caulfield12

QUOTE(fathom @ May 19, 2007 -> 03:27 PM) Nice to know I wasn't the only one who thought that. The Cubs pitcher would probably be our 4th best hitter right now. Buehrle's at-bat yesterday was one of the best of the day for the Sox.

QUOTE(South Side Fireworks Man @ May 19, 2007 -> 12:35 PM) KW has a good track record as Sox GM. And if they lose a couple of free agents, they can also sign a couple of free agents. I just hope the Sox can win today, because if this team ever loses two in a row again, some people here will be ready to throw in the towel again and clamor for a fire sale. But he's built from the "base" of an average or mediocre team...never having to start from scratch. He's in a precarious situation with players like Uribe and Iguchi, because we have no natural replacements for those players. This might be the time to get a shortstop on the trade or FA market, the best thing right now is with the Yankees/Jeter and Mets/Reyes, the only major player in the market to drive up prices artificially is the Red Sox. Someone mentioned our drafting history earlier. Royce Ring was an ultra "safe" pick, as a college closer we looked to move into set-up (this was before Marte was firmly established)...the biggest risks we have taken were Stumm, Honel, Borchard and Anderson. Drafting high school pitchers is always a crapshoot. If you look at the Moneyball draft year, I think there were six high school pitchers from the first couple of rounds that have already made large impacts on MLB (Loewen, Greinke, Kazmir, Hamels). Matt Cain and Jeff Francoeur were two players we definitely could have used, INSTEAD of Royce Ring. You could make the argument that we would be a definite favorite for the playoffs with either of those players (Cain/Francoeur) on our current roster. However, from #18-30 in that first round, only Cain, Francoeur and Jeremy Guthrie (Indians) are on major league rosters.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ May 19, 2007 -> 03:16 AM) Heads already hit it, but YOU'RE an idiot. Anyway, it is tough for any manager to mange over 4 errors. That was bound to happen, wasn't it? Fact is this is probably Guillen's last year any way you look at it unless the White Sox make a run deep into the playoffs...which doesn't seem likely. It's a bit of a different feel, but this team is just like the teams of '01-'04--in the mix, but not quite there. This may seem odd, but I'm looking forward to rebuilding and seeing some fresh faces. I'm excited to see if KW can bring this team back to the top. And you would trust KW to rebuild this team? Why? And what new manager would you want to bring in? Bobby Valentine? Buck Showalter? Cito Gaston? The same old recycled guys? Let's say they lose Buehrle and Dye as Free Agents...do you really trust KW to rebuild, when we've had so many blown first round draft picks and busts in our farm system? It's not just Ozzie Guillen, it's a systemic/endemic/organizational problem....front office, major league coaching staff, scouting, advanced scouting, minor league instruction. You could fire Ozzie right now and we would still be a .500 team. Joe McCarthy or Connie Mack wouldn't get this team, as presently constituted, to 90 wins. We're incredibly fortunate to be over .500 at this point. You can give all the credit to the players for the wins and blame to Guillen for losses, but a team that scores less than it gives up is hardly ever in the playoffs. Not even Merlin the Magician can pull that one off, in cartoon movies.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:39 PM) Cotts and Politte had amazing seasons in 2005. Riske isn't a terrible reliever....he was just used in spots that he doesn't excel in. Interestingly enough, he's done a pretty decent job for the Royals recently as their closer.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) or be brought in for defensive reasons late in the game. AJP should have definitely been in the game after the top of the 7th. If they X-rayed him for a broken bone, I doubt they would be allowed to use him the same day. I guess we'll find out more. I'm sure he's okay, but Crede playing for Ozuna late wouldn't have changed the 4-3 score. And he might not have been able to hit either.

QUOTE(Soxfest @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:34 PM) OG has never been a good manger of the pen........................EVER! Ummm...apparently you missed 2004 and 2005. If you had the choice of: 1) Riske 2) Nelson 3) Cotts 4) Politte 5) Tracey 6) Montero Who would you have used of that bundle of mediocrity that would have pitched amazingly better for you?

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:31 PM) How soon until the Fields project? We need a thirdbaseman who can hit and field. Right now, we have one that can't do either in Ozuna, and one who can only field in Crede. Something has to be done. The problem is that Fields is an "average" fielder at best (for now), and will strike out at least 33% of the time. If you bench Crede, you devalue anything he will bring in return. It's fine to bring Fields up in September, or try him as the DH, but Thome is about to come back.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:28 PM) One of the reason our bullpen has blown so many games is that we never, ever, expand the lead in the 6th or 7th inning if we're leading early in the game. It's just a pathetic all-around offense right now. Our offense is playing a 6 inning game, and our pitching has to get 27 outs. But the weird thing is that, at one point, 8 of our 9 wins on the road were "comeback" wins, which flies in the face of that...overall, this team has been terribly inconsistent and looks like the offense isn't good enough to go on a prolonged winning streak, and the starting rotation will prevent a long losing streak. It was, what, our fourth or fifth chance to climb to 4 games over .500 this year? I hope that's not the high water mark for this season.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:26 PM) What exactly happened to Crede today? I find it hard to believe he couldn't have played. Pablo was a real suckfest out there. Hit in the face with a ball during pre-game...

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:25 PM) Did you see the lineup the Mets had out there yesterday? http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/wrap.jsp?...p&team=away Yeah, but Delgado and Wright had two of those hits, and those guys aren't chopped liver like our current bench...or maybe Swiss Cheese.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:22 PM) Well, s***, we're going to lose upwards of 70 games this year. This loss has no effect on anyone else on the AL, giving them a better record. These games are of the least consequence. I'd really like to see us sport a real LF though. Terrero and Sweeney aren't doing it for me. It'd be super if Brian could figure it out and become a member of our OF again. I still think Ryan needs another year in AAA. You want Anderson and Erstad to start in LF and CF? We will average 3.5 runs per game for the rest of the season with that line-up.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:20 PM) The thing with Ozzie is this... Fine MacDougal blows the f***ing game, you're down 1...ok. BUT HOW DO YOU SEND HIM BACK OUT IN THE 8TH? What if we need Aardsma tomorrow...when we're ahead? If you now consider Aardsma and Thornton the two primary set-up men for the games we're winning, then I suppose it makes some sense. What are the odds of our offense scoring a run against a guy who has converted 89% of his save opportunities, yesterday notwithstanding? The Mets have one of the best offenses in baseball, we are the worst, pretty much.

QUOTE(BearSox @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:14 PM) We are lucky the game was as close as it actually was. The Cubs left 18, count them, 18 runner on base. The Sox only left 8, but thats because they suck ass and not only cant drive runs in, but even get on base. No, you're reading the box score wrong, if you're adding them up for each batter...I'm sure it was quite a few less than that, especially the first 6 innings. Sucks Buehrle had to suffer for MacDougal's incompetence though. QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:15 PM) So bring him in next inning with the bases empty to build his fragile confidence. IMO, the conifdence issue is bulls***. If you are in the big leagues and don't think you belong, go home. Tell that to Garland when he was micromanaged by Manuel. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Ozzie has done wonders for the starting pitchers since he has been here.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:12 PM) Right, but we will ADDRESS his roster spot at some point this season, via waiver or via trade you can make damn sure of that the real problem here is that Kenny is in between, and it's what I was saying all offseason. This team is about good enough to win 84-87 games, which means we have to stand pat with major pieces all year because we are never more than 4-5-6 games out, but never much closer. He acquired just enough pieces to "contend" but not enough to compete with the two or three other juggernauts in this division. Still, we're in better shape than I thought we'd be right now given the circumstances. Which is why I've been arguing all along we need to blow it up and rebuild sooner rather than later....before it becomes a 3-5 year project, like the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite KW constantly mentioning it, we got old one year too fast...Dye, Iguchi, Pods and Thome. And then Konerko and Crede struggling as bad as anyone, nobody expected BOTH those guys to fall off a cliff simultaneously.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:10 PM) Manegerial talent was the problem to day - Why bring in McDoofus to throw batting practice to the Cubs when h has been awful almost all year. I would have rather seen CLiff Politte back. It is basically the same thing. The same reason Dempster was in after blowing a 4 run lead yesterday, or that Ozzie kept showing faith in Vazquez to try to get him over the 5th and 6th inning "hump." A player who knows the manager has no confidence in him is dead to the team (see Anderson, Brian).

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:09 PM) "nerve racking", in my humble opinion, is an 8-19 start to the 2001 season coming off of a division title, watching big frank go down with a possible career-ending triceps injury, and watching the biggest offseason acquisition David Wells go nuclear, then go injured all in six weeks this is the friggin' kiddie pool compared to that s***, people Try 14-29 too...they did make it back to .500 around July and hovered near there for much of the remainder of the season.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:06 PM) we still don't have Jim Thome or Scott Podsednik, and we just got back a backup catcher capable of hitting at the major league level a little patience beyond one game would be completely refreshing I doubt we will ever have the "real" Podsednik for the remainder of his Sox career...it's not unlike Cubs' fans hoping for the return of Prior and Wood.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:04 PM) Bingo! Look at our talent level....it's nothing special. And Ryan "The Natural" Sweeney is now down to .200. Well, at least he has SOME clue at the plate, watching Terrero up there with Hall at 2B was laughable. And Erstad's now 4 for 34 against LHP. Great AB against Lilly, although a good LF catches that ball that Darin hit.

QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ May 18, 2007 -> 04:01 PM) I really wish we hadn't blown so many games. We'd seriously be in first place. Good job! No team that gives up more runs that it scores has ever finished in first, probably not even in 2nd. We're simply not that good. Our offense is the worst in the AL, and our bullpen is tied for 2nd in blown saves. We're exactly where we belong with our strong starting pitching (20 something starts of 6+ innings) and good defense...it's cancelled out by our offense and bullpen.

QUOTE(striker62704 @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:56 PM) Ozzie will never learn that MacDougal sucks. You have Aardsma, with an ERA under 2 and more k's than innings pitched. OR You have MacDougal with an ERA over 5 and a WHIP of about 2. I'm so sick of Ozzie's stupidity. The choice is so obvious but he's so F32king stupid. His ignorance has cost us at least 5 games. Please don't wake up tomorrow Ozzie. We've scored quite a few less runs than we've given up. By Pythagorean, we should be 3-4 games under .500, not over .500.

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:54 PM) this kinda game is been in waiting for the sox. When you cant hit and you put your two worst bullpen guys in a two run game. this is what you get. Ummm....Masset and Sisco are worse, which leaves us with Jenks and Thornton again...what new?

QUOTE(fathom @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:52 PM) I wasn't watching the game, but why in the hell wasn't AJP brought in for defensive purposes after the top of the 7th? With a 2 run lead and Hall just batting the inning before, that would have been the smart baseball decision to make. Of course, with the idiot we have managing, that would be too much thinking. The problem is you can't play AJ in every single game. I think he eventually entered each of Molina's starts. He won't survive August at that pace. And it's going to be a huge problem, as Hall obviously can throw the ball about 75% as well as Victor Martinez with Freddy Garcia on the mound. Good thing we played the Angels already, they'd have 14 stolen bases against us.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:51 PM) Attacking Blanco could have changed the entire makeup of this game. Blame Hall or Buehrle for that? Yeah, but it's up to GOOD pitchers to pitch over that. We did it time and time again in 2005.

QUOTE(aboz56 @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:48 PM) This is totally inexcusable. You can put this loss on the defense and MacDougal. Take Crede and AJ out and you see the difference, and it's massive. There's another run thanks to Ozuna at 3B. Jesus. Everything about our organization sucks.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ May 18, 2007 -> 03:44 PM) OMG HES ALIVE THANKS f***ING DUMB f*** If MacDougal isn't effective for the rest of the season, then we're done, pretty much. Aardsma can do well enough, but we will lose too many games due to Sisco, Masset and MacDougal....just change the names from Politte, Cotts, Nelson, Tracey, Montero, etc.