StrangeSox

Nice out pitch. 2 down.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 05:05 PM) I like that Oz does this with his pen though, put them right back out there after a bad outing and erase it. I'm not a big fan of Jenks being in right now but if it doesn't work out (and Ozzie pulls him before completely imploding), I won't argue it.

Grounder to short, 1 down.

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 03:57 PM) I don't need to defend... nobody has still answered my question as to what player on this team would have made this "easily catchable ball." But if you want to go ahead and insist that the defense is the problem for the worst hitting team in MLB right now, have at it. s***, I think Pods has more hits in this series than the rest of the team combined. BA or Erstad. Its implied when we say that the winning run wouldn't have been scored if Pods had been subbed out.

Just about every time I open my mouth about a Sox hitter, they make me look like a jackass. Thanks Paulie!

Konerko still doesn't look very good up there

URIBE SCORES!

QUOTE(Jimbo @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 04:52 PM) how man outs??? 1

Street can't find the zone.

Walk!

Last I saw score was 3-0, nice to see it tied up. Great job Aardsma!

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 01:14 PM) Easy fly ball LOl. Was there an error scored?? Who would have caught that ball on our team?? Anderson doesnt have the speed to catch up with that line drive, nevermind the fact that he doesnt play LF. If you thought Pablo would have caught that, to each his own, but not on a prayer. Pods at least gave himself the opportunity to make that play. We lost the game when we can't get a runnner on 3rd at home with ZERO outs. Jenks actually got lucky with that pitch, it should have been jacked into the bleachers for a walk-off. If a defensive replacement was made, Anderson would have been in CF and Erstad in LF most likely. Have you watched the video to see how poorly played that ball was? Pods closed his eyes and jumped into the wall early and then had the ball bounce off of his head. Also, someone else playing LF might have been able to start a little deeper since they would the ability to throw a ball decently. BTW, there's a difference between easily catchable and easy fly ball.

QUOTE(watchtower41 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:57 PM) Coming from all these BS posts lately, according to the posters here, we'd be undefeated and have already clinched the Central if Brian Anderson was starting and Ozzie was not our coach. More Soxtalk hyperbole! Woo! No one is saying that. We're just saying we want Guillen to put his players into the best possible position to win and that he consistently fails to do so. That easily catchable fly ball that let the winning run score bounce off of someone else's head? He's not even being used a defensive replacement. Ozzie is sitting BA either due to total lack of managerial ability or out of spite. I guess option #2 implies option #1.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:41 PM) That's what I thought after Makowiak's 50th blunder in CF last season but for some reason he was out there again and again. There's a difference between can't and won't

QUOTE(WCSox @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:36 PM) Wake me up when you find a suitable replacement for Ozzie. Given the Sox's track record with managers, I should probably fatten up before beginning my hibernation. I'm not talking about replacing Ozzie. I'm not sure where you got that. There's no reason Ozzie can't fix his decision-making process. Wake me up when you come up with a decent explanation for his terrible management last night instead of this strawman BS.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:26 PM) Sox offense, hit the f***ing ball...that is all. But its just so hard to lay off the low and away pitches! They're just begging to be pulled!

QUOTE(WCSox @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:23 PM) Yeah, the Sox should re-hire Jerry Manuel or Terry Bevington. Because, you know, ANYBODY is better than Ozzie. I love SoxTalk hyperbole. It's not easy to get a pitcher to pitch better. Its easy to explain to a manager why his decision was really stupid and why he shouldn't make it again.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:20 PM) I agree that he should've put BA in as a defensive sub. That said, Jenks and the anemic Sox offense lost that game. They are all contributing factors. The one most easily rectified is managerial decisions.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:13 PM) I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. I was referring to Game two of the World Series, in which a very similar sequence of events occurred. That's an anomaly that worked out. Otherwise, you can use that example to say that managers should never use defensive replacements because the starter *might* have a productive AB later. It was a move that should have been made.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:12 PM) Pods hit that homer in the 5th inning. It's ridiculous to say that wanting Pods replaced in the field in the 9th inning equates to wanting him replaced in the 5th. Putting in defensive replacements in the 9th inning with a lead is a pretty standard managing practice. Ozzie has done it with Konerko in the past when Gload was on the team. It's not overly criticial to suggest that Ozzie should have had his best defensive outfield out there. Sure, the loss is due to the Sox anemic offense and Jenks pithcing poorly. But it's also due to terrible managing. Getting palyers to hit or pitch better is hard. Putting a better LF out there is easy. That's why people here are annoyed -- there was a simple move to make that would have increased the chances of victory and Ozzie failed to make it. I'm sure Ozzie is a better manager than I would be, but he screwed up last night. Someone else touched on this point and I think its an excellent one. Its not easy to get a guy to get a hit or to get Jenks to throw in the upper 90's. It's very, very easy to replace a poor defender with a much better option off the bench in late innings in a close game.

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 11:57 AM) I keep staring at the Pods play. How does this happen? He wasn't even looking at the ball, was it a line drive or something? At least when the ball hit Canseco he was LOOKING at it. I have no idea what he was trying to do. I doubt he even knows what he was trying to do.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 11:59 AM) Right, and all this is REALLY easy to say right now, after the fact. I wonder what you said after Scottie hit the homer in Game two. Because if it were up to you, you would have replaced him, and who knows what might have happened. Again, the second guessing around here is a f'ing joke. To all the extreme armchair generals here, I want you to keep track, for one entire month, every move you would make in every one of our games. Type it in here, in real time, and allow us all to curse your pathetic ignorance everytime you are wrong or something doesn't happen as you thought it might. Except its usually first-guessing Ozzie's managerial mishaps. QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:02 PM) I didn't watch last night's game but it sounds like the same old story. No situational hitting and home run swings. Walker should have been replaced a long time ago. They had a man on 3rd with no outs and couldn't get him in. To be fair, the A's had the same situation.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 09:46 AM) No. And throughout this entire thread, not once have I suggested that I would have been upset had BA been subbed for defensive purposes. But unlike the tonesetters here, I refuse to blame every goddamned loss on Ozzie or Scott Podsednik. This site is filled with armchair generals who know everything. On this site, God probably got second guessed for creating deserts in the early morning hours of the 5th day ("What the hell are we supposed to do with all this.....sand?"). It's a broken record, and it's lame. In my view, players have to be held accountable once in a while, and in this instance, that player is Bobby. He needs to wrap that game up and deliver it to Cooperstown. Instead, he gives up more hits than Garland and MacDougal gave up combined in 8 innings. This loss is on Bobby, and no one else. Bobby made two pitches. One could have resulted in a play at the plate to get out the tying runner. The second should have been caught to send the game into overtime.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 09:32 AM) Nobody would care about Pods being out there in the 9th if our vaunted offense could get more than 3 hits off a no name loser. Which comes back to Ozzie not PH for any of the 3 right-handed OF's on the bench in the 7th. Bottom line is they took a lead into the bottom of the 9th. They should have been able to hold. Due to poor pitching, poor managing, and terrible defense, they could not.

There is no way that you can argue that BA's and Erstad's defense aren't substantially better than the noodle-armed sally. In a 1-0 game in late innings, you make defensive substitutions for poor-fielding OF's.