Capn12

Yep. He struggled mightily offensively as most any rookie thrown into a starting job would do. BUT, what didn't change one bit, was that he was one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball, period. That didn't change one bit. I'm ready to hush about it honestly too, until its confirmed that BA is going to Charlotte and we're going with the Prancer/Grinder 1-2 'punch' that all of Soxtalk will learn to loathe.

Not gonna even comment on the BA venom you enjoy spewing, but tell me again, who is gonna play CF when Captain Courageous, Darrin Erstad needs a day off? Mack was thrown into a CF fire by Oz because of a lack of confidence in BA hitting righties, something he did no worse than hitting lefties. And despite the fact that everyone and their mother knew that Mack shoulda been spelling Prancer in LF instead of BA in CF, Oz kept trotting him out there, because 'thats what was best for the kid'.

No, we just want the better Centerfielder to actually....get a realistic shot at winning the job, something he isn't getting and wont get, because he isn't grinder material apparently. I guess by getting a legitimate jump on flyballs, moving fluidly and efficently out in the field, those aren't grinder type qualities like Pods has. Can't believe after 1 season, a guy can qualify as 'sucks' despite the fact he had the 3rd best RF of ALL MLB OUTFIELDERS in his ROOKIE season. Makes sense to me.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 21, 2007 -> 02:36 AM) My prefered lineup: 1. Erstad LF 2. Iguchi 2B 3. Thome DH 4. Konerko 1B 5. Dye RF 6. Pierzynski C (Hall vs. lefties) 7. Crede 3B 8. Uribe SS 9. Anderson CF Too bad that will NEVER happen. Precisely the lineup I want to see. Too bad it makes too much logistical sense, so we aren't going to see it.

15 errors in 4 full seasons with the BrewCrew. About a 2.60 RF over that time, compared to Pods 2.15 RF and 11 errors over the last 2 seasons with us(BTW BA has a 2.87 RF, and 2 errors last year. Thats an impressive RF, and was only behind Joey Gathright and Corey Patterson in all of MLB).

I'm not sure there are many of us that are writing off '07 already. There are some of us, I think my co-conspirators include Kalapse and fathom, have absolutely no use for Pods. Thats just the simple truth. I've been the biggest Pods basher since hes been here. I think he is a no bunting, getting on base hack with average speed that relies on great reads to steal bases. I think he can't play a lick of defense, can't throw, and only makes most running catches in LF because he plays EVERY SINGLE HITTER on the warning track. As for Erstad, well I don't mind him being here one bit, hell I'm pretty happy with the signing. BUT, he has no business taking 500 ABs in CF away from a true CFer with better range and a helluva lot more fluid approach to fielding. Erstad and Pods should be used to sort out LF, not to take away playing time from the kid that deserves to play CF. Put Erstad in there to spell BA, share some ABs with Prancer, and I'm happy with our lineup. We have IMO a helluva bench. A quality backup catcher, the best superutility guy in Mack, Pablo who will do anything that is asked of him, Cintron is a player off the bench. I LOVE our bench, I just think that Erstad or Pods should be there with those guys. Our starting rotation...not so sure about it right now. If Buehrle bounces back with 15 wins, I'll consider it a successful year for him. Javy, I have a strange feeling will really have a nice year. Contreras, all the guy does is go out there, eat innings, and most of the time, give us a chance to win. Garland has come into his own, despite a pretty s***ty WHIP at times. Danks/Floyd....well, I'll be happy with whoever wins the job if they put us in a position to win, thats about all I can hope for. The pen, if we go with what IMO is the best combination:Jenks, MacDougal, Thornton, Masset, Logan, Haegar. I think that pen has some very hight potential(yes, the most dangerous word in sports). I don't see any crucification here for this team, just genuine concern over our managers hypocritical talk and the backend of the rotation, plus the potential batting order vs. lefties.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 20, 2007 -> 02:13 AM) It just looks ridiculous on paper. LF - Podsednik - L CF - Erstad - L DH - Thome - L 1B - Konerko - R RF - Dye - R C - Pierzynski - L 3B - Crede - R 2B - Iguchi - R SS - Uribe - R How can Ozzie in conscience write out that lineup before every game? It's just looks terrible. And by age: LF - 32 CF - 33 DH - 36 1B - 31 RF - 33 C - 30 3B - 29 2B - 32 SS - 27 AVG OF = 32.67 yo AVG IF = 30.60 yo LINEUP = 31.44 yo But thats ok, because in 2007 we are "Back to the grind!!"

If Clemson keeps rolling, it will be possible for the state of South Carolina to have back to back to back NIT champions!! Now thats an accomplishment few states can claim. Hope you can sense the sarcasm, I'm laying it on pretty thick. Us South Carolina fans want a change, and our AD refuses to think anything is wrong with keeping Dave "Snoozefest Offense" Odom. Marshall has been talked about as our coach for 3+ years, but we don't need him, we have Dave Odom!!!

With Hawk there, its kinda like DJ knows his role isn't to do much other than be comic relief between stories of Carl Yazstremski, Hawk's golf scores, and Hawkisms. When he gets to take the lead role, he did a real good job working Singleton into the conversation with references to both of their careers, Singleton's experiences in the minors with the coaching staffs, etc.

UNC got worked over this past weekend...surprised the BACCseball America poll didn't find a way to keep them #1, that poll is a joke sometimes. And yes, this is coming from a South Carolina fan that thought they deserved to leapfrop UNC a couple weeks ago.

So how many times this year will we see: Pods gets a leadoff single/K's/Ground Out Pods CS Erstad PO Thome BB

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Mar 20, 2007 -> 01:38 AM) I'm enjoying DJ and Singleton together. Just saying. I can't lie, it was sort of....refreshing?....to hear someone there besides Hawk for once. I know thats sacreligious and all, but DJ doing play-by-play gives him something to do, and having 2 players from our era up there talking baseball really made me feel alot more at home with the info being discussed.

I prefer: CP: Jenks SU: Thornton SU: MacDougal MR: Logan MR: Masset LR: Haegar But thats not going to happen. We're gonna have Bobby "Gascan" Howry 2.0 with Aardsma or Sisco.

I really don't understand why Oz is talking out of both sides of his ass on this issue. "Whoever plays CF for us is going to EARN it!!" "Erstad will get his at-bats, and I will try to play him as an everyday player." See Kalapse's numbers for both so far this spring. So basically its a case of Erstad "earning" the CF job, despite none of his numbers backing that up statistically. Makes sense to me!!

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 10:46 PM) He had a bad first few games, but I have been impressed with him the past two outings. Usually ST numbers are inflated anyway, and the best way to judge a player is by progression not stats. Oh, and that homer he gave up was to the almighty Ross Gload, who doesn't Ross Gload hit homers off of? I can't wait for us to be Ross Gload's b**** all year, and you KNOW its going to happen, he will have the big hits against us at some point.

QUOTE(Reddy @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 08:31 PM) i agree with you man, what has erstad done except GRIND to show that he belongs in our CF over Anderson? NOTHING. For the love of God anderson finally looks like he's pulling his s*** together and we send him to AAA? wow... i'm just hoping Erstad goes down early and hard. How sad is that? While I don't want anyone going down, and will cheer for whoever we put out there, I'd rather Erstad slide over to LF if anything, let Pods be the sunflower seed fetcher until we need a late inning pinch runner.

QUOTE(Craig Grebeck @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 07:38 PM) You must be joking. I don't even know how to respond. Forget hitting it hard/deep BA! Hit to the right side. I'm 87% sure he was being sarcastic...at least I hope...

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 06:33 PM) there are two definitions of a AAAA player a player that is too good to pitch in AAA but not good enough yet to pitch in the majors or a player that is and will probably never be successful in the major leagues and is continually going back to the minors how does that first definition not apply to danks at this point, and how does the latter not apply to floyd? so 108 innings in the major leagues is suddenly not enough to judge a player? Fine. Is 151 enough? I wonder why so many people on this website have formed extremely solid opinions of brandon mccarthy one way or the other... I also believe that our lack of a solid fifth starter is going to kill us this season, not because of a fifth starter, because if any one of our top four go down we are due for a 5-15 stretch with some extremely long bullpen outings. I'm just amazed that a guy who fails to get his ERA very much below 7.00 in the NL facing a pitcher every nine batters in a weak division and a weak league...that because we traded for him all of a sudden Kenny "must've seen something we didn't know" everything about his stats thus far is terrible. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I just can't see him being very successful moving from one of the worst divisions in the NL to the toughest division in the AL I'm much more optimistic on Danks, but for 2008, not 2007. So a 21 year old lefty with barely 2 years of organized minor league baseball experience is already an AAAA player? Wow, you already can see things better than our scouting then.

Its like Oz and crew are trying to disprove all baseball logic by putting 3 lefties in a row, the first 2 which have absolutely s*** OBP numbers.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 06:35 PM) No, Erstad's 3 k's today are not included. He's now at 10 k's, hitting .275, with an OBP of .301. Clearly #2 hitter material there. Like Gooch and his 350+ OBP should hit 2nd, yeah right!!

Those will absolutely FLY out of Knights Stadium, BA!! Our current CFer shoulda watched what our desired CFer did in his AB.

I had Texas over UNC in the East, so I lost both of my East Elite 8 Teams, but have the rest of the field still.

I think Haegar could do wonders in this pen, with all the hard throwing guys we have...would be a great compliment if he isn't going to get a fair shake at the 5th starter spot, which we all know he isnt.

Texas is working on really blowing my bracket up. I put alot of stock in the young talent, but USC is really putting it to them =/

Even though it has nothing to do with todays game.. Mark Buehrle is god awful in MLB 07: The Show =/