caulfield12

As soon as we DON'T have to worry about Brady Shoemaker being left unprotected, that might be a sign of progress for our system. Remember all the hub-bub about Doyle and Kuhn? I still wonder how bad the Marlins' system must have been that Ozzie Martinez and J'han Marinez where middle of the Top 10 picks at one point. Doubt he'll even come close to Maurice Gartrell/David Cook level, let alone Aaron Cunningham or even Ryan Sweeney.

They deserved to lose Lee Judge The Kansas City Star As I’ve been saying the last few days, I no longer am going to try to correlate winning and losing to intangibles. I don’t care if the Royals hold meetings or go on benders. I don’t care if Ned Yost throws a chair or stays calm. I don’t care if they eat crow or chicken dinners in the clubhouse. Hell, I don’t care if they sacrifice live chickens in the clubhouse — maybe it would help. From now on, I am going to correlate winning and losing to playing the game well. (Novel concept, but let’s try it for a while and see how it goes.) So if playing a game well is how you win, the Royals deserved to lose this one. When a team’s pitching staff walks nine batters, hits another and every run it gives up was one of those walked or hit batters who scored, that team deserves to lose. For a while I thought the Royals were playing well but losing. Now I think they’re playing poorly and losing. That can change tomorrow night, but a team with little margin for error can’t give the other guys 10 free base-runners, let four of them score and blame it all on bad luck. The bad Yost said the players need to find the right emotional level and stay there. I can’t get in their heads, but from the outside, I see a team that sometimes is aggressive when it should be cautious and other time is cautious when it should be aggressive. On Tuesday night, I thought that happened to third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez. In the eighth inning with two outs, Eric Hosmer on second base and Mike Moustakas on first, Mitch Maier (who played a helluva game) doubled down the right-field line. Moose is neither the fastest guy on the team nor the slowest, but I figured he would score, considering the situation. That would have made the score 4-3. The Indians’ right fielder, Shin-Soo Choo, did not exactly bust it going after the ball, and I figured it was a done deal, but Eddie held up Moose at third base. To make matters worse, you can be more aggressive sending the runner when the throw comes from right field. The catcher loses sight of home plate when he turns to receive the throw from right field. Then he has to turn back, find the runner and apply the tag. (We have a video on the site called “The catcher’s blind spot” that demonstrates this play.) Now add the fact that Choo and Cleveland first baseman Casey Kotchman are both left-handed, and the decision looks even worse. Throws from lefties tail toward the first-base side, and the Indians’ catcher, Carlos Santana, would have been pulled even farther from home plate when receiving the ball. You might wonder whether a third-base coach should know all this in an instant, but when I was watching a game with Jason Kendall last season, he knew all this before the fielder picked up the ball — and Kendall was holding a beer in one hand at the time. So when Chris Getz doubled to lead off the ninth inning on Tuesday night, he should have been the tying run but wasn’t. After Alex Gordon moved Getz to third, it’s possible Chris could have scored the tying run on Billy Butler’s groundout to the shortstop. But, to be fair to Eddie, that wasn’t likely. If that had been the case, the Indians would have moved in their infielders. Maybe there is reason Eddie did what he did, but right now I don’t get it. After Eddie held up Moose, Alcides Escobar had the tying run in scoring position, worked the count to 2-0 and then took a 90 mph four-seamer down the middle, another decision I don’t get. The table was set. I thought Esky would be looking for a fastball in a fastball count, and he got one in the middle of the strike zone. Esky hit the ball hard 3-2, but it was a one-hopper back to the pitcher. Read more here: http://royals.kansascity.com/games/361/#storylink=cpy

I'll just make a scenario up. Let's say one of the partners dies and they're one piece (1/12th) of 12 shares that are theoretically "on the open market" worth anything from $50 to 75 to even $100 million. Do the other partners have a right of first refusal to buy them if let's say the family member dies and the children/wife want to sell? Would they pay them "cash out" from their own pockets or would they be able to use, let's say, Comcast SportsNet shares? A combination thereof? They do have the right to block sale of the team share/s to an outsider who might be trying to accumulate shares in order to take over a control bloc or percentage of the team, correct? As the share in the team is technically a share in the value of the ballclub AND Comcast SportNet, how many shares would have to be acquired for one entity to be able to dictate control of the RSN itself (over Universal/NBC, Wirtz, Ricketts and the Bulls/Sox group)? For example, is there a mechanism in place to keep the Ricketts family from buying out NBC/Universal and the Blackhawks shares in COMCAST SN Chicago and having a controlling interest over the Reinsdorf shares, etc.?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 08:03 AM) Of Course, Byrd was actually hitting well enough to make Morel look good. Byrd was last of all 188 eligible/qualified MLB hitters the day they traded him. Morel was 185th.

Four way tie for first place in the AL East. "How about that?" said with Mel Allen/This Week in Baseball accent. Everyone predicted it would be tight. Just not with the Orioles....Red Sox still in the cellar, but only 4 games under.

Too bad you didn't go with the "Humphrey" Bogar nickname to start the interview.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 24, 2012 -> 11:27 PM) http://qkme.me/3oyk2c What five minor leaguers? Mitchell Thompson Molina S. Castro Saladino

As debated ad infinitum, Peavy's not going to be easy to move at all. If other teams are after him, it probably means the White Sox will be within shouting distance of first place or at least the wild card. So then you're just talking about dumping more salary or payroll relief, because we're not going to get savings AND a prospect simultaneously. Greg Hibbard jinxed us with this thread, lol. THANKS A LOT! You're also forgetting the Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles, Indians (for now) and eventually the Angels are going to put runs together, it's not just about the Red Sox/Yankees anymore. Unless, Viciedo, Beckham and Morel can pick it up (2 of the 3), there's no chance for us to win more than 85-86-87 games. Because we'll also be dealing with Humber, Sale and maybe Peavy (who knows if we can trust his health, it's an unprecedented surgery) missing starts in the second half, and replaced by much lower quality pitchers from within our system. Unless you're just going with the theory we can go 15-3/14-4 against the Twins/Royals/Indians.

As debated ad infinitum, Peavy's not going to be easy to move at all. If other teams are after him, it probably means the White Sox will be within shouting distance of first place or at least the wild card. So then you're just talking about dumping more salary or payroll relief, because we're not going to get savings AND a prospect simultaneously. Greg Hibbard jinxed us with this thread, lol. THANKS A LOT! You're also forgetting the Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles, Indians (for now) and eventually the Angels are going to put runs together, it's not just about the Red Sox/Yankees anymore. Unless, Viciedo, Beckham and Morel can pick it up (2 of the 3), there's no chance for us to win more than 85-86-87 games. Because we'll also be dealing with Humber, Sale and maybe Peavy (who knows if we can trust his health, it's an unprecedented surgery) missing starts in the second half, and replaced by much lower quality pitchers from within our system.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 24, 2012 -> 11:51 PM) I just hated the offense tonight. Sox didn't come close to scoring. Even though Gavin was matching that no-name pitch for pitch, out for out, it seemed obvious Sox would get shut out and Oakland would not. And that's more often that not what happens on the road in tie games like this. At least Gavin pitched much better than expected and didn't wet the bed. Most of us were't predicting much offense tonight. We don't match up well against Millone types and never have. Then again, there are a lot of teams that can beat the 4-5-spot starters of a rotation but have zero luck against the frontline pitchers. Greg, are you going to say that A's fans tmrw should be embarassed to lose to Chris Sale because he's a no-name pitcher to a lot of West Coast fans or non-baseball addicts. Or just because Millone throws at a velocity closer to Buehrle than Sale? Shouldn't all those teams that have lost to Buehrle over the years feel ashamed and embarassed too? They have somewhat similar approaches as pitchers. So why is Mark Buehrle great but Millone is garbage? Just because you'd never heard of him before tonight doesn't mean he's not a good prospect. Look at the other games he's pitched before tonight. Colon hadn't lost a game, either.

So every White Sox loss the discussion will be whether we would have won were Ozzie still managing the team? That's going to get old fast. Being a White Sox fan right now (1st place tie) is a lot better than rooting for the Marlins or Royals.

Remember when we had to hope and pray just to take 1 out of 3 at Oakland? It's just one of those games, Millone pitched very well...you can actually tip your cap to him and not be ashamed. Have we gone to the 1927 Yankees in the span of one week where we just win every game merely by showing up?

Remember, the M's just went out and beat Max Scherzer tonight. It happens. Some questionable decisions there with leaving Gavin in and leaving Beckham to be torn apart by a power fastball pitcher...Rios hasn't been hitting for much power this year, so better to go for the tie-game with one at-bat rather than relying on a bunch of hits being strung together. Then again, you get the game to Konerko and he seems to match up very well with Balfour. That pitch Dunn missed...very few major league power hitters are going to put into play. He was trying to turn on it, and the only possible result with a ball in that location would have been going the other way for a double to LF. But he was trying to get 2 runs with one swing there, clearly. Meanwhile, there's a 3-way tie for first place in the AL Central.

Nathan Jones warming in the pen. He's the next one in. And the nightmare continues for Thornton.

Maybe Matt Thornton should never appear against the Oakland A's. What a nightmare. Not that we really deserved to win this game, exactly.

And Matt Thornton continues to get decimated by the Oakland A's. Tough luck possible loss for Gavin Floyd here. Did Ventura really want to face Suzuki there? I mean...he's under 200, but one of their better clutch RBI guys. 2 Aprils in a row for Matt against the A's.

PUT IN THORNTON!!!! I guess Ventura will say he was waiting for them to pinch-hit Kai'ahue, but we didn't need to put the leadoff hitter on base. Luckily Hughes didn't learn any bunting fundamentals with the Twins...maybe part of the reason he's no longer on Gardy's team.

A's with no sacrifices yet this season. 18 stolen bases, though.

This game is annoying. No bullpen. Then we have to face that prick Balfour as the closer if they take the lead.

Tweet/retweet? Jermaine Dye? What did Dye say now? Something about Rios or Dunn? Hello, why no Thornton? This guy's already doubled off Gavin and he's in the 110's now. Jarrod Parker grew up a big White Sox fan in Indiana.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Apr 24, 2012 -> 09:37 PM) you guys should not fear the Twins starting pitching this year We're 4-1 against the Central this year, but until we prove we can beat both the Twins and Royals (yeah, I know they've lost 12 in a row but they've played us very well the last 2-3 seasons), then we can't claim to be a true contender. Too bad you guys didn't keep the Red Sox cooled off before their arrival Thursday in Chicago. Ever since Bard got Mauer out last night, it has been all downhill.

Recall that the Royals tried to pry away Lowe from Atlanta in the offseason but were out-bid by the Indians, who agreed to eat about an extra $1 million in salary on Lowe’s existing contract. It was that inability to get Lowe that led, in no small degree, to the Royals’ decision to acquire Sánchez from San Francisco in early November with minor-league pitcher Ryan Verdugo for outfielder Melky Cabrera. The Royals made that deal knowing Sánchez was the proverbial box of chocolates: an enigma of inconsistency. And this, Tuesday night, was the wild Sanchie, who opened the first inning by hitting a batter (who eventually scored) and twice walked the bases loaded. Sánchez, 1-1, escaped a three-walk second inning but paid dearly in the fifth when Shelley Duncan delivered a one-out sacrifice fly before Jack Hannahan gapped a two-run double to right-center. “That was a good pitch,” Sánchez insisted, “but he put his bat on it and got a double. It wasn’t a hanging pitch. It was the right pitch.” Maybe so, but the final numbers were grim. He walked seven in 42/3 innings while throwing just 56 of his 115 pitches for strikes. Tony Sipp worked a one-two-three seventh for Cleveland before Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez wobbled through the final two innings in closing out Lowe’s victory. Perez got his seventh save. So here we are. The Royals, at 3-14, have the majors’ worst record and find themselves saddled with a 12-game losing streak that ties for the third-longest in franchise history while still searching for answers. “There have been a lot of missed opportunities,” Yost said, “but I felt our at-bats tonight were better with runners in scoring position. The way these kids continue to get after it, it’s hard for me to believe that we’ve lost 12 in a row.” The Royals were four for 13 with runners in scoring position after going zero for 10 in Monday’s 4-1 loss to Toronto and a combined nine for 60 over the previous seven games. Even so, they left 11 runners on base in Tuesday’s loss. The franchise record for consecutive losses is an appalling 19-game skid in 2005 that featured then-manager Buddy Bell’s memorable line: “Don’t ever say it can’t get worse.” There was a 13-game slide in 2006 and 12-game droughts in 1997 and 2008. This streak already includes 10 straight losses at home, which ties the 1913 New York Yankees for the longest home skid at the start of a season. The Royals had hoped getting away from Kauffman Stadium might provide a path to firmer footing. Nope. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/24/35743...l#storylink=cpy

100 pitches for Gavin now. Gotta figure out a way to win this game somehow offensively... Gotta get someone up. Gomes can give them a 2 run lead in one swing.

LOL at LaHair being intentionally walked to face Soriano. It's a good story, 29 year old journeyman with his 15 minutes of fame. Guess the Matheny honeymoon period is over for Cardinals' fans to lose two games like that to the Cubs.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Apr 24, 2012 -> 10:18 PM) Viciedo's a joke It's 49 at-bats. Relax. It's not like anyone in the majors has been hitting this guy so far, at least not that well. He's still got an OPS hundreds of points better than Beckham and Morel. And he's played better defense than Brent too this year. Finally and, he's much younger than both those guys.