fathom

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 01:29 AM) why? Why were they throwing him fastballs in that AB?

91 mph this inning

Gavin looks out of sorts from the stretch here. Fastball down 3-4 mph.

Damn, that's a play that has to be made.

77 pitches for Max. Got to work it so he doesn't go past the 6th.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 01:20 AM) Hey if everyone else can trade, DFA, retire our players when they do something bad I should get to exaggerate when they do well! Your boy Zach Stewart is facing Charlotte tonight.

Great AB by Konerko

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 01:17 AM) I saw his splits against righties being quoted in another thread today. Well yeah, he's struggled against RHP this year, that's a fact. Everyone knows there are absolutely no other possible alternatives at 3B on the Sox.

Same sequence he went with against De Aza

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 01:15 AM) Platoon Youk! Can't hit righties! ????? No one has ever said that

BUNT THIS

Nice pitch selection on those full counts

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 12:55 AM) Jack McDowell is probably the closest thing to a "big game" pitcher the Sox have had since I have watched them. Freddy Garcia

QUOTE (daa84 @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 12:56 AM) Great ab so far It would be interesting to see if the Tigers start Max over Verlander in game 1 of the playoffs if they make it. He's clearly the better pitcher right now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 12:52 AM) Its not like he is hitting the long ball anyway., Yep, much more likely to get the run home by stealing 2nd and then Konerko singles to right.

Bernstein just read off a column by Joe Sheehan that discussed Ventura's poor decisions last night. Youk only had one successful bunt in the minor, FWIW.

Oh, and no matter what happens tonight, I have to give Gavin some major props for showing huge balls to return so quickly from his elbow soreness. With his contract possibly up after the season, he could have easily sat out the rest of the year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:40 PM) There were plenty of suggestions that he should be starting in place of someone like Viciedo or Beckham against RHP's. I think Johnson could match Viciedo's current performance against RHP. Viciedo's around .220 vs RHP and looking overmatched at the plate.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:29 PM) But we had three straight hits. Why oh why oh why are you going to give the guy an out there, down two runs? Robin admitted after the game he was playing for the tie that inning.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:54 PM) However, I'm not the manager and for all I know, Youk is an outstanding bunter in practice (and to be frank, practice and the game shouldn't be any different when it comes to bunting). Just cause he hasn't done it in a game, doesn't mean he hasn't done it thousands of times in practice. I doubt they're trying to bunt a splitter in practice and then a 95 mph inside fastball. Lost in the debate about the bunt was him swinging at a terrible 0-2 pitch. You would figure that if he was a good bunter, he would have had at least one sac bunt in Boston by fluke.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:26 PM) It feels like we're being led to the gas chamber. I just don't like how the rest of the Sox and Tigers schedules match up for the Sox. They have that edge, for whatever that's worth. I'm thinking a 2-game lead after this series, we'll lose Game 163 at Detroit. A tie after this series, we're dead meat. 4-game lead--we have a very good chance to win the division. In the end, if the Sox go 5-13 against the Tigers, we deserve to lose and they deserve to win. But if we're playing 19 games a year against these same 4 teams, you better damn well have rosters that can beat these teams if you intend to make the playoffs. Get a few more lefties into the core lineup, IMO. Tons of RHP in the division.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 02:41 PM) I'm with you. Youk should have bunted. Soxtalk seems to know whether he is able to bunt, yet we don't have a clue since we never saw him bunt at a strike. I have to assume the person or persons that had Youk bunt knew whether or not he is able to do it. Youk never bunted at a strike so it is pretty difficult to know whether he is a competent bunter. We can tell that he was not competent when it comes to pitch selection, which makes me dubious that he was suddenly going to snap out of a slump in that AB. Orlando Hudson: 33 sac bunts in his career Kevin Youkilis: 0

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) Again the Johnson obsession is just back up quarterback syndrome. The guy is 32 years old, and every shot he has gotten at the major league level has been awful for 5 or 6 years now. I know the AAA numbers are impressive, but so what. If he was 23 with no track record, we could talk, but he isn't. This isn't a prospect we are talking about here. This is the very definition of a AAAA player. I'll admit, I always thought Johnson had a good swing ever since he beat the Sox in a 2005 game at the Cell. Obviously he's not going to be the next Robinson Cano, but I think he's better than someone like Brad Eldred. With that said, even if you don't play Johnson over Viciedo against RHP, you have to get someone else in the lineup instead of Viciedo. Even Hudson has had much better at bats vs RHP of late.

Despite the talk about him not being a big game pitcher, I have a lot of respect and gratitude for Peavy pitching so many innings this year. Especially in the first half, he was just a beast. With that said, there are a lot of warning signs that hopefully cause the Sox to not try and bring him back next year or for a multi-year deal. Same goes with Youkilis, but that's for another thread.

Youk is 2-32 vs the Tigers in a White Sox jersey. Fastballs in, offspeed pitches low and away every single AB.