ptatc

The biggest problem so far for the hitter is hitting with two outs. Yesterday the Indians had 4 RBI with two outs. We left 4 men in scoring position. Bring up the pressure hitting a little and we're right there. Let's hope they fix it.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 28, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) In terms of the Cortes/Lumsden deal, no matter how much you may dislike MMac, what has happened with those 2 pitchers that has suggested that deal will be a bad one? Cortes had a good year last year, but he's still a 20 year old in High A ball, and we've had an awful lot of jokes made here the last year or so about trading people for A-ball pitchers. And Lumsden had a pretty darn bad year last year as a 24 year old in AAA, put up a 1.7 WHIP or something like that. Can I nominate the Sammy Sosa for George Bell trade as a good one simply because it produced a dramatic reduction in the amount of used needles and cork in the White Sox locker room? Actually I like MacDougal. He has good and bad times but overall I think his is good for the team. But as I stated I dislike any trade where multiple young pitchers leave. Pitching is just too valuable.

for good Lamar Hoyt for Ozzie Guillen Luis Salazar and a relief pitcher Tim....(Studdard maybe?) Harold Baines (although he is one of my all time favorites) and Fred Manrique for Sammy Sosa, Wilson alavrez, Scott Fletcher and I think Wayne Tolleson For Bad Daniel Cortes and Tyler Lumnsden for Mike MacDougal. I really dislike dealing two young pitchers in any deal. Todd Ritchie although we didn't lose much we traded two pitchers again

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Mar 27, 2008 -> 02:43 PM) This is why anesthesiologists are paid the big bucks. When you're put under, you're essentially in a controlled coma. For all the surgeries/procedures which happen ever day using anesthesia, this is obviously a rarity. I just know I've never been comfortable with it. When I had my wisdom teeth pulled several years ago, I neglected to use local anesthesia and underwent the most painful moment of my life. It was excruciating, even with novocaine. The reason I avoided it was several years earlier, when I had broken my hand playing football and had to have several bones realligned, I was put under and felt terrible for several days afterwards. Headache, vomiting, feeling extremely weak. The head physician believed my body simply didn't respond well to it. Most people don't, which is why I'll always avoid anesthesia if at all possible. And have the highest malpractice insurance rates.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Mar 27, 2008 -> 09:17 PM) Since it's kind of on topic, I've been in my current position for two years, but tomorrow morning will be interviewing for the "next step" which will be a much more lucrative option and also 5 minutes away from home vs. the 45 I drive each way now. Some one, for the love of God, wish me a bunch of luck! :headbang Good Luck is always needed with interviews. :headbang

After a heavy night of drinking at a bar, went by some bushes to relieve myself before getting into a car (was not driving). After I started I heard Hey!! from the other side. A cop was sitting with a radar gun timing people and calling ahead to a squad waiting. I literally pissed on his back. The rest of the night didn't go so well.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 09:49 PM) If Ozuna starts at 2b on opening day and Quentin plays LF, the 3 hottest hitters in spring training, Uribe, Anderson and Ramirez all will be riding pine. That's pretty strange, but not as strange as seeing Nick Swisher in CF and BA in LF on occassion. That's just ridiculous. I am glad Swisher is leading off though. The more guys on base for Thome and Konerko and Dye, the better. Since Swisher's main quality for getting on base is walking and he doesn't run real well, there will be a lot of double plays from those three. Other than the 30-40 times out of 600 they hit the ball out of the park.

87

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Mar 26, 2008 -> 09:14 AM) Summarizing the many gaffes of the Chicago White Sox in just one offseason. Juan Uribe To no one's surprise, less than a week after placing Juan Uribe on waivers, the White Sox seem to now be planning to start him at second base. Certainly, he was placed on waivers because everyone assumed the team was finally ready to move on from his horrible .234 AVG/.284 OBP last season. Luckily, for Kenny Williams and the franchise, some team actually wanted Uribe enough to claim him AND the 4.5 million salary that comes along with him. All of Soxdom cheers as Juan Uribe, the most unwatchable hitter in the Major Leagues, he of the expanding ass, is gone! Hallelujah! Party in the streets! So what does KW do? He PULLS URIBE BACK, thinking he can squeeze a low A-ball reliever out of what I presume to be the Baltimore Orioles (but possibly SF/LAD). Guess what? Claiming team tells him to screw off, and now we're stuck with Uribe. OK, that's fine, whatever, it's not my money. We've got Sexy 'Lexi looking good, and Richar's only out a few weeks (news that broke the same day Uribe was placed on waivers, surely making this somewhat difficult for Kenny, but not really). I mean, seriously, if you're worried about that, let Juan go and sign Marcus Giles for something like 700k and save yourself a lot of money while getting roughly the same production. ANYWAY, We've got Alexei Ramirez, we've got Richar coming back, it just made sense to be rid of Uribe... finally and forever. Now, we're stuck with him, and of course he's going to start at 2B on Opening Day. Heaven forbid we not have to watch that fool hack at balls in the dirt for one more season. This is quite possibly the oddest turnaround for a player I've ever seen, to go from waived for the purposes of being rid of him to starting for the same team that waived him less than two weeks later. Josh Fields As if one goofup wasn't enough, we now have the Great 3B Question of 2008. For any other franchise (save maybe the almost as moronic Tampa Bay Rays), this one is simple. Move Crede, regardless of return, and continue the development of the only prospect worth a s*** in your organization. Josh Fields burst onto the scene in 2007, through 100 games blasting 23 homers and 67 RBI (albeit with only a .308 OBP). A work in progress, but the progress is obviously ready to continue in the Majors. The fact that Josh Fields, after the production he had last year, is being sent down is an utter catastrophe. Another case of Kenny overvaluing what he has in Joe Crede (see Juan Uribe and pulling him back). Seriously, Joe Crede is what he is... a Scott Boras client, coming off major back surgery in the final year of his contract who had one of the worst Spring Trainings in baseball. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO GET FOR HIM? Yes, 2005 was great, but it was time for Crede to move on. One player with a forced foot out the door is enough, but this team has two. That's not how you create a championship ballclub. Centerfield, Leftfield, where's Swish going to play, who the hell's in our outfield? Yet another screwup by management by over-crowding our outfield. With Jerry Owens in-house and being given every chance to start for this team, it's obvious that management thinks incredibly highly of him and had no intention on anyone else starting in CF. So why was Nick Swisher fielding there in Spring Training? Now, Brian Anderson has had his ups and downs. However, KW has managed to not move him regardless of what he's said about him to the press and how he's handled Anderson. So here's BA, to no one's surprise a talented player having been a first round draft pick, raking in Spring Training, yet Jerry Owens gets all of 36 at bats in Spring Training and it's obvious management was going to hand him the starting job. However, it seems he's being DL'd right before the season starts. We're 5 days away from Opening Day, and the outfield is filled with questions. Now, with "Black Prancer" DL'd, Anderson's the obvious choice to start, and I hope he continues to rake as I've always been a fan regardless of what this franchise has tried to do to him. Now, here's Carlos Quentin, a guy KW got for Chris Carter, one of many of our top prospects who would be moved this offseason, and Quentin might start the season in AAA or a backup role (correct me if something's been announced already). The perception when he was acquired is that he's a high-upside, power bat (with good OBP), and the trade was a steal. Even I thought so. Then, not long after that, KW trades 3 more of our top prospects for Nick Swisher, whom he forces to play some games in CF in Spring Training, and never gives a defined role to... CF, LF, lead off, 3-hole, 6-spot, where's he going to play? The guy who everyone considers this franchise's cornerstone is not being given a defined role. He's being juggled around. Luckily for the White Sox he's a class act and hasn't complained. Summary My main argument here is that management has no gameplan. Now, I understand Kenny holds onto the weird notion that the White Sox are going to compete this year. That's fine, delusional GMs eventually get fired. However, have you ever seen a true title contender have so many question marks heading into a season? Absolutely not. Yeah, I jumped around a lot, but this is a lot of stupidity for one offseason. If the White Sox do what we think they will (hover around .500 or worse) with their 3-5 starters all being huge question marks and a lineup that still tries to only hit homeruns aside from its 33 year old shortstop, what will we have to show for it? I believe another relatively high draft pick that we can combine with this year's high pick to trade for another guy who will help Mr. AARP Jim Thome and co. flounder toward a .500 finish. Maybe we'll throw Poreda into that trade as well. /rant Do you honestly think they don't have a plan or are you just trying to stir up trouble? The plan is obvious. They wanted to trade both Uribe and Crede but had no takers. They have to start both of them to drum up trade value. It sucks in the short run but will be better in the long run. Uribe was on waivers to see ifthe could pull him back and make a trade. It hasn't happened yet but it will. the sox will gain a player from the Crede trade and another year of service for Fields. i don't think there is ever a problem with too many good players. Who wouldn't known that Anderson would have put his head on straight this year when he hasn't in the past? Quentin if not used extensively this year is the replacemenbt for Dye next year, it is not a waste to season him a little more. For all your complaining about there being no plan, I see a good plan with backups built in for injury cases. We have a few older players so you see waste and redundancy, I see backup plan. The plan is obvious, you just don't like it.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 04:57 PM) Fields is fine on tough plays...it's the routine plays that he struggles with. This is more of a lack of focus with him. This isn't like Ryan Braun where they wanted him to get repetitions in regards to throwing from 3rd to 1st without hitting someone behind the 1b dugout. I honestly don't worry about Fields defense, it's not nearly as bad as some Crede fans make it out to be. I'm more concerned that he won't get a lot of practice against 93 mph fastballs and up in the minors. I think he may so more in the minors. There are alot of guys who throw hard in the minors but have poor breaking pitches. The big difference in the minors and majors is the "ungodly braking pitches" not so much the velocity. His hitting is progressing nicely although I dislike the K rate. It's the situational defense that he needs repetition on and must play everyday at 3rd. He will become anaverage to above average defensive 3B. He needs the repetitions.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Mar 25, 2008 -> 04:18 PM) What don't you get about talent levels!? What Josh Fields need to work on is facing MLB pitching, not facing primarily AAAA pitchers. Add that to the fact you will be messing with him mentally (KW saying all this crap about him being the guy, him actually outpreforming Crede in ST, etc), you can severly retard his development. Fields has always known that if Crede was on the roster he was going to AAA. KW has said all along they will not be on the roster together. Crede will be show cased and traded. The same applies to Uribe. The added bonus is that the service time clock is started later and the Sox prevent his free agency by another year. The only smart decision for the team is to send him down to work on defense and cutting down his strike outs by playing everyday and call him up when Crede is traded within a month or so.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 20, 2008 -> 09:29 AM) Two scenarios come to mind. One, they did the MRI because they thought it was a muscular/tendon issue, and happened upon the mircofracture. Or two, when they said "MRI", they really meant a Bone Scan, which may all sound the same to a reporter. Very possible but they wouldn't happen upon the microfracture because it wouldn't show on the MRI scan. The bone scan concept is possible that is an imaging procedure they would use to examine bone for a stress fracture or small fracture not seen on X-rays. The most likely scenario is that they did the MRI after the X-ray and when both show nothing they docs assume it's a small fracture. The reporter heard "we did an MRI and determined it was a microfracture." However I never put it past professional sports teams to hide or mislead people on injuries for any number of reasons. This one could be they are trying to find a thirdbaseman on the cheap because all of their's are injured nad don't want anyone to know it.

There is something funny going on with this report or it's a mistake in the report. MRI scans do not detect bone defects. They are specifically designed to look at soft tissue such as muscle, tendons or ligaments. Either they used the scan to rule out soft tissue involvement then assume it's a bone problem or somebody has something wrong here, deliberate or not.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Mar 12, 2008 -> 12:34 PM) his wrist was injured in '06? He originally hurt it in college and had a minor surgical procedure after the sox drafted him. They weren't sure if he was going to need a more extensive procedure on it in the future. He obviously did.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 04:07 PM) http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....ut-3-5-day.html I wouldn't want to be the person who did the manual reduction, and who are these "sources"? And that description of the surgery, yikes. :uhoh Sorry to say I have done it. The surgery is minor but he'll be sore as hell because of the sensitivity in the area.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 04:49 PM) Fields steals 2nd, Saltalamacchia throwing error ball goes in to CF, Konerko Scores, Fields to 3rd. Sox take a 3-2 lead. Crap, I hate speed. Stolen bases and being able to run is useless for a baseball team. It doesn't force errors or anything.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Mar 8, 2008 -> 10:54 AM) I was half kidding, but he still wont make the hall, the same way that Ventura wont, and they actually have pretty similar numbers. Santo never had a real stand out season, never really factored in the MVP race or playoff race, and played on crappy teams a majority of his career. Because of those reason, he probably wont get in, although he should and still has a chance to. I would argue his numbers were worthy especially during a "pitchers era", but he doesnt have that hook to hang his HOF hat on. Fun fact: Santo led the NL in walks 4 times. I agree. How can you be considered a HOF player if you were never considered to be one of the best when you played? MVP winners are sometimes political based on press but all of the best players get at least into the top 5. Was he ever a top five player in baseball when he played? I don't think so. Did you ever do anything that would even arguably be the best of all time? He was a very good player but I don't think he ever was the best or is the best at anything.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 7, 2008 -> 04:29 PM) And before anyone jumps in with the clutch argument. Robin had 18 grand slams. And was a pretty damn clutch hitter himself. Ventura is the better overall player and I'm a big fan of Crede. Again we cannot sign him because his agent will have him test free agency. That's not a knock on him. It's his right to test the market. But with a cheap alternative in Fields there's no need to spend the money on him. This team can put that money to better use in positions of need.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 6, 2008 -> 10:01 PM) I'm thankful Lowry got injured now (hopefully he's ok). The surgery he's having is quite nasty, as it requires a s***load of stitches. It won't be too bad. They basically will just release the compartment tissue around the tendon sheaths to give them more room to move. These are some of the few tendons in the body that have their own synovial sheaths. You're right he will have alot of stitches. He will probably be able to start throwing again in 3-4 weeks. He will need to be careful on how he throws his breaking pitches.

QUOTE(almagest @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 10:58 PM) Like which teams? Look at all of the past world series winning teams and 9 out of 10 will have this type of batting order for the top four hitters. 1. Fast or pesky hitter 2. good bat handler 3. Good ave and power 4. best power guy. I shouldn't have started this again. Every spring I go on this rant because every body has their own ideas on how to build a team. People keep commenting on how Ozzie wants to bring the "Marlins" here but it's the same philosophy most teams use. Being around the game so long you see many things come and go but the typical lineup has remained constant for the most part.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 05:44 PM) Oh please. He's 17 months removed from his WS MVP award that you already mentioned, and had a better year in 2007 than 2006. Quit being foolish. Who's being foolish? Back injuries cause problems in a hurry. My only point is GM's and managers build a team with a purpose and most of them like the "pesky" hitter such as Eckstein or the "speed" guy such as Pods at the top of the lineup. Many people here don't like it but these players can be effective. More often than not winning teams are built this way. Of course it doesn't always work no plans ever do, but most winning teams are built along this philosophy.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 05:38 PM) If he can carry it over, he's a heck of a backup option. It never hurts to have an outstanding defensive player for the bench.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 02:26 PM) Its hard to feel sorry for them when they will be vastly overpaid in the future. The average raise for arb eligible guys is over 100%, so screw them if they don't like it. i agree. This money doesn't include the 300,000+ for baseball card deals and the 100.00+ in meal money per away game. Granted it's hard being away from your family if you have one, but for a decade or so it can be worth it.

QUOTE(almagest @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 05:29 PM) And that's why teams were lining up to give Eckstein that giant contract, right? This is akin to saying that a pitcher's value is based entirely on his win-loss record and "intangibles." Eckstein is pst his prime. As I recall he won a world series with Anaheim then the Cardinals acquired him and he won a world series there also. Sounds like he was wanted to me. That true with pitchers. Who cares if they win or lose. All that matters if they pitch well. That's the problem with many pitchers today. Who the hell cares if the team wins or loses all that matters is that my stats look good. I need my "quality start" If I pitch 6 innings and give up 3 or fewer runs I did my job. That is the attitude that drove me crazy with Garland, he said this many times. Wins and loses doesn't necessarily tell you how well he pitched but it does tell you if the team won or lost when he pitches. A team doesn't go to the playoffs with a pitcxher with a low ERA or high stirkeout to walk ratio. They go if the team wins regarless of individual stats.

If the splint is for his thumb then he probably has an injury called De Quervain's syndrome. It is a tenosynovitis related to tendons that bring your hand toward your thumb side and lift your thumb up. This happens in pitcher's from decelerating your wrist if you snap your wrist too much during your breaking pitches. Rest and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds are the best way to treat it. It should not be a long term problem but will set him back for spring training