35thstreetswarm

QUOTE (joeynach @ Jan 31, 2011 -> 03:35 PM) This prediction thing is easy. Thanks to a 162 game schedule things tend to even out and the better teams win the most games in the end. 2010 Tigers won 81 games and got marginally better. Probably to the tune of about 84-85 win team. 2010 Twins won 94 games, they got marginally worse. Probably to the tune of about 90-02 win team. 2010 White sox won 88 games, they got much better. Probably to the tune of 90-93 wins. There you go it aint hard. Will be a 3 team race until eventually the Tigers fall out of it, the Sox/Twins will battle for the division till the end. PRINT IT! What would happen if, theoretically, an 87-win Twins team lost their top RBI guy and their dominant closer? Why, they'd win seven more games, of course.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 17, 2010 -> 11:23 AM) I'd love to hear how you are interpreting that quote, because I'm not super excited about it. The way I'm reading it is that KW is considering making Morel our starting 3B, Viciedo our starting 1B or DH, and Flowers our starting C instead of signing veterans to fill these spots. That "in the middle" comment makes me believe KW is implying not just making one of these guys a starter but actually all three of them. IMO, this quote seems like nothing more than some advanced PR spin so we aren't all super pissed if the Sox go the cheap way. Also, what's wrong with going with one young guy, say Morel at 3B, and signing/trading for vets at the other spots? I think a mix is the ideal way to go if you're trying to balance current and long-term success. I really don't see how developing three young position players in the same season is really going to give us a better chance to win next year. Especially if one of them of is Tyler Flowers, who needs another season in AAA before he should even enter into this discussion. Totally agree. Put together, this is a rather scary set of quotes to me. I was hoping that the Sox might be willing to spend a little extra dough this offseason to build a complete offense that would complement what should be a very special rotation. This screams "we have no plan, we are totally overwhelmed at the number of holes we have to fill, and we may just go into rebuilding mode and waste a killer pitching staff."

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 13, 2010 -> 09:58 AM) I wouldnt call that a jinx since the Sox are the team that ended up with a ring out of the two of them Agreed. And any Twins fan who tells you s/he wouldn't trade their "last decade" for ours is lying.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 01:44 PM) what made that worse was he went on to opine about how the Rangers were interested and acted like they were favorites, basically completely ignoring the waiver process Also kind of embarrassing was the over-the-top negative turn this thread took based on the reporting of factual information that was in no way inconsistent with the Sox winning the claim.

Does anyone else find it fitting that the Cubs waited for the 71st anniversary of the Wizard of Oz to trade away the final member of the Northside lollipop guild? Farewell Lilly, Theriot, Fontenot - let sleep your tiny heads on dandelion puff pillows in beds of gossamer, and dream wee dreams of winning teams far, far away from Wrigley.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 06:06 PM) That Twins team got some absurd 2nd half numbers (mostly batting average) out of EVERYONE in their lineup including some seemingly mediocre players. 5 starters (Morneau, White, Mauer, Hunter and Cuddyer) put up .850+ OPS's, Morneau hit .342, White .321 and Mauer .311. Then the absurd: their backup catcher (Redmond) hit .321 in 21 starts, Luis Castillo hit .314 with a .375 OBP at the top, Jason Bartlett hit .309, Nick "no bat" Punto hit .285 with a .332 OBP as their everyday 3B and Jason f***ing Tyner hit .312 in 321 PA. The team as a whole hit .316/.363/.474/.838 in July. When you have THAT many fluky performances and throw in the MVP of the league, Cy Young award winner, a catcher who wins the f***ing batting title, a rookie stater with a 208 ERA+ and a closer with a 0.79 WHIP and 12.5 K/9 you're going to win a s*** ton of games. I knew this was coming - damn you and your "facts." Luckily I don't think we'll need quite that kind of performance to take the division this year, as I don't think we'll have three 90+-game winners in the division like we did in 2006. That may give us a bit more breathing room.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) That's a s***ty ass fact. Makes the 2006 debacle even harder to swallow. I know. But I've made peace with the 2006 season. Time to make some lemonade.

Fun fact: The Twins were .500 on this date in 2006 -- 11.5 games out of first, 10.5 games behind the second place Sox -- before riding a couple hot starting pitchers to a 96 win season and division championship. I know, I know, they're the mighty Twins, they of the 5 division titles in the '00s to the Sox measly 3 (and a World Series ring). But a kid can dream.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Apr 14, 2010 -> 12:27 PM) christ this place is worse than the media. Who the hell cares? Really? Why do you care about some reporter baiting oz into saying "something crazy". Stupid I don't really care that much about this specific incident. I do care a little that the face of my favorite franchise is such a buffoon that reporters are able to "bait" him into saying "something crazy" and laugh about it afterward like he's the neighborhood lunatic. Seems to me it reflects poorly on the franchise, but that's just me. Others are free to draft posts explaining how little they care about the subject they're posting messages about.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2010 -> 09:45 AM) It does exactly what you just did... You are wasting your time on it instead of on how the team is performing. I really don't get this line of argument. I think most fans, and sportswriters, are capable of holding two thoughts in their head at once - maybe even three or four. I haven't forgotten that we're 3-5, or that we almost got no-hit last night. Now I realize we're 3-5, almost got no-hit last night, and have a manager who embarrassed himself in public (again). None of those things distracts from, or dilutes the impact of, any of the others.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 14, 2010 -> 08:36 AM) We have a manager encouraging people to beat up fans if they talk smack in public. Now lets say Jenks or Konerko or Quentin or whomever gets drunk and a fan rassles them for a bad time and they punch them in the face. Oh well, my manager said it was ok. Clearly it isn't ok and he should keep him mouth shut. You should not condone violence. It would be one thing if Rios was physically threatened but he was not physically threatened, not at all. And I'm not saying what those fans did was ok, but don't condone violence Ozzie. And maybe I'm a little harsh on this, but I think this is one of the worse things Ozzie has ever said publicly. A guy many kids look up to is encouraging violence. Ozzie voices his contempt for fans more often than almost any sports figure I've seen. His running theme for the last few years has been "fans don't know anything," "fans should keep their mouths shut," "fans can't do what I do," and now "fans are liable to get punched if they dare approach me in a less respectful manner than I deserve." It amazes me how many fans not only put up with these insults, but eat them up.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 14, 2010 -> 07:56 AM) http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...os-heckler.html I realize he is defending Rios, but dude, this doesn't look good, not at all. So this is the clip where Rios got heckled for refusing to give a young child an autograph? And then started dropping f-bombs right over the kid's head when he got heckled? Is Ozzie familiar with the term "pick your battles"? Is this really the best one to wade into? I think Ozzie is a decent manager and I appreciate what he's done for the club. But the man conducts himself like an eighth-grader with a behavioral problem. He's becoming increasingly embarrassing and difficult to defend.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Apr 13, 2010 -> 03:59 PM) those shirts are beyond awful and sooo lame. i also hate this shirt i always see in those white vending carts outside u.s. cellular field that says in big letters "beat the cubs" and i think its actually a licensed shirt The shirt that calls U.S. Cellular Field the "World's Largest Ghetto" deserves a special place in t-shirt hell. There's lots wrong with it, but at the top of the list is the fact that it doesn't remotely make sense. U.S. Cellular Field is a single building - wouldn't it be the world's "smallest ghetto"? Assuming the wearer of the shirt thinks the neighborhood surrounding the ballpark is a "ghetto," wouldn't that very neighborhood be one particularly obvious example of a larger "ghetto?" For god's sake...

I personally think that the Sox are much better this year than last. I agree, and I don't think it's close. I look at it this way. We entered the season last year with THREE AAAA question marks in our lineup representing 3B, CF, and 2B. We now have a lineup that, whatever your thoughts about the DH, is filled with actual big leaguers from top to bottom. For the first time in several years there will be no gaping holes - no obvious points for beer/bathroom breaks - when we are at bat. And we added a Cy Young winner to the front of our staff. And a recently-dominant (and supposedly fully healed) closer to our pen. I think it is really the timing and sequencing of KW's assembly of this team, rather than the makeup of the team itself, that has quelled enthusiasm. If Peavy, Beckham, Rios, Putz, Teahen, Pierre, etc. had been dumped in our lap all at once, rather than in dribs and drabs over a half a season and an off-season, I think people would be much more excited. But it's March, baby. The reality of an actual baseball season is about to tear all these paper projections and arguments to shreds. I'm excited.

QUOTE (1977 sox fan @ Feb 21, 2010 -> 04:51 AM) if you think because there not in a dome now and the sox all of sudden will beat them in minny your mistaken. it wasnt the dome that beat the sox there it was the twins. i mean the angels yankees and others beat the crap out of them last year in the dome . maybe the dome had something to do with some of there wins but come on be realistic Maybe, maybe not. Over the last several years, the Sox seemed to perform worse in Minneapolis than they did in road games against other good teams. Members of the organization often chalked it up to "playing in the dome," everybody talked it to death, and it seemed to feed on itself. The dome itself is not magic, but it's possible that the team developed something - call it a mental block, intimidation factor, whatever - that explains the abnormally bad play up there. (The fact that the Twins seemed invincible in the dome against the Sox, and were far from invincible there against other teams, actually supports this point.) Seems like a reasonable possibility that a "fresh start" on a new field could help turn Minnesota into a normal road destination rather than a house of horrors.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 11:44 AM) Going from turf to grass (and they'll probably grow it long), is only going to help the pitching staff. With solid infield defense, I think the Twins will end up performing better in this new stadium. The home field advantage won't be nearly as great, but imo, these two factors will probably cancel each other out over the long haul. Hard to say how it will affect the Twins over the course of a season, but the most exciting thing for me is its potential to affect the season series with the White Sox. We seemed to develop a very real collective psychological issue with that dome. It infected the whole organization, from the players to Ozzie to Hawk. It got to the point where every trip to the dome was counted in advance as three in the loss column. If the change in stadium can turn trips to the Minnesota from debacles to just normal road series we should gain 3-4 games on a key rival right there. That, to me, is the real key.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 01:13 PM) That's a hell of a lot of hope to have. We have no guarantees on this team. No one to unequivocally count on, on the offensive end but A.J. That's a problem. I hope that Beckham will take off this year, i hope Rios will produce and Q will stay healthy. All i know is that it would inspire me with a lot more confidence to have an offensive force in between the maybes. I don't think it requires that much hope to suggest that Rios will become "normal" Rios again - it actually seems the most likely outcome. I really have a hard time thinking of 27-28 year old two time all-stars who have just suddenly become terrible for no apparent reason (i.e. without injury or steroids being clear factors). As to the original "replacement" analysis, don't forget that we also have a full season of Beckham, whereas last year we had a couple months of the disastrous Josh Fields experiment to start out the year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 09:41 AM) He really does have a great baseball mind and has a lot of valuable information. I'll be the first to agree with him that I should have never made the Gavin Floyd guarantee that I did. I am imagining you writing this while chained to a bed in the remote mountain cabin of your "number one fan." Tell JimH it is more effective if you read the statement on videotape.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 07:54 AM) It's more likely that Rios will haunt hitting coaches if he doesn't turn it around than KW. He seems like a good bet to rebound. He's a TWO-TIME all-star at age 28. How many players have just suddenly become terrible with those kinds of credentials, at that age, where injury or steroids weren't obvious factors? (I'm really asking, because I can't think of many off-hand, at least in the last decade or so).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 5, 2010 -> 03:20 PM) Google it. Swisher did get benched in the World Series.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 1, 2009 -> 08:43 AM) I have always valued character, and he has shown a lot. Someone should make a movie about Jose's life. The guy has overcome an unbelievable amount of adversity - personal, physical, psychological - to get where he is, and from all accounts has remained one of the nicest, most humble athletes around. He was our best pitcher for two seasons, took the team on his back to its only World Series championship in any of our lifetimes, and when you take his entire career into account (we saw only the tail end of it), may be the best pitcher ever to pitch for the White Sox. Yet somehow the guy never got the appreciation he deserved. For god's sake, I saw five times as many Garland jerseys as Contreras jerseys (I counted one - mine), even at the peak of Count's performance Never totally understood it, though I have my theories. It wouldn't surprise me if Jose has one more surprise run in him - I hope he does. Best of luck Titan - go prove 'em wrong again.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 30, 2009 -> 06:10 PM) Cause on paper it isn't a mediocre team, it's actually a pretty solid one. We have absolutely 0 holes in our lineup yet we can't score runs. Our bullpen looked like one of the best in the league coming into the season and for the first few months it was probably the best. All Kenny has done is add and add and add to this squad and for some reason we're getting worse and it's not because he's bringing in bad players. These assholes(ya, this is how I feel about these guys right now) pretty much quit for some f***in reason and that's on them and the coaching staff. And btw I know it's going to be brought up, but I definitely don't want Ozzie fired this season, I just think he's done a poor job this year. I feel like Kenny is the only one who actually did his job this season, that's why I feel like he doesn't deserve any blame. This pretty well sums up how I feel about this bizarro team. The more holes we fill, the worse we get. Therefore I put 100% of the blame on Mark Buehrle. Isn't it obvious at this point that Mark Buehrle no-hitters are like kryptonite to this organization? See White Sox performance post-no-hitters, 2007, 2009. Case closed.

The guy represents. Period.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Aug 19, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) Take that, Contreras haters! The Titan of Bronze still has plenty left! Amen. Looks like I'm sporting the '06 Contreras All-Star jersey tonight.

Add today's performance to my list of reasons why Jose Contreras is my favorite player.