macsandz

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 11, 2010 -> 04:30 PM) Amazing how the same play went our way in the top of the 9th, but then again the bottom of the 9th. We almost lost that one to Jim Thome though I thought the Twins never beat themselves...?!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 11, 2010 -> 03:33 PM) Why? He had two pretty easy outs, Hardy broke his bat and blooped a single, looked pretty good to me. Clearly bad pitch selection by AJ to Thome, but Jenks's stuff is all there. Because there is a rule in April/May of every season Sox fans have to complain and worry about Bobby Jenks. It's tradition.

QUOTE (Soxophone @ Apr 11, 2010 -> 10:09 PM) I say Jones in left, rios in center, quentin in right. I like how rios glides to the ball in center. it looks effortless. i havent seen that in years and i dont want to lose it. He glided right into the wall when Kubel's HR landed an arm's reach above him yesterday...

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 11:08 PM) I know it's a long offseason, and it sucks that the team is not winning. However, the massive overreaction going on right now is hilarious. You're making way too much sense for the masses.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 10:25 AM) Last night, a lot of people complained about how Ozzie had Beckham bunt twice in yesterday's game. While I am an advocate for using the bunt, I also agree that it's kind of wasting Beckham's bat, so I was thinking of other ways Ozzie can alter the lineup to take advantage of Beckham's bat. First, I really don't think Beckham should be batting #2 if Ozzie is gonna be calling for a bunt a lot. I think the #2 hitter should be someone else so that Beckham can be moved to a different spot in the lineup to take full advantage of his bat. What if we put Teahen in the #2 role, and move Beckham to #5? I know it messes up Ozzie's l,r,l,r thing, but it'd prolly look like this: 1. Pierre l 2. Teahen l 3. Quentin r 4. Konerko r 5. Beckham r 6. Kotsay/Jones l/r 7. Rios r 8. Pierzynski l 9. Ramirez r Basically, instead of leading off with a lefty then a righty, the Sox should lead off with 2 lefties so that we can move Beckham to #5 and move Kotsay/Jones one spot down to #6. The Sox already has two lefties in a row with Pierzynski and Teahen in the 7 and 8 spots right now, so I don't see any reason why we can't have two lefties bat in a row in the #1 and 2 spots instead. I guess my point is, if Ozzie wants to have the #2 guy bunt the #1 guy over, it doesn't really have to be someone that's a good batter, just someone that knows how to lay down a bunt to move the batter over, someone like Teahen would fit the bill if he knows how to bunt. I also think it should be Teahen since Pierzynski would be too slow and I don't remember ever seeing him bunt, and it would also waste Rios' and Alexei's bats in the lineup if they were batting #2 and always bunting. So it should be Teahen since we're not expecting much from him anyway, and he would prolly see better pitches in the #2 hole if he has Quentin batting behind him. The lineup is fine. Bunting is fine. Bunting with Beckham is fine....BUT...bunting Pierre to 2nd is idiotic. Bunting him to third with no outs for the heart of the order to drive him in is the way to do it.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 5, 2010 -> 11:45 PM) That's what Rios does. He's an extremely gifted outfielder. I wasn't surprised at all when he made that catch. Anybody still think Andruw Jones is our best defensive OF? I think Andruw Jones is a better CF.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:18 PM) Not to pile on, but my gosh, do you know what you are talking about? Jones was a DH for the Rangers and not just because he was a fat pig. I mean he may have trimmed down some, but ... I can't wait for the real season to begin when we can see what our new guys are really capable of and not just be talking about acquisitions who always look better in the offseason on paper. I'm hoping they all do well (my cop out line that Rongey effectively called us out on) but my god ... Jones cannot play the outfield better than Rios. Jones can play CF better than Rios. Read on...

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 10:03 PM) Oh I'm by no means claiming BA could sniff Jones in his prime. But to say we haven't seen a CF like the current rendition of Jones in decades....I'm not sure about that. BA had good instincts, he's just known for one diving catch. Whereas it's too soon to make a judgment on Jones' play, I have seen a couple balls drop at his feet that he may have been able to get. I'm not an outfielder, I don't know, I'm just going on my extremely limited scouting abilities. Case and point: Anderson: Game 163. If BA is in the game earlier, I'm not sure he throws out Cuddyer at home the way a declining Griffey did. Griffey knew where to be, took his time to set up correctly and made the throw under control. Anderson, would have made the catch, but he also would have gotten crazy excited to show off his arm and probably would have air-mailed AJ. That ties the game. Everything changes... Again, my point is in his prime or now, Jones still has more positive impact effect on plays in CF based on his experience and ability than another player on the Sox roster. You can take a kid like Jared Mitchell who (without injury) has more athletic skill than Jones does, but I would still play Andruw in CF more often. There is so much more that goes into playing CF than the speed/arm component. That's what makes the position so unique.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:55 PM) And you're basing that on what? There's no way in hell you've seen enough of him over the past month to state that as fact. So call it an opinion. Relax.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:54 PM) Bucket, have you actually watched Jones play center during ST? He looked like Podsednik out there on a deep fly ball that ended up being a ground rule double. His arm also has been horrific. I think it's a huge mistake to try and make him an outfielder, and it kills Rios' value. That CF wall is 417 feet plus dead center. That ball is an unplayable HR in any other ballpark and CF in AZ makes the best look terrible. Always has.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:42 PM) Aside from that first half of '06 he paled in comparison to Jones. It's silly to proclaim him the best defensive CF on the team when the last time we got even a decent sample of him in CF he was just average and now he's 33 but it's certainly not plausible given his incredible abilities. It's just going to take a little time before it can be said definitively. He's still 32...for a few more days. I'm not saying Jones is the CF he used to be. I'm saying he's better than any other Sox CF.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:44 PM) Brian Anderson definitely got outstanding jumps, he was never one for the makeup-diving catch. He made a ton of plays look easy that your average CF would be diving for. Watch the black-out game final play. I was there. He broke like 3 steps into LF before he scrambled into that diving catch. Glad he made it, though. That game was as loud as the 2005 WS.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:35 PM) I dunno, I thought BA was a pretty damn good defensive CF... Bad reads=bad jumps=diving catches. That doesn't make you a good CF.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:25 PM) What are you basing this on? Anyway, Ozzie said that Jones will play against LHP, and if he does, Ozzie would rather see him in the outfield. http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=cws Aside from the fact that Jones is considered by many to be the best CF in modern history, he's playing an excellent CF this spring. A HUGE reason he's always been so good is his unreal reads he gets out there. He never had blinding speed or made crazy Rowand wall crashes. The best outfielders are the most boring to watch. They make all the plays. Jones may have lost a step, but he still takes the best routes of any OFs on the team and that isn't just making the catch, it's setting up to deny the runner(s) an advance. He is still just about perfect out there at that. Rios on the other hand has better raw tools, but he doesn't have the instincts that Jones has. Rios should stay in RF where he projects at an elite level because his arm proves more important than his closing speed.

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 09:30 PM) One Dog? Nope. He was fast. He had make-up speed but he never had great route instincts.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 07:05 PM) Am I the only one who hasn't seen a reason to laud Jones' defense in CF this spring? I don't think he's hurting us necessarily, but I have yet to see him dive, slide, or anything else remotely challenging. EDIT: Is that the type of thing you don't do in the spring or something, for fear of injuring yourself? You'd think he'd show it at least once if he's trying to win a job in the field... He's the best CF on the team. He hasn't had to dive, he gets to almost everything that's catchable in time. Seriously, Sox fans haven't seen a real CF that takes perfect routes like Jones in forever.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 06:50 PM) You're taking it to some incredible extremes. Off the top of my head I know Jason Giambi would tell anyone who would listen that he absolutely hated DH'ing, it would take him out of the flow of the game and give him far too much time to think about his ABs, he'd go up there and over think everything, playing the field would serve as a bit of a distraction for him. This is a fairly common complaint from hitters and is one of the reasons why you'd see some very good hitters stick in the field for far too long because they'd be fighting the move in the clubhouse. Vlad Guerrero's another one, he fought it for a while in Anaheim of course he was eventually forced into the move since he just couldn't physically play the field semi-regularly anymore. It's not exactly hard to figure out what I'm trying to say but since you're invoking suicide I suppose you're having trouble. So I'm about done with that. Yeah, playing the field couldn't have helped his heal but he did aggravate it rounding first in Anaheim, that won't change as a full time DH. Same goes for the Hammy he strained running the bases, the wrist he broke punching a bat or the left shoulder he tore up swinging a bat. Like I said: if he's really as fragile as people believe then moving him to DH isn't going to keep him from spending time on the DL, he's already proven that he's quite proficient at hurting himself away from the outfield. Pierre had 3 hits and 2 steals tonight.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Apr 2, 2010 -> 03:35 PM) I would hope Alex is in center for all 162 and if Jones or Kotsay HAVE to play the field, they're in RF. Alex's defense in CF is better than anyone else's on the team, even Andruw. Rios is not a better CF than Andruw Jones. No way. Rios is a very good OF but Jones is still excellent out there.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 31, 2010 -> 09:59 PM) So he had a 1.17 spring ERA on March 17th. Couple of rough outings and it's time to panic? Well I guess we have to pass the time somehow until opening day. Pretty stupid article. Nobody is asking Freddy to relive 2004. He's going to have games where he simply doesn't have it. HE'S OUR 5TH STARTER! Take a look around baseball at other teams' projected 5th starter. All we need is league average, even slightly worse would be acceptable, from Freddy. Whatever. If Freddy can give us 5 good innings most of the time, sport an ERA of around 4.30 and win maybe 8-10 games he'll be better than most 5th starters. If he sucks, Dan Hudson would be an excellent 5th starter. In fact, I'm hoping he's the guy sooner rather than later.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Mar 28, 2010 -> 04:08 PM) Man I hope Nix doesn't have to play much SS and 3B this year. Nix just saved a couple runs with a sparkling play at 3rd.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 19, 2010 -> 07:57 PM) Brian Anderson hit for the cycle today. This is not a joke. Nothing could be more irrelevant.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Mar 19, 2010 -> 06:42 PM) http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...on-resigns.html Something about this rings hollow. If there was all this hostility between KW and Ozzie I don't think there is any way in the world JR would give the go-ahead for MLB to do a show about the Sox front office. Could this drama be staged for the TV cameras? Who gives a f%^&?! Just WIN GAMES.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 18, 2010 -> 12:28 PM) This is kind of what I was hoping to see. I can look up to see what he is hitting, but I want to know how he is hitting it. Is he cheating on fastball from crappy AA pitchers, or he is doing something legitimately worth getting excited about. Is he hitting good off-speed stuff, and decent pitchers? All of the above. He's working counts and hitting the crap out of the ball when he does make contact. He's got a nice approach and a lot of confidence now. He's sending fastballs away into the gaps and the 3-run HR yesterday was a hanging slider I believe. Hard to tell as the picture was standard def garbage. It was against Ramon Troncoso who has nasty stuff for LA. Jones is having a great camp. He's doing everything he said he'd do when he signed the contract. Ozzie challenged him and he's responding. Something to keep an eye on. I'm impressed.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 10:28 PM) Well then Konerko and company are insane. The guy was considered the best CF in baseball for over a decade, is only 32, has lost 25 lbs and clearly has regained a step or two so I'm gonna go with the team of professional evaluators on this one...

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Mar 17, 2010 -> 10:13 PM) I saw him hit the ball to the right center gap the other day, the last few years he has been extremely pull happy, so that and a couple other of bats I saw at least show he's changed his approach He's also got 3 steals so far in ST, including stealing 3rd today. Andruw looks awesome. Even the LA commentators (Lyons- who HATES Jones) says he looks like the Andruw of old and nothing like he has the past couple years. Konerko told Lyons before the game Jones is considered by the Sox the best CF on the team right now.