iamshack

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 04:08 PM) You have to have some faith in your closer. If you take him out right there, it hurts his psyche and hurts the club's psyche and even if you win, it may be detrimental to the team overall. Putting Thornton in right there would have been micro-managing, and it's something Manuel would have done. No matter the statistics you can throw out about a situation like that, these athletes are still human and their confidence within their abilities will fluctuate depending on what you do. If it's a computer simulation, I bring Thornton in to get that final out, but it's not and leaving Jenks in to win it or lose it was the right move. Standings and records are really irrelevant until Memorial Day, and even at that point you still have like 2/3 of the season to make up ground. People freaking out because the Sox looked like terrible and were 5-11 are just on the early season roller coaster that happens every year. Had the Sox started out 11-5 rather than 5-11, people would be looking at moves to give the team that extra edge, when really, a bad week and half puts you back under .500. As is, a good week and a half puts the Sox back over .500. Baseball is a marathon, and should be treated as such. Yeah, Blake, I'll agree with you about 95% of the time there, and even still, I may be wrong here this 5% of the time. Had we been 11-7 and really playing well, with Bobby struggling, I would have said leave him in. But at 7-11, and needing this win to get some momentum going, I make the move. The overall health of the group is more important to me than that of Bobby right now. But it's certainly something reasonable minds can disagree about, considering the percentages were probably pretty similar here. As for the season as a whole, absolutely. We're not even 20 games into the season. Baseball is a marathon, but you have to break it into manageable sections to keep your sanity. This section kind of sucked, but we've got 7 sections left to go. Let's get better.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) 8-11 That looks infinitely better than 5-11. Well this is the way I was looking at it Friday night...the Mariners came to town 9-7, probably feeling pretty good about themselves. We were 5-11 and really down in the dumps - hadn't even won a series yet despite a few first game of the series wins to our credit. The Mariners leave town now just a few days later and they're 1 game ahead of us in the standings. Do we all see how quickly things can change now?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 04:26 PM) So long as Jenks kept the fastball up, Griffey didn't stand a chance. Griffey's bat speed is waaaay to slow anymore to catch up with mid to high 90s heat period, and getting it up leaves him hopeless. Leaving Jenks in for that really isn't that questionable of a move. Yeah, you're right...the chances of Griffey getting the job done there were probably in the 5-10% range. But when we're trying to get some momentum going and stay away from getting buried, I would have brought in Thornton. The chances of Griffey getting the job done against Matt were probably 0-3%.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 12:52 PM) That wasn't luck, that was just a move that took an incredible amount of guts to make. Rios was a guy coming off of a bad year where he was making a boat-load of money and the White Sox made a tactical move to get him, it's not like they stumbled across him on the streets. That was sarcasm poking at DA, who still claims KW was trying to block Detroit...

Here's for another great start, Johnny!

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 03:32 AM) The stat was that it was the first time we had 2 straight games with walk of HRs at US Cellular Field, and the first time since like 1967. Did we have 2 HR off Nathan in like 2008 or something? I thought we did last year in the last game at the Metrodome, but I could be mistaken.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 01:00 AM) Guys, Sox are on pace to hit 343.5 (Alexei's robbed double?) this year. And we think this is a bad offense. Huh?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 12:41 AM) Watch him start blowing up like he did in 07. Well, he seemed to turn the corner for the most part last year, but he did give up that homer to Thames right about this time in April in 07' for us...

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 25, 2010 -> 12:08 AM) $232 I think. Closed at $270 on Friday, it really took off once the iPad sales started rolling in. Using mine as we type...

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 11:19 PM) Yeah, I didn't think it was going to skyrocket so fast, if I sold now I'd already make like $200 on just a handful of shares and I don't even know if I've had it a full month yet. I was thinking I was going to buy it and hold it for several months and it'd be a steady climb. I think there is still some fuel left on this train though. What did you buy it at, Keith?

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 08:57 PM) OMG. I smell a future wallpaper idea. Just don't infringe on GQ's trademark...

Really starting to feel good about this offense...need Q and G to start hitting, but I don't think we could be asking for a lot more out of the newer guys than what they've given us. I think we're going to be just fine eventually.

People don't usually put nicotine patches on their necks...and I don't think there would be other players wearing them for fun...

Wow, Jeremy...I don't know if you finished reading that article you posted, but at the very bottom it said Andruw Jones has already negotiated a deal without Boras - the one he negotiated with the Braves in 2002...

Yeah, I didn't get to watch the game as I was stuck with the stupid Angels/Yankees game on Fox and it was therefore not on my Extra Innings package. I see now it was mentioned in the game thread. Sorry for the redundancy...

Sorry if this has already been posted...not sure...but I guess several of our guys were wearing those bandaids today? My brother told me about it but I admittedly haven't looked elsewhere for this...

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 06:02 PM) I'll agree that I don't see much of the "Ozzie Ball" that I thought we'd see. Guys stealing on 3-2 counts running on more or less contact plays resulting in CS, not too many hit and runs, runners on 3rd and 1st, and not stealing 2B (especially with 2 out to not have the force-out) to avoid the double play, etc.. I'll say this though, I could care less about Guillen's preference to steals than home runs, the long ball is what is winning us these games. I think we'll see more of it when we prove we can actually get on base at a higher clip. Hard to put too much in play when you only get one baserunner every three innings...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) Regardless of what Ozzie said in January, home runs are better than stolen bases. How about Kenny lucking into that pickup of today's hero?

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 05:55 PM) This will go almost entirely unnoticed and unmentioned, but Rios' swing was changed entirely by Greg Walker. Then...? I think Rios was a pretty good player at times before he got here...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 05:45 PM) EAT s*** JPHAT!!!! I take particular pleasure in this one...

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 05:30 PM) I mean, did anyone really think we were going to win this game anyways? I didn't. Well good thing you're here to bring the rest of us down...

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 10:17 AM) I don't know if its because I'm using bands or what, but my arms are not nearly as sore as I expected them to be the day after Shoulders & Arms. My arms aren't dead after the workout, but I don't feel like I could do the next higher band on any of the exercises yet. Am I doing something wrong? You might want to do more reps. When I used the bands I often did 30 reps on many of the pull-up exercises. The other suggestion is to hold the rep longer, I believe Tony refers to it as an "isometric" hold.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 02:14 PM) Yeah, he's going to have too. Why? Because Kotsay and Vizquel are in the lineup. It's a roundabout way of looking at things but it's true. We're forcing our pitchers to compensate for the s***ty lineups we have playing behind them. I understand that, but you've got to look at things from Ozzie's point of view and from more of a distance at times. Is this our optimum lineup? No. Do we want Rios AND Beckham sitting out much in the same game? No. But putting our optimum lineup out there hasn't resulted in runs plenty of times this season, and Ozzie has got to manage this entire ballclub and keep them ready and interested. Sitting the same 3 or 4 guys every game does not accomplish that. We're going to have to prove at some point that this team can win based on it's strength - the starting pitching - and Jake Peavy needs to start earning his paycheck and prove he can shutdown an opposing lineup entirely.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 01:56 PM) Ugh, things were rolling along until that 2 out home run. Like you said, the season went downhill from there. With all this being said, seeing a lineup like today's just magnifies how bad we are right now. Not that I want to parrot Ranger here, but I have a feeling tonight's game is not going to come down to Kotsay and Vizquel, but instead, whether or not Peavy can get it done again.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2010 -> 12:43 PM) Let's wait a whole year before we claim this bullpen is better. That bullpen was amazing during the first half of the year with Linebrink being untouchable. The same goes for 07'. I remember they basically were untouchable until Aardsma gave up that homer to Thames in the 3rd game of the series in Detroit, when we were going for the sweep. After that, it was all downhill. Our bullpens tend to start getting touched up once the weather starts warming.