caulfield12

Petricka didn't pitch too poorly but took the loss. Viciedo seems to either still be fighting off rust or frustrated that he won't get up to Chicago until September. Milledge has rebounded nicely this season. I'm sure he'll figure into any "going cheap/er" plans they have for 2012 with DeAza, Lilly and possibly Jor. Danks. No Mitchell, maybe needed a mental health day. Thompson needs to try to rally to get his average up to the .240 mark.

Didn't Hendry do the same thing from a hospital bed? Well, for what it's worth, it seems Daniels operates the same way in Texas. He had to, because of the mistakes he made in the first couple of seasons down there and because of the gaps in his baseball background/knowledge compared to many other young GM's.

I would say the same thing about KW, except you could (recently) replace competency with ego and drive with "ambition." Unfortunately, his risk-taking/gambling side of the brain has won out too much since 2008. And having both of his sons in the minors is just embarassing. Can you imagine being asked to write game reports or a scout being asked for an honest appraisal about his sons' level of play. They just can't say the truth. But everyone in the system knows they shouldn't be there taking up roster spots from more deserving players, Shaffer's kid, the Guillen kids, etc. It's bad enough to be the worst farm system in baseball. Having his sons take playing time away from someone...anyone, that's even worse almost.

Point #4...and that's why we shouldn't be clamoring for Ryne Sandberg to manage the Sox. Somehow, it will backfire and have a bad ending. As far as point 2, I think that came DIRECTLY FROM OZZIE. It was just shot back at Valentine under the cover of Oney, but this sounds exactly like something Ozzie would say in an interview about other managers around the sport that are currently inactive...if they asked, "Is Bobby Valentine more deserving of the Florida Marlins job (than you)?" You just know he's fall back on the 2005 thing right away. But do you really think Ozzie would do that to Gardenhire? No way. He respects Gardenhire way too much to throw HIM under the bus like a media/attention whore on ESPN or MLB Network. Ozzie is threatened by his own kind. He wants to be the alpha dog and run the pack. Valentine and Showalter are baseball's versions of Donald Trump and Gallagher.

The White Sox are 15-5 in their last 20 road games. But 8 games under 500 at home. Maybe one should start by looking at who we lost from that 2008 team (Crede/Uribe/Cabrera, etc.)....because they were the last Sox team to hold "serve" on their home field. Back then, you felt it they could play 500 on the road, they could dominate at home and that would be enough (maybe) to win the division. For 3 years, we've been so-so or worse at home. You could also blame apathetic/skeptical home crowds, inflated prices and attendance. Less pressure on the road...less media attention, especially the West Coast games. Players are TOO relaxed when they're around their wives and family...whereas other White Sox teams had more younger players and fewer married guys. Who knows? But there are counter-examples like Rios having an OPS under 500 on the road. I haven't looked at the splits this year, but weren't Beckham and/or Quentin horrible at USCF the last couple of years? With Dunn, you really think that "short" RF bleachers home run porch is playing with his head a bit....just like Target Field is starting to get to Mauer with his 1 homer in a season's worth of games.

1) Valentine is a top candidate for the Marlins' job. Of course, there is a rivalry there. Oney wants his dad to have a job SOMEWHERE managing. 2) I'll bet Ozzie made a comment around the house or dinner table about Valentine never winning anything (besides Japan)...I highly doubt Oney came up with this on his own 3) Does Valentine routinely say the same thing about the Reds, Rockies and Twins' managers? What about Buck Showalter? Adam Jones made a throw so fundamentally bad it would have made Alex Rios red with jealousy. And, of course, because the winning run was then on 2B instead of at first, the baseball gods decreed that he be driven in to put the O's 24 games under .500. Instead of fixing that problem, Showalter's calling up the league offices in NYC to get a ball hit by Jones ruled a hit (instead of an error). 4) Will anyone in South Florida support the team because Valentine's the manager? Doubtful. He's getting up there in age. Maybe not like McKeon or Davey Johnson, but he's not the same manager he was 10-20 years ago.

Mike Napoli >> Hank Conger/Kevin Mathis. This is another of those Kotsay/Jones over Thome situations where if you put Napoli's numbers back on the Angels, they're running away with the division and have a pretty potent and balanced offense. Stick Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez or even Torii Hunter on the White Sox and they're right there leading the division. Or Victor Martinez instead of Dunn. Heck, Jeff Francouer (Greg's plan) instead of Dunn, Melky Cabrera instead of Rios. Yeah, I know. That hindsight stuff is easy to do.

Greg, that Morel play almost ended up costing us the game. This game was absolutely pivotal. You have to secure the ball with two hands there. If he's going to have a sub 600 OPS offensively, he has to be BETTER than Joe Crede defensively, and he's just not at that level yet. Watch Alexei Ramirez's at-bats closely. Look at how many balls that he actually takes and hits in the direction they're pitched. He's turning and burning on practically every pitch (outside or not) and grounding out to 3B or SS the majority of the time. He should be a 290-310 hitter and has ended up regressing from his Silver Slugger season last year. Then watch Quentin's two doubles to the opposite field. What does he normally do with those pitches? He's out and around them and pulling them into double plays. We just don't have enough speed and athleticism up and down our line-up to pull the ball on the ground to the left side so much. It has killed rallies and based loaded or RISP position situations all season. Gordon Beckham actually had a great at-bat last night. It wasn't his homer or the AB he fouled off a bunch of pitches and then weakly popped to the left side/LF. It was the ball he lined out to the RF with RISP. How many times has Gordon hit line drives to the right side? That's the hitter he used to be. He could turn and burn on offspeed stuff, but he took fastballs on the outside half up the RCF gap for doubles consistently, or down the RF line. All the balls he has hits on in that direction this year are "seeing eye" singles or duck snorts. I bet there's only 5-10 balls all seasons that he has blistered in that direction.

Crain sucks, Morel sucks. Where were Frasor or Sale? I guess Ozzie considers them overworked, but he just about killed Crain tonight, too. You just knew Ozzie was going to leave Danks in too long before calling in the pen, and then he stuck with Crain too long and was REALLY fortunate to escape with a win. Santos was great....once again Danks ALMOST wet the bed but certainly didn't look like the type of pitcher you'd pay $14-15 per million for season for 4-5-6 years. The 3B (Bell) swinging on that change-up a foot off the plate against Danks was key. So was AJ's catch of that pop-up. A rare late innings rally. Lucky for us that their middle relief sucks. Alexei simply had a horrible approach at the plate tonight. I really hope that Morel isn't our starting 3B next year. Seemingly, he needs at least another half season or more in AAA.

Maybe it's Anne Hathaway's glasses that don't do it??? Who is in that second picture? Looks like Maria Ozawa??? Halfway through MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, having studied Hemingway, FS Fitzgerald, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, TS Eliot, all those 1920's Parisian writers/artists/singers/poets/painters....I love it. Maybe it's because I am a big Owen Wilson fan, and he's almost perfect for this role. A lot of people have either a love or hate reaction to this film, though.

tired of/sick of/annoyed/irritated/discombobulated/dropped and/or descending into a melancholy mood all by thinking of Daniel Hudson's looming absence from the White Sox organization

Greg, he HAS to start sitting Dunn against lefties. At least, if Konerko's hurting, he has to play Lillibridge because Dunn also KILLS us defensively wherever he's playing.

QUOTE (T R U @ Aug 7, 2011 -> 09:32 PM) Dude, it was a good movie.. its definitely not like you just described.. Its a very cool take on an alien invasion movie, and of course there are some solid ass actors in it.. I didn't find it to be cheesy like you might get off first impression.. I loved the story, it was an enjoyable movie But its not a "storyline sucked, but it looked great" kind of movie.. it was solid Daniel Craig hasn't had a single successful movie (box-office wise) outside of the Bond franchise. Well, I thought Harrison Ford just mailed it in. At least Rockwell, Adam Beach and Craig had more interested roles. Olivia Wilde is growing on me, I guess. Not enough to pay money to go to the theatres and see CHANGE-UP though.

Maybe Rios read our hitting suggestions here at SoxTalk. Likely not.

Lillibridge has a lot more speed than Kuhn and can play the outfield as well as every infield position, with the possible exception of 3B. Kuhn would take Vizquel's job. And we might need Lillibridge to platoon with DeAza as well as rest Konerko at 1B. That used to be Teahen's job. Will need to see an incredible AFL season out of Kuhn before I become a believer...the CJ Retherford/Shelby Jr. tag has to be completely dead and buried.

Indians in the process of blowing a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 8th in TEX. That's the second game this series they've let get away. 4-3 Rangers and threatening to put the game out of reach for Feliz. Really wanted the Indians to come into that DET series at home this week with some confidence, but no such luck. Just not the same team on the road. The White Sox are 8 games under AT HOME and 5 games over .500 on the road, strange.

Or Rowand. It took both those guys 2-3 years to break into the Sox line-up as full-time starters. Then Aaron had his motorcycle accident, KW got REALLY pissed at him and deliberately tried to replace him in the Sox's long-term plans but Rowand fought his way back with excellent play for a couple of seasons.

To imagine David Wright on the 2012 White Sox with almost $60 million already tied into Dunn/Rios/Peavy/Konerko/AJ....not seeing how it's possible. Even if we traded them Quentin/Danks/Thornton, it's not a logical trade long-term for a Mets team trying to compete right now but dealing with financial issues with the Madoff suit that are potentially debilitating. Think of the Ubaldo Jimenez deal. They would want Sale, Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez (if they can't keep Reyes). Making that trade from the Sox standpoint would be close to insane. You get rid of Danks AND Buehrle AND Quentin to fit David Wright onto the payroll, you're not any better than you started off, and probably worse...because starting pitching is the team's strength and now all of a sudden it's a huge weakness.

this week DET AT CLE ....(Tue-Thurs) then DET AT BALT (after our four-game sweep) MINN AT CLE So Cleveland sweeps DET at home, then Minnesota sweeps the Indians (not likely, but hey, why not?) Definitely do-able to get within 3, and possibly 2 games back of the Tigers by the end of this week. Realistic? Not so much. Possible. Sure.

Too bad we can't switch Mitchell's statline with GAC....or change Gac's name and age, lol. Looking at that box score everyday, almost hoping that we can get something out of Silverio. Doubtful. And Saladino's also been sliding backwards a bit average-wise.

No, Greg, don't go to the dark side, too. I'm going to take the optimistic route and say they have a pretty good chance to make it...but they have to make up some ground next week. Who are DET and CLE playing against? If Humber can come back around (50/50, right?) with the six-man rotation giving him more recovery time, and Rios and Lillibridge play like they have the last two games, they could actually do it. You have to like what you saw out of Carlos Quentin too, 2 opposite field doubles. Harrelson's right, he does that consistently and he's a .285-.305 hitter and close to MVP level again. He's just so naturally strong, he doesn't need to pull everything to collect homers all over the diamond.

Nope, the Pirates need players they can control at LEAST 3-4 years. That doesn't fit with what's really best for their long-term interests. At least the Indians have Jimenez for 3 years at "cheap" rates.

"Just Win, Baby!"

I just meant they have a hangover of problems inherited from JP. LF, you need something better than Thames or Rajai Davis long-term. And Drabek has obviously regressed this season. That has to be a bit of a concern. And it's still a big difference when you can have a pitcher for 2 full seasons (Marcum) versus just one or 1 1/3rd (Danks). If you're KW, it's hard to know what's going to happen with Buehrle. You can't trade Danks AND lose Buehrle if you hope to compete in 2012. Floyd, Peavy, Humber, Stewart, Sale That would be the starting rotation. Try selling season tickets with that. Good luck. Just losing Buehrle or Konerko alone will drive them into the low 20,000's per game unless they lead the division for most of the way like in 2008 and get off to a hot start (in other words, the opposite of the last 2 seasons).

Team seemed much more relaxed with Lillibridge out there instead of Dunn at 1B. You have to go with Brent against LHP, and you'd have to argue that it's also going to help Paulie a lot to DH the final two months...if Brent were only taller and had more experience with scoop plays (needed with Alexei and Morel over there)....but he has so much more range and athleticism than Paulie at 1B. Peavy's now had two positive starts in a row. That's huge. Now the big question becomes Humber. We have to go 6-1 or no worse than 5-2 the next 7 games, and, once again, at least get back to .500. Baltimore has been playing like crap, but that hasn't meant much when the Sox faced them the last 2-3 seasons. They play like the Royals against us for some reason. Showalter is a huge jackass, and it'd be so nice to beat these guys when they're really down.