caulfield12

Detroit has put up a 5-1 lead, we need to hold serve. Pods doesn't like the ball down and in at all, unusual for a lefty but with his movement in the box, tougher to do much with that compared to pitches up and away.

Wow...didn't realize Blackburn was close to sporting a sub 3.00 ERA. He's definitely been their best starting pitcher this season, along with Perkins.

Looks like Danks will get the fifth and be on a tight leash starting the 6th.

78 pitches for Danks...my gametracker got behind so I switched to ESPN. For some reason, can't get MLB.com to come up at all so can't listen to the game, which sucks.

Somehow we're still in this game....obvious key will be the bullpen holding down the middle innings somehow. And the Twins' bullpen is a shade of its former self, so we can continue to get to them.

Want to see what Pena and Poreda can do in an important game against a rival on the road in a hostile environment...to see what we actually have with these two guys right now. We know what Carrasco is capable of and incapable of...

QUOTE (nastymasty21 @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:12 PM) how many pitches does Danks have? Hes really throwing a lot Danks had 58 freakin' pitches to get through 2 IP. Pretty impressive feat. Alexei Ramirez all the way up to the .280 mark with about 40-45% of the season left to go. Nice recovery.

2008 1-8 2007 4-5 2006 5-5 2005 6-3 2004 6-4 04-07 combined at HHH=21-17 2003 2-7 2002 3-7 2001 2-7 01-04 combined at HHH=7-21 2000 4-2 33-48 coming into 2009 season playing at the Metrodome In other words, if we played a full season of away games at Minnesota (162 games), we should go 66-96.

Don't see JR and KW investing $125-150 million into Joe Mauer when the Yankees will throw it at him to replace Posado or whoever is catching there in 2010.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:48 PM) That's how I feel too. Except I also feel that way about Span, Harris, Punto, Mauer, Gomez, Kubel, Cuddyer, Crede, Blackburn, Baker, Nathan, Liriano, etc. It was a lot easier to hate Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones, Rivas, Mientkiewicz and AJ (ESPECIALLY THOSE TWO), LaTroy Hawkins, JC Romero, Steady Eddie Guardado....but could never really hate Santana or Radke, you just had to respect those guys. Oh, and Redmond, Blanco, Matt LeCroy, Lew Ford, Jason Tyner, Jason Bartlett, Denny Hocking and any other unidentified Piranhas I left off the list. Don't hate Punto because he sucks so bad offensively I want to see his silly slides into 1B just to laugh at him. And hating how Nathan was automatic death for us when he came into a game.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:45 PM) Funny, as that's my same attitude about Quentin. Call him up, and if the pain is too much, shut him down for the season. Then we bring in Juan Pierre when McCourt agrees to eat 80% of his contract as a favor to JR and Ozzie has his NL team with Juan, Scotty Pods, Getz, Beckham, Nix and Ramirez to utilize as he sees fit.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:42 PM) Crede with a bad decision there, as he would have easily got Thome out at home. Oh, and I just got a call that Colon's fastball was at 84 mph yesterday. AKA a Charlie Haeger fastball. As slow as Takatsu would throw the frisbee, somehow at his age he could still get the fastball up there at 88-91.

I thought AJ was Anthony James?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:39 PM) Must be nice to have a SS that has range to his right. Very nice play by Harris. Blackburn's going to get 20 grounders today it seems. Ironic. The rap on Harris is that he sucks on defense, which is why they signed Punto to "secure" the position defensively with his -600 OPS. So Danks has a fullblown mental meltdown like Sam Witwicky and we transform horrid defenders into Gold Glovers just by playing them in the HumptyDOOM.

Is Blyleven still doing that stupid "Circle Jerk Me, Bert!" stuff after all these years?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:35 PM) pitching Richard on 3 days rest was absolutely idiotic It does seem if we brought up a random minor leaguer like Ely, Cassel, Harrell, Omogrosso, etc., they couldn't have done a whole lot worse yesterday than what Clayton came up with.... I still won't equate the rotation juggling with the level of anger I had not letting Buehrle start at Yankee Stadium in the late summer of 03.

Ascencio did it with 16 pitches for the Royals, but not to start a game. UMM...mixing the rotation to let Danks (who was pitching so well) face a team he SHOULD have a bit of confidence against isn't the problem. We changed our rotation around down the stretch last year and had starters going on 3 days and we somehow made it to the playoffs. It's not Ozzie's fault Danks has morphed into Rick Ankiel or Dontrelle Willis.

I dare you to give up a Grand Slam here Danks....

Pull dee strings, Eddie... Martin Landau in Ed Wood.

Thank God for the coin flip rule last year or we would have been toast.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 07:17 PM) It just makes no sense for the Sox to trade for Halladay especially with the offensive departures we're likely to have after this year. But isn't it equally feasible they would offer Dye a one or two year contract, not offer arbitration to Thome and work out something with Jimmy on the side to bring him back April 1st...? With Thome's salary number sitting where it's at, you obviously can't even offer him a 20% paycut, but what other teams would fit the bill in terms of location/proximity, comfort level with teammates and manager, and need a DH and be a competitive club that could potentially make it to the playoffs or World Series? Yankees, Red Sox, TB, Detroit, Minnesota, Texas or the Angels? Does anyone see Thome playing in DET or Minnesota? Seriously?

Whatever happens, we should start off the series pleased to take one out of three and get out of Dodge ahead of the Twins at the ASB. Until the players start to expect to win there, it's hard to get upset as a fan when they don't even believe they can win in that place.

Throw in the "Drum Guy" from the outfield bleachers (does he have to pay for two tickets when he brings that thing into the stadium?) and you've got yourself a deal.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) I wouldn't move Poreda. Poreda + Thornton from the left side Jenks as the closer Hopefully get good value out of Richard, Dotel, Linebrink Pena from the right side Call up a reliever Trade for a lesser veteran arm who doesn't cost much but can pitch in the 7th inning (Danys Baez maybe?) Carrasco stays in LR Yes our pen would be weaker than it is right now, but we're not getting anything for Dotel unless we offer arb, which we won't do because he'll accept. And now might be the best time to try and clear out Linebrink's contract. And Richard we don't have to deal, but I take offers because I'm happy with Thornton + Poreda as the lefties. They are our best options. Danys Baez is making almost $7.2 million this year, more expensive than Dotel even. He also played for Pinar del Rio, Alexei's team. I am sure they would give him to us for free if we agree to pay the remaining money on his contract...the odds of clearing out Linebrink's contract in this economy are about 5-10% at best unless we leverage him with a premium player like Jenks/Alexei/Quentin/Danks/Floyd/Beckham, which simply isn't going to ever happen with KW and JR at the helm of this ship.

There's a lot of concern Teahen will be traded, that Aviles will never be the same player he was last year and that Pena will NEVER hit. I remember the Royals making a desperate move for Rey Sanchez when they had the same problem almost a decade ago....and then, of course, Berroa never solidified that position after the great rookie year. Wasn't Cortes listed by many publications as a Top 45-60 prospect in all of the minors not so long ago?