Balta1701

I don't know where else to post this, and it doesn't deserve its own thread, but I'm in a mood to rant... I'm a graduate student in Geology. I'm at Caltech, and I've been in California for 2 years now. I've walked on at least 5 active faults while out here. I haven't felt an earthquake my entire time here. The White Sox have now felt more earthquakes than I have. Wow.

Ah, ok...so if that wasn't in the title...then the "Ultra liberal" part would have been in green. Ok, i get it. Sadly, there are more than enough people who would call the WaPo "Ultra Liberal" that I actually believed it to be the truth.

QUOTE(TheBlackSox8 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 10:05 AM) Could We play Crede at first base and have Ozuna or Uribe at third to give Konerko a rest when needed, until Gload comes back. If Ozzie hasn't put Crede at First base at all yet this year despite having no one on the roster who can back up Konerko, something tells me there's a reason why.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 10:37 AM) He will, Im certain he will return to form this year. I was certain for the first month, now I'm not so sure. It's not like he's getting regular work in against people, with all these close games, and it's not like pitching in Coors field is the answer for him either.

Hermanson has an ERA over 7 in June. That said, I still voted for none of the above. Jeckle...and if we had an "average" defensive center fielder, Garland probably would have gotten the loss on Friday as well. And man alive...did some people on this board ever turn rapidly against BMac when he had that game against Texas. Wow.

Wow...when the WaPo is considered "Ultra-Liberal"...wow, i'm just left to shake my head.

One other important point to keep in mind about Gitmo is this...we have absolutely no idea who is guilty there and who is innocent. We have brought hundreds of people to Gitmo who have been released after multiple years of captivity without ever being charged. Some of them have gone back into normal lives. There are other people who we've brought to Gitmo and released who have immediately turned into Al Qaeda leaders. In other words, we have 600 people or so down there, and we have absolutely no idea which ones we should be holding onto or which ones are in fact innocent. Put yourself in the shoes of one of the ones who is actually innocent. How would you like disappearing for 3 years, being denied access to your lawyer, not allowed to sleep for days, and occasionally being roughed up/abused by the jailers? (even if it is only occasional, which evidence suggests it is not)

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 01:27 AM) Dripping water and Christina Aguilera music? OMG! The horror of it! :headshake LA Times...3/22/04

Anyone else think it's only a matter of time before someone ends up ending their career on that hill by tearing up a leg?

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 08:47 AM) I don't see the Nationals winning this division. But it's awesome to see them win 10 in a row and have the lead. The Braves and Marlins have to be really worried about the Nationals and the Phillies right now. The Phillies are staying right with the Nationals. Didn't the Devil Rays win like 12 in a row last year? The Braves and Marlins really do need to be worried, but it's about their own teams. Lowell still isn't hitting for the Marlins. The Braves Bullpen is in dire straits, and God only knows how long Chipper will be out. Those 2 teams are still the best in that division, in my opinion. Teams get hot and cool off quite often, and that will happen to both the Nats and Phils at some point. Look at Texas - they were killing everyone 2 weeks ago, now they're back to 2.5 back. That's a wide open division, which makes in interesting. And because everyone's so good, the wild card probably won't come from that division, as there's no one to beat up on. That could help the (shudder) Cubs a lot.

QUOTE(Yoda @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 04:40 PM) The Marlins are too good of a team to be just 3 games above .500 or 4..... whatever. .500 ball is not their game when they have one of the best starting rotation out there. IMO, the hitting coach should be the one packing. A good example of this is Eddie Murray. Also don't forget...the Marlins play in the NL East. They've been playing against 4 other teams that are also above .500, and the Phillies and Nationals have been on fire the last 2 weeks. The better teams will float to the top in that division, but they're all good. 3 games above .500 is not bad when you're going to have to play like 75% of your games against teams that are above .500.

Let's also not forget that McKeon has got to be like 75 by now, or turns that age this season. This guy can't be around that much longer no matter what happens. I wonder if there are any specific health concerns that might lead them to start asking around for a backup.

QUOTE(chi-guy2 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 07:47 PM) floridas staff would get wrecked from his managerial decisions Yeah they've pitched lots of complete games, but their guys haven't thrown that many pitches (~110's or less) when they've been throwing them. If guys are throwing 9 innings on 110 pitches, i say let em do it.

QUOTE(shakes @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 09:00 AM) What was Orlando Cabrera's contract for? I think Rollins is better than him. $32 million for 4 years for Cabrera. He's making $6 million this year.

C'mon boys, let's get Jose another W...we owe him some runs as thanks for all those no decisions he got earlier in the year. (We're starting to Owe Buehrle some runs too, but that can wait until the Dodgers come to town)

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 10:05 AM) I don't know why anyone is mentioning Konerko and All-Star in the same sentence. Is it because of his 15 HRs? I know it's not because of his .242 average. Tino Martinez more than likely will get the starting nod, with Mark Texeira backing him up. Their hitters just aren't putting up good enough numbers to go. The Sox all-stars more than likely will be Garland, Buehrle and/or Hermanson. If they have more than two, it will be cool but surprising. I think one of the biggest reasons that people keep mentionning Konerko and All Star in the same line is that Paulie was probably the most blatant snub from the team last year - Torre put Giambi on that team as a 1st baseman, and Paulie ended up being out-voted for the last spot by Matsui. 120 RBI's, 41 home runs is a pretty All-Star worthy set of numbers, IMHO. Question for you...Paulie's been hitting over .300 for like the last 3 weeks...how high would he need to get his average and RBI's for you to call him a legitimate AS Candidate (don't forget, there's also a DH spot in the order this year, and Ortiz can't be the only guy who fills that slot, so they could carry an extra 1b bat). And anywho, I kind of hope Paulie doesn't end up going, because I'd rather have him get the rest/finish moving those lawn chairs.

QUOTE(TheDybber @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 09:28 AM) I keep hearing Paulie is gonna go. there aren't a lot of 1B in the AL that are tearing it up right now. Morneau is better but been hurt. Maybe Tino, but he's fallen off after that big couple of weeks. And if Paulie keeps hitting well, and gets his average over .250, his power will get him into the ASG. Let's hope he doesn't do the HR derby though. I think Tino is going to be voted in. That Yankees market has so many people, and lots of them remember his good years and that 5 hr tear he went on earlier this year.

With Willie, I keep thinking about how useful it is to have a fast guy on the bench entirely for pinch-running situations. Think about this situation...bottom of 8th inning in the playoffs, down by 1 run, Konerko or Thomas get a single to lead off an inning. If Pods is starting in left (and he damn well better be), who do we send in to run if we don't have Willie? Gload? Willie Harris should stay on this team for the same reason Dave Roberts stayed on Boston last year; he can do good things as a designated pinch runner. That way, you don't need a triple to score Paulie from third.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 03:42 AM) So, Marte is effectively our only lefty reliever who can get lefties out. Did you check Marte's R/L splits? He's the same thing as Cotts, although not as good. Righties .213/.362/.404 Lefties .293/.356/.439 I'm also a bit amazed that the OBP for righties is higher than the lefties even though righties are hitting 80 points lower off of Marte. Walks, walks, walks.

QUOTE(maggliopipe @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 09:38 AM) well, i guess that's what i'm wondering. surely athletes were the first people exposed to steroids before the general public knew of them (for muscle development, that is). there must have been a period of time when baseball players were using them and they weren't yet banned. Granted there was probably some blanket rule against anything providing an unfair advantage and not explicitly banning roids, but then these contacts would seemingly be covered by that too. They weren't banned specfically in baseball until the early 90's, before the Strike. I can't remembe rthe exact year. Although, I think they may have been made illegal to the general public before that.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jun 13, 2005 -> 09:39 AM) Here is the real reason we lost last year... No 5th starter and not having Maggz and Thomas for over half the season. You're fully right there. It's not a coincidence that we lost our grip on 1st place right after both of those guys got hurt. Torii's hit on Burke was more a symptom than the disease itself; once those 2 hitters went down, the team didn't have a solid way to win lots of games any more. Minnesota was winning by wanting it more than anyone else and doing what it took to win. We weren't doing that. Hunter's hit on Burke may or may not have been necessary, may or may not have been dirty. But the fact is, if there was something Hunter could do that he felt was going to help his team win, he was going to do it. Our team wasn't. Once we lost those 2 batters, we couldn't swing our way to the division title any more, and the Twins came back and wanted it more. I'm glad to see him give us some props. I'll be just as glad to see them lose in the 1st round or miss the playoffs, or in the end, get swept by us in the ALCS.

I seriously doubt that Pods will make the AS Team either. While he's stolen a ton of bases, he's not exactly hitting like .330 or anything. Ichiro still has a better BA than Pods, and he fills the "speedy outfielder" role well enough. Besides, isn't the outfield one place where you usually find plenty of power hitters in the AS Game? I get the feeling that we're going to see some guys who normally play other positions get shunted to left...Let's run down the guaranteed outfield All stars M. Ramirez J. Damon Vlad the Impaler Ichiro Torii Hunter Probably Garret Anderson Well, maybe there's a slot open, but I don't think it'll go to Pods with all the other names to choose from.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 09:42 PM) Jermaine Dye vs. Righties - .239/.276/.419 Carl Everett vs. Righties - .218/.294/.403 White Sox vs. Righties - .244/.306/.382 What we really need is a LHH outfielder who can actually hit better against righties, but I'm wishing for the best of both worlds. I'm really wondering how much those number, in particular for Dye, might be biased by the fact that he had a terrible April & part of May. When you're terrible for 2 months, it takes a while for you to get yourself up to .270 or .280 against righties. Any idea how Dye has done against righties for the last month? Ditto Everett, he had that long left-handed slump in May where all he was trying to do was hit the ball out of the ballpark and was flying open on everything. He looks far better at the plate over the last week or two. I will bet you that those numbers will improve with time. But I will agree that I wouldn't complain to see Everett & Dye doing a little bit of sharing of that playing time in RF.

QUOTE(Jabroni @ Jun 12, 2005 -> 05:24 PM) And Willie is now hitting .237. I have a feeling that he will be sent down once Gload is healthy. I also don't think much of Willie's ability to play SS. When Willie was hitting .280, I would have agreed that he was the one to send down whenever Gload is ready, but he's rapidly closing the gap on Timo's BA. Willie does give you the benefit of speed, which means he's a decent pinch runner in the bottom of the 8th inning when you need a guy to steal a base against the Yankees down 3 games to 0 in the ALCS...wait a minute...something's amiss here.

A.J.'s power surge to me is 95% due to ballparks, as said above. The other 5% might very well be because he knows he can get the ball out of the Cell, so he's actually trying to hit them. Not only would about 8 of his home runs have hit the baggie in Minnesota, but San Francisco also has a fairly long porch in right field, so it's not exactly easy for anyone to hit the ball out of there unless they mysteriously add 50 pounds of muscle in the offseason like one who will not be named.