chw42

One more out Thornton.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2009 -> 08:33 PM) Why are our pitchers so scared to throw Pena a slider with 2 strikes? Cause he's hot right now and he can hit a home run.

Damn it. Come on Thornton. Double Play here.

Ah crap. Carlos Pena with a man on.

Dye should have stayed at first. He didn't get a great start out of the box.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 16, 2009 -> 08:17 PM) bullet.dodged. 6 outs until we escape with one.

Phew. Nice pitching by Dotel.

Even pop ups are hard to catch in this dump.

Dye's hot right now. You need to flip flop him and Thome.

We're gonna end up losing this game. What is it with Tampa and their damn dome?

Knock him in. PLEASE! I hate how Danks doesn't go more than 6 most of the time. If he could find out how to be more economical...he would get way more wins. Oh god...come on. Q killed that and it was right at Bartlett. It just wasn't meant to be.

We all knew this was going to happen. Here come the Rays.

WHY DO WE ALWAYS PLAY LIKE A BUNCH OF OLD GEEZERS IN DOMES? OMFG. That was pathetic. Runner on third, less than two outs. We haven't gotten them in. This should at least be a 5-0 game right now.

I guess losing yesterday was a good thing. No Garnett = better chance for the Bulls to make this series entertaining. I doubt they'll win, but it should be good.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 07:37 PM) My previous post was sarcasm. I know. I could tell by the big at the end.

This is epic lulz. He was tossing 70 MPH fastballs up there. The Rays should be ashamed that they didn't score off of him. There was a YouTube video of this, but MLB.com took it down. At one point, Swish went to the side arm like Jose does.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 07:13 PM) Depending on the tools you are looking for. I guess we need someone who plays gold glove defense, has a power bat and is a base stealer . Then you're talking about a hybrid of Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes. Not happening. There are literally zero great SS in the AL right now. It's sad, but based on stats from last year, Alexei Ramirez is the best offensive shortstop in the American League right now. Looking at these other SS, it looks pathetic. NYY - Jeter BOS - Lowrie BAL - Izturis TB - Bartlett TOR - Scutaro MIN - Punto/Harris CLE - Peralta DET - Everett KC - Aviles LAA - Izturis/Aybar SEA - Betancourt OAK - Cabrera Who on that list is even close to Alexei in terms of offensive production when you take out Jeter and Peralta? I think the answer is absolutely nobody. Keep Alexei at short, you're going to have a hard time finding anybody that's even close to his production in the AL. The NL is a bit different. Center fielders are also pretty damn hard to come by, but we have two great ones in our division right now (Granderson and Sizemore).

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 05:40 PM) It just reminds me of how much I hate watching him hit. He works counts well because he just doesn't swing the bat. For his career he's only swung at 36.7% of his total pitches seen. Last year that would have been the 4th lowest swing% of the 343 players who had at least 200 PA. He makes contact at a very high rate; his 88.1% number would put him in the upper 14 percentile of qualified hitters last year but he chooses to just watch pitches. For his career only 7% of his total strikes are from him swinging and missing while 38% are looking. That's why back in '05 and '06 50% of his strikeouts (total: 171 K) were looking. He's incredibly disciplined, anyone who watches 63%+ of pitches into the glove has to be but his strikezone vision isn't great. Good discipline + poor zone vision = bat on shoulder approach. He doesn't really draw walks but 8 to 9 percent of his plate appearances will likely end in him jogging to 1st. I gotta agree with this. I remember thinking back in 2005 about how Podsednik was probably one of the worst .290 hitters I've ever seen. I saw why the next two seasons. I like his discipline, which is good for a leadoff hitter, but you have to be able to swing the bat if you want to lead off as well.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 05:01 PM) Scott Podsednik is a 33 year old marginal offensive player (.256/.322/.353/.675 in 1008 PA over the last 3 seasons) and terrible center fielder with an awful arm. Why anyone would a player such as this to receive 75% of the total PA in center field is beyond me. It's Ozzie likes fast players and the fact that he doesn't like BA. BA himself isn't so impressive you know... If BA shows me he can hit .250 playing everyday, I'll take that. I think everybody will. Problem is, he probably can't. He hit .230 last year while getting selected at bats where he saw nothing but fastballs half the time. Throw him a breaking ball and he will squeal. What makes you think BA is going to hit .250-.260 while playing everyday? I'm not hating on the guy, it's just what the stats tell me.

Jose usually sucks against the Tigers.

Shortstop is probably harder to fill.

I still want to know the truth about Roswell.

Rose has shown he has the ability to take over. The guy's got heart and he knows when to turn it on. He just needs to learn how to do it for most of the game, not just a quarter. BTW, when was the last time two Chicago teams beat two Detroit teams in Detroit on the same day? I know this can't happen with hockey and basketball because then they would play in the same facility. The only possibility might be a Bulls/Hawks/Bears win combined with a Sox/Bears win. The fact that two Chicago teams play in Detroit on the same day is hard to come by in the first place.

Poor Pods. He couldn't get 20 while he was here cause Garland had it (I believe he was 20 in Milwaukee). Then he got let go last year and Quentin took 20. Now he can't even get his older number back cause of Fields. I think 24 is the way to go here...

I don't know how good BA would be if exposed over long periods of time. Start BA against lefties and keep Pods down at 9th against righties. See how it works out. I have a feeling Ozzie is tempted to put Pods at leadoff...ewww.