kitekrazy

If Mauer were to charge the mound even though the perception was the pitcher didn't intentionally didn't, would Selig have the balls to suspend him?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 04:40 PM) You have no idea how well I would perform as the Sox DH, doesn't mean I should or should not be the DH. Thome, even at his age, is incredibly more talented than Kotsay, and along with being the same price tag and a great clubhouse guy there is absolutely no denying that it was the wrong choice, and this board has been saying that ever since we let Thome go. Kotsay was never meant to replace Thome.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 04:34 PM) None of which have happened to the Twins despite their guy throwing at Quentin last series. Hard to prove that. Brawls on the other hand.....players fighting with a fellow teammates.....

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:58 PM) Will? I don't know. Could? Definitely. Sox DHs: 109 games, 409 ABs, .235/.305/.399, 15 HRs, 49 RBI Jim Thome: 80 games, 204 ABs, .265/.387/.578, 16 HRs, 41 RBI Ugh...more urine. You have no way of knowing he would perform equally as well for the Sox. That's like the same dopes who thought Cutler would bring the Bears a Super Bowl.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:56 PM) Exactly my point. You said that being macho never does anything and cited the Zambrano meltdown. I immediately cited another situation where the exact opposite happened. Therefore, by your own logic, the Zambrano meltdown has zero information on whether or not "that macho BS" actually does anything. Fines Suspensions Player's decline of market value End of discussion.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:37 PM) Armando Galarraga got into it with his catcher in the dugout on Sunday and then the Tigers stood up and creamed the White Sox. By your standard 1 example is sufficient to prove a universal truth, therefore, I think all 3 of our pitchers ought to challenge AJ to a dugout fight after the first inning. What? Galarraga had nothing to do with the bullpen implosion. The hitters should have beat the crap out of Putz.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:48 PM) Impressive. That's one of the worst justifications I've ever heard on this board. Thankyou!

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:24 PM) Read the sidebar: Sox DHs: 109 games, 409 ABs, .235/.305/.399, 15 HRs, 49 RBI Jim Thome: 80 games, 204 ABs, .265/.387/.578, 16 HRs, 41 RBI Any discussion on whether not resigning Thome was the right move or not should end with those numbers. It was a disastrous decision on our part that may very well cost us a division title and play-off appearance. That's why stats are often like urine. Sometimes you just cannot look at a player in a vacuum. It's the lineup you have to analyze. We'll really never know. Best quote out of that article from a reader no doubt. If you think not having Thome will cost this team the division, you need to find another sport.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:29 PM) And I do expect a fight this series, which may turn out the way it did when Robin Ventura charged Nolan Ryan. Bad timing for a fight/beanball war. But I sense it is coming tonight in game one, to try to set the cliche-like "tone" to the series. That macho bulls*** never does anything. Ask Carlos Z.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:21 PM) Lifelong? Wow. If they came in last place the next 4 years you'd be perfectly fine with that? That's when you start wanting a new GM. With both Kenny and Ozzie that is very unlikely to happen but if it did, I bet they would both quit.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:59 PM) Their $97.7 million payroll and $180 mill extension to Mauer this year suggest anything other than a limited budget. A new ballpark and their attendance figures should help. You can't let a player like Mauer. Trading Santana wasn't so bad since he wanted out of there.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:00 PM) There are more than a few games where actually having a DH instead of Kotsay and Jones would have helped the Sox out bigtime. Instead of being 9 under and 9.5 back, it's very realistic to think they would have only been 7 under and 7.5 back. Maybe he would have been that 6th starter when Peavy wasn't looking so CY and everyone thought MB was now washed up. Floyd looked like a BP pitcher and Danks had bad luck.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 03:04 PM) I wish somebody could go through all the threads last year saying how people were sick of Thome. I can't believe suddenly big Jim is so popular around this board when people were glad to see him go. Didn't you know he's a legend for hitting a homerun in game 163 against the team he is now playing for? Ozzie has betrayed us to the Twins.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 02:13 PM) I couldn't disagree more with all of this. Thome was glaringly a better fit for the Sox, who had, and still have no left handed power and no legitimate DH. The Twins didn't have room or a need for Thome. He was simply too good of a deal to pass up. He played way less than he deserved in the first half because the Twins have full time starters in outfield, 1B, DH. He's so clearly good that they found at bats for him against righties. And the smartest thing- what are the chances that at some point one of your outfielders, first baseman, or DH gets injured? I'd say not insignificant. It doesn't hurt so much to lose Morneau when Thome is putting up pretty comparable numbers. And it wasn't 31 teams (there are 30 major league baseball teams) that passed on Thome, it was 12 other than the White Sox (14 teams in the AL). Of those 12 you logically exclude any of the low payroll teams with no chance of contention (why would they spend money on a DH) and the potentially competing teams who already had a DH (Boston, Yankees, Mariners, Texas, Rays, Detroit, Angels). Good pint. I don't think Thome is the difference where the Sox are. Overall offense production is still there. The woes began when your fifth starter was your ace at the beginning of the season. The whole rotating DH looks much bigger because the pen can't finish and Freddy looks washed up. If they had won only 20/30, we would still be talking about next season.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 02:22 PM) His first sentence was about as straight forward as it gets, it made a ton of sense. Where do you get this poor plate discipline thing come from? He never mentioned a thing about it. That thome sure is a stubborn guy... the same guy having a terrific season with the arch rival of the white sox. The sox ''likely'' planned on bringing dye back as a designated hitter? When exactly? Was it right when last season ended? The beginning of the off-season? Right before thome signed? I know dye made it pretty well known, early on, that if it came down to taking a designated hitter role or not play at all, he simply would retire. Dye was never on the white sox radar in that aspect. Still makes no sense. Poor plate discipline is not what I'm referring to about Thome. (who could never make teams regret using the Thome shift) Thome's not on the Sox get over it. Yes, he's on the Twins. Success on the Twins does not = success on the White Sox. It's not a hidden secret anywhere the Sox would prefer Dye over Thome as a DH. Players say things and do change their mind and they had their hopes on that. Thome is not the difference for either team winning the division. People forget April and May never existed when this team wasn't doing anything right. Those games count too.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 02:06 PM) The 2006 team was more talented than the 2005 team. We definitely should have won our division that year. Only on paper. It seems who ever has the hot hand at the right time wins it all more than anything else. Wasn't that the season everyone thought the Tigers had the division sewed up and the Twin came out of nowhere. I always felt the recent Detroit teams are the most under achieving teams.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:23 PM) God we are starting to sound like Bears fans. There's always something clearly better out there. No manager will ever be good enough. They should just run the team based on fan voting before every game, I think we'd be set then. It's like that everywhere. In reality no matter how you add it up, coach/manager with bad players always = bad team. People are trying to use baseball logic in the NFL. Why aren't the Redskins winning like the Yankees? Cutler sucks when there is no blocking or anyone to throw to. Could Brady and Manning make that 2009 team win 13 games? No!

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:46 PM) Funny that you should mention the Bears. Similar to that team, the White Sox and Ozzie will always be defended for a title they won years ago. Ditka is still considered great by idiots all over the city. I wonder how long Ozzie will get the free pass due to 2005? Ditka should have won more with that group. With maybe the exception of the 2006 team, so far the Sox teams after 2005 were not good enough to win the World Series and this year's team definitely isn't. Managers and coaches often get blamed for a team's lack of talent. People get snake oiled that this is the exact team Ozzie wanted because he didn't want certain players. The manager isn't the one writing the checks or negotiating deals.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:04 PM) Ozzie is the one who runs far too often, and causes this team to run into more outs than any other team by far. Ozzie is the one who didn't want Thome or a real DH, he wanted the rotating B.S. that we currently have, which has been far and away the biggest detriment to their success on offense. Ozzie is the one who ran JJ Putz out there three days in a row, if you want to get more specific and more recent. Ozzie deserves a significant portion of the blame for the Sox being 3 out. Now, he does not deserve ALL the blame, by any stretch. Similarly, he deserves some credit for making sure his team didn't quit, and came roaring back into contention. But again, not all of it. 1st sentence makes no sense. Sox have poor plate discipline. Probably an organization thing. Thome's a guy who doesn't know when his time is up. I wouldn't want Thome either. Only two are left of the Slowtastic Four. The Sox most likely planned on Dye signing as a DH.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:56 PM) With Thome, the best theory I've heard (I think it was Fathom's) was that it was going to be very difficult for Thome to come back as one of the lowest paid members of the team after having been the second or third highest player on the team in 2010. People forget there's also an agent who wants his chunk of change.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:32 PM) 1B isn't a hard position to play, and backups at 1B are not particularly hard to find. Mark Teahen could have been a perfectly adequate backup to Konerko at 1B with Vizquel filling in on the left side, and if someone else was needed, you can call up Josh Kroeger or sign Jeremy Reed or sign Jermaine Dye or call up Dayan Viciedo or even retain Mark Kotsay while getting rid of Randy Williams. A backup 1B should not be on the priority list of things a contending club needs. Beyond that, I don't understand how a .249/.372/.493/.864 is not something you'd want from a DH. He keeps innings alive by walking a ton, and he gets runs on the board by being on base and hitting for power. Mark Kotsay is not very good at either one of those things, and he requires a pinch runner too (or he should, at the very least). But by god, has he played a remarkable backup 1B this year. This is not about Kotsay vs. Thome. You have to remember CG is a fragile player. I have no problem with a rotating DH. Yes those numbers suck for a DH who can only offer swinging a bat. Yes, he got on base but that was because you knew he wouldn't steal. You missed the point.

I have no problem losing to some of the better teams but when you lose to the Royals, Indians but the real choke job was against the mighty Orioles. The Sox had to play that extra game in 2008 because they sucked against suck teams.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 16, 2010 -> 09:26 AM) We are a good team and by golly we are good enough to win and we should all love each other .. not that way even though there isn't anything wong with that Come on lighten up folks-it's only August and we have shown we can rebound. It's just one of those slumps every team goes through. It's a good thing we weren't 3 games out last Friday when the Tigers came to town That's true. The slump is bad timing. If the remarkable win streak the Indians had in 2005 came a few weeks later, the post season might have been different.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:30 PM) Then if they're so s***ty why is it so hard for us to beat them out for the division most of the time? They save their best for the Sox. They like hitting at the Cell because they see the ball much better.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 12:58 PM) 0, which is awesome. I don't understand how this is relevant, but two. Carlos Gomez is currently playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Phillip Humber is playing for the Kansas City Royals. Kevin Mulvey could be pitching for the DBacks too, and is still only 25 (though he doesn't look like he's very good). The Twins obviously dropped the ball on getting a solid return for Santana, but they've made incredible personnel decisions otherwise, and JJ Hardy is still on the Twins, whom they acquired for Carlos Gomez. Teams are prone to making mistakes, even when trading great players. They've apparently gotten over dealing him, and they're doing just fine, considering the Twins have won more divisions without Santana than the Mets have with him. He was the #58 prospect according to BA heading into the season. He was blocked at the MLB level by Joe Mauer, and he put up a line of .241/.280/.345/.625 at AAA Rochester with very little power. His stock was very down. They have been in a position to compete in the playoffs 5 times in the past 8 years, and they have been in competition for the divisional title in 8 of the past 10 years, including this year, which is more than can be said for the Sox. The Sox capitalized in 1 of their 5 playoff appearances in the last 50 years. The Twins have capitalized in 2 of their 10 playoff appearances in the last 50 years. Excellent post. It's not always about what they get in trades but they seem to bounce back after losing some great players.