JUGGERNAUT

Your obsession with JM is getting almost as old as corgs obsession with Colon. Please get a life, thank you. You dudes are funny. The one tells me I ran away because the WOLVERINES demolished the IRISH. The other tells me to get a life because he loves reading my JM posts. God forbid if I should venture to go out once in a while. Yes, the Irish got obliterated. Right now I think MI might be the best in the nation. If I'm not mistake LA Tech was destroyed by MI 50-7. They just pulled an upset vs MI St. So just how good is MI? Manuel did a pretty good job today. Some will argue that benching Koney in favor of Dauby was a bad move, but I disagree. You want Dauby to play in BOS for good morale & Koney didn't have great #'s on Burkett. Playing Olivo is becoming a Manuel systemic blunder considering Sandy's contribution. Playing Sandy more might be just as important as the 4 man rotation.

CLE has played MIN tough this 2nd 1/2. Min vs CLE: W6-L6 3 left Min vs DET: W5-L1 7 left Magic Numbers: SOX:149GP:80W-69L = 14 MIN:149GP: 80W-69L = 14 KCR:147GP:76W-69L = 18 No blunders for Manuel this time. In a tight game to stop a 3 gm losing streak you stick with Colon. If he doesn't start Colon vs Lohse in gm 3 then I can beat him up again. Best news of the day: SOX will NOT FACE SANTANA! Gardenhire must think Pulido can not beat the Tribe. Milton starts today. Santana MON. Thank you Tribe for playing the Twinks tough to where you consume a Santan start. Prediction: The first team whose MN dips < 10, will win the div.

Well his rotation vs the Twinks looks reasonable: T E-LO vs Radke @ MIN W Garland vs Rogers @ MIN R Colon vs Lohse @ MIN That gives the SOX the best chance to win. Rogers is the weakest of the 3 so Garland should face him. F Buehrle vs KC Then comes his moment of truth & probably the single most important decision he has to make to save his job: 4 man rotation. E-LO vs KC, Garland vs KC Colon, Buehrle, E-LO vs NY Garland, Colon, Buehrle vs KC @ KC The SOX probably won't need the last win vs KC, so Wright will get the final start of the year.

CLE has played MIN tough this 2nd 1/2. Min vs CLE: W5-L6 4 left Min vs DET: W5-L1 Magic Numbers: SOX:148GP:79W-69L = 15 MIN:148GP: 79W-69L = 15 KCR:146GP:75W-69L = 19 No blunders for Manuel this time. In a tight game to stop a 3 gm losing streak you stick with Colon. If he doesn't start Colon vs Lohse in gm 3 then I can beat him up again. Best news of the day: SOX will NOT FACE SANTANA! Gardenhire must think Pulido can not beat the Tribe. Milton starts today. Santana MON. Thank you Tribe for playing the Twinks tough to where you consume a Santan start.

If KW has a brain & I believe he does then they will at least offer type A arbitration for Colon as his stats will put him in that category. So if they can't resign him they should at least get a comp pick for him. But I think you are wrong. I think the SOX will win the division & Colon will be the best starter in the post season. That alone will create tremendous pressure to keep him. Forget Milwood. PHI will break the bank to keep him.

BIG FRANK THOMAS If I'm past my 2 pick count then TONY G.

TO BE THE BEST, YOU MUST BEAT THE BEST. WIN 'EM ALL! TAKE NO PRISONERS! Send Jerry to the brig.

Redskins 49ers Steelers Titans Jets Browns Packers Saints Bills Buccaneers Cardinals Broncos Raiders Eagles Vikings Cowboys There are no bonus pts for the Bears so Meh. I'm not picking them. Give me one good reason why I should?

As a general rule of thumb, the SOX should not bring someone up or add them to the rotation unless they have dominance rating of < 2.0. I really think that should be the cutoff. Koch should not have been brought up but I understand the politics involved in attempting to get him back on track to orchestrate a trade in the offseason. It's not perfect because dominance in the mL might not translate to dominance in the ML. The number of arms that excel in the mL & fail in the ML far exceeds the number that succeed in the ML. But of those who do succeed they mostly come from the group that dominated in the mL. It's no guarantee but increases your odds. Danny Wright has Kip Wells potential. It's possible his 1.74 6.13 route could follow Wells route of 1.14 5.08. The potential is certainly there & maybe winter ball will bring it out.

Looking for a stat that will help explain the demise & resurgence of Ritchie, Koch, & Loaiza I came across : ER/fcn(K-BB). Ideally it would ER/fcn(ST-B ) but that's too much work to compute. How the fcn works: If (K-BB) < 0 then fcn = 1 This is really a measure of dominance in a pitcher. Let's see how the SOX & former SOX matchup: ...........95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 Koch n/a n/a n/a n/a 0.88 0.55 1.68 0.72 2.14 E-LO 3.3 2.23 2.31 4.08 1.65 1.26 1.51 1.96 0.44 Foulke n/a n/a 1.68 0.81 0.26 0.42 0.40 0.56 0.29 Ritchie n/a n/a 2.38 1.25 1.26 1.37 1.43 3.6 3.2 Wright n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 42 1.74 6.13 Garland n/an/a n/a n/a n/a 25 8 3.38 2.1 Buehrle n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1.33 1.04 1.30 1.98 Colon n/a n/a 2.81 1.06 1.06 0.71 0.91 0.96 0.90 K Wells n/a n/a n/a n/a 1.14 5.08 1.87 1.25 1.21 J Fogg n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0.21 2.14 2.16 Re-signing COLON is a must. Look at his dominance numbers in the past 5 yrs. In retrospect KW never should have traded for Foulke. Leading into 2003, Foulke's dominance exceeded that of Kock in every yr head to head. His 2003 season has been the most dominant to date as he is a sure bet to win the Rolaid Man of Relief award. The Ritchie trade was horrible. Ritchie had better dominance numbers than Wells but he also digressed in his numbers. Kip had a major breakthru drastically improving on his numbers. Likewise Kip's 99 #'s were better than any year of Ritchie's. The trend was that Kip would improve & Ritchie would get worse & that's exactly what happened. The next big mistake in the trade was Josh Fogg. Look at Wright's vs Foggs numbers. Grant it Fogg had limited exposure, but he showed dominance whereas Wright showed lack of control. Wright should have been traded over Fogg. Ironically, Garland has shown no greater dominance than Fogg. But Garland's improvement is the best indicator that the best is yet to come. I would imagine that this stat is a pretty good indicator for predicting mLs as well. Looking to the future: Cotts ML (12), mL (0.34) Stewart ML (17), mL (4.5) Honel mL (0.59) Cooper mL (1.09) Diaz mL (1.02) Ginter mL (0.77) Kohl mL (1.15) Majew mL (0.78) Munoz mL (0.81) Porzio mL (0.91) Rauch mL (0.97) Adkins mL (2.16) AA : Barons ( only considering candidates with 2.0 or less dominance rating) Bajenaru, Jeff 0.68 Castillo, Carlos 0.85 *Cotts, Neal 0.35 Dunn, Scott 0.22 Dunn, Scott 0.40 Eason, Clay 0.6 *Meaux, Ryan 0.38 Meyer, Jake 1.13 Pacheco, Enemencio 0.77 *Phillips, Heath 1.75 *Ring, Royce 0.37 Smith, Matt 2.73 Stumm, Jason 2 Wylie, Mitch 1.22 Yofu, Tetsu 0.75 Some were traded, but I find that list promising.

Dear Murcie, How do I cope with Jerry Manuel managing the SOX? I'm pulling out my hair over this dip-s***'s decisions & impact on the SOX. I'm in dis-belief that he could have such a detrimental effect on the SOX winning ways. I'm in denial that it's too late to remove him. I'm in denial that he can't be fired. Please keep me from going postal. Sincerely, JUGGERNAUT

Where do I begin with the last BOSOX game. Blunder 1 1st off DW. Should he have started? Dare I say we have to go back to the NYY series. Again. Colon's pc over last 4 starts: 108,123,117,117. The 123 in NY is a sin because it was a 7-2 gm after the 4th. The general consensus is limit your starters to 300 pc/15 days. This is predicated an an avg of 100 warmup throws per gm. So in a sense a 300 pc is actually 600 throws. If Manuel takes Colon out after 5 ip, he saves another 40 throws. Now Colon's 15 day avg becomes < 110 pc. If you went into Friday's game setting a fixed limit of 90 pc, again you're keeping his 15 day avg < 110 pc. How does Colon fair vs the BOSOX? .218A, .274OBP, .372SLG - I'd say pretty darn good. How does DW fair vs the BOSOX? .200A, .351OBP, .450SLG - Not the right man for the job. Hawk & DJ were all over Manuel in this decision & this game. Blunder 2 No one warming up after DW walks 2 in the 1st. If you look over DW's career he is either on in the K zone or he's off. There's no in between. Clearly he was off & everyone but JM knew it. You get somebody warming up after the 1st & you bring him if DW walks another. You might allow him 2 walks in a row in the 2nd, but that's it. Look at the game logs. Take him out with 2 men on, & chances are Schow limits the damage to 2 runs. Schow pitched a scoreless 3rd & the SOX add 2 dingers. Score after 4, 3-2 SOX. Again Hawk & DJ were brutal on JM. DW was falling behind every hitter in the 1st 5 he faced. Blunder 3 Schow taken out after 51 pc. Reasonable. Nomar .523 OPS vs Koch. Reasonable. Ramirez .724 OPS vs Koch. Reasonable. Ortiz .400 OPS vs Koch. Reasonable. Millar ??? vs Koch. Get someone up. Mueller 1167 OPS vs Koch. Get him the F out. This is a F'g play off game! No F'g confidence builders or tryouts any more. He did his F'g job & recorded 3 outs. It's not time to test him vs someone who owns his arse. He might have only walked Mueller but he never should have faced him! Bill Mueller .611 OPS vs Sullivan. BINGO! Varitek >>> vs Sully. Kapler 000 OPS vs Sully. Use the F'g scouting reports Manuel (you F'g dip s***!)! If I'm managing the team, the score is still 3-2 SOX after 5. I probably let Sully face Damon in the 6th. It's a risk but the fact most of the BOSOX haven't seen him is reason to take the risk. I'm even willing to say the decision costs me, and it's 3-3 when Wunsch comes on. We go to the 7th. The SOX add another run so 4-3 SOX. SOX win 4-3!

No, that doesn't make sense. First of all, heaven knows what kind of pitchers he's catching in the Florida League. He should have it held against him that some acne faced 20 year old kid can't throw strikes? Second, he's just only learning how to handle a staff. He probably can't be expected to do that for several more years. Then, if all you are judging him by his is offensive stats Reed should have won the award. What about throwing runners out? Do they ignore that as well?

CLE has played MIN tough this 2nd 1/2. Min vs CLE: W4-L6 5 left Min vs DET: W5-L1 :fyou Manuel! I loathe your very existence as manager of the SOX. :dips*** Magic Numbers: SOX:147GP:78W-69L = 16 MIN:147GP: 78W-69L = 16 KCR:145GP:74W-69L = 20 Time to go update the Track Manuel Blunders thread

It's much harder to go with a 4 man rotation in the modern game. Pitchers don't get the benefits of illegal aids like they did back then. Pitchers spend about 30 pitches alone warming up these days & another 10 at least in betw innings. So a 110 pitch 7in outing is really over 200 pitches. If the SOX go 4 man, then you must limit each pitcher to 90 pitches & about 7in. That's about 160-180 throws per game. It's certainly possible if JM reads this, but then you need solid BP work for the remaining 2. OT games will hurt a lot.

CARLOS LEE

I completely forgot. Everything was going well. Planning to get them through tm with a program I wrote (from the ole Thomas vote days) but the emotional let down of Wed ripped it from my mind. Now I don't feel pissed, just dissapointed. HSC is there anything your friend can do for me? Shades of 2000. Had tickets for the 2nd round & they never got past Sea. Ate $80 worth of handling charges.

Not we. Jerry did. With his tryout for Paniagua on Tuesday. Letting MIN score 6 runs when we had beaten the crap out of them was inexcusable. It carried their momentum into Wed for sure. Jerry Manuel : continues to prove beyond a shadown of a doubt ... :dips***

I wonder how his stats measure up vs HOF catchers. What surprises me is that BA is usually very thorough. For a catcher, doesn't it make sense to way both his offensive stats & the pitching stats for pitchers he manages?

1) Who will win the series (CHW/BOS) (2 points)? CHW 2) Which team will hit more homeruns (CHW/BOS) (2 points)? CHW 3) How many errors will the Sox make (4 points)? 1 4) Who will lead the Sox in runs scored (4 points)? ROBBY ALOMAR 5) How many extra base hits will the White Sox have (5 points)? 16 6) How many pitches will Bartolo Colon throw (3 either way) (5 points)? 115 7) Which bullpen pitcher will face the most batters (4 points)? Sully 8) Will Mark Buehrle pitch in to the 7th inning (Y/N) (2 points)? Y 9) Who will lead the AL Central after the series (2 points)? CHW 10) Who will have more hits Magglio Ordonez or Bill Mueller (2 points)? Maggs TIEBREAKER: Total runs scored by both teams during the series = 26 I would like to thank the creator & admin for YNOT. It has made this a more enjoyable season.

CARL EVERETT payback's a b****!

Please read my TRACK the RACE & TRACK Manuel's stupidity threads. He is too blame more so than any one else. Can we still win it? Only if we win every series. MIN : 6 vs CLE. 4W-5L vs CLE in 2nd 1/2. If this hold's, they'll split. 7 vs DET. 5W-1L vs DET in 2nd 1/2. If this hold's 5-2. 3 vs SOX. 2W-2L vs SOX in 2nd 1/2. 7W-9L vs SOX 2K3. If this hold's 1W-2L. SOX win every series they go 9-4. So they still have a 3 loss cushion. We are beholden to CLE to take care of business.

Having gotten that out of my system, WE CAN STILL WIN THIS THING! CLE has played MIN tough this 2nd 1/2. Min vs CLE: W4-L5 6 left Min vs DET: W5-L1 7 left Well if that holds, they'll go 8-5 If we win every remaining series we go 9-4. That's too close for comfort. We need to sweep in MIN.

MGR. JERRY MANUEL !!!!!!! JUST DO IT EXACTLY LIKE I'VE SPEC'D IT OUT HERE. AND NO F'G TRYOUTS in THE BULLPEN!

What's left in the tank? CLE vs MIN: Rogers Lohse Pulido Santana BOS vs SOX: Wright Colon Buerhle MIN vs SOX: Radke vs E-LO Rogers vs JG Lohse vs Colon A sweep is not impossible since there is no Santana. SOX vs KC: Buerhle E-LO (3 days rest) JG (3 days rest) SOX vs NYY: Wright Colon Buerhle KC vs SOX: E-LO JG Wright/Colon (3 days) Colon/Buerhle (3 days) NO DAYS OFF from MIN to KC. There is no other option. Monday off. OAK vs SOX: E-LO JG MB/BC BC/MB E-LO