fathom

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 03:40 PM) We're 1-4 against the Yankees this year. We're now falling behind in the Wild Card, and we're several games behind the Yankees as well. We've got the Tigers this weekend, who were beaten last night by the Twins. It'd be nice to have momentum against them. Don't forget the Twins start a 4 game series against Toronto, and they won't be facing Halladay. If we struggle this wknd, we could easily find ourselves 3 games back.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 03:41 PM) Also, in regards to last night, Garland did get squeezed, and I don't know what Brian Gorman's vendetta is against the White Sox, but I will go on record as saying the man downright Hue Hollins'd us in the fifth inning with that bulls***. Yes, every umpire is out to get us besides for Doug Eddings. The only pitch I thought Garland got really screwed on was an outside fastball to Jeter that should have been a called 3rd. The pitch in question to Abreu has taken on a life of its own, as it looked to clearly be a ball. Instead of always having umpires cost us games, it would be nice if our starters just made one more good pitch to the hitters and overcame the questionable call.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 03:36 PM) I don't see how this could cost him 4 mph on his fastball. The sooner everyone on the Sox takes responsibility for their own actions, the better we'll be. There's been way too many excuses, etc. for a championship team.

There's been some terrific quotes by Sox players/coaches this week.

QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 03:21 PM) well KC is in the AL Central, the best division in baseball, that does account for some of their loses. if they were in the NL west, they'd have a slightly different record . not saying they are "good" of course, but they have some good nights. a bunch of s***ty teams all in one division beating up on each other, a couple having halfway decent records, doesn't make them good, just makes them the best of the s***ty teams. KC would come in last place in the NL West.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 02:39 PM) He would own in the NL west. He'd have a chance for success, but Garcia isn't going to be owning anyone with the stuff he now has. It will actually be very interesting to see if he finally "finds" his fastball in his free agency year.

QUOTE(pcullotta @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) Our 7,8,9, and 1 hitters (AJ, Cintron, BA, Ozuna, and Pods as PH) went a combined 0 for 16 yesterday with no walks and 11 left on base. Ouch. Is that a surprise? Going into the game, we really had to rely on PK, Dye, and Crede to produce enough for the offense to win. Iguchi had 4 great ABs yesterday, so that's promising.

Nothing would make me happier this season than to see Garcia traded. I didn't see a replay of this, but I guess Garcia showed up Mackowiak after he made the error in the first inning on Tuesday. That's at least the 5th time he's done that this year.

#1 better be Uribe's dive into the stands. Knowing ESPN, they might have Calderone climbing the wall at old Tigers Stadium to rob a homer.

QUOTE(shoota @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 05:21 AM) It's painful to fall short of postseason play like in 2004, but we fans could at least temper our feelings knowing that the players were outplayed. If the Sox barely miss the postseason this year, it won't be because our team wasn't good enough, but because our manager misused his players. That is a clear definition of "frustrating." Ozzie's refusal to preserve and protect his best asset--starting pitching--was/is a poor decision. Not putting his bullpen in positions to succeed is another, his overuse of Rob Mackowiak in center field, his refusal to use McCarthy in the rotation were/are the easily correctable errors that could mean the difference in making the postseason or having more time to golf with Javier Vazquez this offseason. Tom Kelly plz. Umm, right now, our players are simply getting outplayed by the best teams in the AL. If the Twins end up winning the Wild Card, it will be because they're better than us. That's the beauty of our situation right now. If we don't make it, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

QUOTE(DABearSoX @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:48 AM) Oh and if fathom is in here, i need to say i am so wrong with what i said in the game thread....i dont know what i was thinking for some reason i got it mixed up he was a lefty and he was hard on righties i don't know my head wasn't thinking straight in the heat of the moment Don't worry, I knew you knew what you meant. I'll forgive you.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:42 AM) Oh absolutely, right now I'd take Joe as well. But I don't think Crede is, or ever will be, in the same league as A-rod. Here...we should settle this. Trade Garcia, Fields, and a few others for ARod, and then make him a SS next year.

QUOTE(ceffa2000 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:41 AM) ?Elaborate? Hawk repeats this line very often, stating that Ozzie would have won 2 World Series championships in his first two years if these guys didn't get injured.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:39 AM) Here is the 2004 Starting rotation and their ERAs MB 3.89 ERA JG 4.89 ERA FG 4.46 JC 5.30/EL 4.86 Showenweis 5.59 ERA Kind of looks similiar to what we have now. One guy below 4. And then the rest. Didn't you know though that Ozzie would be 2 for 2 if Ordonez and Frank were healthy.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:30 AM) --Yeah, but Scottie was DAMN GOOD last year. Cmon you cannot deny that. This year is different, I agree. But give me a break downplaying how good he was last year! He was damn good for 1/2 of the season. He was a below average MLB player the 2nd half of the year.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:33 AM) Hmm yeah, on 4/22 we beat up on Radke pretty bad. He had 6 ER in 5 IP, but Thome did hit a 2 run homer. No, the game in which Buehrle faced Santana ended up being a 7-1 final.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:29 AM) The fact that the Twins and KW actually discussed Torii Hunter coming to the White Sox shows how far the Twins have come to pass the White Sox. I still think the Sox will finish ahead of them if Liriano is down for any length of time, but Radke has picked it up lately and Santana is still nails. This kid they just called up, Garza, I believe,is supposed to be something, hopefully he performs like Liriano did last season. The Twins are awesome right now. Joe Nathan's the best closer in baseball, and Morneau/Mauer is just as good as any 1-2 combo in baseball now. Our best chance for the postseason might be Liriano being out for a while.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:30 AM) I hope you know I was joking... right? Yes, and I was supporting what you said. I'm enjoying your posts lately. You're back to your overly optimistic views from last year, but we need that for the good of this site.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:29 AM) On 4/22 Jim Thome took Johan Santana deep in the bottom of the 6th inning with the team down 2-1, it put them up 3-2 which turned out to be the final score. So yeah, Jim's had about 6 clutch HRs this year just off the top of our collective heads but he's not clutch. Are you sure about that? I thought the homer made it 2-0, and we eventually won 7-1 in that game.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:28 AM) But... they all fail 7 out of 10 times they come to the plate! Yep, and it's going to happen. Sure, you'd like to see better ABs and a guy like PK go out of his way to avoid the double play. However, that's baseball, and if it wasn't for those 4 guys, we'd be below .500 this year with our pitching.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:25 AM) Its a higher percentage than Frank Thomas' career clutch homers vs. career homers, and his stats are still updated almost daily on this site. Thome is having a great year, and has had his share of clutch hits. He didn't get Rivera tonight. Guess what? Not a lot of people do. He's going to the Hall of Fame. Up until his last few seasons with the Sox, I always thought Thomas was terrible in the clutch. The only memory I have of him being clutch during his glory years was a massive homer against Jeff Montgomery in a big game vs the Royals in the 1990s. That's one of the reasons his walkoff against Guardado was so special a few years ago...it was totally unexpected.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:22 AM) I think any critical comments of Thome are stupid. I can understand being upset about that particular at bat. But cmon. It's just stupid to criticize a guy with his numbers. And how Brian Anderson and his .220 average isn't crucified more is beyond me. I know he's a good outfielder. Sure, I would like to see Thome come up with more hits against closers. However, there has to be a line you don't cross when complaining after a game. Thome, PK, Dye, and Crede have earned the right to not receive crap after every play they do.

QUOTE(champ @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:22 AM) Pssst...Riske was the guy who put the game out of reach. Surrendering two extra runs in the 7th. Riske can be good, or he can suck. Same thing with Cotts. He put the game out of reach? Are you freaking kidding me? I think I'm watching different Sox games than some people now.

QUOTE(ceffa2000 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:20 AM) I like having pitchers fear 2-6. I mean REALLY fear. But the only problem, no one fears our pitching. THey've been hit around long enough now where hitters relaxing in the box and waiting their turn. They know if they hang around for 4-5 innings, they'll get their shot more often than not. Here's what I've noticed about our starters. If you're patient enough against them, they're going to have an inning where they implode and lose their focus. Our starters don't have the greatest stuff on the planet (Vaz has above average stuff, and Contreras does sometimes), and they become very wild in the strike zone. It's one of the main reasons why I think we have 3 wins this year when we score 3 runs or less. We probably had like 20 last year.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 10, 2006 -> 04:19 AM) I agree with Fathom here. However our bullpen also can be mediocre to s***. I can't understand why the people who wanted Garland out of there can't see that the bullpen also likely would have sucked. Oz can't win either way. It's not like these bullpen guys are studs. Our bullpen, compared to our starting pitchers, is much better. The only guy who's really struggling is Cotts.