iamshack

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 02:41 PM) Frankly, I have to say...ugh. Putz at closer seems to me to be just asking for a breakdown middle of next season. A closer you can't use 2 days in a row? That's as bad as a closer you can't pitch in the afternoon. This is the classic dilemma with a guy like him...he's worth a ton more long term as a starting pitcher throwing 200 innings than he is working short term in the bullpen pitching 50 innings...but the thing between him and being a #1 starter is command of all of his offspeed stuff, and he's never going to get that working 50 innings out of the pen. All he needs in the pen is to throw the fastball for a strike and to throw the curveball somewhere other than the backstop because the first and second guy to see it will still have to swing. Sale's already in the 150 innings range with his arm thanks to the cape cod league and college. If you cut him back to 50 innings next year, it'll take 2 or 3 years to get him back where he's a legit, 200 inning a year starter. After the AFL this year, he'll be right there. Unless the team thinks his arm just will never handle starting and he'll go Liriano on the team...he has to be starting in the minors next year. Give Putz a break. He's a year removed from elbow surgery. Why would you start Sale in the minors instead of just letting him turn it loose in Chicago? Limit his innings a bit and skip some starts when you can.

QUOTE (WinorDie88 @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 02:50 PM) Dude its not my fault. It's the white sox we're talking about here. Why do you watch games and why do you bother posting here if you think the team is so utterly incompetent and impending doom is always just around the corner?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 02:12 PM) Yeah...but it's the 2 hard and expensive spots. You need a Closer and a RH setup man. MAYBE, if we're lucky, Santos fills one of those roles. I'm not sure I'm convinced yet that he's our closer of the next year and beyond. If he's not...then just paying for a slightly better than Jenks closer this year is either a $5-$10 million year job...or it's a $2 million gamble on an injured or old guy like Jenks. Infante is starting to appear like a plausible option...but even then...I have very little confidence in that bullpen. It really, really needs a rock solid RHP somewhere in it. Sale absolutely needs to be in Hudson's role from this year. Somewhere in the upper minors and ready to go on short notice if/when one of the starters goes down. We don't have anyone else to do that role. Santos is your RH setup man, and you offer Putz $6-7 million to be the closer. If he turns it down, you're going to have to look to make a trade or give the job to Matt and replace him with Sale. I don't think we can afford to have Sale in Charlotte to serve some "backup/6th starter" role. This kid has too good of stuff and this team will be too maxed out financially to have a talent like that sitting "on call" in Charlotte. There will be options. No need to try and figure it all out now on the account of AJ.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 01:40 PM) If the Sox hold on to Vizquel (and barring retirement I don't see why they wouldn't)...Viciedo appears to be a legit 1b/DH option (platooning along with Teahen at worst). Konerko ought to be brought back and I think they'll figure out a way to work that out...I think the money is there now that we at least pulled back into the race legitimately...the problem is that we have so many bullpen spots to fill it's not even funny any more. That bullpen has utterly imploded. You're going to have to replace Jenks and Putz, right? We'll pick up Matt's option, bring back Sergio, Pena, Linebrink and Threets. Then you'll have Sale either in the rotation (hopefully) or out of the pen. That leaves 1 or 2 spots to fill.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 01:12 PM) Doesn't Rios still have a wrist issue or something like that? He has said that yes, that he is going to just have to play through it. But then a few weeks ago he started hitting the ball hard again for a few games, only to fall back into this pattern of hitting weak choppers to the left side. Hit that ball to the opposite field hard today though, so maybe he is starting to feel better about it.

Did Legs and Back yesterday for the first time and damn, was I sweating my ass off. That is one of the more difficult routines to pick up after you haven't done it in a while.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 22, 2010 -> 08:36 AM) Eh, you can hardly blame Cox for taking a shot there. He has one of his fastest baserunners out there, plus he knows where we are in the game, and that this could potentially end it. Its also not like we leave baserunners on base all of the time either. Because of the circumstances of the doubleheader, you really can't judge the individual plays like you normally would. For example, in a normal game, Santos most likely doesn't pitch at that stage of the game. Heck, most likely, Guillen doesn't allow Garcia to go as long as he did. At that point he was trying to save guys in a game he had a four run lead in, so that he could have his top guys for the night game. I was watching the games yesterday and I thought Ozzie did a pretty solid job with the way he managed the pitching staff, all things considered. Tough to blame him with what happened in the first game, considering Freddy was cruising and only needed one more out. If we yank him after the first single there, and all hell breaks loose, Ozzie gets blamed for pulling Freddy early. Maybe he should have pulled him after the second single. I guess that is the biggest fault you can place on him there. Then after the third single, he brings in Santos, who had only given up I believe 1 home run all season to that point. The Cox-Lillibridge gaffe should be blamed equally on the two of them. Lillibridge must not have picked up the ball well as he was running on the play, and then Cox didn't take that into account and hold him up. I normally like forcing the other team to throw you out in that situation, but given that we needed not only a bad throw, but basically a throw to get past the catcher in order to score, with only 1 out mind you, I wish he would have held him up. Jenks seems to always give up those swinging bunts. It's as if he pitches a batter almost too good to record the out, and then he lets down and gives up the solid hit thereafter almost every time. All in all though, Ozzie is dealing with a bullpen of while almost every player has been ineffective lately. Additionally, he's got Thornton out with forearm soreness, Jenks with a gimpy back, Putz with a recent knee injury, Sale who was a draft pick this year, and Santos, who is really only in his second year of pitching professional ball, and then of course, Linebrink, who has been better of late but still not particularly great. Then he has to plan on pitching his long man, Pena, in the second game, not really knowing at all what you're going to get out of him. So I don't really know who made the decision to start the game Friday night, but whomever it was, screwed us. Then the reluctance to move Danks up to the second game and pitch Jackson in Sunday afternoon's game is a bit of head-scratcher to me. But all in all, I thought Ozzie did a pretty nice job, all things considering, but our bullpen just continued to let us down, outside of the solid start Pena gave us in game 2.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2010 -> 04:50 PM) I can't see a team thinking a player was worth essentially two games at this point of the season. I can, if those two teams had a virtual lock on two playoff spots already.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2010 -> 05:42 PM) Giving away games at this point would be suicide. Well I'm commenting more on the rules of the process than on our situation, specifically. Imagine a scenario whereby two AL East teams both wanted a player and happened to be playing a series against one another when the player was put on waivers...

Interesting thing about this is that a team could theoretically lose on purpose to improve it's claiming position over the course of two days...

This was Ozzie's speech to Bobby before the game last night:

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 11:55 PM) Nice response, I'll give you that. You are saying Ozzie blasted the clients and an employer could expect to be upset that an employee cussed out the client base, in this case the fan base. I can see your point on that. I guess if you look at it that way, yes that could be a fireable offense. I'm too tired now to come up with a counter argument, but I'll think on it. I could simply say sports are different. I do like the fact he doesn't buttkiss up to Kenny. He does a bit to Jerry, but more than anything shows elderly jerry respect. I would like to respond to the poster who said Oz should think outside the box. Was it thinking outside the box in '05 letting all those guys throw complete games? Every other manager would have brought in the closer, maybe even set up men, then closers. Oz let them finish the game and we benefited that postseason by it and won it all. Was that thinking outside the box? Damn right. No other manager would ever have let guys all throw complete games like that. We got a WS title as a result partly of his thinking outside the box. And don't say I'm living in '05. I reallize you all think that anyway. My point I feel is valid example of him thinking outside the box and it's the first one that came to my mind.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 10:38 PM) Was it cause you tried to pull a greased nail out of your behind with a pair of pliers? Mah booty is so tight...

I doubt that San Diego is going to be looking to move him after a division title either.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 09:01 PM) Is three years, 36 million the minimum PK is looking at right now? If it is, I sure hope he's not a White Sox next year.

They also have Northstar's wet dream...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 08:28 PM) Why was he still in after he looked like he tweaked something? I don't know, I was not on the mound to hear what he said. But the point is you guys are complaining that he was out there at all in a blowout. s***, if it was a tight game, you guys would have been complaining about bringing him in then too.

You guys are ridiculous. Putz has sucked ass for more than a week now and quite honestly, I don't want him in there in a tight game now. I think it was smart to try and get him an inning in a low pressure situation. You guys just want to second guess every move OG makes.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 08:19 PM) Mauer is the guy I would park one in his earhole...too late.. Now hope Putz is ok. Right in the back.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:54 PM) I want Hawk eliminated. What the f*** is wrong with this idiot? A woodpecker dies everytime this buffoon says "Don't stop now, boys!" Who are you, J4L Corleone?

QUOTE (chiguy79 @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:53 PM) I am all for this also...although I like Ozzie his antics are growing lame. Although I would like to see Cora get a shot, if you look into the dugout on big hits he is always very excited. Well s***, if those are the only qualifications, I'd like to submit my CV...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:44 PM) Hopefully this is a springboard type of game where we get back on track and hopefully Minnesota starts struggling. You know this is going to happen. Now whether or not we actually win the division, I dunno, but we will be within a few games in the last few weeks.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:40 PM) Ugh...I don't like to fly, so I might have to just manage all home games. We could just drug you like the A-Team did with BA Barrackus

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:31 PM) Can we make him player-manager? I'm not even joking. I kinda had you pegged for that role...

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 07:11 PM) Was that when Frank unloaded on him? I dunno...I've seen so many games over the years I never remember them in full....too much booze...I just remember snippets from time to time...or maybe that is my brain protecting me from all the trauma...