lostfan

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jul 12, 2008 -> 08:05 PM) Konerko is 2/2 so far with 1 RBI. I have a good feeling this thread will die soon. 3-3 + a walk so far, and a couple of heads-up defensive plays. Regardless of what else he does this was a good game.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 06:54 PM) You each pick an MLB team and play as them for all 6 innings. When you were up, you had to bat the same handedness as the player at bat. So if you're a righty and a lefty is up...yup, you gotta learn how to hit left handed. I batted right-handed in little league and high school, but when I was a kid I tried to learn to bat left-handed to mimic Ken Griffey Jr.'s batting stance/mechanics/swing. It's a lot harder than it looks, but he makes it look so easy.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:29 PM) Am I the only Bears fan who would take a shot on Favre? Simply to piss off every Packer fan? And also to hope he still has something in the tank? No, I think just about any Bears fan with half a brain would love it even if it's the most unlikely scenario in the history of ever, and just for one year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:13 PM) I don't know about that. I like what Wise has done. I like Anderson. Not a big Swish fan yet. Let Paulie play and if he finishes the year like this, I guess dump him for peanuts in the offseason. If he gets hot, we'll be that much better off. I may sound like hater but I still think Wise is playing WAY over his head, and he isn't this good.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:00 PM) OK, how about Cabrera in April? How about Swisher every month except June? Konerko has not been healthy all year. He supposedly is right now. It will take a little bit to get into the swing of things. The team is in first place. This thread is sad. Now, see, I agree with all that is said in this post. There are too many stupid things being said in this thread, though.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:57 PM) What's his OBP? What's his average? How many games are we into the season? I guess its blasting time. ok You know full well he had a great June. He's sucked for like a week right now. You're ignoring that, but I don't know why. Cognitive dissonance. Do what you want, though. I'm not "defending" Swisher, and I don't really care if somebody doesn't like him. I'm personally content with him on the team. In fact, I don't even know what we're talking about anymore?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:31 PM) Is he expected to play a good center field and hit above .250? He's about an average CF, but that's not his strongest position. He's expected to hit AT ABOUT .250 with a decent slugging % and have a OBP above .350, when he doesn't do those things for an extended period of time, then you can blast him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:50 PM) Konerko has played hurt almost the entire season. Look at Ramirez's stats in April. Maybe they should have sent him down or cut him. Why not see where Konerko is at when healthy before judging what he's capable of doing? Ok no offense but that analogy is completely ridiculous. You can't compare a guy seeing his first MLB at-bats to someone who's been in MLB almost 10 years and who has an established track record.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:37 PM) But walks for Paulie supposedly mean nothing, but they are great for Swisher. I don't understand. Earlier a post said Swisher can steal you a base. I guess that's accurated because he does have a steal this year. Plus, everyone wants him at first base. Teams that don't expect their firstbaseman to drive in runs usually have trouble scoring runs, but I guess that would go back to Greg Walker. Outside of a couple of grand slams, Swisher really hasn't been a guy you want batting with runners on base this year. He seems to whiff a lot. Paulie is underperforming. By a lot. By far more than Swisher. True or false?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 02:00 PM) I want to understand why Swisher gets a free pass from so many and Paulie the wrath? Swisher looked like an ant in center field last night. He's not a great defender and he's made as many frustrating outs as Paulie and also is on the wrong side of even .250. Oh but he walks a lot. So Paulie has sucked big time. We're still in first place and he is not finished yet. Andruw Jones??? My god. Just say no to that idea. Keep Paulie and tell him to get his head out of his ass and start hitting like Paulie. Swisher has never hit for a high average, not even in the minors except for a couple of bursts. He is a different type of hitter, his offensive production will be different, so his expectations are different. Swisher isn't expected to drive in runs.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:52 AM) If Konerko sucks and is done as a ton of posts in this thread indicate, why would any team trade for him and assume the $30 million or so left on his contract? It won't happen. It's all a moot point. I don't even know why we're talking about it. We couldn't even take a salary dump unless we were willing to take on another underperforming contract like that in exchange, probably not even then. I do think criticizing his performance so far is legit, though.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 03:59 AM) The Sox are one of the best fastball hitting teams in the entire majors. If you throw 93+, you, at the very least, probably won't shut the Sox down. It's a tale of two offenses. If I could throw upper 90s right-handed I would get owned.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:27 AM) Ok, but he's NOT Juan Uribe. Uribe hits in the low 200s and has a mid 200s OBP, which is a significantly worse clip. That's a much worse player in my opinion. Paul's a very streaky player on the very low end of what we can expect production wise from him over a half of a season. Also, consider that he's a career .291 hitter in July, .297 in August and .305 in September. Granted, he's never dealt with injuries like this before, but typically as the weather heats up so does Paul. Like I said, I'd give him until July 25th to straighten it out and then bench him then. I think you're confusing what I'm trying to say here. Quite simply, I'm saying Paul Konerko sucks right now, and has for most of the season. Nothing more.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 12:19 PM) I realize that, but I don't think anyone in this thread has pointed out before that PK's OBP is really not that far away from a lot of other players on this team, which still gives him value in this lineup. Do we want him walking every at bat? Obviously not, but if he's getting on base at the same clip as a lot of our other players, I don't see how he's a total liability. If your OBP is in the low 300s and you're expected to produce RBI (which is a meaningless stat in and of itself, because even if you're slugging you need runners to bat in), you can't do that if your OBP is walk-driven as opposed to average-driven. If it was in the high 300s, approaching .400, I'd consider that acceptable because while you might not be hitting, you're keeping rallies going. Paulie isn't doing that right now. He's basically Juan Uribe right now, and while I don't condone the overreactions, I can totally understand the frustration.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:12 AM) Btw - Konerko's OBP - .319 A. Ramirez's OBP - .326 think about it. There's nearly 100 points difference in batting average, and Ramirez is a much better defender at a more important position. Alexei is also not a 3-4-5 hitter, either.

When we played baseball the kids called the catcher "backcatcher." Never understood why.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 11:37 AM) We always yelled "Warning". I think the rest was just added on by the kids in my neighborhood. I don't remember what "no false in" meant, but "no no takes" meant you had to return the ball and couldn't demand a do-over for a better throw.

By the way, I completely forgot we called home base "gool" or "glue." I remember that now.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 10:42 AM) I think the expression was supposed to be "All-eee All-eee All in free" ... but it got corrupted to Ocean free and Oxen free where I grew up because kids just said things like that when they weren't sure what to say. Did you guys ever play football in the street or a yard, and when you kick off (or throw off) you yell "warning, no false in, no no takes!" or something like that? Or was it just my neighborhood?

The Olympics used to be all about the glory and privilege of competing on the world stage... and losing to the United States in everything. What happened to that? Can we go back?

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jul 11, 2008 -> 09:19 AM) I have more confidence sadly at the plate with Anderson than Konerko right now. I'm not advocating dumping Konerko, or this thread even, but I would have to say that for most of the season Anderson's offensive production has been the same or better than Paulie's, even after Anderson's average dropped. Which is kind of messed up.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 08:34 PM) I'm all for solor and wind power, but I don't think it is ready to take over as a major producer of energy. We need to put money into research as we build some new nuclear. I don't think nuclear power needs to be the total long term solution. I'm afraid nuclear would become a crutch if we used it as a short-term solution, but I don't see any other way. It's the best option right now, but it's far from perfect. What trips me out is that on all 3 of the energy options (more drilling, solar/wind expansion, nuclear) there is no consensus on any of them, and they all have somebody blocking them. Come on, what gives? We're just going to run in place indefinitely? I applaud aggressive funding of alternative energy but we need to quit using this as a political football and start getting serious. And soon.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 06:49 PM) Sorry, but I have to: Panderer-in-Chief: McCain Tells a New Version of Heroic P.O.W. Story I could make a "senior moment" joke, but I wont. Eh it was like 40 years ago. The story didn't really gain or lose anything there. It's not like he said he was dodging sniper fire while evading questions.

Man when Dye's rhythm slips, he looks AWFUL. He seems to strike out on 3 pitches more than anyone else. But it doesn't really matter, because when he's on, he's murdering the ball.

IMO, the "nation of whiners" comment was pretty elitist (god I hate that word). It's easy to trivialize and mock other people when you're not one of them and you don't identify with their problems.