SleepyWhiteSox

congrats

I won't make it through the first month of the season with all these pitiful Erstad-grinder jokes...

I think he's probably the better option too, although I can't say he's really grown on me. His defense is very good but I still don't know about that swing of his. And the tattoos are a turn-off.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 11:40 AM) You know I like you Sleepy (tough loss BTW last night), but I get annoyed with these "questions". I don't think anyone is claiming that this team doesn't have a chance to contend. Yeah, tough but typical loss. I like ya too, which is why that silly question wasn't directed at you specifically but to the overall negativity of the board. Not saying we should only think happy thoughts and turn into that other website, and I really do luv the debate on here, but having to hear the same negative opinions as if they're fact over and over and over again gets a little annoying too. I'm not all that confident about this year either, but when looking at our team as a whole and at other teams including their own deficiencies and comparing, I do feel that we have a decent shot. Everybody's got question marks. The very good offense is intact (yeah, the guys getting up there in age worry me a bit too), and I do think anderson is getting a fair shot (my opinion). rowand and young would not have been traded if he wasn't going to get a fair shot and they'd give up on him this quickly. Up to him to prove himself. Losing freddy wasn't a huge blow, in my opinion, because that sudden, drastic loss of velocity had always worried me, although I do think we could and should have gotten more, so the pitching is largely intact with talented, young options for the 5th spot. The starters are too talented for at least a couple not to bounce back to make up for any struggles from the young 5th starter. And I like the back end of the bullpen (maybe a tiny bit of worry with how Jenks is looking) and think the young hard-throwers can be productive too. I have my worries and doubts too, but some people have said they don't like our chances at all to make the playoffs...already...in spring training...Still too early to proclaim our season a failure as if it's fact, in my opinion. And not wanting certain players to be successful because you don't like them makes no sense to me because, overall, I want the team to succeed.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 11:19 AM) Check it out, I had changed my post before you even responded to this. I don't want to get into another debate about just how bad our offense was during the 2nd half of last season. Well, that's no fun. The hot start was never gonna hold up anyways, and the pitching never did it's part in picking the team up when the offense struggled a bit. The full season of subpar pitching hurt the team way more than the periods the offense struggled, particularly since overall the offense did very well. Anybody else not gonna bother watching this year since we're doomed anyways?

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 11:12 AM) Also, our offensive struggles in the 2nd half of the season were just as responsible for blowing a 6 game Wild Card lead at the break as was our pitching. No way. Pitching killed us last year, plain and simple. We should just cancel the season this year. It's hopeless...

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 12, 2007 -> 02:02 PM) i don't know if this information has been posted yet, but this could be the final peice to getting Rowand back Isn't that a cubs fan site?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 21, 2007 -> 06:01 PM) I note that you don't mention the botched play in the OF by Erstad that helped the Giants to their first big inning, or the couple things hit over his head. Has anybody actually seen erstad in CF this year? Haven't seen him in in CF in the few televised games I've seen so I have no idea what to think. I'm not even sure if he's played much in CF this spring.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Mar 21, 2007 -> 06:30 PM) Yeah, that was lame on their part. But atleast it was Soxtalk who got the page article a few months back. Yeah. I don't think I recognized the others except for that other site. And which article was that?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 21, 2007 -> 05:05 PM) And they have a link to Soxtalk and other sites as well. Cool. But soxtalk is not one of the sites or blogs nominated in the magazine to vote for as the best.

Ok, so this is nowhere near as exciting as watching your team in the Tournament, but it was still nice to watch DePaul put a nice game together and beat k-state and thuggins on the road...

QUOTE(aboz56 @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 05:27 PM) I didn't miss out, I got to see the best High school player in the country. michael beasley or oj mayo?

I thought there was a similar topic like this before but I'm not sure... Anyways, it's happened to me on a few occasions where I'm channel-surfing and happen upon a silly reality show that I wasn't aware of before but I end up kinda liking it and watch more episodes. Off the top of my head, I can think of recently watching and getting into The White Rapper Show, King of Cars, and sometimes Miami Ink. I'll watch Little People, Big World but don't think that one's so bad. Have to admit I'll sometimes watch those True Life episodes on mtv if they're interesting...super sweet sixteen is strangely entertaining sometimes too... There's a bunch of dumb reality shows I don't watch and probably think are ridiculously dumb, just as I'm sure many people probably hate/d the white rapper show or king of cars, so which ones do you watch?

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 01:54 PM) Hiding because of how stupid all his Big 10 and Wisconsin trash talk looks right about now. He shouldn't hide though, people like me say dumber things than that and come back for more. lol

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 03:20 PM) Biggest change maybe that has altered this is the talented high school players who instead of going to an NBA team have gone to a top NCAA school, take Duke for example, they get local phenom Scheyer, Ohio St gets Oden and Texas Durant. Where would these teams be without these three, these athletes have improved the top NCAA teams in the league leaving mid majors in the dust recruiting wise. I can't see sheyer getting drafted out of high school...

If I don't have at least a passing interest in the teams participating, probably every major sporting event at one time or another (or always if I don't follow the sport) has been boring as hell for me. Depends on whether my team is in it or if the matchup is interesting to me. Shouldn't have to like it more or less based on popularity; watch what you enjoy. And yeah, less upsets does make the Tournament a bit less interesting, in my opinion.

Even the illini apologists have to admit that some kind of change, whether major or minor, has to be made to get their program back on track. There's way too much negativeness coming from that program (not saying it's all true) for it all to be false.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 18, 2007 -> 07:02 PM) I'm really growing more pessimistic about our chances to reach the playoffs every passing day. Sorry to hear that...

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 09:41 PM) I dont think RPI is the be all end all, just that you could argue that each big 10 seed could have gotten atleast 1 seed higher for the most part (except for Purdue). If the Big 10 had the "prestige" of the ACC I think that would have happened. Well, ok, I see what you're saying, but I still think the big 10 was shown sufficient amount of respect by getting 6 teams in, including the ones who were clearly on the bubble. The Big East is prestigious yet a 10-7 conference team didn't make it for the first time ever, and mid-majors like missouri state last year and many others throughout the years should probably have bigger gripes than where the big ten teams get seeded. Matchups and locations are probably a bigger factor than seedings usually anyways. I just think that getting 6 teams from the big 10 in clearly a down year is getting respect more than not getting undeserved higher seedings is a sign of not getting due respect.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 09:16 PM) MSU beat Texas, they just did poorly in Big 10 play... If you went by RPI: OSU 1, aka 1 over all Wisconsin 4, aka 1-2 seed MSU was 25, aka 6-7 seed Indiana was 28, aka 7-8 seed Illinois was 30, aka 7-8 seed Purdue was 44, aka 10-11 seed Just saying that by the numbers the Big 10 were seeded lower almost down the line. Not a very good argument. RPI is just one of many factors taken into account. A quick glance at RPI...unlv was 10th and got a 7 seed. kentucky 13th and an 8 seed. Even duke was 15th and many considered a 6 seed too high with their resume Marquee wins, sos, last 10 played, injuries, etc. are all taken into account also, of course. And when disregarding the seed numbers, the big 10 teams all got pretty good matchups, even illinois as a 12 seed.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 08:54 PM) If MSU, Purdue, Indiana would have been seeded like ND, etc they would have had a much better chance. Just because the 3 teams are facing 2 1's and the top 2 respectively is no disrespect to them. Wisconsin and OSU shoould both make deep tourney runs and its not out of the world to think 1 of MSU, Purdue, and Indiana will pull an upset. I just don't see a very good case being made for why msu or purdue would deserved six seeds or higher...other than because the big 10 is unfairly disrespected?

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 11:42 AM) Bruce was behind the 8 ball when he left SIU, he was never in a win situation with Selfs shadow looming. If Gordon would have stayed true to his word, WS101 would still b*tch about who he missed on and how bad of a coach he is. And he isnt the only one I don't buy that at all. He was in an amazing situation in which he was able to take a group of talented players all the way to the championship game right off the bat, immediately surpassing self. self is no bobby knight, and how many people were still talking about self after they made it to the championship? His downfall clearly has been his inability to turn on-court success into getting big-time recruits.

Wow, I really thought they had that game...a choke of a finish... QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 08:27 PM) I wish they would have won, but atleast they showed up and gave a much higher seed a really tough time. Maybe if the Big 10 had gotten more respect Illinois gets a better first round match up and wins. You're kidding, right? big 10 got 6 including all their bubble teams on a down year. Maybe the Big East can feel disrespected for not getting a worthy cuse team in with the unbalanced schedule excuse or a mid-major like the caa for not getting a team with a pretty good resume like drexel in, but I just can't see how you keep saying the big 10 isn't getting enough respect...

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 16, 2007 -> 04:40 PM) You score in games you need to score in. It would be one thing if teams were putting up 80 and wisconsin was always hitting 60, but there is a reason that they score less, they slow down the game. If you are taking 30 seconds per possession you are not going to get as many points as running up and down the court. Its easier to try and run and have to make something happen when you have quality offensive players, than it is for a team that is great offensively to have to play an entire game of half court defensive oriented basketball. Havent seen much of Nevada this year, but if Wisconsin plays their game (2nd half of today) then I dont really see a problem. They just cant be so terrible to start, because they do have a tendency to come back but at the same time youd rather not be in that position. You can't deny that their offense was absolutely atrocious those first 15 minutes against a very mediocre team. It was amazing to watch them continue to shoot from the outside after no outside shot was falling for so long and not going inside and driving against a weaker team. A better team would have taken advantage and really gotten a huge lead. Valiant effort by that team from texas but they were overmatched and just ran out of gas. But maybe wisconsin has gotten it out of their system and come out like in the 2nd half their next game. Should be interesting. After switching between this game and the OT nevada-creighton game, I'm interested in seeing neveda-wisconsin.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Mar 15, 2007 -> 07:51 PM) s*** Big 10 sucks, MSU shouldnt have been in the tourney? Experts are a joke, DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS. Almost was going to go with MSU over UNC It was only the first day...let's see how the tournament plays out before proclaiming a defensive-minded big ten team the champion...