caulfield12

I was laughing thinking of what Greg's rant would be with the score and Chen on the mound... Oh, well. Thankfully internet in school was out for the last week so I didn't have to follow the games, except for catching Sale's ill-advised pitch to Perez and Wise's ill-fated bunt. Not sure if Youkilis has earned that option yet. So many questions about this team (Beckham, for one) now and and going forward, but, no matter what happens, it has still been a fun season to follow, and 100X better than the purgatory/hell we were in last year. The Royals, ever since 2005-06-08, have just played us tough every year. Maybe it's revenge for how we absolutely owned them from maybe 1993-2008. Living in KC from 96-05, I always used to be amazed when the Royals would beat the Sox at Kauffman. And at least we took down the Jays, even though they were reeling and missing some of their key hitters.

Supposedly, it's going to be Santiago. Think Veal might be the better choice....let Hector continue to start at CHAR, and we've got the long man (for now) in Humber over Axelrod.

Still mad at Matt Thornton from last night and the Red Sox Thursday Night Massacre, lol. Maybe nobody has a clue what to expect playing at TOR and KC without Konerko...for such a good team, they're scary and maddeningly inconsistent (reflecting the youth on the team), outside of Peavy, Sale, Rios and AJ this season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 12, 2012 -> 04:55 PM) I suppose he should dwell on it, contemplate suicide or some other silly thing. The fact is Thornton has been pretty good lately. He did give up the homer to tie it last night, but then gave up a couple of pretty cheap hits. He left with the game tied and everyone's favorite wife beater came in and gave up the hit to give up the go ahead run and another insurance run in the 9th. I'm pretty sure if Meyers had Thornton's outing and Thornton came on to relief Myers and did exactly what Meyers did last night, you and a good portion of Soxtalk would have blamed the game on Thornton as well. Its good the Sox are getting him some help. Pitching in what seems every game is going to wear on every pitcher. Now your argument is that Myers theoretically would have lost the game, had he entered where Thornton did? Just wow. And way to throw Myers' domestic violence conviction into it as well, that's probably what caused AJ to throw the ball down the line against the Twins...or maybe it was because there was a baserunner in the way, but it might have been because AJ has a non-profit foundation set up to protect women from DV and he was deliberately sabotaging Myers??? All evidence to the overall success level of Myers with the Sox, especially against RHBers...we'll just conveniently throw that out. Fathom quoted the overwhelmingly convincing and weighted stats for those A's batters against RHP and LHP in the game thread. Patently obvious that Thornton wasn't the correct move from the very beginning, and shouldn't have been left in to face ANY righties. Thornton's fastball velocity was already down before this season...it's not due to his workload in 2012. It has been consistently declining inch by inch over the last couple of seasons. BTW, Thornton gives up a couple of cheap hits every other time he comes into a game. That's why he has given up more hits than IP. That's BAD if you're a short reliever...and it's a sign his fastball that used to get swings and misses just isn't blowing very many batters away anymore, at least not in key situations against teams like the Red Sox or A's.

COMFORTING NEWS FOR ALL [i]Thornton confident in decisive pitch selection CHICAGO -- After taking the loss Saturday night against Oakland, Matt Thornton went back and studied the pitch he made to Jonny Gomes that resulted in the game-tying, eighth-inning home run. The southpaw still believed Sunday that starting Gomes with a slider was the right call. "Our scouting report said, 'First-pitch breaking ball, outside. Strike 1 every time,'" Thornton said. "My thought was that maybe I'd hung the pitch a little bit. I went back and watched it and talked to [catcher] Tyler [Flowers] and he said that he was going to catch it at the knees. It was going to be the right pitch. "It caught me off guard he even swung, but that's the way it is. It's the game of baseball. He hit a line drive and it got out." Thornton, who entered Sunday's series finale with a 3.88 ERA, admitted that Saturday's loss was a bit mind-boggling but he had moved on and was ready for what's next. The left-hander hopes a few more wins are on his horizon, carrying a 4-8 record through 54 appearances. "As a reliever, I've got a lot of decisions," Thornton said. "Unfortunately, eight of those are losses. But when you give up even one run in a game that's tied, that's the difference-maker. "Frustrating, at times? Yes, but at the same time, I feel like I've come out and continued to attack hitters, continued to make pitches. And you live with results when you throw strikes and prepare yourself every single day and are making the right pitches in certain situations."[/i] www.chisox.com (Merkin)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2012 -> 11:30 AM) Just to point out...yesterday's a great example of why Liriano is such an iffy pitcher, especially if you're thinking about signing him long term. It's the devil you know versus the devil you don't in Floyd vs. Liriano. Personally, I'm just as worried if we keep using Matt Thornton in key situations that Brett Myers will be locked in for $10 million on our roster next year. Unless it's as a starter, that would be a disaster for our payroll and make the bullpen prohibitively expensive...even as they've said it's not a factor, it has to be a prime KW consideration in determining whether we can retain AJ and/or Youk. And dumping that salary next year would be next to impossible as well.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 12, 2012 -> 10:47 AM) This is correct. The real test is how they rebound from an occassional failure What does "occasional" mean in your definition? The best Twins teams in the last decade lost between 0-3 games all season when leading going into the 8th inning.

Other than Thornton and Nathan Jones, we now have a very good bullpen.

Not the off-day, exactly, but thought Brooks Boyer could use another idea. http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-no...-165700175.html Hilarious to watch the faces of the men and the bemusement/aggravation of the women.

Seems that every year the Rays are there in the end, somehow.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 10:41 PM) OH WAS THAT ALL? Susan Slusser ‏@susanslusser Inge says his shoulder was dislocated and he popped it back in himself. He's done it before with his left shoulder. My god. Not only that, but he started the huge DP against Alexei and had a huge hit within 15-20 minutes of it happening.

Leave it to the rookie. 6th walkoff of the year for the Rangers. Great AB by Mike Olt. That's why they didn't want to trade him unless they were getting a true ace back.

Geez....way to go Rangers. Not helping much. Gentry must have been in our minor league system at some point with those attempts to advance the runners.

Shades of Miguel Ascencio of the Royals throwing 16 consecutive balls against the Sox to force in a run. Hawk felt a bit sorry for him.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 10:22 PM) 2008. It was ridiculous. Frustrating loss when you factor in the gritty comeback. I have to say that's one thing I absolutely love about this team, they never give up and play out the string. Until Linebrink got hurt...the first half of the season. Then we struggled when Dotel had to pitch in the 8th. Villareal has 13 balls and only 4 strikes so far in his outing. Have a Coke and a Smile Rangers. Guess we're lucking out a bit that DET is handing a Verlander start away with bad bullpen pitching....but not over yet. Looked like the Tigers were going to score for sure in the top of the 9th and that didn't exactly go according to plan.

Matt Thornton 2011 and 2012 vs. OAK 6.3 IP 9 H 7 R 6 ER 4 BB 5 K's 2+ WHIP 8.53 ERA

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 09:58 PM) Everybody was trying to think of a nickname for all the rookie pitchers just a month ago when I went to the 14-inning game in KC. Our veteran relievers have been unreliable since Joe Morgan opened his mouth how many seasons ago? Probably 2003 in the 2nd half, or 2004. Although 2005 could have been it, too.

Now one behind the Angels for most blown saves in the AL. Angels with 17, White Sox with 16, Red Sox with 15. Three teams that have dramatically underachieved where they should be statistically (RS/RA....Pythagorean) due to their bullpens coughing up too many games. The Orioles have almost the opposite negative RS/RA but are right behind us.

Meanwhile, Cabrera and Fielder are coming up in the top of the 9th at TEX. Without Konerko, with Dunn still MIA....the Tigers just have a huge advantage with those 2 monsters, no matter how good and clutch AJ, YOUK and Rios have been this year for us.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 09:50 PM) I almost forgot about Liriano's awful outing. Is he a relief pitcher in the making? All those strikeouts early? Horrible outing. He's been good 2 starts and bad tonight. If he can keep up that 2/3 ratio, we'll be fine. Actually, he dominated the A's twice this season already...they were due to figure him out at some point, and that inning just snowballed and got away from him. He had a similar inning in Minnesota and escaped heavy damage and settled down afterwards.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 09:51 PM) OG did the same thing and kissed MT ass all year also. Except this is his third straight year of "failure." From the All-Star game debacle and Thome walkoff in 2010 through the closer fiasco to this season, that's more than two full seasons of failure.

Meanwhile, TB, Baltimore, OAK and the Angels loom right behind us. We just can't keep blowing games like that. It's absolutely demoralizing when your offense comes back like that and your bullpen just gives it right back. It has been our Achilles' heel all season long.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 09:47 PM) Just a terrible loss. Ventura's decision making with Thornton continues to kill this team. I really don't think even Ozzie would have stuck with him this long before losing patience.

Thanks Thornton and Ventura. An assist to Ramirez and Beckham for not getting the runner in from 3rd when it would have been huge to make it 3-0.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 09:36 PM) I hate four-game series on the road. You'd have to think Sox will lose 3 of 4. A split would be good. First place is gonna be leaving our grasp soon if we lose again Sunday. Is the KC rain coming your way? I'd take a rain out on Sunday right now. I'd rather have Sale pitch in Toronto. I hope it's not coming from KC to China, lol. That would be quite the weather phenomenon....there's been enough rain in SE Asia to last the US for a year.