caulfield12

Blyleven says this year's White Sox team reminds him of the 1987 Twins. Quite the compliment, power and clutch defense combination. Hope he didn't just jinx them. Comparing Sale and Peavy to Frank Viola and himself , strong up the middle with Beckham/Ramirez, similar to Greg Gagne/Lombardozzi. THERE YOU GO DAYAN. Rocked that ball into the upper deck.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 01:39 PM) I'd still let Peavy face Mauer. Even with 18 pitchers, tomorrow's the bigger game we need. Worst Mauer can do is tie it. I'm going to disagree and say he goes with Veal. We'll see. If it was just ONE lefty, maybe not. But too tempting to knock out both guys. HUGE homer by Dunn, number 39. Now that gives Peavy the dreaded 2 run cushion he keeps giving back in recent outings. 191 to 124 power gap between Sox and Twins.

Now you're left with the equally interesting decision to pull Peavy and have Veal face Mauer and Morneau to lead off the bottom of the 6th. You almost have to do it if you're Ventura, POSSIBLY a one run lead, Mauer perforated some eardrums with his last drive off the base of the CF wall and homered oppo.

C'mon, we need Septimo or Omogrosso for Mauer. Would be pretty hilarious if Veal gives up a homer to Joe if Ventura pulls him to prevent him from facing Mauer for a 3rd time.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 01:31 PM) Well, there goes that lead. At least he's a fighter, right? Thought your feed was quicker... Great throw there by Wise, BTW. Revere with 2 out opportunity to tie it now.

Olmedo-esque AB for Florimon there. Pesky Span due up. 2 more chances for the Twins to tie it up.

Luckily Plouffe didn't get to hit last inning or we'd be trailing... Indians have bases loaded as well, but don't score. Uh-oh. "Ace" Peavy struggling this inning. Get the bullpen going, prepare for 2 more hours of bullpen match-ups here today.

Rios doesn't have a great OBP either, despite his superior performance all season. Beckham and Ramirez, too. We've got 6 hitters basically with 20+ HR power, and DeAza/Beckham/Ramirez each have some pop...but that's a huge area of concern, if not for Dunn/Konerko, our OBP would be one of the worst in the AL.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 01:15 PM) If CQ had put up the numbers of Viciedo this year for the Sox, people on here would be burying him. I know, Dayan is young. But he has a lot of improving to do. Most people thought he'd be ready to rake this season after not being rushed. 20-25 homers and 70-75 RBI's is right about where most projected....maybe a bit short on the RBI's and batting average, but not far off. Twins 29-45 at home so far this season. Threatening to go a woeful 4-14 against the White Sox. Beckham with a nice swing there, but hit right at Revere, playing LF for the first time this season. Wise robbed by Plouffe, snagging the ball despite being in a bit to cover the bunt. Bad luck for Sox hitters this inning so far.

Huge change-up K's Parmelee and avoids the bases-loaded opportunity for the dangerous Plouffe (22 homers).

Jimenez not starting off well against DET. Bases loaded already for the Tigers. Didn't want to give Doumit a fastball to hit there in that sequence. One more out, this feels like a huge inning to get over the hump. Tigers out to a 2-0 lead, someone got a key 2 out hit. Tigers now leading the AL with RISP.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 01:05 PM) You get the feeling Viciedo is going to be some sort of very good next year. If he can get a better handle on easing up on his swing, especially with 2 strikes. And he's GOT to improve against RHP if he wants to be a regular player and not a platoon candidate. Will be interesting to see how Wise, DeAza and Dayan finish up here...and where they'll be playing in 2013, with DeAza asking to play LF and that obviously not feasible if you want to keep Viciedo in the line-up anywhere but DH. Doubt they'd trade Dunn to open up a position for Wise, lol. Peavy 4-7 on the road, 6-4 at home. Strange splits this year, especially for Sale being so dominant in a homer haven of USCF. Blyleven wondering why Peavy hasn't been shut down, too, haha.

Blyleven ripping on the Nationals' decision to "bench" Strasburg, same with McDonald and the Pirates. Unlucky break with ball bouncing right back to Doumit, preventing Viciedo from scoring. Rios, Kinsler and BJ Upton the only players since 2009 with 75+ homers and 90+ SB's.

WOW. Lucky break there, have to take advantage. That's 14/17 steals against Diamond. Pretty unusual for a lefty, to have such a high success rate. Dayan makes him pay. 63 RBI's on the year, has a great stroke to RCF against lefties. 16 doubles, 3-1 Sox, another 2 run lead for Peavy.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 12:52 PM) What happened for those of us following the game by alternative means? Beckham hit a liner off Diamond's left shoe/spikes and it went into RF for a single and extended the inning to Wise/Youk. Created that 1st and 3rd situation after Flowers walked nicely, setting up D-Wise sac fly. 7 in a row retired by Peavy, helpful only 9 pitches that inning. Last time out, the pitch count was a big area of debate about his performance against the Tigers. Yankees all over the Rays early, A's amazingly only 2 games behind the Rangers with 7 more head-to-head down the stretch. Melvin clearly will win American League Manager of the Year. Johnson, Matheny (maybe) and Gonzalez in the NL.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 12:50 PM) Sox fans complain the starters are overworked and also complain when Ventura uses any reliever other than Veal. What is he supposed to do? Fathom could probably give specific examples, but a lot of them were games that were already well in hand and he left him in for an extra inning or two...or games that the White Sox were fairly far behind and he should have been pulled as well. Just seems that they were going to get every cent's worth out of Jake in terms of his IP this year.

YOUK crushes the 3-1 fastball and almost made it out for his 20th homer of the season...ball jumping today. Darn. C'mon Dunner. Need a clutch hit out of you. Diamond might be dealing with the same issues Peavy, Sale and Quintana are going through with tired arms.

Nice approach there by D-Wise against a lefty with 1 out and a runner at 3rd. Really need DeAza back against the Tigers, he's played so well against them this year....2/21 slump has him out of the line-up today against the lefty.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 12:35 PM) Watching FSN North I take it. Yep. Offspeed stuff much sharper that inning for Jakemeister.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 16, 2012 -> 12:33 PM) Peavy's almost matched his total for HR allowed in the first half during the second half in 47 less innings. This is where Ventura consistently overworking Peavy in the first half of the season is having some pretty obvious negative consequences. Location on his fastball just not quite pinpoint. Left another one out over the plate against Parmelee, too. Got away with it.

8 of 23 Rios homers this year have come against the Twins. Very nice running catch by transplanted 1B Chris "Bernie" Parmelee down the RF line.

Ball is carrying VERY well today. Mauer OPPO shot over Viciedo AND the wall at 377 mark makes it 1-0. Seems even though he doesn't homer as much as his MVP year or in the new stadium, he always kills us. Center cut fastball in his happy zone.

BUMP... 3 hours ago, Mauer wasn't even sure he would be able to play due to his back spasms. Hmmm.

Weird that the Indians/Tigers game is starting one hour after ours... NFL/Sundays.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/features/cyyoung Price with the lead over Sale, Rodney probably won't actually factor in 2nd, taking the Rolaids Reliever of the Year award instead. RA Dickey BARELY over Gio right now in the NL, but you'd have to think with the Nationals a lock for the playoffs and the Mets not so much, Gio might take it.