BrandoFan

Oh and another baseball philistine weighs in. Where's the 'yawn' smilie when you need it? You want to discuss Dranfelt's 4-run error? Since it has nothing whatsoever to do with Jose, might I suggest opening another thread?

Over 1 week perhaps. Over 4 years (2000-2003), it stops being "luck". It's silly to suggest otherwise.

How do you figure? His value is at its absolutel lowest, there is no longer a bike accident excuse. Who is going to start against LHP? Timo can't hit them. Valentin is weak against them. Willie is overmatched. Aaron has made his living on lefties. Which should now be his platoon role.

f*** Piazza. Chokes badly against the Cubs and single-handedly revives Maddux's confidence. But beats Houston and Dotel. :fyou

And yet NOBODY can pronounce Slavic names correctly/fluently on consistent basis, be it hockey announcers, fans, etc. Reminds me about the stories of how Europeans were butchering Mario Lemieuaiuex in the 80's.

Jon Miller Ernie H Hawk-n-Wimpy Costas Farmer

Unfortunately, 'fine' is acceptable from Schoenweiss and Koch.....From Frank Thomas, anything less than "excellent" is uncivilized. Frank's unbelivably bad on the road. There are 81 road games, and with the rest of the Sox offense underachiving again, as someone who wants a salary increase and bids for HOF, Frank should be Sluggin and driving in runs there WAY, WAY more than he does now. With Rowand, if he can Slug 500, you are ecstatic. With Frank, it's an absolutely MINIMUM.

The irony here, of course is that NO White Sox player gets as many border-line strikes called 'balls' as Frank does. It's gotten to a point where he is glaring and jawing at the ump after taking a pitch right there. Solution? Frank doesn't have the batspeed to drive the ball to RCF-RF, but he CAN spoil the f*** out of away pitches and dump them one by one into RF-RCF for singles - like he did in Baltimore. I know Hurt doesn't want to "sacrifice" power but at some point he has to say to himself, "O Great One, 'tis better to bloop than to pop" If he is ahead in the count, then by all means cheat and drive. But if he's behind, esp with 2 strikes, with RO/RISP......Maybe shortening that big swing and punching it to RF will work, too. Selfishness IS stupidity when you go up against ML pitching that will exploit your weaknesses in a nano-second.

This is soooooo White Sox: this should have been done in April-May 2003, maybe we would have been in the playoffs, what with 19 start winless streak and all. :puke Too little, too late in other words.

Just be glad this poll stops short of delving into the good ol' stereotype that marries homosexuality and pedophilia. Progress has definately been made.

Reading is a skill, Dick. Of course his error can cost runs - just less than they should (as in 2000 and 2003), and so far they TOTAL less than Uribe's misplay against the Indians ALONE.

Uribe had a couple of very costly plays, Willie blew a few DP's, Crede can be too passive....but overall, I think Sox have one of the best infield 4 in the majors - even with errors, Uribe-Valentin-Harris-Crede have a ton of range and very good arms. This is for 2003 Val needs to cut the routine error crap no question, but other than that, infield defense is the least of Sox worries.

He'll still finish around 20 for the season, trust me. Last year he was on pace to 50 errors this time around, and then all of the sudden just started paying attention on routine plays and stopped making errors. Uribe played less at SS this year and already led to MORE runs defensively. He misplayed a routine chopper (I think by Vizquel or Belliard) and gave the 4th out to the Indians and they tagged the Sox for 5 runs. 5 runs is more than Jose's 8 errors caused COMBINED. And Uribe is an excellent fielder. With a horrible 8-error start, Jose's ZoneRating has definately dropped but it's still 5th best in the league, it dropped to just under 900 after yesterday's game. That mean he made outs on close to 90% of groundballs and line-drives hit in his direction. By comparison, the brilliant Omar Vizquel is at 82%, Renteria at 81% and Christian Guzman is at 76%. Think about it for a second. And mind you, Valentin has nowhere to go fielding-wise but UP at this point, so the 90% number will reflect that.

BS. Just as his errors put "stress" on a pitcher....the leaping catches, deep in the hole gunning, relay throws, tough DP pivots and other similar plays "relieve" such stress. Or did you think 3 above-average plays don't uplift a pitcher as long as the error is made? How disingenuous.

First of all, Jose is 34 and no longer in prime velocity-wise. Duh. Secondly.....part of the reason why Jose finished 2003 on a really good note defensively was because he took a lot off his throws as per to Santana's advice. He short-arms it more now, almost leisurely. Watch the velocity on Jose's relay throw against the Cubs last year or some of the the DP pivot throws on bang-bang plays at 1st. You'll seriously reconsider your statement. Uribe throws very hard but Valentin can still get it up there on occasion. Uribe is going to win a GG some day, maybe as early as next year. But before that happens, he needs to take better reads/routes to the ball. Maybe then he'll avoid 5-run-causing f***ups against the likes of Cleveland.

Mebelieves in ze old countreee vee call'd it "gleefully reveling in one's ignorance"

Hey now, we are all somebody's b****, Spiff, aren't we? Wite is my b****. I am CW's b**** CW is God's b****. And there is a good chance God is wite's b****. It's a circle of life.

Of course Rockmeister had a f***ed up elbow and shoulder - his most dominant 3 innings were against the Cubs 2 years ago, right before going on the DL. Untouchable. It's funny but Jon Rauch out-pitched Sheets in 2000, both in mL and Olympics.

El tumorino?

It's easy. If you understand the nuances of hitting in general, and are familiar with Sox hitters' peculiarities and track history, you could sometimes even tell as soon as the balll is released if it's going to be hit, how and where. [/slight exaggeration] I don't need to know what's going on in the hitters' minds to know that judging by their approach and results, the last few years, they were selfish, stupid chokers when it mattered the most. And then you have games like today when everyone is relaxed (but in an intense way), is seeing the earlier and making real major league contact. Unfortunately, these games are few and far in between. Should the Sox make the playoffs, they will have a completely different atmosphere to battle in. Road games. Better, more experienced offenses to go tit-for-tat with -- doing so against tougher pitchers, naturally. With the nation watching. They will probably fail miserably, but we shall see.

People were calling for his head after : Uribe and especally Harris-Robbie comparisons So far: -Willie is out-hitting Robbie's 2003-2004 #s -Willis is out-fielding Robbie -Willie is out-running Robbie (although with his speed and IQ, he should be the best runner in baseball, so he will be better) I admit I was wrong about Small Poppa Willie. There.

Sun GoG: Uribe

Not if Sweeney isn't 100% Remember, they are missing Graffanino and Berroa just came back from DL in a horrible shape. Gonzo has yet to get hot and Santiago/Stairs can be dangerous when in the groove. Harvey is having a beak-out season. I am not sure if you remember but May-Anderson-Affeldt-Gobble have been pretty good in 2003 and was before fences were moved out. Sullivan and Lescanic are underachieving and McDougal just came back, Angels started out 2002 at 6-16 and won 100+ games in a much tougher division. If Royals get healthy and start clicking, their GM gets a starter and a closer at the Break. It's not inconceivable for them to win 85-90 games if they catch a break health-wise. I've seen weirder things happen in baseball. Which is why I hope they dig themselves a DEEEP hole and start selling at the Break -- we have a lot of games against them in August and September, so naturally I wish they be as weak as possible, hopefully rebuilding by then.

Guess what? He is always sloppy, overwhelming majority of his errors are of routine variety -- just like our hitters try to hit a 2-run HR with noone on base, Jose tries to get 2 outs before the ball is even in the glove. Sometimes it misfires. Last May Santana got on his ass big-time and Jose only comitted 8-9 errors the rest of the way, including 2004 Spring Training (covering some 5.5 months). Now he has reverted to same old taking the eye off the ball crap. Paging Santana!

Word been going around last year that the kind of back-n-neck/neurological Sweeney struggled with can become chronic. There is a higher chance Jeremy Reed's wrists heal. Even after a hot streak, it's clear Sweeney power is ZAPPED.