AND THAT'S A WHITE SOX WINNER!!@

[tray]

TLaR should stop apologizing to players for making his decisions.  He looked foolish doing that.  Meanwhile, Kimbrel would be well advised to accept his new role. He is now one of a couple of bullpen set-up guys along with Kopech, Crochet and Bummer. If he can't accept that, OK< but then Hahn made a mistake by trading for a guy who  is more concerned about his own ego than anything else.

[Balta1701]

13 minutes ago, tray said:

TLaR should stop apologizing to players for making his decisions.  He looked foolish doing that.  Meanwhile, Kimbrel would be well advised to accept his new role. He is now one of a couple of bullpen set-up guys along with Kopech, Crochet and Bummer. If he can't accept that, OK< but then Hahn made a mistake by trading for a guy who  is more concerned about his own ego than anything else.

That’s a terrible take. Are there no other pitchers this year who have been annoyed about being taken out? Did Lance Lynn get that lecture earlier this week about being more concerned with his own ego than anything else?

I want a guy who says “f*** this team, I walked a guy, the rest of these guys are dead meat, let me do my job”. 

[harkness99]

11 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

I mean, he got 2 outs before he got pulled. Yes he needs to be better than that, but he didn’t get the chance to lose the game. He loses the game, fine he got beat again. Give him the chance to at least win or lose. He’s a big boy.

lol what are people talking about with kimbrel last night... 

he allowed one runner to reach and was about to get  out of it... same shit that made lynn a hero.

[tray]

7 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

That’s a terrible take. Are there no other pitchers this year who have been annoyed about being taken out? Did Lance Lynn get that lecture earlier this week about being more concerned with his own ego than anything else?

I want a guy who says “f*** this team, I walked a guy, the rest of these guys are dead meat, let me do my job”. 

LOL

[Dick Allen]

41 minutes ago, tray said:

Did  Hahn discuss Kimbrel's prospective role as a set-up man  with him before making the trade?

 

There is this thing called tampering....

[Dick Allen]

49 minutes ago, BRDSR said:

Madrigal can’t seem to separate himself from the IL for more than 40 games at a time.

He’s going to have a decent career if he can stay healthy, but that’s a big if and he’d still be only a middle third tier type of second baseman.  What he brings to the table can be found in quite a few other players.

I’m not even sold on the trade…I just don’t think Madrigal is nearly the cost that others seem to.

I just think he is going to make people wish the Sox put together a different package. For this year, Kimbrel was the best available. I don't buy for a second the Sox intend to have both Kimbrel and Hendriks on the roster next year, so they probably will get something decent for one of them eventually. 

[hi8is]

3 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

Kimbrel is great. Kimbrel is garbage. Kimbrel should close, Hendriks is garbage. Kimbrel shouldn't face lefties with games on the line.

Soxtalk on Kimbrel. 

Welcome to Soxtalk!

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

11 hours ago, Soxbadger said:

I think it wasn't the best move, but at some point Kimbrel needs to own that he put himself in the position to be pulled because of his performance.

Hopefully it motivates him. 

This is exactly right. Sure he isn't closing and that's what he does. But the Sox have a closer and even though Hendriks on multiple occasions has stated he will do anything as long as he gets to pitch and would seem the more likely of the 2 to pitch setup, taking Hendriks out of closing would be like taking Tim out of lead off.

As the newcomer to the team Kimbrel takes whats available and that's the very very important role of 8th inning guy, setup guy, which has been a sore spot for the Sox all season and Kimbrel hasn't been a great help in the role the Sox wanted him.

I didn't actually expect LaRussa to pull him there since he had seemed to settle down but when you have  Bummer ,it wasn't a bad call. The problem is Bummer got his usual self induced gunshot wound with his inability to throw strikes , and limited contact to a series of toppers that somehow find a way to cause damage.

It would be nice to know how Kimbrel really feels on his role. Does he think he should be closer ? It's one thing to say all the right things to the media , your team mates and manager but does he feel entitled to close and perhaps thinking about his chances to make the Hall of Fame more than he's thinking about winning ?

An 8th inning guy who could actually not blow up was the most important spot to fix on the team as far as winning games goes. It was a bigger weakness than any position player. You can't consistently win big games blowing late leads.

Edited August 21, 2021 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[RG23SoxFan]

19 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

This is exactly right. Sure he isn't closing and that's what he does. But the Sox have a closer and even though Hendriks on multiple occasions has stated he will do anything as long as he gets to pitch and would seem the more likely of the 2 to pitch setup, taking Hendriks out of closing would be like taking Tim out of lead off.

As the newcomer to the team Kimbrel takes whats available and that's the very very important role of 8th inning guy, setup guy, which has been a sore spot for the Sox all season and Kimbrel hasn't been a great help in the role the Sox wanted him.

I didn't actually expect LaRussa to pull him there since he had seemed to settle down but when you have  Bummer ,it wasn't a bad call. The problem is Bummer got his usual self induced gunshot wound with his inability to throw strikes , and limited contact to a series of toppers that somehow find a way to cause damage.

It would be nice to know how Kimbrel really feels on his role. Does he think he should be closer ? It's one thing to say all the right things to the media , your team mates and manager but does he feel entitled to close and perhaps thinking about his chances to make the Hall of Fame more than he's thinking about winning ?

An 8th inning guy who could actually not blow up was the most important spot to fix on the team as far as winning games goes. It was a bigger weakness than any position player. You can't consistently win big games blowing late leads.

I am real tired of Bummer not throwing strikes.  Walking the first guy you face isn't a recipe for success if you are relief pitcher.  Then when the bases are loaded he puts it right over the plate to Meadows.  At this point I have more trust in Crochet than I do Bummer and would like to see more of him in 7th or 8th with a one run lead.   If it's true that the Cubs had their choice between Madrigal and Crochet I am sure glad they didn't pick Crochet.

[chw42]

The fact that none of the Crochet "walk" pitches made it into the worst missed calls is criminal. 

[tray]

48 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

It would be nice to know how Kimbrel really feels on his role. Does he think he should be closer ? It's one thing to say all the right things to the media , your team mates and manager but does he feel entitled to close and perhaps thinking about his chances to make the Hall of Fame more than he's thinking about winning ?

That is the question. This nonsense about "I want a guy who will do this or that" is self-serving and is not helpful to the conversation about what Kimbrel's attitude is.

So we really  don't know how Kimbrel feels about being a set-up man who can be pulled mid-inning but there are a few clues, and we got another one yesterday when he displayed a little attitude when he was replaced. Then there is the  plain fact that a Closer is worth more than a set-up bullpen pitcher. Also consider the emerging narrative that Kimbrel's best days as a pitcher are behind him, that his skills have regressed, and that his role is now diminished accordingly.

I doubt that Kimbrel's new role was fully discussed with his agent prior to the trade. I don't think tampering would have been an issue since this could have been done off the record with face to face conversations.

 

[Balta1701]

54 minutes ago, chw42 said:

The fact that none of the Crochet "walk" pitches made it into the worst missed calls is criminal. 

That’s in terms of run expectancy. A lead off walk that didn’t score, in an AB with 2 other bad calls so no one single cal defined the at bat. They were still bad calls, just buried in the statistic.

[South Side Hit Men]

17 hours ago, fathom said:

I still feel like they’re calling the wrong pitch sequence with him. When he was on the Cubs this year, it really seemed he was throwing curves in fastball spots.  With the Sox it’s been way too many fastballs to start and he’s falling behind.

I listen to games, so I don't see if Kimbrel shakes off many/few/any pitches. However, statistics show he has thrown a lot more fastballs since the trade, albeit only over a few weeks.

2021: Fastball to Curve ratio for the entire season is 60% Fastballs vs. 40% Curveballs, so under 3 to 2 before he came to the Sox.

August 2021: Fastball to Curve ratio increased to 67% Fastballs vs. 33% Curveballs, or a 2 to 1 ratio.

I still don't understand the take that Kimbrel sucked or failed yesterday. He walked one batter. He struck out the last batter he faced. It's safe to say he would likely have had a better chance of escaping with no runs than with the change to Bummer.

[Colome's Hat]

Was curious and went back and watched the at bat.  One of those pitches, the third one, was absolutely a strike.  I would say the fourth was borderline.  He looked much more comfortable in the strikeout.  One of the drawbacks to Kimbrel is he's super easy to run on.  To be honest, catchers need to be aware of that and just block anything.