flavum

Axelrod with a meh outing. Stewart is probably making the team. Doyle will relieve next inning. Lillibridge came out early. Might be a leg injury on a play earlier in the game. edit: Axelrod still in there to start the 6th

Looks like it will be Danks vs Lewis Peavy vs Holland Floyd vs Harrison Darvish is more than likely 4th for the Rangers. It also appears the Sox will get the Indians 4th and 5th starters, and Masterson--which may explain why Ubaldo started against the Sox yesterday. And there's a decent chance the Sox will miss Verlander in the opening series at home.

Christian Marrero to the Braves for cash. Anyone else, Braves?

Nice play by Erik Morrison at 3B. Will have a nice shin burger.

Doyle will relieve Axelrod in the webcasted game, I believe.

Melton breathing like Tony Soprano.

Bruney- another scoreless inning. Walked the leadoff guy, but erased on a dp.

Somebody needs to tell Melton it's Jeff Manto, not Mantos.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 04:56 PM) Sale wins 17 - pitches 180 innings - Ks 190. If Sale wins 17, the Sox will win the division. Viciedo hits 25 HRs - leads all A.L. OF in assists. Maybe. Dunn hits .260 and walks more than he Ks. Not going to happen (the k/bb part) Morel wins the Gold Glove over Longoria at 3b when he hits 20 HR and bats .310. Hope so. Addison Reed saves more games than Matt Thornton. That's not bold in my book. My bold predictions: Humber makes the All-Star team. Peavy stays healthy. Konerko top-5 MVP

Long 2-run homer for De Aza. 7-1 Sox

Bruney getting 2 outs on a fly balls that went a combined 750 feet. Gives up a single, but a scoreless inning. Those stupid Sox commercials really cut into time they could show chicks in the stands.

With Stewart going 5.1 innings/ 1 run today, he's probably got the edge with Brian Bruney for the last two spots. I'd be surprised if it's anything different.

Time will tell with Peavy. He could be good enough. He could suck. He could get hurt. One thing is for sure...he's going to be gone in seven months.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 02:29 PM) Is there a line on Stewart yet? The game starts in 30 minutes. On whitesox.com

I don't have the guts to say they'll win over 85, but I think this team will be slightly over .500 in this division. If more things go right, then they could get to 90 wins and have a shot at the 2nd wildcard.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 12:12 PM) Reed hasn't looked all that great so far in camp, so I am not sure they give him the closing job... yet. I guess I'm so against Thornton closing, I can't bring myself to giving it to him. Mark Gonzales thinks it'll be Reed or Santiago. We'll see. It may be one of those evolving things in April where it's just matchups, and then one guy just keeps getting opportunities and then it's obvious without announcing anything.

Indians lineup (Ubaldo starts): Brantley, Cabrera, Choo, Santana, Hafner, Lopez, Duncan, Laroche, Marson They sent down Chisenhall and Laporta today, btw.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 11:32 AM) Is Jordan Danks doomed to a life as a minor leaguer? If he can cut back on K's, I think there's a real good chance he gets called up at some point. Having very little minor league depth is at his advantage right now.

I'm going with Olmedo, Gimenez, Axelrod, Stults, Septimo, and Jones as the last 6 to get cut. Opening Day lineup: De Aza, Morel, Rios, Konerko, Dunn, Ramirez, Pierzynski, Viciedo, Beckham Bench: Lillibridge, Fukudome, Escobar, Flowers Rotation: Danks, Peavy, Floyd, Sale, Humber Bullpen: Stewart, Santiago, Bruney, Ohman, Crain, Thornton, Reed (closer)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 11:11 AM) With the starters, there is no way you could go with only 10 pitchers. You mean 11, but I agree. In the AL, you only need 4 on the bench, so I don't know why people care about 6 or 7 in the pen.

Escobar brings a good energy to the team. He's made a couple throwing errors and baserunning errors the last week. I hope he can stay aggressive, but cut back on the mental errors. I wonder why Septimo is still officially around.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 09:45 AM) The reason why I care is that I think Stewart, as a sinkerballer, can be a solid asset as a starter long-term for this team, and because he was converted from relieving to starting, he doesn't have a whole lot of innings on his arm yet. So, if you put him in the bullpen, he'll basically be staying there. I agree with this in theory, but if the best thing for the major league club is to have Stewart being able to give 3-4 innings of relief at a time, what are they going to do? When you have Sale and Humber in the rotation, there has to be a guy that can come in in the 3rd or 4th inning once in a while, and go 4 innings. If Axelrod sucks and Stewart pitches well, what choice do they have? I heard Mark Gonzales bring up something interesting last night...there's a split squad tomorrow, and Axlerod is starting one of them. He said Robin is still going to manage the other game with Floyd and Santiago pitching. He seemed to be reading into it that Axelrod may not be making the team, otherwise Robin would want to manage that game. I dunno if I would go that far, but it's interesting.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2012 -> 08:06 AM) Really hoping Stewart has a bad start. honestly. I know what you mean, but Axelrod hasn't stepped up this spring, and Stults had a bad outing yesterday. They could ultimately pick Axelrod, and just say he earned it based on how he ended the season last year. Truthfully, I don't care who they pick. That's what they have minor league options for.

Rotation is official: Danks, Peavy, Floyd, Sale, Humber (shocker) Rangers will start Darvish on April 8th or 9th. 8th is the Sox on Sunday Night Baseball vs Floyd.

Dodgers win 4-3. Sox should have scored 6-7 runs early.