Kenny Hates Prospects

Out of all ballparks Ozzie can to sit Rios out of, why does it have to be SafeCo? Pods in CF, LMAO. f*** you Ozzie.

Thank you for doing these JPN and I look forward to a full year of these in 2010. Keep up the good work!

Hendo vs. Cung could be interesting Hendo vs. Fedor of course Hendo vs. Mousassi Hendo vs. Lawler would be fun Hendo would destroy Jake Shields and pretty much everyone else in that entire organization. Nick Diaz vs. Hendo would be a huge size mismatch in favor of Hendo but the hype leading up would be great. Dan will be back in the UFC I think. He and Dana love each other and I imagine the UFC will want to put Dan in their HOF once his career is over. Plus you can't really let the guy walk after promoting him with TUF and having him almost decapitate your hand-fed face of UK MMA on the biggest show in your company's history.

Thank you, knightni. RLY.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 07:57 AM) With the sox focus on getting younger, and the vets moving on after this year, Walker might not be the guy to lead the Sox hitters in the near future. Even small adjustments could be made to a hitter-veteran or young- that don't require getting back to "square one". If Walker can't do that, he shouldn't be in charge of young hitters who will be making up a majority of the sox roster in the next few years. I agree in the sense that if Walker isn't the answer, we need to dump him as soon as possible. If he's going to be replaced then let's get some else in before the rest of the kids come up. The "square one" comment I guess I put the wrong way, depending on the hitter it might be a simple mechanical adjustment and that's all, not like reworking a swing or anything. But I guess what I meant by phrasing it that way was that the hitter is taking everything out of his mind when it comes to his old approach and trying something different, no matter how small a change it is. The hitter has to not just try something new, but he also has to buy into it and believe it will work and not feel compelled to revert back to what he had been doing. From there he needs to rebuild his confidence within the new approach, and as results are slow to come that must be hard to do. So the whole thing, even if just a simple adjustment, could take quite some time because it's not like Walker or anyone else qualified would have problems telling the hitter what is wrong and how to go about fixing it. If Walker is bad at anything as far as a hitting coach goes then I imagine he is a poor communicator who has trouble gaining the trust of a lot his players. Maybe he can get through to certain guys and not others. But anyway, the point about the "square one" comment was just to intimate that it's quite a lengthy process that involves mental adjustments, faith, confidence, and breaking old mechanical routines even before any results come, so in a way making a change is kind of like clearing the slate and starting over to a degree.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 06:01 AM) Izturis, Aybar and Figgins have been pains for everyone this year...of course, you can't avoid having to attack them (compared to the "big guns" of Morales, Rivera, Hunter, Guerrero, Abreu and Napoli) as they're the Piranha-esque players who end up beating you with 100,000 paper slices rather than the big 3 run homers, via the bunting, stolen bases, wild pitches, lack of (defensive) execution because of the additional pressure on the opposing teams' defense and pitchers and catchers. The Angels just have great balance in their lineup. They don't have a true #4 cleanup hitter IMO but that's about all they're missing. They have contact, power, speed, patience, guys who can handle the bat, etc. They don't really have any holes because each player brings something that can either help you beat really good pitching (via slap hits, bunt hits, sacrifices, SB, solo home runs, etc.) or average to bad pitching (OBP and slugging). When the little guys get on base you almost always have to think about them running, and this can distract pitchers or at least force them to constantly throw over to first. Throws to first don't count in the pitch count, but they can easily take a pitcher out of his rhythm, extend the length of the inning in terms of time, make the innings more stressful so that the pitcher has to work harder, etc. And then the big boys behind the little guys all have pop, and some of them, especially Abreu who they'd be nuts to let go, can further run up pitch counts and wait for mistakes to swing at and hit hard. That offense just has so many ways to win. Put that around pitching and defense and you can see why they play so well no matter if they're on the road or not. I personally hate the Angels but it's hard to overlook how well their system works.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:12 AM) Don't miss out on this gem: Guillen on his hitters failing to beat pitchers they have seen for the first time - "I mean you're not going to take anything away from the pitching staffs that we've faced, but we've been facing some pitchers this year it's like, 'Who the [expletive] is this guy? They don't even belong in the [bleeping] big leagues and they just kicked our ass.' I'm not going to lie to anybody. I know who beat us and I know who should beat us. We've faced some guys where they've called him up, faced us, and get him back to [bleeping] Double A, get the [bleep] out of here. That's how bad we've been." http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2009/09/oz_being_oz.html Awesome stuff, Oz. That's my favorite one out of all these. Now, if by some chance the Tigers get EXTREMELY lucky and win this division - and this is very, very unlikely and would be similar to each Tigers player individually getting stuck by lighting 3 times on the same day - then, if I were Ozzie, I'd send a message to the hitters by calling up as many no-name pitchers as possible and playing them in the field. Fill out the lineup 1-9 with pitchers like Torres, Whisler, Colon, Linebrink, Randy Williams, etc. (because I don't want our good pitchers running the bases or fielding) and let's see if these guys can score one more run than our offense scored off that Fister guy in Seattle. If they can, then each hitter in the lineup that day gets beaten over the head with a dildo in front of their mothers. But that's just how I'd handle it, although it won't matter since we're winning this thing.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 07:17 AM) Let's go by the full 3 weeks of the sox being hands off of Rios. http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?playerId=5880 In those 3 weeks, starting on 8-12, Rios would have started 16 games, w/ 3 days off, and 2 games w/ no AB's as he went in for defense. That would take us to Sept. 4th before they started working with him. That would mean Rios has had 7 games working with the hitting tips/ new advice Walker gave him. Now, I'd be pissed if Rios wasn't taking advice from the sox, knowing how he's struggling. But from the sounds of it, the sox haven't given the guy much to work with in terms of advice. I'm pissed at the sox for letting the guy struggle, knowing full well he's doing something wrong and looking horrible at the plate, like they want the guy to HAVE to take their advice. That has been the Sox philosophy for quite a while now and it's probably one of the main reasons we've been so bad at developing prospects over recent years. It's fine to take that approach with proven veteran Major League baseball players like Rios, but this was the same thing they did with Brian Anderson as one example. They decided to let him get by on talent for as long as he could without trying to fix anything until he failed. The problem was, Brian failed at the MLB level, and when players have enough raw ability to make it that far, then you can't just put off making changes like that. Now, we did keep Dexter Carter in Kanny to work on his change before we traded him in the Peavy deal, and Carter's numbers alone warranted a promotion. And I don't desire to turn this into yet another BA thread, but I REALLY hope the DCarter situation was a sign that the "don't fix it until it's broken" mentality is completely gone from the farm system. But back on topic, again, I think it's fine to do that with proven players who have had success in the Majors before. In fact I'd actually recommend it because you can always find a hitting coach who doesn't like a given player's approach, but if that player is hitting or was hitting in the recent past, and if the player is new to the hitting coach, it's best not to mess with anything until you definitely have to. Even if Walker was considered one of the best hitting coaches in the AL, it's unlikely he'd be able to make a change that would show results right away. By making mechanical adjustments he's taking the player back to square one in a way and it'll be a while before any benefits are realized. Lately it seems like Rios is going out up the middle and to center more, so hopefully that's a sign that some progress is being made here.

PSS will someone PLEASE embed this video? I don't know how to do this internet stuff. Or even better, just find the song on one of those players that play automatically. Then edit the audio player into every page of this thread so that this thread is impossible to view without listening to Journey. Edit: Damn it, I can't find the actual video for the song either because a bunch of YouTards went ahead and made dumbass videos with it and labeled it like the real thing. People should be shot over this kind of stuff.

PS all believers should feel free to use MS Paint to help curse the Tigers if you are low on essential voodoo spell oils and cannot afford the trip to a creepy Louisiana graveyard.

The Sox are going to take this thing. Anyone who doesn't think so need only to compare the rotations. The Tigers rotation: The Sox rotation: The mood in the Detroit clubhouse may be gay at the moment, but just wait until Leyland goes nuts. And again, non-believers stay the hell out of this thread. If you're already here, then you can drop your Journey CD's at the doorstep, turn your ass around, make like a tree, and get the f*** out of here.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:38 AM) Everything you wrote is absolutely spot-on accurate. As the saying goes, De Nile is ONLY a river in Egypt. Nothing he said had any merit and you know it. QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:38 AM) That being said, stay the f*** out of our voodoo thread! Agreed. QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 12:38 AM) As for Kazmir, he has been reunited with his former pitching coach, Mike Butcher, which may explain the recent renaissance. Who is this guy, Don Cooper? For f***s sake, Kazmir is horrible and there's absolutely nothing the Angels can do about it, ever.

So Hendo is a free agent, and according to rumors he is asking for an immediate shot at Anderson as part of the negotiation process. If it has to be done then the UFC should do it to keep Hendo, but I'd much rather see Hendo-Marquardt first because that could be a GREAT fight.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 11:57 PM) Right now Getz is a better hitter than Beckham . Move Getz or Alexei to 2nd in the order.Dye and Rios don't belong in the same lineup the way they both are hitting. The lack of offense from both Rios and Dye is even more reason to go with Rios in CF and Kotsay in RF. Since we're not going to be putting up a bunch of runs every night out, we need to prevent every run we can.

Wow. Rios is here because of 2010 and beyond. If Kenny was more concerned about 2009 than anything else then we probably would have had Tigers-like improvements (Washburn and Huff in the final years of their contracts) rather than assuming over $100M in new contracts or whatever it was we took on. Look at 2009 Rios for defense and that's about it. He was having a s*** year in Toronto which is the only reason we got him in the first place. If he's still performing like this offensively through May or June of 2010, then we can start calling this a bad move.

Agree that this isn't over yet with 6 games against the Tigers, but this loss really, really, really hurts. It's going to be hard to take 2/3 from the Angels on the road and gain ground on the Tigers who are at home playing Toronto.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Sep 12, 2009 -> 01:42 AM) I guess this is as good of a place as any to post this. I'm doing an independent film project from my garage next weekend and I am looking for budding star to play the leading role. The film is entitled The Girl-On-Girl Next Door. KHP, any interest? Yes.

QUOTE (jamesdiego @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 11:23 PM) I might've had the wrong view on Kenny Hates Prospects' post, and if I did, I apologize. This might've just been your classic cry for help. Hardcore porn addiction effects millions Kenny, your friends here at Soxtalk love you and are with you. Just remember, there's alot of Sox things worth posting for in your life. As a start, maybe you should try to ween yourself off the "girl-on-girl” to "solo girl". We love you buddy. All I'm saying is that your gimmick is lame. Go ahead and interpret that criticism any way you like.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 10:53 AM) PK14 was flat out hurting all last year. His improvement towards the end of the year was due to his thumb finally slowly healing. Oh. I thought the thumb thing had gone away and he had just carried his around slump with him afterwards.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 10:43 AM) But if all we have is an ice cold, maybe hurting Jermaine Dye, then should we still keep putting him out there? Wite has it right and it should be Kotsay. Kotsay gives us defense, speed, and energy. Jermaine? Not much of anything unfortunately. Maybe having his job challenged and having to come off the bench will get him going like it did for Paulie last year. I can definitely believe that JD is declining, but I have to believe he's got enough left in the tank to be valuable. It's not like this whole slump came on gradually, it was like he jumped off a cliff as soon as the second half started.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 06:05 PM) Well lets start the magic number Seriously, why don't you guys just look at porno or something? I don't understand the fascination with pics of girls in bikinis on the internet of all places. I mean it's one thing to hang some borderline tasteful poster in your garage, but the internet? That's like standing outside the candy store and slobbering all over yourself as you gawk at the Ethiopian kid sucking on a chunk of loose tar from the pavement. Jesus Christ, if people are so distracted by a booty that they can't think straight, then why not just check out one of the 9,846 brand new, hardcore girl-on-girl sites that have just been created in the last 14 seconds. If you've got a giant ass on your computer screen as your boss walks by then I doubt the 1/2 inch of string between the cheeks is going to make it or break it for you.

Our biggest weakness this year IMO was our defense and Swisher was not going to help us there. He sucks in CF and he'd have never gotten playing time from Dye or CQ to start the year. Injuries would have forced Swisher to become more of a regular player had we kept him, but that means we wouldn't have picked up Pods, and Pods' bat has helped us a ton. I can't say I'd expect Swisher to do the same since Pods makes contact with the baseball and finds holes while Swisher stands there like an asshole. As far as 2009 goes, at best I can't see Swisher giving us more than one game or two as an improvement, but I'd bet on us actually having a worse record if we had kept him. As for the future, we may have found a solid middle reliever in Jhonny Nunez, and Dayan Viciedo being in our system is a great thing. I'd take those two over Swisher any day. Plus, Swisher's money in 2010 would have eaten away at our chances to further improve the team. Swisher is not the type of player Kenny and Ozzie are targeting for their next window of contention so it makes no sense to pay him to be a square peg in a round hole.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 04:16 AM) Podsednik - DH Beckham - 3B Pierzynski - C Quentin - LF Konerko - 1B Kotsay - RF Ramirez - SS Rios - CF Getz/Nix - 2B I'd change the batting order a bit, but I agree on the personnel and their positions. The rotation should be Freddy and Peavy at the back, and if Peavy isn't ready, go with a four-man rotation for the one week or whatever it takes to get Peavy back. DO NOT start Carlos Torres again, EVER. The bullpen should go: Jenks as closer +/- 2 runs in the 7th-8th: 1. Thornton, 2. Dotel, 3. Hudson +/- 3 runs in the 7th or 8th: 1. Hudson, 2. Carrasco, 3. Nunez +/- 2 runs in the 6th: 1. Carrasco, 2. Nunez, 3. Pena +/- 3 runs in the 6th: 1. Nunez, 2. Pena, 3. Santeliz (when the Barons are done with the playoffs) +/- 5 runs in the 5th or earlier: 1. Nunez, 2. Pena, 3. Santeliz If the game is a blowout at any point: 1. Santeliz, 2. Linebrink, 3. Torres, 4. Williams This should keep everyone fresh and mean that most of the non-closing work goes to, in order: 1. Thornton 2. Dotel 3. Hudson 4. Carrasco 5. Nunez 6. Pena *Edited down so this post wasn't so long

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 07:09 PM) KHP, I have to hand it to you man, you are making this work baby! Thanks for sticking with me! If it weren't for the damn rays bullpen, the Kitties would have lost 5 in a row by now and we'd be 4.5 back.... Doom, Kitties, doom! The Tigers have the Royals for 3 more, and they LOVE to be spoilers. They're already coming off a sweep of DET. Deroit will do no better than split the series at home against Toronto as the Tigers begin to feel the pressure. They might get a couple wins against Minny because Minny is going to start seriously unraveling too, but they're not beating Cleveland on the road and they CERTAINLY are NOT beating US! We'll be in second and no more than 2 games back by the time we go to Comerica for the final series of the season. A sweep will win it for us, but we may only have to take 2/3 to force a playoff. We've got this. Peavy and Freddy are going to lead the way with Hudson as our secret weapon in the bullpen.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 07:08 PM) Holy f***. Those Photoshops are some clever work. you should get a better program and practice on more of them. lol, they all suck ass, but it's better that way