SoxHawk1980

Sounds like your prediction sounds about right to me. Unfortunately, that isn't much of an upgrade for our rotation. Hardly any at all.

Well, in his last 7 starts of 2002, Danny had a stretch of 49.2 innings with and ERA of 3.08. The point is that prospects can have good stretches, but that does not necessarily mean a great career is in the offing.

Dan Wright had a good 42-inning stretch too once...

It is certainly possible. But don't count on it. The unbalanced schedule will not be our friend next year (as it wasn't this year).

No, it wasn't a fluke. Nor is it all one should consider when one evaluates him. In addition to those 42.2 innings in his career, I'd also consider his 24.1 innings before the ASB (8.14 ERA) and his 76.1 innings this year (4.95 ERA). Are the bad 100.2 innings just a fluke?

It sure as hell will. Detroit isn't going to be this good again, but they'll still be good. The Twins will continue to be good, maybe even better. Cleveland will be considerably better. Even the Royals will be better (not good, but we can count on fewer automatic wins against them).

I don't think there is good reason for being confident about Brandon in the rotation next year. His stuff is good, but it isn't great. And I don't think you can gloss over the fact that he's pitched poorly this season. It isn't enough to say "he's never been a reliever before." So what? It frequently happens that good starting pitching prospects come up to the majors and pitch out of the bullpen for a while. Those who later become good starters usually do well out of the bullpen. Hell, it is alwasy easier to pitch out of the bullpen than as a starter. Usually you only go one time through the lineup and you don't pitch long enough to tire during the game. So why should I be confident that his poor 2006 season means nothing? It seems like people are working hard to come up with a reason to think McCarthy will be a good starter next year. I hope it is more than fan optimism.

They quite long ago. Why shouldn't I? Actually, I'll always root for this team, even when they've given up, I'm certainly not happy with them. And I'm not going to pretend that they still have a decent chance of making the playoffs.

Buehrle coming out and making a statement right off the bat. The statement: I quit.

I've been saying all through the second half that this team has been playing without any fire or intensity. They were hungry last year and now that they have their championship, they just aren't hungry any more. They get up for some games, but can never maintain that intensity. Overall they have been limp and lifeless. This includes Ozzie. And Ozzie is to blame as the manager for not being able to motivate these guys and getting them to play their best.

There is more to Kenny's fallibility than that. He also gave away a hell of a lot for a starting pitcher who hasn't been good since 2003. Predictably, Javier failed again. Dismally. If Kenny hadn't made the trade, this team would actually have a good young CFer right now.

Kalapse is 100% right. The 2005 White Sox didn't win because of scrappy, speedy or any other of Scooby Doo's brothers. The Sox won in 2005 with an amazing rotation and an equally spectacular bullpen. The pitching overcame a poor offense and a poor manager. Pitching won it. Pitching carried the team. Just because the 2005 team won the WS doesn't mean that everything about that team was great. The offense wasn't great. It wasn't even good. Subtracting power from this team and replacing it with speedy, scrappy grinders would subtract runs and wins from this team.

I predict that in the next 13 games, Ozzie will continue to put the wrong players in the lineup, leave struggling starting pitchers in too long and give key relief innings to guys like Logan and Hermanson. I also predict that Ozzie's frustration over the fact that his "great managing" isn't leading to wins is going to lead to one of his classic freak-out meltdowns. That will be the only highlight of the remainder of the season. I also predict that Konerko will respond to the Sox getting mathematically eliminated by yawning and saying, "Oh well, maybe next year."

I'm not sure what to expect from KW. If he moves the offense in the direction more speed and less power, then the offense is going to be worse. Also, I'm not confident that subtracting one of these starting pitchers and adding McCarthy is going to be a net improvement for the rotation. I've got $20 that says Contreras will be worse next year, and on the DL more. And he isn't going to be the starter that is traded. What I'm really concerned with is Ozzie. He stinks on ice. There's no way to get around it. When he doesn't have the best pitching in baseball to carry him, his bad managing is horribly exposed. He hurt the team this year and I fully expect him to hurt the team next year. He's stubborn; he doesn't learn. I'm sure he's 100% positive that everything he's done this season has been the right way to manage. We'll see the same crazy lineups next season. He'll leave starters in too long next season. He'll embarassingly mishandle the bullpen next season. That's Ozzie. That's how he manages. And he's going to rob this team of wins next year, just like he did this year.

Really. In one breath the Ozzie apologists say that Ozzie deserves the credit for getting KW to bring in the players that put us over the top to win it all last year. In the next breath they say Ozzie doesn't deserve any blame for this season because he didn't put together the roster. This is a good team. Many of the players have underperformed. Ozzie has done his part to hurt this team as well with his crappy lineups, leaving starters in too long, mishandling the bullpen and other horrible in-game strategies. You can't put everything on Ozzie. But if you're talking about blame for this season, Ozzie has to be near the top of the list.

Just when you think things can't get worse, there's a game like today. God that was a horrifying spectacle.

That's exactly what I thought. I've been wanting Ozzie to get fired up about something and motivate this team since the ASB. Unfortunately it takes a beer controversey to get a rise out of Ozzie.

First, they aren't playing "respectable ball" since the ASB. They played well in the first half. That's how they got to be 20 games over .500. They are under .500 since the ASB. Those of us who think the Sox won't make the playoffs are basing that on how the team is playing and has been playing for the last two months. I don't expect that to suddenly change, but I sure hope it does. Second, they may not be "packing it in" but they sure as hell aren't playing with fire and intensity game in and game out. I want this team to fight like it is fighting for its very life, and I'm just not seeing that. Too often I see a lacadaisical effort, followed by a loss, a shoulder shrug and, "oh well, we'll get 'em tomorrow." Pretty soon, there won't be a tomorrow.

More great managing by Ozzie. It's good to see that he really gets it.

Since he is admitting that his fastball just isn't there for him, can this finally end the stupid talk on this board that he has been choosing to throw softer on purpose? Finally.

Sweeping Detroit would be a big step in the right direction. But does this look like a team that could sweep anyone right now? I would be shocked to see this team string three good games together.

The last thing I'll say about it before finally going to bed is that Ozzie's approach isn't a proven winner. The Sox 2005 pitching was a proven winner. That pitching carried us big time. Did you see how many runs we scored last year? The offense was pretty crappy. It was picked up time and time again by great pitching. Outstanding pitching can carry a mediocre or crappy offense that doesn't score many runs. But you really shouldn't count on a pitching staff being that great again.

Of course my post was an exaggeration. But the point is that we know what kind of players Ozzie likes. There is a reason that Podsednik gets all of this playing time, even though he's having one of the worst seasons of any major league regular this year. Ozzie loves speed and BS. He values that over big, slow power hitters who have great OBP and SLG. Ozzie doesn't know how to score runs. He wants fundamentally sound little speedsters (like he was). He wants to play small-ball and manufacture runs and he would love to have a team appropriately constituted for that kind of offense. And that strategy would result in very few runs scored and even fewer wins.

I'd rather see dinosaurs roam the earth.

Giving Ozzie the team he wants for 2007. That is the scariest thought I could possibly imagine. It would be a team full of speedy, scrappy, hard-nosed grinders who can't hit their weight, but know how to put a bunt down. They'd play hard and the team would score about 500 runs. The Sox would miss the playoffs, but Ozzie would be happy that the team is "playing baseball the right way."