Kalapse

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 07:11 PM) I do believe it was Mark who lost the game for us today, not the pen. It didn't help that the pen also gave up 4 runs today.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 06:10 PM) The absence of Rowand/Everett may not have as much to do with the win/loss record, but my main point is that it has very much to do with the style of play and the intensity. One example is last year, the Sox were always scratching for runs. If Pods got on base, the main focus was get him over, then get him in. This year, especially when Thome is hot, it seems the Sox are reluctant to give up an out move the runner and leave first base open for Thome for fear the opponent may just walk Thome. That's just one example. They were mainly scratching for runs last year because the offense sucks, when you have a below average offense you tend to have to give up more outs simply to get 1 run at a time. When you have 2 guys in your lineup with an OPS over 1.000 like the Sox do right now, you don't have to play as much small ball. What you're saying is a negative is actually a positive.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 05:53 PM) Mike Gonzalez and Salomon Torres, your Sox jersey's are made... We couldn't afford Gonzalez (spect wise) even if he were available and Salomon Torres is just bad. He currently has a 1.49 WHIP in the NL, imagine what that would be like against superior competition.

There are hardly any teams looking to unload right now and what ever teams are looking to move is not going to help this team.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 05:46 PM) There is some validity to your point. The Sox traded the poster boy for "Grinder Baseball" the prototypical grinder if you will, for the prototypical slugger. That prototypical slugger took the place of another "grind it out" type of guy at DH. I'm not knocking any of the Sox offseason moves. They are all great moves on paper. But sometimes what's on paper doesn't necessarily translate on the field. I'm still expecting the Sox to gel and wind up even better than last year. But I'm not shocked that so far it isn't happening. You lose a lot of edge and intensity when you take away an Aaron Rowand and a Carl Everett from any lineup. It took until your final point to really get to why the Sox have underperformed this year, it has nothing to do with the absence of Rowand or Everett, it is the lack of consistent pitching out of both the starters and the pen. If you replace Thome with Everett and Mack/BA with Rowand but still get s***ty pitching, there's probably a good chance this team is worse off than 2.5 games out of first.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 05:41 PM) The lineup we saw today was because Ozzie wanted his right-handed hitters to bat against the lefty. For some reason he thinks that gives us our best chance at success even though lefties hit over .300 against Rheinecker (granted a small sample size). 4 for 13 is beyond a small sample size. He got beat up in his first outing against the D-Rays and allowed a hit to Raul Ibanez those are the 4 hits he allowed to lefties this year. Hardly worth mentioning.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 05:31 PM) How sad is it that I can't find ANYONE to go to Saturdays game with me??? I think that says more about you than the way the Sox have been playing.

Jermaine Dye currently has a 1.059 OPS, which is the best for any OF in baseball.

I'm as big an Aaron Rowand fan as there is on this board yet even I can admit that this team is not in dire need of his services. This team has some serious pitching problems right now and Rowand would not do anything to help us in that department. All the extreme love that Rowand is getting is actually taking away from what he actually did last year. He will not be comming back anytime soon so constantly bringing up his name is incredibly pointless.

Team W L PCT GB Detroit 37 20 .649 - Chi White Sox 34 22 .607 2.5 Cleveland 28 27 .509 8.0 Minnesota 25 30 .455 11.0 Kansas City 13 40 .245 22.0

Matt Thornton is a damn good middle reliever from what I've seen. Bobby Jenks continues to successfully close out games.

What exactly constitutes a "Hungry Team"? The Tigers are 2-6 in their last 8 and the Sox are 3-5 yet the Tigers are malnurished and the Sox are fat?

QUOTE(Ndgt10 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 01:56 PM) I'm not talking about batting average. You have to be joking if you think Mike Sweeney is at Anderson's level. Atleast he knows how to take a f***ing walk which is something a lot of hitters never figure out. (Juan Uribe)

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 01:47 PM) I guess he should strike every batter out instead of rely on his fielder's. Those are still hits though, one of which was taken away by a diving Brian Anderson. It's not like they're dropping fly balls out there, the balls are still falling in.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 01:45 PM) Don't blame Buehrle for Pablo, and for Anderson's inability to back him up on that play. Nice bunt by Iguchi. Buehrle was still allowing the hits.

It seems Iguchi has the ability to bunt

BAD BRIAN! BAD!

There is not reason for him not to start every game.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 01:08 PM) Garland is improving, Bmac has shown me nothing thus far. Maybe that's because he's being used sporadically at a position (MR) that he's never played before, hard to show any improvement under those conditions. It's also pretty damn hard to say that Garland is improving after one mediocre start and then 1 good one.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 01:00 PM) *pukes* I'm sick of the Rowand manlove and the trade proposals for him. Plus, I don't think anyone wants to have those 5th starter problems back up again that we had prior to last year. McCarthy stinks this year and I think switching him back into the rotation will hurt us more than Garland has. Stick with the team, and see what we need in 2 more weeks. The way I look at it, we need more and more bullpen help. Do you honestly believe McCarthy would not be able to put up a 6 ERA in a starting role for the rest of the season? I don't think there's any way he'd even have one in the 5's.

Not to mention the fact that Boone Logan has been pretty damn bad in Charlotte, atleast Montero has had some success down there.

Alex Gonzalez just put a ball in the left field stands resulting in a 2-0 2nd inning lead of Zach Minor who is making his major league debut.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 05:35 AM) And I'm sure Jon Garland would want to waive that no trade clause to go to Philly. I still think a lot of teams would rather take the SP though, if Garland was performing at his 2005 level. Not that I'm saying Rowand isn't valuable at all, but getting a good SP who's signed for 3 years would be extremely valuable for a lot of teams. I'm sure if you looked at say the Yankees, if Garland was performing like he did last season, he could actually be their #1 starter right now. Can you really give one legitimate reason why he'd want to go to Philly? I can't think of one. And the problem with your logic here is Garland is not pitching like he did in '05 and he never had before '05. If he was pitching the way he did last year for most of his career he'd be making even more money and would be far too valuable to the Sox. But hey, the guy who took over Garland's body last year is not the same guy we had for 5 years previous and this year. He's a 100ERA+ pitcher not a 127.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 11:24 AM) Can someone tell me the status or ARow's contract? He signed for the rest of this year for $3.25M and has a team option for $5M next year along with a player option of $3.25M

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 11:22 AM) Montero is not bad, but where is Javier Lopez. I know he is a lefty, but he has dominated in AAA and has pitched in the majors. I would rather have a lefty who gets outs and have three total, then a guy who walks batters left and right. The Sox really need a righty in the pen right now. Lopez can really only get lefties out which is something Thornton, Cotts and Jenks can do as well. As of this moment they do not have a righty in the pen who can get righties out (other than the closer) which is a huge problem. They must feel Montero atleast has the ability to become an OK arm out of the pen.