caulfield12

Escobar's ball almost went out, that's all I know...Ramirez missed the tag at 2B, the throw back beat him. Baseball is ALWAYS a game of momentum. The "Danks is pitching" RISP struggles were epitomized by the triple play, which really did seem like a momentum shift in the first week. Now with Dunn out and Milledge's lack of defense leads to an early 2 run deficit. Of course, if the bullpen/Sale holds yesterday, it's okay and we're starting 3-2 on the road. Hard to expect 4-1, but 2-3 is a huge disappointment after the hot start we got off to. But the Royals are playing with total confidence and we're back on our heels now. Now back to the old ways of baserunning gaffes, bad defense and struggles with RISP. Last year, we were 2nd in the AL with RISP, but horrible the first two months and still not quite enough as we were playing catch-up all season, seemingly. Thankfully, we don't see the Royals again until the 2nd week of July.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 01:42 PM) 29 pitches thru 3 innings for Francis. 15 outs before Soria boys! At least it will save me one hour of sleep with Buehrle out there and the Sox new impatient offense without Dunn....3:43 am now, haha.

Pierre was 14/31 career coming into today against Francis....ofc, he's now 0/2.

This is depressing...and the Rays started off so cold, you know they'll be ready for us, their style of play mirrors the Angels and Ozzie usually gets really obsessed with trying to outmanage and out-smallball. Yes, only 3% of the season, I know, I know, but some of the fundamentals mistakes repeating year after year makes you wonder. I'm sure an Ozzie/Cora "baserunning" in-season mini-camp isn't far away if this continues. Which will have virtually no long-term effect on the overall quality of play. I guess the team will get a pass for 10 days with Dunn out by some, but it's so important that we start off decently to have any significant walk-up support in April and May. .500 won't do it. 24-8 is expecting too much, but 18-14 isn't going to get anyone very excited.

Great baserunning the last two games. Guess they forgot Gordon has a 3B's arm.

Pretty funny when the Royals' announcers are describing Buehrle as a bit more of a "power pitcher" than Francis. Surely the kiss of death for us. Well, the 4-1 start for KC is up there with 2003 and 1989. At least it's not the Twins or Tigers, thankfully.

Cabrera 9/15 on his short career against Buehrle. Great defense by Brastings Millibridge. Ugh. It's like the really bad version of Pods out there, paired with Quentin? Not good.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 10:20 AM) For the season though he put up a 1.47 WHIP. More baserunners per inning than he gave up any other season of his career. That ERA isn't telling the story there. He'd come in, get a couple outs, and leave 2 men on for Cotts to clean up. He was better with Milwaukee, no doubt. But you'd have to expect the ERA to elevate a bit after three years in the relatively benign and often punchless NL Central. Before that, in the AL West, even more pitcher-friendly. I will agree he never showed that dominant slider, probably from overuse and overthrowing it for 3 years there and with OAK. And, for most of his post-Brewers career, he's been a pretty consistent 3.40-3.50 WHIP guy. Not much of a deviation. I would bet that ends up trumping what at least 3 of our main bullpen arms do this season.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 08:59 AM) Vizcaino was actually pretty decent that year I thought. I mean he wasn't exactly thrown in a lot of high leverage situations, but his ERA was 3.73. That includes the early 11-inning game vs. CLE where he took one for the team and threw 60 pitches, giving up 6 runs in under 3 innings. An impressive 3.06 ERA for the season if you subtract those 2 1/3 IP and 6 earnies.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 07:53 AM) Really, I'm not sure about that. Vizcaino had his ups and downs too...Pena at least is likely to have some good outings as well, and does the same sorta thing in being the 2+ inning eating guy every now and then. Marte was almost unusable in the 2nd half. Both of them had better ERA's than how they were actually pitching because Hermy/Politte/Cotts would come in and bail them out when they got in trouble. The other problem looming is we don't exactly have another El Duque available to shift into the bullpen anywhere on a Sox major or minor league roster. With the payroll already at $128 million, what are the odds that JR would take on another $2-3 million for a veteran middle reliever/5th starter type at the ASB? Hmmmm....

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 6, 2011 -> 07:07 AM) Our bullpen looks like dogsh*t right now. Pena and Ohman both suck and have no business being on our roster. Due to their relative lack of experience, it's difficult to tell what we're going to get out of Sale and Santos going forward (though both looked great at times last year). I imagine that Crain and Thornton will be fine going forward. So until these guys get it together, we'll be seeing more disappointing losses to bad teams. We don't have the depth of the '05 bullpen to overcome an ailing Shingo. As bad as Vizcaino and Marte SEEMED that year, they were head and shoulders above Ohman, Pena and Humber/random minor leaguer. Someone's going to have to break through from our system ala Scott Radinsky or Boone Logan (I'd take Cotts or Jenks 05-08 about right now, too). Santos Rodriguez? Doubt it.

Some interesting stats from the 2005 season in the first half (through 86 games)... 57-29 record Sox lost only 8 games during that entire eighty-six game stretch when they were leading after 5 innings, and 6 times when they were leading after six innings. Another way to look at is that the probability was 93% if the Sox were leading after 6 they'd go on to win that game, pretty amazing!!! Perhaps even more impressively, during that same first half, the SOX only coughed up two 7th inning leads and two 8th inning leads (once was against San Diego, a 2-1 game we led the entire time until giving up 2 in the bottom of the 9th, ironically Linebrink was the winner with Hermanson taking one of his few losses that season...the only other blown save that resulted in a loss was Takatsu giving up a 5-2 lead in the 9th, an April 7th game which the Indians ended eventually winning 11-5). So far already, we've managed to blow a 5th inning advantage and then yesterday's 5th-6th-7th inning leads. And the weird thing about that time period is Takatsu was REALLY struggling, enough to lose the closer's spot to Hermanson.

Dammit, Ozzie. You have the AL Silver Slugger struggling to get the bunt down and Vizquel after him. Stop it, please.

C'mon Rios. Only one without a hit still, 0/10. Hopefully he'll get on the board later. Sox 1/4 with RISP.

This was our 5th or 6th win in a row in Cleveland....let's keep it going. Can't afford to let up and give away those series sweeps that mean so much when we're playing higher competition and hoping for splits. Especially since this series is on the road and helps set the tone for a "hot" April hopefully.

5th in MLB payroll entering the season, almost $128 million wow... 36 pitches for Carmona, thaaaats's goooooood

http://www.justin.tv/dwertsports23#/w/1031789984 that's a link for video, but they're still in intros for the Indians' opening day line-up

At least Kotsay and Erstad aren't around to predictably ground out to 2B anymore.

what's the link to chat again? We got owned by Carmona last year, 0-3....not unlike the Sabathia days. 9-9 overall, definitely died with our record vs. CLE, KC and 5-13 vs MINNY in 2010.

I wouldn't give it to him...at least not the contract witesoxfan quoted. I know, I know, we don't have (at the moment) any pitching prospects in our system. Daniel Hudson's gone, etc. For some reason, I just have a sneaking suspicion either Edwin Jackson or Buehrle will end up staying, and that Sale will be successful in the rotation. Now it's hard to imagine what kind of salary cut Buehrle would not be insulted by, not to mention actually wanting to have Jackson back at the dollars he might command if he pitches as well for ONE entire season as he did with the White Sox (with Boras as his agent). There's also no doubt that Floyd could end up pitching like anywhere from a 1-5...for indeterminate lengths of time in the season. I guess I'd rather pay Buehrle $8-10 million for 2-3 more years than Danks a contract averaging $16 million. I don't dislike Danks at all...I'm just not quite sure he's going to get significantly better (anything more than a 5-10% uptick) from what he's been from 2008-2010. He's pretty darned consistent, but I just don't quite see him as the type of pitcher you build your staff around for the future. Maybe it's because he's really wet the bed in a number of starts against the Twins. Yes, there was the now-famous Black Out Game 163 victory in 2008, but since then it's been, at best, a mixed bag against Minnesota and certainly not a positive trend line. Maybe if we weren't stuck with Peavy's contract going forward, we'd be able to feel a LOT more comfortable allocating that money to Danks for a long term deal extending in free agency.

How the heck is Viciedo making a portion of his $4 million signing bonus this year? Did they spread that bonus out over 4 years as well? I thought it was a once-off bonus that he received before the 2009 season?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 29, 2011 -> 12:37 PM) link I would love to have Jose Reyes and Alexei Ramirez playing up the middle for the next 2 1/2 years, if Jose is examined and found to be 100% healthy. The question is whether Reyes could play LF or not and take over Pierre's role?? Probably too big a risk on a position move at this stage in his career, but I'd love to have Reyes as a Chone Figgins type who could play LF/CF/3B/SS/2B. You don't want to change Beckham back to 3B and unsettle his career trajectory and fielding again. Reyes fits if you eliminate Quentin and AJ from the line-up/payroll and plug in the likes of Castro/Flowers (platoon) and Milledge/Viciedo in RF. But what would we have to give up? Some prospects are going to have to emerge ala DeLosSantos or Daniel Hudson in past years. Reyes Ramirez Beckham Dunn Konerko Rios Milledge/Viciedo C Morel 1-7, that might be the best offensive line-up in baseball. Imagine if Flowers ever got his act together? Yeah, yeah, a HUGE HUGE if if if. “There is no guarantee that Jose Reyes will be a Met beyond the 2011 season, he says. In fact, it would seem the odds are pretty good that Reyes won’t be a Met in 2012, and if the team struggles in the first half — without Johan Santana — then Reyes could be a nice chip on the trade market.” ~ Buster Olney, ESPN.com On Wednesday, Mets GM Sandy Alderson said he wouldn’t be opposed to signing Reyes beyond 2011, but according to the New York Post, the two sides have not spoken about a long term contract. I feel it’s a fair approach to see if Reyes can stay healthy and produce consistently before committing long term to him again. I mean, I think he’s great, and the Mets will struggle to find anyone to replace a “healthy” Jose Reyes should they not sign him to an extension, but it’s also not unfair to worry about his durability and having him consistently on the field. I can’t imagine that if he proves he can stay healthy in 2011, the Mets won’t work to secure him beyond next season. It certainly becomes less of a sure-thing as time goes on that he will be re-signed, but he has indicated on numerous occasions over the past few months he wants to remain with the Mets, so I don’t think him remaining with the club will ever be out of the question. metsblog

Paging Hugh Hefner...

Winter's Bone might not be a GREAT movie, but definitely great performances by the lead actress, Jennifer Lawrence, and her uncle, the meth addict. They definitely deserved all the personal accolades they received. Grim and depressing, yes.

Every "Dark Cloud" has a black and silver lining?