LVSoxFan

Nothing from this point on will ever compare to the 2005 Sox. Not the Bulls, Bears, Hawks... nada. Two greatest sports moments in history: -USA Hockey win in 1980 Olympics -2005 Sox Somewhere behind you can put the Bulls and Bears.

I just hope Blue Tooth Man meets a terrible end, like he did playing that schmuck on E.R.

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 03:01 PM) I'll make sure we Take Pics and post them ........... Thanks Hangar. And a recap of the Ozzie/Hawk/whoever discussion. I have never LMAO so much as I was at the one in Jan. 2005 and Hawk was saying how the 2004 team was one of the best he's seen and people in the crowd were not having it, especially these two dudes behind me.

We can't troll for votes here? Oops. Too late. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm posting the first IM I sent to a mod as part of my campaign: LVSoxFan: Hey Moderator: Hey LVSoxFan: So how was rugby practice? Er... never mind...

Man, if you're right, talk about a quick and no-mercy ending to Curtis. Nobody is sacred on that show. Wow.

Does anybody really believe Curtis is dead? That seemed awfully gratuituous to kill him off in the premiere like that. Blue Tooth Man being his brother was certainly a twist I didn't see coming. Can't wait to see what the dad's up to--talk about a dysfunctional family! So far so good this year on 24--well worth the wait!

Good call on by Rex Kicka for naming the El Duque inning in the playoffs against Boston. That was just sick. I had forgotten (shame on me!).

I hear ya; nothing is more insulting than somebody totally overselling an event like that. I'd ask for my money back.

Just to update us who weren't there last year (I was there the year before), what was the fiasco last year?

BTW Royko left in '84, Roeper started in '87. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Apples and oranges. Royko wrote about what he wrote about, Roeper was the first "generation X" columnist I remember--somebody closer to my age who would write about things that were familiar to people under 50. I loved Royko to the point where my mom would send his columns in the mail to me at college (pre-Internet, you kids!). But I liked Roeper for the more youthful subject matter. But yes, he's always been a Sox fan and nothing else--I've never heard of him being at Cub games but occasionally, and no he did not just start talking about them in 2005 as some here have alleged. BTW he's a South Sider to boot. I got to pick up this book; I forgot about it.

Oh GOd somebody said the Arnie Munoz game in Montreal--sheesh that was painful. And we did come roaring back unbelievably, only to fall short. Hey one moment which wasn't necessarily dumb but dumb fun this year for sure: the first A's game here with Big Frank back. Somehow some squirrel got into LF and it took them damn near five minutes to drive it away. It was ROTF funny. They were trying buckets, I think Ozuna was chasing it, and after one minute of course everybody's cheering for the squirrel. Now THAT I had not seen before.

Hey guys I'm not going but some of us would love to read reviews/roundups when you're done, to see what we did/didn't miss.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 02:20 AM) William Ligue I'd say AJ's HR vs the Dodgers. You know, it's recent, but I really can't think of a more electric moment than the AJ homer against the Dodgers--I agree. That was just insane. And he almost fouled out; people forget that--he threw his bat down in disgust but the other guy couldn't catch it. Positively blissful. And in their '59 jerseys--love it. Having said that, his blastoff homer at Wrigley last year was pretty damn sweet too. The moment he hit it you KNEW it was out there--and it was, what a bomb! Worst moment? I know I don't have the history of most here but I'd say the second half of last season. The moment being: when the game was on and I didn't even want to watch it. That's unheard of for me but I was just too drained. QUOTE(Allsox @ Jan 20, 2007 -> 11:59 AM) Best Moment: '03, when Frank hit that GW HR against the Twins on the day when we traded for Roberto Alomar + Carl Everett. Thought they were going to run past everyone after Frank smacked that HR. Worst Moment: Sept in Min when Loaiza took the bump ill and the Sox got swept away by the Twins. I really thought that '03 team could have done something in the playoffs. Eesh. I remember that worst moment. And Loaiza was just rolling that year--he was my favorite pitcher. That was indeed brutal.

Whoever said they don't mind having Pods back in LF I can sort of agree--with condition. He went from being one of my favorites in '05 to a goat last year IMO. I can't tell if he was injured in '06 or '05 was just a career year (first half anyway). So I'm okay with him starting LF to begin. If by the ASB, though, he's still mediocre, an offensive/LF upgrade should be KW's #1 priority. KW got away with "stay the course" in '05 at the tradeline but arguably got burned by it last year. That said, the ton of pitching sure has, well... potential. As we all said, pitching wins championships and we seem to have plenty of it. Plus, as another pointed out, four veteran starters. I like it. Also somebody else pointed out something I have noticed: our pitchers tend to stay healthy like I've not seen on any other team--probably a credit to Coop, yes? I would also take whatever Steve Stone says to heart: the guy tends to know what he's talking about. If he sees no problem with this, that makes me feel good about our chances.

Sorry, but I'm not jumpin on this "Let's Look to the Future!" bandwagon where we trade away everybody who got us to the Series for the potential promise of prospects. WTF is this, some kind of garage sale? In 2005 it was clear that KW wanted to win a WS NOW, and he built a team that could do it, and we did indeed win it. Now we're apparently going back to Jerry-Ball, where we're supposed to marvel at how much money we're unloading by trading away the higher priced guys for IOUs in the form of prospects? And I'm supposed to sit through a 2007 season that's a write-off so we can maybe have a decent 2008? Pfft. Ridiculous.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Dec 27, 2006 -> 03:02 PM) The more information coming out from the bmac trade, the more it seems the organization soured on him. Even though he was put into a foreign role, to him, they still think he should have pitched better. So they groom him for years and then sour on him just because he sucked at middle relief? That seems a bit... narrow-minded. Or were there other reasons?

I highly doubt that KW, he of the trading be-here-now starter and one potential starter who was the #1 prospect while loading up on potential arms, would throw the salary money at Clemens to rent him for a year.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 04:24 PM) The main bone of contention here seems to be whether the '07 Sox are as strong, on paper, as the '06 Sox. Here are some thoughts on the matter. To begin with, let's take a look at the starting rotation. We've got Buehrle, Contreras, Garland, Vasquez and whoever vs. those 4 and Garcia in '06. Buehrle has been, historically, a solid starter who had a horrid 2nd half last year. I'd be inclined to believe that we'll see the historically dependable Buehrle, especially since he's in a contract year, rather than the Buehrle of the 2nd half of '06. Summation: Probable improvement over '06 performance. Contreras: Assuming he's 41 is as assinine as assuming he's 35. In my opinion he's a solid to bet to at least match his '06 performance. Summation: Equal to '06. Garland: Jon didn't have a year as good as he had in '05. He had a bad 1st half and a very solid 2nd half. I believe at an absolute minimum he'll match '06 and I have strong feeling he'll surpass his '06 performance. If you recall, he has stated he had a dead arm early in the season. Summation: Garland will be measurably better in '07 than in '06. Vasquez: His 2nd half leads me to believe that after a half year with Cooper, that he improved over the Vasquez that pitched below his capabilities the last couple/three years. Wishful thinking maybe, but I liked what I saw of him after the break. Summation: probable improvement ... maybe. Regression is doubtful. Whoever vs. Garcia: I think Garcia will have a better year than last, but that is moot point. It's all about his '06 season vs. what we can expect from Mr. Whoever. Will we get 17 wins out of the 5 slot. Probably not. Will we have a guy throwing 86 mph and unable to hold runners on? If Heager wins the 5 spot, then yes. But that's a knuckleballer. We've got several guys who can step into this slot that have the potential to give us an acceptable performance. With all this talent, I believe one will come through. Summation: A probable drop off from Garcia. Overall, I believe the rotation will be stronger in '07 than '06. I see a probable improvement in 3 of our 4 veterans, with a drop off in the #5 slot. I don't believe the dropoff will be a repeat of '03 - '04 though. I believe the bullpen will be stronger. We'll have MacDougal all year as opposed to a half season of a terrible Cliff Politte. BMac, Riske and Cotts were questionable to bad overall. Jenks and Thorton seem to have found their niche and should be able to maintain their level of performance. So who do we have to fill slots 4 through 6 out of the pen? Aardsma, Sisco, Masset and/or the losers of the 5th starter competition out of Heager, Danks, Floyd, Broadway ... maybe Tracey, Phillips, Gonzalez. There is enough talent there to effectively fill out the bullpen. Now, let's talk about our so called holes. Backup catcher, we seem to agree, has been improved. Probably so, but it's not a lock. Pods is getting a lot of crap around here, and his '06 performance justifies that. However, I believe that he was never able to get into proper game shape due to the hernia surgery he had in the offseason. Look at spring training and his start to the season. He wasn't ready. He never had the chance to get healthy and get in shape. Pods doesn't have enough talent to get by at less than 100%. I don't expect a lot, but I do expect an improvement from Pods in '07 due to the fact he'll be healthy and ready to go. Anderson has been around the league now and he should improve just from having a year of MLB under his belt. The key word, of course, was 'should'. It's no given, but BA has too much natural talent to have such a bad year again. As for backup CF, not having Mackoviak out there will be a drastic defensive upgrade. Either of Sweeney, Owens or that dude we picked up early this offseason (name escapes me for now) will have to be better than Mack. Uribe ... I don't know. We don't know if this attempted murder thing will continue hanging over his head or not and how it will effect him. Worse case scenario, Cintron starts and we lose defensively but gain with the bat. Hopefully, Uribe will be around to a late inning defensive replacement. In general, I don't think our holes are as glaring as has been made out. As for the rest. Dye may backslide, but the dude is a pro and he's in a contract year ... so who knows. Crede's back is always an issue but he's been coming into his own as a solid major leaguer. If he can stray healthy we can expect at least as much from him. If AJ gets more rest, I believe he'll be more consistant over the course of the year with a probable slight upgrade overall, because he really hit the skids in the 2nd half. There's no reason to expect less out of PK, Thome, Iguchi or the bench. In general, I see plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our chances in '07. YASNY wins the thread. Can't disagree with this. IMO the Sox in '06 looked... tired. All year long. Having had a good long offseason now, and enjoying the shame of being third place (and we're probably not expected to do much in the central this year), I look forward to 2007. Anything will be better than 2nd 1/2 2006, where I couldn't even bear to go to games (sacrilege!). BTW on McCarthy: I was shocked, SHOCKED when I heard that B-Mac was gone because for a couple of years now he's been groomed as our Pitcher of the Future and I remember KW saying last year that B-Mac was off the table when it cames to other clubs. Am I sad? I guess I would've liked to see him finally have a full year starting, and he definitely seemed like a White Sock and the fans loved him. That said, as a reliever he was average-to-poor and I did notice the disturbing trend to give up big-time home runs. That curveball could be wicked but I think batters figured out to wait that one out and go for his fastball, which seemed completely flat. I can only believe that KW knows what he's doing so in the end I'm okay with this deal. On paper we, as a team, should be killing this year--but we said that last year. If the players step up to their potential--which they certainly did NOT last year--we should be okay. If the Sox revert to another second or third-place finish harking back to the pre-2005 Comedy Central days, then we can all pull out our knives for KW after next season. I'm prepared to wait and see. YASNY and others point out the thing people are forgetting: we still have Buehrle, Garland, Vasquez and Contreras as starters, and a couple of guys who will have to fight for the five spot. Sheet, that's more pitching than most clubs have right there.

Why does it feel like the unity and team spirit from 2005 has evaporated? We've got Ozzie's mouth running all last year, KW with his talk of ditching the starting five, JR taking a shot at MB, MB and that Cardinal crap... '05 seems a decade ago.

I hate this piece of caca Bonds and he's everything that the Sox are NOT: selfish, stat-oriented, a clubhouse cancer, a jerk, not a team player, a gloryhound... and not only that there's the whole 'roid thing. Why the hell would we take bonds when we already have Thome? We don't need anymore sluggers. We need more Ichiros, not broken-down warhorses looking to play one more season to break a record.

WHen I woke up and saw the Sun-Times this morning and saw Freddy gone to Philly, I thought: cool, looks like Rowand is back! :( :( Unless this is a setup for another deal coming, this trade makes zero sense to me. For what we got. Am I missing something?

QUOTE(knightni @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 05:13 PM) Getting Rowand back = Crede signing long term...? Now THAT would be something...

QUOTE(ChiSox9 @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 01:45 PM) Great post just i dont see 90 wins as sucking. We would have had 1st in 2 of the 3 NL divisions or the Wild Card in the NL and we would have been second in the AL East and West. The Tigers were an amazing team last year and the twins finally put it together in the second half. Good point. I think I'm referrng to our .500 to sub .500 play in the second half. Yes 90 wins is great and no slouch. But I think we amassed a lot of them 1st half, yes? I just remember all of the second half winning one, losing one, winning one, losing two... ugh. And we never did put together any kind of streak all year, and not one in the second half.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 01:13 PM) Anderson has played one year of major league baseball. I don't think it's fair to call him an awful hitter yet. Yeah, he's a project. Hey: I stuck by him all year last year. People around me at the games were calling for him to be demoted and I said give him time. Maybe one day he will be a good hitter. Maybe winter ball will turn him around. I don't really have that big a problem with Anderson. My point was that people are making Rowand sound like some broken-down warhorse who would bring nothing to the team if we ended up with him again. I think that's unfair. And not really remembering 2005 either. Alas, how quickly they forget. Here's my take FWIW: I don't think we need to make a boatload of trades/changes for 2007. I think 2006 was just a bad year, a tired team, some hurt starters and a team crushed under the weight of an expected repeat. Remember? On paper, everybody said 2006 team was better than 2005. So they underperformed, yes. But I really don't see why we need to have an A-Rod or a Soriano-type to make this team happen again. When it was supposed to be a dream team last year. Granted: -Pods better regain his 2005 1st half form, and quick -Tads needs to get his bat back -Thome needs to play smallball when necessary -Vazquez needs to go past five Etc., etc., etc. We all know the complaints, because we all were here all second half last year repeating them endlessly. I say: write of 2006, let's go with what we got and give it another try. If 2007 sucks, then we can start panicking. I trust KW. If he doesn't make any major moves, it's because he didn't see the need to. And I can live with that. One other key thing which I think we all forgot last year: the 2005 Sox were taken seriously by nobody. This was the "smallball" team that was picked to finish fourth due to the radical re-invention by KW/Ozzie. It was Sox against the world, a world that didn't give them a chance. I'm sure that motivated them. In '06 we were now this dream team with Dye and Thome and the best pitchers and better on paper and this and that... and we were worse than sucking: we were mediocre. I'd like them to get back to that underdog, under-the-radar and off the ESPN rankings mentality.