southsideirish71

My prayers go out to his family, this is terrible news. He went way too young.

Jon needs to throw strikes today, get ahead and stay ahead. He also needs to pound in on righties. This is a bad hitting cubs team that he is facing. They are not too terribly patient, and you can get them to pound that sinker into the dirt. Strike one, get ahead, make them hit your pitch and we can call a whitesox winner.

QUOTE(quickman @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 09:43 AM) Excellent post and I agree. The feel right now is different and I think its because of our starting pitching. They get hurt by big innings all the time. If we were in first place right now the pressure would not be there, but we are chasing a team who is great. thats why the microscope is out. We need garland to show up big today. Every damn pitch counts. Garland gets lazy out there and loses focus. he has to grow up. I think this is the biggest problem this year with our pitching has been a lack of focus. The talent is there, but when you get Garland making comments at the beginning of the year that he lost his cofidence, you have Freddy deciding to throw more breaking pitches, and you have the rest of the ups and downs it makes for some bad games from an ERA standpoint. Its a long season, after a short offseason. I think the biggest problems for teams repeating, is the lack of focus. Hopefully the tigers being in front will keep the sox on target, and maybe at some point soon our pitchers collectively will start to put better efforts together, no matter who the opposition is. All they need is last years formula. Throw strike one, get ahead, make them hit your pitch. This years formula of get into a hitters count, and then duck isnt working so far. They can pitch better, they just need to focus on strike one.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 02:47 AM) Anyone going to games? IM HYPED PULLING AN ALLNIGHTA GETTING CRUNK at 4am like 10 hours til gametime WOOHOOO. GO SOX GO. What language is this? Hopefully those aren't boxers on your head. Lets kick some cubby ass today.

I dont think they will move Widger this year. All he needs to do, is to move the mitt around a bit more. Not just park his ass on the outside corner and sit there for the game. Its funny because Farmer and Singleton get on him for doing this. Our pitchers need to pound the ball inside. Or they are dead. When you get dinked and dunked all over, its because you are not adjusting to the situation. AJ and Widger call their own games. If Widger keeps it up, maybe have AJ call the game from the dugout.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 04:49 PM) Jose Contreras Pre-DL GS - 6 IP - 44.2 ER - 7 H - 28 BB - 11 K - 21 K/9 - 4.23 WHIP - 0.87 ERA - 1.41 Post-DL GS - 8 IP - 52 ER - 31 H - 59 BB - 16 K - 47 K/9 - 8.13 WHIP - 1.44 ERA - 5.37 I don't think either his pre-DL or post-DL performances are indicative of the true quality of Contreras. I think the real Jose is somewhere in between. But where? I see him more as a high-3's ERA kind of pitcher. Thoughts? He is a dominant pitcher. A high 2's/low 3s dominant AL pitcher. When his fork is on, he is almost unhittable. The big different is the wildness in the zone. He is getting behind hitters and relying on his fastball to get people out. When he is on, he is getting ahead with the fastball, then finishing them off with the forkball. Maybe its the new arm angle he added that is making him wilder. I dont know, hopefully they will fix it. We need him dominant for the playoffs.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 04:53 PM) Everything will be OK when we take 2 of 3 from the Cubs, and the tiggers lose 2 of 3 to PIT this weekend. I have a good feeling about the first half of that line going, the second half would shock and make me happy as hell.

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 04:25 PM) The last part of your statement is bulls***. Way to disregard the most important asset in our organization. Not even close = my ass. Johan 9-4 2.59 ERA 124ks .96 WHIP .216BAA Liriano 8-1 2.21 ERA 82ks 1.10 WHIP .212BAA vs Mark Buerhle 9-4 3.22 ERA 47ks 1.25 WHIP .262 BAA Count 8-0 3.44 ERA 68ks 1.17 WHIP .235BA The count when he is dominant/everything is going for him throwing strikes/etc/ is in the league with the Minny pitchers. But right now the numbers are well in those guys favor.

QUOTE(longshot7 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 04:22 PM) They won't go over .500 after the all-star break. And while their starters have been good, they're young and experienced. Verlander is going to fall off the table. And their bullpen is nothing to write home about. What are you worried about? We got this. The tigers are real. And are going to be there through the end. Respect your competition. Last year we ran out to a healthy lead and then slumped and almost go caught. I think the tigers will help us push and keep focus. And last year remember the following. Sounds from other boards. There is no way the whitesox pitching will hold up. They give up too many hits. Their bullpen is over achieving, they will fall back to earth. Look at Cliff Polittes and Neil Cotts and Hermansons career numbers. Dont worry they will fade.

We have 2 pitchers coming up we should beat. Then we will have 2 pitchers that will be tough in a row, Zambrano on Sunday and Eric Bedard on Monday. We have a fighting chance with Zambrano because we have Buerhle on the mound, and the cubs cant hit lefties. Konerko should be in the lineup for that one. Next week we get back to real baseball which means Thome is in the lineup. I wish that Contreras pitched better today. We should of won todays game. We are a much better team than the pirates. Hopefully the AAA prospect that is mowing everyone down in AAA for the Pirates comes up and shuts down the Tigers. I think we lost thing game because playing the Pirates is like running through mud. There is nothing to gain, and they probably just wanted to get out of town. Hopefully the hype of the cubs series, and the fact that Barrett the b**** is back will motivate us to pound the morons from the north into the ground.

QUOTE(J-MAN @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:31 PM) For what it's worth - the guy who I split my tickets with says he was sitting next to a friend of Politte Saturday and he told him Politte has bone spurs in his shoulder and should have surgery but wants to put it off till the end of the season since it is his walk year. If thats the case, trade for someone, then designate him for assignment. Putting him in games is dangerous.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) Yeah, you're right, being able to take 4 from KC at Kauffmann will sure come in handy when they are getting their asses handed to them in Boston this postseason. Last year we dominated the weak teams, especially our division, and we played 500 ball against the good teams. People criticized us and said well you didnt really beat the good teams, we couldnt beat the As crap like that. Now we are using the same comments for Detroit.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 03:03 PM) You know what's bulls***? A pessimistic fan incapable of contextualizing a one-game road losing streak. Give Chris Singleton a call then, because he said he expected us to sweep this and it was bad that we didnt.

QUOTE(Greg Hibbard @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:57 PM) But we won the road series, that's all you can ask for on the road I've said it about a trillion times already, Pittsburgh is not even close to the same team away from PNC Park as they are at home. So you think that the Tigers will have a problem sweeping them this weekend. Minny was able to sweep them in PNC. They never scored more than 3 runs against the Twins in any game.

QUOTE(Dawgs @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:54 PM) The bullpen is the Sox Achilles heel. No one member of the pen is the achilles heal.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:50 PM) That guy is incredible. What a series. Just remember this when the Tigers roll in here and win by 5-0, 7-1, 8-3 this weekend. 2.5 games back.

Politte can go back on the DL. He needs surgery. And Ozzie needs his head examined.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:45 PM) Well, I hope Bobby likes to pitch 40 days in a row. I would use Thornton here. Letting cliffy pitch, post dl, same crappy nibbler is a recipe for disaster.

This guy walked Uribe. His control must be poor.

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:40 PM) Dye takes a walk on what, four pitches and Joe swings at pitch #1. Well played. Look at whats is behind him. You would swing also.

Walk to Dye. Lets not get cute and bunt here. Let Crede bomb one.

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Jun 29, 2006 -> 02:37 PM) This is a move by Oz where, if it works out, everyone says "Great job Ozzie, getting Politte his confidence back right away in a tight game" If it doesnt work, then all of a sudden, everyone calls for Ozzies head. Odd bullpen placement is ozzies calling card. He had montero in the game late.

Dont nibble Cliffy. Remember Nibbles from Tom and Jerry.

Cintron throws some leather. 1 down.

Lets see if Uncle Cliffy has his mojo back after going on the DL.