LVSoxFan

I'm not sure that I'm writing off Siriano/Santana matches as guaranteed losses just yet because a) of our smokin offense and B) they can't win every game. IMO.

And? How about some play-by-play for those of us unable to listen?

So much for keeping the horse in the barn... LMAO...

Highlight below to read my post: That is BULLs***! OMG are you kidding me? We have a 162 game season, lead from wire-to-wire, break an 88 year curse, have no "superstars" and sweep through the playoffs and they pick the freakin STEELERS?!!? God I hate ESPN and their biases.

We took 2 of 3 from the Yankees last year there; I believe we were 1-3 here, our only win coming off the back-to-back-to-back-and-then-one-more homer game with Randy Johnson pitching.

I wouldn't say that about KC/Tigers. No matter how bad anybody is, the beauty of baseball is that anybody can beat anybody on any given day. I will remind you that last year we were killing but for whatever reason we lost more than a few games to KC--especially at KC. I was at two of them. And let's not forget who put an end to Cleveland's red hot streak last year and pretty much saved our ass: yup, KC. One dropped fly ball and our season was saved. As far as the Yankees, we can take 'em. Two out of three (like last year) is fine with me. We can cower, or we can use this opportunity to show our wild card rivals who's REALLY boss.

The point is, we get to face head-on our division contenders numerous times as well as the current best team in baseball the most games of all. Either way, in regular season, we have ample opportunity to face up against the best teams the rest of the way so, heading into September, we should have a pretty good idea of how "real" we are. We play KC 9 more times--the one exception, although beating division teams never hurts. We play NYY 6 times. Boston, Baltimore, LAA, Texas, Oakland, Seattle and TB only 3 more times. So basically the second half of the season is a Central Division shootout, with the second most games against our current wild-card rival. Really this is perfect if you think about it. We'll know after a couple of months just how well we stack up because we're facing all our major competition in the AL (save for streaking Oakland and maybe Toronto). LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Shingo was AWESOME! I was SO heartbroken to see him struggle in '05. I knew after that post-ASB Cleveland series he was history when you could see Don Cooper just shaking his head in the dugout while Shingo blew the save. I'd love to see him back but I don't see it happening. Either he lost his stuff or batters figured him out. Then again, maybe pitching that tight strike zone over there re-sharpened him. But that was a class, class thing to do, for the Sox to send him a ring. Nice!

I agree with Hangar on one thing: we cannot, nor should we ever, build a team where we count on our offense to bail us out. That is so anti-2005 it makes my head spin. And while the big bats of 2006 have been fun to watch, I will trade them ANY day for our one-run wonders of last year and our smokin' pitching. I'll take that win over KC last year where they walked in the two winning (and only) runs over a slugfest ANY day. Pitching and defense. Pitching and defense. If it ain't broke, do not fix it. No matter how great our "O" is this year, any holes in our pitching should be treated as championship-threatening. I could care less about Anderson's .175 average if it means getting the pitching we need. I'm not yet quite ready to panic about our starters, but I'm keeping an eye on them. Maybe Vasquez will pull a Contreras this year, who knows? But Boston had amazing "O" last year and look where it got them facing us in the playoffs? Hold on kids: second half is going to be DAMN interesting! (And how about Minnesota waking from the dead? Yikes!)

That's funny. I like their optimism. Why not? With our huge lead last year, weren't we talking about playoff tickets around this time? Good for them. I can't begrudge the Tigers their success. I just can't wait to end it for them.

The article wasn't dissing him, just trying to lay out why he's supposedly this controversial figure. BTW anybody catch him on ESPN last night while Dye was up? Hilarious. He told them Dye was using a corked bat. LMAO.

I thought it was dull. Too long. This event should be taped & edited, then shown.

And then started to wobble after that. Er, no, wait, that was later. Either way, right after the ASB we have Yankees and then Detroit, so a great chance to make some statements and build some momentum.

Offense: A Simply awesome, with clutch hitting, smallball and power hitting to spare. We do tend to strand a lot of guys but we seemed to do that last year too. Starting Pitching: C+ Only because, compared to the consistency of last year, there's lots of room for improvement. Contreras has been great. Buehrle, even with higher ERA, seemed okay until the last two games. Freddy seems like his lakadaisacal self sometimes still. Garland has begun to gel of late but needs to build a streak. Vasquez is mentally weak, no doubt about it. Bench: A I give 'em an A for Ozuna; Macowiak and Cintron have been good, and Gload has come up with some clutch hitting of late. Can't complain at all about the bench. Bullpen: B+ Agreed, coming together and especially yesterday! The big question mark is of course Politte but I don't think that will go left untouched for long if he continues to struggle. Jenks has been a workhorse. Coaching: B+ "We still have not gotten the best out of our team (except for Greg Walker) but we are still winning, so can't complain." Agreed. With this talent we should be crushing more than last year even, but we'll see how this goes. I give 'em slightly higher because of our second-best record and the fact that Detroit is just off the map right now, which nobody foresaw. Overall Grade: B+ Agreed.

Okay so fine, nobody's holding their breath waiting for me to become the Trump of T-Shirts! ANYWAY, Boston fans really think the booted grounder was why they lost it all? A Buckner play redux? Wow. I was all for Boston and their '04 series win beause that was, quite simply, amazing (and I hate the Yankees). Now I want to stomp them.

I don't think AJ would say "thank you" to all of us by having a flack create a letter from scratch. Besides, it's not like AJ's not a well-spoken guy. Maybe some editing but I have no reason to believe it's not him.

Shoot I just had a great t-shirt idea that I could probably make thousands off of had I had it in time: A black & white t-shirt with a picture of the head of a broom. Underneath it says: HEY BOSTON. REMEMBER US?

As I get pumped up for this weekend's series, I remembered how obnoxious the Boston fans are, and how many of them will be there this weekend. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any other visiting team (besides the Cubs) brings as many fans to the Cell as Boston. I don't mean all the way, I mean there's a lot of ex-pats (no pun intended!) that live here in Chicago. And they are obnoxious. Not only at the park, but also at the bar last year where we watched the final sweep of game three in the division series. I'm trying to think of visiting team's fans more obnoxious (Oakland springs to mind, Minnesota), but it's not like there's a lot of them at our home games. Not this weekend, though. You're gonna see a lot of red. I've got my trash-talkin locked n' loaded...

The dude was hitting 93 last night and says he's healthy. I don't think it's a physical thing.

No kidding. ANYTHING to erase his last start... that was brutal. I think beating up on the Sawx could give us some nice momentum going into the ASB. Does anybody remember what our regular season record was against them last year? I seem to recall splitting with them.

NO KIDDING! I was screaming all by myself in my apartment when that happened. That was the L.A. A.J. homer of this year (my favorite all-time play of last year).

Here's my take FWIW: I root for our guys and I hate to see once glorious players struggle. In '04 Shingo was my favorite pitcher. He was great. He started out '05 okay, and then that awful Cleveland game (I was there) with three homers suggested that perhaps he had a chink in his armor. He was on/off for a while, but then that fateful Cleveland game (remember?) after the ASB when he couldn't close it out... I knew he was done. I loved him as a player, but the bottom line was we have a job to do, and he can't do it. To me, Cliff is the Shingo of '06. Yeah he was great last year, but for whatever reason, he's been awful this year. He's been given many chances IMO, and last night after the 8th I was looking forward to seeing him in the 9th and starting a confidence-building streak. It didn't happen. I'd say: one more chance. But sooner or later, people, you have to face reality and cut your losses. I don't exactly salivate over Montero, but cold hard reality is that this is NOT '05 Politte. Love him, hate him... whatever. We are here to win. If he can't help us do that, then he has to go. Sucks, yeah. But he has not made a case for himself. Especially last night. That was a no-pressure situation, and he still struggled. That's a HUGE red flag.

Yeah his call during Thome's grand slam last night was classic. But really, does anything top the JOE... CREDE... call from last year's Cleveland game?

The only reason I'm hesitant to jump on the "dump Javy" bandwagon is this is EXACTLY what I was saying at this time last year about another pitcher: Jose Contreras. Oops! I guess I have enough faith in KW and Ozzie that whatever they decide, they know what they're doing. If they dump him at the deadline, he needed to be dumped. If they stick with him, who knows? Maybe he's a second half guy.

To the point about how angry some people are, that's another reason why I love it: it's like a big middle finger to the ESPN-obsessed, east-coast-biased country. That said, Liriano is surely a deserving candidate and should be on the team, but as I've explained to a few people, when it comes to fan voting, it's not ABOUT who SHOULD be on the team, it's about who gets out the vote. Not that AJ shouldn't be there; he's IMO our heart and soul and a damn good player. But as I told a co-worker, if you don't like the result, how do you live with the Grammys, the Oscars, the VMAs, etc...