chitownsportsfan

It's like Euro Disney has closed and now all the Euro trash has to come to our disney.

I dub thee the game thread. Now excuse me why I find a toilet to hurl in.

Cool graph! Thanks for doing that. It's good to see the attendence slowly rising as the weather is now better and the other sports are mostly in the middle of the offseason or getting there.

QUOTE(sayitaintso @ Jun 14, 2006 -> 04:02 PM) It also makes people think that you are a cub fan. LOL It's sagreligious to start dumb topics about the Cubs if you ask me.

That's an amazing stat Balta! I would never have thought that as poorly as some of the starters have pitched that that would be the case. It helps the point I think a few of use are making though: the 6th man will almost only see actions in blowouts where the outcome is already 99.9% decided. Thornton has proven himself capable of being the LOOGY and perhaps more, so I'm wondering who exactly is the "6th" man at this point: I'd have to guess Tracey or maybe Montero. Although when Politte comes back I wouldn't mind it being him.

55IP is a pretty small sample size for a starter.

Hmm, interesting, but I'm not sure we can draw any strong conclusions from this. One possiblity is that he's leaving pitches up in the zone later in the games perhaps due to fatique and or mental lapses. Either way, that's not good. I agree though, Ozzie made the right call last night, and not just in hindsight. He had a plan seemingly--Cotts to BMAC to Jenks--and he executed the plan flawlessly.

Thank god he's not signed through next year. It's time to end the Pods experiment in LF.

Fixed it for ya

I agree Rowand. Those two guys are good enough to give you 3 innings of shut down ball every other game. That's the beginning and end of what this team needs out of it's bullpen: not dominance, just competence.

I'm prepared for the possibility that Politte is washed up. I'm not scared of that possibility because of the recent outings from BMAC. If the pen just has 3 guys capable of pitching well (Cotts, BMAC, Jenks) then the other 3 guys aren't that relevent. Sure, they might lose a game or two, but the season doesn't hinge those 3 guys in any real sense of importance.

I'm happy that Jon got his G/F ratio back where it needs to be. He's not an overpowering guy, so he'll have balls hit hard, but if they're hit hard on a line or on the ground, then he will continue to have success. I just hope that Jon can string a few good outings together and gain some confidence heading into the 2nd half. The key for Jon is obviously to have his good sinker working, (and keeping balls down in the zone in general) and along with that, not walking guys. He's mostly continued the improved BB/9 numbers he posted last year. If he can continue to work down in the count, I see no reason he can't post a 4.50 ERA from this point on and be a more than adequate 5th starter. Whether or not that justifies his contract is another story completely...

McCarthy is turning it on lately. This is what we all envisioned him being: the perfect bridge guy to Jenks.

I'm shocked by the Pods hate on the gamethread tonight. I thought he was pretty much untouchable around here.

Settle down tiger--it was a joke. I thought we were supposed to play nice on the game threads anyways.

Would El Caballo have made that play?

Trade Iguchi? Now I've heard everything.

I actually thought Jon G had his best stuff of the season in his last start. Then he completely lost his head after the defensive lapses. This seems a common thread among Sox starters, as Mark B has suffered the same problem this season. It's time for Jon to put excuses aside and stop leaving pitches up in the zone--poor defense or not.

OMG, I love that lineup. Lets hope Uribe and BA can continue to pull their weight at the bottom of the order.

I have no confidence in Jon tommorow. Prove me wrong Garland.

The contract isn't great, but not crippling to the team at all. KW seems to have a proven method for aquiring starting pitching, I'll give him that benefit of the doubt on this contract. I think with some salary inflation it might actually be a bargain by the 3rd year.

We should have traded Garland this offseason before the new bloated contract. I'm a firm believer in his incredible league averageness as a pitcher. He's young, healthy, and eats innings though, which might make some team make a move for him--if not for that damn no trade clause. He's fine as our 5th starter though.

I wouldn't say that's worthless; I'd say that's dominance. 11K's and only 6 baserunners is pretty damn good.

This game has been easy to feel good about. I like it.

The difference in the last two games is that Count and FG came through, and the bullpen did as well. I don't think it had much to do with "getting up for huge games". Every game is equally huge at this point, season is barely 33% over.