caulfield12

Willie Mays Eyre....good name for Scott's bro. 1st and 3rd, one out, Tigers threatening to break it open in the top of the 8th at BALT. That wasn't predictable by Flowers. Sheez.

Hey, Greg... It doesn't matter that every single ball into LF ends up in a runner advancing a base on Pierre's arm, does it? But he's hitting .282 or whatever, so everything's fine.

3-6 against the Royals alone should cost everyone their jobs. Granted, Stewart's not Edwin Jackson, but c'mon. How many games can we lose to Bruce Chen before they decide HEY, JUST MAYBE we need to find a hitting coach that all the hitters will actually listen to??

Alexei pull hook. Quentin swinging out of his ass. Konerko the only one with the correct approach. And no AJ, doubt that Tyler Flowers will actually get a hit unless he gets lucky with his "slider speed" bat and runs in to a ball on the inside half.

Flowers wrist is hurting. Have to do an MRI, apparently, unless it's just a bruise.

CLE passed the Twins again....3-2 now Indians and looking to add more in the bottom of the 8th.

Chen would be in the HOF if he only pitched against the White Sox. Meanwhile, Greg Walker...well. Hope AJ's wrist isn't seriously hurt, just a bone bruise?? Flowers in the game now. That would be a season-ender for the Sox.

So.... Beckham sucks, Rios sucks. Konerko can't run a lick it would be 1-1. Stewart's been okay. Tigers are up again on the O's, Twins 2-1 over Indians.

Watch AJ, Pierre or Paulie. They'll have to take anything pitched on the outside half of the plate (80% of his pitches) and take it to the opposite field. Chen is a little bit similar to Tommy Glavine in the last five years of his career.

That's why Lillibridge at 2B and DeAza in the line-up as the DH works too. The problem is Paulie's injury forces Brent to 1B for the time being. Beckham's defense is better than Omar's now, and he occasionally runs into an offspeed pitch and hits a home,r so he's still a better option than OLDmar.

I'll go with the theory that only completely under the radar guys like Buehrle, Boone Logan and Santiago ever rise up out of the system and succeed with the Sox. Hyped prospect, forget it! Unless you're Hudson/Gio and you succeed with another organization.

18/31 steals when he led the majors in 2010 and when that's his main weapon....that's not surprisingly good. His defense is worse than last year. He's making $8.5 million (part of it is subsidized from LA, granted). Sure, he's had a lot of clutch hits in the last two months and his average has risen to a decent number for a singles hitter, but it's not like he's a bargain by any stretch of the imagination. If Dunn/Rios/Peavy and Beckham didn't exist on this team to disappoint us, Pierre would return to his previously vilified status (of course, if they were all hitting and pitching well, we'd be in 1st place going away and Pierre's average season wouldn't matter much). Morel's a bit harder to pick on as an often overmatched rookie making the league minimum.

Kansas City and Pittsburgh would support their teams well if they actually were .500 or above and providing some hope for the future. San Diego at least has that beautiful stadium and lots of money in SoCal. Houston's future looks very bleak but their attendance is still well ahead of ours....they have traditionally supported their teams and had pretty big payrolls under McLane. We'll see with Crane. Baltimore could easily have made this list. Toronto too, despite J4L's pleas.

Kim Ng would be a typical White Sox hire. Always on the cutting edge with minority hiring/affirmative action. Former Sox employee. Somehow, at this juncture of Sox history, JR will probably be too conservative to pull the trigger in making her the first female GM, though. DiPoto is the only one with a major league playing background there on that list...I'm pretty sure.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Aug 12, 2011 -> 09:41 AM) I mostly agree, except for the Morel part. We had him in the 2 hole and he failed, and we'd be jerking Lexi around yet again. Leave him at #9 this season and approach things with an open mind in the spring. Look at Alexei's hit chart. He simply can't do the Iguchi-esque things that Morel can....execution-wise....he doesn't change his approach for the situation or count. Same thing with Quentin and Beckham. They're just up there hacking away and pulling everything. Rios, too. Morel is a team player and does the little things you don't notice in the box score. The only problem with putting Ramirez in the RBI spot is that he has sucked with runners on base, hit into way too many DP's for his speed and he's still a more dangerous hitter than Morel so you can certainly argue him getting more pitches to hit with Juan Pierre on base in front of him...that's the strongest argument on Ramirez's behalf.

I ended up dumping Nortel instead so my mom can take a loss for taxes. I suppose there's an outside chance AIG could recover 10 years from now. Probably not.

I thought Santiago had at least 2 long mop-up jobs that he did well in... 5.33, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K's

Maybe he did and Sergio didn't want to give away anything...guess that's possible. That was the same thought everyone was probably having while reading it, exactly what did Mariano say to him? MUCH BETTER ARTICLE on the Mo/Santos meeting: http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...ice-from-rivera

A shutout against the Royals isn't happening. They have too many good fastball hitters. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/batvspitch/_...3926/bruce-chen AJ and Juan Pierre have hit really well against Chen. If you look at the splits, they'll tell the numbers against RHB and LHB aren't very different at all. Here's a suggested line-up. Pierre Morel (because he is our best #2 guy going forward) Konerko Quentin AJ Ramirez Rios (4 for 25 against Chen but hot as of late) Lillibridge (for Beckham at 2B) DeAza (for Dunn/DH) Beckham is 1 for 10 against Chen. Beckham can't hit a fastball on the outside half or up, and it seems all he will do is pull every outside pitch on the ground to the 3B or SS if he does actually make contact. At least this way you get Dunn/Beckham out of the line-up and a lot more pop and athleticism from the bottom of the order. DeAza has hit lefties well in AAA this year, so not worried about that, and Chen hasn't had great success against LHB's this year either.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Jonathan Papelbon By Dan Mennella [August 11 at 10:08pm CST] In an upcoming class of free agents flush with solid closers, Red Sox stopper Jonathan Papelbon will arguably be the grand prize. Papelbon, 31 in November, is still in his prime and on track for his sixth consecutive campaign of at least 35 saves in as many seasons as Boston's closer. He didn't merely compile those saves by virtue of simply holding the job; the 2.33 career ERA and 2.68 FIP are befitting a stud closer. This season, in particular, has been an important one for Papelbon on the heels of a tumultuous 2010. He's posted a 3.14 ERA and 26 saves to date, but if you dig deeper, the advanced estimators like him more than that, enough for a 2.37 xFIP and 1.62 SIERA. If the end-of-season numbers are closer to those figures, Paps will hit the open market on quite the high note. Papelbon avoided arbitration last offseason for a $12MM salary in 2011, and I'd guess he won't want to take a cut in annual salary (I know, going out on a limb there). And considering three-year deals were handed out like so many Jolly Ranchers to setup men such as Joaquin Benoit and Scott Downs last winter, he'd be silly not to seek a pact of at least that length. The tricky part is that his most obvious suitor, or perhaps the one that seems the likeliest, is his current team, the Red Sox, and they have plenty of bargaining leverage. Setup man Daniel Bard has emerged as one of the game's elite relievers the past couple years, and Ryan Madson, Heath Bell and Francisco Rodriguez threaten to dent the market for Papelbon, as do older guys like Francisco Cordero, Joe Nathan (MN wants him but not Capps back, but will buy out deal and renegotiate for 1-2 year contract with lots of incentives), Brad Lidge and Jose Valverde (no way he leaves), whose respective teams hold club options for 2012. Bargaining is a ways off yet, but a couple of experts have shared interesting and differing takes recently. One NL GM told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe that he wouldn't break up the formidable late-innings duo of Bard and Papelbon, and that he thinks Boston will buck up when it comes down to it. Meanwhile, Peter Gammons said last month that if Papelbon is seeking something like three years and $36MM, the Sox will likely allow him to walk. I think the terms mentioned by Gammons are probably the magic numbers for Papelbon. Consider, for example, that Mariano Rivera will have earned $15MM for five consecutive years from 2008-12 (on three- and two-year contracts), and $36MM for three doesn't seem so unreasonable. Of course, that's a dicey comparison because of Mo's greatness, his inextricable ties to the Yankees organization and so on. But there are parallels. Is Paps the Red Sox's Rivera? More pointedly, will the sides proceed in contract dealings the way the Yanks and Rivera have -- knowing that they need each other? My bet is, "yes." If he doesn't end up staying with Boston, what teams would/could realistically go after him?

I'm sure the argument will be that they should have replaced Dunn when Viciedo was hot (at least against LHP) and then rotating in with the outfielders as well....and brought up DeAza to light a fire under Rios much earlier...then the season could/would have been saved.

Jays Unlikely To Sign First Rounder Beede? By Dan Mennella [August 11 at 8:22pm CST] It's "nearly certain" that the Blue Jays will not sign first rounder Tyler Beede, a right-handed high school pitcher out of Massachussets and the 21st overall pick, who will instead honor his commitment to Vanderbilt, a source tells Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. Beede was expected to be a tough sign, according to Mayo, and was considered an aggressive selection at No. 21 overall. If the Jays do not sign Beede, he would not be eligible for the draft again till 2014, and Toronto would receive a compensation selection in next year's draft, the 22nd overall pick. A source tells Jim Callis of Baseball America that the situation is "not that dire" (Twitter link), while Keith Law of ESPN.com wonders (via Twitter) whether this is a ploy by Toronto to thwart an MLB investigation, as the Jays were suspected of having an illegal pre-draft agreement in place with Beede.

Mitchell and Thompson are XB-hitting machines who are both hitting .232 on the button and striking out way too much. YIKES. Is it too late to get back on the Silverio bandwagon?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2011 -> 11:45 PM) I'll trust you guys who know our prospects the best. Does Sale have 3-4 good, effective pitches? If so, he's a starter, right? If he only has two, he's a reliever. Then Stewart's in a lot of trouble, he only consistently throws 2 pitches. If they're Contreras or Verlander type stuff, you can get away with it. And Sale's slider is good enough with that fastball because of the speed differential. Still, he does need to add a 3rd pitch he can throw 10-15% of the time...that could make him truly special as a starter, if his arm/shoulder/elbow and mechanics hold up with that bean-pole frame over a 162 game season. Of course, a lot of people doubted Gio Gonzalez had the ability to be a starter when we drafted it and POOF!, look how far he came from draft day to now.

The Sox record in one run games, the Sox record in extra innings (5-10), and being well below .500 at home. Those are three categories you always look at (besides team ERA/WHIP and quality starts) for playoff-caliber teams. Those three things alone have told White Sox fans to be and remain skeptical. To get to the playoffs in the face of all those negatives working against them would be one of the biggest statistical anomalies or outliers in the history of the game. Not hyperbole.