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Everything posted by caulfield12
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RV-Team Meeting/Strategies for improving defense?
caulfield12 replied to caulfield12's topic in Pale Hose Talk
So basically, besides the one ACTUAL error, there were at least 4-5 additional mistakes made...that don't show up in the boxscore but are absolutely killing this team right now.... Daryl Van Schouwen/Sun-Times.com MINNEAPOLIS — The Sox led the American League with a franchise-record fielding percentage last season. This year they rank last. And are somehow getting worse. Another bad act in the comedy of errors that is threatening to trash a 2013 season before Memorial Day was staged at Target Field on Monday night in a 10-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins. The box score shows one error, a misplayed grounder to shortstop Alexei Ramirez’s left that manager Robin Ventura saw as an inning-ending double play. But there was more bad defense for a team that — get this — was built on pitching and catching the ball. The pitching has been good. The Sox went into the game with a 3.40 ERA, right behind the AL-leading Texas Rangers. But the defense has been miserable with 29 errors, missed cutoffs, misplayed pop-ups and opposing baserunners stealing bases at an 80 percent clip. There was more of the same gawky horror miscue show in the Twins’ third inning, in which three of the four runs scored were unearned. Leading 2-0, starter Hector Santiago (1-2) got himself into a bases-loaded jam but had a chance to escape. Ramirez couldn’t cleanly glove Justin Morneau’s grounder and then one sacrifice fly and one Trevor Plouffe double later, the Sox were down 4-2. Almost every play that inning besides Ramirez’s error was an adventure. Left fielder Casper Wells skipped a throw past Ramirez on Pedro Florimon’s double. Catcher Tyler Flowers couldn’t handle a one-hopper from Alex Rios in short right on Willingham’s short fly, scrambling to the Twins’ on-deck circle to retrieve it while Santiago dashed to cover the plate. And Alejandro De Aza threw to third base instead of second on Doumit’s sacrifice fly, allowing Morneau to take second. None of the throws were scored as errors. Every one of them made high school coaches everywhere scratch their heads. There was more. Ramirez cleared out of the way of a pop-up that a charging De Aza couldn’t get to and it fell in for a leadoff double in the Twins’ four-run eighth. Flowers couldn’t hold a pop near the rail of the Twins’ dugout and pitcher Deunte Heath played a sacrifice into a bunt single. And to think manager Robin Ventura held a pregame meeting Saturday to talk about cleaning up the defense. “Eventually you get to the point where if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on, we’ll find somebody else to do it,’’ Ventura said. “We have to be better and work at it. Hector’s grinding, you have to help him out. He gets the ball he wants, and there’s lapses. We’ll work on it. We’ll have plenty of time to work on it.’’ On the other side of the field, the Twins sparkled. Center fielder Aaron Hicks had the night of his life, leaping above the wall to rob Adam Dunn of a homer and sandwiching two homers around the catch. The Sox miss second baseman Gordon Beckham, a standout glove man who will take batting practice Wednesday or Thursday as he gets closer to returning from a broken hamate bone. But that’s only part of the problem. “At the end of the day, yeah, focus [on defense],’’ Beckham said. “You have to be thinking. You have to be into the game. If you’re thinking about the last at-bat, or last night, or anything, it’s going to take away from how well you play defense. “It’s weird. That’s the only way I can describe it because I know how we can field. It seems like we can’t get any worse.’’ -
By Mark Gonzales, Chicago Tribune reporter 11:22 p.m. CDT, May 13, 2013 MINNEAPOLIS — Paul Konerko received a scheduled day off Monday night, but the mistakes the White Sox committed in a 10-3 humbling by the Twins could lead to a forced cut in playing time for guilty players. "Eventually you get to that point where you don't pay attention to what's going on, we'll find somebody else to do it," manager Robin Ventura said after the Sox committed their 29th error and were guilty of two other miscues in a loss that typified their struggles this season. Shortstop Alexei Ramirez was charged with a fielding error on a potential inning-ending double-play grounder by Justin Morneau that allowed the first of four runs to score in the third, wiping out a 2-0 Sox lead. Ryan Doumit tied the game on sacrifice fly, and a decision by center fielder Alejandro De Aza to throw to third base enabled Morneau to advance to second and score easily on a two-run double by Trevor Plouffe. "We have to be better," Ventura said. "We've got to work at it. ... Hector (Santiago) is grinding, he gets in a situation where we kind of have to help him out. He gets the ground ball he wants and there's, I think, lapses of knowing what's going on, and we'll work on them. "They'll have plenty of time to work on (them).'' But the Sox have spent extra time on fundamental drills as well as pregame infield practice with little to show for it. In the eighth, a popup to shallow center fell between Ramirez and De Aza and led to four runs. In addition, struggling Twins rookie Aaron Hicks hit two home runs and robbed Adam Dunn of a game-tying two-run homer by making a leaping catch over the center-field fence to heighten the Sox's frustration. In an interesting development, Ventura sent left-handed hitter Conor Gillaspie to bat with the bases loaded and the tying run at first against Jared Burton in the eighth, but Gillaspie grounded out on the first pitch. Gillaspie batted for Jeff Keppinger, who went 0-for-3 and grounded out with a runner at third to end the first and is now 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position with two outs. Ventura said after the game that he wanted to use Gillaspie before the Twins summoned left-handed closer Glen Perkins.
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QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ May 13, 2013 -> 10:32 PM) The bad defender with the sub 700 ops in the minors? This year so far he's around a 1000 OPS.
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Power Show Batting practice comes next. Dominican outfielder Micker Zapata, a 16-year-old who trains with Abel Guerra at La Academia, is 6-foot-3, 225 pounds and is expected to be one of the elite prospects for July 2. In one round of BP, he hits three balls out of the park, then drives another one off the center-field wall. The crowd in attendance—the showcase has drawn family members and some other fans—cheers for the first time. Eloy Jimenez, who trains with Amauris Nina, is another huge, righthanded-hitting Dominican outfielder (6-foot-4, 200 pounds). He showed plus speed in running the second-fastest 60 among outfielders and now he's stinging the ball. So is Jaime Ramos' outfielder Jose Almonte, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound Dominican who sends a couple of balls over the fence. The crowd cheers again when Yimmelvyn Alonzo, a 15-year-old shortstop who trains with Edwin Sabater, launches three balls out of the park in his first round. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound righthanded hitter jacks three more over the fence in his second round. More applause. Luis Encarnacion, a 15-year-old, righthanded-hitting Dominican third baseman, hits one of the deepest home runs of the day in his first round. The majority of BP approaches are the same: pull the ball (in classic Greg Walker-coached style, joking Dick Allen), dip your back shoulder and hit every baseball as far as you can. The grass between the left field foul line and the stands is getting worn out. Once the games start—MLB has them play one on the first day, then a doubleheader the following day—those loud noises from BP disappear. Swings from BP look different from game swings, something several international scouts have warned about in the past. Hitters chase high fastballs like they're required to by law. Players draw walks, but it's more because the pitchers aren't throwing strikes rather than keen plate discipline. "There's so many times that the Americans come down," one international director said, "see these athletes, and they're like, 'Sign him.' Hang on. Let's see him in games, see how he performs, see if he's got the aptitude." www.baseballamerica.com
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Would have enjoyed it (Pain & Gain) a lot more without having read the detailed Collins story on actual story. Dwayne Johnson's character has totally been changed from real life.
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QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ May 13, 2013 -> 09:00 PM) Most of them haven't lasted except the 5 that are on the team? wtf are you saying? THE BULLPEN ROOKIES. Jones might not even last this entire season. We'll see. We kept saying how we were the first team to be in first place with 11 different rookie pitchers or whatever the number was...well, most of them aren't a factor any longer.
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QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:48 PM) Segura was from the Angels organization, not the Dodgers Ooops, forgot that he didn't stay with the Angels, since he's still in So Cal. I guess the point still stands, the best Angels' teams of the Scioscia regime were mostly homegrown, not the product of 3-4 huge FA signings. Trout obviously was their draft, but all those guys like Vernon Wells, Haren, Torii Hunter, etc., weren't. And they used to have the best, most reliable bullpen in baseball in the heyday of Shields/K-Rod. It was even more of a lockdown pen than the Twins' great bullpens. Plus, they could attack you on the basepaths with speed and versatility, back when Figgins was in him prime.
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While we touted all those rookies in the pen last year, most of them haven't lasted. Reed's the only one looking good. Along with Quintana, Axelrod and Santiago. Nate Jones has struggled, Septimo's injured, Heath is going back to the minors, Omogrosso hasn't looked good, Veal back to the minors, Marinez has disappeared....as it turns out, we might just have been REALLY lucky to get such big contributions from so many unexpected places last year.
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Well, we're officially first in the AL with errors as well as worst fielding percentage now.
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If there was EVER a time for a big hit by Keppinger, it's right now.
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Viciedo needs a hit here or he will end up being a goat again...well, I guess we can always blame Dunn and Keppinger if all else fails. Would trade Alexei's 3 hits for 3 unearned runs off the board in a heartbeat.
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Has to be the first time 1-2 hitters have 6 hits in a game all season... Probably the first time they have more than 4 or maybe even 3, combined.
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Well, the White Sox are unlikely to wantonly spend their way out of this mess after the 2011 fiasco. It's more like "austerity" with the lower ticket prices and, one would assume, lowered payroll for 2014.
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QUOTE (flavum @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:00 PM) Phegley added a double off Terry Doyle. Micah Johnson--3 more... 35. Oh, the memories, when losing Terry Doyle to the Twins was compared to the Cubs letting Maddux go.
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The irony of this game is that Santiago actually has a lower ERA than Hernandez, by nature of the fact that Santiago recorded one more out and both gave up 3 ER's.
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Yay, back to normal font and my own computer. AL Central (against fellow AL Central teams) CLE 9-6 KC 9-6 MINN 7-8 DET 5-6 CHW 5-9 And, of course, the White Sox are yet to play the Tigers. This is always a key indicator of how a Sox season's going to go....besides inter-league (that's more in the past where we ruled up through 2010) and home field record.
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With Hicks taking off tonight, Dunn now has to be firmly entrenched in last place for batting average in the majors, right?
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QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2013 -> 08:09 PM) Looking like we'll be 3.5 back in last place after tonight and the only team with a negative run differential. Can Sale pitch every night? When does Hahn start focusing on 2014? 8, 9 or 10 GB?
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Watch this be the key turnaround game in his young career where Hicks decides he finally belongs in the majors.
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QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2013 -> 08:06 PM) Wow, another shot by Hawk at the decision to face Plouffe. Hawk and Stone would be banned by WSI for tonight's words. Thankfully they can't ban those guys, or we'd have to listen even more to Rongey's corporate lackeyism.
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Did Torii Hunter/Hicks high jump over the fence and rob it?
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Did that ball from Dunn elicit a "stretch"call from Harrelson?
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Can't believe the Cubs will technically be ahead of us in the standings if things don't change tonight.
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QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 13, 2013 -> 07:47 PM) 100 pitches Santiago Par for the course when your defense keeps extending innings.
