elgonzo4sox

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 5, 2009 -> 02:43 PM) We played in the worst division in baseball and came up with a worse record than the Cubs. I fail to see how we were obviously better. I could only imagine our record if we faced the Cards 18 times. The AL Central is the worst division in the AL, as proven by the head-to-head records of AL Central teams versus the AL East (76-91) and AL West (78-96). The 2009 head-to-head record of the AL Central versus the NL Central was 43-38. Now, which is the worst division in major league baseball?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 5, 2009 -> 02:32 PM) They have a better record. Hard to argue. Do you really think the AL and NL are equally strong leagues, in which case W-L records can be compared without adjustment across the two leagues? Do head-to-head records, either between two teams in different leagues, or between the two leagues in all interleague games, matter? If your answers are "Yes" and "No", then you are as smart as Phil Rogers.

Phil Rogers suggested the Sox would trade Peavy for Zambrano. Phil Rogers has the Cubs ranked higher than the Sox in his power rankings. Phil Rogers has 4 NL teams in the top 6 of his power rankings. Phil Rogers is an absolute idiot. Why the Trib gives him huge amounts of space to prove how little he knows about the sport of baseball baffles me, until I remember that the Trib doesn't know anything about winning baseball either.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Sep 28, 2009 -> 07:33 PM) Lillibridge must have felt the pressure you put on him today. Hopefully Lily's 1 RBI this season (on a weak chopper that *almost* would have made it to 3B if it hadn't been muffed by the fielder) is enough for Kenny to move him to another team for a bag of balls.

All those of you who have been begging to see the kids get your wish granted tonight - enjoy! Dweezy, RF Slayer, 3B Q, LF PK, DH Rios, CF Fields, 1B Flowers, C Nix, 2B Lillibridge, SS I'm happy to see Flowers behind the plate instead of Castro, because Flowers has more future potential with the Sox. But I don't care to see Lillibridge go for the all-time MLB record of most plate appearances in a season without an RBI. I'd rather see Alexei get another game's worth of experience fielding at SS.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Sep 25, 2009 -> 12:04 PM) Agree on Lillibridge and Fields. Fields could be showcased, but since we're not going to get much for him anyway I'd rather showcase Paulie. I still like Lillibridge as a backup 2B/SS/CF and pinch runner off the bench, but that's all we should expect out of him. Playing him doesn't really help us because ideally Lillibridge would just be a worst case scenario player where you run him out for defensive purposes if someone else gets hurt. He shouldn't be taking AB away from anyone. Nix OTOH should get LOTS of playing time. In fact, I'd even consider putting CQ at DH for the rest of the season and playing Nix in LF just so he can get everyday AB's for the rest of the year. Rios can then play everyday between CF and RF with Pods, Dye, and Kotsay splitting the other AB's as they are all free agents after the year and whatever decisions we'd have to make about any of them have likely already been made. Brent Lillibridge should never, ever, ever take another at bat in the American League, until he learns how to hit like Nick Punto: foul pitches off to work a walk, or hit a blooper over the infield. That's all he will ever be able to do at the plate. Even then, he only has lasting value to a team that plays on a fast artificial turf surface. I can't stand Punto, and I can't stand Lillibridge. Nix is our backup infielder, and he can actually hit in this league. We don't need Lillibridge. Trade him to the NL. Kenny and Ozzie shouldn't need to see any more of Lillibridge to realize that this is the right thing to do. I am going to the game tonight, and if Lillibridge is in the line-up, I guess I'll have to go to the concession stands every time he picks up the bat.

Tigers. I plan to watch the playoffs on TV, and I cannot stand to watch another game played in the Twinkiedome.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 10:29 PM) You can still try and win with a bunch of kids. And it's not as if the entire team would be substituted. For one, Buehrle NEVER would have pitched tonight. He looked like s*** velocity wise, and the results proved it because he was throwing spicey meatballs up at the plate. Didn't someone realize it before he took the mound that he wasn't anywhere near 100%? That's one example. Another may be putting Flowers in a few games at catcher. Yes, Pierzynski is having a good year; but instead of f***ing Castro lets try and place someone at the position who has a career with this team. I also wouldn't mind Dye sitting, but of course, his game today pretty much guarantees he will play until the season ends. I agree you can try to win with a bunch of kids. It's what we've been doing most of the year in the infield, with our rookie 3B, our rookie (at this position) SS, and two rookie 2Bs. We have to give these kids more time to learn their positions and gel. Next year will be better than this year (could the fielding be much worse?). I think Buehrle is still a better starting pitching option than Torres. But I do think Castro has been bad enough to warrant Flowers getting a chance to catch even while the Sox are still in "trying to win" mode.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 10:23 PM) You have a better chance of having Megan Fox come over to your house and rock your world than the Sox winning the division this year. Evaluating for 2010 is what we should be focusing on. You know, the division we have a chance of winning. Not the mythical one where both the Twins and the Tigers both drop dead, and the commish awards us the trophy. Step away from fantasy land for a second and embrace reality. Has nothing to do with fantasy versus reality. I'm just saying a better rule to live by is always keep trying, as long as you have a chance. Anything less sends the wrong message, that it's OK to quit under certain circumstances. Then the question becomes: what exactly are those circumstances, and does every player on the team get to apply their own judgment?

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 10:19 PM) They won't do it because Detroit, the division leader, is coming into town and our meat and potato, blue collared fans saved a lot of unemployment money to come to these games! God forbid they can't watch Buehrle pitch one more time, even though they had all year to do exactly that. Some of you people might be happier being Pirates fans: "Stop trying to win because it's hopeless, dump everyone, and bring in a bunch of kids." Whatever happened to "Win or Die Trying"?

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 10:16 PM) The tragic number is 2 after tonight. Even Rudy from the Notre Dame movie would play the kids after tonight. OK, so you can quit when the tragic number is 2. Now tell me when it is OK not to run out ground balls, pop ups, or dropped third strikes. I didn't say the Sox's odds are good, but the rule should be: keep trying until you are called out.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 10:14 PM) That was BS MLB.com is going to have to modify their Gameday pitch strike zone feature so that when the ump blows a called strike call (like the 2nd strike on AJ), it shows the ball being somewhere close to the zone.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 23, 2009 -> 09:54 PM) Considering the only thing we are playing for right now is 2010, why not let the kid hit. You run out every ground ball. You run out every pop fly. You run to first if you don't think the catcher caught strike three. And you play every game to win, until you are mathematically eliminated.

Thank you, JD. Now Punto won't be the Feldco Star of the Game.

****ing Punto. It's an embarrassment to the sport of baseball that the Twins have this .229 weak-hitting shrimp on a major league roster. The only bigger embarrassment is that we keep letting Punto beat us. All he can do is foul of pitches to work a walk, run the bases, and hit bloopers. So what do we let him do? We walk him, let him run the bases, and hit bloopers. 2 runs scored and 3 batted in - he's the difference tonight, not Mauer, not Kubel, not Cuddyer. When will we learn that we should position our outfielders about 50 feet behind the edge of the inflield. I have never seen Punto hit a ball over an outfielder's head, but we've sure seen plenty bloopers that have just fallen in front of our outfielders.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Sep 22, 2009 -> 02:55 AM) OMG its sick how correct you are. Beware these stats are ridiculously pathetic for a major league veteran. Scott Linebrink 2009 Pre All Star: 1.93 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .242 BA, 12BB, 32K Scott Linebrink 2009 Post All Star: 7.84 ERA, 2.18 WHIP, .370 BA, 11BB, 21K Scott Linebrink 2008 Pre All Star: 2.37 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, .207 BA, 6 BB, 32K Scott Linebrink 2008 Post All Star: 9.72 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, .343 BA, 3 BB, 8K Scott Linebrink 2007 Pre All Star: 2.52 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, .219 BA, 11BB, 22K Scott Linebrink 2007 Post All Star: 5.23 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, .293 BA, 14 BB, 28K His splits have gotton worse over the years. I cant actually believe he was ever regarded as a solid setup man with that kind of inconsistency. This proves he can never be counted on in the 2nd half of the year, he will never help you make a pennant run, he will most likely destroy it. The only explanation I can really come up with is that he physically hits a break wall after about 40 IP. Not sure if his stuff physically gets worse, loses velocity, develops arm fatigue, etc. Its really mind boggling. So we keep Linebrink for 2010, and trade him midyear to a team that doesn't know these stats ;-)

Hudson wasn't the problem last night - it's impossible to win without scoring at least one run. Hudson had a decent but not spectacular outing. On the positive side, if the defense and his control had been better, he could have escaped with no runs. On the negative side, he committed a serious 2-base error to put a leadoff batter (O-Cab) on, he threw too many pitches and didn't go deep, and he walked too many, including Punto (twice!). If he had been a vet, he probably would have gotten a tongue-lashing from Coop or Ozzie after the first Punto walk: "He's batting .220 and can barely hit the ball out of the infield - throw him strikes and make him put it in play!" or "Kid, you're in the majors now - it's OK to walk 'Pu-jols' if the situation is right, but not 'Pu-nto'!"

I've got my Rally Rios. A great philosopher of the national pastime once said: It ain't over till it's over. We'll be six out after KC takes care of Detroit this afternoon. Then we need: -- the Twinkies to bring Detroit down further in the standings -- a great homestand, including 2 or 3 wins vs. the Twinkies -- 5 or 6 wins overall against Detroit -- no let-down in Cleveland -- Another Game 163 blackout victory!

Awesome win. The Sox really battled hard. Scottie Pods was great, as was Danks. Those two guys are playing hard, no matter what the standings, score or what the pundits say. Would have loved to hear Hawk's call on the third-strike-that-wasn't-called on the leadoff Angels batter in the bottom of the ninth, and the checked-swing-that-wasn't in the bottom of the tenth. Sox almost got screwed by the umps, but they hung tough and pulled it out. Great win-preserving dive by Alexei - that's where his range at shortstop really pays off. The Sox are following the mantra "Keep Hope Alive!". Second place and rising. C'mon Detroit, choke!

We do need to hope the Vikings get a new stadium also. We need the Twinkiedome to be destroyed. The last thing we want to have happen is for the Twins to move games from Target to the dome if it rains or is cold, claiming "inclement weather". Or, maybe we can get Selig to issue a ruling decommissioning the Twinkiedome forever for major league baseball. It truly is a subpar facility. Selig tried to contract the Twins out of Minneapolis as a threat to get Target built, so maybe he'll follow through and decommission the Twinkiedome.

No more Twinkiedome! Baseball as God intended in MN. I hope Opening Week at Target gets snowed out. The Piranhas are going to freeze in their new pond.

BLOW IT UP!!! BLOW IT UP!!! Thank you, White Sox, I knew you could do it!

C'mon Bobby! Don't pull a Nathan.

4 earned runs, a blown save and a probable loss for Nathan, plus the indignity of getting pulled by Gardy in the ninth. I love it! Hopefully this carries over into future games for Nathan.

Gardy sends Nathan to the showers...c'mon Alexei - tag him with the loss!