I don’t mind swearing, but didn’t want it in 24 pt font on the top of the site

It’s frustrating to see such excellent pitching wasted repeatedly, and to be honest after the end of today’s game I was very slightly tempted to post that the Sox should DFA Swisher and have Crede carry his bags. But, I then proceeded to play (and lose) a truly excellent pickup soccer game to a bunch of 5 year olds which helped restore my sense of proportionality.

The Sox basically have no options to improve their offense. They don’t have minor leaguers to trade with Fields hurt and they can’t bring up Fields (with him hurt). The Sox have to hope Swisher can turn himself around…I think Thome and Konerko are what they are at this—I don’t expect either to improve the rest of the year. What I would do is this:

1) Hit Swisher 2nd…I’m not a big believer in order juggling mysticism, but what the hell. Plus he ha shown OBP skills in the past, so it might work.

2) Play Ramirez instead of Uribe. I know I just agreed with Cheat that there’s little difference between the two, but Ramirez is actually hot right now. Play until he cools off and then play him a little longer to see if he gets hot again. His OBP will be bad, but still maybe better than Uribe and I’d rather see that than power.

3) Get Fields healthy and bring him up. Have him take at-bats from Thome against LHP and Crede as well.

That’s it. There’s not much else that can be done.

On the other hand, why is the Mendoza line exerting gravity proportional to our expectations for our best hitters? For veterans who’ve long established their hitting acumen, it’s just bizarre.

Sounds like you had a good time talking with the old man. Too bad you couldn’t bring home a winner, ugly.

This team is very frustrating to keep track of, but I agree with the consensus, pretty much the only option is to stick with the players they’ve got and hope it works out. Sheesh.

Even if it is just shuffling deck chairs, can we bring back the “Fire Greg Walker” campaign? Maybe these guys would respond to new blood, but it’s really more for my shits and giggles.

I may have seen you on the tubes yesterday. Was your Dad sitting to your right, both of you wearing Sox jerseys and hats? He with sun glasses around his neck?

Anyway, despite the outcome, I’m glad you had a good time with the old man/men.

Link:

But the AL scouting director said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Sox take Arizona State’s Brett Wallace, a left-handed-hitting infielder, if Beckham has already been selected.

Wallace, the 2007 Pac-10 Player of the Year, was batting .415 with 21 homers and 81 RBIs in 58 games. ASU coach Pat Murphy moved the 6-foot-1-inch, 245-pound Wallace from first to third base this season.

The scouting director believes Wallace could turn out to be a better hitter than Alonso or South Carolina first baseman Justin Smoak.

Obviously, we haven’t been hitting well. I don’t need Ozzie pointing it out, and I don’t need to come to SSS to figure that out either. Having said that:
1. The Sox are in first place.
2. Five teams in MLB (only two in the AL) are .500 or better on the road, and the Sox are one of them.
3. The Sox have played 22 home games and 34 road games to this point.
4. The Twins have played 31 home games and 25 road games.
5. The Indians have played 32 home games and 24 road games.
Heaven forbid, I’m actually going to feel pretty good about this team right now and enjoy them. The funny thing is that had the Sox won yesterday by a score of 4-3, everybody would be fine, Kenny and Ozzie would be hugging, sports radio would be singng their praises and we all might be appreciating how much better this team has played this year than most of us anticipated.

’’Very interesting, very disappointing,’’ Williams said. ’’It’s never a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had his back as much as I have. I guess that lineup will be real interesting to see on Tuesday.”

In other words, don’t expect any changes.

...if only Swish, Thome and PK were hitting a reasonable .250 we’d be winning these games w/ all those RISP. But now it’s like we’re driving with a flat tire. Happy to see BA not crap his pants at the plate yesterday and contribute. Thome looks old and slow. PK is hurting. Think we should stand pat for now and fatten up on KC.

Are you aware that Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye and Joe Crede rank 3rd, 18th and 26th in the AL in OPS?

Crede leads AL 3b in OPS (Arod was hurt). Joe Crede’s .800 OPS is good for an OPS+ of 115. In ‘06 his OPS of .829 was good for an OPS+ of 107. We have 2 of the top 20, 3 of the top 30 and 5 of the top 40 hitters in the AL by OPS. Our .727 team OPS is 6th in the league. The point is that offense is really down in the AL. So far this is a different run scoring environment. We’re actually quite average on offense.

As far as “clutchness” or batting average with runners in scoring position. Yes, it’s incredibly frustraing to watch, but it happens. Either you don’t believe in clutch and this is just a random variation around a mean amount of “clutchness”, or you do believe in clutch and thus eventually “clutch” players like Joe and Paulie will come around. Either way you have to believe this poor team wide performance with RISP will soon abate.

Swisher has never had an OPS+ less than 100. He is not, at age 27, going to continue to post an OPS+ of 74. The lack of home games has already been described.

Plain and simple it’s a slump. They’ll come out of it and resume being an average offense. If the pitching holds up we’ll be fine.

Mark Gonzales wrote:

The only players who appear immune to major changes are A.J. Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Carlos Quentin, Cabrera and Alexei Ramirez, who appears to have seized the starting second base job from Juan Uribe.

i’m terrified that ozzie’s dramatic shakeup will just involve playing ozuna more.

Sitting Q! when they have an off day today? When a split would have made everyone feel a whole lot better? That’s just idiotic.

Does he really expect Kenny to be on the phone today and have fresh talent on the field tomorrow night?

On the upside, they have 18 to play with KC! And, other than the 6 games with the Shlubs this month, things look pretty promising vs. KC, MN, Detroit, Pirates and Dodgers. If they can’t make up some ground in June, then they don’t have what it takes this year.

My thoughts for a “shake up” would be a pep talk by Chuck Norris, followed by an MME match between Chuck and Q!

If THAT doesn’t get the troops fired up, I don’t know what would.

I think Ozzies little rant is a stroke of genius and a move that could pay off later in the season. The offense has been brutal, Ozzie aint lyin, but we’re still in first. After an offseason of playing it safe in free agency this rant puts enormous pressure on KW to add a solid player. If he doesnt make a move then the “Ozzie was right” sentiment, not to mention future rants of frustration will increase. KW cant wimp out especially with the heart of the order staring the Mendoza line right in the face… As a fan I like the so called outbursts, at least he cares enough to be upset.

I’m very impressed with A. Ramirez and expect him to be leading off soon. I think we need a center fielder. can Ramirez play center?