Dick Allen

Can't say Thornton s*** the bed in a save situation. He just s*** the bed.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:35 PM) Thornton's in now? Holy cow, this continues to make Ventura's decision look even worse. The Sox are either going to tie it in the bottom of the 9th or win or lose. There isn't a save situation to be had for the home team tonight. Might as well use your closer to keep it as close as possible.

That looked a lot different in slow motion. He might have been out.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:33 PM) Can't believe AJ swung at that pitch He's been trying to hit the ball with a little more authority this season. I think he was looking to take the lead there.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:27 PM) Except a healthy Heyward is worth much more to an offense than Beckham, Morel and Viciedo combined. Actually Heyward isn't healthy right now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:24 PM) I am glad to see your dropped the earlier charade of not comparing Cooper and Walker. I've really never compared them as coaches, just how people react. If Sox hitters sucked, it ALWAYS was Walker's fault. If Sox pitchers suck, it NEVER was Cooper's fault. In the years they both coached full seasons, the pitching ranked higher than the offense in the AL the same amount of times the offense ranked higher than the pitching.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:24 PM) I am glad to see your dropped the earlier charade of not comparing Cooper and Walker. You have to admit, 13 runs against a team starting Roy Halladay is pretty impressive. What a coach.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:21 PM) 8, but go ahead and keep rolling. 8 against Halladay, 5 off the bullpen. He keeps this up, he'll be the next Rudy Jaramillo.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:20 PM) Thornton has to be out, you don't use Reed here against a LHB in this situation. He's not out, he's the closer and Santiago isn't coming in when the game is this tight.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:18 PM) Greg Walker should be in the position coaches Hall of Fame in Galesburg, Illinois. Especially because they're putting up those numbers against the vaunted Phillies, give him a gold watch. Yeah, scoring now 13 runs against Roy Halladay is nothing. But credit Don Cooper for Phil Humber's perfect game against those hard hitting Mariners.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:17 PM) "Lift and pull! Lift and pull!" must work in the NL. It's the only three words Walker knows. That's right. 3 words is all he knows, but he know them well and the Braves are an offensive juggernaut.

Greg Walker has the Braves with a 12 spot against Halladay tonight. Great coach.

Robin is playing with fire every time Ohman is on the mound.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:13 PM) In a tie game leading off the 7th with a new reliever I may give the 3-0 and 3-1 take to Morel and Beckham. Everyone else can swing away on 3-1. Especially with who was on the mound.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:07 PM) I wouldn't be surprised if he had the 3-0 take and the 3-1 take. If I were Ventura I would have had him take both. As Wimpy used to say, take 2 they're small. Hawk has been using a Wimpy line lately when the opponent hits a flyball he'll sometimes say we have a man there.

QUOTE (Baron @ May 2, 2012 -> 09:01 PM) Good AB by Gordon. Morel's last at bat looked like me batting. He did have a hit earlier tonight, but he has looked real bad too many times this year. Making outs is one thing, not having a chance is another. This one though is a sidewinder, and they can make batters look real silly.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ May 2, 2012 -> 08:58 PM) Would rather see Ohman more than anyone besides Thornton and Reed tonight against this particular line-up. Thornton-Santiago or Reed-Thornton to finish this thing? Santiago is another guy that can't be trusted with anything less than a 3 run lead. His entire existence on a major league roster is entirely placed on spring training games.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ May 2, 2012 -> 08:54 PM) No reason Ohman shouldn't pitch effectively tonight against a left-handed heavy line-up. Perfect game for him to see some meaningful innings. If the Sox were playing Simeon, I'd be nervous if Ohman came in.

Damon's a DH at this point. Its a 3 inning game. He has maybe one AB left in regulation and can kill you in LF. Removing him is managerial genius.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 08:41 PM) That guy always reminds me of the actor Michael Rapaport. Would anyone take a 4.68 ERA on the season for Humber and be contented with that? Probably better than the average for a 5th in the AL by a wide margin, or even comparable to a 4th for some teams. Lowering expectations? I thought Cooper works miracles.

One thing I don't understand about Cowley getting the intern fired, (I do think the kid deserved his fate) but if this wrestling heel persona is what Cowley was using, wasn't his goal pissing people off and getting the exact reaction the kid gave him? Maybe there is some good in this. Perhaps Cowley will take his job seriously and become a respected writer. If the twitter being taken away is a temporary thing, I don't think it will happen, but if he's off the twitter, he has a chance. If Cowley returns to tweeting, he'll either get fired, or get another final warning.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 2, 2012 -> 03:16 PM) The plan is for Dunn to play more 1B, but this is because of PKs stiff neck the last few days. As Wanne would say, he has a neck. He has a foot. He'll be fine.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 12:58 PM) No, you're the one who came out after the recent losing streak and called out Manto, seeming to celebrate Walker (or called out Walker and compared the Braves with the Sox, or vice-versa). So the point of all that gloating was what? But way to deflect by accusing me of drinking, that sure supports good debate here. Well, I guess enough of us rose to nip at your bait to make it worth it, lol. Maybe I actually need to start drinking...this repeated argument loop/deja vu feeling will never go way!! As I explained, I was just playing with you about the fire Manto, just like I play when I say fire Cooper, which I will post again if Humber gets lit up like his last outing. I'm just mimicking the posters who would say fire Walker after every failed AB. I wasn't even aware of Atlanta's turnaround offensively until it was posted here. But if you're giving pitching coaches credit for perfect games, you should give a hitting coach credit for an NL leader in runs scored. People made Greg Walker out to be an incompetent idiot who knew nothing about hitting. Those people know nothing about Greg Walker. It is pretty sad how this site's expectations have fallen. Jim Thome was hated by many, remember the all or nothing, the Sox have to get rid of him and his .933 OPS. Now people are happy with Adam Dunn and his .864 OPS striking out 35 times in 81 AB, striking out in 23 straight games to start the season, and they are paying him a heck of a lot more than they paid Thome.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 12:41 PM) If Don Cooper would have been "poached" by another team this off-season (let's say, by the NY Yankees), there would have been a thread bemoaning it and worrying 5X longer than the current Cowley thread. Nobody would have been celebrating it or saying "finally!" If you want to believe I'm the only one who has ever compared their accomplishments, that's cool. Everyone would have been MORE upset with Ozzie and blaming him for Cooper's departure, etc. How many times do we see "Coop will fix 'em" or "In Coop We Trust" or Don Cooper is the best or one of THE best or one of the top 3-5 pitching coaches, etc., in MLB? Have we ever seen that about Walker? Well, because he found a job, he's great. So did Juan Pierre and Omar Vizquel. Jeff Cox must be bad too, right? Are you drinking? This isn't about Cooper, this is about Atlanta at least until this point, turning their offense around. You give Cooper credit for every Sox success story, you should give Walker credit for Atlanta's improved offense, not making excuses as to why it has nothing to do with Greg Walker. Currently you are the only one making a Walker vs. Cooper argument.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 2, 2012 -> 12:19 PM) Dick, Dick, Dick... It's not EITHER/OR as you always say. Comparatively, Cooper has been a better pitching coach than Walker a better hitting coach. And you will never admit or agree to that basic tenet of Sox baseball since 2003, which is an idea that 98% of the posters here would probably also agree with. Last time, I gave the examples of Konerko, Lillibridge and Carlos Quentin. We can argue this on a day-by-day basis, too. We can say Cubans always start out slow and/or Alexei Ramirez is getting old or his real age is much older than the "official" age, etc. Or that last night was the culmination of months of work for Gordon Beckham and he's going to go on a 2009-ish tear that will have everyone wondering "where did that Beckham do?" for all that time? And then you can respond with some anecdote about something Gordon's father or UGA coach or whatever worked with him over this past off-season...anything to not admit Manto might have had a positive effect on him, lol. Most here would agree things just weren't working or had gotten a bit stale here with the Sox...whereas the White Sox pitching numbers have been up there with any team in the league. Then you'll say that's expected because of Peavy's salary, or Danks' salary, it will go back and forth forever, lol. People forget Beckham put up an .877 OPS the second half of 2010 before breaking a hand. He hasn't been awful since 2009. He was bad last year but maybe he wasn't really over his injury and things spiraled. He was bad the first half of 2010 and bad the first 22 games of this season, but he'll be just fine. The only one really comparing Walker and Cooper is you. I just would like you, instead of trying to make excuses how the Braves improvement can't have anything to do with Walker, to admit, if the same thing happened with the Sox, you would say Manto is apparently doing a good job.