Greg Hibbard

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 08:31 AM) Seriously though, this NL s*** is waaaay overblown. The Sox are playing great defense all around. This hadn't happened this year. The Sox are getting key hits with two outs. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seemed like just Paulie and Rios were doing that before. The Sox are pitching GREAT - and look at their stuff. s***, look at how sharp Floyd was against Strasburg. We didn't luck into that victory. Floyd simply can pitch like an ace when he's on. Our pitchers are ON right now, not just facing weak hitters. Bobby Jenks seems to be back, and everyone else in the pen except Williams and Linebrink are still very strong. The Sox are beating GOOD YOUNG PITCHERS! Yes, the pitching is allowing them do it, but the key here is we are winning baseball games - even against the NL - that we shouldn't be winning normally. The Sox aren't supposed to beat Strasburg and JD Martin back-to-back like that. They're supposed to get Fisted like against the great Doug Fister. But they've been doing it with the bat, just enough. The Sox are also making good pitchers pay for their mistakes. Look at last night against Hanson. Knowing that at any point the guy could find his groove and start mowing guys down, the Sox jumped all over him as soon as they could. EVERYONE IN THE LINEUP was drilling the ball off this guy. When's the last time we saw that?! Look, the horses*** NL in general may have been what this team needed to get rolling, but now they're f***ing rolling. You don't sleepwalk through the type of road trip the Sox have had, no matter how good you are. If what the Sox are doing right now was so easy then everyone would be doing it - like, for instance, the Tigers and Twins, who I seem to recall had the dogs*** stomped out of them last night. What's happening is the defense is winning the pitchers over. The pitching is winning the offense over. The offense in return is winning the pitching over, and the pitching is winning the defense over after that. Everyone's relaxing, everyone's showing up to the park confident. Struggling players are starting to let their natural talents work for themselves. There is an energy in the way Omar is f***in' it up over at 3B. There is energy in the way Viciedo is swinging the baseball bat, and the way Chris Sale spoke last night about hurrying the f*** up and getting here so we have an even more dominant bullpen. Kenny is paying attention now, he's not sleeping anymore. Hudson will be up soon, it's inevitable. Kenny's about to go shopping. This summer is going to be fun, f*** the haters. I suggest you get the f*** onboard right now unless you want to be left in the dust as we pass the Tigers and Twins. Go Sox. Awesome post, but I have one question - Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) I know an overwhelming majority of us in here "know" he'll eventually turn it around but what makes us so sure that he ever will? I'm certain "Slappy" Caruso will get alluded to a lot in the next three months, but Gordon has a bit more going for him than 27 infield singles, or whatever it was. His offensive game is pretty versatile and should respond well to rebuilding, provided he has the mental makeup to withstand this sort of thing. I still believe he'll eventually turn it around, but maybe not this year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) Right now, we're probably pushing our luck in how hard we're riding Vizquel. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get to Teahen's return and then if GB is terrible, I'd have Teahen take his roster spot. I just don't think there's much else you can do but rotate Viciedo/Vizquel/Teahen for the rest of the season at 2b/3b and hope for the best defensively

Well, he's down to an OPS of .527, which is a majors-worst for qualified hitters. At this point, does anyone think he'll survive Teahen's return?

Jenks was not facing the tying run, but still got the save?

This isn't really a June thing, but I just noticed that assuming Ozzie finishes July as Sox manager, he will surpass Larussa as the longest tenured Sox manager since Al Lopez (in terms of games managed)

Look, I've gone on record as stating Ozzie is the worst in-game manager in baseball. Still, for whatever reason, he probably contributes to some of the success that this team has had in some capacity over his tenure, and his managerial record seems too good to just be players performing despite him.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 11:06 AM) John Lannan was probably the worst pitcher we faced this entire road trip. Probably. I still think Rios did need the day off, as he had hit .200 for the previous week. Whether or not Konerko should have sat is another story, I suppose.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 11:01 AM) LOL "Rios hit .250 against 3 particular MLB pitchers and then had an 0-fer once." Bill Braski was really struggling, huh? The previous point I was attempting to refute made it seem like one particularly poor pitcher that Rios faced was the difference in how he hit.

So the consensus seems to be "Ozzie deserves no credit for players performing, but plenty of blame when things go wrong"

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:55 AM) Yeah but look at the pitcher on the mound for the Nats. That probably had a lot to do with it as well. Rios went 3 for 12 against three pretty mediocre Pittsburgh pitchers, including an 0-4 against an 0-5, 5.22 pitcher.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:50 AM) Wouldn't it have been smarter to rest them one at a time instead of both in one game? Maybe, but it worked out seemingly as he planned it...Peavy showed up and pitched a monster game, he didn't need Rios and Konerko in the lineup to bail him out, and then Paulie and Rios were sharp on Sunday.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:52 AM) If scoring 1 run against JD Martin is considered as having "worked pretty well", what exactly is not working well? I mean we got the W, but it had nothing to do Oz's gut being right about resting Alex and Paulie. My point was that Rios conveniently came right out of his slump on Sunday, and Paulie drove in three. Seems like the rest might have contributed to that.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Jun 22, 2010 -> 10:43 AM) It was just plain ignorant to sit both Paulie and Alex on the same day when you're already running without a DH. Guillen has always seemingly maintained the philosophy that occasionally resting players refocuses them. Seems to have worked pretty well this time.

As much as we blame Ozzie for making stupid in-game decisions, I'd like to point out three instances in which his hunches seemed dead-on * sitting Rios and Konerko on Saturday, which arguably gave them a breather they needed to bang out multiple hits each on sunday. Rios had been 5 for his previous 24 after that 4-4 at Wrigley, and although Konerko had hit in the previous three games, he was on a 5 for 19 cooler with no XBH. * putting in Putz in the ninth on Sunday * leaving in Peavy in the ninth proved to be the right call What others?

1) Absolutely everything seemed to go the Sox's way vs. the Nationals. We got a strike zone very favorable to us on Saturday (which resulted in Riggleman getting tossed), one bang-bang play was miscalled in favor of us, and it seemed as though every line drive off of Peavy late in the game Saturday was caught. Yesterday, every time we needed something, it seemed to happen for us, ditto friday. 2) We have the most wins of any major-league team and best winning percentage in 1-run games (14-8). When you glance at that statistic, and our run differential, which is still -20 despite our .500 record, it makes me think the ball has really been rolling the Sox' way of late.

I'm in, after having to chase down the bus after jumping off early... To be honest, everything through July looks relatively doable, but I can't see them making or losing meaningful ground in the next 40 days because they just don't seem to have that kind of talent. I'd bet they'll hang around or just above .500 for the next month or so but not make a huge run, and end up 4-5-6-7 games out heading into the first of decisive stretches of baseball this season, August 3rd through the 19th. (the second is September 6th through the 19th)

I love Hawk as much as anyone, but s*** like that is just inexcusable

If we work the count, we can have him out of the game by the fifth or sixth inning. That's the key to victory, IMO.

What troubles me about this year's campaign is that it resembles 2001 so much. Start off terrible, climb all the way seemingly back in it against the NL to around .500, get handcuffed into making no moves, go 5-10 under in August and September, end up with 79-83 wins.

2010 - 24-32 vs. AL, 6-2 vs. NL 2009 - 67-77 vs. AL, 12-6 vs. NL 2008 - 77-68 vs. AL, 12-6 vs. NL 2007 - 68-76 vs. AL, 4-14 vs. NL 2006 - 76-68 vs. AL, 14-4 vs. NL 2005 - 87-57 vs. AL, 12-6 vs. NL 2004 - 75-69 vs. AL, 8-10 vs. NL 2003 - 76-68 vs. AL, 10-8 vs. NL 2002 - 73-71 vs. AL, 8-10 vs. NL 2001 - 71-73 vs. AL, 12-6 vs. NL 2000 - 83-61 vs. AL, 12-6 vs. NL 1999 - 66-77 vs. AL, 9-9 vs. NL 1998 - 73-75 vs. AL, 7-9 vs. NL 1997 - 72-74 vs. AL, 8-7 vs. NL 988-946 vs. AL (.511 winning percentage) 134-103 vs. NL (.565 winning percentage) Man, what a disparity. Also, it's a .585 winning clip against the NL since 2000.

Forget about what the W/L total will be or where will finish in the division. What do you think the team batting average and team ERA will be, if the club remains essentially unchanged throughout the season? Currently the team batting average is .245 and team ERA is 4.56.

I honestly can't figure out whether being 5 games under .500 with a .244 team batting average, a 1.39 team WHIP and a 4.60 team ERA means the team is way good despite their statistics or way bad despite their record.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 15, 2010 -> 11:44 AM) Offensively. You can tolerate these numbers if they have value defensively, especially at catcher. AJP while he cannot throw runners out is outstanding a calling games, making pitchers comfortable and blocking pitches. I should have said hitter. I was responding to the previous point that they were the same basic hitter. They aren't. One is falling off precipitously and the other is falling off slightly.

Since turning 30 and prior to being acquired by the White Sox, Kotsay had hit .263 in 1184 at bats from 2006 to mid-2009. His White Sox batting average is .242, bringing his post-30 batting average to an overall .260 clip. Since turning 30, AJP is hitting .277. I'm not really sure at this point, they are the same basic player. They used to resemble one another more.