caulfield12

If they lost tonight, it would be ending on a 1-10 streak against DET, after starting ahead 4-3. 5-13, season-wise. 5-10 now against KC. I asked this before, but has any division winner in MLB history ever advanced having lost 10 of their last 11 to the 2nd place team and STILL made the playoffs?

Any updates? 800? 830? 900?

Then we're back to the salary issue and the Cy Young/2007 expectations argument. When things go bad, fans tend to turn on the highest paid players, especially if they seem to be loafing, dogging it or too "non-chalant." See Rios, 2011. Peavy tends to draw resentment partially because of his "bulldog" mentality and comeback from injury....which causes resentment again, because some will defend him no matter what he does in big games, essentially.

Iguchi, Tadahito. We needed to have imported a designated bunter from Korea or Japan who actually was schooled well in ALL the fundamentals of baseball.

Iguchi, Tadahito. We needed to have imported a designated bunter from Korea or Japan who actually was schooled well in ALL the fundamentals of baseball.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 04:36 PM) Sale K's 21 as Beckham goes yard in a Sox 1-0 victory. It's not going to be on a 98 MPH fastball. So it better be in the first couple of innings....most likely, the 2nd.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 06:12 PM) He's a good pitcher. But is he a Mark Buehrle? f*** no. Post of the Day. Extra bonus points available for Royals' shout out, but not included here.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Sep 13, 2012 -> 08:33 AM) To quote Paulie in "Rocky 4" "Hit the one in the middle." Are you sure that's not "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman?

BP and doing it in game conditions against a guy with pinpoint command in Fister are two quite different things. All the hitters lay down 3-5 bunts typically at the beginning of BP. Not even sure if YOUK has been doing that or not. Plus he had a three day layoff over the weekend and has been a hurt a lot, it's highly doubtful he's taking extra bunting practice.

DeAza tried to bunt once and missed it.

At the end of this year, unfortunately we're going to be left with the strong and lasting impression we would/should have won the division had we invested money in a more experienced manager, instead of looking at it as a "throwaway/developmental" year.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 11:03 PM) I will start a fight with a Tigers fan and throw one over the railing during a flyball to left center while Dirks or Kburn tries to make the catch. Is your last name Ligue or Ligue, Jr.? Are you in a drunken stupor, lol?

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 10:47 PM) 535. Man I'm just to frustrated right now. And plus I listened to the 9th on the radio...just to hear Farmer say there is, "no professionalism" in the game now while he b****ed about Valverde for an inning (for the record I can't stand his antics, but don't spend an entire inning of a broadcast b****ing about it) They were ripping Butler and Cain (especially) on the Royals for this, well, mostly Farmio. Omogrosso versus Cabrera Septimo (instead of Veal) versus Fielder GAME, SET, MATCH Ventura just doesn't have a clue, both of those decisions were worse than YOUK bunting or Liriano pitching in the 8th yesterday in a 3-2 game, albeit not MUCH worse.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 09:41 PM) Hey caulfield, how many games finished for Myers now? I've given up counting simply because it will only make the offseason even more depressing if we're stuck with Myers due to Robin's managerial ineptitude. I wanted to believe there was a conspiracy to return Myers to starting and replace Gavin's $9.5 million salary, but there's 100 better way to spend it, IMO.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:55 PM) The cool thing about next year is that we very well may have some money to spend, particularly if you don't sign AJ. There are NO free agent catchers that are any good. It's either Flowers or a trade. The rest of the money has to go to replacing Peavy, 3B and the bullpen (possibly, if they trade Crain or Thornton). Or we can tear things up by dealing Ramirez, Rios or Dunn. The last two won't get us much talent back...Ramirez might, but we don't have a replacement for him that's close to ready. Sanchez doesn't profile as a major league SS. Better off at 2B or 3B.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:52 PM) No matter what, this has been a positive year. In no way am I giving up on the year, even if the Sox lose tomorrow. Far too many strange things have happened with the Tigers losing to inferior opponents this year, and they also have to face the red hot A's next week. Plain and simple, the Tigers are a HORRIBLE match-up for the Sox this year. Their main runs have been when they fattened up on the Indians at midseason, the Twins and the Royals (until they were swept in KC). And winning 9/10 against the White Sox after starting out 3-4. That has allowed them to surge from 6 games under to 8 over, but it hasn't been from beating some of the really good teams the White Sox have handled like the Yankees, Angels or Rangers.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:49 PM) Caulfield/Cerb/fathom: Axis of pessimism Don't forget Greg/Royals. Caesar, lol.

QUOTE (Baron @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:43 PM) Thats really pathetic. Unless you have a crystal ball somewhere on you then you dont have the slightest clue of whats going to happen. This reminds me of Caesar's stupid comment about Detroit winning for sure against Cleveland. Look what happened there. Some things are pretty predictable. Detroit getting swept in LA after losing the first two games to Santana and Wilson and with Greinke going Sunday. The Sox falling apart in this series after the YOUK bunt, with Scherzer and Verlander looming. Now, Chris Sale might be all that stands between DET and the playoffs. We really really really need to win tomorrrow to get back some momentum, rather than HOPING that the Tigers will fall back for the 3rd time this season with division lead or a share of it. In fact, I'm starting to agree with Marty. Despite all the positives of this season, if we lose AJ, YOUK and Peavy, we might as well hire a new GM and figure out a different strategy to beat the Twins and now the Tigers, because the KW/RV one certainly isn't working.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:42 PM) After 2008, where we haven't seen any significant improvement from Danks and Floyd. There's hope with Quintana, Santiago, Veal, Jones and Reed. But those last three could be out of baseball in 2-3 years, as well, You never can tell with relievers. After NOT throwing offspeed stuff for six years, suddenly Thornton has discovered he needs a 2nd pitch.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:41 PM) Tigers tie it tomorrow, then 19 left: Tigers--Cle, Oak, Min, KC, Min, KC Sox--Min, KC, LAA, Cle, TB, Cle We're done. Unless we sweep the Indians and Twins, lol.

TRYING BRIAN FREAKIN' OMOGROSSO AGAINST THE BEST HITTER IN BASEBALL AGAIN IS DUMBER THAN THE BUNT ATTEMPT. I thought Ventura had the capacity to learn on the job, but it's becoming dubious. It now seems 75% of the team's improvement was just NOT having Ozzie around, but he hasn't been a good in-game manager the entire second half. In fact, he's getting measurably worse by the week.

Gee, there's a surprise. Haven't we seen this show with Leyson Septimo and A-Gone in Boston? Where the hell was VEAL OR THORNTON???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:24 PM) Flavum, supposed to rain tomorrow? We need a postponed Game 162 against the Tigers with the White Sox being down by one going into the last game...Sale versus Verlander/Scherzer in Chicago. Win Game 163 vs. Detroit and then storm through the playoffs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) You just realized this We've let at least four games get away against both the Royals and Tigers. The Friday and Sunday games were absolutely excruciating. In the end, that's what will be remembered the most if we don't end up winning the division and fade down the stretch while DET plays 10 games over from here on out. Of course, following their normal trend line, they take the lead or fall back as soon as they're in first or tied...often getting swept. Or they're swept before they play us and then magically turn it on again.

Clearly, DET has MORE talent, just with Jackson, Cabrera, Fielder, Verlander and Scherzer alone. We have Sale, Rios is putting up a season comparable or better than Jackson, but Dunn/Konerko haven't come close to besting Cabrera/Fielder. Peavy has been very good, but he's not pitching like their two aces. The main advantage we have is AJ's huge offensive output over Avila's slumping year AND the fact that Victor Martinez, one of the most clutch hitters in baseball, has been out all year. Dunn has had some huge clutch homers, but he's not the kind of hitter that can consistently get singles and doubles in RBI/RISP situations.