caulfield12

Well geez, they should have just yanked Contreras after the 6th inning and it wouldn't have been 5-2. Or we should put Jayson Nix in defensively for Paul Konerko, etc., in every late-inning defensive situation. After a loss, it's VERY easy to second guess every single move. We are just an average team and always will be this season...let's just get used to it, as it will make the next 90 games easier to deal with.

QUOTE (C_LEE45 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:42 PM) ummmm Castro vs marmol who cant pitch a strike or AJ vs marshall wow sure hope we can take 1 of the next 2. Because Ramon Castro has had a five year career on the South Side, was an integral part of a World Series winning team and is not only USUALLY a clutch hitter but one of our better overall hitters? Yes, Ozzie should be fired after every loss and conversely, the team wins in spite of him when it does somehow manage to win. Gardenhire should have been fired as well after Blackburn threw ill-advisedly into LF and cost his team the game and himself a loss. Tiresome.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:53 PM) Yep, yep yep. Such is life of a five under .500 type team. As far as AJ's at bat, I felt good having the vet stroll up to the plate against the Cubs with the game on the line. I thought he'd loft a fly ball to at least tie it. I didn't think the vet would swing at the first pitch and hit into a DP. If Fields wouldn't have drawn the walk, people would have second guessed Oz for pinch hitting for Beckham. It's so easy to second guess the manager on any loss. I personally felt good with AJP at the plate even vs. a lefty. Ozzie was just trying to protect Beckham there with the more experienced Fields... I agree with the move, and Fields was more likely to hit a homer there as well. Beckham did have a hit and walk, but he was also 1 for his last 9. Now he has something positive to build off of for tomorrow's game instead of striking out to end the game against our biggest rival. Sure, he could have hit a game-tying homer as well, but Ozzie's trying to put his rookies (Getz, Beckham, Richard and Poreda) in the best possible positions to succeed it at all possible.

QUOTE (sayitaintso @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:45 PM) Fixed We win as a team and lose as a team. Would we have had ANY chance to win yesterday without his 3 run homer??? AJ's not the biggest problem with this team, it's getting 600-650 OPS numbers from Getz (well, he's a rookie) and Anderson AND dearly missing Carlos Quentin's offensive production.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:43 PM) Tough tough loss. Sure wish AJP would have lofted a game tying sacrifice fly. You could see it coming and wham, first pitch, we are done for the inning. After the great series against the Dodgers, disappointing to drop game one again. Detroit can beat up on HOUSTON, we'll be potentially seven games out after tonight, and we've been playing pretty well recently. We had our chances and blew it head-to-head versus DET (the Wise out call at home and the Cubs' loss when leading 5-1 will be the most remembered by many fans) and were doomed by that 4-8 homestand when we really had an opportunity to pull back into the race and get back above .500.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 04:40 PM) I don't know. But why didn't Ozzie pinch run Wise for Dye in the 8th? Wise scores on Thome's ball easily. It took Freel a year to get there and Dye still didn't score. Because if we took Konerko/Thome/Dye out of every single game in the late innings for pinch-runners, we'd have absolutely ZERO chance of scoring in a game like yesterday's in extra innings. Second, normally you would make that move for the winning or go ahead run, but it's not so obvious there.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 05:19 PM) I would had still let Castro hit there. It was obvious Lou was going to the pen anyways. AJ can get into one vs lefties, but he is very incostistant. He of the .118 average with the Sox coming into that AB? IF Castro hits into a DP, everyone will be screaming, why didn't Ozzie PH? At least AJ has been pretty clutch for us in the past and is probably our second best hitter this year after Pods (maybe tied with Paulie). Clearly, it's not our year...you had the feeling after last week the same thing COULD happen this week in reverse, but the White Sox just couldn't quite push through. Well, there's one more inning to play, and at least the Sox made a game out of it and Beckham/Ramirez had some decent AB's to put their team in a position to tie and/or take the lead.

Would you have rather used Wise there? Castro was hitting .118 with the White Sox coming into that AB, clearly he hasn't been lighting the world on fire, either. Predictable, yes...but that's the way this entire season has gone, I switched it off because I knew it was coming.

I thought I had been banned by Kapkomet in the middle of the night, lol. Actually, I haven't been posting very much here these days...so that didn't make sense, either. Here in Thailand, I'm pretty much elated if I can get Gameday Audio streams to work uninterruptedly, and when I post at soxtalk.com at the same time I am listening to the game, it kicks me out of the game broadcast because of my weak wireless connection. Not sure what the recent news is...Josh Fields should now play everyday and we should send Beckham back down? AJ relives his past glory versus Dodgers? White Sox are playing pretty well again and still losing ground to Tigers? It actually sucked to have to root for the Cubs, and there wasn't as much joy as in the past when they blew the first game against DET because that meant WE were losing more ground. And Transformers 2 pretty much sucked AND was about as long as yesterday's extra inning game!!! We are now 7-12 in one run games....which is a bit surprising, because our bullpen is the strength of the team. I would argue it's 15-20% the bullpen's fault and 75-80% the offense and lack of clutch hitting in close games. Looks like the "real" power hitting Konerko is back too, nice to see. Alexei Ramirez continue to lead the league in being an enigma...but still, at his age, with his contract, he's one of the best bargains on our team and in the top 10-12 MLB shortstops offensively, certainly since the first 6-8 weeks of the season. Nice to see Aaron Poreda come up big, too. We now know Ozzie thinks more highly of him than Jimmy Gobble, FWIW.

I'm reminded of all the Sox fans who were in love with Aaron Miles 6 years or so ago when we traded him for Uribe. You would have thought their dogs had been killed. Ramirez will be the starting SS next season. Due to his age, his arm, his contract, superior range to Beckham...too many factors to list. When you can put up an OPS of 700-850 at that position (and possibly improving with a higher BB rate) for the contract he has, you'd be very silly to trade him unless you could get something better than Homer Bailey or Bowden in return. If you're going to trade someone to get a "potential" starting pitcher, put together a package with Jenks, Fields, Anderson or Shelby. Viciedo's not going to be traded when the largest portion of his contract was the signing bonus for this year. We control his rights for 6 seasons in the "prime" (actually pre-prime) of his career at ages 21-26. Will he be the next Miggy Cabrera? Probably not, but trading away either Alexei or Dayan seems far-fetched. The jury is still out whether Getz can be a full-time starter at 2B. Maybe...if we get stronger contributions from 3B (Beckham) and the outfield (that means you Brian Anderson, for about 4 years running). As far as trading Jenks, we've done quite well with "bargain" or suspect closers over the last 10-15 years. In fact, you could argue our worst closer was Koch, and he had the highest amount of expectations. Look at the backgrounds of Howry, Foulke, Takatsu, Hermanson, etc. They still could try Thornton (skeptical), Poreda (skeptical). Then there's the likes of Omogrosso or Santeliz, Nunez...I think we could get a serviceable closer (maybe not a 85% conversion rate, but 70-80% perhaps) out of the minors and the contributions by bolstering the starting rotation over time would compensate and overcome the loss of Bobby. That and the fact that his salary was one of the biggest bargains in baseball his first 3 years with the Sox, now it's close to becoming a liability if we are really looking for areas to slash payroll going forward.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jun 20, 2009 -> 04:21 PM) I don't know why they haven't moved him yet, maybe they wanted him to concentrate on his hitting without having to worry about a position change first year in pro ball, but I just don't see Viciedo ever being a big league third baseman. The Brewers will be in a code red situation if they don't shore up their pitching in a hurry. They went to scout Pedro Martinez in the DR and he didn't even throw for them. They wouldn't have time to wait on him 4-6 weeks to get ready anyway. Besides that, they need multiple pitchers if they are going to stay in the race in the NL Central. Contreras and Richard might be the second and third best starters on their staff. If I were KW I'd offer those 2 + Jenks, pay Contreras' salary and see what they'd be willing to part with. Why is there pressure on us right now to go out and trade the likes of Contreras and Jenks? Sure, if there's just an overwhelming offer on the table, but that's not going to happen in June like it has in the past. Every GM will wait as long as possible to commit precious resources when their teams are in "iffy" positions as far as competing for a division or WC spot. Just look at the White Sox the last week, we were only 3 GB and should have put the Cubs away to stay there...then we were on the verge of being 6 GB after giving up 5 early runs in Cincy. This team is schitzophrenic, but we're not chasing after the late 90's Indians here, it's the very much flawed Tigers. Even without having Thome to use recently and Quentin (possibly for the season), we're still in this thing. Sure, if something crazy like getting swept by the Dodgers and Cubs AT HOME takes place, then you can start to think about moving some players like Fields. If we really believe that Poreda will never do anything but DECREASE his value from this point on at the major league level, then trade him and figure out why we have such an institutionalized "coaching failure" to turn pitching prospects with good arms into legit starting pitchers by adding secondary pitches to their arsenals. Omogrosso is another pitcher in that category, although certainly much less hyped than Aaron because of his lower draft status. It would be nice if one of our young pitchers actually developed...and we didn't have to wait another 1-2 years for the pitchers in A ball or recently promoted to BIRM to make a contribution. I said this at the beginning of the season when seemingly there was a debate about Brian Anderson everyday, but he should have a 700+ OPS to have a spot in the line-up everyday. Otherwise, he's either a trade chip or your fourth outfielder. I'd venture that he has another 2-3 more weeks to make his case or KW will end up making another move there, like the Griffey one last year. Nix is fine in the Uribe role, and he wouldn't bring back much in trade anyway. We all know that Ramirez has the ability to be at 700-850 even with his terrible OBP. And Getz is a rookie who's showing some nice signs of progress and comfortability at the big league level now, so shoring up the outfield by replacing Anderson and/or Wise is the first place to go. With Jordan Danks having some wrist problems, and Mitchell and/or Shelby at least 1 1/2 seasons away from the big leagues (if they end up sticking as CFers), we really have to find a better offensive threat from that position. Pods at his advanced age has been our second most valuable outfielder offensively, so KW really got lucky there as well or things would be even worse with Owens/Wise getting more playing time.

What happened last inning? Did Alexei think Pods was coming home and get caught between 2nd and 3rd? Alexei is having perhaps his best game of the season, but he's still not all there mentally...not to mention the pickoff at first, although Farmer thought it was a balk move. That ball that Taveras hit where Konerko was pulled off the bag definitely shouldn't have been ruled a hit...costing Richard some ER's that weren't his fault. I guess the Cabrera trick of calling up to the scorekeeper worked for a struggling Taveras this time, at least we didn't go out and get THAT guy, one of the often-debated non-moves of the offseason.

A myth. He throws harder than Cotts, for sure, but 91-95 is what we should really expect I think, sometimes at 96, with accurate guns. Joins the club with Felix Diaz, Jon Adkins and Nick Masset with pitchers overhyped for having dominating stuff at the minors or in winter ball or wherever that mysteriously disappears at the MLB level.

QUOTE (tommy @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 07:38 PM) 2 of 3 vs Pitt 2 of 3 vs Mil 1 of 2 vs Cubs Realistically, we should be 7-1 in those games, easily. Jenks' blown save in the 9th against PITT and then the debacle yesterday. It's not like we have been overmatched in any of those games, even with some scary-bad looking line-ups in the NL parks.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 08:27 PM) Our relievers are really struggling for the past 2 weeks or so. Everyone's giving up runs it seems. Which was probably Ozzie's thinking with Thome there. Even though the odds are against it, he's the player off the bench (along with Nix MAYBE) most likely to get ahold of one and put you back in the lead...to change the momentum. Maybe Guillen feels the lack of confidence the bullpen now as well and saw the game slipping away...it's not like he has a arsenal of competent weapons to choose from off that bench. AJ would have been nullified by Rhodes too, but at least he's more of a contact hitter than Big Jim.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 08:19 PM) Exactly...the Reds wouldn't play match-ups in the 9th with Cordero. Of course, Wise should have been playing today (you have to maximize your lefties against Arroyo). And the sooner we promote Kroeger for Gobble, the better. Agreed, IF it's D-Weezy from LAST year...but unfortunately he's been a shade of him former self, which wasn't all that good to begin with. Of course, you can always go with the "revenge against former team" approach playing Wise. The fact that we think Josh Kroeger could really help this team speaks volumes for our season.

Nix just hasn't had many AB's recently. Not sure we can look at him very confidently coming off the bench at this point in the season...and everyone knows Fields' weaknesses.

Well...it's almost where the mentality is you expect to leave runners on 2nd and 3rd with less than two outs with this team. Better to be pleasantly surprised with a hit I suppose. Beckham let a fastball he could have crushed go by on the first pitch and then looked pretty bad swinging and missing two hittable pitches. "Work in progress."

Nice aggressiveness we're showing on the basepaths this game...now, if only we had some clutch hitting. Thome on deck to bat for Jose.

Contreras is always so fragile with his stuff and his confidence. Tonight, it appears he's lost the aggressiveness he had his last two starts. When he works more quickly and trusts his stuff and goes after hitters instead of tentatively nibbling, he's a heckuva pitcher. Still, a "quality start" and you shouldn't expect to win many road games with 2 hits.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 19, 2009 -> 07:45 PM) I told you, it's really weird seeing how out of it Jermaine and Konerko seem. I guess it's just age/health issues that are finally catching up with this team...KW got away with this risk for 4 years running. The one thing that hasn't happened is AJ going down, which he acquired Castro as insurance for (also because Miller was/is horrible and there was probably a decision made that bringing up Flowers to play everyday with the eventuality of an AJ injury would be a disaster). Ironic that our oldest player, Contreras, has unexpectedly been one of our best recently...when absolutely nobody predicted or expected it. Looked like a slider/forkball that didn't move and just hung out over the plate...tried to surprise Phillips with offspeed stuff. Farmer thinks that Contreras is tipping his pitches with his glove position.

Why is Konerko taking a 3-1 fastball there and not ready for it? Was he really expecting a curveball? You have to look for the FB 2-0 and 3-1, then he ended up pull hooking an outside slider into an out. Are we last in the majors hitting with RISP, or is it the Cubs? Has to be one of these two pathetic offenses.

Ummm...Beckham hitting 8th balances out our line-up out and takes the pressure off of him. Although you can certainly make the argument that Getz did well for a stretch earlier in the year at leadoff, he's finally found himself again batting at the bottom of the line-up where he really belongs (on a playoff or championship-caliber team).

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 09:52 PM) No way we will take this division "easily." No way. We are wildly inconsistent in all phases of the game. This team is .500 at best and likely to finish about .450. We know we are capable of lousy stretches like that horrible homestand. We have yet to show any signs of putting together a long win streak or stretch of 12 wins in 15 games, something like that. We had a 10-3 string going before we ended up winning only 3 out of the last 11 games on that homestand (after the first win against OAK at home).

QUOTE (tommy @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 10:25 PM) Not sure if you know already but Brandon Allen got promoted to AAA Charlotte. I think we might see him this season. Well, at least Flowers, Viciedo, Retherford, Danks and Shelby will get to experience playoff baseball, theoretically, in September. That team has already lost Beckham, Allen and Poreda...and there's also a "decent" possibility they will bring up Flowers/Dayan/CJ in July or August to AAA.