caulfield12

Who will melt down more today, Tiger Woods or Carlos Zambrano? Ooops, former Cub, does that count for this thread? And that trade the Padres masterminded for Matt Latos was an absolute steal....would be no suprise if Volquez alone does better that Matt out there in that huge park. The other 3 prospects are all going to be key building blocks, particularly Yonder Alonso.

Both Floyd and Harrison have historically struggled in April. Floyd's April ERA is 5.71 -- the ninth-highest among 119 active Major League pitchers with at least 10 career starts in April -- while Harrison's April ERA is 5.42 -- the 13th highest. Although it's always difficult to judge how Spring Training numbers will translate to the regular season, Harrison has reason to be optimistic. He was the Rangers' best pitcher in camp -- posting a 1.69 ERA and .190 average against -- thanks in large part to concentrating on stepping straight toward the hitter and driving straight downhill. In the past, he had a tendency to stop to the side. "This makes me more consistent hitting my spots. I'm not pulling off," Harrison said. "I do that when I try to throw too hard. I pull off and not hit my spots. Going downhill makes my curve a lot sharper and my slider more of a real slider." While Harrison had an impressive spring, Floyd struggled, posting a 6.64 ERA in 20 1/3 innings as opposing batters hit .296 against him. Part of the reason for those high marks was the usual Spring Training tinkering, as Floyd worked on expanding his arsenal. "I worked on my changeup, I worked on a cutter, I worked on using both sides of plate with all my pitches," Floyd said after his final Cactus League outing. "I'm trying to refine things, trying to get better as a pitcher. Things have been going real well." www.mlb.com Josh Hamilton is 6/10 off Floyd. Konerko is something like 1/10 or 1/11 against Harrison.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) While partly true there are plenty of folks around that are coming to realize just how bad that team is. There is almost no hope there for even a casual watching of a baseball game unless you really like to watch Starlin Castro. The fact that they could be 2-0 if Marshall was not traded for a AAA pitcher is not helping. Why trade Marshall and not Marmol? Also if you look at the state of the Red Sox right now you realize Theo and Jed were about to be unemployed and the cubs came to the rescue. I'm not so sure about that, the Red Sox were the best team in baseball for 4 1/2 months last season. Take away the complete collapse, and Epstein is a boy wonder again. But you're right, Cherington's in the same seat that Theo was headed for, and just like Ozzie, he probably saw the writing on the wall and got out at the best time for him personally. The core players on that team are aging (Youkilis and Ortiz), they have the horrible Lackey contract, as well as Dice-K still on the books, and they're going to have a horrible time with that bullpen until Bard gets moved back, which then opens up a gaping hole in the rotation. And Beckett just doesn't have the same dominating level of stuff he used to have, it's not unlike what we're seeing now out of Ubaldo Jimenez.

Don't forget Beckham, too. Everything has a way of evening out. Opposing pitchers will make adjustments to Cespedes, too. He's not going to hit 120 homers, at least it's unlikely with the lack of protection currently available in the A's line-up.

Feels nice to sneak away with one in a super tough environment against the top or second best offense in the AL. CLE has really come out of the gate struggling, and we've played well there in recent years, so coming back for the homer opener at 3-3 or 4-2 would be great.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 07:01 AM) Good point. Better teams manage to win games they should have lost and bad teams manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is too small of a sample size but I wouldn't mind a season of winning ugly. To tell the truth, felt like a 90% chance Thornton was going to walk Napoli there. The crowd was going nuts, and it was a bit of surprise that he was still in there instead of bringing in Crain with the bases loaded, but it was a refreshing show of confidence in Matty by Ventura (instead of going with Ozzie's typical L/R match-up stuff). There was a high strike call that was very borderline, so I guess it evened out some of Winters' bad calls on Friday against Gordon and Dayan. Apparently, if Santiago had given up the tying run, then Crain was going to enter the game, if it went to extras. We let the opener get away, and this felt like a game we were heading in the direction of a loss after they tied it at 3-3 and Peavy seemed to be struggling. That's the beauty of baseball. Not to mention the fact that a similar play that Hamilton snared Friday, DeAza ended up letting the ball get all the way to the wall, Peavy was about to fall apart, balks, bobbled balls on the infield, but he managed to right the ship and limit the damage. Guess we should all give up looking for that 95-97 MPH heater from Peavy and just hope 1) he can stay healthy and be a quality starter and 2) we can save some money on his contract and/or get some decent prospects back in return at the deadline.

The 1971 original version of Straw Dogs with Hoffman, or the 2011 version with Kate Bosworth?

Goon is pretty good, but nothing close to some of the best sports movies. Jay Baruchel, the side-kick, is annoying as hell. Allison Pill, the love interest, is cute without being cloying. SHAME, Fassbender movie about sexual addiciton, wow....such an intensive movie. As Ebert mentioned, and it was one of his ten best of the last decade, not something I would want to watch again anytime soon. Carrie Mulligan does a slow version of Sinatra's New York that you can never forget. As an added bonus, she's naked, which kind of surprised me, as she definitely has passed the point in her career where she would be pressured to do that for a role. Fassbender is great in this role, if you haven't seen HUNGER about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, that's another must-see.

Is Olacio really 6'7"? Wow, the biggest lefty I can remember with the Sox was Jeremy Sisco. Thornton's big, but not THAT big.

The Sox had nine homegrown players on their opening day roster, tying them for fifth in the American League. The Twins had 14, followed by the Angels with 12 and the Royals and Rays with 11 apiece. chicagotribune.com/sports http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...1.column?page=1 Good Haugh article on Ventura's managerial style

Apparently, Ventura changed his mind because Lillibridge was 2/3 against Holland and he felt it would be good to get all the bench players on the field sometime in the first two series. That's reasonable enough.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/break...0,7742946.story See the different treatment here of Ozzie by the writer and the organization, comparing to Cowley's constant rationalizations to defend him?

3rd homer in his first 13 AB's. Hit an absolutely monster shot straight over the CF fence just now to bring the A's back to within one run from a huge deficit earlier in the game, a little to the right of straightaway actually....through very cold air out in OAK. Crushed 3 400+ foot bombs already. He's going to strike out a ton, and he's raw, but Dallas Braden said he's hit some of the hardest balls he's ever seen. King Felix was super pissed at the bullpen. Thank god he didn't end up on the Tigers, Cubs or even Marlins.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 10:14 PM) I had to listen to the game on MLB radio, but the ninth sounded pretty sweet. The Rangers outhit us 10-5 and left about 7 other line drives and hang with 'ems/just missed it's all over the field. The key play that inning with definitely Alexei Ramirez's basket catch in short LCF. The runner reaches there and the entire complexion of that inning is changed.

And Fister's already gone on the DL for an oblique injury. Drew Smyly is their 5th....so they're going to have to use LHP Below or maybe Jacob Turner for awhile. That should keep them from running away from the division in the first month or so.

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 08:56 PM) Wow, this really changes our complexion of our bullpen and team. As long as he does well, then Reed can become an awesome set up man against righties (and emergency/fill-in closer) and Thornton still is a good setup man against lefties. Then Ohman and Crain are decent for the 6th and/or 7th inning. Still not sure about Jones and Stewart. But they won't be used as much if our starters pitch well. Makes me feel really good about our pitching staff overall. And Molina has time to develop and possibly be a starter that we use later in the year. We could use Addison Reed in the same type of role the Tigers used J. Zumaya when he first came up. 5th-8th inning, and sometimes in the 9th even, when there's a tie game. Seems Crain will still probably be in his 7th/8th inning role. Ventura seems to know what he's doing, bringing in Santiago and leaving Rios in the game.

1983 Lose to Texas to start the season 2000 Lose to Texas to start the season 2012 Lose to Texas to start the season

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 08:46 PM) http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2011/0...ctor_santi.html What a great story. Kid goes from nowhere, playing in Puerto Rican winter ball (working on his offspeed stuff and screwball), to the #11 prospect in the worst minor league system in baseball to bypassing the #1 Sox prospect (and the #1 closer prospect in the game) and being named our closer. He was throwing easy, 94-95 MPH gas, almost as easy as Thornton. But there's something about his composure and moxie on the mound...amazing where we come up with all of our closers, Takatsu, Hermanson, Jenks, Santos and now Santiago.

Hector Santiago=Eddie Guardado with heat and a screwball

Santiago to start the 9th. Not sure if Crain will come in to replace him, but with how much time he missed in ST (Crain), you just don't know.

What just happened? When he pitched for the Twins, we never beat him like that. Crazy. KW for GM of the year, lol. Always a danger using a closer in a tie ballgame. HECTOR SANTIAGO will start the 9th.

Shades of Bobby Jenks there. Jesus of Nazareth, Matt! That's why you are most assuredly NOT the closer.

If that hadn't hit Murphy, Young probably would have scored from the resulting wild pitch.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 08:19 PM) I don't think they had a lefty up Robbie Ross, rookie, was tossing then. Waiting to make his MLB debut.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 7, 2012 -> 08:19 PM) Fukudome wouldn't have faced Adams if he was replacing Lillibridge, the Rangers would have brought in that lefty kid. And then Dunn would have to face the Lefty as well. Still, it would have been his big league debut. You hope he gets nervous and leaves one out over the plate for Dunn, in that case.