You Call This An Offense?

by PaulieK14 on May 2, 2008 8:58 PM CDT

I was skeptical of the naysayers last year when they said the Sox lineup was getting old and starting to underachieve. Then, 2007 ended and I thought it couldn't get any worse. After tonight's 2-0 loss to Toronto, I'm starting to think the Sox just might be a lineup that's getting old and underachieve too consistently. Sure, we knew Crede and AJ were going to come back down to earth, but no one has picked it up in their place since the opening game of the Yankees series where they stranded 13 runners. I can handle a couple games here and there where pitchers have our number, but when we start calling these games similar to Greg Smith, Sonnanstine, Burres, and Marcum, where do the Sox draw the line? The first month saw a game get taken from us in Cleveland, a blown save with 1 strike to go get away from us, and a dumb squeeze play take 3 wins away from us. The Sox could've easily been 17-10 in the month of April. But it seems the team is regressing more and more and not backing what has been a very solid rotation and decent bullpen up to date. If this offense doesn't "bounce back" like it was supposed to all last year, a fire sale could be imminent even before July 31st gets here. This is not White Sox hitting we're seeing, and if it continues, the season may be gone by the end of the 10 game west coast road trip...

0 recs | Comment 34 comments | Add your comment

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

There will be no fire sale

Who teams would want you don’t want to give up, and those you want to give up no one wants, or have NTCs. Besides, this team is built to win this year. KW doesn’t rebuild, just reloads.

by Brush Back on May 2, 2008 9:05 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Also, Kind Of On A Side Note

I saw Danny Richar was supposed to be starting baseball activity as of yesterday. Any word on his progress and timetable to get some at bats in Charlotte?

by PaulieK14 on May 2, 2008 9:15 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Huh?

What the fuck does this sentence even mean?

“I can handle a couple games here and there where pitchers have our number, but when we start calling these games similar to Greg Smith, Sonnanstine, Burres, and Marcum, where do the Sox draw the line?”

I’m pretty sure you’re trying to tell me that those four pitchers aren’t any good—am I right? I feel like I’m reading a foreign language here. If that’s the case, then I think you’re way off track. Marcum is a great pitcher capable of dominating any lineup. His stuff was on tonight, and while I think your criticism of our offense is valid and justifiable, even the best lineups in the majors get shut down now and then.

I’m sick of reading pessimistic shit like this. There’s already an article on the main page talking about the Sox’s offense woes, why is this necessary?

"P.S. if Cintron gets traded or released I will buy drinks for the whole board" - tubesox 6/24/07

by mjthor on May 3, 2008 1:30 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

As Foreign A Language As...

“Who teams would want you don’t want to give up, and those you want to give up no one wants”???

My point about the 4 pitchers is that the tired phrase of we got “Sonnanstine’d” or “Greg Smith’d” is getting old and tiring. Pessimism is well deserved after the offense has taken a plummet since the end of week 2 for the most part. It’s also well deserved after last season’s disaster of an offense that was to “eventually get better.”

Swish can’t get on base anymore which is his MO, Dye is clearly hurt, Crede & AJ are coming back down to earth, it seems like everyone is getting days off, thus putting 3 hitless batters @ 7-9 in the lineup, and it’s starting to hurt the pitching staff that is more than doing their part.

As for this Fanpost, I made it BEFORE the article that’s on the main page, and the reason it’s necessary is because we all KNOW the Sox offense is better than this, but it’s not coming to fruition, and hasn’t been for a while now, and I’m worried before too long it’ll be too late before we turn it around, ala the 10 game west coast trip that never treats us well.

Is that good enough reason for pessimism?

by PaulieK14 on May 3, 2008 1:43 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

I'm not sure what that sentence means, either.

"P.S. if Cintron gets traded or released I will buy drinks for the whole board" - tubesox 6/24/07

by mjthor on May 3, 2008 12:51 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

I think I would be more concened with

Who teams would want you don’t want to give up, and those you want to give up no one wants.

Then again does any of it matter.

"I have no idea of what the rotation might be, ... Ask me tomorrow."

by rangerjae on May 3, 2008 4:34 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Last night was enough to make you puke...

2 hits by one player and 11 strikeouts. I would question how anyone could believe in this offense after that display but we were facing a future Cy Young Award winner afterall.

by SSH2005 on May 3, 2008 7:23 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Flash Backs

In this 3 game skid I’m seeing flash backs of …should I dare say it ” last year ”. They need to maybe stop counting the money and start playing the game!!

IT'S TIME FOR A RING !!!!!

by capt.hotrod on May 3, 2008 8:42 AM CDT reply reply 0 recs

I'm sure counting the money is the problem

i can just picture JD sitting there and thinking to himself “hmm… i have this contract that is guaranteed to pay me all this money if i play or not, so since i’m not feeling well today, i’m gonna go out there and try to play.” i’m sure we could talk about how they have aging players on the down slope of their careers or how the Sox have players who are prone to nagging injuries (Crede, Dye, Thome) making up an important part of their lineup. But lets not talk about that stuff. i want to hear about 25 guys taking 25 cabs to 25 banks so they can sit there and count their money

by whitesoxmatt on May 3, 2008 10:11 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

you're close.

but the rumor is that the 25 guys take 25 cabs to only 1 bank so they can all count their money and laugh at the fans TOGETHER!

Repeat after me: reading comprehension, even a little bit of thought before posting, and basic research are not signs of weakness.

by Toonderstrook on May 3, 2008 10:35 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

actually

i just found out that its actually 25 guys taking 25 LIMOS to the bank because they have so much money

by whitesoxmatt on May 3, 2008 10:45 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

except for Buehrle's beast of a truck

which runs over and crushes the limos to get the best parking space.

Mosi Tatupu! Mosi Tatupu!

by Nordhagen on May 3, 2008 11:22 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

The only thing they are laughing at is

how much KW payed them for what they do. (the money has nothing to do with their abiilities or desires on the field)

by Brush Back on May 3, 2008 10:45 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

of course it's an offense

an offense against sox fans that is!

The greatest trick the White Sox ever pulled was convincing their fan base that "Ozzieball" ever existed.

by The Wizard on May 3, 2008 1:21 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Instead of partying like its 2005

we are praying it’s not 2007.

I am having massive deja vu and although the small improvements helped in the beginning, where is that help now? I felt as if anytime the Sox would play, they would win in early April. Now I feel like I’m watching the highlight reel of ‘07 (lowlight.)

Is there any hope fellow Sox fans

"I have no idea of what the rotation might be, ... Ask me tomorrow."

by rangerjae on May 3, 2008 4:32 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

ozzie ball

ozzie ball never existed. ozzie ball should be just plain fundamental baseball, you know little leauge stuff all the things they are not doing, like just putting the bat on the damn ball or hit and runs , bunt’s etc. this team is and has been built on home run’s and you live and die by the long ball,and right now we are dying by the long ball.

by sox freak 1 on May 4, 2008 11:35 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Nope! Abandon ship! The SS Kenny Williams is sinking! Greg Walker, why did’nt you spot that iceberg?

by SoxfaninAZ on May 4, 2008 4:02 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Only enough lifeboats for the younger or productive players! Leave the old overpaid players on board!

by SoxfaninAZ on May 4, 2008 4:06 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

skid

The skid is now 5 games, I need to buy some stock in anti-acid ! What’s even worst the Flubs are leading MLB in the runs scored area.

IT'S TIME FOR A RING !!!!!

by capt.hotrod on May 4, 2008 8:23 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

offensive

this offense is making me sick. i would rather see a team full of young players and a couple of veterans than mostly veterens who cannot hit the fucking baseball. at least a young team would have some sort of excuse for lack of or poor offense. the stuff i am hearing now is total bullshit. this team needs to rebuild. look at what arizona has done and is doing mostly with very young tallent.

by sox freak 1 on May 4, 2008 11:29 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

You can't rebuild...

Look what Oak is going through this year with their re-building… err, ohh

by Brush Back on May 5, 2008 9:05 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Yeah, Big Hurt was quite finished when cut by the Devil Jays

I took the "under".

by winningugly on May 5, 2008 9:21 AM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

We are still just unlucky!!! BABIP!!!

by SSH2005 on May 5, 2008 2:44 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

What is so hard to understand about this?

the average BABIP, as explained by colin, is LD% + .120. So, this means that over 1 out of 8 non-line drives will fall in for a hit, since not every line drive is a hit.

Now, you could be arguing that we’re not hitting enough line drives. But, you never say that. However, I believe that our LD% of 15.4% is fine and close to average for our players. This means that our BABIP should be around .274. Give or take some of that because some line drives are hit right at people and the number of weakly hit balls luckily placed.

I don’t know why you refuse to buy into this. I bet you believe that Eduardo Perez would make everything better still. Except I dont know what you think because you come on here complaining and never making an actual argument besides bitching and moaning about the offense.

It is better to be thought of as a fool, rather than open your mouth to remove all doubt

by whitesoxmatt on May 5, 2008 3:23 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Is striking out unlucky? Is making an average pitcher look like Cy Young unlucky?

Not that I know of…

by SSH2005 on May 5, 2008 3:29 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

I'm saying that on average

on balls that balls that are hit into play, the white sox should be batting .024 higher than they currently are. That variation is due to luck. So, yes, they are unlucky because maybe its just me, but a .274 looks a lot better than .250. It’s the difference of about 2 hits per 3 games. It might not be a huge difference, but yes, there is a degree of unluckiness.

Now, I am done with this and will go back to ignoring your constant negativity and whining.

It is better to be thought of as a fool, rather than open your mouth to remove all doubt

by whitesoxmatt on May 5, 2008 3:34 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

9 runs in the last 5 games...

This offense sucks donkey dick. I am just stating the obvious. How is that being negative or whining?

by SSH2005 on May 5, 2008 3:45 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

when they scored 45 over 6 games earlier in the season,

did you say the offense was great? or if they were to run off another string like that, would you? probably not, because you think the offense sucks regardless. and that’s fine. but don’t say the offense is terrible based on a 6 game stretch.

Repeat after me: reading comprehension, even a little bit of thought before posting, and basic research are not signs of weakness.

by Toonderstrook on May 5, 2008 3:53 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

They weren't really hitting much the entire season...

The reason they were scoring runs was because of walks.

by SSH2005 on May 5, 2008 3:57 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

they had over 10 hits in 3 of those games.

but fine, so they were scoring runs because they were taking walks. regardless, scoring runs is the name of the game, right? if so, you can’t have it both ways. lack of hits does not necessarily equal donkey-dick sucking offense.

Repeat after me: reading comprehension, even a little bit of thought before posting, and basic research are not signs of weakness.

by Toonderstrook on May 5, 2008 4:11 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Here's the flaw in your logic

baseball is the name of the game, not scoring runs.

Besides, hasn’t anyone ever told you that clubhouse morale is what wins games?

Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

by rhythm on May 5, 2008 5:17 PM CDT up reply reply 0 recs

Bottom Line Is

Cabrera was a .300 hitter last year with almost 200 hits and he is a career .720 OPS and is .569 this season. Not gonna cut it.

Swisher’s Slug% is down from a career .455 to .324 this year. Also, not gonna cut it.

Quentin’s success cannot trump those 2 occurrences.

I wouldn’t have a problem with it if the pitching and bullpen weren’t pitching so much better this season as opposed to the past 2.

As for it just being baseball, I completely agree. At some point these hitters have to play the game and hopefully the offense will come around, before the pitching reverts back to its old ways. I’m still worried that this needs to turn around quickly before that 10 game west coast trip because no matter how well we are playing, we never fare well out west.

by PaulieK14 on May 5, 2008 5:31 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs

Relax (Coming from me, a hated Cubs fan)

I understand all these problems you guys think and know the Sox have right now. MY advice be patient. I cannot see this team finishing even close to as bad the 07 team finished. In fact this team reminds me a lot of that “good” Cubs team last year that made the playoffs. The 07 Cubs, not a great team by any means, started out with a horrible offense and finished April with a very similar record as the 08 Sox, they turned things around and took the division. The AL Central is not what it was (I do not know why, but it seems weaker than last year) ,relax, Thome will come around, Quentin is a stud, and Dye and Paulie will start hitting more. Also, I can see the Sox trying to get Brian Roberts from the Orioles. I guess the point to my post is, things can only get better and it is really early in the season. The Sox are still my pick to win the division. F#ck the Tigers.

by PieFan08 on May 6, 2008 3:20 PM CDT reply reply 0 recs