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QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:07 PM) The Tigers will regress. And the Sox are less talented than last year? I don't know if I agree with that, less proven for sure but I wouldn't say less talented. Why would the Tigers suddenly suck and the Sox improve despite having a roster with less proven talent than last year? I think that's better. They weakened the lineup and starting rotation from last year also filling the bullpen with a bunch of huge question marks.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:02 PM) His batting stats aren't impressive at all... http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/127172 '06 Vs Lefties: .292/.333/.500/.833 '05 Vs Lefties: .302/.331/.403/.734 '04 Vs Lefties: .294/.339/.431/.770 All while playing above average defense. Since he'll basically only be facing lefties these numbers impress me quite a bit.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:58 PM) I don't like the way he runs his mouth, and that is pretty much constant. I don't like that he is thinking of BA as a utility man, which is not a great role for him. I don't like that Floyd gets a longer look for the pen than Haeger, as I said earlier today (that may be Ozzie and/or KW, not sure). I don't think moving Gooch down the order, again, was a good idea (which it seems Ozzie has since corrected). That's just in the spring, and off the top of my head. I'm no great Ozzie defender. Thank you, I very much appreciate your honesty.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:47 PM) You guys can't really believe this team would go 74-88. They have essentially the same starting staff as last year, a better bullpen, all key players back and about the same depth (losing Hall does hurt). They absolutely played the worst baseball they could have played in the second half and still won 90 games. This team will be in the 90+ win category again this year. The big surprise for people will be when the Tigers suck a dutch d**k this year... Why would the Tigers suddenly suck and the Sox improve despite being a less talented team than they were last year?

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:54 PM) Name one player, off the top of my head without making a trade: Javy Lopez Secondly, I've seen them play enough, I have MLB.TV and watch almost every game. How many games was Hall going to play in a week, the max, 1. Therefore, it is a lost, but it's not the end of the world, calling for Ozzie head, etc. You people need to relax a little bit. Not the end of the world. 2 games a week at a minimum. Javy Lopez is a DH and a bad one at that.

A backup catcher over the past 2 seasons for the Sox is a guy who is going to pick up 140 ABs (most all of them through starts) and play in 46 games. Hall was likely going to get even more ABs this year because of his prowess against left handed pitching.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:45 PM) I don't doubt you were busy doing all those things for a second, collapse, although you did manage to get back on here a few minutes later to criticize him being in there. So was it steaks? Burgers? Brats? I suddenly have a craving for a grilled steak and a Blizzard... It was chicken and asparagus actually. QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:48 PM) I'm not writing it off, what I'm saying is that there are the same players out there as Hall that can do the same things. And yes, KW overpaid for a backup catcher. Name 1.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) back up catchers are a dime a dozen. I'm sure KW can lure Javy Lopez here or a player like him. Its not as a big deal like losing Tads, Crede, Dye, etc. for the season. Too much overreaction for a back up who was marginal at best. Good to know Kenny Williams just guaranteed $3.8M to a dime a dozen player. No, it's not as big a loss as losing a starting position player but to just write it off as a meaningless injury just seems foolish to me.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) Right or wrong, seems like it's become the easiest thing to do for any Sox misstep... Name for me right now a single thing Ozzie has done over the past few months that you disagree with. I'm just curious if you can come up with anything. This goes out to everyone by the way because I can name a few times that I've agreed with s*** he's done such as the Danks situation, that was handled when IMO.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:35 PM) My point is that the plan was to use him at 1B this season as well, so it was obviously not that "out there" to have him playing 1B in a ST game. Both he and Ozzie liked the arrangement. I think you'd have more of an argument if you asked what was he doing in that late in a game in which we were being blown out, but anybody can get hurt anytime playing baseball. I don't think it was something egregiously obvious like leaving in a pitcher for 130 pitches or asking the DH to play center. I think when shockers like this happen we want to make sense of them and the easiest way to do that is blame Ozzie. Hey, didn't AJ's Cub rival who punched him take one in the jewels behind the plate last year, ending his season? He was playing his position. 1.) I'm not trying to make sense of anything by blaming Ozzie, I just don't think Hall should have been at 1B, I'm still not convinced Hall was in the plans for 1B and I definitely don't think playing Hall at 1B this season would have been a good idea (said this when they signed him as well, you can go check that if you'd like.) 2.) You mention Barrett getting hurt while behind the plate? So what? Who cares? What does any of that have to do with this situation. You need to stop comparing this to any other situation, it's fairly simple Hall was playing out of position and got injured. He very well could have been playing his usual position and suffered a similar injury but he WAS NOT, he was at 1B. Those are the facts, mentioning other catchers who were injured while catching has nothing to do with this.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:31 PM) I will never go get a brownie batter blizzard during a Sox game again, as I missed the actual play that hurt Hall. I believe I was out on the patio when the actual play occurred, I went out to fire up the grill, came back in and Toby was laying on the ground. I just said to myself "WIKI TIME!" I assume the Blizzard was worth it though, right?

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) s***ty, but a freak injury. Can't see how Ozzie is getting full blame. Toby was looking impressive this spring and I was excited to see him during the season. Interesting to note: with most of the usual suspects in the game thread, not a word about how outraged they were with Ozzie putting toby hall in at 1st base prior to the injury. Hindsight is always 20/20, of course. For the record I was sitting on my bench press watching the game on MLB.tv, I had no idea Hall was even playing 1B. If I had actually been watching closely I likely would have said something but it was 6:00 and I was trying to bench, watch basketball and listen to the Sox all at the same time. I'm usually pretty good at first guessing Ozzie as opposed to a lot of the 2nd guessing that goes on.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:22 PM) Sorry but I agree. Suppose he was behind the plate and a bat hit him? Or he got bowled over? And on and on and on... Then no one would be blaiming Ozzie but what the hell does that have to do with anything? I don't see where the 'what ifs' play into this situation. What if Dye were playing 1B and tore his ACL forcing him to miss the entire season?

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:46 PM) What are they saying? The same bulls*** you'd hear from any announcing crew that knows absolutely nothing about the players or team they're commenting on. They talked up Molina a bit as a prospect and mentioned Wiki as a quality veteran catcher. More or less a brief overview from a guy that knows nothing of the situation. He also said Erstad is a guy who can run and has some pop so I'm a bit confused right now.

Fun to hear these Giants announcers chatting about the White Sox backup catcher situation.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:21 PM) Um, has anybody confirmed this besides hearing about it on a radio show? Do Mark Gonzalez and Scott Merkin count?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:12 PM) We all know Erstad was being put into that starting spot for ST at least, but Anderson has been pretty much doing what he needed to, to get the spot. There was always the chance BA wouldn't get the spot back. The only part I didn't expect was Anderson for a utility role. You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy your decent to my level of thinking. Of course you will probably never fall as far as I have but you're getting there and I love it. Not really in a nasty way, more or less a misery loves company sort of situation.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:10 PM) Somebody tell me "April Fools" came a few days early...but for real guys, let's not TOTALLY catastrophize this...he's a career .265 hitter and if he got 500 AB's in this year (which he wouldn't) he would probably have 10 HR's. I know it sucks in our division with all the tough lefties but we can get through this. Molina has looked decent in the few ST games I've seen??? I've been entirely unimpressed with Gustavo, I don't know what he looks like when he's playing with the Barons and Knights but the guy has had an absolute puss arm all spring and s*** at the plate. At least we still have Chris Stewart waiting in the wings as some decent organizational depth. Right? RIGHT?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:01 PM) Anderson in LF? He was RF the other day. What happened to the "Anderson won't be a backup" thing? This is a little upsetting. Its like they are putting Anderson and Erstad in the opposite roles they should be in. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than Anderson in AAA and Terrero as the 4th OF. Maybe better because he could more easily become the starter, maybe worse because he won't be getting the playing time. Welcome.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:56 PM) I would've liked to have him five years ago. A huge chunk of Ichiro's value is his speed and I don't foresee him being able to steal 40-50 bases per season over even most of the duration of his contract. Methinks that we'd end up over-paying for him. Meh, he's only 33 years old and will probably pull in a 5 year deal. I'm not really all that worried about a 38 year old Ichiro, he's an insanely effective pure hitter (one of the greatest of all time) and will always have a ton of value because of his ability to make contact. I forsee Ichiro becoming more of a power hitter later in his career as well, he already has excellent power now that he doesn't really utilize so when/if he legs start to go he could start driving the ball. Plus I foresee him as being one of those guys that doesn't break down until after he leaves the game, sort of in the Ricky Henderson mold where he'll just never lose that athleticism.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:22 PM) And there went a great 4th OFer, all for an over the hill reliever But Luis Terrero is good Why? Why do these things happen?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:39 PM) How's his D? The stats never tell the whole story on that aspect. Boy, the depth really isn't there for catchers in our system, is it? I like Donny Lucy, but he isn't ready. I have no idea, I just remember him battling Ben Davis for ABs like 6 years ago with the Padres. He's just one of those names you always hear sort of like Sal Fasano and all the other bad backup/3rd catchers of this Millenium.

QUOTE(BFirebird @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:34 PM) This is a very good assessment of the White Sox current money situation. Kenny even admitted himself earlier either before ST or during that a lot of teams put themselves out of contention for next year's crop of FA because of the ridiculous deals they gave this past summer for inferior players. (I.E. the Cubs, Angels and Giants) Some of the potential FA's for this upcoming offseason is pretty staggering: Oh I love these. NL: Carlos Zambrano (He'll probably end up re-signing with the Cubs but I'd love to have him. BIG $$$) Andruw Jones (Boras) John Smoltz (Too old) Doug Davis (Signed an extension already) Randy Wolf (Hurt, bad and probably has an option) Tom Glavine (Old, on the cusp of retirement) Barry Bonds (NO) Marcus Giles (Has an option and loves playing with his brother but I've always been a fan) Kaz Matsui (NO) Pedro Feliz (meh) Rod Barajas (Has an Option) Javy Lopez (NO) Craig Wilson (Meh, nice bat off the bench and backup 1B) AL: Mariano Rivera (Old and expensive) Ichiro Suzuki (Awesome, would love to have him) Bobby Abreu (Would be a real nice leadoff man but will make too much money and is getting up there in age plus he has an option) Curt Schilling (NO) Carlos Guillen (Pretty sub par defensively and isn't a huge offensive producer, not worth the cash) Torii Hunter (Getting real old, real fast, is only an average offensive player and will make some good money) Jermaine Dye (Me likey) Andy Pettitte (Old, retirement) Jake Westbrook (Meh, he'll probably stay in Cleveland) Shea Hillenbrand (NO) Joe Borowski (Ha) Octavio Dotel (I think he has an option) Jose Guillen (I'd be interested but he does have an option) Mike Piazza (NO) Jeff Weaver (No and he has an option) Mike Lowell (NO) Bartolo Colon (Fat, expensive and bad) Scott Podsednik (HA!!!)

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:30 PM) Of course this injury sucks, but I don't know why everyone is freaking out. Gonzalez actually has a better career average vs. lefties than hall. Yes, Wiki does. 5 years ago.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:30 PM) Wow, no AAP page on Wiki Gonzalez. Anyone got some background beyond the stats? He's 33 year old journeyman catcher whom the Sox signed to a MLC after trading away Chris Stewart.