southsideirish71

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jun 28, 2005 -> 01:22 PM) Do we not trust our scouting? All this drop in velocity talk w/ some people saying it has been up in his past 2 starts. I trust our scouts to make the correct evaluation. This is from Rotoworld.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 28, 2005 -> 01:07 PM) I'm going to make an assumption here: the Sox will win the division and make the playoffs. This is a valid assumption because no team has had a 10 game lead on its league/division prior to the all-star break or July and not won its respective league/division. For lots and lots of years, lots and lots of baseball has been played and for that to not have occurred yet is remarkable and suggests it is highly unlikely to occur in the future. Yes I know Minnesota and Cleveland and Detroit are teams that can all make a run, but barring two major injuries (i.e. a starting pitcher and an everyday player going down for the rest of the season), but the Sox have done well against them the entire season thus far. I digress, this is not what I am arguing about. Hopefully I'm not making a rush to a conclusion here, but you're telling me that we should get Schmidt if it cost us some mixture of McCarthy, Anderson, Marte, and Sweeney (definitely 2 out of those 4 and maybe 3 out of those 4). Because we have already assumed the play-offs, we will not be needing Schmidt to reach this point. Rather, you're stating that essentially we only need him for one game: game 3 or game 4. The question you need to ask yourself is this: "does Jason Schmidt give this team a significantly better shot to win a game 3 or game 4 in the playoffs (either by pitching it himself or moving down Garcia/Garland in the rotation to that game) to the point where it is worth it to concede several prospects that many foresee helping the White Sox to future division championships?" Schmidt's health thus far this season, coupled with his fairly weak vs. AL stats make me question if he will be able to upgrade our chances this season to a point where it is worth giving up the crown jewel prospect of the Sox, a good reliever, and maybe two good OF prospects. I still think the road to the WS will go through Fenway. We will have the home field advantage. But game 3.4.5 would be at Fenway. The thought of having Conteras or El Duque pitch in Fenway scares the hell out of me. Schmidt or AJ would give us a better chance to win in those games. And in the playoffs there are no throwaway games. All of them count. The first one to 4 wins moves on.

Boston most likely will be in the playoffs. And do you really want the count going up against a team that he has s*** the bed pretty much every time he has faced them.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Jun 28, 2005 -> 12:44 PM) Sorry for asking this dumb question, but why do we need Schmidt or Burnett again? Do you want to throw this years El Duque or Conteras out in game 4 with the pressure on. El Duque is hitting 84-85 and Conteras is a mixed bag. He may throw a great game, then again he may s*** himself silly. Its too much of a risk.

QUOTE(AirScott @ Jun 28, 2005 -> 12:41 PM) 2 starts is really the start of a convincing run. 30 is not that old anyway, he'd be a great pickup. so would Burnett, even if he wouldn't sign for a few more years here. he'd give our playoff rotation a serious boost (Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, Burnett or Schmidt? Contreras and El Duque coming out of the pen. that'd be sick). I hope KW goes out and gets either one of them. If we get either we will have 4 possible shut down guys in the playoffs. We need a 4 man rotation for the playoffs. And pitching the Count or El Duque is not really an option. I could care less what his "career" numbers say, El Duque is hitting the old 84 mark in his velocity and would be a good loss possibility in the playoffs. Either Burnett or Schmidt sound great to me. Get one of them Kenny. I dont really care which. We get that and maybe a lefty who can get lefties out and I would feel pretty good about our chances.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 28, 2005 -> 07:14 AM) Just a quick comment on Anderson vs. Sweeney, based strictly on having seen both guys play. Anderson is more advanced right now. He also has better speed, more power, and he has more range defensively. Their arms are about equal, I might give a slight edge to Sweeney. Sweeney has far more bat control IMO, he has the ability to foul pitches off, make the pitcher work, and put the ball in play. This year's stats tend to bear it out, his walks and strikeouts are about even ... about once every 9 at bats. All he's exhibited so far is gap power, I'm a little surprised he has no HR's but he is only 20 and this is his first full year in AA. Anderson seems very susceptible to breaking stuff and I was not totally thrilled with his strike zone judgement. This is just a personal opinion but I think both will be major league regulars. If I had to compare, I would put Anderson at probably the Steve Kotsay level, but not as a leadoff hitter. Right now he looks like a #6 or #7 hitter. As for Sweeney, he has a great lefthanded swing but he will need to hit for more power. If he progresses I feel the White Sox have their starting RF for 10 years, and a very good one at that. So if someone forced me to choose on a long term basis, I would take Sweeney over Anderson without batting an eye. But, I'm not a scout, I'm just an observer. Good analysis. Lets look at it another way. The first one to go will be Anderson. He is the closest to being major league ready and based on this will be the most attractive for a trade partner. Anderson has some pop but still has a lot of strikeouts. Remember Anderson is playing in a bandbox right now. Jeremey Reed looked like the second comming of Ichiro in that stadium. Sweeney is a left handed stick and fits better in our grand scheme of this offense. He is a gap hitter, young and the big thing is that he has made a great impression on Ozzie. My short list of the expendables for trades this year are Tracey, god if someone would take Diaz and Borchard, and of course Anderson will be the big price dangling like Jeremy Reed.

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 10:07 AM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines Trib article... Well the kids is pitching in a pitchers park up in Comerica. He better keep the ball down. That lineup can lace the ball like crazy. This start should really tell us where he is. I think this start will also tell KW if he needs to go and get someone.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 08:17 AM) i dont think there is anything definite but on foxsports.com ken rosenthall says the orioles and another unidentified AL team have engaged in serious talks about burnett. there are 14 AL teams, you know the Os are one, you can cross off the royals, Ms, devil rays, As for sure. that makes 9 teams. it probably isnt toronto or the tigers. this is certainly not minnesota's type of move since they wont be able to sign burnett in the offseason. That leaves teh White sox, red sox, yankees, indians angels and rangers. the indians IMO can't make that deal, because since burnett is a FA, this has to be a deal for this year and this year only. given the needs, i would say the rangers, bosox yanks and chisox are the main possibilities. as far as im concerned, i believe its us, dangling mccarthy but i could be wrong. i also think its us because KW never likes to be mentioned about trades, and maybe thats why the name isnt given. also ozzie has the old florida connection and might be pushing for burnett. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/3720056 Its probably the BoSox. With their offense facing a Schilling, AJ, Clement, Miller/Fatboy combo would be a tough draw in the playoffs. I hope we are not resting on this best record in baseball crap, because when we go into the playoffs all the records are wiped and we start over. Seattle didnt make it into the world series and they won more games that we will. AJ would definately make a sick rotation in the playoffs. Buerhle, Garcia, AJ, Garland would match up with anything out there. We get that, maybe another stick who can play 1st and 3rd. And a lefty who can get lefties out in the pen and we would be good enough to battle for the WS.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 09:18 AM) The good news... The Sox won't be facing Prior in the playoffs. /Cubs Suck Just Schilling/Colon/Clement/Miller types.

QUOTE(jerseysox @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 12:29 AM) that year against the Mariners was a nightmare. but even if we upgrade with say Joe Randa over Joe Crede, is that really going to make that big a difference? There isn't a move we can make that's going to add a couple of .330 hitters to our lineup. We need that, plus we need Ozzie and Walk to sit down with the hitters and talk about a hitting strategy. Just having them swing for the fences all the time is getting out of hand. On 2 strikes with men in scoring position they should shorten up their swings and put the ball in play. Thats the whole idea of this speed team. You put the ball in play and maybe something happens. If you just K you have no chance. Things that concern me are when you have Rowand who has been a great hitter this season and last come into the Padre series and say hey I have been working on a new swing where I get out in front of the ball more so I can get more lift for power. This is after he brings his BA up to near 300. It has dropped since. AJ came here and the same thing, he was a oppo field hitter, he got away from that for a good month and is starting to get back to it. Our hitters need to play within their means, not everyone needs to be a power hitter. That is Konerko, Thomas and Dye. That is their jobs. Its not Joe Credes job to hit the ball to mars. Watching Uribe spin around like a top or tomahawk a pitch over his head. Its a few hitters and they need to corral it.

QUOTE(jerseysox @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 12:22 AM) It's scary. We do take care of business against the weaker teams, and I'm not taking that for granted, because all you have to do is look at what the Yankees have done against the D-Rays and Royals to see how that can change a season. It's just that I don't see what can be done to change it. For instance, if you only have two good starters, you go trade for a third one. If you lack bullpen depth, you go get a reliever. But if you're offense is inept against above-average to great pitching, what can you do? You can't get just ONE guy to fix it. It doesn't work that way. On the flip side, you can't overhaul the entire lineup either. I guess all I can say is The only problem is the minute you mention making a trade everyone gets their panties in a bunch. God forbid if you upgrade at 3rd or maybe dont want shingo or viz to come into a close game. You are betraying the best team in baseball. I remember flying into the playoffs in 2000 with a good record and watching a team that pitched pretty well in the playoffs, but couldnt hit in them. Our pitching has been great, but you still need to outscore the opposing team.

QUOTE(jerseysox @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 12:14 AM) I'm with you man. We're gonna have to win every game 1-0 or 2-1. It's too much pressure on the pitching. I'm just worried is all. I have the stats in my sig that pretty much sum up a problem. We are either last or near dead last in singles, doubles and triples in the majors. The only stat that we are near the league lead is in homers. Our strikeouts are up from last year also. This does not project well into the playoffs. We need to start to shorten up the swings a bit, and go for contact more than just mashing the ball to mars. But when we put up a 10 spot on Jose Lima or Sergio Mitre people think the offense is ready for anyone.

QUOTE(wsox08 @ Jun 27, 2005 -> 12:09 AM) I think our offense will get together, it's really too early to judge that stuff. I know we had trouble hitting Elmer Dessens, but every team has their off days and the Sox seem to win and hit in streaks. Let's hope we catch fire come playoff time and win the world series...... We are coming up to the allstar break. I think the too early to judge is kinda over. We have faced some crappy teams over the last month. Everyone is all happy we beat up on the royals and a few other bad pitching teams and forget that our stats pretty much reveal what this team has done.

Everyone just keeps repeating the mantra. We have the best record in baseball and we dont need to change a thing. This of course is until we end the season and start over in the playoffs. Then we will have home field advantage. Hopefully we can pull some home runs.

QUOTE(whitesoxin' @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 11:41 PM) Just shut up. Or even better, I'll shut you up by ignoring you. One this is a rant thread, second I could give 2 s***s that you ignore me, and 3 STFU.

Here is some more sick stats. We are last in the majors in doubles. This is for a supposed fast team. 2nd to last in triples We are 28th out of 30 teams in hits. But s*** we still hit a lot of homers. So basically this is the same corpseball offense as last year with some fluff at the top. The numbers dont lie.

Well when your offense is ranked 20th in the majors in BA just above the mighty royals maybe its a credible thing to question our offense and how it will rate in the post season. We are also 21st in the majors in OBP. This is a problem when it comes to competing against top rate pitching. We are basically the same softball offense as last year with 2 fast guys at the top. If they get on its not a solo homer. If they dont its a solo homer.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 10:52 PM) Can we lay off the "oh s***, we can't hit good pitchers" stuff? We've put up runs against guys this season and won some pitching duels, and it's not like the postseason is full of nothing but Mark Priors. Baltimore has no real starters that are a threat; Boston's pitching in general has been a disappointment (Clement the only one doing well. Wells, Arroyo, Wakefield, and Arroyo suck along with their pen. Even assuming Schilling gets back to 100%, we're going to get at least one scrub, and we've seen Clement implode in the past.); the Yankees are struggling mightily with their starters and only Randy is shutdown type guy if he gets his s*** together; Anaheim is fairly effective, but none of their guys are shutdown pitchers and all are hittable (we all know Colon, and Washburn and Lackey have WHIP's over 1.40. Escobar has good stuff but isn't healthy); Texas' best pitcher is Kenny Rogers, I rest my case. Every once in a while good pitchers are going to shut you down. Our guys have done it more than anyone. Buehrle, Garcia, and Garland have done it many times and are pitching well, and we've seen that Contreras can dominate when he's on. We'll live. Conteras will s*** himself silly in the playoffs. They better not rely on him in the playoffs or we are f***ed. Schilling/Wade Miller/Clement are all quality pitchers. I know they are no Sergio Mitre and all, but I think you underestimate pitchers who have pitched tough in the playoffs. Remember how Schilling pitched ok last year, and put that team on his back and shut down better offenses than this one. You dont need to be a total shutdown guy to stop this offense. Just spot the fastball on the outside corner and throw a slider on the outside corner and you will shut this team down. This is not just one time or another. Any pitcher this year who has done this has shut this team down. BTW if you thought that was a vintage Mark Prior who was a 2 pitch pitcher tossing 91 I would suggest you need to watch him in about a month when he is cracking 93-94 with a filthy curve. We didnt face the best mark prior and couldnt hit them. Plus what you fail to realize is that all of those teams have sick offenses that are much better than ours.

First thing Prior didnt pitch a great game. He had a 91mph fastball for the most part. He wanst as crisp as usual. His fastball usually sits at 92-93 and he heats it up to 94. And his curve and slider usually have a hell of a lot more bite. He was throwing more rollers up there than usual. This being said is why some of us are upset and the outcome. I can understand losing the pitchers duel, but good lord can we muster more than a pablo ozuna hit and a hit batter for our runners. Our hitters did not have a good gameplan at all. IMHO they saw that Prior wasnt up to 100% and thought they could man handle him a bit. They went up there looking long ball, even with 2 strikes. After the first few times through the lineup someone should of been trying to get on base. However what we saw was a lot of long looping swings looking for power. This is what upsets me. Not Garlands effort or even the outcome it was the lack of effort and a good gameplan. The only Ozzie thing was why is Willie Harris hitting 2nd. He is batting 230. Pablo should of been hitting in the 2 hole and Harris should of been in the 9 hole. Hopefully they go into Detoliet with a better hitting approach. Its so sad, on Friday they looked like this series was in the bag. Hitting the ball for line drives, hitting to the other field, pulling the inside pitches. Then two games in a row of softball. Lets see how far and how high we can get the ball up into the air. I feel bad for Garland he pitched his ass off. And had a near perfect game.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 03:55 PM) I want to let it out. Until I remember we are 50 and f***ing 24. We split the cubs series, who cares? Beating the cubs is fun. This year though, we have bigger things we are trying to accomplish. If this is the highlight of the 2005 season for the Cubs and the Lowlight of the 2005 season for the sox then, Life is good. I would like to see this team actually beat up something outside of mediocre pitching from time to time. We wont be facing a whole lot of mitres in the playoffs.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 03:37 PM) The only thing I will say, I was surprised Everett was not in the lineup today, playing OF. Remember they hit 3 solo shots against him last time they faced him. You know they were all looking for the quick yard shot.

QUOTE(C_LEE45 @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 03:37 PM) I THINK WHAT REALLY HURT WAS WHEN WILLIE WALKED AND FRANK AND PAUL TRYED TO BE THE HERO Well the funny thing was watching Blanco. He would look at our hitters standing so far off the plate, then put the signal down and setup outside. He kept looking up almost astonished that they didnt change the approach. Nice long looping swings looking for the fence. We were lucky we didnt get no hit.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 03:31 PM) I believe the hitters entered this game thinking Prior was going to be in top shape. They expected a sharp breaking ball, 95 mph fastball with movement, and pin point control. What's amazing is the offense did worse today than the last meeting they had against Prior. No actually our hitters were chomping at the bit when they saw the 91-93 mph straight fastball and roller curve and out thought themselves. They thought ESPN and that if they took Prior deep a few times they would look like heros. Instead a great pitching performance goes to s*** because our guys cant stop going for the fences. Next year I hope they move them back.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 03:27 PM) This is hilarious. One bad game and everyone is off the bandwagon. We just had ANOTHER 8 game win streak. Geez, people. Two games in a row of pull baseball corpseball bulls***. 5 hits yesterday and we got 1 hit by a 2 pitch throwing prior. I know we are winning the division, however we need to get better and being consistant with scoring runs. Last year we would score 10 in one game and then get shut out for a few games. We will face good to great pitching in the playoffs.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 26, 2005 -> 10:50 AM) You misread it. Pierzynski is saying the Sox coaches have been telling him from the beginning that he could and should be driving the ball the other way ... they are not telling him to pull the ball. Actually the purpose of this was to commend the team on hitting the other way.