fathom

Awful range by PK on Fick's single there.

The thing is, I know we need to play our reserves sometimes. However, Ozzie should try and keep someone like Rowand in CF if he's going to play Timo or Everett in the outfield in order to help out with balls in the gap, etc.

There's a big difference in a manager wanting to get a bench player into the game to stay fresh, and basically benching 1/3 of your regulars nearly every 3rd game. There's not another manager that comes close to this constant 3rd game tinkering like Ozzie does. Like someone just mentioned, I'm going to be livid if our lack of defense in the outfield costs us this game.

Honestly, how many other teams do you see bench 3 regular starters nearly every 3rd game of the series? Aren't you giving the other team just a huge advantage? Also, our defense in the outfield tonight might be the worst in the history of the Sox.

I hadn't read about this yet, but I just found out that if the Sox had won one more game last year, then they would have been picking 16th. Only the top 15 picks in the draft are protected, and if we had the 16th pick, we would have lost it when we signed Hernandez from the Yankees. Thus, I guess we can appreciate something that Grilli did for us! Sorry if this had been discussed already, just thought it was something interesting.

My lineup prediction last night was shockingly close, and I was being a little sarcastic last night: - CF Pods - 2B Harris - RF Everett - 1B PK - AJP - LF Timo Uribe Crede Garcia Nothing like benching 3 starters in a game....again!

I don't give a s*** what happens, as long as the Sox make the playoffs and are healthy. All I know is that I'll root for the Twins, Indians, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Rangers, and Angels to lose every game they play for the rest of the season.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:57 AM) he didn't seem like an ideal choice to upgrade the bullpen, but he was better than what we had. Don't forget, we had everyone in the Sox PR department (which means KW, Ozzie, and especially Hawk and DJ) telling us how great Vizcaino was and was going to be possibly to try and justify why they would trade Carlos Lee for Viz and Pods. Considering that Vizcaino had a simply awful season in 2003, he was definitely not the star that he was made out to be coming to the Sox.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:46 AM) Hey you Vizcaino going into this season because of his splits against lefties. Yeah, a lot of us were before Viz got slider happy. I remember when he used to throw a splitter/change-up to lefty batters. I can't recall seeing that pitch at all this season.

A simple statement that everyone seems to forget about when discussing trades was the one made by Ozzie where he said he doesn't want to make any changes to this team. As scary as it sounds, I have a feeling that Ozzie is buying into our record as an overall representation of our team's ability. Again, I'm thrilled with our record, but Ozzie and/or KW are nuts if they think this particular team is good enough to compete for the World Series.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:42 AM) Well when Marte got injured, the thinking was from the Sox Brass that Walker could get called up if Marte went to the DL because "He's a Lefty". That's BS. Well....that's cause some of the people making personnel decisions aren't too bright.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:41 AM) He's not going to save our bullpen, if that's the line of thinking. But he deserves a chance in a Major League Bullpen somewhere, and I'm starying to get the feeling, it may not be with us. Baj doesn't strike me as the type of guy that Ozzie would be willing to take a chance on. Ozzie seems to like to trust his veterans. Only way Baj gets called up is if one of our relievers go on the DL.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:39 AM) I can't recall how he did in ST actually. But even last year when he was gettin hit in September, a lot of them were bloop singles and unlucky hits etc. IIRC, but I could be wrong on that. But still the fact remains; Baj - 1-1, 0.85 ERA, 35 K's, 15 BB's. Kevin Walker - 0-1, 5.17 ERA, 20 K's, 10 BB's. If we call up another reliever, do not use this stupid excuse that it was Walker because "He is a lefty". He can't even get lefties out. Baj has the numbers on the board in AAA, and that has to count for something. Walker should never be brought up to the major league team. It's obvious that he doesn't have good stuff or command anymore.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:31 AM) Jeff Bajenaru. There you go I've said it. How did Baj perform in ST? I still think that he didn't exactly impress Ozzie last season, and he'll have a difficult time getting a call-up without an injury to a reliever. Is Baj really the long-term answer to our relief problem for the stretch run this season?

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:26 AM) He should been pinch hit for but because he was tiring? Come on. I think he means that MB was being hit hard, and that's why he should have been pulled. Buehrle gave up some hard hit balls in the 7th inning, and you could tell that he wasn't as sharp as he was earlier in the game. However, since we got out of the 8th inning, Ozzie managed the pitching in that inning correctly. It's just that another run or two would have been huge in the type of game this was. When playing at a big ballpark, a two run lead can seem like a three or four run lead at some smaller parks.

Here's my prediction for the 6/12 game: LF Pods 2b Harris RF- Everett 1b- PK CF- Timo C- AJP SS- Uribe 3b- Crede

QUOTE(qwerty @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:05 AM) This talk of hermanson going through a stretch of 'tired arm'' is just insane to me. He has been a starter most of his career therefore my reasoning for thinking 20 some odd innings in over fifty games will not make his arm ''sore''. I am gonna say it is his back that is still bothering him and leave it at that. I never thought the hermanson pick-up was as good as advertised ( i honestly think his era will be over four this season and have said it all along, hope i am wrong though). I also never thought the pen was one of the top 3-5 in baseball which was being said all of this past off-season. Is it because of our ''depth'' that they are so good? Having 14 different guys that can be s***ty does not overly excite me. Yeah, I don't buy the tired arm. Remember, people were saying the reason he gave up his first runs to the Angels about 10 games was because he hadn't pitched in a while. I wouldn't be shocked if Vizcaino ends up with a better ERA than Hermanson. I'm just thankful we got such a great stretch out of Hermanson at a time where the rest of the bullpen was slumping, besides Politte. Cotts is picking up his game now, and I have hope that Vizcaino will improve. I have no hope for Shingo though.

- As I mentioned in another thread, the main reason that Hermanson has lost his effectiveness is because he has no command of his splitter now. He was dynamite with that pitch up until about two weeks ago, and now he looks like he has totally lost his release point in the pitch. An 89 mph fastball with poor command of your splitter will equate to tough times on the mound (allowing runs in 5 of last 7 appearances is a bad sign for a closer). - Our hitters have to get bet at fighting off tough pitches and not being such easy outs on 3-2 pitches. Nearly every single Sox hitter is totally off-balanced if the opposing pitcher throws an offspeed pitch on a 3-2 pitch. They all act like they're shocked they didn't see a fastball. If someone like myself can notice this pattern, I guarantee you that opposing scouting reports say the same exact thing. Our hitters need to be able to foul off a tough pitch in that situation, and see if they can get a better pitch to hit on the next pitch. Tonight was a pathetic display of hitting with a 3-2 count by our hitters. - Too many hitters are taking strikes right down the plate, but then swinging at balls off the plate when they get down in the count. - PK and Uribe need to make some adjustments at the plate. PK has become almost a dead pull hitter, and it has greatly diminished the ability he used to have to be a tough out and line drive hitter. His K rate is way up, and it seems like he hits two weak grounders to the left side every game. Also, Uribe has been in a massive slump for over a month now. He's pulling off every pitch, and it has resulted in the typical Uribe weak pop up to the 2nd baseman (used to be known as the Graffanino special). You can tell the scouting reports say fastball inside to Uribe, and then drop the offspeed pitch low and outside to get him off-balanced. Uribe's a very streaky hitter, but on a team with other guys that aren't exactly overachieving on the offensive end, we can't afford to have such an easy out in the lineup. I'm also intrigued by Crede's recent effort, as he's staying on the ball a lot better than he was. If anything, the performance this week by our 3rd basemen (Crede and Ozuna) showed me that Crede is likely here to stay at 3b for the entire season. HIs defense at 3b is too valuable. - Also, the Phillies are playing great ball now. No way will they be trading Billy Wagner. Guardado would be a solid fit, but I have a feeling the Mariners will ask for a lot. We need some help in the bullpen though. Too many guys either are lacking confidence in the pen or they're showing signs of physical fatigue/ineffectiveness.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 06:52 AM) Pujols might get $27 million, but I don't know if it will be from StL. Pujols is locked up for about the next 10 years. He's not going to make anywhere close to that amount during his peak years.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:34 AM) Yeah if only there was a HOFer on the bench with 438 dingers tonight, we might have won. True, but we're talking about for the remainder of the season. We're planning on Frank being in the lineup on a pretty regular basis hopefully. I'm still not sure why we called him up when we did. He would have been better off being in the minors for this NL travel week.

QUOTE(chisoxfan79 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:32 AM) They need a guy that is a home run threat off the bench from the right side. That's why I said Eli Marrero would have been a great addition. However, the Orioles traded for him this week. I'm pretty sure that KW will now think that Everett is our righty power hitter off the bench.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:31 AM) It's obvious that they are just trying to cruise by until Gload gets healthy. But it's pathetic that they are risking not having a backup 1st baseman just so they can keep Timo on the roster. No kidding, it's so obvious what's going on. We've been saying this for a while now, but Ozzie's affection for Timo is really hurting the flexibiliy of our bench and roster. It's a shame to see stuff like this happen. Reminds me of Jerry Manuel and Royce Clayton.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:30 AM) i almost would like to see us get desi relaford, because he can play the whole infield, or mike lamb, hes capable of first third and the corner outfield positions Edit: not that willie and ozuna do bad jobs or anything, relaford is just a better hitter Relaford is more versatile than Willie or Ozuna. By that, I mean he is pretty close to an average infielder wherever you put him on the field. I don't think Ozuna is a very good 3rd baseman, and Willie isn't cut out to play SS.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:30 AM) i almost would like to see us get desi relaford, because he can play the whole infield, or mike lamb, hes capable of first third and the corner outfield positions Mike Lamb would be a great fit on this team. He can play 1b or 3b, and is a pretty solid bat off the bench.