caulfield12

Game and likely the season over in Minnesota. Cabrera ties Hamilton with 43 homers, Triple Crown looming. Line drive blast, 5-0.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:20 PM) Monday night? Que 'Taps' ... It's over Which is more unlikely, 1-3 or 0-4 from DETROIT or 4-0/3-1 from the White Sox the next four? Both seem completely improbable. Especially with David Price going tmrw.

Tigers with runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs and Cabrera/Fielder due. Would be shocked if they escaped from that situation. Former Tiger Casey Fien coming in to try to put out the fire.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:13 PM) 4 straight innings the Twins got the leadoff man on, and no runs scored off of Verlander. So much for all the innings catching up to him. And no longer vulnerable on the road, either. That Royals game is looking more and more like a career aberration game and not a sign of a trend against him developing. And Katie Upton didn't serve as enough of a distraction, either.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:07 PM) No idea, but if they slash payroll, I wouldn't blame them. The harsh reality is that the Sox weren't supposed to contend this year, and this was to be a rebuilding process for a few years. I highly doubt they're going to go out and go "all in" this offseason and try to get someone like David Wright. I forgot who said it, but Sale really should be the only untouchable this offseason. And some are going to argue that it's better to leverage him for prospects as he's an injury risk and that we'll only have him for possibly one or maybe two years (2014/15) when we're going to be legit contenders in the AL Central before he leaves via free agency. That's the pessimistic viewpoint. I wouldn't trade Viciedo, simply because I think you're not going to get a good enough return and he deserves another year to prove what he can do before any conclusions can be reached. Same thing with trading Quintana, who's just as likely to go 2012 Humber as be a core member of the rotation for the next five seasons. Santiago, no idea what to expect out of him or what his role might be. 3B is a mess. CF might be a mess if we stick DeAza out there again. Catching is a mess if Flowers is your plan without a back-up who can play everyday or at least platoon. Suzuki and Jaso have been mentioned quite a bit, there have to be some others we haven't thought of. We've got a ton of question marks surrounding our starting rotation and Konerko's health and age as well.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:05 PM) Can you ignore the strikingly large amount of production he's given us? Do you not like that he's been arguably more productive than our 4 hitter while playing the most important defensive position better than anyone in baseball? How many starters do you want? Sale, Buehrle, Danks, Q, Power Starter, Floyd, Roger Clemens, anyone else? Trading Rios and then adding a bat would make no sense I would take Alcides Escobar in a heartbeat over Ramirez at this point in their careers. But that's a pipe dream.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:02 PM) I would assume season ticket sales will be 4000 less than this year or so cause of the lousy economy. Sox may need to make a splash and add somebody, anybody who might sell tickets. I'd bring back Buehrle for ticket reasons, get Miami to pay some of the contract and try to add a power starter as well. And if you can trade Rios, do so and try to add a bat. It will stay about the same. There's no way we're losing 20-25% of our season ticket base. If it was going to happen, it mostly happened coming into this year. Buehrle's not going to sell ANY tickets if the White Sox are +/- 5 games of .500, any more than Youkilis did after he was acquired. Power starter? Good luck on that one, at the rates that teams are paying, our 2nd "power" starter in Peavy's going to be grossly overpaid. And you expect Rios to tank, so you're just going to dump him for not much in return and then expect to replace his 2012 production somehow? That's a recipe for disaster. I can't imagine very many players in baseball that the Sox could acquire that would actually boost attendance on an average or slightly above average Sox team. Maybe not even Josh Hamilton would do it.

Ramirez showing up late that game we somehow lost to the Royals largely because of Olmedo...Ramirez getting picked off 3B....then his horrible hitting with RISP in the final 3 weeks. I don't want him traded, but I'm not going to be terrible disappointed either if they can get a good return for him.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:39 PM) I'm enjoying the irrational Peavy hate Really no strong feeling whatsoever about him. He just hasn't gotten it done against the Tigers. End of story. That 6-0 lead he spit up at home against them still rankles.

Twins have just gotten pulverized by Verlander the last two innings when they had a chance to do some damage. Big game pitcher, defined.

Leadoff double for Plouffe. Three more opportunities with RISP, except the bottom of the order this time. Ooops, so much for that, horrible baserunning by Plouffe gets him picked off between 3rd and 2nd by Fielder. SIGH. Surprising play by Cecil to go to 3rd instead of taking the easy out at 1st. DET is really playing with an edge these last 11-12 games or so.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:30 PM) Again, if you didn't know who was talking there, you would have thought it was a Tampa player. Praising Moore, Price and Rodney. If he wouldn't have tipped his cap over and over and over against the Tigers, we'd actually be leading the division still. Sure, we're getting no-hit, there's that. But good riddance to Peavy. Just won't leave quietly. Too bad we never made that Dye for Homer Bailey deal that was reported and seemed legit.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:28 PM) 93.6, the lowest of his career I believe But his BAA vs. RH'ers has to be one of the best in the majors for a reliever. Isn't his overall average against still under .200 or close to it?

Maybe we can get no-hit by Moore to add to the injury...? Key wins (first game against KC, first game against CLE, Friday night) are being followed up by disappearances in the following games. Just no momentum.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:22 PM) The fatigue thing is awesome. The pussification of America has infiltrated baseball for sure. Thanks for benching AJ today. Against a filthy lefty like Moore, it's not a bad move. You can argue either way. Tyler's going to struggle with a pitchers on either side with plus stuff with his inconsistent at-bats again.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) This is probably a strong jinx, but Omogrosso is more than "just" a Sept call-up. He's actually very decent and might take over that Crain role in the somewhat near future. I'm happy to have him as our long man. Not so sure...he had a bit crisper fastball before the injuries hit. We'll see how it holds up over the course of a full season, were he to make the team out of ST. You'd have to go Reed, Thornton and Crain (not that I want to see Matt on the team again in 2013), Veal, Nathan Jones and that last spot is wide open between any number of possibilities like Omogrosso, Septimo, Marinez, Heath, Santos Rodriguez, Salvador Sanchez and the other youngster we have down in the AFL, Taylor Thompson, Rienzo, Axelrod, Castro, Molina, etc.

Pulled Sale, presumably. Tiger Woods sucks at the Ryder Cup again, and Iowa actually beat Minnesota. Weird sports weekend. 1st and 2nd now, one out, Morneau blown away by gas. Doumit, last night's hero, up.

Revere with a leadoff single in Minnesota. Mauer and Morneau following. Maybe their best chance to score against Justin...Mauer did have a ball he lined to the fence but it was oppo and didn't quite get there.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 04:05 PM) More walks I've made the decision it's probably more exciting (or at least entertaining) to cheer for the Twins' offense against Verlander than ours against Moore. And the thing is that Moore had 3-4 starts in a row where he hadn't gotten past the fourth inning, so it's not like he came into this game on any kind of roll at all.

One way to deal with that recent abysmal 2/30 bases loaded success rate. If you just added 2-3 more hits in those key situations, we might be up by one game right now instead of struggling to stay alive. And 5/30 would be horrible STILL.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:53 PM) Don't care hot hot he's been since ASB, Keppinger is a scrub and Sale shouldn't be giving up long balls to him. As noted, it was in his wheelhouse and his fastball just doesn't the life in the 2nd half to get away with it. The aura of invincibility for Chris at home has gone out the window his last couple of starts. Just wearing down. And he lost the advantage of the shadows hiding his slider. In the end, Walters has been a horrible pitcher with the exception of one start in DET. We're extremely lucky the Twins won that one. Too much to expect him to go out and beat Verlander with the Cy Young on the line (perhaps).

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 03:51 PM) I would vote Oakland, if they make it. Starting pitching and lockdown bullpen. We don't have any one area that's going particularly well right now.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 02:06 PM) He has to spin, it's his job. If you haven't, listen to the sound clip. The article isn't a transcript. I've also been following that thread on WSI. I just think in some ways, it's MORE embarassing that the crowds have been pretty horrible in September even when they dumped the controversial dynamic pricing model and finally considered the fact that getting a big home crowd behind them was more important than maximizing revenue... Yeah, some of it's obviously the agony of the recent 1-8 stretch, but that doesn't explain it completely.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 29, 2012 -> 01:33 PM) 2008 was really likable. And it showed on Soxtalk. We were all pretty content with the losses in the playoffs. And that was mostly because: 1) We FINALLY beat our hated rival, the Twins, to get there...the super exciting last 3 "must win" games just to arrive at that point were crazy 2) CQ, Crede and many others were hurt down the stretch, and Swisher had been benched for Wise 3) We knew we wouldn't play well in a Dome or on turf, similar to us having to face the Orioles this year, for example 4) The Rays were one of the best teams in baseball all season and historically were a tough out for the Sox 5) Due to rearranging the rotation down the stretch, we were forced to use Javy early in the post-season

“I don’t think any of them are out there saying I wish there were more people in the ballpark. But, without question, they do notice when there are people in the ballpark and giving them that lift and willing them to win,” Boyer said. “When the crowd is behind you, it gives you that little extra push. It makes a difference.” WHAT?