fathom

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 12:00 AM) that double looked down and in to Michaels - not a bad pitch. time to click right here That's the disturbing part...it was a high, inside fastball. However, Garcia lacks the velocity to get that past hitters.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 31, 2006 -> 11:59 PM) Or...yeah...the middle of it. We can't get mad at the middle of the order though. They've been amazing all season. It's time to have other players step up.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ May 31, 2006 -> 11:58 PM) Man, thank God we're scoring so many runs... Wait, what? Yep....thank God we don't need any production from the bottom of the order.

Garcia's fastball is absolutely batting practice now.

87 mph fastballs down the plate go a long way.

You would think they would try and do something different with Uribe. His approach makes it very hard for him to hit the ball hard now.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 31, 2006 -> 10:27 PM) Lew Ford, that's hilarious. He might be worse than Mack. How's he worse than Mackowiak? I've always thought he was a tremendous outfielder. I've always said I would gladly take Hunter on this team....but I can't see that working out. If Matthews Jr. is a blah name, then what is Anderson? If we were a mid-level team this season, I'd have no problems with Anderson getting a lot of playing time. However, we're going for a WS title, and Anderson has done nothing that shows he can hit at this level.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 31, 2006 -> 10:23 PM) Better make a deal then because Mack full-time in CF will lead to disasters. I couldn't agree more. I like the name, Matthews Jr., that DA is throwing around. He's a GREAT guy, and a pretty solid player. However, I don't know how eager the Rangers are to trade him. I mentioned Lew Ford earlier, as he doesn't have a spot with the Twins anymore. I don't want to see Mackowiak in CF full-time, as he's just as likely to go in a slump at the plate as he is to stay hot.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 31, 2006 -> 09:57 PM) Some of the vets need to pick up the pace. It's not all on BA folks. We're going to need more offensive production from guys like Anderson and Uribe when our veteran offensive hitters cool down. QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 31, 2006 -> 10:19 PM) Then blame Vazquez for imploding. Other people had chances to get hits too. Trust me, Vazquez deserves his fair share of blame for that game. However, how can others get a hit when Anderson hits into a weak 5-4-3 DP with one out and the bases loaded? There's a huge difference between a game being 5-2, and the game being 7 or 8 to 2. I'm not blaming Anderson for anything overall this season.....all I know is that I'm not seeing any progress being made by him, and I don't think Ozzie and KW are going to sit around and let him work himself out of this horrid slump. If he doesn't get it going, I don't think he's going to be on the roster past June 15th.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 31, 2006 -> 09:57 PM) Don't remember any games this year where I thought, damn we just lost because of Anderson. The Friday night game at home vs Toronto. Vazquez ended up imploding in the 5th. However, Anderson had a few chances with the bases loaded earlier in the game to put it out of reach. Instead, he K'd in one AB, and hit into a DP in the other AB. That was his worst game of the season, in my opinion.

Our best chance of winning tonight is if the wind is blowing in. If it's not, I can't envision Freddy holding the Indians under 4 runs in 7 innings.

Iguchi struggled against W'brook last season, so Ozzie's just not playing him against Jake this season. Cintron started in game 2 of this season in the same match-up.

What's the chances this game is played tonight? When I looked earlier in the day, there was a lot of rain in the forecast for Cleveland.

QUOTE(That funky motion @ May 31, 2006 -> 08:12 PM) Me too. I can handle a loss but,these kind of losses kill me. I'd much rather have a talented team that loses most of its games because of lack of execution, compared to a team with lesser talent who simply gets outplayed by the opposition. I can only think of about 5 games this season where we had no chance to win.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ May 31, 2006 -> 08:12 PM) Nevin either aged quickly due to a lack of athleticism or he is one of many guys (Hidalgo, etc) that just sort of lost it the last few years and is open to speculation. WHile Koronka stunk today, he wasn't supposed to be significant going from the Cubs to the Rangers so hopefully the Rangers can grab another starting pitcher from the Cubs. I wonder if it will be an aging name prospect like Williams or Hill or if it will be a lower minors younger arm Nevin is one of those guys who would surprise me if he wasn't on the juice. I saw a handful of minor league games this wknd, and it's comical to see some guys that used to look like monsters, but now look like middle infielders. There was a former major leaguer, who holds quite an impressive record, who looks like he lost 25 pct of his weight in the past few seasons.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2006 -> 06:58 PM) They wanted to win it all, all along. To be honest I would argue winning in 2006 is LESS vital than it was in 2004-2005 when the Sox were in danger of being completely over shadowed by the potential Cubs "dynasty" coming off of being 5 outs away from the world series. I am not quite sure which prospect you are referring to when you talk about trading away our best one, but for years we have been selling off the cream of our farm system in order to get players. Don't forget the screams when we acquired Freddy Garcia, Carl Everett, Robby Alomar and who we gave up for them. etc. Nothing has changed in the last few years except for the fact that we finally DID win a World Series, Kenny Williams has been going for broke for years now. I agree with you that this season isn't as important to win it all as previous years. However, I honestly think KW and JR are going for the juggular in terms of trying to make Chicago a "Sox town". KW has been going for broke the last 3 or 4 seasons, but JR really is going for it all this season.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2006 -> 06:26 PM) Wait we weren't trying to win a World Series in 2003-2004? I think that is news to Kenny Williams. We didn't have a 100 million dollar payroll during those seasons, and we hadn't traded our top prospect in order to put together a world-class pitching staff. Of course, KW was going for the WS that season. However, I think the organization would have been thrilled with a trip to the playoffs. This year, I don't think they'd be like the fat girl at the prom. Rather, instead of just being in the playoffs, they want to win it all.

QUOTE(J-MAN @ May 31, 2006 -> 06:03 PM) I remember when Joe Crede came up and played good defense and couldn't hit for squatt - If we had given up on him as fast as people want to give up on Brian Anderson where would we be now? We weren't in World Series or bust mode when Crede was breaking into the majors. Also, Crede was a much more accomplished minor league player than Anderson was.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 31, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) Thats baseball though. Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you dont. He had a bad game, so did Konerko. Plus that was the best I have seen us against CC in quite some time. We definitely put ourselves into good hitting situations last night. I haven't seen our hitters consistently miss as many good pitches to hit in a game as I did in last night's game. As you said, that's baseball. QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 31, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) Well look at Polite's numbers, im sure he will end the season around his career avg. BMAC is serviceable as a righty, and Jenks is lights out. Thornton is better than Marte was, Cotts will regress a bit, which is expected, and Nelson is old, but still needs some work to reach what he could do. Im not really that worried about the pen. I would say that our biggest worry right now should be CF. Mackowiak's been hitting well recently, but his defense has also potentially cost us a couple of games. Anderson is just pathetic at the plate, and we can't keep having such a black hole at the bottom of the order.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 31, 2006 -> 04:35 PM) Not hitting the ball isnt exactly bad fundamentals. If those guys would have connected on their swings in the 9th, we would have been saying it was the best fundamentally sound game all year. s***, Cintron taking 2nd base was about as good as it gets after a failed attempt at moving the runner over. A lot of people have pointed to Iguchi's failed bunt attempt as a big turning point in the game. We're giving up a lot of outs on bunt attempts this season without successfully advancing the runners.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 31, 2006 -> 04:25 PM) Anyone who has watched Clifford, Cotts, McCarthy and the rest at times this year should know that we have some problems in the pen. Cliff is never going to match what he did last year and Cotts more than likely won't this year either, that's a problem. Cliff was big for this team last year and so far this season he has been just horrid, he looks like he has zero confidence right now. We have no righty set-up man. It's a stunning development that no one saw coming this offseason.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ May 31, 2006 -> 02:47 PM) I highly doubt that the Twins would be willing to help us out...at least not without us paying a heavy price. Like you said, I think every team in baseball will listen to a trade offer from KW. KW is definitely not afraid to offer some of his top talent in a trade. I would hope he wouldn't have to give up one of our top 5 guys for someone like him though.

How about Lew Ford? He's struggled a bit this year, but we all know he's a tough out and a very good defensive player. The Twins don't have much need for him now, as they're playing Kubel in the outfield, and Stewart will be off the DL soon.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ May 31, 2006 -> 02:05 AM) You do realize that AJP would likely have swung at the first pitch too. Well, if either AJP or Cintron is swinging at first pitch, I'd much rather it be AJP. That's quite an obvious statement though, so there's no reason to discuss it more. We lost, Buehrle couldn't hold on to a 3 run lead, and we saw what happens when some of our key cogs struggle. I know KW and Ozzie are seeing the same players that we are falter almost every time they get in the game. Tough choices ahead.

QUOTE(JimH @ May 31, 2006 -> 02:05 AM) Please see the part about needing someone to steal a base if the runner couldn't be moved over, that wouldn't have been Pierzynski. It was not managing, it was poor execution and Guillen will once again let his players know about it. I understand the stealing thing. However, I think you would agree that the best plan would have been to take enough pitches for Pods to try and get into 2nd base. But like you said, Cintron had a terrible plan at the plate, and it was a big factor in the overall outcome. What do you think should be done about Anderson?