caulfield12

KC has had our number this year, especially Greinke. Time for some payback...although they can be a tough team for us to beat since 2006, especially playing in KC.

It might turn out blowing that 5-1 lead against the Cubs was the reverse spark this team needed to come back to life...to realize how close they were to being 5-0 against a team that was supposed to be one of the best in the NL and outplaying them completely. 6-2 or 5-3 in this stretch of games coming up against the Indians and Royals and we're close to back in business. Doesn't seem like the Twins are any better off than we are (except for having two MVP's in Mauer/Morneau, and Cuddyer/Kubel are VERY solid as well in the middle) with holes like 3B, Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto (I knew they'd regret that signing, would have been better off with Juan Uribe or Adam Everett), the RH set-up pitchers, etc.

With Mitchell/Danks in 2011...Beckham, Viciedo, Flowers, Allen (at least two of those guys working out)...we should have the best team in the division if we can find just one more solid/reliable starting pitcher. Of course, it seemed we had 10 starters coming up through the pipeline around 2000/01 and the only ones who turned out were Buehrle and Garland in the long-term. Heck, I even think The Little Engine That Could (CJ Retherford) might make a nice story of an UFA making it to the big leagues...a good example for all our minor leaguers that success and persistence pay off, they even those players who aren't highly touted can force their way onto the radar screen (Boone Logan also comes to mind in the recent past) and KW/Ozzie will give them a shot (D.Wise is another maybe bad example to some). And I'm not 100% ready to cut the cord on Dye/Konerko/AJ/Thome if it makes sense...and it does...to keep at least one or two of those guys around in 2010/11 under the right conditions monetarily. I'll just put it this way....the other night when Valverde blew the save, I was thinking "hey, we're really close to being back in this thing after struggling for so long to find an identity"....now it's the pitching and Gordon Beckham that are sparking this team to life.

Brandon Backe (32) Miguel Batista (39) Josh Beckett (30) - $12MM club option with a $2MM buyout Erik Bedard (31) Kris Benson (34) Daniel Cabrera (29) Chris Capuano (31) Bartolo Colon (37) Jose Contreras (38) Doug Davis (34) Justin Duchscherer (32) (would have to undergo extensive physical eval though) Adam Eaton (32) Shawn Estes (37) Josh Fogg (33) Freddy Garcia (34) Jon Garland (30) - $10MM mutual option with $2.5MM or $1MM buyout insurance, no way you give him much money, more like bringing back Pods Tom Glavine (44) Mike Hampton (37) Rich Harden (28) Mark Hendrickson (36) Livan Hernandez (35) Tim Hudson (34) - $12MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout see Justin D. Jason Jennings (31) Jason Johnson (36) Randy Johnson (46) John Lackey (31) Cliff Lee (31) - $8MM club option with a $1MM buyout of course, Shapiro would be burned in effigy if he traded Lee to us Braden Looper (35) - option Rodrigo Lopez (34) Jason Marquis (31) Kevin Millwood (35) - Rangers can decline $12MM salary for '10 unless he reaches 180 innings in '09 Brian Moehler (38) - mutual option Brett Myers (29) Vicente Padilla (32) - $12MM club option with a $1.75MM buyout Chan Ho Park (37) John Parrish (32) Carl Pavano (34) Brad Penny (32) Odalis Perez (33) Andy Pettitte (38) Joel Pineiro (31) always the type of pitcher who looked a lot better than his actual results on paper, like Gil Meche Sidney Ponson (33) Mark Prior (28) revenge on Cubs factor, why not give it a shot, nothing to lose... Horacio Ramirez (30) Jason Schmidt (37) see pitchers with injury concerns above...could he have one Cal Eldred 2000 season left? John Smoltz (43) Tim Wakefield (43) - perpetual $4MM club option Jarrod Washburn (35) Brandon Webb (31) - $8.5MM club option with a $500K+ buyout Todd Wellemeyer (31) Kip Wells (33) Randy Wolf (33) but how well could/would he do in the AL? One name that hasn't come up at all in this thread is Brian Omogrosso...any thoughts on his future in the organization (probably as a RH set-up guy to replace Dotel I would guess)??

Glass is half empty or half full, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic viewpoints...mixed in with realistic/pragmatic ones. 1) Beckham is playing out of position, and he probably profiles the best offensively at 2B 2) We pretty much have to play Anderson/Wise and Fields/Getz/Nix in every line-up 3) Quentin might never be healthy again this season... 4) How long can we expect Contreras and Richard to keep pitching as well as they have? 5) Poreda has shown some flashes, but the bullpen has looked more and more vulnerable recently, especially Liney/Dotel/Thornton 6) Pods looked like he was done three years ago, pretty much. How long can his rebirth possibly last, or for him to be injury-free? 7) Ramirez seems a lot like Soriano Lite...he can play you out of and back into games quite easily, but very inconsistent...still, a 700-750 OPS at SS is nothing to be laughed at (see O Cabrera's 2009 stats at what could easily have been a $10 million additional contract and a blocking of either Getz/Beckham from playing time, yes Dick Allen, I remember your ubiquitous comments about them offering him ARB)

Getz and Beckham turned out to have the key insurance RBI's of the game, as it turned out. Don't think they would have scored 3 against BBBJ though. That Indians' line-up has so much talent, they outscore us by 1 RPG, it's a shame for their fans they don't have a better manager. By the way, how in God's name does Delmon Young have a 595 OPS??? Just wow. We can partially thank Bill Smith for our 2008 ALCD championship...that and holding onto Livan Hernandez too long over Liriano and getting NOTHING in return for the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana.

Yeah, with LEE pitching, Ozzie will overload with righties and also use Castro and Anderson. Only one thing is for certain, your guy Betemit won't be in the line-up against Clifford. He could go really crazy and stick Nix or Fields in LF if Alexei is ready to play. Well...was worried if we were leading by 4 or more that the bullpen would struggle....lo and behold. Jenks is MUCH more valuable to this franchise than I give him credit for sometimes...because Thornton/Linebrink closing has disaster written all over it. Would almost rather see Omogrosso in that role, but not QUITE.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:43 PM) Nothing yet, but it didn't look bad after he got up. He'll be fine, maybe sit out a game, but that is as much as I'd expect he would be out. It will be interesting to see if he uses Beckham or Nix at SS tomorrow. Playing Beckham with Fields at 3B would work, but I think they will go with Jayson, for fear of upsetting the confidence Beckham has growing more comfortable by the day at third.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:39 PM) I think we have to live with the fact it's never going to happen. Ozzie reitereated that the other day. Nix at 3B isn't going to work as a long-term solution. He has the arm and fielding ability, but he just hasn't proven he can hit well enough to play anywhere but up the middle. It would be better to trade someone like Shelby III for a Tyler Wigginton/Herbert Perry type and move Beckham over to 2B.

QUOTE (Baines3 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:34 PM) Beckman 3 for 3, he sure is coming on late as far as hitting goes. 6-0 Sox. 17 for his last 58=.293 That said, I don't expect Gordon to hit more than 18-24 homers on a consistent basis. But those numbers, solid defense, gap hitting, maybe 30-40 doubles....Chase Utley Lite will work. If Juan Uribe could have ever figured out how to consistently manage a 750-850 OPS (raising his walks), he would have been SO much more valuable...but he still led us to the playoffs twice. But Beckham can obviously take his share of walks. Hopefully Getz will pick it up in that category as well as he matures and starts to feel he belongs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:32 PM) You mean Wise is the CF of our future? If anyone would have said we'd be competitive still with Anderson/Wise in CF, Gordon Beckham being forced to come up from the minors and Carlos Quentin on the shelf for much of the first half, I would have probably said they were insane/crazy/pathological. That and some clutch performances recently from our entire staff, and better than expected results from Richard and Contreras, this season is starting to get a little interesting.

I was tempted to say bring back Juan Uribe to play 3B with Beckham moving over to SS...then Getz comes through with another huge clutch hit. He plays above average defense and has very good speed, better to have this problem I suppose than having to play Owens/Russell/Wasserman/Fields/Andy Gonzalez, that's for sure.

At least it was a slider. Nice to see the Sox running all over Martinez like other teams do against AJ.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 08:05 PM) haha Did they just start that? What do they shoot off to clear out the Lake Erie mosquitoes? Old Municipal Stadium, right on the lake, used to be horrible for bugs/insects.

I really can't believe earlier in the season that I was talking about putting Floyd on waivers and exposing him to any other team in baseball to claim his contract...have to give kudos to Gavin and Coop here. There couldn't have been a pitcher who was more lost earlier in the season, and now he's going to have two strong seasons to reinforce his confidence and cause him to finally believe 100% he belongs in the big leagues.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:58 PM) Isn't it crazy how often Gavin gets bases loaded against him in the 6th or 7th inning? I recall about 5 showdowns in those situations already this year. Well, that was Alexei's fault 90%, even though it wasn't an error. It seems he has actually pitched much better this season (especially recently) with runners on base than last year. He had absolutely a ton of unearned runs last year...although there was one situation (maybe it was DET?) where about 3 runs scored against him and they DEFINITELY should have been unearned. 2008 was Floyd/Danks, this, so far, looks like the year of Porcello/Jackson emerging and Verlander "re-emerging." But the Sox might be able to hang in there because of their pitching, which is so much better than 2007.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:53 PM) Why does Eric Wedge have a job? We should thank our lucky stars that they do have Wedge as manager. As an Indians' fan, it must be a shame to only have the 2007 meltdown to show for all that talent on the roster this decade under him. They don't pull the bag after the game for a guy after his first steal, do they??? Those things aren't cheap...maybe he has the option for the club to buy it for him. Not that he doesn't have the pocket change personally to afford it!!!

QUOTE (joejoedairy @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:54 PM) hyperbole See Denkinger, Don. 6th game, 1985 World Series, Royals versus Cardinals.

WHEW! Dammit, Alexei. You need to spend 1 hour per day working on soft liners hit at you, over your head and on one hop...that call reversal might end up being the play of the game, as Garko always seems to kill us.

Pavano at 100 pitches. Will be nice to see the Indians' bullpen tonight. They're not so good, to say the least.

That's the problem with Getz...not playing. With our 2006 offense, no problem with him as the #9 hitter AT ALL. He does a lot of things well...but not one aspect of his game is "plus/plus" or a huge asset. All things considered, would still rather have Getz playing close to everyday than Josh Fields.

Beckham 16 for his last 57=.281 Really good, considering they brought him up 2-3 months too early. I think after that kid had the GW RBI against the Cubs...he must really feel he belongs in the big leagues and is now an important part of this 09 team from here on out. Gordon already has almost the same OPS as Chris Getz, trailing 631 to 633 after that horrific start. We have the #2 starting pitching in the AL, #4 bullpen. It seems maybe the move here is to move Beckham to 2B and go out and trade for a veteran 3B whose contract is ending after the 2009 season (or has a 2010 club option/buyout). Tyler Wigginton type of player, veteran...not prohibitively expensive to acquire. Just don't see how our offense can compete without CQ, along with Getz/Fields AND Anderson/Wise in the line-up on a day-to-day basis.

This season will get really interesting if we can go 7-2 or 6-3 in our next 9 games against CLE and KC. I never thought we'd be within 1 out on Inge of getting back to within four games of first place after that terrible 4-8 homestand. It does put KW in a very interesting situation....but, as many have noted, the return on players like Contreras, Colon and Dotel might be so negligible that it would be pointless to trade them. And trading Dye without Quentin coming back and the DET lead within hailing distance seems equally White Flag-ish. That team was better, and the lead was 3 1/2, but the 09 Tigers are far removed from the late 90's Indians' offensive juggernauts.

Is Piniella happy to see the City Series end? "You know what, I've had fun here the last few days," Piniella said facetiously. One of his most memorable Cubs-Sox series? "Yeah," he replied. "You know what? We went to Detroit, in Michigan, and we lost three ballgames. But you know what? There were 42,000 people at the ballpark everyday, and it was great for the economy. It was great for the restaurants, It was great for the people who worked at the ballpark. It was great for the people who sold products there. We lost baseball games, but it was good for the economy in general. And here- look what the City Series does over here. "I saw where the Dodgers came in the other night, a good baseball team, and 22,000 people were here. The Cubs are in town for the City Series and there's 40,000 some people here. Look, let's look at it from a different standpoint than just the baseball standpoint." So the Sox need the Cubs to help them draw fans? White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was asked why attendance was so low at the Sox-Dodgers series, and said: "Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans. They know we're (expletive)." Guillen said Cubs fans will go watch any game at Wrigley Field because "Wrigley Field is just a bar." www.chicagotribune.com/sports Maybe Piniella has a career with Jim Cramer or Ben Bernake after he finally loses it completely?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 26, 2009 -> 09:19 PM) Hopefully we have a version or two of him on the way. Shelby is looking doubtful, but Danks and Mitchell both have at least 50/50 shots. Hopefully if you add 50/50 we'll get one All-Star caliber player out of those two athletic specimens...of course, we've had our share of Brian Wests, Joe Borchard's, Jerry Owenses, Jimmy Hurst's, Anthony Webster's, Chris Young's, Brian Anderson's and Kenny Williamses (father and son) in this organization that had tons of natural athletic ability.