spiderman

I don't consider Aaron Rowand to be a great player, but he does play defense quite well, and isn't making an unreasonable amount of money. He is a solid hitter in the .280 range, and has the flexibility to hit all over a lineup depending on where he is needed. So, why does he seem to be rumored in every deal ? Didn't the White Sox win the World Series, in large part, to the great pitching and defense ? Yeah, I know Brian Anderson needs to play, but why can't they just rotate Anderson around the outfield, and DH - that would be a cheaper alternative, and allow the White Sox to keep their pitching intact as well for next season. If Anderson is 1/2 as good as projected, and Konerko is resigned, we won't have a dynamite offense, but it should be enough with the pitching. I say keep Rowand, Pods, and Dye in the OF, have Anderson as the 4th OF and part-time DH, and find one more bat as insurance in case Anderson struggles (maybe Frank Thomas)....

Also want to add, that I'm hesitant to trade Marte unless we can get Erye or some other lefty to replace Marte - not suggesting that Marte is great, but a lefty in the bullpen is big, and I think we need someone to complement Neil Cotts.

I know Levine keeps saying the White Sox are going hard after Delgado, regardless of what happens with Konerko, but wouldn't the White Sox, to make this work financially, have to give up more than just Marte ? I'm thinking it would have to be either Garland or Contreras (probably Contreras because he's got 1 year left on his deal, which would give Florida flexibility) and Marte just to get the salaries closer, and even then, the White Sox may ask the Marlins to pay a percentage of this. Where am I wrong ?

Anything for Verizon that we can get for the Hawk ?

Looking at making a CD to celebrate tonight full of 'Sox' Songs.... So far, I have AC/DC Thunderstruck, Journey's song, Go-Go White Sox Song, nah-nah, hey hey hey good bye, What else can I put on this CD ? Thanks for any good suggestions!

We don't have to score a lot of runs to win these games. Obviously, Clemens, Petitte and Oswalt are dominating pitchers, but if we can scratch our 3 runs a game, that might be good enough because they're going to have the same problem with our rotation....Their offense got shut down a lot this season so most of these games could be 2-1, 3-2 type games.

I don't think Guillen is going to shake up his rotation to accomodate Mark Buerhle's dream of the World Series. I want him pitching in Game 2 and 6.

How have the White Sox performed against Lackey this season/career ?

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Oct 11, 2005 -> 10:58 PM) All good points. They better bring the lumber tommorow. Tommorow's game being labeled a must win is an understatement. If we go to Anahiem trailing 0-2 you can call it a season. We suck out west. 2-0 would probably be unlikely to overcome, but our pitching should give us a chance in each game. It's now just a matter of the Sox moving runners along, and getting a big hit once in awhile.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Oct 11, 2005 -> 10:49 PM) 5) Almost a disaster, Juan Uribe, who played great defensively, gets lazy at 2B (how he didn't get to 3B with 2 outs and a basehit to RF is puzzling), and is almost picked off by the throw in from Rivera. Excellent points. This one I think shows again how flat we were. I almost wish we were playing the "powerful" Yankees so we could maybe have kept our stinger for Game One. We didn't execute and your excellent points point to one thing - being flat! Would we have been flat for the powerful Yanks? Perhaps with so many days off. But maybe not against the evil empire. I'm not sure if we were flat or just didn't execute, and as a result looked that way.

QUOTE(WSoxMatt @ Oct 11, 2005 -> 10:24 PM) Answer to #5... Juan Rivera HAS A CANNON!!! Remember him throwing out Crede at home on the Friday Night game that the Sox had the Green Unis? No doubt that Rivera has a strong arm....I probably should have said that it was concerning to see such indecision, Uribe didn't know whether to go to 3B or hold up, and it almost cost us an out.

With the way the White Sox played, it was amazing that they even had a shot to win the game in the 9th inning. 1) Top 3rd...Contreras, who pitched a great game after the slow start, had the slow grounder back to him, and tries for a double play instead of the out at home. A run scores, turns out to be the crucial 3rd run, the Angels lead 3-0. 2) Scott Podnesnik has to be injured. You don't go from stealing 50 out of 59 bases to 9 out of 23 to 1 out of 3 in the playoffs. Molina is great behind the plate, so I give credit to the Angels for calling the pitchout. 3) A.J.Pierzynski gets thrown out with Joe Crede at the bat. We won't know until later whether it should have been a hit-and-run or A.J. was attempting to steal, but either way, a bad SB attempt or a missed sign, not going to have a good result. 4) Scott Podnesik and Aaron Rowand unable to get bunts down tonight. 5) Almost a disaster, Juan Uribe, who played great defensively, gets lazy at 2B (how he didn't get to 3B with 2 outs and a basehit to RF is puzzling), and is almost picked off by the throw in from Rivera. 6) More of a group effort, but the White Sox did not have a good approach at all tonight, especially early on, popping up several balls, and swinging early in the count vs. Bryd who was pitching on 3 days rest. 7) Can we get a clutch hit please ? Same problem the Yankees had, so give credit to the Angels pitching... All-in-all, just as I was afraid, the White Sox looked like they were playing their 1st game of the year, and the Angels did just enough to must out a victory tonight. Let's go get them tomorrow with Mark Buerhle !

It's kind of a sad state when some of you are trying to find a way to keep a decent offense if the White Sox choose not to pay Paul Konerko....Are the White Sox going to act like a small market club after this playoff run ?

Why the White Sox didn't try and get Konerko signed before the season (for much less money than they will probably have to pay now ) only gives strong support towards the belief that they don't want to pay him long-term...or at least anything beyond what they think he is worth. I've read in the post-season, depending on how far the White Sox go, they will make anywhere between $5 and $22 million dollars....Attendence this season was at it's highest in about 10 years..... Yes, they do have a budget, and some other problems to worry about this off-season (Garland and AJ should get nice raises through arbitration), Frank Thomas and Carl Everett are both going to be on the open market as well, but I don't think it's too much to ask the White Sox organization to resign their most popular, and productive offensive player. I don't want to hear that Brian Anderson or Ross Gload will work out, or we can sign some lesser free agent to replace him - that's garbage. This is Chicago - we're not KC or Pittsburgh. Get the guy signed long-term, or the Sox will continue their recent history of PR blunders.

I generally think Farmio does a good job, but I can't stand when he gets credit for calling a HR, like he did for Iguchi in Game 2. If you listen to enough to enough of the radio broadcast, you probably hear Farmer speculating about a White Sox player hitting a HR about 15 times a broadcast....'His next HR will be his whatever', or 'If he pitches a ball in a certain location, he could crush that ball' Again, not meaning to rip Famer - I think he's solid as a broadcaster, but don't be so fast to credit him for calling Iguchi's HR unless you're also willing to say he was wrong the 15 other times he called for one earlier in the game.... That's my rant. BTW, I am going to miss Rooney!

I'm thinking that the station has thrown his name out there as way to gain publicity for his radio show, which, as you probably know, is a hard sell trying to talk politics on a sports radio station (and all he and Anne Maxfield know are the talking points).... I can't believe he's a serious candidate when there are the traditional baseball people like Steve Lyons interested..... I'm sure though that North will have some involvement given his power at the Score, and his relationship with Reinsdorf, I just don't see it in the booth.

ABC News in Chicago just reported that tickets are going for as high as $800 + I had also heard a report earlier today that club seats were going for $350 for individual seats. Is this actually true ? People hearing similar things ? Go Sox!

Club Seats for Game 2

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Oct 2, 2005 -> 05:10 PM) It will be the same time on Wednesday. NL Game (Atl) @ 12, Sox @ 3, Yanks @ 7 Has this been officially announced ? If so, this sucks.

When will MLB annouce the game times for the entire series, or at least the Game 1 (3:00 CT), and Game 2 on Wednesday ? ? ?

I thought I had read a few days ago that ESPN also has some 1st round playoff games ? If so, aren't some of those in the evening ? Any hope here ? I know FOX is catering, as expected, to the Yankees, it just would be nice to have that Game 2 in the evening.

The Score (670AM) is saying that regardless of who they play, the White Sox will open up on Tuesday at 3:09 PM. Obviously, that sucks for those us at work, and hoping to actually watch some of the game... Where is the Score getting this information? Does anyone know the times for Game 2 ?

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Oct 1, 2005 -> 04:43 PM) Allow me to make the case for El Duque: RISP, 2 outs: 59AB .186BAA, .619OPS. CL&L 18AB .222BAA, .652OPS. RISP, all: 126AB, .230BAA, .701OPS RON, 2: 44AB, .205BAA, .635OPS RON, 3: 22AB, .273BAA, .711OPS RON 1,2: 29AB, .207BAA, .599OPS RON 1,2,3: 13AB, .077BAA, .225OPS Vizc can't touch those numbers. This is a HUGE decision & I can only hope that Ozzie chooses the crafty vet over a sporadic RH RP. Are those numbers on the season or in the 2nd half of the season ? I ask because Vizcaino did have a better 2nd half than El Duque.

Loved the monthly calenders, anything new for the playoffs ? Thanks!

QUOTE(JUGGERNAUT @ Oct 1, 2005 -> 04:21 PM) Agreed. We spent the $ on El Duque for the post season. His numbers are slightly better than Vizcaino's against BOS & LAA. There's no reason to choose Vizc over El Duque. I'm not a big Vizcaino fan, but he has pitched well in the 2nd half, has a rubber arm, meaning he can probably pitch 1-2 innings or multiple games if needed. Do you prefer an aging, possibly washed up pitcher to completely change his role and come out of the bullpen based upon what he did in the playoffs for the Yankees a few seasons ago ? Did I mention that El Duque has been pretty brutal in the 2nd half ? Again, not necessarily in support of Vizcaino (or Marte), but I'd probably stick with my bullpen over El Duque - at least in the 1st round of the playoffs.