chitownsportsfan

I was against this trade when it happened, but it's starting to look like the Sox made a good move. Of course, Thornton has had his share of bad innings so far, but nobody in the bullpen has been lights out, and having his 97 throwing southpay ass is probably more valuable than Borchard taking AB's away from Ozuna.

Uh, Robin Ventura is not a HOFer. Not even close. Raines is close, but he shouldn't be in. He was a good or above average player for a long time, however, when players such as Rock try and get in, I think a few questions are asked: Was he ever the best player in the league, even for a year? Was he the best player on a championship team? Unfortunetly, Rock answers "no" to both those questions. Rock was one of my favorite players growing up a Sox fan in the early 90's, and his career was a good one, but not HOF worthy.

I'm sick of Rob Mackowiak's no defense in center, slap hitting ass getting playing time over BA. Mackowiak is not a good CF, he should be used mostly for LF/RF subs, and so far this season, he's mostly been used in CF.

I think instead the Sox should just sign two guys from Soxtalk and have them play CF and LF.

LOL, this is Gameday's take on the Lugo bunt: "Last Play: J. Lugo grounded bunt out to pitcher"

Great post...

This is past insane. It's as if Kenny Williams and Ozzie are mistaking Boone Logan for a highly touted AAA call-up that is struggling under the big lights. He's a draft and follow who we should be following in Charlotte or Birmingham

IMO, Iguchi, provided he doesn't completely collapse this season, would be a more than adequate stop-gap measure for 2007, but it would have to a priority in the 2007 offseason. It's hard to project so far down the line, but if Iguchi can get on base at a .365 clip in 2007 with some pop, like a .790 OPS, that would be fine.

I wouldn't be surprised, but I'd be pissed. Mackowiak is a veteran with a proven level of mediocrity at the plate and he's not even average in CF. BA, even on his worst day at the plate, is an upper-echelon MLB CF defensively. That is valuable, a good CF makes the whole OF better, and saves quite a few runs. I want BA to start 3/4 or 4/5 games for this club. Mackowiak needs to be used more in the corners--LF and RF--over Ozuna.

Yea, LF is a lot less important than 3B defensively, and part and parcel of that is how easy it is to play. Most players that show defensive weaknesses but excellent hitting are moved down the defensive spectrum in the minor leagues. Like others have said, it happens all the time. If he has the arm for 3B, he has the arm for LF easy. Taking 50 fungos a day from the OF will make him a MLB capable LF in a year provided he projects as an above average OPS guy. Again, this timetable fits perfectly with Pods expected (and IMO rightful) departure in 2007.

I'd like to see the defensive efficiency ratings for those games, along with the "error" totals. I put "error" in quotes because it's such a stupid stat, completely subjective and misleading. Errors certainly don't help, giving away outs never does, but I think that any correlation between errors and losses should at least look at the runs scored in those games. It's perfectly possible that the multi-error games are also games the offense has stalled. I like to use DER more than fielding percentage to grade a teams defense. The Sox were a sliver behind the A's for best in baseball last year, and I believe they are top 5 right now as well. I'm too lazy to google it on my 24.4KBPS connection right now.

Thing is, you can't blame Boone Logan for this. It's like Microsoft hiring a second year business school undergrad, with a history of "B" grades, and asking them to head up the marketing division.

God, can we please end the f***ing Hindenburgh that is the Boone Logan experiment? This has to be the biggest, most easily foreseeable blunder ever. Well maybe not that bad, but close. I've been saying this since opening day: 1) Spring training is mostly meaningless, and 2) It's not a good idea to promote "A" pitchers to the big leagues. No, you're wrong. They ONLY way he will get is it in AAA. He is not ready for this right now--no pitcher that has never pitched above A ball is.

Yea, I can't believe your friend wouldn't let a single game chage his mind. Like earlier this year, Jim Thome went 0-4 with 3K's and I tried to tell my friend he sucked: but he wasn't having any of it--I was just like, "whatever".

Eh, don't worry about it. I've been posting on sports message boards for awile now, and I've seen it all. I'm unfortunate enough to be a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, and I've been called much worse. It seems we're at a basic philosophical crossroads regarding fandom--you have your thoughts, I have mine. I'm not going to get too upset about anything said on either side--we're just two fans having a conversation thanks to the wonderful internet. I would suggest not making arguments "ad hominem" in the future though--it's common courtesy.

Ok, so what issues are up for debate on this forum then? But to me, one year of success doesn't mean he has mastered the art. He was great last year, but I won't see he's been anywhere close this year--so far--he could show a deft hand yet.

This isn't subversive--it's just silly. What was accomlished by this "protest"? Every moment wasted on activities like this is a moment that could be spent working for real political and thus economic change. Just my thoughts.

Why is it a tiresome argument not worthy of debate? (I combined the two posts for simplicity--I know who said what.) I think lots of people don't like Jenks being put in to clean up other peoples messes. If he's going to be used in high leverage non-save situation--then freaking use him at the beginning of the inning. Furthermore, Ozzie needs to be reminded that Cotts was the team's best and most consistent reliever from point A to B last year. He can also (and should) be used more creatively. I have no problems with how Ozzie is using Thortnon and Bmac. I mostly blame the Logan problem on KW, although I'm sure Ozzie gave him a vote of confidence during spring training. One of the reasons I think Ozzie is doing a poor job with the bullpen is that last year he proved to be one of the best in the league at getting the most out it. He let guys settle into roles, and then used them appropriately. Right now, there doesn't seem to be much rythme or reason to his pitching changes.

Jenks is the last of this teams bullpen worries. Before 2 out of his last 3 outings he was looking great. I'd be much more worried about why BMAC was pulled, and then why Cotts was pulled--that stuff is on Ozzie. Oz seems to have no idea how to handle the bullpen right now. Jenks needs to be brought in at the start of innings. He isn't overworked at all. If 14.1 IP so far is "overworked", I'd hate to normal use.

LOL, I only wish the mainstream media got laughed at for asking questions like that as much as Soxtalk posters do.

Again, as has been said over and over on this thread: a calf strain is not NECESSARILY a minor injury. Anytime you strain a major muscle group in your leg as a bipedal being you're going to have problems. That said, Dye remains day-to-day with a calf-strain. There is no reason to suspect anything else at this point. The injury might be worse than Sox are letting on, but I highly doubt it's a partially or fully torn meniscus. (sp?)

You're way off base. Lets start off with a question: Have you ever torn or strained your calf muscle? It's no joke, and it's not something that you can play through--because it almost certainly will get worse--like Dye's did. I partially tore my calf last year, and I was layed up for about a month and a half. I would try and go for a run and it would get extremely sore about 10 minutes in. I'm sure that's what happened to Dye the game he had to come out. And why does Dye need to go on the DL? Who are we going to bring up that is better than Ozuna/Gload? In case you haven't noticed, Chris Young and Jeremy Reed have been traded. And I wouldn't say the lineup has really missed Dye. Sure, we miss his 950 OPS and protection for Kong, but we've been doing OK without him. I don't think the offense can keep it up without a healthy Dye, but a week or two won't hurt too much.

You must have missed that one?

What is wrong with blowing people out? The Sox weren't going to win as many 1 run games as last season without a large helping of luck. KW knew that and that's why he got Jim Thome--to help the offense blow people out. Your point seems to imply that hitting homeruns and fundamentals are mutually exclusive--they certainly are not. It's entirely possible that the Sox are good at "smallball" and hitting homeruns.

I'm impressed by the start, and certainly happy--but I wouldn't be etching the new rings yet, or even filling in the playoff roster. The season is still not even 1/5 of the way done. Onforseen injuries could occur to key playes or the offense might slump--I like the Sox's chances as good as anyones, but it's early, and I'm not getting overconfident. The schedule hasn't been too tough yet, and we'll soon see how we stack up against the Yankees, Red Sox, Tribe, and Oakland.