LVSoxFan

I'm a Peavy fan (a lonely thing to be last couple of years) but isn't this all a bit premature? I'm thrilled he's had a great start but he's pitched three games, guys. If we're at the ASB and he's still dealin' I'd be more interested in thinking about this.

What exactly is he not doing now that he was doing when he was successful? The thing I hear repeatedly is "long swing."

QUOTE (jamesdiego @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 03:09 PM) Hawk says "there's not a single thing wrong with his mechanics". I'm sure if we could see Stone he would be looking at him cross eyed I wish he took KW's advise at the end of last season to try to go back to his original swing and approach. Wonder if he has ol' Walk in his ear down in Georgia. I could just picture them in the laboratory working on his monkey mechanics, and this is freak show they came up with. Of course this is all joking conjecture, but it makes me wonder They are not going to wait till half the season is over, this train wreck has to stop in a couple weeks. Robin must be just hoping against hope now and giving Beck's every opportunity. It will happen shortly though. There's no reason Lilli shouldn't get the first shot LOL! I heard that too--but I had forgotten that was the conversation. Or lack of it. I heard Hawk say that, I stopped in my tracks, and all you heard from Stone was dead silence. What a stupid thing to say. He needs to go.

I think Gordo can have his own thread because this once future-of-the-White-Sox player is a different case than Morel, who nobody was ever that excited by, and Rios/Dunn, who are veterans. Even Hawk and Stone are talking his swing in the booth so obviously everybody's aware of it.

It's not that Gordon's being judged on 9 games. He's been in steady decline since his first season. Some stats: 2009 BA: .270 2011 BA: .230 Now check this out: 2009 SOs: 65 2010 SOs: 92 2011 SOs: 111 So while his batting average dropped nearly 40 points in three seasons, his SO average went up almost 50% the second year, and almost double his 2009 total last year. That's going backwards. What's weird though is he batted .270 in Spring Training this year.

Seriously is there anybody who DOESN'T think he should go down for a month or so? Because I haven't heard it.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 17, 2012 -> 11:18 AM) Assuming season ticket sales are lower this year than last (which we haven't heard otherwise), then it will be an upset in my opinion if 2012 attendance is higher than 2011. It must be pretty bad when White Sox ticket agents are calling ME pitching season tix. They've never done that before. The last time I had season tix (Ozzie plan) was in 2005.

I saw the potato place ($8!!!!!!!!) and I thought I'd try something new so I tried the pastrami cheesesteak sandwich ($8!!!!). No dice. It was WAY too salty. I couldn't finish it. This was up behind 531. Thank God there's still corn off the cob and the Polish.

I can assure you that sliding down the hill to a sub-.500 record before May even gets here will result in another abysmal attendance year like 2011. Attendance has been going down, down, down since 2006 and 2011's numbers were almost 1 million less than 2006. I think the key in the business is how well you can get the "casual fans" to show up with regularity. And casual fans don't seem to want to attend games by teams considered losers or out of the race. I mean, even CUBS fans got tired of the "loveable loser" allure and you saw some pretty empty games there last year, even when it was nice out. What I cannot understand is why Beckham is not sent down to clear his head. My co-worker says this should have been done two years ago (agreed) and it's absolutely baffling why it's not being done now, because his head is just gone. He thinks Beckham is done as a baseball player forever. I don't know that I'd go that far--to say he's a Billy Beane--but somebody needs to do something stat.

I get the captive audience part but man at these prices they seem to think that their audience is the 1%. Speaking of prices, thought I'd try something new so I got the Pastrami Cheesesteak sandwich. Cost? $8.

Well, sheet: this is nothing new about the Twins. People have been saying this for years about Minnesota, both those in and outside the organization. I always thought 2005 was our attempt to be like them, with all that talk of fundamentals and smartball, small ball, Ozzie ball, whatever it was. (Note: please do not start an argument about how 2005 had nothing to do with small ball. Been there, done that). So then what the hell has been going on the last, say, six years? He knew were were not fundamentally sound, did nothing? I don't get it.

Yeah I was there yesterday and that ball I believe either suddenly hung up or changed directions due to the wind. You could see him start in on it then frantically change directions trying to catch it.

Mods I hope this is White Sox related-enough to be in this forum but I wanted to get feedback. OK, my first thought before entering was: man... what must they be thinking at Grandstand? I'm kind of partial to that place and I want to root for the local guy. This is direct competition for them, in that they also sell Bulls, Bears, Cubs (eek!) and even Big 10 stuff. So in we went. I will say, the store is beautifully done. Lots of bright colors, nice layout, awesome video walls. Yes walls, not just a big flatscreen. Watching the game going on on those was an experience I should hopefully be able to create once I've won the lottery. There were some AWESOME "aged" sweatshirts and t-shirts, along with all the regular gear and jerseys. But what floored me was: the prices. The cool sweatshirt? $70. For a sweatshirt. Made in India. A couple of them were $90. I can tell you from experience that I once splurged on an "aged" waffle long-sleeve t-shirt that looked way cool but fell apart within a year. The t-shirts? $40-$50. Look, being an owner of multiple jerseys I get paying full-price for those, because you'll have them/wear them for the rest of your life. And they're the same thing the players are/were wearing. But what I can't figure out is: who are they targeting with these prices? If you have kids (I don't), I'm imagining you're already dropping a ton of cash just on the food, tix, parking and the expensive prices for gear INSIDE the park. I can't imagine then waltzing over to this place, nice as it is, to drop hundreds on merchandise that in this example must be marked up six, seven times over. And this is coming from a guy who will drop and has dropped literally thousands over the years on cool White Sox stuff--but even I balked at the price of the sweatshirt. I saw a lot of salespeople standing around which could be due to the fact that it's Sunday, people had already left after the Tigers went further up in the 7th, etc. But I can't imagine what the business model is for that place at those prices. Or am I missing something?

Wow that is pretty stand-up, to admit fault publicly like that. Although let's be honest not everybody was happy about the pick back then, especially when you had people like Francona available. Does anybody else notice a different dugout vibe? Not just from TV but yesterday live, it just seems like everybody's really focused and having energy. Maybe I'm projecting but I swear there's like this new vibe. Even though we lost yesterday it wasn't the gloomy bummer that... well, virtually all of 2011 was when we lost.

OK totally random thought here but how is it that this team has struggled with crappy hitting for so long now when you've got one of the best hitters in the game with Paulie? Do they not watch him? Study him? Ask him?

Oh I'm not, trust me. Unfortunately Rios and Dunn are like the proverbial albatross--we have to play them so as they go, the team goes. The Beckham/Morel thing is just now another worry to have.

Isn't this like Brian Anderson II? Awesome fielder, young talent... but ultimately useless at the plate. Just when you think you can breath a bit with Dunn and Rios then Gordo goes over a cliff. Either way, if he continues to flail by May by all means send him down to get it together. As the saying goes, you can't win a season in the first couple of months but you can lose it...

FINALLY a single seat view. I was so tired of buying a row and having to guess where the seats were.

Cool!

You mean like Stubhub. BTW I've been getting calls from Sox tix reps this spring, which is odd because I had season tix once, in 2005. They must be experiencing sloooooow sales this year if they're calling me.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 12, 2012 -> 05:43 PM) If I see someone bring their Apple iPad to a game, I'd make it a point to "accidentally" spill something on it. I think tablets so dumb, and then when I see someone who buys Apple's tablet? Facepalm. Um, I did too until I got my first tablet and now an iPad. They're awesome. Although why the hell I would bring one to a game... I would never do that. For what? It's bad enough people who are the phone the whole time, but tablets/laptops? Another slide into the HDG (Head Down Generation).

And now... it is time for people to lay off him. He apologized dozens of times (we didn't get that in Chicago) and he got suspended for 5 games so those people down there need to move on with their lives.

No. Baseball is a private enterprise, not a state one.

I would say that the league punishing him too would be redundant.

Technically they're all employees of MLB. Think of what NFL does to people who tarnish their image (think: Saints). He also mentioned the Marge Schott incident. To many Cubans, Castro is their Hitler (Godwin's Law, I know...).