whitesoxfan101

It took me a lot longer than most people, but Paulie has to go to either the bench or another team. If you can go 4 for 4 with a walk in what was apparently a fluke game, and then make it irrelevant and hurt the team more the next day than you did on the perfect day, you obviously have some problems. He can't field, he really is starting to look like he can't hit, he can't run, he's clearly playing even older than his advanced 32 years, and he's expensive. Swish at first, Thome at DH, Anderson/Wise in CF, and Konerko gone or on the bench is the only way this team can make the playoffs IMO. To be honest, I'd have bet Texas would have won it in the bottom of the 9th anyways had we tied it or took the lead, but it doesn't excuse Konerko's embarassing performance.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 06:35 PM) The Twins are probably #6. Smoke dissipates and mirrors break. Every game they beat Detroit is better for us, because the Twins can't and won't beat us in a head to head race.

Cubs are not even close to the best team in baseball, not with that bullpen. Harden helps, but the back end of their rotation still isn't all that great even if he is healthy with the decline of Ted Lilly. They'd be fighting for their playoff lives if they were in the AL.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 12, 2008 -> 10:43 PM) Am I the only one who doesn't think that a guy who did Heroin is any better than a guy who did HGH? No, you are not. I was at the Brewers/Reds game tonight in Milwaukee. Seth McClung was able to hang in there against Edinson Volquez and it was just 3-2 Cincinnati, but once that Brewer bullpen got in there, the Reds were able to seperate themselves, especially in the 9th inning. Boy the Brew Crew bullpen is bad.

I'd like a Bear fan to give me a legitimate reason why Favre would come here. The offense placed around him would be perhaps the worst in the NFL outside of obviously Favre himself, and he could not win a Super Bowl here. Plus, he's have a PATHETIC offensive coordinator and a head coach that is all about defense, with a GM that couldn't recognize offensive talent if it bit him in the ass. I have to call bulls*** on this pipe dream, although it would be funny to see.

Oney Guillen with an RBI and a walk tonight. Based on the way he's been treated, that's grounds for promotion to Winston-Salem. As well as Wise has done in limited time with the Sox, I like Bourgeois's potential much better long term as a reserve utilityman type. He's done nothing but hit since we picked him up before last season, although I admit I don't know a lot about his defense. He might just be a jack of all trades, master of none in that regard. He also can run, although he's an abysmal 15 for 25 in steals this year after being a solid 38 for 47 last year.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 10:02 PM) Cordero throwing sliders 3 inches off the plate and getting them called for strikes didn't help the Brew Crew much. Neither did their 3 errors and throwing w ild pitch to let the go ahead run score. And they are throwing Seth McClung against Edinson Volquez tomorrow. Yeah, good luck with that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 07:11 PM) I'll never understand why more teams didn't go after Harden. When he gets hurt in a few weeks (if not sooner) you will. It was a risk worth taking for the Cubs with the package they were able to pull this off for, but Harden has made Mark Prior look like a tough guy during the vast majority of his career.

Favre would NEVER come to the Bears. They have the worst WR crew in football, and maybe the worst RB depth chart in football as well. Plus, the offensive line has two HUGE holes at the guard spots, and that is assuming Chris Williams can play well at tackle right away. He is old and wants to win now, and he'd have no shot at it with the Bears and their embarassing array of talent on offense. If Favre were to become a free agent, his two most likely destinations would be Minnesota and Tampa Bay IMO, and in that order. The Packers would never release him, it'd be a HUGE cap hit and an even bigger public relations one. I could see him getting traded, but I would bet he is on the Packers next year if he plays at all. A lot of what is going on right now is posturing from both sides.

Floyd better not hang that curveball tonight, or else it's going to be a big problem. That is the key for him, his fastball usually is pretty good, as long as the curveball is there to help he should be ok. Gotta score some runs though, I'd say half a dozen a game if you want to win against that team at that park.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 04:18 PM) ......wow. Yeah, I'm not even sure I agree with that. Between that and Carlos Quentin having a nickname (TCQ, The Carlos Quentin) that I did not know of, today has been enlightening.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 05:32 PM) Check out the new ESPN power rankings. WE'RE #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/powerranking To me, there are five teams that look noticeably better than the other 25: The White Sox, Cubs, Angels, Rays, and Red Sox. There are ups and downs, three game losing streaks and so on, but those five teams just look really good to me. The Phillies would probably be #6 for me, their record isn't great but they will get going and are very dangerous.

I understand the double play setup and blah blah blah, but that was just stupid to walk Lee to get to Ramirez. Ramirez is their best player, best clutch hitter, and best hitter period. You don't intentionally put a 2nd man on base to get to him, and if anything, you try and get Lee out and then walk Ramirez so you don't have to pitch to him. Him coming up with the big hit there was just so predictable, and he happened to hit the damn thing out of the ballpark. I just don't understand managers sometimes, that was a prime case where common sense would have been a better idea than just setting up the double play.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:42 AM) I was there also. That went around 460-470. I don't think Dunn's today touched even 420, as RF is so short at Wrigley. I'd give it 425 at the most, but it was probably more around 415. The always reliable www.hittrackeronline.com has Dunn's home run today as the longest in the majors this season in terms of true distance. Having walked on Sheffield Avenue before, I can tell you it's about 50 or 60 feet from the back wall at Wrigley to where the ball hit while landing, plus it's probably another 50 to get it from the wall to the street at Wrigley. Add that in to the wall being about 370 feet or so away where he hit it, and you have the 480 foot or so estimate from that site.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:06 AM) Didn't this one bounce in the Ohio River, too? I thought it was heading for the lake. In all seriousness though, I was there for that monster homer Thome hit against the Royals too out to center field about a month ago, but Dunn's today was longer IMO. It was amazing.

I was at Wrigley today, always enjoyable to see a Cubs loss for free. I've probably seen Dunn hit 15 home runs in person, i'm not even kidding. I have been to a lot of Reds games, but he literally homers everytime I go. And today's was as long a homer as I've seen him hit in person, including the one he bounced into the Ohio River. Today's appeared to hit a stoop on one of the buildings across the street.

Egbert with the 2 hit, 7 inning shutout. No walks, 7 k's, 11 groundouts, 3 airouts. 3-6 and the ERA down to 4.67. Fields was 2 for 3 with a double, walk, and run in game two. 7 innings, 3 hits, one run, one walk, 6 k's for Cassel at double a, but a ND as the Barons lost 3-1. He lowered his ERA to 2.96 and remained 7-3. Hernandez spit the bit there. W-S won 9-3 in 11 innings. Retherford went 3 for 6, Shelby had 3 RBI's, Sanchez went 2 for 6. Carter was meh on the mound (5.2 IP, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, two walks, 1 K, allowed 2 long ones). Texeira was great again, got the win, Rasner continues to keep his ERA low despite a sky high WHIP. Kanny won 6-1. Lowe was good (5 IP, 4 hits, 1 unearned run, no walks, 5 K's, won to move to 3-4). Mollenhauer went 3 for 5 to get his average back over .300. Fleisher went 3 for 5 with 2 homers and 5 RBI. He's now .373/.436/.659/1.095 at Kanny in 126 AB's, might be due for a promotion. Bristol was rained out, Great Falls lost 2-1. Rosario was ok (5 IP, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 3 k's) but lost. O'Neil continue to struggle, giving up 2 hits and a walk, but was able to avoid giving up any runs in his inning and had a k. Ronald Morales (45th round pick last year, lefty) gave up 3 hits in 2 inning, but gave up no runs, had 2 k's, and lowered his ERA to 0.63. Celis and Grace had 2 hits each.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 10:26 PM) Because he wouldn't have scored from second on a single anyway? I understand trying to get to third with less than 2 outs but when you're distracting the man at the plate on a 2 strike count your actions becomes counter productive. It was 0-1, and the pitch was low anyways. Dye was wrong, OC was right. As much as people don't like OC because of his antics, Dye was just completely stupid in this case.

QUOTE (tommy @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 06:08 PM) Chicago Tribune Live - enjoying listening to Kaplan for once, who said Kenny did an amazing job this offseason (says one columnist in town keeps on constantly taking shots at the organization). Kaplan also said Dye should be in the all-star game and Fukudome being a starter is a joke. Kap is a huge Cubs homer obviously and has openly admitted to not liking us, however he generally is fair towards us in regards to his opinions. That puts him ahead of most media around here.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 10:21 PM) Hawk said OC had nothing to apologize for because he got himself in position to score on a sac fly with one out. Feisty said he understood why JD would be annoyed by OC jumping around out by second base. Hawk said we needed the run and we got it. advantage hawk It's not even a debate. If we were down 2 or there were 2 outs, I could see why Dye would be mad, but with 1 out, an 0-1 count, and as the tying run, OC HAS to take 3rd there since it was so easy. I am baffled as to why Dye would not understand that, plus the pitch he swung at was clearly a ball.

Well if Dye started that argument, then he is completely wrong. OC had that base stolen by 30 feet, and getting to 3rd with only 1 out as the tying run is a big deal. Plus, the pitch Dye swung at was clearly a ball. I can't imagine OC would start an argument over stealing a base himself either, so on the surface, it looks like Dye had the problem and he's completely wrong. Just surprised at that, but this team has overcome turmoil all season, so it's not too big a deal IMO. As for the win, it looked a lot like last night, except we were handed the balk and didn't need extra innings. The golden sombrero for Paulie is not so good, and Javy was horrible, but kudos to OC, Q, Thome, Alexei, Swish, and the pen. It won't be easy against Greinke, but hopefully Buehrle is on tomorrow and we get a sweep. Nice to see somebody other than Jenks can close too, Dotel was nasty.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:26 PM) It appears to be an October move more than anything. The possibility of Zambrano/Harden in the playoffs looks a hell of a lot better than Zambrano/Dempster. No one in the right mind would acquire Harden, expecting him to make all his starts between now and the end of the season. Very true. The entire trade may come down to if Harden is healthy in the month of October.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:00 PM) No love for Carlos Lee, I guess. He and Ozzie didn't get along, at all. Many believe Ozzie's quote, which was something to the extent of "we've got guys sliding into 2nd like their mother is playing there" was referring to Lee. In fact, some believe part of the reason we got so little for Lee (although it obviously worked out great in 2005 of course) was Ozzie basically told KW that he had to go. On the other hand, Aaron Rowand is one of the most beloved players in team history by both the fans and organization.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 8, 2008 -> 06:11 PM) Meh, I don't think it's a run away steal, but the Cubs got a good deal. I still think Patterson can be servicable, and I think Murton is really going to thrive out in Oakland. I have always been a Murton fan, and I'm happy he is going to get a real shot to play out in Oakland. However, his value was at an all time low, and the A's are paying a lot for the package. Yeah, I agree with this. It's a steal in the sense the Cubs had no use for Patterson or Murton, but both could be solid contributors for the A's, so it's not a fleecing. Just like Gaudin could be and was a solid contributor for the A's, but he was stuck in their bullpen since they had no room for him in the rotation. What Gallagher does long term and what Harden does short term will determine the fate of this trade, as I think Murton/Patterson and Gaudin will wash each other out.