thoughts on yesterday

[kapkomet]

I was pretty busy, but I did look at the box scores and saw the highlights on the local news.

 

Here's some thoughts.

 

19 RUNS OVER THREE GAMES: the offesnse seemed to hit their stride a little. It's about damn time. Maybe this is enough to kick start us a little.

 

BMAC - I can't count how many people who were running around here saying he was going to get shelled, and he didn't deserve this start, etc etc etc... props to you, BMAC. His confidence has to be up because this is the team that had his number and he has to feel like the money is off his back.

 

FIRST TWO GAMES - Guys and gals, we had SIX errors. We will NOT win many games with six errors over two games. Elminiate those errors and we are probably going to win one of those two games.

 

As we've said many times, this team is built on defense and pitching. If we have six errors over two games, we won't win. We don't have any errors in game three, and we win 8-0. Mentally, the pitchers on this team do have trouble pitching over mistakes, and they get crushed on this board for it. That's one of the hardest things to do IMO as a pitcher. Yea, it's the major leagues, but teams at this level usually capitalize on mistakes.

 

BOTTOM LINE - I see some positives coming out of this series, sans the defense, which is paying attention to the little things. Get that focus back on the defense, and we're doing ok, especially at the plate.

 

There you go. You can debate it.

 

Kap

[Ozzie Montana]

My only question is the status of Neal Cotts. He pitched well in his two innings of work in the first game but it seemed like his back was hurting him and then AJ had to go to the mound and they took him out. Does anyone here know if he's okay and the severity of the problem?

Edited August 31, 2005 by Ozzie Montana

[ceffa2000]

If Neal Cotts back is hurting, can we get some custom made beds for our players to sleep on as they travel? Sheesh.

 

Cotts, Konerko, Hermie, Crede, who's next?

[southsideirish71]

For me the only question mark this year is the offense, how many runs we can score. The last month has been worse than I could of even predicted, and hell I was b****ing when we were hitting 250 as a team, 250 would be nice. The last time we hit like this was the Baltimore series. This is the approach they should take, not trying to do too much. Hit the ball up the middle, hit some line drives, not every run scored by the dong. It was a very refreshing display of our offense. Hopefully they dont go back to trying to hit dongs when they get back home.

 

I am not as worried as some have been with the starting pitching. We have racked up a lot of innings in the starting rotation, and its bound to affect them a bit. If they can start to go more on lowered pitch counts, and start to try and give our starters a bit more rest we should be ok.

 

Bmac what can you say, He looked like the pitcher in ST. He threw strikes and kept ahead. This was nice piece of pitching. What everyone forgets is Bmac is only 22 years old. And that he barely sniffed AA last year. So we are really talking about a pitcher one year removed from A. He looked good.

 

Our defense has been a bit crappy lately, but I blame more the grind of the season and the fact that they are looking ahead.

 

 

Lets see if the O can keep this up for more than a single day. If they can turn it on we will be fine.

[DBAHO]

It just showed how important Jermaine Dye is to this offense when he's on. Most of his homers have come to opposite field shots, so he's not exactly pulling the ball everytime he's up.

 

Blum seems to have fitted in nicely even though his offensive stats don't exactly wow ya, but he hits righties better than lefties, which is something we need more of. And although Uribe hasn't had good splits this month, most people think he's taking a lot more pitches, being patient and it will come around for him.

[fathom]

It just showed how important Jermaine Dye is to this offense when he's on. Most of his homers have come to opposite field shots, so he's not exactly pulling the ball everytime he's up.

 

Blum seems to have fitted in nicely even though his offensive stats don't exactly wow ya, but he hits righties better than lefties, which is something we need more of. And although Uribe hasn't had good splits this month, most people think he's taking a lot more pitches, being patient and it will come around for him.

 

We just need to get Iguchi back in a good frame of mine at the plate. I don't know much about his Japanese baseball career, but it seems to me like he's lost a lot of confidence at the plate, as well as in the field. I really wish that when we rest him, we let Ozuna fill in for him. Ozuna is playing this year the way we wanted Willie to play. Frequent contact, bunting, slap hits, and aggressive on the bases. And yes, Dye is the key to this offense. He's either really good, or really bad. The ball has really been flying off of his bat the last few games. Ozzie....Dye needs to play every game!

 

BTW, kudos to Ozzie for a good 2nd game lineup last night. I think a lot of us were nervous about what type of "Sunday" lineup he would throw out there. However, I get the sense that Ozzie really wanted to right the ship, and figured that there was no room to fool around.