Balta1701

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:23 PM) Are you kidding? A dropping curve ball six inches outside and low? Not a good pitch to bunt on at all. This is turning into Pin The Tail On The Mackowiak. Roy Halladay has to be nasty as all hell to bunt against, especially if he's expecting it. The only run I'm pissed about is the one making it 3-2 right now.

80 pitches for Halladay through 4. We've stranded 6. 19 pitches that inning...and the big pitch guys are up next.

This game should be 2-2. Anywho...

SCOTTY Woo Woo!

Thank God we put that extra offense in our 8 and 9 slots.

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:15 PM) Balta, fair points and I am not saying Mackowiak is a good CF, he isn't. I am stating why Guillen has him in there. But it comes down to pitching doesn't it? Don't the pitchers have to pitch over mistakes? There's only so many mistakes that you can expect a pitcher to deal with IMO. He shouldn't have to put up with one of the worst Center Fielders in baseball when the best is sitting on the bench. Especially since the one on the bench has finally learned how to hit on occasion. And on top of that, most of them I wouldn't call mistakes, since a fly ball to Center Field is usually something that should be turned into an out.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:14 PM) Didn't see the first two innings. How did they score? Glaus 3 run bomb. Bunt hit by Pods, Stolen Base, Thome double.

I promise if we end this at bat with the game tied, I will not complain again about Mack in CF the rest of the game, regardless of how many more runs he gives up.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:12 PM) I just got back from dinner. What's going on so far? The score doesn't look nice. Garland gave up a bomb to Glaus in the first (after Mack had a ball drop that BA would have caught). in the 2nd, Pods bunted a hit, stole 2nd, and scored on a double by Thome. Both Halladay and Garland are throwing a metric fishton of pitches.

All right AJ...good start. Mr. Crede, do your work.

64 pitches for Garland through 3, 61 pitches for Halladay. The bullpens are going to decide this game. Toronto's pen has the #9 ERA in the AL, we have the #10.

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:03 PM) The fact is, SoxTalk pessimists blame their favorite whipping boys whenever the situation presents itself. If it were Vazquez pitching with two on, it'd be "he needs to pitch over mistakes, that's his job". When it's Garland, it's "Mackowiak sucks". I don't know why I even bother to talk about this ... it's the same stuff day after day, regardless of whether I talk about it or not. Actually, I was really, really pissed at Ozzie for starting Mack the last time Vazquez was out on the mound. Having him out there instead of Anderson led directly to 2 hits and 1 run, and maybe led to Vazquez tiring out a little bit more as well. And Mack doesn't suck. He's just not a Center Fielder.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 05:01 PM) I think he's been far more consistent. Last year I can think of a lot of times where he would go into some major funks when he couldn't hit a breaking ball to save his life. He still isn't good with breaking balls, but he's gotten better and because of that he usually is capable of doing something in pretty much every game. The one interesting thing though, last year Iguchi hit .274 against lefties and .279 against righties. This year, it's .330 against righties and .223 against lefties. And since Ozzie is obsessed with the lefty-righty matchup, and subs Cintron only when we're facing a righty, it does hurt us a bit, and I can't figure out why he forgot how to hit a lefty.

So according to Raw Story, former Ambassador Peter Galbraith is about to come out with a book on Iraq, and in that book he's going to claim that Bush didn't know that there were even 2 religious sects in Iraq until early 2003.

61 pitches, 34 strikes through 3 innings for Halladay.

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:54 PM) Very true, and I'd like to have the 05 Iguchi back as well. I know he's not doing as great of a job moving people over, but his numbers are almost all either identical to or better than last year. Last year 15 home runs, this year 12, last year he hit about .278 or so, this year .288, OPS .778 last year and .774 right now...he's pretty darn close to the same numbers.

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:49 PM) You need to take a freaking step back from the whining ... for once. Try this on for size ... Garland is a ground ball pitcher, or should be. Halladay is a great righthanded pitcher. Mackowiak has been killing righties to the tune of .342 . They will need offense in this game. Anderson, despite trending upward, is still regularly overmatched by good pitchers, let alone great pitchers. And I am a fan of Anderson. Mackowiak did not throw that big fat 3-2 changeup, Garland did. Even if there's no one on base, it's 1-0, they're still losing and they still need offense. I'm gonna defend Fathom on this one. Mackowiak, while hitting .342, is just as regularly overmatched by good pitching as Anderson. Or when he is not overmatched, he gets 1-2 hits. On the other hand, having Mackowiak in CF gives up a guaranteed 2-3 hits per game that do not occur with Brian Anderson in Center Field. In almost every single game I can remember Mack starting in CF, I can point to a specific fly ball that Anderson would have caught that Mack did not catch which led directly to a run. You and I could argue back and forth about the indirect part, about what pitch you throw to Glaus with a runner on 1st and 2 outs instead of a runner on 1st and 2nd with one out, but since you can't see those, it's beside the point. What is driving us so crazy is that in exchange for 1-2 extra hits, we are giving up 1-2 extra runs. And against a dynamite pitcher like Halladay, every single run we give up makes the game harder to win. Here's the question...so say Glaus still hits that bomb with 1 runner on base and Anderson in CF. Right now, this would be a 2-1 game, and we'd have exactly the same number of outs, and everything else would be the same. How different is that from a 3-1 lead? I'd say it's pretty damn different.

OH. MY. GOD.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:47 PM) Halladay has control of his curve now. It's too bad we couldn't capitalize on all the hangers in the 1st inning. Ok...seriously...how many times does Jermaine Dye have to save our asses this season before we give him a free pass? If there's anyone on this team who's earned one, it's JD.

Shame we couldn't have gotten that last inning.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:40 PM) Coming into this game, Mack against RHP: .342/.419/.473 Wow, that was a terrible call. Exactly why he should play against them. IN LEFT FIELD.

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) yep, especially when 4/5's of your starting staff are having subpar years, and the Manager decides that the Defense must play lackadasical against righties. THANK GOD our offense has come through! Fixed

At some point this game, Mack will get a hit after the game is already decided, thus telling Ozzie that it's still ok to keep playing him, because yeah, he's helping out the offense.

Cleveland up 3 on Detroit. Yankees up 3 on Baltimore. Tampa up one on Boston.

QUOTE(iguchi=dank @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 04:33 PM) OMG uribe is gonna get b****ed at again Think Ozzie will beach at Mack for not playing defense well enough in CF, just to see how ironic things can get?