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QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 06:14 PM) By mediocre, I mean "average" and not in a negative way. Hunter's best days appear to be behind him (and was never a stud hitter to begin with) and Blalock's OBP is weighed down by way too many strikeouts. I think that they're both overrated. It's difficult to compare Aaron with Hunter and Blaylock anyway. The former two are power hitters. Rowand doesn't have their HR power, but has the speed to stretch singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Well then, mediocre does not equal average. A mediocre hitter is Cesar Izturis. Also, I'm not really sure if anyone knows exactly what Rowand is, the guy hit 24 HRs in '04 then 13 in '05 and now he has 7 HRs through 42 games which over the course of a full season is about 25 or so HRs. Right now Rowand has a .516 SLG (.457 career) whereas Hunter has a .426 (.458 career) and Blalock is at .478 (.472) I think all 3 are very comparable players at the plate especially Hunter and Rowand who are basically the same player.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 06:06 PM) I agree sort of but why were people on Crede last year early when he wasn't hitting. He is supurb on defense and saves runs. Even though our order is great, at some point Anderson has to show signs of being able to do something besides hit a ground ball to the pitcher or pop up. Because of Mack's lousy defense I would vote for playing Anderson every day also, but I can see why Oz would be fed up with Anderson. People got on Crede because the Sox' offense was horrendous last year and his poor bat was just contributing to one of the worst O's in baseball. Where as this year the Sox have one of the best offenses in baseball which helps coverup BA's shortcommings at the plate. Also it doesn't hurt that BA walks on a semi-regular basis where as Crede really didn't walk much during his struggles early on.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 05:59 PM) Why does Anderson get a free pass from so many people? The man is hitting no better than a pitcher would with as many at bats. It's probably because Mack is such a butcher in the outfield. But Oz obviously got fed up with Anderson being an automatic out and has started the dreaded platoon system. We gave up Rowand to get something and I like what we got but our team is hurting without Rowand right now. How can Oz keep playing him when he's an automatic out? Because there's still 7 (8 when Uribe is on the bench) players in the lineup who are hitting quite well and Anderson's superb defense outweighs his bad hitting in some people's mind and IMO rightfully so. It sure as hell doesn't help the pitching staff when you have a butcher out there in CF.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 05:20 PM) It's not the fans that are full of s***, it's their media. Rowand's likeable on many levels, but still he's a very mediocre hitter. Philly fans would NOT mutiny if they traded him, especially if it was for a starter with Jon's upside. I'll bet they'd be happier with Garland than Gavin Floyd, Ryan Madson, or a washed-up Jon Lieber. Definitely not until the end of the season. Aaron Rowand is not a "mediocre" hitter, he's pretty much an average hitter. Put it this way, if he's mediocre then so is Torii Hunter and Hank Blalock. Comming into this season their OPS+ stood at Hunter: 100, Rowand: 103 and Blalock: 104. After his hot start, I doubt Rowand's OPS+ has dropped. IMO, OPS+ is a damn good way to grade hitters such as these 3 and it shows about where they rank amongst other hitters. Seeing how 100 is average I don't see how you can say Aaron is anything less than that.

QUOTE(Colorado Sox Fan @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 05:16 PM) A couple of random questions on an off day: 1) I don't understand "Pick to Click". Hawk and DJ mention it at the beginning of the game, but never say at the end of the game or the next day who was the winner, even though it seems they have tallies in parentheses. 2) Is that a new scoreboard in RF with out of town scores? Hard to tell on TV and I don't remember it from when I was at the park last year. Looks like the old Comiskey board. 3) I've watched the replay of the ball that skipped past Pablo a dozen times and I don't understand what was going on with BA. He wasn't going for the ball and obviously wasn't in position to back up. One randon opinion: I have never been a big DJ fan, but he sounds better this year. I thought he did very well on the Saturday game, with some good stats and info. He's improved his game, finally. Now if Hawk would only come up with some new material... :sleep 1.) They decide who the pick to click was on their own after the game, they don't have a specific system just whoever has the best game out of the 3 is the winner. Hawk usually wins. 2.) Same scoreboard, nothing new about it. 3.) I think it was just a lapse in concentration he though maybe thought that Pablo would get there easy so he was jogging in already. Also, I really like DJ as most people seem to now adays. He's become a fan favorite amoungst Sox fans. I still relaly like Hawk simply becuase he is what he is, a massive homer who appears to be going senile. He doesn't pretend to be something he's not.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 04:59 PM) We are not even on the team. You are such a f***ing buzz-kill if you don't like it, ignore it. It's a simple as that.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 05:05 PM) Which is why Cliff should have been used instead of Luis in that deal. Unfortunately I can't prove it but that's exactly what I told some friends when that deal went down. You act like that could have been done. You don't know that the D-Backs would have accepted a trade like that when the fact of the matter is no one knows for sure what they wanted. Perhaps they knew like many that Cliff would be slamming back down to earth this year like he has.

QUOTE(MSHAWKS @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 04:42 PM) Sounds similiar to what people said about the White Sox last year, no? No, it really doesn't. No matter how much I hear people say this I still don't see the corelation.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 03:52 PM) Gary Matthews Jr. Plays a good CF, can switch hit, and would be a solid back of the order bat. Why would the Rangers trade their very good leadoff man? Especially now that they're 3.5 games up on Oakland for 1st place in the West.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 01:52 PM) We held a lead in each of the Cleveland games, didn't we? We also held a lead in each of the Texas games. Which is more of an indication of poor pitching especially out of the pen than it is a lack of "ozzie ball".

God on Bonds an instant classic from The Dugout.

The unwritten rules in baseball are just f***ing ridiculous. http://www.nypost.com/sports/yankees/67063.htm It's the 7th inning and the Orioles (Horrible pitching) have a 6 run lead on the Yankees (great hitting). Corey Patterson gets on base and then goes right ahead and steals 2nd then 3rd base leading to a run and a 7 run lead going into the 8th inning. Larry Bowa for whatever retarded reason takes exception to this and begins screaming at Patterson from the top step of the Yankess dugout telling to "play the game the right way". How the f*** is a 6 run lead in the top of the 8th inning insurmountable? How many times have you seen a team score 6 runs in 2 innings especially when you have one of the best offenses in baseball going up against one of the worst pitching teams in baseball. These unwritten rules need to die, in the new age of baseball, no lead is safe.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 09:42 AM) If Pujols is only on the DL for 15 days, he will be back just in time for the series vs the Sox. Which means he'll be on the DL for more than 15 days, the Sox have a scary ability to miss the big name players whenever they play these sort of teams. For whatever reason the team's ace's are pushed back in the rotation so that they miss the Sox (Millwood, Halladay) or the big time sluggers or pitchers are injured at the time the Sox play them (Vlad, K-Rod last year). It's just part of the great luck the Sox find themselves having.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 12:13 PM) I think what he is saying is that "if it started today". After watching the Rangers kick our asses the last three days, I would not mind missing them in the first round. Boston/Detroit I'd take but Texas looked really good. Yeah, you are correct. Damn I have to work on my reading comprehension skills.

Wow, for all the people who take what the "scouts" say as gospel, just look to this quote as proff that either 1.) Scouts don't actually say these things 2.) Some scouts are completely delusional. Cesar Izturis will never be half the player Omar Vizquel is. Izturis may have a moderately better arm but he's nowhere near the defensive play Vizquel is. Cesar Izturis couldn't draw a walk to save his life, whereas Vizquel actually has the ability to take 4 balls. Izturis is more similar to Uribe than he is to Vizqual. Both are slick defensive SS with good arms who don't normally hit for a high average and always have low OBP the only real difference betweent the 2 being that Uribe has WAY more power. These Izturis rumors are so damn ridiculous, even if this one didn't mention the White Sox specifically there have been numerous reports saying that they do have interest.

QUOTE(thedoctor @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 11:27 AM) true enough. my comment was directed at the poster telling me "THREADS LIKE THIS MAKE ME SICK." he's entitled to that opinion, as i'm entitled to tell him that his sickness over a thread on a message board isn't going to make the team better. if you want to offer up constructive criticism, great. it might not accomplish anything, but i enjoy reading various opinions that i agree and disagree with. imho, "THREADS LIKE THIS MAKE ME SICK" adds nothing to the discourse. And I agree with this.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 10:52 AM) ALDS Matchups White Sox at Red Sox Rangers at Tigers So you really think the Sox will win the wild card eh? The Tigers IMO are not deep enough to sustain for a full season.

QUOTE(thedoctor @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 07:37 AM) because what we do makes a damn bit of difference to what the sox do. maybe if we all cry and b**** and moan, somehow that will make the team play better. sounds logical to me. Then what's the point of message boards? Just because you may not be able to change something directly doesn't mean you can't b**** about it.

QUOTE(Leonard Zelig @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 09:42 PM) Timo was playing for the Cards today. On the year he's 1-4, R, BB.

This is just for the record. Widger has started 12 games this year, 13 if you count the Cubs game that AJ was ejected from considering how he caught most the game. Oddly enough Jose Contreras has never had Widge catch for him. These numbers are strickly FWIW but it doesn't hurt throwin them out there. The Sox are 7-6 when Widger starts which isn't as bad as I thought seeing how the Sunday Linuep is usually out there when he starts. Pitchers have also had 3 ND when he starts and the Sox have won each of those games. 13 GS | 7-6 Garland: 1.) 5.1, 10H, 9ER, 2:6, 1E (L) 3.) 6.1, 6H, 1ER, 0:3, 1E (W) 5.) 7IP, 5H, 5ER, 2:2, 1E (ND) (W) 11.) 6.1, 10H, 4ER, 2:5, 0E (ND) (W) Vazquez: 2.) 6IP, 9H, 7ER, 1:4, 2E (L) 9.) 7IP, 8H, 5ER, 1:4, 1E (L) Buehrle: 4.) 7IP, 7H, 4ER, 0:0, 0E (L) 6.) 5.2, 13H, 7ER, 3:3, 0E (L) 7.) 6IP, 7H, 2ER, 2:4, 0E (ND) (W) 12.) 6IP, 8H, 4ER, 1:3, 1E (L) 13.) 7IP, 9H, 6ER, 4:3, 0E (L) Garcia: 8.) 6.2, 7H, 3ER, 1:3, 0E (W) 10.) 8IP, 8H, 0ER, 0:3, 1E (W) Contreras: N/A JG: 1-1 (2 ND) JV: 0-2 MB: 0-4 (1 ND) FG: 2-0 JC: N/A MB: 31.2IP, 23ER, 44H, 10BB, 13K | 6.54 ERA, 1.71 WHIP FG: 14.2IP, 3ER, 15H, 1BB, 6K | 1.84 ERA, 1.09 WHIP JG: 25IP, 19ER, 29H, 6BB, 16K | 6.84 ERA, 1.40 WHIP JV: 13IP, 12 ER, 17H, 2BB, 8K | 8.31 ERA, 1.46 WHIP

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 09:00 PM) After the A's series I figured we would have about 4 All Stars (Dye, Iguchi, Buehrle, and Contreras). Now I think we'll be lucky to have 2, with Dye and Iguchi (possibly even voted in). Thome will be hurt by not even being on the ballot and not playing 1B this year (NL park so no DH). I don't see any of our pitchers making the team at this point. A slight case could be made that Jenks could make the team but how many closers will Ozzie take on the team especially with Papelbon being a lock? Contreras? (5-0, 2.53 ERA, .98 WHIP, .203 BAA)

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 08:54 PM) Hasn't Mark been stuck with the Sunday lineup a few times this year? Everyone has.

QUOTE(Beastly @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 07:40 PM) I foresee the Sox taking 1 out of 3 at best in the Tigers series. When will we learn we need bullpen help? Is Hermanson ever coming back? It said 15 day DL but I didn't see if he got transferred. Do not expect anything out of Hermanson this season, he's comming off a very serious injury and the word "retirement" was being thrown around in the offseason, players in that sort of situation should not be counted on to be a big part of your pen. Also, if you thought Politte had a career year last year, just take a look at what Hermanson did. Even if he did come back I wouldn't envision him putting up numbers any better than Clifford.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 07:41 PM) Is Howry doing the Cubs any good? How bout Howry? Is that stiff Chen on the Orioles capable of middle relief? Trade some Class A guy for Chen and/or Howry. Chen is the worst pitcher in baseball right now and Bobby Howry would still be incredibly expensive if you tried to acquire him. Middle relievers with 2.36 ERAs on teams with high payrolls that think they still have a chance to compete do not come cheap.