This article was written by Cowley who I think is one of the best in the biz at covering the Sox. Coop comments on a quote that Garland made about the staff being fatigued (in general I thought Garland was talking about the team, but I guess Coop took it another way).

 

I really liked Coop's quotes and the firey way he approached the subject. I don't like teams or players making excuses (not that I'm saying Garland is, afterall, he is pitching well right now) and I prefer that they either admit they stink and need to do things better or forget the admitting part and just go out and prove that things are gonna be better.

 

Here's a link to the article and some of my favorite quotes from Coop:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-sside20.html

 

"I'm pretty sure it's fatigue, definitely,'' Sox pitcher Jon Garland said over the weekend when asked about the starters' inconsistency the last few weeks. "There's no way around it. It's going to happen over time.''

 

Not on Cooper's watch.

 

"Well, then that's on Garland,'' Cooper said Wednesday. "We aren't going to buy that. I'm not buying that. Fatigue, my [butt]. You've got about 13 starts left this season. You're getting paid an awful amount of money to go out there and get the job done.

 

"With coming off a championship and salaries the way they are, you've got to take more responsibility. If the word 'fatigue' comes out of anyone's mouth, it's a crutch. That's all it is.''

 

The great pitching staffs in baseball have had guys with over 200 innings every year,'' Cooper said. "Who is to think that we can't be great? We have every opportunity to do that. You have to allow for some inefficiency at times because I don't know of any team that has an individual pitcher go through an entire season without a spell. I would like to think that our spells are behind us.

 

"I'm not going to accept crutches. Bottom line is we have work ahead of us. How can I not believe that they are capable after what they showed us last year? Even when we were up 15 games and started to slide, we had to dig in and go again. Then came the ALDS, ALCS and World Series, and look what we did there.''

Fatigued for the whole season eh?

I agree with a lot of what Coop said. Obviously pitchers go through dry spells, but like the saying goes, "Excuses are like assholes, they all stink." There's only so much a coaching staff can do, judging from these comments, I'm getting the vibe that everyone on the staff has done all of that. There comes a point in time where players have to take things into their own hands. If things continue on this path for the starters, I think the rotation should be shuffled. Drop a guy into the bullpen and pull McCarthy in. If they complain, get out of town. 11 million dollars is a lot to pay a player, but it's even more to pay when they lose you more ball games then they win.

 

EDIT: Is there a swear filter now?

 

I kind of want to see how it works. Eat my spiff you mother fishing son of a beach horse licking whoo whoo sucker.

Edited July 22, 200619 yr by BobDylan

I don't know if it's quite ironic, but I find it amusing that Garland is our only pitcher that can win right now. I used to avoid watching games he started and now I wish he could pitch every day.

Anyone think that Garland's comment may be a bit of a critique towards Ozzie? I know I have (and I'm sure others have too) put the idea out there that Ozzie overworked his starters early in the season to avoid the bullpen. It would not surprise me to know that some of the pitching staff was a bit ticked that they were left out there a bit too long in certain games

I don't think so. How many starting pitchers actually like being taken out of a game?

I don't think so. How many starting pitchers actually like being taken out of a game?

 

I'm sure there are plenty. If you know you don't have enough left to get the remaining outs - would you want to then give up the go-ahead run?

Fatigue isn't the problem, all the other teams play the same number of games.

It is a BS excuse. The Sox played exactly 11 extra games last year. Contreras made the most starts and he's not fatigued. Garland talking about fatigue? He didn't even pitch against Boston.

It is a BS excuse.

 

Leave it to Garland to give us one of these excuses. He has a history of them.

Yep Hawk, there's not a negative atmosphere surrounding the team.

You know, I don't think it's as much as a BS argument as you think. I remember reading somewhere that the White Sox starters have pitched more innings than any other team this season. I was finally able to find the stat which supported that point, I went to espn.com and looked under pitching stats for 2006, when I apply the "as starter" filter, I found what I was looking for: the White Sox lead the major leagues in innings pitched by starting pitching at 606.2 innings. They also lead the majors in innings pitched in 2005 interestingly enough during the regular season.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...amp;season=2006

 

Is it significantly different from other teams? Maybe not, but I wouldn't toss Jon's statement off as BS.