caulfield12

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 20, 2012 -> 01:48 AM) Yes, is it too much to ask that a team with as many veterans as the White Sox and as good a pitching as the White Sox can't split with Baltimore at home? Sox effort this series? F. 3 out of 4 is a butt kicking. Effort C+ Hitting with RISP F

Well, one of the reasons that Baltimore is in first place is due to the fact they just took 3/4 from us, but they were playing over .500 ball before this series started. Of course, so were we, at 5-2. Mostly, Greg is frustrated because we always seem to do poorly against Toronto, Baltimore and the other AL Central teams, at least since 2009. On the other hand, we've made a lot of progress in terms of our results in Seattle and Oakland compared to 8-10 years ago. Of course, both of those franchises were much stronger then. So we can look at it positively (3-3 against the Rangers and Tigers, away and home series, taking 2 from CLE on the road) or that we underperformed in this series when we expected to go 3-1 or no worse than 2-2. It all evens out, though, over the course of a season...it's so much about momentum and when you play a team, injuries, etc. Things would be fine if we'd won at least one of those 3 winnable games, but we didn't. So you move on...however, it would have been a big boost to take that last game of the series in comeback fashion after coughing away Game 2 and get on the plane for that long flight together. At least we don't see Felix or Pineda this time.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/avengers-film-rev...ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3 First AVENGERS review...at least that I've seen. Very positive.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 10:25 PM) Probably two of the most under looked reasons for the Sox lack of success since '05 is that Danks and Floyd have been solid performers and nothing more. Or that the one true ace in Contreras fell apart. That and trading Hudson and Gonzalez with little or nothing to show for it now.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,2480450.story Manto's approach with Beckham and Morel, very little or no video.

Jurickson Profar can replace Elvis Andrus, giving them one trade chip. They've got that abundance of starting pitching, as surely many MLB teams would make a significant bid for Alexi Ogando and put him into their starting rotations. They've also got Feldman and a super deep minor league system.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 09:07 PM) He hurts you less in center than in right though. Not necessarily, because every ball hit into the RF corner by an average speed runner ends up a triple because of DeAza's weak arm. You'll have runners tagging up and advancing to 2nd, or 2nd to 3rd on a lot of balls into RF. It's easier to cover up his arm in LF or CF rather than right.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 09:06 PM) I'm fairly convinced that De Aza can't play CF. The routes he's taken on some of the balls this year have been wow-bad and he doesn't have the pure speed to make up for it. Yes, Rios had a rough year last year, but in my view he's a far better option in center. Part of this is related to the swirling winds and weather conditions. If he's playing the same way when the weather heats up in May and June, maybe then you might make a change.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 08:55 PM) It may be, but what if it's not? If you're going to play Rios and De Aza, Rios should be in CF. Based on what? 12 games and part of last season for DeAza versus almost a full season there for Rios in 2011? Rios was clearly uncomfortable playing that position, and you'd have to think some of the boo-birds for his defensive efforts/apathy/non-chalantness bled over into his offensive game. I mean, everyone gets it. It would be great if Alex was putting up his current offensive numbers (consistently) and playing an above-average major league CF. That would make it MUCH easier to unload him at some point. But clearly KW and RV don't agree with that. And with our offense struggling to score runs, we don't have the luxury of taking DeAza's bat out of the line-up and playing this decade's equivalent of Brian Anderson, Jordan Danks, in CF.

At some point, it wouldn't hurt to give Doyle a shot in Stewart's place...and let Zach get some more innings under his belt as a starter again to work on things. Carlos Sanchez was 2 for 4, continuing his nice run of play (now at .347). Looks like Snodgress pitched a very good game, and Ravelo had 3 K's.

For most teams, Danks is a 2 and Floyd is a 3/4. They're never going to "lead" us to a playoff run without the other components to go really go on a run, namely Sale and Peavy, but mostly Sale going forward. They also need Molina to provide the statistical replacement value of a 3/4 starter, if not better.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 08:52 PM) just a hunch. Rios is kind of a guy without a position in the order, so why not try him in the 2-hole? One thing it would do is get him out of a lot og RBI situations which I think would be a good thing. Also gets a guy who can score from 1st on a double hitting in front of Konerko/A.J. These same arguments can be made for Ramirez, btw. Either one would be okay, as long as it's not Morel.

Rios was horrible in CF last year. He was much better in 2010, but you could go back and find at least 40-50 mistakes (mental/physical) that he made playing center. Maybe more than that. Sometimes, it felt like it was 2-3 per game for long stretches. As someone mentioned, Rios hitting well in RF and comfortable is worth much more than any possible defensive upgrade (which the majority of posters on this site would disagree with after watching the 2011 season transpire) to be gained from flipping them around again. Then you also are going to be messing around with Viciedo (for the 3rd or 4th time) moving him from LF back to RF. If you want to do that the 2nd half the season, after the All-Star Break, fine. Right now, it's way too early to be micromanaging on a game by game basis. (Yes, I realize I made a post after Tuesday's game proposing 9 changes, but the first 12 games have made it pretty clear that we're going to be in that no man's land of 75-85 wins but maybe only a 10-15% of legitimately competing for the 2nd wild card spot). If anything, the Orioles starting out well just shows how much competition there will be in the AL. You have all five AL East teams, the Rangers, Angels and Tigers to fight off. The odds are stacked against that happening, and with our projected low attendance, we're certainly not going to be taking on any additional payroll.

Losing all three of those games when we had multiple chances to tie or win (especially Tuesday with the 4-1 lead) has everyone a bit grump. That's something like 6 of our last 7 that we've lost to the Orioles at home. We no longer have much of a home field advantage. Back in 2005-2006-2008, we really protected our home turf. Recently, we seem to play better on the road. Even in 2010, I don't remember the splits, but it seems Beckham and Quentin did better on the road than at USCF.

Uh-oh, Mitchell matching the major league club, 0 for 3 with 2 K's. Down to .275. 18 k's in 51 at-bats, once again about what the major league team is averaging, 1 out of every 3 by strikeout. Santos Rodriguez was hit hard, too. Conor Jackson down to .224, Phegley still doing well, another hit and at .357.

I read the thread title and I thought it was about waiving/trading him. Don't mess with Rios' fragile psyche by changing his position now that he's comfortable and hitting in RF.

And maybe the catcher has a brain cramp and forgets to touch home plate...so he throws to first but throws it away, too? The first reaction when a catcher sees a runner going for a base is to throw there. Maybe the pitcher comes to cover the plate to remind him, but the pitcher would have been so close they might have flubbed the exchange or SOMETHING. If you at least TRY to do something, instead of standing there arguing with the ump...watch baseball in the 1950's, 60's or 70's, you never would have seen a player do something like standing there arguing with the home plate umpire. Especially when Rios was the one who stuck his bat out enough on a check swing to put himself down in the count 0-1. You have to swing at anything close to the plate. Clearly, Viciedo (previous inning) and Rios were not expecting breaking balls after a steady diet of fastballs, but you have to be prepared to at least try to foul one off and stay alive, like Alexei Ramirez did on a breaking pitch that was away and off the plate.

21. Chicago White Sox (6-5; Previous: 25) – Sox pitchers allowing so many home runs tightfisted management actually kind of happy fans throw some back. 22. Seattle Mariners (7-6; Previous: 26) – King Felix finally curious enough to ask, "Um, what exactly am I the king of again?" [ MLB Full Count: Watch live look-ins and highlights for free all season long ] 23. Oakland Athletics (6-7; Previous: 21) – Little-known fact: A's moved to San Jose two years ago, MLB and Giants yet to notice. 24. Cincinnati Reds (4-8; Previous: 13) – Report says Albert Pujols almost a Red. True, too, if by "almost" meant "flew over Ohio on way to L.A." 25. Houston Astros (4-8; Previous: 30) – Stephen Strasburg gives up two runs in six innings against Astros, assumes he must have been tipping his pitches. No, that actually happened. 26. Kansas City Royals (3-9; Previous: 20) – American Leaguers pessimistic for All-Star game, seeing as home team never wins in K.C. 27. Minnesota Twins (4-8; Previous: 22) – "Liriano" is Spanish for "my slider's almost there." yahoo.com/sports

I guarantee AJ Pierzynski would have remembered the situation and run to first. He would have been out, but at least he would have been thinking up there correctly, with his head in the game. Just when you want to actually cheer for Alex Rios and believe for about the 10th time he's turning things around with the White Sox....he does something like that to make you angry with him again and you want to see him benched.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 03:22 PM) For those that couldn't see the 9th, what happened with Rios? He took a high but clearly in the strike zone breaking ball over the plate for strike 3. Then stood at the plate arguing with the umpire while he got tagged out. There was very little chance he would have been safe, as the ball got away from the catcher's glove maybe 10-15 feet.....but he should have run to force the catcher to make the throw, maybe it gets away miraculously and the White Sox tie up the ballgame somehow. Just selfish instincts there to completely forget the situation.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) I'm still kinda shocked that Ventura didn't have Fukudome bat for Escobar. Never a good thing to have the worst two players on your roster (Stewart and Escobar) play important roles in a close game. Fukudome is also good at drawing a walk, which Escobar most precisely is not.

Dammit Rios, instead of arguing with the ump, you could have tried to run to 1B like you're supposed to. That first foul really got the at-bat off to a bad start. Once again, another game in this series ends with the bases loaded and goes against us.

15 K's. Soon to be 16? Harrelson gets to take another shot at the umpiring, lol.

6/7 throwing out runners. Funny thing is we need Flowers' offense a lot more than defense, the opposite of when we acquired him. Guess we miss Felix. Actually wanted to see how our hitters fared against him, but it's probably better for Beckham and Morel to face struggling pitches like Noesi and Millwood.

QUOTE (kapzk @ Apr 19, 2012 -> 03:00 PM) So we are striking out this bad against starters who don't exactly have the flashiest K/9, I could only imagine when we face guys that are strikeout pitchers We usually have hit Felix Hernandez in the past. Even Brian Anderson.