caulfield12

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 09:50 PM) I can't make fun of him. I do the same thing. I just double space my sentences, while he single spaces them. I find that in paragraph form people glaze over things and I NEED people to read what I post! Here's to you, Greg775! Yeah Greg, take it from someone who gets picked on for writing long paragraphs/essays/diatribes, you can't please everybody, no matter how hard you try in life. As far as the topic at hand goes, we really can't be as bad as we've played since April of 2009 at home. For most of this decade, we were always an excellent home team. Somehow, that's disappeared for almost 1 1/2 seasons now, almost inexplicable. Sure, the fan support is down 10-15% compared to seasons past, but that alone has to be far from the reason for the strange splits from some of our players, like Gordon Beckham last year or like Gavin Floyd.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 04:45 PM) I honestly remember being in Cincinnati playing the Reds in the midst of our ass-kicking of just about everyone, and it was right when the Twins were beginning to put a streak together. It was right around this time (probably this last weekend), and I knew they were going to make a run. They had Santana, Liriano was coming into his own, and you just could feel that they were going to get back into the race. I hope that they are thinking the same thing right now. We can do this....Just need to keep the arms going. That's the series that it became obvious that Contreras as the best pitcher in baseball was about to end....that hip injury caught up with him.

Adding DeJesus is not going to come cheaply. How much better is he really going to be than Pierre? I think we can expect that Pierre will be pretty decent....considering how poorly he started. And that's where you have that calculus....if Dunn/LaRoche/Scott, etc., aren't going to put us over the top, then DeJesus certainly isn't going to do the trick either. And they're going to ask for Flowers/Hudson or something like that, certainly not justifiable in a season where we've been pretty bad except for this recent 10-1 stretch against inferior competition. Fielder would be a typical KW move, but budgetarily the numbers just don't make any sense going forward. I think this is one of those seasons you have to stick with what you have and hope that Quentin/Beckham can get going and Viciedo can hold his own, with Vizquel spelling him defensively.

Jose Reyes when he's healthy... Alex Rios should be getting onto some of these lists, too. Stanton and Cameron Maybin (if he ever gets it together), Vladimir Guerrero in his prime. Austin Jackson playing defense. Carlos Gomez and Brandon Inge (for Hawk)

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7562 Michael Morse is alive and well. Good to see, nice kid.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Jun 21, 2010 -> 11:08 AM) I would love Kemp and would trade Floyd for him in an instant. An outfield of Kemp Rios and Q would be one of the best in the league. Berkman hasnt hit for 2 years, maybe he is done. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ap8j...endegrees062010 I think you might want to pay particular attention to the Matt Kemp discussion in this article....one of the season's biggest disappointments, along with the declines of Porcello, Beckham and Peavy (no mention of Quentin at least).

Teahen is DEFINITELY not a corner OFer in even the NL. Lillibridge at 3B? Trading Quentin and Hudson for two uncertainties seems like taking a step backwards, not forwards.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 20, 2010 -> 09:44 PM) Haven't the Sox played well against good teams this year and suffered vs the bad? Anyway, I'm in. i think we were something like 17-17 or 18-18 against teams that were over .500 and the same mark against teams below .500, with the Indians being a large part of that (4-8)....finally balanced out by beating up on the Cubs, Pirates and Nationals

We can't give up Tyler Flowers for an unproven AAA/AAA+/AAAA hitter. Need to get more back than that, Flowers/Viciedo/Beckham all have to hit well going forward for our payroll to stand a chance. I just think they have to make a decision this year...AJ is what he is, and he's reached the limits of his ability with age/wear and tear starting to creep into his game.

Would have been nice to get at least that sixth run across. I'll take Viciedo hitting the ball hard to RF or 2B any day of the week...that's his natural swing, not unlike Beckham. Of course, you don't like the DP ball, but he's made very solid contact in all 3 AB's, which is an encouraging start. Better than him getting diced up and dissected by Strasburg.

Ozzie for Manager of the Year. Half joking, half serious. We're almost a .500 ballclub as bad as we've been, of course, most of that is on the backs of beating up on the NL. This is still the same ballclub that managed to go 4-8 against the Cleveland Indians. I'd be shocked to see a division winner in recent years that had a losing record against the last place team in that division....maybe the Rays beat the Yankees 10-9 or something like that head-to-head 2-3-4 seasons ago, but we've been pretty close to dominated by the Indians, and they're borderline horrible. 5-7 or 6-6, okay, but not 4-8. It's just hard for me to ignore that, as well as we have been playing as of late. And Beckham's still not close to pulling out of it. While we have some batters who are rebounding, Rios and Konerko can't carry the team by themselves....Ramirez, Quentin and Viciedo will have to come through because I have almost zero confidence now that Beckham will get this season straightened out. He had that big game this week against the Pirates and now he has fallen off a cliff again.

Yeah, it's disappointing but none of this means anything unless they can carry over their success to the AL again. It's a big shot of adrenaline in the arm for the starting rotation when the season basically seemed lost, but we're still at least 2 bats short, maybe one if Viciedo miraculously has a 2nd half like Beckham last year or Beckham can actually get going and sustain his momentum for 6-8 weeks. Something of a precarious situation...because the Twins/Tigers are still clearly the favorites...KW basically has no choice but to stand pat and make some "tinkering" moves, nothing like bringing in Contreras/Garcia or Peavy/Rios at mid-season is possible (of course, we've been surprised before with KW, and it will definitely happen again). At best, he can trade away Flowers to get something in return, but I just don't see that happening, because to compete at a lower payroll he has to see what Tyler has got at the major league level. It's not like Tyler Flowers and/or Danks are going to get us that final, missing piece, and trading Hudson would be even more foolhardy.

Yeah, G-Load homered, Runners on 1st and 2nd (Mauer and Morneau walked) in the top of the 11th, one out Rauch is hitting still after blowing the save, only one sacrifice bunt ever....he will try to move the runners over to 2nd and 3rd but is now down 0-2 in the count Rauch actually has homered off Roger Clemens....gets SAC bunt down with 2 strikes Delmon Young just got an infield hit, Twins back up by 1. Should have put Rauch away when they had the chance and that run wouldn't have scored on the infield single...and should have walked Young probably to face Tolbert. Ozzie haters would have fun with Manuel's managing in this one. Looks like game....Tolbert with a two run double, 13-10 Twins.

I remember Clippard used to be a starter with the Yankees....right?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2010 -> 06:50 PM) That whole AB is pathetic in so many ways. Gavin is making a ton of mistakes on the mound right now. They called that pitch and location in that count with that defensive set-up??? Either Rios got crossed up or he (Gavin) really missed on the location?

Well, it's hard to pull Floyd with under 90 pitches before he had even surrendered a run...but I guess you can second-guess Ozzie a bit. Thornton has been slumping, though. Willingham and Dunn are their two best hitters, let's just hope to escape with the tie. Okay, got out of it.

Didn't realize Willis was pitching against his former team...Manny back in Boston, lots of subplots this weekend.

Chris Young just had an RBI single driving in 2 runs against Galaragga...a 4-4 tie in Detroit. 285/12/48/844 OPS, looks like his career nosedive trajectory has righted itself at least for one season.

Great job of hitting there by Konerko, who'd a thunk one of his best overall offensive seasons would come at this point in his career, in the final year of his contract? Not I. I guess the 2nd base umpire just flew in after refereeing the US-Slovenia game last night. Phantom call, not even a foot or foot and one half away from the bag.

Well, obviously Strasburg wasn't signed for his hitting prowess. Even though these victories aren't great ones, on the road...that's a confidence builder, and the fact that our starters who were struggling are starting to come back to their "normal" selves, I'm not quite ready to believe in this team until they can start beating AL teams, but momentum is a very powerful thing in baseball. The Tigers and White Sox have it, the Twins don't, for the moment. 5 1/2 games back didn't even seem remotely possibly 2 weeks or so ago.

The only thing I keep going back to is 2003... We were 7 games behind the Royals and the Twins were 7 1/2 games back at the ASB. But that White Sox team was incredibly talented (although not a cohesive team until July/August), the Royals were a house of smoke and mirrors and this year's Twins are better than the 2003 Twins, and we also have the Tigers to contend with in the middle of everything else. I just want to at least be able to pretend we're in contention, which means a .500+ record and maybe getting within 4-5 games of Minnesota/Detroit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 13, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) I would imagine it would be Buddy Bell, but that is just a guess. Anyone who thought Mark Teahen should go back to being a full-time 3B in the AL should be fired on the spot. Yeah, you can live with a mid 700's OPS (Uribe/Crede) but his defense with a team that has a razor-thin margin for error because of its offense...you just can't play him over someone like Vizquel who at least makes consistent contact and doesn't kill the infield D. I mean, Vizquel was last a "decent" offensive player 7-10 years ago, but I would still rather have him in the line-up than Teahen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 13, 2010 -> 01:14 PM) Ryan Sweeney recently complained about how the Sox always used to try to make him change his swing. Anderson never really agreed to change anything in his approach, until it was way too late. Fields is a bit harder to explain, but "slider speed" bat is part of it. His defensive woes didn't help matters much, but it seems he could have been at least an average LF or DH offensively based on 2007. Then again, hopefully we're not saying the same thing about Beckham 2-3 years from now. That would be too painful.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 13, 2010 -> 04:20 PM) Now, now...just stick with "The Plan." Didn't Mao and Stalin also have similar plans and solutions, along with Hitler? Joking... FWIW, I've never been impressed by Moore, it's like Coach K's proteges as well, just because they learn from Yoda doesn't make them all equally-capable Jedi Knights. As far as Hahn goes, it's kind of MEEHHHH. A little like Dan Evans. I'd like us to think outside the box. Kim Ng would be one. LaRussa would be interesting, but I doubt it happens. Someone will get annoyed, but why wouldn't we at least look at a couple of high level Twins' FO staff? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...maybe KW's ego won't allow himself to give in to the temptation to admit that having (and sticking with) a system and plan is better than riverboat gambling on a year-to-year basis.

Didn't realize Danks had slumped all the way down to nearly 660 OPS, that's not so good. Morel really really struggling, something like 6 or 7/42 so far out of the gate. Might have been rushed a bit. Retherford still hasn't settled in at BIRM offensively, either. Viciedo slumping a little bit in the last two weeks. Hard to get excited about anyone besides Hudson and our Winston-Salem offense, although Gilmore's line looks like Ryan Sweeney's, which still isn't going to work at a corner IF spot unless you're Mark Teahen. Continue to be impressed by Short and Escobar...although both have a long long way to go. FIRE BUDDY BELL!!!! Just joking, but I honestly never thought he was some type of magical savior who would turn around our minor league system....I know, I know, someone will say "be patient" and that we have to wait for a couple of more seasons for system-wide results, but I just don't know. Of course, a healthy Mitchell and Sale makes our system look quite a bit better. It would help if Flowers could actually hit, same with Danks. It also appears the bloom is nearly 100% off the John Shelby III rose.