Numbers that won't be appearing on Greg Walker's resume

by The Cheat on Apr 16, 2007 12:53 AM CDT in White Sox News

Presented without comment.

Since GS IP W L QS H ER HR BB K ERA Santana (7/01/04) 14 102.1 10 2 14 61 16 10 19 109 1.41 Sabathia (5/02/06) 7 48 6 0 6 37 10 4 15 46 1.88 ========================================================================== 21 150.1 16 2 20 98 26 14 34 155 1.56

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Kenny deserves some blame as well

After seeing how complimentary the Indians bench is to their starters -- they're running platoons all over with Michaels, Delluci, Blake, Garkko, Nixon -- I can't help but think the Sox might have a couple more victories already if Hall and Perez were on the 25 man roster.

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Apr 16, 2007 1:03 AM CDT reply actions

I think Williams is most to blame...

I think KW is substantially more adept at his job than Ozzie is his, but this roster leads to simply abysmal lineups against lefties. Mack doesn't play any position that isn't covered by another player. I like Mack, but someone from the Ozuna/Cintron/Mack triumvirate needed to be shipped off to make way for a decent righty bat.

I actually think the worst roster move is Pods. Forget whether or not he can get on base. His inability to CF hamstrings the roster. The Sox want defense in CF and end up with 2 weak hitting OFs. The Sox need a leadoff hitter that plays 2B or CF. And then they need a real bat in LF (preferably a string right-handed one).

by hitlesswonder on Apr 16, 2007 9:41 AM CDT up reply actions

I refuse to believe those numbers are real

because those are unreal.

by wite on Apr 16, 2007 1:46 AM CDT reply actions

Yeah

Their love fest for slappy hitters and LH hitters has crippled this lineup. I thought it was odd when they added Thome and Mackowiak when they already had Pods, AJ, and Gload batting LH. Then they added Erstad this offseason.

With the main RH's struggling, what can you expect out of a lineup that features 4 automatic outs (if not more) vs LHP?

Why is Greg Walker even the hitting coach? Have Harold take over.

by RME JICO on Apr 16, 2007 7:33 AM CDT reply actions

That title alone made me LOL

Sweet Home Sports

by james@lifeinthecell on Apr 16, 2007 7:57 AM CDT reply actions

I'm really tired

of the defeatist attitude the Sox have--initiated by Ozzie, perpetuated by the ass clowns up in the announcing booth--that Sabathia and Santana are unbeatable. Every time the Sox face them, they seem to wave the white flag before the game even begins. And then they say, 'well, we lost. But what do you expect? It was Santana. It was Sabathia." These guys are good--great--but by no means unhittable. And I don't even care so much about the lefty/lefty matchups...it's not unthinkable for a left-handed batter to hit left-handed hitting. Enough excuses. If the Sox want to win, they need to be able to beat good pitchers.

by southsider80 on Apr 16, 2007 8:12 AM CDT reply actions

I agree.

Although I wouldn't say Hawk and DJ perpetuate anything to the players, since the players probably don't paying the slightest attention to what those fools are saying. But, yes, there is a complete lack of confidence when we face these guys.

by defensive indifference on Apr 16, 2007 9:39 AM CDT up reply actions

Thats what gets me the most

I have never seen an organization that praises the opposition more. For once I would like to hear someone say, "No more, we are going to fix this". Instead, we get Ozzie spouting off jokes about his mom poisoning the food of Johan. Give me a break. Those numbers make me sick.

by Tony82087 on Apr 16, 2007 11:02 AM CDT up reply actions

Continuing...

I'm tird of tipping our caps. "Well, it's Santana, gotta tip your cap." Enough. We're in the business of winning, not stepping aside and letting every team in the Central leap frog over us because they have tough lefties. Lord knows what's in store for this team when Rogers and Lee return from the DL. Santana and CC are good--but that just means the Sox need to be better.

by southsider80 on Apr 16, 2007 11:15 AM CDT up reply actions

Ditto

I was thinking it and you wrote it...thanks.

This team has at least 3 elite hitters in the line-up, so this crap about "Well, it's OK to lose this one because it's Santana" is indeed crap.

In just about every loss so far, even though the bats weren't "en fuego," there were opportunities to play small ball (a.k.a. Ozzie ball) - bunt a guy over, hit a sac fly, etc. - and they couldn't get the job done.

So, it wasn't ALL Sabathia or Santana. It was crap hitting execution and a myriad of Ozzie managing SNAFUs.

On the bright side, the pitching (for the most part) has been good or better than expected and the good hitters are going to hit. If they plan on hitting .225 all year as a team, we're in for a dismal season.

On the not-so-bright side, Ozzie's ego won't let him sit Erstad, so poor B.A. will continue to ride the pine and we'll be getting very little offensive production from Grindstad. Geez, B.A. could at least hit .260 if given a chance.

President - Johnny Dickshot Fan Club

by tailgater on Apr 16, 2007 3:35 PM CDT up reply actions

Poor roster construction

Poor roster construction evident yesterday when we had no right handed hitters to pinch hit against Sabathia late in the game and had to start Erstad (Ersterible). Hall injury made all the more painful watching Molina give up at bats.

by 19172005 on Apr 16, 2007 8:45 AM CDT reply actions

It's even worse . . .

if you add Kenny Rogers '06 numbers against the Sox to that list, last year he was 3-1 with a 0.82 ERA vs. the Sox in 5 starts (all QS of course), 33IP, 24HR, 7R (3ER), 1HR (Konerko in the first inning Rogers pitched against the Sox), 8BB, 14K, .202BAA. Just terrible.

by dotson34 on Apr 16, 2007 10:43 AM CDT reply actions

Just sick...

Chisox lead the league in self-fulfilling prophecies.

"Yeah, we suck against CC and Santana and everyone on the Tigers staff."

Yeah, and guess what happens when you keep spouting out that crapola...

by thekever on Apr 16, 2007 10:47 AM CDT reply actions

Exactly

they seemed resigned to a defeatist attitude. Like 'hey, what can we do?'

by southsider80 on Apr 16, 2007 11:00 AM CDT up reply actions

Important numbers...

AJ Pierzynski - .147/.237/.176
Joe Crede - .220/.256/.220
Darin Erstad - .189/.262/.270

Everyone else in the lineup has shown at least some signs of life, but the team will need to get more offensive production out of these three if they want to score any runs.

by The Jerry Royster Experience on Apr 16, 2007 10:53 AM CDT reply actions

Good God

Crede and AJ with SLG lower than their OBP.

by BustedFlush on Apr 16, 2007 12:25 PM CDT up reply actions

Not that big of a deal....

Cheat kind of cherrypicked Santana's stats by not including the first half of '04. We actually did pretty well against him in the first half of '04. And he pretty much dominated everybody in the second half of '04 (1.21 ERA against everbody after the break). So of course he dominated us.

I'm much more concerned about how we hit against everybody else than those two. The greatest evidence of that is the season that Santana dominated us the most by far, posting a .92 ERA against us for the whole yaer. You know what year that was? That's right 2005 and we know what happened that year.

The point isn't that I wish we did better against Santana it's that I can accept that we really struggle against the best pitcher in basbeball. Some players do worse against certain pitchers than others. I accept that we have a team full of those guys. That doesn't mean that I'm giving up or the team is giving up, that's just the way it is. All you can ask is that they try their best and I really believe that's what our players are doing.

I'm much more frustrated when we get shutdown by Paul Byrd.

I'm actually pretty happy with our start. There is no way we will continue to post a team OPS of .657. Even our worst recent offensive year we posted a .750 OPS. WE will hit and I like the way our pitching staff looks.

by bhoov on Apr 16, 2007 11:14 AM CDT reply actions

Opposite of last year?

Lets just hope they come together and we don't do a mirror image of last year - this year strong hitting second half, week pitching. (At some point the pitchers will start to get frustrated about no run support) I still think after the TX series the bats will start to heat up. (Here's hopings its during the TX series)

by Brush Back on Apr 16, 2007 11:25 AM CDT up reply actions

That's not cherry-picking

The first half of '04 was the last time Frank Thomas, Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez were all in the lineup, and they could all hit Santana.

Since they're long gone, their numbers don't apply to the current state of craptacularity.

Sox Machine

by Sox Machine on Apr 16, 2007 1:11 PM CDT up reply actions

sure

but who is left from our 2004 position players? three guys? kind of had a bit of turnover since then. any choice of date will look like cherry-picking; suffice to say, no matter who we have put out there recently, it hasn't been pretty.

by larry on Apr 16, 2007 1:21 PM CDT up reply actions

Can't decide if it's a big deal or not...

I mostly agree with bhoov's sentiments here. I'm actually fairly optimistic about this season. If our starting pitching continues the way it's been going, we should be in the hunt come October. Remember, Paul Byrd won the only game against the Sox in the 2005 postseason. He is our daddy!

Although we are not the only team to have trouble scoring against Santana and Sabathia, those two represent the extreme indicators of the problem that still plagues this team: it's inability to "manufacture" runs. Without the long-ball, this team is remarkably deficient in its ability to "get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in."

If something is going to change, this team has to rediscover situational hitting. I hate to say it, but I think that Thome is a liability in this context. We have become so enamored of the big fly, we lost sight of what got us to the promised land. I mean, Carl Everett was our DH in 2005. Hardly intimidating, but the guy seemed to get the job done. I often think we would have been better off keeping Gload as our DH.

We have a terribly slow line-up: Dye, Crede, AJ, Thome, Konerko - those are five members of the regular lineup who can barely move. It's not easy to hit & run in situations with guys who can barely get from first to third on a hit to the outfield. We're not in any better shape than when we had Carlos Lee, Maggs, and the hurting Hurt.

I also think Ozzie does a terrible job at managing this aspect of the game. Despite being the supposed master of "small ball," his teams don't seem to know how to hit sacrifice flies, don't know how to bunt, don't know how to hit & run, don't steal, and don't protect runners who are trying to steal. The only reason he got the "Ozzie Ball" moniker was because they replaced Lee with Pods, who had a great season in 2005, and Harris with Gooch, who also had a great '05.

The defense looks decent (minus the quagmire in left field), the bullpen is much improved (although I am not a Jenks devotee), and the starters seem to be growing a new set of cojones. Now, somebody please start getting on base!

by RustyJ on Apr 16, 2007 5:16 PM CDT up reply actions

We need some "Off-day Fun".

Something like who would win a hot dog eating contest: Big Bobby, Coop, or Tadahito. Or an in depth discussion on the art of the duck snort. Or...or a topic about the best drinks to pair with each of our starting pitchers (would Contreras throw better if we were all drinking Cuba Libres at home or at Jim's?). We can complain about Ozzie and BA's lovers quarrel later.

by defensive indifference on Apr 16, 2007 12:28 PM CDT reply actions

off-day fun

here

by The Wizard on Apr 16, 2007 12:39 PM CDT up reply actions

Hahaha.

Hat of Shame, indeed!

by defensive indifference on Apr 16, 2007 12:44 PM CDT up reply actions

not related, but important

mass shooting at Virginia Tech

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574

Go Badgers!

by shaftr on Apr 16, 2007 1:25 PM CDT reply actions

More fun with Walker

Discussing Sosa's comeback attempt:

"I don't think it's that difficult," Walker said. "Almost everyone in their career, sooner or later, goes through an injury year. Jim Thome came back. Darin Erstad missed last year, basically. I don't see any difference."

Yes, because when I think of players that came back from major injuries to produce offensively, Darin Erstad is obviously the next player you think of after Thome.

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http://hiphopnerd.com

by hiphopnerd on Apr 17, 2007 9:47 AM CDT reply actions

Wow...

Yes, because when I think of players...is obviously the next player you think of after Thome.

...that's some grindy sentence construction on my part.

--------------------------
http://hiphopnerd.com

by hiphopnerd on Apr 17, 2007 9:50 AM CDT up reply actions

this is getting ridiculous

by longdrive on Apr 17, 2007 9:57 AM CDT up reply actions

Isn't Sosa

coming back from not being wanted in major league baseball anymore? Is a wounded pride an injury?

by southsider80 on Apr 17, 2007 10:37 AM CDT up reply actions

I, too, see little difference between Thome

and Erstad. They are exactly the same.

by Dongfang Hong on Apr 17, 2007 11:09 AM CDT up reply actions

The Cubs just called up Felix Pie...

He will start in CF with Soriano out. I expect them to trade Jock Jones soon and let Pie take over CF with Soriano moving over to RF.

by SSH2005 on Apr 17, 2007 9:57 AM CDT reply actions

um

considering the cubs have absolutely no outfield depth, i rather doubt they're going to start trading any of their outfielders.

by larry on Apr 17, 2007 10:13 AM CDT up reply actions

What's the story on

Jack Egbert with AA Birmingham? This years stats are VVG.

by ballyb on Apr 17, 2007 10:29 AM CDT reply actions

Well when Soriano comes

back they'll have 5 guys who probably think they should be starting OF (Jones, Murton, Floyd, Pie, Soriano). I would think an outfield of Pie, Soriano and Murton with Floyd getting some AB would be just fine for them.

Of course this is all assuming that Pie is ready. He is destroying the PCL right now, but only 32 AB. Once he is ready (middle of '07?), it would seem that someone needs to go. If he's not ready until start of '08 when Jones is gone then it's not an issue.

by bhoov on Apr 17, 2007 10:32 AM CDT reply actions

View from Texas

Living here in the Dallas area, I can tell you the rumblings about the black hole in the middle of the line up with Sosa are already starting. Oddly enough, he's not seeing a diet of fastballs like the first 2 weeks of ST. He's flailing away at low, outside sliders and looks overmatched in general. Sound familiar?

If he sees a fastball anywhere but off the plate this series the pitcher should be yanked. (or sent to Venezuala for the winter). That will will show 'em.

by Tim from Texas on Apr 17, 2007 10:58 AM CDT reply actions