caulfield12

Viciedo no BB's first 48 AB's. Then, 8 walks now in his last 35 (all in May, since returning from the DL). Only 5 K's. 856 OPS on the season. .229 walk per/AB would lead Votto, Choo (man, we could have used him now and in the future), Fielder and Upton if extrapolated over a full season.

Oh, Tyler... Not good. This sets up the nightmare scenario with so many memories from last July (and no Youk on our team).

And that's exactly what Keppinger has to do occasionally to take the intentional walk/pitching around Viciedo option off the table...

Wow. Thought Viciedo must have gone yard, lol. It's just the logical thing for any pitcher to do, which is walking him while he's hitting in front of Keppinger.

Or Adrian Gonzalez... What happened with the play in LF on the double? Viciedo just missed it? Bad route? It wasn't ruled an error...just curious about the explanation.

Is there some rule (the "Maddon Effect") that utility players for the Rays always suck once they leave Tampa?

QUOTE (fathom @ May 20, 2013 -> 07:10 PM) Surprised that the crowd isn't bigger tonight with the Red Sox in town and nice weather out. Blackhawks excuse. Do they still have higher ticket prices for Red Sox/Yankees games? We haven't heard the term "dynamic pricing" in the Sox lexicon much this year. That turned out to be a fiasco...although Brooks and Rongey tried "PR spinning" it all year long.

The Rangers have kept that home run music from "THE NATURAL" (when Redford hits the ball into the light standard) for at least 20 years now and it still sends shivers down your spine if you're a baseball fan.

Axelrod ERA at a 4.38. Still pretty decent for a 5th starter, where anything below 5 is more or less acceptable. Walks have been killing us recently. Solo homers, that's not so bad...because they tend to quiet down the really big innings with multiple base-runners on as happened with Santiago Saturday in the bottom of the 4th. (Although in that case, giving up a solo homer to Trumbo is what started everything going south, confidence-wise.)

Angel Sanchez at 3B, Carlos at 2B...not sure what to read (if anything) into that, with Beckham at SS. What do all the scouting reports say about Carlos Sanchez's arm for SS??

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 20, 2013 -> 06:50 PM) Why not the Sox have nothing to lose to try it? Gordon defensively, and he's hitting well in his rehab. Phegley has never hit well for more than a 2 month stretch in his career (like Mitchell), so we'll see if he can extend it to 3 full months, PROBABLY. If things hold up, we'll be 4th place all alone for the first time in weeks.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 20, 2013 -> 06:47 PM) 40 pitches for Lester thru 2 innings love it. Just for fun, I'm going to guess Sale and Buchholz will both be bounced before they get out of the 5th on WED....when they have those "anticipated pitching match-ups" (like Darvish/Verlander last week), 85% of the time they never materialize. FWIW, the legend of Will Middlebrooks hasn't exactly carried over into 2013.

For about the UMPTEENTH time this season, hard to know what to make out of this team. Nights like this, when your fifth starter is posed to beat one of the better AL teams' aces, they look like they could compete for a playoff spot because of their pitching. Then you look at Konerko, Keppinger and Flowers and think, well, maybe not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 20, 2013 -> 06:41 PM) There's an extra base hit in the worst offensive inning ever. See, it worked!! (Although the last 4-0 lead we held didn't end up so well).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 20, 2013 -> 06:41 PM) There's an extra base hit in the worst offensive inning ever. Gimenez and Greene must realize there's some heat on them to hold their positions.

If we could "man up" Greene's defense, he should be able to take that role away from Angel Sanchez. The funny thing is that he was always known as a good fielding, poor hitting SS when he was a regular.

Hawk's "muscle memory" for Lester. Against Paulie, 3 out of 23 AB's have left the park (10/23=.435, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 7 RBI's, 3 BB's) Against Dunn, smaller sample size 1/6, 2 K's, 3 BB's

This next half-inning could be a lowlight in Sox offensive history. (Crosses fingers reverse-jinx is in place and we put up a crooked number somehow.)

Dunn all the way up to .175. 16 points higher than he ended 2011. And the same number of homers (actually, he would have 12 if not for the Hicks robbery).

Now what is Dunn going to do? Sometimes it helps to have teams who are unfamiliar with Konerko and his problems this year (although the advance scouts should be covering it) thinking it's better to work around him to face Dunn (especially lefties).

White Sox "Offense" Last in the AL in runs, doubles and triples, OBP (.293, so scary, in fact, the closest team is the Astros, a full 10 points higher) and OPS 2nd to last in total bases (Minn), AVG (one point ahead of SEA) and SLG (Minnesota)

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51937226/ns/sports-baseball/ Great Posnanski article on what happened to the Albert Pujols who was one of the five best hitters in baseball history...?

This should be a pretty short game thread, with everyone watching the Blackhawks/Red Wings. Well, Axelrod made it out of the first inning 1-2-3.

Would be interested to hear the impressions of anyone watching Charlotte how well Beckham does there at that position. It's a bit strange when he's going to come up to Chicago that they would NOT be having him at 2B every game. There's a 75% chance that Carlos Sanchez never becomes anything more than a super-utility guy, so it's not like it really matters in the overall scheme of things where Beckham plays in AAA rehab, but it's worth remembering. Words back from 2008 Beckham also is a finalist for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award. Sox scouting director Doug Laumann scouted Beckham heavily this season, and this pick shores up the Sox's depth up the middle. "In my mind, I think I'm capable of playing shortstop in the majors," Beckham said.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 20, 2013 -> 04:19 PM) I would be suprised If they trade in the division usually does not happen. The Tigers have six starters, they don't need a 7th. As for the Indians, well...anything is possible. The Twins made some moves in recent years that helped (or could have helped) their opponents (Delmon Young, for example, to the Tigers, Liriano to the White Sox).