joejoesox

my god, AJ is on fire, hitting like .312 or .313 now pick him up Carlos

nice oppo-hitting OC, even though it was an out i liked his approach a lot tie game

LOL look at the gap in right-center gee, the book isn't out on this team or anything is it?!!?

nice, accident swing but i'll take it bases juiced for profundo!

Javy's stats on the year so far: Bolded relevant stats pertaining to tonight's game: vs. Left: .312 vs. Right: .206 Home: 3.29 Road: 4.01 Day: 1.64 Night: 5.10 Turf: 1.93 Grass: 4.26 Current Month: 3.38 Last 30 Days: 3.82

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 14, 2008 -> 11:47 PM) ha, on the angels board they think Jose throws a spitter. Lackey was loading up the ball with his arm sweat all night and Jose barely licks his fingers and its a spitter. hmm? i watched the game earlier when it aired and i'm watching the encore right now, i haven't noticed either guy loading the ball up with any moisture also a splitter doesn't require any moisture to make it work (???), i think i'm misreading your post though

thank you jose for proving, at least so far this year, that you're gonna give this team much better chances to win than Mark i fear the next time mark has to faces Cleveland, that could be ugly

gun showing bobby at 94, it showed jose hitting 94 a few times too though..

i'll upload the clips of PK stealing 2nd and CQ's grand slam for anyone who wants to add them to their sox video collections

that ball was hit on a line, talk about arm strength, deepest part of the park too, unreal

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 14, 2008 -> 02:10 PM) Someone made some posts earlier, which of course I can't find now, about the idea of AJ leading off. Seems like a crazy idea at first, but, give this some thought. I'm starting to think its not a bad idea. Here's why... AJ has the 2nd highest OBP on the team, and the highest average. He's now hitting the ball to all fields, and, amazingly, taking some pitches and extending counts. He's also far and away the team leader in doubles, which is fantastic for a leadoff guy. He's no speed demon, but honestly, he's faster than half the lineup as it stands right now (his weight loss seems to have helped), and he's not afraid to take some chances on the paths. Plus he has fewer strikeouts than any starter on the team. I'm honestly having a hard time finding a reason why it would be bad, other than his lack of speed. Can anyone else give me another real reason? it was me who posted this in another thread, and it was mostly laughed away, i even explained every single hitter's position in the lineup too then someone else comes along and posts it and everyone thinks it's a great idea lol edit: here's my post on the idea of AJ leading off http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...p;#entry1637091

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 14, 2008 -> 02:05 AM) I hate to be the guy that was so negative in the offseason but tries to look at the season with Sox colored glasses on, but I seriously think this offense is a move or two away from turning it on offensively, and the pitching is here to stay. Honestly, replace Juan Uribe with Brian Roberts, Alexei Ramirez with Juan Uribe, and just fire Greg Walker and just see what happens. I have a weird feeling it would work. You'd see a slight regression defensively, so thus, a slight regression in the pitching department, but having just one more guy in the lineup getting on base and getting on 2B consistently would do wonders for this lineup. I've long preached slugging percentage, but what's a bit underrated is just XBHs period, and too many of the Sox XBHs are homers (that sounds terrible, but it should be much more dispersedly spread out). Seeing how the Sox have scored 26% of their runs from the player hitting a home run himself (HR/R), it tells you that they do need to diversify the offense slightly. I feel the 2 (or 3) moves I suggested above will do that. Buehrle & Richar for Roberts!

what's frustrating is if this team could click all at once, or at least 75% of the lineup could click at once, just hit like .265-.270, this team would be scary good, the pitching is just standing there losing game after game where they only give up 1-3 runs via the starting pitcher and almost none via the bullpen, what a disaster. right now, nobody is scared of the white sox, in fact i'd go as far to speculate that a lot more teams have figured out how to play against this team this season than any team ever has before

how, i wonder, did we score so many runs and have such a great year offensively in 2006, if this team has never had the ability to go opposite field or run bases properly, or get the timely hit.. hmm

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 14, 2008 -> 12:16 AM) I still can't bring myself to blame Greg Walker. I could see if we were talking about a bunch of young guys. But that's definitely not the case. Hiring a new hitting coach won't in any shape, or form, get these guys to hit. but he's being paid to do nothing, then, we must unleash the hounds! we cannot afford the cut to our payroll by keeping walker employed!

in before the "Fire walker" posts start coming, even though we had 14 hits and 7 runs yesterday it's the players fault they're as bad as they are, period the solution? get different players, or hope these guys decide they can hit something that isn't a fastball, don't see that happening anytime soon though edit: guess i wasn't in before the fire walker posts

QUOTE (WCSox @ May 13, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) Scioscia is probably the best manager in the game. if not scoscia, gardenhire would be a good pick also

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 13, 2008 -> 06:27 AM) Haha... there is virtually everything that could be possibly wrong with that idea all encapsulated into one there. AJ is everything you want a leadoff hitter to not be. perhaps, however I think his approach has changed since coming to the white sox, and i think that's what's happening to nick swisher as well. being in a lineup of big boppers might be giving a few guys "penis envy", so to speak, taking them out of their element and ultimately out of their game that has made them successful over the years i could be well off-base but it would explain some of the circumstances surrounding a few guys in the lineup

this team isn't good, at least not right now if the pitching doesn't suck, it's the hitting, if the hitting doesn't suck, it's the defense, if the defense doesn't suck, it's the pitching the only part of the season where we were firing on all cylinders was when we won those 5 games in a row, and that was with the lineup in a very different shape than it is now how long will thome be given the 3rd spot in the lineup before ozzie realizes he's not producing, even against righties also, AJ seems to want to crush the ball every time he gets an at bat, i'd like to try and change his plate mentality a bit and shift more into "get on base" mode what about a lineup like this? 1. Pierzynski 2. Quentin 3. Dye 4. Konerko 5. Swisher 6. Thome 7. Crede 8. Cabrera 9. Uribe my reasoning for this lineup would be that perhaps it would give AJ a chance to raise his batting average or on-base percentage by trying to just get on base instead of always trying to drive guys in. obviously he won't be leading off every inning, and he will eventually be in RBI situations, but starting the game off with a more on-base approach might be better for the type of natural ability he has, which over his career he's shown that he can be a great contact hitter. quentin has done well batting 2nd, in fact he's arguably our best hitter so far this year, and I wouldn't want anyone else hitting behind AJ right now assuming AJ is getting on base a bit more leading off. Dye is swinging a pretty good bat right now, and is a genuine RBI guy. I think it's fitting (right now) to give him consistent at-bats in the 3-hole. I'd leave konerko in the cleanup spot, because mainly I'd like to see Dye generate most of the RBI's, and let Konerko get on with nobody onbase, or hopefully a runner at 2nd or 3rd already (Dye has great gap-power, getting extra bases) as he's been hitting into a lot of double plays from the games i've been able to watch. Swisher batting 5th seems appropriate, given his good batting eye and his ability to get on base at a pretty good rate would allow konerko to reach 2nd frequently due to Swisher taking walks frequently. Thome batting 6th makes a lot of sense to me in this type of lineup, as he (like Swisher) has shown over his career to be able to get on base via the walk, but also is a power-guy that can drive in a lot of runs. I don't really see Jim GIDP as much as Paulie does, so situations with slower guys on the base-paths don't really frighten me with Thome at the plate. Also, batting 6th might take some of the pressure off of him and allow him to climb out of whatever kind of slump he's in right now. 7-8-9 (Crede/Cabrera/Uribe) Crede has been a great clutch hitter this year, though not so much lately (tonight, he had 2 RBIs however). I think over his career he's shown he's comfortable hitting in the lower part of the batting order, so I would keep him hitting 7th. He doesn't have a great eye or great plate discipline, however he's a true RBI threat and would be able to generate a decent amount of RBI's in this spot. Cabrera moved down in the lineup to 8 I think would be interesting to see. Other than his 4 for 5 vs Seattle, he's looked nothing like the OC we've seen play for the Angels, so far this year. This would give him a chance, in less-pressure situations, to bat a sort of poor-man's 2-hole at the 8 spot, which could help him raise his average and give Juan (who's had a hot bat lately, I'd like to see this team take advantage of it) possibly more RBI chances feel free to disagree, I had put a lot of thought into another lineup change and I think this one wouldn't be too terrible to try all of the defensive miscues we've had lately, though, won't be fixed with a lineup change though, so this would only (maybe) fix part of the problem. the big picture is consistency and this team has shown pretty much nothing resembling consistency all year, hopefully it changes but I don't see it happening against a lineup like we saw today with Vlad, Torii, Matthews Jr, etc.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2008 -> 10:03 PM) I'm pretty sure the Sox were in the 11 to 14 range in the AL in runs scored during the 2nd half of 2006. i'll take those numbers I posted at any point in the season, I don't care if they correlate to being 11th or 14th in the AL, half of our lineup did a pretty good job for the whole year, a minor slump at the end or not, the numbers were still impressive.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2008 -> 09:57 PM) Crede absolutely sucked the last month of the season, and Thome struggled the last two months as well. Everyone points to the starting rotation falling apart, but our offense sucked it up as well. they sucked the last part of the year, who cares? what difference does it make when they started slumping, whether it's at the beginning, the end, or the middle of the season, and your'e talking about TWO god damn players, yet in every thread on this board you see this stated repeatedly over and over "our offense (implying, the entire offense) has sucked from the second half of 2006 until now" i'm done arguing about this, it's pretty ridiculous, nobody is going to give an inch on their opinion of the matter, so arguing either way is futile.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) So you want a fire sale, but don't want Greg Walker fired? i wouldn't shed a tear if Konerko or Thome weren't in a Sox uniform after this year, if this is what we're gonna get for the rest of the season don't get me wrong, i don't hate these guys or wanna see them "collide in the field" like some other bozo's, but a fire sale generally implies the players, i have no problems with our coaching staff except maybe ozzie and the fact that I think he's a toolbag.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ May 7, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) The 2nd half of 2006, all of 2007, 5 weeks into 2008... 2006 Post All Star Break: Thome - .274 .420 .522 .942 Konk - .313 .377 .541 .918 Dye - .313 .371 .595 .966 Crede - .270 .311 .498 .809 AJ - .262 .292 .427 .719 the only player of those 5, over half our lineup, that had a bad 2nd half of 2006 is AJ.

i just realized we've been shut out 2 of the last 3 games, and we also just gave a hitter the cycle. haha fire sale plz.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 7, 2008 -> 09:49 PM) Oddly we keep bringing players in, and magically they all have the same exact issues. I see a pattern. Dont you. Oddly, we brought Thome in in 2006 and he hit 42 Home Runs, and drove in over a 100 runs and hit .288. Oddly, Dye hit over .300 that year, so did Paulie. Greg Walker needs to be fired. The only pattern i see is on this message board.