thedoctor

peavy on saturday night against ny would be awesome. wgn game. wife away with girlfriends for a weekend. unchecked drinking. someone make it happen.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 02:21 PM) Hm, I wasn't aware of that. This definitely changes things, and it sure makes it seem a lot brighter. ultimately i think the division gets decided in that season-ending stretch against divisional teams. that and our six remaining games with the tigres.

i don't think this stretch breaks the sox (at least the first 10 games of it) primarily because detroit is playing some good competition as well. while we're at boston they are at the angels. while we're in new york they're hosting the rays. they host the indians while we are at the twins which is not good. my guess is we come out of this 10-game stretch in a pretty similar place, standings-wise. probably between 1.5 and 3.5 out.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 21, 2009 -> 10:39 PM) did the cubs get sold? yes http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi...0,2253874.story well i guess since the trib no longer owns the cubs they can take off the gloves in terms of their coverage. check out this line from that story: lol.

i think it would be difficult to craft a legitimate argument that states we're one of the top-10 teams in baseball let alone top four or five. there are 15 teams in baseball with better records than us. generally a w/l record is a pretty decent measure of a team's ability. with that said, sure, we could probably be dangerous in the playoffs provided peavy comes back and performs at the level he's capable of playing. but sometimes i think that people are just assuming he will come back in and immediately be a cy young quality guy. i'm not sure that's a reasonable assumption.

kw goes with option a: trib blog

i think its a good team with three fatal flaws: bad defense, inconsistent bullpen, and a propensity for the dumb play. those will keep it from being an elite team and more than likely enjoying any extended success in the postseason.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 14, 2009 -> 01:43 AM) Phil Rogers is indicating that the timetable is still two more Peavy starts. I imagine we see them add about 20 pitches per outing. rogers' story

more defensive orientation? i'd take any.

sometimes.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 07:19 PM) my friends (Columbia, MO via St. Louis, so cardinal fans) love Hawk. They think he's hilarious. i'm a big hawk fan but more and more i find myself having to defend him and not really wanting to, kind of like making excuses for the drunk uncle who weirds out your friends at a graduation party. i do really enjoy stone and think he provides great balance for hawk. to me they are a better team than hawk and dj because stone clearly is not a homer. i also am amazed at the amount of times stone will be like, "if danks comes back here with a change on the outer half here you can expect cabrera to swing and strike out." and then it happens.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 07:22 PM) I was just thinking about this today. The RBI thing is a HUGE drawback, but to be honest, I've seen PODS with more high-leverage at bats with men on base lately than almost any other player, I'd much rather have Becks in that situation when the lineup turns over. its a very subjective observation however. yeah, i haven't numbers-crunched or anything but the more i think about him in the lead-off spot the more i like it. i think eventually, as his power develops, he'll just naturally fall at two or three. but since his power isn't totally there yet i think he can help leading off. and i love the idea of starting most games with a guy on second.

i've warmed up to the idea of beckham leading off. for one, he's one of our best on-base guys and he almost always puts good at-bats together. he's not a great base-stealer at this point but he has speed and can affect the game in that way. plus you just know that with his baseball iq he'd adjust his game to what that spots requires. i do know he's a big rbi guy and that's a drawback. still, i have a hard time believing he wouldn't perform better in that spot than anyone else on our roster.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 06:54 PM) "I say deal J. Thome. Sure he hits some home runs, but Rios can do better overall than Thome. " Why the f*** do people post things on the internet when they know absolutely nothing? I just picture drugged up monkeys mindlessly mashing on a keyboard with 95% of "comments" on stories. well, people who can't pass the soxtalk entrance exam have to go somewhere.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 04:30 PM) it's not unreasonable to assume that this contract could come back and haunt the franchise for a while. If Rios becomes an awful player to have in the clubhouse or puts up a .725 OPS and can't put it all back together again, it's a hell of a burden on the organization. it is very reasonable and i can't quarrel with any of the guys who have panned the move. that said, you do have a fair amount of cost-certainty for the near future and enough young talent (in theory) that you can count on having some relatively inexpensive alternatives if rios flames. and i guess i look at it this way. if this year's total is rios's worse it's still better than what we've had in center and what we were going to be likely able to acquire. imho, even if rios flames it's not going to hamstring the organization in a major way going forward. frankly, peavy's contract concerns me more than rios's.

QUOTE (Pumpkin Escobar @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 04:19 PM) It is more of a BoSox and Yankees thing. Mets fall in there too and so do the Cubs...It's a case with Boston and New York that their is a great chance that they're playing one of the other East Coast teams which groups it together but you're absolutely right it is the smart business move in their eyes because there are so many Yankee/Saux/and Cub fans for instance that they are pleasing those fans. It's just overwhelming and these newer league networks are great because they are really trying to avoid the bias in their respective sports. agreed. a station like the mlb network is a niche product so they can be more even-handed in their coverage. their audience is by definition baseball fans so it's more likely that their average viewer is going to be interested in more than yankees/sawks/coob. espn, on the other hand, started as a niche network but outgrew it. in all of their programming their goal is to appeal to the broadest possible audience. so you get way more coverage of a few popular teams at the expense of balanced and in-depth coverage of all.

i don't see it as east coast bias. i see it as ratings-driven yankees and red sox bias. cubs fall in here, too. i don't personally notice any extra coverage to the orioles, nationals, marlins, rays, blue jays, braves, etc. the phillies get a bit extra because they are defending champs, mets get a bit extra because they are a new york team and it's the nation's biggest media market. to me this is all ratings driven. people have strong feelings about the yankees and red sox. few people have no opinion of them and thus they get better ratings. if the sox had the type of nationwide fanbase or nationwide detractors these other teams do, they'd be mentioned more. as a sox fan it sucks because my teams gets marginalized, but i can say that (largely because of the championship, ozzie, and kw) they are much more prominent then they were five or six years ago.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 12:24 PM) We don't need a 5th starter for a while, so there was no point in keeping Torres. Keeping Wise allows us flexibility late in games if we need a runner for one of our power guys. This isn't a big deal. exactly. keeping torres on the roster makes no sense. and what has torres done in his time here to earn a longer look or another start?

rosenthal's take

QUOTE (striker62704 @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 02:52 AM) I like this move and I'm wondering if this is a change in philosophy, putting more emphasis on defense and speed vs. power. I wouldn't mind seeing both Dye and Thome leave and see an Abreu or Winn, someone with more speed and higher batting average (I know Winn is having a bad year). I didn't see any highlights or read any notes about yesterdays game. Can someone fill me in on what ruffled KW's feathers? a pretty atrocious day of outfield defense, for one.

QUOTE (rockren @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 02:20 AM) I don't think he was insinuating anything about anyone in particular... The question was posed if KW should be worried about upsetting Dye or Pods and maybe ruffling their feathers at all. KW responded, "Uhhhh no. A game like yesterday ruffled my feathers." i'm not worried about upsetting any of the guys on the roster (not saying you are, this was just a convenient post to quote). those guys are all vets. i'm sure they are uncertain and luckily for them there are writers hanging around ready to chronicle their uncertainty. but at the end of the day these guys will get over it. i can guarantee it isn't the first time a guy was brought to challenge them for playing time. step up or sit down.

it took me awhile to like this team but i'm there now. there are still flaws here, but you wonder what kind of bounce you get out of peavy's return (provided he makes it back healthy) and combine that with the potential of tcq hitting his stride. it's still way early to predict anything but i like how things are shaping up for this team. this includes a positive postseason outlook to me. add in the young talent on the way and you can just call me giddy. weird feeling for a sox fan.

coop was quoted this weekend as saying he didn't think freddy was far off and would probably have two or three more minor league starts. if those go well maybe he gets one of the spot starts before peavy is ready.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 3, 2009 -> 11:49 PM) I wouldnt touch him with a 10 foot pole coming off this surgery. Shoulder surgeries are baaaaad, pitchers rarely seem to rebound to their original form agreed. pass.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 2, 2009 -> 10:56 PM) September 3rd at Wrigley sounds nice. i'd like to see him have two starts under his belt heading into that final stretch of the year against divisional teams.