hogan873

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 03:44 PM) Then why is Adam Dunn on this team? Why is Konerko? Why is Beckham? Why is Lexi? These are not guys who will be a part of the future? My point is in this s***ty division, there's no reason to give away your only possible closer when all it takes is flirting with .500 then catching lightning in September to win the patsy division. This bullpen is so bad it is laughable. Is it even a good AAA bullpen? Seriously. This is a terrible argument. The AL Central is not a s***ty division anymore. You have to know this. Detroit is a very good team. Cleveland is getting better every year. Even KC is getting better. And to answer your question, yes, this bullpen would be good in AAA. There is a huge difference in hitting (and pitching for that matter) from AAA to the majors.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 03:38 PM) I contend it's an awful trade because he had nobody waiting in the wings to close. I guess the answer to that is the Sox don't care about this season at all, blah blah blah. You've got to have a closer candidate and they made no attempt to find one to replace Reed. And Nate Jones is not the answer. If they thought he was ... Wow. Sigh. Nate Jones is hurt. Let's wait until he comes back healthy before deciding he can't close.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 03:35 PM) Let's face it. You cannot trade Addison Reed and have no closer in waiting and expect anything but this to happen. It was a boneheaded decision to trade Reed with NOTHING left over. How this team is flirting with .500 is amazing with this bullpen. And if the rotation loses Sale ... wow, the bullpen is going to be needed A LOT. The bullpen has sucked for years now but at least the Sox have always had a closer. What? The closer has been a role the Sox have struggled with for years. It seems like they get a good year out of one guy, then said guy comes in the next year and sucks. Reed was traded for a reason. The need for a long term fix at 3rd base was something that had to be taken care of. Time will tell with Davidson, but it was the right trade to make.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 03:30 PM) Let's face it. It's a miracle the Sox are close to .500. Once the hitting cools off we're still a 90-95 loss team. The split was a nice miracle in Detroit. Like I said, a miracle. Our only hope of remaining close to .500 is if Abreu, Viciedo and Dunn and Lexi rake all summer and Sale can pitch. Abreu is so good that might happen. Way to be positive. It wasn't a miracle they split in Detroit. It was hitting and some occasional decent pitching. Without Leesman's horrendous start, they Sox could have taken 3 of 4. And I'm not sure the hitting will coll off to the point that they lose 95 games. I think this is an 80ish win team, especially if some of these bullpen issues get handled.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 02:43 PM) I'm from Ireland, yes. I feel like I've learned a lot about baseball but I accept that others will inevitably know more. I think Cleto is a fairly easy case to analyse though, he just can't throw strikes. Until he learns how to, I would say it's a fairly uncontroversial opinion to say the Sox should stop putting him in for high-leverage situations, no? The problem is that there aren't too many guys in the bullpen who can handle high-leverage situations right now. Cleto has good stuff but lacks control. Hopefully he can correct that, because he could be an effective reliever.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:16 AM) Didn't feel the need to bump the other thread, but those projections for Pito of 26HR, 85 RBI look to be woefully low. He'll have his ups and downs. But the early season weather hasn't seemed to bother him, and that was one of the concerns going in. He's hitting bombs off pitchers he's never seen before. He's hitting the ball to all parts of the field. I assume that you'll see pitchers make adjustments as time goes on, and I think that'll lead to more walks. If Dunn continues to have a decent year, Abreu will have a better chance to see better pitches to hit. All that being said (and assumed), 30+ HRs seems likely.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 05:36 AM) If you watched the game and listened to Stone, they used him as the long man out of necessity. They are going to try to get him used to pitching one inning at a time. He had not pitched in almost a week and threw one inning. If that kills Webb for 3 or 4 days, he obviously can't be a closer. It is rather ironic you are calling someone clueless. Yeah, I heard them discussing Webb. If I remember correctly, and I'm sure I do, he was used for three innings last week during that 14 inning mess. That was out of necessity. Last night he just pitched one inning. These guys who are going to be one inning guys will have to pitch more than one inning at times.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 08:30 AM) 2012 he was skipped because of soreness after an 88 pitch performance. Went to the bullpen one game, then back in the rotation. 2013 he was skipped after a 113 pitch performance. Was either skipped once or backed off a day and went the rest of the season. This year is the first being Dl'd. However, considering he went down after 88 pitches one year and 113 last, I don't know how you can say it was the pitch count that did him in. As far as I know, most of the people complaining about it have zero medical training, and get their "knowledge" from others with the exact same credentials. Exactly. We're all just supposing and assuming. But, based on history, it seems more likely that it's his throwing motion than pitch count. His motion has been a concern since...well, since forever. Sale might be the kind of pitcher that needs the breaks and/or a DL trip each year. But none of us know. We can assume and point fingers and scream all we want. All we really should be doing it hoping right now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 06:58 AM) Wait you think Cooper has no input into pitching? You can't be serious. Just be thankful he didn't blame Dunn.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 22, 2014 -> 05:59 AM) So true But this pitch count thing, we’re in the American League," Cooper said. "We’re not in Little League. But nevertheless, people that bring up pitch counts are people who have nothing else to really know. And it just blows me away. They’re doing that to say, ‘God forbid if someone goes down, I told you so.’ And these are people that are not in the arena and never really played, so what kind of validity does any of that hold? Couldn't agree with this more.

I'll take the more optimistic view here and hope that he comes back from his DL stint ready to go. If Sale is sore and needs to miss a start or two, so be it. But the team has to be smart about it regarding who pitches in his place. Sale going to the DL alows them to call up someone. Otherwise, one of the bullpen standouts (see the sarcasm there?) would have to be stretched out for a start.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 21, 2014 -> 08:09 AM) Cosmos told one of my all-time favorite science stories last night, Dr. Patterson, the age of the Earth, and lead poisoning. That was a great episode. I didn't know the whole story behind lead poisoning. Amazing how companies skewed data like that...and disturbing to think that they are still doing it.

Got a chance to see Divergent yesterday. I haven't read the book, but my daughter did, and she said it followed it pretty well. I enjoyed it. I would say that the movie was done for a wider audience than the Hunger Games movies (epecially Catching Fire). Even though I had read the Hunger Games books, I felt that the movies were made more for people who had read the books. Plus, Shailene Woodley is extremely cute.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 20, 2014 -> 01:46 PM) I just saw leaked Wondercon footage of the train destruction scene in Godzilla(before it was pulled by the studio) Good lord they look like they nailed it Everything I've seen about this movie looks awesome. This is one of those flicks that I will spend the money to see in IMax 3-D.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Apr 11, 2014 -> 08:23 AM) I don't think they can without Garcia. I disagree. Six games into the season, a lot of people were ready to give up on Garcia. Bad defense, bad hitting, can't take a walk... But, he had a great game before getting hurt, and now the Sox are doomed? De Aza and Viciedo will be okay, and if Danks gets some decent playing time, the defense in the OF gets much better. However, I'm not sure the Sox would have contended with Garcia. Without him, it may make things slightly more difficult offensively. But as we've seen, that's not where the Sox's problems are. Pitching (bullpen) and defense have hurt them more so far. I think Garcia's injury is much worse for Garcia than the team. The kid's just 22, and he's missing out on 500 at-bats that are crucial to his development. Hopefully he comes back fully healed next year...he'll still be quite young.

The guy is a monster. He looks quite comfortable up there, even against pitchers he's never seen before. I know there were concerns over his adapting to MLB pitching and the weather, but so far it looks like he's adapted very well. Only 10 games in, but he's on pace to have an amazing year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 09:16 AM) Instead it will be 5 hits, 1 run, and 10 strikeouts. Yay for improvement! Baby steps, baby steps.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 03:28 PM) I'm liking the patience from Garcia. See more pitches = better pitches to hit = better hitting. Garcia's patience of late has translated well to results with the bat. As Hawk says everyday, "The more pitches you see, the more dangerous you are."

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 10:02 AM) Agreed. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it'll last from his peripherals. Leads the majors with a .714 BABIP and is sitting pretty on a 32% K rate and 25% HR/FB. He'll come back down to earth soon enough, but where he levels out will be interesting. If he ends up hitting around .250, that would be a nice improvement over anything he's done in the past. But, you're right that the K rate is concerning. There's no doubt he's made some changes to his approach. The next month or so will be very telling.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Apr 9, 2014 -> 08:38 AM) You broke my computer. I think the entire internet nearly went down.

Take it for what it's worth, but Hawk and Stone were talking a lot last night about how differently pitches react in Denver compared to other parks. Even though Paulino's first start wasn't spectacular, it was much better than last night's. And what he was missing was the straight change he was able to throw in his first outing. A couple more starts will tell the tale on this guy. If he can come out and pitch like he did in his first start (and maybe a bit better), he's fine for what he's needed for. Remember, just because he's the "#2 starter" doesn't mean he's actually the #2 starter for the Sox. I don't know much about Hanson, but this is a no-risk, potential decent reward deal. Who knows?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 07:32 AM) Game of Thrones clearly amazing. Silicon Valley - going to be awesome, last night was hilarious. VEEP - saving it for later this week. That one requires full attention. Glad to hear that. I added HBO just to catch this.

QUOTE (MEANS @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 07:46 AM) so which is it? Do we have a closer or don't we? Last time I check his name was Lindstrom and he came in yesterday and closed the game. Now it may have not been a save situation and he still gave up a run but he did his job. Yeah, it's way too early to write off Lindstrom (and the entire bullpen for that matter). Looking around the majors, there are more than a few teams having similar problems. Things will level out, and I'm sure some of our existing bullpen won't be around, but some will and they'll be fine. For all of the talk before the season started about this team not having a chance to compete, we sure are taking the losses and hiccups badly. We're six games in, and we're 3-3. Let's give it a few more weeks.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 01:11 AM) Shameless.............. WHAAAAAAAT! I think it's awesome that non of the cast members even knew about that last scene. I'll be vague until others see it, because it's a pretty big spoiler. Yeah, that was a surprise. When it happened, I said to my wife, "Is that "

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