fathom

Tampa is catching some unbelievable breaks on defense tonight. Oh, and Adam, I hope that shows you to run hard to first every play.

Nice job Youk and Beckham!

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 01:05 AM) QUIT FUKCKING BUNTING IF YOU DONT KNOW HOW. Gotta love the crowd booing De Aza there.

STOP BUNTING! Give me a break Robin

DAllen mentioned this in another thread, but Stone and Hawk aren't interacting at all tonight.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 01:50 AM) I don't know if there really is something going on or Hawk is just under the weather, but Hawk and Stone didn't speak to each other the first 2 innings I was wondering if something happened Wednesday night between the two that caused Hawk to be out last night.

Ha, Zobrist getting so damn lucky on these grounders.

Can't get the big hit of course. Dunn would have been safe if they sent him.

I don't even think that Viciedo's plate discipline was awful in terms of chasing pitches way out of the zone. What was baffling was how he seemed to swing and miss so many hanging breaking pitches right down the plate.

BTW, Willingham out for the Tigers series.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 09:53 PM) Start from scratch in the booth! Darren Sutton! Well this is the best post of the entire season. The thing I miss the most about not having the MLB Extra Innings package is watching Arizona games and listening to Sutton broadcast.

Would Ventura make a good broadcaster Kidding, I really hope it's not DJ.

Bring back Wimpy

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 07:35 PM) Konerko, Dunn, and Youkilis are hurt, as is De Aza. Peavy is 100 IP over any season he has thrown since 2012. Quintana and Sale are about 100 innings over anything they have thrown as professional pitchers. Most of the bullpen is experiencing pitching in September for the first time in their lives. It isn't about being loose, or tight, or anything that grey. Don't forget that Youk had an even worse finish to the season last year. I think you and I were two of the most consistent posters with regards to fears of the pitching running out of gas.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:30 PM) I disagree. With Youk and Ramirez, they play basically every day. I can see an argument for a backup for Youk given his history, but he only missed a few games, and I think the impact of that is miniscule compared to other issues. Youk's been so banged up, there's no doubt in my mind he would have been given more rest if they had a suitable back-up 3rd baseman. Heck, having to play Olmedo at SS for Alexei in a game basically cost the Sox a game. Of course there are other issues, but finding a back-up utility player seems like it should have been one of the easier issues to fix.

2-30 with bases loaded this month is amazing

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 03:40 PM) Chicken and egg. Maybe they were hitting .150 because they never played. Look at Tyler Flowers, who by the way was a pretty good 2nd catcher... he started hitting near the end of the season, when he finally saw a little more playing time. And Escobar was never thought to be much of a hitter anyway, but again, they guys need to play to keep the rust off. Bench players are bench players for a reason. And I think KW did an OK job with it. Flowers was pretty good, Escobar was good defensively. The Wise pickup was a good one. Danks works out fine as a backup OF. Kenny failing to get a back-up SS/3B at the deadline was a huge blunder.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:17 AM) I don't describe it as a choke because to me that means you were up 5-6 games etc and let it go. This is just...sucking. I don't know how to describe it. They are just failing to compete at this point. Collapse?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:15 AM) IMO, the turning point was Viciedo v. Chen with the bases loaded, no one out, in that 2nd Royals game last week. Tank had some struggles this year, but one thing he always did was crush LHP, especially Chen. That was a moment to break the game wide open, score some runs for your ace. He aimed for the fences, popped it up, so did Alexei, and there went that game. Maybe that creates some momentum, even if it didn't, the Sox could still only be one game back right now.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:04 AM) On the bright side, soon I'll be able to use the 7-10pm block to do homework Just in time for me to watch all these shows that have new episodes starting up again.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:05 AM) Good post. Those are some bright spots, but not that many. But how bout looking at the team in bunches: Offense as a whole; pitching as a whole; defense as a whole. Considering we are losing Peavy, Youk and AJ, please comment on if you think the Sox are in better position than a year ago. Answer this simply: Are the Sox a .500 team entering next season if we pick up say a Guthrie to replace Jake and go with our young starters to fill out the rotation? Way too early to predict what the rest of the team would look like. Who knows, maybe the go into more of a rebuild mode and don't even bother signing a major free agent. I'm not going to lose sleep over that right now.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 05:04 AM) He hasn't exactly had a stacked deck to use, but he's made some really stupid decisions this month. I felt like early on he stayed out of the way and didn't do too much, now it's the fact that he has 60 guys on the bench and no clue how to actually use them. Whether the moves work or not, you still have to make the logical move beforehand and lately he just hasn't. Well yes, I definitely agree with that. I think not having a veteran bench coach to help with the decision making has been a huge downfall.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 04:59 AM) Not bad. I'll add to your last part...RV showing he doesn't really know how to manage in-game, especially with an expanded roster. For as much as I've bashed Ventura, I'm not sure any manager could have salvaged things down the stretch. Nearly every single player seems to be in choke mode. Outside of Dunn connecting on an 0-2 pitch on Monday, every possible thing that could go wrong has since last Wednesday.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 03:53 AM) For the rest of time you can bring up 2012 and it's not going to bring positive memories, just pain and anguish for me. I respect that, but maybe it's just that I never felt this team was going to be good enough to hold off the more talented Tigers. Even in 2006 and 2008, I had started thinking of who the Sox matched up better with in the postseason. Hell, I've never once even thought of who the Sox could play in the postseason if they made it.

Reasons I think Sox are in better position now than a year ago: - Dunn proved that he didn't forget how to play the game of baseball, meaning his contract wasn't an absolute waste going forward - Manto was able to make Rios into a good player again - Chris Sale proved he can be a very good starter in the majors - Good experience for Reed and Jones (Jones was never even expected to be in the big leagues this year) - Quintana came out of nowhere and gives you hope he can be a 5th starter. Santiago started the year as closer, failed, and then showed some promise as a possible starter - ADA proved he can be a very solid player, and gives us the best all-around leadoff hitter the Sox have had in a long time - Ventura proved he knows how to motivate the players and create a good environment in the clubhouse. The biggest setback was Morel looking like he's not MLB caliber, causing the Sox to have to scramble to find a 3B this year and in the future.