caulfield12

He's about as good a fit as Brett Myers at $10 million next year for the Sox or Morel coming into the season as the starter at 3B. Flowers at C, I guess we might have no choice but to live with that one. Thinking about the possibility of not making the playoffs for the first time, it's hard to take away anything from this season...and 2011 was the most disappointing year in memory, not sure how we'll feel about the off-season until it gets here. Somehow, another late season fade and then losing Peavy, AJ and Youk might be harder to deal with than the feelings coming into 2012 because we were in first place for so long. Then you're looking at the definite probability of the Tigers being better (Martinez back, Scherzer coming into his own, Alburquerque back too) and the Sox taking 1-2 steps back. Still, the improvements from Thompson, the draft of Hawkins...the situation is more optimistic than last off-season at least. Maybe Cooper needs to part ways with Floyd and move on...and Thornton, as well.

Agree. They can't afford to start Axelrod and Santiago any more times than necessary. It's all up to Herm and Cooper, though, in the end...after consulting with Ventura and KW.

Thought they were playing next weekend. Weird scheduling. Monday it's Sanchez, Tuesday Porcello and Wednesday Fister. Friday Scherzer against LAA....Verlander Saturday, Sanchez Sunday. So it should be Porcello, Fister, Scherzer and Verlander. And Porcello has owned us recently this season.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 11:37 AM) He's only been just as good, if not better, than scrubs like David Price, CC AND Cliff Lee. Jake Peavy has been better than a couple of other scrubs named Hamels and Cain. But the Sox somehow only have half an ace. You're telling me Jake Peavy has pitched really well recently, particularly against the Tigers this year? He's spit the bit at least 3 times, that I can remember. One was the infamous 5 or 6-0 lead that quickly fell apart in one inning thanks to Jake and Ohman. Yes, compared to Verlander and Scherzer, 1/2 to 2. If Sale goes out and dominates in a game we absolutely need to change the momentum, Verlander wets the bed again AT HOME on national t.v., like he did against the Royals last time out, then I'll definitely give him his props. Caesar might be the only one betting on the White Sox to win this game...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,5545729.story followed by Quintana and Peavy then theoretically Liriano, Sale, ???, Quintana against the Tigers at USCF can't imagine they'd pitch Peavy on 3 days' rest, but a lot depends on what happens with both those starts against MINNY

Two Cy Young guys if you look at how dominant Scherzer has been in the 2nd half. Definitely, the stuff and filthiness of 2. We have 1/2 of one now in Sale/Peavy.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 01:48 AM) I think I'm still pissed we let Buehrle go. Who do the Sox need right now??? Mark Buehrle, that's who. He's a legit big-game pitcher. He's just what this staff needed. Cheapskate ownership. But he usually has faded in the 2nd half, too... They're not cheap, or they wouldn't have added Youkilis, Myers and Liriano. No MLB team added more talent in June/July. We can revisit the Danks/Buehrle situation over and over and over again, but Mark was a big part of all those failures in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011...at the end of the year, we're not going to feel we would have beaten the Tigers had we signed MB, because JR would never in a million years have signed off on that crazy contract Loria gave him.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 12:06 AM) It's the pitching staff I refer to as a bunch of kids and the others according to years of experience. Interesting how the fan base has more confidence in Sale and Quintana than the other starters. Except for those who think he should be shut down soon or rested and is quickly fading...both guys, but especially Quintana.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 06:05 PM) They should be. They added Fielder and are in 2nd place to a bunch of kids. Plus most of their team can't catch a baseball. Sale, Viciedo, Quintana and Reed. The rest of our key contributors are 28+. The core of Youk, Dunn, AJ, Rios, Wise and Konerko are all 30+ veterans. So is Alexei. Beckham's near the end of his rope with the Sox. I guess if you want to count the likes of Flowers, Nathan Jones and DeAza as "a bunch of kids." Except for all the rookies in the bullpen, we're a very VETERAN team, all things considered.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 12:23 AM) We have to eventually beat them head to head. We are not taking advantage of their defensive issues. How man bunts have been sent Cabrera's way? As bad as their defense is they can catch the fly balls lofted into the air on the first or second pitch by our hitters. Most importantly, we could have taken the series by the throat in the 4th with bases loaded, tie game and no outs. Youk hit a liner to 3rd, Dunn K'd and Konerko failed. That inning has defined entire season series....4-9 now, 6 losses in a row, 17 losses out of our past 20 in DET. Those are nearly the exact name numbers we used to put up in Minnesota.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:27 PM) If it was "any righty" vs "any lefty" ... sure, probably a lefty. But we're looking at Jordan Danks and Dayan Viciedo. What Dayan might lack in hits compared to Jordan, I believe he'll make up for in extra base hits. I would have started Danks over Wise, though. Wise provided offense today but his hustle and defense continue to frustrate so it's tough to say what the right call is there. His hustle and defense continue to frustrate? What? He played too far in on a ball that went over his head, but that's the risk. He also eliminates a lot of cheap singles that DeAza allows, because Alejandro can't go back on balls nearly as well as Wise does. And he has been our ENTIRE offense tonight, besides Viciedo and Johnson.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:25 PM) Sox were the #1 offense in the AL before the break and #9 offense in the AL after the break. And Soriano playing was going to be enough to overcome the Tigers and Twins? Don't think so.

Same reason Ventura went with Jones against Garcia... Despite Jones giving up a below 200 BA against LHP but .328 against RHB. That's even more clear than the arguments for playing Wise over Viciedo against RHP.

Rios has looked terrible as well in these 2 games. Scherzer has something like 11 starts with 9 or more K's this season. Soon to be 12.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) That's why KW traded McCarthy for Soriano, but lost the deal when Soriano decided he wouldn't sign an extension and watned to test the FA market. We didn't need hitting at that point, unless it was in CF. It was the pitching that collapsed in the 2nd half, and Jenks was injured.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:16 PM) When Hudson makes the HOF, are you going to give his speech Back-to-back with the Zach Stewart speech.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:14 PM) Getting swept by the team that is either just behind us or just ahead of us seems to be our thing. Win a single game in the series and it changes the entire thing. But no, we just bend over and then we have Konerko talking to the press about how x team is a good team or it's a marathon and not a sprint. No sense or urgency or being in the moment. Not unlike mid 2006 when Dye, Konerko and Thome convinced KW they didn't need to add anything to the roster in order to get to the post-season. That worked out well.

I wonder if we'll actually sell more season tickets next year if we let Youk, AJ and Peavy walk...despite how well MOST of this season has gone, what reason would there be for optimism about beating the Tigers next year? Plus, they get back Victor Martinez and Alburquerque at 100%. As long as we're not stuck with Myers, if nothing else, they have to ensure that doesn't happen.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:09 PM) Konerko looks as potent as beckham right now. Wise seems like the only player to show up at the plate tonight. And Viciedo took a good approach with that liner off the RF fence. That's been it.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 08:07 PM) He's hurt The dreaded lingering oblique strain. Cue Hawk monologue on the subject...back to his playing days, when he claimed to have one for 5 years. Cue Marty "blow up the Sox/fire KW" thread. Cue Greg "Sox will never beat the Tigers again" thread.

Konerko seems like he's already given up by his body language....sad to see out of a team on top of the world a week ago. Here's YET another chance NOT to get a hit with RISP.

There's nothing to do but laugh anymore. Why get upset or frustrated? Pointless.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 1, 2012 -> 07:56 PM) These are always not absolutely accurate because there are only certain kinds of opposite handed hitters they see and only certain times they see them -- not to mention sample size issues I get that...but this has been an ongoing trend all season long. It hasn't reversed. It's not like where Santiago was getting every RHB out at the beginning of the season but struggling with LHers.

He might as well have brought in Matt Thornton to face Garcia. Stupid, stupid managing. Once again, it doesn't matter, since we can't hit Scherzer or manage a single hit with RISP against this team, in this stadium. Wise has been great for us, but we need a healthy DeAza back tmrw in the worst way.