southsideirish71

QUOTE(black jack @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:40 PM) Contreras is someone who really needs the All-Star break to get his head straight. Look at his brief history in the MLB. The yanks supposedly found a flaw in his delivery. They fixed it for a few starts. The goes back to what he did before. They once demoted him all the way to class A so they could work on his mechanics.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:26 PM) Clement got killed today, and he's got that injury history hanging over him, especially if he throws too many sliders. The cubans have both been very healthy over their years of service.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:22 PM) He was a joke when we traded him. He's not exactly tearing it up now anyways. Add the fact that he is in the NL and not in the Cell, he'd be doing about the same. Plus he was demanding a ridiculous sum of money considering how little he did in his contract year. I know we are paying 6 mill for Conteras out of the 8. But in hind sight. A few more mill and you have Clement instead of Conteras.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:21 PM) Stanton isn't even a LOOGY, at least IMO. His 3 year splits say he handles right-handed hitters (.231 BAA) better than lefties (.255 BAA). This year righties are hitting over 400 against him.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:18 PM) I honestly feel like Ozzie is tired of his s***, too. When Hawk and DJ start showing signs of not liking a guy, it leads me to believe a lot of people don't like him. Farmio and Rooney are crawling out of their skins also.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:11 PM) The guy has like two major league seasons behind him. There isn't a whole lot of information to go by. The guy put together a solid two months of baseball, and things haven't changed that much. He's always going to walk a decent number of guys. In his recent struggles, the problem has been hits more than walks (4 homers in the Az game, 1 and 5 other hits in the other one). In his last 4, he's had one pretty good start, one mediocre one, and two bad ones (and this one of course). He still has to go a long way to get his numbers back to his previous totals. This is exactly what he did against Boston a few times that basically got him run out of NY. Why trade a guy throwing 95 that you pay someone to take off your hands.

QUOTE(Ozzie Montana @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:08 PM) I actually agree with DJ. Contreras has to be the most stubborn pitcher on the team. Why cant he just throw strikes and stop being a wus. YOU ARE GETTING PAID 8 mil. to throw strikes not to throw 3 wild pitches and 7 f**king walks. or get lost. ... And why is Ozzie putting in Walker, he's there for long relief. The first mistake is putting him in a tight game and the second is taking him out after the second batter. Youre just using up the bullpen, Ozzie. We have a chance to win this and our pitching is giving it away. Must be an Oakland curse. This is not a curse. This is just playing bad baseball. Errors/Walks/Wild Pitches are just examples of shooting yourself in the foot. There is no one to blame but themselves on this.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:07 PM) Bad outing for Walker there, all he had to do was get it close to the strike zone. Now, let me explain why they brought up Walker. It as much to force the other manager into something as anything else. You absolutely need two lefthanders in the bullpen to prevent the other manager from doing things you don't want him to do. Problem is, they need a better LH option than Kevin Walker. Before someone says Arnie Munoz, I personally don't think he's the answer, he has control issues too. It is easy to say Bajenaru and he cannot be worse than what we just saw, but he is also not the answer for a long man. That should be Walker's role but he is not proving he can do it. Had he gotten Swisher he could have been left in there. It comes down to this, they need better pitchers. I'm not going to freak out over one wacky outing here but they need more relief depth. Then again so do about 26 other teams. Jim what do you think of what we have seen from Conteras lately. Cause for concern. Or do we just list it as an abberation.

QUOTE(Spiff @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:05 PM) The pitchers suck, but the ump aint doing them any favors. You have to admit, when the walks start to pile up like this, plus a few wild pitches, most umps wont call the close ones. And Hawk and DJ just commented on this.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 10:02 PM) He's still better than virtually any #4 starter you're going to find. He's having a bad month. The guy's ERA was 3.13 after his first June start. We're really splitting hairs if we're that worried about the back end of our staff considering how well our top 3 are doing and how far in front in the division we are. I have a question for you then. Is it completely unreasonable for someone to state that based on his history over the last few years. Including last year of pitching similiar to what we see tonight, to come to the conclusion that maybe he has regressed and lost confidence in his fastball just a bit. That he is reverting to forkball city. I know I might not be the eternal optimist. But if this performance, matched up with his last few, and his history from last few years. Does this not ring warning signs.

Hopefully after this game we see. Kevin Walker has been designated for assignment. The Chicago whitesox have purchased the contract from Char. of one Jeff Baj.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:57 PM) We need another starter about as much as I need a sharp stick up my ass. We've got the best ERA of any starting staff in the AL, and 3rd in the majors. Giving up serious talent and spending a bunch of money for another starting pitcher would be an absolute waste. Whoever we'd get would make about 12 more in the regular season and two tops in the playoffs. It's not like we need an ace to beat most team's 4th starters anyways. See how great the team unity is after a few more of these types of starts. We need someone to throw strikes.

I am so glad they decided to bring up Walker. He is a lefty, who throws.....strikes....I guess eventually he will throw a strike. Baj where are thou.

QUOTE(brijames @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:53 PM) How the F is this game 2-2! Just about ready to go to bed here as Walker coming in . This is the problem. 3 weeks from now when someone is talking about replacing Conteras or getting another pitcher. If he gets out of this, someone will look back and see he only gave up 2 runs. This is one place where the stats dont tell the story. Besides the 7 walks.

7 Walks. This is why we need to trade for a pitcher. Conteras doing this as our number 5, sure. Conteras doing this, and then El Duque doing the same thing with an 85 mph fastball the next day. God.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:50 PM) I understand what you're saying here but he clearly doesn;t have anything tonight. No control whatsoever. Time for the hook. His last few starts havent been all that good. He has one decent start out of a few crapolas. Now DJ is talking about how stubborn Conteras is. LOL

They need to get someone up in the bullpen. When DJ is calling for the pen, that is about as obvious as you can get.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:45 PM) His WHIP is still lower than Mr. Schmidt over in SF. There is one factor that people dont take into effect. This guy wears down his own team. He pitches so slow, wild pitches, walks and just drags the game to a snails pace. People start to play bad behind him because they are waiting on everything. I would rather have some guy get hit a bit more than to do this. I bet our players feel like they played a double header after playing in one of these games. Thank god Buerhle, Garland and Garcia have been quick workers.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:40 PM) He is right, that was an awful inning. I know you are goofing around here, but let's face it, Contreras is a head case. He keeps shaking off Pierzynski and that is total BS. Hey, if they deserve it, they should be criticized. There is nothing wrong with that. I was being funny. Contreras is Nuke from Bull Durham. He has a million dollar arm and a ten cent head. This is why I am dead against this guy pitching in the playoffs. He has the arm and the stuff. He lacks one major thing, balls. Everyone looks at his BAA and they drool. But his WHIP is rising like crazy and he basically kicks himself in the nuts all the time. He now leads the league in wild pitches.

40 SB for Pods. What a stud. Only 20 more to what Willie promised he was going to get this year at soxfest.

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 09:31 PM) after all that, it's still tied. i'll take it. that was a terrible pitching inning, could have been alot worse No negative talk. That was just a different way of getting 3 outs. He is lulling them into a false sense of security. He only gave up 2 runs. I think he is ready to start game 4 for us in the playoffs.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 03:02 PM) There's a difference between a "Few Tweaks" and sending off McCarthy, Uribe, Anderson, Sweeney, Fields, or some combination of those items for a gigantic name (schmidt, Chavez, Oswalt, etc.). Sending off a guy like John Rauch was last year, who may never have a real strong future in the big leagues, in exchange for a small piece of the puzzle this year (i.e. another guy in the bullpen or a backup 1b), is a lot different from most of what's been said on this board. Dont get me wrong. If we could pick up Chavez and Oswalt we would be nuts not to take that shot. I dont think either of them are available, so if thats the case we make a few tweaks. Chavez is a huge upgrade over Crede and Oswalt is a good pitcher also.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 02:45 PM) Who's to say Schmidt is really any better than Contreras? It's all a crap shoot. Both have the ability to go 7 or 8 innings of dominance, both have the ability to let up 3 runs in 6 innings, and both have the ability to get rocked. Also, Contreras has had a much better year. Schmidt has gotten his ERA down to 4.81 with a few good starts. Contreras' ERA has gone up to 4.15 after a few bad ones. After his start on June 7th, Contreras' ERA was 3.13. Think about that one for a second there. I like our chances with Contreras against Byrd and Wakefield. As for your assessment that you don't like our chances with Garcia/Garland against Schilling/Clement, we can't really assess those two players on the Red Sox at this point (and Garcia and Garland have been pitching just as well as Clement anyways). Schilling has had exactly one good start going back to last season's ALCS on the major league level, and Clement has a history of dominating for stretches and then sucking. We don't really know how they will be pitching by the time the playoffs come around. Anyways, I don't see the problem with one clear edge and 3 toss ups. You're pretty fortunate if you get a pitching matchup in you favor, which is bound to happen with the way our guys have been pitching. The only way we are in trouble then is if we have some really bad luck and loss all of the close games and end up down 3-1. I highly doubt that happens. Our top 3 have shown no signs of faltering. That's the important thing to consider going into the playoffs. Our top two prospects and $10 mil for next year is an awful lot to pay for basically one, perhaps two starts in the playoffs. If Conteras throws strikes he is very good. If he falls in love with his forkball then he will be meat. My only concern with Conteras facing Boston is the history there. Boston owns Contreras. Seattle sat at the trade deadline with 3 possible trades to make their team better in 2001. They passed for the same reasons we are talking about passing. Chemistry. Maybe if they upgraded at one position or had more more pitcher. Who knows. I would rather make a few tweaks than to stand pat.

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 01:08 PM) southsideirish71 is another roach that needs to be exterminated. I could probably come up with a list of like 30 to 40 of them. Usually I wouldn't say anything, but the admins need to start banning motherf***ers ASAP. Any money that these guys got banned at WSI or whitesox.com or wherever they came from. While I could never hang at places like those because of my truck driver type speak, I'm just going to assume that the Sox threads at those sites are way less annoying. Classy comment.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 1, 2005 -> 12:55 PM) Don't forget SSI71, him and Jabroni belong together. Glad to see I wasnt left out.