fathom

Is it bad that I feel like the fan who interferred last night has shown the most will to win on this team so far this series?

I miss the days of Contreras getting 2 strikes on the hitter and then trying to ace them with the nasty forkball. How come no one is asking what happened to his velocity? He's down about 5 mph from this time last year.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:14 AM) You're also cherry picking. Jose Contreras has been a dominant pitcher all his life in Cuba. He just keeps getting into some bad grooves here. When he followed the formula he was using in Cuba, he was dominating people. Jon Garland was a young pitcher who finally seemed to grow up and find a rhythm last year, something that does happen sometimes. Mark Buehrle is just having a terrible season. Yes, I'm cherry picking the positives, but I think on all 3 of them, the positives strongly outweigh the negatives. I see positives for the 2007 for every pitcher besides Garcia, even though it wouldn't shock me if he "finds" an extra 3 mph next year during his contract season. QUOTE(G&T @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:15 AM) That would be great, but why would any team give up a major league ready stud for any of these guys? Buehrle has a ton of value, trust me.

Twins with some more good positioning. Sandy comes through once again....NOT!

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:09 AM) this must be some sort of mistake, somehow the tying run is at the plate Oh I get it... the forfeit has to be handed in from SECOND BASE that must be why this game is still going on WE GET THE POINT!

I know PK is slow, but how does he not score on a grounder that he's running on?

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:09 AM) Ross Gload is one professional hitter. He should be our LF/leadoff hitter. Hell, make him taking fielding practice every day this offseason.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:05 AM) Rob Mackowiak has started 4 of our last 6 games in CF. There are three things that really astonish me this year: - The predictability of Vazquez's 6th inning blow-ups - A manager's continue use of a corner outfielder in CF when he has a healthy CF - Cora's amazing ability to lose this team momentum. If we don't make the playoffs this year, I will stand by my belief that the turning point for our momentum was when he sent Iguchi home in that 2nd game against the Royals last week.

I've said this about Contreras for two months now. His best pitch is the forkball. However, he seems to have fallen in love with an average, at best, slider, and he hangs that pitch far too often during the game. If you go back and watch him during his great stretch last year, he was basically a sinker/forkball pitcher.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) Current staff - Garcia + McCarthy = average. Not terrible like it is now, but not good either. I'd throw some money at Jason Schmidt although spending money on free agent pitchers is generally a bad idea. We have so much money locked up in our current 5 starters, it's not going to give Ozzie a lot of flexibility with the starting rotation. QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:05 AM) Johan Santana's ER allowed in his last 12 starts vs. the Sox... 2, 1, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1 Sorry, I have to do this: He's not Cy Young

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) Rowand sucks this year too, and he's in the NL. MacDougal has been very good in his stint with the Sox with the exception of last night. Riske has been much better than Cliff Politte and Dustin Hermanson this season, you know, two guys that were "pieces" last season. Mack > Timo, but I could've sworn Mack was not brought here to exclusively play CF. It's really pissing me off. Good stuff in this post.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:03 AM) I would give up on a basketball game if I was down 6-0 to Kobe Bryant... Well said

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:02 AM) mods, please please delete board you'd think that every poster in this thread was the type to give up a pick up basketball game five minutes into it and go home crying to their mothers because they were down a few points jesus christ Good grief...we saw you the first time that you stated this today.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:01 AM) I think the Thome addition worked pretty darn well. And Anderson got off to a terrible start with the bat, but saying "Anderson sucks" is simply wrong, and 2 years from now, when he's regarded as one of the best CF's in baseball, you'll see what we mean. The funny thing is that Anderson't hot stretch almost coincides with this team struggling. Brian Anderson isn't the reason for this team being in the position that it is. I cringe at the thought of how much higher the ERAs would be if he wasn't out there.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Aug 27, 2006 -> 12:00 AM) The question is where is our pitching going to come from next year? Since it's so great (as I remember reading that blog quote) that we have these guys signed through 2007/2008. My hope is we trade Garcia. I'll take my chances next year with the starting 4 and McCarthy. I honestly feel like we have to improve our offense more than our pitching for next season.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:58 PM) Hmmm, St. Louis Rams vs. Kansas City Chiefs or Tampa Bay Bucs vs. Jacksonville Jaguars? I'm leaning towards the Rams/Chiefs, any other opionions on what I should start watching here? My fiance already stopped watching and put on Bridezillas.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:58 PM) I just got to say, for good analysis all you have to do is check out every episode of Soxtalk on the Air because I have consistently been accurate on this team almost all season. It sucks too cause I wish I would have been wrong. Ozzie will inevitably be back next year and all we can do is hope that Kenny finds a way to get some more pitching that will be so good that it will once again be capable of overcoming Ozzie's idiotness. This was about the time last year where you and I started saying that all we have to do is make the playoffs, and then all the pressure will be off. I'm a born pessimist, but I just don't have that feeling with this year. This team has no chemistry, and the players just don't seem to care.

I wonder if Ozzie will pull Contreras tonight, like Gardenhire and Leyland did with their pitchers when they sucked.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:56 PM) Why do we suddenly stink? Minnie must love kicking our ass so much. This is on KW, not Ozzie. He's the one who signed Mack and counted on BA and his spiffy .220 batting average instead of Rowand. We've been a bad baseball team since the Boston series started prior to the ASB. Some absolutely awful fundamental baseball, terrible pitching, and the worst managing in baseball.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:55 PM) Ok, now I think that one's just not fair. The reason the Dodgers started doing so much better when they changed catchers was that they brought up Russel Martin and dumped that POS Dioner Navarro. They instantly got hot when they put Martin behind the plate in May. Fair enough

Ha...nice range Mackowiak. f*** YOU OZZIE!

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:54 PM) Well thats been obvious for the past few months. I've been laughing at anyone that still considers him an ace. He's fallen far too in love with all those arm angles and has gone completely away from his fork ball. What's Don Cooper getting paid for this season?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:53 PM) Razor Shines with Sandy Alomar moving in as the bench coach. Get er done. Only if Ozzie takes Cora, Garcia, Vaz, and Pods with him.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:53 PM) Rondell White looks silly on two two-seam fastballs from Contreras. So what do you throw to get him out? Slider. Heh. Great forkball, Jose. Don't forget that Tyner is a slap hitter, so he's going to stay back on the offspeed pitch well. Sandy is just an absolute joke back there. It's no wonder the Dodgers started doing so much better once they stopped playing him.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Aug 26, 2006 -> 11:52 PM) It's times like these I wish I could be a reporter at Ozzies post game press conference and ask what the f*** he is thinking. 2-0, f*** this team That's funny, but I was just thinking how I wish a reporter really questioned Ozzie in the postgame, and tried to sucker him into snapping again.