JohnCangelosi

QUOTE (WinorDie88 @ Apr 7, 2011 -> 03:06 PM) Top of the 8th is going to be huge. Offense has been somewhat disappointing since the first inning once again. Remember 2005? We were the best 1st inning team in the league, so hopefully that will give us some hope considering how good we've been in the 1st this year in the short sample size

Any guesses to who may close today? Hopefully it's EJax but most likely not... I'm going to assume MT is out since going 2 innings yesterday or maybe not?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 7, 2011 -> 08:36 AM) The only reason I want to see someone other than Matt close is because the Sox aren't going to be able to use him in innings 5-8 as needed now. That versility was huge. Games aren't always decided in the 9th. Precisely.

Have we ever forgotten? I know I haven't: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb But really it's more of a "gut" thing. Just like when I said Beckham should be in the 2 hole last year immediately after the all star break and NO ONE agreed. He ended up hitting .300 + from that point forward. Just like when I said that we should put TCQ into the 3 hole again after the first game of this year and NO ONE agreed, it's just a gut feeling of mine and they typically are right. (I started a topic on it) I am going to say it again: Matt Thornton is NOT a closer. Period. He's an awesome guy to bring in when it's not a save situation. He has never looked comfortable to me in the closers role and I don't exactly like losing our best setup guy either. To me it hurts us in both ways. Again, I hope I am wrong, and there certainly is that possibility I am since I am not God or some baseball guru, just letting the board know what my instincts are telling me... I'd rather have MT out there in the 8th and turn it over to any of our other legit options...

The sooner we realize Matt Thornton is NOT a closer the better off we'll be. Keep him as the setup guy where he's dominated the past few years.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:52 PM) Excellent bounce back game for Sale! I'm all for putting Sale back into the closer spot. And I am not writing in green

I must say I like Brent's approach there, short, quick and thinking opposite field...once he gets a bit more confidence he can start turning on the ball but for now thats fine by me

When is Kalapse going to break out the Carlos photo cut into the red heart? Or was that Fathom's avatar?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:25 PM) Wasn't that a tie game? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:25 PM) That wasn't a save situation IIRC. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:21 PM) I think Kalapse has said something to the effect that Thornton was pretty much perfect in save situations last season. The bullpen's just not right this season so far. I don't know why. I remember Thome hitting a ball about 800 feet off him last year in a save situation...

QUOTE (qwerty @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:16 PM) Since thornton is not closing this inning watch him do good here. ============================================================================== Only in the 9th do opposing batters know he pitches a fastball 99.8 percent of the time. In the 8th or 10th, they likely think he has a 7 pitch arsenal. It's true. This is why I still had issues with letting go of Bobby, even though he was expensive and management had enough. He was a proven closer, and MT is hardly anything but. My opinion is Matt doesn't have the mentality to close. No reason why, just my opinion, I don't think he has the attitude. Time will tell...but that 10th is a perfect example of the role MT has been so good at, and I don't see a reason for losing that...

Nice catch by Teahen

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 03:11 PM) Can you imagine how happy we'd be if we had gotten them out in the ninth? One game can make a huge difference in this roadtrip. We'd be on Cloud Nine. A loss will put me in the dumps. Agreed.

Nice catch by Teahen there on the feed from Beckham for the final out.

There's no guarantee MT is a closer, I said it several times on here and there's the proof. 0 for 1 in save opps- not a good start. Mercy.

Cmon MT make it hurt

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Apr 3, 2011 -> 12:10 PM) Make sure you're watching the game in HD, the box on the bottom. To determinte your speed, go here: speedtest.net, anything above 2000KB is sufficient really. EDIT: Now that you mention that, that picture is def NOT HD, so it's not your computer. I second that. If you have a 2-3mb per second download speed everything should stream fine in HD, speedtest.net is a place to check that. I personally am out of the country so what I do is stream the games from my PS3 to my digital TV and the quality is pretty darn incredible. I love my MLB.TV

My bold prediction this year was that TCQ was going to spend the 2nd half of the season in the 3 hole and remain healthy all year. I know I am going to get flamed for this, but I think Oz should put him back into the 3 hole NOW. The argument of "taking the pressure off him" doesn't hold any water, BTW, as he's hit here before. Let's not mince words here, the swagger and bat flip is back, time to make the move and drop Rios down in the order... Pierre Beckham TCQ Dunn Konerko Rios Ramirez AJ Morel Let the flaming begin....

Carlos Quentin will be healthy all year and be in the 3 hole most of the second half

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 11:22 AM) I think this is hype/sensationalist storyline here... Peavy is sore, IMO, because it's been a long time since he's 1) pitched, 2) used the muscles in the same way he's using them now after the surgery, esp the tiny rotator cuff muscle. I think he will be fine...and is still on my expected timeline to start -- last week of April/first week of May. Anyone that has a surgery like he had cannot work out the same way (if at all), and their muscles break down over time, so when he gets back at it, he will fatigue faster and have longer lasting soreness. It will be a while before he's back up to full speed. I agree with this as well. May 1 was always my thought about JFP and I still think it's a reasonable goal. Think of it like this: when you haven't lifted weights in a while and do 10 sets on the bench, you're going to be sore the next day. I think JFP pushed it a bit with the 83 pitches and is sore, that's all. Precisely why he needs a few more weeks to get the shoulder in shape for full throttle action.

There is nothing wrong with giving ANYONE two to three starts in April and making sure JFP is ready to go in late April, as long as this is normal soreness I don't think it calls for anyone freaking out right now. Realistically with his come back schedule May 1 seemed more realistic anyways. One thing I haven't seen ANYONE ask JFP is if he has truly "let it go" 100% in ST. Has anyone seen him asked this? I'd like to know, my guess is he hasn't fully "let it go" until maybe his last start and it's just a bit of soreness from going full speed. Just being optimistic but seeing him in late April healthy is no problem with me. My guess is at worse we go 1-2 in the 3 starts he misses and that won't cost us the season....

Personally I hope he can step into the role with the ATTITUDE of a closer, but quite frankly, I am not 100% sure he has it. We all know that saving games in the 9th is different than pitching in the 8th, unfortunately, and there is no guarantee we're going to see the same MT out there in the 9th as we have in the 8th for the past few years. I guess I am still hurting from that homer Thome hit off him last year, which would still be flying today if it didn't hit the flag pole in right at Target field. But nevertheless, he has the stuff to close, no doubt. Does he have the mentality to do it? We'll see, I certainly hope so. If not we have other options but in no way should anyone expect with near certainty we'll see the same MT in the 9th as we have in the 8th for the past several years. It's a different deal closing, for whatever reason, and it always has been. One of the true axioms in baseball is that the hardest 3 outs to get are in the ninth inning in a tight game. Good luck Matt.

How does a guy like Melton have a job? He's horrible and is factually incorrect on about half the things that come out of his pie hole.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 06:46 AM) What indications do we have he can´t play a lick of defense in the outfield? Is it his path or trajectory he taks on outfield routes to the ball? Is it his jump? But more importantly as we have noted just in this thread about Morel´s MLB hitting prospects isn´t this a relatively small sample size to judge Viciedo´s outfield defense? He was talking about his 3B play not outfield. Anyways I was day dreaming at how nice it would be to have Dayan at 3B if he could play average D, our offense would be pretty tough top to bottom