Balta1701

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:47 PM) 2 four game slumps and 1 three game losing streaks are not "major" in my book We've lost 5 of our last 6 as well, and for another of those stretches we were 3-7....they don't have to be consecutive losing streaks for them to be losing skids.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:42 PM) I'm happy to see you objecting on behalf of those who WERE reacting knee-jerk about the bullpen. Garland flipped a switch all of a sudden from bad-to-mediocre to good and solid, and Vazquez went from good-to-shady suddenly, too, all within this season. I don't think I'm stretching to say that our starters'll be okay, but I guess, considering how everyone's reacting, we'll have to wait and see. Vazquez has been "Shady" at least since when was it, like June-July of 04?

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:37 PM) As an aside, the 2006 sox are far less "slumpy" and more consistent than the 2005 cast of characters [i know there is no such word but I'm in a mood] As a team, I don't think they are. The 2005 squad had exactly 1 slump where everyone was panicking. Thus far I count 3 major ones thus far this season.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:37 PM) Lieberman might very well lose, actually. Chaffee was, in the latest poll I saw, in a dead heat amongst all respondents, and losing amongst likely primary voters.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:34 PM) No matter how you look at it, Mackowiak gets way too much time out in CF. It's understandable to have him out there once in a while, but Ozzie platoons him with Anderson. That's too much time out there for a bad CFer. The way BA was hitting for the first 2 months, it made sense. It doesn't make sense any more. QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:37 PM) Is he platooning him? Honest question. Seems to me Brian has been in there a lot lately. On the pregame, Guillen said he wanted to get Mackowiak some at bats since he hasn't played for several days, All Star break, etc. and that the Tigers are throwing (likely) 2 LHP in the upcoming series. Anderson was in there yesterday vs. Mussina so it doesn't seem like a true platoon to me but maybe I'm forgetting the lineups? While getting Mackoviak playing time is a decent goal, it's also worth noting that Anderson is finally earning the playing time, so maybe it would make sense to put Mack in a few different spots and give other people some rest? Anderson's not the only guy Mack can back up.

This losing streak will pass. But right now we have a fundamental problem that even the next winning streak will not fix...we are being carried by our offense instead of our pitching. Last year, being carried by the pitching allowed us to, except for 1 stretch, cut short almost every major slump the team got into. This year, while being carried by the offense, we're far streakier, as we can go into slumps just by scoring 4 runs in a game. This is a fundamental problem, and whether it takes a trade, or Cooper smacking 5 guys across the ass with baseball bats, something needs to be done to fix it.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:26 PM) I always thought it was .220, too. Well, let's try to get Anderson to .220 anyway. If he keeps that swing together, give him a week or two and he'll be there. If Ozzie stops starting Mack in CF, btw.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) Akaka is not a Republican. Correct, my mistake, but he's still facing a primary challenge from his right.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) On a personal note, I think McCarthy is very overrated, and I don't think he ever becomes better than a third starter. I hope he proves me wrong, but I don't look at him and say, "Ace!" You haven't seen much of his changeup, have you?

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:21 PM) That only begs the question: Why does the FBI hate America so much? Not enough cross dressing.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:12 PM) Yes, there is a difference. They are not even on the same plane. Much like falling asleep at the wheel and killing someone will get you manslaugter, but running someone over because you didn't like them will get you murder 2. They are not morally equivilent, even if I can't spell equivilent. Personally, I think there is a line, but it's not as strong of a line as you're drawing. The line depends in part on the motivation of the people involved, even if the goal is the same. If you're bombing a city, you better as all Hell be trying to be careful and doing your best to avoid civilian casualties. Simply bombing a city randomly would, IMO, be either the same, or maybe even worse than strapping a bomb to your chest (an F-15 being more lethal than most suicide bombers). Here's also an interesting counter-point I would like to offer up, if just to play Devil's Advocate: so, in both cases, a suicide bomber and an Israeli jet...civilians are dying. So the only difference has to be one of motivation; if you're trying to kill civilians or not; the end result is the same, but we're judging things differently based on motivation. Does that not argue that some motivations are worse than others? I.e. If I were to kill a man because he was African American, can I not then judge that my motivation makes my actions worse than if I killed an African American man in the process of a robbery? (i.e. this is the hate crime legislation debate I'm throwing back at you...the best argument I've heard against that is that it's a crime either way, and it shouldn't matter what the motivation is. But here we're clearly taking motivation, in whether or not the civilian deaths were on purpose, into account, so in some cases, we're willing to take people's motivation into account in determining whether or not an action is immoral/illegal) QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:16 PM) Also, it's worthwile to ask will they tear up too much of the kitchen floor in the process? Yeah, there's a lot of things to worry about here. It's one of those messes where there doesn't look like a good way out of it. The best long-term outcome...removal of the regimes in Iran and Syria and liberalization of those countries won't happen without ungodly huge casualties, especially given the current situation of the U.S. army, and if we wanted to try to get there through military means, it's going to wind up doing heavy damage to the region and specifically to the U.S. economy, which is already hurting on gas prices. Not to mention of course the potential casualties, which could be massive. I for one think the best possible outcome we could hope for is some sort of stalemate/cease fire in the current shooting, returning to a state of very unsteady peace, and maybe making a few efforts to maintain or strengthen that peace while waiting on the mess in Iraq to destabilize the countries next door.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 12:07 PM) 7-1 Royals, top 6. Looks like KC might actually beat the Tigers in a game. If the Royals lose this one they are an officially official minor league team. 9-6 Royals win. MacDougal comes in and gets the save. The Royals tried hard to lose it, but just couldn't pull it out.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 02:10 PM) BA Banner = Slumpbuster Problem is, the only slump it's busted has been B.A.'s.

Sounds like Konerko took him to dinner on Friday.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 12:44 PM) That said, I think Zito probably gets $12-13 mil this off-season. He's pitching well and he has an impressive resume. The 5-75 talk is just crap though. Remember, people were throwing out 10-200 numbers for Beltran and 5-75 for Paulie. Projections are almost always going to be a bit high, at least now. Buehrle would probably get something similar to Zito, and I wouldn't be surprised if he signed a 5-55 extension at some point. Paulie might have been able to get 5-$70 from the Orioles had he really pushed them. Supposedly they told him they were willing to go higher, but he just didn't want to play there. And I for one think someone is going to be pushing $70 or more for Zito.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) There is no way Philly does that without the Sox giving up someone like Fields too. If we pick up Abreu's contract there is.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 12:47 PM) I agree with you but for a different reason. As long as you have Syria and Iran sponsoring Hezbollah then Lebanon will never get rid of it. What Isreal is doing right now is killing a few roaches on the kitchen floor while the nest inside the wall goes undisturbed. Unfortunately, going after that nest is a really nasty proposition right now. The question of course is...if we find a way to avoid disturbing the next, is it possible that the nest will start to wither with time? Or will killing those few roaches on the floor be enough to rile up the full nest?

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 08:49 AM) Sounds good to me. I was thinking the same thing. Abreu>>>Pods Gordon>>McCarthy McCarthy>Vazquez You haven't watched Brandon pitch much have you? Or are you just saying BMac out of the bullpen? I might agree with that part, but I really don't like seeing Gordon>>McCarthy at all.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 08:33 AM) Buerhle pitches into the 7th, 8th inning his next start with 3 or less runs and everyone will forget his recent troubles Make it the next 3-4 starts. It'll probably take that to get his ERA back down to 4.

SAVE US JON!

QUOTE(samclemens @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 07:45 AM) how about representing your constituency? whats wrong with that? lieberman deserves credit for being independant. his constituents elected joe lieberman, not the a puppet of howard dean and nancy pelosi. if they vote him out, only then can you call him off-base. in conclusion, serving your constituency should always trump being a tool to the party line. its called freedom and democracy. So in other words, you also oppose the 2 Republican Senate primary challengers who are going after Chaffee and Akaka from the political right of both of those Senators (both of which btw are much more serious challenges than the one facing Lieberman, but the media doesn't bother reporting on those)

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 01:42 PM) I think the White Sox are extremely talented, but one of their main strengths was their chemistry. The Red Sox are loaded this year, and if their starters were able to pitch to their abilities, they'd be the best team in baseball. It's too bad that KW got suckered like previous General Managers did into thinking that Vazquez could actually be a "winner". On paper, the Red Sox starting pitching does not come close to matching ours, IMO. Schilling Beckett Wells Clement Lester Wakefield Snyder Buehrle Contreras Garcia Garland Vazquez McCarthy Clement is always hurt these days and was never worth his contract. Schilling is dynamite, but is up in age, so he cancels out Contreras. Beckett vs. Buehrle as #2? Even after this disaster, Mark's still put up better numbers. Wakefield and David Wells versus Garcia, Garland and Vazquez? McCarthy vs. Lester and Snyder? Aside from the #1 slot, I would take our guy, on paper, at each and every step there.

This kid is going to be dynamite. He's got a great looking swing. It took him 2 months to learn how to hit big league pitching. He's learned now. Now he just has to get the power stroke back, and we'll have a guy who can challenge for the All Star team for the next 5 years. AND NO MORE (*@#&*$&*#& TRADE FOR ROWAND THREADS! THIS KID ISN'T THE PROBLEM!

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 01:30 PM) Also, out of everyone on this site, I think I'm the last person that can be accused of only posting if we lose. If the Yankees make their expected trade, them and the Red Sox will have more pure talent than we do. However, if you make it to the playoffs, anything can happen. No offense, but you're totally off base here. On paper, no team in baseball has more talent up and down the list than the White Sox. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell our starting pitching that fact. Seriously, who would have thought 2 months ago that today I'd be ready to praise Greg Walker for the great work he's done on Uribe and Anderson's swing, and keeping Crede from falling into a slump, and at the same time, wondering what the Hell Cooper's being paid for these days?

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) If we didn't have Jose, I don't know where we'd be. 3rd or 4th place.