fathom

Am I the only one who thinks Cubs are going to have a ton of problems with their middle relief? Fox is incredibly inconsistent/wild, and we all know how Hawkins is as a closer.

Geoff Jenkins is a terrible player. Talk about someone who hasn't improved at all in the last 3 years or so.

The question I have is this: is Gload's defense that much better that it makes up for the difference between potential offensive help regarding Gload having to bat instead of Konerko? This isn't a situation like a few years ago where we replaced Carlos Lee in LF late in the game for someone like Rowand, where the defensive replacement was far and away better than the starter.

Let me also add that I hate the whole Gload for Konerko defensive replacement strategy. As I noted in the game thread, it's not like PK is bad on defense. We need to keep our best hitter in the game in case of a blown save.

- Just as easily as we could have swept this series, we could have easily been swept by the Indians. - Ozzie can't have the same patience this year with Shingo as he did w/Koch last year. Shingo was great last year, but it's not like he's a young man. All the AL has seen him and his trick pitches. - Against lhp, I think Rowand should be batting 3rd. He's a stud vs lefties, and Everett typically struggles against lhp. - What's wrong with Uribe in the field? He was incredibly lazy today, and seemed to be in another world. - I love the addition of A.J. Pierz. He's the best catcher the Sox have had in a long, long time. - Anyone else think that Dye kinda looks like what Michael Jordan would have in the Sox uniform with the number 23 and his physical characteristics? Anyways, time to go to the Metrodome. I'd be ok with a 1-2 series there, as the pitching matchups aren't in our favor.

No matter what though, this loss falls on Shingo's hands. Having relievers left for extra innings or not, Shingo was given the ball with a 3 run lead and 3 outs to get. He failed miserably.

Why not just let Marte pitch the 7th, and Hermanson the 8th? I hate the logic of using Marte as a situational lefty. He's the type of pitcher that needs to get into a rhythm on the mound.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 10:01 PM) This is the f***ing first series of the year. OMG our 2nd year manager made a rookie mistake using his pitchers, our team is dead now. Sorry, but I don't want to hear any excuses this year about Ozzie's lack of experience.

Seems like every season, we blow a big lead at the end of a game in the opening season of the season. Last year, it was the opening day debacle at KC. The year before that, I think we blew a 2 run lead against KC in which Koch got rocked. 3 years ago, Foulke blew a 3 run lead in the 9th against Seattle.

Nope, Widger's up in the pen!

Maybe Ozuna can come in and pitch?

Not ready to panic about Shingo yet, but Japanese pitchers lose it very quickly because of the insane amount of pitches they throw growing up in Japanese baseball.

My biggest beef with the way Ozzie used the relievers was how he put Cotts and Politte in for the 7th inning, and then only used Marte for 1 batter. Cotts and Politte are below average pitchers, and they should not be used in a competitive game in which you're leading.

I know today made more sense than Monday's game, but I'm more against the concept of it. I just think it's Ozzie trying to be too cute.

Put me in the camp of not liking the whole take out Konerko for Gload for defensive reasons at end of game. Even though it worked out in the first game, there will be more times where you're going to need Konerko's bat when the closer blows the game. PK is far and away our best hitter. It's not like he's a poor defensive player anyways.

Westbrook had amazing sink and location on his pitches. I was thrilled when we scored the one run. After last years opener, it was great to win a game without choking away a 9th inning lead.

The Ben Davis steroid rumors were made about 3 years ago. They were well before the latest craze of saying anyone and everyone was on the juice.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but a few years ago, there were a lot of whispers going around that Ben Davis was on the juice. I remember one SI column that was stunned by how much bigger his head looked. I wonder if there's more to this story than what we know.

You'd think Carlos would have seen Marte pitch long enough to realize that Marte doesn't exactly have pinpoint control on his fastball.

Pena could easily hit 40 homers at the Cell with his great stroke to right-center. I don't want Freel on this team though if he's starting at 3b. He had some major defensive issues when I saw them face the Cubs last year at 3b. Also, I'm not so sure I want another grinder starting for us. We have enough of those in the starting lineup.

Just watching this game, Willie seems like the same-old s***ty player he was last year. In big situations, still either grounding out weakly to 2nd base or striking out looking. Has anyone noticed any reason to be optimistic about him this year? Also, I'm very impressed with the shape that J. Dye looks to be in. Almost seems like he's too skinny.

Like I said, if he's actually trying right now, we have some serious problems. Garcia doesn't strike me as someone who goes all out in ST though.

First time I've seen Garcia pitch this spring. Hopefully he's just going through the motions. No fastball has been over 89 mph, and he just seems flat out there. What shocked me was that he now has like 2 strikeouts in 9 innings.

The thing I'm worried with Shingo is that he's not exactly a young player, and Japanese pitchers usually lose their stuff fast because of the insane amount of pitches they throw during their Japanese career. However, I'm very content with our backup options for closer in case Shingo has declined.

Shingo looks just terrible this spring. He doesn't seem to have any location on his pitches right now. I'm a little worried.