Greg Hibbard

Burnsauce? More like bansauce

Also, Marty, you are wrong if you think Viciedo is a bust. 22 homers is not a bust. What available outfielder would have been better? You must have someone in mind. Reed has been inconsistent, but how many games has he lost vs. saved? Is it proportionally more than any other closer? I think not. edit: Reed has pitched exactly one game that he has lost for this team since July 19th. So what the hell are you talking about?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:36 PM) I don't understand your question. Lirano has hurt the team more than helped it. The gambles on Lirano, Viciedo, and Reed all went against the Sox. My question is - which pitcher on our staff would you have had starting the Liriano games that you claim he hurt us in. If Liriano hurt us more than he helped us it implies that there was someone on our staff you feel that could have started those games and had better results. Which pitcher is it?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:28 PM) Since Mid-August it's been a struggle to get 5 innings from 3/5 of the rotation. Liriano has been a bust. So which guy on our staff would have been necessarily better?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) 86 wins, division contention. SP collapse last few weeks wasn't built in. So they did exactly what you thought they would. What did KW do wrong during the 2012 season again, exactly?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:27 PM) Why are you attacking me? Given all the talk about attendance, I think people should remember this is the 8th best team in AL. Record-wise, did this team do better or worse than you predicted at the beginning of the season? Think carefully before you answer, because it will be easy enough to dig up all your old posts.

so Marty, why is this a new topic? Just curious. They'd be the 7th best team in the AL if they were winning the division, but I don't think you would have put this thread up here.

Even though it looks bad, and is a sore spot because of Cubs fans, I don't think the attendance drop is A) that financially impactful, given that we have maybe 10 percent less fans than the team could have reasonably expected B) much worse than the rest of baseball in this economy, and given the number of HD options / DVR options people have at home. Also, ticket prices are outrageous these days compared to what they should be, inflation adjusted, compared to the 90s. Look at Tampa, Oakland, Baltimore and Washington. All contenders - all not drawing.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 02:58 PM) Why is Quintana starting the 7th? So he can get the VULTURE WIN

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 02:59 PM) didnt we try this already? (besides yesterday) what a scary 3/4 we have Dunn hit 2 HR last night, including the game winner.

I'm one of the biggest optimists this season but this game is OVAH

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 25, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) Well we need to stop stealing for the sake of just trying to steal. Its running into outs early in the game. When did Robin start managing like Ozzie? We are a HR hitting team. RISP DOES NOT MATTER FOR HR. Stop trying to steal with 2 outs.

doesn't this take Sale out of a game 163 / playoff game 1 start though? hmmm.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 06:25 PM) We are basically in a 7 game series with the Cleveland indians. But we have to win 5 games instead of 4. And if we don't win 5, Detroit goes to the playoffs. Is anyone here really confident we will win more than 1 game against Tampa? If we win 5 of 7 vs the indians, we go 6-4 and make detroit go 7-3 to tie us. Then we are in the playoffs technically, and if we can't beat Detroit in a one game playoff, well they earned it. I don't think Detroit wins 7 of 10. I give them 6-4 at best. What I really think will happen is we will go 5-5, so will Detroit, and we will get in with the 1 game lead. It wouldn't be pretty, but history doesn't care about pretty. Ask the St. Louis Cardinals. Twice. there are only 6 games against the indians total. 4 against the rays.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 04:39 PM) That's fair...I can understand that....I'm not one of those people that thought the season would be a catastrophe, however. I expected Dunn and Rios to have big bounceback years. I expected us to compete. Did I expect us to do it with so many rookies? No. But I did expect that we would somewhere near this position at this time of the season. In baseball, at least if you're not the Braves of the 90's or the Yankees or the Red Sox, reaching the Postseason is a dicey proposition. To reach them now would not be "gravy" to me as a fan. We're in a position we have only been in five other times in my 35 years on this earth. I do expect them to play well down the stretch. I do expect them to win this division. s***ting the bed is not an option I relish in the final month of the season. Do I "demand" they win the division? Of course not. I am in no position to do so. Do I desperately desire them to win the division? Absof***inglutely. "This position" meaning having won 81 games, being in first, or both? What did you expect the Tigers to do? Would you be as angry if the Tigers were 10 games ahead and the Sox had exactly the same season otherwise?

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) Correct me if I'm wrong here... If the sox go 5-5 in the last ten it forces the tigers to go 7-3 to win the division? So if the sox play .500 ball the rest of the way the win the central? If the Tigers go 6-4 in that scenario it forces a game 163.

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:54 PM) Well reality is they just lost 5 in a row and can't put a horses*** Tigers team away. Given the way the race has gone ALL YEAR, why would you expect them to put the Tigers away?

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:49 PM) Lastly, I never find realism hilarious. Nor do I. What I find hilarious is not realism.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 01:07 PM) What about the entire last month or so? What good teams have we played well against? I thought winning 5 divisional games in a row, including a 3 game sweep @ min, where we struggle, the last game of the year vs. Detroit, and one @KC, where we struggle, was a positive stretch. During the last 10 game homestand (I'm including the makeup) we won exactly 1 less game than you would have wanted going in. If we had won 2/3 vs min, 2/3 vs KC and 2/4 vs. detroit you would have taken that in a heartbeat. During the recent 9 game road trip, I think winning 2/3 in min, 2/3 in KC and 1/3 in LAA would have been acceptable to almost everyone. Again, we lost one more game than you would have wanted. So what we're all really pissed off about here is that we've won 2 less games out of the last 19 we've played than we would have liked. Instead of winning 11 of 19, we've won 9 of 19. Is that really THAT disappointing? No, it's a bit disappointing, and we're still in first. If we win 4 out of the last 10 detroit still has to win 6 to win outright. Do people realize how unlikely both of those things happening is?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 12:54 PM) Well, you are just a better fan than me. I just think the White Sox have responded to this pennant race in horrible fashion. Horrible. I hesitate to evaluate this race on the heels of playing our toughest remaining series while the tigers played their easiest.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 11:40 AM) Great post. Great. Hibbard, how can you say the gloom is "hilarious?" Some of us want the White Sox to step up and win a division not rely on Detroit to lose every one of its games while we do the same (though that would be nice). Southsider is right. There are a ton of reasons for this team to not make it, but if the team can somehow make the playoffs anything could happen. But the doom and gloom is totally justified. Sox have been pathetic of late. Because really, the gloom is hilarious. Some of you people are posting wild, disproportionately pessimistic bulls*** with no basis in reality. Yes, the Sox got swept over the weekend. As long as they came home still in first place I was fine with whatever this weekend's result was - and they did, without even having to share it. There's no reason to act as though the sky is falling. If Detroit had swept the Twins and we had won 2/3 in LAA, it would have been exactly the same result, and people would've been saying "Detroit GONNA GET HAWT" instead of "SOX SUCK AND EVERYTHING ELSE SUX TOO" I'll take my chances with 7 of the last 10 at home against these two teams. If they don't win the division in this position with 10 games left - yes they choked. Yes, it would be a tremendously disappointing end to an otherwise very exciting, awesome season. Yes, they will miss out on some much needed playoff revenue, national visibility and an attendance bump. However, what's amazing to me is that the first 145 games of this season bought this team exactly ZERO equity with its fanbase in terms of believing in it for ONE MORE WEEK - and you're the poster child for exactly what I mean by that.

Pretty much no matter what happens this week, both teams are playing inconsistently enough that the @Cle series will probably decide the Sox' fate. I still think there's a chance the Sox gain 1-2 games by this weekend.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Sep 24, 2012 -> 10:26 AM) Just imagine the gloom amongst Sox fans had the Tigers won both games. Considering that the Tigers lost both games, the gloom around here is downright hilarious. The Sox have lost 4 games in a row since thursday and lost exactly 1 game in the standings, all while detroit was at home playing mostly the easiest games left on its schedule.

QUOTE (whitesox901 @ Sep 23, 2012 -> 11:03 PM) Both teams go 6-4. Sox win division by 1 game. This.

They make poor decisions even when they are making outs lololol