BrandoFan

"Talking s***"? If you don't realize that Sox badly need an ace pitcher - or at worst a good #2 -- then you're either blind or stupid, or both. I was being generous when I said he was a #2 - last 2 years, he's been a #3 at best. He had to win this game, he had to take pressure off Rauch like an ace pitcher would. He failed miserably. When it comes to Esteban and Buerhle, fool me once.....

Can we just pretend that everything that's happened since the Angels series is just a bad acid trip or something? Truly horrible stuff. Speaking of White....He and Koch were kept in prominent roles more than a month past their expiration dates because Sox weren't about to spend anything over the budget. It ended up costing the team at least 4 wins - and pretty much the division in retrospect. Who will bury the Sox the most this season, Politte, Cotts or Jackson?

:puke

That pitch to Brousard was 88 mph, knee high, middle-in. Billy Goat couldn't throw a pitch that bad if he tried. But to be fair, Buehle stunk. He wasn't bad - he was TERRIBLE. It would be unfair to ask Gagne to save the day with bases loaded and no outs, let alone Action Jackson. Just a terrible, terrible loss. If this game was won, then Rauch wouldn't have to come up with a do-or-die win tomorrow. We can't head into Cubs series 3 games over .500. Why wasn't Garcia in the Sox uniform after Rauch blew the game against Angels and why was Koch closing - after he almost imploded in Baltimore? Makes no f***ing sense.

Easy: Minnesota has been one of the most overrated teams in baseball since 2002. We made them look much better than they were in reality. If Indians circa 1995-2001 were still around in 2003 and 2004, they'd be winnig this division by 12-15 games easily. I still cannot get over Sox losing the division in 2003 - and this year it's deja vu time. There is absolutely no reason for it to be this way. None.

I see a sitcom in the future for those two

Everybody should be ashamed of themsleves - including the Two Blind Bozos Farmer and Rooney who not only proclaimed that ball to be long gone, that it brought rain down with it or some other contrived crap, but ALSO did the same s*** with with Frank's drive a few minutes before - as in "the pitch....Frank just made it a 1-run game, folks.....oh no, the wind has got....." Honestly, Chip Carey has never been this useless./=

Right now Burhle would be lucky to beat out Maddux for the 5th spot in their rotation.

There was a "Corspseball" thread once upon the time. Right after the Sox dropped the first two games against Minnesota at home to fall to season-low mark, somebody in that thread predicted that a winning streak is coming and fans shouldn't be fooled since it wouldn't last long, so hopefully Sox management realizes it that further reinforcements are needed and makes good on its promise to do everything in its power to "win". Lo and behold, the next day after prediction was made, they handily beat the Twins to salavage the series, then rattled off series of exciting wins at Cle, at Minn, against Texas, Angels.....All of the sudden the record is 31-22 and things are looking up as they haven't since 2000. Then all our weaknesses get exposed within a week's span, the winning streak ended just as aburptly as it began - as predicted by just about everybody in that thread. Now why couldn't the Sox realize what many Soxtalk posters instinctively knew, that there is a GIGANTIC hole in the rotation and two more in the bullpen that will directly AND indirectly lead to ridiculus amount of losses? Why was Koch allowed to literally turn the season around in Oakland and Seattle? And the 5th starter debacle..... :puke

Was there ever a doubt that Buerle is not a #1 and that Sox need an ace pitcher? But of course Sox will wait until this team is sunk for good before even contemplating pulling the trigger...... Why should Cooper not be thrown out on his ass again?

Jackson, Politte, Cotts, Adkins....They make Wunsch, Howry, Barcelo and Simas look like HOF'ers. :puke

Oh, hello.

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair....."

Holy s***!

Sox are just finding out just how valuable Wunsch was last year. Cotts is absolutely brutal right now. When he misses the SZ, he misses by a foot. When he hits it, a hitter has this huge grin on his face mid-way through the ball's flight because he knows the fat part of his bat is about to connect. Much is made of Lawton's HR, but the previous batters that inning - Blake, Belliard and Crisp - all got cookies and JUST got under them, sending towering fly balls to LF-LCF. As sharp as Neal was before the fateful Josh Phelps episode, he is everybit as BAD now.

No, IMO Cubs are a GREAT team once Wood is back. That's just reality, whether people want to admit or not. A team that has one of the greatest pitchers of modern era Greg Maddux as its 5th starter and red-hot Hollansworth/Walker riding the pine should be the favorite to win it all - and they are. The only team I see beating them is Boston if they ever get a #3 starter. Yankees might too if Brown is healthy. That's about it. Their BP weakness is exaggerated, but I am sure Hendry is looking for a good arm as well speak. Hawkins is fine as the closer. Yeah Colon had a chance to totally ruin their roadtrip and instead he got them on HUGE winning streak that will probably culminate in them taking 5 out of 6 from the Sox.

I don't fault Ozzie there for not bunting: 1. It was a high scoring game, so 1 run might not have been enough. Ozzie was proven right - Shingo had AWFUL top of the 9th, giving up 3 consecutive liners right at people - Tribesmen could have just as easily scored 2-3 runs that inning if they got a little luckier. 2. This is not a good bunting team, there is no guarantee the suicide works - Indians were throwing some serious leather all game long, and with the way Riske was mowing through our line-up, I am sure it would have been botched somehow. 3. Aaron was hitting EVERYTHING hard lately. We're not talking about cold-as-hell Willie here. Taking the bat out of his hands wouldn't have been wise. Again, Ozzie was proven right - Aaron smoked the ball, but right at Brusard. Bunting is not always a good recourse. Remember the 17-14 game in Canada? At some point early in the game both team tried to lay down a bunt, or at least faked the intent. In retrospect, if the bunt had been layed down, even if a successful one, it would have robbed a team of an out - and considering Expos had an inning where they scored 7 runs with 2 outs, who knows how the complexion of the game would have been changed.....And then you got Willie bunting in the 8th and taking the Sox out of a BIG inning as well. As far as Ozzieball goes - it really IS an attitude. But the SMALL-ball aspect of it is extremely overrated: -- Sox are a TERRIBLE hit-n-run team (already resulted in numerous baserunners getting hung out to dry). At some point, you have to realize it's counter-productive. -- Sox baserunners are simply not good - most lack the speed and/or the smarts to steal bases at a high-%......Look at Uribe - 7 steals with 4 CS, which is bad enough, but he also has 2 pick-offs, so in reality he has 6 CS in 13 attempts. Terrible. Willie Harris stopped running period - he's getting to0 scared of being picked off now, so his leads aren't good but what's worse, he can't read the pitcher like Beltran, Roberts, A-Rod and Podsednik can. Valentin has a bad leg and hasn't been much of a threat since 2001 injury. Olivo is a mediocre base-stealer - Carlos and Magglio are bad this year as well. Rowand's 7 for 8, but it should be 6 for 8 because one "SB" was a botched pick-off run-down in Toronto. I guess he and Willie are the only ones you can run with on consistent basis. -- Bunting skillz or lack thereof has already been mentioned. I do like that this team is aggressive at scoring from 1st on doubles and 2nd on singles despite having rather average team speed and agility. I like that they make the other team pay for its errors. I also like that they hustle on grounders and force-out plays - Valentin beat another one last night. But at the same time I EXPECT that kind of effort from a play-off caliber team, so I am not sure if I want to give credit for something they should be doing ANYWAY.

Ah f*** that - are we not the 800-pound gorilla in this division, or are we "just happy to be here"? Sick of all the excuses for why we drop games to Indians, Jays and Expos of this world. On nights when Loaiza is facing Elarton at home, Marte and Shingo shouldn't even have to pitch, let alone throw 2 innings apiece.

June 10th has a nice ring to it.

Indians are one of the better mistake-hitting teams in the majorsas Loaiza found out - as helpless as Tribesmen looked in the first 4 innings when E-Lo was sharp, they were just as scary when E-Lo/Cotts were getting too much of the plate in the 5th. Tonight was the biggest game of the season. Now Buerhle must show just why they call him (do they, though?) the Big Stoppa'. If he wins, Sox are 6 games over .500 and Rauch's start is no longer a must-win. If he loses.....Mercy, that's not what we want heading into Cubs series.

Is it possible to do this chart since Walker took reigns as a hitting coach instead of rather abitrary All-Star Break? Thanks.

Coco Crisp's greedy swing notwithstanding, I really did not like the way Shingo pitched today as compared to his previous outings - in his 1st inning of work, he fell behind and throw 3 meatballs that were lined at 2B, CF and RF - could have been 3 hits just as easily. He got into a bit of trouble in the 2nd inning as well. I know that compared to Koch, Shingo is rock'n'roll, but something about Indian hitters staying back nicely and Shingo not hitting his spots as crisply (with his velocity not painting corners = death) bothered me. Oh well.

Kenny (read: Jerry) is really trying to f*** all this up. Those cheaporoos don't realize how much better this club would have been if only they had spent just a few Mill more 3 weeks ago - and gotten rid of Koch, that goes without saying. Sox need an ace pitcher -- at the very minimum a #2. It would do wonders as far as improving the rest of the rotation as explained in another thread. And I am not so sure Coop is such a great pitching coach, either. If recent history is any indication (Bevington, Manuel, Ward, Nardi, Kimm, Wavin' Wally, etc), he is just another cheap hire that willl end up hurting this team in the long run. The jury is still out deliberating. Buerhle, Garland, Cotts, Wright and a ton of rookies that have come and gone - what has he done for them that was great? IIRC, Loaiza was a vet who pitched great out of 2003 ST as soon as he arrived, so I am not sure how much credit Coop gets and how much of is the rejuvenated Loaiza actually using his head and giving a damn about the game. Shoenweiss is the only one who's really benefited from his presence from what I've seen, but let's see how Coop is going to get him back on track in the next few weeks. Starting from the Cubs series.

Lately, even his outs were hard line-outs to CF - in Montreal and today.