caulfield12

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 07:23 PM) You don't bunt that early in the game at home, especially with a guy who can handle the bat like Eaton. It's at least somewhat debatable because of the Q Factor, but it was the right move. Eaton's one of the best players in baseball. Indians go ahead 3-2 top of the 9th in ATL on a Carlos Santana single against Arodys Vizcaino.

Wonder who the Cubs would offer us for Robertson or Nate Jones...?

Almost wishing Ventura had Eaton bunting. Almost. Because giving Q a 2-1 lead there was almost more important psychologically for Jose than playing for the big inning at home and early.

Gibson will also kill you with sinkers, forcing you to hit it into the ground. No surprise to see a low-scoring game, regardless of the 6ish ERA from Kyle coming in.

Sigh. Why is that not a surprise?

Yep, giving up on Avi means another "failure" by the Sox front office. They cut guys like Latos/Rollins/Danks (not on Hahn), Bonifacio, Downs and Keppinger loose early, but Avi's been promoted from the very beginning as a key component of the retooling and definitely a part of the young core.

Seeing Buxton struggle like this...the Twins' equivalent of watching Jon Rauch go from top prospect to nothing after the labrum surgery. Q does a good job of stranding the runner. Gibson's been pretty good against the White Sox in his career, don't want them to get ahead 2-0 and start thinking negative thoughts of another "start that got away" for Jose.

QUOTE (Condor13 @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 06:34 PM) I'd love Puig or Pederson, but I doubt KW Hahn will man up and get one of them

QUOTE (Condor13 @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 06:32 PM) Q gets ahead 0-2 then nibbles away until he throws a fastball right down the middle. Just stop nibbling damn it. Fear of making a mistake, no run support (until last time out)...bad combination. Gonzalez and Shields are nibbling too, but that's due to lack of trust in their stuff.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 06:27 PM) Yea the Tigers position player scouting is really good. Iglesias has had his ups and downs but he's probably the best player from that trade. Yeah, he, Addison Russell and Semien are all profiling similarly in terms of WAR, but all have vastly different ways of getting there. If he were on the White Sox, Anderson would have been moved to 2B or CF.

Between Kendrick, Kiki Hernandez, Van Slyke, Puig, Pederson, Thompson, Venable and Andre Ethier, the Dodgers are going to have to trade one of those guys eventually. They've already released Guerrero. Just sayin'. KW has always loved Kendrick. Sale 17th and Q 24th in MLB ERA now. Great, jinx. Kluber has a no-hitter through 5 in Atlanta.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 06:16 PM) He was banging Prince Fielders wife IIRC that's why they moved Avi. I still think if they believed he was going to put up six .280/30/100 seasons they would have kept him...and dealt Fielder instead, which they obviously ended up doing later.

Quick start to the game for Q. Quicken Loans needs to do a promotion with him, haha.

Matt Barnes? Does anyone want to be around that drama?

I hear what you're saying, but the Tigers are nearly elite judges of offensive talent. They called Victor Martinez right, twice. Have stuck with Castellanos when he seemed like a bust. Identified JD Martinez. Identified Kinsler as a veteran who would still be an impact player. (Granted, Justin Upton, for the moment, looks like a huge debacle but he's been hitting much better recently.) If they really saw something in him, anything like future Miggy Cabrera levels of production, there's no way they would have included him in that package for Jake Peavy.

With all those concussions, there's just no way they could put him out in the field without a helmet. He was never a good 1B with the Twins. They much preferred to use Mientkiewicz over there and DH Morneau. Speaking of the Twins, his next double (#400) will make AJ Pierzynski only the 4th catcher in baseball history to put up 400 doubles. Pretty amazing.

World economy in one depressing chart...obvious takeaway is how Russia and Brazil have underperformed http://www.businessinsider.com/world-econo...ne-chart-2016-6

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 05:10 PM) How long did the Royals wait on Gordon? Gordon was the #1 overall pick in the country and consensus player of the year. The closest to that pedigree is/was Beckham, and I guess Viciedo's huge signing bonus at that time made him "can't miss" although we now know not all the Cubans have the stuff to make it. And Gordon would have been a failure had he not been willing to go down to AAA, completely reinvent his game as a LFer with Rusty Kuntz and persevere (all in the face of hometown fans in Nebraska/KC who expected him to be the next George Brett). Indians up 2-0 over the Braves already after the top of the 1st...big surprise there. Don't see them touching up Kluber with how he's been pitching recently.

Then there’s Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey, whom the team expected to stabilize the rotation as a bona-fide No. 3 and innings-eating No. 4, respectively. Instead, they have combined for a 6.35 ERA in 26 starts. No offense, not even one as talented as the Tigers, can make up for that kind of performance by the most important asset in baseball. When talent evaluators sized up the Tigers in the spring, they pointed to Sanchez as the X-factor, saying much of the team’s fortunes rested on the fact he regain some of his old form. Instead, he has regressed even more sharply, appearing like a shell of the pitcher he once was until he can fully grasp a more finesse approach on the mound, one that doesn’t require a mid-90s fastball anymore. The Pelfrey signing, a two-year, $16-million deal that didn’t look good then and looks worse now, is amplified by Sanchez’s struggles. Their primary fall-back option, left-hander Matt Boyd, isn’t ready for the big leagues. Norris should stay; he showed good enough stuff in his first start to inspire more confidence than Sanchez and Pelfrey. freep.com/sports You can probably stick a fork in the Tigers, unless Daniel Norris outperforms. Sanchez was just pulled from the rotation for the second and probably final time this year. Their owner doesn't want to spend more than $200 million, and the cost for starting pitching in this upcoming trade market is going to be sky high/prohibitive, even compared to 2015.

Not really. It was get them Top 100 prospect Frankie Montas, who got them Frazier (who has the same line statistically as Marcus Semien, roughly). Avi has actually gotten in the way of this team moving forward, in the same way Beckham, Viciedo, Gillaspie, DeAza, Ramirez and Flowers did. The most dangerous word for fans is "potential," because it has never-ending shelf life for GM's to sell it. Little Miggy. 30/30 potential. Incredible athlete. Has the tools to play CF. Elite throwing arm. Brian Anderson is the next Torii Hunter if he could just hit 20 homers, etc. Chris Marquez, Nestor Molina, Zach Stewart and Matt Davidson will lead the Sox to the World Series. Of course, "proven veteran performer" hasn't been comforting, either.

Brexit is just one more weapon that will be used against Donald Trump. Financial markets HATE HATE HATE uncertainty. And Trump's the definition of that, from a governing/policy standpoint. When your first thought about him is...."do you REALLY want him having the ability to launch a nuclear attack at 3 a.m. while you're sleeping?" most pragmatic/realistic Americans will end up in the Clinton camp because we as a country prefer small changes, not radical ones. She represents the status quo, and that would normally get you killed this electoral season, but it's probably the one thing that saves her, being the establishment candidate running against a Molotov cocktail thrower.

Newt Gingrich and his Republican Revolution in 1994....what happened to all those agreements they made, like Term Limits? Thought so. The ultimate in childishness, and it had completely backfired on him by 1996. Helped to ruin his political career, as well.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 28, 2016 -> 04:35 PM) Would be beneficial if Avi started to heat up were not on the roster and we had Bruce/Beltran/Cargo in that spot instead I feel like we've been "waiting for Avi" as long as we've been trying to convince ourselves we were still right in the middle of the race last year.

As noted, I didn't say that he "saved" the Padres, he might have done the opposite. The Shields' deal looks brilliant right now (not for Johnson, saving $27 million...that said, he also "wasted" $29 million too). He was the main guy behind the Rangers' efforts in L.America: Mazara/Odor/Profar/Chirinos/Chi Chi Gonzalez/Perez/Ramos/Mendez, etc.

http://theundefeated.com/features/hes-got-...atch-his-mouth/ Hypercompetitive trash-talker. Sounds a bit like a young MJ (yes, impossible comp to live up to). Josh(ua) Jackson of the Jayhawks.