fathom

QUOTE(soxunited @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 04:53 PM) Yes, Vincent Padilla is Ozzie's BIGGEST concern right now. Stop getting so hung up on what other players have done or what they might do - stop getting upset that a pitcher pumped his fist after striking out etc, stop plotting revenge because a player bumped you. It's starting to become obvious that some White Sox players might be allowing their minds to be played with during this difficult stretch. The Zumaya comments were very Dusty-ish. I still remember how Dusty would beach about players posing after their homers against the Cubs, even though Sosa was hopping half the way towards Lake Michigan when he'd hit his homers.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 04:42 PM) I posted before that besides that one inning last night, Buerhle was impressive. Hopefully he can build on that because the White Sox desperately need him to return to form. Sounds like Vazquez from Wednesday night.

QUOTE(stretchstretch @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 02:38 PM) If we can start putting up 3 and 4 spots in the first inning again, with some nice bunting, base stealing, key singles and occasional dinger, pitching just MIGHT have a chance to settle down and reverse the pressure.....IMHO of course We don't have the personnel to play that way. Our lineup has very little speed, and we don't have a good bunting squad. We haven't score 3 or 4 runs early in the game due to bunting, etc. Our early explosions have been due to Thome, Konerko, or Dye putting a crooked number on the board.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:09 PM) “As soon as they score runs, everybody’s kind of, ‘Oh, we lost already,’æ” Buehrle said. This speaks volumes about their mental state right now. Wow! Yet Hawk states that everything is fine in the clubhouse. This is where Ozzie needs to step up and do the thing he's best at, which is motivate the team.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:50 AM) If he does throw someone out on a fly ball deep, its because they fell over on the way into the plate. That's funny, because AJP really looked like he was about to fall over on his play at the plate. QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:51 AM) hopefully we win tomorrow....and everyone else important loses...at least the Yanks lost. Yep....good discussion in this thread with you.

QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:48 AM) ya well, if you think about our pitching not putting us in that situation...don't play the what-if game, it will never end. the % of a LF throwing a guy out at home is just slightly lower than a pitcher getting the guy out at the plate or deciding not to throw free passes out like the hair cuts they were giving out at the ball park. Actually, LF is usually the easiest position to throw a guy out at home based on the angle. Pods plays all the way back in Gary, Indiana though, so it's harder for him to get in good position.

QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:48 AM) ya well, if you think about our pitching not putting us in that situation...don't play the what-if game, it will never end. No kidding, but as I was trying to say, we need people to step up and make a big play. That big play sure hasn't been coming from our offense, defense, base running, pitching, or coaching.

QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:44 AM) i'm just tired of everyone knocking him for every little thing...he played a good game today. Went 2 for 4, no fielding issues. His throw home was fine, if Dye or Anderson had made the exact same throw nothing would have been said. I just think sometimes he's critiqued too much. Everyone loves BA and i love the kid too, but he went 0 for 4 with at least 3 K's and spiff defense on that line drive whatever the hell he did where he just gave up on it, but noone says a thing about that because no runs scored from it. Why criticise a guy when he has a good game? Don't you think the focus should still be on the pitching, bothing starting and the bullpen who played like horsespiff? Just my two cents. He played fine. He was the least of our troubles. However, his throw was horrible. If you watch the replay, he threw it so high and so softly that it took a very high hop into AJP's glove. Those are the types of plays which would be great to see our defense make. If you think about it, if Pods is able to throw that guy out, then Young's not hitting in the situation that he did that inning.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 05:04 AM) If Rowand only had 2-3 close friends then I buy that and say not a big deal. I just wondered if he was the kind of guy who sparked everybody. If the defense is pathetic, whose fault is that? Is Uribe the guy we should dump? It's got to be more than Mack and Scotty on the defensive end sucking. Let's see: - Dye's lost a step in right field. He's also not charging the ball very well at all, and it's preventing him from throwing guys out on the bases. - Mackowiak isn't a CF, plain and simple. - Anderson's been very good, but is still prone to some mental mistakes out there. His throwing arm, while quite strong, has been a huge disappointment this year. He's not thrown out anyone on the bases. - Pods....probably the weakest hitting should be DH in baseball history. Our double play turns haven't been great this year. We've failed to convert quite a few DP opportunities, and some of them have cost us games. Also, our catching has been extremely poor this season in terms of throwing and receiving plays at the plate. Kudos though to our catchers for preventing more wild pitches. It was an epidemic last season.

Yep Hawk, there's not a negative atmosphere surrounding the team.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 04:48 AM) Squert I worded the question reasonably not like a mama's boy. Why yu so upset? I'm trying to figure out reasons we are faltering and just looking for some answers from those in the know. Peace. Jim Thome is one of the best teammates in all of sports. The only thing that having Rowand on this team would have helped with is preventing Mackowiak from screwing up in CF. I think people forget how much Rowand struggled at times last year, especially towards the end of the season/playoffs.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 04:55 AM) That throw tonight was 10-15 feet up the line, so if AJ would have been out by only 10 feet he would have been safe. The guy was waiting for him with the ball. I don't think I've ever seen such poor judgement in my life. It has to be almost impossible to be out by that much. If you would be out by more than that, you would have enough time to get back to third. His throw tonight from shallow LF with the runner tagging came close to bringing rain. And 75 mph is giving him way too much credit. We seem so slow on the field. One of the most underrated downfalls of this team right now is the throwing arms of our outfielders. It's unbelievable that we haven't thrown out a guy at home all season. Cora has got to show more patience with our slow runners, and especially when we're trailing by more than one run.

Here's how things are going now. The Sox were going to miss Bedard when we go to Baltimore next weekend. He was supposed to pitch tonight, and then he wouldn't have been going next Fri-Sun. Instead, he got food poisoning, and he'll pitch this Sunday. Now, he'll be facing the Sox next weekend. In order to avoid facing Liriano, we better hope for no rain this wknd in Cleveland.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:43 AM) Hmm. This could be interesting. I think he was hitless his last two games, so maybe it was just a random day off.

Quick note: Josh Fields didn't play tonight for Charlotte. Not sure why he didn't.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:27 AM) If Garcia would get tossed for plunking someone in the first, it'd be bullspiff. Padilla hit AJ on two consecutive pitches in two consecutive AB's after having perfect control for the majority of the night, but he didn't get ejected. By that logic alone, even if its intentional, Garcia shouldn't be tossed if he were to do that. Then again, this won't happen. Garcia won't hit anyone unless its later on in the game, so whatever. And that's what I mentioned before the game. Ozzie just needs to shut up in the media, and take care of this on the field. By talking "macho", he's just going to get our starter tossed from the game.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:27 AM) He's not, and neither is our pitching staff as a whole. We're going to need production from our minor league system within the immediate future. This rotation obviously can't continue performing through the life of their contracts. Our pitching has turned into what people thought would happen to the Tigers pitchers. Our quality starts are few and far between. This team needs to wake up, and no better time than to start tomorrow.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:26 AM) 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th with the other team not having any chance to retaliate until tomorrow, beyond perfect. But Buck is far too classy for some petty spiff like that right? RIGHT? With Ozzie going around telling certain Rangers players that they would get drilled before the game if the Rangers threw at someone, I have no problem with Buck doing this. He knows he's completely gotten into Ozzie's head.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:24 AM) Anyone who believes, as Hawk/DJ did, that Podsednik's HBP wasn't intentional is certifiably baseball retarded. It couldn't have been a better situation to drill one of our hitters. And gues what? Not only were our pitchers disgraced, hitters overwhelmed, but Texas stomped on our corpse at the end. It's embarrassing to even think about. I'm optimistic it will pump us up. The real question is this: Ozzie said we would retaliate if they do anything fishy. Now, his boy is pitching tomorrow for us. Will he risk ejection for Garcia, and order him to throw at a Rangers batter?

QUOTE(Felix @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:22 AM) He's been around for awhile in game threads, just not posting. I miss him around here. At least he started intelligent threads.

Another week or so of this miserable team play, and we're going to find ourselves in a lot of trouble.

Thank you Texas!!! That might be the spark we need. Ozzie is going to flip about this. Why can't Ozzie charge Buck in the dugout?

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:10 AM) Well I'm not going to go back and research your posts but you know and I know you have been beating the drum for at least two years now about Cotts being good vs. righthanded hitters, and why doesn't Ozzie leave him in for the whole inning. How about just admitting it for once? As for leaving Cotts in, they were down by 3 runs already so I can see why he did it. You're right that I say Cotts should be allowed to start an inning once in a while. He's good enough where he should be allowed the right to get 3 outs on his own in an inning. Against a tough righty though who has seen Cotts before and done well vs him, I don't think he should still be in. We have 3 very good non-closer relievers in Cotts, McCarthy, and Thornton. All 3 of them should be allowed to be more than just one batter relievers.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:09 AM) Who up for starting a link for Tracey > Garcia in the rotation? You'd go from the longest leash in history to the shortest leash.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 22, 2006 -> 03:05 AM) Ozzie is destroying a lot of Sox fans inside. I'm not ready to blame this whole slump on Ozzie, as it's a massive slump by the whole team. However, when things are going bad, that's when you need your manager/coaches to be at his best. It's easy to manage a team when you're hitting 5 homers and the pitchers are throwing complete games. Showalter managed a phenomenal game tonight with his decision to pull Wasdin when he did.