almagest

I second AT&T Park. Had a fantastic time there last year. Was at the game where Zito walked the world, and Alexei hit a hr. Planning on Safeco this year.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 11:49 AM) I'm sure you're open to the possibility of a Mike MacDougal turnaround. He's got a 3.56 WHIP in his first 2 starts. He was horrid last season. Marquez blows.Except MacDougal has a history of sucking. Marquez has last year, and a whopping 5.1 IP this year. You're cherry picking again.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) He better learn how to hit righties if he's going to really be our everyday CFer.Hopefully we'll see if he can with regular playing time in the next few weeks.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 02:07 PM) i'll play devils advocate a little bit and say....middle relief looks horrible, Alexei looks really, really bad out there, and unlike my fellow sox faithful, im really worried about him. I personalyl don't think hes a very good hitter, and i honestly am not sure that he is the hitter he showed last year...i mean only 18 BBs in 400+ ABs...pitchers are really going to take advantage of him...CF looks like an even bigger hole than I expected (and I didnt expect much), and the defense looks terrible....also our base running has been as bad as ive seen.... also, as you pointed out earlier, ozzies philosophy of having someone fast leading off is really unsettling I've also been worried that Alexei's year last year was a bit of a fluke. The scouting reports on him were not encouraging at all when we signed him. That being said, I think his problems right now are correctable. He just needs to stop looking for the fastball all the time.

Carlos Gomez is actually a really good defensive centerfielder. Maybe he would have caught that ball, who knows. His problem is hitting.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 06:37 PM) anyone get MLB 2k9? i'm thinking about buying it, even though i should know better. It's next on my Gamefly queue. I heard it had lots of bugs at release, but hopefully they've been patched since. Also, I'm very much looking forward to this.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 07:19 PM) What makes you think BA is going to hit .250-.260 while playing everyday? I'm not hating on the guy, it's just what the stats tell me.Career minor league numbers of .293/.362/.474, which includes his awful 2007 season when he was hurt. Shot through our minor league system in 3 years. Highly ranked prospect during his time in the minors. Has shown offensive talent in spurts, during the second half of 2006, spring training, and in very limited MLB action since 2006. He's also never really been given a chance, outside of 2006 (and even then he didn't play a full season) to show if he can cut it as a full-time player. This should be his chance.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 02:53 PM) But, a key part of why we were able to get him in the first place is that his #'s in 2007 were down from his #'s in 2006 as well. So you actually had a 2 year downward trend, starting from 2007.Actually, he was pretty much the same production-wise in 2006 and 2007. More HR and higher SLG in 2006, more doubles, higher OBP and higher average in 2007. Last year is the aberrant year, so far, especially considering his fast start this season. I didn't really like the Swisher trade at the start, but warmed up to it based on the rave reviews I kept hearing about Marquez and Nunez. I'm slowly moving back towards not liking it, though. I'm guessing the trade was made mostly because Ozzie, KW, and/or some of the players didn't think he was a good fit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 11:57 AM) I know one thing for sure... with all of the power we have in the minors, I don't see a way Thome is here in 2010.Or Dye.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 07:56 AM) Swisher for Betemit is a terrible deal.How come?

QUOTE (tommy @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 02:13 PM) So i got a little surprise check in the mail today from a 401K plan I had when working for a bank right when out of high school. I'm in a market for a laptop as I never had one! I was wondering what you guys like as far as brands go? I remember someone here swore by Lenovo laptops, that's new name for IBM home products, correct? I'm trying to keep this purchase under $800. Probably going to go with Dual T6400 processor, those are standard.. Is Intel better then AMD? I want 4GB operating memory, decent size hard drive, trying to keep in around 15" for portability. Wirless b/g/n would be great, decent sounds, can't think of anything else? Do you guys have some suggestions? I know most of the members here are very computer savvy any tips or advice would be great. It really depends on what you're looking to do. Most of the time, I recommend getting the smallest laptop you're comfortable working with (12 or 13 inch screen should be fine), and monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers/docking station for home use. You don't need 4 GB RAM unless you do lots of video or photo editing, play lots of newer games (not recommended on a laptop anyway), or for some reason keep 70 copies of applications open constantly. 2 GB should be fine, and believe it or not less RAM can help a bit with battery life. Ditto on processor speed. I have a Linux EeePC with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom which runs everything I throw at it. If you can find a great deal on a machine with a faster processor, go for it, otherwise get something more reasonable and use the extra money for a nice bag, and/or the accessories I mentioned above. Intel offers better performance than AMD, but AMD is generally more reasonable. You almost certainly won't notice a difference, so go with whatever is the better deal. Lenovos are workhorses, but really ugly. I like ASUS, HP, Toshiba, and Dells are okay. Check Newegg for some pretty good deals. I buy all my hardware there, and really can't recommend them enough.

I knew this topic would eventually draw out fellow nerds. D&D is like the lightbulb and we're the moths.

Yeah, this'll most likely get tossed out of court pretty quickly.

I swear I remember reading something about Quentin's wrist still bothering him occasionally, in extended BP or after a game or something. I'd imagine this cold weather isn't helping it much. If this is the case, I'd bet it's a reason why his bat seems slower.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 04:40 PM) Just jumping in here, but I kind of have a feeling that a team wins or loses on what the players do or don't do. The manager can do some things for sure, but Ozzie is loved by his players and does a pretty good job although he certainly listens to is grumbling gut too much at times. We lost a2-1 game and a game yesterday 2-0. Players need to produce some offense. I am sure it will happen. When Ozzie hits, fields and runs for the layers on the field I will blame him for loses. Not now though.Yeah, scoring 1 run in 2 games isn't Ozzie's fault. What is his fault is not putting our offense in a position to succeed as much as he can. Wise hitting leadoff, AJ hitting second, Fields (our best hitter right now) hitting ninth doesn't help us at all.

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/sad...s-accurate.html Gary Gygax gets a lot of credit for inventing Dungeons and Dragons, and rightfully so, but Arneson was the first one to ask, "what happens when we're NOT fighting things?"

I think Beckham might end up being a pretty decent leadoff hitter. Hits for average and gets on base, has some power, and has a little speed. I wonder if we didn't try too hard to acquire someone like Coco Crisp because of this?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 04:18 PM) In that case, if you count the playoffs, the Sox had 5 separate 8 game winning streaks in 2005.That's good. Let's do that again.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 04:01 PM) Does that count the playoffs as well?Nope: QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 04:02 PM) Seriously, watching games like this is frustrating. I tend to think that many here live and die too much on every single pitch and game, but that's just my opinion. It's all good, if we win. I'm not particularly frustrated with today's game, at least not any more than I would be on any other day when we waste a good pitching performance. I just don't think Ozzie is particularly good at utilising the offensive talent we have. I think he's good at managing the pitching staff and the bullpen, though.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:53 PM) Holy s***. He gave you evidence (win streaks, etc.)... just stop it.After looking it up, the Sox had 3 8 game winning streaks in 2005, and only 1 7 game losing steak. Looks like I had a selective memory.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) I'll just note; your evidence that Ozzie sucks is that in 05, when we got on a bad streak, we played just over .500 ball for a month and a half.What's your evidence? You made the claim, but apparently can't support it. Your opinion is no more or less valid than mine.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:40 PM) The Sox had at least 3 separate 8 game winning streaks in 05, maybe 4...and notably, 2 of them happened right at the end of the season, where our guys were simply more able to push for a few more games than the other teams were.Evidence? What about right after the all-star break when the Sox played ~.500 ball? Were they too tired then? Also, Cleveland wasn't "too tired", they couldn't continue winning more than 75% of their games.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:37 PM) Enough already...Ozzie has one thing that you don't have...a World Series ring. (waiting for the inevitable, "Players won that championship in spite of Ozzie" comment) No, really. What did Ozzie do to win that series? Did he pitch throughout the playoffs? No, he put out Sunday lineups that virtually guaranteed we couldn't get on a sustained winning streak because we could never take more than 2/3 in a series. I like Ozzie, but he makes some terrible, undefendable decisions, especially considering he's been managing for 4+ years now.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) Actually no. Meche and Greinke are good pitchers. I can accept them dominating our lineup, because they have plus stuff. If Davies has automatically changed into a similar type pitcher then facing the royals is going to suck. I will wait to see what Davies does against other teams before I annoint him super pitcher. A 7 inning 3 hit shutout with 8ks is a pretty dominating pitching performance.Davies is a pretty solid pitcher who has a chance to be a good #2 or #3. A good performance + 2 or 3 guys really struggling = today.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Apr 9, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) Find a better game he has pitched. He had a 8 inning 4 hitter with 8ks last year against Seattle with no runs. Thats the only one thats in this class in his career.So Davies, a young pitcher with a solid upside, can't improve over last year? He isn't allowed to have a good start and hit his spots, changing speeds well?