BearSox

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 27, 2010 -> 04:36 PM) Not sure what other lineup you want out there tonight. Oh, you got me wrong. I understand thats probably the best possible lineup we could probably put out. But even the best lineup we can put out there is awful. I keep expecting and hoping to see some legit hitters in the lineup for some reason, knowing that it ain't happening. Our lineup is basically a glorified AAA team with Rios and Konerko.

I think Ozzie is fantastic to "his guys", but Ozzie is clearly one to play favorites, and once you get into his dog house (and you can get in there for any reason), it's practically impossible to get out.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 27, 2010 -> 01:10 PM) No kidding, especially with Gio becoming a strong starting pitcher. I really hope DLS doesn't come up soon and just dominate as a set up man. I should be wishing for him to have success, but if he just tears the league up (which is a legit possibility if his arm is healthy), I might have to jump out of a window. Hell, seeing Ely dominate is making me sick too considering we got garbage in LF. I said before, I don't think Ely will ever be anything to write home about, but his combination of a great change and fantastic command could lead him to being a very solid starter in baseball for a while. Plus, it would have been nice if he could have made his major league debut with us, that would be a great story. Local kid who despises the cubs makes debut with team he grew up idolizing. I wouldn't be made if we got something decent in return, but we got s***.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 27, 2010 -> 03:48 PM) Letter high strikes haven't been around for a long ass time and there's a good reason for that. It totally screws left handed hitters. Ha, GMAFB. Do lefties usually have more uppercut swings than righties? Seems like that. But if you ever studied Ted Williams, you'd know that a slight uppercut is a necessary thing in every swing. When a pitcher throws the ball, the ball is coming down at a slight angle, because of the mound height. The ball never comes in on a flat plan and if it did, it would be way high, out of the zone. To counter the ball coming down at an angle, you have to swing with a slight uppercut if you want a shot at truly hitting the ball on the sweet spot of the bat. Even the high fastball comes down at an angle. And, while lefties love the ball low and inside... a lot of hitters do. And while some lefties struggle to catch up to a high fastball, and lot of righties struggle with the same pitch. But according to you, calling the high strike is a bad thing cause it screws lefties? Ha. Yep, it sure did screw Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, etc, etc, etc... Any good major league hitter should be able to have the bat speed to catch up a letter high fastball. Just cause lefties have an uppercut swing doesn't mean they are screwed vs. the high fastball. Hell, I'm a lefty and when I still played, I loved the letter high fastball probably more than the low and inside fastball. If anything, the MLB is screwing pitchers by taking away a part of the plate, making the strike zone even smaller for them. Also, as far as the strike zone is concerned, now it is basically all the umpires judgment. Back in the day there used to be strict strike zone rules like the arm-pits for the high strike, then they changed it to the top of the letters, etc. Now, it really does seam like there is no set strike zone, just whatever that ump feels is the strike zone.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2010 -> 02:18 PM) Lineup for Sox Thursday - Pierre LF, Pierzynski C, Rios CF, Konerko 1B, Kotsay DH, Jones RF, Teahen 3B, Ramirez SS, Beckham 2B - No Quentin A part of me dies when I see the lineups we put out on the field everyday. Its insanity, but I keep expecting us to put out a real major league lineup when we have at the most 4 legit major league hitters right now.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 27, 2010 -> 02:32 AM) Why does my argument freak you out? I didn't see the inning, true, but I know his track record and it's been good. I said I wouldn't mind going to Thornton if Oz and Coop, etc., feel that is better. Or a closer by committee thing. But to act like Bobby is Randy or Koch just isn't right IMO. Maybe if I watched it I'd feel differently, but people are saying he's throwing 95!? 95 mph doesn't mean s*** if it's as straight as an arrow and none of your secondary pitches are effective anymore, and you can't even get them over the plate. Jenks has been beyond bad this year, and its about time he took a break and played mop up man for a little bit.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ May 27, 2010 -> 01:38 AM) Does anyone else think that Jenks also has a bit of an attitude issue. After all didn't he question the recent attempt to remove him from closer duties for a couple of save opportunities? Attitude? Maybe, it wouldn't shock me. Commitment issue? Hell yeah. It shocks me every year we hear Bobby is in the best shape of his life, etc., but every time I see him come walking out of the bullpen for the first time, I feel the earth shake a little bit and he looks as fat as ever. Besides, from everything I have read, he was the laziest SOB you'd ever seen when he was with the Angels.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 27, 2010 -> 01:57 AM) I didn't see the game but somebody said he retired the last 2 batters. Who cares about his numbers until he starts blowing saves? This message board is a tough crowd. Maybe if you saw his piss poor performance in the 9th, you'd have a different opinion Greg. But hey, he got the last two outs!!!! That must mean he's getting the job done! Hey, he's only blown 1 save, lets forget the fact he has gotten absolutely hammered out there every game he comes into pitch!!! Its arguments like yours--"he retired the last 2 batters, there is no need to worry!!!!!!!"--that make me want to pull my hair out and punt a baby accros a football field.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 27, 2010 -> 01:06 AM) Who'd want to f*** with that .729 career OPS? Admit it, Sweeney would look damn good right now patrolling LF for us and leading off. His .740 OPS this year would look damn good compared to what we put out there on a daily basis. Also, this brings up an interesting thought about Beckham's struggles. How much advice is he receiving and how much is this organization f***ing with is head right now? How come it seems like we haven't had a hitter come up with us and produce any success (with us!) in years? God damn, the last time we had any prolonged success out of one of our hitting prospects was Joe Crede or Aaron Rowand, and neither of those guys were offensive studs and took at least a couple years to finally produce a little bit. Plus, can this be attributed to Quentin and all the struggles he has had since he came back from injury? Hitting is just as much physical as it is mental, and I would not be surprised if this team f***s up young hitters' heads.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 26, 2010 -> 01:27 PM) That's really cool. It's nice that this organization is still trying to keep him involved while he recovers. Hopefully when he goes to give the card to Selig announcing the draft pick, or however the hell they do it, he makes sure Austin Wilson's name is on it.

QUOTE (GREEDY @ May 26, 2010 -> 06:55 PM) Please give it to someone that is under team control; anoint Putz the closer and if he succeeds you owe him 6-10 million for 2011. The main purpose of having Putz close is to raise his trade value.

QUOTE (T R U @ May 26, 2010 -> 08:40 PM) not really No matter how bad Pods' May has been, it's still leaps and bounds better than Pierre's April. Also, Pierre's May is still not on the level of Pod's April. It's asinine to say that Pods hasn't been the better player this year. However, I agree with others and would rather have someone outside of the two leadoff, but if I had to choose, I'd take Pods (not to mention his cheaper contract and the fact we'd still have a pretty decent pitching prospect in Ely still in the system).

On the bright side, a miserable season means a fun draft season the following year. As much as 2007 sucked for us, who wasn't all geeked up for the 2008 MLB Draft and pumped up for Gordon? (Side note, I've never been a Gordon manic like everyone else, but if he fixes a few things and gets his head straight, I still see him becoming a .300+ guy who is a doubles machine. Hopefully he stops trying to be a HR hitter and focuses on doubles and going into the gaps).

QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 26, 2010 -> 05:22 PM) Well, ideally, the team could actually get on a run and get back into it. I wish I had that optimism but when you have to put out lineups on a daily basis with Pierzynski as your no. 2 hitter and Kotsay batting 5th, there isn't room for much hope. Either way, I firmly believe this team needs to get either Prince or AG this trade season or in the offseason if we want any chance at competing soon and not wasting this pitching staff (which has vastly underperformed so far, but I still have a lot of faith in this rotation).

Give it to Putz. Hopefully he can have a good streak of a month or so and that will really raise his trade value.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 11, 2010 -> 12:27 AM) Two weeks in and did the Fit test once again yesterday which is what I first started Insanity with. Even though I had 2 very sore knees (for some reason the day off yesterday really had me feeling the soreness today) I jumped almost 20+ on each exercise (minus the last 2 cause of fatigue mostly) from then to now. Feel real proud of myself and my sis and her bf who also did very well. Cardio Circuit tomorrow and I will be eating a greasy philly cheese steak as a celebration, so I will probably struggle my ass off burning that off. The second day is always the worst.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 26, 2010 -> 03:38 PM) You know what all of those had in common? They were brand new structures. In order to build a retractable dome stadium there it would have taken a massive amount of money because of where you are and what you already had there. I was suggesting that we never renovated the stadium and built a new stadium in a different location.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 26, 2010 -> 07:18 AM) Who was going to pay the billion dollars for it? Daily always wanted to build a new stadium with a retractable roof. The "renovation" cost around 630 million dollars and cost Soldier Field it's landmark status. Much nicer stadiums have been built for less than the cost of renovations to soldier field. However, it is no doubt Daily would have wanted something like the new Cowboy Stadium which cost 1.2 billion. However, I figure if you broke ground in 2000 or 2001 and took out some of the more extravagant things, such as the massive jumbo-tron, you could have probably built the stadium for less then a billion and probably closer to the 700 million range. However, if the city wouldn't go for a stadium like that, you could have went for a stadium in the mold of Reliant Stadium. Reliant Stadium was built at the same time renovations occurred for Soldier Field and cost 352 million, significantly less than the amount it cost to renovate soldier field. Plus, Reliant Stadium is a very beautiful stadium in its own right, even if it doesn't get the recognition of the New Meadowlands Stadium, Cowboy Stadium, Lucas Oil, etc. Either way, a stadium with a retractable roof that can seat at least 70,000 would be huge for the city now. We'd be in the discussion to host the Superbowl, NCAA Final Four and Regionals, Westlemania, Fifa World Cup, etc. Events like that would bring in huge amounts of money for the city. Also, we'd be the prime location for a Big Ten football conference championship game. We could bring a bowl game to the city of Chicago. We could bring in another NFL franchise. And, although I was not a fan of the idea, our chances at hosting the 2016 Olympics would have been much improved. All of these things would be huge for the city. I really hope one day we can bring in another NFL Franchise and finally build the stadium this city needs.

QUOTE (zygoat @ May 26, 2010 -> 02:12 PM) We always have trouble with Joe West. Although it might not be Ozzies fault, the feud between Ozzie and him seem to come out every time he umps us and I don't want that to affect how our team plays. Hawk mentioned that the second balk was given mainly because of Ozzie and not Mark's move. I don't care who started the feud but we can't have that affecting our players because of Ozzie's actions. Very impressed with the bullpen (minus Jenks who I don't think will be with us much longer). Mays almost over, lets have a huge June and push ourselves into a (relatively) competitive race. No, it's not Ozzie's fault at all. Joe West is just a complete disgrace to baseball and an awful umpire. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Joe West does have money on a lot of the games he umps. Either that, or he really dislikes the White Sox, but a lot of teams have had problems with West's fat ass.

What a horrible job by Acta in the 9th. You don't open up first base so your best hitter can have the bat taken out of his hands.

Check out this major spin job by Yahoo sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-whitesox-ejections First, he dropped his glove. Second off, it'd be nice if they reported the facts and pointed out that the pickoff attempts were clearly not balks.

I'm personally a fan of Austin Wilson this year. Usually I prefer a college bat, but this year seems to be lacking big time with good, advanced college hitters. Wilson has great tools, and while he needs work on his swing, I've heard he's got a great work ethic and character to maximize his potential. I'm willing to take a shot at him. He could be that stud OF prospect we've been in need of.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ May 26, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) Nix oughta be playing second there is nothing Beckham is doing right now that Nix can not. Sending him down would be the best thing they could do as he may need to get away from Walker. I agree. Gordon is looking more and more lost every week. Send him to Charlotte and let Chambliss get some work with him.

Honestly, are we the only team in the league with a manager dumb enough to bat Pierzynski 2nd? That's just beyond ridiculous right there.

I wish we had someone who gave the hitters some good advise. The players approaches have only gotten worse so far.