caulfield12

Jenks and AJ made an interesting decision to go with the change-up against either Young or Kubel. Seems his dominant out pitch is again the slider/cutter...which works a heckuva lot better at 95-97 than 91-94.

Has an MLB team had both 9 and 11 game winning streaks in a single season? 20/21 and 26/31... Slowey, Blackburn and Liriano all are struggling mightily. Blackburn might end up in AAA, with Duensing or Perkins taking his place in the rotation. The big question now is whther the Twins make a move for Oswalt, Haren, Sheets, etc. 17-17 in the ALCD 3-3 versus Minnesota 4-8 versus CLE 7-5 versus KC 3-1 versus DET

18-9 in one run games now, leading the AL 7-12 in two run games 25-21 overall in 1 or 2 run games

Jenks had something like a 1.15 ERA in his last six weeks of appearances going into that AB against Hudson. Nice to have him back, it's almost to the point where you feel almost comfortable again with Jenks in the game....but NO, not really. At least Mauer is leading off the 9th now, and hopefully we can put up at least one more run with the heart of the order up now.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 15, 2010 -> 09:00 PM) Where's that Teahen rumor from? From Farmer apparently, to the Twins' announcers.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Jul 15, 2010 -> 08:57 PM) Hawk " If you weren't around for the 2nd inning, a dropped ball cost the sox 6 runs." And of course if you weren't there for the 2nd inning you may have heard about this at least 30 times since from our announcer. Should Rios have caught that ball?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 15, 2010 -> 08:56 PM) I'd give Thornton the 8th, and get Santos up in the pen. I'd rather go shopping for breast pumps than see Jenks try to go two innings. At least Carlos Gomez is no longer on the Twins for Hawk to over-praise and to beat the Sox at home. Rumor that Teahen is going to the outfield again so Vizquel/Viciedo can stay at 3B and I suppose Quentin would get a lot of AB's at DH, taking them mostly away from Andruw Jones?

I heard there was some kind of incident with AJ throwing his bat (maybe accidentally, probably not) into the Twins' dugout and then Thome dropped his bat almost right on AJ in the 3rd inning...

Kubel, Cuddyer and Mauer all struggling this season have offset the dominance of Young and Morneau. Not surprisingly, Hudson and Hardy have been hurt and have also struggled as of late...and Punto's just not an everyday player. That and the starting pitching and shaky middle relief has killed the Twins.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 15, 2010 -> 08:49 PM) Bring in Thornton to face Kubel!! Seems like he heard you. Let's hope it goes better than the McCann at-bat.

Putz has 22 consecutive scoreless appearances. That goes back to 2004 I think... Also, the last two years 10/12 teams leading at the break either won their divisions or entered the postseason as the Wild Card. The only exceptions, D-Backs in 2008 and the Tigers last year.

"Brian Anderson would put up Torii Hunter-esque numbers if he played everyday." KW Well, looks like the White Sox were cruising, then Danks had one of his occasional implosions and somehow we pulled ourselves off the deck and got back up again (which is nice to see that we believe is possible in Minnesota). Danks at least shut the door and got the game to our pen, so he definitely did his job after the Mauer bases-clearing double. Nice to see Beckham looking more and more dangerous.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 14, 2010 -> 03:48 PM) I'm sure you could get an insurance company to start insuring contracts where a guy misses half the season. But as I'm sure you can figure...that happens a lot more often than a guy missing an entire season...and so the insurance cost would be much, much higher. On this team? A bat, no question. My recollection is that the White Sox got back $4-4.5 million on David Wells' contract in 2001, and that happened in the middle of the season, where he went down and actually looked like he was headed towards retirement. You'd have to think if you could insure David Wells at that age, you could get insurance for just about anything. Then again, he was pretty resilient despite being fat basically and might have been less of a risk than Peavy, since 90% of the message board has had concerns about his mechanics from Day 1, obviously "professional" insurance companies would have even more insight from experts on the likelihood of Peavy breaking down again.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 13, 2010 -> 02:42 PM) And that would still cost Hudson plus one or both of Flowers and Viciedo. How are you going to realistically replace Konerko and Pierzynski when like $85 million is locked up between 13 players already? And beyond that, with Freddy Garcia proving that he's been healthy (thus far) and league average, you can count on him costing in the neighborhood of $5-8 mill next year while he remains the same injury risk he's always been, if not a bigger injury risk with another year on his arm and him getting a year older. Quite honestly, any player the Sox were to acquire at this point would likely come in as a (semi-)rental player, and would be resigned pretty much only if the Sox won the World Series or atleast made a deep run in the postseason. The Sox simply can't afford much else. Putting those eggs in the "deep postseason run" basket before the end of July could very easily be a misstep, and then having to deal them again in the offseason to avoid losing a substantial amount of money would not only leave the team in a terrible PR situation, it would also be a waste of resources as they wouldn't get the same value back as they traded away in July. I still think the biggest trade the Sox could make is for Adam Dunn, but I'm expecting Adam LaRoche (with whom I would be perfectly content), and it's entirely possible and plausible that they don't make a single move. Assuming Quentin maintains productivity and Beckham is indeed turning it around, the Sox have 4 legitimate bats in the order, and have other solid contributors such as Jones, Ramirez, Teahen, and Pierzynski, and to some extent, guys like Kotsay, Pierre, and Vizquel as well. A move would be nice, but I don't believe it's an absolute necessity unless they can get the right price on the right guy. I don't think there's a team out there that would give Garcia more than $5 million. $4 million might be pushing it, agree with everthing else you said. We simply have to get production from Viciedo and Flowers going forward for this whole thing to work. To me, the biggest questions are what to do with Konerko and Danks (of course, they can hold onto for two more one-year contracts and get draft picks eventually, but that doesn't come close to approximating his value or providing suitable, major league ready replacements). I dread watching Teahen playing 3B again, but somehow they're going to have to split DH time with Viciedo, Quentin, Teahen and Flowers in 2011, at least that's my perception. Of course, as we all know with KW, that's very much subject to change on a weekly basis. As you constantly point out, the numbers are tight enough for next year, it's just inconceivable that Konerko and AJ both come back unless the biggest miracle in modern baseball history occurs with the Pierre, Teahen and Linebrink contracts.

3. The Sox should probably add some insurance at the minor league level, and they should do it quickly. If the Sox go the free agent route, Braden Looper is an option, albeit not a very enticing one. But here's a thought: the Sox should go after Pedro Martinez. Martinez is planning on pitching this year, and although the Phillies likely would be front-runners, the Sox could have a shot if they aggressively pursue Martinez in the coming weeks. If Martinez was to sign, he'd need multiple weeks in the minors to get ready, which really would be perfect for the Sox. First, those weeks would allow the Sox to what Hudson can do. If he struggles, Martinez could replace Hudson in the rotation if/when he's ready. Second, if Garcia was to get injured, Torres could cover the starts to bridge the gap between Garcia and Martinez. It's not the most ideal situation, but it's one the Sox could afford to let happen. And third, if Hudson pitches well and Garcia stays healthy, the Sox would have a surplus of pitching. And there's never anything wrong with that. If the Sox trade for a starter, it likely wouldn't be Ted Lilly or any established veteran of Lilly's ilk (and don't even think about Cliff Lee. The Sox are not getting Cliff Lee). Instead, the Sox would basically be looking for Carlos Torres 2.0, an quadruple-A starter who wouldn't cost much to acquire. In other words, it'd be a lateral move. So if the Sox are looking to add another starter, Pedro Martinez may be the best option available.

They did with David Wells in 2001, they got back something like $4.5 million or so, that was my understanding. I don't know how many companies (like Lloyd's of London, etc.) would have been willing to do this for a pitcher with Jake Peavy's injury history... We do know they owe him something like $37.5 million (including buyout for 2013) going forward. This point was brought up earlier this week, Cowley didn't have the answer or wasn't given access to that "insider" information.

Wasn't Nix really really good last year against LHP but abysmal the rest of the time? I wonder if you will start hearing JD's name pop up again...it would take him most of July to get ready, but you'd have a fresh body for the "dog days" of August and September, especially if he wasn't playing the field. The problem is that you'd no longer have Andruw Jones' defense and occasional power. I think they're going to have to monitor Andruw the next month and decide if they're going to replace him or not.

If you remember coming down the stretch in 2005, Brandon McCarthy was our second best pitcher. Remember his start against the Red Sox in Boston? I think he lost 2-1 or 1-0 to Johan Sanntana, something like that...as well. He pitched very well against almost everyone. Not saying Hudson will replicate McCarthy's results, but it CAN work more to the pitcher's advantage the first time out against most of those teams. Agreed that those match-ups with Detroit and Minnesota won't be very easy, but it's the major leagues...nothing's supposed to be easy. Heck, if things were easy, we'd be 13-8 or better against CLE/KC and 18-20-22 games over .500 and way ahead of the field.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 03:54 PM) The best thing for Seattle to do would be to trade him to the NL in the next week and a half, so that way he's not even in the league anymore when the Sox head out west in 11 days. Assuming the M's go Felix-Lee-whomever out of the gate, the Sox are scheduled to face both Felix and Lee in Seattle, and then they'll face Lee again in Chicago too. Mets are definitely one of the main players in all this, Philadelphia could go after him again...don't think the Padres or Braves would make a play, though. Supposedly, the Reds and maybe even the Cardinales have shown some interest as well, perhaps the Giants to kick start them back into the race. Dodgers? Rockies? Well, as they say, to be the best, you have to beat the best, and the White Sox usually rise up to the challenge of great opposing pitchers not named Johan Santana about as well as any team in the AL, just as they perenially disappoint against journeymen, rookies, pitchers they're seeing for the very first time and soft tossing lefties.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:23 PM) I wouldn't be surprised if Minny goes hard after a top reliever, even though they are 2nd overall in MLB with pen ERA for the year they were 17th in June with a 4.22 and 22nd so far in July with a 4.83 to go along with a June WHIP of 1.24 and a 1.37 WHIP in July, all trending down. Guerrier has blown about 3 games in the past week or so. Crain has always been fairly shaky, despite the great stuff. Duensing has been the key to that pen so far, he's been amazing, and Mijares (before that, D. Reyes/Rincon/JC Romero) has been tough as well. But Rauch is shaky against top competition (just like Foulke) and Slama and Delaney are waiting in the wings in Rochester. The obvious move is bringing up Slama, but Gardenhire has refused to move up Delmon Young in the line-up for Cuddyer/Mauer all season, and he's also refused to take Guerrier out of primary RH set-up. But the biggest problem right now is their defense, 3B, Hardy just came back, Mauer's power disappearance and the fact that Slowey/Blackburn/Baker are all pitching like 4th/5th starters, and not 2-3 type pitchers. Liriano finally getting it back together has really saved this team, and Delmon Young finally figuring out he's a major league hitter, but his defense along with Cuddyer's is atrocious.

QUOTE (jhonnydanks @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) jhonny danks is who we thought he was Except I don't think he's Spanish!!! First four game sweep of a series since 2008 against the Indians.

QUOTE (jhonnydanks @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) jhonny danks is who we thought he was Except I don't think he's Spanish!!! First four game sweep of a series since 2008 against the Indians.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:17 PM) What's the latest on Teahen and who gets sent down when he's healthy? It's an interesting choice. Undoubtedly, it will be Viciedo.... However, Lillibridge, Beckham and Andruw Jones (DFA) all should be possibilities...I don't think Ozzie is quite ready to part with Jones, simply from a defensive standpoint. I really think they need to hold back Teahen until this team cools off, feels like we need to keep the chemistry with this team exactly the same.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) They were 24-33 exactly one month ago and 9 1/2 back. They've gone 22-5 since. DIRTY!!!!!!! Don't conjure up any bad vibes thoughts of Nick Swisher, please.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jul 8, 2010 -> 02:13 PM) I heard on 670 that Pena actually walked up to the park yesterday with Ozzie and told him is willing to start this Sunday. Ozzie told him thanks for the offer, but I want to keep the bullpen roles the same. It's worth a try, if Hudson gets hit hard. I think I would rather try Pena (with his overall ability) than Torres or Marquez...the Sean Lowe/Carrasco spot.