caulfield12

Well, there are some restaurants where you're treated rudely by the wait staff (I'm thinking of the Varsity in Atlanta and Gates BBQ in KC) and that's part of the tradition, but it's pretty rare where you'd go to steak place and the mai'tre d would shout "fu-- you" to the dinner party on the way to the table. I suppose you can make the point that it's EXPECTED that Ozzie is this way...so I suppose if the product is good enough, you'll put up with abusive/lousy treatment or service if the overall experience, in the end, is worth it. Of course with Ozzie, it's more of a situation where we can put up with his behavior when the team is doing pretty well or successful, it's when the team is struggling that those character "flaws" are held against him. Essentially, the same thing happened to Maradona as a football coach, but he didn't have the World Cup trophy to fall back on in his defense.

If they're not going to claim him, this is seemingly a PR spin job to create the illusion we're trying to improve our DH position when the results show otherwise. Tiresome if true.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 25, 2010 -> 03:49 PM) Guillen has 1 DNP since being acquired, and that was yesterday, when the Giants started Cody Ross, who they claimed on Waivers from the Marlins. Should have looked it up, I remember listening to one of their games on the radio over the net and maybe it was the other team's announcers implying he wasn't going to be a starter with them. If they've added Ross and Guillen, there's no way they are going to add Ramirez too, in addition to Burrell (although I do applaud them for effort, at least the GIANTS have actually gone out and addressed their hitting problems, or tried to).

Harrell definitely had a lot better stuff, that much was clear, despite his wildness. Torres has to be absolutely PERFECT with his location and command every time out or he gets hammered. Basically, he's not even in DJ Carrasco's league in terms of his arsenal.

Guillen hasn't even been starting consistently in SF, has he? It seems he's more like their 4th outfielder. Unless his playing time has changed a lot in the last 7-10 days.

Greg, just be yourself. If you get to the point where you start censoring yourself completely, never starting threads or feeling like you don't have the freedom to do so without being criticized, that you can't talk about Guillen or Jenks or Kotsay, then you're not going to enjoy posting here. That said, we all tend to get into patterns and repeat ourselves and become predictable. We look for evidence that reinforces our own viewpoints and reject contrary evidence, it's human nature to act that way. Sometimes I will do the same thing as you do, make "devil's advocate" arguments when EVERYONE seems to be taking the opposite position...for me, it's a habit ingrained from being a teacher. For example, when I was teaching in South America, all my students would basically say "Bush sucks." Well, despite my personal opinions on the subject, as an American, I wanted those students to fully understand the reasons/rationale for actions that were taken, whether I agree with them personally or not. I see what you have been trying to do defending Ozzie and Jenks, and if you look at the shambles that is our bullpen now, when arguably our most reliable reliever wasn't even a thought of ANYONE on this board but a select group of White Sox scouts 2-3 months ago, well, obviously we need Bobby Jenks just as much as he needs us to support him, lol. I guess the best you can do is try to be fair/objective/unbiased in your appraisals, but that's not very easy to do, is it? Everyone has their favorites.

“It’s just a rumor at this point. If he shows up tomorrow in his uniform, we’ll all welcome him,” Paul Konerko(notes) said. “Hopefully it’ll be good. But until then, it’s tough to comment on. We only see as players what you guys see, what’s on the TV, if at all.” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said if he was asked by GM Ken Williams if he wanted Ramirez, he would say yes. Ramirez was adored in Los Angeles and his sometimes erratic play coined the phrase “Manny being Manny” during his 7 1/2 seasons in Boston. Ramirez was traded to the Dodgers in 2008 and signed a $45 million, two-year extension in 2009 that included $10 million each season and three payments of $8,333,333 each from 2011-13. But, Mannywood’s run is ending with the 38-year-old coming off an injury-plagued season and eligible for free agency in the offseason. “Manny is a tremendous hitter. I don’t think anybody doubts that. Can he help us? I don’t know because he hasn’t played in the big leagues in a while. He’s a presence in the lineup, he makes our ball club better if he’s a presence in the lineup,” Guillen said. “The same thing happened a couple years ago. We had Ken Griffey, Jr., we handled him very well, players loved him. I don’t expect anything different with Manny.” Williams said it’s a violation of tampering rules if he spoke specifically about Ramirez, but said that his club can never have too much offense. “We’ve got to have the conversation and see what the numbers are on the salary, how we’re doing in the standings and the gate. The last 30-some odd days it changes seemingly on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “You have to think really long and hard about where you are at a given time and what you’re going to do.” yahoosports.com •A person connected to the White Sox says the team offered the Dodgers two proposals for Manny Ramirez at the end of July, but received no counter-offers. Ken Rosenthal reported today that the White Sox will claim Manny if he reaches them on waivers.

Not exactly, Greg. Think about it this way...the presence (or not) of anyone here doesn't change any type of bottom line, profitability, etc. Now someday where nearly every website is "monetized," things might be different, but MOST message boards are more like hobbies to the operators and not a primary source of income. If you're running a steak restaurant and you serve someone bad, overpriced meat or they have a negative customer service experience, what's the customer most likely to do unless you "make things right?" He's going to use the one power he has, he's going to take his business elsewhere and he will spend a lot more time telling other people to avoid a website (or restaurant) than he would had he had a completely, 100% gratifying experience. It's the infamous "negative word of mouth," which is 5-10X more likely to result from a negative experience than someone providing positive feedback to others about a positive one. The difference is that we're not paying a monthly or yearly fee, there are hosting/IT costs involved with a board, and, there simply aren't very many options for Sox fans looking for a comprehensive message board...in other words, you should also value the service that's provided, think about how much you would miss it if it didn't exist, etc. Coming from personal experience, I had quite a few "run-ins" with different personalities, a few moderators/admins, especially when I first joined the site....I remember even last year coming into chat and 2-3 people would just say stupid/idiotic insulting things (anonymously) to irritate me or make me want to leave the chat. So, I said to myself, I'm not going to bother fighting or arguing with those types of people who act like teenagers. All things considered, this is the best White Sox message board, and it's much more fairly policed and "presided over" than wsi.com, where I would guess about 50% of the people posting here have some type of story of a run-in/banning/exiling by one of the jerks over there. You can't really compare this situation, then, with a bad restaurant experience because your leaving (taking your business elsewhere) will hurt yourself more or equally to the "hurt" you will cause the restaurant/website by taking your business/posting or consumer dollars elsewhere.

I would think one of the contracts that got the Rangers into the most trouble was the Michael Young deal....not sure how they structured that one from an accounting standpoint.

What other relievers are on the waiver wire with bad contracts? Fuentes? Who else? I think I would be more excited about picking up Manny Ramirez than someone for the bullpen, sadly enough.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 09:05 PM) That was a slick fielding BJ. Is her name Sora Aoi? Does she play 2B or SS for the Nippon Ham Fighters?

Well, that DP might have saved our season. There's absolutely no way we can recover from losing a 7-2 lead against the Orioles at home

What are the odds we're not batting in the bottom of the 9th? 50/50?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 08:55 PM) If this follows the script of recent games, Wiggington will reach base and Scott will homer on the first pitch. Be careful predicting that, you'll get death threats around here these days.

Seems Putz's leg is still bothering him. Ozzie has to pull him NOW. Farmer's saying they'll have to send a starter to the bullpen. Amazing.

This is almost beyond ridiculous...what else can go wrong?

Tying run at the plate, no outs and the heart of their line-up coming...

Great. This is getting to be scary...very.

What is Juan Pierre hitting with RISP these days? The first two months, he was worse than Kotsay even. I would think he might be one of our best from June 9th onwards.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 09:30 PM) Peavy jerseys, even though you see just as many Pods jerseys at the park still as anyone else. Forgot about him. Hope nobody bought a Daniel Hudson jersey. I guess if I were the type to buy a jersey at my age, it would be either Viciedo or Alexei Ramirez. Of course, I bought a Sammy Sosa road jersey after his rookie year, that didn't work out so well.

When we win this game, we'll be exactly 19-19 since the All-Star break. The Twins will have played 14 games over .500 during the same time span, for the 7 game swing.

I don't think very many would spend that kind of money on a Ramirez jersey unless he was guaranteed of coming back next season. They didn't sell that many Griffey, Jr., or Alomar jerseys when those guys were here well past their primes. I don't think Andruw Jones jerseys or Vizquel's have been hot sellers, either. Who is the #4 jersey after Buehrle/Konerko/Beckham these days? Danks? Quentin? Rios?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 08:18 PM) You're right, you and greg and others NEVER speak in absolutes. Bunting with a runner on first, no outs just is not working at all. I cannot believe there is anyone still trying to argue otherwise. It will work eventually!!! Hey, if you leave Kotsay and Jones in the line-up, they have to get hot again, don't they? Heck, I'm almost convinced that Brian Anderson would be getting AB's at DH and KW would still be trying to convince someone that he could put up Torii Hunter-esque numbers with consistent playing time.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 08:14 PM) When will it be time to move Gordo up in the lineup? Next year Ozzie?? What time is it in Eastern Europe again? What city are you in, I can't remember off the top of my head. Orioles' announcers are absolutely astounded that there was a warning issued or that Rios actually had the temerity to think that Guthrie was throwing at him. :-)

Great, maybe we can get Ozzie suspended for at least one game if our pitcher hits someone accidentally. Unfortunately, that would mean Joey Cora would have to manage, sort of.