Jake

I think I'm at least a couple minutes behind you guys on my stream, bleh

This broadcasting team is f***ing horrible

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 5, 2012 -> 03:25 PM) So I was posting from my iphone last night but I wanted to reiterate that J4L is correct. Without Rose the Sixers are a terrible match-up for the Bulls. They are very athletic and strong defensively and without a guy like Rose who can break-them down the Bulls are going to have a difficult time scoring. They were able to score a decent amount when Lucas was running the point. Yes, he's a lousy point guard but thus far he has played significantly better then Watson, who just isn't the same player when he starts vs. coming off the bench. Offensively the Bulls are going to have to play a lot with Taj/Boozer on the floor (vs. Asik) and that shouldn't really be an issue given the fact that the Sixers don't have a true center. They still have a chance to win this series but to be frank, these teams are about even (especially when you are without Noah, who had really stepped up his game since Rose went down). Noah is the man, a tough guy, and someone I will forever cheer for. He has his limits and flaws but he plays hard and does things the right way. Also, for those of you that were bashing Boozer, I'd be very curious to know what guy you were watching. He actually played about as good of defense as I've ever seen him play (that doesn't say much, but he had active hands and slapped quite a few Bulls that led to some Sixer turnovers). On offense he was more aggressive and about the only guy who was looking to score (outside of Rip, who needs to stay aggressive...his shot will fall). Had Lucas not played like total s*** in the 4th quarter and got the ball into the post a few times, we'd have probably won (but instead Boozer hardly got any touches; I realized he missed a couple late shots but he had no rhyhtm). PS: This is the saddest I've been watching my team in the playoffs ever. This is such a likeable squad and it sucks to see em go down like this. I'll pull like hell for them to win and I was disgusted at the Sixer fans for cheering Noah's injury. I agree with this entire post.

This has been talked about over and over, but I really can't blame Jake Peavy for his lat tearing off the bone. We can think that maybe this thing and that thing made it happen, but we don't know. We likely didn't pay at least one of his seasons of salary anyway. By all accounts he's a really good guy that wants to earn his salary.

Damn, it sounds like you guys are a whole batter ahead of me.

"give my team a chance to win" SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE!

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 5, 2012 -> 03:48 PM) Poor Jake. Shoulda had a win last night. Pitiful. I love that guy. You wouldn't make much of a relief pitcher with that kind of memory

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 5, 2012 -> 03:47 PM) Why not? I actually wouldn't mind that unless the White Sox know something about his defense/state of conditioning that I don't know.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 5, 2012 -> 03:43 PM) You really want to watch Escobar play more? Ventura obviously isn't a big fan of Lillibridge's offensive ability, so if the choice is Morel or Escobar...bring on the sub .200 by Morel There is sometimes something to be said for making a change for change's sake. Can Josh Phegley play third base? btw, Josh Fields is putting up decent numbers in AAA for LAD

Morel can't bat sub .200 all year and just have us ignore it. .220 maybe, but not like he has been

f***ing FOX, why would Milwaukee-San Fran be a better game in Memphis? Anyone got one of those illegal streaming links???

There are a ton of variables when it comes to a pitching arm and while the Sox probably can't know nearly enough of them, I promise we know even less of them. I'm curious to see if Sale's velo pops back up like it used to, now. I don't see why they didn't pop him in a tube to get an MRI though, I don't think Peavy's contract is so expensive that we can't afford those anymore

Sox: De Aza Ramirez Dunn (DH) PK AJP Rios DV Morel GB Cats: Jackson CF Boesch RF Cabrera 3B Fielder 1B Young DH Avila C Peralta SS Dirks LF Raburn 2B

We've got GAVIN FLOYD vs. MAX SCHERZER No god damn blown saves tonight boys, tonight Robin and the Sox are turning it around!

Basically he let the offense run when they weren't applying pressure to the ball - 2nd, 3rd quarters when we were playing well. Things got tight at the end and of course ball pressure increased, offense was nowhere to be seen. The problem is his size. He can't see or get rid of the ball when they pressure him so he just dribbles around hoping he can get loose, which he can't because he's not fast or long enough to do so.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2012 -> 09:48 AM) Jake Peavy is not going to pitch around Miguel Cabrera there. He's going to try to get him out. He woudln't have thrown the fastball period if he was trying to pitch around him. He just missed. 2 outs, first base open. Lefty on deck, lefty in the pen. He throws no strikes to Cabrera and no strike was scripted on the final pitch either. He was pitching him perfectly, not throwing anything in the zone and Cabrera was completely biting on it. Unfortunately he threw one down the middle with two strikes.

There's nothing to make me think that Matt Thornton won't thrive in a setup role. For some reason, in innings 6-8 hitters don't know how to hit a guy that throws all fastballs. They just never hit him. In inning 9, all gets solved.

You all have to admit, Sale as successful closer will make watching games easier. I wish he could go on to be the Cy Young this year, but if it's his arm falling off or this, I pick this. At least we won't be losing every game that we have 9th inning leads in. Time to try out all those "prospects" every 5th day, have to admit that that is somewhat fun to watch as well

I thought CJ had to be not healthy. Just doesn't look right. I say start JL3 and give James some minutes as well. JL3 helped us screw the pooch at the end there (who didn't) but he actually stayed quiet much of the time he was in, which is new for him. He's usually either making noise with turnovers/bad shots or by scoring but for quite a while there he actually was letting the offense run. The most irritating thing though is that he won't run the pick and roll -- I think he's afraid he can't make the pass to the screener without turning it over. I also have to wonder if it's a crazy idea to have Rip Hamilton bring the ball up. Boozer definitely needs more touches in the offense. Almost every good possession I can think of started with a slick pass by Boozer. Unfortunately, I doubt we play with Noah for the rest of the postseason. Too bad because he moves the ball almost as well. I'd like to see Booz and Taj starting and getting as many minutes as possible. Looks like we're finally in trouble for not signing a reserve big man. ...and we could still win, lol. Just can't s*** the bed at the end of games. Need to run the offense.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 5, 2012 -> 09:42 AM) Based on his body of work do you believe he deserves to continue as GM, why/why not? He's proven his mettle as a GM in the MLB. We have had an opportunity (perhaps several) when letting him go would have been just fine. Coming into this season, letting him go would have made sense because we went "all in." Like in poker, you can't go all in without the risk of losing it all. He made a lot of moves that made sense and they blew up in his face. Some bad luck, some bad judgment, that's baseball. It is acceptable to get fired for that. But we kept him and he's been effectively endorsed to rebuild the ship. If you're irritated that a couple months into rebuild that some of the old moves made under a different philosophy haven't panned out or worse, that we're not winning, you're not being fair. Coming into last year it seemed that we had several years of winning baseball ahead of us and we made moves accordingly. The future is not so clear now, though we do have several veterans having great years. We have to do things differently, including moves that might cost us games this year, to build a long term winner. I hope Kenny can make things work and not "waste" this season because I'm a fan and I want to watch a contending team. I also understand that in a "rebuild" you are going to use unproven players and lots of them don't work out. It makes him look bad when that happens. Things like the ramifications of Chris Sale pitching in relief last year (the season we were supposed to win it all) are not things I'm going to lose my mind over now. We did things to win in the short term, it didn't work. We're now doing things to try and win in the long term. Changing regimes a couple months into the rebuild doesn't make sense to me, that will only prolong our suffering. I have seen Kenny build a winner fairly quickly around just a handful of veterans from a middling team, which is more than most or perhaps any of his potential successors could say. Cliffs: -you could have fired him after last season, perhaps other times as well -you have committed some amount of time to him since you didn't do that -firing him today or even at the end of this season is likely just adding on years to our potential non-contention

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 5, 2012 -> 08:52 AM) Then he shouldn't have left a fastball to Cabrera up and out over the plate. Pissed at himself, I'll bet. Yes, pissed at himself. He was clearly told to pitch around Cabrera which he did very well until....he threw that fastball down the middle. Down the road when Peavy wants to control his destiny again, his manager is likely to remember that incident and not give him the benefit of the doubt.

Since we're going to talk about Kenny Williams as if he's never made a good move, let's just go ahead and mention all the good moves so we remember that he's actually done some good. Aaron Rowand, Gio Gonzalez for Jim Thome Freddy Garcia for Gavin Floyd, Gio Gonzalez Chris Carter for Carlos Quentin Esteban Loaiza signing Esteban Loaiza for Jose Contreras Joe Borchard for Matt Thornton Chris Sale draft pick Signings in 2005 - AJ Pierzysnki, Jermaine Dye, Tadahito Iguchi, Bobby Jenks Extending Paul Konerko 2x Brandon McCarthy for John Danks Alexei Ramirez signing Phil Humber signing TBD: Dunn signing Peavy trade (didn't lose much), especially if insurance payouts were had Quentin trade (injured, who would guess that) Ozzie Guillen compensation players? (lol, not entirely serious) this is all I can remember off the top of my head. There are some non-moves, like non-tendering Jenks, that stick out as well

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 5, 2012 -> 08:43 AM) It's pretty bad when you're defending using the 13th pick in the first round of a draft on someone (essentially) who the GM traded for Nestor Molina. WHAT? No. That's not it. The 13th pick in the draft is on our team and will continue to contribute...we have control of him for years. If anything, Sergio Santos pitched just well enough that we were able to delicately develop Sale away from the tough closer's role (ala Reed right now). Also still trying to figure out why we were supposed to get a future ace for an average closer with just a year's track record in Santos. Chris Young - He and Adam Dunn are in a tight race for career batting average, stay tuned. Gio Gonzalez - Good player. We traded him for Thome (good deal) and Swisher (who you want back) Clayton Richard - Well. He's had one good full season in a pitcher's park, missed half of another with injury, and is now 28 and off to a slow start. Daniel Hudson - Promising young player, but again just one full season under his belt and a slow start underway. Traded him for a player you want. Edwin Jackson - Reliable starting pitcher/innings eater, the type of middle of the rotation production that you blasted Nestor Molina for projecting out to. David Holmberg (#7 prospect in DBacks system) - who knows, just a prospect Brian Goodwin, OF (#5 prospect in a deep Nationals system) compensation for Dunn - not fair to consider this a player lost Alex Meyer, RHP (#6 prospect in a deep Nationals system) compensation for Dunn - not fair to consider this a player lost Mark Buehrle - He's old. Sorry, the Marlins gave him way more money than he's worth. Kenny would have been blasted for spending the money. Sergio Santos - Career 3.5 ERA in the bullpen, now at 28 years old in just his third season he's doing his best Hector Santiago impression. Nick Swisher - Career .254 (.360 OBP) hitter that hits 20-30 HR/year and plays average defense in the corners. Played like s*** here and b****ed about getting benched for it. After that 35 HR season he seemed like he'd be great, but now he's over 30 and he's just an okay player. Ryan Sweeney - Hardly has played full time in his career and never found the power stroke that would define his prospect status. Slugging a grand ol' .386 for his career. Fautino DeLosSantos - His arm exploded as an A ball player after we traded him for a player you'd want back. Now he's 26 years old and just getting his first taste of middle relief. These players aren't that great??? Sure, it'd be nice to have another starting pitcher but we thought we had more than enough. I guess Swish/Sweeney might play over Viciedo but that's dumb, we want Viciedo there for 10 years. If Viciedo wasn't playing there he'd be on this list.

f*** Kenny for getting this guy gave up the whole farm

Moving Chris Sale may or may not be the right move -- I, like all of you, do not have all of the facts. But taking him in the draft was a given, that was a great pick.