Cochise

Don't get me wrong, the pitching this season has been wonderful and the least of our worries, but I am getting a bit annoyed with the inability to close out an inning after 2 outs.

QUOTE (zenryan @ May 14, 2008 -> 07:11 PM) not much really. I do like seeing things shaken up but I dont like seeing Thome and Paulie back to back. That is two instant outs right now. I feel exactly the same way. Everytime I hear that Oz is going to shake up the lineup, I keep thinking that obviously Thome and Konerko won't be batting back to back. At this point I kind of hate seeing an inning where they'll both bat, even if Thome leads off the inning and PK is 3rd, its still 2 outs for that inning. I am sort of looking forward to the San Fran series. It should give Thome and Paulie some much needed rest, at least a game each.

I don't deny that nearly everyone on this site (myself included) often freaks out after a loss and calls for the firing of KW or Ozzie and trades of various players or benching some guys and calling up others. People fall into panic mode far too easily. It is only May. Funny enough, all is glorious and we are playoff bound when we string together some wins, sometimes even predictions of 800 runs scored. Things can get a little goofy, and in many ways thats just the nature of being a fan and posting your emotions at that particular moment. Some of the wiser posters remind the rest of us that hindsight is 20/20. Sure Paulie, JD and Thome had a great year in 2006, and they have been pretty mediocre since. We would have been livid if KW traded them after that season, and he would have been crazy. For me, and I think for most Sox fans, our anger stems from the fact that this offense just hit a wall and no one seems to know why and it seems like not enough has been done to fix it. You can't say nothing has been done, because KW brought in guys with good track records (Swish, OCab) who also seemed like despite how they performed, they wouldn't let the team go through the motions like they did in 2007. However, though it is only May, things in 2008 seem all too familiar and look eerily similar to last year. Which for me was one of the worst seasons I have ever had to live through as a Palehose fan. And thats what I love about being a White Sox fan. We will not and do not accept mediocrity.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ May 14, 2008 -> 12:26 AM) 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 Since the 2006 All-Star break this team hasn't done much offensively. So they had one good half of a season. Do you remember the years prior to the World Series when this was an all or nothing offense? We'd hit 4 HRs in a game, capped off by a Jose Valentin 3 run HR and score 15 runs and then the offense would be impotent for a week or longer. What were the results of the 2006 season by the way? Did we not finish 3rd in the division? Its not so much that going opposite field would solve all of our problems and nor would a speed injection on this team. Look at the Twins, they have what we all seem to desperately seek. Yet where are they? Sure they have more division titles and playoff appearances than us since 2000, but no rings to show for it. However it would be a refreshing and welcome change to see fundamental baseball played on the Southside. We can't rest on the laurels of 2005 or even our 2006 offense. Six of the nine guys who start consistently were here in 2006, and many of them had great years then and are terrible now. We had a great and awe inspiring offense in 2006 for the most part. But thats over and those guys seem to be shells of there former selves. I hope they prove me wrong.

QUOTE (stretchstretch @ May 14, 2008 -> 01:13 AM) good, I'd rather have them be fully exposed, do or die, and if they die, I can stop wasting my energy and hope all summer, better to get the truth on the table right here and now..........rather than a string cupcakes to lure me into a false sense of security like we just got barely taking 2-3 from a horrific seattle team I don't know how I feel about a team falling apart this early (if a team is going to fall apart that is). I am literally foaming at the moth come April when the season starts and its a pretty disappointing feeling to be let down this early. Also, like 2007, the summer feels so empty without constantly following the Sox. However, if the team pulls a 2003 or a 2006 and blows it in the final month of a season thats pretty disgusting itself. I just hate losing. Unfortunately it has been all too common throughout my lifetime. Maybe if this team is without a pulse by the time the break rolls around, there will be a firesale and it will be interesting to see some young prospects play. Maybe the White Sox will field a speedy young team that can hit to the opposite field and can score from second on a single. Thats a lot of maybes. Maybe after all of that we can resurrect the old "these kids can play" slogan. Because the team we have currently is loaded with anything but "Kids" and most of them can't really play. Unless you consider trying to lift and pull a ball out to the Dan Ryan "playing." If so, you may be able to find a job as an assistant hitting coach.

QUOTE (stretchstretch @ May 14, 2008 -> 01:17 AM) I hear you but when you have $27M in payroll between PK and JT, what are you going to do, bench them on principle? You have to sleep in the bed you made this season, like it or not. It's the resigning of dead weight that's the problem......a simple inability by KW to make tough moves before they get out of control I agree that you have to play them because of what you're paying them. But they shouldn't be untouchable. I was mainly advocating dropping them in the order and breaking them up. Because lately its become almost 2 automatic outs with PK and Thome back to back in the lineup in whatever order. Also, a few days on the bench to clear their heads of whatever crap has affected them for over a year and a half. Though its likely that wouldn't do any good.

Well said. If there ends up being a firesale I'd love to see the Sox build a youthful and speedy team that plays the game the right way. Get guys that can hit to the opposite field. Get guys who can score from first on a double or from second on a frozen rope. Get guys who can hit slug bunts and lay down bunts correctly. Steal some bases, put on the hit and run. Guys that know how to run the bases and guys who while on D can handle a rundown properly. I'd like to see a team that hits 3-run triples and not a team that hits 3 solo HRs. The White Sox offenses of the 2000s need to be a thing of a past. I am sick of the team being a league leader in HRs hit yet being near the bottom of league in runs scored and batting avg. Situational hitting, not straight pull-swing for the fences- swing at the first pitch- crap that we have been subjected to for far too long. We all harp on Ozzie for his managing, especially in games. I feel like he isn't equipped to manage a team like this. A team of vets who don't listen to advice and play Swing for the Dan Ryan type baseball. He is the type of manager who would work well with young talent that plays fundamental baseball, classic National League type ball, or Ozzie Ball if you want to call it that. The team we have now, just cannot and will not play that ball, and it will haunt us as long as the core of the team is composed of slow and aging sluggers who are mainly good for solo shots.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 13, 2008 -> 11:03 PM) He got out of a pretty big jam tonight, wouldn't you say? If we had a right fielder worth a s***, we wouldn't have been in the spot we were in. Yeah Dye-nosaur has just been awful in the field. He aged so quickly between 2006 and 2007. He makes me sick watching him "hustle" out in RF. Also, why has everyone been so down on Dotel? Despite a rocky start, he has looked good of late, got out of a jam tonight and less than a week ago against the Twins he pitched 2 innings and struck out 5. I blame Thornton and Dye-nosaur for the run charged to him tonight. Sure he has an odd obsession with shoes, but hey, no big deal.

QUOTE (heirdog @ May 14, 2008 -> 12:24 AM) Unfortunately, we may be well under .500 at the ASB but only 6 or 7 games out and so KW will try and package the last few scraps in our farm system and some young players to get a journeyman bat and plug him in the line-up to turn the offense around. Thome, Konerko and Dye if allowed will hit their 30 HRs each (65 of which will be solo shots) and we will continue to win one game 10-7 and then lose a bunch by 1 or 2 runs where we score 3 or less. So dang frustrating how arrogant and stupid the front office can be. This is my main beef with KW and Ozzie. There are obvious problems when your pitching staff is as good as ours and we have a record like we do. You see an offense that has been mostly terrible as a whole for over a season and a half and yet the hitting coach is not on the hot seat. Our pitching has been great, but they have to be flawless due to this anemic offense. Its sad then when the opposing team scores a pair of runs in the first inning it feels as if the game is already over. It is also sad that when the game is on the line, your team is down by a run or two and the "heart" of your order is up, and again it feels like watching is pointless. That is, unless you're a masochist and like watching guys like Thome and Konerko look like shells of their former selves and strike out or swing at the first pitch and pop out. Yet Ozzie is stubborn and won't move these veterans from their spots in the heart of the order, or rather the part of the order with no heart. Remember in spring training when Ozzie said he wasn't going to tolerate losing? Remember when KW was busting Swisher's balls for not hustling on a ground out? Where is that intensity from Ozzie and KW when this offense has blemished so many quality starts from our pitching?

After every game and every series, it seems more and more likely that we are looking at a 100 loss team. I think its time we stop kidding ourselves into thinking that this offense is going to wake up from the dormant state it has been in since the 2006 All-Star break. We had a better record last year at this point. Though our starting pitching is vastly improved and could prolong 4-24 stretches like last year, I wonder how long Danks and Floyd will hold up. Buehrle has been terrible, and Contreras could fall apart at a moment (also the guy is probably in his 50s). And Vazquez showed his 6th inning allergic reaction last week, lets hope that doesn't happen all over again. I also don't feel like our pen is that great, this team is eerily similar to last season's, sans an Erstad here and an Andy Gonzalez and Luis Terrero there. So if we are in the same boat as last year at the All-Star break, I think we'll be cutting our losses and dealing the older guys and beginning the rebuilding process. All that seems to add up to a team that threatens to lose 100 games or something near that. Then again, maybe things will turn around and I can eat crow and say I panicked about a season thats only 6 weeks old with plenty of time to right this ship. I am fine with that.

Wow you'd think K-Rod just struck out the last batter in Game 7 of the World Series.

Just add that to the growing list of reasons why Thome should be benched, especially in the late innings when we need runs.

I feel like everyone is bashing Swish, and don't get me wrong he deserves most of it, but I feel we should be a lot more ticked off at Cabrera, the guy has been awful. Way to go CQ! A rare miscue by Hunter.

Lets get some production from the top of order form once. Lets get some production when we're down in the 9th for once. Lets get some f***ing production in general for once.

I really hate Dye-nosaur. Bench Thome for a few days, put Dye-nosaur at DH, put Anderson in at CF and Swish in right.