witesoxfan

QUOTE (The Critic @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:58 PM) Wood is in a huge hurry to blow the save. Lou is dumb if he doesn't close Marmol soon, and stick Wood in the 7th or 8th inning slot. Your closer is supposed to be your best pitcher. Wood is quite obviously not the best pitcher in the Cubs bullpen.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) Was Kapler's double close to going out? 5 more feet and it probably would have been a basket ball

Atleast Wood is still the closer. He's no where near as good as Marmol.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:46 PM) i know it would bring alot of PR trouble (is any pub bad pub though?)...but if bonds would be willing to play 4 times a week and be available to pinch hit he would be absolutely perfect for this team. He could spell Dye against tough righties (if he can play left, which could be troublesome) with CQ playing right. He could spell Thome against tough lefties (.268/.463/.535 vs. LHP last 3 years for bonds, .209/.325/.344 for thome, which is awful). not to mention he would be a dynamite pinch hitter off the bench to hit against tough righties. On days he doesn't play he fills our glaring need for a lefty guy with pop off the bench. As much as I hate the guy (which is alot), he would be a great fit on this team. Bonds would be great for several teams. He'd rather "start" than come off the "bench," though I quote them because for Bonds in your scenario, they are essentially the same thing.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:05 PM) Slugging% is secondary when talking about leadoff hitters. What matters is OBP and then stolen bases which lead to runs. Owens isn't a good leadoff hitter because he doesn't get on base enough and because all his infield singles make his batting average pretty questionable, not because he doesn't hit the ball hard. Obviously SLG is nice to have if your leadoff hitter has it but let's be real here - if he slugged near .400 we're putting him in the company of guys like Sizemore which is kind of absurd to expect of him. Grady Sizemore's career slugging percentage is .486. Curtis Granderson's is .501. No, asking for a .400 SLG% is like asking for Owens to be more like Brian Roberts, who's at .411 career wise. .315 is absolutely unacceptable.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 1, 2008 -> 03:16 PM) What happened on that play? Also, did he make a good throw home to get Fielder? I didn't see Fielder, but on the Kosuke hit, Gallardo threw a ball on the inside half of the plate...pretty much a perfect pitch...and Kosuke got jammed and the ball landed 15 feet from him up the 3rd base line. Basically the perfect example of a swinging bunt.

So Gallardo jams Kosuke, and he gets a hit out of it.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 1, 2008 -> 01:55 PM) Its not so much his numbers last year, I agree they showed improvement month over month and that he had some promise. But now with BA hitting and Q hitting, there is no room for him, and im not sure he is an improvement. Also in charlotte he is looking extremely weak against LHP so far, even though its a small sample size, its fairly exaggerated. Vs RHP .318 .434 .889 vs LHP .278 .316 .649 It appears as though he doesn't see the ball out of lefties hands at all

QUOTE (Capn12 @ May 1, 2008 -> 01:42 PM) Thats not really an "If" this season, to be honest...I hope his last outing against Baltimore is more of a coming around for Mark. In his last 27 innings, he's allowed 31 hits. That's just a little above his career average (1.15 H/9 in those 27 whereas he's at 1.04 in his career). I'm not concerned about Buehrle in the least...so yeah, I'd say it's still if he gets hit around. And that's merely just this one outing too.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:37 PM) Its pretty obvious to everyone in the Sox org. that Crede will be a free agent. Thats what Boras does with his clients. I've seen " trade Fields" so may times its ridiculous. I'm not even that high on the guy. He's K-ing at an alarming rate in the minors and avg at best defenslessly but we will need him next year . I seem to recall arguing with you about this in the offseason. It's good to see we agree on the future of 3B at the very least.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 1, 2008 -> 02:36 PM) LOL, Renneke has thin skin. the comments have all been taken down. Nice job Soxtalk If he really wanted to save face, he'd take the article down too.

Wasserman is f***ing good. Let it play out a bit over the year and we'll see it.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:01 PM) They aren't going to risk an arm they just signed to a long term deal who hasn't been thorwing very well anyway. This scenario will not play out. so they won't let him throw his normal 100-110 pitches, even if he's getting shelled?

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:33 PM) Noooooo, his ridiculous OBP isnt unique at all His sexiness is completely unique though, so this dude is wrong on like 6 different levels.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:14 PM) Jerry Owens being as absolutely good as he can be -- at what he does best -- would be exactly what this team needs. few would dispute that. What's Jerry Owens' peak? Therein lies the problem. I would say Jerry Owens' ceiling is that of a 4th outfielder/fringe starter. Sorta like Nook Logan.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:00 PM) Yeah, you're right Yabuta is the one who signed with the Royals (I was thinking of Fukumori who signed with Texas.) Yes I remember quite a few people were up in arms when the Royals of all teams signed Yabuta. My bad Tony. Part of it was because of how cheap it was, so in that regards, it's not a terrible investment yet...I think it was 2 year, $4 mill deal. It was just like, the Sox can shell out $1 mill to nearly useless players like Erstad and Timo, $4 mill a year for Linebrink, but they can't offer $2 mill on a short term deal to a reliever who seems pretty good? At this point, it looks like KW and company were right on Yabuta.

Wow

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:37 AM) What the hell are you doing in South Dakota? Cheap school, cheap beer

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:40 PM) LOL. I get it now. I guess they do have a point. Oprah starts lookin' sexy if I'm drunk enough. I'm sorry to hear that man.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:34 PM) I don't think it was Yabuta that everyone b****ed about missing out on, (he was pretty terrible in Japan) it was Masa Kobayashi with Cleveland that everyone really wanted. There were a few who were pissed about Yabuta, and I think I was personally slightly upset. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again.

QUOTE (scenario @ May 1, 2008 -> 12:07 PM) What you're saying makes sense, but according to Reinsdorf it sounds like they're calling up a pitcher anyway. BTW - congrats on your 18,000th post! I've been around a long ass time...damn.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:54 AM) Pinkie swear? absolutely cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye edit: lol, never realized how harsh that saying actually is until I wrote it out. That's crazy

QUOTE (scenario @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:48 AM) So... let's say Buehrle gets hit around tomorrow night. Not a scenario that's completely unbelievable. Let's say he get's bounced in the third inning, or even the second... who comes in? Masset on one day of rest after a start... and expected to cover multiple innings? Probably not. It's easy to imagine, if this situation were to occur, that the Sox could use 4 relievers to cover the remainder of the game. So... how much risk are you willing to take that they potentially burn the entire bullpen in the first game of a series? Because they can't cover a failed start? IMO, it makes perfect sense to bring up a pitcher (one capable of going multiple innings) for 4 days to prevent that type of situation from happening. It's a short-term insurance policy - plain and simple. If Buehrle gets hit around, you leave him in there until he throws 110-120 pitches. And then you tell him to start throwing with his right hand. If the Sox are down by 9, they odds of them coming back are like 50:1; you may as well just throw Buehrle until he's fatigued and let him get through 5-6 innings, even if he gives up 12 runs. Past that, there will always be a starter who is on his throwing day - have him come in and get some work done in the game rather than on the side. Not really a huge deal if you ask me.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ May 1, 2008 -> 11:39 AM) This team has 2007 written all over it. I can't believe I'm saying that. But what did everybody expect? We have old, station-to-station sluggers and black holes at the plate like Uribe. Our pitching is going to wear out, fast, with this lack of offense. Quentin certainly has been an absolute find and Swish is The Man, but Dye is slow and painful. Cabrera must have left his bat in Anaheim. Thome, after impressing with an opposite-field hit (!!!) early on, is back to grounding out the 2B/short left fielder. Paulie? Geez. Not sure how you fix all this, this glorious mess of marquee sluggers and scrubs like Uribe (or the guaranteed out Alexi Ramirez). I will say this, if we get to the ASB and this kind of 2007/2004 streak is still on, if Greg Walker still has a job I'm boycotting. 1 month of the season has passed, the Sox are 5th in the AL in runs scored, and they are averaging 5.6 runs a game. But yeah, this team with Quentin, Swisher, Cabrera, a healthy Crede, and a healthy JD (who still has an .800 OPS even with his struggles the past few games) is the same as a lineup with Erstad, Podsednik, Andy Gonzalez, Luis Terrero, Gustavo Molina, Alex Cintron, and Jerry Owens. Right. The only two players from last year's team who would be beneficial to this year's lineup that haven't left the organization are Fields and Richar. Please folks, stop comparing the 2007 lineup to the 2008 lineup. I know it will be done again, just as the 2007 lineup was compared to the 2005 lineup several times thoughout the course of the year last year, but please, please, please stop. They aren't the same and they won't be the same. I promise.