Dick Allen

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:42 PM) Why is Detroit running with a 5 run lead? Why not? What's the shutdown point? The Sox were running down 5.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:38 PM) LOL at Thome with 1.022 OPS. 2nd and 3rd for Twins already with one out. Delmon Young strikes again. We have to believe Bannister will beat Liriano? Yikes. Seems the Twins ALWAYS score that runner from 3rd with less than 2 outs since the ASB. Must be a 75-80% conversion rate compared to the MLB average of around 53%. Hopefully somehow KC will win one of these and if the Sox don't come back tonight, they will take the next 2. You don't want to be in the situation where they have to sweep Minnesota next week to have any chance. 7-0 on this trip. 4-3 could have meant death to the playoff hopes. I sent my playoff money in today. I don't think I would have if they were 6 out.

QUOTE (CWSOX45 @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:37 PM) 1-0 minnesota. Hardy SF scores THOME.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:30 PM) And Josh Fields is 4/10 for KC. Hitting 5th. Still has managed 3 K's in 10 AB's. At least maybe he can help the abysmal Royals beat the Twins once. He was a star when he was playing out the string with the White Sox.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 12:02 PM) Okay but last year, in his age 38 season, he posted an .864 OPS and looked to be taking a downward slide. Not only that, but there were some really, REALLY ugly at-bats. Someone on here said we haven't seen at-bats like Manny's since Big Frank in his prime, EVEN THOUGH the results haven't matched the quality of his at-bats (no XBH yet). The converse could be said for Thome last year: he may have hit decently, but boy was it ugly at times. Not only that, but in his limited opportunities with LAD to end the season, he looked awful. So when you rewind to March of this year, when we were projecting his career arc, signs did not point to golden happiness and joy, particularly not in a reduced role (judging from the LAD numbers -- I know, sample size, blah blah blah). The Thome love, enjoyed by about 50% of this board during that couple-day span where we thought we might re-sign him, was largely based on residual fondness and affection from when he was playing well. It wasn't completely devoid of statistical analysis, but let's face it: it was not unreasonable to project a poor season out of the dude. The outrage right now is TOTALLY 20/20 retrospect. It's like playing blackjack: a situation might call for you to hit, simply because of the odds, but there's a chance you bust. If you bust, was it the wrong choice? No. He also played with a bad heel all year last year. He was a no brainer for $1.5 million.

One thing the Sox do have going for them is the Twins have been very shaky lately with the lead late. It haunted them once. Hope for some more.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:30 PM) It's the #1 reason why I find myself still cheering for him even while he's sleeping with the enemy. It's utterly ridiculous. So here's what I did: I just started with the first game of the 2009 season (it's the most recent so it should be pretty fresh in everyone's memory) looking at Thome's HR logs and went through the first 2 or so months of the season looking for Thome HR that finished #1 in that particular game in WPA (ie: the most important hits of the game). Well it was 9 HR in until I got to June 1st and this is what I found: Bottom 8, Down 1, Runners on: 2 Bottom 6, Tied, Runners on: 1 Top 5, Down 1, Runners on: 1 Top 8, Down 2, Runners on: 1 Bottom 8, Tied, Runners on: 2 I don't get how a hitter goes about failing in every crucial situation but still finishes #1 or #2 on the club in WPA each year he was here: #1 in '07 and '09 and #2 in '06 and '08. And in 2008 there was this, I'm still pulling my hair out and cringing. Why was he on the team? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNT6Ghm0nKE

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:32 PM) One can also make the case that we could have/should have been a couple of games up in first at this point. No one will ever know for sure.... 2 games have really hurt. The one Jenks blew at Minnesota and when Thome took Thornton deep when the Sox had the lead. The Sox win those, they are in first place.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 05:01 PM) There's no way to know if Thome would have helped us. All we know is that he wasn't a fit here for 4 years. He didn't fit in whatsoever. He never excited anybody, only made them cringe and pray for anything but a strikeout. If you think differently, I have to ask if you ever watched Sox baseball with a big group of Sox fans? If you weren't cringing or pulling hair out when Thome was up at crucial times, then...uh...what were ya doin??? Cheering confidently that Thome was gonna make that pitcher pay??? My ass. He came through like 1 outa 15 times; let his meaningless memory go. This post is perhaps the most inaccurate in Soxtalk history. You may want to check the numbers. The guy was a good hitter with the Sox and has I believe the top 3 home run season for a LH hitter in team history. G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards CLE (12 yrs) 1377 5723 4640 917 1332 259 20 334 927 18 14 997 1377 .287 .414 .567 .982 152 2633 86 42 1 43 86 CHW (4 yrs) 529 2165 1770 335 469 88 0 134 369 1 1 362 544 .265 .391 .542 .933 138 959 39 16 0 17 35 PHI (3 yrs) 361 1558 1279 234 333 65 4 96 266 0 5 260 385 .260 .386 .543 .928 139 694 20 8 0 11 41 MIN (1 yr) 94 289 237 37 64 15 2 20 49 0 0 49 75 .270 .394 .603 .998 167 143 8 1 0 2 3 LAD (1 yr) 17 17 17 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 7 .235 .235 .235 .471 A .933 OPS would never fit in with the White Sox. LMAO.

Hudson's only problem with the White Sox was throwing strikes consistently. When he does it, and when he did it with the White Sox, he was hard to beat.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 03:09 PM) Thome's HR was measured at 480 ft and hit a flagpole In his last 590 AL AB, Thome has 44 homers, 125 RBI and 119 BB. I don't know how you turn that down for $1.5 million.

The Twins cannot win games outside. Getting out of the dome is going to kill them. Thank God the Sox are 7-0 on this roadtrip. If they were 4-3, it may be time to play taps.

Jordan Danks with 151 k's in 445 AB. Putting things in perspective, Dave Kingman, a strikeout machine, had a career high of 156 k's in the major leagues in 535 AB. Danks will get every consideration due to his last name, but at this point, I would think a productive major league career has to be considered unlikely.

2 runs in a third of an inning, yet 2 or 3 dadgumits.

Right size, wrong shape.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Sep 6, 2010 -> 12:21 PM) Perhaps some junky shots found holes? It's already over? Damon, Cabrera, Kelly and Inge all hit the ball very hard. Its not over at all.

Gets out of it with a DP, although that was a rocket. Hopefully, a little break will be exactly what he needs.

Perhaps the 129 pitches Jackson threw his last outing are causing him problems today.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 01:56 PM) Close call, could have gone either way. Is Hawk b****ing and moaning already? I'm pretty sure if every game were perfectly umpired in Hawk's mind, the White Sox would be undefeated.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 10:01 AM) Manny gets $127,000 for watching a game today. Think about that. Manny maxes his social security tax requirement after 1 day.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 03:31 AM) Exactly Kite. Drives me crazy. If Sergio had picked up 2 saves today they'd be saying it will be the thing that turns around our season. Bobby does it ... yawn. He did his job, and did it well. He pitched 2 innings and held them scoreless which is great. The Sox team let them score twice in 18 innings. No Youk, no Pedroia, no Ellsbury. When the schedule came out, you would have thought 7 against the Red Sox in September was almost unfair. Its turning into a blessing, although they are still better than Cleveland and KC and a Baltimore team the Sox had some trouble with. The Sox need to win today. If Minnesota just plays .500, the Sox have to be 7 over just to tie the rest of the way. The getaway games after already taking the series are games except for that one hot streak, they have historically had trouble with. Beckett has been garbage. The correct color will win today.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 09:43 AM) Manny is sitting today. I thought he would DH 30 games, or until the Sox were out of it. He's more valuable sitting. He could come up to pinch hit at any time. Beckett and the rest of the Red Sox know this, so the White Sox should have a field day as the threat of Manny batting is actually more prevalent when he's on the bench, because it could be at any time.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 10:46 PM) Don't know much about hitting do you? Apparently a hell of a lot more than you. 7 quality AB, the likes have which have not been seen on the southside since Frank Thomas was in his prime....you are delusional. Almost every player has had a string of 7 AB that were as good or better than Manny's first seven at some point, but its Manny. Everything he does is the best. A journeyman reliever for Cleveland hung AJ a curveball because he was so scared Manny was on deck. Another hung a curve to an MVP candidate, a guy hitting over .400 his last 30 games and a guy hitting .350 the last 3 months, because he was scared. Manny was on deck.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 07:23 PM) Lackey hitting Q sure LOOKED intentional, but Lackey is an idiot if it actually was. Can't load the bases up by hitting a guy because your catcher had weak hands. It may look intentional, but you don't have to be very far off the plate to hit Quentin. If he really wanted to drill him and missed with the first pitch, I would suspect the second attempt would have been right in the middle of his back.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 07:21 PM) The first pitch almost hit him, the second one did. He was throwing at him. So you aren't allowed to throw 2 in a row inside to Quentin?