DBAHO

Keep the ball on the ground Jonny.

And we got to Loe eventually. Jon's only at 69 pitches after 5IP. He could easily go 7 or 8.

Jon's gotta keep his focus here.

Croatia are really going to make us earn 2nd spot in group F. I'll take a draw with them, and hope that they don't beat Japan by more than a 2 goal differential, so we can go through. Luckily for us, if we do make it, we'll be playing Italy or the Czech Republic in the 2nd round though.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Jun 13, 2006 -> 11:24 PM) I played baseball for the first time in forever on Sunday. I was able to snap off a few good hooks, so of course I got geeked and was throwing it every other pitch. My elbow feels like there's 50 hot needles poking through it. I think I need Tommy John surgery. Now you know how Kerry Wood feels. (Ok that was too predictable).

Jon pitched well against Texas in his last start against them. He'll need to do a much better job at keeping the ball in the park though, especially to those LH hitters like Wilkerson, Texeira etc. So it's important he gets that sinker working, otherwise it's probably going to be a long day. Luckily for us, Loe has been awful ever since we roughed him up.

South Korea playing Togo right now. Not really the type of game you'd really want to be watching, but Adebayor the Arsenal striker looks dangerous for Togo up front.

I think he'll end up at the Dodgers anyway. Ned Colletti wants to win now, and they have the prospects to get a deal done. Although if I was the Dodgers GM, I'd be hanging onto my prospects, because Ethier and Kemp are doing a fairly solid job for them.

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jun 13, 2006 -> 06:41 AM) Nothing about hawkins numbers are impressive. He is allowing too many hits against... when he his good years he would put up a good baa... now that he is getting hit there is no reason to waist time inquiring. We do not need more mediocore pitchers... especially at the price he will come at. One way or another a very good set-up man will need to be traded for before the deadline.... or we are in big troubles. Well I think you have to look at the situation that he's with a new team, and Leo Mazzone the new pitching coach hasn't had the effect the Baltimore hierachy were hoping for on that team's pitching. IIRC only the Royals or D-Rays have a higher ERA in the A.L this season. The thing I would be worried about with him though, he has a 6.97 ERA in 13 away games this season. That doesn't really bode well if he does move away from Camden. But he's a guy I could see having success here.

QUOTE(shoota @ Jun 13, 2006 -> 09:06 PM) We have different opinions on the definition of blowing up a team. I believe a team is blown up when its core fails and a team has a firesale to build for the future. Since I like the 2006 Sox's core, I only want 3 position upgrades (two of them being bullpen pitchers) and as I said above, only want upgraded starting pitching if Garland and Garcia can't return to last season's form. So depeding on the performances of Garland and Garcia, I'd only want to replace as few as 3 players for the stretch run. That's certainly not blowing up a team, IMO. Perhaps "retool" would be a more accurate compromise of tweak and blowing up. I think when you compare it to the current trade market, and look at last season's trade deadline that there were hardly any moves made at all, because all of the lower teams wanted really good talent, that's changing 20% of your team can probably be construed as "blowing it up". I mean how many teams have you seen in the past few seasons trade 5 of their major league players in the 1 season?

I remember a post Soxy made a few weeks back about her playing Tennis. Well I played for the 1st time today for about 3 years. And boy did it show. Great game though, especially when you are playing doubles.

It's pinned in the How Does It Work Forum. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=50558

I can understand SoxFan1's gripe a little, because the coverage we're getting down here is pretty good, they do have pre match, half time and full - time discussions etc. As for irish71's thoughts on getting a foreign attacking manager, I couldn't agree more. Guus Hiddink has single handledly changed the fortunes of Australian Soccer. Unfortunately, he's signed a 4 year deal to manage Russia after this World Cup, so we'll be losing him, and you won't be able to get him.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Jun 13, 2006 -> 01:01 AM) That was incredible. Japan got a BS goal in the 1st half against the run of play, but outplayed Australia in the 2nd half. This further proves that you can't sit on a 1 goal lead. Japan sat back with almost 20 minutes left and couldn't push it back forward once it was a tie game. It's possibly the dumbest tactic in soccer. So Cahill is now a God in Australia, right DBAH0? Oh yeah, Cahill's a national hero now. This is our first EVER win at a World Cup. You don't know how much this means to Australian Soccer. It's going to take off so much down here. If we get a draw against Croatia, we should make the 2nd round. We were going to get Japan eventually, you could definitely tell. Their goalie did a great job before the 3 goals, making numerous saves.

Oh man, BEST f***ING GAME of Soccer EVER!!!!! First of all, we deserved to win. Dominated possession all game, and had about 18 shots on goal. Japan threatened occasionally on the counter, but we did fairly well defensively I thought. Japan's goal was a FREAKIN joke. And if we had lost this game 1-0, I tell you there would be hell to pay. Schwarzer our goalie got barrelled into by a Japan striker, and the ref does nothing. You watch corners beforehand, if you touch the goalie it's a free kick. The referee's performance was awful. Didn't control the game well at all. But the turning point was the introduction of Tim Cahill and Josh Kennedy. Kennedy's a huge guy at sriker, and the Japanese defenders hated him in the air. Cahill scores goal reguarly for Everton in the EPL. Fantastic 2nd goal he scored. Oh man, we're going to be partying today Down Under (it's 1a.m here, and I gotta get up for work in 6 hours).

Australia vs. Japan kicks off in 20 mins. Biggest game in this country for at least 30+ years. AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE!!!!!

I had my 1st Uni Exam for the semester today. You've gotta love how sore your writing hand gets after writing about 8-10 pages in about 3 hours.

I think this team has shown in the last year and a half, you should NEVER give up on them, no matter what stage of the game it's in, and how much we're behind. We've had so many late inning comebacks, it almost seems like second nature to us, and it's great to know even if we're only behind by a run or 2, the guys swinging the bat can get that back and hit in the clutch.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) I was at the game and kind of shielded from the gun so someone else will have to fill you in about that. He's throwing about as hard as he threw last year though, his control just completely sucked last night. Every hitter seemed to have a 3-1 count and obviously that isn't going to work. Yeah I've read a lot recently about Ques Tec and the smaller strike zones. And that's probably why Garland is struggling a lot as well. Last season he was getting ahead in the count early, this season he's not. Hence he's behind a lot, and forced to throw in the zone later on in the count, and hitters are taking advantage of that for the longball.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 10:24 PM) Sidebar: IIRC Walt Hriniak lives in Texas, where the Sox are visiting. He gave Uribe a little 'seminar' last season that seemed to help. Perhaps he could spend a couple days with the team during this series. I know Walker is of the Hriniak style but sometimes it's good hear a different voice even if it's telling you the same thing. He and Walk get along very well so it certainly shouldn't hurt anything. Yeah a few people have suggested that for Juan. Maybe it'll happen later on in the season again like last year. If only Cintron was better defensively though, because he looks like he's back to where he was hitting wise earlier in his major league career.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 10:27 PM) Garcia's stuff isn't the problem right now, last night he just kept falling behind every hitter and when you do that you're going to get rocked, period. What was he throwing MPH wise last night? I didn't see the game, and the game thread didn't have much description on that.

I don't think anyone doubts this was going to happen to Freddy about a month back when he throwing the stuff he was. And really what's happened this month is quite weird for him, because usually he's the pitcher who absolutely thrives against high class opposition, while he has problems with teams he should put away easily like Kansas City. I think no doubt we're going to be able to find a taker for Garcia or Garland this off-season though, but it will depend on what KW wants in return. Teams in the NL like San Diego who need SP and have a pitchers park would be well advised to try and get one of these 2 on the cheap.

QUOTE(shoota @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:44 PM) It's not that I refuse to offer suggestions, but that I don't desire to put forth the effort to find a solution. Well what's the point in complaining, if you're not going to find an alternative that's better, and when people are always going to shoot down your complaints?

Please oh please let Rudy fall to #8; I don't know if Minny will let him slip by if he's available at #6 though. Looks like he ain't gonna crack the top 5 in any case.

Hopefully Ozzie keeps starting him more against righties now after that effort. The thing is, it'd actually be more beneficial now if we had a RHH OF backing him up, instead of Machowiak who's better against righties.