caulfield12

Let's see if we get the "good" or "bad" Crain. We'll find out pretty quickly with the middle of the order. It's a miracle that this game is tied with how many hits the Orioles put on the board. 11 and only 4 runs? They weren't missing many. Indians now leading 9-3 and threatening for more. MIL going for the knockout blow against the Cardinales.

Wow....starting to become a believer here. Can we actually pull this game out? Great job Juan, you sucked for 2 1/2 months but you've been a very clutch hitter ever since. But please don't sign him for 2012, KW. Whatever you do...don't do that. Humber somehow gutted out 6 IP. Please, please, please tell me the bullpen's coming into the game. Aha, looks like Crain time.

Atta boy Brent. Berken coming into to try to retire Juan Pierre. At-bat of the game....we need to at least get within 1 run here somehow. Berken with 6.10 ERA.

At least Rios is alive now. Should have brought up DeAza months ago to get this reaction out of Alex. 144 K's coming into this ab, ahead of Reynolds and Austin Action Jackson.

Not better D by Omar. Just younger legs. He's done as a SS. He can still contribute at 3B and 2B occasionally. Setting up for the game of the season in the AL Central tmrw with Verlander trying to hold the 2 game lead in the face of a 13 game losing streak in CLE.

OOOPS. Guess I'm saving a lot of money NOT watching the White Sox this season. That sucks. Thought they were in KC.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 06:37 PM) 11 fly balls for the Sox tonight. Looks like we're going to have to beat up on Tillman tomorrow to salvage this series and have some momentum for Friday. A loss tomorrow, and you're probably looking at a half-empty Cell. Thought we had KC on the road, then CLE and TEX at home??? I hope that's right, I will be at the Friday and Saturday games in KC.

If Ramirez was playing shortstop...or Lillibridge, we probably limit the damage to 2 runs there in the early innings instead of 3. OLDmar just has zero range at this point in his career. Even if he stops the ball, he doesn't have the arm strength to make most of the throws...especially deep in the hole.

1) Humber has hit the wall...nothing to be done about that 2) Vizquel should never be playing SS at his age, only 3B or 2B....you have to use Lillibridge to rest Ramirez 3) Dunn has to benched for the rest of the season 4) Nobody on this team is taking the right approach at the plate except Konerko, AJ and Morel...and Pierre usually Beckham, Rios, Quentin, Ramirez, Dunn....all of them need a new hitting coach desperately You can't try to pull every outside pitch. Harrelson keeps saying "just missed it" but that's what will happen Carlos. Rios keeps pulling outside pitches and they're resulting in a ton of lazy fly balls to CF. I've given up expecting Beckham to go on anything resembling another hot streak the final 7 weeks. Last inning was a perfect example. Leadoff double, Dunn K, Beckham swinging out of his ass and popping up and the runner never leaving 2B. Can't afford to give away games that like this when you're 4 GB in the heart of August.

Can you mark on your form "apply to new hitting coach" like the check-off on the 1040 for the World Wildlife Fund or Presidential Election matching funds?

Another one would be the race for most homers between Alexei, Beckham, Lillibridge and Rios.

Wonder what the buy rate will be? http://www.baseballprospectus.com/odds/ Current playoff odds, 25.7%

The market for Jose Reyes should still be strong after the season, Jon Heyman writes at SI.com. MLB executives tell Heyman that the Giants, Cardinals, Tigers, Angels, Nationals, Braves, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees and Mets could be fits for the shortstop in terms of finances and positional need. Here are the rest of Heyman’s rumors... That would really suck! They could easily move Peralta back to 3B to make room for him.

I'm leaning towards holding onto Pfizer and TI. Cisco, MEHHHHHH. They're going to have to completely reinvent that company and the router business to ever be a growth stock again.

Not usually a fan of the blonde/silicone looks, but she's cute. And she has a big personality. Would much rather have watched her than Rosie what's her name in Transformers. She reminds me of a lot of the women you meet in Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina. But obviously not Latina. BACK TO WHITE SOX, don't stop now, boys!

No reason to sell, actually. My mom likes to write off losses every once in a while against her taxes. Personally, CISCO is the only one I don't think has much of a shot to recover...it has been parked in that same range for a decade. Trying to figure out where to invest about $20,000-30,000 where she'll get a good rate of return, some type of bond fund....6-8% or so. Right now it's getting 0.01%!!! Was just researching OHYAX, DVHYX, DHOAX, JIHDX and RYHDX. Most of her money is at Vanguard, American Century, Legg Mason and Oakmark Funds. Alcatel, AIG, LSI Logic, Cisco, Nortel....those stocks are pretty much buried forever. Just sitting there at massive losses. Cisco at $74.59 per share, and that's the best of these former high-flying tech stocks (well, AIG's another story).

Will be interesting to see which direction Rios goes in from here... He showed a little emotion on a pull-hook grounder (maybe it was a DP ball, can't remember), slammed his helmet down on his knee after running through 1B. Mully and Hanley were of the opinion this display boded well. Others aren't so sure.

Pfizer Cisco Texas Instruments Realized I was holding these three stocks (all underwater)...anyone have a compelling reason not to sell and write them off against taxes?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) You know, you can actually google "Matt Thornton Fangraphs" yourself. It isnt' that hard. Velocity: 2008 95.4 2009: 95.7 2010: 96.1 2011: 95.7. Is that average velocity or average velocity on all his pitches thrown? It just seems his stuff isn't as crisp as before, based just on the eye test. And maybe if all the pitches are in that category, he's never thrown more fastballs than any previous season it seems. Once again. Perception. Could be wrong easily enough. How much less is he throwing his offspeed pitches in 2011?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) Caulfield, I think you need to accept the fact that Crain is not going anywhere. But wouldn't we have said the same thing about Linebrink back in 2008. Crain has had a really good two year run...better than he's ever been before. But I still don't think we need both Crain AND Frasor. It's a luxury we probably won't be able to afford unless we win the division this year. Sure, I'd keep both of them and get rid of Wil Ohman. You'd rather have 2 quality relievers than 5-6 Ohmans paid half that amount.

Thornton hasn't been missing as many bats as in years past. It's largely because the more fastballs you see in an at-bat, the greater your chances of timing it are...and command/location. Where's fangraphs on this? I'd swear he's down at least 1-1.5 mph on his fastball average this season. Finally, because there's so much more contact being made....there's always a bloop, bleeder, broken bat single (he breaks more bats than anyone I've seen in recent years but they almost always wind up with a man on base), he's just also a little bit snake-bitten. But that IP-H ratio has never been so lopsided. I would guess there's only one other year since he joined the Sox that he's given up more H and IP.

But, if the choice is keeping Danks/Quentin/Buehrle or MATTY for 2012, one of those guys becomes much more feasible with Thornton/Crain/Frasor gone, and you pull the trigger on that deal every time if you can get something of value back in return. Especially with the overkill of having two righty set-up guys that are highly compensated and that being the strongest area of our farm system at the current moment.

I think we need to go to China, India and Brazil and just starting signing anyone who can throw 93+ on a radar gun. Would probably work out better in the end than our Broadway/McCulloch strategy. Give me 25-50 of those guys and you're more likely to have a Santos or Sale than throwing money at high draft picks.

Actually kind of created this with Dick Allen in mind. Talking about this aspect of baseball is more interesting (to me) than Greg Walker threads.

Matt's age, diminished velocity compared to previous years, his expanding contract, his inability to control any secondary pitches on a consistent basis, his failure/s as a closer in April, his IP/H ratio, our high probability of needing to cut payroll by at least $20 million next year....etc.