Yikes, the Sox are crumbling

I caught the last inning.

I thought I was watching the Cubs.

Ouch!

I am glad the Cubs fans have something to be happy about!

Its the little things in life right?

Only Sweeney's post is as sad as the Sox bullpen. Maybe it just the Twins, I hope so. We need the Yankees....fast.

This Sox team is old and slow.It looks like Kenny Williams search for great young power pitchers found ones who failed somewere else
and are not doing much better here.He had great luck with Macdougal etc. last year but came up empty now.
Williams is the man who was in charge of the Sox farm system before he took the GM job.Name one real major leaguer he developed that is with the Sox now except Buhrle or Crede,or has made it with another club as a better than mediocre big leaguer.They have no position players in the minors who will ever
make it big--Dont say Anderson,Sweeney ,or Fields.They will never hit big league pitching At least Schulers farm system developed some Stars Frank-Robin-Maglio etc.

This Sox team is old and slow.It looks like Kenny Williams search for great young power pitchers found ones who failed somewere else
and are not doing much better here.He had great luck with Macdougal etc. last year but came up empty now.
Williams is the man who was in charge of the Sox farm system before he took the GM job.Name one real major leaguer he developed that is with the Sox now except Buhrle or Crede,or has made it with another club as a better than mediocre big leaguer.They have no position players in the minors who will ever
make it big--Dont say Anderson,Sweeney ,or Fields.They will never hit big league pitching At least Schulers farm system developed some Stars Frank-Robin-Maglio etc.

Been address well in times column ,the bullpen wasn't improved by either GM .Trading gas cans certainly hasn't improve things. AArdsma a never will be & Cotts is in minors. Good teams have good bullpens period. Sox finally hitting somewhat . Iguchi alligator arms at second & a weak stick needs to be dealt. If sox see no improvement trade Buerhle & Dye for future prospects. Sox must address the bullpen issue now for any success. MacDougall has shown why the Royals didn't even want him. Uribe another bat that seems like he goes in long funks at plate & continues to hurt club. Sox simply have a bad bullpen & too many easy outs on ball club.Always leaned towards sox between the two Chi teams. Cubs are more of a mess.

I can't believe (well, I can) that your Cubs-fan-coworker was celebrating the White Sox losing. That's the bad karma right there - forget Bartman or the billy goat. Aside from the Crosstown Classic, Sox fans don't waste their time celebrating when the Cubs lose. We've come to accept it as a way of life in Chicago. If Sox fans celebrated everytime the Cubs lost, there would be no time for anything else.

Roman responds: Check out the previous post about all that counts is the Cubs losing.

The Cubs being worse than the Sox is a way of life too. No celebration necessary.

I think Cooper and Walker may be the ones we need to be looking at. Our batters are the least patient hitters in the majors, and the pitchers refuse (or cannot) to get ahead of opponents bats. Take some pitches on offense, challenge the hitters with strikes, whatta you got to lose. Come on Oz, wake up and smell that Venezuelan coffee. Oh, Mr. Williams, I would'nt turn and walk away if I were you. These so-called relief pitchers you picked up this winter; they're in need of relief.

It was sad admitting that I was watching a Sox game wasn't it.

I must have been in shock from the side effects. I have recovered from it though. I was only blind for an hour or two after the game.

We might have to start the fire sale early. Trade Dye and Buhrle now and get what you can and just send Javier Vazquez to triple A(the worst waste of talent on the team). We are going to have to tear this team down and start over. Too many old, slow players who cant hit consistently. No shortstop and a bad outfield. WHAT HAPPEND??? THIS IS A BAD TEAM TO WATCH. All that said I still LOVE the WHITE SOX.

Julie B are you kidding me or yourself? Roman started a Cubs thread and a Sox thread yesterday. The Cubs thread is full of angry Sox fans (yourself included) ripping on Cubs fans and Wrigley Field and not in a constructive way. Yet if you read through this thread, not one Cubs fan felt the need to do that. Sox fans are obsessed with the Cubs. Even after winning the World Series, you guys can't just be happy with your team. As a lifelong Cubs fan, I honestly don't care if the Sox win or lose. What the Sox do or don't do has no impact on me. I only clicked on this thread because I was so shocked to see the venom being spewed by Sox fans in the other thread that I had to see if Cub fans were just as bad. I was glad to see that, as expected, the ratio of hateful Cub fans to hateful Sox fans is still tremendously in our favor. "Sox fans don't waste their time celebrating when the Cubs lose?" Please!

I'm a Sox fan but not a Cub hater. I always thought your life must be pretty empty if your baseball happiness depends on one team or the other losing. It's not like in NY where the Mets are the red-haired step-sister to a team that essentially wins a championship every 4 years. Basically our 2 baseball teams have stunk for a 100 years.

If you need 1 team or the other to lose to make you happy, I can only imagine that you've lived 1 tough life.

Romo, say to your colleague the same thing I tell people who give me the "as long as the Sox lose" line...get a life man!

Ozzie's rants have lost their steam so if he goes, he goes.

As I've said before, Kenny Williams wrote this year off with the offseason trades and completely neglecting CF, LF and SS.

Erstad was supposed to be a 4th OF and now he's our best OF...that says it all.

People! People! Come on now! The White Sox are at .500 and ONLY six and one half games out of first place. Also the team leading the divison, the others teams in front of the White Sox have have all played more than 50 games. The White Sox still have NOT PLAYED 50 games people! Let's have some FAITH, it is a long season. There is over 100 games to be played and you guys are about to do a somersault onto the North Side into Wrigley Field. I BEG you do not lose faith and punch all Cubbies fans who gloat. But only in the arm or chest! Majority will fall down because they were talking on a cell phone and think they bumped into a pole or something...smile...

Anyway how can a Cub fan say anything and they are already seven(7) games below .500 and playing in a weak division? Next time Rom pull his chair out from under him and say "Dang are you OK!?"

HAVE FAITH!! HAVE FAITH!! HAVE FAITH!! Does it need any more clarification!

The way the Sox are playing should NOT BE A SURPRISE. I could see in spring training that the players were not playing good ball. Why? At that time, I
believed that the players were still basking in the warm glow of their World
Series win in 2005 and were putting minimal effort into getting into playing
condition for the 2007 season. But when the 2007 regular season started and
the Sox were still mediocre and underachieving, there's got to be a different reason. Is it their individual ages? By and large I seriously doubt that.
After all, there are a few 40+ year old guys playing quite well - and the Sox will see one of them next Monday. If Clemens throws a stinkeroo, maybe there is some validity on blaming age for the Sox's demise. On the other hand, several of the players will be free agents in the next few years.
Sox management has broadcast loudly and frequently that they will be part-
ing company with such players, rather than re-sign them. While it defies
logic that a player would seriously underachieve this year to set himself
up to be traded, it is possible that some players might believe that if
they were, indeed, traded to a contender and that after the trade they
"turned it on" and led the contender to the title, they would then be
entitled to a new and large contract. With that in mind, if the Sox lose
the Toronto series, look for Williams and Brian Cashman to work a deal to
unload several Sox pitchers to the Yankees, and then look for the likes of
Dye, Konerko, Thome and Crede to be dispatched to other teams "for prospects". After the season, look for Williams to resign so that he can
"pursue other career options".

The way the ballclub has been handled since 2005 by Kenny Williams has shown he has never really believed the "small ball" concept. Every move has been to bring power bats and power arms to the Sox. El Duce was a junkballer that helped the other pitchers by not giving the same look every time. Shingo was a flipper before he peterd out early in 2005. It seems the success of Jenks is leading to attempt to clone success. Jim Thome is a left handed bat for a team that has always even in 2005 had trouble with lefthanders.

More speed is so obviously needed for the team, yet that is never added since the Podsednik deal. And don't bring up Erstad the .316 OBP man with - he is an OK outfielder who has lost his youthful speed and has 18 stolen bases in last 3 years and as leadoff man throughout this slump has not stolen a base in 2 weeks. He was only brought here because he was cheap and unwanted.

It seems to me that when Kenny was talked out of bringing Alphonso Soriano for McCarthy last year by Thome and Konerko, he totally lost his way and hi penchant for fighting for championships. How nice would a Carl Crawford look in a Sox uniform? These are the type of players he should be trying to bring in. Sometimes I feel I am watching a grant Park 16 inch softball team that jogs around the bases with a beer can in their hands, talking about the glories of their youth.

if things dont turn around soon--and I mean soon---youre gonna see a fire sale--Burly and Dye and Iguchi will be gone and I for one have always said I dont care if they get rid of the whole team as long as they win a championship...well, obviusly this aint the right team

First of all, can we all get a petition going to get Mariotti fired? He is so blatantly anti-white sox, it makes for very bad "reporting".

Anyhow, back to the Sox. I haven't been very critical of Williams in the past given that he brought us a World Series and I think deserves the benefit of the doubt. I can't say I was happy with his decision to stick w/Uribe this year as I thought he was horrible last year. I also am not terribly happy with the OF/SS he provided the team. Pods is an injury waiting to happen and was bad last year, Anderson couldn't be counted on after last year, and even Erstad was a big "if". He's been pretty good, so he deserves credit for bringing him in.

But it's also pretty hard to hold the mgmt accountable when really good players like Dye, Konerko, Crede, Iguchi have been terrible and the starters have been so inconsistent. Also, I have a hard time calling out Williams as I actually thought the bullpen was going to be good. Thorton, MacDougal and Jenks I thought would be a great bullpen for the 8th and 9th. I really don't blame him (or cooper) for having MacD and Aardsma, etc being so bad...usually you have to blame the players first, and the coaching/managing 2nd. But I think often it happens the other way around.

Anne, I'm sorry to have upset you so much. I am not angry about anything, much less baseball. I just thought it was comical that Roman said a coworker was celebrating the White Sox losing a game. Especially a game that was lost in such a Cubs-like manner. As far as "venom being spewed," I think that's a bit harsh, especially considering the tone of your comment. Roman also said that "Wrigley is enjoyable," a comment that I disagreed with in a different thread. I am not hateful in anyway, nor am I obsessed with the Cubs. When I comment on this blog, I am just writing my thoughts on the given topic, constructive or not. And for the record, I go with the flow with the White Sox - when they are winning, I'm happy, when they're losing, I'm not. That's being a fan.

My the White Sox are just awful. They have been terrible since last July and have NO fight in them whatsoever. Worse yet they take no accountability for their bad play by saying "it's just baseball". I want to scream when I hear/read this. What SH#T! Be a man and fess up and say you played awful because everyone already knows and thinks it and are sick of the LAME excuses. Konerko and Thome never met a change up on a 2 strike count they couldn't miss for strike three. Crede looks like he is killing time before he gets traded. I agree with the person who posted the Sox have absolutely no position players in their farm system. NONE. New term for Chicago Southsiders, anytime you mess something up just say you "MacDougaled" it. True ChiSox fans will know what you mean.

I just witnessed another painful loss to a very beatable club. The Bluejays... I was and always will be a Frank Thomas fan. Frank's home run was the only highlight of that loss. It was a total wasted effort of Buerle's great pitching. Guy gave up two hits... Its time for Ozzie to lose it and call this team out. They are playing like dung. Bats are ice cold. Erstad is gone for a while, maybe even the season. Posednik hurt, Pablo hurt. AJ is out of tricks. We have no speed left and our bullpen is giving up more runs that exlax! Time for Kenny to come to the clubhouse and hangout like Death. Where the hood and carry a sickle!!! This game hurt worse than the twins game. We needed to show signs of life. Ozzie scream! Kenny Touch Somebody!

All I have to say is, now what? Sometimes, teams have to spend money to get good players. Kenny? Name me the last big free agent signing the Sox have got? Konerko. They only got him because he signed here for less money than LA was offering. They signed Dye for cheap, Iguchi, cheap, uribe, cheap. Dont get me wrong, I love Dye and Iguchi but no one knew they would play like they have. This is very frustrating. Oh well, at least I will always have 05 and the first half of 06. That was a great baseball team. Its funny how the Sox dont want to spend, but they sure are quick to raise those ticket prices arent they? Its looking like the Sox are done, I guess I can play my xbox 360 more.

Sox are playing old. Erstad latest casualty . Thome about the only player hitting respectable. The bullpen other than Thornton & Jenks defines the term gas can big time. Even though Thome has a decent average he seldom comes through in a clutch situation. I still think sox would of been better off keeping the big hurt & Rowand. Rowand added energy ,something the 07 club has none. Iguchi,Dye,Konerko & Crede all batting way below expectations.You figure by June those fellas would of figured it out by now? Iguchi & Konerko's defense seems to have gone south too. Iguchi plays defense of late with alligator arms.Sox must decide soon if they are contending or rebuilding for future?

Defensively, the White Sox have no bullpen. The closer is good but there's no way to get to him. Offensively we are down to 3rd string for a leadoff man. Did someone curse the White Sox this year?

Our only hope is Jerry Owens. He can certainly steal a base but is he ready to swing a major league bat? A team as desperate as the White Sox are now has to hope he can.

It is time to change the deck chairs on the USS White Sox. Trade Thome or Konerko to the Yanks for money, youth and draft picks with Giambi hurt( maybe Cano?!?). Sign Buhrle and Crede with the added money. Trade for Crawford. Send Dye out and keep Owens up and in left field.
The reality is we are not winning because of the bats.... Dye, Crede, Iguchi, and maybe Buhrle are gone by next year if we don't resign people. At least the Sox won one championship before I die.....LOL!

Baseball fans get too caught up in wins. It's losses that eliminate teams from contention. The White Sox trail the AL WC by 2 in the loss column. They are still in the race. The Cubs trail the NL WC by 8 in the loss column. Fughedabutit! It's not impossible but when was the last time the Cubs played at a .750 clip in the 2nd half?

I think it's easier to fix the White Sox than the Cubs. The White Sox have minor league arms to fill the bullpen. They also have enough talent & cash to make trades near the deadline to get relief pitchers that are pitching well. The hitting can only get better.

Because the Cubs have weaknesses in both the bullpen & the fundamentals they will be much harder to fix. If they are willing to eat some of the money I think the White Sox will be interested in Howry.

Dean H is right. Sox hitters are dogging it! Time to shake things up! We are too slow, and nobody is power hitting. So long Thome and Kornerko. Crede goes as soon as we find a halfway decent 3rd baseman. I can live with Dye and Gooch.

Bad when you lose to the Yankees. We are officially headed in the wrong direction. Podsednik, please hurry!