caulfield12

Rios, based on the last 2-3 weeks, would cost us even more (in lost season ticket sales) than Dunn. Everyone knows we have to have a LH bat in the line-up somewhere supplying power. We know his track record and have seen the back of his baseball card. But fans won't suffer a lazy player with a cavalier attitude (seemingly) who's too proud or stubborn to make the adjustments necessary to make himself a better player again with that guaranteed contract. He's going to have to throw out nights like tonight CONSISTENTLY over the next 7-8 weeks for any fans to believe 1) he should come back again, 2) he could actually be a starter or gasp leadoff hitter for this team in 2012.

Stewart's hair reminds me of that dude from TEARS FOR FEARS back in the day.

There's no way in hell they can cut Dunn after just one season. He'll get at least one more chance the first half of 2012. Rios is another story. Obviously, a lot depends on what he does the final 2 months...as far as trading for prospects, who have the Royals acquired that was any good in the last 5 years? Melky Cabrera was acquired cheaply, but everyone hates that guy in the clubhouse. He has a reputation as a malcontent. Surprised they didn't trade him while the getting was good this deadline. Francouer wouldn't have been the DH target because he's right-handed and I'm sure he would rather play in the OF everyday. He would have made sense going into 2012, especially if Quentin's traded. But to make him (or Quentin) the DH heading into this season and having almost no left-handed power, how would that have been logical? Especially based on his last 2-3 seasons. Everyone would have been all over KW. Rightfully so. And there's no guarantee that Francouer would play so well for the White Sox, where a lot more is expected out of the players than in KC. But I don't see where ANYONE was saying in the offseason that we should go out and acquire Jeff Francouer. It's like saying we should have gotten Jose Bautista. Every team in MLB had multiple opportunities to acquire the guy. I guess they do have Escobar and Cain from the Greinke trade, but it's not like trading off all the veteran players in the last decade has gotten them much at all. The Royals still desperately need starting pitching, and they need for Moustakas to hit 1) over his weight and 2) with some pop in his bat.

We're going to have to go through the next 8 games and only lose one, no more than 2. Then we might be within 3 or maybe 4 games back if we're lucky. At least we're putting the Twins out of their misery. There's that. The Twins have made a ton of uncharacteristic defensive mistakes these first 2 games. Stewart looked great, the strikeout of Mauer was huge and Frasor getting out of the 8th by acing Valencia with the fb on the inside corner. Double play to get out of the 6th with the 2-1 lead was probably the play of the game. Looks like Rios will start again tmrw with his 3 hits, unless Ozzie gives Lillibridge the start against Duensing (or maybe rests Pierre). Probably see Morel or Beckham out of the line-up (for Vizquel) as well as Flowers in, possibly. Please God, no more Adam Dunn at 1B, thanks Ozzie. Still don't like Alexei hitting with RISP. Nice to see the runs off Nathan, though. Felt happy for the Stealth Elf and Santos didn't mess around and give the Twins some encouragement heading into tomorrow's game.

How did that happen? Delmon was watching it too long? Not hustling? Perfect one-hop throw to Pierre. This, by the way, would be Stewart's first MLB victory if the score holds up.

How is that a throwing error on Butera? HAT TRICK by Dunn. 142 K's and closing in, slowly but surely, on the mystical 200 mark.

Finally the base hit in a key situation. Of course, it comes from Konerko. Not expecting anything here. Contact of some sort would be nice, however. That's what having some speed and aggressiveness can do for you. Valencia's made a ton of mistakes defensively this season. The White Sox look like the Twins for now. Throwing error charged to Butera.

Well, the Angels/Rays/DBacks would be leading this game 1-0. Baserunning mistakes have also killed us all season long. 0-14 with RISP.

Morel with his 4th walk of the season in almost 250 at-bats. 2 hits for Pierre, Ramirez and Rios now. Morel didn't get to 3rd, however. That's TOO MUCH respect for Cuddyer's arm.

DET now 3-0. Is it a completely lost cause to continue with scoreboard watching now? It seems like it. Stewart now with a "real time" sub-4 ERA in four starts against BALT, ATL, DET and Minnesota.

Looks like Stewart essentially has two sliders. 77-79 MPH version, and 85-86. The first one is more like a curveball in terms of velocity, but not as big a break obviously.

Hopefully he'll throw Gordon a change-up. He definitely can't hit a fastball this season. Another good defensive play by Beckham...at least there's that one good aspect of his game if nothing else.

Rios threatening to get back into the starting line-up again. 2 hits now. When's the last time Alex stole a base?

Konerko with "only" an 800 ops in July. That's his worst month of the season. Pretty amazing how consistent he's been all year long. Stewart working pretty quickly. Only 31 pitches coming into the Mauer at-bat. 3 scoreless innings, five pitches total. Couldn't ask for anything more out of him so far. Keep it up, longhair.

Not bad so far. Definitely no Jeff Marquez, at least. Looks like worst-case scenario he'll be a decent 5th starter under team control cheaply for 6 years. That's not a bad payoff for Edwin Jackson at all. Pierre and Gordon have almost the same exact OPS. I don't think that's a good thing. At least they're both way above Dunn, Morel and Rios. White Sox 0 for their last 12 with RISP. 1st and 2nd now, 2 ours. C'mon Konerko. 2 hits for Ramirez in his familiar two hole in the line-up. Make that 0 for 13 with RISP in this series so far.

Got a "slow" slider or slurve at 74 MPH there. Settling in at 92-93 MPH with the fastball.

140 K's now for Dunn. Still trailing our former #1 draft pick Mitchell in Winston-Salem. Detroit already jumping out to the quick lead with Verlander on the mound, up 2-0. Looks like we're going to have to win this game or be on the verge of elimination and 7 1/2 games back. Well, Rios got a hit against Pavano, something Quentin's never done before. Please Gordon, at some point this season, go on a tear before it's too late. We've been waiting since Opening Day. And waiting...

Got Kubel with a 95 mph fastball. Definitely can dial it up a notch when he needs it, sort of typical of a combo reliever/starter. It's obvious the main concern will be adding a workable changeup or curveball. Right now, he seems to be a classic sinker/slider type, and that (having two pitches as a starter without either being plus-plus) doesn't work unless you have pinpoint control.

88-91 MPH so far. 16 2/3, 26 hits....and his AAA start for us was similar, 10 hits in 6.3 Slider at 85. Fastest pitch so far 92. He really needs to come up with more of a variance in pitch speed. His stuff looks fairly identical to the "bad" Jake Peavy, actually.

Konerko tailor-made double play ball. He's been in a bit of a funk for awhile now. Let's see what Stewart's got. Span's finally back for the Twins. They've been hard hit by concussions the last two years. Can't remember the White Sox lost a player to the DL for that reason.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 6, 2011 -> 04:11 PM) I bet he'd sign three years for 36 million right now. These guys risk career ending injuries every time they take the mound. I'm sure he doesn't need any more money. Just a personal/family decision. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he walked away. Or walked away for a year or two and then came back. Anything's possible.

They even tried to "hype" Marquez as being a future back of the rotation guy when he was acquired as the "centerpiece" of the Swisher deal. No way they're going to compare Stewart to, I don't know, Sean Tracey. Heck, I still remember KW "spinning" all the positives of Felix Diaz and Jon Adkins back in the day. This is no different.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 6, 2011 -> 04:21 PM) It's easy to say you want a rebuild. Going through it will be agony. The Sox need to be Yankees light. Sign a batch of free agents and Latin/Janpanese players while trying to not have the worst minor league system in baseball. We need to keep this base of good pitchers and start "rebuilding' our lineup. First step is to somehow get somebody to take Rios and Dunn off our hands with us paying only half the salaries. What good is keeping Buehlre/Danks/Floyd if we're still millions of dollars away from a productive offense? We'd just have another season like 2011 in 2012...and be one year further away from being in contention as it would continue to get worse before things actually improved. For 2012, we have no leadoff hitter, arguably no LFer or CFer, a very questionable situation at 3B and Beckham. You can answer Viciedo is one answer, sure. But that still leaves a ton of holes and no money to fill any of them because of budget constraints.

Isn't that the same argument we've heard about Beckham for the last 2 years? PERHAPS there's something else going wrong with this organization, rather than just blaming every single player for their failures.

As Rongey keeps saying, Adam Dunn won't come out of his slump sitting on the bench. Mitchell...if he succeeds in the AFL again, might be exactly the impetus he needs. If he fails and is that psychologically fragile, maybe he wasn't the type of player they thought he was coming out of LSU. We'll see. It's the same argument with playing Brent Morel everyday in Chicago or AAA. At some point, they have to produce at the next level.