stretchstretch

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 5, 2008 -> 09:34 PM) Well kids, button them up because the ride is about to get real bumpy. Twinks @Seattle @LA Angels @ San Fran ( we luck out so far with the back end of their rotation facing Cain on the Sunday) Cleveland Angels @ Cleveland @ Tampa Yikes good, I'd rather have them be fully exposed, do or die, and if they die, I can stop wasting my energy and hope all summer, better to get the truth on the table right here and now..........rather than a string cupcakes to lure me into a false sense of security like we just got barely taking 2-3 from a horrific seattle team

QUOTE (heirdog @ May 14, 2008 -> 12:24 AM) Unfortunately, we may be well under .500 at the ASB but only 6 or 7 games out and so KW will try and package the last few scraps in our farm system and some young players to get a journeyman bat and plug him in the line-up to turn the offense around. Thome, Konerko and Dye if allowed will hit their 30 HRs each (65 of which will be solo shots) and we will continue to win one game 10-7 and then lose a bunch by 1 or 2 runs where we score 3 or less. I hate the fact that you're so correct here.............

just back from the game, and am literally disgusted. In a tight game, it was clear by the 7th inning that this 0-0 contest was going to be a loss. Why? neither of these two are new concepts, but being there just makes them soooo much clearer to truly appreciate. For all this teams weaknesses, and there are many, there are two, that if ALL other problems were fixed, prevent this team, this year, or any other from being a serious contender. Reason 1- Lack of opposite field hitting. my lord, the angels are simply masters of this, at one point they had 10 hits, and I'm about sure that 8 of them were punch shots by a right hander into shallow right field. Hits that if the sox could pull out at an opportune time could bring those miraculous 1 or two runs you need to win the close ones (runs which the angels scored by doing a exactly that) Reason 2- and this has been discussed ad nauseum, and is paramount to the opposite field hitting being effective, but this team has to be THE SLOWEST in the history of the MLB, they are a complete non-threat to beat a double play, steal a base, or score from second on a line drive hit. How many times have we seen runners, other than Quentin, held at third the past two years? Watching PK, Jim, Crede, Uribe, Dye, and AJ lumber around bases is completely painful to watch in person, and from there the other players are simply avg. If one of the first 5 gets to first base they are only going to score on a triple, HR, or series of hits, but the majaority of times they'll be LOB because they are simply too slow to score on anything other than extra base hits by successive players. We can talk about middle relief, what's happening with Buehrle, plate patience, bunting, and so on, but in the end, none of that matters, and this team is destined to mediocrity unless some speed and ability to hit to right field makes it's way to the team..... out

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 13, 2008 -> 07:28 AM) He was at 89 a few times. It wasnt his velocity, it was him hanging breaking pitches out over the plate, and the Angels dinking in little infield hits and rolling them through the hole. with one out and man on second and third, why Oz would pitch to Vlad rather than load the bases is beyond me, that HR was more than predictable, and if Crede makes the throw, that 6 run inning never happens......and AJ watching strike 3 down the pipe with two on in the ninth :unsure: tough tough loss when you score seven

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 9, 2008 -> 07:03 PM) Anyone going to be at the games? I'll be at the Angels games on Monday & Tuesday and than the Giants game I think on Saturday. I'll be there tomorrow night with my 6yr old........

as much as I can't stand that team, their propensity to be a dagger to the Sox, and the wins they get from that trampoline of a park, you still have at some point to give them credit for being in the running year after year, even though the stars that come through their system eventually move to greener pastures. Santana gone....Hunter gone....Liriano out....no problem, just go ahead and take first place among one team picked to win the WS and two others with >$110M payrolls, take 2-3 maybe 3-4 from the 24-15 defending WS champs maybe I'm a bit jealous, and at the same time amazed, among my annoyance at how many times they've ended our season on clutch small bal hitting and effective baserunning

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QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 10, 2008 -> 11:27 PM) The chess match of advance scouting. You come up in the majors, you excel for a period of time. Then the scouts pick apart your mechanics. It gets out, the league makes adjustments. Then you make adjustments, and the advance scouts pick it apart again. The evolution of the major league ballplayer. ding ding ding

guy's hitting .156 and you walk him?????????????

gotta PULL HIM NOW!!!

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 6, 2008 -> 09:47 PM) Gavin! He's been amazing all year. Nice to actually have a couple big time prospects in Gavin and CQ coming through for the organization. Especially with our farm system right now. That's because KW is a genius, didn't you know? this board has been saying so for like at least 10 hours now :D

don't want to draw any conclusions but so many things just keep pointing to the problem being Sox mgmt.--health, performance, attitude, execution, etc. Oh and Rowand (that's gold glove, all-star Rowand) is batting .330 for what it's worth.....

need to kill this thread, it's going to be a while, like seasons, before it can be rightfully resurrected

depressing being a Sox fan right now, hard to muster up the optimism that anything we're seeing is temporary. Was supposed to be the season where OC and Swish injected hustle and aggression into the lineup, if that's gone already after a month of baseball, unlikely it's going to just reappear. So disappointing to see Konerko turn out to be truly a flash in the pan, I for one have accepted that what we're seeing now is his ceiling....either that or he needs a new home to make him remember how to hit a fastball, or go opposite field on a curve. Can't blame mgmt for believing this 3-4-5 could not, possibly, have another corpselike season, given their veteran history of production, but now they have to face the truth and offload no matter what.

at some point you have to dump Walker, as it's been said, if veteran's don't need a hitting coach why keep one on the staff at all? His job is to work with them on mechanics, opposite field hitting, bunting, and plate discipline, none of which is evidenced on this ballclub for a couple seasons. In watching a lot of Angel baseball in SoCal, you see hitters with a very standardized new-age stance, you know the one, think Grady Sizemore, weight on back leg, front foot toed out, back elbow up, torso turned in for uncoiling power---the majority of the team hits this way, you can see that the hitting coaches are able to teach old dogs new tricks and it pays off in wins We can dump the head coach, dump all the players, or start with the least risky move, the hitting coach, and escalate the action from there until a solution is found.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 2, 2008 -> 11:51 PM) Watching our offense makes me mad at our GM again. Didn't take me all that long for this inevitable development, although I can't blame Ozzie for anything right now. His hands are tied with this roster offensively, and the pitching has been fine. I just can no longer buy that the players are to blame, there's been too many roster changes with the same result for two full seasons now. The coaching staff is the common denomintor on the field day in and day out. I'm not a coaching expert but there's something there that this staff, be it Ozzie, Walker or other, can't get done. Living here in SoCal, I watch a lot of the Angels and it's no coincidence that that've been in the playoffs 6 of the past 8 years, with an UNBELIEVABLE amount of roster changes, both from trades and young vulnerable kids coming up from the farm system. They come up with disciplined at bats, all know how to go opposite field and bunt, and are speedy at every single position. They have occasional slumps but Soscia somehow finds away to break them out of it, and NEVER EVER EVER throws players under the bus. For whatever reason, players develop under his watch, have fundamental, hustle every game, and work their way out of tough stretches, all unlike the Sox of the past two seasons.

It's time for a fan reality check about what is a short term fluke and what is REALITY. Dye is not going to rise from the ashes to become any where near the threat he used to be, he got old and slow and cannot hit a 91mph fastball to save his life Konerko exactly the same, each yr of age has made him worse not better and we're expecting more than he's capable of, all at 15M per year, yuck Uribe, I could write a page, he has absolutely not place on an MLB roster, and it reflects SOOO poorly on mgmt that they brought him back BA will be a career .170 hitter, it's just not going to happen people Thome is old and limited, what we see now is who he is today as a player The rest of the team I'm good with, but the Sox are just too dependent on clutch hitting from three marquis players who cannot produce and two that just should not be on the field. It sucks, because this is our 08 team, and that's not going to change for 6 more months minimum Fields need to be on this team everyday, even if it's as the second basemen, CANNOT be any worse, regardless of any other tradeoffs, than having Juan pop up and whiff EVERY SINGLE time a single from him would bring in 1-4 runs!!!

is there a journalism minor league where you can send down writers who are struggling to score with RISP?????????

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 08:24 AM) What are some examples of teams that have had offense constructed as we do now that have won a World Series?Oakland has competed but hasnt won it all,it seems like you need to hit for average eventually to be successful.Maybe the 05' team was constructed in this way just not to the extreme as it is now with the on base %. 2005 CHW are the example However they also had Contreras, Garcia, Garland, Buehrle, Politte, Hermanson, Zero, Jenks with simultaneous career yrs in a weak division allowing them to win a RIDICULOUS amount of 1 run games....

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Apr 30, 2008 -> 04:23 PM) That in spite of the fact that a good chunk of their hitters haven't hit nearly as good as they will. 2nd half 06, the entire 2007, and a month of 2008 say Hi This is not a new phenomenon with this group

too much talk of trades, lineup shuffles, AAA callups..... simply put the Sox are just missing clutch hits. when I think about the Sox with RISP, I think about Thome grounding out to the second baseman turned right fielder, PK dribbling one to SS, BA fouling out to the catcher, Dye whiffing, Uribe well forget it. Today, the twinks bunted, sacrificed and got THAT ONE HIT necessary to pull out a one run game, we had Swisher take strike three with two on and two out in the 9th, Monday BA in a squeeze play bunt foul. I don't know if there's a stat for opposite field hits, but I'd guess CHW are last in the bigs

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 26, 2008 -> 08:47 PM) Cabrera is ridiculously overrated. Is this how he was as an everyday player? I know it's only been a month, but damn. He just isn't that good defensively. I watched him often here in OC where all Angel games are televised, and he's been great both defensively and in cluth hitting situations, to this point he's been uncharacteristically mediocre and disappointing.....maybe he and PK will come around at the same time.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 24, 2008 -> 09:22 AM) Silly rule.....do they have rules for all this stuff?? This pic is from visitors clubhouse. Can your gum only be bazooka? Seeds only be David? What if a guy wants a redbull? I saw Crede drinking a red bull in the dugout the other day on TV

seriously, is this not the widest strike zone in the history of MLB???

QUOTE (max power @ Apr 24, 2008 -> 09:40 PM) Which one? do I need to answer??