southsider2k5

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ May 13, 2009 -> 10:28 PM) FWIW, it's a pretty stupid decision on his part. I understand the reasoning behind it, but its wrong. The surprising part was that he pretty much took the GOP reasoning as his own for not doing it.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 14, 2009 -> 08:49 AM) Not to get ahead of ourselves, but can I add Go Hurricanes and home-ice advantage for the rest of the playoffs? Yes, you may as well.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 14, 2009 -> 08:22 AM) Might I say "Go Ducks and home-ice advantage"? Yes, you may indeed.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 13, 2009 -> 10:31 PM) When he wore #27 he played like we'd expect Josh Fields to play. When he wore #22 he played a lot like Scott Podsednik. He now wears #7 and he's producing like Jerry f***ing Owens. I miss the #22 approach...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2009 -> 09:13 PM) I read the KC Star, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Plain Dealer, The Free Press and the 3 Chicago papers... One thousand people at the Mall of America could walk by Bill Smith and not recognize him. Dayton Moore, same thing. Williams, Dombrowski and Shapiro make more of an effort to get their face and quotes in the papers and especially in the national media. So you read some small town newspapers, and that is the same thing? If nothing else, the level of the Chicago media is way more intense than those towns. You still didn't get into all of the other things that we follow here for coverage of the Sox to make the exposure of each of those teams equal.

"I'm a Pisces"

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2009 -> 08:05 PM) Kicked my dog? GMAB back. I've been one of the bigger defenders and cheerleaders of KW through the last 2-3 seasons. Yes, I think there are better ones out there, but there are many more that are worse. Name me another GM whose quotes are in the papers more often about silly things like Frank Thomas and "pitching inside" to opposing players? He's a smart guy, but he can't get out of his own way sometimes...but I'll wait for your list of the GM's with bigger egos. I'll give you Billy Beane and Theo Epstein, who else? Exactly how many teams do you follow in depth to the point of reading their message boards, blogs, local newspapers, local programing etc to know how much their GMs are quoted? We know Kenny because we seek out all things of the Sox. Of course it seems like he talks a lot because that is what we are reading. Its like reading a liberal blog and wondering why Obama is always talking so much.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:37 PM) According to RotoWorld, the Tigers could release Mags. Anybody interested? If only Mags was 25 instead of 35...*sigh. f*** Maggs.

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

Did Ashton Kutcher jump out at you?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:26 PM) Fields is 8/41 in May, hitting under .200. Too bad Betemit has a stone glove, or that job could be his until Viciedo is ready. Fields swing has gotten really long again, after he had a really nice stroke, especially with two strikes early on. It would be different if we were even getting the power numbers from his like we did in 2007, but we aren't even getting that much.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) Let's look a little more closely at the numbers. His last 20 major league starts (perhaps the most important in terms of trends): 117.1 IP, 143 H, 39BB, 74 ER, 5.68 ERA, 1.55 WHIP His good stretch from September 2007-July 2008 (26 starts long): 131.1 IP, 105 H, 54BB, 50 ER, 3.43 ERA, 1.21 WHIP Note that his BB/IP ratio is about the same between his good stretch of 26 games and his most recent bad stretch of 20 games. Also note that a 1.21 WHIP is not that impressive, and that's his best stretch over his career, truly "cherry picking" (if we can even call a 1.21 WHIP a cherry). His career numbers outside of that ONE good stretch (43 starts long, and includes non-start innings as well): 293 IP, 348 H, 124BB, 195 ER, 5.99 ERA, 1.62 WHIP. "Cherry picking", to me, is taking 5 good months out of an otherwise HORRENDOUS major league career and being patient on that alone, particularly when the last 4 months (now almost as long!) has been bad. His CAREER era over 69 starts and 80 games played is above 5. And you're telling me that this is not a 5+ ERA pitcher???? Again, admittedly: I never liked trading for this player, never really thought much of him, never thought he had what it took physically or in terms of general makeup to be much better than an average-at-best pitcher,and didn't think what he was doing would last. I strongly believed in the luck factor last year, based on what I saw not only in 2007, but in 2006 and the two-three years he had been pitching at the major league level before. Out of curiosity, why are you so quickly to put stock in the 26 good starts he was able to string together, that sabremetrically has been explained as having a high luck factor, instead of the 43 bad starts he's had which make up the better part of his major league career? Perhaps more importantly, why does his stretch of 26 great starts from 2007-2008 mean so much more to you than his most recent 20 starts? You do realize that plenty of pitchers have had really bad starts to their careers. Would you consider Greg Maddux a 5.00 era pitcher? How about Randy Johnson? Right off of the top of my head, I believe they fall in that category as well. I am not saying that Gavin will be one of those guys, but when history tells you that it is way too early, it is probably too early to completely write off someone. Heck Doc Halladay had an era over 10 in his third go around at the major league level in 13 starts. It didn't end his career.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:20 PM) I'm sure they'll gain even more independents with the increase in negativity and name calling. It sure worked for the Democrats over the last eight years...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:08 PM) Chien Ming Wang. If Gavin winds up staying this nasty, do what the Yankees did with their Wang, put it on the DL until it can perform better. And its not even close. Hell I would even say Jose Contreras has been worse than Gavin.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ May 13, 2009 -> 12:57 PM) The fact of the matter is Floyd was a questionable signing, as anyone with any sort of brain predicted a massive regression due to the numbers. You speak as if Floyd's previous struggles were wiped completely off the plate. What percentage of his major league starts overall have been quality starts? Again, I ask AT WHAT POINT do we swallow 15 million? I'd like to give him 3 more starts and then SEE WHAT ELSE WE HAVE to POTENTIALLY replace him. Please read my post literally. I don't know how else to rephrase it. If he's 11-12 starts in with a 7+ era, we have to start at least prepping for 2010 with him potentially not making major league starts for us. To run him out there to give up 7,8,9 per game is not going to give us the 15 million back. I am admittedly no fan of this player, but jesus, his cumulative 2009 stats, no matter how small the sample size, make him the WORST pitcher in the AL. Nice hyperbole, but its not true.

QUOTE (G&T @ May 13, 2009 -> 07:48 AM) Judging by it's contents and the general perverted nature of interweb folks, I'm not surprised....now just give me a minute to collect "myself". :lolhitting

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ May 13, 2009 -> 10:53 AM) Here's my question. At what point do we swallow 15 million? Because if the idea is that we keep running him out there because we gave him this contract, somebody needs to lecture this organization on the economic concept of a sunk cost. If this guy has an ERA even above 6.00 (let alone above 7.00) by the all-star break, we potentially have a major meltdown on our hands. I'd give him 3 more starts and then if the regression continues, I don't know what you can do but find out what else you have in the minors to potentially replace him. Good God. We aren't going to eat a 4 year contract, in MAY.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 13, 2009 -> 10:30 AM) I do not think I want to know some of the deals we have made. Its been going on forever. I recently saw a History Channel show where FDR was secretly working with Churchill, before he was in charge, about how to publicly be against getting the US into WWII, while trying to figure out a way to sway opinion and get us into the war. It was an amazing breach of protocall and of what the American people wanted.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 13, 2009 -> 10:42 AM) Ducks-Wings goes seven.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 13, 2009 -> 09:57 AM) SS2k5, I'd certainly find that true, but Iran is likely acting out of own self interest too. Lowering the violence certainly made leaving Iraq more practical for the U.S. And once we leave, no country has more power in Iraq right now than Iran. Iran did get something out of it... Notice how quickly we went quiet about their nuclear program? It comes up from now and again, but nothing like it did when Iran was leading the violence in Iraq. Like I said, nothing in fact to base this on, but I think those two things are connected.

I have said that I believe we have been dealing through the backdoor with Iran for a few years now, based on how the violence in Iraq just sort of stopped out of no where. I don't have any evidence, just a feeling.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 12, 2009 -> 02:08 PM) A cubs fan telling you to stop living in the past is a joke. This is the same fanbase that kills goats, then hangs said goats from their favorite dead drunken broadcaster's statue. They have destroyed a guys life ( Bartman) because their shortstop couldn't catch a ground ball. They have blown up baseballs, and then have eaten said baseball to kill some mythical voodoo hatchet job. Their entire fanbase believes that a goat of all things is what is keeping them from glory. The living in the past trump card is one that a cub fan cannot throw down. Not to mention, why would you let anything a Cub fan said bother you? Its like taking the ranting drunk on the corner seriously. In the end he is still just a ranting drunk.

With all of the talent the Sox have coming up in the field, there is zero chances they drop nine figures for a long term contract on a hitter. There might be a chance of them chasing pitching, probably through a trade, but I just don't see them signing an OF right now.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 12, 2009 -> 11:54 PM) Do you honestly believe that Walker is in the cage everyday teaching Lillibridge a long, loopy uppercut swing? You don't think he's telling him to focus on a quick, level swing and keeping the ball out of the air? Walker's inability to get through to a young hitter with a terrible approach is disappointing but I'm not about to dump the blame on him for the failures of a seemingly untalented hitter who really hasn't done anything exceptional at the plate since high A ball 3 years ago. Personally, I'm s***-canning Walker because I believe a new voice could be needed to get through to some of these young hitters. I'm sure Walker has a fine philosophy on hitting but I'm not convinced he's much of a teacher. I am still waiting for one single quote, link, clip, or anything else that proves that Walker has ever said anything like that, well, ever.

Must have been exchanging notes with their football program...