LVSoxFan

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I'm fine with the look heading into '07. After hearing KW's thoughts and especially reading that ESPN article, I'm pretty psyched.

Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Even better: the part about our offense being "one dimensional." That it was. Hell, I will always remember the '05 game against KC here where we won without batting in a run. We just held on and they walked in two runs and that's all we needed.

Uh, does anybody read what I post here? That's what I'm SAYING: 2004 Sox offense. That's what it reminded me of. HELLO? I'm well aware of how in '06 the team fell apart because at any given time one of these things fell apart: -Offense -Pitching -Bullpen It seemed at no time were we ever firing on all three, hence the crappy season. In '05 you'd at least get two out of three most of the time.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 05:57 PM) Quite the crock of s***. Just some food for thought. The key to your 1-0 smallball victory is the 0. You need the pitching to shutout the opponent inorder for this to work, something the starting pitching did in '05 but couldn't in '06. As for the all or nothing score 13 runs then nothing for 2 games theory. That amazing small ball team of '05 was shutout by the opponent a total of 7 times quite the accomplishment for an offense that prides itself on eeking a run or 2 accross the plate each game. Of course the '04-esque long ball stylings of the '06 team must have been shutout atleast 7 times but probably more right? Because a team that 'only hit HRs' can not consistantly score runs day in and day out. Well they were only shutout 6 times last year which isn't great but was still better than the Awesome Ozzieball of '05. Like Tony said, it takes great pitching for the smallball approach to work. If the starting pitching is holding the opponent down to 3 or less runs most every day then the offense can maybe get away with scoring 1-3 runs a game but when the pitching sucks like it did last year and 5 or 6 runs are crossing the plate on most days then the smallball approach is not going to work, you're going to need the 3 run HRs to come along. If the Sox would have gotten similar production from the pitching staff in '06 like they did '05 they would have won 95+ games and the division because of that oft-explosive HR heavy offense. And this may be said each time this subjected it debated but it definitely bares repeating it's not like the '05 didn't hit HRs, they still hit 200 that season which isn't exactly smallball, it's a lot closer to inept ball. Well, uh yeah. What's the big mystery? So yes: I prefer the lower runs/better pitching '05 team the feast-or-famine runs/iffy pitching of '04 and 2nd half '06? I'm not sure what we're arguing about here? And don't tell me the '06 team was clutch hitting like '05, more runs or not.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) My biggest problem with the team: Kenny did NOTHING to addrees the offense, which had turned into previous versions of a HR happy and dependent team that didn't score runs otherwise. They could score 12 runs in one game, but the rest of the week would combine for that. They come into the season with a questionable lead-off hitter, and holes on offense in LF, CF, and SS. HA! I said this second half last year repeatedly: we look like the '04 Sox right now. Then, as now, I will take our 1-0 smallball squeaker wins any day over the 13 run-then-score-nothing-for-two-games days of '04 or second half last season.

Good job KW and GOOD JOB SOX FANS for not being afraid to tell KW what you think. This is awesome.

Texsox that picture is horrifying. Please make it stop.

I've been corresponding with and reading Roeper since he came along; he's the real deal as far as the Sox go. Total southsider and proud of it.

Great article! A lot of question marks I had about 2007 are gone now. I hope we don't miss Uribe this year; that would suck. I'm really starting to think that our secret weapon in all this and what will make or break us is: Don Cooper. The guy made a great point that Contreras was a disappointment in NY, Jenks was unknown and Thornton was: who? And now look at them. If he can work his magic with the new guys, I'd say we're sitting pretty. And why wouldn't he? Okay now I'm getting excited. But oh how far it has come in the former Comedy Central. He's right in that we arguably are the best division in the AL. Thanks for posting the piece; great stuff.

Yes but it's not a business to US. He can explain afteward why he did something but we fans do not look at people like Mark Buehrle as an entry on a ledger sheet. Buehrle is probably my favorite Sox player and somebody I consider the "face" of the Sox. His sense of humor, his watching every game intently from the dugout, his tarp-sliding and of course his pitching make him enormously popular. I personally suffered when he struggled last year because one of my heroes was going through a terrible time. Let KW be a badass with his agent, or behind closed doors--business is business. But I don't like and I don't appreciate KW making negative comments about current players in front of fans like me who appreciate him for reasons having nothing to do with money. Let me put it this way: KW can give us all the business reasons why Buehrle's gone after he's gone. But there's no business reason to start chopping down a fan favorite in front of them. This accomplishes nothing. Except making KW look petty and thin-skinned and... possibly having a CYA complex. BTW the bossman himself could put a stop to all this by telling EVERYBODY to shut up and play ball. He can tell them to cut their hair for "image" reasons but is going to allow this to go public? Pssst... we liked the long hair. We don't like this.

You know what this sort of reminds me of? The Bulls. Only then it wasn't KW but Jerry Krause who seemed to relish being a hardliner with even icons like MJ. Krause seemed to buy into an over-simplified idea that he was responsible for the Bulls' success because of his genius, not really acknowledging, um, the players on the court and what they did. If Buehrle publicly launched this to lobby for a bigger payday from the Sox, that tells me that he feels frustrated by what negotiations have produced. If he didn't want to stay, he wouldn't even bother talking about this. I still maintain that KW needs to put a sock in it. The man sure does love the sound of his own voice. And after a sub-par 2006 I'd say it's time for everybody to be quiet and start getting back to getting some of the respect back that came from being 2005 World Champs. As in: let your playing do the talking. I'm not in the mood for more Ozzie headlines this year, or KW unnecessarily backhanding players that the fans love (I thought his comments about McCarthy after the Texas trade were a bit snide).

I am more than tired of KW's mouth at this point. Whoever said he should have a stock answer for these types of questions is right--have the discussions behind closed doors, not through the media, where KW cannot seem to resist any pissing contest opportunity presented to him. We haven't started 2007 yet and KW's talking like this about Buehrle? Great. I understand KW's point about the obscene Zito contract and the market being inflated by WE GET IT ALREADY. He seems obsessed with what he WON'T pay rather than what he will and that, I think, is why he and the Sox are appearing to some people to be cheap. Just SHUT UP and play ball. Remember? Remember when we used to do that? Back in 2005?

I agree with the idea that they all looked tired in '06. Hell I got tired just looking at... how tired they looked. No snap. Especially in the second half. Well either way, it sure will be interesting to see how KW's moves pay off this year. I hope Ozzie goes back to '05 Ozzie, where he was smiling and goofing and inspiring everyone. This may be a stretch, but I think his freakouts last year and going off on the kid pitcher or Garland in front of the team was bringing 'em down.

LOL! I'm totally with you on that Rex.

You're right about the top & bottom of the order killing us last year. Man I remember we'd be in LF at the game and whenever Anderson came up with two outs people just went to the bathroom, LOL.

I still can't believe they killed Curtis. BTW I think Chloe's boyfriend--the English dude--will not survive far into this season. Just got a feeling.

Yup I know what you mean. The most I had been to was 15. In 2005 I went to 40 (including 2 in Detroit and 2 in KC). It was magical.

Which '04 were you watching? Granted the starters weren't tearing it up beyond Buehrle but that five-hole was abysmal--a virtual guaranteed loss. Arnie Munoz anyone? Pfft. There's players they attempted to put in that spot that I can't even remember... Although I think Diaz managed to win one game.

Wow. Do people here really think Ozzie's that vulnerable? I'm not sure what kind of fallout that would bring, were Ozzie to get fired. I know people here were ridin him hard last season and even I noticed some bad decision-making on his part. But... Anyway GW121 I know what you mean about 2006; I had a weird feeling too. Maybe it was clouded by the thing that we haven't had in so many years: expectations. But yeah something just felt different about that team and, arguably, they really never quite gelled. Actually not arguably but literally. When the bats were hot the pitchers foundered. When the pitchers were hot the bats went AWOL. When the pitching and hitting was there the bullpen would then blow the game. Last year was like the perfect storm of things going wrong, always at the worst possible time. The other thing I remember vividly from '06 is never getting on any sort of a streak. It seemed like we lost every other game in the second half. That said, I guess it can't get much worse than that so I'm really ready for 2007 to begin. I did not enjoy last season at all, not only because the team was worse than bad--it was mediocre--but all of a sudden half of Chicago is at the games. Something else that's obvious but I overlooked: pitching is what got us 2005. In '04 that five-hole absolutely killed us. Last year the pitching just could not get on a roll, plus you had aliens apparently inhabiting the body of Mark Buehrle. If he rebounds and the fifth starter settles in, I'd say we're in good shape.

I agree with you about not missing the bandwagon jumpers. I realize, Tony, that the 2005 could have gone either way. But I was just excited with the idea that they tore up the team and started over with a brand-new approach. Had we not won in '05 I would still have loved that move.

I'll explain. 2004: Going into '04, I was totally stoked because they hired Ozzie, which I thought was a gutsy and very unconventional move. The season didn't turn out well, but hey: it's his first year. My beef was the feast-or-famine team, capable of scoring 13 runs one game and none the next. While I liked Maggs and C. Lee, if they weren't going yard we were sunk. Clutch hitting? What's that. Jose Valentin? [shudders] 2005: It was almost like KW read our minds. Enough of this Big Ball team! We're going smallball/Ozzieball/smartball. Sure the sportswriters dubbed this the experiment doomed to fail, but having been in Minneota's rearview mirror for how many years, why not follow their recipe? I was 100% behind this and not only was psyched about the season, but still can't believe it happened, to this day. Perfect. 2006: Well now that everybody and their cousin is apparently a Sox fan (geesh!), there was a certain sense of having what was "yours" now become "everybody's." That aside, we all felt that we were bound to repeat. The team, on paper, was even "better" than the 2005 team. Thome! Vasquez! So while there was a certain WS hangover, we were assured that we're in this to win, not to be one-and-done. Anticipating 2006: exciting. 2007: ? I don't know what I feel. I really can't predict with any certainty what I think we will do. Seeing that we pretty much have the core of the '06 team--that finished third--you certainly don't expect anything. Pods out, Anderson our do-or-die CF, WTH is going on with Uribe, etc. etc. And heading into this after a dismal second half of the '06 season which was so painful I stopped watching the last month. It just feels weird, that's all. Not saying we're in bad shape, just that I can't even tell you what shape we are in. Or am I crazy?

I remember last year Mack not only making some clutch hits but absolutely killing with some fine baserunning--not just stealing, but heads-up hustle that won us more than a few games. So again: why are we not starting this guy? He seemed to have the fire/guts that Pods lost, oh, about the ASB in 2005 (well I shoudn't diss him he came through in the WS). Granted I hate him in CF but supposedly he's fine in LF. I'm not seeing a downside here. Put "Ole' Gluestick" from Anaheim on the bench and let him sub.

Remember ladies and gents, we'd like--please--a full recap of how it was, what sucked, what didn't, whom you met from the team, how the Ozzie/Hawk/Kenny thing went. AND: how you liked the new venue. I didn't go last year but geez after what you guys told me I am SO glad I didn't.

Am I crazy to think he should be the starting LF and leadoff hitter? This guy we got from Anaheim seems like he jumped the shark about two years ago...