Kalapse

QUOTE(HeGone33 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 07:21 PM) Yea, again, I've never had a problem with him, this is more a result of ESPN and baseball tonight. They all suck. The thing is though, he's not getting a lot of positive press from ESPN, you can tell they want him to fail.

QUOTE(HeGone33 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 07:04 PM) Starting to hate A-Rod, but that is more a result of having to watch 50,000 highlights of him over the past few days. I actually love A-Rod, mainly because everyone else, especially in New York, seems to hate him.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 02:00 PM) The greatest catcher of all time isn't going to turn Donald Duck into Cy Young, so I'm not certain that is the best barometer. I'm not picking Varitek or defending him, but I think just looking at the staff's current stats doesn't tell a story. Well Josh Beckett is supposed to be the second coming according to the mainstream media, considering his arsenal of pitches and mental toughness (physically, not so much) he should have been a whole lot better than he was last season. At a certain point, if his pitchers aren't performing Varitek needs to lose that distinction since there are no results to lend credence to this theory.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 06:47 PM) Jeff Weaver. Robert Fisk (I HATE him with a passion) Fick

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 06:26 PM) You know, now that I think about it, Joe Morgan. I mean, seriously, could he be anymore clueless sometimes? Tim McCarver

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 06:30 PM) I know, I saw that clip on sportscenter over and over, but it gets batters thinking, which makes him intimidating. Another player, how bout pronk. I don't actually watch SC especially when they're talking about him so I didn't even know they explained it. There's tons of footage out there of him throwing the 'gyroball' and it's really nothing spectacular, just a hard slider. Any player who does even an ounce of research on the day's pitcher would know this.

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 05:20 PM) Throwin this one out there, how bout Dice K, his mystery pitch has batters dazed and confused as to when it might come or if its even real. It's a f***ing slider. MYSTERY SOLVED!!

Mench? He's in Milwaukee now and he mainly feasted on Cotts.

Balta, you're 100% right about King Felix and his slider, they didn't want him throwing it at such a young age because injury concerns. He got in shape this offseason and filled in a good amount of muscle mass so they are now opening him up to throw the slider. It's amazing he was able to do what he did last year while not even using his best pitch.

That assclown with the goofy mustache who bangs the big ass drum at Jacobs field. f*** that guy.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 12:13 PM) Um... I did point out the positive. I wasn't the one to point it out originally in this case (Rock was), but I agreed. I was supportive of him kicking a little ass in the clubhouse. Is that not an attempt? And yes, I did add the negative part about the Ozzie bashers. I think some people just bash everything he does. That's pretty much what I was pointing out. If it makes you feel better, next time I see something Ozzie does specifically that I really think was a positive for the team, I'll start a new thread. We'll see how many posts it takes for me to be told I defend Ozzie blindly and all the time, that whatever happened must be due to anything other than him, and that I shouldn't bother starting whole new threads just because of one thing Ozzie did right. /jaded How 'bout this. You blindly support Ozzie about as much as I blindly hate on Ozzie.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 12:00 PM) Who knows? That's kind of my point. Every situation in baseball has some what-ifs attached. If those what-ifs are negative, and there can be any sort of connection made at all to managerial decisions, then Ozzie tends to get bashed for it. Here we have a situation where he did the right thing, and it may have had a positive result. Its just the extreme rarity around here that he would get some credit for that. And no, not every thread needs to become that. If Ozzie screws up, that's what should be discussed. But when something positive changes in the attitude of the team, which it apparently has (and it wasn't just the 2 starters, or even just pitching necessarily), then it should be noted that perhaps Ozzie got the team back on track. Part of the problem with evaluating managers is that the positives they bring are usually subtle, and not easily identified or quantified. But if they screw up, that's usually pretty apparent. Its the same with any manager in any business. So when stuff like this happens, yeah, I'll usually tend to give Ozzie some credit, even though his effect may have been very small or very large. Why didn't you start a thread about Ozzie's tirade then? You can say he gets no credit but I'm sure if you started a thread praising Ozzie for getting the Starting Pitching going the majority of the board would have been right with you in heaping praise upon him. Sometimes you have to take the initiative, you better believe if Ozzie f***s up someone is going to be right there to b**** about it within a few minutes of the incident so when he does something positive like this the exact same should be done. Make an attempt to counteract the negative discussion with some positive news.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 11:32 AM) How is Carmona? Real bad. Especially against the Sox.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 11:22 AM) Eh, they weren't exactly stellar in spring training either... I'm not about to give Ozzie that much credit either but at least he was proactive. Yeah, it's cool and all that he's not going to sit back and watch s***ty outing after s***ty outing to start the year, I appreciate the fact that he did what he thought was necessary in order to prevent any further disappointment form his starting staff. But with that said I'm not about to credit him with turning around a starting staff that IMO was never even faltering to begin with. QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 11:26 AM) And the bullpen? Garland? 2 games. 2 GAMES! Buehlre was still leaving pitches up in the first 2 innings of the 3rd game of the season too. That was after the rant. The bullpen wasn't bad at all in game 2 either. The only real problem was Sizemore hitting a good pitch out in the 7th accounting for an ER for Mac and 1 for Thor. That same game featured one of the best outings by a Sox reliever EVER.

Only 2 starters had thrown, how can anyone even say the starting pitching was faltering? He went on a tirade after game 2, I just don't see how that allows for enough of a sample size to make an direct connection between the 2. But yeah, I guess if Joe Cowley says so then I should just assume that Vazquez would have s*** himself in his first outing had Ozzie not yelled at him 2 days prior.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 10:22 AM) Yes, but you know how this works. We'll hear about Ozzie's screw-ups every day (and I certainly agree he has plenty of them), but rarely does anyone acknowledge the positives he brings to the table. So must every thread turn into one of these? I'm just wondering how you're going to prove that Ozzie getting pissed off turned the pitching around after what 1.5 bad outings? Javy hits the mound and dominates, since then the starting pitching has been great, I'm curious as to how Ozzie doing a little screaming in the press had this major effect on the pitching when there really was no problem to begin with, seeing as how only 2 starters got to pitch substantial innings.

Ugueth Urbina

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 09:06 PM) I recall him hitting mid to high 90s already at this point in the year last year, I checked the MLB.tv archives and according to Comcast's gun from April 10th/12th of last season vs Detroit, Bobby was sitting at 96-97 MPH so yeah at this time last year Bobby did have his good velocity.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:47 PM) Ozzie isn't going to change his style. I thought that would be obvious by now. So, while I agree that Ozzie's irrational prejudice against young players such as Anderson is counter-productive, Ozzie is going to do what Ozzie wants until the day that he gets fired. We're going to have to take the bad with the good. Last year Ozzie pulled Pods in most every late game situation where a defensive replacement was necessary, he stopped doing that this year. Seems to me that he changed his style in that regard.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 02:27 AM) I was informed during spring training that Ozuna would rank quite low on the grinder scale. Kalapse please help me on this one, PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE kthx Using the formula I came up with I get the following numbers: Pujols: 772 Ichiro: 388 Erstad: 264 Eckstein: 264 Rowand: 264 Byrnes: 251 Podsednik: 231 Mathews Jr.: 206 Ozuna: 201 I figure the ultimate Grinder number is set at 264 with anyone within 40 points either way of that number being considered a Grinder. The further away from 264 you get the less of a Grinder you are.

After watching the replay on MLB.tv frame by frame, I can say with 100% certainty that the ball hit Pods flush on the head. The wall did not come into play. There has to be another view of the play, is there a reason why they haven't shown it anywhere yet?

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 01:52 AM) The number of actual games sacrificed because of his defense is absolutely miniscule compared to what he does for this team when he is playing well offensively. Miniscule. Yeah, I disagree but whatever I don't really care anymore.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 01:41 AM) Once again, an oversimplification. But this much we know: he's extremely hard on himself and will be cursing his own name like a sailor tonight as he is being "comforted" by Lisa Podsednik. I want his confidence high as can be because when he is on offensively, our team wins at an incredibly high rate. When it comes down to it, one or two miscues in the field may be well-worth the extra offense which comes from him being confident at the dish some 600 more times this season. Ugh, I don't think it's oversimplification to hope that Pods knows he's bad out there and Anderson is better. He was pulled a lot late in games last year because of this. He needs to realize what is best for the team and that's him hitting the bench in the 8th or 9th inning. And if he's really that hard on himself that he can't stand to be replaced late in games then I can't imagine what tonight's blooper real worthy exploits are going to do to him mentally. If the Sox need to sacrifice games just to keep him confident at the plate then I don't really want him around anymore. There are a lot of players out there who can do what he does.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 01:41 AM) " There you go, OG is blind. Perhaps Oz confused "way over" with "on top". English isn't his native language you know.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 01:37 AM) I don't blame people for being frustrated with him as I am as well. HOWEVER, this board has to be more sophisticated than this. Realize what he is, and deal with it. Every goddamned thread turns into the Scott Podsednik thread here. On a more positive note, I ordered an authentic "Halfway to St. Patrick's Day" John Danks #50 jersey today from Grandstand....SOB better earn his keep now... Actually most threads turn into an Ozzie-Hater/Ozzie-Apologist or Brian Anderson thread. Scott wasn't discussed much this offseason, he got a bit of a free pass for a while there.