whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) I don't believe what I'm going to write but it's time for someone to play Devil's advocate here. Go watch a 59-0 NCAA football game. And I mean really sit there and watch it. There's plenty of them every year. How does the side going down feel on that one? How much of a difference do those last 20 points make to the bottom line? How can anyone possibly argue that games like that are a positive for anyone. Horrible sportsmanship, basically you're taunting the other team. Or, go to baseball. Ever play in a game with a 10 run mercy rule? I know I have. By the time it's 17-0 in the first inning, do you really want to keep playing so that one side can run up the score or do you want to quit and go drink a beer and swear at those guys for being such crappy sports? Sometimes in life, you get your assed kick, sometimes in life you get embarrassed, and sometimes in life you look like an idiot. It's all about how you respond to such situations. I understand you don't actually believe this, and I think that's probably why, because you and everybody else probably realizes that a limit to how much you can win by is ridiculous. Not running up the score is one thing, but this goes too far.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 04:03 PM) You actually expected four veterans to hit THIS far below their career numbers? AJ - .604 OPS (career average .748) Alexei - .651 OPS (career average .740) Pierre - .589 OPS (career average .715) Quentin - .723 OPS (career average .827) AJ yes (if you check the threads from late March/early April, I said he was going to have a surprisingly poor year), Alexei yes (he always starts like crap, his OPS will be near career average by years end), Pierre yes (he really isn't the player he once was anymore, despite the good season he had last year in the perfect situation for himself) and Quentin yes (I thought after last year that 2008 was a fluke, and see no reason to back off that now). Underperformance is hard to predict, and I'd be more than willing to admit I might have got lucky with such predictions in this case. But at the end of the day, this offense is overall pretty close to what most people thought it would be. The reason this team is so bad though instead of hanging around 3 or 4 out of 1st is because the starting pitching staff, which was supposed to be very good, sucks. And I will grant you that not many people saw that coming, or at least I certainly didn't. Off topic, I read a couple of pages back somebody was surprised that "only" 30 thousand people were at fireworks night Saturday. I was at that game as well, and considering how useless this team is, the opponent, and the weather forecast (it was very bleak, although fortunately the bad stuff stayed south), I was surprised at how big the crowd was.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jun 6, 2010 -> 11:20 PM) Linesmen can only call majors. They can't tell him they saw a stick hit a guy and then create a call from there. McCreary was in the far corner and missed it, not the first time a high stick has been missed... How quickly you forget about the high stick where Duncan Keith absolutely opened up Briere and that went uncalled as well. Should have been 4 minutes and Philly would have had a 5 on 3 for a minute followed by another 3 minute power play... Out of all the games, THIS is the one you complain after? 2 of Philly's penalties were pretty weak as well. Yeah, this is not the game to complain about the refs. There were 4 games after which plenty of whining could have been done, but the refs were more helpful to Chicago tonight if anything (although the Hawks deserved a night like that after the first 4, and probably deserve another one Wednesday.) As for the Hawks, I kind of thought they'd shuffle the lines and kind of thought it would work (thus my rare optimism for this game), and fortunately it turned out that way. Game 6 has all kinds of interesting storylines even beyond the obvious of the Hawks being 1 win away between Leighton being pulled and what happens with the Blackhawk lines. At any rate, a little more time to enjoy this win with 2 days off. I'm expecting a tough and close game 6. I feel pretty good about it though between the line changes and also because Niemi was not particularly good tonight and he tends to play well after such performances (don't get me wrong, he wasn't terrible, but he was meh overall IMO).

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 7, 2010 -> 01:02 AM) There are a handful of Facebook friends I have, total Kobe dickriders, that say things like "Kobe needs more help" and such but they're the same people who were gleefully ripping LeBron a few weeks ago for the same reasons. I like to point out the blatantly obvious fact that Kobe now has Pau Gasol and some guy even said how Gasol has a 0-16 record in the playoffs before coming to the Lakers. lol... the Lakers were barely a playoff team without him, and Kobe's 2008 Finals was just as bad or worse than LeBron's Game 5 this year. I wish people would stick to facts Kobe has more help than LeBron, but it's simply hard to defend LeBron as the best player in the NBA as long as he remains ringless. Can't be the best player in that league with no hardware IMO (although you would think he'll get some in due time, regardless of where he ends up.)

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 5, 2010 -> 12:09 PM) Disagree, we completely dominated the game last night and they got a few bulls*** goals and a a gift pp. I wouldn't go this far. I did think the Hawks played a good game though as a team. Just a few individual mistakes on the goals, but the Hawks certainly could have had a better result had they had more luck.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 5, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) The stat that concerns me more is that the Hawks haven't won a game in Philadelphia since 1996. Just win game 5, and that stat is meaningless. In such a scenario, you take a shot at ending that in game 6, and if not, you have game 7 back at a site where you're 3-0 in the series (although you want to avoid game 7 if at all possible in this scenario as well.) Game 5 is obviously as close to a must win as you'll get though in a non elimination game, so the Hawks have to come out and get things done.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 5, 2010 -> 02:18 AM) Someone brought up an interesting stat. Every game 4 winner, since the lockout, has won the Stanley Cup. (Flyers just won game 4) There have only been 4 Stanley Cup Final series since the lockout, so that doesn't bother me. The Hawks still have home ice. All the Flyers did is the same thing the Hawks did earlier in the series, and I think people (mainly, the Hawks) need to keep that in mind.

I actually didn't think the Hawks played overwhelmingly bad tonight. The problem was, the goals didn't come on strategical or even forecheck/cycle play failures, they simply came on defensemen boners, or in the case of goal #4, a weird deflection. Tonight was the first game in the series where I think what the Hawks did wrong is easily fixable, and I am unusually optimistic about how I think game #5 will go. Not a good one tonight though, but you could do worse than a best of 3 for the Stanley Cup with home ice. Have to look at it that way if you're the Hawks.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) Can folks from other parts of the park sit in the blechers? I think I heard they have had 1 sell out and are sold to 93% of capacity but are only getting about 75% through the turnstyles. I believe bleacher tickets are general admission, but you must have bleacher seats to sit in the bleachers. The vast majority of the stereotypical idiots that go to Cubs games can be found in the bleachers. The box seats and upper deck there are nowhere near as stupid, even though their have their share of dummies too.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 11:32 AM) Sounds like something Ozzie would say and believes. Too bad not much of what he says or believes in regards to his own team is accurate anymore.

The Nick Johnson story is a sad one. Even with the slow start he had this year, he's such a good, solid player on the rare occasion he stays healthy. And yeah, the Brett Anderson news is a killer for the A's. Don't know if they can survive without him.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 12:27 PM) This team is 7.5 games back because the vaunted starting pitching has an ERA north of 5, and many of the key offensive players have sucked (Quentin, Beckham, Ramirez, Pierzynski). These were things that were not anticipated. Sure, some people had conerns about Quentin specifically, or about Peavy's recovery. But I would like someone to show me any poster who predicted the starting staff would be 4/5 bad, and that all four of those guys would be hitting 50-100 points below normal for the first two months. Good luck. I agree and disagree with this post. One thing that was predictable was that this offense was not going to be worth much of anything. We're 10th in the AL in runs and on pace to score around 700 runs, which I think is about what most people expected. We've had masterful performance (to the point of overachieving) by Konerko and Rios, and I think the only truly shocking underperformance so far offensively has been Gordon Beckham (although maybe I was in the minority expecting AJ to suck this year.) However, I am with you about the pitching staff. If you had told me the offense would be where it is right now, I'd tell you we'd only be a couple/few games behind Minnesota and right in the race due to our outstanding pitching, particularly from the starters. For our staff to have a 4.70 ERA and only be ahead of Cleveland and Kansas City among AL teams is absolutely shocking, and I don't think anybody could have seen it coming, even with the Buehrle concerns from the way last year ended and wondering about Peavy moving to the AL. The offense is reasonably and expectedly mediocre, but for the pitching to be this bad (even worse than the offense has been really) is just shocking. It would have been reasonable to think this staff could finish top 5 in the AL in ERA, if not top 3, but it's just killed us.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 08:13 AM) That pitch...was a 99 mph fastball. I was watching that game on MLB Network, and I was flummoxed. I didn't even know how to describe the pitch, and I think I ended up concluding it a combination of a 99 MPH cutter and a 99 MPH sinker, since it kind of moved like both. Then again, neither of those pitches ever go close to 99 MPH, let alone a combination of both. Or you could combine them and say it was a 99 MPH backdoor slider, or maybe a 99 MPH curveball, or a 99 MPH slurve, or even a 99 MPH knuckleball. Anyways, whatever it was, it was absolutely sick.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 05:17 PM) I cant believe how expensive bleacher seats have gotten. I'm surprised they aren't more expensive honestly (although you're right, they've skyrockted pricewise). That's the one part of the place that's always full, even when the rest of the park isn't. People will pay anything for "the bleacher experience".

Selig decided not to reverse Joyce's call, thank goodness. That would have just been idiotic, and sent a terrible precedent. The only example of something even close to that happening I can think of is the pine tar game, and it was stupid they replayed that. If the Cardinals didn't get a call that cost them the World Series overturned, and none of those awful calls last postseason were overturned, this shouldn't be either.

Not that much of anybody cares, but NIU's best defensive player from last year changed his mind and decided to come back for a 5th season this fall, which is very good news. Could be a pretty good season for us, sporting news has us preseason top 50 and well ahead of all 3 BCS teams we play. We're not going to go 3-0 in those games with them all on the road, but I'd be surprised if we don't win 1 and think it's realistic we could get a 2-1 out of those contests. As for Boise State to the Pac 10, rumor has it they'll be going to the Mountain West on Monday at the earliest, and by June 30th at the latest. Rumor also has it that the USC investigation results for their football (and basketball) programs will come out tomorrow, that should be interesting.

I'm not sure I get the conspiracy theories I'm seeing. Overall, it could be argued the Flyers outplayed the Hawks in all 3 games, and the Hawks are fortunate to be up 2-1. The main reason they lost last night was special teams, Philly was 2 for 3 on the PP and the Hawks were 0 for 3 IIRC. I just think the officiating in this series has been generally poor, tons of penalties have been missed both ways. Perhaps a few more missed against Philly since they just commit more of them, but not enough to affect the outcomes. Hawks should be ok in game 4. The one thing I've seen that is concerning the last two games is it looks like the Flyers effort level has been higher than the Hawks. I can't imagine that'll be an issue again tomorrow though.

I would really like the Thibodeau hire in a vaacum. But this summer, the only vaacum a hire occurs in is the "what does it mean in the LeBron sweepstakes" one, and that we don't know.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 05:16 PM) Seems like this board might die by October with all these 'fans' giving up! I still will watch every game, I You can admit they're dead and still watch the games and post on the boards, such things aren't mutually exclusive. I know I fall into all 3 of those categories.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Jun 2, 2010 -> 05:11 PM) Redshirt frosh Scheelhaase named Illini starting QB. http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ncf/news/story?id=5242601 I can feel the panic in Columbus from here. There was really no doubt at any point that he'd be the choice IMO. He's got a chance to be a good one.

I don't think this team is in a position where it can retool. All things considered, I think we kind of have to rebuild. Although I'd have said the same thing after 2007, and we were in the playoffs the next year (but the economy and tickets sold situation was a lot different then too.)

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 12:38 AM) If MLB wants to go to replay, last year's postseason should have much more of an impact than this game. This shouldn't be what it takes to put it over the edge, really. This I definitely agree with. The blown calls in the playoffs are MUCH more important than a blown call at the end of a game on June 2nd, even with a perfect game on the line.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 12:09 AM) Ya, the change was horrible. But I think he's referring to Leino's rebound goal right after Kane's goal. Ahh I'm not even thinking about that one. Hawks were fortunate to even be tied after the 3rd if we're being honest. As for game 4, it is and isn't a must win. The Hawks CERTAINLY can win this series if they lose game 4. But, if they want to remain the strong favorites, they have to take game 4. A 2-2 series coming back here is almost a coin flip, the Hawks would only be very modest favorites at that point.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 12:00 AM) There was nothing he could have done on that play. He was positioned perfectly. On which play, the game winner? That was entirely on the bench, a terrible change. Second time the Hawks have given up a game winning goal in Philly on a bad change this year.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 12:01 AM) Well that's clearly not what I said. I was simply commenting on what you said. Sure it could be expanded, but not for everything, and that's a big key. MLB can't just say "there's replay now" tomorrow and run with it. It's a lot more complicated than that. I think on the fair/foul issue, you could kind of go similar to the NFL route, where they call it a fumble if it's close since they know they can go back and say he was down (although that rule has even changed a bit recently.) Just call it a fair ball if it's close and let the play go, and if it's foul, you can fix it easily.