caulfield12

Starters against Lee are averaging an ERA below 1.00...but he's been pitching really well the last 3-4 outings. Viciedo hitting clean-up today for the first time his career for the Barons. Go BIRM!

I think Illinois/ND baseball has better attendance than the Indians these past two games... Picking Pods for the "pick to click" today is suicide!

The options were to play Betemit, Nix, Getz or Ramirez in CF.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2009 -> 09:44 AM) Really disagree with benching Thome, unless he's injured from running the bases last night. It should be fun watching Fields and Lillibridge attempt to hit Cliff Lee's high fastball. Throw a no-hitter Buehrle. Pods hitting 2nd and Fields at 6th tells you everything you need to know about our AAA line-up. Earlier in the season I said our Birmingham line-up was stronger, and you can definitely make that case versus what we've had to put out there the last couple of weeks. Just the very presence of Lillibridge screams "automatic out" and the reverse Thome shift to RF for Lilliquist as Harrelson calls him.

Also, I think that Detroit game where he (Floyd) had 7 walks....nobody could have thrown strikes in that weather, it was ridiculously cold, he could barely feel his hands that day.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2009 -> 09:43 AM) The Walker bashing is ridiculous. The results speak for themselves. Everyone bashes every White Sox player as they are done but when they don't go 4 for 4 its the hitting coach's fault. Its BS. Look at the line-ups and tell me how someone is going to get more out of what is out there? And if Walker must go, no one has come up with a name of a replacement to date. There have been a couple of "get the Texas coach's assistant" from a few. First off, does he even have an assistant? I'm not for firing Cooper. I just think the Walker bashing is beyond old and beyond ridiculous, and just wanted to point out that the offense generally outperforms the pitching staff during Walker's reign and the pitchers generally do better at home than on the road so USCF isn't the reason. Not so fast. WHITE SOX TEAM ERA on the Road (the best independent variable we can use to compare the offense and pitching) 2008 5th in AL, 13th in MLB 2007 7th in AL, 15th in MLB 2006 8th in AL, 18th in MLB 2005 1st in AL, 1st in MLB 2004 7th in AL, 19th in MLB AVERAGE ranks for White Sox pitching on the road, 5.6/14 in AL, 13.2/30 IN MLB Runs Scored Per Game on the Road 2008 12th in AL, 23rd in MLB 2007 14th in AL, 29th in MLB 2006 4th in AL, 8th in MLB 2005 8th in AL, 11th in MLB 2004 7th in AL, 13th in MLB Average ranks for White Sox RSPG on the road, 9th/14th in the AL, 17/30 in MLB

Fields just has WAY too many moving parts in his swing now. It's no wonder he can't hit a Pavano fastball down the pipe. Lillibridge is probably beyond hope for this year...he wasn't even able to pull Jeremy Sowers, but continued to flare lazy flyballs to RF. Getz stands almost as much on top of the plate as Quentin. Of course he's going to get busted inside, and unless he turns on those balls and drives them to RF, it's going to keep happening. It's strange to see a LH hitter struggle so much will pitches that are low, but it's the pitches that are low AND inside that he's specifically dealing with, like a cutter from a RH pitcher.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb Article hyping him as possibly the best pitching prospect ever (kiss of death!) at MLB.com

Yeah, but the sex has to end sometime, the girl has HPV, and we have to return to the reality of Lillibridge, Pods and Fields facing Cliff Lee. And also try not to worry about Chris Getz not looking so "short and quick" anymore, either.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/statistics/...ds/?pl_id=20900 And MacDougal has an ERA under 4 with Syracuse!! Lillibridge is REALLY making me miss Pablo Ozuna when he was in his prime as a bench player before the injury. He's hitting well in AAA right now. Borchard, NOT so MUCH. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/Players/B/Joe-Borchard.shtml

Royals fans are blaming it on the WBC, of course. Somehow the White Sox are only 2.5 GB, if we could somehow win 2 of our next 5 (knowing that we NEVER play well at TOR and face Doc Halladay again this series), we should be in decent shape before we come home to face the Twins in a crucial home series.

Maybe KHP can do another Upchurch-esque post for Lillibridge at AAP... Well, we know who the White Sox see as their future CFer and leadoff hitter, it's Mr. Danks. Great game by Viciedo, nice to see him break out and start hitting the ball with authority...but he's done a great job quietly collecting RBI's despite his struggles. Now we need to get Flowers heated up again...and Retherford made only his second error of the season, not bad. Ely, not so good. Phil Rogers mentioned him during the show tonight, and that must have been the old kiss of death.

Ozzie, you have to play Betemit tomorrow at 3B, except you won't do it because it's a LH going, so hopefully not another hat trick. It sucks to have to play Pods and Lillibridge against a LHP. Maybe they could try Betemit at 3B with Ramirez at SS and Nix in CF, lol. Or Ramirez in CF with Nix at SS...doesn't matter. Great games from Thome, Corky Miller and DJ Carrasco. DJ might even end up getting the start next time around, wouldn't be surprised.

I can't believe Thome hit a homer against a LHP. Yay!!!

QUOTE (fathom @ May 12, 2009 -> 05:57 PM) Very nice...where does our run differential rank in all of baseball? Overall, we have to be ahead of at least 8-10 teams, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the bottom 3-5 for run differential in losses. So we're good at getting blown out, not too many close losses. So, once again, Ozzie and Gardy win the Pythagorean World Series and Wedge looks even worse, if possible.

Official Fathom stat of the day.... White Sox have been outscored an incredible 121-39 in their 17 losses. Average score of losses, 7.1 to 2.3. Differential of 4.8 per game. At least we've won MOST of the close games!!!

QUOTE (Sonik22 @ May 12, 2009 -> 03:00 PM) This is what I don't like, but I still think we will get it together. Through the same amount of games played RS RA 146 121 2008 129 150 2009 That's a big differential though...a negative swing of 1.48 runs per game compared to last year.

The only time I've ever had an injured heel (and I'm assuming it's the foot and not the Achilles') was from landing akwardly on the back of my foot/heel at first base...and that sucked, because it was a "soft tissue" injury and it was really painful, and didn't "heal" until I just basically didn't play any sports for a couple of weeks. Aside from an oblique strain, that's the worst. The biggest question, will Ozzie be crazy enough to start Lillibridge at 1/2 in the batting order because it's a LHP...Getz or Pods has to be first or second, assuming he wouldn't "promote" Fields back to that spot.

No...there's a package where you can watch minor league games, but 80-85% of the game are AAA. There weren't enough Barons games to interest me, and I watched most of the preseason games, so I got to see all of those guys play but Shelby. I just listen to the audio and then "watch" through Gamecast.

I've found this season, in one of those games recently that you knew was over by the 3rd or 4th, that the best therapy was to turn on the Barons game through milb.com or "watch" it through gamecast. I realized it's completely futile to start threads or even comment on a game-by-game basis, pretty much. I haven't taken any losses that hard this year...the exceptions would probably the game we blew about 3-4 leads to the Royals and lost in extra innings and then the game that Thornton game up the GS to Zobrist, but that game ended without much drama. If you add up ALL of our losses this year, I was MORE upset about the game at the Metrodome last September that Carlos Gomez must have accumulated 1/5th of his season's total for XB hits, the game we led most of the way but slowly let the Twins back in inning by inning...and eventually ended up with Jenks blowing the save. That game and one Keith Foulke lost to Denny Hocking, for some reason, are the ones that stand out as the most agonizing.

I think every game we've started against a pitcher with a 6+ ERA this year, we've lost. Is that correct? Off the top of my head, Harrison (2X), Pavano, Adam Eaton, R.A. Dickey (not 100% sure he was above 6) and Brandon McCarthy. Bergesen was making his debut. Of the "good" starters, we've lost to Galarraga, Tallet has pitched very well this year but was kind of a journeyman reliever before, Halladay, Greinke (2X) and Padilla. By this new rule of the Sox offense, we will lose to Sowers for sure.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 12, 2009 -> 01:06 PM) Jordan Danks' very first promotion. Hopefully, the first of many. Well, technically he was "promoted" from Kannapolis to the AFL and then he didn't go back to Kanny, so I guess that's something of a promotion. Are Danks and Shelby the only two players in our organization that are rated 80+ for speed and power at thebaseballcube.com?

I wonder if we'll ever see Gartrell in a White Sox uniform?? With Dye leaving (probably), he MIGHT get a shot at a corner OF spot (or Kroeger, if the White Sox decided to go Wal-Mart/Sam's Club cheap budgetwise for 2010), especially if he keeps hitting the way he has recently. .304, 1000+ OPS, 7 homers already...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 11, 2009 -> 09:29 PM) Clearly, Walker told Pods to get ridiculously hurt in 2006 and 2007 such that his body will never recover. When Walker turns in a Mark DeRosa? God, you realize how specific you're going to require me to be there? I can't use Konerko because he started off here, even if he's had excellent seasons with Walker when healthy. I can't use Dye because he had good years before he came here, even if he's been better since he got here. I can't use anyone we actually bring in and develop, like Quentin or Ramirez, because they're not recovery people. I can't use Anderson if he keeps performing, because he started off with us. Brent Lillibridge could start hitting .350 tomorrow and I couldn't use that. Basically, the only guy I can think of who would fit the billing would be if Walker had turned around Erstad or Betemit. I can't even think of other guys who would be candidates. And since Betemit is benched, Walker could be Jesus and he can't help there. If you or Walker are Jesus, after raising Lazarus, Contreras and Floyd from the dead, please lay your hands on Betemit to make him a Gold Glove caliber defender at all three infield positions like Uribe...or just let Nix become the offensive powerhouse that CQ was last year but as a middle infielder. CLE could very easily be just 1 game behind the White Sox after Wednesday. Scary!!!

I would keep Quentin over Getz, if I had to pick just one. Other than that: Kroeger over D. Ward I would keep Buehrle or Danks over Jenks Omogrosso or maybe even Santeliz would be in the rotation, definitely no Wesley Whisler. Infante is very deserving of consideration, too. Nathan Jones for closer, lol (actually, maybe Brian O. or Santeliz could do it, perhaps, not sold on Link yet)