BrandoFan

How? He's never seen these pitchers before, he barely saw any fastball wiht sinking action on it, he's been struggling since the beginning of the year....AND YET HE IS STILL ON PACE FOR A WHOPPING 130 RBI'S OUT OF THE 5-6TH SPOT OM THE LINE-UP...and tha with Bernie Williams on DL, with Soriano/Jeter/Posada/Ventura mired in month-long slumps and with Giambi not having what you might call a great year just yet...Do you know how good he will be once Yankees are clicking, with significantly more base-runners and better line-up protection (read: more mistakes to crush)....I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't finish with 130-140 RBIs.....consdiering it's his first year, is it not "money" in your book? As soon as he familiarizes himself with the league and with a two-seam fastball (he's been maing progress lately), he will have NO WEAKNESS in his swing, literally. Is he going to put up Bonds-ian #s? Of crouse no, but OPS of 900-950+ and a TON of RBIs is not out of the question--from your CF'er at that! I say at 6-7 Mill (less than R. Alomar), he is absolutely worth the "gamble"....think of the Asian fan base this team will have.... (Too bad Yankees would never give Godzilla up. And neither would M's Ichiro. Cameron, on the other hand, can be had. )

Like Wright and Colon before him, Loaiza under-used his good fastball, throwing too many sliders and changeups in the zone. Since Grudzie, Gonzalez, Alou, Karros, Hernandez, Miller and Goodwin do not have a lot of batspeed, it only made sense to instill fear of the E-Lo's 91-93mph fastball early on so they couldn't sit on his breat&butter pitch...which they hammered repeatedly btw. At least Wright has terrible release point and severely decreased velocity on his heater (he went from throwing 93-97 his first start from AAA down to 88-90) and Colon was simply out of gas it seems before the game began......what's E-Lo's excuse for not going after normally weak-hitting Cubbies at all? Big mistake in retrospect.

The sox need to give Miles a try and trade for a CF. OR give Rowand a real shot, and trade for alomar. Jimenez, Harris and singleton are not answers. I REALLY doubt the sox are considering Singleton. They make stupid moves, but they arent THAT stupid. Why can't we get Ichiro or Matsui ** or Cameron? They each make about 7 Mill and are much better than 36yo Alomar since I still think Jimenez's bat will come around, his eye and swing are simply to good to sump like this as long as he stops overswinging. He is cheap too. (**- When Soriano, Jeter, Giambi, Posada and Bernie get on a hot streak--and they will--he will get on an RBI streak and will probably finish with 130-140, he is a money player. The knack on him eaerly on was he couldn't hit two-seamers his first time aorund since they barely throw them in Japan, but he has become noticeably better at it and will only improve...)

E-lo was flat...Olivo called a bad game.....Jimeenz played atrocious defense.....and Sox hitters stubborny overswung at Wood's already tough slider/slurve all game long, coming up empty in clutch....Sammy Choka hardly did anything worthwhile in the game. When Val hit that towering drive (it ended up missing a homer by literally 3-feet) in the 7th that would have tied the game, what was the stadium reaction when he hit it? I knew he missed it off the bat, but was making Fisk-like motions for a few seconds of it's flight....Awesome, lol.

I don't presume to speak for anyone else, but... Any child with savvy will tell you that Jose's is TWICE the defensive player is this year...and that is not so much a sign of how good Val is (although his last 35 games, he comitted only 2 errors while getting close to a ML lead on ZoneRating and DP/inn ratio in addition to coutnless tough plays) as it is of how GODAWFUL Jimenez has been. Some said Ray Durham couldn't come up with a play whe we needed him...well, DJ is MUCH worse- the two botched DPs alone on Friday and today would have led to a painful death if he was playing for Lou Pinella.......As it wasn;t enough, his range is TERRIBLE not because he is not athletic enough, but because he just doesn't care and can't anticipate for s***...and his DP-turning is pretty s***ty as well. Valentin has also been hitting as of late (even with 4 just missed homers in last 3 games and a two-month slump, he is still pretty solid overall and should only get better).....he has been hands down the best runner and bunter on this team all season long as evidenced by his runs scored despite a low OBP.......and, most importantly, he is an ABSOLUTE leader of this team-- alwats the first to laugh his ass of in the dugout; to hug his teammate; to mentor a rookie; and to deal with the media. As far as 5 million goes, his salary will only go down from here on and you may be a able resign him for a 2-3 Mill tops after this year. If D'Angelo starts hitting like he was, he will be making 4-5 Mill in arbitration in no time. This whole team was very lethargic and unproductive virtually all season long, Frank Thomas included......However, Pauyl Konerko singlehandedly killed us in KC series with his GIDPs and lack of range at 1st...and hasn't let up since. He is been THE worst hitter in baseball and deserves EVERY single criticism he gets. Bulls***...I was a big Jimeenz fan in March-May because his play warranted it......last month he has been nothing short of HORRRIBLE in every aspect of the game and I, as someone who is more or less sensible, am NOT going to live in the past and pretend all is well....What has he done for me lately, that little prick? Rick White has been Konerko of the bullpen and along with Koch and Glover nearly buried this promising team back in April-May....So excuse me if I don't get overly excited about near garbage-time 8 scoreless innings he's thrown...Whatever.

what is also weird is how a 32-year-old, $5 million man like Jose Valentin can receive so much slack, while a younger, less expensive Jimenez gets ripped on for defensive troubles. Paul Konerko now sucks when people LOVED him last year. Mark Buehrle, he's sucked at one point. god, I hate this s***. it is like too many always like to contradict themselves or refuse to give credit when credit is due. Rick White has now given up just two runs in 13 1/3 innings. a guy with a pretty decent career had a bad start to the season and people were saying how he sucked. yet I have not seen one person go out and say, "wow, he's picked it up a bit".

We should have swept them at the Urinal, winning the last game 3-1-ish if it wasn't for bad umpiring (Maggs call at 1st anyone) and couple of choke jobs with RISP. BUT we also should have lost on Friday and Saturday- we got totally outplayed but thatnks to Shammy Choka and the Six-Fingered Wonder, we stole both. And today, the way Wood was throwing that slider and the way we tried to do too much (I mean, Dauber and Rios have been around long enough to KNOW that sluve is pretty much un-HR-able and yet the better Wood threw it, it seems the harder they swung), we needed an excellent game from Loaiza to have a chance --and he responded by being merely OK, especially on that awful pitch to Alou....add to it Valentin's near-3-run homer...and the game was decided in the 7th. In the end, 4-2 is WAY better than 3-3. I am peaceful and content...relatively speaking of course.

Anthhony, it's not polite to switch monikers LMAO!

Dauber gets an absolutely 2-2 mistake and instead of smacking it down the right field line for a double, puts an ugly, vicious UPPERCUT swing...the rest is pop-up history...f***.

Keep watching then...if you want to be able to walk in the morning that is.

Hey, ya win some ya lose some. But it's also not over til the fat lady sings. You make playoffs some years....you miss playoffs in a terrible division in another....whp cares, right? How f***ing Zen!

The game was over at two points: --Mistake breaker right in Alou's wheel-house in the 4th --Valentin missing a game-tying homer by 3 feet in the 7th. Wood was simply good and our hitters were at once too sluggish and ambitious with their power swings. Again, bad pitch calling as well by Olivo/JM

No s***...

Rios hacking at his unhittable slurve...dumb f***, all he had to do is reel Wood in. Poor scouting and execution by Sox. Poor game calling. Poor everything.

And how did we do it? Not by crushing his filthy breaking stuff for homers, that's for sure. Short and quick, jump on mistakes.

f***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theyre trying too hard. IT happens. Hey, if the twinks and royals lose, it was a very productive weekend. Why would they "try too hard" on Wood...Why would anyone? With April-May-June we've had WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BECOME SELFISH AT THE PLATE AGAIN.

Our hitters want to heroes on virtually EVERY swing...wait-time on pitches is WAY too long considring how blazing Wood fastball is...he is no punk Zambrano, guys, so unless you're short/quick/level, you're pretty much f***ed. Hurt got two hittable fastball he should he smashed 400-feet to RIGHT FIELD...instead he wait too long to turn on them and strikes out. Elemental stuff- you're not going to beat Wood with solo home runs...you need a couple og baserunner on first and only THEN will get fall apart...sometimes.

Someone needs a nap. Very insighful

That piece of s*** Harris swinging for the fences on a 2-1 count against Wood...we need base-runners, we need to put pressure on Wood....you 5'9 slugger wannabe. Short and quick and leveled...GET IT?!

Another mistake breaker on 0-2 count Miller almost hit out....f***ing Olivo/Elo, why don';t you start challenging them with a fastball/cutter? Between Godwin/Gridzilanek/Miller/Karris/Alou/Henrnadez they have NO batspeed, so you're playing into their hands by throwing junk at them.

Is that a rhetrorical question?

Its in the past brotha, let it go. Oh, the power of New Age zombification...

From what I heard Wright got out of a bunch of jams. He may not have had his best stuff but he definitely "showed up". Even the best [pitchers have a bad game from time to time. We just have to hope the offesne can show what they are made of like the last 2 games. They need to let Wood pitch more and not swing at everything. He can be had when the pitch count goes up. 1. Wright is not a best pitcher, he is a "terrible" one. 2. Colon and his 4.20 ERA also doesn't look all the great. At least a 38-yo David Wells had an injured back as his excuse...Colon is just mediocre. 3. ELo is hanging a breaking ptich after breaking pitch is not trying to jam these hitters with good fastball inside/up. Whether it's Olivo or JM's fault I don't care. 4. When was the last time Prior-Wood-Zambrano/Zito-Hudson-Mulder had a back-to-back bad starts?

I still don't know who called for that patiful pitch on Alou...he hit an idendical one out in Wriggley just last week against us... Amazing.