kitekrazy

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 17, 2010 -> 07:37 AM) Really?? That would kinda suck. I would laugh and laugh if that haunts the Sox more than the Thome walk off HR of 2010. I will call it the Larussa effect. Managers get too much credit and blame for what happens on the field.

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 10:42 PM) This whole, "at least we're not the Royals" sentiment is depressing. We will be if Kenny gets more of those Royal players.

QUOTE (CQMVP @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:48 PM) Kenny is just average. There's really no other way to put it. For every good move he makes, you have a Kotsay, Linebrink, Manny, Teahen, etc. It is what it is. Our organization is nothing more than average, from top to bottom. Our scouting is, arguably, below average. I mean, the Sox just don't develop major league talent, and it's pretty f***ing sad. Even teams that finish in the top 8 year after year develop major league talent, despite their poor draft positions. There's just no excuse for it. We have to start at the beginning and work our way up. The biggest, most glaring problem this team has, is our scouting staff and minor league development. It's just downright brutal. Reminds me of the Bears and Jerry Angelo. The scouting dept. might be getting better. Good organizations hit more on their top pick. Beckham has been productive in a short time, so has Sale.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:37 PM) Did they laugh at us in the locker room? I doubt it. That's fans' misconception that big league ball players treat opposing teams like high school rivalries. They are probably more relieved that it's a lot more difficult for that same team to come back again when they were 9 out early in the season.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Sep 17, 2010 -> 12:03 AM) It's bad enough our TV announcer and our manager can't stop fawning over them whenever the Sox are about to face them. Maybe that's why the Sox never beat them -- they're mentally beaten before they begin every series against them. I doubt it.

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:55 PM) I think the white sox have played harder than they have in years past, but I never like a team that comes into games already defeated. You can't tell me that one player on that team actually thinks that they will beat the twins on a given night. That's why, as much as I like them, maybe getting rid of guys like Konerko, Buehrle, AJP and Jenks will turn over a new leaf in the locker room. The team just needs to go in a different direction and you can;'t tell me that going into next season anyone on the team will actually believe that they can beat the twins. It's an uphill battle How about beating the Royals, Indians and Orioles? I could care less if they beat the Twins or not as long as they have the most wins in the division. Buehrle has a winning record against the Twins. Floyd has gotten worse. Danks might be more of a victim of losing to the Twins before he steps on the mound.

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:47 PM) This. Not to mention it seems they hustle on groundball outs (I remember Span, I think it was Span was benched for not running out a grounder, something we see most of our players not doing) they don't beat themselves with errors too often, they don't run into outs and know the situation on when to bunt and when not to bunt, etc.. etc.. They play the game of baseball beautifully. Is this the same guy that also played too shallow in CF a few years back?

QUOTE (mcgrad70 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:40 PM) Ramirez will have 60 errors at shortstop without a good defensive first baseman He'll suck with Teahan at 3rd as well.

QUOTE (mcgrad70 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:42 PM) The White Sox are not mentally tough. What is mentally tough?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:39 PM) Hope so. I'd think our roller coaster season would wear on any player who truly cares. And Konerko obviously cares. Tonight's getting hit in the face proves that, homering in his next at bat. Wow. Not really. They were still playing some meaningful baseball this month. I think any player would want that and I'm sure the team wants to win 90. That would be some momentum for them going into next year. I hope that happens since I thought they would only win 78 games.

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:33 PM) The twins play hard every night. We don't. The Twins never concede an inning during the season. We concede many. The Twins play the game hard all the time and do anything in their power to win (whether you believe it's cheap or not). If AJ didn;t like what Delmon Young did he should have punched in the face right then and there. They make their own luck by never giving anything away. They never believe that they are out of a game, and in return, their fans get to appreciate baseball after 162 games are played. Unfortunately we rarely do. The Twins don't beat themselves very often. The Sox do this or play down to the lower level of competition.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 11:20 PM) I tend to agree. I wonder if Paulie may want out. That is a real possibility. We don't know what it's been like for the players the last 2 weird seasons. He may be begging for a change of scenery, though he'd never say that. I doubt it. Players really don't think like fans. Players don't like leaving an organization they played for most of their career. He'll be back.

I love how someone in the pen eventually ruins the hopes of a comeback.

With all of those walks you'd think they are afraid of Manny.

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 07:41 PM) The championship is great and will always be great but if we made the playoffs 8 out of every 10 years, our odds wold be greater of getting hot in the playoffs and winning a championship. As much as I love the title, I want to still be interested in baseball in September and October. Howz that been workin for the Twins?

QUOTE (Butter Parque @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 07:48 PM) Give me a reason to be optimistic We are going to petition to have Selig put the Sox in the NL, Cubs in the AL.

Funny how the bottom end of the Twins order hurts the Sox.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 02:10 PM) When did I make some sweeping declarative statement about "every team?" I was referring to how the White Sox are all too willing to hope for a handful of gambrels to work out every year, rather then shore up every position with guys capable of at least producing league-average production. He's had a decent success rate. It would be easier if he had the Yankees job. This year wasn't his best or the worst. He miffed on Teahan so far but was replaced by signing Omar. Maybe Teahan was a short term solution at 3rd to begin with. Jones/Kotsay hasn't worked out but they are still winning games more games than last year. I still get a laugh over the Peavy trade since everyone assumed he would be a Cub. I never thought the 2005 team before the season started would turn out with a ring. Never. I thought 2006 would be a repeat WS. It wasn't. There are some still in the boat claiming trading Rowand was one of the worst moves by Kenny. It would be easy to say go get Beltre but you have to outbid and JR doesn't like long term deals. I can't blame him either.

QUOTE (chisoxt @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) "The day Kenny Williams took over as GM of the Chicago White Sox, he had scheduled his first 365 days. It wasn’t a firm schedule, understand. He wants to make that clear. He always had the freedom to back away from it, go do something else, and he did back away plenty. “I’m not rigid about it,” he says. “I’m really not.” Which day out of that 365 did the schedule say...Get up...Get Dressed...Check Messages...Make bad Todd Ritchie deal? LOL! Some would think the organization had GM for a day and Ozzie got the winning ticket to be GM for a day and there went Thome. Ozzies didn't get the memo that you only sit at the desk and take phone calls only from telemarketers.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 01:59 PM) Didn't tell me much. He loves the Raiders and sort of wants to work for them. I say go for it. I'd think Davis would hire him when he reads it. If he wanted to win he would have to get use to drafting and keeping a team from getting old to maintain a winning atmoshpere. The Redskin have tried the MLB model of building teams and always fail. Angelo works the way Kenny does but it more of a risk in the NFL.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 01:14 PM) You're not going to be able to accomplish it every year, but why not shoot for it? Just seems too often we go into a season with a roster that, if everything goes as expected, is only an 85 win team. And while "85-games and pray we do better" may seem a reasonable objective for teams that spend less money than we do... it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that we should aim higher. I believe if you go into a season thinking you have to win 95 games to compete, you design a roster differently than you do to win 85 games. IMO, teams that are designed to win 95 games have to be less tolerant of mediocre performance than we've been. For example, a team trying to win 95 games is more likely to go after Adrian Beltre to play 3B than Mark Teahen.... wouldn't have gone into the season with two guys on the downside of their careers as a DH platoon, etc. Yeah, I know there are many discussions/arguments about how and why decisions got made... and how things could have been done differently. But I can't help but think we might have done things differently if we approached the problem as if we "had to" win 95 games to compete. The downside is some GMs who try to win 95 games can get stuck with bad contracts they can't move. Look no further across town. Sure the Yankees can eat some of their own bad contracts but more often than not, the guys they put on the field go out there and play. I don't know what it is but you don't run across a lot of guys who have they attitude they got paid like a Cedric Benson. It could be there is very little forgiveness from the fans and media or maybe wearing the same uniform the legends wore. Plus injuries are part of the game. Getting Peavy could be an attempt to win 95 games but he got hurt.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) Dear KW, Next year, please try to put together a roster that looks like it could win 95 games... Rather than your usual approach of putting together a roster designed to win 85 games, and hoping that - you catch lightning in a bottle - some burned out retread reverts back to their glory days - the team plays above expectations, - and/or that other teams (particularly the Twins) under-perform With the amount of payroll you have to work with, this doesn't seem like an unfair request, does it? Regards, S Watch the Twins win 97. 95 should be good enough for the wildcard. 90 wins won't cut it anymore. Wasn't it in 2006 everyone thought Tigers were going to run away with the division and here comes the Twins.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) Your conclusion that more giving up outs hasn't really hurt doesn't follow from the data one bit. If hypothetically we had a significantly better overall team this year than last, but we lost 2-3 games because of foolishly bad baserunning mistakes and giving up too many outs, the team's record could easily still improve. Furthermore...you quoted Thome and Dye's raw power and RBI numbers...while ignoring things like how much JD struggled in the 2nd half of last year...and the fact that some of that production was replaced by bringing in Andruw Jones and a better season from Alex Rios. It wasn't suppose to. I wanted to try to smash the square peg into a round hole like others around here. You did well in following up with the 2-3 games we lost. Let's cherry pick, shall we? How many games did we win with aggressive base running?

QUOTE (JoeBatterz @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 12:41 PM) I don't mind keeping them both. If you want to replace, tell me who is going to replace them and how they will be an improvement. Most people confuse different with better. It still comes down to the 25 man roster. I wonder what a Twins board was like when the Sox took over 1st when their team held that spot for some time? I doubt they are any different than most sports fans. I'm sure there are fans who think Gardenhire can't take the team to the next level. A prophet is never favored in their own town. I've even read where Pats fans wanted to trade Tom Brady after their playoff beating. I think there's a lot of over reaction. I could understand it if the Sox held 1st place most of the season. They didn't. If the Twins are out in the 1st round, it would be interesting to see their reactions.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 09:56 AM) Nothing like zero accountability. I guess if you want to go that route, they both stay. Team will win more game this season than last, without the production of two guys who produced a total of 51 HRs, 156 RBIs. They will come close to matching last year's production. So more stealing, bunting, giving up outs hasn't really hurt. The only thing that hurts is the team in your division is playing extremely high winning percentage since the ASB. On paper it appears Danks is improving but you have to question his mental makeup. Floyd is getting worse. The biggest improvement has been the fielding. Steve Rosenbloom made a good point about ignoring the health of the pen and let the pitchers play doctor. I'd still like to have those 5 games back the pen blew.