Milkman delivers

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 1, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) I'm not arguing about the length of time, I'm arguing about the quality of those stretches. He's shown in two separate years (the only two he's played thus far), that he can play at an all star level for extended periods of time. That indicates this isn't a case of him being a AAAA player, or having some fatal flaw that wasn't exposed until he reached the major leagues, or even the league adjusting to him and him being unable to overcome that adjustment. This reeks of something else...and I don't think it has anything to do with Greg Walker or expectations that are too high. He's meeting those adjustments for long enough stretches of time to show that he is capable of what the expectations are. I don't think he's going to be a AAAA player, but I'm not sure that he's going to be this stud we've all been believing he'd be. In fact, I'm getting quite sure of that.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 1, 2011 -> 01:07 PM) Well, he put up an .877 OPS Post ASB last year. That's all-star caliber for an MI. He put up OPS's of over .900 in July and September of '09. Again, all star caliber for an MI. Like I said, good stretches. He hasn't had a great year yet, though. And with as bad as he's been so far, it probably won't happen this season either.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 1, 2011 -> 11:59 AM) Lol. I miss Jan, Feb, March when I was the board demon. It's no fun anymore. I think it's awesome. People are finally coming over to the dark side.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 1, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) Well, he has had sustained success in this league...I actually started replying earlier to Cangelosi's post in re: Walker ruining Gordo, but I couldn't really argue that, since he has put together stretches of 2-3 months where he's hit at an all-star level. That's not the league "adjusting" to his approach and exposing fatal flaws. It seems to me that this is more of a mental problem. He's not been some stud. He's had good stretches, as you said. I think Steve was right when he said that we probably need to reevaluate our projections for Beckham.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 1, 2011 -> 11:28 AM) Watched the game and I can't see how we can really fault Thornton and I have seen the same in at least a couple other games. He breaks bats and the other team gets some kind of absolute lucky bloops and he blows it. I was more upset with watching Dunn take a called third strike with the bases loaded. Beckham does lok lost to me but here is aguy with very limited minor league experience and still learning at the major league level. He is still hitting for a higher average than Dunn. We get line drives caught on what loks like it could be a double or triple, etc. Nothing is falling our way just yet. But, I have to believe it will. Better we are 9 games out now than in September I don't even know what to say to that. How about we try to never find ourselves 9 games out?

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ May 1, 2011 -> 10:25 AM) Thornton sure didn't have any luck whatsoever yesterday, but you can appreciate the boos, everyone on this teams deserves an earful, and I mean everyone. If they're not strong enough to take the boos and raise their level of intensity and competitive juices (which appears to be at about a 2 on a scale of 1-10 right now) then they all should move back in with their parents and cry to their mommies. Someone needs to pay for Gordo's slow start, his mechanics are awful. If they just let him swing like he did before Walker got in his head he'd probably be leading the league in doubles and hitting .320 right now. When you sport an ERA of 8.64 and have blown 4 saves, fans aren't going to be too kind to you. Spoiled fans, wanting adequate performances out of millionaire players...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 1, 2011 -> 08:57 AM) Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year. I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown. Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox. Oh, well when you put it that way! I'm glad we can just ignore his career in the majors.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 04:49 PM) Just do one for like Humber and Santos and Quentin. The best trio this year. So that they can join the rest of the team in being terrible.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ May 1, 2011 -> 07:26 AM) While all this goes on, a young team like Cleveland is gaining important confidence and belief in themselves, and the Tigers can stabilize themselves and take over this division. You can't count on everyone losing to let you in-and there is no sign this team has any chance of putting a long streak together even if that happens People seem to be writing off the Tigers rather easily. You'll see posts saying something like "The Indians and Royals will come down to Earth, the Twins are hurting, and the Tigers are the Tigers." Nobody ever seems to have a good reason to write them off, but they are constantly talked about as a non-factor. I think they're the team to take this division.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 1, 2011 -> 06:04 AM) As for Beckham, he just may have been better off spending a couple seasons in the Minors. He'll likely be a star, but these prolonged slumps suggests that he may not be quite ready. I'm not sure that's quite the inevitability that people seem to think it is.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 1, 2011 -> 02:00 AM) I haven't even been watching the games. I watched them all for the first two months last year, hell I watched them all in 2007, so I know bad stretches when I see them. But this year is just particularly unwatchable IMO. The "all in" campaign that now looks like a complete joke, the early losses due to dropped fly balls, bad bullpen work, and bad defense, and the shellshock this team (particularly the offense) has been in since those horrible early losses. All of it combined just makes this team impossible to watch for me, and this is the first time I can say that in all of my time as a fan. I pay attention to the box score, results, and our record and standings place every day because I'm no bandwagon fan. But these games are too pathetic and painful to watch. People can keep saying it's just April (May now), but facts are that our start cost us a playoff spot last year, and the odds of a 25-5 run again are VERY low. A mere 3 game winning streak seems impossible right now. This team at current pace will surpass the 2001 team for the most disappointing in my time as a White Sox fan. This is a semi-serious question. If May goes even remotely as April did, do the Sox pull the "All In" campaign? It really is becoming a joke.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 05:33 PM) Everyone keeps saying "They won't go 25-5 again"...they don't have to. The Sox were 25-33 and 9.5 back at their lowpoint last season. That is exactly when the run started. When that was over the team was 50-38 and a game up. They finished 38-36 in the last two months (helped only by the fact that they finished 9-2 when virtually already out of it). The fact is that the last two months were very mediocre. The Sox just need to sustain good baseball for the last 5 months of the season. It looks bad right now, yes. I'm just as aggrivated as everybody else. But I also think if people would look back at some of their posts from this time last year they would be pretty embarrassed at how they overreacted. We trail CLEVELAND by 8 games people. If we finish below the Indians this year I'll eat my shorts. We end the year 78-57 (88-74)...that wins the division this year. It might win it easily. For the first bold part, I don't think I've ever seen this team put 5 straight months of solid baseball together in my life other than 2005. For the second bold part, I don't understand why everyone talks about last year like it was some sort of major victory. I've now seen an argument of this ilk made a couple of times. They lost the division in 2010. Any reaction to that team was warranted.

QUOTE (ROC Sox Fan @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 01:39 PM) I still watch all the games I can. Man, last night's started out so well and then they just slowly, carefully ripped my heart out and pissed on it all at once. But yea, I've been training some Pokemon on my DS during the games because if I focus on just the game and it goes the way it's been going, I go mad. That made me laugh out loud, or LOL, if you will.

QUOTE (since56 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 10:24 PM) I can't make a case for him any more. Every year he talks about how important defense is and every year the Sox defense is sloppy at best. He preaches how his team should play the game right and fundamentals like base running are very poor. Pinch hitting, pinch running, and late inning defensive replacements almost never happen. His son publicly revealing private clubhouse issues. Enough, since we all the negatives and the thread is make a case FOR him. Positives? I don't know anymore. But he's not the guy playing defense, nor is he pinch hitting/bunting/running. So all of this is moot. It's not his fault. Manager for life and whatnot. 2005!

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 10:07 PM) He's not the one up there hitting poorly, or pitching poorly, or dropping the ball in the outfield, or walking runners in, or unable to smother breaking balls in the dirt, or failing to get runners in from 3rd with less than two outs. Translation: As long as a manager shows up to work everyday, he should never lose his job.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 1, 2011 -> 12:08 PM) Lol@Milkman. This is board is killin' me right now. I don't even have to say anything anymore. Hm?

This is another problem with the Sox. I've talked about the lack of accountability before, with the team constantly underachieving and nobody ever getting the ax. But on top of that, we're now going to take a guy out of the position he's excelling at because he doesn't make a ton of money so that guys making 10 times as much can do a worse job in the same position. Retarded.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) Well, for starters, we're paying Peavy a lot to start, so he's absolutely going to. He's still building arm strength and from all indications is on track right now to be up in the next two weeks. I'll still take my chances with Jake. Unless he has another setback. I should've referred to him as Achy O'Setback instead. And yes, obviously they're going to start Peavy because they're paying him a s***load of money and he's pitched like 3 times for the team in 2 years. I'm saying that they might want to give Humber a shot to keep this going. Perhaps you put another pile of dogs***, like Edwin Jackson, in the bullpen to allow somebody who is actually performing to continue to do so.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 07:56 PM) I picked 20 years on purpose. The late 80s into the early 90's were horrible years where the teams sucked and no one went to the games. Sox fans are already infamous for being bandwagon fans, and if all of the players got traded off, it isn't a big leap of faith to expect crowds to drop back into Cleveland Indians range because there is a history of it on the southside. Heck people are already swearing off going to games. Can you imagine that minus all of the star players, and a couple of ninety loss seasons later? I have history on my side. YOU have your feelings. Because the teams are hilarious underachievers. I'd happily go to games during a rebuilding effort, since it would be an honest rebuild. I'm not going to pay to watch some sham "contenders" forever and ever.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 05:23 PM) The meltdown scenario will set this franchise back 20 years. What the team is doing right now will set the franchise back 20 years.

QUOTE (Real @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 09:20 PM) Worst record in April in franchise history (while having the highest payroll in franchise history) That's so pathetic, it's sort of funny. On another note, in order to win 90 games this year, the Sox will have to play .600 ball the rest of the season. Let's hope it takes less than 90 wins to take this division.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 05:37 PM) Jackson has been on a 3 game skid, that's for sure. He isn't staying tall on his back knee for his delivery to the plate again. This was his chief issue even in growing up with the Dodgers. Hopefully it'll be straitened out and he'll begin to be nails. If not, no issue - he's gone after this year if he continues to struggle ( or re-signed at a lot less if the staff still has faith in correcting him.) That's the last thing I want to do with a guy who, in that situation, has solidified his position as an underachiever.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 12:23 PM) I watch every game that I'm not working for. I don't know why as all it does is make me depressed but I can't stop. I've certainly been less interested in the games. I'll do something else, like a crossword or sudoku, while watching to alleviate the pain.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 12:17 PM) I could never just stop going to games. I fell in love with baseball long before the White Sox. Just being at the ballpark and the entire experience. The food, booze and hot girls help, too. But if I've got the money, I'm there. Like I said, I'll still go when someone offers me a ticket. That seems to happen at least twice a month. Those tickets are already purchased and it makes no difference who goes, so it might as well be me.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 11:51 AM) Am I the only one that prefers Humber over Peavy? After the past 2 seasons, I've kind of lost faith in Peavy, so I'd rather stick with Humber, even if it means the Sox carries a 6-man rotation. It sounds crazy, but I don't completely disagree. Humber is pitching his ass off and we very well may have caught lightning in a bottle for this season. But we're just going to immediately relegate the guy who's arguably been our best starter so far to the bullpen when Injuries McGee comes back? I think it's neither fair nor the best move for the team. QUOTE (Heads22 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 12:16 PM) You might be, yes. One's a former Cy Young winner. The other has played for like 6 teams. That's the key. He hasn't been nearly that caliber in two seasons. There are other former Cy Young winners that I don't want pitching for my team either.