caulfield12

Cleveland's had too much good luck recently with another 1st overall draft pick, Manziel...rumors of LeBron coming back, haha.

Get someone up. Last guy to walk scored. Had retired 7 in a row before Brantley. Great arm from Sierra...almost at the warning track there. Did Ramirez miss the bag and tag the dirt instead? Uh-oh. Looks like the runner will be on 2nd.

Just send Semien down and let Garcia play a bit more often. It's not like Marcus is doing anything to help the team offensively or defensively, and he's not like Dyson who can steal bases at will in the late innings, either. Give those at-bats to Saladino. Doesn't really matter. Need to get Semien regular playing time and back into an offensive rhythm, his confidence is clearly down. As far as Tyler goes, he made the mistake of getting personal and using "you" and that's always a no-no, that personal, accusatory tone when getting on an umpire.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 26, 2014 -> 09:16 AM) I've always known that, but teams have to get their wins from teams they're supposed to. It's a rarity to get to the final 30 games of the season and go 21-9 to get in. Basically I look at the season in six 27-game sections. Go 15-12 every 27, you win 90. Anything under, you've got a deficit you have to make up. It just happens this season is looking like 86-88 wins will get a wildcard. We say that every season, but then someone like Cleveland reels off an unbelievable stretch at the end of the year. Dodgers, last year, something like 50-13. Astros in 2005. Tigers and Twins in 2006. 2nd Team in WC position last eight years AL 92, 93, 90, 89 (2010 White Sox 88), 87, 89, 88, 90 (2006 White Sox)=89.75 NL 90, 88 (StL), 89, 90, 88, 89, 89, 85 (2006 Phillies)=88.5 So three 88's and and ONE 85.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 26, 2014 -> 09:08 AM) I know it gets political in a hot hurry, but that line - "you don't think it'll happen to your child until it does" - it's hard not to feel something when you hear that from an anguished parent The family was caring and attentive, said family friend Adam Krentzman. Peter Rodger "is the sweetest, nicest, most genuine, caring person, and he did everything he could," Krentzman said. But after Elliot turned 18, he started rejecting mental health care that his family provided, Krentzman said. "He turned his back on all of it," he said. "At some point, your kid becomes an adult." At 9:17 that night, 13 minutes before the first gunshots rang out, his mother, Chin Rodger, was at home in a western suburb of Los Angeles when her phone rang. It was one of her son's therapists. "Have you gotten Elliot's email?" he asked. Chin Rodger opened the email, according to an account of the night provided to The Times by a family friend. Something had changed. Her dejected son was gone, replaced by a man with a savage view of the world, and a terrible plan. "This is the story of how I, Elliot Rodger, came to be," the email said. "It is a dark story of sadness, anger and hatred." Then: "I will punish everyone. And it will be beautiful. Finally, at long last, I can show the world my true worth." Chin Rodger frantically called her ex-husband, Peter, who was out to dinner. Together, they raced up the 101 Freeway. But it was too late. The radio started barking while they were still on the road — a vicious rampage in Isla Vista, a young man emptying his guns into crowds of pedestrians. By the time they reached the police station there, it was over. On Sunday evening, a crowd prayed in front of the Alpha Phi sorority house in Isla Vista, where Rodger shot three women, two of whom died. There was a surprising amount of compassion for Rodger — for how he lived, if not how he died. "The insecurities and rejection he felt is something I believe exists in a lot of hearts in this city," said Yvette Johnson, 22. "There's this unspoken survival of the fittest.... If you don't fit in a box, you're going to feel rejected." "Some people think that he doesn't deserve love," said Christina Perez, 24. "But we all deserve love."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 26, 2014 -> 08:57 AM) Nice dream. It misses a lot of reality, such as how bad Buehrle was until this year, and we'd be losing $50 million-ish dollars this year, which is never going to happen. Wouldn't that also be the case had we signed Tanaka? A $40 million dollar hit, roughly, in addition to the signing bonus for Abreu...depending on how that's being counted for losses/revenues.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ May 26, 2014 -> 09:03 AM) Closers are relievers but not every reliever is a closer. Baseball has this thing vcalled the set-up man. Think of matt Thornton. Reliever his whole career. But he has had more blown saves in his career than saves. He was a verg good reliever for us. But he didn't have the mental make-up to close. You bring up Hermananson. Another great example. Starter his whole career becomes a reliever at 31 and closes in 05 at age 32. Then his body gave out and he retired in 06. Again, not every one can be a closer. Or Jason Grilli in 2014, compared to 2013. Or Jim Johnson, one of Beane's biggest brain farts. Hard to do it on a consistent, year-in, year-out basis. Other than Rivera, Nathan until recent years, Hoffman (part of that was PetCo) and Soria before all of his injuries, there just weren't many "close to automatic" closers. Kimbrel's pretty near to that level, a notch below. For one season, sure...but not for 5+ years in a row. Or look at Gagne and Brian Wilson. When closers do have those huge save seasons, like a Thigpen or K-Rod, they're almost never the same after. Koch is 2003 with us.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 26, 2014 -> 08:53 AM) Sox aren't winning 95 games, and the Tigers will. Every other team is chasing 88 wins, and it possibly will go lower than that. For now, 88-74 gets an extra game. Games back and all of that...irrelevant until there's 10 games left in the season. Record with or without homeruns stat for the Sox: No homers: 5-18 Exactly 1 hr: 7-6 2 or more hr: 13-3 Same as it ever was. Glad you finally came to that realization. Last three starts for Verlander 17.3 28H 16 ER 9 BB 7K's 8.31 ERA and Scherzer 19 IP 18H 10ER 10BB 18K's 4.74 ERA

QUOTE (LDF @ May 26, 2014 -> 06:12 AM) this brings an interesting question, some of the young players playing in the majors now, with the sox, were they rushed??? Who besides Beckham and Semien can that argument be made about today? Webb? Petricka? Erik Johnson? Probably not Santiago. They were very patient with Viciedo...of course, with the caveat they changed his position 5-6 different times.

Better hurry and win this one, Kipnis will be back Tuesday.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-isla-vi...ory.html#page=2

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ May 26, 2014 -> 07:48 AM) Didn't the Sox essentially replace Sergio Santos with Matt Lindstrom - and for even more money? Well, they avoided paying Santos $8.25 million for the last 3 years. I honestly don't believe the plan was to make Lindstrom the closer. FWIW, Nate Jones was the choice, with Lindstrom in set-up. Now, we can argue in retrospect they were overpaying Matt, but Hahn believed they needed at least 2-3 veterans in the bullpen (Belisario and Downs) to go along with their young and rising arms (Jones, Webb, Petricka). It wasn't a terrible plan for a team not expected to win over 75 games. Of course, right now it's easy to say we'd like to have Mark Buehrle back, Reed instead of Davidson, Alex Rios instead of Garcia (keeping DeAza off the field/roster) and Jake Peavy back in the rotation. But then you're talking a payroll $45-50 million higher. And it's not like Peavy has been that great with the Red Sox this season (4.65 ERA, 1.5 WHIP, 7.11 ERA in 3 post-season starts for Boston last year). So, if you were clairvoyant, perhaps you could argue that Buehrle, Rios and Reed would have this team in contention. $31 million pricetag.

QUOTE (LDF @ May 26, 2014 -> 06:52 AM) first Johnson was never going to hit the mid 90's, he was slated to 90-92 range. so talking about pitchers being asked to not throw as hard was never in the books, imo. now for Johnson dropping to the high 80's, that is totally a different mystery. Everyone who watched the radar gun readings last year on him said he was consistently 92-93, touching 93 and 94 at times. According to the PITCHf/x data over at Brooksbaseball.net, Johnson showed five pitches last season, although his fastball and sinker are very close in movement and velocity. The average velocity on his fastball is 92 mph, which is good but also unimpressive in today’s world of ubiquitous flame throwers. While his repertoire is well-rounded, none of his pitches stand out as elite. The curveball and cutter were his best pitches from a results perspective, but we’re talking about a very small sample. http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?pla...=P&pitch=FA This shows more clearly the falloff from 2013 to 2014. Same thing, 92-93 down to 88-90 (major league starts) and reportedly high 80's in Charlotte.

Here's another list I found at wikianswers. Time to first from LHBB Mickey Mantle 3.1-3.3 Vada Pinson 3.2-3.3 Ichiro 3.7 Bo Jackson 3.2 (3.65 from RHBB) Ralph Garr 3.2-3.3 Rick Manning 3.3 Miguel Dilone 3.3 Mickey Rivers 3.4 Willie Wilson 3.6-3.7 Michael Bourn 3.6

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 26, 2014 -> 06:52 AM) Someone recently posted elsewhere that Micah has been timed at 3.69 to first. Has anyone here ever seen a posted time for Billy Hamilton? GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Reds leadoff man Billy Hamilton has always been a blur. Today he is a whisper. Word from a couple quarters in Reds camp was that the switch-hitting Hamilton was clocked in a legend-creating 3.3 seconds on a run from home to first base on his drag bunt single off Rangers ace Yu Darvish on Monday. Naturally, there was no throw. Once the ball got past Darvish, all that was left was the clock. One scout who wasn't there said he had never even heard of a legitimate 3.3 time to first base, and another said the best he ever clocked was 3.5 (Brett Gardner of the Yankees). However, regarding Hamilton, that scout said, “With his speed, I wouldn't doubt it!” In any case, three point three is pretty crazy, if accurate. Many couldn't believe it. But I finally got back word from a Reds person who would know. “True,” the Reds person confirmed of the 3.3 time. Consider that on a swing a 4.0 time for a right-handed hitter and 3.9 for a left-handed hitter is considered an “8” on the 2-8 scout's scale, or all-time great. There's a legend that the Phillies' speedy Bake McBride once ran a 2.9 to first on a bunt, but that's hard to believe. Yankees switch-hitting legend Mickey Mantle, a good bunter in his day, was known to have all-time quick times. Another scout said the fastest time he ever had on a bunt was football great/sprinter/sometime Yankee and Brave Deion Sanders, at 3.33, so theoretically, the 3.3 time is possible. Others mentioned as among the fastest in the game now are superstar Mike Trout plus Peter Bourjos, Jarrod Dyson, Pirates prospect Gregory Polanco and A's hopeful Billy Burns, another switch hitter who was timed on a swing at 3.77 this spring. The scout who didn't doubt Hamilton said he is indeed the fastest he has ever clocked on a swing, at 3.8. Is it possible to shave a half second by bunting instead of swinging? Seems tough to believe, but Hamilton is a special case. www.cbssports.com

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ May 25, 2014 -> 05:58 PM) It was a killer. Let's see what tomorrow brings, though. More important is what happens next Monday (June 2nd) when Abreu comes back. With Viciedo faltering recently, we desperately need a threat at the clean-up spot.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 25, 2014 -> 06:28 PM) It was real nice to see a lot of people in the seats even though probably 10,000 of them were Yankees fan. As of a couple of days ago, our attendance was down 17.6% year over year. Now, it's probably closer to 13-15% down (including Sat/Sun). And, with all that that said, we still would need to average around 23,000 per month for the rest of the year to get to the 2013 attendance total of 1.76 million. From this point last season (where the 8 game losing streak hit), the attendance average actually was lower for the final 57 games (by about 500) than the average for the first 23.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 25, 2014 -> 03:10 PM) Seriously, I know Jeter made a s***load of errors in the minors, but enough is enough with Anderson. He was a suspect at SS to begin with. Pull the plug and put him in the outfield. It may actually help his offense too. Less to worry about. He famously made 50+ in Greensboro in 1993. I don't think they let Anderson get anywhere near that total. They'll put him at 2B or the outfield or even DH. I'd guess he has another couple of months before they make that determination. There has to be a growing concern his defensive problems are carrying over to the offensive side of his game.

He's also only recorded 15 saves in his entire minor league career. 277 hits in 260 innings. Yes, part of that was as a starter. Webb definitely throws 2-3 MPH harder. However, he hasn't quite mastered either the change or curve, which is the reason he was pulled from a starter's role in the first place. If you go back to 2012 in Kannapolis, he had a very pedestrian season. So even though he was quite successful in 2013 and jumped levels (just like Semien), he's far from a finished or refined product. Reed has a pretty decent slider, but inconsistent still with that pitch. It hasn't become anything like Rivera's cutter. However, Addison has been born/bred into that closer's role and mentality, ever since he was at SD State with Strasburg and throughout the minors. Some pitchers take to that role (like Jenks) like a duck to water, many others run in fear from the 9th. One way or the other, Webb's got to perfect a second pitch to keep hitters off his fastball, especially when he's behind in the count.

Make that 2 errors and 21 for the season already on Anderson. Gulp. CF might not be far away.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ May 25, 2014 -> 12:31 PM) Daniel Webb is better than Addison Reed is. For some reason, Webb isn't closing but the White Sox basically acquired one of the better 3B prospects in the game and get to control him for 6 years for a Relief Pitcher whose numbers could be duplicated and surpassed by at least 1 member of the current team. Sounds like a damn good trade to me. Now that's pushing it. I don't think there's any guarantee that Webb's going to be an 80-85% closer. He might be able to do it. But it certainly doesn't feel like an automatic assumption, either. If Cooper felt that Webb gave us the best chance to close out games this season, wouldn't he be the closer on Sunday instead of sticking with Belisario (who's had 3 shaky outings in a row)? Wouldn't Hahn intervene and overrule Ventura if it was that obvious?

QUOTE (flavum @ May 25, 2014 -> 02:44 PM) Yunel Escobar stole 3rd. You could read AJ's lips-- "Up 5 in the 7th?" Escobar challeged the Boston dugout, Gomes came in from LF, and it was your run of the mill baseball "fight". Escobar was a b**** about it. With the White Sox bullpen, that would hardly be a guarantee.

Except Davidson's on an upwards trend recently, with a 795 OPS the last ten games, including his 6th homer today. Mitchell's OPS is completely padded by all those walks, 30 in 99 AB's. Has there ever been someone in recent history with under 100 PA's, 30 walks and 29 TB's? 678 OPS.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 25, 2014 -> 02:33 PM) Rays Red Sox fight MLBN They've lost, what, 9 in a row? They rallied to tie the game today at 3-3 and then quickly blew that lead again.

Well, the Tigers aren't doing much better this week. 1-6, Verlander got absolutely rocked twice (Rangers today, Indians earlier in the sweep) and Scherzer once. Not that it matters so much this year (Verlander going downhill), but it hopefully will over the next 2-3 seasons.