clujer420

Loiaza, Buehrle, Colon, Garland, and Cotts is the order I'd rank our starters in. Loaiza clearly is our #1, and MB has been slightly better than Colon IMO.

In some weird way, losing today might be a good thing overall for the Sox. Obviously it's not good for Cotts, nor is it good in the short-term since KC and MIN can gain ground on us. But, had we swept the Yankees, there's a better than decent chance that we could have gone into Detroit and overlooked them and looked forward to the upcoming 9-game homestand. That's happened a few times with this Sox team -- they become complacent. Now, having lost today, I think they were reminded that they're in a dog fight, and that every game counts the same at this time of the season. I hope so, at least, because these 3 games with Detroit are huge IMO.

By the sounds of things around here, you would think that we got swept and that our season is over. "They put three pretty good starters out there against us, and we did well. That's a good sign. We're still fighting and playing good baseball, and I feel good about that." -- Jerry Manuel Jerry is 100% right. The Sox played excellent baseball for 26 out of 27 innings, and did so in a very hostile environment. I GUARANTEE you that if you were told on Tuesday before Game 1 that we can just skip to Friday with a 13-2 victory against Roger Clemens, an 11-2 victory against David Wells, and a 7-5 defeat against Mike Mussina, EVERYONE here would have taken that in a heartbeat. So, we need to look at the big picture and realize that we took 2 out of 3 ON THE ROAD against one of the best teams in baseball. Now we need to focus on Detroit. We've got Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, and Esteban Loaiza, and hopefully the Sox can keep up their good baseball.

This should be in the regular forum, not the OT one, but you're right. It's just a game, and in the words of the board jester, BE HAPPY.

LOL

There's no H in the Vanna part of Vanna White. Thanks Mr. Clujer. Just tryin to lighten things up around here. The local bridges must be packed throughout the US with people from Soxtalk.com ready to jump!

There's no H in the Vanna part of Vanna White. She was hot back in the day.

Well if that happens, then this team has nothing and I'd rather find that out now than later. If we truly have no sack, the I'd rather us not even make the playoffs. But, we shall see how we respond to this test. If we can take care of the Tigers, we've got a 9-game homestand (I think) starting next week, and as we all know, we're 20 games over .500 at home.

, if a group of "big boys" creamed my face, I'd be crying too. :puke

Then you too should get it right and not put words into my mouth. And as an adult, you really shouldn't let anything an athlete does offend you on a personal level. Fact is, we're going to need Colon to perform like an ace down the stretch, and I HIGHLY...HIGHLY doubt he's going to give it less than a 100% effort.

Me & him just don't agree, and he can't be honest enough to admit he's got a personal agenda in the matter. That's fine with me. But, I'm through with the back-and-forth business -- we're not going to agree on the Colon "debate", so I shall not waste my time. Still time for the group hug?

:fthecubs

Don't confuse a JOKE with "gay bashing", my friend. (I'm in a good mood this morning for some reason )

:cheers (if your boss asks, it's just ginger ale )

Maybe he's jealous of the Yankees and their opportunity to "f*** him right in the ass"?

Ichiro MVP? Nah. He's having a good year, but not MVP-esque. Plus, I think him and Bret Boone would split the votes. I say that it's Frank's award for the taking. It would be the 2nd time that he deserved the MVP after not making the AS team that year. Don't forget who votes for the MVP award. It IS a popularity contest to some extent. Hasn't a lot of Ichiro's "shine" grown dull? I mean sure, he's having a solid season, but the newness just isn't there anymore. And like I said in a diff post, he's got Boone as a teammate, so that will probably take some votes away from him. Although, I guess you could say the same about Frank and Magglio. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Either way, as long as the Sox win the Central, I'll be happy.

Presumably if Frank stays hot, he won't be a .260 hitter. He's up to .268 now, and the way he's going, .280 is attainable. And like Tejada and Giambi proved in 2002 and 2000, respectively, the voters don't remember what happened at the beginning of the year -- they only remember what happened in August and September. And, so far, Frank has been the hottest player down the stretch. But, you're right, if the Sox miss the playoffs, Frank has NO chance.

Here's how I think it went... It was Cotts' turn, but they wanted to let MB go (presumably to have a better chance of winning), then MB had some tightness in his shoulder. So, they were going to wait and see what happened with that and in the 1st 2 games of the series. Coop said that if the Sox won the first 2, that Cotts would likely start. Then, late last night, the Sox were saying MB was starting, but a few websites said Cotts was. So basically, the whole thing was kinda silly, and now we've got Cotts vs. Mussina. God speed, Neal.

Ichiro MVP? Nah. He's having a good year, but not MVP-esque. Plus, I think him and Bret Boone would split the votes. I say that it's Frank's award for the taking. It would be the 2nd time that he deserved the MVP after not making the AS team that year.

. It's deeper than that, buddy, and you know it. Um...I'm defending him not because of "two good performances in a row", but rather because of about 5-6 years of being one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. Dude, couldn't you say that about almost ANY of our players this year? If Buehrle hadn't lost 10 of his first 12 decisions, wouldn't we have a bigger lead? If we had a 2nd baseman with a brain for the whole year, wouldn't we have a bigger lead? If Crede and Konerko hadn't struggled for the first 3 months, wouldn't we have a bigger lead? If Koch had been the closer he was in Oakland, wouldn't we have a bigger lead? My point is -- this is a TEAM game -- why pin the blame on 1 guy? I know they all count, but does 1 bad (and when I say bad, his ERA is just slightly over 4, which isn't all that bad) season cancel out what he's done in the first 120+ starts of his career? He's nearly 40 games over .500 in his career man, that's good. Not many pitchers can say that. When did anyone say he's now a stud or an ace just because of beating the Yankees? He was a stud before yesterday, and he's an ace on most ML teams. That's fact. Um...I never called Bartolo our ace. From the start of the season, I've maintained that Buehrle is our ace (I was an advocate of MB starting on opening day, not Colon), and once the season started to play out, our ace in my eyes became Loaiza. At NO point have I EVER called Colon our ace. If you can pull a post out of the archives that says otherwise, please do. There you go again. Once again dude, listen closely -- NO PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE IS MY HERO. GOT IT? Stop putting words into other people's mouths, agenda boy. PS -- :fyou too.

True, but like I said a couple of weeks ago, we're going to be playing a lot of meaningful games down the stretch, and IMO that's going to be great for us. In essence, nearly every game is a playoff game, and that's going to help us prepare for the pressures of a playoff atmosphere. In 2000, we didn't play a meaningful game all summer because of our division lead, then when it was time to turn it on against Seattle, we couldn't do it. This year, if we make it to the playoffs, we'll be keyed in and we'll obviously be playing good baseball (because to make it, we're going to HAVE to be on our game).

Plus, with most pitchers, a walk is 10 times more devastating than a hit is. With a hit, you can generally give the hitter credit and move on. With a walk, you're likely to dwell on it, and you tend to either 1) be more fine with the next hitter, which often leads to another walk, or 2) throw a pitch that catches too much of the plate for fear of falling behind in the count, and the guy tees off on it. Hopefully Neal can keep the Yankee hitters off balance today and hit the corners (and hopefully we'll have an ump that CALLS strikes on the corners).

Not Koch if he doesn't pitch effectively at AAA. What is the latest date we can call Koch up and still have him eligible for the playoff roster? If we can keep him down there until, say September 15 or so, we should do that. Get him as much work in as possible so we can see WTF he does or does not have left. Paniagua yes if he is effective at AAA. And not Borchard. Keep him down in the minors and he'll get another shot at spring training next year.

Everyone's still standing in line to suck Halladay's dick because of his winning streak. Fact is, anyone who knows a thing about baseball knows that he's having an inferior year when you compare it to Loaiza's. Loaiza's ERA is a full run lower, and the run support he gets is a full run lower as well. And, not to mention, Loaiza's doing it for a 1st place team.