caulfield12

I could be way off, but does anyone think there's a connection with bigger problems in the US (economic setbacks, loss of jobs, loss of the belief that we'll have longer lifespans and higher earnings than our parents) and the seemingly more negative attitude around message boards in general? I'm not going to pick on the Tea Party, that's for the political forum, but has anyone actually tried to read message boards ANYWHERE around cyberspace and come off feeling very concerned about the future? Just about any Yahoo news story comment thread should give one pause...and even if some posters are using hyberbole to be dramatic, are making racist/sexist pronouncements to grab attention, something is seriously going wrong all across the country, and this board is just one mirror of that bigger issue. It's not about right or left though...it's that loss of respect in general that's happened, the loss of belief or faith in public institutions. Some say in began in the 1970's with Watergate, but it has really coalesced in this country, in my opinion, since the first Clinton administration. You really had the feeling that at least 25% of the people in the US hated the president, wouldn't even use that term (POTUS) in referring to him. This happpened to Bush too, there's no doubt in my mind. In fact, if you just look around the media landscape, there's no longer a desire to provide balanced/objective information to anyone in the "middle" of the spectrum, which is supposedly where 70-80% of Americans are...yet CNN is crumbling, replaced by the more polarizing programs of Fox on the right and MSNBC on the left. I can't say what caused this, but there has definitely been a breakdown in respect in terms of on-line communication. People say things to be controversial or get a lot of attention, just like in the "real world," Americans (many) will seemingly now do almost anything to become famous. It's better to be noticed, even if people hate or dislike you, than not to be noticed at all. Reasonableness, however you want to define that characteristic or quality, has almost gone out the window. So I don't know how to prove it quantifiably, but some of these negative traits (attention-seeking, being controversial, pessimism winning out over optimism) are winning out in civic discourse everywhere, and soxtalk might be just one small example in the macro picture.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/statistics/...ds/?pl_id=12050 Let's just say he's not reminding anyone of Sergio Santos, Brooks Kieshnick or Jason Dellaero yet.

But the thing is, this is a reinvigorated team under Showalter finally playing with a sense of direction and urgency. They beat the Angels three in a row and now have won four in a row, total. As we've learned throughout the years, there are no easy opponents down the stretch...teams out of the pennant race tend to play "free and easy," whereas the teams at the top of the standings tend to tighten up. The fact of the matter is that Liriano against an unknown Indians' pitcher, you'd also figure that match-up is hugely favorable for the Twins. There are no longer any "sure wins" at this point in the season.

Not a great start there, Sale. You would think Ozzie would have brought him into a less stressful situation. I think it's a bit early to call him "the left-handed Black Jack McDowell."

120 pitches for Danks...great game. Will be interesting to see who they go with in the 8th.

Got away with one there. The umpires (and stadiums) have really been coming under fire the last couple of weeks around MLB.

Sale and Pena are warming up.

Thought that was going out, dad gummit AJ....did Harrelson call it a homer? Kotsay with a bad jump, he hesitated, it's not 100% because he's slow, although that's undoubtedly part of the problem, too...should have pinch-run Lillibridge there probably. The Orioles are a different team the least 7-10 days under Showalter. We're not going to storm through them, I wouldn't be surprised if we only won 2/4.

It's also notable we are something like 17-20 in games where we don't homer. Even the Detroit radio guys noticed that difference...along with the fact that Carlos Quentin was much more aggressive about trying to go from 1st to 3rd on a single...even though he ended up deciding not to go for 3rd and pulling up, his attitude was different in their estimation. And while the stolen base percentage overall is pretty awful, that team-wide mentality of challenging the other team, forcing them to make mistakes, taking the game to them...it has really paid off (in distracting the pitchers and getting them to make bad pitches, resulting in additional runs, I know that's difficult for me to measure or bring up specific situations where this happened since I can't watch the games). Maybe even some of our hitters are hustling a bit more to first base than in years past, but perhaps that's just my imagination. It's what made those early Twins teams (2002-2004/06) so good, and what has become a hallmark of the Rays and Angels this decade. Nice to see we've added a bit of that component...will be even more exciting if Mitchell can be anything closely resembling Carl Crawford and Jordan Danks can miraculously morph into a better hitter than Brian Anderson.

We'll see if they get anything back for Guillen or not. I think they will get a B/C prospect. Willie Bloomquist was one of those signs that everyone shakes their head, he's sort of their version of Mark Kotsay, albeit younger. Then Gil Meche, he was very good the first 2-3 years of that contract, but once again evidence of the danger of giving out 4-5 year contracts for pitchers in terms of their health/injury problems down the line.

If Jackson pitches really well, why would you trade him for someone who's not even close to a sure prospect? $8 million is not incredibly expensive for a pitcher, it was less than Javy was making...even at the time of that trade, we managed to get a decent looking haul from the Braves, although the jury's far from being out on some of the players we acquired. If Jackson pitches like he's capable of pitching, then it's always possible he's traded next year at the deadline when the leverage is the highest...but you can't trade Floyd, Danks or Jackson until you know what you have in Peavy for next season. The odds of Sale being able to make it as a starter to begin the year in April, 2011 are about 10%, obviously Torres/Harrell/Marquez aren't the solution and Garcia will be a bit too expensive and risky to keep.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/05/21309...isnt-happy.html

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 5, 2010 -> 06:42 PM) The bench calling for a slider was dumb as f***. His fastball and hard curve was what he needed, unfortunately he hit Jackson with that curve, but the fastball was working. Eliminate all of his pitches but 3 and let the guy throw. i think you mean Santiago?

One reason Jenks would be dangerous with runners on base is that he would automatically let them steal 2nd and 3rd. Which means he's have to get strikeouts instead of allowing contact, and not allow a wild pitch or a sacrifice fly. What do you think his percentage of inherited runners allowed to score would be? 75%? Fine, if you want him to start the 6th, 7th and 8th, but it would be a bad idea to bring him into innings other relievers began or with the starter fading at the end of game, like Edwin Jackson's walk yesterday. Those runs automatically score.

That's what will be interesting...I guess they have to bring up Teahen eventually, but you can see that Ozzie doesn't want to change anything about the chemistry of the team with the way things are going now. It doesn't make sense to have Teahen, Carlos Delgado (just an example) and Mark Kotsay on the same team though. Lillibridge definitely deserves to keep his role. Still wonder if KW will take a stab at someone like Jose Guillen or Manny Ramirez (especially after he clears waivers the first time...or if a team would dare to claim him and pay him $7 million for 6 weeks).

Let's not forget Mr. Lillibridge and Andruw Jones. Both came up with huge, clutch singles. You really didn't hold out much hope for Jones not to strike out, but he's come through quite a few times when the chips were down, despite his low BA.

Yes, Balta....he used to have a devastating cutter and a nasty curveball. They were close to unhittable. But for whatever reason, he doesn't throw them with the same crispness or conviction anymore. But at that time, when he was consistently 95-99 with the fastball, the cutter was a pitch that was around 90-91 MPH and impossible to square up, especially for lefties when it was thrown down and in. Then he had that 10+ MPH differential with the curveball...even more difficult. You'd have to ask Jenks why he can't throw it as well anymore, the conjecture has attached to his protecting his elbow so he can get a contract for 2011.

And I don't really care about Jenks' "stuff" these days. The main thing that matters is putting away hitters when it counts...like Edwin Jackson did yesterday, and Jenks used to do. Now, when he gets ahead, instead of just blowing hitters away, he'll try to get them to chase offspeed pitches. It has happened way too often...and, as the old saying goes, "you shouldn't get beat on your 2nd/3rd/4th best pitch." Javy Vasquez always had GREAT stuff, but he managed to make 2-3 really really stupid hanging pitches per game that always seemed to turn the tide to the other team...it doesn't matter how many K's he piled up or how many pitches he had in is arsenal, it's the lack of cajones he sometimes demonstrated when the game was the on the line. Jenks used to have that ability, and now I think the entire team is questioning whether or not its gone for good. Closers sometimes rebound, look at Brad Lidge, but it's more than a shadow of a doubt now when Jenks is in to close a game, it's to the point where you expect something bad to happen, and that's absolutely horrible for the morale of a team that's playing like we have been for 51 games now (the second best all-time White Sox streak after the 1983 Sox rolled off a magnificent 39-11 stretch that buried the Rangers).

Capps blew that game because Delmon Young might be the worst LFer in baseball. In all honesty, he did give up the hit to Dan Johnson, but it wasn't Capps' fault, anymore than Benoit deserves a loss today for a lousy speaker getting in the way of a high pop-up that should have been the 3rd out. Maybe it would be better to use the example of Valverde...he was the 2nd or 3rd best AL closer until they encountered the Tigers, and he took the loss today as well. I guess that's right in line with Jenks' three terrible performances beginning July 18th through today (MIN/SEA/DET).

That means we really have to praise Kotsay and Garcia, haha. I said it in the game thread, Freddy Garcia is the MVP of this ballclub. Without his steadying and indomitable presence the first two months, we're down 12-15 games in the standings and essentially out of it. Say what you want about KW and the DH situation, but Omar Vizquel, Castro, Andruw Jones, Santos and Garcia have all been great (and incredibly cheap) pick ups. Putz might have been the FA value signing of the year. And Kotsay saved the game for us twice today.

Classic Guillen quote on Jenks. Okay, GREG, wherever you are, don't even bother trying to argue with everyone about Jenks. Just let it go. It's not worth it, especially because there's a 75% chance that Ozzie will have him closing more games within the week. He's not going to be DFA'ed or traded, he'll get his chance for redemption before it's all over...maybe even against the Twins, although I think I will just turn off the computer or radio when that happens and look the next day to see what actually transpired.

Rongey is making the case that Kotsay has been getting better AB's than Jones, without the results to show for it. That was the first call, about appreciating what he brings to the roster, etc. Although at least he was realistic enough to realize that KW might still be out there scouring the waiver wire for a deal on someone like Jose Guillen, Xavier Nady or Manny Ramirez.

Putz has to be the choice because of his experience and the fact he's only given up runs like twice in 3 months. You can use Thornton and Santos in high leverage situations...Santos becomes a little bit like our version of Joel Zumaya. I'm not sure what we do with Jenks in all honesty. Putting him behind Linebrink, I'd almost rather they DFA'ed him for the good of the team, because I really don't think he will be good for the Sox if he's not the closer. Hopefully he can suck it up, but you know that he'll be pouting since it will be very very difficult for him to get a good contract for 2010 if he's not closing the final two months of the season. Hopefully someone will claim him off waivers and KW will send him to another team and we can get back someone useful. Wishful thinking.

RIP Bobby Jenks as White Sox closer RIP Dayan Viciedo until September 1st

PPPPPHssswh.