harkness99

I really don't agree. I think the reason we have been so bad is BECAUSE we have tried to chase power hitting fee agents and they end up being strike out machines. Look at the Royals and Giants of recent years... they are not home run teams. Championship teams have good pitching, good defense and tough outs. How many home run hitters you can round up doesn't equal championship baseball... mayb 1920- early2000 something. But not now.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Sep 21, 2016 -> 07:44 PM) We're also 16-13 vs. the AL East, but 29-41 vs. a slightly inferior AL Central. Conclusions can't always be drawn from splits stats. That's kind of supporting what I was saying... when the games are important division games we struggle more. This shows that is not just talent.

effort is important yes. But winning and losing also has to do with the ability to handle pressure. This team and coaching staff has never found a way to figure that out. I see this in the divisional and away records. So who in our starting line-up isn't talented enough... since run scoring has been a huge issue. Avi Garcia has struggled off and on for a few years? Are you "talent" guys saying he doesn't have talent? Talent matters of course... but to act like that's all that's missing is amazingly asinine. So just find the most talented players and throw them out their and wins happen automatically? everyone in professional sports has talent... amazing talent. The guys that can handle the pressure are the people who can produce.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Sep 21, 2016 -> 03:55 PM) Not really. Hitting talent scores runs. Replacing Ventura with a different manager will have minimal effect on offensive output. I do agree that they've (offensively) underachieved, though. Hopefully they'll address that this winter. 41-33 at home 31-46 on the road. We must have some more talent at home than on the road.

I love listening to Konerko talk about baseball. But I doubt they will go that direction again.

The team could use more talent - it has some weak spots. But the "talent" excuse is just as much of a crutch as the "blame the coach" excuse. I don't think this team is a world series contender. But I also strongly believe that they have underachieved with the talent they do have. There is another element that is missing outside of the talent.

It's not like Jose isn't saying anything special.. this team has been losing for 3 years badly. Sure talent is an issue. But to say its just talent is not completely the truth either. Talent doesn't completely explain a 43-38 record out of division and a 29-41 record against the division. I feel bad for Abreu... he says something that is real and the pillow squad known has Ventura and the white sox have to say "no no no Jose" Look at K.C. We were ahead in like 8 of those games? and lost. Part of that is mental. Abreu is completely right in saying that. Our team has underachieved period.

Bye Robin.

another strong outing by Gonzalez.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 16, 2016 -> 10:19 PM) Should that 1 other run have been unearned? Missed the play. Get that era below 3 and I think Sale backdoors his way into the Cy Young They must have given the dude a hit.. which is pretty ridiculous.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 16, 2016 -> 11:17 AM) My lord, you f***ing people. Do you seriously strangle splits for "when it mattered" with other players in other eras? With other players on other teams? Math nerds, please do me a favor and tell me how many more wins Jose Abreu would have netted us if his second half was his first half. Add that total to the Sox's win total and tell me if we're in contention yet because Jose Abreu hit "when it mattered" By the way - newsflash - if it turns out that Jose Abreu wouldn't have made a difference by himself "when it mattered" then guess what IT DIDN'T MATTER. JFC. A lot of you are looking WAY TOO HARD to find ways in which Jose Abreu had a bad season. I'm sorry, but Jose Abreu did not have a bad season. His season will end up being very, very similar to last season. Last season was a good season. Not spectacular, but good. If Jose Abreu had the 4 more home runs in the first half to make his numbers "acceptable", and if every one of those home runs turned a loss into a win, the Sox would still be out of contention. Nah... no one is looking hard anywhere. Abreu struggled for a majority of the season... compared to his usual production. There was article after article talking about this in different baseball circles. This wasn't some thing made up by soxtalk people.. I'm excited he is hot as helI. It's made games fun again. It give us hope for the future... but it also doesn't erase what happened early in the season.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 13, 2016 -> 09:27 PM) Has Robin saved his job? lol...

Davis was fine with walking Abreu there and taking his chances... but then Abreu did what he did

The offense has been putrid for a long time... HOWEVER.. if we are going to try to be competitive next year. Bull pen bull pen bull pen and more bullpen is what we need to go after.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Sep 8, 2016 -> 07:57 PM) Next year ? I thought we were going to rebuild ? Next year for another team perhaps . Yeah... we all know there is no rebuilding going to happen. I sure never have said that heh.

Abreu has been great lately... its pretty crazy. Hopefully he keeps that going next year - because this team is way more fun to watch when he is this guy. I'm not however going to do the whole revisionist history act... he was very pedestrian for a lot of the season: For a long time he was leading MLB in men left on base... he still ranks 144 out of 153 qualified batters or something. He left *hit ton of RBI's out there... and he still could reach 100. that's pretty crazy. Hopefully he carries it into the beginning of next year and beyond.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 7, 2016 -> 06:58 PM) I wonder what kind of person Jose is. Salt of the earth? Good guy? Lazy? A dick? I know nothing about him. He's obviously having one helluva year thanks to his second-half tear (when we were out of the race). He's an all star right now. I'm not blasting him, just curious if he's one of the top five hitters in the AL or what we've got here?? He seems pretty sharp. Also always strikes me as laid back. He doesn't seem to react, or get too high or too low.

frazier needs to sit for a game or two... he is really looking horrible lately.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 7, 2016 -> 08:47 AM) If they are truly rebuilding, there is no reason to keep him. Have they actually said they are rebuilding? I highly doubt they will. They will try to win again next year.. for better or worse.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 7, 2016 -> 09:03 AM) Gonzalez is one of those guys everyone wants around after a good game, and everyone wonders what he is doing in the rotation when he gets bombed. Obviously, you don't just let him go, but if they are rebuilding, it's not like they are going to send everyone away. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the people they are trading are the guys that aren't going to be around. Melky, Frazier, Robertson. From what he said, they are definitely taking a step back, but that may not include trading guys like Sale or Q. A couple of other things. He was very aware the team was going to be OBP challenged coming into this year. He did say it is currently on the low end of what they were hoping to get. And that is a point of emphasis now. He said 5 of the top 6 OBP guys in the minors were recent draft picks. Some guy complained about not signing Asian players. Said they were all over the place. Hahn asked who he wanted the Sox to sign. Of course the guy couldn't think of anyone. Said the posting system and success some guys have had have made signing them very expensive. Someone mentioned to him many of his failed signings, he did say all those guys sucked. He really was quite good. Brooks was next and he was pretty funny. I am one who has always liked Brooks and think he has maybe the most thankless job in the world. He talked a bit about Guaranteed Rate, and emphasized it is a more lucrative deal overall than is in the press, and there are going to be some cool things coming from this partnership. Then some guy who has a weekend package with $5 tickets started complaining he couldn't sell his upper deck corner seats on Stubhub and they have to do more for a guy like him. like make sure he gets all the giveaways. He is thinking about pulling the plug on his $135 commitment. For his $135 commitment they give him a season ticketholder gift at the end of the year. Sometimes its' sweet, sometimes blah. You get a season ticketholder party at the park. A party at the ChiSox Bar and Grill at the beginning of the season, and they give you a free game with a patio party, and this guy is complaining he can't sell his $5 ticket for $6 on Stubhub, and the Sox need to compensate him for that. That was my que to leave. He really hasn't been bombed much this year... and for most of his career.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 11:10 PM) As long as he can keep it up next season. He has looked pretty solid though.I am just saying we need to be cautious as we have seen guys before that looked good over a span of XX number of games and then just lose it Right... you never know. However if you look at his track record. Outside of 2015 he has pretty decent numbers. 3.25, 3.28 Era not long ago. 3.61 era so far this year.

The offense has been putrid for years... but I don't actually think we should chase more than 1 ... maybe 2 players on offense. Bull pen... bull pen.... bull pen... and more bull pen is what we need to focus on. Next year line up 1. Eat RF 2 Anderson SS 3 Melk LF 4 Abreu 1b 5. LH DH 6. Frazier 3B 7. Lawrie 2b 8. Navarez/whatever vet catcher we can find. 9. Austin Jackson or whatever CF we can find. Sale Quintanta Rodon Gonzalez ? Bullpen... mostly question marks. Oh and a new manager.

He looks like he could be our 4th or 5th starter for next year... He has had a lot of solid outings.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 6, 2016 -> 08:04 AM) RBI is dependent on other players, can't hang all of that on Jose Of course I wouldn't lay that all on him.. .but his batting avg with runners in scoring position was in the .260's if i recall. I also remember reading that he was leading/near the top the MLB in runners LOB

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 5, 2016 -> 09:55 AM) I maintain that he was only really cold in April and May. He had a homer drought in July but still hit a lot of doubles and had a good BA and he had a pretty good June all around He had 8 RBI in July.... I guess June was decent.