caulfield12

YOUK has been streaky, but he definitely has Academy-Award timing with his homers for the Sox. Jay threatening, 1st and 2nd, 1 out, top of the 9th. 5-3 Tigers. Hopefully Encarnacion gets a shot at Papa Grande.

Konerko just moved ahead of Viciedo in RBI's, 58 to 57. Ramirez with 54. New ballgame.

KC/TB still scoreless in the 8th. Nice to see ONE pitching staff shut them down.

Hopefully we can get Liriano through 6 at least...although only 5 isn't out of the realm of possibility. 65 through 3.

Maybe we're more comfortable coming from behind. Both the DET and Sox games are starting out ugly tonight. Hopefully Liriano can right the ship better than Gavin did.

I'm going to make a guess that Hammerhead has never seen Trayce Thompson play once in his entire life.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 21, 2012 -> 05:45 PM) Pathetic performance by Romero tonight. Thing that sucks is Sox need Toronto to play Baltimore and Tampa tough the rest of the way as well. Should be 5-6-7 to 0 now. 3-0 is still a game. But Farrell can't leave Romero in much longer if he wants to stay in this game. See Floyd, Gavin hook last night, similar lead and situation, although Gavin was getting hit harder rather than just walking guys right and left. Incredible 230 baserunners in 150 IP for Romero this year. He, Lester and Danks just all disappeared...although Lester has righted the ship recently.

Romero is just done. Another bases loaded walk. This is Ankiel-esque. 3-0, bases loaded, no outs. Just guiding and pushing the ball towards the plate. Cabrera hit into a bases loaded DP and they got a flyout to Rasmus, but 6 walks in the first two innings, two forcing in runs.

Three straight two out walks plates a run for the Tigers. God, Romero is awful. Guess he's lucky, because there was also an error in there by the Blue Jays, and the lead's "only" 1-0. Hopefully they can win at least one game in DET this series...and the Angels decide to wake up and make one last run. Nothing would be worse than Derek Jeter was the MVP and Gold Glove winner again, which very well might happen if LA continues to collapse with Trout winning Rookie of the Year but not the MVP. Blue Jays with 13 on the DL. Bautista, Lawrie, Lind and Arencibia...Encarnacion has been out, too. Mind-boggling.

You can't DFA a player from the DL until he comes off.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 05:58 PM) Alexei Ramirez with RISP: .350 AVG, .846 OPS 2 outs, RISP: .318/.788 WAR: 1.1 bWAR, .7 fWAR The thing that sticks out to me in Alexei's numbers is that his walk rate is way down. I don't have a good explanation for this other than perhaps the lack of power has pitchers unafraid to go right at him. I would say it could be related to his somewhat diminished role given the breaking out of Dunn, Rios, AJP, Youk, ADA...but it isn't like Alexei was ever a truly featured hitter. It could easily be the opposite of what I think, that a poor eye is preventing the power from coming out rather than vice versa. Because Ramirez has forgotten how to hit the ball to all fields. He pretty much has become a dead pull hitter...particularly any ball he hits on the ground, it's to 3B or SS about 95% of the time. We've seen Dayan fall into this bad habit quite a few times this year and then temporarily pull out of it, same thing with Quentin in the past as well...or Konerko, for another example. If Alexei goes up the middle and to the right side more often, he'll still get fastballs he can turn on for doubles, triples and homers. But he's just a much more limited hitter using just the left side of the field. And he's never adjusted to become a consistently dangerous hitter against off-speed stuff.

He gets at least half of 2013, then all bets are off if the team's still underperforming and more or less healthy.

This is like the argument that we should have benched Viciedo for Juan Pierre simply because of Viciedo's OPS against RHP. You can do that with practically every player on the team. AJ/DeAza/Dunn against LHP, etc. If you can put up an above league average OPS (for your position) at age 23, what's the PROBLEM here exactly? If you want to focus on problems, start looking at the positions where we're getting below league average results, such as Morel to start the year, Ramirez for most of this season (although his defense smooths the offense out, and he's been at very least productive for a SS since late May/early June) and Beckham. To just focus on ONE element of his total performance, OBP...doesn't paint the whole picture, by a long shot. And we all expect his BA to be in the .270-.290 vicinity as he matures, so that OBP will naturally come up with it, regardless of the walk numbers. He showed definite signs of progress in terms of his walks/OBP in Charlotte for 2011, so there's no reason to believe we're "stuck" with his current statistical baseline for the next 3-5 years. That's limited thinking, to believe he doesn't have the potential to improve. Sure, Alexei regressed from an offensive standpoint, but Dayan's much younger with less wear on his tires, so to speak.

That's what happens when you fall behind professional hitters and have to throw a 3-1 fastball. Sigh. Let's just get the next batter, Addison. No more drama.

Reed has his 3 run cushion now. 4 runs, somehow, would be scarier....making it MORE likely another reliever would give up a quick 2-3 runs and put Reed immediately behind the 8 ball.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 09:41 PM) I'll totally agree a lot of us (definitely myself included) are guilty of this. However, when Veal was warmed and ready to go, that's when it's frustrating that he wasn't used to face Cano. More than anything, we're just looking for signs of progression or improvement in the decision-making process. Granted, the likes of Jones and Thornton and then Crain/Myers (weekend) have been really frustrating and ineffective...but the second-guessing has pretty much been "first guessing" and predictable for most die hard fans.

Has anyone ever had more than 40 HR's and 100 RBI's with a BA of below .200? Pretty amazing season by Dunn...

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 09:36 PM) Well, possibly the best way I can phrase it is that Robin, especially with the bullpen, has been making decisions counter to ones that would seem to lead to the best chance of success for the ballclub. Yes, it's the pitcher's job to get whoever out. But it's the manager's job to utilize the bullpen in a way of making sure that happens. Leaving Santiago in for 75 pitches probably wasn't the best way to do that, for example. what was the most pitches that Santiago threw in his 3 starts down in CHARLOTTE? any word on DeAza or Floyd, whether Gavin's actually hurt again or it's just his mental fragility at stake here?

IS THE SEASON OVER YET? Have the Zeros appeared off the western coast of Hawaii yet?

Why are they trying to keep Youkilis close?

Gordon.Beckham.Isn't.Quite.Dead.Yet.After.All. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED? GORDON BECKHAM hit a 94 MPH fastball out to the opposite field? WOW!

Should pulled Santiago after the Jeter homer. But it's just the way things have been going...over Ventura decision with the bullpen is backfiring 80-90% of the time.

Hope they don't pick up Floyd's 2013 option at $9.5 million...or, if they do, they just try to get something back in trade. Would rather see Santiago out there than Gavin...or Liriano.

Rays taking it to the Royals, as predicted. Will be 14 games over .500 after tonight.

Rays taking it to the Royals, as predicted. Will be 14 games over .500 after tonight.