caulfield12

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 2, 2013 -> 11:45 PM) Was at Iron Man 3, but I like winning. "You Know Who I Am"

QUOTE (High Mileage @ May 2, 2013 -> 11:14 PM) I agree with pretty much all of this. Shields is our only starter I'm confident in at this point. Santana looks like he's regained his old form, but still too early in the season. Guthrie continues to pitch well for us, I just hope he can at least be slightly above average and stays healthy to eat up innings. Wade Davis is still working at being a starter again, he's had several outings where he's been hit hard and really labored through a lot of innings, throwing a lot of pitches to get through 5. Luis Mendoza has been a mess, and due to all the postponements, they've been able to skip him in the rotation a few times. He's running out of time, Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino will be back fairly soon. I hope Mendoza pitches well enough until then to keep Chen and Hochevar in the bullpen. Hosmer hasn't hit much, but he's at least been getting on base, and he's showed much improved patience and discipline at the plate. Moustakas has been completely lost pretty much all season. He too has shown better discipline at the plate, as his walks are up and strikeouts are down. He does have a 5-game hitting streak, and has looked a lot better over those 5. Perez has just been swinging at everything, he's collected 1 walk to go with his 19 strikeouts. I won't waste any more than this sentence on Jeff Francoeur. Thankfully other guys have been picking up their slack: Gordon (.321/.351/.495), Alcides Escobar (.291/.333/.437), Lorenzo Cain (.329/.383/.463) and even Billy Butler after a slow start (.278/.414/.430). I'm pretty pumped for this upcoming series, as long as the weather doesn't screw it all up. Is Shields teaching his cutter to some of the Royals' pitchers? Supposedly, that was one of the main reasons Maddon wanted him out in TB, along with his increasing salary...and his leadership/veteran status in the clubhouse, he was pretty influential and outspoken. They (the Rays as an organization) felt that the best way to lose velocity quickly was overreliance on the cutter, and Shields is a big proponent of that pitch....whereas the Rays teach their minor leaguers to use a fastball, change and then curve and slider is the least favored option but they live with it. The biggest worry about Santana is his stuff. His K ratio has been way down, along with his velocity. Maybe he's learning how to be a better pitcher (see Jake Peavy) and can no longer rely on blowing people away. However, over time, the more contact you're giving up...the good results tend to even out with those BABIP stats if they're out of whack.

QUOTE (Cali @ May 2, 2013 -> 10:23 PM) I'm not saying he was supposed to be lights out, I'm saying he doesn't have like one defining moment. Like Danks is just as frustrating as Floyd, but he always has Game 163. Floyd was just.... there. He had two or three one hitters in 2008. It seems he's done that at least twice against the Tigers in his career.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 2, 2013 -> 08:09 PM) This is probably a jinx, but Thornton gets me holds for fantasy team. The Thornton-Crain duo gets me lots of 2 hold games when the Sox win. C'mon! You're really going to jinx the bullpen this early in the game??? Bad vibes now, lol.

We can't survive Rios and Konerko both sliding offensively. Speaking of SLIDING, what the hell is wrong with Amanda Bynes? https://twitter.com/AmandaBynes This is yet another example of going overboard with plastic surgery.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:56 PM) Why not bring in Thornton here? What are you saving him for? Lindstrom has been the worst one out of the pen of late. The Matt Thornton Law that he can only be used in the 7th/8th or tie games in the 9th, lol.

Beltre has been horrible with RISP this year. Pretty close to 4/40....would have to look it up.

Danks is getting valuable hitting experience, haha. He did give up a homer to Puig, although that's not a shocker. Pitching into the 7th has to be considered a moral victory. And Trayce Thompson is starting to put up similar numbers to Michael Jordan for Birmingham. All he's missing is Francona as the manager.

Lindstrom against Berkman? Here's where the lack of LH depth is hurting us in the pen now.

Almost any team in baseball could have had Berkman or Eric Chavez for almost nothing 2 years ago. Unfortunately, we ended up with Dunn instead. SIGH.

Santiago is at the end of his rope. Near 90 pitches.

How did DeAza going from K'ing roughly 20% of the time 109/524 (2013) to his current version? That's now an alarming 34 K's in 103 AB's.

C. Carter now has 47 K's in 100 AB's. And Porcello's ERA is 8.14. Yikes. Wonder how long before they go to Smyly? I doubt they would be stupid enough to release him and let him to go the White Sox. But stranger things have happened.

What is Flowers with RISP now? Good god, with DeAza (2013K version), Dunn, Viciedo, Flowers and then Wells, five pretty much all or nothing hitters.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 2, 2013 -> 12:54 PM) Looks awesome and it has Jax AND Clay in it. Sold. I don't think I can wait three more months for the next season! Especially if the Sox keep playing like crap.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:32 PM) We want to give young guys playing time, but hate the young guy we give playing time. Impatient would be the better word.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:29 PM) Babip in my mind is a dumb stat. Keppinger was put in positions to succeed as that is a Tampa focus. The white sox plug guys in and off they go. When was the last time they ever had a platoon situation? Not a straight platoon, but in 2010, Ozzie played Viciedo almost strictly against LHP'ers.

That $9.5 million for Gavin Floyd would have looked a lot better being invested into the catching position. Not that even John Buck being on the roster this year, or Gattis, would have us in first place. At least we'd be contending, though.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:22 PM) Dayan can play a pretty big role in how our offense looks going forward. Have to hope he can take that mantle at 1B, or at least hit like a 1Bman while he plays LF. I'm not about to give up on ADA either. No choice if none of our minor leaguers are ready. Unless we want to go out and "buy high" again for another outfielder when Keppinger's already proving the lunacy of acquiring a journeyman player in his 30's coming off a career year who was perfectly utilized by the smartest manager in the game.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:20 PM) The pitching looks promising, but holy cow are there a lot of potential holes on offense heading into next season (C, 1B, 2B, CF) DH, as well. Not that Dunn won't be around. And you're assuming that Gillaspie will still be a productive starter and Ramirez will be around, as well.

More DeAza K's. Not a rare sight this season. Keppinger threatening to become the Mark Teahen of Hahn's GM career.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:17 PM) He still could have been stretched out in the spring and moved to the pen in April. Yes, definitely. Most of us were calling for Santiago to start since the end of last season. Of course, we didn't have a lot of faith and confidence that Axelrod would be more than serviceable, but actually one of our better, more reliable starters.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:08 PM) Why wasn't Santiago starting all spring? Because KW/Hahn were getting too clever for their own good and thinking they could get a significant return for Gavin at the ASB. After our early "offensive barrage," we've settled into the middle innings "blahs" again, like clockwork. Grimm's got a lot of talent, and we are lacking in that area...more tip your caps. Despite the horrendous outing last time, Santiago's WHIP is still at exactly 1.00. Rangers now 1 for 12 but leading. That's what you would typically expect out of the Sox with the solo homer routine.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:11 PM) Casper no like big curveball Hence the 170+ K's in around 600 career AB's.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 2, 2013 -> 07:06 PM) Closers don't need stuff they to throw strikes and hit their spots. Not sure Sox have that. Now we're going back to Keith Foulke days, the last "non-classic" closer for the Sox that led directly to Billy Botch and his diminishing/straight as an arrow FB that was once 100. Maybe Tom Gordon, if you want to include him. On the other hand, those guys like Doug Jones or Rod Beck without great stuff are always on the razor's margin getting saves. Give me Bobby Jenks late 2005 anytime.