Balta1701

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 09:24 PM) Apples vs Oranges when talking 'supporters' vs 'staffers/volunteers'. The level of hate by the Bush supporters pales in comparison to almost anything you can find on DailyKos and HufPo. Now, if you have campaign volunteers stooping to the level of Hamsher, let me know. LOL, man, you never have wandered through FreeRepublic or LGF have you. And so we shouldn't support Lamont because he's a politican and Lieberman is not?

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 06:23 PM) That's spoken like someone who's political research comes exclusively from talk radio. There are literally hundreds of people who study this that would disagree with you. "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart." Seriously though, there's a motive for thought like that. Once a person decides that a priori American Military power can do anything, and is totally unstoppable in all fronts, and combines that with the belief that anyone who opposes America is pure evil (either with us or against us), then it makes sense to try to take every action done by Iran and use it as a reason for an immediate military strike, and then to belittle anyone who slows you down or asks for restraint. It's the exact formula that we used, say, 3.5 years ago.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 08:58 PM) How do you guys feel about giving B Mac a few starts and going with a 6 man rotation to take some of the burden off the starters' arms? Is it too late in the season? would the longer rest between starts screw them up even worse? Would it tinker too much with guys like Garland and Contreras who are throwing well? The worry with that plan right now is that, as others have pointed out, BMac is only stretched out to throw something like 60-70 pitches right now. So in other words, we'd be taking 1 pitcher out of our bullpen, and simultaneously, we'd wind up creating a game where our bullpen needs to throw 5-6 innings.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 06:25 PM) So candidates are suddenly responsible for what their supporters put on the internet? Man, some of the stuff Bush-supporters have posted...

QUOTE(Texsox @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 05:15 PM) From a slightly different angle, is it possible to disagree with Israel's actions and reactions and the strategy they are taking, and not be perceived as an anti-semite? In most corners it seems not. Even though there are citizens in Israel that disagree with the current path, anyone else will come off as a hater. See, this thread is a perfect illustration of the problem I have with this whole debate. Anyone who has any problem with what Israel is currently doing, either with their planning behind this offensive, or their methods of carrying it out, or any other act they've taken, is immediately labeled as part of the "Terrorist apologist crowd." Never mind that people could have honest differences of opinion over whether or not a particular tactic is either legal or effective, whether you get called an anti-semite or not, the immediate response to any questioning of the campaign, of any sort is "My God, why are you on Hezbollah's side?" Even when you criticize the actions of both sides, you get challenged as supporting terrorists.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:53 PM) Rivers will be a lot like Big Ben has the last couple years, feeding off his running game, o line, and defense IMO. That's very good, but not best in the league. I can't comment on Eli because I just hate that whiny little baby, and I'd be shocked if Delhomme, who has been incosistent his whole career, is good again in 2006. But you're forgetting how good the weapons are that Rivers can throw to. Hell, even last year Brees screwed himself over because he'd look away from LT on some routes out of the backfield. Between LT and Gates, Rivers has 2 damn good targets to throw to who can make things happen quite well for him. Eli...well, he has the guns, but his problem is missing them. He fixes that accuracy problem, and all of a sudden he'll look great, no matter how much he whines. The thing I keep thinking about is that there always seems to be 1-2 QB's who come out of nowhere every year to have great years, like Hasselbeck last year, for example. Or Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme his first year, hell even Tom Brady. So, I'm just trying to think, aside from Peyton and Brady, who out there has the weapons and system around them to really come out and be dynamite.

Would anyone else not be surprised at all if Jake Daylight come and you gotta DelHomme had an absolutely dominant year? If Steve Smith stays healthy, they have a much better receiver opposite Smith this year in Johnson, and a fresh pair of legs in their running game. Philip Rivers and Eli Manning are 2 other guys who have a lot of questions but are in ideal situations to just come out and be awesome.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:47 PM) The offense has consistantly put up a lot of runs all season long. They had a bad 2 week stretch right after the allstar break and that was basically it. The offense has been outstanding this year. All I'm saying is that saying "The offense has been outstanding" doesn't mean it's impossible for the offense to be even more effective than it has been.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:45 PM) Or it could start putting up more runs consistently, instead of having our standard 12 run game followed by a 5 run game followed by a 3 run game. There's your key, and that's where I'd be going with this proposal. Yeah, it might cost us 1-2 runs out of every 30. But if it allowed us to space them out just a little bit better, by either setting us up better against left handers or setting us up so it's harder for other teams' bullpens to shut us down for an inning, I think it could turn into more wins.

QUOTE(GoRowand33 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:34 PM) if the sox have any inkling of hope for the division this week they need to beat anaheim, take 2/3 from the yanks then sweep the tigers. no exceptions, otherwise I bet were going to be looking at the wildcard Best way to get the Tigers on a losing streak? Start it ourselves. It happened last year. So, we've got Buehrle against the Angels, Garcia, Garland, and Vazquez against the Yanks, and Contreras, Buehrle, and Garcia against the Tigers. Man, I wish Garcia wasn't the one pitching twice against those 2 teams.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:37 PM) Yup, the reason we've lost a lot of one run games has been because of the offense. So, here's the question...do we sit here and just keep repeating the "Blame the pitching staff" mantra, or do we actually accept the cards we've been dealt, and decide what the best way to play them is? Either the pitching staff will get better or it won't. The offense isn't going to decide that. All the offense can do is put up as many runs every game as possible. I think this would help, and sitting around saying "the pitching staff should be better" doesn't do anything to win us more games.

I think, at least at the beginning of the season, the best argument was that he is young, he has a stressful delivery, and his body is still growing/adding weight. You try to throw him for a lot of high-stress, starting innings early in his career, and he's probably more likely than Verlander to turn into Mark Prior. But yeah, his spot in the rotation next year should be unquestionned. And in 2-3 years, he'll have the top spot in that rotation. QUOTE(MarlinFan84 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:30 PM) BTW I wasn't dogging any of your starters or their talents, just saying there is sometimes no use bringing them in while McCarthy doesn't get a chance. You want to make fast friends here? Start dogging Freddy Garcia.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:25 PM) We need to have our manager get a better grasp of the hook for the SP instead of just plain asking him, so how do you feel. Wouldn't have changed a thing today. Unless you wanted to give him the hook in the 4th inning.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:13 PM) Unless a team makes a come back today, it's been a terrible day in the standings for the Sox. The next 7 days, it's time for us to make our own luck in the standings.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:09 PM) Just give the Tigers their due. They're flat gettin' it done. Notice they know how to finish off a team after taking the first two. Seriously though, Wilfredo Ledezma? At this rate, it seems like you could stick Arnie Munoz and Danny Wright in their starting rotation and somehow they'd start throwing shutouts.

Ok, so I know we've heard this before around here, and I know I'm going to either be labeled as annoying or as a flip-flopper, because I've been one of the loudest advocates for keeping Thome's OBP in the 3 slot, but as of today, I'm convinced. Our lineup would be more effective if Jermaine Dye were in the 3 hole, Jim Thome were in the 4 hole, Paul Konerko were in the 5 hole, Joe Crede were in the 6 hole, and AJP were in the 7 hole. So, why am I convinced today? All of the old arguments still fit. Moving Thome out of the 3 hole will probably cut into JD's RBI chances, because he will have fewer people on base. Thome may also score fewer runs because Dye won't be 2 guys behind him. Thome may drive in a few more from having JD in front of him, which would reduce the impact overall. But none of those are the key reason. The reason we need to do this is the lefties. In the 6th inning today, Scott Schoenweis came in as a Loogy. Started off with Pods, got him, Iguchi, and Thome in short order. The problem of course is that in terms of their numbers against lefties, these are basically our 3 worst guys in our lineup. Excluding Brian Anderson, and part-time guys, who's numbers will all be skewed, against lefties, the top 3 in our lineup look like this BA OPS Scott Podsednik .237 .608 Tadahito Iguchi .221 .650 Jim Thome .259 .768 Why is this important? It is important because it allows an opposing manager to, every game, send in a Loogy, and be able to get a quick, easy inning at the start of our lineup, and it allows that LOOGY to pitch to 3 people instead of one. Here are Jermaine's #s against lefties: Jermaine Dye .361 1.112 So, right now, we are struggling against lefties, and we have for much of the season. The weakness of our first 3 hitters against lefties, I feel, is one of the primary reasons. It allows managers to use 1 lefty to take out Podsednik, Iguchi, and Thome late in games without having anyone in there who we can count on to pound that lefty. By spreading out our lefties, and sticking Dye in there, I believe that our gains against left-handers will overcome the losses of total runs by moving Thome's OBP slightly lower in the order. Anyway, I know Ozzie won't do this, as in his eyes what he's doing is working, but I wanted to make a thread about it anyway. Schoenweis's inning today just really pissed me off, because having these 3 guys in a row who aren't hitting lefties is giving opposing managers a big advantage. If they want to bring in a Loogy against Thome, they get the added gifts of Podsednik and Iguchi for that one pitcher. Sticking Dye in there would break that up, and make managers either feed a lefty to Dye, give a righty to Podsednik and Iguchi, or deplete their bullpen by using 3 pitchers.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 12:48 PM) That's my gripe with FOX too. I wish MLB would offer more free-tv packages for the networks to bid on. Sunday day games, etc, etc. Or just don't block out the damn early game just because Fox buys it. I'm paying $150 for the extra innings package, and you're gonna steal Saturday from me? one of the two days I'm guaranteed to be home? That's fishing awful.

Brian Anderson can't hit righties.

Can o' corn Can o' corn Can o' corn Whoops.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 08:31 AM) i dont think there is any validity to this. francisco liriano pitched in the WBC, did he not? So, you're saying that if Freddy had spent the first 2 months of the season in the bullpen, he'd be in good shape? I could buy that.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) He has a chance, mainly because his offense is so much better. His defense isn't nearly as good as last year, but with the better offense, he has a much better shot at winning one. Not with the people who get bigger press than Crede. He'd have to be playing better defense than he has thus far this season. I mean he'd have to be doing everything right to get enough attention.

Is there some reason why this can't go in the other thread?

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 08:47 AM) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207195,00.html Next step is to kick out the IAEA inspectors ( I give em about a month before that happens ) and withdraw from the NPT. Is anyone still nieve enough to think diplomacy is gonna work on Ahmenenajad & these guys? See, here's the thing though...if Ahmadinejad actually does do exactly what you say he's going to do...then when we do wind up having to strike them, we will be doing so with at least a few allies behind it. Why? Because we've done this the right way. We have plenty of time, we still have years before they succeed at anything, and we've avoided making ourselves into the bad guy, just by taking our time. You can say the U.N. is as useless as you want, doesn't make it true.

Few things piss me off as much as the Fox exclusive Saturday Morning deal. Costs me so many damn games, out of the select handful I'm actually home ot watch all the way through.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 05:46 PM) It's 10-0 Twins in the fifth inning. This is why I wanted to sweep the Royals. Our competition always beats the piss out of the Royals. We merely win 2 of 3. I wonder, if you took Morneau and Mauer out of their lineup for almost the entire series...if they'd be able to win 2/3 as well.