caulfield12

Well, it's not like our offense has exactly shown up against Cy Bonderman. Harrelson's former favorite crush. At least with our starting rotation already logjammed, KW can't sign him as a FA this winter.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 06:22 PM) huh? Baldwin was a decent pitcher for the White Sox. He was a prototypical “keeps his team in the game” pitcher, a guy who, while not dominant, does well enough to give his team a good chance of winning the game most times around. He usually stayed roughly around the league average for earned runs allowed. His best season was in 2000, when he won 14 games and lost 7, with an earned run average of 4.65, a little better than league average that season. He made the All Star Team in 2000, as the White Sox made the playoffs. Baldwin was going to be a free agent after the 2001 season, and in 2001, the White Sox had an off year after making the playoffs in 2000. So they decided to trade Baldwin at the trade deadline in 2001 to a team (the Los Angeles Dodgers) who had a better chance of making the playoffs in exchange for a few low level prospects, rather than lose Baldwin as a free agent after the season and get nothing in return for him. The prospects were nothing too notable: Jeff Barry, Gary Majewski and Onan Masaoka. Majewski, actually, was drafted by the White Sox and sent to the Dodgers earlier in 2001, so they were just getting him back. Barry had played in the big leagues for a little bit in the late 90s, mostly for the Rockies… Here’s the kicker, though. The White Sox did not MEAN to acquire Barry!!!! No, the White Sox meant to acquire young Dodger minor league pitcher Jonathan Berry!!! The White Sox even issues a press release saying it was Berry that they had received, while it was not. White Sox general manager Kenny Williams noted at the time: There was a misunderstanding on reports. "We were looking at a report on the pitcher and we didn’t have one on the guy we got. We’ll honor the deal." Luckily for the White Sox, while Barry never made the major leagues for the White Sox, Berry never made the majors, either. The best player in the deal turned out, most likely, to be Majewski, who the White Sox traded to the (then) Montreal Expos in 2004 along with pitcher Jon Rauch in exchange for Carl Everett, who helped the White Sox win the 2005 World Series. Amusingly enough, Majewski was involved in ANOTHER trade snafu of sorts when he was traded from the Washington Nationals (that’s who the Montreal Expos became) to the Cincinnati Reds in 2006. At the time, Majewski was a 26-year-old reliever having a strong season after following two strong years as a reliever. So the Reds thought they were getting the tough relief pitcher than their bullpen needed.

Raburn was totally lost in the shuffle the first half of the season. Now he's become the most dangerous hitter in their line-up after Cabrera...actually much hotter than Miguel the last 4-6 weeks. Boesch has really done a 2nd half fade job, not quite as bad as Chris Shelton but I wouldn't call him a sure thing for 2011.

QUOTE (11and1 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 07:14 PM) Do it now. Teahen plays, we lose. It never f***ing fails. Two more years of this loser? KW's Worst. Deal. Ever. 1. Todd Ritchie for Wells/Fogg/Lowe 2. Any Swisher deal 3. Ray Durham/draft picks for Jon Adkins 4. acquiring the wrong Berry/Barry from the Dodgers because KW spelled the name wrong on the list sent to MLB, I think that was the one where we received the unforgettable Onan Masaoka from LA 5. Billy Koch trade, although we got Cotts out of it...Koch REALLY sucked for us, big time, but he was a "fireballer" after Foulke, lol

QUOTE (CWSOX45 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 07:10 PM) I don't often criticize moves by KW, but what on earth were they thinking on this one? He doesn't pass the eye test at 3B, and the UZR backs that up. Teahen is not a ML 3B. Plain and simple. Buddy Bell made the recommendation based on his time working with Teahen previously. Supposedly, Teahen would be a better hitter when offered more protection in the line-up. Supposedly, Buddy Bell was going to revolutionize our minor league system. Still waiting on that one.

And think how good KW did signing A. Jones, Putz, Vizquel and Santos. How likely is that to repeat itself? Of course, NOT SIGNING Thome might have undone half the good those other four moves made.

And Danks at 70 pitches after 4 IP ensures that the bullpen will be entering this one early as well. I'm definitely not in favor of giving him anything resembling Lester or Sabathia money until he proves he can pitch through situations like this...on the surface, he's got a good ERA, but he just hasn't pitched well enough on a consistent basis when we've needed him to step up and be the stopper in the 2nd half. We can blame Teahen for some of this, but he shouldn't have given up 4 runs there.

And away we go...the dreaded crooked number. Is Harrelson announcing? How is he taking this putrid play the last two days?

That was an 86 MPH cutter that didn't cut much and was up and right out over the heart of the plate. Not great pitch selection or execution there. I'm starting to think Jackson is the only one on the Sox who can consistently pitch in and out of trouble.

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.