Balta1701

One of the guys on Baseball tonight actually called Rowand "ARow" while showing his catch on the web gems segment. I enjoyed that. Both Garland and ARow made the list too.

Sitting back, relaxing, strapping it up/on/down.

Go get em big Jon...last time was less than pleasant, let's get #16 today.

Is there voting for exec of the year before the playoffs are over? I might say give it to whichever team goes farther.

Back in May, I looked at this stretch and thought it was probably going to be the deciding stretch for us this season. Right now, we've got a 13 game lead over the Indians, and the Twins are 14.5 back. Suddenly, I have more trouble thinking that this stretch will make or break the season. Even if we're a few games under .500 on it, we'll still probably end up with the best record in baseball...that's how far ahead we are. This stretch is now useful just as a test of us against good teams to see how good we really are. It's not going to decide the division though.

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 01:16 PM) i'm worried about the lineup, yes....that's why i desperately wanted an impact bat at the deadline. The situation never came up so we couldn't, oh well. While on paper, the lineup is pretty bleak, we haven't won all these games w/ a drastically different lineup. Seems like there's always someone that steps up each and every game. This team doesn't have a true MVP in the lineup, these 70 wins are a group effort and will continue to be. I'm not as worried about this lineup as others because I don't care if we don't outmatch people at several positions. There are 2 keys to this lineup: 1. The ability of any spot in the lineup to beat a guy. Even when we play our backups, the guys can still win games who are in there. Ok, maybe not Timo, but everyone else in the lineup has the ability to win a game, either with a timely base hit, a runner moved over with a bunt, or even a HR. We really don't have anyone amazing like a Ramirez in the lineup who is going to win 1/2 our games for us, but we also don't really have any weak links, so if the opposing pitcher lets up at any point, the guy he's facing still can beat him. And if 1 guy has a hot night, that's all it takes to beat a guy. 2. The ability to put pressure on a defense. This is the productive outs, moving runners along, random unexpected stole bases, bunts, and so on. That's one of the reasons we've been so good this year; when we get guys on base, we move them over, and then as shown in #1, when guys come up with RISP, there's no one who is such an automatic out that they can't knock in the runner.

Go Get em Mark...you want to be an ace...we need you to be one today. We need a stopper...and I know of no one better than you to do it. How about a 2 hour game? Let's annoy the people who are there for fireworks by making them have to sit around for a couple hours waiting for darkness.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 01:31 PM) You're right about the price of good hitting, and that it makes good pitching difficult. The Reds would be a playoff team if they had solid pitching. Instead, they get stuck with simply awful starting pitchers. Our starting pitching is going to end up costing a lot in the next few years, but our bullpen should be pretty cheap. I'm all for not resigning PK and trying to trade Contreras....and then adding a major offensive bat or two to the lineup. Here comes the arguement I was making right before the trade deadline... Yeah, keeping Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, and maybe Freddie Garcia around for a while will cost a fortune. But this team would be insane to let either of the 1st 2 guys go for the next 5 years or more, even if they cost a ton. That's where young guys come in. If we want to pay Mark the $15 mil or whatever it will take to keep him, we're going to have to save money somewhere. How do we save money? By having guys like BMac filling roles in the lineup...because while guys like him are still arbitration eligible, they cost an order of magnitude less than guys who have gotten close to the free agent market. That's why unless we're the Yankees, we have to make sure we hold onto a few prospects, because if they make the big leagues and are even adequate, they make paying for their position so much cheaper. Look at ARow right now...he's great on defense, he's leading our team in hitting, he'll be hitting .300 in another week or so more than likely, and he'll probably hit 15-20 home runs this year. He is now costing us about $1 mil per year. Why? Because he's not even arbitration elibile yet. You bring up guys like BMac, Brian Anderson, Bobby Jenks, maybe Gio, and so on...and those guys filling positions give you the money to keep the keystone guys you have. If I'm in KW's chair...I sit there and say my #1 goal is not letting MB and JG get away, because keeping those 2 around will give me something to build around as long as they're here. Then I say we need to fill in what we can. If BMac is ready to join the big club next year, then Contreras can be moved at some point (if El Duque stays and is healthy for most of the year). If Gload (or Rogowski) can be an adequate fill in for Konerko and maybe hit close to .300, then he'll be so cheap that his contract will give us freedom to keep the guys we need to keep. That's my version of moneyball.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 01:20 PM) You make a good point about not manufacturing runs. Something that is very noticeable is that Pods is trying to force the action when he reaches. The other team knows he's going, and he's having a hard time successfully stealing the base. Why not take some of the pressure off, and go for a hit-and-run with Pods in motion? He has enough speed that even if the hitter misses, he could be safe. However, we'd still be able to benefit from Podsednik's speed. This team has a very comfortable division lead......they should be playing loose and having fun on the field. Instead of playing not to lose......they should expect to win every game. I love plays like the hit & run & wish ozzie would use it more. I love bunts for the same reason. Why? Because they put pressure on the defense to make plays. When you hit & run, you start guys on the infield moving to cover bases, and if the guy puts the bat on the ball, the infielder will have to stop what he's doing, recover, and then make the play. If the ball is not hit directly at a guy, very few defenders will be able to recover, and a lot of times, even if they do, they're in such a hurry that they make a stupid play, throw the ball away, and you end up with guys at 2nd and 3rd or 2nd and home. The same thing with a bunt...the first time I really noticed this is when we picked up Robbie Alomar in 03...when we started bunting, we'd end up getting the guy bunting on base like 1/2 the time, because the defense wouldn't expect it and even if they did, it's still a hard play to make. If its a good bunt, the 3rd or 1st baseman has to pick it up on the run and find a way to throw a strike to 1b. That's hard as hell to do. Putting pressure on defenses was one of the things we've been great at this season. When you put pressure on a defense, sometimes they'll throw out the runner, or sometimes you won't get lucky. But more often than not, something will work in your favor. It really is a winning strategy.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 01:23 PM) With having a good pitching staff like what we have, and look to have for a few years, would it be better to have a team with more boppers on it again? This is just for discussion sake, as I'm sure they'll continue to go after smallball type players. However, if we had the pitching we had this year in previous seasons, we would have been having a very successful season this year also. I really don't think that going for boppers is the best strategy in that ballpark. Take a look at Cinci, or Colorado. They both have ballparks that balls fly out of, and they've both tried having lineups loaded with boppers (Griffey, Dunn, Pena, etc in Cinci, Walker, Burnitz, Castilla, Helton in Colorado last year). What ends up happening is you end up spending a lot more money paying the salaries of the $9+ million a year guys, and then you end up hitting whatever the cap you've decided is the spending limit for your team. Then, you end up finding whoever else is out there (i.e. Ben Davis, Willie Harris, Scott Schoenewies) to plug the holes remaining in your lineup and your rotation. If on the other hand you go in the direction we have this year...defense, productive outs, hitting, pitching, and balance, you end up eliminating those holes in the lineup by plugging in guys who actually can win games. You have a stronger bench to cover your arse when people get hurt. And you don't have black holes in your rotation that you expect will probably be losses. The real key is that guys like Carlos Lee cost a ton more than guys like AJ or ARow, while ARow and AJ probably have won our team just as many games as Carlos has won for Milwaukee this year. You can win games with defense and timely hitting if you get good guys, and you can afford a lot more good guys than you can great guys.

I love having a ballpark that has the ball carry so well...because when your pitching staff is as good as ours, the opponents have a rough time taking advantage of it, and it should help out our offense. Right now we just need to get into a few people's heads and get them to shorten their swings a bit - stop swinging for the fences and let the ball fly on its own. Other than that, the ballpark is lovely.

QUOTE(the People's Champ @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 12:33 PM) Wrong. 11 of our last 13 runs have been via the long ball and what has that gotten us? Losses. The team has been hot all year, and now is going through a funk, which every team does at least once a year. Be glad it is now and not in October. The Chicago Cubs have gotten more htan 1/2 of their runs this year on the home run. Where are they? .500 or so all year. Why? Because if you can't get runs without the home run, you're going to end up not being lucky in about 1/2 of your games. We haven't been manufacturing runs for a few games now. We haven't worked at it at all. This is something Ozzie needs to wake people up on. A team meeting might be useful just to get it in people's heads. When your pitching staff gives up 4 runs or less, you should be able to win ballgames.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 6, 2005 -> 11:38 AM) Garcia had as good of a fastball last night as he's had all season. His inability to get the leadoff hitter out in the last few innings really hurt him. Garcia is consistently giving up 4 runs in his outings lately. Ozzie should be a little more proactive in how he handles Garcia, and maybe pull him BEFORE he gets in trouble late. Right now our team ERA is 3.66. That's still the best in the AL, and .23 runs behind the best ERA in the NL (who doesn't have to face the DH). In other words...since we play 9 innings or more in most games, it's almost impossible for us to expect our pitchers to do any better than giving up 4 runs a game. For every time we give up 3 runs, we're giving up 4 runs twice as often (yeah, that's simplifying it). When our starting pitchers give up 4 runs, there is no reason at all for us to not win a ballgame. You simply cannot expect any more from starting pitchers than giving up 4 runs a game, and there's no excuse for an offense to not be able to get more than 4. Garcia giving up 4 is not a bad outing for him. Garcia giving up 5+ in 6-7 innings is a bad outing. You should be able to win ballgames giving up 4 runs more often than not...otherwise you'll have to get your ERA down below 2 to have a winning record.

Guess when I posted this poll 2 days ago I should have put it in this forum, eh?

Just a heads up for now to people...Ozzie is slated to host This Week in Baseball next weekend, according to the preview at the end of this week's show. I haven't a clue when it's on in Chicago (probably right before Saturday baseball on Fox), but it's on at 12:30 p.m. PST out here in LA.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 06:57 PM) I hope someone is getting ready in the pen. Jenks is up.

6 balls in a row to start the inning...102 pitches for Freddy.

Ok...1 on...get em over, get em in.

Wow, tonight's our 11th sellout this season...that's a franchise record for sellouts in a season.

QUOTE(Sox Hustler @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 05:43 PM) Konerko's been an iron man out there this season. And some of his best hot streaks have come right after Ozzie gave him an extra day off.

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 05:39 PM) Actually I'm a Padres fan too, and he sucked there as well. He is a very streaky hitter, he hasn't been on a good one since the beginning of the year. We've got plenty of streaky hitters here and we're still working well...Uribe, Crede, Konerko, Dye, Rowand, Pierzynski... All I want from him is to give people on the infield (read: Crede and Konerko) some extra time on the bench so that they're more rested when October hits, and for him to not be as bad as Willie Harris (i.e. coming up with a runner on 2nd 3 times in a game and not moving him over 1 time) Can he get down a sacrifice bunt?

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 05:31 PM) Damn, forgot about Giambi's two from last night. The Sexson homer thing was from rotoworld a few days ago, and then Giambi hit those two last night. Good catch. Either way you're right he's been hot since the AS break, but he's been ice cold for the last week before that shot. Can we agree now and resume to cursing Giambi as a juiced up greedy lazy SOB?

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 05:28 PM) He has the most homers in the AL since the ASB. Are you sure about that? According to ESPN.com, Giambi has 11, and that one makes 9 for Sexson.

All right AJ and Uribe! Throwing out Reed @ 2nd. We haven't been great at throwing people out this year.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Aug 5, 2005 -> 05:24 PM) Sexson has the quietest 27 homers in the league. That's not his fault at all...the guys around him just haven't been performing. Ichiro hitting only .303, Beltre hitting .256, yikes.