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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 01:06 PM) So for the 2nd game of a series we'll get things like Beckham leading off, instead of the 3rd game? This is the more likely scenario. You have to find days when the regulars get days off. It's a philosophical of how many regulars did substitute at once and on which day.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 12:18 PM) I agree with this, but why does it anger Soxtalk so much? Why do people care about him destroying Williams when Williams himself has done such an awful job the last three years? Mostly because he has done a good job over his tenure here. More playoff appearances than in the 30 years before him. One of the better winning % in baseball. I know you're going to complain about the last 3 years and you're right. However, not everyone is that short sighted and like it or not JR is going to give him a chance to fix it. If the young players show progress he will be around at least 2 years after this one.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 30, 2012 -> 10:43 AM) I'm extremely worried about Viciedo's future, because he tends to be a slow starter anyway, and this team has an annoying history of rapidly turning people who start off struggling into platoon players because the veteran on the bench needs his at-bats. Or maybe it was the previous manager's distrust of rookies helping him win games. Hopefully Ventura has a little more patience, although from the manager's perspective, you can see why they want to win as many games as possible if a player is struggling.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 29, 2012 -> 08:41 AM) I like these guys coming around the team. That is a whole lot of baseball knowledge in those guys. All of these guys were coaches who taught Ventura how to play major league baseball. He learned from them how to play, now he will learn from them on how to manage. Very good moves by KW to help his rookie manager.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 25, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) I didn't see this anywhere else, but this is a great read on pitching mechanics and tommy john surgery, including ridiculuing the idea of a problem by Cooper. It's a great article. They're right, it's near impossible to change it at the major league level. The time to catch it is in the minors. The clubs are much more likely to listen then. I've been to many courses at ASMI and this is where most of the good research happens. They've been collecting data on pitchers in spring training for 15 years. They're database is second to none in baseball.

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 26, 2012 -> 02:40 PM) So baseball, lots of ballplayers are rich and stubborn. Instead of doing something to fix what's causing your injury you just fall back on surgery. There is no doubt in my mind Stras will get hurt again in his career. Probably TJ again. Which sucks cause his stuff is fun to watch... Part of the problem is that he couldn't throw some of his stuff without the poor mechanics. If he corrects it, he'll have fewer problems but the stuff won't be there.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Mar 23, 2012 -> 12:07 PM) Wow...that's bad. So much for his career IMO. That's too bad... He'll be back. however, it may effect his mechanics as I stated before.

QUOTE (Believer2005 @ Mar 23, 2012 -> 04:13 PM) New videos from Winning Ugly: 20 Years Later just posted. See how the playoffs went down, Carlton Fisk talk pitchers, how the season started, and the chemistry that made the ‘83 team so special. Playoffs: Fisk on Pitchers: Beginnings: Chemistry: I remember Carlton "human rain delay" Fisk from that year. Adjust each glove, adjust the pants, put one foot in the box, pull on the jersey a couple of times, look skyward and take a couple of deep breaths. Between every pitch.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Mar 23, 2012 -> 11:41 AM) The guy had 2 good pitches but really seemingly is white trash... and would probably be moreso if he didn't have his talents that made teams invest into getting him help. It just boggles my mind that these guys get so much and still result in being such big losers. People handle pressure and fame in different ways. Why do you think actors with good upbringings like John Belushi or Chris Farley OD? It's the same for musicians and athletes. Away from the spotlight they need to feel that "fame" rush and find it elsewhere. Jenks didn't even have a family growing up. I hate to think what I would have turned out if I had no one putting limits on me growing up.

QUOTE (Sockin @ Mar 23, 2012 -> 10:13 AM) http://blogs.providencejournal.com/sports/...e-inflence.html Sad. Unfortunately this is a common occurrence in people you have back pain and have had substance abuse problems in the past. They use the alcohol to dull the constant pain.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2012 -> 09:31 AM) Scott Miller ‏ @ScottMCBS BREAKING: Joba Chamberlain had surgery for open dislocation in right ankle last night. #NYYankees How did he do that? That is really difficult to do and is a significant injury for a right handed pitcher. Getting full motion back after this type of injury is difficult and will effect his mechanics.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 16, 2012 -> 10:10 AM) “Obviously, the players come and go,’’ Konerko said. “I mean myself and A.J. [Pierzynski], we’re going to be gone here at some point. But the people that head up the team, they have a much better chance of being here a lot longer than us. So they should expect to see a certain way of people going about their business. “And when you have success as a team on a major scale, whether it’s winning the division, making the World Series or winning the World Series, yeah, it kind of buys you some freedoms. That’s the same in almost every workplace in the world. You go out and do the job, and no one says anything if you have little quirks on how you want to get your work in. “When it all comes crashing down, it doesn’t work and you’re not doing the job, then, hey, man, they’re going to batten down the hatches. I certainly don’t take offense to it. If you didn’t see it coming, then you weren’t paying attention. That’s the way it works.’’ But get away from the field and take the elevator up a floor to the front offices, and that’s where the difference between the way the Cubs and Sox are doing business can be felt. For the Cubs, it’s very businesslike. It’s almost like watching surgery. General manager Jed Hoyer is the anesthesiologist, Theo Epstein is the surgeon and Sveum is the bald, tatted-up rehab specialist, waiting outside to beat your body up on the road to recovery. It has a white-glove feel to it. Clean, very little mess. The Sox’ front office seems to be more on a crusade. Decisions are random, confusing at times. More from the heart. Almost a “we’ll show you who’s smarter’’ mentality. Then again, players such as Konerko aren’t really concerned with front-office mentalities at this point. They don’t dictate the workload of mid-March days. “We lost the liberties we had when we didn’t get it done as a team,’’ Konerko said. “I’m not saying they’re overdoing it with us. It’s right on for what we’ve earned.’’ I don't really see anything wrong with the story, other than the over-worshipping everyone is doing with Epstein. And that will last only for a couple of months before fans start to become impatient. It's the nature of professional sports today. And for having something resembling a "boot camp" atmosphere, it sure hasn't helped to clean up a lot of the White Sox mental/physical errors on the defensive side of things. We've been sloppier than I can ever remember...although 50% of that is related to players who won't even be around come the first week of April. Most of us aren't tatted up, however we are bald.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 01:44 PM) Well, two things: a.) Pierre stole 68 bases back in 2010, and b.) DeAza, if healthy, definitely appears to be a candidate for 30+, perhaps even 40+ stolen bases. And so if we're going to sacrifice what DeAza might be able to produce with his bat lower down in the order in terms of run production for the sake of having someone who at least profiles as a typical lead-off hitter with the stolen base capability, then you have to give him a fighting chance to do so. And A.J. Pierzynski, batting in the number two slot, will least allow DeAza to maximize what he can offer in that capacity more than just anybody else on this team. I admit, we don't have any super options to turn to on this one, but most certainly, it isn't A.J. AJ does a couple of things well in the #2 spot. He makes contact, his strkeouts are pretty low and he can drive the ball to the right side. Both of these qualities are helpful when a player is trying to steal.

QUOTE (Cali @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 05:01 AM) I'm not crowning Detroit as World Champs. AL Central Champs for sure but I think one of Texas, NY, LA, or Boston will knock them out. The pitching after Verlander is suspect and even he wasn't the lights out CY/MVP he was during the regular season last postseason. I wanna add one more major issue from the Ozzie era I'm gonna be judging Robin on: Getting shut down by the following THREE types of pitchers on a regular basis*: - soft tossing lefty with a good change-up -rookie/first time pitcher facing the Sox - pitcher who has been getting killed by the rest of the league, baffles the Sox hitters (* = a pitcher can be any combination of these three types and possible all three in one. ) Now I understand a lot of these issues are on the players, but it's really up to Robin and his coaching staff to change the culture of the locker room and to say the right things to get these players to all stop falling into these annoying habits that frustrate us and cause them to lose baseball games they should win. Obviously you can't win them all but we the fans and I'm sure some if not all of the players know there have been far too many games lost in the last few seasons that they had no business losing. This has been true for the Sox since the 80's. I'm not sure if it's the Charlie Lau approach to hitting or what but the Sox have had this problem long beofre Ozzie was manager.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 11, 2012 -> 05:38 PM) Plenty of GMs made deals with him. He was fired because JR couldn't stand him which is his right obviously. They used the point A to point B crap as the excuse, which, while perhaps true but we will never know, was beyond silly since during his tenure he had less cash to work with than any GM in the game. He really was the Andrew Freidman of his time. One deal this article doesn't mention is acquiring Roberto Hernandez for a guy who never played in the major leagues. He may be an ass, but Larry Himes was nothing but a baseball genius during his tenure with the White Sox. JR, Schueler, all White Sox fans owe his some gratitude for the job he did, and IIRC, JR did make some peace with him eventually. http://www.southsidesox.com/2011/8/20/2374...s-built-the-sox Also interesting their "feud" began when JR was hiring coaches, or at least a coach, and not the GM. This I don't remember. I've always thought JR has pretty much stayed out of the way and let the people he hired do the job they were hired to do. It is interesting JR let Schueler fire Hriniak. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-09-16/spo...8_1_larry-himes Plenty were also not done when he was with the Angels and Cubs as well as with the Sox because we was universally hated. Of course some deals will get done because everyone is trying to help themselves and he wanted to deal. however even his own staffs didn't like him which eventually got him fired from all of jobs. He was the Barry Bonds of GMs. Everyone tolerated him as long as it was going good but as soon as they could, the axe would come down. I'm not saying he didn't do a good job. However, he was fired repeatedly and had to move on to many jobs because he just couldn't get along with anyone. I was just answering your question as to why he was fired when he appeared to be doing well. That happened at all his jobs.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 11, 2012 -> 10:27 PM) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/sports/b...ng-arms.html?hp This was always the prevailing wisdom when I was growing up and then coaching LL in the 80's and 90's. Not too many sliders or curveballs should be allowed. The article is correct that a properly thrown curveball or slider does not put statistically signficantly more stress on the arm than a fastball. The problems is 1) statistically significant and clinically significant can be 2 very different things and 2) most breaking pitches aren't thrown biomechanically correct by many major leaguers let alone little leaguers. The kids just do not have the motor control to reporduce proper mechanics. I've read all of the studies mentioned and the ones by Andrews and Fleisig are the best designed and conducted. Reporteing on frequency alone in a retrospective study is not good methodology.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 11, 2012 -> 12:22 PM) Too early to judge. I don't like AJ batting second. I didn't like seeing him bunt with 1st and 2nd, no out early in a game, but I don't know if that's going to be the move during the season or if that was just to work on a situation in preparation of the season. Time will tell. A lot of it is just dealing with the media, and dealing with the players on a personal level. I think he'll do fine. The other stuff is delegating to the coaches. Coop is running the pitching staff. I heard him say Parent is calling pitch outs since he was a catcher. It's a group effort. I think you'll see a fair amount of bunting from him. He used it himself when he thought the other team wasn't ready for it. As slow as he was especially after the horrific ankle fracture, he was able to use it effectively. That was a good clue that he really understood the game

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2012 -> 10:45 AM) If the White Sox were guaranteed the run of 1st round picks Larry Himes had, I'd be "all in" for a total rebuild. The tight end was genius pick #3. Black Jack, Robin, Big Hurt and Young Alex. His 4 1st round picks as the White Sox GM. Then his team wins 94 games with the lowest payroll in baseball and he gets waxed. Because he was universally hated by almost all other GM's (and most others in baseball) and no one would makes deals with him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 9, 2012 -> 06:14 PM) Quentin never really seemed to have the throwing arm with the Sox that he was supposed to have had in Arizona's system though. The injury was to Quentin's non-throwing shoulder. It was his lead shoulder for hitting. I you remember he had to wait awhile to begin hitting during that first Spring.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Mar 9, 2012 -> 01:56 PM) As if there wasn't already a negative feel about the minor league system, a harsh injury to an OK prospect sucks. I'll be stunned if we see Brandon Short in any prospect rankings ever again. He's not really that good, take away a year of playing time and add in that he may not be 100% again. Ugh He will be 100% again. It's a fairly straight forward surgery. They just tack down the labrum and allow it to heal. This is the same surgery TCQ had on his shoulder before th Sox got him. His talent is the question not the health after the surgery.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 9, 2012 -> 02:18 PM) DeAza better not keep repeating that throw through to the plate and putting runners at 2B when they should be at first still. Saw that enough with Rios last year. Sveum's the 52nd manager of Cubs. In the 1950's, they had "head coaches" and not managers, interesting. That's because they used 3 coaches as one manager.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Mar 9, 2012 -> 12:13 PM) What a shame, hard working kid. That should help him come back strong. At least this gives him a full year to rehab and recover.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 8, 2012 -> 02:49 PM) Dunn double to drive in Morel who also is 2 for 2. Is it a coincidence that Dunn is playing 1B and hitting well today?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 07:53 AM) It certainly has seemed to matter for the number of teams that won the WS as wild card teams. But will this change it? It creates a system where another team has a shot at the WS. It will keep more fans interested. It's more money for the networks and teams. So it's a good thing for revenue but I'm not sure if it changes anything else.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 2, 2012 -> 04:30 PM) What it really diminishes is the wild card. Can you diminish the wild card. It's not really an accomplishment. If you get in the playoffs as a non-division winner, it really doesn't matter.