Gregory Pratt

I don't want to seem rude, or like I'm picking on you, but what you're describign, with falling for whatever girl shows the slgihtest interest in you, seems like the behavior of a mid-teenager and not a twenty year old man. You need to break that bad habit soon.

Ozzie Guillen isn't the only manager to make mistakes and serious ones at that. Let's look around the Central. How many of you would be calling for "competent" management and starting/ending your posts with "f*** you Ron Gardenhire!" if you were Twin fans and he took Ponson over Baker and Ortiz over Garza? Last year, they brought up questionable offensive players -- that dude with the stupid ass stance stands out, although his name doesn't come to mind immediately but I know he plays third -- and that's on Gardenhire and Ryan. How many of you would've s*** bricks when Leyland fell in love with Neifi Perez like Dusty Baker did? Oh, ho ho ho, I can see it if Ozzie Guillen kept Neifi Perez up. Look. I know it's chic to call Ozzie all sorts of things. He prefers Veterans! (all managers do) He hates young players! (no he doesn't) He's a racist! (ay Dios mio!) but I think he has earned an advocate and not because he won a World Series but because he's a damn good manager. He handles a starting pitching staff the way it should be handled, he believes in doing all the little things, he has faith in his players and lets them work their way out of jams, he keeps the pressure off his players and takes it on himself. His players love him, generally. That's not the point, though. "OZZIE SUX!" "f*** YOU GUILLEN!" " I H8 U!" it's all so silly, and if we're going to bash him for making questionable choices, we should look at the questionable choices made by other managers, particularly in our own division. That said, I don't think Ozzie is doing anything wrong with BA. BA should be in AAA and is not better in any way than Erstad right now, which doesn't necessarily speak to Erstad's greatness. I don't know what Erstad'll hit this season but I'm sure it'll be better than what he's doing now. There are a couple of things that bothered me. That have. AJ Pierzynski, what are you doing? What are you doing? That at-bat against Nathan was the worst AB I've ever seen from a pro hitter, at least in memory. He just rolled over one, it was pathetic, and so has his approach all year long. Worse, he looks like he doesn't care behind the plate, like he's tired already, and his act is getting old right now especially after he b****ed about Toby Hall taking away his at-bats. If he doesn't want at-bats taken away he should hit as if more than a LOOGY were going after him. Thome's feast-or-famine is really getting old. Crede is back to who he always was. Last year, I believe it was BP -- they were asked what they thought of his numbers and they said, "I always believed in his power but not necessarily this average," and I think they're right. Which brings us all to everyone's favorite argument, one I've made before and that countless others have made before me: our offensive approach as a team is miserable. Another thing that bothers me, is, first: Are we for real this season? They don't look hungry, just don't. I'm usually optimistic but damn, when Jim Thome's bat speed is crap, and everyone's bat speed is crap, it's like, What are you doing? What did you do this off-season? Don't you understand that the pitchign has been excellent? And then I ask myself, If we aren't serious about contending this year, if our players and management aren't serious about contending or even if they are but we fail, that means we started Danks' arbitration clock early, for no reason, and that's bulls***. Do these hitters know that the season has started? Are we a .500 team this year? Also: attendance has seemed a little down at the games I went to, although those were cold days and cold games, so maybe that has a lot to do with it, but if the attendance isn't what it was last year, are we cutting payroll? 'Cause if we are, we aren't going to compete in this division. We don't have the talent or the EYE for drafting talent to really compete. Greg Walker said today, Why does he have a job? [insert people talking about how we had a good offense last year, how good our players are, but none of them were grown here except perhaps Konerko.] It's depressing. Don't waste good pitching! But that's exactly what we're doing. To anyone who says Why Panic, I say, Why not? Listen. There are some hideous trends. Crede's back to sucking and I think he will be all season long -- that's who he is, besides last year; Thome's looking to hit the Dan Ryan from Cleveland but his bat speed isn't as good as last year and he's a year older; Dye looks lost, but I think he'll get better as it warms up -- still, it's alarming; Pierzynski looks old and tired, though he isn't the first and shouldn't be the second. Those are all very alarming things.

Maybe you answered this earlier, but I'm just curious -- how old are you?

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 02:42 PM) If not, I am sure bullpen coach Mark Salas has a better shot of throwing out a runner ... from the left field bullpen. Man Soo has a better arm.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 02:41 PM) At 300 pm, they have Wild Things 2: When the White Sox Bore Us to Death Starring Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel. Maybe I'll let Denise Richards cameo, but no Neve Campbell. SCREW YOU She's hawt.

AJ has such a noodle arm. Think Toby Hall with a torn labrum can throw harder? I think he might!

Yeah. I think he grounded into almost as many DPs in the last month than he had all season. Back flared up.

Crede up to ruin the mini-rally. He's still got to homer or nothing'll happen. Damn base-cloggers.

Jesus Christ, this is absolutely terrible. This offense is terrible.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 01:38 PM) We should have offered Crede, Buehrle, and some big prospects for ARod. I'll bet we did. Yankees wouldn't do that, though, and I'm not sure Alex Rodriguez would want to come here.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 01:36 PM) People actually want to re-sign Crede? Seriously? I've never wanted to keep him. Back problems.

Here comes Crede to bounce into two or pop up.

Paul Byrd, pfft. Come on. Oh, and if we wind up ever not bashing Borowski's head in again, I'll...encourage someone to do something crazy on here.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 14, 2007 -> 12:57 PM) I'll take McCarthy from 2005 as the best 5th starter. And I think that Vazquez as a 5th starter last year put up better numbers than anyone we can have for the entire year. McCarthy wasn't the fifth starter all year. He was a fill in. He sucked half his games; he excelled in his second half.

Beat them, Freddy! They are the weak-hitting Astros, after all. Remind them, and us, of good old Game Four! But realistically, I think he'll be bombed. I don't think he's right just yet. Or if he'll ever be.

No worries about Uribe. He'll be fine. Terrible game today. But good win to pull out. (Why is it terrible? Too ugly. Leadoff man for them reached in seven out of nine inning, eww.)

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 09:23 PM) If you honestly don't think Anderson can out play Erstad and Pods defensively, and/or don't think Anderson can match Erstad's offensive ability, I really have to question your knowledge of baseball. That's bull.

Erstad belongs in CF. Put Anderson in left or right. I'd rather put him in right. Dye's bad out there.

PK's middle-of-the-road clutch. But ninth inning, 3-run lead isn't exactly crunchtime.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 07:44 PM) Javy was damn good vs the Indians last year. Oh yeah.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 07:40 PM) Javy has stones. Where was this pitcher last year? Javier had a couple of GREAT games against Cleveland last year. I also remember a bunch of games where he battled all game long against a great offense. I remember him v. The Yankees. Great game. Tense as hell, but great. Let's go Sox.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 06:53 PM) From 1-2 to a full count. We f***ing love to nibble. And he strikes out Sizemore on a nasty moving away pitch. Javy needs to attack that zone, his stuff is good. Nibbling is only going to raise his pitch count. The rest of our pitchers have to nibble. I don't quite get Javy's nibbling but I once read that he considers himself a pitcher's pitch and likes to try and hit the corners.

I picked McCann.

I hope Sunday's game has a big rain delay and they have to take Sabathia out. If they have to take Contreras out, too, so be it. Our bullpen's far better.

I'd take McCann Sizemore Hernandez QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 12, 2007 -> 01:05 PM) I'm pretty sure that they weren't letting him throw his slider last year (someone correct me if i'm wrong) to try to protect his arm until he grew up a little more. The couple reasons he made my list: I was only picking 1 offensive guy because I think pitching is more important, Johan obviously hits the list, and I wanted someone with Johan-level-talent who I think has a good shot at staying healthy. I'm not sold on Verlander staying healthy yet, and I'm pretty happy with the way Seattle has tried to baby his arm. You're right about the slider.