CaliSoxFanViaSWside

oops maybe i spoke too soon.

Ok I'll be the 1st one to say it. We're going to win this game > no bad luck BS tonight . Its just not happening.

I dont get it . Why not hit for Pods with Ozuna ,JD, and BA on the bench ? PH JD put him in right and move MAk to left or PH BA or Ozuna and they become late innings defensive replacement or Pods . It makes no sense to leave Pods in there against a lefty in the late innings when a 2nd run is huge .

QUOTE(ScottyDo @ Apr 7, 2007 -> 09:25 AM) Balance is absolutely correct. The PTI segment only showed the straight-on replay in which it looks pretty obvious that that ball didn't hit AJ, but on the side view the ball definitely changes trajectory at the exact point of AJ's back arm, which you can't even see on the head-on view. It definitely hit him, Wilbon's just a huge Cubtard. I forgive him though. I thought Wilbon was a Sox fan which would explain part of the reason they put it on PTI besides the obvious AJ angle.

No matter how many times I read caps I can never hear anyone yelling.

Thanx for sticking your neck out. Have fun re-attaching your head ! Good job !

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 1, 2007 -> 08:56 AM) Who uses their best lefty reliever as their closer, especially when they have another guy at the backend of the pen who is right handed, was your best/most reliable reliever last season and has closer experience? How many left handed closers are there in baseball? Billy Wagner? Anyone else? When you find yourself a reliable lefty reliever you don't thrust him into the closers role, especially when he's your ONLY lefty in the pen. I hate it that I so often have trouble understanding what the hell Guillen is trying to do with this team. I understand that he may be rusty, then wouldn't a spot on the bench, a hole lot of BP and the occasional start in LF or CF be the best situation for him and the team? Why is a rusty 32 year old who's coming off major surgery and a season in which he only had 95 ABs trying to find his batting eye as the starting centerfielder and 2 hole hitter? Why have such an unreliable hitter batting in such an important spot in the lineup? Seems pretty silly to me. I never said him starting and batting 2nd made sense. I was just pointing out that he was rusty and despite that he still "slugged it out" ( pun intented) with BA for the starting job so I wouldnt exactly call that "unreliable." When everyone around here was assuming BA would be in the minors after Ozzie practically said as much I opined that he wouldnt. It appears Ozzie wants BA in the minors but I'd be really surprised if BA doesnt get plenty of AB's. Ozzie will show flexibility this year. If he intends to play both Pods and Erstad against lefties one of them will be at the bottom of the lineup. But realistically Pods will sit more often and Ozuna will take his AB's against lefties. Our late innings defense will be Erstad in left and BA in center. Its a long season . Brian's AB's may not come early in the season but he will get them as the season progresses. I think many of you let your man-love for BA get in the way of your objectivity. I see a lot of Erstad hate and seriously theres no reason for it. I know what his career has been like. He's a solid major leaguer , a professional hitter and above average fielder. He's going to get a lot of playing time. Accept it , he's healthy and he plays the game the way it should be played. If he was a Sox from the time he broke into baseball I guarantee he'd be a fan favorite and this site would be ecstatic over the fact that a team leader was healthy again and poised to have maybe his best year since that crazy year. You know the guy will bat .280. He will do what he has to do to move runners over. He's a lot like having another Iguchi in the lineup. He's right up there with Mackowiak as the best baserunner on the team. He'll steal a base every now and then. His D will be very solid. For all the griping around here about needing guys to stop swinging for the fences and play team ball Erstad is a shining example of just such a player. Cut the guy some slack , let him play, if he sucks you all can say I told you so but I better see some serious crow eating if he plays good. But what I imagine we'll be seeing more is unrealistic expectations and whining about every freakin' at bat where he doesnt get a hit and how every ball that goes into the gap will be one that "Brian would've had."

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 27, 2007 -> 08:56 PM) I'm sorry but I totally disagree, Erstad has actually looked pretty bad at the plate hence his 13 Ks and only 4 BB, the guy has been flailing like crazy on anything with movement and is having trouble with strike zone judgment. Anderson has had some hot streaks, it's true but it's not like Erstad hasn't been doing the exact same. As of last week his OBP was below .300, he's picked up some singles along with a home run over the past few games and upped his spring numbers. Atleast Brian has stayed consistent with his approach at the plate, the guy is taking pitches nicely and getting deep into counts, he's gone 3-1 more times than I can count this spring. His swings are still choppy as hell though, he's really got to work on cutting them down. Hence his 7 BB and 7 SO. I've seen every AB the each of them have had this spring most of them a second time and Brian has earned a starting spot on this club, he's done exactly what was asked of him. If Erstad had outplayed Brian in the 24 more ABs he's had I'd be more than happy to endorse him as the starting CF because of his baseball savvy, quality fundamentals and team leadership skills and frankly I'm not a big fan of Anderson as a hitter. I'm just waiting for Erstad to show some sort of batter's eye. As Ozzie said, the guy who produces during spring is going to win the job and it's tough to argue that Erstad's spring production has been greater than Anderson's. I won't argue over who's spring production has been better. Frankly its pretty much of a tossup. I think Erstad and BA have both shown enough to be in a platoon with Pods. Erstad can play left and center .Pods only left and BA only center. I'm surprised its never mentioned especially by as knowledgable of a guy as yourself but Erstad is coming off a year where he hardly had any AB's. Since you mention his strikeout totals , I think its only fair to say he's rusty. I'm sure its the reason why he led the team in AB's and his K totals are up there. Once he gets his batting eye back a little more we might be looking at close to a .300 hitter if he's injury free and not overused. As an addendum I would also like to say that maybe you should check how Erstad has progressed this spring. Did the majority of his K's come early in the spring ? Has he cut down on the K's say like from week to week ? You said you're waiting for him to show a batting eye, so if you find evidence of his K totals diminishing exponentially you have your evidence.

Fastball hit 90. Was hitting his spots. Cutter was working. Kept the ball down. Worked both sides of the plate. Kept hitters off balance . Yup was vintage Mark. Increased hope around here a lot. Without a Good MB theres really little chance of making the playoffs.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:05 AM) it's too hard for me to vote, and I think it should be for everybody else. As s***ty as this team is playing, and as bad as the 1-2 is, this team still has the talent to win 90-100 games, just as it has the lack of talent to lose 85-95 games. Way to go out on a limb ! Just make a freakin' prediction. It aint all that hard. Put a lil dot in a freakin circle. I say second. More pluses will show up than minuses. Wether we get the wild card or not...hmmm I'd have to say no.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 06:18 PM) If he hits .275, that'll mean that his OBP is (most likely) right around .330. So that'll mean -- not only will we have a below average OBP at the leadoff spot, we'll have a below average OBP at the #2 spot. Honestly, .275 is right around what I'm expecting from Erstad. .275/.330/.375 seems about right... That'd be awesome if he was on the bench or if he was in left and Anderson was in center. When we got him I thought he would be in left and Brian in center especially with Pods injured. I wasnt worried about Estad .I'd seen him at his best and worst and figured if we signed him he was healthy. But apparently Ozzie thinks Pods and his disruptive running ( if he can still do it) is a necessity for this team to win. Doesnt appear he's capable of managing a different style.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 06:23 PM) Willie Harris = 78% success rate on SBs. Scott Podsednik = 76% success rate on SBs. And that doesn't take into account the what, 30 (?) or so times that Pods has been picked off over his career. Just 'cause Willie didn't run every time he got on base doesn't mean he didn't know how to steal. Im sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but doesnt a pickoff count as a caught stealing ?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 06:16 PM) We lead the AL last year with a .290 average against righties, and we were 11th out of 14 teams in the AL against Lefities. So we can sugar coat it all we want, we need to improve against lefties. I agree we need to improve against lefties but that at bat wasnt sugarcoated. You know as well as I do that Hall and maybe Perez were supposed to help in that area . It just didnt pan out. Sox win 3-2 .

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) .....and to think, there are sox fans out there who don't have a problem with Grinderstad's low OBP because of his "intangibles." SO if he hits .275 and fields decently will u have a problem with him or continue to beat a dead horse ?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 04:29 PM) Having him bat 2nd, allows him to keep closed more and wait on the pitch for contact. Walker has been working on getting around on the ball with Gooch more this spring, so that translates to looking like donkey balls when someone goes low and away to you. He will hit some monster shots, but at some point everyone will go low and away just like the rest of the right handed power hitters on our team. Uribe swinging at a ball over his melon for strike three. He is ready for the regular season. Not every left pitcher throws a changeup that tails away from a righty. And he doubled up on the pitch. Give the pitcher some credit. Even the best hitters make outs 70% of the time.

Ricardo Montalban with a hit.

Good post ! I like it. We know we're weak in some areas, backup catcher, hitting against righties,etc . We will only go as far as our pitching takes us and I can be equally optimistic or pessimistic about it on any given day because I dont know wtf is going to happen. I can only speculate, flip a coin , or take an educated/ignorant guess. I just know its spring and its time for baseball and wether or not the Sox win or suck I will be watching it on DirecTV every day and rooting them on when they win and cussing them when they lose like my father and my fathers father.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 11:13 AM) concern's are one thing. Every team has concerns. Take a look at our division rivals. They all have concerns. The Indians have Cliff Lee and CC banged up. The tigers have Kenny Rodgers banged up. The Twins lost one pitcher to retirement and another to Tommy John surgery. The Indians lost probably there best relief pitcher to retirement. There closer is Joe Borowski for christ sake. Are you worried cause are pitchers have had a bad spring? Lots of pitcher some cy young winners have had bad springs. Spring training is not about ERA's and strikeouts. Remember this team in the past two years has won more games than any other team in MLB. More than the Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Cardinals. Stop acting like all the sudden this team is gonna be the next Expos. Everyone should be Optimistic. Its spring, baseball is starting. Its supposed to be fun. Everyone around here is acting like the team has already lost. Its depressing. Often I'm with you on the negativity sucks issue but realistically as fans what we like to do is identify the concerns about the team and what management did to fix the problems. We know our strengths so they're not discussed at all. Can't get much discussion out of "PK is great, Thome is great". What bothers me most is there's a core group of statheads, armchair GM's and fantasy geeks that don't realize that baseball isnt like other sports where top draft picks are instant superstars. Players develop into things they were never projected to be. To see these soxtalkers who constantly say things like he will never be more then a 4th starter because he doesnt have a 95 mph fastball or a nasty hammer or a ungodly splitty is just irritating. And the thing is the people who talk like that will be right over 75% of the time because we know talent means more then anything in the end so they can pat themselves on the back and say "Damn I was right again " which only reinforces that superior attitude, which is my pet peeve more so than the negativity. Maybe I'd like to see a little bit more humilty when presenting your OPINION . Just because you have all your facts straight doesnt mean your word is law.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 29, 2007 -> 08:16 PM) Kinda sounds like the pot calling the rainbow black, ya know? Was your quote intentionly wrong ? Its the pot calling the kettle black. Because both the pot and kettle are black and you're saying one dumbie is calling the other one dumb. Black/black = dumb/dumb . Understand the saying a little better now ?

Thanks.. of course no trade clauses can be waived can they not ?

I seem to remember a thread before spring training started about how many soxtalkers loved the "power" arms in the bullpen. I responded with something along the lines about youth and inconsistency and wanting a "proven" arm or 2. Of course I was quickly rebuffed by the people who think this is fantasy baseball where K's count more than being a good pitcher. And of course most relievers are wildly inconsistently from year to year anyway so what good are proven bullpen arms ? This is what you get when you put a bunch of young arms out there. It will be a revolving door between the minors and majors. By the end of the year the ads we see now about having 9 more ring fingers will seem like a cruel joke. I want to be wrong so badly but I will stick with my earlier comparisons to the Florida Marlins. Its just a matter of time before Dye, Crede, Thome and Gooch are sent packing for more youth and we're praying for somebody/anybody from the young pitchers we traded for to step up and do something . This team will be Paulie and the Pups. I 'm looking forward to seeing Fields and Sweeney play unless of course we trade them in a desperate attempt to salvage this season.

HMmm seems to be a rap of some sort. Oh well to each his own. I like the passion and the guts. Thanks for not censoring it mods. It'wll go away soon enough like every thread does.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 23, 2007 -> 03:11 PM) More than what we received. I don't even know how you can argue this, Rock. I have supplied the proof on numerous occasions. If Philadelphia themselves were shocked our asking price was low.....then it obviously was too low. What passes for proof to you is a 3rd party naming Rosenthal quoting an "unnamed" source in the Philly organization in print. So you have to believe some newspaper or internet dude just didnt make the whole thing up or if he got it right that Rosenthal didnt make it up or if Rosenthal got it right that the unnamed source didnt make it up. I would hate for you to be my lawyer if thats your version of proof.

I don't even think its a given that BA wont make the 25 man roster.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 06:02 PM) And homered. I just came back to edit my post to add that. You beat me to it .