DBAHO

Oh god how I want to come back to America. That deep dish Pizza looked GOOD.

Lonelygirl15 speaks out;

Let's have a look at why we've faltered this month. So far we're 6-9 this month. We've faced KC, Bos, Cle, LAA and the A's. We've scored 64 runs in those 15 games (average of 4.267). In only 4 of those games though have we scored more than 6 runs. We've conceeded 67 runs in those 15 games. In only 4 of those games have we conceeded less than 3 runs. As a team we average 5.51 runs a game (before today I assume, stats taken from HardballTimes). So we've average 1.25 less runs this month. Put simply the offense hasn't gotten the job done this month. Let's look at the hitters splits for this month (albeit it's a very small sample size); Podsednik - .250/.270/.250 Iguchi - .362/.474/.511 Dye - .260/.321/.500 Thome - .227/.386/.455 Konerko - .367/.441/.612 Pierzynski - .233/.250/.349 (Post ASB OPS of .674) Crede - .268/.318/.390 Mackowiak - .222/.250/.389 Uribe - .163/.163/.349 So I'm counting Pods, Thome, Pierzynski, Mack and Uribe as 4 hitters who aren't doing good, while we've come to expect better from Dye and Crede as well. Pierzynski is an interesting one. A lot of people are talking about replacing Uribe and Thome etc. but I didn't realize his hitting has been as bad as it has. The hard thing though is find a better replacement for him, because it's real hard to find a good catcher.

The issue with trading Thome is this. KW's trying to win now. He's not going to trade Thome for prospects to rebuild the system. The only way I could see Thome getting deal is if you got a younger 1st baseman and a stud SP prospect in a deal.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Sep 17, 2006 -> 11:37 AM) In retrospect, I'd rather have had last year's team and made no changes. Our new bullpen is not good. 1. Imagine if we had the same team as last season. With the way we have pitched, we'd be a .500 team. 2. Politte and Cotts have regressed, and Hermanson's been injured. That's 3 key 8th/9th inning guys from last season that we haven't had pitch well. KW's done well just to pick up Thornton, MacDougal and Riske for a 4th OF, 2 prospects and a journeyman lefty.

QUOTE(caffeinated @ Sep 17, 2006 -> 10:34 AM) My mistake, I didn't realize that we had such a big problem last year. Thanks goodness we fixed it. I didn't know Frank can't hit against righties. Someone should tell Javier Vasquez too. 1. Who would have thought Frank Thomas would rebound so much with being such a huge injury risk? 2. Thomas has a .941 OPS against righties this season. Thome has a 1.188 OPS against righties. 3. Last year as a team we major weakness as a hitting team was that we couldn't hit righties at all, and we hit lefties better. Now that's changed even though Thome has a better OPS than what Carl Everett put up against lefties last season.

Anything can happen still, but the next 5 games are absolutely crucial. You'd think we'd have to win 3 or 4 MINIMUM to have any sort of chance of picking up a playoff birth. And last night was just very disappointing for me since we had the favorable pitching matchup. The heart of the order just didn't get the job done at all. But in no way have I given up hope at all.

First the article from the Daily Herald; Now I mean IF Garcia were to regain his fastball, he could very well improve next season, and if the Sox traded him now, they may not get full value for him. Do you still trade him and get less, than say if you traded a Buehrle or Contreras instead? These are the type of questions KW needs to be asking himself right now.

Greg is Freddy Garcia this season a better pitcher than Kevin Millwood was last season because he has a 14-9 record compared to a 9-11 record that Millwood had for the Tribe last season?

QUOTE(greg775 @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 05:54 PM) And the revamping of the bullpen DID NOT WORK as well as whatever happened to our starters for six weeks. That would be because we didn't have Dustin Hermanson this season, and that Cotts and Politte have both regressed. That's 3 key guys we had pitching in the 8th/9th innings of ballgames in the majority of last season. KW's done well just to pick up MacDougal and Riske for a couple of prospects and a journeyman lefty.

Thome was acquired because we need a power lefty bat to hit right handed pitchers. Has that train of thought suddenly changed all of a sudden? Do we want to bring back the days of Crazy Carl Everett?

And then this;

Safe to say I don't think we'll be seeing a Free Trade Agreement b/w the US and China anytime soon.

I gotta say just lookin at some pictures of Hot Dogs, they just OOZE healthy eating; Now I wanna see Tony's pic of the Super Dog from ST in Tucson again.

You have to remember, it's not like Young would be moving from a hitters park to a pitchers park if he was traded to us. Looks like he's suffered from what Texiera has this season as well, hitting less HR's but more doubles. His GPA has decreased from .288 to .254 this season, so maybe Texas could actually be open to dealing him. He's been hitting .381 with RISP as well FWIW.

QUOTE(SnB @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 12:24 AM) you're all communists You know you want one. We also call them Sausages down here BTW.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 10:38 PM) The problem is without drastic moves, this team IS history in Chicago. And that's really just sad. Because you know if a new owner came in, and things such as local TV blackouts changed, this team could get big, really big. It's really a sleeping giant that may never wake up.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 12:17 AM) I only have ketchup on my dogs. ^^. We call it Tomato Sauce down here, but whatever works.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 09:46 PM) Ha, that ain't happening but yes, I'd say that sounds pretty good. Jon Daniels would want some good young SP I would imagine, even though they have a couple of good ones already. Pitching's always been a major problem down at Texas. They'd love a guy like McCullough since he went to Texas, but he'd have to be a PTBNL wouldn't he since he's not on the 40 man? Or someone like Broadway maybe. I'd say there's something to work with there possibly, if Kenny decided to go down that route.

Would put it in the Off-Season Thread, but I think it deserves a Thread of its own cos it's very interesting; Doesn't Michael Young for Garcia and Uribe sound good now?

I was going to say Tampa since he's from there, but they are pretty loaded at the OF/DH position. Maybe a team like Kansas City or Seattle would give him a chance?

I suppose with Uribe, the fact that he has gotten worse offensively over a 3 year period is a major cause for concern. I mean Ozzie goes off at Brian Anderson with how he has hit, yet he's in his 1st major league season. Shouldn't Uribe get the same treatment, or is that because he's got the experience at the major league level?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 03:53 PM) DBAH0, come on man...Pods is horrible out there too. The upgrade Gload would provide offensively would be worth any loss on defense. I know man, but the issue is this. If you play Gload over Pods in LF against RHP, who's going to lead off? You'd have to play Sweeney over Anderson in CF, and let Sweeney leadoff, when he's probably not ready to do so, as most people would know. Gload's never going to leadoff or Mack, even though they have good numbers, because they don't have speed, and that's what Ozzie wants for the top of the lineup.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 15, 2006 -> 03:49 PM) Lies, you know deep down inside, you want his 5.09 ERA and 33 homers allowed. You know you want it. Wasn't that a brutal trade for Theo Epstein or what. Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez say hi Rowand BTW.

Because Gload doesn't have speed, he's never going to see any part of a LF rotation. That's the only thing that really keeps Pods in the lineup I would say. Plus his defensive ability ain't good out there, which is why you see the likes of Sweeney getting a game in the OF before him now.