caulfield12

Back to the mid-May to late June offense again. At least we had those first 6 weeks or so of the season to dream. Defense/fundamentals are basically the same or worse than last year, other than having Eaton in CF now...and even he's made a lot of questionable throws this season.

ESPN just had a heading on their front page for the Algeria score...something like "sly like a desert fox," wonder if they retracted that one with the possibility someone might make Erwin Rommel/World War II/Nazi references?

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Have the Sox even had an outfielder's coach the past ten years? Considering they've had guys like Gary Pettis, Raines, Boston and Baines around the team...you'd think ONE of them would have worked with the outfielders, especially with all the specialists they have now. Cora, but he primarily worked with infielders?

We're to the point they can just blow up this whole roster besides Abreu, Sale, Quintana, Eaton and Gillaspie...and even considering Conor part of that core is pushing it. Then Garcia coming back next year, and you probably hold onto Petricka and Webb as well. So about 8 players. And we won't be able to trade Danks, so we're stuck with him, thus making it 9.

Well...so much for the idea that Danks had turned any kind of corner. Stupid throw by Eaton there enables Mauer to get 2nd and ends the opportunity to escape with a tie on a DP ball. WHAT THE HELL WAS DEAZA DOING OUT THERE JUST NOW??? Did he forget there was just one out? Afraid Mauer was going to 3rd? 13th in defense. Sigh. This whole season is close to falling apart again (like 2013). Make the plays you're supposed to make. Ramirez, Eaton and DeAza all hurting Danks this inning.

Ramirez should have had Danks out of this inning....home cooking on that scorer's call.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 01:29 PM) Seems like the Sox have always hit into a lot of DPs. With lumbering guys like Konerko, Thome, Dye, Crede, Flowers, Dunn, Abreu and Viciedo, it can't be surprising. OTOH, if we built the mid 80's versions of the Royals or Cardinals for USCF, we'd get killed by slugging teams in the summer months...just like the Twins in their new stadium over the last 2-3 seasons.

Johnson has already given up 2 homers today. On the plus side, he could still hang in there for a "quality" start this inning. Davidson with a walk and K. Winston-Salem tonight.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 01:25 PM) Hughes is fine, but the ump hasn't given anything off of the corners. Lots of nights you get that, but apparently not today. So far, he has been consistent. The dreaded "vacation umpire." That would get Hawk going if the results were the other way, as he clearly has his umpire favorites and then a few he absolutely despises almost as much as Ozzie used to.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 01:18 PM) I've always despised him. Because he pitched for the Yankees? There were many guys to hate on New York in years past, like Swisher and A-Rod and O'Neill, for example, but he's never been in the Top 10.

Arcia on an 0 for 29 streak...Flowers 2 for 35.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) Sox are finally battering a horrible pitcher. Good to see. Ummm...Hughes has been far from terrible this season. He would look great in the 3rd-4th-5th spot in our rotation about right now. Now Nolasco and Correia, that's different.

The White Sox offense finally comes to life. Things were looking really bleak there. Flowers walk the key to that whole inning IMO.

How are we going to manage to mess up this golden opportunity? 3+ starts in a row without a walk for Hughes just ended to Tyler Flowers of all hitters...something like his (Hughes') 8th or 9th walk of the season. Btw, the Tigers have really re-established some control of the AL Central in the last 3-4 days.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 09:07 AM) Who's to say he's done? His peripherals from this year don't indicate any deterioration in his performance from previous years, years in which he's been a very effective pitcher. There's been a plethora of players giving value to clubs at age 38+. At the moment our bullpen contains Scott Carroll, who is a career minor league player and striking out less than 4 per 9, and Scott Downs, who is actually older than Putz, and probably needs to be DFA at some point to avoid paying him $4.25m next year. There's two players currently in our bullpen who I reckon stand less of a chance contributing to a future than Putz (granted that obviously Putz could not replace Downs and we have Lindstrom and Jones to come back, however trades could be on the cards). They can't DFA him unless they want to be on the hook for the rest of this season's salary, which is certainly a strong possibility. But, for next year, they simply have to pay him $250,000 as the buyout to avoid paying the $4.25 million.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 07:46 AM) Joe Nathan notched a win last night because he gave up a run in the ninth to blow the save. 5th blown save. That said, it was his 3rd game in a row, his pitch count reached 30+, he's almost 40 years old now and he's two seasons removed from TJ surgery. And it took three consecutive two-out hits with full counts. Some dude named Hardy (not JJ) really saved the Tigers in the 8th. The Indians had a runner on 2nd, no outs and 3 chances to tie with the heart of their order coming up and couldn't get it done to tie the game at that point. They also had a sellout/standing-room-only crowd of 41,000+ for Omar Vizquel/Indians Hall of Fame night.

QUOTE (winninguglyin83 @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 05:23 AM) who exits when/if rienzo moves to pen? engel and basto both played in arizona? jaye got rocked again. Has to be Carroll. Although there's a chance they prefer to leave Scott in the long-man role and let Rienzo continue to start in Charlotte. 50/50 decision, could go either way.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 07:13 AM) Tomas will need to spend some time getting all the paperwork taken care off. those who knows the rules, what is the earliest Tomas can signed with any mlb team? also if you can answer this other question, for those Cubans who are playing in Japan, why can't they sign with MLB teams? Cuban players still can’t yet come to Major League Baseball unless they defect from the island, but the agreements allow players to participate in foreign leagues during the summer (the offseason for Cuba) and return to Cuba afterwards to play in Serie Nacional. It’s not known how Cepeda’s contract will be split between him and the Cuban government. www.baseballamerica.com

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 21, 2014 -> 06:03 PM) If we want another declining veteran, go get Headley - and be sure to put up a couple of our best prospects to get him so we can get full deja vu. He's had one great season and a couple of high OBP, Low-power years....what Gillaspie's giving us. As a free agent. It's not going to happen, but it would be more logical than throwing a ton of money at Victor Martinez, LaRoche, Melky Cabrera, Seth Smith, etc. With Gillaspie and Davidson already in the fold, as well as Semien...but someone along the lines of Headley who's having a disappointing season, compared to the names listed above. Rasmus would be another example.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 21, 2014 -> 12:41 PM) Absolutely, but Messi is capable of making a goal out of seemingly nothing at any moment so that's all you need to be in a game. Games aren't decided by the number of chances you create or if you take the extra touch or not, it's about goals. He has had mediocre games with great, game-deciding goals in both matches. That's all you need. That prevent defense Iran was playing was quite effective and also led to a number of scoring possibilities on the counter-attack. While it can make for some boring and frustrating soccer from a viewing perspective, tactically it's the smartest approach for a team that's outmatched talent-wise. For all intents and purposes, Messi continues to be a one man team, and you have to imagine he'll simply get worn down as the Cup moves forward unless someone like Levezzi emerges to serve as a counter-punch and attract at least some attention from the "box and one" defense.

They're not going to throw money at Hanley Ramirez, either. Chase Headley is a possibility, simply because he's been so terrible for the Padres for two seasons now...but it always comes back to the fact they don't want to have Abreu DHing full-time at this point in his career. So you can't really move Conor or Davidson to 1B.

7 consecutive American League Central division losses.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 21, 2014 -> 04:23 PM) Viciedo's a DH playing LF. 850 OPS would make him worthwhile. I highly doubt the average AL DH OPS is anywhere close to even 825 this season. It's hard to find even 40 players in the entire majors over 800 right now.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 08:39 PM) Lobstein is a pretty awful name for a pitcher Also, strange that Heath is doing so well as a starter. I thought they threw him in there just on an emergency basis, but now it seems they want him to stick. And given Davidson's Dunn-esque K rate, I consider consecutive K-less games a meaningful trend What would be even funnier would be 1) if he had Tyler Kolek's heater or 2) if he had Takatsu's eephus pitch with a last name like that. Could just see it in Little League. "Lobstein's just lobbing it in there...why does he keep throwing those meatballs up there?...we want a pitcher, not a belly itcher!!!"

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 10:00 PM) The quote is a little ridiculous but Mauer is batting .429 vs Downs....So there's that. If it's just 3 for 7, that's one thing. 6 for 14 or 9 for 21 would closer to a statistically-valid pattern.