Soxbadger

I dont know how many posts I have made in the last 6 months or so, but what I do know is that never once have I been anything but optimistic about the White Sox chances to make the playoffs and win the world series. Until they are officially eliminated, I hold out hope even if they are 6 games back. ::shrugs:: I read the boards every day and I rarely post because of the fact I represent the minority of optomistic fans who even in the worst situations believe that their club will suceed. Its often hard to post in a postive way when so many are negative, but each person has their own beliefs and way of releasing their frustrations. To many people on this site are far to dedicated to the White Sox for me to ever want them to "eat crow" or to be humiliated for believing the White Sox would not be in it at the end. All I can say is that a little optimisim can go a long way, and perhaps if we all just looked a little more on the bright side then it would not be so damn frustrating when they lost. Anyways, Im glad the White Sox are winning and hopefully they win the World Series. SB

Best reason for optimisim... Atleast prior to the Angels series the White Sox had the best record after the All-Star break. Every team loses a series, its not like the Angels blasted em. It was a few games that the White Sox could have easily won. They are 2 games back with 40 left, by the end of Saturday they could be tied for first place. The real question is... Why all the pessimism? SB

I love knee jerk reactions. Last week when we lost to Tampa Bay after winning 8 in a row people had the exact same thoughts. Then we swept KC, and took the first game from the Mariners easily. Last night we lost to the Mariners, and once again people are saying that we wont catch KC. Did anyone notice that KC barely beat the Devil Rays last night, and that they blew something like a 7-2 lead in the late innings. After Lee got called out stealing second in the first inning I could see that the White Sox were not going to win yesterday. Everett just missed a home run in the second, and a few other hits just did not go the White Sox's way, Maggs lining out to McLemore etc. Some days things you just are not going to win, and I believe Manuel wanted to get the most out of Wright to set us up for the next 4 games. Who cares if we lost last night, if saving our best bullpen pitchers allows us to win the next 4 games. If we win today we will have won the series with the Mariners and have gone 5-1 on our road trip. Most people would have said that 4-2 was outstanding and that 3-3 was good enough. The next 4 games are far more important than last nights game when our 5th starter was going and our offense just did not seem to be there. Some days you just are not gonna win. As for the effect on the Sox? I think today youll see a low scoring game, and the White Sox offense will show that it is not only home runs, but that it is also capable of manufacturing runs. SB

You mean its bad to let 22 year old pitchers pitch 120+ pitches a night. Who would of ever heard of that? SB

Baker said it was one of the reasons that the Cubs were playing so bad at home, and asked that the fans not boo or b**** at Cubs players in the bullpen. He also blamed the fact that they dont have days off before they play and a variety of other things that have nothing to do with the fact that their bullpen sucks. SB

Take it for what you will, but on the radio today, Bruce Levine said the Sox were inquiring about Schoenwiess from Anahiem. Not super exciting, but wed probably get him cheap and hes not a bad bullpen/5th starter. SB

As much as it sounds like a pipe dream... I think that the last week, and last nights game will be good for the Sox in the long run. Last night they almost came back from an 8-1 deficit, and they are starting to see that you cant just come to play against the good teams. They still have 15 or so games against the Tigers, D-Rays, and Indians, if they go 10-4, theyll be 1 game over. If they can pace themselves with the Twins, and beat the Royals when we play head to head, we still have a chance. The season is not over until the magic number says it is. And in the end, talent always comes out. You cant have a bad season forever. SB

Eventhough we lost last night, in the last 2 weeks I can hardly remember a game where the White Sox should not have won. They have been getting outstanding pitching, and if this keeps up they will turn it around by the All Star break. SB

I wont think they are truly out of it until the Central Division and Wild Card have been clinched. Any team can go on a winning streak, and once you get back to .500 anything can happen. This year is not lost yet. SB

White Sox win the world series. Colon- 20-7 Loaiza- 20-10 Buerhle- 15-12 Garland- 12-14 Wright- 10-10 Starters go 77-53 Bullpen goes- 16-16 93-69 we win the central division. Offense starts to break out in June, Frank and Maggs both hitting over .320 during the month. PK hits about .310. Just gotta stay afloat while we are sucking. Just gotta stay afloat. SB

Id say add Wunsch to the list of bright spots, hes pretty much been lights out when hes come in to face batters. SB

The Sox need one thing in my opinion, some one who takes losing personally. Maybe Valentine for a coach, or just anyone who is going to really go off if his players play like this. Manuel's style has its merits, I mean Phil Jackson is considered one of the best coaches, but some player are not self motivated like Kobe and Jordan. We need some one who will fly off the handle if we lose, because maybe it will become contagious with the players. To many seem to not care about winning or losing, and that is starting to even piss me off. SB

Id say right now we are one of the toughest teams to beat. We have been pitching amazing, and our offense while not outstanding has been getting runners on base, and that with great pitching usually equals victorys. SB

The low pitch count was the first thing that I noticed about Colon's stat box. I havent been able to see him yet, but I have a feeling that he is going to have an outstanding year. SB

How has Colon looked, since I dont get the games on TV its often hard to judge based on reading the internet. And I appreciate all the updates, some times reading the boards is the only way I can get information on whats going on in the game. SB

He was still under 100 pitches before thaqt inning, no real reason to take him out. Probably more people would be b****ing if he got pulled early and then the bullpen lost the game or made it close. He was cruising, might as well let him coast for another inning and then let the bullpen shut em down. SB

To ensure no bias, I used the examples of Brandofan, so people can not say I just chose names that fit my argument. From ESPN: NAME G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Frank Thomas 6 21 1 5 0 0 1 8 3 8 6 0 0 .238 .469 .381 .850 Manny Ramirez 7 29 5 8 3 0 0 11 5 3 4 0 0 .276 .333 .379 .713 Jim Thome 6 24 4 10 3 1 0 15 4 4 5 0 0 .417 .500 .625 1.125 Albert Pujols 5 18 5 6 2 0 2 14 6 3 3 0 0 .333 .429 .778 1.206 Sammy Sosa 6 20 5 6 0 0 1 9 6 12 4 0 0 .300 .576 .450 1.026 Barry Bonds 6 20 7 4 1 0 2 11 5 7 6 1 0 .200 .407 .550 .957 When you look at these stats its pretty hard to say that Thomas is doing all that bad. In fact hes hitting better than Bonds with a higher on base percentage then everyone besides for Sosa and Thome. Thomas ops and slg are down, but he usually hits the bulk of his home runs during the summer, and those are the months when his batting average is highest. Personally getting on base almost half the time is good enough for me, and it getting on base and looking at pitchs usually leads to higher batting average and slg. I believe Frank will have a great year. SB

You dont need to convince me on Flash's goodness, I was just understating so that if people decided to quote me, they could not say that I was overstating my claims. SB

I will disagree, Flash hasnt played that amazing yet, but I say by midseason he will give you shut out innings 6 out of 7 appearances. Hell probably finish the season with an era around the 3 range and will be a big part of many White Sox victorys. The only negative Ive heard about Gordon is his health. He was an above average closer for most of his career, and does have above average stuff, with a curve that can be unhittable. I just think it is to early to start on peoples cases, quite frankly Id much rather have Flash in there then White, Osuna, or Biddle for one inning. I hope that Im right. SB

So much negativity... Atleast with Koch its much harder to bunt then off of Foulke. And with that positive, I gotta go. I still believe, I hope they do it in the top of the 10th. SB

Damn do I hate the Yahoo thing, everytime something happens and its waiting to load it says the person walked. I thought I missed a few pitches or something cause I couldnt understand how Burks walked. I wish I had the game on TV> SB

These 2 strike hits are starting to really get on my nerves. Im not sure if we are just not hitting our spots or what, but its been pretty damn annoying to see our pitchers up in the count and then give up a hit. Its understandble if they are getting singles, but we should not be giving them anything great to hit that ahead in the count. SB

The Sox have scored 9 runs this inning, and still half of you are not willing to give them any credit. What exactly do they have to do to win your hearts? A pitcher making his debut went 6 2/3 giving up 2 runs, the offense has scored 10 runs. Could we have perhaps scored more? Sure, but we damn if 10 runs isnt enough then I dont know what is. SB

Isnt scoring runs and it not looking pretty the exact definition of manufacturing runs? We scored 2 runs on 1 hit, to me thats doing a pretty damn good of manufacturing runs when needed. SB

Why does everyone doubt the White Sox offense? Its better that our pitchers are doing great and our offense is slumping a bit, then the other way around. The offense will come, and if we keep up the pitching things should go well. SB