaded" rule. Don't pitch to Geoff Blum in the 14th inning. Haha, great call

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 10:38 PM) I wonder how fast he will be when he comes back. Explosive I am sure. I can't wait to hear excuses the rest of the season. Shame on KW for bringing him back.

I love Geoff Blum.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 08:49 PM) Im guessing Erstad will play LF and lead off, and BA will play center and hit 9th. Mack will back them both up. Mack is starting tonight.

It's funny, but weren't some of us saying that even if an outfielder got hurt, Anderson still wouldn't start? Anyways, I'd love to see Mackowiak go out and earn the role.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 08:39 PM) ummmm....erstad????? Like I said, a real LF.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 08:39 PM) Why in the f***ing world is Pods sitting against a righty? He's the hottest hitter we have, so we lead off Darin Erstad instead because he's earned it with his .170 something average? We're going to get really sick of grinderstad. Looks like we have our answer.

He can't stay healthy. It's really unfortunate we didn't get a real LF this offseason.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Apr 17, 2007 -> 01:57 PM) Translation: When I'm fired and managing elsewhere, don't boo me. I'm one of his biggest critics, but if he came back to the Cell as an opposing manager, I definitely wouldn't boo him.

I disagree with everyone blaming the police/university for no warning. In reality, I'd think that a classroom is the safest place for these people to be in. The last thing you need is people running around outside with all of the commotion going on. Even if you lock down the campus, there's still ways that someone could get into a building, etc. This is just an unfortunate event, and it's no one's fault but the gunman.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 08:50 PM) I'm not sure it was the 9th inning (I think it was the 8th in fact) but there was the ball he destroyed in Pittsburgh last year to tie the game late. Anywho...not everyone on a team needs to hit .500 after the 8th inning for that team to be successful. It'd be nice to get some hits before the 7th out of the rest of the guys. The way we've been pitching, a few hits early and we don't even need the clutch hits. Yep, 8th inning against our friend Bobby Hernandez. Again, all I'm saying is that the reason some people perceive Thome as not being clutch is due to not doing any damage in the 9th inning.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 05:52 PM) Who gives a s***? Worry about someone who didnt have an OPS of 1.014 last season, or while "struggling" .984 this year... All I'm saying is that Thome hasn't delivered in the last inning of games since he's been here. I think that's why some people have considered him to not be clutch. If you saw what I said, you would know I said he's the least of our worries right now.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 05:44 PM) Hmmm... well, he did deliever the only hit (a homerun) in a 1-0 defeat of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 7th inning, if IIRC. 9th inning or later

The thing with Thome is that as good as he is, he's still not going to be anything above average (at best) against all the LHP we face. Thus, we need the rest of the order to pick it up against them. If Hall doesn't return, we're looking at having to get production from Anderson and Molina against the tough LHP we face. If guys like Iguchi can't improve vs LHP, you're looking at a lineup with way too many easy outs. It's too bad we couldn't replace Mackowiak on the roster with Eduardo Perez.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 05:34 PM) Agreed. Thus far he's 1-3 w/ 2 BB. During his entire time with the Sox, I don't recall him doing any damage in the 9th inning or later in a game.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 05:27 PM) I for one, am glad that BMAC ended up in the doghouse. Danks/Masset will help us much more. That is true, but I don't think any of us want to see a pattern where Ozzie continues to have issues getting along with players that eventually the only solution is to trade them.

I'm still waiting for Thome to do anything clutch in the 9th inning. However, he's the least of our offensive problems now. It's almost like the opposite of the first few months last year, when we had like 7 of our 9 offensive hitters doing well. Brian Anderson will never be a full-time starter under Ozzie again. I don't know what Anderson/McCarthy have done off the field, but I think Ozzie's doghouse is a one-way street.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Apr 16, 2007 -> 02:05 AM) Bring back Olivo. Just kidding. I still don't know how to make that the color green. He'd be ideal as a back-up catcher.

I have more confidence he'll regain his velocity than I did with Koch when similar things were being said. I really have to question the strength/condition program these guys are on, as they all have velocity issuues when season begins. I know a lot of guys have that issue, but it seems like more than half of our guys deal with that.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:49 PM) Fathom, you need to update your violation dates in your sig. Man is your sig going to be long this year. I don't think it was a blatant violation today. I'm only going to do it for games that don't need an explanation for why it made the list.

QUOTE(mmmmmbeeer @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:46 PM) Are you from Chicago? Did you play baseball? Have you played in the weather this team has been facing? Apparently not. You're stiff, you've got no feel for the ball, your eyes are watering while waiting for the pitch. It isn't easy. Our catcher's bat speed has been drastically reduced? Where do you get this stuff? Yep, played probably more baseball in this weather than just about anyone on here. The offense also sucked in Oakland for the most part as well. You don't think AJ's bat speed has slowed down? He looks the same as he did last year at the end, when everyone blamed it on him being tired. QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:47 PM) The swings this team took today were utterly pathetic. How does an 82 mph curveball that's high and out of the zone get us swinging all the time? Tadahito... pathetic. AJ... pathetic. White Sox pitching? Yes. Since Iguchi's been here, he's always struggled against high breaking pitches like that. It's just a hole in his swing that's hard to fix.

Something needs to be done to make us tougher vs LHP.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:41 PM) Fathom it's posts like this that really bring you down. I mean, seriously. I've said this all along: our 3rd baseman is incredibly overrated, our catcher's bat speed has been drastically reduced, our 2nd baseman struggles against LHP, and we have the worst LF and worst CF in all of baseball. We have no ace on our pitching staff that we can count on to go out there and shut teams down. If Jenks doesn't get his velocity up, then we have issues at closer. We're a solid team, but we've fallen down a far way from Hawk saying we were the most talented team in 2006.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Apr 15, 2007 -> 07:40 PM) Unreal. Baseball just makes no sense at times. With the lineup we had today, there was no way we could expect to score a fair amount of runs. Something has to be done with the lineup we have against LHP.