DBAHO

Wow. Our bullpen is just in shambles right now.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 11:51 AM) Minnesota leads Detroit 4-2 in the 9th. Rodney's imploding at this point. That ERA would almost be up around the 4.00 mark now.

Good chance here with Jermaine up against a lefty. Let's get something going here.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 11:47 AM) Score one please, Freddy will give up another solo shot, so we could use a run here at least. Freddy's only at 75 pitches. Usually the Yanks are a lot more patient team than that. But there's no doubt he'll be back put for the 7th I'd say knowing Ozzie.

QUOTE(WSoxMatt @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 11:46 AM) Remember when a guy would be traded from the NL to the AL and his stats would start from 0...when did this change..I noticed Wilson officially gets credit for #14, but #1 in the AL Quite insane that the Yanks only had to give up Shawn Chacon for him. Dave Littlefield is just a HORRIBLE GM.

Guys let's just keep it civil and focus on the game here.

Let's see if he can actually get Bobby out here.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 11:37 PM) The confidence factor might be a good argument, but the Sox starters are all veterans, and should be able to handle being yanked out of a game. If their confidence is shattered or their feelings hurt, they need to be moved to another team in the offseason. The White Sox need to win games, not make sure everyone's feelings are OK. Its 3 times in the last week Ozzie gave a different member of the the greatest rotation ever assembled the benefit of the doubt and left him in the game. Its also been 3 times this week that the decision to leave his starter in has backfired. Lets try something new. Leaving them in isn't working. We hear about the playoffs and the WBC taking its toll on White Sox starters. If thats the case, why have White Sox starters pitched more innings than any other team's starters? It makes no sense. You remember that quote Ozzie gave when he 1st started here about only wanting the 5 starters and 1 closer. Looks like he's sort of living and dying by that right now isn't he. You hear rotoworld bash Terry Francona every chance they get for his usage of the Red Sox pen, for leaving a guy in too long. Well it's sort of the same situation here with Ozzie and the starters. Look right now our starters obviously ain't gettin the job done. But I still think there's a good chance the both Buehrle and Vazquez will be pitching better by the end of the season. Why have we pitched more innings with our SP than any other team? I can't really explain that. Different pitchers have been hot and cold during various times during the season. I suppose even when a guy like Freddy or Mark isn't hot, Ozzie still wants them to go 6 innings. Unfortunately most time more often than not, that 6th inning is becoming a real killer. There's also the question of whether the BP could be doing better if they were given more regular work. It's really the major issue that is facing this team right now, and I think this season has all showed us that one how lucky we were last season to get what we got from our starters and two how pitching can fluctuate som much from season to season.

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 11:26 PM) MAYBE, but then maybe we have 4 or 5 more victories. Maybe the team rides the starting pitchers "rut" out, and they start pitching better where next time around, I dont have to use the BP so early? What about the argument that if you drag the SP earlier, it'll be harder for them to pitch better in the future, because it shows that you don't have the confidence in them to go more than say 5 innings? It's a fine balancing act though, and one that this team really needs to figure out, and in a hurry.

QUOTE(Hangar18 @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 10:57 PM) BANNED! Just kidding. You make a good point, the bar has been raised for this team and RIGHTLY SO. What has happened however, is that a very very good AL got even better, so the SOX actually have to raise the bar just a bit higher....................which we know now they werent able to do. My consolation is the SOX will go in the offseason and bolster the bullpen this time around instead of rolling the dice as they did in the offseason. Another very solid starter will help too, perhaps this is the year Buehrle heads to the NL. The SOX will have to know they cant just give games away like candy anymore ............ Honestly I just think people are going to have to be realistic over the next 5 seasons. We're not automatically going to make the playoffs every season. Just look at the teams in our division; Minny - Fantastic young pitching, and their young hitters like Morneau and Bartlett are starting to rake. They worry me the most. Detroit - We've seen what they are capable of. Just wait until they bring Andrew Miller into the rotation, and you know Mike Illitch will keep spending in the FA market. Cleveland - Yes they've sucked this season, but for the people who actually looked at their situation in terms of the pitchers who had left (Millwood, Riske, Rhodes and Howry) their slide was probably to be expected. BUT, Jeremy Sowers has come in and pitched very well so far, and Adam Miller is rebounding in the minors. No doubt Shapiro will try to uograde the pen this off-season, and they'll be back contending next season for the division title I would think. There's no doubt KW will target possibly 1, probably 2 bullpen guys this off-season. But the core is their in Jenks, Cotts, Thornton and MacDougall for a dominant pen. Those guys just need to be pitching to the levels that they are capable of, and to stay injury free. Don't think Buehrle will be headed anywhere soon. Unless of course the Cardinals wanted to offer us a package included Reyes and Wainwright, which would be awfully tempting. And we could just nab Mark Mulder in FA this off-season to fill a rotation spot. QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 09:13 PM) No, I wouldn't automatically take Vazquez out at the beginning of the 6th inning, but given how poorly he's pitched and how frequently he's imploded in the middle innings, you have to give him a very short leash in the sixth inning. Ozzie hasn't done so. He's waited and waited until Vazquez has gotten into serious trouble, and then he's left Vazquez in, in the hopes that he'll work his way out of it. Of course, Vazquez almost always fails. Well if Vazquez pitches as well as he did last start for the rest of the season, you could look at those times when Ozzie left him in, and kept having confidence in him as a big turning point. Hopefully, with Javy's new arm angle and keeping that leg kick high in the later innings, he can start pitching to the levels that he's capable of.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 09:24 PM) I'm not focusing blame upon Williams. Blame would fall entirely on the rotation for failing to achieve expectations. However, next season he can't leave everything as it currently stands. I trust him to move Garcia and insert McCarthy into the starting rotation. For Thome, trading Haigwood/Gonzalez/Rowand could be considered overpaying, but Thome has a proven trackrecord of success. How often do you recall me mentioning either Haigwood or Gonzalez? Including Young for Vazquez and Lumsden for MacDougal are moves I'd qualify as reinforcing "win-now" attitude. A belief in which the cliche "prospects are prospects" is so readily thrown around. I know you love Lumsden, but I actually like Gonzalez better as a prospect, but that's JMHO. I'd wouldn't 100% classify the MacDougall trade as a "win now" type of trade, you got to remember we'll control Mike's rights until 2009. And that's the important thing you have to remember with the veterans KW trades for, they're usually locked up and won't be 1 year rentals. So thar affords you a little time in re-building your system, and then either using those prospects as trade bait and re-doing the whole process again, or mixing in the young players gradually into the mix. And I think KW's doing quite a bit of both. You'll see Sweeney and Fields on this team in the next 1 to 2 seasons, and possibly a Lance Broadway into the rotation. But you know Kenny, if we don't make the playoffs, you know he's not going to sit on his hands and do nothing this off-season. Think big, I'm talking Roy Oswalt for Jermaine Dye type of deal big here.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 08:25 PM) Here is the Sox Runs Scored and Runs Allowed by inning for their last 25 games (9-16 record): Sox pitching is getting destroyed in the 1st, 4th, 6th, and 7th innings. The Relief pitching hasn't been much better than the starting picthing either. In the last 25 games the Starting Pitching ERA is 5.46 and the Relief Pitching is 5.01. That does not account for the inherited runners which would make the two pretty close. Hence why Ozzie probably doesn't have a lot of confidence in his bullpen right now. Hopefully the likes of Jenks and Cotts can turn around their mini slumps and get back to where they were pitching last season.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 08:29 PM) I am so tired of this argument. No, it is not Ozzie's fault that the starting pitchers are pitching worse this year. But he is exacerbating their negative effect on the team by leaving them in long enough to make sure they have time to get shelled. Dozens of times this season a struggling Sox starter has gotten into the middle innings and started to collapse. Ignoring this, Ozzie has waited until the starter gave up a few runs in the middle innings before finally pulling the starter. Last night is a perfect example. Buehrle wasn't pitching well, but he was hanging in there. We were lucky that Buehrle made it through 6. Through that inning, he had 6ip and 3er. Then in the 7th, Buehrle gives up some hits and walks and Ozzie just sits on his hands until Buehrle has completely imploded. OZZIE turned a mediocre pitching performance into a complete failure. A moderately competent manager would have pulled Buehrle earlier and the bullpen would have given us a better chance to win. This is what Ozzie does. He has no idea how to handle a pitching staff and is managing to make the worst out of mediocre or poor pitching performances. What about the example of when Javier Vazquez made his last start. Do you want to automatically take him out at the beginning of the 6th inning, just because you think he's going to implode? And it's not like pitchers like Cotts for example have had a great recent record of getting the job done with runners left on base. But I will agree with you about last night's example with Buehrle. Given the fact he had given up 3 solo jacks prior, I think everyone could tell he certainly wasn't anywhere near his best last night. QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 08:45 PM) If we're unable to reach the post-season, I will not shrug my shoulders and commend us for winning 90-95 games yet failing to capture a playoff birth. No sympathetic gestures of, "oh well!!! gettem next year!! we can build off this club" will be mentioned under my name. It's failure anyway you rationalize it. Enhancing a World Series roster by bostering a stagnant offense and (supposedly) ungodly starting rotation should guarantee a playoff birth. Those were my expectations, as they currently are to this day. And don't reply, "nothing is guaranteed," because when a general manager constructs a ballclub at the expense of his system, and the overlying theme is "winning now," you damn well better win now. No excuses. How can those expectations be reached when your SP has pretty much just flat out not pitched to what they are capable of? KW has done his job in terms of enhancing the offense, now it's time for the pitching to pick up the slack. As for your expense of his system, tell Brandon McCarthy, Brian Anderson and Neal Cotts that. Would you still rather Gio, Rowand (who's hitting about .250 now BTW) and Haigwood still in our organization at the expense of Thome?

Some of you just have too high expectations for this team in general after what happened last season. There I said it. We're what 20 games over .500, yet people are criticising Ozzie for his managerial skills. Is it Ozzie's fault our SP's in Garcia have basically decided we won't throw as hard this season so we won't be as good? And a lot of the teams we're going to be facing in the A.L are pretty hot right now. You look at Anaheim, Detroit, Oakland, Minnesota, Boston and the Yankees they've all won the majority of their past 20 or so games. So it's not going to be easy to make the playoffs, and yet people will be calling for Ozzie's head and major changes if we don't do so. We could end up with around 90-95 wins and still not make it.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 03:13 AM) At my work the HR people are the hottest girls in the company. But half of them are that hyper-bubbly "AND HOW ARE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU TODAYYYYEEE???" kind of person that I cannot tolerate. So it's a good news/bad news kind of deal. You are 100% correct there in terms of the hyper bubbliness of the HR people. But if they're hot, I guess it ain't THAT bad.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 04:01 PM) What do you guys think the standard grieving time (in general) would be for the death of a dog that you were very attached to and had for 5 years would be? Just a basic estimation. At what point should a person be able to move on and accept a new dog into their life? I know all people and situations are different but what do you people think your or the average time would be? I don't there really is a "standard" time you can put on those things. Our cat passed away about 2 months back, and we still haven't really gotten over it, I still have a photo of him on my desk at work. These things are always really hard though because the pet is really an important member of the family.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 11:19 PM) I also heard a couple of starts ago, Farmer talked to Javy about his technique deteriorating as he tired, supposedly he wasn't getting a good high leg kick, and it was causing a lack of movement in his pitches, especially his curveball. That's quite an interesting little story in itself. I wonder if this will mean Javy will just abandon the curveball now in the later innings if he just starts to feel the pinch tiredness wise? If he can get that high leg kick going though, and he continues to throw the way he did in his last start, hopefully this won't be an issue.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 11:14 PM) Mostly the newer stuff of course. Dimension White Unicorn Woman Joker and the Thief etc. I was up in front, so I couldn't really tell if they had a big audience, but the reaction from those around me was most positive. Saw a few guys with Aussie flags, yelling wierd stuff in a funny accent. Probably some good old fashioned Aussie Slang I would imagine. Wolfmother are bascially Jet v2.0 happening all over again, in terms of making it in the States with their rock and roll type of music. Still a very good band though and they're pretty damn popular down here ATM.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 10:52 PM) Here we go again... Biggest US oilfield shutdown, 8% of capacity shuttered... Crude up $1.50BBP near records again Currently it's at $1.30-$1.40 a litre down here ATM. Our PM Howard said that he would like prices to get back down to around $1.15. Personally I think that's a load of BS, unless the Government decides to cut it's fuel tax (which it will never do because it generates so much revenue). So it comes back to the argument of Ethanol and Hybrid Engines again doesn't it.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 10:45 PM) I'd have to kill myself if I were an HR person. Some people have the personality for it, and then there are those of us who just can't stand anybody I get the feeling with HR people, you'd have to be pretty happy as a person if you wanted to work in that field. But there are just some people out there who like the whole people / interview thing. But I'd probably give myself a week or 2 max if I worked in H.R, before I worked elsewhere.

QUOTE(zenryan @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 04:06 PM) someone should set up an EPL fantasy league through yahoo I'd be up for that if we got enough interest. But anyways in bigger news, apparently Hernan Crespo has been sold to Inter Milan on a 2 year deal on a free transfer. BUT, Chelsea have the option to buy him back after a season. So someone like Fernando Torres or Dirk Kuyt could be headed for Chelsea now possibly?

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Aug 7, 2006 -> 01:47 PM) Wolfmother- very good, I thought some kid broke my toe. Flip flops are a bad idea when the pit breaks out around you. Do you know what songs they placed Los FWIW?

QUOTE(The Critic @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 06:16 AM) Human Resources And really not an industry I would like to get into, nor would many people I would have thought.

So I got a pretty freaky E-Mail at work today. One of my work mates and his girlfriend are currently on holday in El Salvador. He had a bad day, because his surf board had broke, and then he got ripped off by some locals for a supposedly new one, that was pretty much just glued and sticky taped back together. But then he went for a walk, and got involved in an "incident". 2 locals walked up, 1 tapped his pocket to make sure he had a wallet and was holding a knife, the other guy was yelling expletives in some sort of spanish to him and was holding a couple of large rocks. So he just ran basically, from the lookout spot he was at down to a beach that was covered with nothing with rocks. But then one of his sandals fell off so he had to go bare-foot, and when he turned around, the 2 guys were about 20m behind him, still chasing him. Luckily he got away, but it really makes you think about going to a place like that.

Saw this tonight; Do you think that's good value, would Podsednik get that much in arbitration, and which of the 2 would you prefer?