Frankensteiner

He must have not tipped his pitch there.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) Anyone confused on why we are in a dogfight in game 4 to salvage a split against the worst road team in baseball when we are at home. Everything's fine. It's perfectly normal for teams like the White Sox to drop games to the Royals.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 12:33 PM) What you are saying is that the White Sox have the better team in all areas of the game, so they shouldn't ever lose a game to the Royals. If thats true, then the Royals shouldn't beat any team in the AL, since their team is clearly the worst in the league in all aspects of the game. The talent gap between the White Sox and Royals is probably greater than talent gaps between any other two teams in baseball. There is no reason, outside of poor play, for the Sox to ever lose a game to the Royals. The Royals beat the Red Sox last week and it was a pathetic effort by Boston in that series. QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 01:00 PM) Come on... ANYTHING less then 14-0 against the LOWLY Royals is COMPLETELY unacceptable. If we were 14-0 against them, we'd only be .5 games back. WHERE IS THE REALISM HERE??!!?? *ahem* It's funny how a certain few people can just twist things here. I said last week I'd be happy with taking 3-of-4 from the Royals. I know we can't win every game against them, but the Sox should be favored in each game because we're a much better team in all aspects of the game. That we don't beat them is mainly because of our poor play. The fact that we're 9-6 against them on the season is terrible.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 17, 2006 -> 07:48 AM) Really, there is no reason for the Sox to lose any game to any team in baesball. The Sox have a better lineup, better starters, better bench, and better bullpen than nearly every team on paper. How dare they EVER lose? Actually, that's not the case at all. If, for example, it's Javy Vazquez against Curt Schilling, then the White Sox don't have an advantage. The Royals have the worst lineup in the AL, the worst pitching in baseball, and the worst record in baseball. But you make a good point.

Make no mistake about it, this is a good Kansas City ballclub. Really, there is no reason for the Sox to lose a single game to the Royals. The Sox have a better lineup, better starters, better bench, and a better bullpen entering each game. I would have been OK with winning 3 of 4, but going 2-2 (and that really is no certainty) is pathetic.

I don't know about the 2005 White Sox as a top team of the last 25 years. The '93 Blue Jays should be mentioned (and ahead of the White Sox). That team was loaded with talent.

I'm so impressed with our guys now. This is the best we've looked all season.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Aug 11, 2006 -> 11:15 PM) It has to be. We have one final shot at making the division a race. It may not be the biggest series of the season, but up until this point it is. We'll have plenty more series that loom large as the season gets closer and closer to the end. When you're back 8.5 games in the division, I would say series against the more immediate threats to our playoff spot are bigger (Twins, Red Sox, Yankees). Twins coming into town next weekend will be a much bigger series.

I really don't think it's the biggest series of the season.

This is probably our best all around game of the season. If we get any consistency from our starters, this team can be really good again.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 09:08 PM) Actually, I'm saying that the expectations right now might be too high. This starting pitching staff is fatigued, and simply put, they're not throwing well. They can't put together a string of more than 2 good starts through the rotation. That's not going to get us in the playoffs. The Yanks, Twins, Red Sox are too good to let us play the way we have over the last 2 months and still make it. Sometimes, things all fall into place. Sometimes, they don't. I thought you were trying to make us feel better. Telling me my team might have overachieved last year and really isn't that good despite a $100 M payroll isn't going to make me feel better.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 09:01 PM) What could have been? Why not appreciate how everything fell into place last year? This year, we're not creating/getting breaks, and we're having a lot of pitchers underachieve. I'm the last person to say that we should still live in 2005....but some people need a little perspective these days. So that's supposed to cheer us up? You're essentially telling us we should be happy because we got lucky last year. That's loser talk. I would like to see KW's reaction after telling him to watch the 2005 DVD in the middle of this season.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 09:00 PM) I hope people will stop saying that Garland is our only good starting pitcher. I might be willing to consider that once his ERA gets under 4.50. It is over 5 now. He's not very good. He's certainly not reliable. I'd be happy to bet anyone that he will never see 4.50 this year. And please don't waste my time with by arguing his wins-and-losses. If you give any AAA pitcher the kind of run support Garland has gotten, he can win you this many games. Garland's ERA, WHIP, etc. tell you how bad he's been this season. Do we have a good, reliable starting pitcher this year? I remember being flamed for not getting excited about Garland after saying his good stretch of games might be nothing but a hot streak. That worked out pretty well.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 08:57 PM) Felix is a very positive, optimistic poster. There's no reason to try to start stuff with him after he said his peace. Refusing to acknowledge this team's problems is completely ridiculous.

QUOTE(Felix @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 08:53 PM) Anyway, I'm going to put my laptop away and just watch the game. This thread has become a joke, like most losing game threads. Yes, let's all just put our heads in the sand and admit we've got terrific starting pitching and we're playing very good baseball in our 10-16 stretch.

This is the best 5 IP, 9 H, 5 ER start in the history of baseball. Garland blew his wad in July... now Judy's back and here to stay.

QUOTE(fathom @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 08:37 PM) None. The only one who I feel confident about when I go to sleep at night is Contreras. As someone said at the deadline, I'm so glad we've got all these guys locked up for a couple of more seasons. This team is built to win in 2007.

Quick question: which one of our starters is actually reliable?

I would be happy if we played .500 against the good teams and took 3 or 4 games from KC. So 13-11 or 14-10 would be fine with me.

I can't for the life of me understand why people here would want Ozzie fired. I can live with some of his poor in-game decisions because, as we've seen, his managerial style won us the World Series last year. Our problem is the horrible $45M starting pitching. There's no question it's the worst out of all the contending teams. There's no consistency there. Although I did enjoy all the arguments about how the pitchers would start pitching up to their potential and what not when some posters had this rotation figured for s*** as early as mid-June. It still boggles my mind how KW stood pat without improving the team. On the bright side, we got rid of Politte and Widger. It's time to dominate the AL. YEAH!!

Post ASB, Minny has swept KC and Tampa (not to mention us). They're taking advantage of the lesser teams. This is why I cringe when people say it's OK to just win 2 out of 3 against bad teams like Baltimore or KC. We have to sweep those teams, too (especially when we're doing so poorly against the good teams).

QUOTE(whitesoxin @ Aug 6, 2006 -> 01:10 AM) If Buehrle threw 8 innings of one run ball while striking out 13 there would have been a thread. Am I the only one who is an avid fan of Vazquez? If he can keep this up and stay pitching to his potential, we are going to be even more feared. I think it might be... oh, I don't know... his 5+ ERA on the season!! As far as Buehrle, Mark's done more for this team over his career than Vazquez ever could. There's no comparison, and if you see a double standard, well, it's there for a reason.

I think Carmona's gonna gosh darn us for the 3rd time this week. QUOTE(Frankensteiner @ Aug 5, 2006 -> 08:43 PM) I think Carmona's gonna gosh darn us for the 3rd time this week. YAY! And I was right, I-Rod 2 run HR wins it for Det 4-3.

I'm hoping this is due to Coop's adjustments so as to have some tangible reason to expect a repeat of Javy's performance. I'd like to get excited but...

Ozzie and Javy making golf plans?