whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) My dad was that way too...until the doctor said the "m" word. I actually don't get a lot of sun, and I wear sunscreen when I do. I'm just naturally pretty dark. Btw, I agreed with mr. genius that socioeconomic status is more relevant than race nowadays. I think we have at least come that far (although race is still relevant, obviously).

QUOTE (Soxy @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 07:48 PM) Um, I get really bad sunburns. Like they blister and peel off. So, it's pretty hard to be white in the summer. just noticed this post. I'm white, male, and tan enough that I basically never sunburn. I'm the uber privleged.

As always, I'm thinking more about the baseball impact this could have. More specifically, I'm curious what kind of effect this will have on the use of maple bats if the guy wins the suit. I'm also curious what kind of effect (if any) the minimization or outright ending of maple bat usage would have on offensive numbers, since a lot of guys use them.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 11:05 AM) From EJ Hradek of ESPN: The only thing is...Hossa has actually played under his contract, so I can't imagine the NHL would be able to do anything about that one. Luongo, Pronger and Savard on the other hand.... Interesting. I'm pretty sure the long, cap circumventing contracts of Zetterburg and Franzen on Detroit are also ones that have been played under for a year like Hossa, so I don't think they could touch those since it's too late now. You bring up an interesting point on Luongo, Pronger, and Savard though since those are extensions that haven't started yet. I believe they all start this season though, so if the NHL wants to go after those deals, they'd better move quickly.

Poor therapist. Not sure what he did wrong in this case.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 10:42 AM) I wonder if there's something about that Ballpark's dimension and the stuff of their starters that threw us off. Millwood has a career 3.14 ERA against us. Guthrie has a career 3.83 ERA against us. I guess in retrospect, it's really not surprising that those two guys would do well against us, considering that. Well I'm guessing Millwood had a pretty good career ERA against us because he's been a pretty good pitcher (although not that good), but at least we won that game. The Guthrie game didn't piss me off as much as the other losses in the sense that he's at least been a decent pitcher this year (4 ERA, 1.2 WHIP). The two that piss me off are the Bergesen and Matusz games. Bergesen has been absolutely awful this year (although he did pitch well against us twice last year, however he was actually pretty good last year so that makes sense) yet we couldn't touch him, and we looked absolutely lost against Matusz last night, who although was a high draft pick a couple of years ago, has an ERA a little over 5 and a WHIP about 1 and a half. Have to hit guys like that, period.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 08:57 AM) An arbitrator has sided with the NHL in voiding Kovalchuk's deal with the Devils, and he is now a free agent again. The first time I typed this post, I accidentally wrote "Nets". Man I've got a long way to go before I'm good on this sport. I'm interested to see if this has any sort of effect beyond just Kovalchuk, and am mildly surprised the arbitrator sided with the NHL.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) But our best offensive players have terrible splits on the road. We'll be asking our pitchers to throw shutouts against the cream of the crop. Yeah, we survive on the road because of our pitching. We thrive at home because of our pitching combined with the ballpark making our offense look better. That is why the Baltimore series shocked me though. They suck, they can't pitch, and their ballpark is good for hitters. Seems like a situation we'd thrive in based on how this season has gone, but I really wonder if some of our players got caught looking ahead to the Minnesota series. I certainly hope not, but regardless, losing 3 of 4 to teams like Baltimore is how you end up 2 or 3 games back at the end of the season and wondering where it went wrong.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 10:13 AM) I was wondering why Castro didnt play, maybe it had something to do with Jackson wanting AJ behind the plate? That was confusing to me as well. If Teahen doesnt take Kotsay's at bats, I will go nuts. He's a MUCH better hitter than Kotsay, especially at this point. With Dayan's inability to walk, I won't get too upset if he's sent to triple A for Teahen as long as Teahen gets the at bats of Kotsay at this point. We have some hitting LHP issues right now though between the DH spot if Dayan continues to look like he did last night and LHP expose his free swinging ways (or is sent to AAA soon, which is likely), RF, CF to a lesser degree (Rios has actually been better against RHP. although not terrible against LHP), and obviously C if AJ plays. As for the AJ point, there could be something to that. Plus, if you include last nights games, 3 of the next 4 going in were against left handed pitchers (Perkins and Liriano pitch Wednesday and Thursday), so maybe we wanted to get him in there against one of them? But I just think Castro should be playing against every left handed pitcher we see. I'm guessing Ramon only plays against one of the two lefties in the Minnesota series, but I hope I'm wrong.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 10:04 AM) I hate this argument. There are WS winning teams that arent "optimized". Lineup calculators have next to zero value to me, and probably pretty much all of professional baseball. I actually don't have as much of an issue with our everyday lineup as most people here do. We don't have many great choices because we basically have a bad offense which is numerically boosted into a mediocre one by our home ballpark. If Mark Teahen takes the at bats of Mark Kotsay when he returns (which I doubt he will since Kotsay is already getting way more at bats than he should be, but I will try not to make that complaint again until it actually happens), the only major beef I'd have left with Ozzie's everyday lineups is that Ramon Castro should be playing every game we face a left handed pitcher, like last night. My issue isn't as much with the lineups as it is how the offense is managed in games, such as the bunting thing last night.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 09:49 AM) So why dont you just put yours out there. It's one thing to continue to keep saying something is wrong, its another to try and put something out there that you think is right. Based on your critique of Ozzie, it most likely would be better than what he puts out there and the moves he makes in the game. You don't bunt when your best basestealer is on base. You especially don't do it late in the game. And you double especially don't do it when the man you are having give himself up is hitting .323 since the all star break (Alexei), the man behind him has an OPS of .656 since said break (Rios), and if you get that man out, you can walk the best player on the team (Konerko, who has a 1 OPS since the break) to put the inning in the hands of a man hitting .174 since the all star break (Quentin). These are concepts that any idiot could understand. You don't bunt your best basestealer to 2nd, and you don't take the bat out of the hands of two red hot hitters to put the inning in the hands of two ice cold ones.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) I was being serious, its a pretty good experiment. You seem to think his rosters and in game moves are crappy, I think its worth putting your opinions out there. Sorry for suggesting it. I'm not smart enough to manage a baseball team, not even remotely close, and I am guessing the same can be said for most posters here. Which is why it concerns me that Ozzie makes mistakes so elementary that even most of us can obviously recognize them.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 09:37 AM) You should start your own thread called WSF101's managerial debut and put in all the starting lineups and actual moves during the game that you would use. Then let us all critique said moves and rosters as you go along. Oooh, you're extra pissy today. Do you work for the Sox btw, or is it just some close friends that do who you feel you must stand up for?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) Really? I'm not going to go and research all of the great bunts in WS history, because its a waste of time. You know its the correct move to get a player into scoring position at any cost in that situation. And the Red Sox are gay anyway. There's really not much of a point of having Juan Pierre on your team if he can't steal a base late in a close game. Plus, by bunting in that spot, you put all of your eggs in the basket of two struggling hitters in Rios and Quentin, since you'd have to be an idiot to pitch to Konerko with men on base right now.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 09:25 PM) I'm not a "fire Ozzie" guy but I literally get angry when the Sox get a fast guy on to lead off the inning (Pierre, Rios, etc.) and a good contact hitter with power comes up (Ramirez, Beckham) and Ozzie calls for a bunt. There's no reason to do that at all. Sure you have no guarantees with a steal attempt but at least try a hit and run... something. He's just not a very good manager. I know the 2005 forever people will never come to my side on this one, but Ozzie not only loves running into outs and makes poor lineups, but he also chooses to not run so often on the rare occasion he actually should (with a fast guy like Pierre on base in close and late situations). The idea of offensive baseball is to not make outs, because you only get 27 of them a game. Yeah, having people that can run is nice, but at the end of the day, the more people you have on base and the less outs you give away, the more likely you are to score. It's a simple concept, but also one that Ozzie Guillen cannot grasp.

I would say i'm definitely in the "strongly exceeding" category. However, there are people around here like Kalapse that are at a level even beyond strongly exceeding, and thus deserve their own category for voting. I'm definitely not at that level.

Nah, I tell people about this place all the time. I think it's much more likely that I have friends who post here, but I don't realize it. As if it's their secret from me.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 11:42 PM) Nah, she's having a birthday party type deal in the city. So the real question is, do I impress her by wearing my Freddy Garcia or Damaso Marte jersey? I hope you decided to go with Freddy. The Marte jersey brings back bad memories for some people.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 04:11 PM) Frankly, I totally disagree. That hook is his key pitch. If he's throwing fastball after fastball up there, guys gear up for it and hit it. He needs that destroyer curveball to put them away. It seems to me like his cutter and slider (I have a hard time even telling if they are two different pitches sometimes, but I feel they are) are what get him in trouble. Just throw the straight gas by people, and use the curveball to keep them off balance. It's not brain surgery for Bobby when he's pitching well.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 04:09 PM) he or AJ and Castro need to focus heavily on FBs, he is throwing hard and seemingly has good control over it, he gets in a ton of trouble with his offspeed stuff, either wild with it or hangs it, it would be more effective if he is pumping fastballs and throws the occasional offspeed Yep. There needs to be an ultimaitum on what pitches he throws. In the best interest of everyone involved.

Yeah, Ozzie isn't going to make any decisions that cost him his job now, he's safe going into 2011 IMO. But he might make some that cost us the division.

I don't think there is any doubt this bullpen is a lot better when Jenks is closing and pitching well. The problem is, it just doesn't seem like Jenks trusts his stuff enough to consistently pitch well. That's the frusterating part, really: his stuff isn't even that bad right now, but he's his own worst enemy by not trusting his best pitches. So we kind of have to give up on him IMO.

Kotsay picked a heck of a time to stop sucking (at least for now), thank goodness! So long, 2010 Tigers, and hopefully so long Bobby Jenks as White Sox closer.

The 2010 Detroit Tigers (and hopefully Bobby Jenks' time as White Sox closer) can officially be laid to rest after this game.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 03:17 PM) I'd rather keep Putz in the 7th and 8th when their might be high leverage spots. Agreed.