caulfield12

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 10:17 PM) Going down with the ship on those sac bunts, huh? Sal Perez might be remembered as an equal goat to Yost/Ventura at this point. They've left 5 runners at 2nd/3rd in the 8th, 10th and 11th. Just couldn't get that clutch hit when they had a golden chance to win it.

Curse of former White Sox relievers with Frasor. Callaspo gets it done against his former team. Finnegan had never pitched more than 2 innings, so it's understandable why he was pulled....fwiw, Callaspo was hitting about 40 points lower (under .200) as a RHB compared to LH.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) The AL ROY says "Hola!" It's only Downs, Paulino, Keppinger and Abreu. So 3/4 have sucked, lol. The rest were under-the-radar, waiver wire, NDFA's, guys like Boggs/Cleto/Putnam/Noesi/Sierra/Taylor, etc.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:52 PM) Serious gas from Finnegan. Maybe he shoulda been in there in the 6th. In all fairness, it's not like he pitched a lot down the stretch like Sale in 2010. I think this is only his 7th or 8th outing in the big leagues. If Finnegan gave up the homer to Moss, then he would have been second-guessed about as much or more than using Ventura...that said, even though he was pitching for TCU three short months ago, the lefty against Moss is more attractive (of course, we have the hindsight again of seeing how well Finnegan has pitched the last two innings under the lights of post-season pressure).

QUOTE (scs787 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) This game makes me wanna watch Micah Johnson. Eaton/Johnson/Semien if they all live up to their potential would/will be fun.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:51 PM) And he's not even the fastest guy on the roster Gore, supposedly.

Guess we fired Yost too early, haha.

Willingham over Colon/Nix. Too many strikeouts. Of course, he'll probably hit a homer to left field with the wind blowing out. That worked out. Now you've got Dyson on 2nd base probably (or 3rd) with three chances to drive him in. Royals already set their post-season record with five stolen bases in the first 8 innings.

QUOTE (LDF @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:26 PM) I was never a fan of shields. so in all honesty I really can't gage on not wanting him on the sox. is it age? salary? yrs? Both those, along with the fact he hasn't had TJ surgery yet and that the White Sox would blow their budget on just one or two players, rather than being able to allocate that $25-35 million over the bullpen and 1-2 additional bats. If they're not competitive in 2015, then you're wasting his likely best remaining career season and then he's definitely on the downside in his mid 30's...and on the way to becoming an albatross contract.

Comparing Javy and Shields is JUST a bit of a stretch...bordering on ridiculous. He's simply been an excellent pitcher for the Rays in August and September from 2008-2013...with the exception of 2009-10 when he was hurting/ouchy/high accumulated pitch counts from post-season play. 2014 after All-Star Game 5-3, 2.62 ERA 2011-2013 after All-Star Game....24-13, 3.11 ERA 2008 7-2 with a 3.21 ERA

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:19 PM) Sal Perez...dude. He would fit in perfectly with the White Sox sporting that runner on 3rd, one out approach.

Aoki, Cain, Hosmer and Moustakas the only Royals to get a hit off Doolittle....current roster sits at 4/23. First interesting decision for Yost will be pinch-hitting Nix or Colon for Moustakas to lead off the bottom of the 9th.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:08 PM) Butler with another RBI single. Royals' best hitter now comes to the plate as the potential winning run Aoki and Cain have been better down the stretch, along with Escobar. I always thought Perez was going to be the best of the bench, along with Hosmer...but that still hasn't happened. With that said, Perez is still probably the best catcher (overall) in the AL. Might have to take that one back, haha. Overmatched there.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 09:10 PM) Oakland imploding I think you mean the A's.

Wow. Meltdown again partially caused by a raucous home crowd like last year against CUETO.

And what about his mid August - September record in pennant races? "Big Game" isn't only confined to the post-season. He won two huge games for the Royals against the Yankees and Tigers down the stretch this year, for example. The only bad start he had was against the White Sox, I think.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 08:53 PM) Hopefully Angels-Orioles ALCS. Tigers-A's and Giants-Cardinals would suck balls. Better tv ratings, though. Dodgers-Giants would be their dream match-up. Although I'm sure they wouldn't mind the East Coast draw of Harper/Strasburg.

That's a bit misleading since Ventura just gave up two of those runs. Besides, I thought we didn't use ERA anymore...too outdated. What about all his other peripherals like FIP, SIERA, etc.?

2013 Ohtani made his debut in the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters' season-opening match on March 29, 2013, playing as right outfielder. He was voted as an outfielder in the 2013 All-Star Game. 2014 During the 2014 Mazda All-Star Game, he pitched a career-high 162 kph (101 mph) at the bottom of the 1st inning, again setting a new record for the fastest official pitch thrown by a Japanese pitcher, beating the record set by the Yakult Swallows’ Yoshinori Sato in 2010 (161 kph/100 mph).[8] The jersey he wore during the game sold for 1,752,000 yen, making it the top-seller at the All-Star 2014 Charity Auction, and the proceeds were donated to three Tohoku earthquake children's relief funds.[9] Throughout the entire season, Fighters manager Hideki Kurayama made Ohtani do double-duty as pitcher and outfielder to utilize his strong throwing arm, as well as his unusually impressive batting skills. As a hitter, he batted at .283 average (as of September 7), with 26 extra-base hits (including 10 home runs), 31 RBIs and a .869 on-base plus slugging percentage in 191 at-bats. As a pitcher, he is 10-4 with a 2.46 ERA in 21 starts and has struck out 162 in 139 innings. In the September 7 match against the Orix Buffaloes, he homered to straightaway center at Kyocera Dome to become the first Japanese player to reach double digits in both home runs and wins.[10][11] He tossed a 1-0 shutout against Orix on September 13, and became the first pitcher out of high school in franchise history to record a 1-0 shutout victory within his first two years in the NPB since Toshiaki Moriyasu in 1967 (September 23). He also became the first pitcher out of high school to notch two shutout victories within his first two years in the NPB since Yu Darvish.[12] With all that said, no way he doesn't go to the Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, etc. If I was the Mariners (Japanese ownership), he would be the ONE guy I would be targeting to help put them over the top, and you could bring Ichiro back for one more season to mentor him, along with Iwakuma.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 08:36 PM) Ah, unable to watch in China and my friend told me Shields gave up the six runs. Now I see Ned Yost did Ned Yost things. If people think no Robin = Sox make playoffs, no Yost = Royals best team ever Use freegate/dynapass...you don't have MLB AT BAT or MLB.TV for your phone, Ipad or laptop? It's actually not blacked out here in China/internationally, compared to the US. Hopefully this drives up Lester's price tag even higher for the Cubs at least.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 08:30 PM) Well, so much for Big Game James Let's just put it this way, this start (he'd retired 7 in a row before the sixth) isn't going to hurt his free agent value any. I think there are some good parallels with the 2005 White Sox...best record in the game in August, challenged late and ended up going 16-30 down the stretch...finally were able to relax on Sunday when they eliminated the Mariners. While the White Sox were playing decently and the Indians were just white hot, there's a similar "monkey off their back" feeling at play that they went from the best team in baseball to almost being knocked out of the playoff picture entirely. Pressure's off, back at 0-0, etc. I think they will go ahead and take out the Angels and go on to the face the Tigers for the AL Championship now.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Sep 30, 2014 -> 08:15 PM) EVERY ONE GO ON THEIR COMPUTER & LOOK UP SHOHEI OHTANI http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shohei_Ohtani http://youtu.be/9utx2BPIYlU He wants to come over to the states soon and the Sox need to jump all over him. This was from two years ago... Japanese pitcher Shohei Otani announced that he will play for Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters rather than sign with a MLB team this winter, according to Yasuko Yanagita of Hochi Shimbun (via Twitter). The 18-year-old hurler seemed likely to come stateside for quite some time but recently started leaning towards remaining in Japan. The Dodgers, Rangers, and Yankees were among the teams known to be in on Otani. The Dodgers reportedly would have been “shocked” if the right-hander signed with an MLB team other than them, but they were skeptical that he would come stateside at all. The Nippon Ham Fighters have come out as the victor after selecting Otani with the first overall pick in the NPB draft. The 6’4″ right-hander was often compared to Yu Darvish by MLB scouts. Otani boasts a strong fastball that has been clocked in the 99-100 mph range and could have been the first top NPB draft pick to make the direct jump from high school in Japan to the U.S.

I also think you HAVE to distinguish between Japanese pitchers and Taiwanese/Korean, their workloads, their respective professional leagues and the military service requirements in Korea, etc. You can't just say Latin pitchers when you have Mexico, DR, PR, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, etc.

Shields' full count pitch to Donaldson's just a bit closer to the corner and it's a strike em out/throw em out double play. Baseball is a game of inches, as always. Woulda/coulda/shoulda. I do think the A's match up much better with the Angels, especially without Richards. The Royals have Shields, but Ventura, Duffy and Vargas in the post-season doesn't seem to be a recipe for success, especially Vargas with how he's pitched recently. And Duffy's had two starts, one great, one bad since his injury. Yet you wouldn't want to go with Guthrie, either.

That's a killer. If the A's go on to win this game, I think you start over with a new manager...it's going to be hard for them to compete next year without Shields, Aoki and Butler unless Hosmer/Moustakas/Perez really pick it up offensively.