Friend of Nordhagen

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 11:17 AM) That series vs the Twinkies after the ASB was also a doozy... While I don't want to exagerate, losing 3 of 4 was bad, don't give a crap if they got a new manager, you simply don't lose to the worst team in MLB if you want to go deep in the playoffs IMO. Twins fans are chomping at the bit, saying stuff like "this guys aren't so good, if we get anything from our starters, we should win the series"...nice. Well, I do think this is one of those years when you can line up the names that each team has in the starting lineup -- and the Twins ARE better, position by position (especially with Morneau, of ocurse). But I guess my point is that it doesn't mean s***, basically, and especially if your pitching is worse. All those years the Twins gave us fits -- and we had Lee and Ordonez and Thomas -- illustrate that point. The key is whether we play smart or stupid. Translation: stop running into outs.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 07:36 AM) What worries me about the offensive woes is that Quentin has basically been worthless away from the Cell. His home splits are: .271/.387/.590 which is outstanding. On the road, he has hit .188/.267/.376, which basically makes him worse than Mark Kotsay. The Sox still have 22 games on the road, so he is gonna have to figure that out, if they are gonna start winning away from the South Side. Not to mention, they won't have home field if they make the playoffs, which could almost neutralize CQ if he keeps those numbers up. On the road, we seem to get a lot more of "twitchy Carlos" -- the guy who starts swinging during his walk from the on-deck circle.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 09:17 PM) I said it the way I wanted to, no need to adjust Oh, dear.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 09:40 PM) Tied for first* And, of course, if we let the Twins get ahead of us by a game or two, they can't block Manny.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 09:12 PM) All I can say about this clusterf*** of a series is at least the pitching wasnt bad. But the offense was april-may bad. All set now.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 09:21 PM) Twins tie it. Urgency. The Twins get that. Loafing your way into Baltimore. The White Sox get that.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 09:05 PM) When you score 1 run against a pitcher with an ERA over 6 you don't really deserve to win. Think maybe they took their lead from Ozzie, who played Viciedo against a pitcher who wouldn't be "so hard" for him? Took him lightly. That seemed pretty clear watching these guys go up there with no approach.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 08:45 PM) Can Garcia pitch every game so we can have Castro become the starter? The quality of AJP's at bats are sickening. I absolutely do not want him back next season. He really does look like he wants to sit down as soon as possible. Someone pointed out his high average with RISP. Seriously, it's like only then will he concentrate on what he's doing up there.

Carlos Quentin, Headcase.

Buck Douchewalter and his stupid mind games . . .

Another benefit of Jenks's spectacular outing yesterday is that we have to go with Pena here and not Santos. Thanks again, Bobby, for sucking terribly. Thanks, 'ol buddy.

I remember back when Tony Pena was a very effective reliever for Arizona, in high-leverage situations. I'd like to see that guy, well, now.

Good work so far. Competent.

QUOTE (rafacosta @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 08:14 PM) ozzie...what a stupid move. markakis seems to always kill us. Well, he's a type we're not that familiar with -- an outfielder that comes up through the minor leagues and is good in the majors.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 08:14 PM) Well that was a baptism by fire, resulted in a totally forgettable debut. We hope it's forgettable.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 08:12 PM) Not a great start there, Sale. You would think Ozzie would have brought him into a less stressful situation. I think it's a bit early to call him "the left-handed Black Jack McDowell." Well, he throws harder than McDowell. Now, if he could just locate it somewhere un-awful.

You can see that our offense really scares this guy. He's real timid because of our fearsome collection of hitters.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 08:03 PM) WTF was that call Of the first 2 to Beckham, they can't both be strikes. One or the other, ump.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 07:56 PM) Nice catch, he'll probably go on the 60 day DL. Nah. He got up. 15 days.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 07:50 PM) AJ pretty good w/ 2 outs RISP .344 Maybe because he acts like he gives a s***.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 07:46 PM) Wow, Kotsay with just a terrible jump on that grounder. HE IS SO SLOW! I'm really annoyed with the terrible approach so many of our hitters have tonight. Well, you can't say that Lexi didn't take it the other way, just only 40 feet, LOL.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 02:52 PM) The baseball gods love the Twins, they hate us. Eh. Those gods gave us the coin flip in 2008, and I believe we used that to send home the playoff-challenged franchise from Minnesota.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 02:48 PM) So our power is out of game, best bullpen pitchers used-thanks lard a** Remember that Saturday afternoon game that he blew up here last year, at the end of July? That was a devastating one, too. One thing I've considered is that for the last 1 1/2 years . . . Bobby sucks.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 02:45 PM) Bobby may not blow the MOST saves, but every time it seems as if the team is ready to reach another level, Bobby blows it and holds them back. Yes.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 10:19 PM) If you have no other options, it's one thing. It's the fact that Ozzie seems to do this when there are better options. That's what drives a lot of people crazy. I think it's also Ozzie's tendency to overuse guys who could be nice contributing role-players. Mackowiak would have been an excellent reserve; Kotsay is a very good pinch-hitter and solid with the glove at first base. Hell, even Erstad and Wise could've been useful as extra outfielders. But, instead, Ozzie runs these guys out there constantly because they're "dependable" -- and they're awful. In the past, maybe that was Kenny's fault for affording no better options. This year, Ozzie gets more of the blame because he wanted a rotating DH (for the record, I understood his desire to have guys rotate through the position and was not a fan of Thome; in my view, Damon would've been very good in this role, particularly with this team) and because Viciedo is sitting on the bench when he could be getting more at-bats.