joejoesox

Gavin really has problems pitching out of the stretch, he's absolutely dominant for the most part after 1 out and nobody on base (he seems to throw a lot of pitches when facing the first batter of an inning, though)

let's see how Gavin handles pitching out of the stretch, i don't feel good about this

Quper-f***ing-man.

NICE HIT JOSH! OPPO!

big game gavin has a nice ring to it

gardenhire will keep livan in the game as long as possible, as long as we don't tear him apart too quickly we need to put up a few more runs on this guy before the twins pen comes in and locks the game down

thank you gavin for pitching well so far

QUOTE (aprec32 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 07:16 PM) 24 to go.........very nice inning by Gavin! i'm watching the game online, i'm wayyyyy behind the live broadcast, i'm just now watching mauer's AB guess i should stop reading this thread lol

26 to go

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 07:11 PM) I'd really like to see Ramirez bat after Thome. You combine Thome's OPS with Ramirez's ability to get hits. alexei's spot in the order is fine when Konerko isn't in the lineup, but when he is you really do need Alexei hitting after big jim

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 05:54 PM) I hate you for downing my spirits an hour plus before the game. Gavin vs. the twins @ the Dome (1 Start), he has a .227 BAA, the guys who had his number that game were Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, and Jason Kubel

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 01:18 PM) Not only is this a big game for the team, but, I think its a potentially defining moment for Gavin. A solid game here does a lot for his confidence, and the team's confidence in him. A pummelling by the Twinkies could spell a lot of trouble. Go and and get 'em, Gavin. i agree, you can't have a game that's as close to playoff road atmosphere as tonight's game, it's that simple you have a team at home who is one win away from overtaking 1st place, and doing it against the team that currently holds that spot this game will be huge, the crowd will be insane, I hope Gavin can shut these guys down and keep us in 1st place after this series is over

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) Why does Ozzie's dad still have to work? i'm guessing Ozz Jr. made the comment

this trade doesn't happen because Konerko does not get benched for the majority of the games remaining, regardless of how he plays, Ozzie will keep running him out there once he's back from his "Time Off"

QUOTE (scenario @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 11:19 AM) Nobody commenting on the fact that Konerko hit the ball pretty hard last night in a couple of at-bats, eh? or the fact that swisher went yard off the best closer in baseball (yes, I think Nathan is more talented than K-Fraud, by a mile)

ETA until ESPN MLB homepage puts up "Who wins the AL Central" Poll? lol

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 10:53 AM) Sorry but I'm surprised we made it this far. Yeah, Detroit started awful but it's not how you start... All it takes is Detroit to go on a tear in August and Minnesota to keep chewing away and we'll be in the rearview mirror soon enough. When two highly-paid sluggers (Konerko and Swisher) are hitting around the Mendoza line this late in the season, you're in trouble. just curious, are the red sox a pretender? they've now lost first place back to the Rays i think you and I both know the Red Sox are better than the Rays are, and will ultimately win that division, but right now the Red Sox are in second place, BY TWO GAMES I'm not freaking out with 2 months left to play, i'm sorry. teams have their ups and downs. it happens to every team in baseball, in fact the only team this year that I haven't really seen have any ups/downs are the angels and we're 3-4 against them this year people need to stop freaking out, and look at all of the other teams in baseball and take a subjective glance at the divisional races.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 10:52 AM) If we let Livan Hernandez take first place from us, then what kind of hope is there, really? That guy is a stiff. I'm so glad they haven't replaced him with Liriano or we may be 4 or 5 out. simply put, if our hitters have an intelligent hitting approach to Livan tonight, we'll clobber him. we've shown that we can time his slow pitches and score a lot of runs on him. there's no reason why these guys don't come into tonights game with the mindset that they can hit him around you'll know from the 4th inning or so how this game is going to be IMO

Twins could be in first place after this series, and I still think we have a better chance than they do of winning the division, albeit slightly I just think that team is way better at home than they are on the road, and they are beatable at home as long as your team plays fundamental baseball, something we haven't done very well since the all-star break

off-topic slightly (i do this a lot, sorry) anyone notice how hard mauer hits the ball? watching that guy hit, his swing generates a lot of power, on linedrives, grounders, pretty much everything he hits, it looks very hard to field his balls in play beyond popouts pretty much all of their hitters take hard swings on pitches in the zone, except they keep the ball on a line rather than uppercutting it for a homerun, this allows balls to reach the gaps before OF's can get to the ball. perhaps that's a small part of playing in the dome where there's no wind helping/hurting the speed of the ball off your bat, as well as the fact that the ground is pretty much flat allowing the ball to roll a lot more quickly than if it were on grass just an observation i've noticed watching the twins this year, they seem to swing their bats in a certain way. i heard Bill Melton mention that they purposely cut down when they hit balls low in the zone to keep it on the ground, using the fields speed to their advantage

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 10:04 AM) This is what Jerry Manuel had to do to him too. Its a shame, but he just isnt "right" mentally right now i find it funny that everyone believes "The Sox need Konerko healthy and performing to be competitive this year" we've done fine for 2/3 of the season without him, I don't see anything changing putting Swish at 1st and BA in CF, this helps our defense out tremendously and limits the odds of us beating ourselves also, off-topic, Ozzie needs to be more proactive with this pitching staff, if you see the sox with a commanding lead like yesterday and all of the sudden the wheels start coming off , pull him out and let the guys in the pen handle the rest of the game edit: listening to the score, these guys are so unbelievably pro-Cubbies anti-Sox (Especially Bernstein and Holmes, to the point of being hilarious), it's hard to listen. The twins are flawed in as many areas as the Sox are, they're very similar to the Texas Rangers on the road, something about the Metrodome changes the complexion of that team, just as it changes the Sox complexion when they play at home. the Score guys give up so easily when the Sox start playing poorly, it's laughable. the way they approach the subject, is as if the Sox are 8 games out and it's unrealistic to expect the Sox to compete for the Division or WC i seriously cannot take 90% of that station seriously anymore. were they this bad in 2005 when the Sox were losing their lead in the second half? i didn't start listening to the score until 2007

this matchup FAVORS a sox win, but who the hell knows how it'll turn out over/under for errors, i'll say is 1 i'll take over if they can play tight defense, and gavin can locate at least 3 of his 4 pitches, we should have a good game i think, livan just isn't very good

it's hard to say, for sure. on one hand, i could see the twins squeaking out with the division by only a couple games, but I could also see the twins coming back down to earth one thing i can't stop thinking about is what would this team be like with a healthy, productive Konerko in the lineup I guess right now I'll say I'm in

Floyd vs. Hernandez, come on Gavin.... step up and be the stopper.

if we could walk out of the dome up 2.5, that would be monumentally huge IMO, as the twins have a long roadtrip coming up unfortunately, this team just plays terrible baseball right now with all the errors and unclutch hitting, and our pitching is sh** right now, especially when there's 2 outs these guys need to man up and remember that the point of playing the game is to win it all, not collect your f***ing paycheck that 3-2 pitch to mauer from thornton made me wanna puke, seriously