caulfield12

Since pitching his perfect game on April 21, Humber has allowed 20 runs on 21 hits in 13 1/3 innings. 2011 Start 6-3, lose 19 for 24 to fall to 11-22. 2012 Start 10-6, lose 11 of 14 to fall to 13-17. And no end to the fall in sight, other than Jake Peavy being the stopper, and you wonder how long that can last. Or how long Danks can pitch like Barry Zito, Jr.

Marty, stop being Captain Obvious tonight. Obviously there are serious concerns, to say the least. But he has to get at least one season at AA...and even then, look at Mitchell, a lot of people gave up on him quickly when he struggled all last year until the end and he's back on the prospect radar screens.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,0,642535.story In other news, Quintana, our sole bright spot of the day, sent back down. 5 2/3rd's of scoreless relief the longest for the Sox since Brian Keyser way back when.

Petricka's line so far for BIRM, also taking it on the chin. 4 IP, 3 ER, 6 BB's, 5 K's. Only 3 hits. Over 80 pitches just to get through 4 innings, though. On the plus side, with 9 baserunners in only 4 innings, it could be a LOT worse than just 3 ER's. Love to see KWJR in there 2 games consecutively, lol.

It would be the perfect ending to this game if it's called with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out. At least we're denied the pain and angst of another failure with RISP. BTW, Pujols at .193, 0/2 with his 8th RBI. Liriano's ERA is nearly 10. Talk about not trading an asset when he had some value, there's the definition. And no, he doesn't have to be in the bullpen to have absolutely no value.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ May 7, 2012 -> 07:01 PM) OK so we're writing off Molina completely already. Got it. Recently turned 23. Underpromise, overdeliver. KW always does the opposite. Should I bring back all the glowing reports on Zach Stewart when we acquired him? At one point last year, he was a "sure thing" to be in the 2012 rotation. Sure, he can probably start out as a 5th starter...the point is that he was billed (along with Sale) as a future ace and rotation anchor for the future. There's just been ZERO evidence of that happening so far, other than his BB/IP ratio. I would be shocked if we see him anytime soon in the big leagues because the predictable failure will result in even more heat on KW.

The Las Vegas odds for a Indians sweep were 100X higher than both Quintana and Stults pitching so well. The problem is that neither of them really profile as long-term solutions in the starting rotation, although we'll have to cross our fingers Sox scouts got one right with Quintana. It's very different when you start a game versus coming in down 7-2 and the other team's already subconsciously letting up on the gas. Perhaps a couple of Santiago MLB appearances against the Twins last year caused the same misperception...that Santiago was close to ready. But the back end of the rotation will have plenty of opportunities to gain experience and quite a few losses the next 2-3 seasons.

From all accounts, Molina doesn't have the dominant out pitch to be anything close to a top of the rotation starter yet. Peavy's able to be successful at 91-92 because he knows how to pitch, but for an Axelrod or Molina to get to that point will take years and years of losing to gain that experience. Stewart and Molina, from everything we're seeing and reading, just don't have the arsenal of pitches to be successful unless they're perfect with their location, and that kind of control is beyond rare. It's one thing not to walk hitters, it's quite another thing to miss in the strike zone and hit bats.

Hopefully Stults has enough juice left to get the game through the 6th or a batter or two into the 7th. Pretty amazing what both Quintana and Eric have done today. Now, about our offense....or lack thereof.

Flowers seems to be the case of "big big swing, needs to play nearly every game, will strike out 150-175 times, will give you 18-20 homers" guys. Sort of the catching equivalent of Brian Anderson. Except at some point when he's hitting .170 or .180, they'll pull the plug on that experiment, too. Whether it's worth a .200 average and half of Dunn's production for less walks to get Flowers' defense in the game over Phegley, guess we'll find out.

There has to be serious consideration now being given to jumping Phegley over Flowers for 2013, or even 2012 after a possible AJ salary dump.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 7, 2012 -> 05:52 PM) I think the Molina promotion is a bit premature. He wasn't exactly dominating AA. I just don't see the need to rush him. At first I thought this was a Marty34 post until I read the poster name, lol.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 7, 2012 -> 06:47 PM) Jared Mitchell looking better down on the farm AA team with Molina, Mitchell and Saladino is more interesting than the major league team tonight.

This is a White Sox line-up only their mothers and close relatives could love. Stults surprisingly matching with zeroes so far, maybe the only way to win this game is a 1-0 shutout with our "lockdown bullpen" coming in.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2012 -> 06:27 PM) We have 6 of 9 hitters in the lineup batting .214 or lower tonight. I don't know if I've ever seen that before this late in the season. And/or it's indicative of having the worst bench in the history of modern AL play, minus Lilly's stolen bases, nothing at all to like except for a few Fukudome walks and a Tyler Flowers solo homer against DET (his only hit out of almost 20 AB's).

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2012 -> 06:23 PM) You typically see weird lineups like this during a DH. It is pretty obvious though this team needs another lefty bat though. Yeah, I get that, you can't play AJ both games. But after the way we lost the first game, there sure doesn't seem to be much priority placed on not getting swept here. The Molina appearance might be more closely-followed than Stults' performance. Well, for sure one poster will be concentrating on it.

We've lost four games to the Indians in the standings since last week....and climbing. Probably the weakest line-up that we've put out there the entire season, at least arguably. Apparently Ventura's not concerned with going 3-11 at all. Wish the "it's always darkest before the dawn" comment could apply here, but not sure it does.

Very close to a homer to CF off the bat of Dunn but it dies right at the top of the fence. DeAza had a cheap blooper that fell in, Beckham K'ed on a pitch he chased that was way out of the strikezone.

Quintana has less AA and above experience than Nestor Molina, FWIW. Guess they consider him more expendable.

There's not a separate Game 2 thread? Hello? Anyone still watching or listening to this team? With Konerko out of the line-up, chances of winning this game are approximately....well, not good.

The point is, the Rays have made the playoffs 3 of the last 4 seasons (2008, 2010, 2011). We've managed that accomplishment 3 times in the last 20 years or so. And there's just no comparison between the AL Central and the AL East.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ May 7, 2012 -> 02:07 PM) It was Colon. I remember that game vividly...Colon vs. Blackburn. Now I remember. That was the 1st time early in the season that all the Peavy trade rumors were flying around Chicago. That day the story broke in the Chicago media and then ended up being a disappointment with no trade as Peavy declined.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2012 -> 01:59 PM) BTW, how did Quintana's stuff look? 89-91 MPH fastball, but I'm on GameDay. Well, can't argue with the results so far after that initial jitteryness. Keep us within a crooked number of getting right back in it. In many ways, he has less experience than anyone on our roster. This year is the first time he's ever been above A ball, amazingly.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2012 -> 01:55 PM) I was there...it was fun bad There was another home game in there for Garcia or Colon against the Twins that was like 20 something to 1 or 2. That was my last White Sox home game. Must have been 2009. Quintana has never pitched above A ball coming into this season, FWIW.

At least Alexei Ramirez is still alive. Another basehit from sort of being back in this game. That'll work. The problem is there's almost no chance that Quintana will keep the lead at 3 or 4.