B-Mac Talk

[Mr. Showtime]

From whitesox.com

 

 

McCarthy announced his presence with authority at the end of 2005, posting a 2.06 ERA over his final six appearances, including four quality starts. But with the addition of Javier Vazquez during the offseason, the career-long starter was placed in the bullpen for the 2006 campaign.

 

Although general manager Ken Williams has talked about McCarthy returning to the rotation in 2007, manager Ozzie Guillen won't assume anything at this point. Guillen mentioned Tuesday that when the season is over, the front office will sit down and evaluate what the team needs and the direction it is moving toward next year.

 

Although Guillen understands McCarthy was placed in a foreign role this season, he also pointed out that McCarthy was never treated as an everyday reliever. He always was given substantial time to warm up and enter a ballgame.

 

"Is he a reliever? Right now, I don't know, because this is the first time he's ever done that," Guillen said. "I don't want to blame this kid when he fails, because he's doing something he never did before.

 

"On the other hand, every time he fails -- I hear a comment by Jack McDowell, when he says, 'You're a starter, you're a reliever, when you're on the mound you're a pitcher.' If you're a reliever or if you're a starter, when you're on the mound you're a pitcher, you still have to do your job."

 

No excuses are being made by McCarthy for his recent struggles. In fact, his offseason goal has nothing to do with preparation for starting or relieving.

 

"I just have to be better next year," McCarthy said. "It has been such a long stretch this year where I've been mediocre and bad a good amount of the season. It eats me up and I hate not feeling like I'm going to go out there and be successful.

 

"This offseason will be a big one. The drive is going to be back to make this season a distant memory."

[greg775]

It eats me up and I hate not feeling like I'm going to go out there and be successful.

"This offseason will be a big one. The drive is going to be back to make this season a distant memory."

 

Can't argue with a humble statement like that. We'll be pullin for ya BMac but you certainly did stink

this season.

[SpringfieldFan]

So starting in 2007 is in doubt now too. Hmm, for his sake at least, I am beginning to wonder if it might not be all bad if he were traded to a team who would give commit him to starting.

 

SFF

[LVSoxFan]

Deal him.

 

KEEP THE FIVE ALIVE.

 

We need smallball "O" and speed--i.e., something instead of Podsednik. Bmac can buy us that.

 

Our starters will be fine next year, rested and healed.

 

BMac's a question mark. They're not.

[Steve9347]

We will see what happens... personally, I'd like to see B-Mac in the 5th starters spot, but having a vet around who could step in in case he does in fact suck balls would be key.

[Balta1701]

Here's my take...

 

If we were to trade McCarthy, I think it's basically an admission that at the end of 2008, we're going to wind up having to do a Cleveland-level rebuilding project.

 

In the next 2 years, a huge chunk of our team will hit free agency. Dye, Thome, Buehrle, Garcia, Vazquez, Garland, MacDougal, Crede, Uribe, Iguchi, and probably a few others. We simply can not afford to keep each and every one of those guys. So where does that leave us? That leaves us either having to let some of them go and fill in the gaps with younger, cheaper players to try to still be competitive in 2008 and 2009, or that leaves us letting nearly all of them walk in 2008 and finding ourselves with Konerko, Jenks, AJ, Contreras, and whoever we get by trading a McCarthy remaining.

 

If we want to be competitive every year, we just can't afford to let guys like McCarthy go. They're too cheap. We just can not sustain a $140 million payroll.

[Steve9347]

Deal him.

 

KEEP THE FIVE ALIVE.

 

We need smallball "O" and speed--i.e., something instead of Podsednik. Bmac can buy us that.

 

Our starters will be fine next year, rested and healed.

 

BMac's a question mark. They're not.

 

ha. yeah. javier vazquez's inability to put together a complete season since he left Montreal mean's nothing... and lets all just assume Freddy Garcia will be fine because he's had two good starts... oh and Mark Buehlre will magically figure things out, and Jose Contreras will go back to the form that he held for what? 4 months?

 

give me a break... saying our five starters aren't a question mark is dumb.

[LVSoxFan]

Isn't this always kinda the case, though, unless you suck?

 

Like with the Bulls... I guess it depends how long you want to keep the champs intact before you start over. And that depends on how much you're convinced they have another one in 'em.

 

I don't think anybody at the beginning of this season doubted that this lineup could repeat, and they shouldn't have. Didn't quite work out, but I'd really like to give it another go before we go back to square one.

 

I hope our high expectations don't blind us to the fact that it's really, really, hard to repeat.

[RockRaines]

Keeping BMAC allows us the financial stabliity to take on another contract and aquire some pieces for the future. He is basically one of our only home grown SP prospects who could make the rotation.

[LVSoxFan]

ha. yeah. javier vazquez's inability to put together a complete season since he left Montreal mean's nothing... and lets all just assume Freddy Garcia will be fine because he's had two good starts... oh and Mark Buehlre will magically figure things out, and Jose Contreras will go back to the form that he held for what? 4 months?

 

give me a break... saying our five starters aren't a question mark is dumb.

 

Really? In your scenario we then need to accept that last year was just a fluke. In the course of one season, Freddy now sucks, Buehrle sucks, Contreras is a wobbly ship. The only unknown was Vasquez.

 

Sorry, but it's clear to anybody that when you lose that much velocity (Freddy), you're hurt. It's not that he's just a lazy sonofab****. Even Buehrle's struggles SCREAM injury, contrary to his comments. The Javy thing is all over the place because even with the Big Inning (and who used to have those?) there were plenty of times where our offense went to sleep and couldn't overcome minor leads while he was pitching. Sorry, if the "O" can't overcome a two run deficit with Javy on the mound, that's not Javy's fault.

 

And don't tell me that Contreras started all of a sudden throwing sidearm only if he wasn't hurt.

 

Fine. I'll take these five against whatever you think it is that is going to be better any day. BMac? Now who's being dumb?

[Steve9347]

Really? In your scenario we then need to accept that last year was just a fluke. In the course of one season, Freddy now sucks, Buehrle sucks, Contreras is a wobbly ship. The only unknown was Vasquez.

 

Mm. No.

 

My scenario simply states that assuming they will all revert back to 2005 form (sans Vazquez) is idiocy.

 

To say that they aren't question marks just lacks common knowledge of baseball. If everyone who had a bad season reverted back to their greatness the year before, then you would still see a lot of headlines on Jose Lima...

 

Saying something is a question mark is not saying that these pitchers now suck and must be written off. I was simply disagreeing with your bogus statement that our five starters are not question-marks, but Brandon McCarthy is...

[LVSoxFan]

Perhaps I worded it too vaguely. They've ALL had question marks this season at one point or another, whereas last year they did not.

 

IMO injuries are what plagued the starters this year (save for Vasquez) and we just didn't hear too much about it. We will soon.

 

So, who's the bigger question mark? An injured Garcia, or BMac?

 

That's my point.

 

I don't think anybody will "revert" to 2005 dominance necessarily, but certainly I do think, yes, they will be better than this year.

 

I'm also just talking injury and not even taking fatigue into account. Don't tell me that you didn't notice some of them looked tired this year, too. In fact, not long after Buehrle's meltdown began with that horrific Cubs game, the Sun-Times had a piece where they were asking scouts about the White Sox' chances. When it got to Buehrle, the first thing out of the guy's mouth was "He looks tired." And that was in July!

 

I am just not sold on BMac and I personally am tired of us passing on players because we've got this alleged magic bullet just ready to start, whom we won't trade.

Edited September 20, 2006 by LVSoxFan

[Steve9347]

yeah, but you say injuries like its a known fact... aside from Jose Contreras, there has been no documented injury in this rotation...

 

Freddy says that his velocity is down because of the WBC and he is "hurt"... could just be politics trying to stay in Chicago.

 

No definite, documented injuries can point to the following ERA's.

 

Jon Garland: 4.30

Mark Buehrle: 4.79

Javier Vazquez: 4.70

Freddy Garcia: 4.63

 

oh, and in his unfamiliar role, McCarthy had a better WHIP this season than Garland and Buehrle...

 

 

just don't use unknown and rumored injuries as reasons to write off the 2006 season as a fluke for these pitchers. im not a huge McCarthy supporter, and I love our top 4 (Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, Contreras) as much as anyone... I'm just saying that there are question marks.

 

I'm not against trading B-Mac however... he has a lot of value right now, and if he can be packaged to get the right guy, I'm all about it. However, the players we have "passed" on that included B-Mac in the rumor were AJ Burnett, Miguel Tejada (though no real trade was ever out there) and Alfonso Soriano, none of which would have helped our pitching staff this season.

Edited September 20, 2006 by Steve9347

[LVSoxFan]

yeah, but you say injuries like its a known fact... aside from Jose Contreras, there has been no documented injury in this rotation...

 

Okay now who's being naive? I'm not saying Freddy is hurt: my baseball fanatic, expert co-worker called that MONTHS ago. While everybody was insisting that he was healthy. You do NOT lose that kind of velocity in one season just because.

 

Freddy mentioning it this week was merely an "Aha!" moment, not my basis for this claim.

 

No definite, documented injuries can point to the following ERA's.

 

Jon Garland: 4.30

Mark Buehrle: 4.79

Javier Vazquez: 4.70

Freddy Garcia: 4.63

 

What kind of standard must we have here? "Documented"? Come on. I'm no expert--admittedly--but even I could tell you most of these guys looked tired this year (save for Vaz or Garland). And again: are you really making the claim that Contreras switched exclusively to sidearm (when he dominated all first half with three different angles) because... well, just because?

 

oh, and in his unfamiliar role, McCarthy had a better WHIP this season than Garland and Buehrle...

just don't use unknown and rumored injuries as reasons to write off the 2006 season as a fluke for these pitchers. im not a huge McCarthy supporter, and I love our top 4 (Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, Contreras) as much as anyone... I'm just saying that there are question marks.

 

I don't know what we're arguing about here. All I'm saying is I think it would be rash to start hacking up the starting lineup and, in the same breath, thinking that BMac is just Greg Maddux waiting to happen. I know you're not saying that, but some people seem to believe this.

 

I'm not against trading B-Mac however... he has a lot of value right now, and if he can be packaged to get the right guy, I'm all about it. However, the players we have "passed" on that included B-Mac in the rumor were AJ Burnett, Miguel Tejada (though no real trade was ever out there) and Alfonso Soriano, none of which would have helped our pitching staff this season.

 

I agree; however, even when the pitching held up the end of the deal in the final stretch here--as they pretty much have--it was our lack of offense that did us in. So I wonder if that BMac/Soriano thing would have made the difference.

 

Acknowledging, of course, that hindsight is 20/20. In the end, I still trust Ozzie/KW and what they decide. I hardly am going to jump ship on them because we did not repeat. Our expectations were extremely high.

 

Just too much went wrong with this year for me to start dismantling the team, that's all I'm saying.

 

I think it just wasn't our year.

[The Ginger Kid]

Deal him.

 

KEEP THE FIVE ALIVE.

 

We need smallball "O" and speed--i.e., something instead of Podsednik. Bmac can buy us that.

 

Our starters will be fine next year, rested and healed.

 

BMac's a question mark. They're not.

[elrockinMT]

Players have bad years. We have had some real ups and downs with our pitching, but thinking that we have to trade away any one of our five starters may be a knee jerk. It hasn't just been the starters as our relief corp has failed too. We see good starting pitching and bad relief pitching and vice versa. And at other times they all click well. I am starting to think we should hold on to what we have unless the deal blows us away. Plus I am not certain B Mac is ready for full-time starting duty.

[Rowand44]

Players have bad years. We have had some real ups and downs with our pitching, but thinking that we have to trade away any one of our five starters may be a knee jerk.

It's not knee jerk at all, Kenny has been saying all year that we need a spot next year in the rotation for Brandon.

[Balta1701]

It's not knee jerk at all, Kenny has been saying all year that we need a spot next year in the rotation for Brandon.

If anything, the knee-jerk reaction would be to respond to how BMac has performed this month pitching from the bullpen and decide to not open a rotation spot for him or trade him entirely based on that.

[kwolf68]

Wonder why the same ideas aren't applied equally to our current starting staff, most of which have pitched terribly inconsistent this year, likely costing the World Champions a right to defend their title.