Mea Culpas for ALL!

[WCSox]

I would never put those 2 together. Garland had back to back 18 win seasons

 

Garland had one really outstanding season and has been an average middle-of-the-rotation pitcher outside of that. His second 18-win season had more to do with his supporting offense than his pitching.

 

and pitched complete games in the post season.

 

Jon pitched ONE complete playoff game.

 

Vaz seems to s*** his pants in even remotely big games and tops out at 16 wins (I know wins don't mean that much, but back to back 18 is no fluke).

 

Agreed that Jon is a better pitcher than Javy, but not by much. And LOL at the "no fluke" comment. GMAFB.

 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

I don't generally make predictions about individuals. I did predict the team would need some of the young guys to come through just to reach .500. Well almost all the question marks have come through to this point (Quentin, Ramirez, Danks and Floyd) . I remember advocating trading Konerko also because I thought 1st base might be the only position Fields would be able to play and I wasn't thrilled about Swisher being the CF. Ramirez and Anderson had monster springs and I had hoped both of them would come through.

[Heads22]

I thought Swish would be better, Floyd and Dotel worse, and I wanted Alexei in AAA.

[joejoedairy]

i thought thome and contreras were going to suck.

[witesoxfan]

I think the theme is that everyone thought Swisher would have a better season than he has had. I don't know what I said about his average, but I am quite sure I felt strongly that he would have a power season similar to his 2006 season rather than anything similar to his 2007 season. So he's a disappointment.

 

I love and still do love Javy, and his outing tonight gave me a mild boner (even against the Royals, which is a lineup he will dominate almost regularly). Still, the thought of him being a ball-less pitcher who does not pitch well under pressure still resides under me, though I do have faith him in and he'd have a spot in any rotation I'd ever build. He's a fantastic #3-4, but to count on him to be a #2 on a contending team's rotation is wrong; from everything I've seen of him in a Sox uniform, he doesn't generally perform well until the team is coming from behind or the team is dead, hence his breakthrough from August and beyond in '06, his fantastic season last year when the Sox lost 90 games, and his struggles this year as the Sox are in a monstrous battle for 1st and 2nd. It sucks, but he starts in game #4 for me in the postseason. So that's a (huge) disappointment. It's still not out of the question for this one to be reversed...he just has to be less of a #4 and more of a #2...meaning he'll be a #3 at year's end (with an ERA anywhere between 3.75 and 4.25...it's at 4.50 at the end of the night, so it's not unreasonable).

 

And I do love Javy.

 

I was wrong on Quentin - I figured he was a #7 hitter and never saw the "TCQ" quote ever before like June. Disappointement as it may be, I saw Quentin contributing...just not as an MVP candidate. I'll take being wrong in that regard, so long as the rest of the media gets over their love affair with heroin and the ability to recover from it.

 

 

I was also wrong on Alexei, and have said on this board (namely to AddisonStSox, who I was hoping would come back here and rub atleast something in my face). I did want him to get regular playing time somewhere, and the DL stint to Uribe was a super blessing in disguise. Yeah, superwrong...he has, perhaps, been the best hitter in the majors since June 1st, and I'm glad as hell for it...#6 in the lineup is perfect right now for Alexei. Hugely wrong on him.

 

I also had no understanding of how good Danks' cutter has been to him, and I hope that he will continue to perform well into September. I was comparing him here and everywhere to Jeriome Robertson, so seeing as how he's been one of the best pitchers in the league, I'll gladly eat that bowl full of crow. I hope he holds up until late October.

 

I didn't see Gavin having the season he's had, but I've always been one of his biggest supporters, and even though I envisioned him having a 4.50-5.00 ERA, I think I'm good since I atleast thought he'd be solid in that regard. I won't count it.

 

I was wrong on Konerko, as I never expected a season as poorly as his...underachieving is natural though, so I'll take his as me being wrong due to the laws of averages. Someone on this offense had to regress, and it may as well have been one of the most obvious candidates who no one gave any regression to. I still wouldn't deal him in the offseason for anything that you wouldn't give up for an .850 OPS 1Bman. Eric Karros name does resound loudly in my ear though.

 

I hated the Linebrink signing, thinking he was what he was with the Brewers last season. Yeah, he has been the f***ing cog in the bullpen, and it's been terrible since he's been injured. I want Linebrink back. It's still not a great long-term move, but it's not an immovable contract by any means...and, if anything, it tells you that KW will give long term deals to relievers with ease, but not to starting pitchers because, generally, relievers command fewer dollars and are still movable with absurd deals, whereas starters with similar deals - ala Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, Barry Zito - are not nearly as movable.

 

I predicted the Sox would be near .500...I think I predicted 83-85 wins, somewhere in the neighborhood, but never predicted Danks and Floyd would be as good as they have been. I figured this year was, as some have mentioned, a good transitional period and it would be a building block where the Sox would be competitive but nothing near a division winning team. I was apparently wrong.

 

(and this is nothing compared to what I said prior to the Swisher trade, where I was fully for a complete rebuilding and said the Sox were no where near a competitive team and that KW should, essentially, be fired because he believed they were competitive (they signed ERSTAD as if he were a good player). I was wrong and I believe, at this moment in time, that this team will be playoff bound, though their progress throughout the playoffs will be determined by how good the offense is performing going into it)

 

There are likely others I missed, but whatever...I will say that, looking at the peripheral numbers, you (whoever wants him) should be happy you have Javy rather than Garland, because I fully believe that Garland would have a much higher ERA than Javy would right now and I'm glad KW traded him when he did.

Edited August 13, 2008 by witesoxfan

[shipps]

When we had the vote of who would have the lowest era among the staff I voted Boone.

[Jake]

I thought Swisher was going to be our main run producer or close to it...I also felt that BA earned his spot in ST (which he did, but over CQ not Swish)