southsideirish71

QUOTE(Wanne @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 05:12 PM) 173-0! The 11 post season games would be the first in baseball history, forfeited by the opponents by fear, fear of a tri-grinder attack that would smash into walls, dive into the ground, and geek up for everyplay. Owners would demand that their teams forfeit for fear of damage to their stadium.

QUOTE(Wanne @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 05:06 PM) For who? I'd give them Boone and Pods for Byrnes. Christ. The other grinder. If we had him, Erstad, and Rowand on the same team we might go 162-0

These are things that have been said, and something that I could picture him saying. Ozzie is one of the smartest baseball minds I have been around. This is the bestest team I have been around. Joe Crede is like a young Brooks Robinson. I would take Juan Uribe's in SS over any SS in the game. I would take the Sox starting 9 over anyone in the league. I see travis hafner and he is good, but he is no Rob Macowiak. You keep an eye on Brian Anderson, he will turn some heads with how he plays D.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 04:01 PM) oh i agree 100% but that'll never happen unfortunately We had Pods walking around hitting .241 with a sub .300OBP playing crap O, and crap D and hurting the team. Ozzie didnt replace him and put Mack in LF with the season in check. So if he thinks that Pods is healthy he will have him bunting, running and doing whatever he thinks he can do. To get Mack or Erstad in LF, Pods needs to trip over a landmind that takes out his legs. And if they give him artificial legs and some rehab time, Ozzie will put him back out there.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:57 PM) grinder talk again... Sure everyone is a grinder now. Lets see how grinderific this team is PASB when the temp heats up at the Cell, the pressure is on, and everyone tries to hit the parked cars on the Dan Ryan.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:53 PM) i think BA will make the club. probably be a utility guy to start season but i could be wrong Ozzie has stated that if Ba doesnt start, he goes to the minors. Then he said how he likes Terrero's hussle. I wonder how that is going to work out.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:49 PM) Call me crazy but I thought it was good that he was willing to bunt in his first game back. Plus I think he should bunt more anyway. Than again I'm far from a so called money ball guy. If he is still fast, sure bunt and get on. But after a few groin injuries, how fast is he going to be. I want to see him go from 1st to 3rd and watch how he runs. That is more of a test of ones speed than bunting and running, or even a stolen base.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:47 PM) (sigh). Still giving up outs, that Podsednik character. So prancer cant steal, and cant bunt and get on. I cant wait to see a flyball hit his way.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:38 PM) Cubs outfield defense = not so good If we thought watching Mack in center was maddening, wait till the "weeds on the walls" folks get a load of the craptacular defense that they will be seeing. They may want to trade for Mack to shore up their centerfield D.

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:37 PM) Uh...ok you hear Oz there? "The key is the bottom of the lineup, with Erstad and Pods back in the lineup." Says volumes about BA and Chicago this year. The only person that doesnt know that BA is going down, is BA himself.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:29 PM) It was a terrible jump. I bet the wind gusted also against him when he took off and was a factor

QUOTE(Reddy @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:26 PM) the first one. Thats great, hopefully if he doesnt run anymore Ozzie will stop him from throwing outs away trying to remember the past.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 03:24 PM) There's a familiar sight. Gotta love the CS -- at least he was aggressive! So did Mr No Groin have the tag waiting for it, or was it close.

Prancer is a difference maker.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 02:06 PM) Mack is better at both of those roles than Pablo, IMO. It has nothing to do who is better at a role, if that was the case Mr. Prancer would of been sitting down last year with Mack playing left instead of center. If Ozzie could have 6 or 7 prancers bunting, stealing and running he would. He is trying so desperately to model this team after the Marlins. Hey look at his new setup, Pods and Erstad both lefty remind you(of course in the fact that they are lefty alone) of Pierre and Castillo.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 12:44 PM) It would be a huge mistake to trade Rob Mackowiak and I really think KW knows this. As much as people like to think Rob is expendable, he really is not. Considering how poorly we do against lefties I am definately for having Perez on the club. So how do we do this balancing act. Ozuna is a lock because of how Ozzie feels about him. Its kind of a messed up situation.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 12:28 PM) Dude, you should work on blocking the cbssportsline live tv feed at your work. It would cause as much of an uproar as piss off cubs fan day. I am currently public enemy number one right now. I have under the direction of the CEO have blocked all sports sites until the end of march madness. The CEO wants our associates to actually work and not watch TV at their desks.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 08:12 AM) I'm not sure what you're getting at. Are you just stating a general baseball thought, or are you implying Anderson "Took plays off"? No Tony, its the misconception by some sox fans that because Anderson got to a ball with a nice glide in track that its routine, while if Rowand who took a bad route due to a bad jump and read, then has to overcompentsate and throw himself on the ground to make the catch is giving his all. I guess Anderson needs to smash his face into the wall more to get some respect for his defense. I would rather my rookie OF take a major league approach and learn a difficult park with some wierd winds first, before he starts smashing his face into the wall or say threw himself on the ground. But then again I am the only one that seems to remember Rowand taking bad routes, and having horrible jumps. I seem to remember that after his HOR(The hand of rowand play in New York) that he followed that up by making bad jumps for about 2 weeks in key series like say the Indian series(the infamous Joe Crede coming out party) when Jenks gave up a few weak fly ball in betweeners that would of been caught easily if say Rowand didnt play near the track and take a step back on every play. But hey, the romanticism of the gold glove Aaron Rowand will continue until gracefully he retires. The HOR play will live in sox fans minds forever.

I think that KW forgets what he originally defined a grinder as. If you remember that conference about changing the face of Whitesox baseball from an all or nothing team, he used the twins as a comparison for grinder baseball. Grinder baseball is about hitting line drives, its about situational hitting, its about moving the runner into scoring position, its about not going for the homer when a man is in 2nd and getting him in. The Piranhas of last year were the definition of a grinder. A tough out, who slashes and cuts, and puts the ball in play no matter what. Rowand stopped being a grinder in this sense around the San Diego series of the 2005 season. That is when he and Walk changed his swing to "get around on the ball more". And guess what he really became suspect against low and away, and specifically sliders low and away. His average started to plummet and he became more of an all or nothing player. THe attitude is one aspect, but you have to also play like one. Just having some guy jacked at all times, and then swinging for the fences or not doing the little things does you no good. We have never been a grinder team, we are still a station to station swing for the fences club that had peter pan steal a lot of bases for in the first part of 05. Outside of that, its the same offense and same theory of scoring runs that we have had here since 2000. If they really believe in this grinder crap, then they need to start preaching line drive contact swings for most of the players, like the twins do. They do not, I repeat do not try and pull and lift pitches. If we could take their approach at the plate for all of our hitters sans the 3-4-5 hitters I would adopt the grinder philosophy 100%. In fact that is exactly what I thought was going to happen, however I have been disappointed as I watch guys try and jack a homer when the guy is on 2nd instead of just trying to score them. I call smoke and mirrors on what a grinder is more than anything. If you want to watch what a grinder is, dont look at Rowand or Erstad. Watch a minny game when the game is late and they have one of their midgets up and there is a man on 2nd with the game on the line and there is 2 strikes on the hitter. That ball is getting put into play, they are not striking out.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 05:52 PM) 'Killing an animal' is not the story here, at all. It's the fact that the animal was killed for no respectable reason, and the cruelty of intentionally traumatizing the dog's owner. The person that did this is pretty freakin sick. And a group of shrinks can figure out why this person is nuts, while they rot in jail for a while.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 12:58 PM) I think killing all animals is immoral including the beheading of a companion animal. I was just making an observation that one method of murdering an animal is despicable yet another method is brushed off. This is your own personal morality. Eating animals for food is considered okay by a majority of humans on earth. If you choose to be a vegan, hey more power to you. But if you are going to have a chat with me eating chicken, make sure you have a chat with Mr. Wolf, Mr. Bear, and Mr. Lion. They are also not eating a lot of celery and tomatoes these days.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 10:16 AM) I think it's spot-on, though. I was b****ing about that all second half last year. That we got away from what won us 2005. You should of saw the warning signs for last year issues a bit before the 2nd half. The difference between the two teams was a pitching staff that was all on in 05, and that sucked in 06. Our offense masked the pitching's shortcomings by posting just an amazing first half. My feeling is this, our offense decided to put the team on their back and started to press. I think this happens more often than not in the 2nd half of all whitesox seasons. They O tries to do too much. They get away from hitting to all fields, to letting the home runs come naturally. They become a lift and pull offense trying to hit everything out of the park, especially in game critical situations. AJ was the perfect example of this, look at his first half stats when he had little power and was just hitting the ball to all fields and had a high average and a lot of doubles. Then in the 2nd half his average plummetted and his power went up. You dont need to be a genius to figure out what he was trying to do. To me I would rather take AJ without a lot of power, and hitting a high average any year than have AJ with a lower average and a lot more power. We have enough power rapped up in the middle of our order that the rest of our guys should be concentrating on hitting line drives, getting on base and moving up into scoring position. This has nothing to do with bunting or what Ozzie calls smallball. Its about getting on, and getting them in via situational hitting.

Big head married Pods sister.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 14, 2007 -> 03:41 PM) Four innings looks like it'll take nearly two hours. The sox are grinding things out. Grinding takes time.