Keep up your faith!

[Harry&JimmyRocked]

Fathom, negative will lead to NOTHING! Suck it up the bad times, and let's hope for the good times that will soon arrive.

 

 

well we know what you're doing. you got your head in the sand and you're hoping and praying instead of DEMANDING that this team start playing better and DEMANDING that kw makes the appropriate moves.

wish in one hand and crap in the other. see which one gets filled first.

[witesoxfan]

When the Sox were in the same situation with the Cleveland Indians right behind their tail, you probably had the same whining reaction. If this is Ozzie's job to redirect his team, let him do it, and stop your fishing whining.

 

Except that was a completely different scenario. Last year, there were really only 6 teams in the AL with a chance to make the playoffs, and the Sox had a pretty sizable lead over everyone as well as the best rotation in the majors. At it's very worst, the Sox were like 3-4 games up on a playoff spot.

 

This year, there are 6 teams between the AL East and Central that have a chance at making the playoffs, with only 3 being able to make it out of that group. Of those 6, the Sox seem to have, by far, the worst pitching of all of them right now(I have no stats backing me up, but that's about what it seems like). Comparing this year to last year is comparing apples to oranges.

 

 

That being said, one can only hope all this friggin trade speculation ends very shortly after the deadline, and that KW gets all the moves he needs to make done before the 31st. If the team has to deal with more rumors come August, it's going to be more struggles. I'd imagine it's hard to play period not knowing how secure your job is and not knowing what your team will look like 2 days from now. Minnesota's part of no trade rumors, and they're playing well. I wonder if a sense of security is part of the reason.

 

 

 

 

BTW, Wanne...that's about the last thing I want to see at 10 to 4.

[YASNY]

Wanne, don't post that picture on this board again.

[Steff]

Calm down, gramps.

 

This team needs to do many things to start winning again. The key is starting pitching. We've got 1 starting pitcher with an ERA under 4.50. If the starting pitching doesn't come around in a consistent way, we're cooked. Ozzie needs to do a better job of handling the SP's and the bullpen. The problem is that he doesn't know how to do it and I doubt he's going to learn any time soon. And of course the team needs more consistent hitting. Not just a few hits a game including a couple homers. That isn't going to get it done.

 

But I think one of the biggest problems is that this team doesn't have the fire in the belly to win quite enough. They don't show the hunger they had last year. They aren't fighting for it like they did last year. Ozzie needs to do something about that. That's his job.

 

 

For some reason I'm fighting the urge to make a diaper comment....

 

As for your post.. well no kidding the Sox need to make some changes.

 

As for your attack of the "stay positive" crowd, maybe you could just skip the threads that are clearly doing that if it bothers you so much.

[YASNY]

For some reason I'm fighting the urge to make a diaper comment....

 

As for your post.. well no kidding the Sox need to make some changes.

 

As for your attack of the "stay positive" crowd, maybe you could just skip the threads that are clearly doing that if it bothers you so much.

 

Don't you just love this kindof stuff?

[klaus kinski]

I am amazed at the fans in the park this year-obviously some band wagon fans booing and criticizing. The effort is there from the team, its decisions that are hurting. I would not boo unless someone didnt hustle, and I have not seen that. This team is Home Run crazy.

 

Try watching the Twins in BP-purposly hitting grounders & line drives-few fly outs and few home runs-of course we are not allowed in to see Sox BP, but I would bet its different.

[Kyyle23]

I am amazed at the fans in the park this year-obviously some band wagon fans booing and criticizing. The effort is there from the team, its decisions that are hurting. I would not boo unless someone didnt hustle, and I have not seen that. This team is Home Run crazy.

 

Try watching the Twins in BP-purposly hitting grounders & line drives-few fly outs and few home runs-of course we are not allowed in to see Sox BP, but I would bet its different.

 

So only bandwagon fans criticize and boo this team, and the Sox only try to hit homeruns, yet everyone hustles and the decisions are hurting the team.

 

 

Yep, I have no idea what you are talking about.

[fathom]

Try watching the Twins in BP-purposly hitting grounders & line drives-few fly outs and few home runs-of course we are not allowed in to see Sox BP, but I would bet its different.

 

I wonder how long this season Twins fans were saying "if only we had an offense like the White Sox". The Twins are just playing excellent baseball right now, and capitalizing on every chance they get. The White Sox can't play worse if they tried. When Jason Tyner resembles Rod Carew at the plate, things are going well for your team.

[Steff]

Don't you just love this kindof stuff?

 

 

The laughter keeps me awake during a slow day.

[DBAHO]

I wonder how long this season Twins fans were saying "if only we had an offense like the White Sox". The Twins are just playing excellent baseball right now, and capitalizing on every chance they get. The White Sox can't play worse if they tried. When Jason Tyner resembles Rod Carew at the plate, things are going well for your team.

But Jason Tyner can't resemble Rod Carew for the rest of the season now can he.

 

The Twins are getting a lot of the breaks right now. There are still question marks over their offense right now, but they're the team I am most worried about.

 

But the Sox need to focus on themselves and get themselves out of this slump. Eventually and hopefully, the breaks will start to go our way again.

[Steff]

You lose are credibility as soon as you start talking about the clubhouse. How do you know what's going on in there?

 

 

Common sense is credible to me.

[mrzo2733]

I was about to start a similar thread to this if there wasn't one. There's no denying that the Sox are playing like spiff, and I get as pissed of as anybody when they lose. But... looking at the big picture a little can help your sanity. We know that the Sox are in a big slump, but we also know that they will break out of it. I agree that staying generally positive is the way to go, especially if you're at the games. I think people (the players) can feel the positive energy. Just like people can feel the negativity (A-Rod).

 

In a sick way I just enjoy this more (a pennant race) than the Sox just cruising into the playoffs. And to answer someone's question "Where did the small ball go?" It went when we traded ARow for Jim Thome.

[Kalapse]

And to answer someone's question "Where did the small ball go?" It went when we traded ARow for Jim Thome.

That is such a crock, it shocks me that people actually believe that the loss of Aaron Rowand, he of the .740 OPS and the addition of Jim Thome, a perfect prototypical DH is the downfall of this team. Wow, this is why I no longer go to games, I can't stand the fanbase anymore.

 

- Rowand hustled and was a major cog in the clubhouse, HE WAS WHY THE TEAM HAD SUCH GREAT CHEMISTRY LAST YEAR!!11

 

- Rowand did hustle, he also struckout 116 times last year while walking only 32 times, give me a break, the guy had 2 very close friends in the clubhouse and guess what they're doing after the departure of their good buddy Arow? Crede's having the best year of his career and Pierzynski has been raking for most of the season. Winning breeds chemistry, not the other way around, funny how when this team was kicking ass and taking names earlier in the year no one really complained about a lack of team chemistry but now that they're losing all of a sudden they miss the presence of the great Aaron Rowand.

 

How the hell did this team lose 13.5 games in the standings late last year? Did Rowand take a break from the team? Did he stop supplying the team with chemistry? Or did he just put up a big fat .705 OPS last September??

 

Someone explain to me why replacing Carl Everett with a superior talent in Jim Thome, who walks a ton and hits sac flys (two major components to "smallball") made the smartball go away? Hey, guess what? Without Jim Thome this team would have been completely screwed at the beginning of the season when the bats came out relatively cold and the pitching was horrible, JIM THOME CARRIED THIS TEAM. It's amazing when Mark Buehrle, Javier Vazquez and Freddy Garcia decide to suck the best player on this team gets the blaim, yeah that makes sense.

 

Does anyone even remember last season? Do you remember why this team had to play "smallball"? The offense was absolutely pathetic, couldn't put up 5 runs in a game to save their collective life. The pitching (both SP and pen) carried the team for just about the whole damn season, holding the other team to 0-2 runs a game and the offense somehow managed to score 1-3 runs per game over the span, they won every damn 1 run game last year because of this.

 

2005 Chicago White Sox: Scored 741 runs, Allowed 645 runs. Pythagorean W-L: 91-71 that a -8 differential. Do you know what this means? It means they won a TON of 1 run games, the allowed NO runs last year, amazing pitching but they also only scored 741 runs, not very good. They've already scored 558 runs this year, that's awesome. Now do you want to know why they have been losing, why this team is struggling, why they can't win a damn game? THE TEAM ERA IS NOW UP TO 4.55, THAT IS GOOD FOR 9TH IN THE AL AND BY FAR THE WORST OF ANY PLAYOFF TEAM.

 

The 2005 Chicago White Sox played some smallball, basically they forced themselves to and you know what? They didn't hit any homeruns last year right? THEY HIT 200 HOMERUNS LAST YEAR PEOPLE! Guess what else they did? They scored 4.57 runs per game, by far the worst of ANY playoff team but they also only allowed 3.98 runs per game which was far and away the BEST of ANY playoff team. So they didn't score many runs (4.57) but they didn't allow any either (3.98).

 

2005 Chicago White Sox Runs Allowed per game: 3.98

2006 Chicago White Sox Runs Allowed per game: 4.80

+.82 run differential

 

2005 Chicago White Sox Runs Scored per game: 4.57

2006 Chicago White Sox Runs Scored per game: 5.62

+1.15 run differential

 

If the pitching staff would actually be doing its job this year (pitched like people expected) then we would have absolutely NO problem, this team would be cruising and no one would be complaining about a lack of "smallball". If you want to blaim the offense then you better not be using last year as any sort of frame of reference because it's basically a carbon copy of itself except they're scoring a whole lot more runs.

 

ugh

[S720]

That is such a crock, it shocks me that people actually believe that the loss of Aaron Rowand, he of the .740 OPS and the addition of Jim Thome, a perfect prototypical DH is the downfall of this team. Wow, this is why I no longer go to games, I can't stand the fanbase anymore.

 

- Rowand hustled and was a major cog in the clubhouse, HE WAS WHY THE TEAM HAD SUCH GREAT CHEMISTRY LAST YEAR!!11

 

- Rowand did hustle, he also struckout 116 times last year while walking only 32 times, give me a break, the guy had 2 very close friends in the clubhouse and guess what they're doing after the departure of their good buddy Arow? Crede's having the best year of his career and Pierzynski has been raking for most of the season. Winning breeds chemistry, not the other way around, funny how when this team was kicking ass and taking names earlier in the year no one really complained about a lack of team chemistry but now that they're losing all of a sudden they miss the presence of the great Aaron Rowand.

 

How the hell did this team lose 13.5 games in the standings late last year? Did Rowand take a break from the team? Did he stop supplying the team with chemistry? Or did he just put up a big fat .705 OPS last September??

 

Someone explain to me why replacing Carl Everett with a superior talent in Jim Thome, who walks a ton and hits sac flys (two major components to "smallball") made the smartball go away? Hey, guess what? Without Jim Thome this team would have been completely screwed at the beginning of the season when the bats came out relatively cold and the pitching was horrible, JIM THOME CARRIED THIS TEAM. It's amazing when Mark Buehrle, Javier Vazquez and Freddy Garcia decide to suck the best player on this team gets the blaim, yeah that makes sense.

 

Does anyone even remember last season? Do you remember why this team had to play "smallball"? The offense was absolutely pathetic, couldn't put up 5 runs in a game to save their collective life. The pitching (both SP and pen) carried the team for just about the whole damn season, holding the other team to 0-2 runs a game and the offense somehow managed to score 1-3 runs per game over the span, they won every damn 1 run game last year because of this.

 

2005 Chicago White Sox: Scored 741 runs, Allowed 645 runs. Pythagorean W-L: 91-71 that a -8 differential. Do you know what this means? It means they won a TON of 1 run games, the allowed NO runs last year, amazing pitching but they also only scored 741 runs, not very good. They've already scored 558 runs this year, that's awesome. Now do you want to know why they have been losing, why this team is struggling, why they can't win a damn game? THE TEAM ERA IS NOW UP TO 4.55, THAT IS GOOD FOR 9TH IN THE AL AND BY FAR THE WORST OF ANY PLAYOFF TEAM.

 

The 2005 Chicago White Sox played some smallball, basically they forced themselves to and you know what? They didn't hit any homeruns last year right? THEY HIT 200 HOMERUNS LAST YEAR PEOPLE! Guess what else they did? They scored 4.57 runs per game, by far the worst of ANY playoff team but they also only allowed 3.98 runs per game which was far and away the BEST of ANY playoff team. So they didn't score many runs (4.57) but they didn't allow any either (3.98).

 

2005 Chicago White Sox Runs Allowed per game: 3.98

2006 Chicago White Sox Runs Allowed per game: 4.80

+.82 run differential

 

2005 Chicago White Sox Runs Scored per game: 4.57

2006 Chicago White Sox Runs Scored per game: 5.62

+1.15 run differential

 

If the pitching staff would actually be doing its job this year (pitched like people expected) then we would have absolutely NO problem, this team would be cruising and no one would be complaining about a lack of "smallball". If you want to blaim the offense then you better not be using last year as any sort of frame of reference because it's basically a carbon copy of itself except they're scoring a whole lot more runs.

 

ugh

 

Great post! As you've stated if our starting pitchers pitch like last year, we definitely will be leading the division with the best record in the major league. NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT.

 

Unfortunately, our starting pitchers have been so terrible. What the heck is wrong with our pitching? Should ask Cooper?

[WCSox]

That is such a crock, it shocks me that people actually believe that the loss of Aaron Rowand, he of the .740 OPS and the addition of Jim Thome, a perfect prototypical DH is the downfall of this team.

 

Nice post. Thome replaced Frank and Everett, neither of whom are "smallball" hitters. Rowand was replaced by Anderson, who isn't a "slugger" in any sense of the word.

 

Agreed that the Sox aren't EXECUTING smallball as well as they were last year, but it's not because of the makeup of their team (Cintron was acquired in March and Ozuna is seeing a lot more playing time this year). It's a combination of the lack of execution in the tight games and the lack of "smallball" opportunities after, say, Vazquez gives up a five-spot in the sixth inning. But it's certainly NOT a lack of "smallball" personnel.

[Kalapse]

Nice post. Thome replaced Frank and Everett, neither of whom are "smallball" hitters. Rowand was replaced by Anderson, who isn't a "slugger" in any sense of the word.

 

Agreed that the Sox aren't EXECUTING smallball as well as they were last year, but it's not because of the makeup of their team (Cintron was acquired in March and Ozuna is seeing a lot more playing time this year). It's a combination of the lack of execution in the tight games and the lack of "smallball" opportunities after, say, Vazquez gives up a five-spot in the sixth inning. But it's certainly NOT a lack of "smallball" personnel.

Exactly, it's a whole lot easier to play "smallball" when your starting pitching is holding the opisition to 0-2 runs once your pitchers start giving up 5-7 runs a game it's pointless to play "smallball" you have to look for the big hit and that's what this team is now stuck doing.

[LosMediasBlancas]

I know we'll snap out of it and go on a tear, but will it be too late?

[Harry&JimmyRocked]

I am amazed at the fans in the park this year-obviously some band wagon fans booing and criticizing.

 

this is one of the dumbest statements i've ever read

[fathom]

this is one of the dumbest statements i've ever read

 

HOW DARE THOSE FANS AID US IN HAVING A 100 MILLION DOLLAR PAYROLL!

[The Ginger Kid]

I know we'll snap out of it and go on a tear, but will it be too late?

 

no, it won't be. If it were August 26 you could bury the Sox for sure. Their schedule doesn't really let up all that much so for them to come back they have to play superior ball against teams like Detroit, NY, Boston and Minny to GAIN ground. 500 ball against those teams won't cut it.

 

I like the road trip they're going on and it could lead to a stretch where they go 5-5 or 6-4. Get the ship back on course at least and then go on a tear. I think a lot of us expect them to go from turds to diamonds in one game, but that's unlikely.

 

I also like the fact that teams like the twins and tigers are red hot right now. I'd rather have a team get hot late in the season rather than in mid-season.

 

I also like the fact that it's hard to imagine them playing any worse as a team. There are some quality characters in that clubhouse who won't quit and won't let others quit around them. They feed off each other, good and bad.

 

Algo es posible con los calcetines blancos!

[stretchstretch]

it's really hard to believe when your very talented team is in an extended slump, but they do always pull out of it. Detroit has to stay red hot for two full months, and Minnesota as well. We might not make the playoffs, but we're still 0.5 behind the WC today, with two months to go. Minnesota could easily go through a rough patch and NY is not a sure thing at all......

 

Negativity in the clubhouse has a way of becoming positive overnight, happens every day in every sport.......

[Harry&JimmyRocked]

HOW DARE THOSE FANS AID US IN HAVING A 100 MILLION DOLLAR PAYROLL!

 

TRY TO READ. he's saying that it's the "bandwagon" fans that are the ones that are booing, and implying that "real" sox fans wouldn't boo

[winninguglyin83]

we're 3-12 in the last 15.

 

 

As bad as things got last season, we never had a stretch that bad.

 

we had two stretches where we went 5-10. That's as bad as it got.

 

So ... maybe this season we'll only have one bad stretch.

 

Try to remember this is a team that won nine consecutive series before the meltdown began against Boston.

 

There are no guarantees, but things will get better. They can't get worse.