caulfield12

How will they do in their next 10 consecutive games against Cleveland, then at DET and at CLE? The easy thing to do would be to predict 4-6 or 5-5, but with our road excellence carrying over from last year, I'll go with 6-4.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 06:57 PM) That was the worst thing about the small ball, Kotsay, Pierre plans of the last few seasons. It's a hitters park and you are trying to move runners along and score one run at a time. Even in 2005, when they supposedly played small ball, they were 5th in MLB with 200 home runs. Get out to early leads with Pods and Iguchi, pound away with the bombers, lockdown bullpen. Now, if you're playing small ball to add on runs to a 2/3/4 run lead, that can be effective, AT TIMES. But, once again, you're taking yourself out of lots of big innings, especially at a park more well-suited for homers.

Kenny Williams challenged Greg Walker to a fight last year but cooler heads prevailed. National headlines with that breaking TMZ-ish gossip. What legitimate or credible writer has a nickname for himself? Even that, he copied the concept from AJ Pierzynski's pro wrestling forays. This must have started when he saw how much national attention that JET BLUE flight attendant who initiated the emergency evacuation system and slid out of the plane got and decided it would be cool to emulate the anti-airlines bashing crowd.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) After the way Lillibridge performed today, he should be starting in place of Beckham for a while. Heck, even Escobar showed today that he can give better ABs than Beckham has been giving this season. Maybe they can platoon Lillibridge with Escobar at 2B and use Beckham as a utility infielder for which he is most suited. If Morel continues to struggle they can alternate Beckham in at 3B every now and then. Either that or just send Beckham down to work on his swing and bring up a third catcher to free up Flowers and AJ to PH more. They're going to leave Phegley down there to play nearly everyday. Gimenez would be that catcher. I don't see any way they'll move Beckham back to 3B at the big league level this year. He's either in the minors playing everyday or at Charlotte IMO. Of course, that requires Morel pull out of his skid, too. If just one of those two continue tanking, we can overcome it. Not both.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:22 PM) The Red Sox have zero room to add salary this season if they want to stay under the luxury tax, which has been made quite a bit more painful this year for teams that get there, especially multiple years in a row. They are not paying Marlon Byrd's salary, because that would put them over the luxury tax. They gave up on their SS and replaced him with Aviles...to avoid paying the luxury tax. They don't have quite as many prospects left (Boston), but we could definitely play the Red Sox/Yankees/O's/Jays against each other. Montero would have been the hitter to get (from the Yanks), but too late for that. If we're willing to eat salary and/or the buyout, then we can get some great prospects back if Peavy keeps pitching like this. Every team in baseball would like to have him as their 3rd for a playoff rotation. The Yankees just gave up on F. Garcia in their rotation.

Saw Battleship here in China last week. Don't think they will ever allow THE HUNGER GAMES, especially with the political turmoil here over Bo Xilai and the activist who is at the US Embassy (Christian Bale tried to meet him when he was here promoting FLOWERS of WAR). Titanic-3D has actually done very well in China, selling out many shows and earning more money here than in the US. That's the ninth-biggest worldwide opening weekend of all-time, and the biggest for a movie that wasn't explicitly a sequel (semantics perhaps, but bare with me). No, I can't BEAR to see a film critic/writer bare anything, lol.

Except Saladino's never going to nab 30-50 bags. He doesn't have that type of speed and athleticism. He actually sounds like another version of Morel, lol. Doesn't really wow with any one skill (actually, Morel was known as a better defender)...not going to be project to anything more than maybe 12-15 homers, 18 tops, at the major league level.

Gavin Floyd now 7-0 career against the Red Sox. 60-58 cumulatively in the majors. Hello, Brian Cashman? If Bard is pushed back into the bullpen (right now things have stabilized with Aceves), then you could also see the Red Sox making a hard push for adding Jake Peavy down the stretch. 22,811. More there for a Sunday Bat Day than Saturday night, but the weather was pretty brutal last night.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 04:08 PM) Well...if you would have told me we going into the series that the Sox were only going to muster 10 runs in 4 games against Boston, I would probably would have taken 1 win out of the 4. GAS!!!! 2 down! Gavin finally nutted up and Peavy continued to pitch extremely well. In the end, if we keep getting that type of starting pitching (hello Danks!) we'll be competitive. On to Chris Sale versus Ubaldo Jimenez Tuesday night for 1st place.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 04:05 PM) I've only started watching since the top of the 7th. Who was the Sox player who "lost" a homer due to the wind? Alex Rios.

First place CLE next Tue/Wed/Thur with much more comfortable temperatures. Then the struggling Tigers in DET, final road trip of the season to Cleveland, including the doubleheader/make-up game, I think on May 2nd. So 10 huge games in a row within the division. Still haven't seen the Twins or Royals, which is unfortunate with how they've both been scuffling out of the gate.

A week ago, Dayan was either striking out or pushing/flailing/lunging at balls and cueing them to the right side. Much more dangerous hitter now...especially if he can lay off the high fastball. Trying to be more patient wasn't working, only had resulted in one walk all season. Thornton for the save? Hmmm.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:54 PM) Team stats, bases loaded. Player, at bats, hits. Alexei got much of his clutch hitting out of the way in 2008, it seems. Although that double in the 14th against the A's was huge for about 10 minutes.

Atta boy, Dayan. Please call him out with threads more often!!! First RBI of the season not coming on a homer. Ramirez and Viciedo (.206) back up over 200 now at least.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:46 PM) 2/16 on the year coming into today, 6 runs scored. Good for 26th in the bigs. Seems like Rios has been up half of those times. Alexei back over the Mendoza Line with the infield single.

So much for AJ's hot streak. Well, it was nice while it lasted at least.

Maybe the first time in MLB history a .373 hitter was PH for, and replaced by a .147 hitter. Former Cub Rich Hill into the game, coming back from TJ surgery. Pedroia/Gonzalez/Ortiz/Ross in the 9th. YIKES! Dunn almost with yet another hit down the LF line against a LHP. Another walk for Dunn. Beckham or Morel to PR?

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) Remind me again, why Addison Reed isn't our closer? For whatever reason, Ventura doesn't seem to be 100% confident in Reed yet. And, more than that, I think he likes having the flexibility of being able to use Reed anywhere in the 6th-8th inning. 4 of his 6 RBI's that season, and his only homer have come against the Sox this series. Still at .147 for McDonald despite Danks' best efforts. Think Axelrod gave up the homer.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2012 -> 03:34 PM) What are the Sox hitting with bases loaded this year? Or their conversion rate with a runner on 3rd and less than two outs and less than 2 outs. The average is around 55-60%, I would guess for the Sox since the start of the 2011 season it has to be closer to 40%.

Rios didn't even wait long enough to build any drama. Just another quiet, boring out. Hopefully Ventura as the season goes on will be more willing to use Konerko in a situation like that...

Doesn't seem like he was quite quick enough with the deleting. All those posts will be preserved for posterity's sake. Let's see how he gets out of this one. Wonder if Ozzie will be there to defend him, lol? Or at least Ozzie's kids...

Okay...maybe...just once...a key two-out RBI with RISP would be nice here, Mr. Alex Rios. Although we have to be willing to take a walk, HBP, wild pitch/passed ball, balk or error.

http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/04/2...s-female-pilot/ How soon before the "hacked Twitter account" gets thrown out as a quick excuse? Sounds exactly like something he would say, shades of his normal "Tea Party-esque" rants about women, government, immigration, etc. Can a protest at the Sun-Times be organized? Hopefully with more women than the Cubans managed at Marlins' Park, lol. Of course, it will play into his hands if he manages to make the national/international news, gets protested and DOESN'T get fired. You almost wonder if he schemed something controversial to make himself more famous yet not quite a clearly demarcated fireable offense. Must have gone through his head after being so enmeshed in the Guillen/Castro situation.

http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/04/2...s-female-pilot/ The next thing's gotta be an excuse that his Twitter account was hacked, but it definitely sounds like him. Especially his cutesy comments about a girl's picture. Wonder how his wife deals with him?

There's no other choice but Thornton, so I'm sure we'll see Santiago as closer at least one more time. Sweeney/Laser Light Show/Gonzalez/Ortiz/Ross lurking in the weeds for the 9th inning. Won't be easy. Assuming it goes 1-2-3 in the top of the 8th.