caulfield12

Was reading that Verlander has a 0.72 ERA in his last 7 starts. That doesn't even include the no-hitter against the Blue Jays. 10+ K's (including 14) in 3 consecutive games. The Mets had scored something like 56 runs in the 4 games coming into the match-up, so you're not going to get a hotter line-up against him. Laughing at the Rockies' radio team saying "Beckham had a fine year in 2010." .252, 9, 49. I guess that's what we're left to expect now.

He was at 87-89 towards the end of that inning. Almost all of his pitchers are at the same speed, relatively speaking. Not a good recipe for success.

Have a bad feeling about this.... They'd be better off just letting Santiago go out there or whoever. We'll see if this has any lingering effects.

Peavy's velocity is down. 89-91 pretty consistently. Does he always throw like that in the beginning of the game and then get it back up closer to the mid-90's as the game goes on? Can't seem to put Tulowitzki away at all, not missing bats. Five foul balls now on 3-2 pitches, 13 pitches. Ugh. 3 run homer.

We've had that unusual circumstance of 2 off days in one week. I don't get why we're sitting Konerko, instead of Pierre, for example. Because Dunn's defense will do much less damage at 1B? If we already are putting Teahen in RF, might as well thrown Dunn out in LF, too, and go for broke offensively.

I get what he's trying to do. For one, I'd just like to see us actually get back to .500 (breaking through the 2 games under mark that we've been able to get past). Whatever it takes to get there. Win today, take 2/3 from the Cubs and we're only 1 game under. I just don't feel close to confident enough to predict a sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley. Imagine that Quentin gets thrown out by 15 feet, we exhaust our bullpen yet again into extra innings and we're sitting at 5 games under? The view from that position would feel a lot different, wouldn't it? So we can feel fortunate all we want to about the position we're in currently, but there's a ton left to prove for most Sox fans to begin to believe in them again. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/odds/ One thing is absolutely certain, we need to take care of business against the Royals and Twins next week b4 we start to worry about the Tigers and possibly the Indians.

Number of "overtly positive" threads from Greg Hibbard between now and July 31st. Over/under=19

Do we have the ABILITY to be one of the best staffs in the AL? Sure, we said that before the season without even factoring in Humber's contribution. It's going to have to come from Danks, Floyd and Jackson...and Peavy actually staying healthy for a full half. If you put up their W-L records and ERA at this point in the season, nobody would believe we'd be 4 GB, along with the stat lines for Thornton, Beckham, Dunn, Rios and Pierre's own SB/CS fiasco after leading the AL in thefts last season. Humber and Buehrle are both pitching to the best of their ability, or probably over it in Humber's case.

There's the theory. Besides Konerko, Humber, AJ and Lillibridge, the odds are better that almost all of our players will be BETTER than they were in the first half. Of course, the possibility of injury (or reinjury in Peavy's case) is always there, we've been very very healthy for most of the way compared to DET, CLE and Minnesota. The schedule is weighted more towards our AL Central opponents and also more home games. However, we haven't played well at home, Dunn will continue to get booed there if he doesn't hit or get injured/DL'ed somehow...and obviously we have to beat DET and MIN head-to-head and continue to play at least "even" with Cleveland. I still don't see how 1983 or 1993 or 2003 has anything to do with this year's team. 2008-2010 are probably much more relevant for this current group of players. Our results during that timeframe in the 2nd half are at best, spotty. Obviously room for lots of improvement, but they're going to have to break through their mental "blocks" against the Central, there's no getting around it.

"The guy's out by at least 15 feet," Tracy said. But no. Smith had two options: Air-mail the throw or long-hop it, giving Iannetta a chance to catch it and brace for the inevitable collision. The Rockies' Ty Wiggington was picked off first base to end the fourth inning Wednesday at Coors Field. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)"I was trying to make it a longer hop," Smith said. "Running in and not knowing exactly where you are on the field makes it a little tough, but I would like to have made a better throw. It's baseball. There's no sense digging into it more than this. We just got beat." Read more: White Sox beat Rockies 3-2 on sacrifice fly in ninth inning - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_18380917#ixzz1QjZJ1KXz Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:52 PM) 1.) I don't know if Cox deserves credit because he should have been out by the proverbial mile. All the outfielder had to do was throw a simple lob toss and the runner was dead. But ... it worked and Rios would have made out, so the Cox decision worked. But it took a horrible, horrible throw to get the run in. I hope if we ever start hitting again, Cox does not send one of our plodders home on a bloop pop to right in a similar situation. 2.) I agree. This team has been so bad and is only six or seven back in the loss column. The only hope for me personally is somehow we start hitting home runs in bunches the second half. Really our team has not changed. It's the long ball or nothing. No team speed whatsoever now that Juan can't steal a base. The power hitters have to blast homers and so do the Lexi's and Beckham's and Rios'es and Dunn's or we're going nowhere offensively. 5 games behind CLE and only 4 behind DET in the loss column

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:20 PM) and even more than that, who do we have who should regress? Humber? Maybe Konerko? Lillibridge. Bruney, I guess. But he does have something of a prior track record of success in the big leagues. You'd like to think Santos could continue at his current save conversion rate. Seemingly, he's gotten over the hump after that recent rough stretch. Not to mention the possibilty of adding Viciedo. But Peavy could get hurt, of course....or Danks struggling all season long with that oblique. Konerko's the ONLY hitter you would expect not to play better than he has been. Maybe AJ the last month, he's due to cool down a bit. Quentin's really been streaking/slumping, as is usual with him.

Jeff Cox with a call that fails 90%+ of the time but broke our way. We were due for a break with the way things have been going, especially in extra innings or late in ballgames. Two games were nearly mirror images of each other. Rockies SHOULD have won tonight, by all rights. They've also used Street two games in a row. Santos scared the bejesus out of Spilborghs. That pitch was one of the nastiest he's thrown all season. Now 16/18 in SV/SVO.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:16 PM) maybe Bruney can give them something Ozzie seems to have more confidence in Bruney in tight games to use him in the 7th or 8th than he ever did with Tony Pena.

No choice there for Jeff Cox. Probably he gets thrown out 75-80% of the time on that play. Maybe even 90%.

One predictable out. Ramirez isn't really a "true RBI guy" in those situations, DJ's right. Please god, no double play ball. I'd rather see a squeeze almost.

QUOTE (kapzk @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:49 PM) wasn't lili used as a pinch hitter last inning? Yeah, I was zoning out with our normal 5th-8th inning offensive swoon.

PR Lilly for Quentin? I can't imagine what will happen if we don't score here now with 1st and 3rd, no outs.

We're really just waving the White Flag with our current play. We don't actually need to trade anyone away to send that message...or bench Rios. "Rockies' fans are like sharks who smell blood in the water here"...Farmer Wow, that was totally unexpected. But can our offense actually put together an inning to score?

Dunn faced LH and RH minor league pitchers today in a simulated game, FWIW.

Rios has had one very good play coming in on a ball, and a horrible misread that ended up in an XB hit and then his usual offense. He does appear to be hustling more down to 1B, although one time it was because he smelled a base hit on a popup to 2B/RF.

Dante Bichette, Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla and Big Cat Galarraga could be starting for the Sox tonight in Colorado and put up better offense than this. Ooops, hyperbole creeping in. Hard to stop yourself. Great, it's BRUNEY. This doesn't bode well at all.

39,973 are gluttons for punishment to see this White Sox offense. Probably they felt confident of a victory. Wonder if we'll ever get 40,000 again in USCF...what will be the date of that happening? Yet another broken-bat hit against Thornton. It's really infuriating.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:31 PM) That was Ozzie's best chance to use Dunn effectively. Oh well, 0 hits tonight from the 3 easy outs in the lineup (Morel, Beckham, Rios) You're not counting Pierre and the pitcher?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2011 -> 09:29 PM) Pierre wouldn't be the first guy to lose a step at 32 or 33, also all those steals take a toll. Which should have figured into consideration with players like Pods and Pierre who had taken so much abuse from constantly running in their 20's. Look at what's become of Chone Figgins, for another example.