fathom

Haha, is this batting practice where you have to bunt the first pitch thrown to you? YUCK

Anyone notice that Dye is back to looking off-balanced at the plate. He seems to be swinging all arms again, just as he was at the start of the year when he sucked.

Anyone know if Uribe was shaded up the middle there?

Great pitch by Contreras there. AJP needs to block anything here.

QUOTE(bigred3535 @ Aug 10, 2005 -> 12:18 AM) My feelings on Timo are that he should be nowhere close to the Major League roster, much less batting in one of the more important spots in the lineup. I think people well know how I feel about Timo. I am the founder of the OMIT TIMO believers.

BTW, here's my feelings on Timo batting 5th. I don't have any clue why Ozzie broke up the 4-5 of PK and AJP. Both of them were swinging the bat great. Now, for some ridiculous reason, he's trying AJP in the 3 spot, while leaving PK with no protection behind him. It really just boggles my mind why a manager would f*** with 2 of his 3 best hitters like this.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 11:19 PM) Probably. But not from me. I'd love to see some more called 3rd strikes. Means we are trying to take some walks. One of our biggest problems on offense lately has been taking too many called 3rd strikes. Pods has to lead the world in called 3rd strikes. What would help this offense is to learn to fight off the tough pitches for fouls, and capitalize on the get-me-overs.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 06:59 PM) You know, for a self-proclaimed pessimist you're not very pessimistic outside of game threads. I would say that's fairly accurate. In the heat of the battle, you feel certain ways, etc. Could I express myself better in the gamethreads? Of course I could. However, I'm going to stand up for what I say in the thread if I really believe it. The fact that I don't consider the Sox a lock to make the playoffs shouldn't make me a bad fan.

QUOTE(TheDybber @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 06:45 PM) First half record 57-29 Second half record 15-10 You see, here's the deal. If the Sox were, oh say, 8-17 in the second half, I would be upset, too. But, they are above .500 AND still leading the div. by double digits AND not playing their best baseball AND coming into a rough stretch. The team needs a boost...whether it be a bench clearing brawl (not that I would condone that) or a walk off homer like Eckstein the other night. Something to rev this team up again. It's a looooooong season, ladies and gentlemen, and it's very rare that a team doesn't go through a rough hitting or pitching or both stretch. Even the 100+ game winners don't play the best baseball every single day. Let it go, enjoy the season and relax. Well said. One of the most rational posts I've seen in a long time on here. Even a pessimistic person like myself agrees with this.

QUOTE(Ozzie Montana @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 02:35 PM) We cant keep putting Timo as DH. If Everett is out on the DL then I think Gload would be good at first and Konerko at DH so he can get some rest. If not Id like to see Ozuna at DH today. He hasnt seen any action in a couple of days. Don't be foolish. Do you really think anyone in this organization favors Gload over Timo? NO! And as for Ozuna at DH....nothing like the added power from the DH spot. If Everett goes on the DL, something needs to be done. I think even the people who disagree with everything I say would be on the same page as me.

Also, what will we do about the DH spot against lefties? We're going to face a few tough ones in the next week or so, with Wells and Santana scheduled to face us. Blum's not exactly stellar vs lhp, while Timo is a disgrace vs lefties.

QUOTE(Brian @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 02:26 PM) Carl Everett (groin) said yesterday that he definitely won't be ready to play today. ''I wouldn't give it a date,'' Everett said. ''Basically, I'm just going to let it do what it does, and when it's ready, I'll be in there. I'm just listening to my body. If my body says I can go, I'll go. I just have a certain way I play, and I don't want to affect that.'' Aug. 9 - 9:40 am et Source: Chicago Sun-Times To me, it doesn't sound like he'll be playing in any game in the near future. Might as well put him on the DL. This has become a glaring hole on our team, and I'm not sure what KW can do to fix it. We need all the offense we can get for the next 2 weeks. I pray that Ozzie doesn't think Timo is the full-time answer.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 06:23 AM) Sorry, but starting El Duque in game one would be idiotic IMO. I don't care about "matchups" or "curses" or any of that garbage. If you go down, you will go down with your best guys. MB has proven he's the 'ace' of this staff with Garland close behind, and those guys should be taking the ball in game one and 2 (and then 4 and 5 possibly) regardless of who we play, or whatever matchup you want to consider. Garland and Buehrle deserve to start that first game. I can just imagine the conspiracy theories on here if Duque is starting (and rightfully so).

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 06:09 AM) I can't see how anybody can be so sure of that. I'll go so far as saying ... Will it happen? Probably not. But damn, I've seen it happen several times over my many years as a baseball fan. Exactly! I know I'm Mr. Pessimist....but I'm not a f***ing idiot. I know enough about baseball to know that it's the one sport where teams can go into massive tailspins at the blink of an eye. Who's to say the Indians won't win 15 out of 20 agains Tampa and KC (very possible), while we win 7 out of 20 against the Yankees, Angels, Twins, and Red Sox (very possible). Right there, they have the ability to make up 8 games on the Sox. If the Indians had a similar schedule to that of the Sox, then I would say there's no doubt we'd win the division. However, the comparison in schedules isn't even close. All I know is we have to play better baseball than we have if we want to have a successful stretch over the next few weeks.

We're not going to lose the division? I never said we would....but unlike many on here, I don't think it's locked up. We have an extremely difficult stretch of games now, while the Indians have an extremely easy stretch. It's naive to think that this race can't get close. There's no guarantees in sports, and we don't have a proven track record like the Braves. To be honest, I won't be actually nervous about it until the lead is under 7.5 games. Hopefully, that won't happen for the rest of the season. But please, will people stop getting pissed off at me because I'm not ready to say we have clinched the division? I don't think it makes me a bad fan if I realize that we still actually have to win games to clinch the division, and can't do so by planning our playoff rotation or looking over our shoulders at the freaking A's.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 05:50 AM) Did anyone here Bruce Levine tonight? Apparently he mentioned something about Mike Remlinger being signed by the Red Sox. Can anyone confirm that? Ha, you better hope not. He has nothing left. As a lefty, he's pointless. Lefties are much better against him than righties.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 05:48 AM) Experiment all you want, but I never want to see the 1-2 of Pods and Gooch seperated. What about another 5 games of stagnant offense with Podsednik doing his best Mike Caruso imitation? I didn't know there was some rule that said Iguchi had to bat 2nd. To me, he seems a hell of a lot more comfortable at the plate swinging with authority instead of trying to get the runner over. He's actually our worst player at swinging when there's a runner in motion. He always tries to protect the runner, and probably has a lot more strikeouts because of it. In no way is this trying to insult Iguchi. Rather, I mean to compliment him on the fact he's given himself up so much for the Sox this year. You can want to keep your 1-2 duo together as much as you want....but if this team continues to struggle to score runs against average pitchers, this race is going to get a lot closer than we want it to.

Something that has to be done right now is that we split up the whole 8-9-1 of Crede, Uribe, and Pods. All three of them are struggling so much, that basically we have 33 pct of our lineup batting consecutively without a real good chance of getting on base currently. I also think that if we move Iguchi to the 3rd spot, it might benefit our offense also. I know Iguchi does a great job of moving the runner over....but with Pods not getting on base, that's doing us no good. Also, having Rowand bat 2nd might help him stay on the ball longer and make him drive the ball up the middle/to the right side. Rowand's been hitting a ton of grounders to 3rd base lately cause he's become pull happy. Right now, this team should be playing very loose with the lead they have. What's wrong with experimenting with changes in the lineup?

In your opinion, what can be done to help this offense? If KW is likely to make a move, it will be for another OF/DH type that probably won't play more than Everett would. The left side of our team (SS, 3B, and LF) has been just awful lately, but all three of those guys aren't going anywhere. What can be done to kick-start an offense that really seems flat and isn't producing. I know our pitching has been super, but in order to be successful during this very difficult stretch of our schedule, we're going to have to be able to score more than 2 or 3 runs on a given night. With Pods struggling like crazy to get on base, and then having just as much of a struggle stealing succesfully, it might be a good idea to cut down on the straight stolen base attempt, and go with more hit-and-runs to utilize Pods speed.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 05:27 AM) He went 7 2/3 innings against Boston, gave up 2 runs and got the loss. He went 7 innings against Torotno, gave up 4 runs, and got the loss. He went 6 innings against the Yankees, gave up 3 runs, and got the loss. Yeah he works slow. Yeah, he gets 0-2 on too many people and ends up 3-2 on them. But I think it's hard for me to condemn any of those performances. If you're holding Boston, NY, and Toronto to those numbers...those are games that you should win. If Ozzie really does want to use Duque for the playoffs, then he should start conserving his arm now. Every game where Duque throws over 100 pitches, the chances increase that he won't be completely healthy for the playoffs.

If we make the playoffs, and we lose in the first round.....it better be because we lost with our big 3 of Garland, Buehrle, and Garcia on the mound.

After reading Rick Morrisey's column in tomorrow's Tribune, I'm convinced Duque will be our starter in game 1 of the playoffs if we make it.

We're planning the playoff rotation already? Mercy, I'm just going to refrain from any comments.

I can pretty much guarantee that Adkins is the least of Ozzie's concerns right now.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 9, 2005 -> 01:53 AM) I don't give a crap who you root for, but you constantly s*** all over a team that you claim to be a "fan" of. If we were .500 and trying to claw into it, we'd be frustrated, but to be 32 games above .500 and to talk about how we suck all the time tells me that you've got a bad case of ego. That's my opinion, and truthfully this isn't going to go anywhere, because you've already decided that you're going to win every arguement. So fine. You win. We won't make the playoffs. We suck. Damn, we WILL go on a MAJOR losing streak, because we have no guts. Heart goes a long way, my friend. That's all I'm trying to say. Will it win us a playoff series? It's hard to say, because it's 0-0 records then. Anyway, enough. You get my point. I just don't understand you, that's all. Fair enough. I honestly respect a post like this that explains what problem you have w/me. I don't think I say anything that's completely insane. If I though we were a 100 pct lock to make the playoffs, I would say so. What did I really say tonight that was so bad: That I don't want Duque on the mound in the playoffs (doubtful we'd need a 4th starter)...that the Sox haven't clinched anything (8/8/05)...and that the offense is below average (agree?).