Friend of Nordhagen

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Sep 23, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) Just this weekend? I'll try to sum it up the same way an avid Brewers' fan did over at BTF: The Brewers had an MVP candidate (Fielder), a ROTY shoe-in (Braun), another ROTY contender (Gallardo), one of the better closers in baseball this season, a team that's going to finish the season with 225 homers, and they STILL found a way to lose the worst division in baseball. Ned Yost's decision-making has been absolutely exposed, and it sickens me (when I glance at the Journal Sentinel) to see people defend him. He's brutal and makes some moves that are worse than ANYTHING Guillen has ever done. Every word is true. But the same can be said for a team with a $100 million payroll, 3 All-Star position players, a $4 million manager, a $91 million starting pitcher, a $55 million starting pitcher (Lilly), the league's best relief pitcher (Marmol), and the league's best deluxe utility player (DeRosa) -- until this weekend, that team was exactly 1 game up on the Brewers. And they call Piniella a genius . . .

QUOTE(fathom @ Sep 23, 2007 -> 03:55 PM) If the Cubs continue to get the long ball hitting and relief that they have been over the last few weeks, they'll be the team to beat in the NL. I'm not sure yet. I think that both of these qualities have been very much helped by the lousy teams they've been playing. (Marmol is the exception: he's great against everyone.) On the one hand, the bullpen hasn't had to work very hard against most of these lineups, which have had 1 or 2 dangerous hitters. And, conversely, the Cubs hitters have struggled against good pitchers most of the year; take a look at the tripe that they faced during the last week. Gorzelanny's the only good pitcher that they got to. Harang handled them. Everyone else (including Arroyo) was outright terrible. So I'm not sure what to make of it, except that the rest of the league leaders are struggling at the same time the Cubs are surging. Might not mean much -- the Cardinals were absolutely brutal last year in September, and they flipped the switch in the playoffs. We had our issues in September '05 before pulling it together the last week of that season and carrying it into the playoffs. I'm convinced that there is just no formula for figuring these things out.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Sep 23, 2007 -> 03:20 PM) I suspect most of Wisconsin has already given up on the Brewers and was watching the Packers today. So since an entire state has forgotten about the time, I think it is time we did too and closed this God foresaken thread. Agree with the sentiment to bury this thread -- right next to the Brewers 2007 season. Thought the Brew Crew could have done some damage if they'd actually gotten home only a couple games behind; truth is, their starting pitching the past couple of weeks has been outstanding, but Sheets's injury (again), their awful bullpen, playing an actual major league team (unlike the Cubs), and some truly weird managing by Ned Yost killed them this weekend. (By the way, Saturday's game should be filed in the Strangest Management of a Game Hall of Fame: for the life of me, I cannot quite understand how Ryan Braun can ever come out of a game where the Brewers don't have a lead; that -- and the Craig Counsell "I must bunt at all costs" effort -- and allowing Damien Miller to remove the bat from his shoulder on a 3-1 pitch with the bases loaded were all, well, strange moves. Kudos to Ned. Did you hear that, Ned? Kudos, my odd-looking friend!)

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:49 PM) Gold. I only changed one thing/ Perfect edit.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) Or Farmer's. I don't think a jury of his peers would convict Singleton if he took out Farmio "Chris Singleton pulls out a knife, jabs me in the heart. That's what you do when you kill a man with a knife; you stab him in the heart. Line shot foul by Erstad. Bleeding on the mic now. That's what happens when you have a knife wound in your heart; you bleed on the mic. Erstad goes down swinging. Feeling faint now. That's what happens when the blood drains from your body; you feel faint. Here's Andy Gonzalez. Pretty much dead now, Chris Singleton. Good night, everyone. Go crazy."

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) One only look to the Bible for Moses to compare what somebody Contreras's age has done before. I wouldn't mind seeing Jose bring a couple of stone tablets out to the mound. That visual might save the season for me.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:36 PM) That's too bad. Given the opportunity, I would have urinated on them both. And is there nothing sadder than wasted urine? Lotta Jerry Manuel references today. And a nice shot of Singleton in the booth. He looks as bored as Uribe does every game. That's an excellent reflection on both, by the way.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:32 PM) Here's only 12 years younger than than 50 year old young stud Jose Conterares who we have for two more years! I dare you to prove that Contreras is 50. Contreras, my friend, is 74 years of age. What he's accomplishing at this time is unprecedented.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:28 PM) At least KW got Mike Myers. He's impressive. Myers is a terrific young pitcher.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:25 PM) Oh, they'll "try" to sign guys. KW told a player on the Sox after the season ended last year that Juan Pierre would be their leadoff hitter, and Scotty Pods wouldn't be back with the team. Do you actually think they'll get into bidding wars for Hunter in the 5 year, 65 million range? "Fathom, Kenny Williams here. Stay out of White Sox business."

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 25, 2007 -> 04:19 PM) Personally, I think all this talk about being spenders this offseason is bulls***. They'll act like they went after people, and then b**** about the contracts being too much and bad for business. I can't wait to see who's fired next, as we know it will be another scapegoat. "Fathom, Kenny Willams here. What you have to understand is that the market will correct itself at some point. In the meantime, we've locked up some fine power arms who looked great in Mexico this winter."

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 11, 2007 -> 12:13 AM) I guess I was the only one who didn't care for Rooney. His voice wasn't pleasing to my ear. Nope, you're not. I wasn't a Rooney guy either. Sounded like a guy who'd taken too many announcer classes. Farmer I like even less. Sounds like a guy who needs some announcer classes. Eh, call me Goldilocks, I guess. (This one's toooo hot; this one's tooooo cold. But I bet the next Sox announcer will be juuuuust right. Probably that guy from Access Hollywood.)

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Aug 3, 2007 -> 11:02 AM) Does anyone here still go on WSI ? I'm just curious if the posters there are still defending Erstad ? And, the bullpen ? It won't be Erstad they'll be defending. It will be the all-knowing "KW." And if you don't toe the line, you're a troll.

QUOTE(Yossarian @ Aug 1, 2007 -> 02:04 PM) Come on people. Floyd's had his chances and more. He's awful. He has no stuff, it's almost cruel to send him out there anymore. You know Danks hasn't been all that great this year, but if you want to extend some chances, then he's the guy. Danks doesn't back down when things get rough. I say work with young pitchers like Danks, who have some moxie. Floyd melts like a campfire marshmellow. I've seen enough of him. He's a bust. Most prospects don't pan out, and baseball is a very hard game. I wish Gavin Floyd all the success in the world in the game of life. Floyd aims his pitches. And he's bad.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 8, 2007 -> 12:00 AM) For someone who "is sorry that negotiations" became public, KW sure does get quoted a lot about it. Considering that he probably leaked the initial information about the Red Sox, Williams has no place to complain.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 7, 2007 -> 12:32 PM) The living on the outside of the plate I think is what allowed the Twins to jack him so much. AJ and Coop, seem to get into a pattern every so often when they call away away away, especailly with young pitchers to pitch away from Contact. When you have power hitters like this, I would like to see Floyd back the hitter off the plate a bit, then crack the curve off. This is the same thing we see with Buerhle from time to time. Buerhle is very effective pitching in, when he runs his cutter in he dominates. When he and AJ get into a pitch away from contact away away away mode, he gets rocked. Now Buerhle is in a different world compared to Floyd, but young pitchers like Floyd, like Danks need to pound in, and then go away with their secondaries. When you pitch to one zone, you give the hitter the advantage and you allow them to extend their hands and swing free and without fear. Seemed like Floyd did work inside against the righties, particularly Cuddyer. In fact, the 1st inning walk that set up Morneau's first homer was on a series of pitches up and in. Maybe he got gun-shy with pitching inside after that walk, I don't know.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jul 6, 2007 -> 11:39 PM) The competition level in the International League is brutal. There's a reason Timo is one of the top hitters in it. And I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere else, but Masset has allowed 51 base runners in his last 17 innings in relief. Besides for two games with the Sox, he might be the worst pitcher I've ever seen stay on the team for 81 games. But man, you should have seen him in the Mexican League.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 28, 2007 -> 12:33 AM) Look who is number 1. We got a steal for the Garcia trade. Loved this story in the article: The low point of the Phils’ 95-loss 1996 season was when lefty Rafael Quirico was called up from Triple-A to make his major-league debut in Game 1 of a June 25 doubleheader in Cincinnati. When Quirico’s first pitch came in at about 82 mph, manager Jim Fregosi looked to pitching coach Johnny Podres and said, “Changeup?” Podres shook his head no and said, “Fastball.” Quirico never made it out of the first inning, as he retired two batters and gave up seven runs on four hits, five walks and a balk. Fregosi was steaming after the game that the Phillies forced him to pitch this kid. Quirico never pitched another game in the majors.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) I would give the money/years to Buehrle. However, I think it's hard for KW to judge things right now because he has no clue how much payroll he'll free up with the trades. If we do lose these guys, expect us to be in the running for Zambrano as a way to make it look like we're not slashing our payroll/rebuilding. Yes, as long as "in the running" means making a phone call, finding out Zambrano wants a contract of at least 5 years, and that at least 4 other teams are willing to give it to him. Then we'll be "out of the running."

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 25, 2007 -> 03:43 PM) Nope, and with that in mind, I believe Buerhle's agent thinks he can get him a 7 year deal. Something that no one is talking about is that if the Sox don't bring back Buehrle and create more salary space by getting rid of Contreras and/or Garland, they could very well be players for Zambrano this offseason. Fathom, would you pay Zambrano more and/or give more years than Buehrle? Just curious what you think. I wouldn't -- better stuff, but too unstable, and I think he's prone to injury.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Jun 25, 2007 -> 03:05 PM) Now you are saying 2 different things. Unrealistic expectations of players or situations were addressed. No one said Erstad cured all ills. They were asking him to play solid defense and be better offensively than Anderson. Pods has been hurt every season with the White Sox but before that he was very healthy. Competently? Describe good. Good = playoffs? If good = playoffs then most GMs would be fired under the same standards you put on KW. 4 teams make the playoffs every year. The Yanks are usually always one of them - that leaves 3 others. That is a pretty high standard. The only AL Central Division team to win the World Series since 1991. I agree, but before the season you didn't know what you had in Fields. Crede also had this back issue last season and had his best season ever. If you actually thought you were going to contend this year then sticking with Crede was the right thing to do. To me, it all comes back to Williams being a big baby about the market for pitching. He got upset (and contemptuous of other GM's) for the money being paid last winter, so he turned around and traded Garcia and McCarthy for young, "locked up" pitching. Fine. But the minute he relinquished those assets, Garcia and McCarthy, for pitching -- and not POSITION PLAYERS -- he was effectively putting his head in the sand about LF, SS and CF. So we get Pods back, Uribe back and Erstad. Now, come on -- a lineup with Crede, Thome, Pods and Erstad is a lineup that is going to be injury-prone. And you're going to need quite a bit of luck to contend with that spectre of injuries hanging around. By the way, I had absolutely no problem holding onto Crede or non-tendering Ordonez. I thought those were understandable moves, and I believe Rogers is wrong on those two counts.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 06:12 PM) The hold up is probably this trade becoming a three way. KW must be insisting on Jon Adkins being part of this deal. Third team is probably Charlotte -- trying to acquire Gavin Floyd again.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 06:06 PM) He's not very rated at all. He's seen as a lazy POS who has the tools to be a perrenial all-star but will never be one. I'd still be willing to take him off their hands as a throw in though. He's the kind of guy we should be getting away from -- feast or famine, bad fundamentals.

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 05:55 PM) I think Ellsbury is definitely someone they'll trade, as they can afford to go get one of the FA CF's this offseason. Pitching is important, of course. But if Buerhle is traded and Williams only gets more pitching prospects -- presumably because he's a baby about the pitching market and these prospects are "locked up" for years -- I will not be a happy man. This team sorely needs position players. And, yes, I've regretfully concluded that Gustavo Molina and Andy Gonzalez are not impact position players.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 24, 2007 -> 05:50 PM) Sorry for not wanting to read through 12 pages, but what contract agreement rumor? Greg Walker has agreed to a 50-year extension.