caulfield12

What did Teahen do now? Oh, I see, another huge error and what could have been a double play ball, right? I'm sure Greg is laughing somewhere now. Well, 75% laughing and 25% pissed.

I'm 99% sure that if Kotsay is not on the team next year (probably will be the starting 1B) that Teahen becomes the #1 whipping boy. Unless it's Peavy because he's soaking up so much money and not pitching, but injury is so much less fun to argue about than just sucking. On the bright side, Minnesota's payroll will be larger with two closers in Capps and Nathan, so I can't imagine they'd have a ton of money to spend. What would be hilarious is if the White Sox brought back Thome and then he was as bad as projected by many experts.

QUOTE (daggins @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 09:58 PM) I meant it as a compliment, believe it or not. 95+ mph fastball, good movement, he threw at least one sick offspeed pitch in the inning. He has probably the best stuff of any of our minor league pen guys. He could eventually be a Pena replacement after Tony is non-tendered this offseason. Right now, we already have to replace Jenks and probably Putz. It's doubtful Pena will be non-tendered because it makes the Allen trade look pretty awful for KW. Maybe? Just depends on what's available/affordable on the FA market. If you subtract Sale from the bullpen, and Pena, where are we going to fill FOUR slots? I don't know that we have one minor league reliever you could actually depend upon. And that would leave only Linebrink and Thornton. Not good.

QUOTE (11and1 @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 09:10 PM) This season so far would make it silly to give up until we are mathematically eliminated. I'm in for the duration. But tonight's "losing ugly" flashback to early June is distressing. The only way to lose at this time of year is to get beat straight up. Even a one run heartbreaker gives you something to build on. Nobody showed up up tonight. The good news is we own KC this year.... 8-7 against KC is owning them? I'll have more of whatever you had for breakfast.

Twins taking all the drama out of tonight's action. Well, there's always the Padres/Giants saga. Or Rasmus in STL.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 08:02 PM) Did you know in 1990 KC had the highest payroll in baseball? Ewing Kauffman >>> David Glass You can't have two more polarizing figures...Kauffman being universally loved and respected, Glass vilified for his Wal-Mart, cost-cutting, bottom line ways. He just doesn't look like the kind of guy you even think of having a beer with.

Game, Twins. Unless Liriano or the bullpen has a meltdown. But the Royals have never played well in Minnesota. Actually, they've never played well anywhere since the early 90's. Thome OPS up to 1.024. Two walks. And even his 4-3 "shift" groundouts to short RCF were more interesting than Kotsay's 8 hop rollovers.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:55 PM) KW really needs to be looking to trade Teahen this offseason. He's an awful fit in the AL, as he'd be much better off playing in the NL. But are you ready to commit to Morel or Viciedo for that position? Bringing back Vizquel? You can't think he could repeat anything close to a 700 OPS at age 44...interesting decision.

I would bet Teahen didn't use those 2+ months of paid vacation to work out religiously... And maybe Chicago's one of the worst cities for avoiding delicious, high fat foods during the summer months.

Inge better buy that official scorer a car this offseason. Maybe there's a deal already in place. So because Nix, Viciedo, Fields and Teahen don't make that play regularly, it's a hit, haha.

Paging Jon Garland or Sean Tracey to drill someone on the Tigers...preferably Cabrera.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:41 PM) Hopefully somehow KC will win one of these and if the Sox don't come back tonight, they will take the next 2. You don't want to be in the situation where they have to sweep Minnesota next week to have any chance. 7-0 on this trip. 4-3 could have meant death to the playoff hopes. I sent my playoff money in today. I don't think I would have if they were 6 out. Isn't Greinke starting tmrw? As someone else mentioned, it's going to suck if the Twins batter two AAA pitchers for the Blue Jays when Cecil and Morrow should have been out there. Although it has a funny way of working out that pitchers a team hasn't seen previously can have some uncanny performances, and maybe the Twins become overconfident. One can only hope.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:37 PM) while it would be best to be 3 or less down in the loss column, that series and the one to close out the season (us vs. indians, them vs. toronto) will be huge even if we are 4 out. Blue Jays are very good. 2008 taught everyone not to count any team out before the final day of the season, if 2005/2006 and 2009 didn't also do the same in the ALCD. Although I truly believe this Twins' team is much much better than that 2008 team that was competing again one year ahead of schedule after "rebuilding" with the losses of Santana/Hunter.

LOL at Thome with 1.022 OPS. 2nd and 3rd for Twins already with one out. Delmon Young strikes again. We have to believe Bannister will beat Liriano? Yikes. Seems the Twins ALWAYS score that runner from 3rd with less than 2 outs since the ASB. Must be a 75-80% conversion rate compared to the MLB average of around 53%.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:31 PM) Maybe we'll get to see Infante and Morel and Flowers tonight! So either make it close or get blown out...because that 4-6 run deficit creates a really boring game and prevents us from seeing what Infante, Flowers, Viciedo and Morel can do.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:25 PM) meh, i don't think that qualifies as a meltdown my friend It is when we have no Konerko/Beckham and Harrell/Garcia on the mound against Verlander. Well, it's all semantics, maybe it was a bit of hyperbole, but let's just say if the defense makes all those plays the White Sox still have only about a 20% chance of winning with this line-up and Harrell pitching and on the road. How many bad jumps has Juan Pierre gotten this year? Jeez.

And Josh Fields is 4/10 for KC. Hitting 5th. Still has managed 3 K's in 10 AB's. At least maybe he can help the abysmal Royals beat the Twins once.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:22 PM) Indeed. I remember Rongey dismissing the Twins' staff maybe 6-8 weeks ago and knew he would end up eating those words. Of course, in the end, it will always be about our pitching, lol. So basically, no Konerko, no Beckham, no Garcia...not good. Although SUPPOSEDLY Konerko could have played tonight.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 07:15 PM) haven't seen this yet, just the one terrible play by kotsay that led to 4 unearned runs. 1) Teahen just had a horrible reaction to a ball that Vizquel would have stopped. Scores on Damon's homer. One run. 2) Kotsay's error opened the floodgates. 4 runs 3) Quentin threw needlessly to the plate instead of holding the runner at first...so when Ramirez had that play deep in the hole, he has a legit shot to get the runner coming from 1st to 2nd...except that runner was at 2nd instead, leaving no outs available around the diamond. Ramirez did save one run on that play, but it obviously wasn't enough with Harrell hanging breaking balls out there. 2-3 runs (contributory negligence)

Every 10-15 games, the White Sox just have one of these horrible defensive efforts across-the-board. The bigger concern is the starting rotation with Garcia's back. You can't go to a four man. And there's just no way you can expect Harrell to beat Verlander. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, but the fact that the Twins get production from the like of Fox (who they DFA'ed after a victory) and Valencia and our best is Harrell and Torres? Well, we've known about lack of pitching depth after Hudson at the AA/AAA level for a couple of years now. Sale can help eventually, but certainly not this season as a starter.

Teahan at 3B and not Morel or Viciedo. Teahan needs to hit and field. Double Fail. Triple if you count the spelling. Why does it seem like Teahen at 3B for the Sox is a recipe for disaster about 75% of the time? His reactions and instincts down there are just not good enough not to hurt us consistently.

I thought they took him to Lutheran Hospital. Wasn't there some comment in the papers that one of the technicians made some kind of joke "about it being broken" when he was just teasing Beckham and the x-rays were clean?

One thing that should be stated is that we were first (I think we're now second in the AL) with RISP at around .280 or .281. Second, our team batting average has also gone up from the .230's/low .240's to .271. In the end, there's no such thing as black and white with any manager. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing how many titles Guillen could have managed the Twins to from 2002-2009, just as there's no sure way to know if Gardenhire could have managed the 2005 to the playoffs and World Series. (The Phil Jackson question, could he get a .500 team in terms of overall talent to the NBA Finals?) The grass is always greener on the other side, the back-up QB is the most popular player on the team (well, most teams), it's human nature to think someone else could do a better job and to point out how things could have been done differently. We all know how Ozzie feels about his critics, he's been plain enough in his language. Same thing with KW, for that matter. I think throughout his time managing, one of Ozzie's greatest strengths has been having faith and confidence in the starters to leave them in games and not have the early hook like Manuel. In particular, Jon Garland was used as an example of a pitcher who really grew up with Ozzie in his corner, and it's interesting how the pitcher everyone complained was too lackadaisical or laid-back or California surfer cool has been one of the most outspoken leaders trying to pull the Padres out of their free fall. Ozzie is probably somewhere between 18-24 in terms in-game managing and strategy, but he's definitely in the Top 6-8 in terms of his management of the clubhouse, different personalities (yes, Swisher and Cabrera will come up here), how to keep every player on the roster involved during the season (well, until Nix this year, haha) so they're fresh down the stretch, he cares as much as any fan even though he says some stupid things, etc. Unless you're getting Tom Kelly to come out of retirement or willing to spend millions on LaRussa or Torre or Girardi, there's no easy answer. We've heard names like Dave Martinez (because of the theory that Joe Maddon is one of, if not THE best, top 3-5 managers in the game) bandied about, I suggested Omar Vizquel...but, you never really know how someone will do when they have their own team. It's like a good student teacher versus having your own classroom, totally different to be the "players' friend" and coach versus the manager who has to be more respected and sometimes even feared. I'll give another example....Coach K has had how many assistants get head coaching jobs? How many of them have succeeded? It's not so simple as to watch and read and study the best in any field and replicate it. If that were the case, any youngster could pick up George Brett, Charlie Lau or Ted Williams hitting books and show similar results. Just like every manager or business administrator could read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and instantly have success.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Sep 5, 2010 -> 05:27 PM) The Twins are now 23-10 against the AL West and still have a 3 game series at home with Oakland I believe. I think the Rangers lost every single game up there this year. Detroit was 2-7 and obviously could have just as easily finished 1-8. I don't think anyone could have predicted they would have ended up with even MORE of a home field advantage this year...although against a power hitting team like the Yankees in the playoffs or let's say the Phillies in the World Series, they might be in serious trouble. Then again, right now it seems like they're the team of destiny, even moreso than the Sox. Too bad the Rangers don't have to suffer the same fate as the Padres in all likelihood. And please trade Carlos Quentin for Colby Rasmus, haha. Not that this can or will ever happen. Or, if it did, Quentin would win 2-3 NL MVP awards and team up with Pujols to look like Mantle/Maris or Ortiz/Ramirez.

The Twins better freaking win the World Series if they're going to continue to get wins like this...this was ALMOST as fluky (or flukey?) as the ball that hit off the speakers in Tampa that won another game for them this year. At this pace, they win 94-95-96 games. Unreal. We sweep two series and six in a row on the road (the Red Sox for the first time in nearly 20 years) and only make up one game? You've got to be kidding me. Of course, the Twins have the Royals next, and Kubel's back. And Jim Thome continues to be the biggest story on SoxTalk since at least SoxFest.