Greg Hibbard

thread probably needs to get locked at this point before it gets ugly

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two MLB network commentators also picked the Sox to win the division in their personal predictions - was really surprised to see that given how little national respect we are usually given.

Getz's OBP is around .314. I see him topping out as a .280/.330 type of player.

This team is actually a lot better than I thought they would be. I figured they would either be about 42-46 or 41-47, about 5 games out, or really bad, but that was partly based on their 15-22 start and partly based on the preseason makeup of the team. I did not expect that they would be over .500, but I expected they would be better than they were at 15-22. It seems as though they rebounded from playing about as bad as they could as a group early in the season, culminating in the Toronto four game sweep. Floyd was awful (peaked at 7.71 ERA in his loss at Toronto), and a lot of people were slumping. The bottom of our order from 6-9 was routinely then sub-.230 hitters comprised of Ramirez, Fields, Nix, Lillibridge, Getz, Betimet. Obviously a couple of those have straightened themselves out. Even Dye and Pierzynski's averages were down to the .260s and .270s while Pods was hitting about .270. The only guy really hitting well early in the season was Paulie. We had Wise leading off for christ's sake for a couple games. Just check out those @ Toronto box scores, because the team has really changed in a lot of ways since then. Two players have given me hope, both short term and long: Beckham and Floyd. Floyd has settled in really nicely, and finally won me over despite his peripherals because he really is a battler. I've gained a lot of respect for him in particular. Beckham was a move that was utterly desperate, because we really had no choice, but we caught lightening in a bottle seemingly and I hope it works out. Either way, this team has become fun to watch again - because they are exciting. If we have 4 solid pitchers, and if Colon can fake it a la El Duque for the rest of the season, we should be in this thing and capable of finishing with 84ish wins. That honestly might be enough. More encouraging is that I think I'm finally seeing where the reshaping of this team is going longterm, and I like it. I'm in favor of standing pat because I want to keep and develop our young core as our sluggers age, and I don't want to give up anything in the minors for an aging player who is less versatile.

That surface has injured so many f***ing people needlessly, in both baseball and football games. I almost want to attend the implosion and cheer.

we just pitchensively indiffered that game.

getz defensively indiffered second.

ugh.

QUOTE (tommy @ Jul 9, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) Sizemore probably gets him at third. Doesn't sizemore have an arm injury that he is nursing?

if the CF was going back, why the f*** did Dye not tag to get to third with one out? wtf?

but Paulie is so hot...

god I almost want a sacrifice here lol.

anything but a GIDP to third Paul, please.

walk for JI

HBP. Shake it off, JD.

man.

leadoff triple.

dotel? how do you take out poreda at this point?

Alexei flies out, but we are in this thing.

Guys, can I just say that I love the idea of this coming down to our pen vs. theirs.

9-8!!!

konerko groundout to third ends the inning.

Konerko up as the tying run after a Thome walk.

what the hell happened there?