ScottyDo

Top 6: Have to go after this half-inning. Pinch hitting should be starting soon anyway. Wheeler in to pitch. Beckham strikes out on a high fastball. De Aza bounces out to 2b. Strike zone is weird today, especially on De Aza, but I guess it's spring training for everyone, right? De Aza looks uncomfortable for reasons other than umpiring, though, so no excuses. AJ pulls a homer to right, which bounces just above the yellow line on the fence. Woohoo! Rios immediately spanks one into the left field corner for a double. He advances to 3b on a ball in the dirt that gets away from Santana. No wait, not Santana. Whoever replaced him defensively. Carlin? Anyway, next pitch is in the dirt, too, and Rios comes home safely. Tie game! Fukudome really battles back from a quick two-strike count to draw the walk, with those pass balls in between. He's on a mission to dominate his former team! Or, it's a coincidence. The second one. Indians get their vengeance as Fukudome is caught stealing on a pitch out. Better now than April, right? Amiright?

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 05:24 PM) I wonder what the odds are that Fukudome is starting over Viciedo by May 1st? I hope 0%. Viciedo still needs regular ABs. This season should be spent developing the young guys if they're struggling. Fukudome won't be enough to put us in the playoffs.

Bottom 5: Brantley quickly grounds out to short. Alexei finally gets a little practice. Kipnis strikes out swining on a ball off the plate. Sorry, fathom. Indians announcers mention that the White Sox used 17 different players at DH last year. Craziness! Stewart gets Choo to strike out, too. Double-sorry, fathom. Looking at my post formatting this thread, I appear to owe Greg royalties. Check is in the mail, Greg.

Top 5: Frank Herrmann in to pitch. Whoever that is. Fukudome lines into left for a single. You can cancel the non-existent postgame show. MVP! Alexei strikes out swining. Viciedo does the same on 3 pitches. Eww. Morel down 0-2, but eventually singles up the middle. 1st and 2nd with two out. Feed randomly cuts to Glenn Beck talking about hurting himself doing carpentry? Then, all of the sudden the MLB.tv commercial animation. Wish I was kidding. Back to the regularly-scheduled programming, Dan Johnson pulls it over the bag and into the RF corner. Fukudome home easily, Morel gunned out by a mile rounding 3rd to end the inning. Aside from the Glenn Beck cameo, a good AB for Johnson.

Bottom 4: Zach Stewart in to replace Axelrod. Santana fights to hit a gapper to left center for a double. Duncan pops out to De Aza just off the infield grass in very short left. Base hit to left field which Viciedo can't corral. Santana scores easily, and Canzler pulls into 2nd on the error. RBI single and an error. Viciedo gets a bad jump on a liner to left field but manages to break on time to catch the ball for the second out. Canzler stays at 2B. Spillborghs goes down 0-2 immediately but fouls off a ton of pitches and eventually comes back for an RBI single to left. Viciedo's throw offline, and Spillborghs advances to 2nd. Bad defense today. Nobody in the outfield looks comfortable. Another long at-bat, but Donald eventually grounds out to Morel, who throws high but Johnson comes down with it on time. Can't get out of the way of Donald, though, who goes sprawling. Everyone's okay, though.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 04:23 PM) You know, maybe that's what I'm getting at. I can't disagree with that. Does anybody seriously believe we have a chance to even win the division? I know it hasn't begun, yada, yada and no--I'm not saying I won't go to X amount of games or abandon the team. Might as well get on with it right? EDIT: the more I think about you said I think this is exactly what I would do. The rub is that KW is still GM. KW shouldn't do anything at any particular time unless the price is right. There's no sense in declaring it a fire sale because we lose all leverage and will get even less than what we've been getting. Patience is fine, there is no hurry, and it doesn't mean that we think this team is likely to compete. EDIT: Whoops, quoted the wrong post. This was supposed to be in response to OP.

Top 4th: De Aza whiffs on a pitch inside he was waaay early on. He also stabbed at a bunt to lead off the at-bat, but completely missed. De Aza looks uncomfortable, based on body language and facial expressions. AJ out but I didn't see how. Definitely made contact. Rios strikes out swinging. Bleh.

Bottom 3: Brantley K's swinging on a pitch off the plate. Wasn't even close. Next batter quickly flies out to Fukudome in RF. Choo K's on a check swing he couldn't hold up. Looked like a changeup inside that wasn't even close to the zone. Really fooled Choo. Solid inning for Axelrod.

Top 3: Morel makes decent contact but grounds out sharply to 2b. 1 out. Dan Johnson goes down 0-2 early but comes back with a walk on a close pitch. First baserunner for the Sox. Gordo GIDP on a sharp grounder to SS. Turn nearly pulls Duncan off first base, but I guess he had a toe on the bag.

Bottom 2nd: Axelrod starts off shaky, but somehow junkballs his way into an infield pop-up caught by Johnson right in front of the mound. Next guy hits a low liner to CF for a single. Runner advances on a ball in the dirt, smothered by AJ who throws to 2b but is too late. Beckham nearly catches a fly ball in foul territory that he had no business getting to, but at-bat continues. Eventually, grounds out to first. Runner advances to 3b with 2 out. Spillborghs hits a gapper to right-center for an RBI double. Next batter flies out lazily to De Aza in left center to end the inning. Axelrod is changing speeds nicely but when hitters guess right, squaring him up pretty well. I guess that's to be expected from a right-hander with a meh fastball.

Top 2nd: Fukudome pulls a 3-2 pitch hard over the 1b bag, but a great diving play by Duncan saves extra bases and Fukudome is out. Alexei pops out to SS in short left field. Viciedo takes two decent swings for foul balls, then strikes out looking on a make-up call off the plate outside (3rd pitch should have been called strike three but wasn't, strikeout pitch was further off the plate but called a strike. Either way, result is the same.)

Bottom 1st: Leadoff hitter out on a softish liner to RF. Second batter (Brantley maybe?) singles on a broken bat blooper that lands between De Aza and Alexei in short CF. Steals second on a decent throw by AJ, just off-line a tad. Advances to third on Choo's flyout to moderately-deep CF. Santana down in the count early and grounds out to 2b.

Top of the first: De Aza strikes out looking on a 2-seamer (I think) inside. Set up by a fastball off the plate called for a strike to start the at-bat. AJ flies out to left-center on one pitch. Rios flies out a little deeper to left-center, just off the end of the bat but good timing.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 01:58 PM) Revision: De Aza 8, A.J. 2, Rios DH, Fukudome 9, Ramirez 6, Viciedo 7, Morel 5, Dan Johnson 3, Beckham 4, Axelrod Pitching Dunn scratched again? Is he okay?

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 11:37 AM) http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...ill-follow.html Hmm interesting. Especially Thornton's comments. For those who don't want to read the link, here's the elevator version: according to the piece, if the Sox begin to struggle, you're going to see a fire sale. Hence why the Floyd rumors won't go away, and everything's on the table, INCLUDING Konerko, Thornton and obviously A.J. Thornton wastes no time in saying that he's tired of losing with the Sox. And he can't be the only one feeling that way. Here's my two questions: 1) Why wasn't this the case last year? It was obvious early on that we had MAJOR problems so why did that whole season continue on? Oh, wait: probably because KW was engaged in a pin-the-loser-on-the-other guy pissing contest which Ozzie ultimately lost. But not after the season was long gone. 2) Oh you're serious this time, are you KW? OK so we clean house of all the vets/higher priced talent (except Dunn and Rios and Peavy, whom you're stuck with) and we'll get right to that rebuilding with our... last-ranked farm system (cue "Yakkity Sax"). The more this goes on the more I think that there's one person in particular who needs to go before any player. I know nobody felt great about this team's chances, but we were within a handful of games at the trade deadline last year. No GM would have sold off all their assets at that point, not even St. Anthopoulos

According to Gameday, Volquez pumping it up there at 95mph in early spring. Should help them get their timing down...?

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 13, 2012 -> 02:51 PM) Dunn scratched. Stiff neck. Dan Johnson in. AJ 2nd. Morel 3rd Morel 3rd? That's fun. Keep it going kid!

I think it's funny because it definitely screams defeat, but it doesn't bother me because ad campaigns do not affect the product on the field one iota. What are they supposed to do? Pretend that they're going to be good? That'd be tone-deaf and kind of insulting to our intelligence. And they can't say nothing at all...they need to try and smooth this season over with the fan base somehow, so why not go with this approach. The only thing that kind of rings hollow with me is the idea that the average fan appreciate's the game for its own sake. I think the average fan appreciates winning and the game is a convenient medium. The ones who likely appreciate the game in its own right are probably the hardcore people who don't need winning over. It's a minor quibble and I don't have a better suggestion.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Mar 13, 2012 -> 12:09 PM) Can't disagree. especially the "hope" factor. They get new guy, launch some dead meat, have a plan-thus hope. We lose most popular and dependable player, keep same guy, have no apparent plan (i.e. signing Fukudome) have same dead meat on team-thus little hope. It's hard to appreciate the game for this team at $50 for a descent seat and $25 for parking. Agree with much of the previous sentiment, but the bolded keeps getting repeated and I don't get why. The plan going into this offseason seemed pretty clear to me, and the execution thereof was consistent as well. Signing Fukudome is not a "directionless" move, it's a "nothing to lose by signing this guy to a deal worth the change in my pocket" move. He's a bench player.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 06:11 PM) Sox have never fared well against Tyson Ross. Maybe the White Sox shouldn't be the last team to report to spring training. Yeah, man, those two days...

Why not Alexei in the #2 hole again? At least he has moderate speed and will likely give you everything AJ gives you

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 10:21 AM) Actually, that'd be kinda scary for me, since I'd worry if Peavy were throwing that hard right out of the gates without having a chance to stretch his arm out over the year. Good point. Peavy is definitely a nutcase, and totally capable of injuring himself to prove that he isn't injured. But it'd be nice to know he could hit the velocity he had when he was successful.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) But clearly, not every team gets off to a poor start. Bruce Chen doesn't have a 3.30 career ERA against every team. That means there is something which the Sox are doing different against these guys where the Sox are failing where other people succeed. Somewhere in that puzzle, the coaching staff fits in. It's definitely possible, but I really have no idea to what degree the coaching staff affects these things. I'd be more likely to concede that it was a fault with the managerial staff if these things change under Ventura than if they don't, though. Those are rather specific problems to have, and if two managers with ostensibly different styles each demonstrate the same specific, weird issue, I highly doubt there was much they could do about it in the first place. I'm much more in the camp of analyzing the things we know Ventura has control over: setting the lineup, yanking pitchers (if he starts taking that duty from Coop at some point), and in-game decisions (bunts, shifts, pinch hitters, defensive subs, etc.) Any other criteria used to judge him are, at best, a little capricious since we're just guessing at the relationship between manager and April record. EDIT: Add not being a huge distraction to the list. Once Paulie admitted that it was a problem last year, I was willing to concede that those squabbles had an effect on the bottom line.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 12, 2012 -> 10:09 AM) No, because there are clearly teams that can hit left handed pitching, for example. I didn't claim that the issues don't exist, merely that they may have nothing to do with the manager.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 11, 2012 -> 11:20 PM) Once pitchers start going 6 and 7 innings, teams will see more accurately how their teams will perform in April. It's also hard to judge things without radar guns and pitch tracking. Ed and DJ only mention the type of pitch thrown on the odd occasion, so it's hard to tell if someone is just working on fastball location early in ST, or just breaking breaking pitches in mid-ST. Similarly, I'll feel a lot better about our chances if Peavy is throwing ~94 right now, despite results.