caulfield12

Kotsay up to 667 OPS. At this rate he'll be at 700 if we blow another save.

You've got to be kidding!!!! Well, that answers the question. Viciedo will be going down to Charlotte.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 02:53 PM) I'd love to hear what qualifies him for lazy. You spend time with the team much? Do I really even need to answer that question? Maybe because he spends more time on his stupid goatee than exercising or learning how to hold a runner on base.

Walk off homer by who in the Tigers' line-up?

I really dislike Jenks more than Kotsay, because Bobby's just lazy...Mark is old and injured. And then Jenks get drilled on a hanger when he's locating his fastball everywhere he wants it...stupid stupid stupid. Linebrink?

I would rather have Sale into the game, because you know Jenks would walk the first hitter, forget to hold him on...give up a wild pitch and then a sacrifice fly or something like that for the walkoff.

Can Jose Guillen close?

Well, we probably managed to bring the Tigers back to life this season. Congratulations Jenks.

Play of the game by Alexei Ramirez. Cangelosi, you're in Hungary? Budapest? How is the economy there...? I thought about teaching in Brno, Czech Republic, but ended up here in Asia. You're teaching there, right?

It would really suck to end up only up 1/2 game after looking like it was going to be 2 1/2 an hour ago. Well, let's just hope that JJ can get out of this...he's a UM grad, after all.

Now the problem is finding the RIGHT Ukrainian girl, lol. They're not the most romantic, very beautiful....but very very pragmatic. I won't say they're all gold diggers, but there are quite a few. Well, that's one of the facts of life in Eastern Europe with the economy struggling so mightily.

The White Sox are amazingly 17-20 in games they don't homer this season. By the way, Garcia has around a 3.3 ERA in all of his starts (I think it's around 17) except for three really bad starts where he's been rocked. Farmer said Rios was our MVP, but I'd definitely go with Freddy Garcia this season...if he didn't hold the rotation together the first six weeks by the force of will alone, we'd have been 13-15 games back and almost hopelessly out of it.

And of course Benoit lets up and gives another run... DOME BASEBALL SHOULD BE OUTLAWED. I hope this doesn't turn into a season-changing play like that Sizemore one in KC in 2005.

That's two times the Tropicana Dome has cost the Rays a game. This just sucks...they were set up for a demoralizing loss after blowing a 6 run lead. Seems like the White Sox are always victimized by domed stadiums somehow.

Combined with Charlie Lau, George Brett and Ted Williams.

Not to mention Viciedo. He's the perfect DH candidate for this team...but Teahen and Lillibridge would be better, too. Jayson Nix would be better. Heck, DeWayne Wise, Aaron Cunningham and Wilson Betemit are arguably better.

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 09:32 PM) One thing everyone knows about Jackson... he always had the arm. Only one walk (last hitter.. and it was Miguel Cabrera who you can't even argue to not walk) is fantastic for him. Although to lead off an inning, it's automatic death to walk someone, even Cabrera. It costs the Rays dearly tonight in the 13th. It just breathes life into a dead offense, and if Thornton allows those two runs to score...Jenks gets the game in the 9th with a one run lead and God only knows what would have happened.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 4, 2010 -> 10:33 PM) That's not a valid argument, and I assume you know it. Kotsay was 0 for 7 with 1 walk in those two 1-run losses. By the "logic" you use here, Kotsay could strike out in every single plate appearance all season, and yet he wouldn't be "responsible" for any loss the team had. If the pitching had just not given up any runs, the team would have won. It's not Kotsay's fault. His batting line shows that he's helping the team toward losing every time he's in. And every game he plays, there were 3 better options to be DH sitting on the bench (4 if you include Castro). The White Sox will live or die with their pitching, both starters and their usually formidable pen. The offense is irrelevant. (That's what Ozzie or someone might say).

I just thought I would play Devil's Advocate, Ozzie style. We've lost 13 games since June 9th. Kotsay hasn't played in four of those games (June 13th, July 16th, July 25th and July 31st). Therefore, he can't be blamed for those losses. In those 9 losses which he could have had an effect on, he went 5/28 but deserved better, hit a number of line drives and balls to the warning track that MIGHT have gone out in SOME MLB stadiums had the win been blowing out with gale force wins. However, he only came up two times with RISP during our entire stretch of 37-13 ball (that's right, with Mark Kotsay on the active roster, we're winning 74% of our games over a 50 game stretch!!!! Conclusion, if he's NOT on the roster, we won't play very well, and perhaps the prophecies foretold in the movie 2012 will come to pass as White Sox fans will have to stock up with survival gear, gas masks and a year's supply of Mike and Ike's...basically, if KW took Kotsay off the roster, it would be like Armageddon and December 31st, 1999 all over again.) On June 28th against KC, he pinch hit with runners on 2nd and 3rd and only one out against the Royals when we were trailing 3-1 and popped out. That hurt, although Alexei also didn't come through. And you can't really expect a pinch hitter to come through more than once every 4 AB's, right? On July 18th, with Quentin on 2nd base after a double against the Twins, he failed to move him. Of course, let's just blame that game on Bobby Jenks, right? Because any lead against the Twins in Minnesota is pretty safe, yes? We didn't really need some insurance runs! And there's no more MetroDoom jinx anymore...the Piranhas are almost all dead. On July 21st, he went 0/3 against the Mariners, but that's another one we can pin on Jenks, the game we came back to lead against Felix Hernandez (Vizquel RBI), only to have Jenks blow it once again. We lost to the A's on the 24th, but Mark actually got on base in front of Castro's homer, we lost 10-2, so you can't blame Mark there, either. And then against Bonderman this week, that's a Hawkeroo "hang wiff 'em" right? Conclusion, Mark Kotsay was 0 for 2 with RISP during 9 losses in the span of almost 2 months, he really didn't hurt us that much. In fact, Bobby Jenks had more of a negative effect than Kotsay. If we had reliable closer, we'd still be 4 1/2 games ahead of the Twins. Conlusion 2, more fans come to games to see Mark's wife in the scout seats when he's on the team, thus creating another revenue stream...and Lisa Dergan had to be replaced somehow.

The response to the WAR stats for Thome and Kotsay would be something like this: If Bobby Jenks hadn't blown those two games against Minnesota and Seattle, we'd also be up 4 1/2 games on the Twins, and most of the losses during this stretch of games since June 9th were those "Hawk's cliched 54-60 games you lose every year...no matter what."

Young giveth and taketh away. He had really struggled in the first two games with RISP...and gave up the beautiful start by Baker with his typical defense, on a ball 80-90% of LFers catch. But he did come back to get his 82nd RBI, and the game winner, after the dreaded leadoff walk. Interesting choice by Gardenhire to go with Guerrier for the "save" when they could have used Rauch...and it's nice to make Capps think saving games in the AL will be much more difficult.

That's the ONLY logic of not demoting Kotsay. We are winning with him, so therefore he can't be hurting the team. (If it's not broke, don't fix it, right? In which case, KW should have kept the 2005 team together...since he completely obliterated the "chemistry" of that team by taking Everett and Rowand out of the clubhouse, too. Not saying I necessarily believe that, just the theory out there.) It's almost like they are afraid to let Teahen's glove back anywhere near the clubhouse again, also. And actually, although Viciedo's missed a lot of AAA at-bats, I think he's gained a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability to be a big league player, and this hopefully is one of those situations where sitting and observing for most of 5-6 weeks has really helped, even he's accumulated less than 70 at-bats.

Maybe it's the American Idol problem. Really big celebrities don't feel comfortable criticizing because they might get booed or criticized themselves for being critical. OTOH, you feel your position is a bit more tenuous if you're in Rongey's job...part of it is simply you're forced into a position where you're "representing" the organizational viewpoint because of the nature of criticism in the post-game shows is quite over the top. In all honesty, it's a pretty cool job that 98% of Sox fans would love...and I'm sure were I in that position, I would do everything I could to protect it, too. It's just human nature. I remember looking back at the tape of a broadcast I did (color) of our minor league team and I actually said "we pride ourselves on our concecessions." When you're pretty close to the team and the players, it becomes very difficult to be objective. You have the choice to go the Stone and Skip Caray route and be out there with your criticism, or you protect your relationships at all costs and always "have their backs." The clubhouse is a close-knit community...it's even harder to get respect if you don't have a background as a former MLB player, at least a minor leaguer. I've seen quite a few people who didn't know where to draw the line because they wanted to feel like they were "part of the team," where it's almost that "in the bunker" mentality of taking it personally when your "friends" are being criticized, especially when you perceive it to be unfair or overly biased. In the end, it's easier to be "loved" than feared, so to speak. Writers like Cowley and Mariotti have gone out of there way to be critical, and it has resulted in a cut off in access or makes it much harder to do their jobs. Someone like Gonzales, who's with the team everyday, it's very very rare that he would be the type to write a negative/hit job on Mark Kotsay. Rogers can be more critical as a baseball writer and not a beat writer, but he's not as respected because he really doesn't have a finger on the pulse of the organization. Maybe it's because Brian Anderson (2006) and Beckham (2010) were cockier, and their situations were each quite different from Kotsay's, but I think it's just harder for a writer to blast someone who's failing...rather than simply underachieving. Everyone can see that it's the end of Mark's career, and he would be DFA'ed by 25 teams, it's just that he has played a role with our team, we're in first place, so the perception is that it would be cruel or heartless not to let him stay with the team...the closest thing I can remember is the controversy over Josh Paul/Chad Bradford sticking over Mark Johnson in the 2000 post-season. And I don't remember much being written about Wise, Erstad and Mackowiak either...it was obvious they were being overexposed or not the correct fits for how Ozzie was trying to use them. If nothing else, it was more of an instigation to look at possible controversies between KW and Ozzie, as we've seen the ongoing DH discussion for seemingly a year now, yet no solution in sight. Finally, I think many of the players/clubhouse people look at all the SABR and Roto League stuff, anything but the most basic statistics (now including OPS) with a bit of disdain...it's like the age old argument in Moneyball between Grady Fuson and Beane's lieutenants. I used to really be a "stats geek" and it's funny, the older I get, the more I rely on observation with baseball and the more I resist being told I'm wrong about a player because of their UZR number or something a bit esoterically-derived (although I certainly can understand the desire to quantify defense).

Quentin loves to hit in Detroit...

I thought Konerko was flexing his elbow after the throw to 2nd.