Milkman delivers

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:57 AM) I wish Dye would charge the ball more when someone is trying to score from 2nd base on a single. Far too often this year, he's sat back on the ball, and ends up throwing it flat-footed to home. It's one of the main reasons he hasn't thrown out anyone at home this season. The same thing goes for Pods. Even if you have a pathetic arm like he does, it doesn't mean you can't charge the ball. Pods plays the outfield like he's a 250 pound infielder playing the position for the first time. That's my main problem with his defense. A lot of guys go 1st to 3rd on him, too, for that very reason.

Of course it is no certain thing that McCarthy will be better than Vazquez, but it was be extremely tough for him to be worse. One thing that is for certain, though, is that Vazquez is not going to turn himself around. He is what he is...trash.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:19 AM) I still think Freddy Garcia is simply off steroids. That may be. Let's remember, he started losing velocity last year, not just this year. And in a strange coincidence, last year was the year they installed a drug testing policy. Damn, now I'm even more discouraged.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:18 AM) Okay. Here's my thinking on the Buehrle remark. If you recall last year, Mark was pitching quickly and going inside. He was therefore effective. Then it seemed Garland took the same approach and had a great first half. It seemed to cause the rest of the rotation to get the competitive edge with each other, and it steamrolled from there. So Mark started the ball rolling in 2005. The rotation this year has been hit or miss, inconsistant until Buehrle started struggling. Then it seemed like like rest of the rotation took a nose dive, with the exception of Garland, who for some strange reason, started pitching better. Good argument. I guess the only way we'll know for sure is if Buehrle goes out there today and tosses a gem, causing the rest of the rotation to fall in line and put us on an enormous winning streak. Yep, even I can find some hope.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:15 AM) Don't mind him -- he craps on all of our pitchers. Only the underachievers.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 11:08 AM) "As Buehrle goes, so goes the White Sox." That's actually quite insightful. I would say, "as the rotation goes, so go the White Sox." But, that could be said of any team in baseball. When the Sox rotation was just mediocre in the beginning of the year, the team rolled because the offense could cover that up. Ever since the rotation has been bad, the team has struggled because our great offense still isn't enough to mask such terrible pitching.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:59 AM) Let me bounce something off you regarding Dye's speed. I may be totally off the mark here, because I haven't seen any games in person and I only get to see the occasional game on TV but Dye has always seemed to me to be the type with deceptive speed. In other words, he's actually moving faster than he appears to be because he moves fluidly or apparently effortlessly. No, he's extremely slow in the OF this year. If a ball is hit into the corner, it seems like he's jogging to it. And balls are falling in front of him more than ever, it seems.

I don't mean to minimize the extra workload, but the two of them did only pitch 3 extra games. Is that really enough to cause these problems? I agree with LV, I think one or both of them is hurt.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:34 AM) I agree with the person who says we need to just leave Anderson in and let him do his thing; he's coming along, and like Milkman says, he's not costing us any runs in CF. I also believe that as Buehrle goes, so the Sox will go for the rest of the season. He is, after all, our #1 starter. For the first bold part, everyone agrees that BA should start almost every game. That is, except for Ozzie. For the second bold part, Buehrle is not our #1 starter.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:25 AM) I just don't think that he costs us a run a game - I think that is a huge exagerration. I think he MAY have cost us a few runs all season. And his bat has more than made up for that. So as far as backup OF's go, you aren't going to get much better. All this is solved if Ozzie just realizes that Anderson is now ready to play every day, and he starts doing that. Putting Mack in there every third game made sense when Anderson was hitting .150. Now he is getting the hang of it, so its time to push Mack back to an occasional backup at each OF position - allowing him to play about every third or fourth day, but only once every 9-12 games at any one position. Yes, I understand all of that. But we know Ozzie will continue to use him out there for matchup purposes. And if we had a legitimate backup for CF, he would hopefully use him instead. And you don't believe Mackowiak gives up a run a game with his defense? Fine, then it's a run every two games. He makes a mistake every game, that is a fact. It is like clockwork. He will always make a mistake. And when you have headcases like Vazquez and Buehrle, who can't pitch over mistakes, or Garcia, who likes to show up his teammates, you have a problem.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:02 AM) Our 4th OF is sooooooooooo not a concern right now, in comparison to our starting pitching, or inconsistent defense as a team, and the lack of clutch hitting (until the last few games). Besides, most teams would drool over having a 4th OF as good as Mack. Is he a starting quality CF? No, that's why he's the 4th OF. He provides a good bat, and can play almost every position on the field. The only "problem" with Mack isn't his problem at all - it is that Ozzie plays him in CF too often. If he played once every dozen games out there (and spelled Pods and Dye as well) instead of once every three, it would be a non-issue. You just told me all of the things I've been saying for a while now. And 4th OF is sooooooooo a concern because our 4th OF starts every third day (as you said) and he costs us every time. I'm serious when I say he costs us at least one run in every game he starts. That adds up, and I'd be willing to bet it has been the difference in losing or winning some games. In such a tight race, we can't afford to lose so many games. Yes, I understand that the pitching is the problem (another thing I've been harping on for a while), but since the 4th OF is less of a concern, we shouldn't even bother with upgrading it at all? It is still an aspect of the team, and it still hurts us.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:36 AM) Backe has been hurt most of the year, Pettitte has been awful, Oswalt has been good (comparable to Contreras), and of course then you have the Diva Clemens. Ehh, Roy Oswalt > Jose Contreras.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 09:31 AM) He's now officially calling out for KW for not taking bold steps before the trade deadline to ensure another White Sox playoff team. Now I'm more than willing to listen to critics of the Sox, but I'm curious whom he thinks we were supposed to pick up. -There were no starters available -Soriano? So we supposedly were offering Pods but not McCarthy for Soriano; how would Soriano solve our starting pitcher issue? -He mentions how the NY Yankees made some big trades but as far as I know we're not hurting anywhere else in the lineup except STARTING PITCHERS -He refers to Vazquez as five-and-dive (fair enough) but to Buehrle as basically a worn-out has been, which I think is more than a bit premature (guess we'll find out tonight) The only point he did make was that if Mac was too valuable to trade away with Pods for Soriano, then why is not Mac starting? I'll give him that. But no I will not be starting another "Move Vasquez to the bullpen!" thread. Bottom line: Mariotti is has just put a plate, utensils and a nice placemat in front of himself, for eating crow if this lineup (which he heralded as brilliant last winter) finally clicks. Like you said, that line makes sense. And I'll say it again. We really could've used a respectable 4th OFer to play CF every few days. I swear, Mackowiak costs us runs every single game he plays CF. That can end up really hurting us in the end.

QUOTE(rowand @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 10:39 PM) pods and mack are two of the worst outfielders I have EVER seen. Dye is above average. Anderson is well above average. Pods and Mack will continue to cost us runs, but if they can get on base, I guess we will have to take it... As Jason already said, Mackowiak is actually a pretty good corner OFer. Now about Dye being above average, I'm not so sure about that anymore. He's lost more than just a step out in RF. He has to be in the lower half of RF's when it comes to speed. And he has a cannon for an arm, no doubt. He just doesn't seem to ready himself for throws or prevent runners from advancing an extra base.

That's pathetic for Buehrle and Garcia. That dropoff is insane. Can we find out how many mph the Astros' rotation has lost?

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 10:20 PM) Ours for the taking? It's theirs to lose. And for us to somehow win the division, they would have to pull a White Sox, and be absolutely terrible for at least one month. I'm not too sure that would even work either because we're bound to have another really bad month since we do it on a yearly basis.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 06:00 PM) They phased out the 20 gig Ipods and phased in the Nano's at the same time, IIRC. Im fairly sure my 20 gig Ipod was the last of its generation, and Nano took over. How much do the nano's hold, like 2 or 4? There's no 10's either, right? If I'm right about those two questions, then that gap is just fishing ridiculous.

How many runs would Buehrle have to give up to get his ERA into the 5's? Actually, I should clarify. How many earned runs would he have to give up, because he'll probably give up a bunch of unearned runs, as is his custom.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 10:00 PM) Not really. Yes, really. Pujols is almost unquestionably the best hitter in the game.

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 05:09 PM) Sums it up for me too. Well done Cheat. There wasn't a pitcher out there that was traded today that would have been a significant upgrade over what we currently have, or at least a starter that was worth giving up good talent for. The one move that I was counting on Kenny to make was either a fourth OF, or a replacement for Pods all together. With that said, even if we did add another outfielder, I really doubt said player would have been the difference between us winning another title or not. Our fate rests on our starting pitching getting their act together. This would be the case no matter what move Kenny made. Why does this get so minimized? Mackowiak costs us runs every single game he starts in CF, and he starts once a series. That alone may end up costing us games, and every game counts. I don't think people realize how terrible our OF defense is with Mack running around CF like a chicken with his head chopped off, Pods dropping easy outs, and Dye trudging around in wet cement in RF. It can end up costing us a few games just because Ozzie refuses to let BA start 3 straight games or he has to play matchups. QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 06:41 PM) With the way the starters are going, that is painfully obvious. However, like Cheat said, if one or two of the starters even come close to there career norms, then we will have to agree to disagree. Like Jas said, it would serve no purpose to trade Vaz when his value is at an all-time low. Just doesnt make any sense to do it now. His value after sucking for half a year will be higher than sucking for a full year, which is the situation we'll be in come the offseason.

QUOTE(zygoat @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) i would not trade Vaz for Lidge. Here are my reasons. 1. Vaz is a solid pitcher through 5 innings, and if he doenst come in the 6th, he's fine 2. Lidge is really screwed up and sucks at pitching this year 3. Starting pitching needs to remain deep in our situation, because if we only have 5 starters, and one goes down, who comes in? 4. Vaz had a great speech on comcast and he sounded pissed that he sucks so far this year. Im expecting a turnaround You're going to be waiting a long time for that expected turnaround. Javier Vazquez is just simply a bad pitcher. Teams have been finding it out the hard way for a few years now. It's all around baseball now. Teams now understand that he's just trash. Unfortunately, they all figured it out while he was on the Sox, so we won't be getting very much for him. And before you make the argument, Javier Vazquez is not Jose Contreras.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 09:26 PM) Ortiz hits a walk off HR. Would have been more surprised if he hadn't. I don't know why teams pitch to him when he has a chance to win or tie the game. Unless the bases are loaded, walk him. If the bases are loaded, hit him because he's gonna make you look bad otherwise. I don't care how good Manny is, he's nowhere near as clutch as Ortiz. Nobody is. And any update on Thome?

Well, if he hates himself, then his wife and mother are the last two people on Earth who don't.

Should really sweep. I don't want to hear that the woyals awe still a weally good team because they awe in the MLB. BS, they're one of the worst teams in the history of baseball. The Tigers have lost, what, 1 game to them? We should go in and sweep them, no other way around it.

I've really come to hate the trade deadline in the past two years.