Al Lopez's Ghost

I'd just like to add this for everyone who has said that we should have traded Vazquez to Texas instead of BMac. The reason the trade happened, it seems to me, is that Texas liked BMac for the same reason we all liked him - he is a combination of major league talent (middle of the rotation) for relatively cheap money. No way Texas takes on a big contract and trades us 3 kids, two of whom seem destined for the majors. I liked BMac, looked forward to seeing him in the rotation every 5th day, but I'm ok with the trade, even excited to see Danks and Masset. But Buerhle's future with the Sox? I say two things about that: he'll be traded by July 31st, and just about everyone here will say we didn't get enough.

I wonder if this makes Otsuka more available in a package for Garland.

Prior to 2005 time and again I heard baseball analysts referring to our starting staff as a bunch of 2's and 3's without an ace. Things worked out pretty well. I don't think we need to spend time on who is really a guy you can consider an ace. What you need to do is have quality starters who pitch well enough to get you into the playoffs, and then you hope to get hot for 3 weeks.

I voted for Duque too and was surprised to see he was the early leader. When he got out of that inning against Boston, I said to the wife "That's the stuff of legend, they'll be talking about this forever." Interesting topic, though.

Well, I was in.

In for the wild card; Minny's pitching is in shambles, except for Cy Santana.

It was clearly on purpose. And it's fair to criticize Garcia for it. I did hear another theory behind it all on the Score yesterday. It seems a few weeks ago Young popped off in the media saying that he and a couple other DRay prospects were being held back by the organization, should be called up already, and the team was just trying to deprive them of MLB service time. Garcia could have been issuing a shut-up notice to someone who hasn't yet earned the right to pop off. Whatever it was, I don't think Freddie has any right to be the disciplinarian for baseball. Nor do I think it's that big a deal.

One of BP's main comments about the Sox last year was that Cotts and Politte pitched far better than their true performance levels - that they were lucky. Say what you want, but at this point, that conclusion doesn't seem wrong to me.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Aug 24, 2006 -> 06:56 PM) Im sure mlb would find a way to televise the game. That would just be wrong. This happens just about every year, and the game is NOT televised. It's an 11:00 start, which takes it out of Fox's normal times, so they don't take it, and if they don't take it, nobody else can. I don't know if it's accessible on the internet.

IN. It's a long season, and you gotta trust it. Pennant races are hard.

Geez did he let loose last night! Read and enjoy. http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/sox/...spt-ssep20.html

Did anybody hear the distance?

Someone else weighing in on Pods's shaky future with us. http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/whitesox.asp?id=217454

I caught two foul balls in old Comiskey, both on rebounds. One was off the bricks of the souvenir stand behind box 235 that rebounded to me in the fourth row upstairs, and one was off the seats to my left that came right too me. I went to Yankee stadium to see Tom Seaver's 300th win on a Sunday. The day before we went too, of course, and during bp I was in left center to go see the monuments. I heard a rumbling from the crowd like something big was going on, and I looked up to see a little dot in the sky, which grew into a long fly ball off the bat of either Winfield or Baylor, I couldn't tell which. The thing hit me in the right arm, somebody else got it, and my arm was various shades of blue, red, purple, green for about a week. Seaver's win made up for it.

His defense has been awful, and for the most part, he hasn't been the disruptive force this year that he was until August last year. You can't forget however that he had a huge role in our postseason, so it's fair to hope he can elevate his game in the pressure games we have left. I'd still be surprised if he's our leftfielder next season.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 05:01 PM) Buehrle's fastball when it is ''on'' is in the 89-91 range... not 85. He reaches 85 with every fastball he throws up there... not just 44% of the time. Could have just been a type i suppose... Yesterday I watched Buehrle's KC game again, and wrote down the pitch speed they showed on tv. There were 14 pitches that they didn't show a speed on. There was one pitch in the 3rd that they showed at 94 but I think it was a mistake, because that pitch was lined into right center, and I think they actually measured the outgoing ball, so to speak. Of the 79 other pitches, he hit 89 twice. He never got higher. He hit 85 once, he hit 86 six times and 87 once. He threw 41 pitches between 80 and 84; He threw 20 pitches in the 70's; He threw 8 piches in the 60's.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 05:01 PM) Buehrle's fastball when it is ''on'' is in the 89-91 range... not 85. He reaches 85 with every fastball he throws up there... not just 44% of the time. Could have just been a type i suppose... Mark has been getting pounded lately - since at least the Cub game, and a couple of times before that too. He's lost his last 5 starts and his era in those games is over 11. So I would suggest that he hasn't been "on" much this season, and in my opinion his velocity is down. Which is what the Infosolutions guy was saying too. Nothing would please me more than Mark going out there tonight with his best stuff, because we would win and feel a whole lot better about our chances the rest of the way. We can agree to disagree, but lying, that's not me.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) This is a lie and a half... Well hold on here. What specifically is the lie and a half, and who do you think is lying here? Sure isn't me.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Aug 1, 2006 -> 10:43 AM) That dropoff for Freddy is INSANE. Wow. That explains a lot. Buehrle? Whatever, he was never that fast to begin with. The dropoff for Buehrle is just as significant for him, in that (as Hawk would say) to the batter's eye there isn't a big difference between Mark's fastball and his changeup. Batters are pounding him because they aren't being fooled. Maybe Mark has to adjust to his slower fastball by making his changeup slower yet. Game of adjustments. I sure wouldn't give up on him, and I'm glad they didn't trade him this week. Eventually - maybe next year - he'll figure it out.

Yesterday on the Score there was an interview with John Dewann from Baseball Infosolutions, whom you may have heard of. They track just about everything there is to track, and he was talking about our 5 starters plus BMac, and their fastballs. Specifically, how many of each guy's fastballs hit 90 mph. From lowest to highest percentage, they were Buerhle, Garcia, Garland, Vazquez, McCarthy and Contreras. That's probably what most of us would have thought. He added, however, that Garcia's percentage from last year to this year went from 89% (meaning 89% of his fastballs were over 90 mph last year) to 48% this year. Then he added this: last year Buerhle's fast ball, when it was on, was at 85 mph. This year he reaches 85 only 44% of the time. The numbers support what our eyes are telling us.

I hereby apologize for everything I have ever posted about Ross Gload.

Score says it's Sandy Alomar Junior.

If KW truly thinks that Fields will be a ML All-Star, then he must be thinking that say 2 years from now, Fields winds up in left, Sweeney in right, BA in center. Makes any thoughts about Abreu or Vernon Wells seem unlikely.

QUOTE(BFirebird @ Jul 16, 2006 -> 11:31 PM) The answer is yes. No, the answer is, hell yes and right now!