matta Blog Posts

Its official

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:42:47 PDT

Jose Contreras has officially had himself a quality start. A great start if I may say so. The key really is the 0 walks in 7 innings of work. There wasn't a whole lot of offense in support but Jimmy's 3 run shot in the first sufficed. End of a 'slump' for Thome? We'll see. I'm not so sure. I'm thinking that what I've been reading about moving him out of the 3 hole for awhile to take the pressure off is probably a good plan. Also, Bobby Jenks remains untouched on the season. Just thought that deserved a mention.

Just one second...
I turned the volume down on the game tonight and went with Stone and Farmer on the radio. There was only a one second delay. Just thought that deserved a mention.

Cheers to the Arizona Diamondbacks and their 11-4 start. Lookin fierce.

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Clutch

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:47:19 PDT

Fact. I have yet to go to a White Sox game this year where Joe Crede did not hit a grand slam. What could be better than that? Let me tell you:
As I stood at the gate waiting to get in, with my modest upper deck ticket in hand, there was a fella giving away tickets that weren’t going to be used, just 5 rows behind the Sox dugout. Naturally, I took them. A cold windy Sunday game in April turned into a sun-filled shouting distance display of Sox offense. I’d like to thank Brian Gant from Riddell Sports for being kind enough to not let those tickets go to waste. Very clutch.

Fall from grace
Miguel Cabrera managed to fall out of my favor, and it’s a loud fall with a fella gaining 10-15 pounds a year, by giving a hard time to third base coach Jeff Cox after Miguel bumped into him while tracking down a pop foul. Cabrera made the catch but proceeded to have some forceful words for Cox and finished up by tossing his gum at him. Finished might be the wrong word since he continued jawing at him when he came back out in the bottom half of the next inning. It didn’t take long to prove that it was a Miggy problem, and not a Coxie problem, when he tumbled to the ground with the third base umpire a bit later allowing a pop fly to land right next to third base. Too bad Miggy, too bad.

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V for Vendetta

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:29:07 PDT

Ozzie Guillen swears that Phil Cuzzi, the home plate umpire at the Sox home opener has a vendetta against him. He flew out of the dugout in the 3rd inning to argue balls and strikes and ended up getting tossed. Of course. Arguing balls and strikes pisses any ump off. No vendetta necessary. This is a little too much Ozzie if you ask me. Though I do enjoy hearing him rant angrily from time to time.

I was saying Boo-uehrle
Using the postponement of yesterday’s game (quite pissed as I have tickets for that and the reschedule is a day game) as an opportunity for some shuffling. The starting rotation has been jumbled a bit so that Mark Buehrle can get a couple of lefty lefty matchup heavy starts. I like it!

Mmm...Food
Prince Fielder has b

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I wondered so you must have

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:50:01 PDT

So I really thought, maybe I hoped, that the blond facial hair was a bet. Maybe the last one to cut it or dye it back would be the winner. But it's not so. Just a team unity thing. According to the White Sox website Toby Hall dyed his little soul patch and once Swisher saw it he wanted in. Boone Logan is also a 'part' of it but he opted for black. More amusingly, Bobby Jenks claims that Juan Uribe and Pablo Ozuna are the next to go blonde faced. No word on if it will cause Uribe to cut down on his swing.

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Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:58:24 PDT

Not a whole lot of description necessary for the Sox first week of 08. I'd say a sweep of the Tigers and a 5-2 record does a pretty nice job of speaking for itself. A record, I might add, that iIm pretty sure is identical to the 05 start. As is the lack of respect, which is fine; under the radar is the way to be.

Swisher in the leadoff spot is so far so good, i'm very interested to see if the teams game level remains high once Jerry Owens returns. Ordinarily I would say of course, and be counting the days. But as it turns out, I'm a little bit in love with Carlos Quentin over there in left field. The guy has a cannon and isn't too shabby at the plate. Though I am a tad concerned with his likeness to Jose Canseco. I still think we need the speed and hopefully that just ads a whole new attack to our offense. It's a tough decision to make, but after sending Fields down, and the likely optioning of Brian Anderson, Kenny has got to be getting used to giving bad news. And as he always says, these problems are good ones to have.

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I could

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:13:13 PDT

I could start right out complaining about how the umps screwed us. About how they squeezed us out of the game with the bad calls. About how Garko’s foot was clearly off of the bag as Thome crossed. A call that prevented a run. About how Crede clearly slid under the tag as he slid into home plate. A call that cost us a run. About how Orlando Cabrera was called for offensive interference, on an identical slide that was allowed on the Cleveland side, only a short time earlier. A play that cost us a run.

I could talk about how this season started out way too much like last season. About how Mark Buehrle’s implosion was a repeat of Jose Contreras’s from a year earlier, against the same team. About us getting ready to be the same team, defeated from the start.

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ooookay

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:11:58 PDT

The mystery of interim leadoff hitter has been solved. Nick, um, Swisher. May as well be A.J. Pierzynski. I have no idea how this makes sense. A .250 career hitter, with 4 stolen bases LIFETIME. Not exactly a spark plug. I’m all for the swisher signing, but to bat 6th or 7th and be a clubhouse spark plug. As I’ve said before, the options with Owens out are slim, but this is not the answer. My personal choice would be to start Ramirez at second and let him lead off. I’m not exactly keen on Swisher in center, left field would be dandy, but that doesn’t smell as bad as the batting order. Fortunately, under the guise of "good numbers against Sabathia" but the reality of, we need to get off on the right foot, Pablo Ozuna will start at second on opening day and hit in the lead off spot.

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Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:35:59 PDT

Juan Uribe is off of waivers and officially a member of the 2008 White Sox. Further, he’s our most of the time second baseman after putting on a nice little hitting display during his little waiver stint. What does it all mean? I’d like to think that it means he’ll be hitting like he can throughout the season and we’ve got ourselves a solid 2B and bottom lineup hitter. More realistically I’m just hoping he can keep his hot streak going through at least the first couple weeks of the season. If we can make a good showing through April I think we stand a good chance to stay near the top of the central.

Joe Crede is now our official 3rd baseman. Which of course puts Josh Fields back in Charlotte. With trades dead it was really a long shot for the season to begin any other way but you still can’t help feeling bad for Fields. Crede may struggle for a short while at the plate but I really believe it will pay off. He’s got a lot to prove post-surgery and it’s a contract year. He’ll be rakin’ in no time.

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Waive good-bye or waive hello

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:24:16 PDT

Juan Uribe has been released…on waivers. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’s gone but I’d say it’s the Sox saying they are ready to give Alexei Ramirez the job. Apparently the waivering of Uribe could just be to “test his market value”. He just signed that $4.5 million dollar contract so if that can be lost I think they’ll go for it. I doubt that .250 hitting shortstops with 5 million dollar contracts are in that high of demand. I’m not 100% clear on how it all works, but if they don’t pull him back and nobody claims him, he’s just a free agent after that, but Kenny will have to pay his contract anyways. I wouldn’t go so far as to call that worst case scenario but paying something for nothing certainly isn’t the best thing that could happen. The Orioles are apparently without a serviceable shortstop and looking but I don’t know what they would want to give. They want pitching for Brian Roberts. That’s one thing we definitely don’t have extra of.

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The Designated Hebrew

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:45:29 PDT

Billy Crystal got his chance to take a Major League AB today for the Yankees. He led off the bottom of the first as a DH with a strike out. Apparently he was able to make some minor contact and foul one off on the first base side. This is the absolutely dumbest thing ever. Mainly because I am jealous. But the guy is damn near 60 years old so I guess just let him have his enjoyment. The incident finishes about 4th in silly celebrity involvements in the ML ranks (to my knowledge). Just behind when Garth Brooks played in ST with the Padres in '99 and went 1-22. 2nd place honors going to Garth Brooks in 2000 when he suited up with the Mets and went 0-17. First place of course goes to a fella named Garth Brooks, a country western singer who in 2004 put on Royals uniform and managed to get himself 1 hit in 8 tries. I think he led the Royals in hits that year. Reggie Sanders was pissed. Brooks did it for charity so I guess I should give him a pass. But I don’t.

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