almagest

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:33 PM) i have a terrible feeling about the bottom of the 9th, anyone else? I really don't. Even with our pitching sucking since the 6th, that lineup is just awful. Bobby's probably in for the 9th and 10th, and I have more confidence in him than anyone out there right now. ...And I'm wrong. It's Horacio Ramirez for some reason. An inning too late.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:27 PM) At least we have a chance against Street. Have we EVER hit Street? It seems like I remember a 1-2-3 inning pretty much every time. All he ever does is throw sliders off the outside corner we flail at.

4-4. HR by Cust.

QUOTE (That funky motion @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 11:15 PM) He did you could see it on tv. Nice Dotel!!!!!!!! Yeah, you could see Anderson turn his head and hesitate. He probably would've been safe easily if he didn't, but I'm not sure if you can give him too much flak for that.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 11:11 PM) Absolutely the right call to send him. Yeah, with 2 outs and 2 strikes on Swisher, definitely. Looked like someone in Oakland's bullpen touched the ball, though. Doesn't it then become a dead ball?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:57 PM) The game plan tonight has been horrible. If we didn't have those two bloop hits in the first, we might be losing 2-1 at this point. I'm surprised no one has adjusted to Braden throwing the change more often now, especially since his whole motion seems to slow down when he throws it, and it's really only 7 mph off his fastball at most, from the Channel 9 gun.

Is this guy Braden really any good? He has 3 pitches, supposedly. Looks like 2 to me.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:48 PM) Yes, and they tell Hawk that Carlos Gomez is the greatest player ever! A blog I read pretty often, http://baseballanalysts.com, posted some stats that rank him as the second-worst player in the AL.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:45 PM) Great call. Cust is another of those s*** players that kills the Sox. This game is on the offense inabilty to do anything that has allowed the A's to stay in this game. OPS of .912 last year in 124 games, .796 in 109 games this year. I'd hardly call him a "s***" player.

Hannahan

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) So assuming Cubs make the playoffs, who do you think we want them to face in the 1st round? Arizona has the pitching in Webb/Haren/RJ to beat the Cubs, but I worry about Arizona's hitting and their propensity to strike out. I like the Dodgers offense now, but all I see in their rotation is Lowe/Billingsley and shaky bullpen without Saito. The pitcher who's been the best against the Cubs in the past two years has been Cole Hamels, so I wouldn't mind seeing the Phillies get the Cubs in the 1st round. Hiroki Kuroda is pretty solid for the Dodgers, though he's struggled a bit lately. He's already shut the Cubs down once this year.

Redmond's ball was pretty much the same as the one Kubel hit. The difference being, Redmond was shaded to the opposite field. 1 game lead!

Not having AJ bunting all the way in the 9th was a bad move. Keeping Thornton in to face Polanco -- hell, keeping Thornton out there for 4 innings in the first place is an idiotic move.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 10:16 PM) yeah and watching his past 3-4 games, he looked exactly like he did with that swing right there What are you talking about? Did you read wite's post?

Griffey just got worked over. First pitch was the only real good one to hit.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 09:54 PM) it's been 3 hours of general nonspecific baseball talk,w/ occasional brief updates of what's happening in the game I actually kind of like it.

Robertson's plan tonight: throw 90% change-ups. And it's working. ...Is it really a change-up if he throws it that much, though?

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 02:53 PM) You're not. But that's the whole point. What the Sox have been trying for the past 2 1/2 years has been met with mixed results. But more importantly, it's garnered them zero playoff appearances. If they fail to make the playoffs again this year, Kenny needs to seriously consider moving one or more of those aging sluggers (if possible) and starting over again. I kind of doubt he'll do that this winter(partially because Paulie and Thome can reject trades). But if they're playing .500 ball next June, it'll be time to hold a firesale and stock up on prospects. We hit over 200 home runs in 2005 and won it all. The makeup of that offense wasn't much different than the past 2.5 years, and it won't be the offense that keeps us out of the postseason this year.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 01:35 PM) His last outing against KC wasn't really fair considering he had prolly thrown well over his season high in pitches the night before, I'm sure it affected him, not to mention the fact that he's been the victim of a few bleeders and bloops. Edit: Referencing Ehren. That, and that bases-clearing "triple" it took Griffey like 10 years to get to seriously affected his inherited runners scored stat.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 02:36 PM) Granted he may not be better than Boone, but he is a veteran with post-season experience. He almost signed with the Sox a couple years ago before going to the Cubs and has pitched solidly every year except this year recently. I am not saying he is a great option, but with Boone sucking at every single moment now, he has to be considered. He already played here once, and wasn't very good. Plus he had some not-nice things to say about the franchise IIRC. I'd probably pass.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 02:15 PM) Jason Tyner? He's already playing for Charlotte, he'd be a nice replacement for Thome next year. Bring some much needed hard-nosed, passionate grindertude to this team. I forgot about that. The signing of the year, right there. All we need to do is sign Lew Ford and we're well above a grindosity factor of 12.

QUOTE (gosox41 @ Aug 4, 2008 -> 09:42 PM) KW is limited to what he can do this offseason if you think about it. If I were KW I'd do anything in my power to get rid of the old, past their prime, slow , injury prone power hitters to create a team that can actually beat Minnesota. Like who? Who are we going to replace the 60+ homers and ~200 RBIs we'd get from, say, Thome and Dye, or the mid-.800 OPS we'd get from a career-average Konerko with? What Terry Tiffees and Nick Puntos do you recommend we get?

QUOTE (thedoctor @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 09:33 AM) does anyone really think that fields is going to be the key to a deal that gets us a good starting pitcher? if sox fans are aware he's been sucky and hasn't solved the hole in his swing, i'd imagine other gms are aware as well. Probably not; they're too busy dreaming about signing Casey Blake (?!) and trading Fields for Jake Peavy or something.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Aug 5, 2008 -> 09:41 AM) Um, I've been pretty consistent all season about questioning whether the composition of this team is what we want to get us to the playoffs and through them. I also said going into the ASB--said it here--that hey: I'm surprised we made it this far and are in first, but I'll take it. I was speaking mostly about the offense, so while you're right about Danks and Floyd (and I overlooked AJ), it certainly took Ramirez a while to come around. But I'll take that, too. Point being that TOGETHER this offense has been very 2004-like. The only time this team felt different to me was when PK was out and Swish was at first base. I really liked the look/feel of that. Any offense will look moribund when the pitching staff gives up 12 runs a game. Offense isn't our problem, and hasn't been for a while.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 4, 2008 -> 01:22 PM) Since you apparently know everything, why don't you explain to the class why Ozzie has Griffey playing CF most days, with Swisher at 1B when Swish is CLEARLY the better defensive option in CF? Why not just move Thome back to 1B and Griffey (or Dye) to DH? Why in the heck would Kenny even trade for Griffey in the first place when he could've taken Paulie out of the lineup by simply moving Thome to 1B? Why has Thome not played 1B all year (especially in interleague play, with Paulie slumping), and a combined four times over the previous two seasons? Because Thome is the third-best first baseman on the team? Because he's in his late 30's and was never the athlete Jr. is? Because he's most valuable at DH, and the Sox are protecting an asset the best way they can? There's plenty of reasons. Griffey was also brought in to replace a struggling Konerko. The only spot for him is either DH, or in the outfield. Who knows if he only approved the trade because of a guarantee that he'd be playing the outfield? Dye and Quentin don't play first, and Swisher plays a decent first, so it's pretty obvious why Griffey ended up in CF. QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 4, 2008 -> 01:22 PM) That's nice, but it doesn't take into account Thome's lack of production early in the season while he was trying to play through a rib cage injury. Players slump. Players get hurt. This is nothing new. You seem to only be focusing on his early season struggles, though. What about his hitting since June? QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 4, 2008 -> 01:22 PM) Dye, whose defensive skills have eroded over the past couple of years. Quentin would be better off in RF, with Swish moving to LF and Anderson moving to CF. Sliding Dye to DH, letting Thome go, and playing Anderson in CF is a serious offensive dropoff in the outfield, and a dropoff at DH. It very well could outweigh any defensive gain from Anderson in CF. QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 4, 2008 -> 01:22 PM) I said that Thome is "injury-prone", not "unproductive while healthy." Yeah, he can still hit, but he has so many problems with nagging injuries that he can't do anything other than DH. The Sox already have an assload of slow sluggers who are limited to DH, 1B, and maybe RF. Thome also has a limited NTC that makes him very difficult to trade if the Sox are out of contention next July. With Dye and Paulie being younger and better options for the future (not to mention capable of putting on a glove), Thome would be the odd man out. So what if he's only a DH? Since when do players posting numbers like his need "versatility?" If he's only "unproductive while unhealthy", then the fact that he's posted great numbers every year of his career except 2005 must mean he's been healthy the majority of his career. The fact is, he's a fantastic option at DH that tons of teams would love to have, and if the information on his contract option is correct, will be very reasonable next year. There's no reason to not want him back.