Rowand44

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 11:59 PM) 1.) Veteran team or not, the offense on that Diamondback team, for the most part, sucked. Luis Gonzalez was good, Reggie Sanders and Mark Grace were decent. They had a pretty good bench, which helped, but for their starters, they had three above average hitters. The Twins are a much more well-rounded team, and as of a couple weeks ago, got better at three different positions, without even mentioning the pitching. The left side of the infield just got a HUGE upgrade, replacing Castro with Bartlett and Batista with Cuddyer. Jason Kubel is finally healthy, and is hitting the way he was pre-injury. Morneau is flashing his power potential. Need I mention Mauer? 2.) So, Johan Santana is going to flip the calander, see it's September, and start to suck? Or, wait -- Liriano is going to do that, right? 'Cause he's a rookie? Is that what you're saying? No real good reasoning, just that their young, and don't have that mystical "veteran presence"? Ha. Ha ha. The kid made the point that two pitchers (starters, as he was pointing to Santana and Liriano) can't carry a team. They most certainly can. It helps when you have a guy challenging to hit .400, a decent back-of-the-rotation, a good bullpen, and a decent overall lineup. *Yeah, and before I get jumped all over, having people say "so you'd rather have the Twins team?", no, I'm not saying that. First off, I was making an off-hand comparison between the Twins and the D-Backs, not the Sox. The Twins are going to the playoffs one way or another.

QUOTE(flbob @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 09:27 PM) of course, the sox have started the week 0-2 (i start weeks on sunday, even if mlb starts them on mondays. how convenient!) :7) Well Obviously I was talking about starting today considering a new series started. Like I said, the Tigers will have a losing week.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 07:20 PM) That is absolutely TERRIBLE. I have listened to his show once, and it was enough. That was brutal.

Tied.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 07:08 PM) Yes, hysterical.......... I was cracking up :rolly

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 07:07 PM) what happened? Maggs and Willie, same scenario.

Man, hopefully Tad is ok. Ouch

Jermaine is wearing some funny looking cleats.

Punch AJ. How clever.

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 05:53 PM) ozzie just now on the score,pregame: "1st of all, i dont choose schilling because i dont like him" who does? That makes two of us.

Ahh dh.

By the way, Detroit will have their first losing week in a while. You heard it here first.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 03:52 PM) What do game threads have to do with this one? I just don't like this lumping of everything negative in one pile. I get tired of the Garland stuff too, but I also get tired of the 'Coop and his magic fingers' response to any crap pitching performance. Anything lacking thought. But suppose there were a thread giving some facts about Uribe's performance in past years, suggesting that it should be smooth sailing the rest of the way (looking at monthly splits or something, I dunno, just throwing something out), and makes the point that 'defense is important' -- I'm not gonna go in there and tell the op that he's just another Goldilocks with his eyes shut to what's happening on the field. Why is so damn hard to look at the merits of the post you're responding to, not some post that annoyed you yesterday? Well, I think some people just get tired of seeing negative crap day in and day out from a team that is 25 over, that's all I'm saying and that's why I threw the game threads in there, cause a lot of times those are just unreadable. Anyways, I see what you're saying but imo a lot of it can be overboard at times and that's what pushes peoples buttons. Also, like I said, I think everyone on this board realizes that the starters need to get better and it really has been discussed numerous times, I didn't think this thread was necessary because everyone understands already the point he was trying to get across but whatever that's done already. There are definitely people here who are just giving constructive criticism but there are also others who do seem to be panicking.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 03:28 PM) But is it here, in this thread? The question is whether it's possible here to make a negative point and not be shouted down. There are always plenty of threads here that come through the negative view point. I also think what people hate around here is how ridiculous game threads can get and that kind of flows over onto other threads. When you see a poster say "GARLAND f***IN SUCKS" for letting up two runs in an inning and then he shuts them down the rest of the way, next thing you see that same poster make a real negative post and you realize how reactionary some people can be. Anyways, my point is when things go wrong for a little while this board becomes 100 percent negative with people literally jumping off buildings(choke avatars anyone). When you some some pessimists start threads like this, it's pretty natural for optimists to come into the thread and shoot them down a little bit especially when you have a team 25 games over .500 on July 3rd. To me, this is is just an unnecessary thread, I mean "White Sox maybe be in trouble if pitching doesn't come around," well...duh, everyone knows that.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 03:17 PM) Calling it panic doesn't make it panic. Sure seems like there is some panic. I've seen a ton of "our starting pitching sucks. We're not going far in the playoffs with this starting pitching." There sure are a lot of posters who give up on players REAL early on this site.

The rally one and Thornton have exceeded my expectations the most. Coming into the season I really wasn't expecting that much more out of Joe then he has given us before but obviously he has far exceeded that. Thornton on the other hand is becoming a dominant set up man and has just been awesome as of late. I thought maybe he could be something decent given some time but definitely not this good. Thome and Jenks I expected to be great so not really that surprising to me. Vaz has been the biggest disappointment to me. I expected him to come in here and basically be a pretty solid 3 starter because he has pretty darn good stuff and with how Kenny has been after him for a while, I thought maybe there was something that the Sox knew was wrong with him. Unfortunately, the thing that is wrong with him is his mental toughness and that's not something that can be fixed. I definitely haven't given up on Javy but he's the one pitcher on our team that I'm not sure can turn it around. Garland I expected to regress back a little bit but definitely not this much, so he's been disappointing but I expected it to a point, but he'll get a better this season, there is no doubt in my mind.

So are we just going to have a new thread on this everyday? I think everyone on this site knows that our starting pitching needs to get better and to be honest, it's going to get better. Another thing that comes into this whole equation is our bullpen that is much better then was advertised. Our starters have obviously not been getting the job done but our pen(minus cliff) has been able for the most part to hold opponents right where they were at and allow our offense to come back, which they've been doing plenty of. Remember at this time last year, we had 3 pitchers that were doing pretty solid, another who wasn't good at all and really had 0 upside and another who we had no idea what we were getting from, from start to start. Our starters do need to get better but it's pretty ridiculous to panic about it on July 3rd.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 03:34 AM) 98% Star Game It's just a clash of cultures Awesome.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:52 AM) I'm pretty sure that's how Jose Lopez got in. Cano and Rios are both injured and have already been replaced, not sure who took Alex' spot. Gary Matthews Jr.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:51 AM) Isn't Cano hurt? Wouldn't Gooch be an injury replacement for him? Lopez is the replacement, already been named.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:46 AM) Schilling can go f*** himself and so can the Red Cub nation. They voted in a 250 f***ing hitter. When you decide to vote in trash because he is one of your beloved Red Cubs, the you can f***ing cry when your precious little bloody sawx moron doesnt get in. Schilling over values himself, and he can go to hell. Hafner is not having a better year than either Konerko or Thome. So he can eat s***, and so can the Tribe fans who think otherwise. And to the tiger fans who for whatever reason inhabit this board. Take your b****ing and whining and self importance elsewhere. I could care if you feel that Jimmy is a better person and would take x player because of his neutralism. Ozzie saw Verlander 2 times. He got hit pretty well both times. Dye deserves to go over Magglio. I think its awsome that Ozzie took his team. The yanks and red cubs have been doing this for years. Now we do it, and we are the bad guys. Pound sand. Lets vote AJ in and make it a lucky 7. Such an awesome post.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:25 AM) On the flipside, this may be so new that if they have the right attitude they won't realize they should feel the pressure. Its usually one or the other (not so much in between) but I do think the Tigers are going to be a major player in the central for the next few years and technically speaking you could definately make a case for them being built for long term success (ie the next 3-5 years). Of course a ton can happen during that time and the Sox (while we are a bit older) still are a relatively young team aside from a few players with most of our core guys locked up. Minny should join the fray and if Cleveland makes the right changes they will be around too. Its gonna be a dogfight year in year out for the best division in baseball (currently home to the 2 best teams in baseball). You forgot the Royals . Detroit is going to be in this thing for a while but I just don't think this year they have enough to win it. Next year though, them and Minny are going to be two of the better teams in all of baseball(they are this year too). This division is just getting better and better and it's pretty scary.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:13 AM) I would call this year more the fluke, cause I highly doubt he's going to be this bad next season. IMO, he can get semi close to his career numbers from last year than he will this season unless he puts off surgery cause it's quite obvious he's not 100%. Well if he's healthy I completely agree but he seems to have lost something off his fastball. Relievers for the most part are just so hard to judge from year to year.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 02:04 AM) I really don't think you can say last year was a fluke. He was absolutely DOMINANT last year. It's not like he was just getting "lucky" for the entire year. He was just unbelievable. Sometimes, players just can't do it two years in a row, they run out of gas. But I think its very unfair to say last year was a fluke. It was a fluke year because it was completely against his career norms. I don't agree with Nite that he was lucky last year however, he was just absolutely dominating last season. Cliff's been an avearge reliever all his career and last year was just a flash in the pan.