fathom

QUOTE(quickman @ Jun 15, 2005 -> 01:07 AM) Quick note: giants are getting to santanna tonight 2 runs in 4 innings against Santana. With the Giants mediocre bullpen, 2 runs wont be enough against the Twins.

Duque just flat out sucks. Even on nights when he has good stuff (for him, that is), he still has to battle just to get out of innings. For the life of me, I don't understand why he threw Glaus a fastball.

I hate the way we're almost platooning Pods. He needs to be playing as much as possible in the leadoff spot. We got him to impact games in which we don't hit a lot of homers. Thus, we need him in the lineup no matter who is pitching.

I don't want to see the Sox ever try to make Cotts into a starter. A big reason why a lot of guys have more success in the bullpen than in the starting rotation is because they can get away without having a lot of pitches in their arsenal. Cotts has a fastball and slider right now, that's all. That's fine when you're in the pen, but as a starter, it could equate to problems. Also, Cotts will likely never have great control. For those games in which Cotts can't find the plate, it's a lot easier to pull him after two batters when he's in the pen than it is to have to pull your starter in the 3rd inning.

Even though I have questions about Lugo's character, he would be the perfect bench player to add to this team to help with the middle infield back-up problem we have. Lugo is also a very good runner, as the SB numbers that have been discussed on here. I'd be a lot more comfortable with him on the bench in case of an injury than I would be with Ozuna and Harris.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 01:00 AM) this is why we need another pitcher, can use him as a long inning reliever We were better off putting Marte on the DL. I haven't heard anything to suggest he'll be ready in the near future. It's amazing that a team with such a good record has certain glaring holes on its roster like we do (long man, back-up 1B).

This game is a perfect example though of why Ozzie needs to switch the rotation around so that Contreras and Duque aren't back-to-back. With Marte likely being unavailable, our pen is going to have their work cut out for them the next two days.

I know this likely will have no factor in the outcome, but does anyone else notice how slow Dye is to getting to the ball in the outfield, as well as seemingly always taking an extra second to look to where he's supposed to run the ball. His instincts in the outfield have been simply awful.

I could go without seeing Contreras pitch to Widger again. They have no chemistry together.

SWING THE BAT!

I'm not going to get all negative about this, but anyone else pissed that Ozzie seems to be using Pods almost in a platoon role? When we got him, I didnt think we were going to bench him so frequently against LHP, even though he's been good against lefties.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 12:22 AM) Hmmm, no idea. I do know that the score would be 0-0 if Dye knew how to field a shallow pop fly. Not only that, but he sure seemed to not put any effort into catching the first hit in that inning. He probably wouldn't have caught it, but it didn't land that far in front of him. Instead, Dye just coasted back on the ball to cut it off.

Does anyone know what Contreras's ERA is with Widger this year compared to AJP? For some reason, I'm pretty sure Contreras has had more success with AJP behind the plate making sure that he pitches at a quick pace.

Someone needs to tell Dye that the object of playing in the outfield is to catch the ball. Also, if Contreras can't get control of his forkball, he's not going to have a fun night

I think this win was more important for the team compared to how bad the loss last night might have hurt them. Especially considering it was against Hoffman, that was one of Rowand's biggest hits on the Sox (still love the HR against Alfonseca though).

Great, great win tonight. I'm often critical of putting Everett in the outfield, but he did a solid job out there tonight. Huge win!

QUOTE(nvxplorer @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 11:00 PM) Yep. Since Carl already had a single, double and a homer, letting him swing was indeed playing for a run. Lefties hit .100 against Hammond this year. Thus, Everett swings from the left side, and strikes out weakly. I just don't see why we try to play smallball early in the game, but then at the end of the game, we seem to play for the 2-run homer.

Someone might want to tell Dye that Hoffman throws a change-up.

QUOTE(nvxplorer @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 10:53 PM) Are you serious? Everett was 3-4 before that AB. Who cares, you need to play for one run in that situation!

So, we bunt with a runner on 2nd when we're down one, but we don't bunt with a runner on first and no outs when we're tied? That's absolutely ridiculous managing. Ozuna should have been brought in to bunt Rowand to 2nd base there.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 10:46 PM) Ok, Vizcaino does his job. He is due to bat first, what do you do? Pinch hit with Pablo? Rowand. You want him in the field anyways. Twins lose!

We have no one to blame but ourselves for not taking the lead that inning. Iguchi had some great pitches to hit and put in play to at least get a sac fly, but he didn't get the job done. Uribe fortunately walked, even though he missed two great fastballs to hit. And as for Pods.....well, I just don't understand his approach at the plate sometimes.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 10:38 PM) The best team in major league baseball. It's June 12th. If that's the case come September, everyone will have no problem with that reply. However, there's about 100 games left.

Another game, another case of why not having a back-up 1B hurting us. PK should not have been left on first after he got the single. When will KW and Ozzie wake up and realize something needs to be done?

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 10:07 PM) And Harris is out of the game on a double switch. Sox need a better multipurpose bench, they need a guy who can play 1B, 2B, 3B and maybe even a little OF. Paging Mackowiak or someone similar. quickman and I were discussing this, we agreed that there is not a problem to overpay a little bit. I totally agree. The problem with our current roster is we have two back-up infielders in Ozuna and Harris, and niether of them can play 1B. Also, as Jabroni said, I'm beginning to think Harris should be sent down. Ozzie doesn't like to pr with Harris anyways, so what's the point of having him on the team? Ozuna can play 2nd base if we need him to, and adding a back-up 1b would help our team immediately.