caulfield12

The odds of us coming out of all ALL those four blown saves (and a bunch of other botched tie ballgames in the 7th and 8th) with wins aren't close to 100%, but you'd like to think if Reed was the closer from Day 1 we'd be something like 18-15, or maybe 19-14, because we're getting among the best starting pitching in the AL (3rd in ERA coming yesterday's game, and obviously that went down even more), combined with an improving but slightly below average offense. “Going into the season, we knew we were going to have to monitor this to a greater degree than we usually do,” general manager Ken Williams said Friday of the decision to switch Sale from reliever to starter. “We know there’s going to be an adjustment period.” That period usually comes in the minors, Williams said, but Sale, the top draft choice in 2010, essentially had no minor-league career. “What complicated things with Chris is we put him in the bullpen for two years,” Williams said. The real complication in the last week seems to have been the team’s initial reaction to Sale’s complaints about discomfort in his elbow. Within days of his start on May 1 in Cleveland, a 7-2 victory, manager Robin Ventura and pitching coach Don Cooper announced Sale was being moved to the closer’s role because a starting job might be too taxing for his arm considering his delivery style. Sale blew a save in his first opportunity May 4 in Detroit, but his psyche might have been the greater casualty. “I truly felt this was something I could do,” Sale said of starting, and he made that clear to Williams in a phone call the day he worked out of the bullpen. “He wants it badly, and I love that about him,” said Williams, whose conversation with Sale brought about the latest change. “I’m really proud because he stood up for himself. When Robin Ventura said he was going to the bullpen, what changed was a Chris Sale phone call to me.” Sale insisted that what initially was thought to be “pain” in his elbow — Williams called it “a red flag” to the team — was more “general soreness.” Sale told Williams, “I can get through this.” “He was adamant. He almost crossed the line,” Williams said. “But the forcefulness he had told us something. It told us he has something extra mentally.” Just as important was the medical exam, which Williams described as “clean.” Sale will start Saturday against the Kansas City Royals. “Everything will be monitored,” Williams said, admitting that Sale might have to be skipped at times, or even put in the bullpen again for brief stays. “We take care of our pitchers, and we’re going to shut you down if there is something that indicates you’re not healthy. We have to do what we have to do to manage him through the season. We may have to do it again [put him in the bullpen], though I hope not. “I don’t care if it causes questions in the rotation. If we have to take him out that day [he is scheduled], we will. He’s more important than that day’s game.” Ventura said he doesn’t envision a problem managing his rotation while managing Sale (3-1, 2.73 ERA). “It’s a unique situation. It’s the same kind of monitoring that was going on before,” Ventura said. “You probably look at it and keep tabs on it a little more.” Ventura and Williams insisted that what seemed ambiguous surrounding Sale’s situation on the outside was never that way internally. Ventura suggested any confusion was because the team was on the road and “people weren’t able to sit down face-to-face. And now we’re [home] and everybody can sit down, get tests done. You see things and talk about it face-to-face.” A defensive Williams said the Sox were only being cautious, as they have been with countless players through the years. “If anyone wants to come after me for being overly cautious, fire away,” he said. “We’re going to take care of this guy. We drafted him [to be] a starter. You don’t want to do anything to compromise his long-term future.” As for Sale, his thoughts for now are about starting Saturday. “I felt poorly that I set a goal to do this and fell drastically short,” he said. “I felt like I was letting my teammates down and felt like I was depending on other people to pick up my slack. It was disappointing to me not being able to fulfill something I was supposed to do. “They’ve had my best interests in mind since the day I got here. They would rather be too cautious than not cautious enough. They’ve been doing this a really long time, and they’re really good at what they do. I’m more than willing to buy into the program.” http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...x-rotation.html

I like how Manto wasn't even sure he wanted to set the sights as high as .280 with Gordon in his most recent comments. Then again, I think everyone would be thrilled with .260-.280 and an OPS between 675-725 compared to where he's been the last 12-18 months. What the heck is "DA DA"? Designate for assignment Dick Allen, lol?

Watching the A's game tonight against the Tigers, made me wish we'd traded Santos to the Red Sox so we could have acquired Reddick. That guy's been playing awfully well, especially considering half his games are played at a mausoleum where the ball doesn't carry well at night or in the cold marine layer. Of course, that would mean Viciedo would be blocked (again), but Reddick would have given us a much better and balanced outfield defensively, too. And it would have afforded us the luxury of being able to trade Dunn and plug in Viciedo into the DH spot. So now we're stuck wondering if we can be competitive in 2013/2014 or whether it would be better to clear Adam's contract right now. It's hard to argue that it would be a wise move unless you want to run off the remaining season ticket holders left. But oh well. Just hope Molina comes through as promised. And it's crazy to be back in that "short term/win now" mentality...seems like we always get suck backed right in, except for last year when you never really felt they were playing together as a team or were going to be a charge at 1st despite puttering along for 3-4 months without putting the rest of the division away.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ May 11, 2012 -> 11:39 PM) He's obviously the closer of the future. He's the closer now. Maybe they're just trying to bring him along slowly. Maybe they're trying to put him in positions where they feel he has the best chance for success. Maybe he's just being groomed to be a closer for the long term. We're not doing anything this year. Bringing Reed along slowly might be a real good thing. They didn't do that a week or so ago when he came into the game in the bottom of the 7th or 8th inning and there was already a runner on 2nd with two outs and the game was tied. At least let him start the 8th or 9th innings, don't put him out there to clean up someone else's mess.

Yep, they're going to have a hard time sticking with the Cardinals with all the surprising performances St. Louis is getting so far this season.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 11, 2012 -> 06:46 PM) What's got into Doyle tonight? 10 k's in 5 innings. You can understand why the Twins couldn't keep him, but do you think they'd like him back now? The Twins have a lot more problems than their 5th starter/last man in the bullpen. Remember, they also gave up on Humber. They probably viewed him the same way many view Dylan Axelrod (well, the way we did too, as we didn't protect him).

Hope they go with Santiago over Stewart here. You have to feel Hector's at least got the potential to straighten things out...some upside down the road.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 11, 2012 -> 09:33 PM) They can have Morel, Lillibridge, the whole gang! I think Middlebrooks is their guy for now though. We don't want to give away Lillibridge at such a low value. He was worth a lot more this past offseason. The way Hosmer's going this year just shows how there's almost NEVER anything such as a sure thing among hitting prospects...at least not to just come up and flat out dominate from the get-go. Bryce Harper's fallen off a bit too in Washington, they've moved him off the 3rd spot in the order down to 5th.

Thornton for Hosmer. Dangerous, dangerous situation, despite Hosmer's low BA.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 11, 2012 -> 09:31 PM) Probably have to include Morel to give them someone with a shot at beig their 3b replacement. Middlebrooks is making some errors there, had a key one tonight. But he's hitting well. 110 pitches for Floyd. Not good...bringing in Thornton here I think.

Jesse Crain and Santiago or Ohman to the Red Sox for Youkilis...Red Sox eat a decent-sized chunk of the contract. Maybe that would work. The Red Sox really need middle/set-up relief help desperately. V. Padilla can't be trusted with a 3 run lead. DeJesus just hit a GS (his first HR of the season) for the Cubs.

Dunn at 1.030 OPS, Konerko at 986. Tough night for Paulie.

Former Sox farmhand Frank Franscisco gives up two runs in the bottom of the 9th for the walkoff victory to MIA. C'mon Adam, no K here. Make contact against a LHP. Breaks the consecutive games with a K string (hopefully). Gotten on base all four times tonight.

DeAza with an 829 OPS now and going almost as good as in 2011. Along with Santos, the best move that KW has made the last 3 years, and even if Humber never recovers again from this tailspin, he was very useful the first half of last year. Darvish will come back after a long rain delay in TEX. CJ Wilson won't return.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 11, 2012 -> 09:07 PM) Yeah, I'm not worried about them yet. They aren't like Morel, who is hitting the lightest .180 I've ever seen. As far as Escobar goes, you might as well let someone different go up there and hack -- Eduardo isn't producing more, but at least he has a little bit of pitch selection, eliminates righty-righty advantage, and swings like he wants to hit something How does he eliminate the R/R advantage if he can't hit, lol? He wants to hit something, he just can't. We had a similar player a long time ago named Esteban Beltre...although Beltre had a very good arm, but similar defense-first players. Well, I'll give him credit for hustling and forcing something to happen there. Marlins escaping another blown save. Tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 9th.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2012 -> 09:05 PM) Alexei had a good game the other day. Viciedo's had two good at bats tonight as well. Phil Humber definitely should be on the who's not hot list. Reed on the Hot List.

Weird to think our biggest pitching weakness now is a pitcher who threw a perfect game 3 weekends ago.

Okay, triples instead of homers will work, too. At least we're not totally wasting his salary dollars this year, and the fans can again get behind all of our "bad contracts" from last year.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 11, 2012 -> 08:45 PM) Gordon Beckham is POUNDING the ball to right field right now. WOW, this is what I needed to see to believe. I'm in now on the Gordon Beckham gangbang train! I'd prefer to join the bandwagon at some point, but not the Joe Francis gangbang train, lol. Paulino actually was signed as a infielder, moved to OF and then became a pitcher. Sound familiar?

Yay, no strikeouts for Dunn yet. Only one more at-bat in all likelihood for Adam tonight. If he does K, it will tie a record for consecutive games with at least one K dating back to 1918.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2012 -> 08:32 PM) Paulino's been extremely impressive. Great command the past few innings with that fastball. Arguably we should have at least 3 and as many as 5 runs. On the other hand, the Royals had bases loaded and didn't score, so you feel we should be up at least one more run. Doesn't feel like a comfortable lead at all, but Gavin's been dealing going on 4 starts in a row now. Pretty surprising Houston and Colorado both gave up on Paulino with his stuff. That ends the string of 9 batters in a row...let's hope this isn't one of the walls that Gavin hits where he just falls apart and gives up a crooked number. Okay, an out there after the leadoff single by Dyson.

What's the weather like tonight? Only 19,129 in attendance. You'd have thought with 2 wins in a row, the news about Chris Sale, May's here and college students are getting out now...that we could at least manage 20,000 for a Friday home game.

Alright DeAza, get ready to run again. Why not? If he gets a good read. Should have sent Viciedo there, but oh well, DeAza's not quite the contact hitter that AJ is there. White Sox only averaging 2 runs per game in Floyd starts, second lowest of all ALL American League starters, last year he was among the best-supported. Included in that is 2 times the White Sox offense was shut out with Gavin on the mound. A little like John Danks from 2009-2011.

Ugh, once again Escobar showing he really doesn't belong in the major leagues at this point in his career. And, in other news, the Marlins have blown yet another save in the early season, this time Mujica in the 8th against the Mets. Chisek blew one in his first opportunity but the Marlins ended up winning in extra innings.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2012 -> 08:22 PM) Isn't Youk a FA after the year? Yep. Or maybe there's a big option for next year that's not guaranteed with a buyout like Peavy's. If they're going to do that, they might as well go after a real impact player in David Wright, but I don't see what pieces they would have to make that work without crippling the major league roster or giving away our few remaining prospects. It would be tempting for KW with a talent like Wright out there, but JR would have to sign off on it and you'd have to think we'd need some sort of attendance uptick.