Have to become A's Tigers and Royals fans these two weeks.

Minnesota up 2-1 Bottom 5 in California.

Also the Sox did this so they could score more than 4 runs

Someone had to win the game.

what a great win. a real 5th starter has emerged. an mvp candidate will start growing his case, and the nails closer looked back. 

Edited May 17, 20223 yr by EloyJenkins

9 minutes ago, Greg Hibbard said:

Yoan back to normal?!? uh it’s been what, 4 games since he’s been back? Yoan Moncada will not hit a home run every night.

TLR switched Leury to LF and left Pollock on the bench.  Looks like another planned rest day from TLR.  Like I said earlier, TLR has at least one bad move in his pocket every darn game.

I'm going to hope that Jose's game today was a sign of better times to come.  

2 minutes ago, EloyJenkins said:

what a great win. a real 5th started has emerged. an mvp candidate will start growing his case, and the nails closer looked back. 

Let's see how Cueto pitches outside the AL Central first.

At least he brings some veteran confidence and swagger to that spot.

But we should dominate the Royals not be just 2-2 against them.

Edited May 17, 20223 yr by caulfield12

We got the good Hendriks tonight.  When he can get breaking pitches over it is pretty much a sure save.

1 minute ago, Spumoni said:

I'm going to hope that Jose's game today was a sign of better times to come.  

Two great at bats to end it with him picking up the sliders

Watch out Ron...Jose Abreu is coming after you.

Robert didn't even hit that ball on the sweet spot of the bat.

Bo Jackson-esque.

I picked up on it during his first season with the Sox. Grandal calls a terrible game, especially late in games with runners on, and I think it’s because he doesn’t trust his glove, he’s scared. He’s the most overrated defensive catcher I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure there’s another player that fools advanced metrics more than him. It seems other fans are starting to come around on this now as well. It’s why I’ve said I never want to see him as the starting catcher in a playoff game ever again. The Dodgers learned this pretty quickly.

Only got to watch starting in the 10th so checked the box score 

Did Cueto look as good as the box score?

Did Graveman look as bad as the box score?

4 minutes ago, wegner said:

Only got to watch starting in the 10th so checked the box score 

Did Cueto look as good as the box score?

Did Graveman look as bad as the box score?

Not good for Graveman but a competent LF gloves that two run double. Benintendi ball hit hard.

Cueto was crafty...just enough velocity to be surprisingly effective and more Ks than I was expecting.

Got out of a really tough situation to end 6th that looked like it should have gone to the pen but gutted it out with two runners on.

Edited May 17, 20223 yr by caulfield12

9 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Watch out Ron...Jose Abreu is coming after you.

Ban bet?

Just now, ron883 said:

Ban bet?

When in the entire history of SoxTalk has one actually been honored?

What is the bet, Abreu ends the year with a sub 600 ops?

You're going to hedge that and push that up to 650 or 675 at the very least.

At just 600 or higher it's a sucker bet.

Cueto looked real good.  Stayed on the corners the whole night. Graveman kept having his sinker tail more than he wanted to.

19 minutes ago, JUSTgottaBELIEVE said:

I picked up on it during his first season with the Sox. Grandal calls a terrible game, especially late in games with runners on, and I think it’s because he doesn’t trust his glove, he’s scared. He’s the most overrated defensive catcher I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure there’s another player that fools advanced metrics more than him. It seems other fans are starting to come around on this now as well. It’s why I’ve said I never want to see him as the starting catcher in a playoff game ever again. The Dodgers learned this pretty quickly.

FWIW, his defensive metrics the last 2 years have not been good cause his framing has gone back to more or less neutral. He lived off his framing with the Brewers. That's what the advanced metrics loved about his defense. The most annoying thing about him has to be the fact that he's bad at blocking pitches in the dirt and has issues catching the ball on tag plays at home. Liam threw nothing but fastballs with a runner on 3rd last Saturday. He didn't throw a breaking pitch until the bases were empty. That should tell you all about how much Yaz/Liam trust Yaz's ability to block breaking pitches. 

You could live with the boneheaded plays and the bad pitch calling when he's hitting like he usually does. But when he's got a .500 OPS, the bad defense really stands out. 

Edited May 17, 20223 yr by chw42

Ozzie and Chuck ripping Tony pre and post for batting Vaughn 9th

 

15 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

When in the entire history of SoxTalk has one actually been honored?

What is the bet, Abreu ends the year with a sub 600 ops?

You're going to hedge that and push that up to 650 or 675 at the very least.

At just 600 or higher it's a sucker bet.

We're integral parts of this forum. It can't function without us. The mods would never honor it. 

55 minutes ago, RG23SoxFan said:

Hendriks so much better when it isn't fastball after fastball.

The ones he threw were either on the corners or bait pitches out of the strike zone.

39 minutes ago, chw42 said:

FWIW, his defensive metrics the last 2 years have not been good cause his framing has gone back to more or less neutral. He lived off his framing with the Brewers. That's what the advanced metrics loved about his defense. The most annoying thing about him has to be the fact that he's bad at blocking pitches in the dirt and has issues catching the ball on tag plays at home. Liam threw nothing but fastballs with a runner on 3rd last Saturday. He didn't throw a breaking pitch until the bases were empty. That should tell you all about how much Yaz/Liam trust Yaz's ability to block breaking pitches. 

You could live with the boneheaded plays and the bad pitch calling when he's hitting like he usually does. But when he's got a .500 OPS, the bad defense really stands out. 

It's still worth noting that he's gone from routinely rating out as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball to average or slightly above during his White Sox tenure. His framing metrics this year are strong and I think that's supported by the eye test as well. There is no evidence based argument to Grandal being as bad defensively as the narrative on here claims, but defending him is a losing battle so I'm not really going to try.

7 minutes ago, maxjusttyped said:

It's still worth noting that he's gone from routinely rating out as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball to average or slightly above during his White Sox tenure. His framing metrics this year are strong and I think that's supported by the eye test as well. There is no evidence based argument to Grandal being as bad defensively as the narrative on here claims, but defending him is a losing battle so I'm not really going to try.

Who on the Sox staff would prefer to pitch to him rather than McGuire?  That's very telling...if pitchers can't confidently go with breaking pitches, it cripples them when behind in counts.

1 minute ago, caulfield12 said:

Who on the Sox staff would prefer to pitch to him rather than McGuire?  That's very telling...if pitchers can't confidently go with breaking pitches, it cripples them when behind in counts.

If anyone can find evidence (that goes beyond anecdotal AB's) that Sox pitchers throw significantly more fastballs with Yaz behind the plate, I'd love to see it. I highly doubt it actually exists, though. Liam (since he's the pitcher being cited here) has essentially had the same fastball/slider/curve usage percentages for years at this point.