southsideirish71

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) Hot, humid night=long ball fest at the Cell. We need 'long ball Freddy' to stay his ass at home and we need Sweaty Freddy to be ON his game early. If he can keep them to 1-2 runs through 5, we're fine. Freddy vs 110 loss Tigers equals ugly. Freddy vs Best in Baseball Tigers equals good effort.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 02:08 PM) All finesse type of guys. Interesting. Its been our MO on drafting pitchers for a while. Cant break a plane of glass, but can throw it through a teecup you are our guy.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 01:51 PM) Dan Patrick show says that KW is incredibly interested in Griffey, and a deal may go down... and hawk, he would play centerfield... i hate to be the one to start this thread, but I just heard this seconds ago... Yeah another DH for the team. Last year sure, this year it doesnt make sense. Over/Under on the number of games it takes to get him injuried in CF for the sox.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 01:34 PM) With only 35 innings this year, Long could be pitching in the majors by the end of the year. He'll probably start at AA and move quickily. The injury issues are a concern. But his stuff sounds good. If he can throw strikes he can move quickly.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 01:03 PM) I'm convinced the White Sox purposely drafted a Lance Broadway clone just to irritate me. Why didn't they take Pedro Beato? I'll be sure to follow Beato's progress through Baltimore's minor league system, as I have with Carrillo. Can anyone tell me who Minnesota drafted? I'm guessing it's a hard throwing, right hander with a plus slider who'll be dominating our lineup for years. They better trade one of these guys, because if we keep drafting clones of each other we will have no diversity in our rotation.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 12:44 PM) 6. Kyle McCulloch, rhp (National rank: 16) School: Texas. Class: Jr. Hometown: Houston B-T: R-R. Ht.: 6-3. Wt.: 185. Birthdate: 3/20/85. Scouting Report: McCulloch's stuff isn't as sexy as the pitchers ahead of him on this list, though he's a better bet to reach his ceiling as a No. 3 or 4 starter than most. "He's a safe pick," a regional crosschecker said. "You know he's a big leaguer. Maybe you get Brad Radke out of him." The Longhorns initially signed McCulloch as a shortstop out of Houston power Bellaire High, where he played both ways but first emerged as an infielder. He's a good athlete for a pitcher and quite consistent. McCulloch's velocity has been down a little this year, as his fastball has sat at 88-90 mph, compared to 89-92 in 2005, when he won the deciding game of the College World Series. His best pitch is his plus changeup, and both his curveball and solid are effective if not spectacular. Early in the spring, he struggled when he relied too heavily on his secondary stuff, but righted himself when he returned to working off his fastball. Besides winning at premier high school and college programs, McCulloch also has proven himself against top summer competition. He held his own as a reliever in the Cape Cod League in 2004 and tied for the Team USA college team lead with four victories in 2005. iirc....same school as chris young So his fastball sits a 88-90. Nice he fits in well with our draft strategy.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 12:31 PM) another broadway type pitcher...should move quickly through the organization We seem to have an affinity for this type of pitcher. So much for the power arm.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 11:30 AM) Tillman throws 90-94, but later in games he has been known to slip into the upper 80's. A team that takes him wouldn't be taking him for what he's done in high school (especially not this year, he was on a bad team though). They would be taking him for his body size and the stuff he ocassionally flashes. A true project and I am not a fan of taking him. Out of Beato or Perez who do you like. Perez would be great in the pen for quick to the majors. I just dont like drafting guys who are already in the pen in college. Yes it worked out for Houston Street and Cordero a bit. I am also a fan of the heavy sinker especially with our ballpark.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 11:20 AM) BA Has Us Interested in 3 guys (Doesn't mean we take them either): RHP Chris Perez (MIAMI) Perez is a junior at the University of Miami who has pitched as a starter and reliever and is now the Canes closer. He was suspended for part of a season after being arrested for Drunk Driving (was not convicted). Perez is 6-4 and has seen his velocity climb into the mid 90's. He mixes his FB (which he has poor control of) with a very good breaking slider thats in the mid 80's. Has had bouts with putting on weight, but he does do a good job repeating his delivery. RHP Pedro Beato (St. Petersburg JC) Beato was originally drafted by the Mets last year in the 17th round. He was a highly touted prospect who fell as he was returning from tommy john surgery (had it during his junior year of high school). Beato came back and found his stuff. Throws a fastball with good sinking action (90) and has been clocked as hard as 96. Mixes that in with a hard slider (mid 80's), curve and a changeup. Beato would need to work on smoothening out his mechanics, but the guy has a big frame (6-5). Chris Tillman, RHP - Fountain Valley High School (CAL) Tillman is a 6-6 pitcher with a big frame thats very projectable. He's comitted to Cal State Fullerton for college and is expected to go as early as the end of the 1st round or as late as the end of the 2nd round. He's a more raw guy who loses his stuff as the game goes on and some wonder if he's just cruising, but he only has 2 picthes at this point and is seeking a 3rd pitch. This is the type of player that is more of a project and a team that takes him would really be projecting him (ie expecting him to really develop). The type of guy that could really benefit from going to a place like Cal State Fullerton. However, scouts like him enough that he'll go early enough to where he'll probably forego college. Beato would be interesting due to his heavy sinker. The only drawback is he is coming from TJ Surgery. Chris Perez was a starter who was changed to a closer after an injury. I dont know anything about Chris Tillman. What kind of stuff does he have. Fastball speed?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 09:50 AM) There are several things that I do for this problem. 1. Cardio, you have to do at least 20-30 min a day 4 times a week. This is a must as cardio is the only way you will lose fat around that area. Otherwise you are building muscle under the fat which makes it look worse. 2. Core strength training. Not only do you need to work your abs, but your back and obliques as well. This will help with the fat around your love handles as well as the back fat that you dont even know is there. Plus core strength is a must to stay healthy. 3. Diet. NO CARBS AFTER 7. Thats right, eat an early dinner and if you must snack, no carbs at all. In fact a great portion of your dinners should include lean chicken and veggies, or fish and lean beef. 4 Full body weight traning. You cant just train certain parts of your body and expect targeted results. Training parts of your body on different times of the week keeps stimulating your metabolism and aids fat loss. 5. Water, water and more water. The more water you drink, the less you retain. Its going to take at least a month of strict regulations on your diet and excercise to see results. It sucks, but it does work. This is a good list from Rock. The key to number 1 is the time, 20 to 30 minutes or more. Your body will tap the bloodstream for glucose for energy during the cardio workout, at a certain point your body realizes that the exercise isnt going to end, and then starts to mine long term reserves for Glucose production. Also well after your workout your body is still mining and burning off sugar in your system. Number 2and 4 are good to keep your body balanced. The more your system is working to build, the more its tearing down the fat to make it. But your diet has to be in check with your workout. Number 3 is a good one also. But during your day you should look at the types of carbs you put into your system. Carbs are not bad, but its the type of carbs you put into your system. A big fluffy croisant might contain 50-60 grams of carbs. Not a lot of dietary fiber or anything good for you. In the same instance an apple might have anywhere from 15-30 depending on the size of the apple. The apple breaks down in your system different than the fluffy croisant. You want to put complex carbs that take a while to break down and enter your bloodstream. Also mixing up what you eat, making sure that you get some protein in your system when you are processing carbs also helps to delay its introduction into your bloodstream. Number 5 is a huge one also. Drink as much water as possible. try to cut down on caffein as much as you can. Water instead of soda or coffee helps out a bunch. Also your diet helps this out. Instead of snaking on garbage like chips, and candy, hit the fruits during the day. An Apple, a bannana, or some mixed fruits help out a lot more. And also try to make sure that its fresh and not processed in a can. Also make sure you have a breakfast. It starts the day out on the right foot. My wife is a nurse, and when she was trying to lose baby weight a cardiologist told her when she goes to a resturaunt to make an invisible line down the middle of everything they give you. Eat half of your meal, and take the rest home. Our portions here in the US are insane on what you think you should eat.

Number 1 guy should be a pitcher who has great stuff, but needs some time to get all the tools together. We have drafted some more ready pitchers who can quailify from 2 to 5 in the rotation. Its time to see if we can get a horse, someone with dominant stuff that needs some coop time. Maybe someone that will slip due to his control issues. Someone with either a mid 90s fastball and above or a dominant sinker would be perfect. You know what every other team is looking for.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 6, 2006 -> 09:18 AM) Our pitching isn't very good right now, starters or bullpen. Going after more offense does nothing for me. You take Uribe out of the equation and you put in a allstar top 5 offensive guy like Tejada and our offense doesnt just get better, it becomes sick. It would be better than anything we have ever had. Look at how improved it is after just adding Thome. You add Tejada yikes. Our pitching has been medicore, so taking one of the SPs out and putting in McCarthy into the rotation isnt going to queer the deal. So what do you think is going to happen, all of a sudden our SP is just going to flip a switch and boom they are 2005 allstar pitchers, or that they will be good to decent all year long. If we can replace Uribe with Tejada, we could live with Anderson and if he hits even .091 at the 8 or 9 hole with his awsome defense.

QUOTE(UC76 @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 09:49 PM) I just saw Carlos Zambrano have a no-hitter broken up in the eighth - again! - and had this thought on my mind so I figured I'd post it: Wouldn't Zambrano switching to the South Side someday make sense? After all, he's a Venezuelan. I could see Ozzie talking to KW and persuading him to bring in one of his peeps. Personally, even though he's a Cub, I'm a big fan of Zambrano. Nobody plays with more passion and that style would fit in just fine with Ozzie's wear-it-on-your-sleeve personality. I've also seen Z at Bulls games, so he seems to be into Chicago and might be inclined to stay in town. Oh, and he's also a damn good pitcher. And young. I'm not talking about a midseason trade or anything. Hell, I don't even know his contract status off the top of my head. I just think that someday the crazy Venezuelan might be a good fit with the Pale Hose. His agent is Scott Boras. /END OF THREAD

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 04:04 PM) BA is a better hitter against RHP, so why the f*** are we only playing him against LHP? Because our manager is in love with matchups based on which hand someone was blessed with. This the same reason that Boone Logan faced Hafner in the first series of the year. The same reason that we put out the 3 dog lineup everytime a lefty approaches the rubber. Pretty much when a lefty comes to toe the rubber, you lose AJ and Pods right off the bat. and then we try to figure out why our offense struggles against lefties. You take good plate calling and a good hitter with Widger who is a great backup once a week or such. Ozuna is a spark plug in the game, but his glove costs games in the outfield. As bad as he was at 3rd base last year, this years adventures in the OF mask anything he did last year. Ozzie has replaced Timo with Ozuna on his depth chart of favorite guy off the bench. So guess what is going to happen when Anderson gets suspended. We will see Ozuna and his horrid defense go out into the field in center. Our starting pitching needs good defense. Not the grenade catching we are getitng out of the subs.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 12:24 PM) Thanks for the advice... I did run years ago, back about 40 pounds and 10 years ago I was a Cross Country runner in college (5miles/8K) and then a pretty decent hurdler, sprinter, triple jumper in track. I definately felt like I got go a lot more than I did, I just wasn't sure how my body would respond anymore, as its been a LONG time. I ran cross country in high school. And ran off and on throughout my 20s, including a marathon. I took it up again in my 30s and found that my body revolted on me. My knees kept getting sore, I had some issues with my ankles. It took a while for me to realize that the same routine I did in my late teens/20s doesnt work now. I kept in good shape, but it still doesnt help when you cross that damn 30 threshold. Now I am finally at a good pace and distance where I feel real good running. It took a while, and a lot of time in the hot tub, but its worth it. As you know when you get back into running, and get used to that routine its a great feeling. I started running again nightly because of being diagnosed with type II diabetes. I want to be around for my son when I am older. What got you into it again.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 12:25 PM) At this point I would like to gloat for, say, 30 seconds because I posted last week about how we looked eerily like the 2004 team and people crucified me. Well, most anyway. Here's my take, forgive me for stating the obvious. -Yes we do not seem as hungry in the sense that if we get a lead (which we are consistently blowing this year) we just sort of wait for the game to end with us winning. -Obvious but true: our team was and is built around pitching and defense. When those falter, we are doomed. No matter how many HRs Thome pounds. Right now the pitching is--well, very 2004-like and the defense has been subpar. A lot of missed DPs, inexplicably booted balls, outfield misjudgments, and when was the last time you saw us throw out somebody coming home? -I've said it before, I'll say it again: where in the hell are the other people on the team stealing bases? It's Pods or nada apparently. What happened to stealing and bunting? The suicide squeeze? This won us games last year. Lots of 'em. Are we just waiting for Thome to get to the plate? -The bullpen is atrocious. Politte especially. Guys like Thorton and the new guy obviously have stuff, but they're not locating. Plus our starters seem to be maxing out at six innings, which means... more Politte. -Another shade of 2004. Does everybody remember that in 2005 Frank barely played? And yet, without his huge bat, we were killing. I wonder if introducing a slugger again (Thome) has somehow upset the chemistry resulting in yes, better averages but not the complete team concept we had in 2005. Just a thought. -The death sentence for us this year: average with RISP. Just like that other year... -And while there's not the dreaded "five hole" in the rotation like 2004 that was a guaranteed loss, it seems like each pitcher on his every other apperarance sort of creates that five-hole by having a bad game. Everybody's done it this year; Buehrle, Garland, Vasquez, Freddie. Contreras gets a pass because he's been so stellar. Having said all this the season is merely a third in, so I'm not pushing any panic buttons. But I would surely give up the long ball and the 11-2 blowouts for our 2-1 wins at any time. There were plenty of double-digit wins in 2004 but plenty of desert-like hitting droughts like yesterday. Please, please come back my little one-run win wonders. I am a person who complains about our offense probably the most on this site over the years. This years offense is fine. We struggled to score runs yesterday because we are missing our number 3 hitter, our starting hot hitting catcher, and our leadoff guy. I would rather see our starters playing against the lefties than seeing the 3 or more scrub lineup in. That is the reason our O doesnt score runs when these changes are made. Our pitchers need to start attacking the zone. Getting ahead, finsihing guys off. This year our pitchers are constantly in hitters counts, which in turn is why they are getting hit hard. Our pitchers collectively need to start pounding the zone in more. Last year we threw in a lot, Garland, Garcia, Buerhle and Contreras pounded the inside part of the plate, then went outside for the K or out pitch. This year we are attacking the outside part of the zone, almost afraid to go in. The minute this changes our pitchers will have more success. Our defense has been spotty. Ozuna throwing himself on the ground in LF is not good. He needs to be a backup for the infield only. Mack should backup the corner OFs. And we should aquire a guy to platoon with Brian in CF, someone who is an actual CF. In the pen, Politte needs to figure it out or go. Get a right hander who can throw strikes. The team is not far off, it just seems that way with how we have played over the last 2 weeks.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 08:55 AM) I got out and ran for the first time in years yesterday. I only went a mile, but felt like I could do more pretty easily. I wanted to be smart and not kill myself the first time out, so I took it easy. I woke up today and didn't hurt so I am pretty happy about that. Make sure you stretch before and after you run. It makes a huge difference in recovery after a run. If you are going to do this more frequently drink lots of water. Good luck with your running.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 11:57 AM) 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. I take anything posted that quotes a supposed scout with a grain of salt. I posted it and highlighted it because of the talk of Cesar being traded and people wanting him here. I dont think he solves a damn thing here. We dont need Cesar.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jun 5, 2006 -> 11:23 AM) Since Contreras went on the DL on May 10, the Sox have been 0-5 in his slot and 11-13 overall. In the stretch before he went on the DL, we were 22-5. We need to start winning for our "horse" again and start feeding off his dominance. When he's beatable, the Sox aren't the same club. Actually we need all of our starting pitchers to pitch well. This idea of them suddenly sucking because the Count went on the DL is wishy washy at best. That spot in the rotation you can blame for their specific issues, but Buerhle, Garcia, Garland and Vazquez have all been in the league long enough and have had enough sucess to keep their own streaks going. The reason for our pitching is the same issues, control and pitching ahead. Garland had his best start of the year, he was pitching in getting ahead. Garcia needs to do that. If our starting pitching can resume throwing strikes and making the teams beat them instead of giving free passes we will be okay.

Listen here Bobby Boucher, you dont talk about dat 6-sixsty something nonsense. That number is the Debil.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 4, 2006 -> 03:38 PM) I'm starting to wonder if it is partly Thome's fault, even indirectly for a few reasons. First, it meant the loss of Rowand who was pretty fiery, in addition to being a centerfielder who could hit and play defense properly. Second, while our offense has certainly stepped up a notch as a result, I wonder if this hasn't affected the mindset of the team. Like others have said, we're not the hungry, scrappy team we were last year and it seems like we're willing to make some mistakes in the field and pitching because the team seems to think they can score the runs to make it up. The reason we are sucking is not because of Aaron f***ing Rowand. Its because our starting pitching has sucked over the last couple of weeks. Its because our relief pitching has been worse if that is possible. And its because our hitters fall in love with the long ball after an 11 run effort and they have horrible swings with men in RISP For the next week. If our pitching is a shell of what it was last year, we escape this week with at least a few wins.

The sad thing is when you have Mark Buerhle vs some rookie left hander you expect a win. Mark and the team s*** the bed collectively. I thought the idea of having 5 aces is that prolonged slumps like this were impossible because your slump was busted the next day. However this year Freddy has lost his velocity and has reinvented himself as a control pitcher. Garland pitched nicely yesterday, but up until that he had publically said he lost his confidence. Mark started the year off nice, but has been getting laced lately. Javier has good stuff but cant keep away from the big inning. The count has been great up until his last start. Our bullpen is horrid. And our offense doesnt adjust to not being able to pound people into submission. They need to man up and ask themselves if they want to go into October this year. Or if they want to s*** the bed and go home. This next series is huge.

The ralls to the Ranger Rongey after the game should be a hoot.