ScottyDo

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 06:46 PM) The Twins cannot win games outside. Getting out of the dome is going to kill them. Thank God the Sox are 7-0 on this roadtrip. If they were 4-3, it may be time to play taps. ?

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 07:01 PM) There's no way to know if Thome would have helped us. All we know is that he wasn't a fit here for 4 years. He didn't fit in whatsoever. He never excited anybody, only made them cringe and pray for anything but a strikeout. If you think differently, I have to ask if you ever watched Sox baseball with a big group of Sox fans? If you weren't cringing or pulling hair out when Thome was up at crucial times, then...uh...what were ya doin??? Cheering confidently that Thome was gonna make that pitcher pay??? My ass. He came through like 1 outa 15 times; let his meaningless memory go. Thome going to Minny wouldn't be the first time a change of scenery helped someone. See: Edwin Jackson. Seriously, I was doing the exact thing you were just talking about. Thome v. Lefty in 2009 went exactly as follows: fastball strike 1; higher fastball strike 2; slider outside, swing and a miss by 8 inches for strike 3.

QUOTE (PlunketChris @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:04 PM) Kotsay- 297 AB Damon- 462 AB 165 more plate appearences make that .024 a little better, and the rest of the stats look even worse. Wow, I'm actually surprised that Kotsay's AB number is so low. The way we (myself included) talk about it, you'd think he was leading the team in plate appearances.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:59 PM) Rios has speed to score amd stay out of the DP and sets the table for PK and now maybe Manny agreed, rios >> manny in the 3 hole

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:06 PM) sale, 6'5" 170. how is that possible? he has helium in his blood

haha i love sale's gameday picture

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 03:39 PM) so its either danks on 3 days or harrell, torres, etc right? that kind of would suck hey, man, harrell's winning at a 100% clip! who needs a WHIP below 2??? just win, baby!

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 03:38 PM) Well, there was the history of him really struggling after his huge pitch count no-hitter. yah but didn't he throw north of 150 that time?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 03:10 PM) Damn. Kotsay gunned down at home on a close play on the Vizquel single to end the inning. ugh. was he legitimately out?

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 02:52 PM) ManRam = hit machine. manny > ichiro!! EDIT: That was green, but not snarkily so

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) That was a line drive? Are you Hawk? hahaha nope i'm listening on the radio and thats how they described it. was it just a bloop?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 02:34 PM) Rally Killer Kotsay...shades of yesterday with him in the 2nd inning. lmao really, on a line drive that required a diving catch....????

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 02:34 PM) 2 runs in a third of an inning, yet 2 or 3 dadgumits. yah we could easily be dominating already. meanwhile, over in twins land...

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 12:51 PM) I guess I just can't explain it. I mean I just see his delivery and go "that's a pen arm" albeit a very good one at that. Nobody is also sure if he has the stuff to start. I understand his stuff now is good to get guys out, but can he do it two or three times through the line-up? I'd like to do what's been done with a couple of good arms in the past: make him a closer for a year or two, then work him into the rotation when he's got some experience and worked on his control a little bit and we lose a starter to FA/trade/injury

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 12:39 PM) Wait, people really think Sale can start? The man has been phenomenal but I have no idea how anyone can say he's a starter with the motion he has plus his arm slot. i don't know how you can say he CAN'T start when he's been doing it every year for a while now. maybe he has a predisposition for the bullpen, but arm slot/motion aren't 1:1 correlates with inability to start

QUOTE (hi8is @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 12:38 PM) its true, he did say that. glen beck told me so

QUOTE (zenryan @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 07:52 PM) Why couldnt MLB just contracted Minnesota years back? Would have made life a lot easier as a baseball fan. Ugh, plus the whole catwalk thing in Tampa...If Karma's real, either they saved a bunch of orphanages from raging fires, or Joe Mauer's about to get hit by a meteor.

I've brought this up in two threads, but I think it applies here: Go back and look at March's posts. Many of us thought we would make the playoffs, but those people exclusively thought it would be because of lights-out, insane pitching and no offense. Almost everybody who posts regularly had us under 700 runs. We're outperforming that, for sure, so whose fault is it that we were so wrong? Did KW get us a more talented team than we thought, or does Ozzie, by and large, get the best out of his players? My personal opinion is that KW deserves most of that credit, but I also think Ozzie is pretty damn good at maximizing talent. Even if his in-game decisions are not great, or even good sometimes, he's damn good at the rest of the job. Which is more important? I don't know. But calling him clueless is clueless in itself. He's good at one thing and bad at another. As far as today's issue goes, I vehemently disagree with most people here. Yes, it was a bad idea to leave Buehrle in. It was noted before the game even started that Martinez kills Buehrle. Farmer and DJ noted at the time that it was about time to take MB out. But by and large, Ozzie leaves his starters in for the correct amount of time and manages his bullpen to win games. Every manager will have a good amount of games where he leaves the starter in a batter too long...EVERYBODY. If Ozzie had a high rate of making that particular mistake, I'd agree with everyone, but I really have not noticed that to be the case. At this point, it's just anger at Ozzie because the angst level runs high around here. I dunno, I actually don't love Ozzie, but the gathering mobs are getting ridiculous. Bigger picture, Ozzie has had a fine season. It's just a lot easier to point at Kotsay and say "BAD!" than it is to point at the overall performance of the team in wins and losses/runs scored and say "GOOD!", so people are completely ignoring it. And what Melissa says has always rung true to me: if we fired Ozzie and ended up with someone like Eric Wedge, I'd be beyond pissed. It's not a reason to keep him around forever, but I'd much rather keep him -- until he loses the team completely or we know we have a better option -- than make a knee-jerk move. Let's not forget, we haven't had a manager of even Ozzie's moderate caliber since LaRussa, and we fired him prematurely.

I went to go grill out in the backyard and listen to the game. Consequently, I just skipped from page 17 to the end. It's a pretty hilarious transition SOX! Our kind!

QUOTE (zenryan @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 02:33 PM) Wonder how many times that has happened this year. Fewer than last year, that's for sure

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 02:19 PM) Good play by Kotsay... I hate having to say that. Kotsay's playing the role he should now, you can like him again. Well, for the first time anyway.

QUOTE (mcgrad70 @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 01:07 PM) Based on the line-up today, it is very clear to me the power struggle between Williams and Guillen is just getting worse. We did not sign Ramirez for 30 days to rest him. The DH by committee was a fisaco and probably will cost us the division. If nothing else, it opened the door to Twins to sign Thome who has now been elevated to folk hero since Morneau went down. I just can't see how these two can co-exist much longer. Who should go? Frankly, I like to see them both gone. However, my real wish continues to be new ownership but that's a pipe dream. I just noted in another thread that we're on pace for 770 runs, when a fair majority of the people on here said we'd be lucky to score 700. This means one of two things: either our lineup is overperforming their talent, in which case at least some credit should go to Ozzie; or, our lineup is more talented than anyone suspected, and KW needs to get credit for that. I guess a third option is that we're just lucky, but I doubt anyone who's watched us over the course of the season would use the word "luck" very often. I choose to go the KW route, as I had them pegged for 730-800 runs before the season, but I don't see how you could make the case that BOTH need to be fired when we're outperforming predictions. Personally, I think our roster's pretty decent, and I think people's complaints about KW are pretty narrow-sighted. I also don't think Guillen needs to go either, since I think our guys perform well under him.

We're on pace for 770 runs this season. As I recall, the consensus was that we would be lucky to score 700 before the season started. Just thought that was noteworthy.

I think it's cuz the boos hurt Manny's poor wittle feelings. Sniffle.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 09:35 AM) This was just an absolutely huge series of wins yesterday. This team came out knowing the stakes and played two solid ballgames. That’s great to see. Our most important pitchers stepped up to the challenge, even though neither of them had their best stuff yesterday. It's really impressive that they could both rise to the occasion using sheer strength of will....he said hyperbolically. Seriously, though, hats off to Danks and Floyd for pitching their asses off in an important situation. No way Texas gets swept, right??? Let's make sure Boston does.