caulfield12

So much for the Dunn is making progress theory. Frustrating.

If the Twins hadn't blown that 7-0 lead the other night, they'd be threatening only 6 games under .500 tonight. As it stands, they've improved the exact same number of games as we have. -20 to -9, White Sox -11 to .500. Paulino already at 78 pitches with no outs in the bottom of the 4th.

I wonder if any team in MLB history has started a hitter at #3 in July who had an average of .170 or below with over 200 previous at-bats that season?

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 08:13 PM) So what the f*** is it with this team. We take fastballsdown the cock, then swing at s*** in the dirt. It's hard to drive in runners when you get it backwards. Because Reynoso destroyed Lilly with the slider the first time up. Then Brent was expecting the local (this time up) and got the express...got down in the count, it's the story of Dunn at-bats all season long. I don't know how you can explain it, but this team ALWAYS rallies when Peavy's pitching and gets behind early.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 08:12 PM) That would be Alex Avila. Of the catchers that were available on the FA market this offseason.

So much for the Lillibridge magic batting touch. He's left the bases loaded 3-4 times in a row now without threatening a hit.

AJ all the way up to a 717 OPS now. He might be the bargain catcher of the year for 2011. 2012, not so much.

Getz saved a run there. But that's what we need out of Quentin. K. Walker bringing good luck to the Sox. He'll be heading to Great Falls on Friday morning out of Salt Lake City.

C'mon Carlos, nice and easy swing for a single. You need to start looking hitterish again.

Not sure if you want Morel to be more known for bunting than XB power, but any way you can get on base in front of Konerko, you'll take it.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 07:52 PM) He's been a different player the last 6 weeks. If he could maintain a .725/.750-ish OPS with his glove and speed, wow. At 24 and dirt cheap, that's tremendous value for the Royals. Viciedo patience problem, though. Only 16 walks in over 300 at-bats.

Probably you don't make that move because you need to have enough offense to win games in our stadium. Not with Morel at 3B. Then who would play 2B? Teahen? Lillibridge? Omar? Kuhn? That would be the most anemic offensive infield in MLB if you took Konerko out of the equation. Perfect idea to trade for Melky Cabrera. He doesn't run to 1B, either. Peavy not missing many bats. He just doesn't have the stuff right now to pile up the strikeouts.

Farmer said only 22-23,000 again today. So much for the fans being "All In."

This season would really really suck if we didn't have Konerko. You have to give some credit to KW and JR for sticking their neck out for him to keep Paulie around in his "golden years."

They're just going to have to hope to get 5 or 6 innings out of Peavy and pray we can fight our way back into this one. Maybe this is just his "dead arm" time and it will hopefully bounce back after the ASB.

Well, this is a familiar pattern. Peavy down 3-0 again. Doesn't seem to have his good fastball this start, either.

Hosmer seeming to take exception to Peavy's politicking for the 3rd strike with the home plate umpire. Vizquel should have taken the out at 3rd and it would be 2 outs, 1st and 2nd. Oh, well. You need to score at least one run anyway. Doubt it will end up 1-0 with the wind blowing out and 85 degrees.

delete, duplicate

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 06:41 PM) Braves won't do this. I know they're overflowing with pitching, majors and minors, but they're not parting with a cost/team controlled gem for a defensively-challenged (though he's been better this year; hard to be worse), injury-prone guy who's a year away from FA. Beachy is probably the NL ROY front-runner if not for his DL stint. You might if you're just one hitter away and you feel you have 3 even better arms in the minors. It all depends on how they feel internally about Beachy's top ceiling. Obviously last year, Hudson wouldn't have been traded if Cooper/KW felt Hudson would be able to be a #1-2 starter for the White Sox. And they'd have Quentin for at least 1 1/3rd seasons, not unlike the Jackson trade. If you look at the stats for Heyward and Schafer, they're way down.

Yeah, the Yankees had a play on a pop-up by Chisenhall in the 7th yesterday or they would have kept their 2-0. Instead, they went down 4-2. Granderson continuing to kill the ball, another homer. Jeter 4 away from 3000 with 2 hits. Carlos Carrasco had been pitching exceptionally well the last month. Paulino's slider at 89 MPH, 3 miles faster than Francis' FB. 95-99 MPH in that first inning...that gun has to be at least 3 mph fast.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 06:01 PM) KW gets stiffer wood looking at Viciedo than any other White Sox property. He wants him in Chicago. If he can get a great return for Quentin, I think he would it. It will save him money next year and using the old CLee trade formula, the trade would actually be whatever they get for Quentin plus Viciedo. I also think other factors would have to be involved like Dunn and some others picking it up a bit so not all the pressure to improve the offense is put on Viciedo with CQ gone. CQ is a weird guy. Who knows, maybe it wears on the clubhouse. I wouldn't give him away though. He can still hit, and he's playing a lot better in RF. Basically, the opposite of the Jackson for Hudson/Holmberg trade. You really wonder if we acquired someone like J. Damon on the cheap for DH and held onto Hudson exactly what position we'd be in today. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. We'd definitely have a lot more flexibility going forward and be at $105-110 million in payroll instead of $127. I'm sure Reinsdorf would be more comfortable at that number.

Only major changes. Lillibridge for Rios in CF (batting 7th) and Alex Gordon back into the Royals' line-up in the 3 hole. SOUND FAMILIAR?? When one looks at the 2011 Detroit Tigers, one sees a team of stark extremes. Detroit possesses four of the top 25 position players in the AL by wins above replacement (WAR) in Jhonny Peralta, Miguel Cabrera, Alex Avila and Brennan Boesch. They also have the third-best pitcher in the league by WAR, Justin Verlander. Yet the Tigers are only a few games above .500 and in second place in a weak AL Central. Looking at Detroit's starting lineup, it's striking to see the gulf between the players that are contributing and the players that aren't. With the players mentioned above and Victor Martinez's bat, the Tigers offense should rank higher than fifth in the AL in runs scored. But that is where it stands, thanks to Magglio Ordonez, Ryan Raburn, Ramon Santiago and Brandon Inge, all of whom have an OPS below .600. Just how impressive is the size of the gulf in the lineup between the performers and the non-performers on a historical level? To examine this, I looked at every team going back to 1901 and took the eight most frequent starters for every team (nine for DH-era American Leaguers). I went with a simple measure of disparity and compared every lineup's top-four and bottom-four hitters to see which lineups in history were the most polarized. To keep things simple, I used OPS. www.espn.com/mlb

So to summarize, as bad as KW has f---ed up in trades over the last 3 seasons, we're still only a couple of his Floyd/Danks/Ramirez/Quentin masterstrokes from being competitive in the future. Of course, everything has to break right with Beckham, Peavy and Dunn. For some reason, Rios seems more and more like a lost cause. It will be very interesting, though, how KW decides to handle Peavy (let's say he goes on an extended run and is healthy for the remainder of the season), Jackson, Danks, Floyd and Buehrle. Who goes, who stays, and what pitchers we can get back for them and in, in all probability, Quentin. Carlos has reached the end of the line where his effectiveness is becoming too pricey...and we can't control his rights long-term, either. We saw the same issues crop up with Jenks, Rowand and Crede at roughly the same point in their White Sox careers (although Joe was more of a health issue, obviously). Danman, why didn't you follow conventional wisdom and stick Sale in the starting rotation?

After watching Dunn flail away for half a season, I'd be a bit more skeptical about bringing in another NL hitter in the middle of the season who's meant to be the "igniter" of the team. Sure, you'd rather have Bourn than Pierre, no doubt about that one. Just pretty hard to assume he'd come close to hitting the ground running for 2011.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 03:32 PM) Probably true on Rios, but those weren't the rules. Looking at that list makes the Quentin for Beachy speculation seem reasonable. That would be a massive boost in the long-term for the Sox. And if the Braves threw in Scott Proctor, you'd have the additional veteran RH reliever that Ozzie covets. It's pretty obvious Ozzie doesn't trust Pena, and he actually likes Bruney a lot. Maybe we don't make another move there. Maybe it's Kinney, not sure. One thing is that I can't remember too many rookie relievers (besides Jenks and Santos) put into late innings work or trusted by Ozzie right off the bat. Probably, that's as much about their lack of quality (the likes of a Sean Tracey, Nunez or A. Montero, etc.) than anything else.