Milkman delivers

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 04:02 PM) Mack last 3 years against righties: .272, .258, .273 So you attribute a 50-60 point jump this year simply by him being on a better team? That's a stretch IMO. And my main point is you devalue him if you make him try to do something he's never done -- with good reason. And your "he's played in 79 games, so he's not really a bench player" is a weak argument. How many games has he actually started? He can come off the bench for one at-bat to pinch-hit and that counts as a game played for him. And Ozzie was forced to play him 5 or 6 days in a row when Anderson was suspended. We're just going to go around in another circle. You think Pods serves a purpose. I think he's the worst starter on the team, hands down. EDIT: And remember that Pods was a minor leaguer for 10 years. If he can take that long to figure out how to break in the league, I think there's a chance that Mack could figure out hitting. You don't hit that much over .300 against righties by a fluke.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:41 PM) Ozuna hasn't murdered much of anything since the all-star break. Mack is on one of his customary hot-streaks at the moment. He goes on one or two of them a season. I believe he's hitting .327 against righties at the moment. That's nice. Now go look at his career numbers against righties. Let's just say I seriously doubt he hits this well for the rest of the year. That's why he's a bench player. You start him 3 or 4 times a week and he'll get exposed. He's perfect for the role he's in. It makes no sense to make him something he's not just because you don't happen to like the left-fielder, who's not even close to one of our top 3 or 4 main concerns at this time. You keep making this sound like I have a personal vendetta against Pods. If he played well, I wouldn't have a problem with him. And you continually bring up what Mackowiak did in Pittsburgh. If you hadn't noticed, he's not on the Pirates anymore. He's on a much better team with much better protection. He's hitting, as you said, well over .300 against righties. If he trends downwards, as he clearly must because he's "always been a bench player," I'd bet he still bats over .300 for the year against righties. I doubt he's going to fall completely apart like the Tigers should be any day now.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:23 PM) And you were the main one advocating Ozuna to start in place of Pods when he was hitting .400. You're kidding (mainly lying) to yourself if you think Mack could be even a decent leadoff hitter. I've been advocating an Ozuna/Mackowiak platoon, not just having Ozuna be the starting LF. And no, I'm not kidding myself. Ozuna murders lefties. Mackowiak murders righties. There's already a platoon of Pods/Ozuna, Mack just does a better job against righties than Pods. So forget Pods and his inability to do anything well. Mackowiak does everything he does better, especially now that Pods doesn't even steal anymore. QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:24 PM) Here's the thing with Mackowiak. He's extremely, extremely streaky. He's been on a tear for a few months now, but you never know when he's going to bat .100 for an entire month. Just like Ozuna, we can't count on him to keep up his tremendous OBP. Mackowiak's never had this much protection. And he's always done much better against righties in his career than against lefties. The "bench player" argument is getting old, especially with as much time as Mack has gotten this year already. He's played in 79 games.

QUOTE(chimpy2121 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) I just hate how all of his samples are in French labs where they can easily tamper with them. The French were hoping this year would be the year that a European cyclist could win, but Landis won and now they're pissed again. From everything I've seen, they loved Landis. If they really had all this power to screw someone over, it would've been Armstrong.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:15 PM) All that and Pods is still by far the best option we have on this team to leadoff (the Pablo Ozuna bandwagon sure has piped down since the all-star break). Most of his numbers are better across the board from a year ago. His defense, for the most part, has been bad. Although I have noticed a signifcant improvement of late. Other than defense, my main beef with Pods has been his inconsistency. He starts the season 3 for 38 (although I feel some of that came from being hurt and not getting a spring training), then he goes on a tear for about a month and a half where he looks like one of the top two or three leadoff hitters in baseball. I believe he even got his average at or above .300. Then he goes back into the crapper again. Looking lost at the plate and bringing his struggles to the field. Then he goes on another hot-streak that reminds you of the April/May/June/July of '05 Pods. I think Balta said it best: Pods should be a better player than what he shows. He's got the tools to make him an elite leadoff hitter. We saw that for the first 4 months last year where he was easily this team's offensive MVP. There just seems to be some kinda mental block there. Anyway, as I have stated before, I'd welcome an upgrade in a heartbeat. But that's obviously not gonna happen until the offseason. So I'll continue to support Pods as long as he's a White Sock. Disagreed. Mackowiak may be better in every facet of the game.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 03:03 PM) I, too, groaned over the loss of Chris Young. But you have to put this trade in some perspective. At the time we acquired Vazquez, we did not have Garland or Contreras under contract extensions. We were facing the potential exodus of probably our two best starters, with McCarthy at best available to fill one of those potential holes. By bringing in Vazquez, I think it helped KW make the case to both Garland and Contreras to sign the contracts they did. Now, has Vazquez turned it around? Certainly he has to prove it. Is Vazquez a big-game pitcher? Well, he's never pitched a big game in his life and didn't suck. But stuff-wise, he's as good as we have right now. And he has had good stretches during most of his seasons. We just need him to put one of those together over the next two months. Ask the Yankees.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 01:21 PM) I thought Escobar was pitching in relief in game 2...no? Either way, bring it Mark! I believe Washburn started game 2.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 01:12 PM) Thome has been an on-base machine since he got back. I doubt Ozzie moves him out of the 3-hole now. He's also due for a barrage of homers. Hopefully that starts tonight. Yeah, we've been waiting for this barrage for a while now. I'm beginning to question whether he'll make 50 this year. And a lot of other power guys have left him in the dust.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 01:01 PM) Please explain.... Waving Wally Cora

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 12:40 PM) I'm pretty sure its the Giant/Big Show. That's what I thought, but I couldn't recall a match between them.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 12:14 PM) From this wrestling board that I frequent. They have some amazing avatars including one of my favorites since I loathe Scott "Poster Boy for Roids" Steiner. Yes, we all hate Scott Steiner. I think we can agree on that. I'm glad someone else has decided to sport Perfect in their avitar. He was so easily my favorite wrestler of all time. BTW, who is he perfect plexing there? EDIT: And what's this website? I'd like to lurk around there to see all this stuff.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 11:53 AM) It doesn't. A lineup tweak may improve the offense. Who said anything about pitching? Well, the argument that's going back and forth is that the offense doesn't need to get better, the pitching does. The fact is, we really don't know how to make the pitching better. But, we might just be able to make the offense slightly better, which would help to bail out the pitching. Making this chance wouldn't cause Freddy to throw harder or Vazquez to not implode, but it might give us a little more insurance for the barrage of runs our starters give up.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 10:42 PM) Indeed about the Human Tornado. I always laugh in a mark fashion at his gimmick hometown (can't post it here without getting in trouble but available on his Wiki site -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Tornado) Plus, he's good in the ring. Edit: Fun factoid of the night: CHIKARA kayfabe commisioner is...::drum roll:: Bob Saget. Yes, the Bob Saget. Where did you get that avi?

QUOTE(retro1983hat @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 08:49 AM) I think it's a 4-team race to get 2 playoff spots. Red Sox, Yanks, Twins and White Sox. The only saving grace is that Boston and NY will still play eachother causing one or both of them to lose a fair share of games. We need to keep winning, but you gain ground by SWEEPING series. If we take 2-of-3 from the Tigers, we gain 1 game. We sweep, we gain 3. Exactly, we need to start sweeping some teams. Winning just 2 of 3 isn't going to cut it in such a tight race. Once in a while, we're going to have to sweep a few teams.

QUOTE(loltrain @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 07:39 PM) Pudge's reaction was over the top, but as I recall from this incident last year, Pudge was more upset because Gomes not only stared down his homer for about 10 minutes, but then flipped his helmet at him, which I think would upset just about anyone. Edit: As for Ledezma, he was actually a highly touted prospect who did fairly well in the majors in 2004, before bombing last year and then getting hurt, he'd bounced back strongly in AAA this year so I don't think today's performance was too shocking. He tossed the helmet right before he jumped into the mob at home plate when Pudge was trying to yell at him.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 09:06 PM) He was asleep for the Todd Richie trade as well as the David Wells one. Let's not forget the Jamie Navarro instead of Roger Clemens signing or the Albert Belle instead of Bonds.... Uh, the Todd Ritchie trade and the Wells trade weren't even bad, when you think about it. We gave up a bunch of losers in both of those deals. If we didn't make those trades, we'd still have sucked.

QUOTE(Allsox @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 09:13 PM) If I'm reading the thread right (I like to think that I am), changing the lineup is going to help the pitching staff pitch better? As pointed out by some posters, the Sox offense is #1 in runs scored. Offense isn't the problem, the pitching staff not protecting leads (Such as today's 3 run lead over a slumping team or giving up 15 runs to the Cubs when the offense scores 11) is the problem. Freddy, Jose, Mark and Javy have been very inconsistent for the last two months and when the offense hit a slump after the break, it was finally exposed. The 6 - 3 road trip, while good, still showed signs the pitching staff hasn't come around. We better hope the O doesn't go into another slump cuz if they do, the Sox might be toast. I don't think it's hard to understand this. Yes, the offense is the best in baseball. But, it can still get better (the point Balta is making).

QUOTE(Soxy @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 03:30 PM) Watched the Aristocrats, decent way to kill time, but overall pretty meh. Not for the easily offended, I laughed, but it wasn't really a traditional documentary or really anything, and I think that hurt the film. And Bob Saget is one sick fish. Aristocrats = terrible I've only ever walked out of one movie in my entire life, and it was that. I love dirty humor and nothing offends me. I didn't leave for any reason like that. I left because the movie was garbage. I laughed a few times in the first 10 minutes, then I couldn't stand the movie.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 06:28 PM) I'm just going to ask one simple question and I hope I can phrase it right. The main point people make when defending Scott Podsednik is that he is the spark plug to the offense and that when he gets on base/swipes bags the team has a habit of winning those games. Now if the Sox were to say replace Podsednik with any of these players wouldn't they produce the same result (offensive sparkplug) except much more frequently while providing other valuable services? I understand the rebuttal to this argument; 1.) We do not have any of those guys, Pods is the best option we have 2.) It would be nearly impossible to acquire most of those players . . . and such. I'm not advocating either of these because that would be relatively foolish at this point in time seeing how it's August 6th. All I'm saying is when Scott Podsednik does do his job as a leadoff hitter (taking pitches, not striking out looking, getting on base, stealing bases), the team wins, however he does not do this nearly enough and the rest of his skills are severly lacking, so couldn't the Sox replace Podsednik with dozens of other players (plenty of whom will be available this offseason) and have them provide that same spark except more frequently? Just one quick thing to help illustrate this. If say the Sox replaced Podsednik right now with Jerry Owens wouldn't he provide an offensive spark every once in awhile? When he's getting on base and stealing bases I'm sure the team would be pretty damn successful. Of course he wouldn't provide this spark as frequently as Podsednik but at the same time there's a good amount of players out there who could spark a lineup on a much more consistent basis than Pods does. Ha, exactly. BUT THE CHEMISTRY!!

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 08:45 PM) Tigers win. Are you fishing kidding me... Pudge is the most annoying player in the league, no player showboats/celebrates like he does. Yeah, last night's celebration was definitely a little too outrageous. There's a difference between just being psyched and going overboard. Remember last year when Gomes hit a walkoff homer against the Tigers? Pudge was pretty upset at his reaction, but he turns around and does something very similar.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 03:36 PM) So the fact that we leading ALL OF BASEBALL in runs scored doesn't matter because you think our lineup (rather than our bad pitching) has lost us close games? That's a far more stupid argument by you. Just because the offense is great doesn't mean it still can't get better. We should always strive to be better, and not have the "good enough" mentality.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:55 AM) It's his first quality start in a month and a half Hell of a start, but I'm not gonna love him cuz of 1 great start. Exactly. He's been pathetic this year. One start doesn't get him love.

Steroid policy comes around in 2005. Freddy begins to lose velocity in 2005.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 06:06 PM) I'm hoping this is due to Coop's adjustments so as to have some tangible reason to expect a repeat of Javy's performance. I'd like to get excited but... ^^^^

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 05:39 PM) Nearly all players get put on waivers after the trade deadline passes, and most are claimed. For some reason, the media thinks its a big deal that Andruw Jones was claimed, so they are running with it. The Braves have a choice to trade Jones to the team that claimed him, pull Jones back (meaning he'd stay a Brave), or letting Jones go to the team that claimed him. Unfortunetly for the Braves, if they want to trade Jones, he has 10/5 rights, meaning he can veto any trade. I don't think he gets the 10/5 rights for a few days.