*Official* 9/24 Curse Giambi Here Postgamer

[Lemon44]

I was listening to the radio call for the last few innings. DJ had a great summation of Giambi's at bat. The last two pitches were curveballs/sliders down and in - the only place Giambi is still dangerous.

My question is, who called for the second offspeed pitch? Is anybody paying attention? A 42 year-old broken down ex-roider and he gets another pitch right were he wants it?

I know this is an awful season. But tonight's game and Saturday's 9th inning have me at an all time low.

BTW, that was career HR 438 for Giambi, which ties him with Andre Dawson and Adam Dunn.

[RCWHITESOX]

Between Reeds poor pitch selection Jones and Reed blowing a 6 run lead DeAza's poor baseball decisions, Ramirez's foggy play, and players such as Axelrod, Flowers, Jordan Danks, and others who don't even belong on a Major League Roster, poor fielding, poor hitting and poor decision making I can't wait for this horse---- season to end.

[blandman]

Originally Posted by Soxzilla

Please, he claims it was from medicine he was taking at the time, and he was 17-years-old. Has he had any positive tests since then?

Let's not even compare these two.

Please, Giambi is the only person in history to immediately cop to it afterwards. Everyone when they test positive or are implicated has an excuse...it was an accident, someone gave it to me, I didn't inform the league of the need of a medical waiver my shady Florida doctor prescribed....Giambi's the only one to say "yeah I did it and I'm sorry I was a piece of **** for it and I'll never do it again". You can believe whoever you want, but if you're gonna piss on Giambi, reality says you need to piss on anyone else every tied to banned substances. Especially those that tested positive.

[doublem23]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

Yes, Cooper. He's been one of the best pitching coaches for years, but Ventura and his coaching staff obviously need to go. The team needs a completely fresh start so Cooper has to go, too.

I don't view this as throwing out the coaching baby with the bath water. The pitchers, especially the bullpen, have seem to hit a wall. More of the team's pitchers have gotten worse this year than better. Ventura's handling of pitchers has been, at best, bad during his tenure, and Cooper is significantly responsible for that. Part of the poor handling has been pitching some pitchers too much. I'm not sure how anyone can defend Reed pitching, what, six games in a row when we're miles out of the race? Either Cooper was on board with that or he didn't do enough to prevent it. Either way, not good. Then you have Cooper's health problems which have caused him to be away from the team for at least a couple times this year. Finally, you have his weird, moody and mouthy radio appearances. Too many times he's been a jackass, on shows on which he's getting paid to appear no less. His criticism of Ramirez was way out of line. What other pitching coach has become a negative in this regard? He's sort of become too big for his britches, which was Ozzie's problem albeit to a greater extent.

Last, but not least, Sox pitchers have done an extremely poor job at holding runners on under Cooper. We've become a Little League team in this regard. It's obviously not been emphasized because the same BS has been going on for years. I guess it goes along with Cooper's tough-guy, arrogant personality that's he's displayed on radio the past couple years.

More of the pitchers have gotten worse than better. Except for, of course, Sale, Quintana, Santiago, Johnson, Danks... You know, the important ones, but yeah, since the organizational filler bullpen crap didn't magically turn into a lights out relief staff, it's time to panic and overreact and get rid of the best pitching coach in baseball.

This is what rebuilding looks like, folks. You guys wanted it.

[Irishsox1]

Ventura has got to go and I know he'll get 1 more year, the team will sleepwalk through 162 games and he'll be gone after that.

Another wasted year with a bad manager.

[SCCWS]

Originally Posted by StillMissOzzie

Reed has 8 blown saves and 39 saves, so he has blown more than 20%, which in my mind is NOT the mark of a premier closer.

SMO

Actually it would be 8 for 47 not 40. Reed finished 5th in saves. That % is better than Johnson who finished 1st with 47/56 and Rivera who finished 3rd w 44/51. Holland and Nathan who finished 2 and 4 had much better % with only 3 BLS. So did Blfour who was 6th w 3. So Reed is pretty much Top 5 in that category especially based on appearances factored in.

The only area where reed would not be highly ranked is salary. He makes less than any of the Top 10 save leaders in the AL.

[samurai_sox]

One year from now I will be happy regardless of the Sox' position in the standings, because I'll know that we'll be watching Adam ****ing DONE's last hacks in a White Sox uniform.

[Jerko]

Originally Posted by Huisj

As much as some callers are difficult to deal with in a season like this, Rongey acts like an ass to just about everyone who calls in with a comment about anything. If you suggest a possible change, hint that you are worried about someone's struggles, or second guess any move that the manager, GM, coaching staff, or player has made, he will bite your head off and tell you you are dead wrong and had no business even considering what you said, and he'll get super defensive on behalf of whoever you just mentioned with a smug "you don't know the whole story so you should even be given the time to finish your call" tone. He's right, the caller is wrong, and him being right also means that whatever the player/coach/manager/GM/owner decided was also right, and you had no business calling in and trying to discuss it in the first place. It's the worst model you could possibly have for a call-in post game show.

Perfectly said. Even in the off-season when he is reduced to update boy, the radio goes off when I hear his voice.

[hawkjt]

Day later, I have cooled off.

Still, that pitch call to SteroidGiambi was ridiculous....make him hit a high fastball, Josh!!

Still, I am not about to give up on Reed, or Robin and Coop.
I liked what we are getting from Garcia and Tank lately.

DeAza has 62 rbis out of the leadoff slot? I know he has had a bad year running the bases but he has hit well and the Sox need hitting.

Wanted to beat the Tribe and make them sweat, but we let them off the hook....dammit.

[amsteel]

Originally Posted by hawkjt

Still, that pitch call to SteroidGiambi was ridiculous....make him hit a high fastball, Josh!!

I think a big part of that pitch call was the fact it was Anderson behind the plate in the 9th.

[slavko]

Originally Posted by amsteel

I think a big part of that pitch call was the fact it was Anderson behind the plate in the 9th.

That's why they have clubhouse meetings before the game. And if they haven't, the pitching coach goes out to the mound.

[BainesHOF]

Originally Posted by doublem23

More of the pitchers have gotten worse than better. Except for, of course, Sale, Quintana, Santiago, Johnson, Danks... You know, the important ones.

Wasn't Cooper one of the people who thought Sale should be a reliever?

Quintana looked good when he arrived from the Yankees, but he has gradually and continually improved. Maybe the language barrier with Cooper has enabled Quintana to improve.

Santiago has been pretty much in a holding pattern.

If you want to put Johnson in the plus column for Cooper that would be extremely generous at this point.

Danks was a lost cause this season.

There are good arguments to be made in Cooper's favor, but this season is not one of them.

[JB98]

Originally Posted by BainesHOF

Wasn't Cooper one of the people who thought Sale should be a reliever?

Quintana looked good when he arrived from the Yankees, but he has gradually and continually improved. Maybe the language barrier with Cooper has enabled Quintana to improve.

Santiago has been pretty much in a holding pattern.

If you want to put Johnson in the plus column for Cooper that would be extremely generous at this point.

Danks was a lost cause this season.

There are good arguments to be made in Cooper's favor, but this season is not one of them.

Cooper speaks fluent Spanish.

[BainesHOF]

Originally Posted by JB98

Cooper speaks fluent Spanish.

Kudos to Coop.

I believe I heard that Quintana is making progress on his English. I was just being a smartass.