AirScott

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 19, 2007 -> 06:41 PM) A.J.'s numbers will probably go up since he won't play hardly at all against lefties (it's a platoon, no matter what Ozzie and KW say or how much A.J doesn't like it). Beyond that? Dye is coming off a career year, this might just be a regression to the overall means, Iguchi seems tired, old, and figured out by the league, Joe Crede is a .250 hitter anyways.......so yeah. I think they will get better, especially if Thome stays healthy (and I think Konerko will wake up), but that makes this offense just average IMO and combine that with our bullpen and it's 5 ERA or so right now and we're not close to going anywhere. Even when I look at this in a positive way, we got no chance, lol. QUOTE(fathom @ May 19, 2007 -> 06:42 PM) Here is the bullpen's ERA by player: 3.18, 3.63, 4.63, 4.66, 5.40, 6.61, 6.75 That sucks! But bullpen ERA can be very misleading. Aardsma's ERA rose from 1.64 to 3.63 today. One crap outing raises it by two. These guys are by no mean on the level of our 2005 bullpen or the Twins' pen last year, but it's not as bad as it looks.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ May 19, 2007 -> 06:28 PM) That's actually a fair point, which is why it's fair and logical to realistically leave the teams as is until July (maybe I should have titled the thread "blow the whole f***ing thing up in July"). But this has all the makings of a lineup that will do what our staff did last year. There is no sign that 7 guys will suddenly emerge to have career years hitting and that 2 pitchers will be untouchable for months for us like the Twins got last year. None at all. But the team is staying afloat, five games out at 20-19 without an everyday player hitting at or above .260. Konerko and Crede have had years that will make you think they may not rise those averages above .240 or .250, but what about everyone else? Dye hit .315 last year and proved he is an MVP-caliber player when healthy. He's had those really bad years too, but when healthy? Iguchi hit .278 as a rookie and followed it up hitting .281. A.J. has normally, throughout his career, been in the .300 range. So what are the odds that all these guys don't turn it around?

QUOTE(fathom @ May 19, 2007 -> 06:15 PM) The players didn't exactly love how he treated the Tracey and Garland incident's vs the Rangers last year, and now we have some tension with the whole catching situation. For once, I'd rather Ozzie just focusing on managing and using good strategy.....and stop trying to be funny in the press. Yeah, but that Tracey thing was nearly a year ago. I wouldn't believe there's tension in the catching situation, Toby Hall can hit a little bit, and he went 2-for-3 yesterday. It just seems bigger because of the Mike North blowup. So Ozzie is in his fourth year, but were there any incidents like with Sean Tracey? And at the time, did anyone mention that COACHES YELL? Ozzie wanted Tracey to stick up for his team. He FAILED, so Ozzie YELLED. It's sports. That cannot have been the first time a manager yelled.

OK...we're 20-19 without a starter batting above .260. Four are below .220...so what happens if they rise to a collective .250? Do we win 15 straight? There's no reason to believe these guys won't start hitting. But zero shot of making the playoffs? "Blow the whole f***ing thing up?" Uh...this is a bad two-game stretch for the bullpen. You can't say "don't pitch Mike MacDougal" when his previous two outings consisted of 1.2 innings and no runs, no hits and a walk. David Aardsma's ERA jumped from 1.64 to 3.63 today. IT HAPPENS. I don't care how much you thought about this since the game ended, there's no reason to fire Ozzie Guillen. For one, we're only five games out IN MID-MAY! There are 123 games left on the White Sox schedule, why blow the whole f***ing thing up after two losses? Guillen won 83 without Maggs and Thomas for the majority of 2004, won 99 and a World Series in 2005, then won 90 last year. So what he pops off at the mouth? Nobody on the team cares. Remember the Magglio-Ordonez-is-a-Venezualen-piece-of-s*** tirade in 2005? Didn't seem to have any negative effects, right?

yeah, postgame callers are morons. you should re-read yesterdays postgame thread. PS - I don't agree that Terrero is better than Sweeney.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ May 10, 2007 -> 02:15 PM) No we need to bring in Mac to get his confidence back! don't forget moving the outfield back to prevent doubles by guys with .358 career slugging percentages!

MOVE THE OUTFIELD BACK, BARTLETT'S AT THE PLATE!!!

QUOTE(fathom @ May 8, 2007 -> 11:04 PM) Why didn't he have Dye playing deep to prevent Bartlett from getting an extra base hit? Pretty textbook managing there. Yes, it's easy to say that in retrospect. But as the game is going on, um...well...you don't move your outfield back for Jason Bartlett, he of the .358 career slugging percentage. Unless you're being sarcastic. I don't know, I can't tell here anymore. I lot seems ridiculous.

I see some of you have blamed Ozzie on this page, but I don't feel like going back to check if anyone mentioned this, so I'll just go ahead. why wasn't Brian Anderson playing center field and Darin Erstad playing left field in the 9th? isn't this the reason Ozzie kept BA on the roster, so he'd have a quality defensive replacement in the outfield? we had a chance to get Milton Bradley (the tying run) at home, but Pods' throw was about 25 feet over AJ's head. does Erstad make that throw? maybe, maybe not. but I don't see the ball landing on Erstad's head like it did Pods'. or Erstad jumping so damn early. still, isn't this why we have BA on the Major League roster? if Ozzie's not going to use him in situations like last night, there's no point.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Feb 22, 2007 -> 01:07 PM) I am being 100% honest with you, I don't read what most columnists write anymore. I skim the article, looking for "" "" and take in what quotes seem to be interesting. There is so much garbage from writers out there, it's worthless. HOWEVER, there are some very interesting quotes in the article. yeah, I read some ESPN columnists, occasionally Sam Smith, Bob Ryan, and some from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram and Seattle Times. the rest are no good and I don't even click on them, really.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Feb 11, 2007 -> 04:14 PM) He was a punter, I'm not sure that even counts. I love when announvers bring up Erstad's football background but fail to mention he was a punter. they just say he played football at Nebraska most of the time.

I don't think this will happen. although it would be awesome for this team to pick up a guy like Bazardo, 28 other teams would also find it awesome to pick up a guy like Bazardo.

QUOTE(Beltin @ Jan 26, 2007 -> 06:31 PM) DING!DING!DING!DING! We have a winnah! To me the combination of a terrible bullpen early in the season combined with inconsistent defense in the outfiled (Pods and Mack) had a huge ripple effect on the entire team, in particular the starting pitchers. The starters were inconsistent to ineffective at times (see Beuhrle v. Cubs before the ASB) but I strongly believe this was a combination of postseason fatigue, followed by morale lost due to blown saves coupled with poor defense extending innings, followed by even more fatigue because Ozzie was forced to leave them in when the bullpen was ineffective. I do believe this really spiraled out of control and manifested considerably in the second half. The weak bullpen took a terrible toll on this team and gradually ate away at their ability to compete at a championship level. we were spoiled in 2005. Vizcaino was our worst pitcher, we cringed when he was brought into games...but he still had an ERA around 3.50. at that time, teams would've killed to have him, which I realized and then REALLY started to like the 2005 White Sox chances. our worst reliever really wasn't that bad.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) I also heard that - that may have been the 1st time I've heard an actual disagreement between Boers and Bernstein. I thought Bernstein was more on the money, saying that Buerhle will probably end up in the $14 million per year range, but Stone believes there will be a market correction next off-season. I could be wrong, but I thought I had heard that next off-season, the crop of free agents is even better ???? Stone did say that he didn't think the Sox are done, but didn't really say what he thought he would do. Bernstein mentioned SS and CF (I believe that is what he said) - I don't think SS will change - Uribe/Cintron is average, and it's not like there are a plethora of SS available. CF is the one position that I could see a possible upgrade as Williams did say earlier that they are still considering their options, but I really can't see anything more than a stop gap option like a Brady Clark type player coming in. We'll see though.... I think Steve Stone said last week the reason the market is so overblown this year is because the free agent market is so thin, which is why it will level off next year. makes sense. the second tier guys this year were Ted Lilly and Gil Meche, and we know the deals they got. Zito was alone in the first tier of starters; next year it will be Zambrano, Smoltz and Carpenter and the dropoff comes at Jason Jennings and Freddy Garcia.

OK, now how many of you actually read past the point of "back on track for the starting rotation?" article goes on to say "in the interim," Sisco will pitch out of the pen. SO...Sisco will pitch out of the bullpen in 2007 while the coaches work with him in hopes of making him a viable 2008 starter.

link why is this important here at Soxtalk? because when we were going to trade Garland to the Astros, we were going to get those same players in return.

OK now, I've been saying, since the season was still going on, that Pods is hurt and not at 100%. he never seemed fully recovered from him 2005 injury, and his 2006 ailments didn't help. now he's got a full offseason to heal, and we're paying him $2.9 million, instead of the $6 million per year the aging Dave Roberts landed. did anybody stop to think KW began thinking a while ago what a bunch of you are starting to realize now and Pods at $3M per and hoping he bounces back (and if not, trying out Sweeney, Fields and Owens in LF) is smarter than paying double or triple that (or making a trade) for guys who bring essentially the same tools and numbers as Pods?

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Nov 26, 2006 -> 10:47 AM) You're overvaluing the lineup order so terribly. I agree that the big boppers go into the meat of your batting order, but I don't believe you need a good "2-hole hitter" or that "this guy would fit in the 6 spot well." Lineup order is one of the most overrated aspects of baseball. However I do know this. Leadoff hitter see the most PA's in your lineup and Pods doesn't deserve seeing the most PA's, he's just that bad. Iguchi however is a nice little blend of speed, and power. Not meat of the order worthy, but certianly a guy who deserves to go in the batters box the most times in our lineup. It's not absurd suggesting him as our leadoff guy, if anything its a very good idea. I feel like Iguchi would be an exceptional leadoff hitter, mainly because of how well he adjusted to hitting second. remember, he was a middle of the order, 30-homerun guy in Japan, then he came over here and was the perfect #2 hitter. he did everything that could be asked hitting in that spot with Pods in front of him. I don't see why he couldn't switch to first in the order and do everything we need of a leadoff hitter, regardless if he's unhappy there like he was hitting second. he'd still get the job done.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 01:26 PM) Yup. Gimmie a new LFer, perhaps another good bullpen arm, and get that great haul for Garcia (or whichever starter is traded). And then let's head to Arizona. I'd like to see another quality reliever, but not at $6-7 million per. there's another thread regarding a new LFer, so let's not delve into that. and obviously a starter will be traded, and there's plenty of time, which is why I wish we could hold this thread.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 01:08 PM) This is just plain false. We scored Consistently awful. duh. we also had a 3-4-5 of Thome-Konerko-Dye in 2006, plugging Thome into Everett's spot. and Crede hit 30 homeruns and knocked in 94. our leadoff hitter even scored six more runs than he did in 2005, despite posting an OBP 21 points lower than the season before. there were 3 games that we only scored one run and won 1-0 - the season opener, the first game after the break and the final game (regular season and postseason). frankly, the 2006 team was completely different from the 2005 team.

QUOTE(SnB @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 01:10 PM) isn't this one of the better years to sit on our hands? look at the contracts being thrown around, they're going to regret those in a few years. if not this year. Speier's and Walker's contracts? yikes.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 12:59 PM) November people, November. right, winter meetings are in December. can we put this thread on hold for a couple months?

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 12:32 PM) You need to get a new source for stats, because your wrong. And basing your opinion of a player based on a World Series DVD isn't going to get your very far. yeah, that was off-hand. I don't look every little thing up. I looked it up, and the difference is so miniscule, it's actually not worth mentioning. however, for the less than 10 point differential in OBP, Pods takes more pitches per plate appearance. look that one up. so why give anything up for Figgins, when him and Pods are essentially the same player? and I was using the World Series DVD as just an argument, because so many of you don't remember him on the bases in 2005, you remember him stinking it up in 2006. if I didn't mention the World Series DVD, you of the short-term memories would think I was lying.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 11:03 AM) I'm certainly not jumping on that bandwagon. second. I'm one of the people who says what Pods brings is beyond the numbers. he's disruptive, and when he's healthy and at his best, he's terrific stealing bases. anyone who's watched the White Sox World Series DVDs has to remember the line that says "You know he's going to steal. You just don't know when," or something to that effect. besides, who else is out there? an aging Dave Roberts? an overrated Chone Figgins? thank God the Dodgers overpaid Pierre, so that debate's over. and I call Figgins overrated because people cite his ability to play so many positions, but he's not a stand-out at any of them. that's why he plays so many positions, because he can play them all somewhere in the area of "adequate." he's also a worse OBP guy than Pods.

"This market is way overblown." duh.