caulfield12

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 03:38 PM) never in my wildest dreams would I ever compare Perkins and Danks. Not even last year. Perkins has a pretty solid fastball and that's about it. He gets by with location and junk. Danks is a power pitcher, and while I feared what would become of him this year, he has proven me wrong and is a fantastic pitcher. A very good fastball, changeup, curve, and cutter...I'd say that Danks is more comparable to Liriano than he is Perkins (whereas Buehrle is more comparable to Perkins than he is Liriano). When I saw Danks last year, he was throwing 88-91 and wasn't missing many bats. I guess time will tell who he ends up being more like...Perkins has to have something going for him, I think he still has an ERA right at or just below 4. Liriano's not Liriano anymore. I don't think he will ever be able to throw that devastating slider that was the second most effective pitch in baseball to Mariano Rivera's cutter when he was in his prime.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 11:44 AM) With 5 very young pitchers, it is hard not to believe that 1 or 2 of them will start to drop off performance-wise this late in the season. It is just the nature of the game. It happened to Danks last year, and the Sox were not even in the race. I know Danks wasn't really known as a power pitcher last year...although he's raised his velocity this year a bit. Danks I guess is most similar to Perkins, who came off an injury/DL appearance in the last couple of seasons and hasn't been consistently pitching 175-200 IP (or close) over the last 3 seasons. Baker and Slowey are very solid, and the Maddux comparisons are starting to become more relevant for Slowey with each start. If there's a concern, it's with Blackburn/Perkins and then Liriano, because you never know what will happen to that elbow. He's going for 15 in a row today.

QUOTE (Felix @ Aug 25, 2008 -> 10:49 AM) He has 23 walks in 7 starts (34 innings). Probably not the best example there. He's given up only 10 in the last 23.6 IP. He had 13 walks in his first 10, when he wasn't ready coming off surgery. The guy has won 14 games in a row between Rochester and the majors. And that's only with a 89-92 MPH fastball and low 80's slider, compared to his mid-90's fastball and upper 80's, low 90's slider two seasons ago.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ap8K...o&type=lgns Great article. Maybe this is as close as we get to the Twins' version of "Moneyball." http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?c...08&sort=816 Twins are 30+ walks fewer than the rest of MLB. Actually, the White Sox aren't so bad, either. We're 4th in the majors, 49 behind Minnesota (0.4, less than half a walk per game difference). Top Sox minor leaguers in the BB/9 IP category 1. Richard, Clayton (0.82 AAA/1.72 AA) 2. Poreda, Aaron (2.31 AA/2.21 A) 3. Egbert, Jack (2.51) 4. Torres (2.58) 5. Harrell (2.59) 6. Broadway (2.73) 7. Whisler (2.74) 8. Cassel (2.89) 9. McCulloch (3.55) 10. Haeger (4.13) Kannapolis starters... Anthony Carter, 1.61 Shirek, 1.89 Maxwell, 2.12

From "Print your playoff tickets" to "This team can't do anything right"... ...we've come a long ways in four days. It's hilarious to see the polarity within these comment boards on a daily basis. After the first two games there were parade routes being planned, Wheaties boxes being printed, and new banners being hung aloft the glorious teflon of the Dome...And now after the last two, people are burning relievers in effigy, rioting and pillaging the front office, and replaying their 87' and 91' Series VHS cassettes over and over in solitude hoping to forget all they have witnessed this past Saturday and Sunday. This is late season baseball folks and there's certain to be more drama from here on out so take the good and the bad with a sense of rationality and enjoy the ride." 1) Twins' fans hate their bullpen (particularly Bonser, Bass, Crain and Guerrier) now more than we do...with Logan, Dotel, etc. 2) As much as we were aggravated with Torii Hunter and Jason Bartlett this week, Twins fans are more aggravated with AJ (Arrogant Jerk) Pierzynski 3) Some Twins' actually think/believe/argue that our bullpen is better than theirs 4) As much as KW is under fire here...Bill Smith is more under fire for BS (Blowing Smoke) and not doing anything to improve the Twins' bullpen or add another middle-of-the-order bat. 5) They really have divided opinions on Punto, D. Young and Carlos Gomez. 6) A minority of Twins' fans consider there to be a league-wide bias (at MLB HQ, Madison Avenue, ESPN and in the umpires' rooms) to prevent the Twins from getting to the playoffs for the 5th time in 7 years 7) They spend about 80-90% of the time discussing 7th and 8th inning set-up/bullpen issues, just like we do now

QUOTE (daa84 @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 02:11 PM) considering the difference in ops is almost entirely obp driven, and after adjusting for league factors, id rather have vazquez in the rotation and swisher in the OF over young anytime No, it's Vizcaino, Chris Young, Ryan Sweeney, DeLos Santos and Gio Gonzalez for Swisher and Vazquez. It shouldn't be very expensive at all to buy that type of production from a DH/1B on the free agent market. It is much harder to find young/speedy/power-hitting/strong defense CFers. And Vazquez has almost NEVER won a big ballgame for the White Sox (this goes back to 2006 and the bomb he gave up in DET against Craig Monroe). At least Chris Young, essentially a rookie, was one of the leaders on a playoff team last season, although this year has been rougher for him.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 02:06 PM) People around here simply can't grasp that concept. It's always Ozzie's fault when we lose because we have so much talent and don't win. Well yes, we do have a lot of talent, but it's a bunch of STUPID talent. They can't do anything fundemental, they make errors, they are poorly built in terms of defense (that's on KW), and the bullpen has collapsed after a bad start. I was hard on Ozzie last season because he had a rough year, but so did everybody. If we miss the playoffs this year, it has very little to do with Ozzie and more to do with dumb players who underachieve. Yes, this team on paper should be between 5 games under .500 and 15 games over .500, but we're not really a playoff team without Linebrink and a 5th starter. We've survived the loss of Crede well enough, but the 5th starter's spot will get even more pressure-packed as we lose ground on the Twins and each game becomes even more of a "must win." We are better than we expected to be due to CQ, Ramirez, Danks and Floyd, the four players perhaps the least was expected of coming out of ST...well, maybe a lot of Danks fans were still out there, but Floyd had a ton of doubters. Swisher, Cabrera and Konerko have been disappointments. Dye, Thome and AJ have done what they always do. Kudos to DJ, I had my doubts. Maybe I should just with the flow and stop looking at the last 2-3 seasons on the back of his baseball card!

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 02:04 PM) The Chris Young trade mentioned for the first time in a while, at least what I've seen. I understand though. But with getting Quentin from the Diamondbacks, we've gotten the best of the Diamondbacks overall. Jerry Owens for center field? haha I will trade 0.45 points of OPS for Young's defense over Swisher's anytime.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 02:02 PM) chris young has a .306 on base percentage....that chris young trade really hasnt hurt at all WE DON'T NEED OFFENSE!!! We need players on the team who can play above-average major league defense at each position. Right now, we don't have one in that category. Only Swisher at 1B and Ramirez (yes, I know about the errors, but that's only one side of the story) and a healthy Crede or Uribe at 3B would fit into that category. Cabrera might even be below average (see Royce Clayton 2001-02 for example 2) at this point in his career.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 01:59 PM) Swisher showing plate discipline, amazing. Now bunt, Uribe. If we had Linebrink or a confident Dotel or could use Thornton to protect a tie game or 1 run lead, I'd agree with you. With the complete lack of a bullpen, we have to play for the big inning. I think we have to bring in Jenks if Carrasco gets in trouble. Of course, the problem with that strategy is we might have two "long" games tomorrow for our bullpen to cover.

There's no way this team is going anywhere without Linebrink. I guess it's easier to use that as a crutch, but the fact is that our bullpen and defense haven't been supporting our pitchers at all this season. Here's another area where the Chris Young trade has hurt. With Quentin in LF and Dye in RF, we need a much better CFer than Swisher. We can't easily trade Konerko, yet Swisher's best position is 1B and then we have Thome, who I have a sneaking suspicion will be a White Sox next year...and, at this point, the idea of Thome back (even though he's been very good offensively the last 2 months) just gives me no faith the 3 run homer nature of this team will ever change.

Please don't give up a two run dinger on a pitch in the wrong location, Mark. It's your game to win or lose here. UGHH. It's hard to complain about Quentin, but we have to possess the worst outfield defense in modern baseball history. Which is all the more depressing when you look at the ballhawks in Gomez and Span that the Twins have....or going back to Jacque Jones, Hunter and Shannon Stewart.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) yeah he has battled every time at-bat against us. They just said he's the hardest hitter to get to ground into DP in the American League this season. I think it's time for those Catholic White Sox fans to start praying the rosary for whoever will pitch in the 8th inning for us.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 01:40 PM) Dotel I think it's DJ...has to be. Of course, his overall MLB "average/journeyman" status is bound to rear its ugly head eventually. I'm not counting on him to go Cliff Politte 2005 for the remainder of the season, but I guess stranger things have happened. Buehrle at 100 pitches and counting.

So who's the first reliever into this game? DJ? Jenks? Dotel is definitely out as far as I am concerned now. What is Buehrle's pitch count at this point? We know that we won't see Thornton 3 days in a row...Jenks has been on the shelf, and we absolutely have to take this game I think.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) I think only Texas has more errors. The kick the ball defense needs to go. Maybe JD was confused from watching the women's soccer team in the Olympics and thought it would be helpful to kick the ball into the stands. Actually, that might have saved Pena from scoring and put the runner on 3rd instead of 2nd, possibly. So the "kick" might have been the best defense Jermaine had in that situation.

Man, our defense has to be the worst in the major leagues, along with the bullpen...from around the first or second week of July on.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 24, 2008 -> 11:50 AM) I have a love/hate for our bullpen. It's funny watching Dotel - he still throws it over the plate like he has a 98 mph heater, saying c'mon, let's see you hit it. But now it's 92. And Thornton, like someone else said, is more effective when he's starting an inning, but that really shouldn't make a difference. That points to mental midgetry, imo. I get pissed at talented players like Boone Logan who should be helping this team right now but instead don't have their heads screwed on right. We need a pick me up in the pen right now and his name is Aaron Poreda - please give him a plane ticket to Chicago. Jenks made the transition to closer, but he had at least four minor league seasons of experience I think, and a full repertoire of pitches, particularly a more developed off-speed pitch. Poreda, if we were very lucky, would be a good "back-up" option to Thornton and could rest Matt's arm and prevent overuse, especially so that he wouldn't have to pitch in back-to-back games. The same problems usually occur with Jenks when he is used back-to-back, pitches more than one inning or has elevated pitch counts over a number of appearances. I'm sure they will discuss bringing him up in September, but they will use him very carefully, if they do make that decision...hand-picking the situations and limiting his exposure if he gets knocked around.

If we don't make the playoffs, which is looking more and more likely without Linebrink, I'll definitely be rooting for TB. If all else fails, I will root for the Twins agains the Angels/Red Sox. I guess Longoria's supposed to come back in the first week of September...and there's still a possibility that Crawford will come back, although much less likely. Yes, I know 21 of Minnesota's next 27 games are on the road. It's just that only 8 of their remaining games are against teams over .500. Actually, the way Cleveland's playing, they've become extremely dangerous, especially if you're unlucky enough to catch Cliff Lee.

Why was Crede out of the line-up this time? Ozzie said that he was going to hand him the starting job at 3B when he was ready to come back. Will that ever happen again with the Sox?

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 23, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) Did Javy load the bases? If so then Ozzie was right to take him out. Thornton usually has been lights out dominating, but of all days to take a step back it had to be today Yep...single, walk to Gross (that was the real killer), then another single. The two walks (the second one with Thornton pitching to Iwamura that went about 11 pitches) and the Cabrera error/hit really destroyed our chances that inning. Then we didn't even have the heart this time to try to mount a comeback or at least get a runner or two on and pretend to make it interesting so we could say, well, these Sox are resilient, they never give up.

Well, we can all now say that Ozzie should have taken Thornton out one batter earlier, but you don't expect to give up 4 runs in that situation. If the bullpen is doing a reasonable job at all, you should at least go to the bottom of the 8th with a 3-3 tie. Not to mention the fact that he got Iwamura yesterday. Where was El Duque when we really needed him, lol?

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 23, 2008 -> 05:04 PM) BTW, wasn't it refreshing to not see Tampa play smallball in the 8th inning? They went for the win instead of having Bartlett bunt. Kudos to their coaching staff. They are simply on a roll, despite all the Upton mess. In fact, that's really solidified their team together (like the DET fight in 2000 did for us) and everyone on that team has each other's backs. Maybe it was walking Josh Hamilton, getting MVP numbers from the likes of Royals castoff Howell or Twins' castoff (after surgery) Balfour...this team, for whatever reason, just "has" it. Even without Crawford and Longoria, they're really tough...they simply don't beat themselves.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 23, 2008 -> 05:00 PM) Keeping the starter in just didnt work today. OC didnt help the bullpen either. Not really sure that you can blame the bullpen for Cabrera's error, or for the fact that Thorton was brought in a terrible position to succeed. Its 1 game just have to focus on tomorrow. I really think Thornton is not unlike Marte. Neither one of them could pitch in really clutch situations, or with runners on base. Thornton has a better fastball, but it doesn't have much movement (see Iwamura's AB), especially with his arm wearing down and throwing 93-95 instead of 95-97. Marte's slider/slurve was a better secondary pitch than what Thornton throws up there. Well, at any rate, it's telling when your best set-up guy is expected to only pitch when there are not runners on base.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 23, 2008 -> 05:00 PM) Thornton had the chance to get out of that inning with the Sox still tied if OC could field the damn ball. Does he have naked pictures of the official scorer? I've never seen a player get the benefit of the call more than he does. The official story is that Bartlett, using his Lew Ford/Tyner/Punto/Hocking/LeCroy "grinding-ness" intelligently screened Cabrera and that he didn't see the ball until it was too late. Of course, OC is too afraid to speak for himself, so it will be interesting to see if Ozzie defends him or not.