caulfield12

DJ has a good theory. The White Sox are making so many mistakes behind him defensively, he just tries (Thornton) to "take the bull by the horns" and strike them all out. But when you try too hard to strike someone out, you actually start to lose velocity from your normal, fluid delivery.

So much for trading Matt Thornton. LOL. This entire team needs to be lobotomized so they can't THINK at all.

"This is where the fans will boo. Can't blame 'em. This is ugly." Darrin Jackson "That's just ugly." AGAIN. AJ is too tired? Boo hoo. AJ basically has had a large part in costing us 2 games now. Dunn actually did a good job keeping Andino off 3B.

Royals also leading the Twins by 1 going into the 8th. Tiggers and Indians tied in the 11th. 9 games back already? Almost at the 9.5 "low tide" mark from 2010.

13.50 ERA for Gonzalez, but obviously a former closer with the Pirates and potentially a K for Dunn. Which MIGHT be better than a double play ball.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 07:47 PM) Come on Adam, lift and launch! Are you related to Elaine Benes? This is only funny if you watch Seinfeld, btw.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 07:37 PM) It wasn't a great swing, but it's a hit 95% of the time. It was just unlucky that Andino made a great play on it. Jam shots and ground balls up the middle happen all the time. If that ball got through, I gaurentee people would say "There ya go Alex! Finally". But no, so instead it's extreme negativity. This board is seriously the biggest downer. Can't wait to get drunk tonight and not be depressed by this s***. It's more depressing here than it is watching this team play. But isn't alcohol also a depressant? By definition, you're deliberately depressing yourself in order to escape from being depressed! Having experienced the 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's as a White Sox fan, you just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel with the Twins and West Coast swing looming. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet on this season, that's insane, but if they just get manhandled on the road and swept two in a row by the Twins, it will be even more of a miracle recovery than the Sox last season. The ONLY way we come back then is if the entire division falls apart and comes back to us instead of us catching them. It happened in 2003. The problem is always the Twins. 26,000+ in attendance tonight. Pretty amazing, but it's fireworks Saturday, their one tried and true attendance generator. Alexei, have yourself a game!!!

Unless you consider Quentin high-priced. I'm really worried about Beckham, though. Maybe it's time to send him to the minors. The problem is do we trust the hitting coach in AA or AAA to fix Gordon? More importantly, how does Gordon feel? His family? He's a VERY confident kid. That's one of the main reasons Ozzie agreed to stick with him last year. At some point, they have to try a different strategy and rebuild him just like Tiger Woods has deconstructed and reinvented 3 swing changes in the course of his career. Just not the same player we saw in 2009 and the second half last season.

Cue the "well the Cardinals, Astros and Rockies and about 3 other teams in major league history came back from being 8 games under .500 or 10 GB in standings" If it was an NFL season, it would be only 2-3 games, if NBA/NHL, only 14 games and the equivalent of a 6-8 record. ETC. I'm going to be tired of hearing about that 26-5 streak from last year being the reason to be patient...or the Twins being in the same position. They're in just as much, if not more, trouble than the White Sox going forward. Even Greg Walker would mess up Roy Hobbs or Josh Hamilton.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Apr 30, 2011 -> 07:06 PM) It's not the idea of just building from within, because they'll never do that alone. But we will NEVER learn the value of developing a system unless we're forced into it. If knocking down the team, having 5-6 years of putrid baseball forces them to fix their faults I'll accept it. Because when it begins to turn around and this team begins competing, the payroll will increase but we will also have the benefit of a quality system to offset the salaries of more expensive players. It happened in the 80's and late 90's. Reinsdorf has been through it at least twice. The question is whether he feels KW and Ozzie are the right guys to do it. I find it hard to believe that he would NOT believe in KW but would think Rick Hahn (or Buddy Bell) would be the clear choice. They need to change the entire organizational philosophy if this is going to work.

Everyone has to remember that with the current revenue structure in baseball, the White Sox enjoy a significant advantage in being able to ramp up the payroll quickly when it's necessary or justified. 2005 showed you can win the World Series with a $65 million dollar payroll. It's when we spent $90-$130 million on the payroll since then that the team's lost its hunger a bit, drive, desire, whatever you want to call it. I think you're seeing the same thing happening with the Twins. You don't want a team of all "cast-offs" trying to prove themselves to the world (the Carl Everetts and AJ's and El Duque's and Pods and Hermansons), but you have to have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder...mixed with a younger core of players hitting their prime and the veteran leadership. With the broadcasting and ancillary revenues, advertising/marketing advantages in Chicago...it's not just about parking/concessions/souvenirs/ticket sales. That's just one stream these days, and over time, becoming less and less important with the Regional Sports Networks and WGN/superstations. A rebuilding effort is fine if it leads to a championship caliber team for 3+ years. What's not fine is being the Royals/Pirates/Mariners/Padres/Marlins/Nationals/Orioles (although with their two marquee draftees healthy, they could be dangerous). Cleveland and Colorado had similar fan support in the 90's and early 00's. Look how both franchises have done since then. The Rockies reinvented their organization and the fans have come back, especially with the 2007 season.

Hey, Eight Below wasn't bad!!!

Gavin Floyd on August 11th, 2007 First 6 starts with the White Sox (Sox 1-5 in those games, Floyd 1-2 individually) 24.3 IP, 39 H, 23 ER ERA 8.51

A lot of the critics are praising Fast Five, but I thought the first one still is definitely better. In many ways, I also preferred the fourth movie of the series as well. (Poor Lucas Black and Tokyo Drift, everyone forgets that movie even happened now). Tego Calderon and Don Omar (two reggaeton rap artists) don't add much. Heck, I don't even know where they came from. It felt a little too much like one of the Ocean's 11 movies, mixed with the Italian Job. And adding so many cast members and throwing them together, somehow the story felt a little too forced or not quite cohesive. The action sequences were quite good, but it still felt a bit "talky" to me. The Rock/Vin Diesel "love affair" thing was cute for awhile, but that was a bit too much. Even the villain (Joaquin de Alameida) was much better in the Harrison Ford/Jack Ryan "Clear and Present Danger" flick from almost two decades ago.

Lillibridge's catch? That's about the only exciting thing to happen since the first week of the season.

2011 10-17/8 GB 2010 11-16/7 GB 2009 13-14/4 GB 2008 14-13/0.5 Games UP 2007 13-14/4 GB 2006 19-8/0.5 Games Up 2005 20-7/4.5 Games Up 2004 17-10/0.5 Games Up PRETTY CLEAR TREND LINE with Ozzie and the Sox

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 10:45 PM) No one is going to take Peavy off our hands next year unless he comes back throwing 94 mph this year and puts up an ERA around 3 I don't think we'll see 94 any time soon, but 89-93 (as long as there's movement) and an ERA under 4.00 will be enough for the Yankees to bite when Colon breaks down or Nova's/Burnett's erratic natures finally drive Cashman crazy. Hopefully.

Well, Cooper definitely has his hands full with Jackson, Thornton, Sale and Pena. We can point to the success of Santos and Humber, but there's always going to be pitchers that overachieve and underachieve. With Buehrle slipping and Danks/Floyd up to their usual inconsistent ways, we need a spark from somewhere. Humber's done it this year, like Garcia last year. Or we would really be out of it early (we normally would be looking at 8-19 or 9-18 with our normal run of journeymen 5th starters from 2001-2004). Don't count on Peavy being able to do it. He'll try...but you'd almost rather he's 100% for 2012 and you can finally trade him. It all depends on what happens the next 30-40 games.

Twins lose, Twins lose....yay, we're not the worst team in the major leagues at least until tomorrow.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 08:54 PM) Where the f*** is the accountability? Someone needed to be fired after that road trip. Lillibridge probably single-handedly prevented that... Royals take 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 8th on a "sac fly" to SS with Casilla running away from the INF. Amazing.

I forgot. Technically if the Twins blow this lead against the Royals, they'll be percentage points behind us in the standings and 7 games under. Who would have thought coming into the season that BOTH these teams would be in last place in May in the AL Central?

If the Padres and Astros both win tonight, we'll have the worst record in the major leagues officially as May begins.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 08:39 PM) His recent trades have been disasterous. It's left us with this bloated payroll. Of course the blame goes to everyone, but with Ozzie getting a lot of heat, KW is the one who's had a few hideous seasons in a row. Some of it's bad luck with Dunn so far, but with Beckham/Rios/Sale/Peavy/Pierre/Jackson all foundering, it's just too much to overcome. And the starting pitching just hasn't gotten any kind of consistent rhythm or momentum since the bullpen implosions. Buehrle, Floyd and Danks are what they are, and I guess Jackson's proven the axiom about being the kind of talent who will get numerous managers and pitching coaches fired. About the only highlights are Santos, Quentin and Konerko.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 08:36 PM) Yeah, the season will be over by the middle of May. Haha. Well, this will probably DESTROY the franchise for many years. 126 million to lose 90 games. 2007 did half the damage, accompanied by the flameout to end 2006. It ALMOST would have been better off if 2008 had never happened and they had started the rebuilding process then. (Thank god they won the Blackout Game or the Twins would be even more of a nightmare to think about). KW just rolled snake eyes and got incredibly fortunate with Danks/Floyd/Quentin/Ramirez. Unfortunately, he's made one bad move after another from that season to date.

What was the attendance tonight? 18K and change? Brutal. God, the Twins will come in and kick our butts. We'll probably end up facing Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda and then be finished off for good by the A's and Angels. Hopefully this is the LOW point of the season we can all look back to and laugh about or it's going to be a LONG LONG season that Ozzie and KW won't survive. That's about the only thing to look forward to, change. Unfortunately, it's like turning around the Titanic at this point.