Balta1701

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 03:02 PM) What did you say? I've been at 78 wins all year. But I can see a path to the mid 60's. Get off to a bad start driven by a number of guys, sell off a couple of the more reliable pieces (Floyd, Peavy) to save wahtever money can be saved, call up youth to replace them even if they're not ready (Molina), and then have Sale and Humber tire out in the 2nd half while playing other kids. And if that happened, KW should still keep his job, because that would be a necessary step in a rebuilding process.

Phil her up!

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 12:48 PM) Balta had them for 90+ losses in February. I guess Leyland's talking to him too! Time will tell. No, I didn't. This is what you'd call "Taking words so far out of context that the word Lie is completely reasonable".

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 15, 2012 -> 09:44 PM) Look at de Aza's splits from last year, and his Minor League play. He is adequate vs. LHP, but not nearly as good as he is vs. RHP, which is where Lillibridge really excels. By the way, I forgot to ask this yesterday...what site gives you LH/RH minor league split statistics?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) Probably need at least 40, maybe 54 games (Hawk's famous 1/3rd mark of the season) to really know what we've got offensively. If Viciedo continues hitting and Morel and Beckham continue not hitting, then I would be content with shuffling people around in the lineup before then, but yeah, Memorial day is about the time when it's more reasonable to start considering roster moves or seriously thinking about moving people to the bench if they're not turning it around. Some of those decisions, of course, should also be informed by the hitting coach. If they think Morel is in a good spot despite the strikeouts, and want to keep him in the #2 slot despite the strikeouts (Because he has shown some authority driving the ball to right center, for example), then that's their call too.

Of course...at this point in the season, it's worth questioning the type of pitchers the Sox have faced. The Sox have faced the Rangers and Tigers pitching staffs...Detroit is #2 in the AL in strikeouts and the Rangers are #4. Of course, they're also up high in strikeouts because they faced the Sox, but Texas also played the Mariners and you'll note the Mariners appear on your list, and the Tigers also faced Boston and Tampa Bay, both of whom also...appear on your list. It's difficult to say with complete clarity, but outside of 2 games in Cleveland, the Sox have faced some pitching staffs who can strike you out. The Sox also got a game against Masterson, who is averaging 8.3 K/9, so that's not exactly letting up either.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 09:27 AM) I heard this on my way into work this morning... I like Pedroia but these Boston players think they are above the rest of the League or something..."that's not how we do things around here"? Seriously? Under whom? Tito is gone, Dustin...the way you did things around there got him f***ing fired...so maybe you should listen to your manager and change some of the things you do around there.... Now I'm not saying the way Valentine called him out was right either...I think we have all seen the public criticism of players over the course of the last several years and I can't say I remember too many cases of the criticism having positive effects... But Pedroia's response is even more out of line, IMO. What Pedroia's response tells me is that there is a pretty big gulf between the manager and the players. The players simply do not trust whatever it is this manager is trying to do.

Valentine publicly called out Youkilis over the weekend. Pedroia ripped Valentine in response:

QUOTE (Reddy @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 09:02 AM) Am I the only one who thinks this thread is insane after only 8 games and us winning FIVE of them!? we are 11th in the league in OPS. I'll grant you, we need to score more runs, but it's been EIGHT FRIGGIN GAMES! EDIT: by league, I do mean, all of MLB. There's a couple guys who are clearly struggling and are in important spots...so it is a valid question how long we let them struggle while keeping guys who are hitting like Viciedo lower in the order. I'm of the mind to be patient with those guys, to see if they can come around in a couple weeks...we endured multi-month slumps from Konerko and still wound up with good seasons before...but there is going to be a point where some of these guys have a reckoning if they can't find a groove. That said, the poster who started this thread has been a huge fan of Conor Jackson since we signed him and apparently is going to keep pushing him regardless of whether he's performing well enough at AAA to earn a callup. He's currently...not.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 07:40 AM) I dont know if the two are a direct correlation at all times, it didnt really seem to make a difference a month and a half ago when he returned and immediately injured his shoulder running into a defender. Sometimes s*** happens, no matter how much you micromanage it Rip has to start playing. And he has to start playing more with Rose, and he has to start playing meaningful minutes. With all the time he's missed, for now, I have no problem with Korver and Brewer splitting the "Down the stretch minutes" until Hamilton's play demands them or Korver's shot stops falling and forces Thibs' hands. If all that happens is Hamilton replaces Bogans's minutes in the first and third quarters against the Heat, that's still an upgrade over last year, hopefully. I'll give Thibs benefit of the doubt on this rotation. Hamilton can't just be thrust into those minutes. When we signed him, we were probably hoping for 20-25 minutes a game from him. We haven't gotten that, but we can't try to balance it out by playing him more when healthy.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 07:49 AM) FOX only gets a 3-hour exclusive window on Saturdays. They either get 1-4 or 4-7 ET. This past Saturday FOX had the 1-4 window so the Sox game should have been available on mlb.tv and MLBEI. I pray every weekend that the next TV contract fixes this. I'm paying $200 a year for the Extra Innings package, and yet, Fox can't broadcast their out-of-chosen-market games on the Extra Innings channels, so every year, I wind up having 5 or so saturdays where Fox and MLB get angry emails from me and I skip watching baseball because they set me up with Red Sox vs. Mariners or something like that when the White Sox are on at the same time.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 03:14 AM) Like I said, the paper I work for down here requires we submit three different headlines. "We don't control the headlines at all!" is a convenient excuse for when a headline comes back to bite you in the tail.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 07:11 AM) I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree about Jackson's strength, especially versus LHP. Yes it's true that he draws a lot of walks, but there is much more to his offensive game. If you examine his split stats versus LHP, for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, when he was just 24 to 26 years old, you'll note that he not only had a terrific average and OBP, but he also hit a lot of doubles and even a few homers. Here are his stats vs LHP, in the last two of those years, projected over a 162 game season: 2007 36 2B 4 3B 17 HR 96 RBI .320 AVG .408 OBP .549 SLG .958 OPS 2008 46 2B 3 3B 11 HR 66 RBI .315 AVG .446 OBP .492 SLG .938 OPS The guy can clearly hit lefties!!! I suspect that he'd hit a few more home runs in our ballpark. He'll turn just 30 next month. He's still in his prime, and I see no reason to not expect him to get back to where he was, now that he's healthy. Wouldn't you take those numbers sandwiched between Konerko and Viciedo, versus lefties? I'd much prefer that to the hole in the lineup that Dunn represents vs. lefties. If everything comes true then sure. I'm going to ask myself what's more likely though...Conor Jackson suddenly recovering where he was 3+ years ago after some serious health issues, when you prediction a few weeks ago that he'd immediately start destroying AAA has not come true... or guys like Morel and Beckham finally developing while Dunn returns to putting up a .750-ish OPS against lefties. I'll take the latter, if I had to bet. Conor Jackson returning to form is not a good bet. If he catches fire for 2 months+, then we'll talk. He's played 2 weeks and he has not done so.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 07:51 AM) You can't send vets to the minors without their consent. I believe its if they have 5 years experience. In order to send Rios to the minors, The Sox would have to effectively waive him and then have Rios choose to accept the assignment. If Rios were to decline that assignment and request to be granted free agency, then the Sox would be on the hook for his entire contract and wouldn't even have Rios to kick around any more. Trying to send him to the minors is effectively buying out his entire contract and being done with him completely.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 08:27 AM) They honor Clemente every year with a prestigious award named after him. That's more than enough. The award in his name is a unique honor for him. They don't need to repeat what they do for Jackie, give him the award, it's the right thing.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 07:42 AM) I'm all for Jackie Robinson Day, but they need to find some way to do it other than having every player wear #42. If you're at a bar watching a game with no sound, you have no idea who is pitching/hitting/running, because not only is everybody wearing #42, but none of the jerseys have names on the backs. But...you can't help remembering him.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 15, 2012 -> 09:33 PM) Lillibridge is a better platoon candidate for de Aza in CF. Why? If we're basing thing entirely on this season's sample size, his splits against RHP and LHP are pretty much identical.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 15, 2012 -> 09:32 PM) The only magic number I care about is the post season one. Clearly the goal is #1 overall seed for now.

Well, at least they pulled out the win. Couple more of those for the top seed.

Did Rose somehow manage to just salvage OT?

Seriously Bulls, losing to the Pistons after 3?

Santos Rodriguez 123 9th inning for the save.

8 IP, 7 K's, 7 hits, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 HR, 94 pitches for Molina so far, ends the 8th with a 1 run lead.

Mitchell with an RBI double to tie the game, then scores the lead run on an Espino single.

Bulls got off to a better start tonight, but have now allowed the Pistons back into the game to start the 2nd.