Balta1701

Jevan Kearse is out for the season.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 12:29 PM) It is very easy to lead when you are winning. But it takes a truly great leader to be able to bring back a team that has been losing. Last year we saw scenario 1, this year we are seeing that Ozzie is not the type of leader in scenario 2. I just do not see him as the type of manager who can right the ship when the chips are down. He has passion, but at a certain point passion can only take you so far. Ozzie just seems defeated, and that is something that a great leader can never show. Didn't the Sox go through a fairly prolongued struggle last year towards the end of August/beginning of September, and manage to turn around that team?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 11:15 AM) The Bills defense seems solid as hell, and they can play on the road, nearly beating New England at Gillette, going down to Dolphins Stadium and putting on a great defensive display against a revamped offense, led by Mularkey, who as I seem to recall, held some position within the Bills organization last year. The Bills game will not be easy, so long as they stay healthy. It might be like a 7-3 game. Well, almost no game in the NFL is actually "Easy" these days. But at least this season, I think that's a game the Bears should still win, because I think the Bills are 1 year away. They have a ton of talent on that team, especially on defense, adn what looks to be a solid coaching staff, but the one problem is that they're still young. That coaching staff has only been there a few games, Losman is still finding out where he should be, and the offensive line is still working on playing together. Another draft and another year of development from Losman, and they've got a shot to be scary. But I think Losman is still at the "Manage games but don't lose them" stage, and to be dominant the team will need him to win a few. The Bears should win that game, and they're going to win it on the lines...the Bills offensive line especially I don't think will be able to hold up to that Bears defensive front.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 09:46 AM) Anderson will never get 500 at bats with Ozzie here, Minnesota is going to destroy us next year, so we're relying on the Wild Card, Owens is going to be our leadoff man in LF, Garcia will stay since he's family, and everybody will still love Ozzie since he won us a title. Sadly, I'm not kidding either. I just hope that Kenny Williams is smarter than that. On paper he did everything right last offseason, except maybe for the Vazquez deal. Every single major problem we had with the team at the end of last season he did something to improve. He found us a left-handed power bat, he added significantly to the team OBP, he strengthened the bench, he found a way to put a long-reliever in the bullpen, he added a dominant lefty to the bullpen for a guy we were going to lose anywya, and he added another innings-eater to the starting rotation. The only one of those moves that might have looked bad on paper was the Vazquez move, but at least on some level it was a reasonable gamble if Cooper thought he could turn it around. On some level, I still find it hard to blame KW for the fact that some of his moves blew up in his face. Seriously, how do you predict that Neal Cotts would go from that good to that bad? Or that Ozzie would decide that Rob Mackowiak was a center fielder, and would play Anderson less as he improved later in the season? Or that Buehrle and Garcia were going to flame out? I think, and hope, that KW is smart enough to try to do exactly what he tried to do last year; make a list of the team's problems, and address them one after another.

Joseph Addai needs more carries, btw.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 09:33 AM) Which would SHOCK me....however I'll take it if that is the case. Honestly, it wouldn't shock me at all. The talent is still there on this team to do something next year exactly as is constructed now, and more importantly, that talent can also be turned into other pieces this offseason. I still think we'd be right in the thick of things, and maybe leading this division, if Anderson was pushing 500 at bats.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 09:28 AM) When Mike North mentioned Hawk's comments to AJ this morning on his radio show I had sudden flashes of Kent Mercker and Todd Walker run through my head. I was frightened he would go that route and they'd have another distraction on their hands, one of Cub like proportions. Luckily he brushed it off saying "Well, that's unlike him" and that was basically it, so thank god for that. Maybe a distraction would help at this point?

Excellent game by the Bills yesterday. Losman not spectacular, but not needing to be spectacular with that defense; 0 interceptions was the key. The Bills sack Culpepper 7 times without Takeo Spikes. If this Losman kid keeps developing, I like what they're starting to build there. He did yesterday exactly what the Bills should have been able to do last year; manage the game and let the defense win it.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 09:16 AM) There is no way Ozzie is gone after this year. However after he botches up next season, he HAS to be gone. If he is our manager in April of 2008, I'll be very disappointed. Based on that standard...if he is the manager in 2008, that means something went right in 2007.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Sep 18, 2006 -> 09:08 AM) I haven't read the Sun Times article, but I think he pretty much nailed it in the booth during the game yesterday. I'm sure the front office dislikes it when he goes off like that, but it was long past time he hauled off on them collectively, imo. Hopefully the front office dislikes missing the playoffs a lot more than having an announcer rip the team for missing the playoffs. (Unlike, say, the other team in town.)

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 05:19 PM) LOL, we are just all a bit senile right now because of the Sox play. In reality, he should be playing more...I'm not sure why he's not. I don't know exactly why...but I'm sure it's Rob Mackowiak's fault.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 05:16 PM) I liked your idea until there. Make them overpay for Crede. If someone overpays for Crede, all is well. If someone just wants to give up the equivalent, tell them to screw off Seriously, it's pretty damn hard to actually overpay for Crede. Other teams just don't have that sort of talent. A guy with 2 arb-eligible years ahead of him who will win a gold glove within a few years, and can go .290/30/100 at 3rd base? Hell, I can barely think of 3 guys in baseball who have that kind of talent, and the other 2 have had major injury problems the last year or two. Let's put it this way...if we were to deal a Crede and go with Fields...basically it means that it has to make our team better for the next 10 years. That's Brandon Wood type talent, Milledge+More type talent, etc.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 04:59 PM) Got more upside than Vazquez my ass. The only thing he has on Vazquez is age. Vazquez has experience and he's got hella ridiculous stuff. McCarthy's gonna be good, but his stuff does not even compare to Vazquez's. You know, I'm really not sure about that. McCarthy's best fastball is about as good as Vazquez's current best fastball. It doesn't move as much as Vazquez, but they're in the same velocity range. McCarthy's curve ball is much sharper than Vaz's currently is. And if it's on, McCarthy's changeup can be absolutely unhittable. Vazquez has the advantage in how his fastball moves/sinks/cuts compared to how straight BMac's is, but McCarthy's other pitches are better than the ones Vaz thows up there IMO. If BMac can throw up slightly better control, and get a working sinkerball (Which his frame is perfect for), then I think BMac will have him beat by quite a bit.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 04:40 PM) Crede is probably top 3 3B in the league right now. I dont feel comfortable trading him and banking on a rookie. Crede needs to stay. So here's the counter-point...think about the talent we could get for a Crede. We'd be talking top-20 in baseball prospect talent at the very least. How would Brandon Wood look at SS for us? Or Matt Cain in the rotation? I don't know how many teams would be willing to go with a "Win now" sort of trade and give us something that valuable for a guy as valuable as Crede, but we're literally talking about a major bat and an ungodly glove at an important position. You don't move him for something stupid like Figgins...but basically you let people come to you, and if someone gives you the equivalent talent-wise, it doesn't hurt to be open.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 04:49 PM) Last I checked, Jenks has been Ozzie's best reliever all year Why not stray away from common philosophy and use your best reliever - even if it is your closer - in that spot? That was a game changing moment, and if the Sox get out of that unscathed, it is a completely different ballgame. Except of course, for the last 2 weeks or so. So...I was so either upset or liberated or whatever by this game...I just went and spent 30 minutes cleaning.

At least now I don't have to really worry about this team any more, and can spend more time watching football and paying attention to NBA Training Camp. And I just bought a car! Whoopee, I'm free from paying attention to the White Sox for the year!

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 03:59 PM) Sox are in an odd spot. Kenny could go balls out, try to win this thing again next year and maybe in 08, then things could get really ugly in 09. Or, you could kinda downgrade next season, but trade a few guys that have alot of value(Contreras, maybe Mark, maybe Thome) and get some great young talent back, see what you have for 08. I dont see Kenny doing the latter, but who knows. Given that Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jermaine Dye, and Tad Iguchi are free agents at the end of 2007, and there's another large chunk at the end of 2008...I think KW will try to go for it all again next season, and I think it'll be the wrong move. I think you try to get younger next season. If that means Haeger and McCarthy both are in the starting rotation because we dealt 2 of those starters for good talent, and if that means Sweeney starts the season in LF and leading off, I could certainly live with that. We need to get younger, especially in the starting 5. We can't spend $55 million on our starting pitching staff next season and then wind up having 2 of them walk at the end of the year as free agents.

QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 03:53 PM) Our #1 off-season priority: get Thome healthy. Our #2 priority: make sure Thome isn't your best player next season (I mean, I heard it's great though that we're so dependent on a 36 yr old slugger). Jim Thome isn't our best player this season. Off season priority #1 (And the only offseason priority): Fix the pitching staff at any cost. Off season priority 2: Dump Rob Mackowiak, so that Ozzie can never play him in CF again.

QUOTE($I Need Money$ @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 03:50 PM) and we got rid of frank thomas for THOME?? Honestly...I think we'd have an even worse record with Frank on this team instead of Thome. We'd have a few more hits right now, but Thome carried us for the first 2 months of the season.

RYAN SWEENEY SHOULDN'T BE IN THERE! HE NEEDS TO REST UP FOR WINTERBALL!!!

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 03:38 PM) Logan and Hermanson? When it is imperative you win, those are 2 very bad choices. Looks like my schedule is wide open in October. Yet another game the Sox piss away. Its amazing how many of those there's been this year. After Thornton and MMac are already used up...McCarthy pitched yesterday...that basically leaves Cotts, Riske, Logan, and Hermanson.

QUOTE(GOD @ Sep 16, 2006 -> 03:35 PM) OK why was Thornton takin out to begin with? Lefties can't pitch to righties.

Logan...yay...yet another guy who I still can't see throwing strikes.

When Thom Brennaman says "You really gotta wonder about that pitch, you can not be walking guys on 3-2 sliders when your season hangs in the balance..." Yeah. That about sums it up.

How the f*** was that a strike?