White Sox @ Blue Jays 12:07pm WGN

[WhiteSoxfan1986]

No, I really think he's not a winning baseball player. And you should know how much I must hate watching him bat when I give Toby a vote of confidence.

 

seriously, your reactions are over the top.

[Soxfest]

I am so tired of Hawk acting like this offensive slump is a week thing..................It almost 2 years crip sakes!

[WilliamTell]

should've been a win.

[Kyyle23]

Why not just bring up Fields to DH vs LHP and then after 7th inning? He's not really learning anything new in Charlotte.

 

I wonder when was the last time a team was swept in a series where they had complete game starters in 2 of 3 games.

 

 

IIRC it is a 4 game series

[Gregory Pratt]

No, I really think he's not a winning baseball player. And you should know how much I must hate watching him bat when I give Toby a vote of confidence.

 

Well, I don't know what to say to that. You think AJP is a winning baseball player and Thome isn't. Um...wow.

[fathom]

seriously, your reactions are over the top.

 

Considering the owner of this site basically said the same stuff yesterday, I don't feel like I'm being over the top with this.

[sf_soxfan]

AJ's avg on a meteoric decline...

[WCSox]

No, I really think he's not a winning baseball player.

 

He's won two pennants.

 

Thome is in the twilight of his career and I can understand the frustration. But let's not get carried away here.

 

[Soxfest]

Sox got f***ed bad when they needed a win most..........This one hurts bad under .500 again!

[jeffthedude]

IIRC it is a 4 game series

 

 

My bad.

 

Well, in at least 2 of 4 starts out of a 4-game sweep then, while we're at it.

[FlaSoxxJim]

:angry:

 

fock me

[greg775]

I guess it's time to lower the expectations.

I was pleasantly surprised when we were hot early in April.

It's pretty bad when as a fan you assume a loss on Monday (which at least I do), then hope we can get it back together at home where we have not played especially well.

Can you imagine how much better fans would feel if we just scored an average amount of runs in this series?

Konerko, Dye and AJP up in the ninth and they go down as if they were Class A players. Amazing slump.

[Brian]

Does Kalapse know the contract status of Hawk? Hilarious how he ignores the fact that Thome had a chance to tie the game up in the 8th with a single and failed aain, but continues to blame a play 5 innings ago.

[Colorado Sox Fan]

Does Kalapse know the contract status of Hawk? Hilarious how he ignores the fact that Thome had a chance to tie the game up in the 8th with a single and failed aain, but continues to blame a play 5 innings ago.

funny how he kinda forgets that the sox scored unearned runs on eckstein's error. i feel sorry for you guys having to endure these two idiots in the tv booth. dj is a fool and hawk rambles and makes excuse after excuse.

[greg775]

funny how he kinda forgets that the sox scored unearned runs on eckstein's error. i feel sorry for you guys having to endure these two idiots in the tv booth. dj is a fool and hawk rambles and makes excuse after excuse.

 

Hawk's end of the game prologue was embarrassing in that he flat out blamed the loss on a call.

But I still like him for some reason.

He and Stone would be awesome in the booth.

[elrockinMT]

I'll be watching on WGN today. The games have gone pretty well for the Sox when I am sitting behind the tube. So I am feeling good about today.

 

 

We actually won this game that we lost. Tomorrow will be better

[elrockinMT]

Well, I don't know what to say to that. You think AJP is a winning baseball player and Thome isn't. Um...wow.

 

Their both professionals and winners in my mind

[greg775]

Thome actually tried to hit that first pitch to leftfield it appeared. His next two hacks were embarrassingly bad.

[elrockinMT]

Ugh, Hawk's going to blame this game on the umpiring now.

 

 

I blamed it on the umpiring

[whitesoxmanager]

I really wish we had Fields on the team for situations like pinch-hitting for Thome against a lefty.

 

so what if JT swings and misses by 500 feet when it counts most . and then when the score is 166-3 he hits balls to the moon. YOU CAN BET YOUR LAST DIME THAT WHEN WE DO FINALLY SCORE RUNS WE ARE GOING TO SCORE CLOSE TO 20. probably win 19-3 and then proceed to be queens and lose 5000 one run games in a row.

 

someone with some baseball sense please answer this question: what really is wrong with JT? bad speed? picking up the arm angle? picking up the rotation out of the hand? too far off the plate? not close enough to take away the inside pitch?

[claydude14]

Well I got into Canada, but it seems that wasn't enough. That one inning of offense sure was exciting though~!

[BearSox]

so what if JT swings and misses by 500 feet when it counts most . and then when the score is 166-3 he hits balls to the moon. YOU CAN BET YOUR LAST DIME THAT WHEN WE DO FINALLY SCORE RUNS WE ARE GOING TO SCORE CLOSE TO 20. probably win 19-3 and then proceed to be queens and lose 5000 one run games in a row.

 

someone with some baseball sense please answer this question: what really is wrong with JT? bad speed? picking up the arm angle? picking up the rotation out of the hand? too far off the plate? not close enough to take away the inside pitch?

one simple answer... old age. Everything is slowing down for him, such as bat speed, among other things as well.

[greg775]

someone with some baseball sense please answer this question: what really is wrong with JT? bad speed? picking up the arm angle? picking up the rotation out of the hand? too far off the plate? not close enough to take away the inside pitch?

 

Whenever I watch him play, he's an automatic out versus lefties.

Yet I look at his stats and entering today's game he was 9-for-32 with lefties with three homers and 10 RBIs. He struck out 12 times in 32 at bats vs. lefties, but had a decent batting average of .281 vs. lefties.

Versus righties, how can this be? He entered today's game 12 of 67 for a horrible .179 clip. Three homers and nine RBIs with 17 walks vs. righties. He's hitting .137 in night games.

Same number of homers vs. righties as lefties this young season.

 

Last year, Thome hit .196 vs. lefties, which means he's due to start really struggling vs. lefties to get back to that batting average. He hit .315 vs. righties, bashing 29 homers vs. righties and six vs. lefties.

In 2006, he hit 36 homers vs. righties, six vs. lefties with a BA of .236 vs. lefties and .321 vs. righties.

 

My opinion is he takes that big hack and it's a homer or nothing for Jimmy.

My question is should he only play vs. righties?

 

[Kalapse]

In 2006 8 of Jim Thome's 42 HRs came when there was a 4+ run difference between the Sox and their opponent. EIGHT yet people still perpetuate the fallacy that he only homers when the Sox are getting their ass kicked. He hit 5 homeruns in the 7th inning or later that either tied the game or gave the Sox the lead (3 HRs gave the Sox the lead). How many people would have guessed it was as high as five? 11 of the 16 homeruns he hit in the 7th or later were important in deciding the out come of the game.

 

People say he doesn't go to the opposite field enough but he hit 11 homeruns the other way last year. You look at his hit chart and his doubles are sprayed throughout the OF NOT just into right. People say he doesn't hit for a high enough average yet he's hitting .282 in a White Sox uniform. People say he can't hit in the clutch yet he hit .280+ in close and late situations last season and despite not getting a god damn thing to hit late in games in '06 he got on base in nearly half his plate appearances in C&L situations and still managed to strike out less than Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye in those instances. In '97 the Indians make it to the World Series largely because of Jim Thome's .966 OPS in close and late situations and nearly take the series because Thome slugged .571 while getting on base 38% of the time during the 7 game series.

 

Maybe he's just an easy scapegoat.