Rowand44

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:47 PM) Bartolo is definitely the CY leader. I'd rank them Colon, Santana, Buehrle, Garland at this point. Also, I wanted to mention BIG MO deserves some dap. He's playing great for the Padres and contributed again tonight I really hope that continues. I want to see Olivo succeed real bad.

QUOTE(Dam8610 @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:48 PM) Actually, from what I saw tonight, all it'll take is Pods getting hot, getting on base often, and wreaking havoc on the basepaths. He created quite a few things for the offense today. Also a good point. I just used dye and aaron as examples because there have been points this season where they have carried the offense for stretches(especially dye). Having pods back is absolutely huge though, the game just changes when he's on base.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:46 PM) And remember this is the first win of whats going to be a nice winning streak (ie the Sox are gonna go on a roll winning series after series). I honestly believe this as well. The offense just was so impressive tonight, it's almost liked something clicked add that to the pickmeup bmac gave to this team, I can easily see a nice winning streak coming along.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:40 PM) Like I mentioned earlier in the year when he went back down. He was tipping his pitches and because of it he had zero confidence in throwing it. He made adjustments and got back the arm slot and has just been throwing blanks ever since. It was a fact of the opposition being able to read changeup mixed with him losing confidence in the pitch. He got the swagger back and its made a huge difference. He's also working on a 2 seamer IIRC and we'll see that a bit more this spring. I also heard some grumblings about adding a slider to his rep eventually, but I think the Sox plan on taking things slow when it comes to stuff like that. He has a plus change and curveball and a good fastball, thats bordering on plus because of his command. This is a very very impressive pitcher and assuming he stays healthy, he's going to have a very very bright future in this league. Its a blessing in disguise that the Sox didn't make any moves and if we hold onto Chris Young that will be another blessing if you ask me. The system has a few guys that I deem "special" and I think we will be lucky to watch them slowly gel in with some of the current players in potential creating a dynasty of sorts on the South Side of Chicago. Thanks for the info about the change, I did not know that. Also, yes I think Brandon is a special pitcher and a special player, I have not seen Young play much(besides the few ab's at the futures game) but he sounds like he just has absolutely outstanding talent, I'm very excited to see him play eventually.

QUOTE(Whitesoxfan56 @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:39 PM) um yea this tread should be deleted since they have a 7 game lead not a 6.5 game lead...get your facts right b4 u make a new tread buddy It was right at the time. After the loss of game 1 it was down to 6.5. And very good post r&w, a team can get hot the last few weeks of a season and have that carry them through. If we can get Dye or Aaron hot the last month and continue to have them hit the ball hard going into the playoffs then the offense all the sudden won't look so bad.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:31 PM) he should go out to eat with Jenks after the games. I think I remember an interview with him in spring training where he said he eats a ton and just can not gain any weight, I'm sure Bobby could take care of that though

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:29 PM) My 2 cents and we know I'm a huge huge Mac backer, but that was the best changeup I've seen all season this side of Johan. It was just a thing of beauty and he definately had some bounce in his step. Absolutely brilliant performance. It's just so nice to see him have confidence in all 3 of his pitches. It seems when his confidence level is up he never misses a corner with his fastball...that is just something I absolutely love to watch. The way Brandon pitches and throws strikes he is going to be a special pitcher imo, and it's not just from this start, I've been high on Brandon since I first saw him pitch in ST.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:24 PM) 1-1 in the top of the tenth. Zito and Colon both pitched nine innings, Colon working into the tenth. Dan Johnson with an awesome AB, like twelve pitches, then sprays a double to left field. K-Rod coming in, runner on third, one out. BTW -- I think I'm going to make two seperate "Down the Stretch" threads, in which you guys can post about the races not involving the Sox, i.e. not the AL Central. Would you guys like that/use it? Or would you rather have seperate threads that you guys make on your own? I think that's a great idea..Keith, I guess there is a first for everything Seriously though, I'm enjoying all of baseball much more this year down the stretch, last year I was bummed because of the sox and while I was still watching all the games it just wasn't very enjoyable for me.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 09:44 PM) Ok, so lets say Williams doesnt do anything, and the Sox make it to the series. Does he still fail??? Williams shaped this team into playoff caliber team, after 4 years off basic .500 records. Its hard for me to say he failes if he doesnt add Rich Aurilla. Kenny is the executive of the year most likely(him or beane) it's kind of hard to call him a failure when he reshaped the whole team and made them what they are today...

Nah, pitching guys on extra rest some times gets them a bit f'd up. If we can ever clinch this thing then give Brandon a start or two to set up the playoff rotation.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 09:30 PM) Remember how the Twins sent Santana to the minors to specifically work on his change? Did McCarthy have to do something like that? I'm sure someone can answer this better but for some reason he just stopped using it(I'm not sure if there was something wrong physically..?), in spring training that pitch made him effective and it's a plus pitch for him. When he's using that pitch he's going to be hard to hit, he's got a chance to be special and I really believe that.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 09:24 PM) Dye and Rowand with Pods getting on at the top could carry this team. They're looking good right now. I'm sticking to my guns, if we go into the playoffs with a few guys like this hitting, we're in good shape. I'm thinking and hoping tonight was the turn around day. I haven't seen our offense look that good in quite a while, very impressive day by the O.

Awesome, just an awesome performance. Way to go Brandon

Ok, here's the thing. Brandon makes the league minimum. We owe Jose 6 mill next year, Jose behind AJ burnett will be the best arm available. Jose could net us some good talent in return. Think about it, for the team it makes the most sense. Would it be better to get rid of the Duke...hell yes but he wont net us as much in return.

Brandon to Bobby..we'll be seeing that a lot in the upcoming years.

This is the Brandon Mccarthy we're going to be seeing next year and for years after that. Brandon for whatever reason didn't throw his change at all in his first few stints, now he's using it and it's just a very good pitch. Brandon has one hell of a curve, a very solid change and a good fastball, not to mention he throws strikes and knows how to pitch. He is going to be a good one. Great f'n job Brandon

Yay, we're going to make a trade....

Cmon now....

QUOTE(spiderman @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 06:56 PM) Nobody is saying that Burehle stinks - did you read that somewhere in this thread ? As I said, he's a good #2 starter, but do you honestly rank him as a true #1 starter ? If Buehrle hasn't been an ace this year...who has??

I'd say we've just been playing like absolute s*** for the last two weeks. We built up the lead so nicely when we were playing well that we still got a nice cushion after playing like complete s*** for the last two weeks. You don't call a team dead when they've been damn good all season minus a few weeks. Is the offense bad right now...hell yeah it is but they'll hit better I'll guarantee that. The thing is every team goes through ups and downs, right now we're playing awful but we'll get out of it and soon.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 03:26 PM) I would hardly call that a blast. He was way out in front of a change up. Stopped. threw his bat at it, got it off the end of the bat. and it went out to the shortest part of the park. Yes, someone please explain to me how that got out. He took an off balance swing at it and got it out.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 10:31 AM) People said that every time he pitched this year. It hasn't worked so far and I'll bet it won't work again. 5 runs, easy. 2 good outings, 3 terrible ones, so it has worked a few times. Big difference now is Bmac got himself righted in aaa, his first two stints with the big club he was struggling down in aaa.

QUOTE(Iguana @ Aug 30, 2005 -> 02:14 PM) Wasnt willie hitting .380 at one point while in AAA a year or 2 ago? Here's the difference, Ross hit well over .300 last year in the major leagues. Ross can hit, he can play a very good first base and he can run a little bit, there honestly is no reason for him not to be with the big club.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Aug 29, 2005 -> 06:01 PM) Isnt AJ a UFA? Can someone find me a link to his status?? With the $$$ thing, like I have said earlier in threads, NO ONE in Sox management knew they were going to have 20+ sellouts this year. Who knows how many games we will for the playoffs(if we get there )and I would have to expect a little increase in ticket sales. Moreover, if the Sox were to get bumped out in the 1st round pretty easy, which could happen very easily, I am truly confident in Ownership and KW that they would try to put us over the top for 2006 after a very dissipointing 2005 season(if we got knocked out 1st round.) Aj is arbitration eligible, so he'll be back next year.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 29, 2005 -> 05:57 PM) How do you figure we're going to have a lot of money? Unless we don't resign PK and trade someone like Contreras, I think you're only going to see minor additions to this team. We have a lot of money to be paid to guys like Garland and AJP. Payroll is going to go up a crap load that's why. Yes, the Konerko situation determines a lot but with the attendance spike and hopefully a nice long playoff run we'll have plenty of money to spend.