White Sox fans

[DBAHO]

We just all need to let this thing play out. I will honestly say that I don't think Minnesota will win the division this year. It's going to be the Sox or Cleveland. Just my honest opinion.

 

One other thing, isn't Barry Rozner a huge Cubs fan?

 

The reason I ask, is everywhere people are talking how The cardinals got worse, I know they lost a bunch, but I really don't think they got worse. They have a full season of Larry Walker, provided he stays healthy and Mark Mulder.

What's your reasoning behind the Twinkies not being able to win the division this season? Radke and Santana are back, and Mauer should be able to play for a whole season, and Morneau as well.

[whitesox91403]

I don't know why this has taken hold... Rozner grew up as an usher and vendor at Old Comiskey.... He didn't have those jobs because he was a Cubs fan.

 

I've never seen anything written by him that would prove that he's anything other than an objective journalist, who does a good job walking the fine line of nuetrality in his columns.  He'll take his jabs at the Sox/riensdorf, but there's an equal amount of shots at the Cubs and Sosa.

 

 

Good enough, I wasn't exactly sure. I just I thought I remembered hearing that he was a Cubs fan.

[whitesox91403]

What's your reasoning behind the Twinkies not being able to win the division this season? Radke and Santana are back, and Mauer should be able to play for a whole season, and Morneau as well.

 

 

Those guys obviously are all good, if not great players. It's just my opinion that this will be the year that all those FA losses will finally take their toll on Minnesota. And, if the reports are true that will have to trade Jones if they lose their arbitration hearings, that doesn't bode well for them either.

 

Unless, of course they have settled with their arbitration players, I haven't heard.

[DBAHO]

Those guys obviously are all good, if not great players. It's just my opinion that this will be the year that all those FA losses will finally take their toll on Minnesota.  And, if the reports are true that will have to trade Jones if they lose their arbitration hearings, that doesn't bode well for them either.

 

Unless, of course they have settled with their arbitration players, I haven't heard.

Everyone thought that last season too after they lost Everyday Eddie and LaTroy Hawkins. They deserve to be the favorites until someone can knock them off the top.

[Punch and Judy Garland]

Jackie Jones isn't that great anyways. I bet if they play Hunter, Furd, Restovich, and the other Vanilla Midgets-they will be fine

[SoxDaFox005]

hey give joe b a chance.. please.. wait a year or 2 ans then tell me that... because by then he'll be your favorite star

[YASNY]

I won't refer to the article because again it's pro-Cub &  con-Sox.   But I will say this much about both:

 

Sox - KW should have gotten more for Lee.  Lee was our most productive bat in 04.  But he didn't get fleeced & the potential is there for grealty filling 2 pressing needs.  So on the Lee trade I give KW a C.  But just about everwhere else I give him an A.

 

Rotation make-over:

Garcia over ELO

El-Duque over Schoen

Contreras over Garland

Garland over Grili

 

Any one who can not see how much of a substantial upgrade that is has to be blind.  The Sox have a rotation that should produce 70-75 wins alone

on the strength of quality & dominant starts.

 

Pen makeover:

Hemanson over MJ

Vizcaino over Diaz/Munoz/Cotts

 

With the addition of Iguchi the 05 makeover for the offense has barely skipped a beat in power while greatly improving in speed, consistency, & obp.  How can you not be optimistic?

 

The other thing the con article fails to mention is the Sox had 1 healthy yr in the last 5 (03).  Bad luck has followed the team.  Hopefully the luck of the forest green irish will send it away.

 

Cub - They lost their most productive hitter of 04 (like the Sox) & replaced him with squat.  The Sox had least replaced Lee with Pods.  A guy who had a career yr in 02.  They are pinning thier hopes on a SS who is expected to have no more than 400 ab's.  They still are stuck with the bad chem of Sosa who has yet to apologize to either his mates or his fans.  They have no proven closer.  Either in the MLs or in Japan.  The Sox have 3 guys with more closer experience than the Cub.

 

Their rotation consists of 3 health marks, a Cy Young candidate, & fluke.

Who expects Rusch to pitch as well in 05?  I don't.  Prior, Wood, & Maddux are all high risks & good odds to sit on the d/l for some stretch of the season.

 

Did STL get weaker?  Sure they lost Renteria, but didn't they also gain Mulder?  If he's healthy they still have a team capable of winning 100 gms.

Something the Cub is not.  Astros are probably out of it, but the Cub will face tougher competion for the WC from most in the NLE, & most in the NLW.  If I were a Cub fan, I would be saying who is going to make up Alou's production?  The Cub are one of the slowest teams in the MLs.

They can't win w/out the big hit.

 

Good post. However I have to disagree with Maddux being a "high risks & good odds " for DL time. The guy has won at least 15 games for 16 consecutive years. How much more consistant and durable does a guy have to be? I mean, if Maddux is a "high risks & good odds" so are 85% of the pitchers in baseball.

[whitesox91403]

Everyone thought that last season too after they lost Everyday Eddie and LaTroy Hawkins. They deserve to be the favorites until someone can knock them off the top.

 

 

I agree, I was one of those people last year also. But now you throw Koskie and Guzman on top of that. I just think this is the year all of them pile up and Minnesota is dethroned.

[DBAHO]

I agree, I was one of those people last year also. But now you throw Koskie and Guzman on top of that. I just think this is the year all of them pile up and Minnesota is dethroned.

Koskie is a loss no doubt, but he was injury prone for them and only hit 7th in the lineup, despite putting up .260 25 HR's a season usually. The Twinkies should be glad they lost Guzman though, a .308 OBP and he gets a 4 year $16 million deal from Jim Bowden.

[sox-r-us]

We better be able to win the one run games now

 

When you give up as much power as we did with Maggs, Valentin and Lee for the season and Frank for some part of the season, we will not have many games where we score 10 or 12 runs.

 

But with people like SPod, Iguchi, Dye, Kong, Pierz etc, we will not have many games where we are shut out and popping up or grounding into DPs either.

 

The consistency will be there (i.e. in statistical terms, the standard deviation of our scores will be low). BUT the mean score will go down. Which means we better be able to now win the 5-4 or thr 4-3 games.

 

Our pitching and BP should keep us more in the games. Can the O produce in the clutch to win the games.

 

There will DEFINITELY be some games when we will realize how much we miss some of the power we have lost.

 

If we go down by 5 forget it, this team can not come back. The key is how often we let ourselves go down by 5 with the pitching and fielding upgrades.