Let's hear it for Vazquez

[kapkomet]

I wasn't in the game thread, and I'm sure you all did kudos in there... but what a ballsy outing by Vazquez. VERY impressive.

[WHarris1]

:headbang

 

2.80 ERA over his last 45 IP

[BearSox]

:headbang

 

2.80 ERA over his last 45 IP

I couldn't agree more with your sig. And, I would add Jon Garland to that list.

[jackie hayes]

I wasn't in the game thread, and I'm sure you all did kudos in there... but what a ballsy outing by Vazquez. VERY impressive.

He did his 4-inning usual for 8 innings. Damn nice.

 

Everyone knows he can do this. If he can hold up this level production (well, not this level, but you know), that would be an enormous boost.

[StrangeSox]

Amazing performance. I'm not expecting much for his next start (he's looked brilliant before only to revert), but here's to hoping this is the beginning of a new Javy.

[SoxAce]

As one of his few backers here I say kudos.

[DBAHO]

He's been good in past half a dozen starts. Hopefully it can continue.

 

There's still hope with him folks.

[beautox]

Keep it up Javy.

[Dick Allen]

He definitely deserved a win tonight. Pitched as well as anyone could have hoped.

[Whitewashed in '05]

The best pitcher minus one inning left out that one inning tonight... if that makes sense.

 

Nice to see him do good, but I would like him to do this more often. More realistically, eliminate that one bad inning. We will see, I'm sure as hell not going to praise him for one great outing.

[jackie hayes]

The best pitcher minus one inning left out that one inning tonight... if that makes sense.

 

Nice to see him do good, but I would like him to do this more often. More realistically, eliminate that one bad inning. We will see, I'm sure as hell not going to praise him for one great outing.

Why? We praise slumping hitters for coming through in big games. And it's already been pointed out the Javy been pitching well for a while, now. He's been good since August began. Not this good, but good.

Edited September 6, 2006 by jackie hayes

[witesoxfan]

The best pitcher minus one inning left out that one inning tonight... if that makes sense.

 

Nice to see him do good, but I would like him to do this more often. More realistically, eliminate that one bad inning. We will see, I'm sure as hell not going to praise him for one great outing.

 

I'd like to see Contreras stop pitching like s***.

 

Beggars can't be choosers. I'll take a bad inning from Vazquez every other start rather than a s***ty start from Garcia or Contreras every f***ing time out.

[Baines3]

Vazquez pitched a great game, too bad we couldn't get any runs for him.

[Whitewashed in '05]

I'd like to see Contreras stop pitching like s***.

 

Beggars can't be choosers. I'll take a bad inning from Vazquez every other start rather than a s***ty start from Garcia or Contreras every f***ing time out.

Yeah, but there are reasons to why Garcia and Contreras aren't pitching like they have in the past. Garcia lost his FB and Contreras still seems hurt or at least not 100%. We all know what Freddy with his real FB can do and what a 100% Contreras can do. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Vazquez. He is a mental midget. Just because he strings a few good innings together isn't going to make me forget the fact that he can implode start after start. Lets see a few more quality starts from him, then i'll get off his back.

 

Why? We praise slumping hitters for coming through in big games. And it's already been pointed out the Javy been pitching well for a while, now. He's been good since August began. Not this good, but good.

How many times have we seen Javy pitch a good game then next time out look like complete s***? Yes he did a good job and it was tough luck he didn't get the win. Lets see what he does his next start.

[witesoxfan]

Yeah, but there are reasons to why Garcia and Contreras aren't pitching like they have in the past. Garcia lost his FB and Contreras still seems hurt or at least not 100%. We all know what Freddy with his real FB can do and what a 100% Contreras can do. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Vazquez. He is a mental midget. Just because he strings a few good innings together isn't going to make me forget the fact that he can implode start after start. Lets see a few more quality starts from him, then i'll get off his back.

 

I agree 100%, there is nothing wrong with Vazquez and his 3.43 ERA in August, his great start to September, and his 2.80 ERA in his last 45 innings. Absolutely nothing at all.

 

Also, there are not reasons as to why Garcia and Contreras aren't pitching like they have in the past. There are excuses, and they are s***ty excuses that keep Brandon McCarthy or even Chuck f'in Haeger out of the rotation.

[Whitewashed in '05]

I agree 100%, there is nothing wrong with Vazquez and his 3.43 ERA in August, his great start to September, and his 2.80 ERA in his last 45 innings. Absolutely nothing at all.

 

Also, there are not reasons as to why Garcia and Contreras aren't pitching like they have in the past. There are excuses, and they are s***ty excuses that keep Brandon McCarthy or even Chuck f'in Haeger out of the rotation.

Yeah thats a good ERA in August, but how many quality starts did he have? How many times did he pitch 7 or more innings? He had 2 QS's in August and pitched 7 or more innings 2 times, one was a quality start. You know that an ERA doesn't tell everything.

 

We have 3 really good bullpen guys. They can only pitch so much.

[witesoxfan]

Yeah thats a good ERA in August, but how many quality starts did he have? How many times did he pitch 7 or more innings? He had 2 QS's in August and pitched 7 or more innings 2 times, one was a quality start. You know that an ERA doesn't tell everything.

 

We have 3 really good bullpen guys. They can only pitch so much.

 

There has not been a game in his last 7 starts the Sox could/should not have won. Instead, they have lost 5 in a row.

 

It's 3 true quality starts, but he had 1 start with 5.2 IP, 2 ER, his start against the Yanks where he went 5 IP and gave up 2 ER while the umps where completely and thoroughly screwing him, one in which he went 5.1 giving up 3 ER, and one in Minnesota where he went 7 giving up 4 ER. Every one of those games was winnable.

 

The last time Contreras truly had a start like that was August 11th. You tell me who you'd rather have, and who the mental midget is.

 

 

(fwiw, Contreras also was labeled a mental midget and a no-brain, all-talent pitcher before he led the Sox to a World Series title...just sayin)

[Whitewashed in '05]

There has not been a game in his last 7 starts the Sox could/should not have won. Instead, they have lost 5 in a row.

 

It's 3 true quality starts, but he had 1 start with 5.2 IP, 2 ER, his start against the Yanks where he went 5 IP and gave up 2 ER while the umps where completely and thoroughly screwing him, one in which he went 5.1 giving up 3 ER, and one in Minnesota where he went 7 giving up 4 ER. Every one of those games was winnable.

 

The last time Contreras truly had a start like that was August 11th. You tell me who you'd rather have, and who the mental midget is.

(fwiw, Contreras also was labeled a mental midget and a no-brain, all-talent pitcher before he led the Sox to a World Series title...just sayin)

Vazquez is the mental midget. At least Contreras has showed that he can get the job done. Unlike Vazquez time after time he would unravel. He'd give up the game tying run or go ahead run and next thing you know he'd let the game get out of reach because he can't control himself.

 

This last month for Vazquez will be telling because he's had almost one full season to absorb information from Coop and if he still can't get it together then he needs to go. Lets say he does get another QS and some other decent games then at least he improved.

 

Vazquez has always had the stuff, but he always leaves those breaking balls to get killed and he just can't pitch over mistakes, missed calls or anything else along with most of our rotation this year.

[whitesoxfan101]

He's been a lot better since Coop and the crew worked on his mechanics. This is a GREAT sign, maybe we can just dump Freddy and put Brandon on our rotation this offseason and be ok, assuming Buehrle's back doesn't fall off of course.

[jackie hayes]

How many times have we seen Javy pitch a good game then next time out look like complete s***? Yes he did a good job and it was tough luck he didn't get the win. Lets see what he does his next start.

A few times, but more often his bad starts have come in bunches.

 

I understand what you're saying, but why would you say you won't "praise" Javy's work lately?

 

For me, if it's a gift horse, great, if it's a sign of things to come, even better. But either way it's damn good. Go go go Javy!

[southsider2k5]

The best pitcher minus one inning left out that one inning tonight... if that makes sense.

 

Nice to see him do good, but I would like him to do this more often. More realistically, eliminate that one bad inning. We will see, I'm sure as hell not going to praise him for one great outing.

 

Why not, everyone seems to want to flip out after a bad preformance by a player, I see nothing wrong with giving someone their due when they deserve it.

 

Vazquez went out and gave up one run on three hits against the full strength Boston squad, while getting 11 strikeouts. To me that saids it all.

[RockRaines]

2 great managerial moves by Ozzie last night. Keeping Javy in as long as possible, and starting Ryan Sweeney. Both almost stole us the game.

[fathom]

Why not, everyone seems to want to flip out after a bad preformance by a player, I see nothing wrong with giving someone their due when they deserve it.

 

Vazquez went out and gave up one run on three hits against the full strength Boston squad, while getting 11 strikeouts. To me that saids it all.

 

It look like he relied on his fastball more, and got the 4 seamer up above the letters, and he was able to command the 2 seamer on the corner. I was very impressed with him last night, and it does nothing but help his confidence (and if we're actually interested in trading him, it boosts his trade value).

[elrockinMT]

There is no way that javier vazquez should be criticized for losing the game last night. He stepped up and gave a great performance and went 8 innings. He has had his problems in the past going morte than 5 innings, but he showed in those five innings that he had the ability and usually was lights out. It was the 6th or 7th when he fell apart. I think talent wise he can do what the Sox expected of him whereas Freddie Garcia has seemed to have turned into a pitcher that can go 7 innings, but expect him to give up 4 or 5 or 6 runs a game usually 1 or 2 at a time. So this off season I would expect Freddie to be the trade bait.

 

Vazquez giving up 1 run isn't something to be upset about either. The failure here was the offense not coming through again. It's a shame that when we get the real good pitching we don't get the run support we are used to. Hopefully this team gets its act together before we slip to far behind the Twins. The second half of the season has been one major disappointment.

[southsideirish71]

Here is a big difference between Vaz and Freddy. Vaz complemented the other pitcher, instead of throwing his teammates under a bus.

 

Freddy hasnt lost a game like this all year long, he loses games where he gives up 5 runs and then blames the O for not scoring enough.