SoIL

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Sep 20, 2011 -> 11:59 PM) Not that they will, but the time to retaliate is tomorrow. You still want to win the game so you don't put the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth just for retaliation. Nail them all day long tomorrow. That's what I was thinking. You still want to win the game. I do however think the Sox need to retaliate more often. That said it does seem like most of time the Sox do retaliate, the umps warn both benches and we still end up being hit more often (i.e. we get hit a couple of times, hit the other team and the umps warn the benches.) Hopefully today is the day some Indian takes it in the ribs.

QUOTE (VictoryMC98 @ Sep 20, 2011 -> 06:52 PM) I think him playing LF, Rios in CF and Tank in RF is the 2012 White Sox Starting OF. I could live with this outfield and with De Aza leading off. It 's most likely fantasy, but I'd like it better if Rios was traded, De Aza was in center and Quentin was in left.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 20, 2011 -> 06:12 PM) You have no idea how much Madden I have played, do you? No! I'm afraid I don't have any idea. On that, I'm clueless!

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 20, 2011 -> 04:21 PM) Oh my goodness. How many more fluff pieces do we need of PK telling the world what a messiah-like hitting coach Walker is? Paul, I love you. But STFU! I don't know. What do you think? Roughly equivalent to the number of Walker sucks, Ozzie sucks, Kenny sucks, Dunn sucks, Rios sucks, Pierre sucks, this organization sucks, (insert player name here) sucks, threads and posts that cover this site? Balance is a good thing.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 20, 2011 -> 08:53 AM) He should stick to hitting and let upper management make hiring decisions. I find this hilarious (and this is not a personal attack on the poster, just an observation) considereing how many hiring and personnel decisions are made each day by Soxtalk posters.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...his-corner.html From today's SunTimes.

The more you look back at 2005 (with how Pods/Iguchi/small ball have been overstated despite the 200+ homers)...the one thing that seems impossible to replicate ever again was the success and virtual lockdown quality of that bullpen. That bullpen was incredibly good. There were lots of homers, but I seem to also remember a lot of first inning runs where Pods got on base and was driven home in some fashion. Getting an early lead is almost always a good thing. If my memory serves, we had a lot of low scoring games that year too.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 15, 2011 -> 06:46 PM) Contreras (taking on his contract, mostly) and Freddy Garcia weren't big moves? Yeah, I suppose they were. Especially Garcia. And maybe I shouldn't have given the impression that I think every single big move hasn't worked out, but in general the big splash hasn't produced like most had hoped. Garcia is certainly as big Wells, etc and was huge for us. Wasn't Contreras struggling when we picked him up? Or at least somewhat of a disappointment in New York? (I do understand that you are emphasizing his contract.)

QUOTE (SoIL @ Sep 15, 2011 -> 04:47 PM) Ozzie has had a bad year no doubt, but so has pretty much eveyone on the team. I think the main problem is Ozzie likes a team he can manage, one with parts he can move around when needed. He likes being an active manager and I think he's very good at just that. I think he's right about having speed, defense and pitching. Kenny has a football mentality and likes to build power teams, go for the big kill. I think Ozzie is more of a baseball mind and Kenny a football mind. You can't muscle up and do better in baseball like you can in football. Trying harder may get the line to move or a block shed, but in baseball trying too hard doesn't mean success. I think the Sox need to build a baseball TEAM. Not try to fill the roster with all power arms and power hitters. Kenny has done well with "small" trades and signings. When he's gone for the big fish, it has usually not worked so well (David Wells, Bartolo Colon, Adam Dunn). Did we even have a .300 hitter on that 2005 team? I don't think we did, but that team pitched well, fielded well and had timely hitting. I think Ozzie realizes that is what is needed to win. I'm not sure Kenny does. I have always been a fan of hitting, but the more I watch baseball, I'm starting to realize pitching, defense and baserunning are more inportant than home runs. I don't know why this team is so bad at fundamentals, but as Ozzie has said, players should not be learning fundamentals at the major leauge level. They should already know this. Now that I'm not at work, I'll expand on this a bit. Before the 2005 season, Kenny asked, or Ozzie told him what kind of team he (Ozzie) wanted. A leadoff hitter who could get on and steal a base. Better defense and better pitching. Kenny did a great job of doing just that, and what was the result? Since then Kenny has tried to get a big power hitter and a big time starter almost every year, and we haven't been back to the Series since. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe we caught lighting in a bottle, but the 2005 formula did work. Ozzie didn't bring in the Colon's, Wells, Rios and Dunn's (although he may have had input). I thought these moves looked great at the time, but it hasn't worked. What I see is that someone, (Kenny, maybe Ozzie or our scouts) have not been paying attention. The big moves have not worked, the smaller ones for the most part have been successful. In retrospect, we should have kept many of our minor leaguers and let them develop. I hope that is what happens in the future. I'm less and less convinced that stocking up on prospects just to trade them away for the last "piece of the puzzle" is a good philosophy. Actually, I do think it is a bad strategy. I don't really care about Ozzie's outbursts, even if I do wish he had more of a filter. I do think he takes pressure off the team by drawing attention to himself. So again, give Ozzie some BASEBALL players and quit drafting the "best athlete" and draft some baseball players and the Sox should be successful.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 15, 2011 -> 04:26 PM) Why is that? Ozzie has had a bad year no doubt, but so has pretty much eveyone on the team. I think the main problem is Ozzie likes a team he can manage, one with parts he can move around when needed. He likes being an active manager and I think he's very good at just that. I think he's right about having speed, defense and pitching. Kenny has a football mentality and likes to build power teams, go for the big kill. I think Ozzie is more of a baseball mind and Kenny a football mind. You can't muscle up and do better in baseball like you can in football. Trying harder may get the line to move or a block shed, but in baseball trying too hard doesn't mean success. I think the Sox need to build a baseball TEAM. Not try to fill the roster with all power arms and power hitters. Kenny has done well with "small" trades and signings. When he's gone for the big fish, it has usually not worked so well (David Wells, Bartolo Colon, Adam Dunn). Did we even have a .300 hitter on that 2005 team? I don't think we did, but that team pitched well, fielded well and had timely hitting. I think Ozzie realizes that is what is needed to win. I'm not sure Kenny does. I have always been a fan of hitting, but the more I watch baseball, I'm starting to realize pitching, defense and baserunning are more inportant than home runs. I don't know why this team is so bad at fundamentals, but as Ozzie has said, players should not be learning fundamentals at the major leauge level. They should already know this.

I think the Sox would be fools to fire Ozzie. So, I'm guessing that's exactly what they'll do.

Congratulations Juan. Nice job.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 1, 2011 -> 06:50 PM) I don't think it's clear at all. It's speculation fueled by fans and media. Totally agree.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Aug 31, 2011 -> 10:36 PM) An average (strong statement) shortstop: career .264 AVG 28 HRs 169 SBs (108 CS) and an overrated fielder in 16 MLB seasons. Only 2 playoff performances as a manager of one of the highest payroll clubs in a lousy division in his tenure as manager including an '05 club that won despite him and had chemistry because of players like Rowand and Crede who truly kept the clubhouse 'loose' according to most recounts of our miraculous run. I don't get it. After games like tonight (8/31), who actually can still support this guy? Not to mention a foul-mouthed jerk....... Did you ever see Ozzie play as a White Sox?

QUOTE (bozzie @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 02:01 PM) It only took 6 months ... ... finally, the Adam Dunn ordeal is over. Or is it? From the start, Adam Dunn was nothing but dung. And yet he held a lineup spot, most often in the heart of the order, through it all. Ozzie Guillen made his bones on being a tough, no-nonsense manager who played producers and sat underachievers. But with Dunn, it was kid gloves all the way. A .163 hitter getting pencilled into the lineup in late-August is beyond incredulous, it's pure farce. Which is what Ozzie has sought to make it from the beginning. Guillen has always been "praised" as a National League Manager operating in the American League, as if somehow using a square peg to fill a round hole is an asset. Ozzie's obsession with National League-like "smallball" prompted first the ouster of Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, then the release of Thomas's replacement, Jim Thome. In 2010, Kenny Williams decided to let Ozzie fall flat on his face. He jettisonned Thome and replaced him with Ozzie's dream-DH: Mark Kotsay. Kotsay was an utter disaster as a run producer, and Kenny had proved his point. Because in 2010, proving Ozzie wrong was more important to Kenny Williams than winning ballgames. For 2011, Kenny pulled out all the stops to bring in Adam Dunn. And what did Ozzie do? Did he shun him the way he had Thomas? Did he damn him with faint praise the way he had Thome? Nope. He played Dunn, and fellow Williams whiff Alex Rios, far longer than either of them deserved. Dunn has the lowest average of any hitter with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, by a long shot, and is having a season of mythic proportions. Rios is still in the lineup, hitting cleanup last night. Because in 2011, proving Kenny wrong has been more important to Ozzie Guillen than winning ballgames. This morning, Ozzie hit the newspapers to complain again that, despite having a contract extention for 2012 picked up at the beginning of this season, he feels unwanted yet again by the White Sox. Is it any wonder? He sacraficed the season to his petty fued with Williams who, whether Ozzie likes it or not, is his boss. Both of these guys have proven their egos are such that they are unable to work together and would prefer jeopardize not only pennant chances, but a multimillion dollar business. The fact that White Sox fans had to suffer through 400 at-bats of .163 hitting stands as testament to the farce this organization has become with Guillen and Williams at the top. Nice bit of speculation, conspiracy and fiction. Dunn does not have enough at bats to qualify for a batting title. Thomas was not run out of town by Ozzie.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 28, 2011 -> 08:19 PM) GAHH MY BASEBALL TEAM IS GOING TO WIN Ozzie Guillen is to Sox fans as Barack Obama is to right-wing talk shows. If there isn't a narrative to support the venom people will just make one up. Like this post too.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 27, 2011 -> 04:15 PM) I have to say that it doesn't seem to pay to support Sox players. Somebody gets banged up or fails to get a hit or the team doesn't win 163 games and some people on this board just blow up. Only one team is going to win it all and if it ain't the Sox then there is always next year. That's what makes baseball great and in my book what a fan should look at. Nobody wants to lose especially the players and I have to believe they try as hard as they can. Give it you all is all that can be asked. If trades are coming then it will be in the off season or spring training. But, I still think it's absurd to look at trading away your best players with some idea in mind you are going to get Babe Ruth. You win or lose as a team. Sometimes no matter how talented you are, no matter how hard you work and how much you prepare or how much of an outstanding person you are, life hands you a sh*t sandwich. That is what has happened to the White Sox this year. It's an unfortunate part of life. But that is reality.

Good God, the overreaction and ignorance of this board is just stunning. OK haters, have at it.

No thanks to LaRussa and Duncan. If I recall correctly Jockety is no longer in St. Louis baecause of LaRussa. Obviously Ramus is no longer in St. Louis because of LaRussa. I don't really want to sse the yearly beanball fights the Cardinals seem to get into and I absolutly don't want McGuire as our hitting coach. LaRussa appears more b****y and whinning every year. I do see him on television quite a bit since I'm close to St. Louis and surrounded by Cardinal fans. Keep Ozzie and get rid of Williams if you have too. Give Ozzie the kind of team he want's and he will win. I like Kenny, but if someone has to go, I'd rather it be him.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 21, 2011 -> 01:25 PM) Don Cooper isnt getting paid to log on Soxtalk to do Q and A with us. And if he was, and acted as snarky and condescending on this board, im sure that the people asking the questions wouldnt appreciate it. I've never heard Cooper on the radio, so I have no idea how he comes across. The times I've seen him interviewed on television, I never noticed him being a d-bag. Is he a New Yorker, yes. But to me he just seems like a no nonsense straight talker. My point is, and this is not directed toward you personally, if you are constantly/consistently being criticized, there's good chance you're going to get defensive and fed up with it, and right or wrong, it is likely to lead to an explosion. I'd rather see that than someone sticking their tail between there legs and slinking away. As someone else pointed out, it's likely that everyone from the fans, to players, management and ownership is fed up with this club's performance. I certainly was last night and had mentally composed letters to KW, Ozzie and the players about how pissed I am/was. I'm sure most anyone associated with the Sox is tired of answering Viciedo questions. There is more than enough frustration concerning the White Sox right now. A good loud ugly blow up may be just what this team needs.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 21, 2011 -> 11:24 AM) listen to his interviews. The guy is a jerk, personnel decisions or not. If you ask him any question about the pitching staff he takes it personally, as if you are questioning every one of his decisions. Pretty much what a good majority of people on this board do with any White Sox decision. I'm sure it's true of talk radio also.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jun 23, 2011 -> 11:05 PM) As a long time poster who has taken several extended stays away from the board because of the hyperbole, I applaud Jason on this. In fact, it's been long overdue. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 24, 2011 -> 09:05 AM) I personally have no issue with being "negative" or "positive" - its the way its delivered. You can say "Oh come on Ozzie, really? Leaving Peavy in for another batter? WTF?", and we all get that. But when your post says "Ozzie is a f***ing ass-clown who couldn't manage a little league team!!!", and when the board is full of posts like that... who wants to read that? This, IMO, is the biggest reason why we see fewer and fewer good, in-depth discussions, and why many of the knowledgeable posters stay mostly away. They are smart enough to see that their good points would just get lost amongst the hyperbolic bloviations of a few loud, obnoxious posters. QUOTE (robinventura23 @ Jun 24, 2011 -> 09:05 AM) I agree with this, a lot of negativity. This used to be a place to get info and latest news and discussions on upcoming games. I'm a long time reader, not so much a poster, and I have to agree with these statements. I still stop by every day, but mostly I just don't read any threads or if I do, it's only a few responses. The overwhelming negativity of the titles and the posts are enough to make me move on to something else. In the past I especially appreciated when some of the "insiders" would post what they had heard might or might not be happening. What the front office was possibly thinking. When those people started getting shouted down because they were "wrong" I stopped seeing posts of that nature and this site started getting less interesting. The Sox are a frustrating team this year, but there is no reason to constantly rip players, coaches and management.

It's cool. They both did a fine job for us.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Mar 27, 2011 -> 01:42 PM) So if I was just looking to watch the game with a bunch of sox fans Key West is the place to go? I have a friend who goes to the Cellar all the time but she is a Cubby fan so meh on that. I don't know if you'll find a "bunch" of Sox fans anywhere, but Key West would be a very fine place to watch Sox games. It's probably be the most Sox friendly bar in town.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Mar 27, 2011 -> 09:23 AM) I've been to the Key West several times. A damn good band named The Ivas John Band used to play there regularly. Ivas and Key West had a parting of ways a few months ago, but the bar still has music on Sunday nights and occasionally on a Friday or Saturday.