mmmmmbeeer

What a win. Whatta f***ing win. This team is unreal in the late innings. We've seen it so many times this season. They'll just hang tight, hang tight, hang tight....8th or 9th inning they wait for the bullpen to come in and then they pounce. I really like the makeup of this team. At this point in the season, after proving to the league that we don't hesitate to come back and win late, closers tend not to have that strut and dominating attitude coming in to face our boys in the 9th. When you're in their heads before they throw a pitch, you're doing something special.

I think Rome is pretty entertaining. I hate to be the one to remind you guys, but Rome has been on the Sox bandwagon all season. Our guys have been guests several times on his show and he consistently mentions us in a positive light. I have no problem with what Mark said but I can understand where Rome and others are coming from. The steroid debacle led to a witchhunt, Mark may have just opened the door to another witchhunt.

I wanna say that I saw a stat saying that the Injun's team ERA was in the top 5 of the AL. If they start hitting consistently, they could really apply some heat later in the season. Sizemore is just a completely different hitter these last 2 weeks, looking like a real stud.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rpi

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 07:55 PM) And he puts the only hitters who at least have been consistant over the last few weeks. Bench Cruddy, bench uribe. i can see those moves. But why bench productive hitters. But then again why would you ph Timo over Frank and Everett. Crede has been hitting .385 (5-13) over the last week with a .500 OBP.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 07:48 PM) Well Ozzie has to get his girlfriend in the game. This offense will get shut out today. No gooch, no arow and no dye. Nice focking lineup Ozzie, we we cant win every series with Sunday Manuel lineups. Well, I was going to reply that Oz is obviously playing the matchup against Lawrence...but then I looked at his splits. BAA righties in '05 .299, lefties .261....on his career BAA righties .250 lefties .295. Fairly even IMO, no reason not to put your best lineup out on the field. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. My biggest concern is the outfield defense in that bigass park. gulp.

QUOTE(Jeckle2000 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 04:45 AM) Politte...seriously it's not that hard to figure out... Hermy struggled through yesterday...Politte riding a hot streak... you ride the hot hand... Are you not familiar with Politte's #'s closing games? He doesn't have the mindset to close games, he's a great setup man.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 04:39 AM) Closer or not, Hermanson has shown marked losses in his pitch strength. Cooper has to have noticed. So what're you going to tell him? "Hey hermey, you've got a 1.00 ERA and haven't blown a save this season, but hey, you looked a little vulnerable last Tuesday so we're going to let someone else close." No, you don't do that. Until he falters, which he did tonight, you can't just yank the guy out of a role he's excelled at. I understand what you're saying about his velocity, but it hasn't hurt him until tonight. The homer to Hernandez had nothing to do with velocity anyway, it was a hanging breaking ball.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 04:36 AM) 2 things. #1 Konerko is slow; and he should have been pinch-run for. But, we don't have a backup 1b. Even if he WAS safe, Willie should have pinch-run and (gulp) Timo should have filled in at 1st in the 9th. #2 Hermanson has lost velocity the last few games. We've all noticed it, why hasn't Ozzie? I was talking about it with my dad while we were watchng the game. Politte should have started the ninth, then Cotts should have finished the game if necessary. Hermanson needed tonight off and Ozzie, with his blind faith, threw him back out there. He's your closer and hasn't pitched but 1 inning since Tuesday. Can't fault Ozzie, you gotta give the game to your closer.

Crede's been swinging a hot bat. Paulie was just hitting 3rd base when Nady turned to throw into Greene. Slownerko. I'd have rather had Crede give it a shot. I didn't think that was a bad call by the ump, just a bad call by Joey Cora. Tough loss but, once again, this game was in the Sox hands, we blew it.

What about big Juan? Off the top of my head, Miggy Tejada would pretty much be his only competition. Jeter is good but, defensively, I'll take Juan any day.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Jun 10, 2005 -> 02:28 AM) I agree you could have gotten Pods for less, but it wasn't a one for one. Vizcaino and the ton of budget that turned into El Duke need to be considered. To compare speeders and bashers I like to use total bases + steals - caught steals because if the basher hits a double or more he doesn't HAVE to steal 2nd. CLee 132 + 7 - 1 = 138 Pods 62 + 31 - 9 = 84 Carlos is an offensive force, the White Sox gave up a lot to get they guys above and the trade helped both teams. Agreed. I'm not trying to dog the trade. I'm just saying that if we could have pods leading off and el caballo still hitting 2nd or 3rd...good God.

If he's truly honest with people who approach him, this is just one more thing to like about Kdub. I really think that he and Oz, as former players, are truly creating a players' atmosphere in Chicago. I think this bodes well for the future when word gets around the league. There were a lot of rumors the last couple of years that all of JM's screw-up's were due to KW calling moves from the tunnel and being completely too involved in the team. Unless KW has just taken a complete 180, I don't think there's anywhere to lay the blame but on JM for the Sox clubhouse problems in the previous few seasons. I mean, the guy was a complete geek, or atleast that's the way I perceived him.

I love the Pods pickup, although I wish we could have gotten it done without giving up El Caballo. Incidentally, with all this talk about avg with RISP, Caballo is leading all of MLB in RBI with 55 going into tonight.

Chemistry shemistry. crede is known as a virtual mute. i doubt very much this clubhouse would miss him.

QUOTE(ISF @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 09:56 PM) Dmitri Young is getting the shaft at DH, and Manny should not be in the OF. Otherwise, hard to argue with those selections. Dude, Ortiz's #s put Young's to shame. Also, agreed on Johnny Damon and Teixera. They should both be starters.

QUOTE(nvxplorer @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 07:23 PM) The title of the thread is the most valid point. All-in-all, it wasn't a poorly played game. If predicting the outcome were as simple as second guessing in hindsight, the Sox would be undefeated. Here's my second guess, based on something Farmer said: When Pods was running, he was on his own, and it's likely Dye didn't know he was running. If Dye had laid off those pitches, Pods would have been on third before Dye flied out, thus Pods would have scored the winning run. The point is, anything could have happened in that game. There were a few mental errors, but that's always going to happen. I can think of other games where Ozzie's calls were much more questionable than this one. The way the game looked, it could have easily gone deep into extra innings, so I can't fault Ozzie for pitching Hermanson like he did. I was watching the CLE broadcast and their announcers couldn't believe that Dye was swinging with Pods at 1st, especially with a 1-0 count, being they knew that Wickman/Martinez were not going to catch Pods stealing. They probably said "Dye did us a real favor there" like 4 times. I suppose you can excuse Dye being he's never been a 2-hole hitter and therefore doesn't understand his responsibility batting after a pure base stealer like Pods and, as Juggs pointed out, Dye probably didn't see a steal sign. This was most definitely critical to the outcome of the game. I disagree with Arvia and Juggs when they both stated that Pods should have PR for Kong in the 8th. I did NOT want to see Timo at 1B at the end of that game. I thought Oz picked the perfect spot for the PR, Dye just didn't execute well given the situation. Also, the title of this post is definitely dead-on. With the exception of a game or two (TEX comes to mind), we really haven't been blown out of the water this season, and we're more than 1/3 of the way through the season. Many of our losses can be attributed to our own miscues as opposed to any sort of dominance displayed by our opponents. It's refreshing to have a team that controls its own destiny and also nice to be able to look back at nearly every loss and be able to pick out 1 or 2 key plays that, had they been played differently, we could have had a winner. In years past we've had to take broad strokes at a weak offense, weak pitching, poor defense....this season it all comes down to a couple of plays. That's a huge difference and it shows in the standings.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 6, 2005 -> 01:49 PM) I know Garland's been the main suprise this season, but I have to say the biggest one to me has been Contreras. He was a HUGE worry for me going into this season, and he's totally proved me wrong. I just didn't see him posting something below a 4 ERA in his time at the Cell. Let's hope he can continue the way he's been pitching. which is exactly why i'm baffled that there are some on this site who believed at one point that Jose should go sit in the pen while McCarthy took his spot in the rotation. The guy is finally starting to live up to the hype, let's enjoy the results.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 5, 2005 -> 06:27 PM) Exactly, I mean he wasn't in any kind of rehab clinic and he wasn't in a mental hosptial. Basically, he took a vacation and didn't tell anyone where he was going. Watch his ratings go through the roof. After reading the interview in Time, I seriously doubt it was a publicity stunt. The guy was intimidated by the loot and having a difficult time living up to the expectations. More power to him if he needed a break.

They didn't give Pods an error on that missed flyball? s***. Hermie's on my fantasy squad. Nice win Sox!

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 10:38 PM) no, pods uses major paint. he has it on HUGE sometimes. he's trying to accentuate his equally huge eyebrows.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 11:10 PM) Team cohesiveness at the expense of a total butcher? Bad move thinks me. Couldn't agree more, ABoz... it's just the only explanation I can think of for sending Willie down and keeping Timo.

This really goes to show how much stock KW puts in clubhouse chemistry. Timo is a prankster veteran and Willie seems to be a bit bigheaded at times. I think it's a bad move when considering talent, but for team cohesiveness Timo should stay.

It really says something that people believe that Fox has a hidden agenda. How much more obvious could their bias be? So some dude from Fox admitted the slant and now the conspiracy comes crashing down. Whatever. I can't even stand FNC much anymore, blowhards like OReilly and Hannity really have a tendency to get on my nerves, and I'm fairly conservative. But the idea that they've been trying to mask their bias is a ridiculous idea. They can't get much more obvious. I didn't need a bureau chief to tell me so.

What the f*** does Ozzie owe to some guy who announces for ESPN? He owes him nothing. Ozzie blew him off, same as I'd like this team as a whole to blow off the media throughout the remainder of this season. Media=Drama, Drama=Distractions, Distractions=Losses