caulfield12

LOL at Flavum. We keep making more and more reasonable requests for things that SHOULD happen to get Ventura fired. It's almost like Hahn knows the noose around his neck gets all that much tighter once Robin's gone.

3-12 just isn't going to get it done. The only thing we've been good for with our divisional opponents is setting them off on runs of winning baseball after they play us. First game of DH and they barely hang on by the skin of their teeth, subsequently lose 3 in a row and CLE looks like the best team in baseball rolling along with 5 consecutive victories (two via walkoff, the first against a potent Rangers' team that throttled them the first two games) and the Thursday debacle just stopped KC in its tracks. KC sweeps the White Sox. Tigers sweep the White Sox. 1/2 game from 4th now. To add insult to injury, it was Justin Upton...who didn't show much interest in getting an offer to play for the Sox.

And of course it all started with a WALK. Never fails. So much for our Q/Sale Cy Young 1-2 finish. Nice while it lasted.

It figures. Had him down 0-2 in the count, so of course he lets him wiggle out of it. This is becoming unreal...or maybe surreal is the better word for it. And, the inevitable avalanche with 2 outs after the White Sox failed the 2nd time this year to score those RISP with less than 2 outs. Quintana's already over 100 pitches and Gonzalez is probably the one who will enter to try to keep the Tigers within reach. White Sox offense did this to Jose...has really taken its toll.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 01:00 PM) Want to know our s***ty our s*** offense is??? Our highest BA in today's game, Adam Eaton, would be the 9th best AVG on Boston's team today. They have 8 players in their line-up batting .280 or better. Isn't their overall BA about 30 points higher than even the 2nd place AL team in that category?

Bringing Sox killer Victor Martinez to the plate...where he's never been as effective hitting RHed compared to his more comfortable/dominant LH side.

If there's any positivity left in the fanbase, this game is pushing it to the edge...Maybin has just been unreal since he came off the DL having hits fall in or avoiding fielders with grounders.

Lawrie misread that one...just a bit, gave it all he had but couldn't make the play. Giving max effort the last couple of innings. That blown 2nd/3rd situation still hangs over this game, more than any other.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 12:52 PM) Bunting with 2 outs lmao swing the f***ing bat It wasn't the worst play in the world. McCann just made a great play. That said, you'd like to see one of your best hitters have the confidence he can swing the bat and get a key base hit there. Should be 4-1 now. Q deserves better than this from his teammates. It's almost becoming uncanny. Just his recording those 5 early victories was seemingly the anomaly, as he keeps ending up with 9 wins every year SOMEHOW. It's like the Giants and their even year thing.

Saladino hitting in some bad luck....twice this week he's hit the ball really hard with RISP and had nothing to show for it. Sigh...Iglesias and McCann throwing the D now.

Got the job done there. Professional at-bat. Verlander perturbed now. Now can we score him?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 12:38 PM) Yea that .988 OPS with runners in scoring position which is best on the Sox btw is terrible.Least of the Sox problems. Didn't say he was a problem...just that numbers with RISP tend to normalize over time. Looking at the entire active roster, I'm least worried/concerned about Frazier and Eaton, and maybe Robertson.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 12:37 PM) I wonder where Verlander would be right now had he not injured his core muscle(s?) a few years ago. It very obviously changed things, it still is a mystery exactly what happened but I bet calisthenics with Kate was the cause. With the sheer amount of wear and tear on his body since 2006, it's remarkable both Verlander and Felix Hernandez are still as effective as they are at this point. The same thing is happening with James Shields. When you throw over 200 innings (unless you're Mark Buehrle) for 9 consecutive seasons, it's going to keep eroding your stuff. It was inevitable physically, except almost no pitcher can make adjustments in their mid to late 30's and emulate Bartolo Colon in reinventing themselves, especially not keeping themselves in tip top physical condition.

DJ: "I think Avi is an outstanding baseball player." With the line of thinking he's put all those career numbers up so far at a young/er age, whereas Coats is just debuting at age 26. "He's really a super athlete. He's only 24." Never heard that before about a Sox player. Farmer wants to play him in CF, lol...leaving Eaton in RF, where he's more comfortable.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 12:31 PM) Verlander sliding into peak form against the Sox. Seems like this happens far too often against this team now. In all fairness, if you look at his game logs very closely, he has been excellent the last month, maybe a tad longer. He's finally learning how to pitch with a 91-94 MPH fastball rather than just getting buy with a dominant fastball. Working in more of his other pitches. But yeah, he survived that 2nd and 3rd no outs situation, and it was all she wrote with this team mentally. Team went into cruise control/roof is caving in again mode. Playing tight. And baseball is definitely a sport where trying harder (golf, too) almost always has the opposite effect on performance.

Now it's just a matter of pitch counts for both guys. Frazier down to .217. Ouch. Still productive, at least. More than we can say for Avi, who's joining Dayan Viciedo in the "tease" category.

Is anyone going to be surprised when we pick up Carl Crawford and make him the full-time DH/LFer at some point this week...? Then everyone will say KW finally got his man, albeit five years too late.

This team needs a reputable sports psychologist more than a manager right now... Meanwhile, the Indians are starting to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division. They might be the only team that could run away and hide, having the most overall (young) talent of any team in the division. Feels like a shocker at this point when Victor Martinez doesn't come through with a hit in that situation against the Sox.

That was almost guaranteed as soon as Ball 4 crossed home plate. Now have to limit the damage and stop the inning from spinning into a crooked number.

The most concerning thing isn't Coats but you'd like to think Abreu would stop expanding the zone and have a better plate appearance than that (after homering)...the last couple of years, he'd find a way to make contact, especially without Verlander in the high 90's. Q has to get through Cabrera here now.

Is Leury Garcia really hitting 5th? Is that a misprint?

White Sox Baseball for the last month. Now, the main question is how Q responds to the adversity. Has to be mentally draining not to be up at least 2-0 or 3-0 and have to pitch with more stress. The way the Tigers have been fouling off pitches, you'd almost think they had a spy signalling pitches to batters.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 07:49 AM) Why wouldn't JR authorize taking on the Braun contract? And you're probably right that the Brewers wouldn't take that package, although I'd argue that the Sox taking on Braun's entire contract might be enticing to them. Back problems are always a concern and not having a DH spot as a backup option is pretty risky. Given how he's produced so far, I think they will be very motivated to move him while there a few teams still interested and willing to take a gamble on him. 1) Length and total dollars of contract, especially after adding Shields 2) PED/see Melky Cabrera 2015 season 3) Buying high on Braun when it wouldn't be warranted based on his last couple of seasons 4) We still need to prioritize finding a LH bat over RH 5) NL player going to AL often backfires, at least for Sox recently 6) Buying as high as we possibly can...last year, Brewers would have had to send money along with....now they can ask for good prospects and probably get them. 7) Braun's age the last couple of years of the deal are scary http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/...ing3/ryan-braun Over the 3 prior seasons, Braun's a sub 800 OPS hitter against RHP. Very good against lefties, but that's not our biggest pressing issue.

Gomes, McCann/Salty, Perez...when healthy, all much better than our current combination. We just don't have much upside left to squeeze out. Otoh, Gomes in CLE and McCann can and should play much better based on their past results and their ages. Gomes was excellent two years ago before his injury. That's about two less years since the last time Avila was feared by opposing pitchers.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jun 5, 2016 -> 07:46 AM) Free agency looks weak this off season and sox have excess cash so that makes great sense to pick up that contract at $9M per. In a month they can sign another Tatis rather easily Johnson had no value and the padre hope is that the NL and that park is what is needed. I continue to hold out hope for the bullpen. This offense is bad. In the end, the white sox are building for next two years. In reality, their best opportunity to win is next season. They're already (this year) looking at replacing their catchers (well, Avila at least), replacing Avi Garcia/DH and filling a couple of holes in the bullpen and improving the bench just to have a chance to be competitive in the 2nd half. After 2017, you will likely be looking to replace Frazier, Lawrie and Cabrera. Unless Abreu wakes up anytime soon, the only "guaranteed" 3+ WAR offensive player on the roster looks to be Adam Eaton. There are no catchers on the imminent horizon, although that's true around most of baseball at the moment. So that leaves you Eaton, Tim Anderson, maybe Abreu, maybe Saladino and potentially 5 positions that you need to find replacements for on the FA market or internally. Unless we're expecting Coats, Hayes, Delmonico, Jacob May and Trey M. to all make it and become at a minimum 2+ war players, there just isn't that much position player talent in our system right now at AA/AAA. And unless we're drafting more college pitchers in the first 2 rounds, it's hard to expect any of those players to impact the 2016 and 2017 rosters. Sure, with the rotation and Robertson/Jones, you can say things are looking really good for the next two years, as long as Shields can have a 4.5-4.75 ERA or less and eat up innings and Rodon's closer to the 3.25-3.50 ERA pitcher we saw in the second half than our current version who prefers to pitch at a hittable 92-93 MPH when he can easily throw 95-97. Maybe the answer's in Korean, Japan or Cuba and we just don't know it yet.