Milkman delivers

QUOTE (WCSox @ May 19, 2010 -> 11:59 AM) What if they're still playing like this after 60 games? Or let me put it another way: What evidence to you have that this team won't still be playing like this after 60 games? Was 79 wins last year an example of this team playing "like they damn-well should"? Even an impatient, clueless, video game-playing teenager can correctly recognize that Ozzie's lost his team and that Kenny's "retool on the fly" strategy is unsustainable and has run its course. It's time for this team to put up or shut up. If they don't start playing soon, we're looking at "The Kids Can Play 2" next year. As Balta correctly pointed out, the roster turnover alone will force a major overhaul. Even if Kenny gives PK an extension (which I think he should) and spends a little in FA in the off-season, JR has already made it clear that they're going to pull back on payroll next year. You're missing the point. There aren't ML-ready players in-house to step up and replace these guys. Flowers, D2, and Viciedo aren't ready, and all will go through growing pains when they are. Beckham is in a massive sophomore slump and, while I expect that he'll eventually hit like Robin Ventura, he may not become that player for a couple more years. So, at best, you're looking at more of the same next year. With ownership constricting payroll, FA spending won't be enough to cover the FA losses. While the Sox have done a phenomenal job of developing young pitching, their inability to develop young hitters is killing them. Quentin and Alexei have regressed over the past 2+ years. Viciedo, D2, and the others are all still at least a year away. When your post-30 veterans are ready to hit free agency and your young hitters either aren't producing in the bigs or are at least a year away in the minors, and you can't spend your way to the playoffs via free agency, there's no getting around it: You need to take a step back and rebuild. I've noticed that people are always willing to make changes, but it's always *insert random time in the future*, not right now. And then when that random time comes, for a lot of people it is suddenly wait until *insert new random time in the future*.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 19, 2010 -> 10:58 AM) With the current economic landscape of baseball, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world, honestly. The market is vastly undervaluing veteran talent, allowing teams have a bit more turnover with less of a financial impact. The key to me is building a strong, relatively young core, and supplementing that with inexpensive spare parts from the marketplace. Replacing Konerko is a big task, but other than that, I don't view any of those losses as devastating or anything (although I sure wish there was a way to keep Andruw). Wait, this is the same guy who has played two half-seasons in the past two years. And based upon less than two months of baseball, you already want to sign him for 2011? Did you go to the Options menu and choose Injuries: Off on your playstation?

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 19, 2010 -> 10:39 AM) I'm not ready to make massive, wholesale changes after less than 40 games with this team playing together. Maybe you guys are, because you're accustomed to your video games or whatever. But remember, you start trading everyone away, you can't get these guys back. You can't erase your memory card and start the season over. I'm of the opinion that when these guys start playing like they damn-well should, we may be a small piece or two away from winning something rather than a piece or two away from blowing the whole damn thing up. In regards to that first paragraph, I really can't stand pseudo insults like that. I believe in rebuilding because I don't believe in your opinion stated in the second paragraph. I do not think that this team is a small piece away from being a real contender.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 18, 2010 -> 04:25 PM) Perhaps you haven't been paying much attention to the Sox this year. I haven't seen many people calling for his head this season. You have to get your potshots in somewhere.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 18, 2010 -> 01:40 AM) You're out of your mind if you think I read any of that slop. And I don't have anything against him. But I'll definitely go slit one of my wrists now that you've deemed him a better poster than me. No coming back from that. Just FYI, but his post is actually only about half of what he put together there. He pasted a paragraph from daggins, responded to it, and continued in that fashion.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 17, 2010 -> 10:12 AM) Its not even close to too late in the season for this team. We arent 20 games back and we should be. If KW can deal for a bat of some kind or if Q and Becks wake up, this is an entirely different team. We arent even out of April and most of you have given up, thats pretty weak. Na, just 8.5 and in fourth place. Sorry for being weak.

QUOTE (WCSox @ May 17, 2010 -> 09:38 PM) Well, it's really not up to me. I'm not Kenny Williams. And my feeling is that Kenny (who has never had a true "rebuilding" season in his 10 years as GM) probably isn't going to throw in the towel less than a year after acquiring Peavy and Rios, with a full year still on Mark's contract, and with guys like Danks still affordable. Even if the Sox lose the 96 games that they're on pace to, it's very possible that he goes for it one last time. And if that's the case, it's most likely that he stays with Ozzie & Co. for one last year for the sake of continuity. Players and coaches take time to adjust to one another, and a major shake-up would be disruptive. Either way, Kenny isn't going to fire an entire coaching staff during the season. It's possible that Ozzie's mouth forces him out and that Joey Cora takes over for a few months, but you can't realistically throw together an entire coaching staff in the middle of a season. That would be an absolute mess, and I didn't mean to imply that the coaching staff would go at the trade deadline, along with the players. Well yeah, I definitely wouldn't expect them to all get fired at once. I was thinking more like Walker is let go during the season, and then Ozzie/Cora/whoever else during the offseason. And whoa, I didn't realize the pace was that bad.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 15, 2010 -> 11:55 PM) Where's Rongey been? Is he too busy workin or burned out on the cliche fire the manager type comments in the threads and the cliche criticisms of Ozzie for decisions made in games we lose? He's probably tired of defending a terrible team in his free time, seeing as that is also his job.

QUOTE (WCSox @ May 17, 2010 -> 08:30 PM) I see little sense in naming Joey Cora or some scrub from the minor-league system manager, and then replacing him and his entire staff this winter. Kenny's not going to find the manager that he wants and assemble an entire new coaching staff in the middle of the season. It's just that you said something about firing them if they are playing the same a year from now. I took that as meaning you wouldn't even fire them during the offseason, but rather start the 2011 season with them.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 17, 2010 -> 08:11 PM) It's "because" isn't it? That word's been breaking my balls this last week. I have no idea because it hasn't really been a problem for me before. i can write, but i can't type it. Edi: Holy, crap I just checked and it was completely and because. What the hell is happening to me? I was referring to "completely" because you did it like four times. Just giving you s***, though.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 16, 2010 -> 08:13 PM) This organization has a nice history of gambling on "busted" top prospects. I see no use in changing that willingess to take chances. Plus, what the hell else are you going to get for AJ? To save the remainder of his salary this year and avoid problems with the 10/5 issue, I'd give him to anyone who would have him.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 17, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) This reminds me of that meaningless college basketball stat, where i hear that the reason 2010 Duke shouldn't beat 2010 UNC is becasue 1956 Duke had a great record against them. We're taking about completly different players under completly different circumstances, run by completly different people, in a completly different time. Ha, it's obvious from this post that you don't know how to spell a certain word correctly.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ May 17, 2010 -> 07:05 PM) Who would you replace them with? I don't know who's readily available. I'm just saying it's pretty outrageous to think that we should give the coaching staff until this time next year before canning them.

QUOTE (WCSox @ May 15, 2010 -> 06:13 PM) Given that Quentin is made of glass and that Pierre isn't hitting, I don't see that as a negative. I'd much rather that Jones spell these guys than Kotsay. Going out and getting one bat isn't going to change anything. Hell, not going out and getting TWO bats probably won't turn them into contenders, either. Not with Beckham, AJ, and Pierre not hitting. And not with Floyd, and Jenks consistently crapping their pants, and Buehrle and Peavy being wildly-erratic. Trading for somebody like Matsui at the deadline would cost them money and not deliver what they're looking for. Kind of like last summer, but not nearly as severe. If the Sox are still playing like this a year from now, it's going to be time for some MAJOR changes. That would mean selling off guys like Peavy and Buehrle for high-level prospects, bringing up Hudson, Flowers, and D2 and, perhaps most importantly, tossing out the coaching staff (minus Cooper). I don't think we need to wait until next year to do that.

I voted for testicles because I'm basically Al Bundy when I'm sitting around the house.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 15, 2010 -> 08:33 AM) You are right, there is absolutely zero reason to have Omar DH. Why not play him in the field? How about 3B? Teahen has shown he has no clue how to play there. It may have saved a run or 2 having Omar there last night. There's a reason Omar, who has been in the big leagues 22 seasons, had never DHed until last night. Actually a couple, but Ozzie just thinks he knows more than anyone else. Wow.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 15, 2010 -> 07:35 AM) It's bad enough that Vizquel was in the lineup. It's worse that he was the DH. First of all, that means that he was the best hitter the Sox had on the bench to fill the role of a purely offensive spot in the lineup. Jeeeez! That's really pathetic. If Omar had to start the game, why wasn't he playing somewhere in the infield? He could have played third, and let Teahen DH. That way he would have at least had a chance to contribute on defense, which is the only thing he still does well. Moreover, it would have provided some rationale, and cover for Ozzie to explain why he was starting. Having him DH makes the decision to start Omar look really bad. It's almost like Guillen is trying to get fired. I'm becoming more and more confident that this is the case.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 14, 2010 -> 10:39 PM) 1) Fire 2) Lighter fluid 3) ???? 4) Profit! 5) Just kidding, anti-profit. I think you're making a reference to something, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ May 14, 2010 -> 01:14 PM) So, Alex Rios last season (when we all hated him) was batting .199. We currently have three starters under that mark, along with 3/4s of our bench. Our other bench member, Nix, is batting .211, a tad bit above this mark. Just thought it was interesting. Ironically, Alex Rios is actually our best hitter (by a lot) right now. Hyperbolic statements are common on Soxtalk, but this is quite an exaggeration.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 14, 2010 -> 03:03 PM) Wimpy had the same effect on Hawk that Stone does. He made Hawk laugh a lot and Hawk respected his view on the game because he was somewhat oldschool. DJ never got that respect and we all heard it in the broadcasts He must not have respected him too much.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ May 14, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) Really? Weird, it's funny cause I don't think that at all. Is that RuPaul?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 14, 2010 -> 10:46 AM) The maxim link is now blocked here at work. Is Paula Patton on the list? When I saw Precious my heart raced every time she was on the screen. EDIT: Damn. I just looked her up on wikipedia. She's only a year younger than me and she looks better than most of the 18 -21 year olds on that list. And I'm old. And ugly, don't forget ugly.

Hey, Futurama was canceled. The thing is that you have to have a lot of nerdy internet fans (like me and Felix) and you can get your show back on.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2010 -> 07:52 PM) And remember the "it's hilarious!" comment about IT'S COMPLICATED. Whoever wrote that, they should be b****-slapped by Flavour Flav and Willie Harris. Joking. Well, sort of. Oh no, there's an English one, too?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 13, 2010 -> 07:37 PM) Yeah but an A cup?! Again, not topless. I've had first hand experience (pun intended) with B's, C's, and D's.