caulfield12

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 09:46 PM) His stuff looks just as bad as when he was here. Where is Jake to defend him?

Back to 3 games up. Momentum firmly back with the White Sox again. Crazy season. Was expecting a two-run bases clearing double there again. The look on Cabrera's face when Dyson robbed that liner was priceless. Angels sneaking back into it....only 1 1/2 games behind the Tigers after tonight, probably, and 3 1/2 behind the Orioles. When is Oakland going to struggle?

Two outs. The pesky Peralta.

Thankfully, Dirks didn't get to 3B on that hit. Still have a chance to hold them off. Wish they would have kept in Chen. The curse of the closer.

Dirks, Cabrera and Fielder in the top of the 9th. It would be VERY tempting to put in a RH reliever against Cabrera, but Chen deserves a shot at the shutout, too. And if he does get out Miguel, it's a good lefty/lefty match-up against Fielder.

Should have claimed Guthrie. That would have nullified at least one Sox loss against the Royals, lol. In all fairness, the Tigers rallied and had a REAL good chance to win that game in the end. Verlander shut them down in the middle innings. Who would have done a better job out of the Tigers' pen? Nobody. If he was still struggling in the 3rd, it would have been quite obvious to pull him, but he righted the ship and almost managed to get a win out of it. Now if Justin gets rocked by the Sox on Sunday night, there will be a lot more second-guessing, but he's always responded well in pressure situations and seemingly has never had a problem with elevated pitch counts year after year after year.

Here's one of those classic managerial decisions for the Royals. Pull Chen or let him finish the shut-out. You almost have to leave him in...and he's "only" at 100 pitches.

Royals had 2 opportunities there to push in the 2nd run from second base and couldn't get it done. Sanchez with a great game, around 120 pitches, but still on the downside of 1-0 score.

Nice to see Bruce Chen be-deviling another team tonight. Tigers really are a LOT more vulnerable on the road than at home.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:59 PM) Awesome start by Dylan. He has made some huge, huge starts for us this year. White Sox Farm System Rules!!!

Britton?

This game is perfect evidence why baseball betting is crazy. Any logical person would have picked the Orioles with Sox on the road, after Monday's disappointing loss, the 2 hit last night...Detroit bearing down, Axelrod on the mound. The key apparently is LEW FORD NOT being in the line-up for Balt. That's 50 RBI's for Beckham now. Everyone in our regular/everyday line-up now at 50 or higher. Viciedo when he hits his next homer will give you 5 guys with 20 homers (Dunn, AJP, Konerko, Rios). Youk would be 6.

Incredible. A Sox catcher who hardly has played for 60-70% of the season gets a SAC bunt down. Tyler Flowers has opened some eyes recently...and got some new believers in his camp. Pretty amazing with AJP's overall season numbers that many are clamoring for Tyler to play more often. Good situation to have, though.

QUOTE (Caesar @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:39 PM) He was actually saying about how he cant believe the size of the crowds for the first 2 games of this series with Baltimore only 3 games behing NY and with the way they are playing. We are in first place, have been for awhile. The teams plays hard and can't sell out Sox park. They shouldnt even talk about crowd size. Apples and oranges. With dynamic pricing in the Sox ticket market, they're maximizing revenue but not crowd sizes. Sox overall attendance really isn't important, it's simply total revenue derived from those who do attend. They would rather maximize the experience of those "high net worth" and corporate clients rather than cater to the needs of "middle class" fans. They do have discount and half price nights, Family Days, etc., but the overall feeling for the Sox fans of the Veeck Era is that you're not quite as welcome as you once were. It is what it is....without keeping that 20% of the fanbase that attend 80% of the games happy, you wouldn't have the payroll numbers we've posted since 2006.

QUOTE (Caesar @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:35 PM) Im all for letting Axelrod into the rotation next year and getting rid of Floyd. Dylan's also going to have to have perfect command or he'll get blistered by opposing hitters. He's had these games like tonight or against the Red Sox where he's really manned up and thrown very well..and others where you think he's another Terry Doyle and organizational filler with his lack of stuff. We've also got Humber...it does seem that it would be better to part ways with Floyd. Castro and Molina will also figure into that equation for 2013, and possibly Rienzo.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:37 PM) Hawk and Stoney are in the dark ages when it comes to MLB attendance and revenues. Stone is one of the smartest guys at 35th and Shields. Don't let his casual attitude fool you.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:27 PM) Caufield you are Viciedo's biggest supporter, you have to be disappointed with the numbers he has put up the last 3 months. I'm not happy, he hasn't learned to consistently cut down his swing and drive fastballs up the middle and to RF (he'll do it for 2-3-4 games and then revert to old habits)...he's also made weak contact (same as Alexei's issues) and pulled balls to 3B and SS for easy outs or DP's. A lot of it is pitch selection and recognition, getting himself out, swinging at balls of the zone and expanding strike zone...being in-between on the fastball and offspeed stuff, like Dunn was for all of 2011. Still, when Dayan and Flowers do square up the ball, there's not 2 stronger hitters in the AL... And Hernandez did lead to Liriano, which might end up saving our season with Gavin and Danks out and Humber/Santiago not exactly trustworthy options.

Indians pulling off one of the all-time classic fades in the history of the game. Down 3-2 to the A's again. Seems they get swept nearly every series out. Bleak, bleak, bleak future there. And somehow the Rays have scored 6 already against the Rangers...hmmm. Getting Longoria back has revitalized that line-up, although they've struggled the last week overall.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:21 PM) When you factor in that Viciedo is a platoon player and the team is in a pennant race it's a deal I wish they had back. So was DeAza for much of his career...until he suddenly wasn't at age 28 in 2011.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:21 PM) When you factor in that Viciedo is a platoon player and the team is in a pennant race it's a deal I wish they had back. Then you live in a world where budgets don't matter and invariably you'd STILL be looking to replace Quentin now because he'd be injured. Both Viciedo and Quentin are extremely streaky hitters, and far from consistent. What did Carlos Quentin do at age 23 in the majors? I wish we hadn't signed John Danks for $65 million, I think that's a TAD bit more impactful than Quentin vs. Viciedo.

Dammit. That's the LAST thing we needed to do there. Sigh. Solo homers, fine. Walks, HBP, etc. Not fine.

The problem is that Quentin has been 779, 821 and 839 those three years. Missing 63, 31 and 44 games. So the overall stats for the White Sox at that position invariably are going to be lower because there's naturally going to be a dropoff to a Jordan Danks or Wise or Pierre type of player, usually. -0.8, 0.1, 2.3 and 1.7 for WAR 2009-2012. When you factor in his salary and injury history...and Dayan's age, potential and salary, it was really a no-brainer. Not to mention that Dayan is much better defensively and has a plus arm from the outfield, which has really helped us a number of times, when you consider the likes of Pods and Pierre throwing from LF over the last decade.

This is already an insta-classic. In my grill? Where did you come up with that? Have you been watching Keeping up with the Kardashians or Jersey Shore?

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:36 PM) What's the point, the Tigers salted away the division after game 10. That's classic, what next? Move Gordon Beckham or Lillibridge to SS and sell off Ramirez for nothing? Would you still do that TODAY? WALKS=DEATH to SOX

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 06:36 PM) What's the point, the Tigers salted away the division after game 10. The only thing KW did wrong this year was participate in the overreaction and miscommunication in the Sale "tender elbow" situation.