LVSoxFan

Isn't this always kinda the case, though, unless you suck? Like with the Bulls... I guess it depends how long you want to keep the champs intact before you start over. And that depends on how much you're convinced they have another one in 'em. I don't think anybody at the beginning of this season doubted that this lineup could repeat, and they shouldn't have. Didn't quite work out, but I'd really like to give it another go before we go back to square one. I hope our high expectations don't blind us to the fact that it's really, really, hard to repeat.

Deal him. KEEP THE FIVE ALIVE. We need smallball "O" and speed--i.e., something instead of Podsednik. Bmac can buy us that. Our starters will be fine next year, rested and healed. BMac's a question mark. They're not.

Bingo. Injury. I remember my co-worker being amazed at the velocity loss and insisting that he's injured, but not telling. Again, I'm not down on any of the starters because I think there's a lot more than we know going on. I say keep 'em. Shoot, deal BMac and get a freakin leadoff hitter/speedster. We have enough power. I think with rest we have the best starting pitchers in baseball. Let's not forget people we have FIVE starters. FIVE. Do you know how many teams would give their right arm (no pun intended) for that? I really think it's rash to tank the whole system because we didn't repeat. The way this year went, it was just one of those years. Nobody thought Detroit would do what they did. It was supposed to be us and Cleveland, remember? But as the Hawkeroo has said many times, all the breaks we got last year did not fall our way this year. So it goes. Now, if next season were to be miserable, then I'd worry. But I am serious: KEEP THE FIVE ALIVE.

Um what's his "new pitch"? My apologies, I missed out on that whole angle...

Milkman I like the fuse analogy--perfect. We've beend doing that all 2nd half: lighting the fuse, but the firecracker never goes off. Dud after dud after dud. I'm stealing your analogy, dude.

I hate to invite abuse here but here goes: I'm not that down on Freddy. Sure he had a crappy first half but... I think he's just tired. I think a lot of them are. I'm not that eager to push him out the door. And (inviting more abuse here) I'm not that sold on McCarthy as our silver bullet. He's unproven at best. Here goes (inviting TOTAL abuse): I would leave the starters intact for next year. The only one that worries me is Buehrle because the fall-off from last year is so drastic. But I also think he's tired/injured too.

Good point William Tell. The core is there. We just need some adjustments. But shipping out Paulie, Iguchi, etc.... that's radical amputation surgery.

Funny but every year I always say I don't start paying attention to standings until the ASB (as people were griping about Detroit's first half dominance). But geez, I had NO IDEA that the ASB on would go like this! Ouch.

No argument here. Good work. Like the comment about how we stole the Twins' game in 2005. Yup. That's exactly what we did. We fielded our version of Twins baseball last year. Looks like they stole it back, and it looks like we reverted to the 2004 feast-or-famine Sox.

Yikes. A game thread with Detroit and no replies. Has it really come to this? Sheesh.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to reboot just yet just because this season didn't pan out. Record-wise, we've been 20 games over .500 all year. In most years that's the division and we're happy. This year the Tigers have been out of their minds and the Piranhas made a Cleveland-like second half run while we went sub-.500. Just a weird year, that's all. Nothing has seemed to click at any one time. So the question is: do you dismantle a good "on-paper" team for the unknown, or do you merely tweak that team with things that it's lacking? For a year at least, I'd say the latter. I don't think the overall team needs to be detonated, but there are certainly some players that need to go: #1 among them, Podsednik. He was the poster child for smallball in 2005 and the poster child for AWOL smallball in 2006. But to go nukular (sic) just because we didn't repeat I think is a little rash.

My take on McCarthy is he's a terrible reliever. He's a starter, whom we're trying to use in the bullpen. And that just doesn't work for him. I'm more than willing to give him next year as a STARTER but no more of this bullpen experiment. Also, if he's so damn valuable that we can't trade him, what's the point of banishing him to the bullpen for middle relief? Start him or trade him, that's what I say.

How ironic that there's a host of Sox and Cubs castoffs probably heading to the post-season. Dodgers: Maddux and Nomar Tigers: Magglio A's: Frank Thomas Yankees: Farnsworth I agree with Klaus that I'm tired of Minnesota and their awful stadium. If I had to pick somebody to root for it'll be for the Tigers, because they're midwest, they've had a season to deserve it, and I sure ain't pulling for the Yankees. They're everything we were last year. Even had the September swoon! Freaky!

I loved Pods last year but this year and in particular second half I believe we cannot get rid of him fast enough. I agree: I have no idea what he actually contributes.

My only reservations about Thome was he seemed anti-thetical to the "smallball" approach that helped us win last year. I think we have enough sluggers with Dye, Crede, Paulie and even to some extent Gooch--I don't want to live by the longball. Yes I KNOW we didn't play smallball exclusively last year but we sure did a lot more of hit/bunt/run/steal than this year, which, offense-wise, has closely resembled 2004. I like Thome I really do but first half he was an intmidator and second half he seems to be a non-factor.

Interesting point about how subdued Ozzie has been 2nd half. I noticed that too. Not a lot of smiles or animation. And players ADMITTING they might not want it that bad is just naueseating.

Whoa here people: I am NOT suggesting there's a Cubs-like spat in the Steve Stone mode. I'm saying, I think Hawk is right-on and I'm glad that he's not afraid to lay into a team which he has to cover/travel with all season. I honestly don't know enough about the technical stuff to assign blame here: -Is it Ozzie? -Is it Kenny? -Was it lack of the Soriano trade? -Is it the players? -Or an unholy combination of all? Who can say? It seems like all the pieces never fall into place at the right time: the starters suck but the offense is killing. The offense goes to sleep when the starters are rocking. The offense and the starters are in synch and then the bullpen blows it to hell (HELLO, 10-1 lead that became 10-7). Yeah and then there's Ozzie's questionable game decisions and what-not. Where do you even start? But I salute Hawk for going nuts about this because we feel it, too. And yeah, if I were to start somewhere, I would start with the players too.

Sorry, typo: that's supposed to be 2006 If you were watching yesterday you heard Hawk start losing it when it was pretty clear that we were going to get swept in Oakland. In today's Sun-Times he takes it farther, going public with his gripes about this year's team. We all know Hawk's a homer, but I love the fact that he'll rip into them when he thinks they're not playing to their potential. That's the gist of his complaint, too: he thinks, talent-wise, that this team is the best he's seen but cannot for the life of him believe how crappy they've played. The guy in the Sun-Times hinted at the fact that some of them were talking recently about their offseason plans, as if they wanted the season to end. In 2005, he implies, this would have been unheard of. I also like Hawk's comments about how he hates to see us get a lead because then we just lay off and blow it. Also, in the article, Buehrle even ADMITS (!!!) their might be some "hangover" effect from winning last year while playing this year, where guys don't want it as much. Although he says, having been there, if you know what it's like you want to go back. I think Hawk's general points are: -We're fat & satisfied -We've got no killer instinct -For the kind of talent we have this sort of performance is unacceptable I've not heard him go after Ozzie yet--if he ever would--and to my non-expert self I'm not sure if I'm to blame Ozzie. I know he's the "motivator," but Ozzie's not the one striking out with bases loaded. Ozzie's not the one giving up leads out of the bullpen. Ozzie's not the one hired to steal and bunt who does neither anymore. Etc., etc. I disagree with Hawk in that I think last year's team was way better than this one (that whole reality vs. on-paper thing can be a beeyotch) but I think he's right on about this year. I just think they're mentally soft. They don't want it bad enough. If I have to sit through one more lifeless, boring game where we inevitably succumb to a team leading by only one or two runs, well... I'm just going to quit watching. And trust me, yesterday I was merely surfing in and out of the game, which is unheard of, because I was expecting the inevitable. Do we all kind of agree about this with Hawk?

The key thing here, which some have hinted at, is our starting pitching is rolling right now. Jose, Freddy, Mark, Javy and even Buehrle have pitched great games of late (Mark got screwed last night, the team should have apologized to him). That's a good sign. Especially the timing. Now if the other two legs of the tripod can get their sheet together, look out. Please, please... can we not lose tomorrow to offset this loss, as we seem to have been doing for three months?

Please not the 23rd. I'll be there.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Sep 13, 2006 -> 01:08 AM) As a last ditch shot in the dark, part of me wants Ozzie to just say "f*** it" tomorrow, and sit AJ, Pods, Konerko, and Thome, and put in Stewart, Ozuna, Gload, and Fields. Such a depressing loss tonight. I'm not pissed so much as just dejected right now. I just keep waiting and waiting on this damn team, and they never produce consistently, night-to-night. And, without sounding too complain-y, it seems like everything is going against us. We finally start getting the pitching, and our offense can't score more than three runs. Detroit throws out TWO runners at homeplate tonight. Minny comes back from a 5-3 defecit against the normally strong Justin Ducherererererer. I knew we wouldn't be catching all the breaks like we did last year, but yikes. The baseball gods are sure coming down on us with vengeance, or so it seems. Bingo. I feel like I'm stuck in win one/lost the next hell, and have been since at least the ASB. And you're right about the rotating failures: first the starters are weak, but the offense is great. Then the starters have been good (ESPECIALLY lately) and... take your pick, either the offense gets zeroed or the bullpen blows it. And what up with Jenks? He's been getting rocked for the last week. I've been saying it for months, and it's a duh! insight but: we have yet to go on a roll. In fact, I can't even remember the last time we did. It seems every win is offset with a loss the next day, or worse. You keep waiting, and waiting... And I agree about the breaks. That's one thing we're NOT getting this year (although whoever pointed out that Vlad should have easily caught AJ's hit was right--I was shocked that he muffed that).

I love Joe Crede but one thing KW has shown is that he's not sentimental. After Joe's breakout year and his spectacular post-season, he's going to demand top dollar and Boras is going to make damn sure that he gets it. Seeing that he's the last Boras thorn in KW's side left, if I were a betting man I'd bet that KW will publicly praise Crede and all he's done but he'll be shipping him--and his Boras issue--out the door, to fill holes. I'm prepping myself for that fact right now. The only "X" factor is: how many pieces of a world championship team are you willing to take out? Assuming Crede, Pods and Uribe are goners, that's a lot of chemistry-changing. But even that I don't think will be enough.

LMB "feeling the doom" was from last week and originally was intended to describe how the team seems tight, there's apparently some squabbling going on, things are being said to the press, etc. It wasn't meant to say the season's over or anything like that. But rather, if we're gonna lose, let's lose guns blazing--not because there's all this distraction going on. At this point, no: our problems on the field are oviously what's hurting us. Which I can live with. Yes, we're still in it, and yes I'm cheering the whole time. Because I do know if we manage to get in, it's like a "reset" button. And seeing that we didn't get "hot" apparently this season, look out if that's when it happens.

It is pretty amazing that we are 20 games over isn't it? Talk about a cursed season: -Detroit is even more over than that for most of the season -Minnesota's asleep first half then pulls a Cleveland 2nd half -KC is a bottom feeder but was killin us this season when we needed to win We manage to sweep LAA at their place--usually a house of horrors--but would get manhandled here by teams like KC or Tampa Bay. We get smoked by longtime nemeses like Santana or Sabathia but yet get smoked by rookies with losing records. It's just been a grind of a season, especially second half. LOL even Saturday night, which should have been a rock n' roll fest as we're pounding them 10-1, becomes a nail-biter. Or was that Friday? I don't remember. Here's what I feel about this second half, which is CERTAINLY different from last year: whenever we lose a lead anywhere near the middle of a game or later, a sense of doom creeps in. Whereas last year we're down 4-0 in Houston during the WS and I'm not even concerned. This year, though, that sense of horror just creeps in.

In an overall sense, no matter how you break it down, what's glaringly obvious to me this season and especially post-ASB is our inability to put together any kind of... streak. Whoever's fault it was for this game or that game, I for the life of me cannot remember the last time we won more than, say, four games in a row. Can you? Never mind 8, 10 games or something like that. This would be JUST the time to do that and it's very frustrating seeing that Detroit was once untouchable but now falling back to Earth, and yet we cannot do anything about it. It literally seems like every win is followed by a loss to offset that win. I don't remember a season like this. In 04 we were in it for a while but pretty much slid from the beginning of September so you had no illusions. I agree with the idea that were we to get in the playoffs, everybody will relax. They certainly did last year. It was like a gorilla off their backs, and you could tell. The tightness and frowns and frustration visible on the team this year does remind of September last year. But it is amazing to witness them ring up 10 runs one night and then get stuck at two the next--now THAT reminds me of 2004. That said, I actually am looking forward to the California trip. Maybe the nice weather and change of scenery will wake them up. It feels like we've been playing scuffleball in dreary series with Central opponents since the ASB, even if that's not factually the case.