Greg Hibbard

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) Personally, I think analysis which boils down to: "We've got a good record and really anything could happen" isn't worth much. Pointing out what is wrong with the rotation, some regulars in the lineup and our manager is of considerably more value. At least it actually involves analysis with some depth and meaning. That beats "I'm sure everything is going to be all right. Last year was fun, wasn't it." Okay, as long as every time you point out what is wrong with our team you also point out what is wrong with every other AL contender, because it is the same s*** across the board.

QUOTE(stretchstretch @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 10:12 PM) I feel your frustration but.........the guy has a point that we are tied for the WC lead and still 22 games over 500, it would have been a different story if we were 10 games out of the playoffs and playing 500 ball through the season, in which case yes this would have been a total letdown of a year. This is not ideal, but we're still in it, anything can happen, and we have the talent to pull it off, the POV is not conceding defeat just saying this is a tough part of the year for everyone, every team has their issues, and we hope our aren't enough to keep us out of it. Minny lost Liriano for God's sake, we're lucky we didn't lose anyone for the season. A week with 5 of 6 against Det and NY and we were all singing praises, a down week and the world's over. But in the coming week we could go 6 for 6 and Minnesota could lose six straight......probable, maybe not, but possible...

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 04:00 PM) Nobody does or should, but if you think 2005 gives the team a pass for the next decade, your an idiot and need to go root for the Cubs. We aren't loveable or losers, the fact it took 88 years for last year to happen is a joke, and anybody who accepts failure due to us winning a title is a bigger joke. I think it's pretty safe to say you've completely missed the point of this thread

I really believe that ANYONE going into this season EXPECTING to win 110+ games was setting themselves up for tremendous disappointment. Even if our team performed up to expectations, even if the rest of the field didn't improve (e.g. Twins and Tigers and Yankees), even if we had NO injuries all season, it would still be a miracle to win more than 2/3rds of the games played. Only like 5 or 6 teams out of the thousands of major league baseball seasons played have ever been able to acheive that. Expecting this team to win 100 games was realistic, and sets the bar high enough. It's an improvement on last season, and would've likely been the best record in the league (who knows now). 27-12 to do that. We're probably about 3-4 games off the pace of 100 games, not even playing close to our best ball. The way some people have described this season you'd think that we were talking about Notre Dame football where 11-1 and a National Championship appearance and loss is cause for a coach getting fired. Get a grip, sox fans.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 21, 2006 -> 03:35 PM) If the pitching had been like last year, we would have at least 80 wins right now, probably more like 82 or 83. Is it realistic or not to expect Jon Garland to have that type of season again? Is it realistic or not to expect Garcia and Contreras to start showing signs of age? Everything clicked all at once for the starting pitching last year. That's never going to happen like that again. What about the hitting? Why can't I say the lineup has OVERacheived (which they clearly have) without someone always running to the goddamned "the pitching last year..." argument.

the expectations going into the season were high? why aren't those expectations STILL high? oh, and here's a multiple choice exam for you: 1) The White Sox have a. slightly underachieved (5 or fewer games) b. noticably underachieved (5-10 games) c. greatly underachieved (10-15 games) d. vastly underachieved (15 or more games) Even if Vazquez, Buehrle and Garcia were pitching to the ERA norms, and the hitting was WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE EXPECTED going into the season (ie Crede hitting 30 points lower, Thome maybe being more injured and hitting for less of an average, Podsednik stealing more bases, JD having slightly lower numbers), I think you'd be hard pressed to find 6 more wins/less losses. Seriously, did you expect this team to be 35 over at this point? If this team is 79-44 right now instead of 73-50 (a SIX game difference! SIX!) everyone is high-fiving one another and getting the champagne on ice. The tone of some of the members of this site makes it seem like we've had the most disasterous season possible, which is obviously such a gross overstatement it embarrasses anyone who has a brain (White Sox fan or not)

no technically it was updated after we split a 4 game set at home vs. the royals, but I don't think any other teams had played better over their last 7. Certainly not detroit, obv.

yes, I wrote this myself.

Look, the "chip on your shoulder" routine was fitting for the previous, oh, 88 seasons or so. And the pessimistic "I know they are gonna blow it" routine had some credence, especially considering their playoff futility before last year. But please, after last year, things kind of changed. Maybe you didn't think so, but they did. You don't need to have a chip on your shoulder anymore. You have a World Series title. f*** the Cubs? f*** you for mentioning the f***ing Cubs. And you don't need to go overboard with the "woe is me" routine - because nobody is buying it and nobody gives a f***, especially outside of your own fanbase. Yeah, the Sox have some pitching problems - guess what - so does everyone else. Yeah, the Sox have some consistency problems - guess what, so does everyone else. And yeah, the Sox also have some bullpen problems - well, guess what, so does everyone else. So, do us a favor - act like you've been here before. Act like you can handle the ups and downs of a season that every team goes through, and act like you aren't too melodramatic to handle watching a baseball team. Some of these over the top threads honestly really sicken me. If you can't handle it - you know what, stop watching baseball and maybe focus on getting yourself off of life-tilt. Sorry if this is harsh - but some of you people honestly need a reality check here. Here's a clue - imagine yourself in a room with a Cubs fan, a Royals fan, a Devil Rays fan, an Indians fan, a Mariners fan and a Padres fan and let's talk about how much f***ing bellyaching you are entitled to. Honestly, it's f***ing pathetic. We have not played as well as most have expected. We are still 23 f***ing games over .500 and in the lead for a playoff spot and we have a very good opportunity to clinch a postseason berth, especially now that one team competing with us has waved the white flag. Additionally, we are coming off of a World Title. So please - pull yourselves together and let's approach the next six weeks with class and integrity, not with this 5-year-old spoiled child bulls***. Consider yourselves lucky that a major injury didn't devastate your hopes of repeating in say, April or May. Consider yourselves lucky that the team didn't underperform so brutally that we are talking about a .500 club. This should be a time to savor a world title and to get behind a team pushing to compete for another, and instead some of you are making it one of the worst seasons of your entire fandoms. Reflect on that for a few minutes before you respond. Me, I am savoring this year. Win or lose, I'm going to enjoy my time on the top of the heap. If we can't do it again, well, we did it once. And it was magical. And once upon a time called 2004 that would've been good enough for me. Because it took f***ing forever to get here,and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a few sourpusses who have lost some perspective ruin it for me. Again, sorry for being harsh, but this needed to be said.

these were updated on friday...

I was one of those people who was as wrong as one can possibly be about Garland this year

It's not just that it's Santana... It's that it's Santana at home (where he's 5-0 with a 0.73 ERA in his last 5 starts) against Javier Vazquez Sorry guys, but today...we gone I hope I'm wrong

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Aug 19, 2006 -> 12:27 PM) I didn't realize his arb years went to 08, my bad. To be honest, and I admit I'm not really a Crede guy, but are you going to want him for 5 or 6 years AFTER 08 realizing they will be expensive years,he's a guy with a bad back, and that he's yet to prove he can be a middle of the order hitter. this is the part where you tell me how much better of a year you could've possibly expected out of Crede jesus, since when is a projected .300/30/100 not good enough?

eat s*** KC and STFU non-believers.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 09:15 AM) I haven't read through this thread yet, but I'm going to add this. This 2006 team doesn't feel the need to show up everyday. The 2005 team came out with something to prove against every single team. They played every game like it meant something, which it did. They had heart. This year's team does not do any of that. They believe they're better than everyone else, and they don't have to prove it. They take off games and entire series. 2005 team = wanted it 2006 team = complacent, don't have anything to prove That is why this team will never accomplish what the 2005 team did. In other words, last year you didn't watch the 7 game losing streak in August or the mid-september slide.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 10:52 PM) This isn't a shot at Mr. Hibbard, but I guess it's easier to be extremely positive when you just don't set your expectations high. How many times has any team swept a four game series at home in the past 20 years? It happens less than 5% of the time.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 10:39 PM) The PFB show is brought to you by skype. Nothing like your postgame show being brought to you by a piece of shareware, written by the same folks at KaZaa. Last night was acceptable???? The best O in the game, going against a pitcher with an 8 ERA, and the team they are facing is what 14-40 something on the road. I was prepared to lose one game against the Royals, and I figured it was Vazquez. Honestly, that loss did not bother me that much.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 10:23 PM) And we are healthy and playing an inferior team at home. We should be putting distance between us and someone. Boston and Detroit played each other. We should of stretched it out against one of them. The wild card never was part of our equation. I am talking about how our team dealt with a playoff hunt before. We ran and played well before the ASB. Then had problems in the 2nd half keeping consistant. Playing pretty much 500 ball, and playing poor against bad teams. We are healthy, our biggest wild card opponents have a major injury in their rotation, and the other one has been playing poor. How many games are we up with our great healthy team. Count the number of unacceptable losses in the last 19 games. I count one.

before you guys hit the panic button regarding contention, let's talk about how "flawed" these teams are: 1) the Twins without Liriano (think they are going to Prior him? he will be shut down for the year eventually. They will NOT f*** with this this year, I guarantee you) 2) the Red Sox who suddenly can't field a major league rotation. QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 10:07 PM) I compare it to a team that is in a playoff fight, chasing a team ahead of them, trying to make up ground while that team is playing a tough opponent while we drop games to the worst team in our division. That is the parallels to previous seasons. We were within a few games of the twinks, they started a bad streak and we couldnt take advantage of it because our pitching was inconsistant, and our offense would go to sleep vs the worst teams in baseball. The situation is similiar no matter where the records are. Southside, were we ever in the lead for the wild card that year?

there are a lot of differences between this year and 2004. For one thing, I'm not sure we were ever 27 games over .500 that year. Sox fans, I'm sure every year from now on when doubt creeps into your mind your tendency is going to be to draw parallels on the most heartbreaking season in recent memory, however, I would always caution you against comparing a team a few games over .500 to a world championship caliber one that has flirted with 30 over, and probably will end up around that number.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Aug 16, 2006 -> 10:00 PM) Not to mention that team was the royals of all teams... hence the phrase that team...

There had better be a closed door meeting or early bp or early fielding or hopefully all of the above even though there is a day game somebody's voice had better be raised in that locker room. the intensity was not there tonight it is unacceptable to lose that badly to that team at home with your ace on the mound.

I am on an even enough keel to recognize that if we win the next two games the series is a successful one.

As much as I would like to wipe away Jon's first two months, we needed those games as much as we need these ones. If he gets his ERA down to 4.75 I will consider the season a success

Is it ok to root for the DL?