sox-r-us

Considering the # of division games we play early, I hope this pitchign stays hot for a while

Crede flies out on first pitch

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 07:58 PM) Was it his .218 ave or .281 obp last year away from Coors that makes you think that? He might be better, but he is not $6 million better than Joe away from Coors Field. I thought his contract was 3M a year ....and it is not your money is it? And what were Randa's s the last few years?

Great start by Jose JOSE JOSE JOSE JOSE ....JOSE.... JOSE I hope they play that at the park for him

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 07:53 PM) You want to replace Crede with someone that's even slower? I'd rather just play Ozuna at 3B. So it does not matter that he had 35 HRs last year, 21 of them outside Coors....all that matters is speed now? We should cut Frank and Kong and Pierz too then?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2005 -> 07:48 PM) Damn dude, you are going to rival Anthrax with that man-crush you have for Vinny. Convince me he is not better than Crede and I will back off. Or convince me there is someone out there at 3B we can get better than Vinny (be reasonable now). If Randa continues to play well, I have no probs, but I do not see that happening. And 3M per year for 2 years is not that bad. Again, we can always make the Nationals pick up some of that salary by giving them a mid tier prospect.

Why is Juan Gone not playing this series? Didn't he get signed by the Indians?

Castilla currently batting at 0.500 with the Nationals.....too early but not bad

Of course Dye moves down to 0.200 now after that K

What are the chances? Rowand is currently batting 0.111 And Dye, Guch and Everett are all 0.222

Good job by Jose getting out of a big inning despite a few passed balls

Another wild pitch...easy Jose, just throw strikes and get out ofd this inning

Article on Vinny http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/NASApp...t=.jsp&c_id=was

Vinny Castilla had 35 HRs last, 21 of which were away from Coors field So what is the problem there? He plays for a team (Nationals) that will clearly look to trade anyone who is a vet at the deadline....not sure what Vinny's contract #s are but if we can get the Nationals to pick up a bit of the salary, what is the problem there?

Who can we get at the trade deadline for 3B? If Pods and Everett play solid and Frank comes back strong, we do not need anything else except a 3B. Vinny Castillo available?

Hate to jinx this, but Contreras is looking nice Hopefully he gives 7 strong and then to the BP to finish the tribe

More Cowbell....I understand your argument. It is a standard statistical dillemma. What you are saying is that we are going for less "game to game score variation" (standard deviation). Yes, we need that (last year we had too many weeks of an avg of 8 run games followed by weeks of 2 run games on avg).... HOWEVER, in the process of improving the standard deviation, my fear is we are going to reduce our "mean" scoring too. If we can maintain our mean scoring we will be fine, but I doubt it. You said you did not want us getting blanked out in games after scoring lots in other games. But we just got blanked for 17 out of 18 innings in a poor man's Coors field. Think about that...

I know that we have not accomplished much in our last 4 years with the HRs we were hitting. So we decided to change the philosophy to "small ball" based on "necessity" (KW's quote). I am not saying this small ball will not work and I am not saying we should bash them for their O performance based on 2 games. BUT, here are my concerns regarding this change: a) Last year, up until Maggs and Frank were lost for the season we had as good a chance to win the division. Say what you want, but you cannot replace guys who hit 100+ RBIs. B) Except for the last two years, the Cell has not behaved like a poor person's Coors field. So making this change now to "small ball" because we have not done well the last 4 to 5 years does not reconcile with these two facts. I am hoping this new philosophy works and I know we have a fixed salary to go off so we had to let go of salary to get pitching + offensive philosophy re-structuring. But those two facts above have me worried about this season. Using "small ball" + pitching can work provided you have high quality small ball players. The only team thast has made it work has been the Marlins but you cannot tell me our pitching is as good as theirs was nor our small ball players as good as theirs. Also, "small ball" can back fire on our "pitching" because now it forces pitchers to pitch perfectly every time.....yes it worked last night, but see what happened to Garcia in Seattle last year when their O sucked. We can still make this work, in my opinion, if at the trade deadline we get a vet 3rd B who can hit HRs to replace Crede (unless Crede suddenly plays at 0.300+ and 30+ HR level...not something I am counting on right now) To support my theory, look at the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, Astros (all ALCS/NLCS teams) from last year and then tell me which team played small ball there? Then look at the Twins (who we seem to be copying) and see their repeated failures in the playoffs. Flame away....

Of course I am over-reacting, but what happens if Pods does as badly as last year, Iguchi never pans out in the big leagues, Crede stays at being Crede, Everett never bounces back to what he was 2 years back and Dye stays mediocre and gets injured (as he is prone to)..... Small ball is great but do we even have the players for small ball? I know, I know....waaaayyyy toooo early but inquiring minds you know...

We suck on O

He gawn.....limited damage again. We better score now....

Focking balk....2-0 Injuns

1-2...come on Freddie

Can we out of towners get some good pics?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 5, 2005 -> 02:33 AM) The big difference is that many managers call games from the dugout, which slows it down a bit. When you have a battery like AJ and MB, Ozzie could go Jerry Manuel and take a nap. Did you just have to mention Manuel? After seeing the Illini lose a close one, I will go postal if anyone mentions his name again