RME JICO

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 15, 2008 -> 11:18 AM) Also, this guy is having a hard time getting in: 287-250, 242 CG, 60 SHO, 3701 K to 1322 BB, 1.20 WHIP, 3 times in Top 4 for Cy Young, 3 time AS, and pitched 4970 innings. He would have to string together some dominant 20-win seasons with at least one Cy Young and several more All-Star appearances. Also, eclipsing 4,000 IP would be a pretty nice achievement in today's era. Right now Mark is the youngest pitcher on the Active IP list at 29. He is 29th. Vazquez is 16th at 31. Comparing the others pitchers posted, other than wins, Mark looks pretty good if either of these make it. Mussina - (18 seasons) 261-150 (.635%) All-Star - 5 Cy Young - 0 No-hitters - 0 20-win seasons - 0 Blyleven - (22 seasons) 287-250 (.534%) All-Star - 2 Cy Young - 0 No-hitters - 1 20-win seasons - 0 Buerhle - (9 seasons) 113-83 (.577%) All-Star - 3 Cy Young - 0 No-hitters - 1 20-win seasons - 0

1st place at the ASB CQ's Walk-off Gavin's near no-no OC's Walk-off single AJ's 2-run SF Konerko's Triple Sweeping the Cubs and Tribe back to back

For those that used a real email, you get a free week of MLB.tv from July 11th - July 18th for voting. Should have an email from MLB Subscriptions in your inbox.

Just looking at home and away winning percentages and strength of schedule, the Sox are on pace for about 96 wins if everything stays at its current rate. They have won 71.1% of their home games with 36 remaining and 45.7% of their away games with 35 remaining. Their remaining overall SoS is .505. PECOTA has us projected at 91 wins. The Twins have won 64% of their home games with only 31 remaining and 45.2% of their away games with 39 remaining. Their remaining SoS is .495. That equates to about 89 wins. PECOTA has the Twins projected at 83 wins. Odds are both teams will fall somewhere in between these projections. That puts the Sox at a minimum of 91 wins and the Twins at no more than 89 wins. Again just projections, but it is nice to be on the top end.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) For a closer, inconsistency is the worst trait to have. I guess you can say he is inconsistent after tonight.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 04:29 PM) His leadership skills I question. Both papers said today he routinely is the first person out of the clubhouse door after a game. That is not a leader, and it also seems like a guy who would rather be someplace else. I'm sure if he still were with the Angels his act would probably be a little different.He is leading them out of the clubhouse.

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 06:43 AM) Also we could be wrong and it could be an unrelated incident. JD might have made a comment about how Renteria is better than Cabrera.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 10, 2008 -> 05:58 AM) especially because with a right-hander on the mound, the pitch is coming out of the pitchers hand with Cabrera moving in the backround right behind the flight of the ball, which distracted Dye and gave away the best pitch to hit in his AB. With his normal lead Cabrera was already out of the line of sight of the pitch, and was halfway to 3rd before the ball was released.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 03:13 PM) He's not that good, he's converted 82 saves out of 116 opportunities in his career. That's 71%. He even had 36 saves one year with Houston and Oakland, he also blew 8 saves though. Right now, Linebrink has converted 25% of his saves. So, would you like 71% or 25%? Dotel has 2 blown saves this year, and the Sox lost both. Linebrink has 3 blown saves this year, and the Sox won all 3. I will take the W over the save percentage. It doesn't matter because Carrasco is the Closer.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 9, 2008 -> 11:44 AM) Exactly what I was thinking. Some people just cant handle pitching the 9th for whatever reason and should stay as set-up guys. Dotel has done it before and pretty well, so he should be the guy with Bobby down. Linebrink pitched in the 11th?

Does it really matter what inning you come in to pitch? Does Linebrink crap the bed because he comes out of the bullpen knowing he is in the "closer" role or in a save situation? I doubt it, he is just having a tough stretch, all pitchers go through this. Even after a rough stretch, Linebrink still has an unbelievable K:BB ratio of over 5:1. He only has 6 walks in 38 IP. The odd thing about Linebrink is even when he has a bad outing, the Sox still win. He has allowed a run in each of his last 4 outings, yet the Sox have won all of them. The Sox are 35-4 when he pitches. I know he normally comes in when the Sox have the lead, but that is still a good sign. I wouldn't mind seeing Dotel as the Closer, but I would just go with the hot hand.

A completely odd trade coming from Oakland. Why throw Gaudin in there? He was a serviceable spot starter and reliever. Oakland got fleeced. A very odd move when you are only 3.5 out of the WC before the All-Star break. What was the hurry with 23 days left to move Harden? I would be pissed if I was an A's fan. You give up your #1 starter and a solid reliever for a pitcher who projects to be a #3 at best, a 4th Outfielder, a utility player, and a minor league catcher? Looking at the Swisher and Haren deals, this one is completely brutal.

QUOTE (PorkChopExpress @ Jul 7, 2008 -> 03:43 PM) Exactly. I don't know why everyone assumes they can't continue to win. They may not continue to win at the .857 clip they are at now, but they are a well-balanced team with a great manager and special desire to beat the White Sox. Expect to fight them until the end, literally with the second to last series of the year being in Minnesota.? We are 7-4 vs them this year? So much for desire.

Another factor is whether the Sox are home or away. Floyd has been our best pitcher at home where both MB and Count have pitched better, while Danks has been our best pitcher on the road. Vazquez is pretty much the same either way. Regardless, this is a good problem to have, 5 capable pitchers with 4 rotation spots. We may have no true ace (even though Danks is getting there), but we also have no true #5 either, which is a good thing.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox15 @ Jul 6, 2008 -> 09:20 PM) At around this point last year, The Tribe were a game behind the Tigers. We all know who ended out on top and who was sitting at home in October. How does this relate to us? The Twins currently sit one game behind us in the standings. I am tired of hearing that they won't be around at the end of the season, or that they aren't as good as we are. This is the same story I heard time and again from 2002-2004 and again in 2006 when they were the ones who ended up playing in October while we sat watching them, pissed off knowing that the Sox blew it. They always play above their heads, thats the kind of play Gardenhire gets out of his teams. Also, notice that the Twins have gone 19-5 since we swept them at the Cell a month ago. They obviously can't maintain a clip like that, but I don't think this team is going to go away. Plus, there is always the Tigers, who could come alive at any moment. I know we have been saying that all season, and as each day passes and they remain 7 games back, it becomes harder and harder to dig themselves out of a hole like that. But that offense could come out an dominate, and if they make some moves in the coming weeks to tweak some of the weaknesses they have, they could be another thorn in our sides. Its not all gloom and doom, though I have a propensity to be one of the first to start shouting that the sky is falling, but we need to get some things together. We need to start winning road games. We need to keep beating teams we should beat, and we need to keep beating up on our own division. If we do that, I think the division should be ours for the taking. All of that said, I think the team that poses the biggest threat to hinder the Sox playoff chances is the Sox themselves. We need to avoid prolonged slumps. The season is more than half over, we know what we have. We have a streaky team that is very reliant on the longball. It doesn't look like we are going to make any significant trades. Hopefully we can maintain the pitching we have had yearlong and remain healthy. I'd like to see PK come back with some renewed vigor and maybe provide a little extra offensive jolt. I'd really like to see Javy not suck has recently and has in big game situations. Maybe Jose can revert to pre-June form and Buehrle can remain in June form. The youngsters hopefully will pitch as wonderfully as they have been and they bullpen will hopefully remain rested and dominant. Bobby needs to come back to Linebrink isn't coughing up 9th inning homers anymore. This is a lot to ask for, but I think they Sox can do it. I hope they can. NorthSideSox15, The Twins went 19-5 and we are still in 1st place. We are 10-3 in our last 13, and have a 24-11 Divisional record. For Minnesota, they have played 5 more home games than us and had that huge run during interleague play. This week will be a great test for them as they play 7 on the road in Boston and Detroit. Minnesota will be around all year, but Detroit has much more potential to do some damage.

Double loss for the Cubs; losing out on CC and now having to face the Brewers 10 more times with CC against you.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 4, 2008 -> 09:09 AM) http://homerderby.com/archives/1796 Ironic that Mark modeled the uni's and is starting tonight wearing them.

QUOTE (TCQ @ Jul 2, 2008 -> 10:17 AM) Well researched sir, bonus point for you and good day. ..and a good day to you. Pittsburgh leads the league in batting with 2-outs and RISP, and Baltimore is 3rd. The Sox are 27th, the Cubs are 23rd, and Boston is 21st. That stat in itself doesn't tell you much. The Sox are 2nd in PH BA, 6th with Runners On, 3rd with RISP, 6th with Bases Loaded, 5th after the 6th inning, and 3rd Close and Late. The only one we are bad in is 2-outs with RISP, and that is probably because we just hit a HR and the next guy doubled.

QUOTE (BFirebird @ Jul 2, 2008 -> 09:54 AM) The Sox are actually 3rd in baseball with RISP behind Minnesota and Cubs. We are hitting .284 http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg It is when there are 2 outs that we struggle. We are only hitting .207 and ranked 27th. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/aggreg...ng&type=reg That is really surprising since we are 3rd in batting "Close and Late" which is probably the best indicator of timely hitting (.271). It is really odd to see that we've had the least chances with 2-outs and RISP. Minnesota also had that easy streak vs AA pitching from the NL to pad their numbers. Also, 10 of our last 12 runs have come with 2 outs, and 15 of our last 23. So I would say that we are doing a much better job with 2 outs and RISP than we were earlier in the year.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 08:06 PM) Bit of a yucky ending, but a big W. Time to stick the nail in the coffin for the Tribe. The good thing is the Sox bullpen gave up runs that didn't cost the game. Now they can go back to shutting down teams when it counts.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 06:56 AM) That's not really the point of the stat though. The Sox score a disproportionate amount of runs via the home run, and they are hard pressed to do it any other way. In fact, in games where they're hitting home runs, they're probably getting a couple of them hit "softer for a double off the wall" too because they're exploding on some poor pitcher. But when they're not hitting home runs they're just not hitting, period (see: numerous shutouts this year) which probably means they're facing a lefty with something resembling an off-speed pitch. The end result is a lot of runs, but maddening inconsistency. Hell, if I could throw with my left hand with a curveball and a changeup, even I could get a CG SO and strike out 12 against them, I can barely throw 60 mph with that hand. lol. I understand that, but are we winning because of the HR, or are we hitting HRs when we win? An example of this is our 10-3 vs the Cubs. We hit HR's, but even without them, we still would've won. When the Cubs swept us, they scored 12 of 22 runs on HRs, when we swept them, we scored 12 of 21. How is that so different?

QUOTE (TCQ @ Jun 30, 2008 -> 07:14 AM) I know its well documented that the Sox have been a homerun heavy team for a while. The team is built to play at the cell 81 times a year and Hrs are a big part of the gameplan here. One thing that worries me is that ESPN showed a stat yesterday that the sox are something like 43-11 when they homer. It pisses me off i cant remember what the exact stat was did anyone else see this? You can make that statement for a ton of stats. What is the record of the Sox when Quentin gets a hit? I bet if you did that for any good team you would get similar results. Many teams win when they hit home runs. Would you rather have them hit it softer for a double off the wall?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 10, 2008 -> 10:21 AM) I don't care what a team's record is...if they're as potent on offense as Detroit potentially is, then mid-June is still too early to count them out. They're 11 back right now, Cleveland came from what, 15 back in 05 to make it interesting, and was the greatest regular season swing in White Sox history away from pulling within 0.5 games and probably breaking our spirit? You can't count anyone out until the magic number is zero. Too many things can happen, especially with 12 of out last 16 vs Divisional opponents.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jun 10, 2008 -> 10:11 AM) That's impressive that some here would come clean about wanting to CUT swisher. i mean, had you never seen his career #s? Based on his past numbers, you knew he would come around. He had been extremely unlucky, and probably had some problems when he was moved into leadoff, which further entrenched him in a slump. I never thought about cutting him, but giving him a couple of days off wouldn't have hurt.

Let's hope for a great game by everybody!