caulfield12

QUOTE (FlySox87 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 06:24 PM) Jake Peavy didn't reveal himself as a total china doll until after he came to our side. There was nothing in his history with the Padres to suggest that he was more fragile than...well, something that's really fragile. And the Alex Rios acquisition looked brilliant last year. It's not KW's fault the guy stunk to start this year. Jackson might have been a dumb call, but the jury's still out on what Hudson's going to amount to. Our scouts were never all that convinced, IIRC. And how about all the players he acquired that have really panned out for us? Floyd, Danks, Crain, Thornton, Humber, AJ, Alexei, Quentin...and that's just this year. I guess you can blame him for not strong-arming Ozzie into benching Dunn, but I would say that's more Ozzie's fault than his. Ozzie needs to have some sense and bench someone who's struggling that bad. KW shouldn't have to intrude on Ozzie's job description and handle his business for him. That being said, I will respect KW even more when he just fires Ozzie outright and hires someone who will do the job correctly. According to Chris Rongey, no team in major league baseball would bench Adam Dunn. Since that seems to be the front office/institutionalized thinking on the subject, that he certainly won't break out of this by sitting, why doesn't KW force him to the DL with some flimsy reason and call up Viciedo? On our current roster, who's a better candidate to replace Dunn? Lillibridge? Really? As an everyday DH? And that's a great recipe for the future when Lilly is overexposed at this position and then you have no choice but to eventually go back to Dunn? Viciedo can't cover 2 positions, eventually he has to replace Pierre. Ozzie benched Nick Swisher in 2008 and it worked, in a way, because we hung on to win the division. In another way, it was a disaster, because we were forced to dump Swisher's contract for nothing in return when he'd cost us three of our top prospects. So that's the potential cost....we bench Dunn and risk making him a drag on the roster for 2012, 2013 and 2014. Certainly you can't think the trades of Swisher and Javy brought us back a very good return. And in the process, we lost one of the best young LH pitching prospects in baseball, arguably an even more valuable pitcher than Daniel Hudson. What happens to GM's when every gamble they take turns out badly, even if it's "not their fault." Should you give credit to Ozzie for "nurturing" those players like Danks/Ramirez/Quentin/Thornton/Floyd/Santos/Viciedo/Humber along? Would they have done so well in an another organization? Humber's bounced around to something like 4 or 5 teams. Even the Twins. And yet he's found success with Cooper. And Cooper goes/stay with Ozzie, wherever he is...how many organizations would Santos successfully be closing for? You have Peavy, Rios, Dunn, 2 Swisher trades, the Javy trade, the Hudson/Jackson trade. Everything KW has done since the end of 2008 has turned to crap EXCEPT getting Viciedo and Santos. Even Beckham (the "surest" home-grown prospect since Thomas/Ventura) and Mitchell's fate in the minors now is very much up in the air as well. If you want, you can put Chris Sale in the "win" column but the jury's still far from out on that one as well.

"There isn't a single team in baseball that would bench Adam Dunn." Rongey

The White Sox had won 17 interleague series in a row before today. Listening to Ozzie, he said he had a sit down with Dunn and KW even came in to say they weren't panicking, that the front office was behind him. Ozzie says "he can't bench that guy," he's paid too much to sit, so many millions of dollars, etc. Seems like he's still determined to play Dunn once or twice against Colorado and the Cubs at 1B or RF. Didn't even know anything about Santiago, like what pitches he threw...."he's another Puerto Rican kid from New York," great Ozzie. Acknowledged he doesn't know much about the minor leaguers, haha.

Saw highlight of Espinoza's homer...that stadium is really empty in the lower level down by the foul poles. I think the business side of "All In" has to come back into the conversation soon enough. Ozzie's not going to be able to keep starting Dunn much longer at home. Hopefully he'll go off on the fans again and say something that's a finally a fireable offense because there's no other way to get Pierre out of that line-up.

Livan Hernandez was the Grand Marshal of the 1997 Orange Bowl Parade. Little known fact, there. Everyone needs to bombard RONGEY with Adam Dunn calls. I'm even tired of Farmer's "booing him doesn't make him play any better" line. 7-5 in interleague's not going to get it done.

Teahen wasn't LIKELY to do anything against a LHP, but I'm not so sure Lilly versus Storen is a much better match-up. We'll see. Nope, not so much. Lillibridge is falling back to earth, finally.

Why would we ever think they weren't going to start the inning with Storen? McLaren called that bluff. You'd rather have Lillibridge versus Storen than Teahen versus LHP Burnett. I guess. That's the argument. So Alexei will hit next, then Pierre.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 03:52 PM) Maggs, can you call up the postgame show just so we can hear Rongey say "you don't ph for someone with Dunn's pedigree?" I love that line. Sale's looked fantastic today, which is always something that warms my heart. I think I'm going to call in from the Philippines and pose that question. Sucks to see 2 1/2 GB flip to 4 1/2 in the span of about 5 minutes. We absolutely can't let the Tigers get too far in front of us. Their offense has a lot of holes, but Verlander just about looks unbeatable unless he ends up on the DL.

I'm going to predict we see PH'ers for Teahen and Beckham, but definitely not for Pierre.

They better let Lillibridge or Alexei Ramirez hit in the 9th. God, could this offense suck any more, with the exception of Konerko?

Dammit, that stupid wind has cost us homers by Konerko and Rios. Figures.

We have to be worst in the majors in going 1st to 3rd and 2nd to home. Rizzo was on talking about how their goal (Washington) in the offseason was to improve in this specific area, as well as the defense. It seems like we're getting worse and worse in this area, if that's possible. Of course, Juan Pierre now has locked up playing time for another week, SIGH.

Dammit Ozzie...we can't go down 4-1. Yeah yeah yeah, Teahen brought us back once from that deficit, but it's not a habit you want to go get into when you have Pierre, Dunn, Beckham, Vizquel, Teahen, etc. No need for Viciedo, though. Unless he's on that 25 man roster, KW.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 03:10 PM) I give all the credit in the world to these stats...but yeah, I've gotta dispute you a bit there. The B-R guys are very good. The world's best math people are a different level. Are you saying they're quants working on derivatives? Long Term Capital Management Group? Counting cards in Vegas?

Tigers now breaking it wide open, up 5-2 and still batting. Peralta's career has been resuscitated, he looked he like he headed out of baseball the last couple of seasons in CLE with his offensive struggles combined with lack of range and defensive ability.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 03:06 PM) WAR to me is a boring card game that some people actually, foolishly play in Vegas. To play that game at a table in Vegas is taking your money and ripping it to shreds. WAR, what is it good for? absolutely nothing! Reminds me of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, haha.

3-2 Tigers. That's what happens when you walk Casper Wells and Magglio Ordonez before Miguel Cabrera. Not a good idea.

Uh-oh, Tigers in danger of tying or going ahead. Two walks in the 8th, including .186 Magglio Ordonez on 4 pitches. Bases loaded with 2 outs, down 2-1.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 02:48 PM) It's truly a lose-lose situation with Dunn. You play him, he sucks. You bench him, you are benching $13 million a year. There is literally know way to win in this situation with Dunn. Unless it forces the White Sox to bring up Viciedo to replace him earlier than they would have replaced Pierre. Was Nick Swisher close to this bad in August, 2008 when he was benched?

The latest from Greg Walker. They're trying to get Dunn more balanced and out on his "right side" more, instead of loading and having all of his weight back. The phrase was "he's spinning around the ball and hooking/pulling everything" instead of taking a nice, balanced swing with proper weight distribution and transfer. Not sure how that can change his long/slow bat. We'll see.

2009, too...at one point, after Buehrle's no-no, they were tied for first that season.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2011 -> 02:40 PM) I'll have to take Paulie just being on the team then and watch him get the obligatory one at bat. Leyland and Verlander have made it pretty clear they don't care if he starts the Sunday before the ASB...meaning the AL will be without their best pitcher. Kind of sucks, but Justin seems to view the game itself as a joke because of the fan voting with all those Yankees (Jeter/Martin) and Red Sox. Ichiro will miss making it the first time, deservedly. Unless Mr. Bautista gets voted in, it will be a total shutout for the rest of the league, and Josh Hamilton.

Looked through the summary and noticed Dunn's up to his usual tricks. When is the insanity going to stop? They're going to have to look at benching him at home at some point. Of course, that will probably make the boos even louder when he does play.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/124546533.html Looks like Young JUST has a severely sprained ankle (same one he hurt earlier in his career) and won't miss more than a couple of weeks.

I like the Company Men a lot. In some ways, telling the story in that way, versus, for example, THE INSIDE JOB, was more interesting. Going to see an Indonesian horror movie called "The Empty Chair" today. Has anyone else seen The Tree of Life? Most of the critics loved it, my best friend hated it (and he's a huge Malick fan) and my personal opinion is somewhere in the middle. Looks like Green Lantern has already lost its legs at the box office, no surprise. What was more suprising is that it only made $16 million outside of the US. With a $300 million budget, it will be lucky to get to $175- 200 million worldwide. So much for that tentpole. Thor and X-Men also have had disappointing results, although many love X-Men. It will be interesting with Captain America, another "period comic" but with the added twist of fighting the Nazis. The Nazis were more of a small subplot in X-Men. I'm sure there will be some comparisons made between C.A. and Inglorious Basterds/Saving Private Ryan and the already-forgotten Sucker Punch. Bad Teacher, despite being blasted by most critics, is looking to end around $32 million and is breathing life into the new "female-dominated" comedy genre that started with Bridesmaids (although some would count Knocked Up as the first).