Friend of Nordhagen

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 3, 2008 -> 03:07 PM) Roscoe Goald is killing us today. Why did we trade that guy anyway? Because he hits the ball where it's pitched. Can't have that around these parts.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 2, 2008 -> 03:28 PM) I'm not digging Toby calling games. Looks like 4 guys swung first pitch and did something positive. Gotta adjust to that approach. Every pitch is up. Not good.

QUOTE (shipps @ Aug 1, 2008 -> 09:31 PM) Nick Swisher is the Dane Cook of "comedian" baseball players.All actions and exaggerated delivery but no content that is actually funny. Post of the day.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 1, 2008 -> 07:15 PM) Nice "A League of Their Own" and "Borat" references from DJ so far. Great pissed off response from Hawk on the League of Their Own reference (DJ: "Ever seen that movie? Hawk: No.") followed by DJ's "Anyway."

Ridiculous call on Thome. Totally ridiculous.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Aug 1, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) OMG How did he get to that ball????!!! LOL, but Mackowiak wouldn't have gotten to that.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 1, 2008 -> 03:10 PM) Yikes. Sweep 4 at Milwaukee than lost game one at home to Pirates 3-0. Lost in all the hoopla during the past few days: since mid-June, the Cubs are exactly a .500 team. Basically, they made their bones with an early home-heavy schedule dominated by games with the Pirates. They've really been treading water since. Maybe they'll turn it on. Maybe they won't. But these are facts.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 07:40 PM) Let's see, so far in this thread we've had someone call Mark Grace a "underperforming" 1B (119 career OPS+, career .303 hitter, always known for good defense) had a mostly CF playing player with a 99 OPS+ (Swisher) called "garbage" and that said player is lucky he plays in an era where his skillset is recognized as critically important. Wow, another classic. That might've been me. On the right team, Grace would've been a fine player to have (see Diamondbacks, 2001). But not if you were batting him 3rd or 4th, as the Cubs were during the 90's. Take a look at his RBI numbers some time. I know that number is out of favor with stat-types, but his totals were completely lousy for a run-producing position. I'll credit Grace for never taking steroids, but I won't credit him for seemingly never picking up a weight in his life. He looked exactly the same when he left the majors as when he arrived. (His training regimen, so far as I can tell -- and yes, I'm no expert -- was drinking around Wrigley Field and smoking.) But he was a great guy and loved the cameras, so he became "Gracie."

QUOTE (Allsox @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 09:28 PM) Their players (Outside of Morneau and Mauer) aren't that damn good, no matter how much Hawk kisses their ass. I'm tired of seeing Nick Punto and guys named Span absolutely kill us. See, I think that this isn't true, and this is a mindset that has to change for our organization and fans. The Twins have very good players. Look at their usual 3-6 -- Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer and Young. That's pretty damn good. And their other guys are solid. On the other hand, the Twins don't do everything right, and that's where Hawk and Ozzie and the rest need to shut up. Basically, we'd be a lot better off if we split it down the middle, neither lamenting how mediocre they are nor elevating them to some pantheon. the Twins are a good and talented team -- neither piranhas nor the best goddamn team in baseball. So just go and play.

That's what I'm talking about!

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 09:43 PM) It's bulls*** that we walk into the metrodome defeated. You can tell as the Twins started to do well today that everyone was looking around as if they were waiting for them to come back to get us. I remember one of our young pitchers being interviewed, I can't remember which, but he was talking about how players had told him of all the things that happen to us at the metrodome. This team needs to act like a first place team. Hawk said it perfectly that we were a team that was behind even when we were in the lead. So true. It starts with our f***ing manager and permeates the entire f***ing organization all the way up to the dumbs*** TV announcer. Show some pride, chickenf***ers. Don't walk in there waiting for something bad to happen. Tonight, when Mauer knocked in a run, Hawk was about to die. You can bet half our team was, too. Jesus. Big f***ing deal. It's baseball. Mauer's good. Deal with it and play the f***ing game. I'm so tired of the attitude we have up there.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 09:38 PM) love this bullpen. Game Glad Kenny spent the time getting some bullpen help. Maybe Griffey can be the long man? One. One pitcher showed up in this f***ing dome. What odds would you have given, at the beginning of the week, that it would be Gavin Floyd? So I want to give a shout-out to the one guy who took that mound this week with an ounce of brains and goddamn nut sack. Thanks, Gavin.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 01:08 PM) Have you actually seen Lannan? Because I just can't full believe that Richard has better stuff than him, not when Lannan has an ERA in the low 3's. Even in a pitcher's park and in the NL, that's still a damn good ERA. And if the numbers earlier in this thread are right, his numbers are actually way better AWAY from that ballpark.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) probably not, this is the NL for goodness sakes, Ryan Ludwik and SKIP schumacher are stars. Suppose that's a good point, particularly when you mention those two. But that also might tell us something about Lannan's numbers, too.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jul 31, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) Have been listening ot the Score and have not heard anything. Although Murph thinks Theriot could hit .400 Then he'll be in for a rude awakening when he drops below .300 by the end of the year. Still a quality player (big fan of his, actually), but I don't think the end of this year will be pretty for him at the dish --a little over his head right now.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 12:31 PM) Funny thing is that Uribe is a GG caliber player at the most important position on the team. His third base defense would be GG without a doubt. If you don't sing and dance and unnecessarily run into walls, forget about you. Anderson and Uribe add more to a team but because the press isn't blowing them, they get no respect at all. If Anderson was given the opportunity that Swisher has this season, the Sox would be a better team but the commercials and dugout highlites wouldn't be all that entertaining. I want to agree with some of the sentiment behind the bolded portion. For years, I've loaded up on the Chicago media for its stupid adoration -- and kid glove treatment -- of players like Mark Grace and Ryan Dempster, the guys who appeared to be good with a quote, addicted to cameras, and were often portrayed (because the bar is so low, I suspect) as the "team funny guys." (To a lesser extent, Chris Zorich fits into this mold, though part of that is the same, stupid Notre Dame mystique now attached to Samardzija.) Bu the fact is that Grace and Dempster were pretty mediocre at what they were during these times -- Grace as an underperforming first baseman and Dempster as a middle-of-the-road closer. But we were inundated with stories about how funny they were and what great guys they were -- and very little focus on how they held their teams back. Well, what's fair is fair. With all of Hawk's "Swish" boosterism, the stupid Comcast interviews with him before games, the shots of his fake laughter when Cooper pulled his hamstring, we're getting close to the same phenomenon here. The fact is, Swisher's never been a truly outstanding player. His numbers the past few years have been inconsistent and/or pedestrian. And his performance this year has been pretty woeful. Maybe he does contribute a lot to morale, I don't know. But I am getting sick of the routine -- and the pass he gets for being so crappy so far. Cuz he has been.

QUOTE (FranktheTank35 @ Jul 28, 2008 -> 08:42 PM) Well, if nothing else, that video gave me chills... I wish it were 2005 again.. Totally agree. That video is awesome. Pure joy. Thanks for sharing it.

I think I've seen this game in the Metrodome before.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) Wow, just give them the game. And the Detroit fans, having watched their team s*** the bed for the past two days, get excited . . .

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 01:42 PM) Swisher swings at ball 4. He should've let ball 3 hit him. Swisher is the team funny guy. His job isn't to hit, it's to be funny.

QUOTE (tommy @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 01:01 PM) I didn't think Javy would still be out there. Javy is being told: "You screwed up today's game; you're not going to screw up the next four. Keep pitching."

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 12:57 PM) He's had a couple outstanding seasons. I think it shows he has talent. The thing is he does best the worse his team is. Not fan of his, never have been. And I completely agree that he's not to be trusted in any situation requiring fortitude. But having watched him for 3 years now, I also think he's just not as talented as many believe. His stuff is just too inconsistent to consider him otherwise.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 12:50 PM) I've had enough of the Javy era. This guy will always be a talented underachiever. The only thing he's done in three years here is f*** up our draft position last year. I hate the guy. But the thing is, I don't really think Javy is all that talented. Sure, he nibbles, which is ridiculous. And his location on pitches is often bad. But the fact is that he hangs an awful lot of breaking pitches, which means that they're basically not breaking. And that's a matter of consistent execution, which IS a reflection of talent.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 12:50 PM) It's not as bad as when we had Everett out there, but it's the same type of danger - that at some point it's going to hurt you in a real bad way, and you'll know you could have stopped it very easily. Kenny Williams has done a fine job as GM, but we really haven't had a center fielder for 3 years. He must know that.

QUOTE (southsidesoxfan1983 @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 12:44 PM) lol javy becoming a joke real fast Silver lining: we won't have to watch Vazquez pitch in Minnesota.