WCSox

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 04:09 PM) I still say you just can't look at the career ERA of a pitcher who pitched his first 4 years before he was 26. Not to mention that he pitched those years with Jose Valentin @ SS while trying to be a sinkerballer. Over a career, yes you regress to the mean. But when a pitcher is my age...you barely know what his mean is yet. I see what you're saying. Garland is entering his prime and last year's numbers may be the culmination of those years of development. Still, his performance last year was so far below his career ERA that I can't see him repeating (or trumping) it. I hope that I'm wrong, but I think that his ERA will probably be closer to 4. JMO. BTW, Jose wasn't THAT bad of a defensive player. Certainly far a great one, but not terrible either.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 04:01 PM) I see no reason at all why Cotts and Garland cannot put up numbers equal to, or in JG's case, better, than what they did last season. Especially Garland. Garland definitely has the best chance. But 18 wins and a 3.50 ERA for a guy with a career ERA of, like, 4.30 isn't easy to duplicate. I think that 15 wins and a 3.90-4.10 ERA is more likely. Cotts, on the other hand, will have to pitch ~60 innings with an ERA under in the 1.9's to equal last year's output. That's a REALLY low ERA. I think he'll be closer to 2.50. I guess what we have to hope for is more of today-like performances out of Javy, more of the same from B-Mac in long relief, more of the same from Jenks, and better offensive production (especially with RISP). We leaned WAY too heavily on our pitching last year and somehow got away with it.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 03:51 PM) We are still going to be better than what we've already seen. I agree. The question is: How much better? A lot of things have to go right to win a championship. A number of guys are going to have to step up to make up for the fact that Garland, Cotts, Politte, and Hermanson aren't going to put up the same numbers as last year.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 02:47 PM) Going into last season, KW made the bullpen a point of emphasis. With an increased budget, he pretty much ignored it this offseason other than to sign a gazillion minor league free agents, who showed why they had that status in spring training. Its hard to draw any conclusions after 5 games, but it obviously has started out worse than even the most pessimistic would have imagined. I remember this being disucssed in a thread during the third week of ST. I was one of the "don't worry, the bullpen will be OK" crowd. Pass the salt, I have some crow to eat. :puke

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 02:25 PM) Shields has thrown a lot of innings the past few years, he's not someone to target. It'll be hard to pull off any trades anytime soon since its so damn early in the year. I think we should get Logan back in the minors and then rarely use Thornton. Although neither looked good in ST, I think both Tracey and Redding would be better than Logan. I am still at a loss of words as to how Logan went from A ball to the majors just because he had a good spring training. Just a bad, bad move. I knew we'd miss Marte and Viz and I wrote it in my first column. It's holding true so far. I didn't realize that Shields will be 31 in July. That means lots of minor-league innings under his belt. Hmmm. If Clemens decides to not re-join the Astros, it might be possible to get Lidge and Qualls for Garcia and Politte, moving Jenks into Cliff's spot and B-Mac into the rotation. Eh, I don't know... Agreed that if there is a big trade, it won't happen until late June or July. Also agreed that Logan and Thornton shouldn't be here. The only reason they are is that we're desperate.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in '05 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 02:14 PM) While I agree, Garland and Garcia haven't given this team a damn chance so far. I know they will improve and our bullpen probably won't, but you can't blame our s*** start so far on the bullpen. But if our bullpen isn't going to improve, something needs to be done. KW might have to sacrifice some of our starting pitching depth for another arm in the 'pen. I hope that Garcia is healthy and improves over the next couple of months, because I think that he's the one to move (inconsistent, not young anymore, lots of IP under his belt). Maybe something along the lines of Garcia and Politte to Anaheim for Shields and Weaver? Then again, it's going to take another month or so before anybody can accurately evaluate this team.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 02:02 PM) Hawk is diving in the bottle of Jack as we speak. Just like Bob Uecker in Major League.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 01:52 PM) The problem with that is it moves BMac, thus far the most reliable guy in the bullpen, into the rotation. Yep, that would present another problem. We'd have to get somebody's #4 or #5 in the deal. But I don't like the alternative of B-Mac, Cotts, and Jenks being our only reliable relief pitchers. I'd rather have a shaky #5 and a better 'pen than the current situation.

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 01:46 PM) As it stands, we have no one to bridge the gap from the starter to the closer. No one. Hell, I'm not even that confident in Jenks closing out ballgames. I get the feeling that we're going to trade a starter for bullpen help in July.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) I think it's safe to say Cliff won't be having the year he had last year. ^^^

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 01:31 PM) Javy is 99% done. If he brought back, I will be SHOCKED. Agreed. This inning would put him well above 110 pitches. Not sure that's a good thing at this point in the season.

Eexxxcellent... :mrburns:

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 12:47 PM) for f***s sake Took the words right out of my mouth. :banghead

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 10:45 AM) Those doubles were rockets hit off of him due to terrible pitches. The Berroa double was a massive hanger, and the Buck double was a weak fastball over the plate. I don't know if "rockets" is the correct way to describe them, but "seeing-eye" probably isn't, either. I guess my point was that they weren't line drives over the outfielders' heads. If they had gone either a little to the right or left, they could've been playable. But, yes, they definitely were bad pitches.

I'll be concerned if we head into May at 10-14 and Garcia isn't hitting 90 on the gun. Otherwise, I'm still very optimistic.

QUOTE(Felix @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 10:17 AM) Well, I've also wanted Count to be traded if Garland wasn't I think its a downright crime to keep McCarthy out of the rotation right now. Same here about Count. I might be eating those words soon. Doh! :banghead

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 06:58 AM) The key for Jon last season was to keep the walks down (29 less than in 2004), and giving up less of the longball (8 less in 2005). He's never going to be a high strikeout pitcher, which I suppose shows how important it is to put a good defense behind him. And he didn't have that at all yesterday. And unfortunately we saw the Jon of old, where he gets flustered if he gets a bad break or 2. He needs to get out of that mindset. Agreed. He's a ground-ball pitcher if his sinker is working. Last night, nothing seemed to be working. He's lucky that the wind caught the ball that Ozuna mis-judged, as that would've been a three-run homer under normal conditions. I agreee with Ozzie leaving him in after he coughed up the lead, though. He got no defense help from Ozuna and those two doubles down the lines in the 4th were more of the "seeing-eye" type than anything. After the way Jon pitched last year, he deserved the chance to work his way out.

QUOTE(Felix @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 05:05 AM) For me, "souring" on Garland is nothing new. We should have traded Garland in the offseason when his value was at its highest, and we could have bolstered both our farm system and our bullpen while putting the better pitcher (McCarthy) into the rotation. That's what I've said all along, and I'm sticking to it. I'd love to see Garland prove me wrong, and I'm hoping he does, so time will tell. I disagree with that, although time may prove you correct. I don't see Garland repeating last year, but he's young, healthy, and has good stuff. No reason to trade a guy like that when you're trying to repeat. Especially with Contreras' age and all of the innings that Garcia has amassed over the years. JMO.

Despite the fact that it's still early April, they need to pull themselves out of this funk. We're all painfully aware of what happens when the Sox sandbag April. That said, I'm confident that they'll snap out of it. Only got to see the middle innings of the game where Garland crapped his pants. Yuck. I'm still optimistic about him, although I agree that he probably won't have a repeat of last season.

QUOTE(JimH @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 05:42 AM) Run along to mommy little girl, sniff sniff. I'm going to talk about baseball now. Enjoy your suspension.

QUOTE(JimH @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 05:38 AM) Like I said, go run along to mommy. So much for your "reputation on this board." :headshake

QUOTE(JimH @ Apr 8, 2006 -> 05:23 AM) Awwww ... how sweet. Run along to mommy now. Is your 10-year-old son using your account or something?

QUOTE(JimH @ Apr 7, 2006 -> 07:46 PM) My reputation on this board speaks for itself. If you have something to say to me you ignorant tool, say it via PM. You're right about the "know it all 30-something", but you forgot to add "smarmy prick" to the equation. Just to be clear about what I said, you don't know f*** all about baseball. And to clarify once more, shove your eye roll up your ass. OK? :headshake QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Apr 7, 2006 -> 07:52 PM) This is really uncalled for Really, this post should lead to a suspension. Please show some class, apologize and delete it. Thank you.

QUOTE(JimH @ Apr 7, 2006 -> 02:48 PM) The rolly eye bulls*** and the "condescending crap" comment, yeah, that's being civil. Your attitude is the problem, not my use of a "rolly-eye" emoticon. You sure as hell are "dead wrong" about what I'd think in that situation. Do you have ESP or something? Your use of the word "f***" also shows how incredibly immature you're being. Actually, I'd be a "know-it-all 30-something" who's been following the Sox since 1982. I'm sorry that somebody pissed in your Cheerios this morning. Try to find a more mature way to vent next time. :rolly

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Apr 7, 2006 -> 01:24 PM) I still think what Ozzie did was the wrong move but whatever That pretty much sums it up for me. I'm moving on and looking forward to tonight's matchup.