SoxHawk1980

Noted.

Because he's a beloved former White Sox. Hell, people in this thread are talking about Ryan Howard and who should be the NL MVP. Why not mention a good night for Frank?

lol...nice

DJ at least played hard. Garcia appears completely uninterested.

The problem is that there are many performance enhancing substances, like HGH, that you can't test for. So right now you don't know who is juicing and who isn't. Anyone could be, even Ryan Howard. It is really hard to say that anyone (or any record) is clean now.

My bad.

His type of pitching is referred to in baseball parlance as "junkball pitching." Also, his ERA this season is about 4.78, and that is pretty damned junky.

Not very hard at all. It was a lazy, looping fly ball. His "great approach" isn't worth much when he's not yet ready for major league pitching. Sweeney = a very good prospect who is nowhere near ready for the majors.

"Great approach" with a can of corn to RF.

Min and Det tied at 2 in the bot 3rd

I like the idea. Maybe Kenny wouldn't consider it. But I think "because he's the face of the organization" is a stupid reason not to consider trading it. Maybe that is what Kenny is thinking, but if he is, that's pretty dense. It's not like the fans would be up in arms if Konerko were traded for a very good starting pitcher.

For a good starting pitcher? I think he'd do it in a second. He almost traded Konerko for Washburn 2 or 3 years ago.

As much as I don't expect Sweeney to hit very well at all in the majors this season, he's still probably better than Podsednik. At least Sweeney can play defense. I have no problem with Sweeney playing if it means Podsednik sits. But Anderson > Sweeney, at the plate and in the field.

I have no respect for what he is doing THIS year. You give him his lifetime achievement award if you like, but actually want the Sox to win now and Ozzie is hurting this team and has been all year. The simple fact is that extraordinary pitching carried the Sox last year. An amazing rotation and a great bullpen carried this team and that glossed over Ozzie's mistakes. I held out hope that maybe Ozzie really was the great motivator and he was perhaps responsible for players who performed better last year. But this year he has shown that he can't motivate anyone. He's not getting the most out of his players. He's not getting them to play with intensity. In addition to all of that, he can't fill out a lineup card and makes horrible in-game decisions. I refuse to say that becaus Ozzie was the manager when we won the WS he is necessarily a good manager for all times. Just by watching the Sox play this season and looking at the decisions he makes, you can tell that he quite simply is not a good manager. In fact, he sucks.

I don't mean this as an insult at all, but do you know what OPS is made of? It is a combination of OBP and SLG. It isn't just a power stat. I'd be more inclined to go along with you if Ryan had been a really good OBP guy in the minors (along with his poor power). But he hasn't been. .357 OBP in AA. .350 in AAA. That's an ok OBP, and that's it. He didn't draw a hell of a lot of walks (35 in 449 AB's). So what does that .350 OBP translate to in the majors? .300? We don't need any more batters like that. It is way too early to expect good things from Sweeney in the majors.

I'll talk OBP, but not batting average. If he could manage about a .350 OBP in AA and AAA, what do you think that translates to in the majors? Not an acceptable OBP. Again, he might develop into a guy with a decent OBP, but I doubt we'll see much of that in his first cup of coffee.

My mistake, I meant to say that his hitting wasn't that great in a band box stadium in AAA. An .802 OPS in that stadium is unimpressive.

Then you'd lose your $$. It is a short stint and he won't be a regular, so it is a small sample size, but I think .240/.295/.340 is more likely. This guy has never hit well at any level above rookie league. He had a .721 OPS in A-ball in 2004. He followed that with a .738 OPS in a band box stadium in AA in 2005. He's showed some improvement this year up to a mediocre .802 OPS again in AA. Now he jumps all the way up to the majors and fans think he's going to succeed? This isn't addressed to anyone in particular, but I hate it when fans see a "sweet swing" and a "good approach" and automatically think that a touted rookie is going to produce immediately. That's pretty damned rare. It is even more rare when a player's minor league performance wasn't particularly impressive. In fact, Sweeney's minor league performance was quite unimpressive.

0-6, 2 k's Please don't be surprised if Sweeney hits about .200 in his cup of coffee this year. That would be about right, consider the kind of season he had in the minors. Sweeney may develop into a good major league player, but he isn't there yet. Frankly, I don't think he's even close.

Where are those pro-Ozzie, everything-is-going-to-be-fine apologist cheerleaders anyway? I'm sure they've got some kind of weak defense of Ozzie on this one too.

Yes! The Sox slumped badly in August and well into September of last year and they hustled and showed a hell of a lot of heart night in and night out. They had fire and hunger, regardless of how they were playing at the time. This year's team acts like it just doesn't want it nearly as badly as it did last year.

Are you really this dense or are you just being intentionally obtuse?

It isn't just based on hitting stats. It is performance of the entire team PLUS the way they act, the things they say in the media and how they look in the dugout. They show no intensity at all. They were hungry last year and that hunger has been sated. Have they acted like ANY game this year was a big deal? Have they acted like ANY series this year has been a big deal? Actually, it has been quite the opposite. They have been playing like nothing has been important. They have been continually saying in the media that no game and no series has been particularly important. 2006 White Sox: Ho-hum, is it golf time yet?

I think my sig says it all. The one good thing about Ozzie was supposed to be that he was a great motivator and brought out the best in players. Certainly not this year. He's yawning his way through this season and his team is following suit. He's acting like he doesn't much care. "Another loss? These things happen. *Yawn*." And the team is playing like they don't care either. What is Ozzie good for?

Because he's a poor manager and he's been hurting this team. It's great for him to take the blame for the Sox losing. But I'd much rather he manage well and help the team win. Sometimes he says the right things to the press, and often he doesn't. After just about every loss this season, Ozzie's response has been "*Yawn* Oh well, these things happen." Losses have become no big deal to him. Unsurprisingly, losses have become no big deal to the team. They show no intensity, no fire, no sense of urgency. You have to put that on Ozzie. If a manager can't motivate a team that is in a playoff chase, what good is he? He needs to lead by example. He needs to act like each of these games is life or death. Ozzie looks bored in the dugout. When we played the Twins last, Ozzie nearly fell asleep in the dugout and the team followed suit, while the Twins were pumped like it was a playoff series. Ozzie, do your f***ing job. "Piss poor" is an exaggeration? What adjectives would you use to describe a manager who: 1. Can't motivate his team in a playoff chase. 2. Doesn't know when to play regulars and when to rest them. 3. Doesn't know when to pull a starting pitcher and when to leave him in. 4. Doesn't have the first clue how to handle a bullpen. (and these are just some highlights of the horror that is Ozzie Guillen, the Manager)