caulfield12

Somehow we had "succor" and a "bubble of misery" in the same sequence. At least the imagery is evocative. If we still had HERO Jake Peavy on the bump, we'd be in really sad shape like the Giants are with both him and Matt Cain. Now, that said, it's fair to question trading for players with limited windows (2 years or less, especially if they leave as FA's without compensation)...if there's a string of successes from players like Semien and Thompson. The jury's far from out on that one, though, and the White Sox would tell you they sold high on both Trayce and Montas in order to bring Frazier on board. We haven't had much luck trading some of our own heroes as well, like Addison Reed and Sergio Santos. The Edwin Jackson trade also comes to mind, although that was complicated by the financial desire to get out from under the commitment to Teahen (partially).

Attendance jumped way up for the Cinco de Mayo promotion, 20,126 in the house. Seemingly, that promotion (and/or better weather) was worth roughly a 35% increase in the numbers.

Condor, That's what Kenny Williams believed for a long, long time. It was the foundation of the 2000-2004 teams. 2005 proved the need for quality depth of starting pitching (McCarthy down the stretch) as well as sound defense and fundamentals/execution...as well as the ability to manufacture runs the first half of the season in particular before relying on the 3 run homer more late in the season. Now whether some MIT or Cal Tech quant could prove there's an actual attendance difference between teams that are high-scoring offenses (but play close games overall, around .500ish) and that these so-so teams with more exciting offensive firepower are equaling or outdrawing the 85-77 or 86-76 White Sox with top 25% pitching/defense and bottom 33% offense, you'd have something.

Thad Bosley bringing some humour to this thread. Much needed when you're at the 3 hour mark with 3 more innings left to go. At any rate, attendance threads=page views and drives revenue/s into the stratosphere for SoxTalk, haha. Those Silicon Valley entrepreneurs selling the banner ads/links should be putting a check in the mail for helping their site numbers. In all seriousness, it's kind of like our version of traffic accidents or Faces of Death videos.

One notable improvement with the offensive. White Sox 9th in the major leagues now with 98 walks.

Big momentum shifts in this game. So much for Albers starting a new scoreless appearances streak.

I hate Mariah Carey! (Although she's hotter than A-Rod's new venture capitalist ladyfriend).

This game is nuts...

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ May 5, 2016 -> 08:25 PM) HUGE at bat for Hector right there! Wow. My adrenal is going. Adrenal glands or adrenaline?

Amazing at-bat by Hector Sanchez there... Hembree's already well over 40 pitches now. 10:30 p.m. in Boston and still not out of the 5th inning.

Cabrera couldn't score there on a ground ball up the middle? Must have been hit really hard to a pretty bad jump/lead at 2nd base. Wonder if any team's come close to 14-16 baserunners but only scored 2 runs? That would be a feat.

Avi, be ready for the heat and adjust for the offspeed...he's going to be high and hard.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 5, 2016 -> 08:07 PM) Half way home at about 1:55 If Mark Buehrle were starting, the last call for AL-KEE-HOWL would have been 20-25 minutes ago.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 5, 2016 -> 08:06 PM) Johnson battled back. Sounds like for him it's just mental. The weird part is he's a pretty huge guy and has shown flashes of 93-94 MPH stuff in the past, even touching 95. Then he goes through these stretches in the majors and minors where he's at 88-91, topping out at 92. Hard to say how much of it's mechanical and how much psychological and how the two are interrelated.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ May 5, 2016 -> 08:03 PM) Abreu has really hurt them tonight. Two huge spots & nothing to show for it. Have to think the chances keep coming but will they capitalize enough to keep themselves in it? Cabrera's wasted opportunity hurt as well... You can't expect success every game from Jose, he's had a great run this last week and other hitters up and down the order need to come through in clutch situations, it's not just on him. Still lots of game left, pretty likely the bullpens will still decide the outcome. And these struggles with RISP haven't been so pronounced in the last couple of weeks. Worst-case scenario is we have a 3 1/2 game lead over the Royals heading into an attractive series against MN with our best pitchers slated to go.

Also pretty impressive to give up 11 baserunners in 4 innings and STILL be in the game for Johnson...3 WHIPS are not easy to come by! Also not too many games where you see a starter make it through the 5th with 105ish-100 pitches...if he survives this inning, he just might get another start.

If not mentioned elsewhere, the first time four first place teams are playing in the same city on the same day (and the same exact time, for that matter)...

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 5, 2016 -> 07:39 PM) The revisionism is the assumption that the Sox could simply grab Fowler like that Upton...no interest Cespedes...too expensive for one year, wanted to go back to NY Gordon...wanted to go back to KC, no interest in a deal over 3 years Fowler...wanted to come back to Chicago, Cubs didn't want Heyward in CF Span...that one's a bit of a mystery, but coming off an injury-plagued year Rasmus...not sure if we even had time to express an interest However, there were a number of guys like Dickerson that were on the trade market. 75 MPH change-up....speed up Avisail's bat, the ONE thing you don't want to do. Needed that timely hit LAST inning, but a least we're sort of back in it again.

Only 90+ pitches to get 10 outs. That's pretty amazing...not sure if it's from a negative or positive standpoint, though.

What happened to the "new and improved" positive thread mandate? You would think we were trailing the rest of the division by 3 1/2 games already. Is it realistic to EXPECT to win a game Erik Johnson starts against the Red Sox offense? We're getting outhit 8-1 and still only down by 3. And at least our offense is showing encouraging progress in the OBP/walk category compared to the past three seasons.

At least the vendors should be happy with longer game times by 30-45 minutes against BOS. Or unhappy because they want to go home at a reasonable hour. How many starts does Johnson get before they pull the plug? 3? That's about what Daniel Hudson got. Guess Turner will be next, they're not going to pick Carroll over him. Guess it depends on if Gonzalez has been particularly good against a string of future opponents. Just a slightly frustrating inning there offensively. Get 'em next time. That inside strike to Abreu really hurt, and then Melky never seems to hit very well as a RHB, at least not early last year.

At least the vendors should be happy with longer game times by 30-45 minutes against BOS. Or unhappy because they want to go home at a reasonable hour. How many starts does Johnson get before they pull the plug? 3? That's about what Daniel Hudson got. Guess Turner will be next, they're not going to pick Carroll over him. Guess it depends on if Gonzalez has been particularly good against a string of future opponents.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 5, 2016 -> 01:51 PM) Other than your posts, do you have any links as to where this is becoming a huge topic? People have been fully aware for years the Cubs outdraw the White Sox even on their worst days vs. the White Sox best. Lol. Follow the social media feature during an ESPN.com gamecast. Mentioned by both Chicago and Boston writers/reporters numerous times. However, there's pretty much zero incentive to "prove" anything since the game threads are now supposed to filled with positivity according to what Rabbit wrote last night. I know you saw that. And, if I proved it, you would just turn around and use it as justification to complain more about my posting it. Or you would argue that nothing constitutes proof, everything is subjective or based in our perceptions of glass half filled or half emptyness. So what's the point???

I'm also not sure if I was a Pirates' fan that I would be too excited by the time the final game in the series (during the day, no less) rolled around to watch my favorite team get rolled over yet again. It's got to be terribly frustrating to achieve that level of success and yet be completely overshadowed by the Cardinals and now the Cubs...and then be mostly limited to wild card game appearances (along with feeling "when will it be our turn"?). It's a little bit reminiscent of the early 90's teams with Bonds and Bonilla and Drabek that were so good but just couldn't manage to put it all together in the postseason. Yes, more excuses. Like Braves' fans for most of the second half of their playoff run of 14 consecutive years or whatever that incredible streak was...

QUOTE (shakes @ May 5, 2016 -> 10:16 AM) ?????? You know every team has national games, right? You know these games were scheduled well in advance? I know you know this stuff, so this is one of the strangest arguments I've seen. And why would fans attending the game care what network the game is on? I think the above argument just proves the attendance debate is officially exhausted, because this has just jumped from silly to nonsensical. The Pirates had 18,000 at their game against the Cubs on Monday, and I assure you there wasn't nearly that many in the park. A divisional rival with a traveling fanbase, and a team who is consistently making the playoffs. Maybe, you can find a message board and go make fun of their fans. I didn't realize making this thread constituted making fun of the fans...is that what it really is? There's also a difference for Pirates' fans because they know they have two better opportunities to see the Cubs later in the season since they are divisional rivals. At any rate, the Orioles' attendance is also way down and they actually spent quite a bit of money in the offseason, have been to the playoffs much more recently, and got off to a similar start record-wiseto the White Sox. Like it or not, with the media focusing so much on the Cubs and their revenue machine now, it's going to be even more of a topic of comparison because it's the one profound and obvious difference between the two organizations at the current time...and a hot topic on social media as well and presumably sports talk radio in Chicago.