August 30, 200817 yr knots in my stomach. I was friends with Mike Bowden in high school, but I hope he kids the crap beat out of him tomorrow.
August 30, 200817 yr Before tonight, we had been playing very close games against these teams. Simply put, these teams have good starting pitchers, and our offense feasts on inferior pitching.
August 30, 200817 yr QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 08:28 PM) Before tonight, we had been playing very close games against these teams. Simply put, these teams have good starting pitchers, and our offense feasts on inferior pitching. Plus, a good starter always dominates a good offense. See- us vs Boston in the 2005 ALDS (they scored 8 runs in 3 games) and us vs LAA in the 2005 ALCS (they scored something like 11 runs in 4 games).
August 30, 200817 yr QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 07:24 PM) knots in my stomach. I was friends with Mike Bowden in high school, but I hope he kids the crap beat out of him tomorrow. Yeah, he's a nice guy, if he wasnt pitching tomorrow i'd root for him, that being said, I hope we beat his brains in.
August 30, 200817 yr I agree, I love the White Sox, but we are bad against good teams. Playoff chances? Let's make it there first I guess.
August 30, 200817 yr QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 08:23 PM) Uh oh Discuss Its the nature of our team. Some of it can be fixed. Some of this needs to be fixed with new personnel in the offseason. We are not a good defensive team and we give the opposition too many outs. Good teams seem to turn those extra outs into runs. We score runs by hitting the ball over the fence. We do not string hits along, and we have a hard time driving in runs outside of the long ball. Good teams keep the ball the park and usually have good pitching and defense. Our relief lately has had a problem throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters. this results in a lot of hitters counts and free bases. Bad teams dont take advantage of these flaws as much as good teams. Our defense needs to get its head out of its ass and start to catch the ball and stop giving extra outs. Our offense needs to figure out how to drive in runs outside of hitting the ball over the fence. Getting those runners in from 2nd with a base hit score the same as the dramatic home run does with no one on base. Not every swing must result in a power stroke. Take the ball up the middle, to right. These are what good teams do. Our relief pitchers need to throw strike one. The minute they start doing this they will be effective.
August 30, 200817 yr QUOTE (tommy @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:25 PM) I agree, I love the White Sox, but we are bad against good teams. Playoff chances? Let's make it there first I guess. I agree. I enjoy the season one game at a time.
August 30, 200817 yr For some reason we seem to roll over and play dead against good teams. If we could play weaker teams we'd be in good shape.
August 30, 200817 yr Duh? Just noticing that now? That's why the Sox just aren't going to make it in the long run unless some kind of miracle happens.
August 30, 200817 yr Well, by the law of statistical averages, only 1-2 teams per season (plus a "fluke" also-ran or .500 team) will have a winning record against the 3-4 best teams in the league each year. Actually, this is better than losing against sub-par or inferior teams, because there are a lot more of those. If you play well over .500 against the bad teams, you can afford a below .500 record in this category. One of the reasons the White Sox struggled recently to get to the playoffs was they couldn't beat the bad or average teams/pitchers. The other factor is we have a lot of free swingers with big swings. Against great or very good pitching, only Ramirez, Quentin and a healthy Konerko match-up well at all.
August 30, 200817 yr Author QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:32 PM) We do not string hits along, and we have a hard time driving in runs outside of the long ball. Good teams keep the ball the park and usually have good pitching and defense. Our relief lately has had a problem throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters. this results in a lot of hitters counts and free bases. what gives me some hope is the sizable difference in OBP from the '05 to '08 teams even though this team isnt as well rounded as that one, i'm going into this postseason with the same expectations as that year. i figure we're not the best team in the league, but we'll see if we can steal a series or two. that year, we did. well, and then some, b/c pitching appeared. this year it might have to be a real steal. Edited August 30, 200817 yr by Princess Dye
August 30, 200817 yr I find it interesting that this subject raises panic. ALL teams are "bad" against other good teams... relatively speaking. Look at the team by team standings grid on ESPN. Does Boston have a winning record against teams over .500? No. Do the Twins have a winning record against ANY good team this year? No. The only teams in the AL with winning records against other winning teams (Tampa and Angels) have done it by fattening up on a single team... not by dominating the entire field. Edited August 31, 200817 yr by scenario
August 30, 200817 yr I think maybe the 2001 Mariners had a winning record against the top teams in the AL, and they won 116 games. I can't think of too many good teams since 2000 that've played well against good and bad teams, otherwise we'd probably have seen lots more 100+ win teams.
August 30, 200817 yr If we are a good team then we need to win against other good teams. You can make the argument that we can beat up inferior teams and struggle against 3 or 4 good teams during the regular season, but when we are playing all good teams in the playoffs we had better be playing our best and be seen as the better team. We can't afford to struggle or obviously your done.
August 30, 200817 yr QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 30, 2008 -> 11:07 AM) If we are a good team then we need to win against other good teams. You can make the argument that we can beat up inferior teams and struggle against 3 or 4 good teams during the regular season, but when we are playing all good teams in the playoffs we had better be playing our best and be seen as the better team. We can't afford to struggle or obviously your done. We weren't seen as the better team in 2005 after our late season struggles. It's not how good you appear to be, it's how good you are when you need to be.
August 31, 200817 yr QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 09:32 PM) Its the nature of our team. Some of it can be fixed. Some of this needs to be fixed with new personnel in the offseason. We are not a good defensive team and we give the opposition too many outs. Good teams seem to turn those extra outs into runs. We score runs by hitting the ball over the fence. We do not string hits along, and we have a hard time driving in runs outside of the long ball. Good teams keep the ball the park and usually have good pitching and defense. Our relief lately has had a problem throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters. this results in a lot of hitters counts and free bases. Bad teams dont take advantage of these flaws as much as good teams. Our defense needs to get its head out of its ass and start to catch the ball and stop giving extra outs. Our offense needs to figure out how to drive in runs outside of hitting the ball over the fence. Getting those runners in from 2nd with a base hit score the same as the dramatic home run does with no one on base. Not every swing must result in a power stroke. Take the ball up the middle, to right. These are what good teams do. Our relief pitchers need to throw strike one. The minute they start doing this they will be effective. great great great post, you summarized everything I've been wanting to say since TB came to town, even IF we make the playoffs, what we've see the past tw weeks tells us what to expect at the next level, this team just cannot compete against teams with pitching
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