caulfield12

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 07:57 PM) Papi is literally the reason we pay Duke. He's going to face him. Have Duke's splits come close to evening out yet from earlier in the season?

Oh my God, I'm back in the gamethread. Please alert the "positivity" police.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:50 PM) OK. See 2005. Hopefully the Sox can regain the lead so you will stay out of the gamethread. Hopefully John Danks will stay out of the game so they can actually win. Second, since you don't have the job title "MODERATOR" under your ridiculously hideous Getty Lee avatar, your powers to expel anyone from the gamethread are approximately non-existent.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:47 PM) Danks had looked so good, too. How many times has he had stretches or encouraging individual starts since he returned from that surgery? It's almost more rope than Gordon Beckham and Tyler Flowers have gotten. Obviously, the contract is a big part of that, but there's just no reason to believe he'll ever get things turned around on a consistent basis again.

The way the Indians are currently playing, the Twins will go 10-3 or 9-4 against them. That will be all she wrote. Their inexperienced manager will inexplicably get the job done.

Whenever there's ANY pressure or expectation placed on this team and organization, they just crumble. 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012...this year after the All-Star Break, they had a huge opportunity to recapture their fans and re-engage their interest again. Now, they have this game handed to them on a platter and they quickly blow a 4-0 lead.

Somehow Joe Kelly is off the hook. Talk about your offense having your back. Of course, Kelly probably won't get to start for Boston for the remainder of the season. Well, you knew our defense was bound to make a mistake at some point. Could have had an out at 2B or 1B, but the go-ahead run was definitely going to score there.

This is really the time to bring in Matt Albers? Sigh.

Danks getting battered. Ironic that Farrell pulled his starter first, and the Red Sox don't have anything left to play for.

The crazy thing is that we could be tied with Detroit after tonight. We could also end up losing and throwing in the towel and dealing Samardzija before tmrw's game. Just when you give up on the season for the 2nd or 3rd time, they pull you back in. But then John Danks makes you wonder why you even bothered. After having that early 4-0 lead, it feels like the season and trading Samardzija and the fate of the franchise is riding on this one game, which makes almost zero sense except if you're looking at things emotionally and not at the bigger picture.

Farrell pulled the plug on Kelly. That might be his last game with the Red Sox for awhile. (Coop can fix 'em). And that's why Boston doesn't want to trade Mookie Betts. Outfield defense/DRS.

Someone (such as a coach) might want to warn Abreu that's a good way to end up on the DL. He already has the foot problems, going into the bag that way with a runner arriving simultaneously usually doesn't end up positively. Adventures in CF there, but we survived that inning somehow. Always seems to lead in Boston is safe. It's that park, the Green Monster, maybe it's simply the fact that the Red Sox usually trot out some pretty good offenses loaded with expensive talent.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:12 PM) No that's good according to Greg in the post steroid era Well, Greg has that sentimental attachment to almost anyone who's hung around on a White Sox roster for nearly a decade or played on the 2005 team (basically, anyone not "imported" onto the roster as a free agent) or at least played on a Sox playoff team. Fwiw, can't believe this is John's 9th season with the Sox, 2008 and the Blackout Game seems like an eon ago.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:05 PM) Sox 5-4...............I have Danks on a very short lease. Fortunately our lease on Danks doesn't last as long as the Yankees with Captain Cheeseburger. Leash. You must have money on your mind, haha. C'mon Alexei, atone for your DP ball in the first inning. Two run lead seems huge here, compared to the single tally. Kelly has a 5.99 ERA at this moment in time. That's extremely rare in the new era of pitching.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about Leyson Septimo or Cody Ross jinxing this game. That loss in the heart of the 2012 season still stings.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:02 PM) Melky is enfuego!!! Very fortunate to sneak in there at second. Throw had him beat.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 06:00 PM) I've come to accept that Danks is not horrible, but is going to play at the absolute lowest level you'll tolerate from a regular starter. Now we don't have to tolerate it if we think we have a better option, but to speak generally I think he's a high 4s ERA guy that can eat up some innings but provide little value beyond reliably going out there every 5th day And that does have some value if you're the Royals and have the lowest number of IP out of your starters. With this particular rotation, it's not quite so important. The bullpen is pretty well rested. Considering the falloff in offense over the last couple of seasons, a high 4's ERA is essentially like a 5.25-5.35 ERA a decade ago. It's just not going to get the job done when you're last in the AL in runs scored.

QUOTE (kapzk @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 05:58 PM) Sadly if we did not have Danks on our team this year we would be probably holding one of the wild card spots right now. We do have $219 million in profits over the last decade, according to Forbes. So there's that. The Cubs released Jackson, and there's no reason you can't put John in the bullpen. They have to see what they can get out of Erik Johnson and perhaps Montas down the stretch as well. Otherwise, they're going to have to make a trade or go dumpster diving from the FA/waiver list.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 05:56 PM) Damn shame Greg isnt around to give us his plethora of excuses for Danks. I guess we'll just have to live with watching him suck. The worst part is Kelly was just throwing fastballs because he couldn't throw a decent curveball to save his life. Ramirez gets a single or double there and the game's probably over. Oh, well. At least Abreu had the heart to stay in the game and battle. They have to earn this one now.

At least we had the two triples to start the game. Last time that happened was in 1954, Carrasquel and Nellie Fox. First walk in six games, Sox starters had a 0.27 ERA over that five game stretch. Had a sense when Alexei hit that DP ball that the game was far from over.

Typical Danks.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 12:26 PM) Exactly, if we take 3 or 4 from Boston we're right there for a playoff spot, LF/SS/3B/2B/CF are hitting a lot better lately (C too if Soto actually plays), our infield defense is now above average, and we have by far the best pitching staff of any of the teams we'd be competing with for the 2nd wildcard spot. Also, count me in as one who would be happy with 82 wins as well. That gives us a lot of hope that we could contend next year with additional progress from some young guys and a couple savvy moves. If we tank and lose 90 games then there's no hope for 2016/2017. Why, it just means that Erik Johnson probably failed? What does that have to do with Montas and Fulmer?

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 27, 2015 -> 12:20 PM) The kind of crazy thing is, that if the Sox DO sweep Boston, they'll probably be somewhere between 1-2 games away from being a playoff team if the season ended on Thursday. A big if, no doubt, but it is also sort of difficult to trade one of the best 25 pitchers in baseball at this juncture unless the price is right (that price being a very good offensive return). Bottom line, Shark is very unlikely to bring back anything that is going to help this offense now, or even a couple years. If they find that, sure, move him - but I think he would have been traded by now if that were the case. Also, despite this historically terrible offense you mention, the Sox find themselves in the position described above. What does that tell you? They have a fu**in studly pitching staff. The offense has been coming around, and the Sox have really been throwing some leather in the infield for sometime..I'd honestly be pretty disappointed if the Sox moved Shark unless they got a ton back (unless they drop 2 or three in a row here, then I get it). You play this game to win. The Sox still have a small but surely a chance to win. I may be in the minority here, but one of the reasons why I love this franchise so much - they refuse to just allow themselves to be s***ty. No team ahead of them in the race for the 2nd WC really scares me. Minnesota will fade, I guarantee it. Toronto and Baltimore will be the main competition and those are very flawed teams (as are the Sox). I do think it all comes down to the next few days. Win a few more in a row, and I'd eat my hat if Shark is traded unless it brings back a bat that'll help RIGHT NOW. That's the KW gunslinger mentality. Where has it gotten us, exactly? There's this myth that the White Sox could simply wait around and make deadline deals every year, save some money the first half of the season and keep repeating that process. It worked, sort of, until the end of 2012. Pretty much every other season since 2005 were competitive, but more often than not missing out on the playoffs. But what I bolded...they haven't refused to be SH----. They've kept guys like Dunn and Danks and now LaRoche on the roster and were unable to do anything to fix those mistakes, by and large. We just had to "ride it out" and wait for a brighter day.

Who can explain exactly when after the War of 1812 and the Native American wars in the 1870's and 1880's it happened that firearm ownership got unhinged from service in a well-maintained militia/defensive purposes to individual ownership? Surely it wasn't spelled out until the Heller S.C. decision, but how can modern gun owners honestly read the lines of the Second Amendment to the Constitution and think the Framers intended the current interpretation? There's no doubt the NRA and individual states have succeeded in defeating the national government on this issue, but what were the first cases where the government tried to take gun rights away and limit them to military/militia/national guards? Because, other than Pearl Harbor and 9/11, I'm having a hard time seeing the national/regional/local defense side of this, and owning guns wouldn't have helped much on 9/11 unless you were on United 93, and that, as we know...is probably not another place where we want to guarantee gun rights, on crowded airliners 37,000 feet above the ground. Was it simply part of the antibellum South's and eventually the West's distaste for any rules coming from Washington? Hunters? Who has actually studied the entire history of gun control and can comment in an academic/factual/non-partisan fashion?

The least the White Sox could have done when they picked a Little League manager with no time put in the minor leagues or as a bench/1st/3rd base coach would have been to name a former catcher. Even with that perspective, it might not prevent Ausmus from getting fired, either this season or inevitably next year. If you're hiring a manager with "training wheels," it has to be an organization like St. Louis (Matheny) with the utmost confidence in the world (the Cardinals Way), seamless communication and a deeply-ingrained instructional system between their major and minor league systems. (And yes, even that's been frayed a bit by the hacking scandal and firing of the scouting director.) With the White Sox, our front office guys are pulling in two different directions, which must be uncomfortable for those below them in the organizational chain of command. And then there's Cooper, who just does as he pleases...and that mostly works as evidenced by the success of the pitching staff again this season, but it doesn't lead to one of the most cohesive coaching staffs IMO.