caulfield12

Fine, attendance is irrelevant. We should only judge the team on revenues produced/profits made. Done. And every season, no worries as we're usually 29th in the majors in attendance heading into May. In fact, we're way ahead of the Indians. And the Orioles ONLY drew 11,000+ fans last night, so we weren't dead last in attendance for May 22nd games either.

The "Dunn Line" isn't too far behind... ATTACK THE BLOCK!

Indians-White Sox Preview The Cleveland Indians are looking to match their longest winning streak from last season, and facing the slumping Chicago White Sox may be enough. Haha...headline at yahoo sports. As pointed out many times before, they were quite fortunate to end up with McDowell, Thomas, Ventura and Alex Fernandez. At least two or three of those situations could have gone the wrong direction (ending up with Jeffrey Jackson, for example) and we wouldn't have had our early 90's success. On top of that, the Baines trade gave them Wilson Alvarez and Sosa. And then they also developed Jason Bere with a lower draft pick. Is it possible to do again? Sure. Is Hahn the right guy? Maybe. Maybe not. Ramirez/Quentin/Floyd/Danks/Rios/Viciedo/Peavy all being injected into the organization within a two year period more or less (Danks took one season to develop, 2007) shows that it can be done, that rebuilding on the fly thing. The problem is that 1) signing international free agents just got harder, and 2) it's probably going to be harder to find teams that are looking to dump salary like the Blue Jays and Padres essentially did with Rios/Peavy, and, finally, teams are going to be very careful not to trade young/cost-controlled pitching (think Homer Bailey for Jermaine Dye) for higher priced veterans (Freddy Garcia). You can almost argue that 2008 set this franchise back, in a sense...because it delayed the dissembling of the core, which will finally end up with Konerko leaving (Dye first, Thome next, Jenks, Buehrle, and AJ this past off-season).

At the rate we're going, at the end of the homestand, we'll be in 29th place out of 30 teams in MLB attendance. If we're lucky, we will still be ahead of SEA....that's after 15 homes games, or 18.5% of the season. To stay out of 29th place, we'll need to average 16,045 in the next 6 games, for a total of 96,273 fans. BOTTOM 10 21. Minnesota 26,481 22. Tampa Bay 21,904 23. Houston 21,596 24. Kansas City 20,984 25. Pittsburgh 20,615 26. SOX 20,188 27. Miami 19,586 28. Oakland 19,309 29. Seattle 18,531 30. Cleveland 15,194

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 10:59 PM) When did Blown Saves start to get awarded to relievers who give up the lead prior to the 9th inning? I noticed Ryan Matthues was given a BLOWN SAVE a couple days ago when he allowed a run in the 7th inning. Wouldn't that be more like a Blown Hold or something? Is it really assuming he would have pitched the final 3 innings of the game? But in the case of David Robertson, he was given a BS when he came in to a game with 7 1/3 outs already completed, so he wouldn't have pitched the final 3 innings, because there were only 2 2/3 IP left in a 9-inning game. And Uehara of KC got a blown save for allowing a run in the 8th. Is this normal??? Starts in any "save situation" from the 7th inning on...that's why Matt Thornton had lots of them in the past couple of years, even if they were in the 7th and usually 8th inning.

QUOTE (KPBears @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:44 PM) The problem is that there is no elite talent on the big league team (PK may have been once, but the years and mileage have taken their toll, and Sale, while likely to be a very good starter, is, in my opinion, a solid number one starter, but not a true ace...and yes board, feel free to flame me if you'd like), and there isn't any on the farm apparently, as Hawkins is struggling, although it's way too early to write him off. There is some decent talent on the big league club, but to contend, you really would need career seasons from a lot of those players (e.g. DeAza, Viciedo, Beckham). The years of safe but low ceiling drafting along with few very high draft picks (which is a nice problem to have) have left the cupboard bare, and I just don't see how the Sox are going to be competitive for a while. I'm optimistic that Hahn will right the ship sooner rather than later, and while a lot of people point out (and are partially correct) that loading up on top prospects isn't a recipe for success, it doesn't hurt your chances, particularly when said top prospects can be great trade chips. Sorry to give up on the season so soon, but I'm hoping for a fire sale, and to bring in as many young players as possible and let Ventura do what he's supposed to be good at - working with young talent. Yeah, the attendance will be miserable, as will the on-field product, but those things will happen anyway with the current team. I'd like to see the Sox be proactive sooner rather than later, and will support and follow the team with a keen eye towards the future. Hahn was apparently one of the most coveted young execs in baseball, so let's see what he can do. Rios and Sale are the only thing close to elite talents on the team right now.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 09:43 PM) I can't believe that many people paid to watch this boring team. I'm sure the walk-up was under 100. Almost all of those ticket sales were paid in advance.

The other mistake was assuming "stay the course" with almost the entire roster and coaching staff was actually the right choice. It was the opposite of the typical KW off-season, where too much tinkering and turnover affected chemistry adversely at times. Ventura benefited 100% by NOT being Ozzie last year, and everything in the past could be blamed on the Guillen family. That excuse no longer is playable in 2013.

14,950... But it can get worse...the next six home games. I know Rongey's excuse will be the Bulls' game, because the weather doesn't work for this one.

Well, we found out tonight why Tekotte was on the active roster. There's a pattern emerging here. 2007 2009 2011 2013

I've never seen one baseball season carry over into the next one like this one has...

Contraction/Oblivion, lol. I still can't believe that Selig was close to succeeding in getting a Twins' team that was about to win 6 divisions in 9 years contracted. Brooks Boyer needs to start polishing up that resume. I don't think he could have imagined this in 2005 or 2006.

If we can't beat the Twins and Indians at home, who are we going to beat? We've already played the Mariners.

The post-game callers are probably going to be more interesting than the actual game, lol.

Of course, we couldn't have used Jones or Lindstrom or Reed against Cabrera, lol. Hasn't Ventura watched enough White Sox baseball since 2006 to know that Thornton was going to cave in that situation....?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 08:39 PM) I agree with the attitude thing. Don't like Thornton's demeanor in that appearance. Throwing the ball into centerfield is unacceptable at that stage of the game. That's all mental. He should be fined. He's making $5.5 million to be the "non-closer" still. Do you really think it's going to matter to fine him $1000? It will just make the attitude in the clubhouse even worse at this point. They need someone like Kirk Gibson or Bo Porter and to add a lot more youth into that line-up. Thornton/Crain/Lindstrom will have value somewhere else, maybe you can just dump Thornton's salary or eat part of it and just start over with the back end of the bullpen.

They're going to have to start PAYING people to come to the games and fill in the seats to prevent being embarrassed. Like when public housing authorities would board up windows in abandoned buildings and paint flowerpots over them to make the appearance more cheerful, lol.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 08:35 PM) Whats even more sad, is that our starting rotation has 4 wins total, after 18 games. No run support, badly timed s***ty bullpen, terrible defense... Don't forget the last inning, when Tekotte ran us out of the opportunity to put the game away. It shouldn't even be a close score right now. And, inevitably when there's a momentum changing inning, the Sox pitching staff falls apart the following 1/2 inning. Like clockwork.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 08:30 PM) Outside of Adam Dunn, most Major League hitters can hit 94 mph fastballs right down the plate when they know it's coming. Even Viciedo, I think.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 22, 2013 -> 08:30 PM) I'm so happy Thornton is gone after this season. Two years too late. Maybe 3. They really could have leveraged him for something good back when he could throw 97-98 with ease. The White Sox have had two of the best LHRers in the last decade (Marte and Thornton) and ran both into the ground.

Hopefully someone is booing Thornton after this debacle.

Cabrera, just to rub it in, was hitting .143 coming into that AB. You just knew it was coming. He could have been 0 for 43, it wouldn't have mattered a bit.

Nobody could anticipate that happening, lol...

Might as well give him third, too. The Matt Thornton we all know and love is back yet again. You know it's bad when Dylan Axelrod has a much better WHIP than your highest paid reliever.

There's always an infield hit, blooper or bleeder that gets Thornton in trouble. It's more predictable than a summer Hollywood blockbuster.