VAfan

What struck me about the original post was that the writer concludes that a stolen base by Pods was a significant factor in 7 victories by the White Sox -- in other words, 12% of our 57 wins -- and then concludes, paradoxically, that he's not valuable and should be replaced! Now, I'm not going to sing the praises of Scott Podsednik. I think as soon as he moves into more expensive contract territory, he'll no longer be worth his pay grade. But if just his stolen bases have contributed to 12% of the team's victories, then it seems to me a testament to his value, not his lack of value. And I do think having Pods at the top of the lineup will create scoring opportunities in tight ballgames down the stretch and in the playoffs that are not presented by the other types of hitters in our lineup. If we can come close to pitching like we did last year, then Pods' value to this team will increase as the season goes on. As may his actual production, which has yoyoed from cold to hot on a month-to-month basis.

The Angels are only 2 games out. Oakland has scored fewer runs than it has given up. I don't think the Angels need to add any trade pieces to win the West now that they have fixed their rotation. And, frankly, I hope they don't add any pieces, since they will likely be our first round playoff opponent, but with much better pitching than they had last year -- Colon, Lackey, the better Weaver, Santana.

Did Gordon burn his bridges a bit when he left here? Did we insult him with our low ball contract offer? And would he be happy again in a set up role for a kid like Jenks? It's one thing to set up for Mariano Rivera when you want to close. It is another thing to set up for the new kid on the block, no matter how successful he's been up to this point. Certainly Gordon would look very good in our bullpen. You could almost trade Javier Vazquez for him, except I believe Vazquez has a clause in his deal about not being traded to Philly. Just don't give up any can't miss guys like Josh Fields for him. Fields is worth a lot more than a set-up bullpen guy, no matter how good he is.

McCarthy AND Anderson?? It's laughable. There's no way we're trading either of those guys for a rental like Schmidt. But Vazquez would make some sense for a rental. He's on the hook for two more years, so the Giants, while not getting the same quality, are at least getting some longevity at a reasonable price. And Vazquez ought to like Pac Bell. Sure, KW always wanted JV and isn't likely to give up on him yet. But part of the reason he got him was the uncertainty surrounding Garland and Contreras, who hadn't re-signed yet. Now that both of them are in the fold, Vazquez would be a logical piece to trade. Of course, then you've given up Chris Young for a 1-year starter rental. It's not the best way to run a franchise. (I suppose Freddie Garcia would be another option, but it's one I wouldn't take. I think Freddie has looked bad before and righted himself. I expect he'll do it again. Remember the 1-0 game 4 of the WS? The recent 1-0 shutout of the Cardinals? Freddie has some great games left in him.) Whether Sabean would take Vazquez is another story. Just don't believe for a second that Kenny Williams is offering either of our two best young players for anything at the moment. Kenny realizes that the Tigers, Twins, and even Cleveland, have a nucleus of young talented ballplayers. If we want to compete with them beyond the next year or two, Kenny is going to have to phase in our young guys or take on a payroll like Boston or the Yanks. Since the latter is not possible, I expect any rumors regarding McCarthy and/or Anderson are false.

In the pathetic NL, Politte would be a star! Still, I don't expect him to be traded. I'm not sure what we're going to do, since top notch relievers just simply are not available at this time of year. I wouldn't be shocked if we simply brought Hermanson back -- he seems to be surviving so far on his rehab stint -- and carried Politte too, for 12 pitchers. Politte would never have to pitch a second inning, and indeed, would likely be used batter-to-batter until someone got on base. He might be serviceable in very short stints were he doesn't pace himself. The way we've been pitching, having 12 arms in the second half is likely more valuable than having Ross Gload.

Wow, I don't know how this thread got hijacked for awhile into a discussion about Mark Prior, so let's get back to the topic at hand -- whether the Sox pitching is going to get fixed in the second half. Today was certainly a heroic performance by all concerned. Jermaine Dye hitting a HR off Papelbon in the bottom of the 9th to avoid a sweep. The Sox getting two back in the bottom of the 11th after Jenks got tagged for two two-out runs in his third inning. McCarthy going 4-1/3 innings of scoreless ball -- isn't that exactly the role he should have played all year?? Politte contributing a perfect inning for the win. Even Vazquez coming out of the pen to help out. In all, the bullpen pitched 13 innings and gave up 2 runs. That's tenacious. That's what the Sox are made of. Whereas other teams may go out and improve themselves at the trade deadline, the Sox really don't have any obvious place to turn for improvement. We aren't shipping off any of our starters or McCarthy. They are just going to have to find a way to do better. I tend to agree with those who believe the pitchers above their career averages -- Garcia, Vazquez, and Garland -- will all pitch better in the second half. For one thing, if our bullpen continues to improve, I think we'll see Ozzie much less often leaving them hang out to dry when they don't have it. So, in the pitching department, we're going to have to find a way to get our starters sharp again. Would adding a deeper bullpen help? Will Hermanson make it off the DL to contribute? Is there a bullpen arm out there who can reprise Cliff Politte's role from last year? (David Riske isn't it. He's helped us, but I wouldn't trust him that much with the game on the line.) I don't know what we're going to get from our pitching staff out of the break. I'm just glad we won today's game going into the break, and now have 4 days off to get ready for the second half.

Boy, this thread may suck, but so does White Sox pitching right now. We need Contreras to bail us out tomorrow, but he can't win all of our games after the break. Today, not only did Garcia melt down after the botched popup by Nixon, but our bullpen couldn't get the third out in the 6th or 7th innings, giving up 1 and 2 runs after two outs and no one on. David Riske issued a walk to Alex Cora after getting ahead 0-2, then throwing 4 straight pitches outside. Cora stole, then Youklis hit a single to left on a ball left up over the plate. The 7th might have been worse. Cotts gets two outs, then we watch chink hits and dribblers turn into two runs. With Minnesota having temporarily cooled off, we haven't suffered in the wild card standings much, but we're not getting any closer to Detroit, and we aren't playing the kind of ball that took us to the World Series last year. This team needs to find pitching and defense first again if it wants to be the best in baseball.

According to a fan on another Sox site: Hermanson pitched an inning for Charlotte last night. 12 pitches, 8 strikes. 1 ground ball, two fly balls, no walks. It's a start.

This is going to be a nice stretch to show baseball that we are still the team to beat. I expect us to have the best record in baseball after these 15 games. GO WHITE SOX!!

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jul 7, 2006 -> 09:19 AM) That doesnt make this Sox fan happy. Would you rather have Garland and Vazquez starting in Yankee stadium? Garland has pitched very well lately, and proved last year that an extended rest benefits him. Let's hope the rest also helps Vazquez find himself.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jul 7, 2006 -> 12:08 AM) Cliff has 2 things going wrong for him right now. One is his control. He is not getting ahead of hitters, and is constantly getting into 2-0 and 3-1 counts. The second issue is he no longer has an explosive fastball like he did when he first came to the sox. When he first signed with the sox, he was 94-96. Last year we saw a slight dropoff as he concentrated on his control more. He was still 93-94 in the zone. Now he is mainly 90-91. When a reliever gets into a hitters count, and is a two pitch pitcher and has a very straight medicore fastball, what you have been seeing happens. They hit him all over the park. Cliffy needs the bone spurs removed from his elbow so he can throw free and easy. However that will need to happen for another team. Cliffy is in his walk year, and with his terrible performances wants to make something happen so he can get a decent contract. You cant blame him for that, so he refuses the surgery, and is trying to pitch through the pain. But when you are a hard fastball, hard slider guy and the speed differential between those two pitches are not that much, then you are going to get hurt. Maybe we can send Cliffy to the Reds for a prospect of some sort. They are absolutely desperate for pitching, and will give Cliffy a chance to work through it. We however dont have the luxury to let one person burn our pen down. KW will most likely go out and get someone, Montero will get a chance for right now. Thank you clifford for all the memories of 2005. You are a warrior, however its time to part ways. He doesnt suck, he isnt bad. He is injuried. He needs to recoup however somewhere else. I agree with this sentiment. I thought it was the wrong move for Ozzie to leave him in for the 9th tonight if what we were trying to do was rebuild his confidence. But it was probably the right move if we were trying to make a decision on whether to keep him active or put him on the DL again. I actually expect us to put him on the DL again before we'll trade him, as he can't have any real trade value. I'm ready to send him to the DL tomorrow and bring Montero up.

We are an impatient bunch, aren't we? 9-4 and the guys' ready for the scrap heap. I've criticized Javy myself, but thought he at least battled tonight. After the 3 run inning, in which BA proved his worth, he settled down very nicely and blew away the O's the next time through the order. Then Tejada got a double and there was another hit and Javy was rightfully gone. But Riske allowed a hit to let the last run in. Anyway, I thought it was something to build on. A middling start rather than a horrible one. All we really need is middling starts for him to win ballgames.

I think the ridiculous lopsidedness of it this year made it absurd. If it is more competitive, it makes sense. Normally I would love the AL to trash and stomp on the NL, but with the Twins fattening up by taking 16 out of 17 games from the NL, and the Tigers, BoSox and ChiSox winning by similar margins, it made it kind of ridiculous. NL fans ought to be embarrassed. Even the Royals fattened up against your teams.

With Jered Weaver and now Colon coming back into their rotation, and the promotion of some of their young guys clearing out unproductive aging veterans, I think the Angels are going to quickly catapult themselves past Seattle and Texas and be in a dogfight with the A's for the division title. The only relevance for us is that we will probably face the winner of the AL West in the first round of the playoffs.

Wow, the M's obviously should have traded him over the winter when they would have gotten a lot more than a mediocre minor league pitcher.

I just want to add that the Sox have now had back-to-back well-pitched games by their starters. And we also pitched our way out of 8th and 9th inning jams with men on second and third and no outs. None of the 4 runners scored. This is what I'm talking about. When we pitch like we are capable of, we are clearly the best team in baseball. No one can touch us. Just keep it up, guys. Javier, it is your turn to show us you were worth trading Chris Young to get. You should beat down this O's team.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Jul 6, 2006 -> 01:40 AM) I'd feel a lot better if we had one more righty in there. I have no faith in Polite or Hermanson. I'd love to be proven wrong. I won't believe in Hermanson until he proves he can pitch with no back woes. But, if he can, I'd far prefer him over Politte at this point. Dustin has the mental makeup to battle. Politte doesn't seem to have it. Of course I'd be thrilled to have both Politte and Hermanson if they pitched like last year. I hold out no hope for that, however.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jul 6, 2006 -> 02:46 AM) If you have a starter who goes out there and gives up 5-6 runs every start he can not be expected to win s*** for you in September or October when generally the games start to get lower scoring and you see a lot more 3-2, 2-0 games. an 8-3 record with a mid 5 ERA is fun during the regular season and all but that run support tends to diminish as you go deeper into the season. Would you rather have a starter like Garland who's 8-3 w/ a 5.30 ERA/1.38 or a guy like Dan Haren who has a .500 record but a 3.40 ERA/1.11 WHIP going for you in a big game? A pitcher's record is more indicative of his the run support he's receiving and the general quality of his team's offense than the quality of his pitching. Eventually that luck runs out and his 5 ER, 9 H performances are going to lead to losses in big games. I liked the rested Jon Garland who was throwing inside at 94-95 mph in shutting down the Angels in a complete game victory. He made one mistake and it cost him 2 runs, but they were insignificant. I also liked the Jon Garland who battled and gave the Sox 3 extra innings of scoreless ball after the Astros got to him for 4 runs (1 of them being a HR that wasn't really a HR) early in game 3 of the World Series. Garland will never be a stud #1 or even #2 pitcher. But he's still a young horse who will give you 200+ innings year after year and who generally keeps you in the ballgame. And I think he's going to continue to get better. With our offense and defense, he could easily win 16-18 games/year and be 8-10 games over .500 with an ERA from the mid-high 3s to the low 4s. Brandon McCarthy may eventually be better than Garland, but I would predict he wouldn't do any better than Jon his first couple seasons as a starter. How many teams have better starters in the #4 slot? The last two nights saw the Sox pitch like they are capable of pitching. It would be fabulous if Javier Vazquez could make it 3 well-pitched games in a row. The Sox need to pitch well to remain the best team in baseball, and it has to start with well-pitched games from our starters.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jul 3, 2006 -> 04:22 PM) Thoughts to ponder to all those in favor of bringing Jones in. In bringing Jones in, the Sox are adding approximately $5-7 mill on this year's payroll alone, as well as adding another $13.5 mill on next year's. The Sox payroll is starting to increase at a pretty steep rate, but with raises due to several players on the team just due to their contracts, are the Sox going to be able to afford a $115 million payroll? You also have to understand Jones is almost undoubtedly leaving Chicago after 2007 if acquired - his agent is the only and only Scott Boras, as previously mentioned on this thread, and he's going to be looking for a contract that ties him up for the rest of his career, probably in the $14-17 million a year range, as well as probably a no-trade clause in his contract. If the Sox were to grant him both of those wishes(it's sorta possible, as Jones actually signed his contract with Atlanta with no help from Boras...as I recall, Boras had about a $115 million contract ready to go with Texas, but Andruw gave Atlanta a hometown discount and stayed), 1 of 4 scenarios will play out 1. The Sox hit a wall around 2009-10, and they are stuck with an albatross of a contract. 2. The Sox continue playing well, but Jones hits a wall, and they are stuck with an albatross of a contract. 3. Both the Sox and Jones hit a wall, and the Sox are fistf***ed. 4. Both the Sox and Jones continue to play well, and there are no consequences. If Jones were to leave, what do the Sox do in CF for the long term? Both Sweeney and Owens are mediocre to bad defensive CFers, thus causing a void in CF defensively for the Sox, unless they are to again spend big on a CFer, which limits their spending on other parts of the team. The thoughts to ponder in not bringing Jones in are much simpler. You have great defense in CF, you have a CFer for 5 more years beyond 2006, guaranteed, you already have a good offense, you already have a good defense, and you're putting out a team that costs $13 million less than a team with Andruw Jones, thus allowing you to put the money to more than one use on a player that is really unnecessary to bring in. All fantasies aside, Jones to the Sox, atleast to me, makes no sense. Short-term, it would be huge for the Sox, and it's very apparent that KW wants to repeat as World Champion. However, while that need to win keeps this Jones a possibility, albeit a small possibility, it just does not make sense long term. To me, I am seeing 4 scenarios where a Jones acquisition turns out negatively, and 1 where it is positive short and long term. Regardless of how likely the positive scenario is to play out, you can't like the number of scenarios where it turns out bad. I completely agree with this analysis. If the Sox have $13 million extra to spend on payroll, there are much better uses than spending it on Andruw Jones. Re-sign Mark Buehrle, lock up Joe Crede (should have tried this last offseason), a better backup catcher, replacement for Cliff Politte, etc. Brian Anderson is probably up a year too early, but even I think he'll come around as a hitter, and until then, his 3.19 zone range rating is by far the best of any CF in the game. Andruw Jones, at 2.75, is 10th. If you want a short-term stop-gap to take the pressure off Anderson this year, Mike Cameron, whose contract is up at the end of the year, is a much better choice. SD may not trade him, but if they did, they wouldn't be getting BA in return.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jul 4, 2006 -> 04:16 PM) Mackowiak can play 2B too. We don't have to celebrate all of his defensive s***tiness in CF. Yes, and as I said on the Crede post, we're better off with him at 2B than at 3B. At least he has some reaction time at 2B. He was overmatched at 3B yesterday. Put Cintron at 3B until Crede's back, then move him back to 2B while Iguchi's out. BTW -- where the hell would we be if Crede/Iguchi/Ozuna were down last year? It is nice to have enough depth to cover without having to put anyone on the DL.

When I read that the '05 Sox were left off, I realized the whole episode is a farce. The 16-1 finish, 11-1 postseason, 4 straight complete game victories by the starters -- I don't know if anyone remembers the Tom Verducci article -- I think this is the link (but I don't have the subscription) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/...ostseason/2005/ -- that put our team in the company of only 1 or 2 others in history. Of course, we didn't dominate with run differential like other teams have, but that just made our accomplishment all the more impressive.

I just hope Ozzie realized that Mack at 3b is a disaster. If you have to sit Iguchi and Crede over the next two days and Ozuna isn't ready, then please put Mack at 2B where at least he has longer to react, and Cintron at 3B. There were at least two "hits" the O's got that Crede (or Cintron) would have gobbled up but which left Mackowiak befuddled.

QUOTE(chitownsportsfan @ Jul 5, 2006 -> 12:50 AM) I just went over to fangraphs to check out his trends, and it's pretty crazy what he's doing right now. Prior to this year, his BB%, P/PA and K/BB had all been trending up, which was very encouraging to us Juan fans and stat heads. Now, they are almost all down. However, his ISO, and FB% are WAY up. He's having an AJ like 2005 almost: lots of fly balls with plenty of HR and doubles, few walks, lower BA and subpar OBP. His BABIB is down, as is his line drive percentage. His ISO is over 2, which is very, very good. If he can start taking soem damn walks, he'll be a damn fine hitter. I don't expect it though, and I'm a big Juan supporter/apoligist. I think Juan is doing this in phases, and the plate patience will come. If you remember last postseason, he walked just about as well as anyone in our lineup. Right now, I think Juan is in the phase where he's just getting confident in his new stance. The leg kick is gone. Now he's on the spread-stance approach. Since he's killing the ball, as an impatient guy, he just wants to kill it every time up. Once he gets more confidence and realizes the only way they can get him out is by throwing way out of the zone, I expect he'll back off a bit and start taking some of those pitches. He can actually hit balls out of the zone -- it's the way out ones that he can't handle that he should lay off. One thing I'll add. If Juan can keep hitting like this, I wouldn't trade him for Miguel Tejada (given MT's big contract). The guy's an offensive force. (Now if only BA could learn to hit behind him ....)

Yesterday's game was more like it. Apparently Coop worked with Contreras on his arm angles during a side session at Wrigley, and it paid off. Had Joe Crede not gone out, there would have been two fewer hits, as he would have gobbled up balls that befuddled Mackowiak (who should sub at second if both Iguchi and Crede are out -- at least he'll have longer reaction time there). When Contreras is dominant, our pitching staff has a chance to be dominant. It sure would be nice to see yesterday's outing kick off a week of great pitching leading up to the AS break.

First off, no one can label me a pessimist on this or any other Sox site. But I am realistic. And I have a bad feeling about Minnesota. After today, they are 6-1/2 games behind us, and we're not even to the half way point. That is a lead that is not safe by any means unless the Sox start pitching the ball like we are capable of. The Sox have to start pitching the ball like we are capable of. If our second-half team ERA is 4.00 or below, we'll win 100+ games and the division. If it stays where it was in June -- which was accumulated mostly against weak-hitting teams -- at 4.74 -- it is going to be a dogfight to the end. The third team in the AL Central might have the third best record in baseball at the end of the season and be left at home. I damn well don't want that team to be the White Sox. So let me finish this post by resurrecting some Sox haikus I posted last year in May on a thread someone started on the MLB Sox board. They are a testament to winning baseball -- which starts with pitching: Great Ozzie man say, Pitching and defense the way, To World Series play. Ya gotta believe In this torrid White Sox team To go all the way! Lee for Podsednik? Add AJ and El Duque Play Ozzie ball. Win! Kenny man, he say Power ball is not the way Go-go Sox are best Nineteen seventeen? White Sox fans can't wait to see Champs at Comiskey Thirty-fifth and Shields U.S. Cellular team fields Baseball's supreme team All the way this year Eighty-eight year jinx over White Sox are World Champs Bosox won last year Now it's time for the ChiSox To wear Series crown and, lastly, one that I hope also applies this year Don't fret White Sox fans This team is primed to win Into October GO WHITE SOX!!!