Frankensteiner

This isn't actually out of left field since it seems as if many of us have been talking about it for some time. But we saw last year how stubborn Ozzie was with El Duque, and Duque didn't have nearly as much talent nor was he making Vazquez's money (not to mention, Duque wasn't golf parnters with Ozzie in the off-season). Brandon would have a better shot if his last name was McCastillo or something like that.

If the White Sox are growing dissatisfied with Pods, there's about 10,000 better LFers to go after than Gonzalez. In any event, I don't think Rozner is making a lot of sense here. Plus, in general, I don't hold Rozner in the same high regard as you do.

Back somewhat on topic, Rosenthal's latest column has some rumors regarding Milledge and the Mets possibly trading for Zito: http://foxsports.foxnews.com/mlb/story/5796782 I would again just like to point out how insane it is thinking we could get Milledge/Pelfrey for either Vaz or Garcia. Good news is, we could still maybe get a halfway decent package for one of them if the Mets are showing interest in the likes of Miguel Batista. Vazquez would seem a better fit since he could seemingly throw his fastball through a wet paper bag.

Kruk got philliephans talking. http://www.philliesphans.com/phorum/viewto...38&start=90 http://www.philliesphans.com/phorum/viewtopic.php?t=35062 But yeah, that would seriously be horrible. They can have Vazquez, but good luck with that no-trade guys.

QUOTE(Bonderman38 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 09:25 PM) John Kruk said that The White Sox would probably trade McCarthy for Gordon.. He makes no sense.. I would hang myself...

While these rumors of moving a starter to open up a spot for McCarthy are nice, I'm still of the belief that Ozzie and KW are too stubborn to admit there's something wrong with our pitching. Ozzie's buddies with Freddy and Vazquez, while Kenny gave up a lot of talent to obtain Vazquez. Feelings will get hurt and egos will be bruised if these guys are moved. Even if KW happens to swing a deal for a bullpen arm (i.e. Gordon or Liebrink) using prospects, I don't think these high caliber set up guys would help us all that much. They're really good pitchers, but how useful are they when we're down 6-4 after the 5th inning because our starters are getting hammered?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 09:11 PM) Wasn't the point of having 6 starters to have BMac ready because KW anticipated his other 5 were going to need a break? From what I have seen, they almost all need a break. When McCarthy marries Ozzie's niece, or relocates to Puerto Rico and goes golfing with Ozzie, then he'll be able to crack the rotation.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 09:05 PM) Our biggest problem is starting pitching. Raise your hand, when Mack let the ball drop in center did you think that Javier was going to go Hiroshima on us. If you dont have your hand up, then didnt watch the game, have blind faith based on nothing in his past, or were drinking. I thought that right after the infield single to Polanco, actually. You could also see some frustration after the line drive single by Rodriguez. I knew things were bad then.

Either Garcia or Vazquez need to get out of this rotation. Both preferably. We can't win this thing with both of them starting. Vazquez has given up 5 or more runs in 6 of his last 8 starts; Garcia 6 of his last 10. That's way too much stress for this offense.

I don't think we'll make the playoffs with both Garcia and Vazquez in the rotation. We're seeing what happens when our offense stops bailing us out, which I think we'll start seeing more frequently in the 2nd half. Contreras has to be automatic, and he hasn't been since April. Buehrle has to return to form, we'll see if that happens. Garland has to stay at the same level he's been over the last month... I'm not holding my breath there. Really, KW either has to force McCarthy into this rotation, or move either starter for some spare parts. We can't win with both these goofs pitching 2 of every 5 games.

:banghead Keep swinging for the fences. Wow, how f***ing selfish are we?

That's a f***ing terrible AB there. What is he thinking? A 3-run HR with no one on base?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 08:24 PM) AJ may be calling the wrong pitches, but its Vazquez's game, and he can always shake him off. Funny, no one mentions that when it comes to Widger's game calling. Just an FYI.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 08:14 PM) Let's not avert attention off of that goof on the mound. At some point, you have to look past his stuff and realize this guy has little testicular fortitude. I don't even think his stuff is that good. Decent fastball, decent slider, but nothing too impressive, imo.

QUOTE(Misplaced_Sox @ Jul 19, 2006 -> 08:06 PM) Please if BA was in center that Bloop is a catch.... and Mack with the piss poor throw to 3rd... gimmie a break... This just in: Javier Vazquez is the first pitcher in the history of baseball to get victimized by a bloop hit.

It's gotten to the point where even if it's true, I pretty much don't believe anything KW says publicly regarding trades or player movement.

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 10:17 PM) He was simply unlucky at the beginning of the season. His BABIP was crazy high, now its starting to go down a bit, as a result so are his H/9 and ERA. Good stretch here Jon. He's not out of the woods yet thouugh. The hits are still going to come, and it'll be tough for him to dominate against lineups such as NY or Boston. His K rates are just to low. Maybe I'm missing something... but his K rate is pretty much what it was last season. His K/BB ratio is slightly lower than it was in 2005 but still greater than it was in other years.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 10:05 PM) That's a pretty stupid reason not to get excited about him right now. He was horrid to begin with, he's been lights out lately, which one should we put more credence in? I'd have to go with the most recent results. I think my point was if you have an ERA over 5 on the season, you've pitched poorly for a much longer period of time than you have pitched well. Even pitchers who have bad seasons tend to have good stretch of games somewhere along the way (i.e. Garcia had a 3+ ERA in May). He has to pitch like this for a longer period for me to feel confident that he's returned to his form from last season.

What's big for Garland is he hasn't given up a dong in 9 straight starts. That is actually quite amazing after he was leading the league with 19 given up at one point (he's tied for 7th most with Schilling now). For a while, it looked he was going to double his output from last year. Still, I'm not going to get overly excited until he actually gets his ERA under 5 for the season.

Another bright spot of the day is Nate Robertson getting hit around again. He hasn't been all that great his last 3 starts, meaning he's hopefully coming back to being Nate Robertson.

I missed most of this game, but it looks like Jon stepped it up HUGE tonight. I hope this isn't only a good month for him, because if he continues to pitch like this, we'll just need one more good pitcher instead of two.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2006 -> 06:03 PM) Pods was so overrated during the regular season last year it wasn't even funny. He scored 80 runs. Surely if he messed with pitcher's minds as much as advertised he would have scored a very average 80 runs for a leadoff guy with almost 60 steals. He actually is a better offensive player this year. I think Carl Everett hitting 3rd and Paul Konerko's .246 average with RISP had something to do with Pods only scoring 80 runs. You can't steal home.

Would the Padres even want Garcia? They're not exactly made of money over there. I guess it could work if they're giving up Cameron's salary although I question why they would want to give up one of their most productive hitters. Garcia's only better than their current pitchers if you think a move to the NL will knock his ERA down by a run.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 17, 2006 -> 05:21 PM) Shockingly the Mets werent into the can we have one of your best relievers and one of your best young arms for our pile of poo. Then again maybe they remember the entire Kazmir debacle. Pelfry and Sanchez for Garcia would get KW a book deal ala Billy Beane. Yeah, I'm schocked too, what with reading how desperate teams like the Mets or Cardinals would be to get Freddy Garcia on their staff. I say just get what you can, Sanchez is fine with me, and put B-Mac in the rotation. Addition by subtraction (and some addition).

Can we really blame them for having that opinion? We just got done getting our asses whooped by the Red Sox and Yankees, two teams competing with us for a possible wild card spot. And our pitching looks like s*** compared to the Tigers, our division rival. One of these 4 teams will be left out, and since we're looking like the weakest one, it's not surprising the experts are getting off the bandwagon.