kitekrazy

QUOTE (Cali @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 04:47 PM) The Tigers are not a good team by any stretch of the imagination. Just look at their defense, inconsistent pitching and overall record compared to everyone else. What they are is a team that turned it on with 2 weeks to go and have combined that with some extreme luck. Starting the playoffs at home because of MLB's dumb scheduling. You saw what kind of team Detroit is on the road, if they started at home against the A's it could have been a completely different series. That luck might continue if Baltimore can pull off a game 5 win. Detroit would have home field advantage even with an inferior record to the O's which should get them to the series where hopefully the NL team (with homefield advantage thanks to Justin Verlander ironically) can destroy them. They are the type of team that are more dangerous in a post season than a 162 game season. It's not a shocker anymore when the teams with the best records are early exits.

QUOTE (Cali @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 07:56 PM) Speaking as an insane person who has no idea what he's talking about, referring to Google Maps, I see there is a church and elementary school right next door. Cant they buy those and knock en down to build more attractions? Nobody needs school or church right? Google Maps will do that for you. The area has improved so much since the old park.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 02:04 PM) Lower parking and drop the premium pricing game crap for series that are FAR from premium. I'd give that a start. $10 max.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 10, 2012 -> 06:05 PM) For some reason I'm really disinterested this year, as last year I was all into it. Me too. I think it's because the NL races weren't decided so early. I would not be surprised if the Tigers make it to the WS.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 8, 2012 -> 07:29 PM) Sound familiar? This was the same explanation given for the 2006 team collapsing the last 2 months of the season, as well as this year's White Sox team. ARLINGTON -- The Rangers had a five-game lead with nine to play. Ten games later, their season was over. The Rangers have never had a season come to a sudden and stunning end like what happened in 2012. They still won 93 games, but what happened in the final two weeks won't easily be forgotten. "We just got cold," outfielder Josh Hamilton said. "We played our hearts out and we got cold." "It's baseball," closer Joe Nathan said. "It just seemed like down the stretch there, our timing and everything was off. We weren't swinging the bats well. We didn't pitch well. For most of the season, we played pretty good baseball and stayed consistent. But we picked the worst time to get into a funk and the last two weeks didn't go our way for sure." The simple explanation is the Rangers wore down physically after playing deep into October in each of the past two years. The Rangers got off to a fast start, but then cracks started showing. The pitching staff was hit hard by injuries. The offense went into a slump in June and July... I don't buy excuses like that. Have MLB become so pussified since the 70's? How did those dynasties do it? I do believe baseball can be more about streaks. Getting hot or cold can be crucial timing.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Oct 8, 2012 -> 04:59 PM) I wonder how Flowers' defense will fare after he gets banged up catching everyday the way AJ does. Also wonder how much his offensive production would drop playing everyday. I'd keep AJ and let Flowers have more playing time backing him up. He could part time DH. I still think Dunn is one of the first guys you try to move.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 9, 2012 -> 04:55 PM) Sox fans are eager to shove a guy who was on of the best dozen pitchers in all of baseball in 2012 out the door. No wonder our attendance sucks. We have fans who expect the team to have five pitchers better than Peavy without paying any of them so much that tickets cost more than $20/game. Best dozen in all of baseball? I'm sure someone could come up with 12 better than Peavy. The problem was there was more hype to Peavy than his performances. I don't think fans would push him out the door if he signs for $12-13M.

QUOTE (Baines3 @ Oct 6, 2012 -> 05:13 PM) The collapse this season was a bad one, don't know about the worst in franchise history. I think many will change their mind on this. This was not in any way a World Series team.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 7, 2012 -> 07:22 PM) It's OK that they are bringing everybody back, but tell the truth: Manto did no better than Walker and Robin did no better than Ozzie. Just new faces. And Coop is OK, he is no guru. If he was a guru, then Thornton and Myers would not have given up so many big hits. And our starters would not have fallen apart late. Alex Rios is going to disagree with you. I would like to see Coop replaced someday since I think he has become stagnant.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Oct 7, 2012 -> 02:29 AM) Only good things I saw were "sign Shields" "sign Putz" and "sign Marcum" Keep me far, far away from the rest of that. Same here. This borders almost in the area of platooning Juan Pierre with Viciedo.

More teams are stockpiling young catching or converting position players to catchers. I know one organization that doesn't. I would think among very young kids wanting to play in the majors, this is the least desired position.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Oct 7, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) It just hurts even more, knowing that this Detroit team wasn't any better than us and here they are one win from the ALCS. What a complete choke job by us to give Detroit this opportunity. Sorry but that team is much better than the Sox. It might be a good thing the Sox are not in it because of arm fatigue. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tigers went to the WS.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 6, 2012 -> 12:19 AM) When the rosters expanded he just had a bunch of terrible players. It's all good. They just weren't the failures with higher salaries.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 10:35 PM) If they lose in the WC game, sure. But look at 2006, the Twins chased down the Tigers and the Tigers "collapsed" down the stretch, except the Tigers were the ones in the end close to winning the World Series if not for all those errors. Do you think any Tigers' fan looking back on 2006 cares they didn't win the AL Central? Or that Twins fans, having watched their team decimate baseball for 2 1/2 months, feels satisfied how that season ended in the playoffs for them? If the Rangers advance and finally win the World Series, none of their fans will care at all. In fact, it will add to the legend, like the Red Sox coming from way back against the Yankees. It would make a World Series win all the sweeter...just like how in 2005, we very nearly didn't make it, then ended up winning it all. None of us will forget that feeling of dread and forboding in September...which made the elation of winning it all that much more poignant and memorable, to go through the highs and lows of that entire season. There ya go. Worst collapse belongs to the Rangers.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 5, 2012 -> 05:27 AM) By that theory, Kotsay and Jones should have worked over Thome, but it didn't. All depends on the quality of the players in the platoon. Assuming Wise and/or Johnson would have excelled with 350 or so at-bats, and that Viciedo would still have crushed LH'ers with just limited plate appearances, that's a guessing game at best. They belong into my "beyond bad" category.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Oct 5, 2012 -> 08:34 AM) Depends on the player in return. You can never have too much cheap, good starting pitching. I wouldn't sacrifice it unless you get a MLB starting or ready player who will really help the offense. Pitching should still be the primary focus. It's more cost effective to have a good staff and defense. How many times does the organization need to learn that lesson?

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 11:05 PM) Ya know what, I'm gonna go full blown heel right here and say I agree. Ever since I heard an A's announcer mention "all the platoons worked out" or something along those lines it had me thinking about how our team didnt do that. A Wise/Tank split should have happened, and a T Flo/Johnson DH while PK was hurt platoon would have won us a couple games maybe. This might be the reason why they can't get the job done after ASB. The bench is always beyond bad.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 10:42 PM) I'm in the middle about Harrelson leaving or staying. Personally, I like him. For the future of the organization (and for expanding the fanbase again), a new voice has to be groomed, though. Rotating broadcasters in and out of the booth is complicated, it hurts the chemistry between PBP and color guy, you don't develop a rhythm as much and it's a bit confusing to viewers at home. When you turn on a Dodgers' game, you know Scully, Cardinals with Jack Buck, Tigers with Harwell, etc. There's something to be said for that. Hawk is that voice, for now. But he's getting more and more polarizing, just like Harry Caray at the end of his broadcasting career, or Ron Santo. Kind of meshes with the organization. I've lost my taste for a cheerleader in the booth.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 11:12 PM) I think he really liked DJ and wanted to continue to work with. I don't know about what happened with Wimpy, but you can tell they love each other nowadays. Stone just happens to be as big of an asshole as Hawk, but he doesn't love the White Sox like Hawk does. Easy to pick who stays. I think it was something not related to baseball.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 01:30 PM) Didn't really need to do that. It would be better if they got some talent in there instead. They had to change their philosophy after going to an outdoor stadium. Beating the ball into the ground and trying to beat it out doesn't work so well outdoors.

QUOTE (Cali @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 04:34 PM) I'm gonna say Orioles, Cardinals win Friday. Something about that Braves team screams one and done to me. I don't know why. I swear they got the least amount of pub of any of the 10 playoff teams. Maybe they're just sneaky good and will dominate into October, but their history outside of '95 tells me they wont do anything... Texas just looks worn out and distracted. Maybe so many consecutive seasons going deep into October? We'll never know as Sox fans. The Rangers might be the new Braves-post season chokers.

Worst collapse this season belongs to the Rangers.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 05:50 AM) Oakland led MLB in team strikeouts and they won 94 games. The Sox had 184 fewer strikeouts than Oakland and won 85 games. Oakland had a K/BB ratio of 2.52, the Sox had a K/BB ratio of 2.61. Maybe sometime this decade people will realize that K/BB ratio matters more than strikeout totals. Sox K/BB ratios: Konerko 1.48 Youk 1.86 Dunn 2.11 Beckham 2.23 De Aza 2.32 AJ 2.79 Rios 3.54 Viciedo 4.29 Ramirez 4.81 It's when the Ks happen that matters.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 08:50 AM) Who are big market teams in the AL that need a DH? Baltimore? Boston? The White Sox.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Oct 4, 2012 -> 04:43 PM) How do we know he was playing hurt? He said it wasn't a problem since June. He's had this bone fragment in his wrist for a few years and it only bothered him when it got lodged in the joint restricting movement. When they flushed it to a different spot he was OK. He was planning on having this surgery since June to prevent the fragment from moving back into the joint in the future. If being hurt was the reason for his poor numbers the last part of the season it may have had more to do with his back or his concussion than his wrist. But it's also a possibility that he just had a bad streak. he's been known to have them before throughout his career. He's not getting any younger either. People would prefer to make excuses and ignore such logic as this.