fathom

So that's what it looks like when a pitcher shuts a team down after a couple of runs.

QUOTE(Butter Parque @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 12:08 AM) when will we finally hit rock bottom I don't know, but another 2 weeks of slumping, and the season could very well be over.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 12:06 AM) Or our leadoff hitter hits a grounder up the middle the other day that the secondbaseman dives for and throws him out easily. The White Sox I believe lost their edge winning the WS. It happens to a lot of players and teams. I'm going to watch the 2005 DVD, and remember what it was like seeing a team play with an edge.

QUOTE(ottawa_sox @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) In more ways than we can count, this is looking like a pre-2005 White Sox team. Those teams usually tanked in August...not July.

I can't wait for Tejada to beat us all series. This team is absolutely dead right now. How come every other team has no problem scoring from first on a double, and we can't even score from second on a single?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 11:57 PM) Our rotation is in shambles right now. We have 3 automatic losses. And recently, Contreras is racking up the losses even while pitching decently. Our offense is worse off than our pitching, in my opinion. If we continue to score 3 runs or less whenever we face a good pitcher, we'd doomed. We're going to face some great pitchers in the 2nd half of the season.

Great to see our pitchers continuing to get us back in the dugout after we allow a run. Garcia's pitching slower tonight than he has in a month.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 10:35 PM) good lineup, lets win this thing. wow, hawk actually ripping the sox... never thought i'd see him lose his optimism. What did Hawk say?

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 10:26 PM) Jason, as for Gomes being available. I would think he would be shopped around, as he's one of their most valuable trading assets as they try to search for help for Kazmir in the rotation in the future. They have alot of good pitching talent in their system as you know, but I would be willing to bet they might be looking for a solid RHP 2-4 type starter that they know they can count on to pitch with Kazmir and Hendrickson and eat some innings up, like a Josh Fogg. They traded Hendrickson.

If Sandy catches tonight, what's the over/under on steals by Baltimore? I say 4.5.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 08:09 PM) Kinda strange to me that you have A LOT more faith in the Tigers this year than you did the Sox last year. You were the only one (and you turned out to be right) that said the division race wasn't over when the Sox were up 15 games in August. The Tigers are up 8 1/2, and you've all but conceded the division to them. Not trying to start anything. I just find that a little strange. I think it's entirely possible for the Tigers to fade and not make the playoffs at all. If they struggle against the Santana/Liriano combo the rest of the way, the Twins will be in a great position to overtake them. I'm not conceeding anything to them....just that so far this year, they've been awesome (as were we at this exact point last season).

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 09:18 PM) nice props on Around the Horn for KW's decision to make no big moves. Pitching needs to turn it around and they'll be fine. These same people will criticize him in a month for not making a move if we continue to struggle.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 05:38 PM) Has Upton done anything illegal? Ive heard crap about Dukes and a course the Young thing involving the umpire. He got busted for a DUI. From my source within the organization, he's a good guy....just a terrible defensive player.

He isn't going anywhere. They'll just keep blaming the people around him, like Dukes.

I'm thrilled that CLee isn't going to the Tigers or Twins.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 03:29 PM) Mench really isn't all that good. Nix has not done much at the major league level lately and Cordero has been getting rocked. CLee is by far the best hitter in this trade, and eventually Cruz probably will be the second best. I'm glad CLee is staying out of the AL Central, but I don't see where the Brewers got all that huge of return on him especially because Cruz is a good prospect. Yeah, for a small budget team, they didn't really add good, cheap, young prospects.

Is Mench a FA also though, or does he have some arb years coming up?

QUOTE(champ @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 03:18 PM) The Sox are better than both of those teams, with or without those guys. They need to just worry about themselves, and not whatever the Tigers or Twins are doing...and you should too. I don't give a spiff what the Tigers or Twins do, the Sox don't need any help...just win, and everything else will take care of itself. All you should care about is W's right now. We've been hearing this all year, and it's probably the same crap that Twins/Indians fans were saying last year. The Tigers are the best team in the AL Central, and have been basically all season. If the Tigers add Soriano, their lineup will be better than ours, their pitching will be better, and their defense will be better.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 04:21 AM) Fields has hit for less power than Ryan Sweeney for almost 2 months now. If you have a buyer for him, ship him out! He wasn't very good last year, and hasn't been anything special since the beginning of June. His hot first two months at Charlotte made him a top prospect, but every day he spends not matching those totals brings him ever closer to the dreaded Borchard name you've already envoked. Sell! to anyone who's willing to buy his 2 months of shiny 1.000 OPS in the bandbox. He gives us a lot of leverage in the Crede negotiations, and he'll also give us a great trade chip in the offseason. I don't think he's our long-term answer in LF.

QUOTE(G&T @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 04:10 AM) Didn't KW want to raise the value of Soriano for the Tigers? For all we know, this is exactly what he wanted. BTW, players have to be more professional than to let the trade deadline affect them. They go through this every year, and it didn't seem to hurt any team the Sox were playing. The Sox were the focal point of the biggest rumors this week, and Pods was very much involved in the rumor. I wouldn't blame Pods for being a little disturbed.

QUOTE(supernuke @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 03:58 AM) At this point I think I am more concerned with what the Twins and Yankees do. Absolutely. Go Tigers this weekend! The main reason Soriano on the Tigers would concern me is that we face them 10 more times this year.

It just sucks that in this situation, these rumors might have disrupted our team for the Twins series.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 03:32 AM) A guy hitting .261 in aaa isn't going to spark anything. He's a lesser hitting Willie Harris.

QUOTE(Cuck the Fubs @ Jul 28, 2006 -> 03:27 AM) Yeah, but the whole grinder ball idea was built on not being a swing for the fences team. Right now, all we are doing is swinging for the fences, like we did from 2000-04. It was a play on words. There is a grinder ball rule that says never underestimate the power of power. To me, all this power is destroying what the grinder ball was built on: The power of no power. It's funny, but this time a year ago, everyone was saying how we needed a lefty power bat. The offense has struggled, but that's not the main issue. For everyone complaining about the team trying to only hit homers, our "grinder", Mr. Scott Podsednik, has fewer steals than Carlos Zambrano in the 2nd half of the season so far. With our pitching staff as bad as it is right now, the last thing we need to do is play for one run instead of the potential big inning. Instead of losing 5-1, we'll lose 5-2.

Good stuff by Flash and Jim in this thread. The thing I've learned about our prospects in the last 5 years it that most of them have low ceilings. Thus, many of them end up putting up better numbers in AA than they could ever dream of putting up in the majors. However, this gets us a lot of value for them on the trade market, and now that we're spending money, it's paying off into talented veterans. Fields and Young are our two most "dynamic" prospects in the last 5 years (since Borchard). I was very disappointed to see Young go....and will hate to see Fields get traded for a 2 month rental.