Ranger

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 24, 2011 -> 03:33 PM) Make me kind of hope for a Yankees sweep, actually. That's pretty stupid. You shouldn't ever want them to be swept.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 02:24 PM) No offense Rongey, but this isn't fantasy baseball. GMs are forced to look at more than just past production and projections when adding players. Most importantly, they have to look at organizational need. Since a GM is in charge of an organization, it's ultimately his responsibility to have a minor league system that can fill needs on a regular basis. If not, he's forced to go outside the organization to address those holes. That surely will have an impact on his decision making. He may be forced to overpay in free agency to fill a need, ala Scott Linebrink, or he may have to go with a player that is not qualified for the job, ala Dwayne Wise. Clearly, need and market forces play a major role here, and these are directly related to organizational management. KW may not be to blame if Jesse Crain performs much worst than past production suggests, but he is responsible for committing so much money to him. Had there been a decent minor league option, KW may have possibly used those funds to improve the team in another area. I don't play fantasy baseball and I certainly don't believe in putting a real team together like you would a fantasy team. Nobody is more aware than I am that real baseball does not mirror fantasy baseball. I don't have a problem with committing money to relievers that perform consistently, despite the ebb-and-flow nature of bullpens. Sometimes you have to spend to get what you need. QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 03:06 PM) Tons of baseball statisticians were predicting Politte crashing back to earth after the 2005 due to the percentage of line drives he gave up that turned into outs. Some metrics ruled him the luckiest pitcher of 2005. As for Cotts, the fact that he gave up one home run all 2005 with his high fastball probably indicated that there was luck involved. The 2006 team didn't fade because of the bullpen...it faded cause the starting pitching hit the wall with a few months left. Even with a bad bullpen to start 2006, we were 6 games up on the Wild Card at the ASB. No, you're right. It wasn't just the bullpen, but very few teams win much of anything when their setup guys completely fall apart. We're not talking about minor regression from one year to the next. We're talking total decline. You could have predicted regression, but I'm not sure that degree of regression would have been expected. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 03:44 PM) The only question is why he's so stubborn to hold onto this managerial theory that flies in the face of the homers hit in 2005/2006 and even in 2008 with Quentin/Ramirez/Dye/Konerko/Thome, etc. 1) Maybe because that's what worked for him personally, and the "dead ball" White Sox playing in Old Comiskey needed to score just a run at a time? Or weren't capable of scoring in bunches. 2) His time coaching and playing in the NL at the end of his career with ATL/Cox and the Marlins. 3) The fact that it worked so well with Iguchi and Pods for 3-4 months in 2005...but hasn't since? 4) His general inability to admit he's wrong since the World Series and adapt to the roster as much as expecting players who aren't capable of bunting or playing fundamental baseball to change for Ozzie? I'm thinking here of players like BA and Josh Fields, to name a couple. As Fathom mentioned, this mindset just doesn't work well in the AL East or AL Central. It certainly does have its place in baseball, with a low payroll team like the Padres or one that's limited offensively, such as the Mariners or A's. There isn't anything wrong with being able to execute "smallball" when it needs to be executed. Bunting isn't ALWAYS the dumbest thing in the world as suggested by statheads. It has its place, even in the AL. Gardenhire, Maddon, Leyland, and Scioscia seem to agree as well, and I'm pretty sure none of those guys are baseball stupid. Contrary to popular perception, Ozzie doesn't do it any more than any other manager in the league does it. He's fairly standard in that regard.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 03:57 PM) Fair enough, thanks for the candid response. With that said, I was just curious who some of the other managers and GM's are that you think the most highly of...? I'm not asking for the answer to "if something happened to Ozzie or KW, who should their replacement be?" as that's a slightly different question, and the White Sox have traditionally not showered huge amounts of money on "big name" managers or GM's, although if you're spending $128 million on payroll, there's really no reason to believe that might not change in the future, as well. In particular, which GM's do you think are best at their job/s? Since you're still a young guy, I'm sure you follow Esptein and Daniels (the GM with perhaps the most interesting pre-baseball background). Jack Z (I'm not going to attempt to spell his name without looking it up) with the Mariners had a ton of fans until the last couple of seasons for his approach. Chris Antonetti with the Indians is getting more and more attention as well after the Indians' hot start. Beane has to be part of the discussion too, for various polarizing reasons. And Andrew Freidman with the Rays, I'd guess. How has the SABR/Roto/Ivy League generation influenced the way you follow baseball and its statistics/analysis? By the way, I find it interesting that you didn't bring up Greg Walker. Of all the coaches, he's the one who has been most consistently under fire on Sox message boards and call-in shows, and yet Ozzie (and the rest of the coaching staff/F.O.) seems to really care for the guy, players like Konerko adore him...on the other hand, quite a few believe that a hitting coach is clearly less important than say, the pitching or bench coach. Why do you think Walker has been under 10X the amount of criticism that Don Cooper has been since 2006? Does Cooper get a lifetime pass after how well those 2005 and 2006 staffs (for the first four months, especially...and with the obvious exclusion of Javy) performed? Overall, I'm a firm believer that people tend to make WAY too much of both GM's and coaching staffs. In general, I truly believe that unless the guys you have are totally incompetent, the results on the field will be dictated by the players. Now, you could say, "Yeah, but the GM obtains the players, so isn't he responsible?" Yes, but to an extent. GM's acquire players based on two things: 1)track record and/or 2) projection. Let's say a GM acquires a veteran player that has a track record of success, yet, for some reason, once acquired, he does nothing like he had done in previous seasons. Is that performance really on the GM? Something I think about often is the '06 team. Really, that team was a very good baseball team that was betrayed by a failing bullpen. Even with all their issues, they still won 90 games that year and I think would have been a dangerous playoff team. However, how was KW supposed to know that Pollitte and Cotts would be so terrible after being nearly unhittable the prior season? It's not like their performance lagged a bit. No, those guys were TOTALLY different the next year. Elite in 2005, awful in 2006. That degree of change doesn't usually happen like that from one year to the next. I could really get into that and talk for an hour about it, but I don't feel like typing that much right now. As far as the GM's. Daniels appears to be a good one. Antonelli, too, but he's still new. I like Friedman as well. The thing is, GMs around the league aren't working with the same parameters, so it's tough to tell. Like I said, unless they're completely incompetent (maybe Minaya), they're probably capable of doing the job. Yes, Walker gets a lot of grief, and no, it isn't deserved. I still think many fans have yet to grasp the reality of what a hitting coach is actually supposed to do and what his real capabilities are. To be honest, a hitting coach isn't a miracle worker and there is only so much that can be done. It's a pretty well-known secret around baseball that firing a hitting coach due to lack of offensive performance is strictly a cosmetic action. It's done for one of two reasons: 1) To appease a fanbase and give the appearance of being proactive and/or 2) To buy time for current GM/manager so as to keep his job a bit longer. The third reason (and this applies for anyone on a coaching staff) is if the guy is lazy as a coach (i.e. doesn't show up and do early work with players...which was apparently the issue with Rock) or has some off-field problems (alcohol, drugs, etc...like Mitchell Page w/ STL). Just think how many times teams make a change and nothing really changes on the field over the long haul. Take a look at the Eddie Murray/Derek Shelton situation. Remember how good Shelton apparently was when he got hired in '06? So, a few years later, he gets fired because he's no longer good at his job? Come on. How about, the Indians players weren't any good at hitting, Sizemore's always injured, and Hafner was a lot smaller than he used to be AND was injured. I'm surprised that more people don't catch on to the pattern and say to themselves, "Wait, something doesn't make sense here." Guy gets hired, is the greatest ever at his job, gets fired a few years later because he's no longer any good, then immediately gets hired by some other team. Why is that? Because all teams know the secret. Firings are done to appease fans even though they really don't have any actual benefit to the results. Fans see it in simple terms: Team's not hitting well. Who's the hitting coach? Greg walker. Fire Greg Walker. Unfortunately, it just isn't that simple. I also believe that it is probably easier for a pitching coach to have success than it is for a hitting coach (logistics are different), though, either way, it always comes down to what a player is capable of doing. Cooper doesn't get a "free pass" but he's gotten more leeway because his pitching staffs have typically done well, with some exceptions. As far as hiring the "big name", what good does that really do? Lou Piniella was a big name. So is Rudy Jaramillo (who is apparently an offensive god of some sort, yet his team finished in the lower 1/2 of NL teams in offense last year. Like I said, it's all about the players). People make too much of it.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 18, 2011 -> 04:53 AM) Chris, 1) Have you ever been in a situation where you've had a player or someone in the front office or coaching staff upset with something you've said on air? I'm not talking something along the lines of Milton Bradley/Ryan Lefebvre or Stone/Caray versus the Cubs, but a situation where you feel you might have overstepped your bounds or access to inside information? You don't have to discuss specifics, just curious if this has happened before. 2) In the age of Twitter, would it be possibe for you to get in "hot water" for leaking information to a specific media source (say a beat writer or tv station/local or national) where you gave out that information in a way where it wasn't immediately and equally accessible to all outlets? For example, when I worked for a minor league baseball team (SAL League), the local beat writer (Augusta Chronicle, to be specific) was really pissed off with me when I gave an "exclusive" to the local TV station for that evening's news (I think it was something about our new stadium or an announcement about a future All-Star game being awarded to our city) and his story couldn't appear until the next morning (this was a year or two before the internet became more ubiquitous in baseball coverage)...my GM's rationale at that time was basically that we wanted to "curry the favor" of the television stations, because the newspaper was pretty much guaranteed to cover the team very prominently for all the home games. 3) Have you ever said something on air (let's say, you felt Peavy or Contreras should be given a chance to close, something pretty outlandish but not completely inconceiveable) about the team or where you felt in hindsight that you'd injected too much of your own opinion? For example, the other day, you mentioned that Pierre was likely to have a .330 or .340 OBP, that this was a little bit lower than ideal, and that his throwing arm was universally considered to be weak and that maybe it wasn't a good idea for him to steal as often if his failure rate stayed at over 50% (sorry for not paraphrasing exactly), etc. But have you ever said anything that was more strongly opinionated than these general comments, where a large majority of fans would disagree with you or the club or your opinion about something Ozzie or KW had done in their respective roles? 4) Do you feel you are treated differently here than at whitesoxinteractive.com, and, if so, how? 5) If you had the job of Brooks Boyer for one of the bottom 5 MLB teams (KC, Pirates, Marlins, A's, Indians) , what general ideas would you provide for increasing attendance? 1)Yes, I've had a couple players unhappy with something I've said. Nothing major, but I've been approached before and I just told them why I thought what I did and asked them to let me know where I was wrong. I've also had a situation where there was a misunderstanding with Ozzie and Joey, but I told them why I said what I did. Cooper brings things up to me every now and then, and I have to defend my thoughts to him to. He's just highly protective of his pitching staff, as he should be. One thing I've learned covering sports over the last 8 years (the Sox for 5 1/2) is that stuff goes on down there on the field that you'd never think of. Reasons why this decision or that call is made. And in the rare occasions a coach brings up something with me, it's often "well, did you ever think we did _____ because of ______ blank?" And, almost every time, it is something I had not thought of. It's why I don't get angry with failure to PH for a guy or why a certain pitching change is made or not made...because there are many times small, off-the-map reasons as to why certain things are done. And I recognize that I don't know them all from the booth. 2) I'm careful about anything I know that I really shouldn't know. If I know something, I'll have to present it in a certain way or have to leave it alone altogether. I won't give a specific, but there is one example of an injury from a couple of years ago that I knew about 2 weeks before a lot of other people knew, but he didn't want it out there just yet. 3) Not really. I'm fair with my criticisms and I think that's all that needs to be done. Any players that listen understand that I'm being fair. I refuse to foam at the mouth and declare that so-and-so "sucks". That's just stupid, and I'm not going to do it. 4) I don't think I'm treated much different. There are people that like me and people that don't. And the people that don't, it's for the same reasons as they don't here...usually because I'm a "company man" or something. 5) Yikes. I have no idea what you can do. If the team is bad, nobody is going to come unless ticket prices are stupid low. I'm the wrong guy to ask about that.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 06:31 PM) Sorry, Ranger. You're lying your ass off if you dispute that you're not a colossal homer. Um, no, I'm not. You, then, are just unable to tell the difference between being a "homer" and being level-headed. Certainly, I want the Sox to win, as do the rest of you. But, I'm not stupid and I'm not blind. If I think improvement will come, it's because there is reason to believe improvement will come. It's not just blind idiocy. You see, there is a giant difference between being pessimistic and realistic. Far too many fans think they're one in the same, but they are not. Thinking the worst possible outcome will always occur is not being realistic. QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 06:56 PM) I guess I should be paid, I've been a colossal homer for 30+ years. The secret is, if you constantly find ways things can go wrong, you are an expert, if you constantly find ways things can go right, your a homer and do not know anything about baseball. Isn't that the truth? QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 07:49 PM) I don't think he's a colossal homer. Think about it. If you were paid to host the call in show, you have to have both sides of the issue. You can't agree with most of these blanket statements from angry fans. For instance, if I called today (and I wouldn't) I would rip on Dunn. The host can't blindly agree with me that Dunn sucks. Dunn has a track record, etc. Rongey is not a blatant homer. He is the voice of reason, both sides. Thank you. QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 08:04 PM) I've seen it firsthand here too on this board. Yes he is a big optimist. Probably second to 2k5 here (or 3rd if you count Heads). There is nothing wrong with that though. Puts some of the pessimist here in line. Good balance. Like I said, read above. It just isn't true and if that's what you hear, you're not listening. The truth is that anyone with my job would automatically be labeled as such no matter what they said. I don't think everything is great with the White Sox, and I've pointed those things out a number of times. But I also don't look at this team as if it exists in a vacuum. I know they're flawed, but I know their competitors in the division are also flawed. Yes, I think the bullpen will improve, but I'm not just pulling that out of the ether. I think they'll improve because their 'pen isn't lined with bums. This aren't the days of Bukvich, Day, Prinz, and Myers. They have 4 solid arms at the back end, and eventually, I think they will smooth things out. And I think they'll do it in plenty of time. I think the defense will also improve, too. Why? Because the infield was pretty good last year, and now they've added Morel who's a little more sure-handed than Teahen. Rios will always be good, Pierre's errors are not characteristic of his career, and Quentin isn't bad enough to bring down the entire outfield. The offense is what it is. A pretty good lineup, not perfect, but there really isn't a whole lot of reason to spend much time worrying about it. The Starters have already been solid, and unless they wear down by August, I suspect they will continue to be, for the most part. Now, is that really optimism? It's not. It's reasoned expectation. It's not really a "hopeful" thing to suggest all of that will play out. It's actually reasonable to think it will.

QUOTE (scenario @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 10:07 AM) Amen. Besides, radio programs are more interesting when idiot callers have their a** handed to them. The hard part is that some hosts have a hard time separating people idiot callers and people who don't agree with them. Rongey does a pretty good job of it, though. You know what, the reality is that this is actually quite difficult to do. Some people just begin their call with an edge, and you can sense it. Like they're just waiting to go berserk. Other times they just have a different point of view, but it's difficult to tell. Sometimes I get it wrong.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 16, 2011 -> 10:24 PM) You need another idol. Then again, Barry Bonds is my idol. Correct. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 12:53 AM) And I'm sure he'll get a quiet reprimand from Bob Grim, Director of Broadcasting. When all is said and done, no matter how frustrating things get, club employees (unless they are named Ozzie Guillen or KW) have to retain their cool under ALL circumstances. At the moment, he probably felt like venting back was a reasonable response, but he should know better. Dave Wills never would have done that. When he wakes up Sunday morning, instead of feeling victorious, I'm sure he'll wish that he had let it go. In the end, belittling a Sox fan isn't a winning move for the organization, whether it's true or not, lots of us complain when Ozzie insults the fanbase, and this is no different (although hardly on the same level as an Ozzie rant that eventually ends up as a headline at CNN). Hosting the pre and post game show is entirely different from being an O'Reilly or Beck or Limbaugh, Rachel Maddow or Olbermann. Those guys are paid for their opinions and are encouraged to express them. There are a lot worse things in baseball than being 7-7 after 14 games. God knows how people would be acting if we were playing like the Red Sox or Twins. I listened to the first 3 calls of the postgame before it got cut off at MLB audio. Yes, the same typical comments (about the price of going to a game, about Juan Pierre and one caller was especially aggravated with AJ Pierzynski for some reason), but I've heard a lot more inane/inebriated ones before, and there undoubtedly will be worse in the future. No reprimand. And you're right, Wills would never call anyone an idiot. He preferred "drillrod". QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 04:30 AM) Technically, Rongey is not a White Sox employee. Wills was known for calling people drillrods. Rongey is as big of an optimist as anyone, but if the calls were anything near what I could image, and I've heard the show after losses plenty of times on my way home, he should have every right to fire back without reprimand, especially if the caller is getting personal. Ozzie fires back. JR will fire back, KW fires back at fans at Soxfest. That's actually really not true at all. Being optimistic means you think everything is going to be fine based solely on the fact that you just believe it, even though you have no concrete reason to believe it. I'm not that. When I think things will be good or will improve, it's because there is good reason to think it will or can. QUOTE (PeavyTime @ Apr 17, 2011 -> 08:23 AM) I hate Rongey. He toes the company line and is never wrong. You're half right.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 2, 2011 -> 08:06 AM) And are you guys still doing the Saturday morning show as well? (Hit and Run I think, right?) As a neutral observer, I prefer it to the other Saturday morning baseball show for sure. With Levine being the host, I usually find the White Sox material lacking. White Sox Weekly (the one I do) is on Saturdays, Hit and Run on Sundays. hit and Run is more of a general show. I just focus on Sox. But, yes, WSW is on all year long. During the offseason usually around noon it starts (depends on college BB) and during the baseball season we start 2:30 to 3 hours before first pitch.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 27, 2011 -> 02:59 PM) After this coming week: TV- 3-10 CSN 3-11 CSN/MLBN 3-14 CSN/MLBN (tape delay) 3-16 CSN/MLBN 3-20 WGN 3-24 ESPN2 3-26 CSN 3-28 CSN/MLBN whitesox.com-- 3-6 3-7 3-8 3-12 3-14 ??? 3-18 Night Game 3-23 3-25 Radio-- 3-6 interactive, talk show after the 5th inning 3-11 3-12 3-13 interactive 3-20 interactive 3-25 interactive--Night Game 3-27 3-28 Just wanted to make one adjustment in that I'm not so sure March 14th is one of the free webcast games. The schedule I have form the Sox does not include that date, though I know the website says the 14th is one of them. Doesn't hurt to check it out the day of, anyway. Also, our White Sox Live shows will be every Tuesday night from 6-8pm until opening day (and the final Wednesday before): 3/8 3/15 3/22 3/29 3/30

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 18, 2011 -> 04:40 PM) Addressing the #1 really poor decision from last year in a big way that almost no one can argue with is a pretty good way to placate your fan base. No doubt they're better, but it isn't why they lost. Pitching (especially the bullpen in the last couple of months) screwed them last year more than anything else, and this year the outcome will again rest mostly on pitching. The 2010 outcome really had very little to do with Kotsay.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 19, 2011 -> 03:10 AM) If the whole White Sox coaching staff all were in agreement on what to do, there would never have been a debate, or taken until spring training to make a decision. They waited until spring to make that announcement because they wanted him to do his normal offseason preparation. It didn't hurt that they waited.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 13, 2011 -> 07:57 PM) Um, we had Jackson for two months and he performed admirably. And I don't even like Jackson. I agree with most of your post. I'm one not totally sold on the bullpen. The only sure thing is Thornton. Jackson was better than admirable for the Sox last year. He really only had 1 bad start. QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Feb 14, 2011 -> 08:18 AM) I agree with this. Let's see what Humber can do. He might surprise us all. It'd be better than wearing Pena and the rest of the bullpen out. I agree that the Sox don't want to do anything that puts an unnecessary workload on the relievers early in the year because that WILL have an affect on them by September. You don't want that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 13, 2011 -> 02:16 PM) Come on man, you know better than this. It's not that they're going up, it's that they're going to go dramatically down this year, before going dramatically back up next year. That's a much different beast from the fact that his innings have been going up the last few years. This really isn't going to be an issue. Any starter will tell you that you can pitch starter innings in the minors all you want, but nothing prepares you for throwing 160+ until you actually pitch in the Majors. It usually takes guys a year in the big leagues to get fully acclimated to it. Sale is on pace to get to around 170+ by the age of 24. That's a good enough pace. The up and down thing isn't going to hurt him in the slightest. The bottom line is: the Sox are better off this year having him pitch in the bullpen, so that's where he belongs. If he has to spend an extended amount of time as a starter this year, the Sox will not be as good as they would be if he were a reliever. He'll be fine. Unless, of course, he gets injured which is a possibility.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 11, 2011 -> 01:58 AM) http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisRongey It was very imaginative. I was trying to make it difficult to find.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Dec 8, 2010 -> 08:44 PM) here is my list..... CSNChi_Beatnik Brett Ballantini jonmorosi Jon Morosi ESPNChiSox Doug Padilla ChiTribRogers Phil Rogers TeamCoco Team Coco bsuathletics BallState Athletics TacoTones Taco theleaguefx The League on FX NHLBlackhawks Chicago Blackhawks pgammo Peter Gammons jaysonst Jayson Stark FutureSox FutureSox.com SVPshow SVP Show BNightengale Bob Nightengale JimBowdenXMFOX JIM BOWDEN SportsNation ESPNChiCubs Bruce Levine jcrasnick Jerry Crasnick Ludacris mlbtraderumors MLB Trade Rumors katyperry Katy Perry Buster_ESPN Buster Olney BSLillibridge Brent Lillibridge SI_JonHeyman Jon Heyman ConanOBrien Conan O'Brien OzzieGuillen Ozzie Guillen InsideTheSox White Sox Scott R cst_sox ESPY_TEAHEN Mark Teahen ChuckGarfien Chuck Garfien MDGonzales Mark Gonzales scottmerkin Scott Merkin Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal danieltosh daniel tosh I didn't make the cut. (sad face)