caulfield12

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...529-column.html

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/p...nded/order/true White Sox now tied for 2nd in bullpen blown saves in the majors to the terribad Reds' pen. Interestingly, Seattle, Baltimore, the Dodgers and Rangers are all pretty close. Looks like the mean is around 5-6 at this point in the season.

The Royals will eviscerate the PECOTA prediction system if they win again despite Moustakas, Gordon, Perez, Young, Medlen and Dyson all missing major time already in just the first two months of the season.

For a second, it seemed the Tigers would only be ONE game back for 3rd but then OAK struck for 3 against Pelfrey. Tigers still have the 8th and 9th to rally (3-2 A's going into the bottom of the 7th). Rich Hill out of the game now.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ May 29, 2016 -> 04:02 PM) Jason Coats Danny Hayes Nick Delmonico Jake Peter Tim Anderson has certainly had an excellent 2nd month in AAA. Fulmer has been bad. He also suffers from idiotic fans/sports media unfairly comparing him to Chris Sale/Carlos Rodon for no sane reason. It's also just 2 months into the season. Except the jury's still out on whether any of those players have the tools to really succeed at the next level. Scouts preferred the likes of Trey M. and Jacob May. Fwiw, Peter and Coats were the only one close to prospect status, although Delmonico had the original pedigree. Hayes is the type of kid who just hits and hits and hits and 75% of the time never gets a break to make it up unless he has a huge supporter like a Buddy Bell in the organization pulling for him.

Hawk had some rather pointed comments today about drafting raw athletes over baseball players/contact hitters. Referenced Bubba Starling (look at all the players who became studs after him in that draft it was so deep compared to the Beckham class in 2008), but it could have just as easily been Borchard, Fields, Mitchell, Hawkins, Walker he was talking about. Fall in love with tools and you often get burned. Same thing might be happening with Buxton in MN.

QUOTE (harkness @ May 29, 2016 -> 03:59 PM) Who in the bullpen is great? or has a history of being great? Or even a history of being good? Robertson with the Yankees as Mariano's apprentice/set-up guy and then full-time closer. That's about it. Putnam didn't last with the Cubs. Jones has flashed potential. Petricka the same, both failed starters. Duke has only been good for that one season in MIL. Jennings was "decent" for the Marlins. Albers has a pretty decent track record, but not of pitching like he did before that Baltimore series showed the crack in the dam.

Technically, despite 11 runs allowed the first two games, they still entered as 4th or 5th in AL bullpen ERA entering today's games. Want to say 4th. But surely during this 4-14 stretch, it has to be the worst bullpen in the AL by a safe margin. Not enough to wipe out the first 33 games of good work though.

Jones has a good slider in the sense Addison Reed had one...just can't locate it consistently enough for strikes. Putnam deserves more opportunities again. He was a huge pleasant surprise two years ago. Duke sucks. Hated that deal. Hahn trying to outsmart baseball. Didn't work. Jennings is fine for second lefty. Albers doesn't have ANY confidence at the moment. Shouldn't use him in high leverage again...not any time soon. Yes, as Greg mentioned last year....Robertson on paper is better than reality, and he has shown a propensity for blowing games the last couple of seasons, more than you would expect for "elite" closer status and Top 3 closer salary. Purke has looked decent. Kahnle should never have been in the situation he found himself in yesterday...being forced to intentionally walk those two. Jones-like FB but without much movement...get behind in the count and you get hit hard. Really missing the "good" version of Jake Petricka from the last couple of years. Our main injury so far this year.

Got the order of those games and walks out of whack...but the point still stands about rallies being fueled by late inning walks 90% of the time.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 29, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) No kidding, it's incredibly frustrating watching these relievers just waste pitches hoping the opposing batters will chase. Then before you know it the count is full and here comes a walk And KC was last in the AL entering this game in walks. But every single rally in these three games was related to a huge walk (or more). Infante/Escobar Jennings LHP walking Dyson, a LHB FRI Then again today.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 29, 2016 -> 03:37 PM) No kidding, it's incredibly frustrating watching these relievers just waste pitches hoping the opposing batters will chase. Then before you know it the count is full and here comes a walk And KC was last in the AL entering this game in walks. But every single rally in these three games was related to a huge walk (or more). Infante/Escobar Jennings LHP walking Dyson, a LHB FRI Then again today.

It would be Shuck or Leury Garcia for Jackson. Renteria's the clear choice for interim and potential for an extension if he rights this sinking ship. No way in hell it would be Bell. I'd almost like to see KW pull a Dan Jennings and put his job on the line as manager. Now that, at least, would be entertaining.

It would be Shuck or Leury Garcia for Jackson. Renteria's the clear choice for interim and potential for an extension if he rights this sinking ship. No way in hell it would be Bell. I'd almost like to see KW pull a Dan Jennings and put his job on the line as manager. Now that, at least, would be entertaining.

And, unless you just want to completely rebuild starting at midseason, you absolutely have to let Renteria try with this team to turn things around and see if some of the younger players (see KC) who have never had an opportunity could be the foundation for a playoff contender next year... Especially Saladino and Anderson. Ironic, in the sense that both can't play at the same time. Need a decision once and for all on Garcia. Otherwise, you have to trade Frazier/Cabrera/Lawrie and start the great Eaton/Quintana/Sale sweepstakes. Hopefully Abreu can rebound as well...because a below average fielding low 700ish OPS 1B isn't worth a thing on the trade market.

Everyone's going to jump all over me, but I don't see Cleveland beating KC for the division. There's just something about their chemistry and resilience that no other team can match..despite throwing out a line-up of scrubs AND Hosmer/Cain/Escobar/Morales. Throughout this series, we let Hosmer beat us. Cain there as well in the 8th. But obviously, so did Orlando and Eibner and a host of other unknowns like Butera and Cuthbert. Merrifield looks like a young Zobrist against us. Cuthbert's a better defender than Moustakas, and they weren't missing too much with the way Gordon was hitting.

Harrelson did say the clubhouse was the quietest after yesterday that he could remember. Well, after today...that's a Zombie Death Flight to NYC. Sorry, misinterpreted what Fathom wrote before reading the article. That's the one thing you almost never get out of either Hahn OR Ventura, any emotion at all. Sometimes it can be helpful, but not necessarily to act like a bird with its head in the sand ignoring everything going on around him.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 29, 2016 -> 03:20 PM) Have you read the Paul Sullivan article? Maybe the least Positive remarks I have ever heard from a contending manager From Yost? He's one of the most positive managers in baseball, I would be shocked if he said anything negative about another manager. If it's not him, it's Banister with the Rangers.

14 runs surrendered by the bullpen. Not even upset anymore. Just expected it to happen after two games in a row like this... Now we might have Austin Jackson out with a quad or hamstring injury, going into NY and facing another World Series team. Poor Chris Sale got screwed. Orlando's catch against Austin Jackson was probably the play of the game so far to limit it to a SAC FLY. Second biggest, probably Cuthbert's extended at-bats against Sale, 10 pitches, walk...forced the pen into the game. Same thing happened against CLE with Jose Ramirez and Juan Uribe. Sole possession of 3rd place unless we miraculously get a rally against Wade Davis here. Tigers aren't far behind for 4th.

Five really good plays already by the defense. Saladino against Escobar, Jackson catch, Saladino throw for DP to 1B, Melky Cabrera throw to second to nab Eibner off the bag and then Eaton's sliding catch in RF to end the 3rd.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 29, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) The Royals f***ing suck. Of all the good BBQ in KC, they have Sweet Baby Ray's as a home plate advertiser. They don't deserve to win this game if the baseball gods know what's right. Gates, Arthur Bryant's, Oklahoma Joe's...KC Masterpiece, when they had a restaurant on the Country Club Plaza. Saladino at least has saved one run, if not two...with his defense today.

Lovely situational hitting there, Garcia. Wasn't even close to a strike. Impossible for anyone but Vladimir Guerrero to hit that one. Saladino .266 BA, .269 OBP. Not so easy to do. Splinter from TMNT or Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon with the facial hair.

Lovely situational hitting there, Garcia. Wasn't even close to a strike. Impossible for anyone but Vladimir Guerrero to hit that one.

Volquez falling asleep and Navarro steals one on the pitcher to stay out of the DP situation there. Onus now on Garcia to drive at least one run in.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 29, 2016 -> 12:41 PM) How was the Abreu play a poor one? Very simple. That dugout has a very distinctive corner. He took an angle straight into the corner and caught his hip on it. If he rounded it, basically reading it off the bat right away and just put his head down and got over there a bit faster instead of drifting with the ball into the dugout railing, it would have been a MUCH easier play. 2-1 Royals. Lawrie into third, need to tie this game, at the very least.