fathom

Ha, Dunn overpowered by someone who has no business being in the majors. Sadly, Oakland will go to the pen sooner rather than later.

So we're bunting to play for one run but we don't play infield in with runner on 3rd and one out?

Holy cow has Rios been bad defensively this year.

Well, the camera man is on LSD. Sox should be up 3 or 4 runs.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jun 11, 2011 -> 01:49 AM) Honestly, he has a better shot getting on that way than actually using a full swing. No way, he's terrible at bunting for hits. At best, he's successful 20 percent of the time.

Great swing by Morel. Nice to see him with enough power to get it over their head. DON'T BUNT

I'll be disappointed if this pitcher makes it 4 innings. Nice job by Edwin of getting us back in the dugout.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jun 11, 2011 -> 01:37 AM) Not that I doubt it, but can you elaborate? This guy throws a mediocre fastball above the belt. It's the exact pitch Beckham can't handle due to some inexplicable hole in his swing.

Yuck...terrible fastball hitter

Beckham is only guy who doesn't match up well against Godfrey.

Well, looks like we found there Harrell/Marquez

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 11, 2011 -> 01:25 AM) I can hear Konerko drooling. That was too obvious. That was Thome vs Russ Ortiz obvious

This pitcher has nothing. Bunch of straight fastballs.

Well, that's the worst bunt we've seen in a long time. Edwin needs to find his hard slider again.

I want to give credit to Ozzie for not being stubborn and putting Dunn back in the lineup. I think he would have preferred to rest him one more game, but Cahill was the perfect pitcher to get Dunn back into the lineup to face. Hopefully he benches him against Gio though.

Phillies with some absolutely terrible play in extra innings tonight.

What a terrible charge call on LBJ.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 10, 2011 -> 12:40 AM) Frankly, yes. The only fair way to evaluate things is in aggregate. Even I agree with this

Franklin and Bash was better last night than the pilot. Loved it!

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 06:24 PM) Actually, his much-heralded bunting skills have gone south as well. They were DREADFUL last year. He had a success rate last year when he'd get a bunt down of around 15%.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 07:15 PM) Ozzie has cost this team five games off the top of my head. He's stubborn to a fault and he most certainly doesn't put his players in the best position to succeed. At least not consistently. Ozzie doesn't overreact? Didn't he just go on a tirade a couple weeks ago? Getting mad at the fans because most don't give him a free lifetime pass for 2005? Players respond to him? Well I wish Alex Rios, Adam Dunn, AJ, JP, Danks and Thornton would start responding. Because nothing he's done has worked (this is obviously on the players, too). To me, it's been his worst year, no question about it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 05:53 PM) I doubt his speed has suddenly vanished, but it doesn't have to. Even if he's just lost a "step", that makes a big difference by itself... then its compounded if he tries to make changes to adjust. That small decline in speed can have a pretty huge impact. Why's that hard to believe? He's played so hard and ran so often for quite a long time now (while rarely getting a rest, unless it was with the Dodgers). Also, in today's age of baseball, we have no way of knowing what the actual aging process for players is.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 9, 2011 -> 05:46 PM) To me the question is how much "slower" is he and I don't personally know that answer. Part of him getting thrown out could just be him having a flaw in his technique when it comes to getting good jumps and part of that is about confidence. The more he "thinks" about something, the slower he might appear. As long as he has above average speed, he should be a solid player. When that skill isn't there, than I think it is time that he is reduced to more of a bench role. I personally don't know if I've seen enough to say he doesn't have the speed anymore to be effective or if it is more of a mental thing as of this point. Kind of like how fathom points out that part of his problems in defense seem to be his "timidness". I don't know the answer because I'm not around Pierre enough to see first-hand the difference in his actual skills (e.g., his practice, the time it takes him to get from 1st to 2nd, etc). The eye test isn't pretty to date, but as I pointed out above, part of that could be due to practice or a slump. The longer it goes though, the more you think it isn't a slump anymore. I thought Pierre had lost a step last year compared to his time on the Marlins, and I'd say comparing last year to this year, he's lost another step if not more. The most telling play to illustrate this was when he hit a line drive into the right field corner against the Indians, and the old Pierre would have had an easy triple on this play. However, the 2011 Pierre didn't even round second base, and settled for a double. He's even had a few instances where his jumps haven't been bad, and he was still thrown out with ease. Most of his steals this year have been on bad throws. My best analogy is that if Pierre was a pitcher, he would have used to throw 97 mph but now throws 91 mph.

Also, just because Dunn and Rios are having seasons from hell doesn't mean Juan should be excused for how bad he's been. Left field is one of the easier positions in all of baseball to find a replacement player, especially when you have Viciedo tearing up the minors (and LF being very easy to play at the Cell).

The biggest problem with Pierre's defense is that he seems so timid to go after fly balls that he's never running at full speed. If you look at the fly balls he's dropped at the Cell, he keeps stopping and starting numerous times because it's like he wants anyone else to catch the ball besides him. And maybe it's me, but Juan getting a random single once a game and then being caught stealing is just as mediocre as Dunn striking out 3 times in a game.