elrockinMT

This is probably where Gamons gets his material. I doubt if he knows much about baseball outside Beantown.

I look at Sandy Alomar as more of a coach now than anything else. I don't know if he will produce with the bat, but he can handle pitchers and will be a good infleunce. I always liked Josh Paul and as hard as it is to find good catchers we should hang on to Josh. I think Sanders should have gone down where he can get some work in instead of being a mop up guy at the BL level.

Where did you get those pictures of my wife? Showtime I'm gunning for you...

Totally agree. I won't blame the umpire for the loss, but it's hard to have an approach to hitting or pitching when you have no clue where the strike zone is. Two cases in point, when in Colon's first at-bat he got strike called on him that was easily 6 inches off the outer edge. When he went out to pitch the following inning, he kept trying to hit that corner to find out where the edge of the strike zone was. That edge kept changing on Colon and Zambrano all day, so it's no wonder that they both had about as many walks as strikeouts. Marte, didn't have the same benefit. When out in a tight situation after getting O'Leary and then giving up the gork to Grudhsjkdfhwe; he needed to try and get Martinez to hit his pitch (to get the DP or K). When Marte attacked that outer edge on Martinez he missed with a fastball which was a outside, but then clearly hit the corner with his breaking ball, but that too was called a ball. So Marte on 2-0 had no choice to throw a fastball toward the middle of the plate because, at that moment, the corner wasn't being called. Martinez got a pitch he could drive, and you know the rest. My point is that the players only desire consistency in how balls and strikes are called. That game was confusing for all of them because it seemed the zone kept moving depending on who was up. These post are right on. There is nothing wrong with an umpire having a wider or tighter strike zone. There are umpires who are in essence pithcers umps and some that are hitters umps. The point is that consistency is what is expected by the hitter, the pitcher and the manager. If the ump is consistent nobody argues, but Sunday the ump wasn't consistent and that's what hurt Marte.

Jose Valentin

Because he likes Sandy Alomar Jr.

It sounds like the Sox are charged up and ready to play the Twinkies. I believe we can catch those guys and will win this upcoming series.

Valentin is doing a good job. He is playing good and aggressive defense and gives the Sox 100% every game. He still has pop in his bat and I think he will be on a hitting tear soon. Doubters will be singing a different tune then.

Crede is our 3B of the future. He only played part of last season regularly and this is actually his first full season. He is still learning and maturing as a big leagurer. He has the Robin Ventura like talent. The scrubbies announcers sure sounded like they were impressed with Crede.

Both Marte and Koch haven't been good lately. Gordon has struggled a bit. Rick White is coming around and pitching much better. I think Manuel must have some faith in White again since he brought him into the 8th with 2 runners on and two in. If White had blown it we might of well cancelled the 9th inning. At least he delivered.

I stand corrected.

A few things brando. Garland wasnt mediocre. He actually did well. And Colon only gave up three hits. Who cares how many batters he fell behind? He was still darn near unhittable, not to mention that all the hits were rather weak. And Colon shouldnt take the blame for the loss. When Marte came in no one was on base. The blame goes to Marte who, even tho he has pitched well this season, just sucked today. And Crede shouldnt be blamed. Did you see how well he did to advance Val to third and help him score our only run? He hit a low and outside pitch, exactly what he needed, and just squibbed one down to first. It wont win him any Silver Slugger awards and, as shown by your criticism, it goes largely unnoticed, but it is something weve been lacking. FUNDAMENTALS! Geez, even Chimp and Stone were applauding him on that one... OldRoman I am on your side on this one. Colon may have been falling behind, but he is a battler and that's what we need a person who goes out there and busts his rear end trying to win. He never gives up even when he doesn't have his best stuff. Crede did a heckuva a job to advance the runner to third and the scrubs announcers were praising him for his effort.

Jose is a good player and I hope we keep him. Now, if some team were interested in Jimenez, I might be willing to listen. Mark Buerhle to Texas? I don't think so and there is nothing Texas has that we need.

Winning two out of three in the enemies backyard is good no matter who you play. However, we should have won all three. I think it started after inning 4 on Saturday... the offense sputtered again. It is terribel to hear the Colon has thrown the most DP's of any AL pitcher and then see Ordonez trying to match Colon. I don't think Maggs has been the pillar he was in past seasons. I hope he starts raising that average and producing more RBI's. Konerko, well I just hope he isn't a lost cause for the season.

I think there is something wrong with Koch's arm. He has dropped to much velocity and at times even his curves are hanging. If he isn't hurt it may be tired arm syndrome and that could be a result of all the work lasy year. Mechanics don't cut that much speed from the pitches. I think if it was mechancis you probably would still see velocity, but wildness.

That pitch from Marte was a strike and there is no doubting it. The Sox also lost a runner on a bad call at 1st base. Umpiring has not been good this year for the Sox.

I believe that Rick White did his job today and Marte didn't. Don't trade Rick White and don't bring up another arm. I think White may have finally turned the corner as he has had a good stretch of pitching. In fact lately he has been more consistent than Koch or Marte. I read that Colon had a sore finger on his pitching hand in the last game where he gave up 3 homers. Well, that could be so, but he did pitch good today. If in fact he was tired, or hurting, or both and told Manuel, than it was right to take him out, but it looked like Bart was ready to pitch the 8th. Manuel made a move and even though I didn't like it before the scrubs rally it was Marte's failure and not JM's. It happens and we have to move on. We can still take the Twinks.

This was my thought exactly. Colon was out there in the 8th after allowing three infield hits and ending the 7th with a DP. I thought that even if O'Leary was a good hitter against Colon that Bart could take him and at the worse it would have been a runner on and still 1-0 or a tie game. Marte and Koch have been struggling and Colon is our big stud. LET HIM PITCH JERRY, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOO, JERRY HAS TO TAKE HIM OUT AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED JERRY. I HAD MY BROOM READY AND NOW ALL I CAN DO IS CLEAN THE FLOOR WITH IT. Oh well, maybe we can sweep the Twins.

Osprey blast White Sox By SCOTT MANSCH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Great Falls White Sox look like they need a little help, and the good news is that ballyhooed first-round draft choice Brian Anderson has arrived. The bad news is that he doesn't pitch. The Missoula Osprey banged out 20 hits en route to a 15-10 victory over the host White Sox Saturday night at Legion Park, in the process exposing a Great Falls pitching staff that is somewhat inexperienced. Carlos Gonzalez, a 17-year-old from Venezuela, and veteran Johe Acosta each powered a pair of home runs as the Osprey scored against five of the six Sox pitchers and won the rubber game of the three-game series to improve to 2-3 on the young season. For the White Sox, also 2-3, it was the second one-sided defeat the season-opening homestand, a week-long stay during which the home team's bullpen was rarely quiet. On Wednesday, seven Sox pitchers toiled in a 16-7 loss to Billings. On Saturday night, a paid crowd of 3,786 watched amid chilly, windy conditions as Missoula took charge from the get-go against Great Falls rookie right-hander Matt Nachreiner, an 18-year-old from Texas making his professional debut. Gonzalez rapped Nachreiner's eighth pitch for a two-run home run. The Missoula outfielder, who entered the game hitting but .182 (2 for 11), cracked another two-run shot off Nachreiner in the second. When Acosta added a solo blast later in the inning, a moon shot far over the scoreboard in left, the Osprey led 7-0 and Nachreiner, a fifth-round selection in the recent draft, was headed to the showers. "The best thing about this game is that you're going to get another opportunity, and he'll be back out there in five days and have to do it again," said Great Falls manager Chris Cron of Nachreiner's first start. "You have to put this lesson behind you and move on to the next one. ... He just left a couple pitches up in the zone, and they didn't miss many of his mistakes. That's pro ball." Gonzalez, a sweet-swinging southpaw, finished 4-for-6 with five RBI. "We came out aggressively from the beginning," said Wellington Cepeda, pitching coach for the Osprey. "Gonzalez signed this year and came to the states ready to play." It certainly showed. Chris Melendez also had four hits for the Opsrey, who entered the game hitting .209 as a team. Acosta, who also homered Friday night as the teams split a twinbill, blasted a two-run shot in the fifth as the Osprey extended their lead. "It feels great," said Cepeda. "After losing our first three games, to win these last two here really feels good." The White Sox never really got back into the game, although Brandon Bounds (3-for-4) and Clinton King (2-for-5 with a homer) tried to light a spark. Great Falls was, however, able to chip away at the deficit. Bounds tripled and scored in the second, then King, a third-round pick in the recent draft out of Southern Miss, powered his first professional home run in the third. Staked to the big lead, Missoula right-hander Manuel Cuevas appeared certain to pick up the victory. But the second-year pro yielded doubles to Sox sluggers Ricardo Nanita, Micah Schnurstein and Bounds in the fifth, and reliever Alexander Cremidan was summoned to put out the fire. Cremidan, a 35th-round draft pick from UC-San Diego in the 2003 draft, worked two-plus effective innings to gain the victory. The White Sox put up a bit of a fight in the ninth, as Schnurstein and Bounds smacked back-to-back doubles, and Carlos Lee contributed an RBI single. With two down, Mike Myers added a two-run single as the Sox reached season-high totals of 10 runs and 17 basehits. "We lost the game 15-10, but we kind of showed a little bit of never-give-up type of attitude," Cron said. "And we like that. When the games are closer we've got to maintain that never-give-up type of thing, and go out and play the game until the final out. That's a very big positive to draw from this game, because we weren't even in this game, ever, and we never gave up." Cron, a former slugging minor-leaguer who reached the majors briefly and has spent the last three seasons as a manager at the Triple-A level, isn't about to give up on his young pitchers. But he knows this: "It all starts and ends with pitching. The starter has to get you off on the right foot, and it didn't happen for us tonight." Although Anderson was in uniform, the former University of Arizona star who received a reported signing bonus of $1.6 million did not play. He is expected to make his professional debut Monday or Tuesday night, when the Sox open a road trip in Ogden, Utah. Cron said his club will take batting practice today at Legion Park before boarding a bus tonight for the trip south. The White Sox don't return to Legion Park until July 1. Missoula, meanwhile, opens its home season Monday against Idaho Falls. MISSOULA GREAT FALLS ab r h bi ab r h bi McStoots 2b 6 2 3 3 Gray 2b 6 0 2 1 Gonzalez rf 6 2 4 5 Myers ss 5 0 2 2 Murillo 3b 4 2 1 0 Nanita cf 4 1 2 0 Acosa dh 5 2 2 3 Cook cf 2 0 1 0 McCreery ph 1 0 0 0 King rf 5 1 2 1 Montero c 6 1 1 1 Schnurstein 3b 5 2 2 1 Mottram 1b 6 0 2 0 Bounds 1b 4 3 3 2 Guerrero lf 4 1 1 0 Lisk c 3 1 1 1 Melendez cf 5 3 4 1 Deuchler c 1 0 0 0 Olivares ss 4 2 2 0 Huson dh 4 0 0 0 Lee ph 1 1 1 1/Ivy lf 3 0 0 0/Haggerty ph 1 1 1 0 Totals 47 15 20 13 Totals 44 10 17 9 Missoula 432 022 020-- 15 Great Falls 021 030 004-- 10 IP H R ER BB SO Missoula Cuevas 4 * 9 6 6 2 5 Cremidan W, 1-0 2 ª 2 0 0 1 5 Perrault 1 5 4 4 0 2 Great Falls Nachreiner L, 0-1 1 * 6 7 6 2 2 Surratt 1 ª 5 2 2 1 1 Hudson 2 3 2 2 0 2 Russ 2 3 2 2 1 2 Reed 1 3 2 2 0 1 Hernandez 1 0 0 0 0 0

You guys get off oldromans back. Frank Thomas is still the man in Soxville.

Let's not get confused here when we use the words optimistic and potential when describing the Sox chances. I agree that if the team plays up to the POTENTIAL we know they have and players start to produce we can still win this thing. I think we are still in this thing and, if players step up and do their thing performing to their POTENTIAL then I am also OPTIMISTIC we can win. I think we are seeing some fire now.

Yes, but put Foulke back in a Sox uniform with those numbers and we would be leading the AL Central. I support Koch because he's here with us now, but I don't want to die at a young age from cardiac arrest. Koch should be able to do so much better than what we have seen. I don't see him on a run to do better than 25-30 saves max this year. I just hope he isn't hurt and if he is he needs to go on the DL and rest or get treatment. If he is just wild and going through his usual nail biting finishes, well I guess as long as we win I'm happy.

The Cubs pen did what ours couldn't. We are luckty those scrubbies weren't starting the game. But, I think we are turning the corner. You have got to love what Joe Crede is doing with the bat and in the field.

Koch's inability to put the other team away quickly is a big concern. I wonder if he's hurt or something. His fast ball is not rgistering about 90-91 although I didn't see today's game. I look at Foulke, who was my favorite, and he is 4-0 and 18 saves. Biddle has 18 saves. Koch is struggling way to much and that ain't good.

I am beginning to wonder if Koch is hurting. In the Red Sox game, which he blew, I didn't see a fast ball more than 90-91 and his curves looked slow and sometimes flat. I didn't see the game today, but he has the same problem the other relief guys do and that's he can't get the first batter he faces out. Gordon didn't appear sharp today either as I saw he had no strikeouts and gave up 3 hits or so. However, to have a coach like Joe Nossek is simply the best. He has done this sign stealing many times. He can read the other teasm manager/coaches so well. Baseball Tonight was praising him too and Josh Paul told Rob Dibble, "Nossek stole the sign."