BrandoFan

I know you speak fluent German, do you like Wings of Desire?

No, 2 dropped balls AND at least 2 misplayed line-drives (including Hollansworth's "triple") AND failing to take charge on a crucial Uribe drop.....in a week should keep Gload from ever playing RF again, unless Sox re-acquire Brian Daubach and it comes down to two of them. And in retrospect, I don't mind that 2nd drop in Wrigley as much as I do his other f***-ups - the Cubbie baserunner was standing on 2nd with NO outs, which means even if Gload catches the ball on the warning track in RF, the runner tags up and moves to 3rd with 1 out. I think the next Cub batter either hit a deep FO or singled, which would have scored the guy from 3rd anyway. I don't think Cubs scored another run that inning, so Gload can't be charged with losing the game - as was the case at USCF.

Hi, Corg long time no post.

Yeah....Think of Mariotti's column the next day.

no s***, Spiff. That guy is talking about a gun - what if this elaborate fantasy was sociopath Ncorbgl's sole reason for waking up in the morning? So quickman gets shot in the face at the ballpark and Ncorgbl is dragged off to the looney bin to the strains of an Elton John cover.....What does that accomplish again?

Blalock didn't just pick up the power out of nowhere. He is surprisingly strong and has a quick bat. The only thing he needed to become a legit slugger was to actively try to elevate the ball - well, he had to make contact with the ball first Nothing I saw of Reed (which admittedly is 2 series worth) indicates he will be that kind of a player. I agree on the high OBP part, though. Anderson/Sweeney are a different story as far as power potential.

Glad to see someone here understands what's up.

Yes Yes No No No No No You got 2 out of 7 right. Congrads.

The crow-eating should have been done in the first 2 months of the season when Uribe was an All-Star stud. Now, after Uribe has been brutal for a while, let's not f***ing jinx him, ok? Lord knows, Juan needs a cold hard look at himself because he has stunk up the joint lately. Terrible approach that might earn him a trip down to the minors if he doesn't do something radical about it. So he didn't screw up with a man at 3rd and 1 out and game tied....Timo Perez's 2-out 3-run hit was WAY, WAY more clutch and he's the hero of the game.

IF Thomas undergoes surgery, then Steve Finley goes from "gee, wouldn't it be nice to acquire his LH power stick and experience".......all the way to "oh s***, we better get him because our offense is f***ed". I am not suggesting Finley can replace Frank's bat by himself. So a DH (or even a LF/RF since Lee/Maggs could always be moved to DH) needs to be acquired as well.

He has shuffled the proverbial deck many times over. Sat Valentin - Uribe went 0-for 4. Sat Perez - Gload killed the team with his glove and his bat Sat Uribe and Crede - Willie went 2 for 30 and Valentin - 3 for 16 Sat Alomar - Burke and Davis are 1 for 18 Sat Rowand - Timo goes 2 for 15 Thomas goes 3 for 20-whatever out of the blue. No Maggs. Loaiza's last 4 starts? Brutal. Replace him with Rauch? Buerhle totally bombs against Montreal an Tribe? Grilli? Garland ERA reaches 4.80 before the last start? Yofu? Freddy's ERA is 6.00+ as a Sox? Stewart? Diaz and Munoz are batting practice. Honel? What other changes can he make that will transform this team from losers to winners?

Harvey has been very solid, true, but I didn't know that solid players on terrible teams = All-Star berth. Kong has been robbed and its a f***ing shame. At least with Frank Thomas, you could say that he is a DH and should lose points because of that (BS) and because he is mired in a big slump right now......With Kong, no way.

I don't think it's terrible - just very, very mediocre. Brian Daubach - now THAT is terrible defense...... And his arm is actually not bad at all - better than Pierre's, Lofton's, Patterson's, Willie's. I am not suggesting he has to be an everyday player here (I wanted him gone a month ago )......I am just saying that today's hit was Valentin-esque in its momentum-swinging significance. Big-time clutch right there. Go Timo, I guess. For now.

Ok, maybe "he can't do anything" was the wrong way of putting it. "There is not much he can do, really" sounds better. Until Frank, Maggs are back and swinging their best......until Freddy and Loaiza pitch like front-line pitchers are supposed to, and Garland grows a pair.....and until 1 of Willie/Uribe/Crede has a big-time light-bulb go off in his head..........Ozzie will look like a bad manager.

Yankees are Yankees. Superior talent and a ton of experience. They were bad earlier this year, but then A-Rod, Jeter, Sheffield, Matsui, Williams, Mussina, Contreras remembered who they are and righted the ship. Torre had very little to do with it. And Ozzie in his 1st year ain't Torre. Texas? They are more talented than you give them credit for. And it goes back to Sox players not doing their job. If I didn't see this s*** under Manuel, then I MIGHT blame Ozzie a little more....but I AM recognizing the old sins of 2002-2003, and because of that I simply cannot lay the players' or GM's or owner's failures on Ozzie. How do you propose Ozzie goes about "not tolerating it"? Pull a Larry Bova? Have you seen what that "hard-ass motivator"'s 100-win talent team is doing this year? Even mired in a huge slump, Valentin still has an 850+ OPS, with high clutch indicators ('Close and Late' OPS, etc), still-quality baserunning and as always underrated D. Furthermore, he is one of the few Sox players who actually hits RHP well - and in the playoffs, you'll be going up against Hudson, Mussina, Vasquez, Brown, Pedro, Wakefield, Shilling, Harden.............Ok, so you bench him. Put newly acquired Valdez dude in his place. He'll give you a 650-675 OPS, average clutch numbers and will be a wash on the pads and only a slight upgrade defensively. Is your team better off? Same goes for many other players not named Valentin as well. Ozzie's hands are tied, plain and simple. And yes, it sucks that Lou Piniella is able to squeeze so much out of the D-Rays or the Millwakee guy - out of his Brewers. But Sox are Sox.

And how the F is he supposed to do THAT? Valentin has stuck to switch-hitting 3 years past the point of futulity. Do you think at the age of 34 he is going to listen to Ozzie, level his swing and start hitting to all fields? Come on now, Lou Piniella couldn't make him do what he doesn't want to do. He'd bench him, sure, but it would accoplish nothing. Burke, Gload, Davis are not ML starting material, should Ozzie pull a magic wand out of his ass and make them more talented? Cotts can't get a breaking ball over. Jackson has no fastball. Politte has been horrible for a while, too. What do you want Ozzie to do about it? Uribe's approach is a mess as well - Ozzie could always bench him, but who's gonna play in his place? Crede just sucks - good, earnest guy but his mechanics and batspeed are just not there. And Willie....And Loaiza.... Jerry Manuel couldn't motivate his way out of a paper bag skin color test....But I've always thought he got TOO much flak and his PLAYERS got too little - they were the selfish choke-meisters, they were the ones losing all those imporant games in 2002 and 2003, remember? Don't get me wrong, I agree that Ozzie is far from blameless. But there is only so much he could do right now. Nothing was clicking last week. Starting pitching? Horrid. Relief? Mediocre. Offense? Bad. Against Cubs and Angels? That s*** won't fly against Devil Rays on most nights.

with that CLUTCH 2-out atbat against K-Rod. Didn't get selfish, didn't try to hit a HR, and instead of a pop-up, got a 3-run single . That's the kind of heroics Sox are gonna need in the playoffs since they won't be good enough to roll people over and just about every at bat will be of critical importance. Kudos to Konerko, too. Very good approach.

He is your typical rookie manager, for better or for worse. No Thomas. No Ordonez. Take Anderson and Guerrero (their Thomas and Ordonez) out of the Angels' line-up and see what happens. Suddenly Guillen and Devanon (their Konerko and Lee) won't be as effective, either. What can he do when Cotts and Jackson are walkng BP machines when the game is even remotely on the line? What can he do when all Uribe and Valentin want to do is hit a towering (apparently, a line drive kind is for commies only) HR to LF and RF respectively? Bench them? Who do you put in their place, Valdez and Nelson? What can he do when his ace, Loaiza, is terrible - as he has been in his last 4 starts? Can he make Burke, Gload and Davis into major-leaguers when they're not? Maybe he could hit for Willie, the guy who's called upon to be what Durham was for the 2000 team? Could he pitch for Diaz while he's at it? When players are healthy and performing to their abilities, THEN we can pick apart Ozzie's on-field decisions. Until then, Ozzie is just along for the ride.

Guerrero drops it. TIE GAME.

Bulls***, you crap-eating weasel you. Any moron could look up team ERA. That was never in question - Barry Zito had an ERA of 6.00 at one time and Matt Ginter - 2.50. I guess by your logic Ginter was better than Zito, eh? What was in question, however, is CUBS' superior rotation - since at the time Freddy Garcia hadn't been acquired yet, we were basically comparing Loaiza-Buerhle-Garland-Show-Diaz to.....Prior-Wood-Zambrano-Clement-Maddux. Gee...which starting 5 is "better".....?

I made that post during the Sunday win over the Cubs and people were barking at me for speaking against Loaiza when he got a Win - which was coming on the heels of Tribe Hammering no less. Two starts and an All-Star selection later, I hope they start realizing something is REALLY wrong with E-Lo. As in "this guy is supposed to lead us to the World Series??!!" wrong.

Pitching like a pussy? That's what people were saying about Wright when he was nibbling. You know what happened next? He went AT batters and was prompty HAMMERED into submission.....and went right back to nibbling. Say what you will about "dreaded" walks - I'll take them over "dreaded" HR any day. It's his stuff. And his control. Less velocity, less movement, average control = not Loaiza of 2003.

You have to judge by the OUTCOME. 1st pitch pop-up to RF/1B/2B is bad. 1st pitch line-out to RCF gap is good.

Judge the at-bat by the quality of contact. 1st pitch line-out is better than a 10th pitch bouncer that has eyes, or is mishandled by an infielder and is scored as a hit. Sometimes a hard-hit out is better better than a flukey hit. Better be lucky than good may work in the stock market, but over 162 game baseball season, you want good and not luck.