WCSox

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 12:32 PM) Not respecting the wishes of your own party makes you an assbag. If you don't want to be a Democrat anymore, just leave the party already - but playing it both ways and not being respectful of the wishes of the people who put you there in the first place... makes you an assbag. You're right. Screw principles, Lieberman should whore himself to the left wing of the party like Jack Murtha. Because toeing the party line is what's really important. My feeling is that Lieberman doesn't like the direction that his party is heading. And given that he's been been representing the Dems in Congress longer people like Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer, I don't see the problem with him trying to bring the party back closer to center.

Great thread. Exceeded expectations: 1. Thornton - The M's thought that this guy was never going to develop into a major-league pitcher and his market value was equal to Joe Borchard's at the beginning of the year. After a rocky start, he proved them wrong and has only given up 5 runs over the past 19 innings. He's gone from long-shot to stay in the majors to decent middle-reliever in 3 1/2 months. 2. Crede - I thought that he simply hit a hot streak at the right time last year. I was wrong - he continues to improve as a hitter and his defense is still top-notch. Joe's already one of the best third-basemen in the AL. 3. Thome - I was going to be satisfied with 100 games played, a .270 average, and 30 HRs. Wow... 4. Jenks - It's not every year that a 270 lb alcoholic gets claimed off of waivers and dominates in the postseason. It's even less often that he adds a nasty hook to his repertoire and becomes one of MLB's elite closers the following season. 5. Count - Dominant in the second half of last season and even better over the first 2 1/2 months of this year. Failed to meet expectations: 1. Garland - Last season looked like a turning point, but he's regressed back to the '02-'04 Jon. He needs to stop relying on trying to locate his sinker and two-seamer perfectly every time and to throw his offspeed pitches for strikes. That said, he's looked better over the past month, so perhaps he'll get himself back on track. 2. Vazquez - Has the stuff to be one of the dominant pitchers in the league, but serves up way too many gopher balls - especially when he's ahead in the count. If Coop can't fix him by the middle of next year, it'll be time to give up on him. 3. Anderson - Spectacular defense, but hitting 25 points below the Mendoza line is inexcusable - even for a rookie. Has looked better at the plate lately, though. *I would've put Politte in this category as well, but it's obvious that he's not healthy.

The 'pen is more of a worry. Buehrle, Count, and Garcia are solid, veteran talent that've gotten it done down the stretch before. Vazquez and Garland have been good back-of-the-rotation-caliber guys (if not more) throughout their careers. We also have B-Mac as an emergency backup. On the other hand, the only relievers that I'm comfortable with are Jenks and B-Mac. Politte's career numbers are mediocre and he's rumored to be injured (and is pitching like it), Hermanson may never pitch again, Thornton is still a huge question mark (despite solid pitching recently), and Montero will be iffy if he's forced to come up again. The other options in the minors (Logan, Tracey, Haeger) aren't ready to pitch in the majors yet.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 10:59 AM) http://www.boston.com/news/local/connectic...ndent_campaign/ I know a lot of people here like Lieberman but, what an assbag. I don't understand how that makes him an "assbag."

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 12:08 AM) They should cut the number of series in half. ^^^ Interleague does a great job of exploiting local rivalries, but they over-do it a bit. Half the number of series would be a good solution.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jul 2, 2006 -> 05:42 PM) why is it that our offense "destroyed" one of the best pitchers in the NL, but Buehrle "wet the bed" The ball appeared to be carrying well yesterday, as it's not every day that pitching staffs give up a combined nine jacks in a game. Zambrano, Perez, and Uribe's homers weren't exactly smoked (especially Neifi's) and may have been deep fly-outs in other ballparks without the wind blowing out towards CF. That's not excuse Mark's awful pitching, but Zambrano's performance was far from his norm as well.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 06:44 PM) ...hmm...I don't know what you read...but perhaps you should read it again. That's what I get for multitasking. :banghead

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 05:04 PM) The White Sox are 14-3 in interleague play this year. It makes it a little more likable, no? I wish that they'd cut the number of interleague series in half. Other than that, I like it. QUOTE(bmags @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 05:17 PM) whats funny is that the NL has the total advantage in interleague play...they usually take away a great hitter from the opposing team at home...and when they play away they get to add a better hitter in their lineup And when NL teams play at home, they take the best bat away from many of their AL opponents... or force the opposition's best hitter to play in the field, creating a defensive liability. I don't consider that a "total advantage" favoring the AL.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 05:26 PM) There's just no guarantee that he's be awesome his first full season I find it funny that some here are convinced that B-Mac is going to be a lock for a 4.00 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP right off the bat. Despite what he did in limited in a limited number of starts last season (even Kip Wells looked really good in his 7 starts back in '99), McCarthy is inevitably going to experience some growing pains as he develops.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 10:19 PM) I sure do like Chone, but no way in hell do I give up Fields for him. I'd love Chone (although I hate the way that he spells his name) as the long-term replacement for Pods. But methinks that the Halos are going to ask for a lot. A more likely scenario may be this winter when KW is ready to possibly deal one of our starters.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 02:17 PM) He is mentally fragile though. Somebody here mentioned that Vazquez told Ozzie that he was hesitant to come back to the AL. That's not the type of mentality you want from your players. I'd rather have a battler like Freddy with 4 mph off of his fastball than somebody with Vazquez's stuff and a fragile mentality.

Can't say much that hasn't been already mentioned, except that this team reminds me a lot of the mid-late '90s Indians teams whose offense would absolutely destroy opposing bullpens late in games. LOL at AJ sticking it to the Cubs.

With Uribe getting back to his normal hitting numbers, I don't think that replacing BA is the most important thing to do right now. (I'd rather see another middle-reliever.) Consider also that whoever we get to replace BA will likely be a downgrade in defense as well. Agreed about the poor bunt execution, though. The entire team has been doing a below-average job of that this season.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:26 PM) Except all the other starters proved they deserve a spot in the rotation b4 on the whitesox. And Brandon is young and people are willing to be patient with Nobody is going to be patient when a pitcher under-performs for a defending WS champion team that's on pace to win 105 games halfway through the season. Garland and Garcia have already been ripped to shreds here. If B-Mac comes in and does the same thing, he'll get the same treatment. Sure, just like Jon should've pitched like he did last season. :rolly QUOTE(The Critic @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 12:17 PM) It gets old. You'd never guess this team was 52-27. Well said.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:29 PM) What has McCarthy proved this year? A 4.35 ERA out of the bullpen isn't exactly promising. What he did as a starter last year is.

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:14 PM) But make no mistake about it: Contreras is a HOF caliber pitcher. If he came up in the states, he'd be (arguably) the best SP in White Sox history outside of Ed Walsh. Talk about a major championship piece. ^^^

QUOTE(tealeafreaderii @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:05 PM) ESPN just said jose has been topping out at 84 and 85... saying they suspect an elbow issue? the game wasn't broadcast in my area... is this true? The radar gun is off. They said the same thing about his last start... and in that same game, Jenks was supposedly topping out around 91.

QUOTE(tealeafreaderii @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:00 PM) Freddy pitched a gem against st louis. Not to mention a quality start against the Pirates on Wednesday. Given that both Freddy and Jon have been pitching well below their career averages thus far, I'm confident that both will have decent second halves. Vazquez will probably end up in the 4.70 ERA range when all is said and done - not great, but not terrible. Buehrle will be consistent and good. Assuming that Count's back holds up, he'll still be #1 material in September. So, no, I'm not really worried. Especially with McCarthy as a backup.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) I see no specifics in the articles of any material consequence, just like there were none in Bush's statements, and the proud proclamations all over US government websites. Just the one thing - we are watching your financial transactions. Therefore, same thing. If it were the "same thing", the NYT obviously wouldn't have had to go through the trouble of obtaining the information from a government informant. They could've simply re-hashed Bush's words. And if the news was already several years old, it wasn't "new" by any means and wouldn't have made it onto the NYT's cover. So, no, it isn't the same thing. It was classified for a reason.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 06:44 AM) I tried really HARD to defend him when he had his bout with pain killers but enough is enough. He needs the book thrown at him. Won't happen in this case. Those pills were legally prescribed to him.

The Big Red Machine

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:05 PM) A thumping of the Scrubs should get everyone in a good mood again. But if we don't sweep, we'll have failed!

In this, we saw good starting pitching from Mark and Freddy, along with solid 'pen outings from Jenks, Cotts, Thornton, Riske, McCarthy and Montero. IIRC, Politte's homer today was the only run our pen allowed in the entire series. Oh, and we won two of three. Yeah, there are SO many reasons to be down on this team right now.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 01:28 PM) Again, I'm a little shocked that people are jumping off ledges about a team still on pace to win 103+ games this season. Something tells me that the Yankees didn't care that the Mariners went 116-46 in the regular season when they met in the 2001 ALCS.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) Do you remember which paper you read this? I read the Trib and Sun-times and there was no mention of it... It was mentioned on Baseball Tonight, so take it for what it's worth. I didn't hear a follow-up, so I assumed that it wasn't a problem.