Balta1701

QUOTE(iguchi=dank @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 05:46 PM) props to vasquez, he's been really good for a about a month now, and yes i remember he screwed up a 6th inning a few times still, but at that point he usually had only let up like 2 runs, our offense is, really disgusting, disgusting. Who would have thought 3 weeks ago that Vazquez would no longer look like a problem and Crede, Konerko, AJ, and Thome would look like the problem instead.

Buehrle is heading back to Chicago as well.

As punishment for that swing, all of Sweeney's AB's will now be given to Timo Perez.

Well, one out on the 3rd time through the lineup

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 05:27 PM) So when is the elusive "Closed door player meeting" going to happen? Ozzie has one of those at the end of training camp.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 05:24 PM) Great....the bad Brian Anderson is back. He looks like a Little Leaguer again. The play of this whole team right now is just infectous.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 05:23 PM) Who is going to provide the solo dong tonight. My money is on Taz, he will corkscrew himself into the ground King for the rest of the night. But one profundo. Hrniak fixed Uribe last year, then he came to ST and was back to being bad. Then old Greg said that the leg kick really didnt work, msut of been an illusion, and he was going to work on a new spread stance. Well after a year of the spread stance, I want Hrniak back for a weekend refresher. The leg kick worked for exactly as long as the spread stance did...one month. Then Uribe got back into his bad habits of swinging at everything.

QUOTE(cgaudin @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 03:04 PM) Had Ozzie let Thornton pitch the ninth and allowed to tie the game, just as it happened, everybody would be wanting Ozzie's head on a platter. The guy just can't catch a break. This team is what it is and will struggle to the end. Will it be enough, time will tell. If exactly that had happened...eveyrone would have been saying "Goddamnit, we can't catch a break...even now, right at the key part of the season, our closer is hurt."

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 5, 2006 -> 12:54 PM) Mark my words. The Red Sox are going to knock the sox right out of the playoffs, just like we did to them last year. Fixed that for you.

It's tetrahydrogestrinone.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Sep 4, 2006 -> 03:12 PM) the only way to raise wages is to let 59 million more illegal immigrants into the country. then give them amnesty. yea, that'll do it. democrats are so smart. Well, Bush is going to need troops for his Iran and Syria invasion debacles somewhere. (Ok, I'll end the mean-spirited sarcasm now if you do )

Podsednik, LF Iguchi, 2b Dye, RF Thome, DH Konerko, 1b Pierzynski, C Crede, 3b Anderson, CF Uribe, SS Youkilis, 1B Loretta, 2b Hinske, DH Ramirez, LF Nixon, RF Lowell, 3B Varitek, C Kapler, CF Gonzalez, SS

Kick them while they're down Jon.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 08:22 PM) I watched the whole game tonight. I understand that team is going through some tough health issues, but that lineup is awful. I dont understand how the have done what they have done. The same way a team with Carl Everett in the 3 spot won 99 games last year. Pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Sep 4, 2006 -> 11:25 AM) I really dont care about minimum wage. Unless youre 16, if you cant make more then minimum wage then you have issues that hypicritical liberals wont be able to help. Yeah, because it's 100% the fault of the workers that all of the new jobs in this country pay wal-mart wages. (Half sarcasm)

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Sep 4, 2006 -> 09:44 AM) For everyone that thinks Ozzie should, or will be canned. What do you think it would take for them to finally pull the trigger on him. Ultimately, how much leeway does he have for the ring he brought to Chicago. He has at least 2 more years, and the only way he wouldn't have more than that is if KW keeps giving him teams that look as good on paper as this one and the team looks as lackadasical as this one does.

If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about. That family clearly did something wrong. They paid down their credit card debt, thus hurting the profit margins of the large credit card companies. This is a greivous crime.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 10:27 PM) I may be off base in all your minds but I can't believe the entire Sox fan base thinks our skipper is terrible. If I got to go to games at the Cell would everybody be grumbling and wanting Oz's head? I can't believe a majority of our fans think he sucks. I think he's a good manager. I think our talent is suspect in many areas. Call me a dumbass but that's my take. Let's put it this way. In 2005, Ozzie Guillen was not the best in-game manager. He'd put people in positions where it was difficult for them to succeed, he'd sometimes give his guys too much rest, and give other guys not enough rest. He'd bat Timo leadoff. Or play him at 1b. Or hell, he'd play Timo. He pitched Shingo long after he was finished just to give him a shot. He'd leave his starting pitchers in too long. And so on. But there was one thing you could never say about last year's team; you could never say they didn't want it. Yes, they looked like crap in some games, weeks, or months. But even when they got to the end of their rope, someone stepped up, and shot fire back into that team. Widger against Randy Johnson. The Rally Crede. Brandon McCarthy. And so on. This year, there has been no one to do that. This team has been struggling since the series with the Red Sox at the beginning of July. And no one has stepped up to really stop things. Guys have tried, like JD for example, but they haven't been able to give enough to win the big games. Ozzie has kept up all his bad habits from last year, like insane lineups, or keeping starting pitchers in too long, and maybe even taken them a step further, as Mack in Cf has cost us more games this year than Timo ever could have dreamed of last year. But the real key, IMO, is this. This team has absolutely no intensity. They don't make things happen. They don't fight through adversity and find themselves with chances to win. When they find themselves with chances to tie or win close games late, they can't figure out how to get the big hit. 2 games in that stretch against the DRays and Royals we had the tying run on base late, but couldn't even tie either. I'll tolerate poor in game managing. But we brought Ozzie in for one reason...under Jerry Manuel, this team was dead. They were asleep. Lackadasical. They didn't seem to care. We brought Ozzie in to kick some asses, so that when they'd get in a position to win a game, they'd fight hard, and at least act like they want to win the game. Last year, we saw that. That's where that ungodly good record in 1 run games came from...when the game got close, the team acted like its manager, and they stepped up. This year, when the games get close, the team backs down, and the other teams seize the initiative. I think that's the hardest part of this whole season...they keep putting themselves in positions to win and fail to seize those chances. It drives me even more crazy than the pitching or the free runs given up by Mack in CF. I'd tolerate those if this team seemed to have some fight in it. But they just don't. They get opportunities, fail to seize them, and watch their opponents take them. We brought Ozzie in because we were sick of seeing that under Manuel. In 2005, it stopped, and we got some jewelry because of it. In 2006, it's right back.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 08:07 PM) I don't know if I have that long right now. I'll try to read this sometime soon, cause I think it's interesting. Besides, technology like this, if it's done right, is a great investment opportunity. That's actually one of the big debate topics there...as one of the guys involved in the debates is investing heavily in ethanol technologies, while the other is contending it won't work and ever be profitable without government subsidies (as it is now).

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 09:59 PM) And just watch us get swept. Boston is in some bad shape, but the Sox just split 6 games between the Royals and Drays. We aren't exactly a world beater nor do I consider us a very good team. I think he's thinking of Jon Snyder who we dealt to the Brewers along with Navvaro in the Jose Valentin deal. Without Ortiz and Ramirez, the lineups of both K.C. and Tampa Bay scare me more than that of Boston.

The website "The Oil Drum" which keeps track of these sorts of energy related issues has had a very fascinating, long-running discussion on ethanol and cellulosic ethanol in particular. If you want to hear a very detailed discussion of the topic, here you go: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 Link 5 Link 6 Link 7

QUOTE(shawnhillegas @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 07:33 PM) but our guys are tired. Clearly, Ozzie needs to rest his regulars more.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 02:43 PM) I would have been all for trading McCarthy for Soriano if we would have extended Soriano's contract on that day. If we had Boston Red Sox money to play with, and a replacement righty in our system somewhere, I'd agree. But at some point, having that young righty is going to be ungodly valuable. Next year it'll be the difference between a $50 million pitching staff and a $40 million pitching staff, if nothing else.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 02:39 PM) The pitching in the AL Central is only going to continue to get better though as guys like Liriano, Sowers, etc. continue to blossom. We definitely have to upgrade our lineup against tough lefties though. First, add McCarthy to your list too. And second, there's still no guarantee that these guys are going to come out and be dominant from the start, and able to hold everything together and stay healthy. It's entirely possible that we might be seeing peak years from some of these guys who've dominated this season, just as the White Sox got peak years out of a couple guys last year.

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 3, 2006 -> 02:33 PM) We're going to have to upgrade our offense. We have a lot of aging players, and we can't expect guys like Dye and Thome to match their numbers next season. Hopefully we'll get a boost from a new LF. Arguing about Tejada is pointless though, as we don't have anything they'd realistically want that we'd give up. We can't expect guys like Dye to match their numbers next season...but that's only because Dye has been so good. Thome, I could still see putting up similar numbers, all he needs to do is avoid major injuries. On top of that, hopefully we'll get improvement from Anderson, which will help as well. And it's not that bad to go from being the #1 to the #3 or #4 offense in the AL. We could get by with that easily...IF we get some damn pitching.