FlaCWS

I think it would be a mistake to give up the farm for AJ Burnett. I live in south Florida and have seen enough of him to know that - while he has great talent - he's not a superstar pitcher. Besides, doesn't this team have enough starting pitching? It's safe to say that Garland is no fluke at this point. Buehrle is one of the best and Garcia is rock solid. In the playoffs you can win with 3 starters, plus El Duque (if healthy) is more than serviceable as a #4. I understand Contreras is maddeningly inconsistent, but he's good enough to get us through the rest of the regular season as a #5 starter. In the playoffs he can be a long reliever. To me, our issue is in the bullpen. While Cotts, Marte and Politte have been solid, Hermanson is a question (with the back) and Vizcaino is just plain awful. I'd much rather see the Sox add a solid bullpen arm (Guardado?) for maybe one good prospect, than get Burnett at the price of Marte (further hurting the pen), McCarthy and still another player. Not worth it, IMHO. Thoughts?

I hear what you guys are saying, I am just concerned that pitchers won't want to come here (or re-sign here).

Am I the only one who's getting a little tired of the constant home run-fests at the Cell? Manny's opposite field shot tonight just fired me up. It's so rare that a guy "just misses" in our park. A "just miss" in most other parks is gone at the Cell. Considering that we are now a pitching-and-defense oriented team, I think this is very important. If they can't physically move the fences back (because of the bullpen cafe or whatever) then what about moving home plate up about 10 feet or so? I'd hate to see pitchers not want to come here - a la Coors Field - because it's such a bandbox.

To me, the #3 slot is for the best hitter on the team. Not the best hitter for this particular 2-week stretch of games, but the best hitter, period. There is no one in this lineup who is even close to the hitter Frank Thomas is, even at 36 years of age. Not Dye, definitely not Rowand and not even Carl. Frank still strikes fear into the hearts of pitchers, and he's still the guy I want up after Podsednick walks and Iguchi moves him over with one out. Not only that, but Frank should be in the lineup every day. Not on the bench against tough righties. I love what Carl has done this year and I like that Ozzie has rotated him the OF. I think he should do more of that and make absolutely sure that Frank never sits on the bench as long as he's healthy. Just my two cents.

I definitely agree that Halladay has the better stats... but Peter Gammons put it best on the selection show. He said he'd love to see Buehrle start as a tribute to what the White Sox did in the 1st half. Think about it, the Sox have no position players on the team. I think it would be fitting to give Buehrle the start

As I've mentioned before, I'm an out-of-towner. When I first started coming to this board I noticed a lot of bashing of the Chicago Tribune, calling it the "Cub-une" because of its ownership and perceived bias toward the other team in town. However, with the Sox playing so well, it seems to me that the Tribune - at least on its web site - gives the Sox top-billing almost every day. On the other hand, after that thrilling win last night, the Sun Times has the Cubs loss to the Yanks as the top story! And their top column is about the Sox pathetic history. WTF? Again, being an out-of-towner I have to defer to the people who've been observing this stuff for years, but on 2 1/2 months of observation it seems to me it's the Sun-Times that shafts the Sox (and that's without even mentioning Jay Mariotti :-). PS - Those throwback uni's last night were cool as hell. I say bring back the red outline on the numbers...

QUOTE(sayitanitso @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 11:05 PM) How would you rate it among the parks you have been to? Honestly, I would put it right there with the best ones. My personal favorites are Fenway, Yankee, Camden and the new place in Philly. I'd put the Cell a notch below those, but it's certainly better than Shea or Wrigley (yes, I mean that. Wrigley's neighborhood is great, but the stadium itself is kind of crappy IMO). The only other place I've been is the Marlins' Stadium down here, which is more of a football stadium than baseball, so it doesn't even belong in the discussion.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 5, 2005 -> 02:12 AM) It should be on the letter to Brooks thread that is pinned on the main page. Cool, thanks for sending it along. It would be great if they added something like that.

Weird, since they're not playing the Yankees for another 2 months. Guess it's more of the national attention that comes with winning. Secret of Their.... http://www.nypost.com/sports/47764.htm Sox-cess http://www.nypost.com/sports/47765.htm

I've mentioned this before... but I just jumped on the Sox bandwagon last season. I'm a NY fan except for baseball, and last year I started traveling to Chicago every couple of months and became interested in the Sox. Anyway... I finally got my first chance to see a home game when I was in town last week. I totally lucked out because I went on Memorial day, which happened to be Frank's first game back, and it was a beautiful day with a packed house. I was extremely impressed with the stadium. It was way nicer than I even thought it would be, and it was so easy to get there on the red line from downtown (I got on at Washington). I don't get why people bash our stadium. The crap about there being nothing to do around the stadium is just that... crap. There's not much to do around either of the NY stadiums, and the same is true in Philly. I guess people compare it to 'Wrigleyville' but that's not fair. It's easy to get to the Cell, and it's easy to hop back on the red line after a game and hang out downtown. I have no problem with the location. I sat in right field, about halfway between 1B and the foul pole. I was only two rows from the very back of the section (lower level) but the view was great. I walked around a lot in centerfield during the game since it was such a nice day. I only had two complaints: 1. They need to put some "counter space" around the lower level, especially in the centerfield walkway. What I mean is that you need a place where people can put their food and drink down while standing and watching the game. They have this at Citizens Bank Park in Philly, and I think at Camden Yards also. The Sox can easily do this, and it would make the centerfield area even better. 2. The music was a little too much for my taste. There's something to be said for natural crowd noise, and for giving the fans a chance to think and actually have a conversation in between pitches. The Sox are certainly not alone in this, as it's a disturbing trend throughout all sports. Overall, I had a great time at the Cell. I thought it was going to be ruined when Marte blew the lead, but Timo made up for it with a thrilling walkoff base-hit. I look forward to going back the next time I'm in town, which I think will be mid August.

Did I just miss Frank's first hit of the season? Thanks MLB.com, you f**king pieces of sh*t.

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 02:04 PM) i have the grey squares, but i click on the 350k link to the right of those and i can watch.... WTF... well, thanks everyone. I am just sitting here shaking my head and wondering if it is really April Fool's Day or something...

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 01:29 PM) I've got the Boston game on right now. Wait, so if you go to this page: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/video/mlb_tv.jsp You don't see the grey squares listed next to every game that starts before 7pm Eastern? The grey square indicates a National Live Blackout and the key at the bottom says: National Live Blackout: Live games marked with grey icon will be blacked out in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Jun 4, 2005 -> 01:22 PM) Working fine here. Really? Well, the game hasn't started yet, but I've clicked on the KC-TEX and BOS-CAL links and both gave me the blackout msg, which is why I called.

I just went to sign in and watch the Sox game and BAM I'm hit with the "you are blacked out" message... so I call MLB.com and find out that ALL SATURDAY day games from now to the end of the year are blacked out because of FOX's exclusive contract. Except... I live in south Florida and my FOX station is showing San Fran vs. the NY Mets! What is going on here??? I paid 80 goddamn dollars to be able to watch all the Sox games. This is friggin' crap!

I'm sure this rumor is BS... but as long as we're not giving up pitching, I would do what it takes to get Chavez. If that means Crede + Anderson or Sweeney + another (non-pitching) prospect, I do it in a heartbeat.

QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ May 18, 2005 -> 09:36 AM) The thing that pisses me off about Marte and a couple others is they get ahead early in the count and then dick around and next thing ya know they are walking them... that drives me crazy to no end!! El Duque has been really bad with that also.

The national attention continues, albeit in a weird way... I was listening to the news on NPR this morning (maybe around 8:45 or so - eastern time) and Frank Deford did a little piece on the White Sox. It was his take on the Sox's alternate nickname "The Pale Hose" which he called the best alternate nickname in sports. It's nothing special, but it was kind of amusing. I'm sure they'll be replaying it this morning.

Nothing too special, it's just interesting to see them getting attention nationally... http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/309587p-264945c.html

What that guy doesn't understand is that it builds character to suffer with a team, and it makes it that much sweeter when/if they finally do win. If you want to define a team as "hard to root for" because they lose, that's fine. But I find it hard to believe that most people care about the other crap he mentioned. The only exception - and I'm sure I'll take crap for this - is that our announcers are indeed bad. I realize it comes down to personal taste, but I happen to prefer hearing an objective account of the game. Otherwise how can an announcer (like Hawk or DJ) have any credibility when they tell you a call was bad or a play was bad, if it's always one-sided? Again, just my take. I root for the TEAM and not the announcers.

QUOTE(SuperSteve @ Apr 26, 2005 -> 09:36 PM) A channel...WCIU...it's just a Chicago channel. Thanks! As I have mentioned before, I'm a NY'er who adopted the Sox over the last year or so while I've been traveling to Chicago a lot. So please excuse the ignorance of certain obvious facts...

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Apr 26, 2005 -> 09:24 PM) I believe it's a U game What does that mean? By the way, it's hysterical hearing Hawk going on and on about this play at the plate in between innings when he's not technically on the air. He definitely has a point that the ump was out of position, but he roots too much (stating the obvious). :-)

Is the game not being broadcast in Chicago? I'm watching it on MLB.com and it says "Sox Net" to the right of the score on the screen. Does that mean the game is only available on-line? What's the story with that?

I'll preface this by saying that the important thing is what happens ON the field, not off it, and the Sox are off to a great start. HOWEVER... there is no doubt that teams take on the personality of their managers/head coaches. Just look at the Yankee teams of the mid to late 90s under Torre. He always maintained an even keel and as a result that team never buckled under pressure and always found ways to win under tough situations. So should we be concerned that our manager can't keep his cool under even the most mild criticism? I am a little worried about how this team will react when the first crisis hits. If our manager totally flies off the handle at the littlest thing, what will this team do if another "Torii Hunter" incident happens? Will they totally lose their focus?

What about his call on Rowand over-sliding 2nd base and getting tagged out.... "Heeeee... issss.... SAF.... OH NO!!!" DJ is awful.