caulfield12

Ugh, this game just goes from bad to worse. We need a hit with RISP in the WORST possible way.

Bunting problems continue this inning. That one wasn't alleviated by Ozzie moving on. Runner to 2nd on a the WP. Bunt again? Almost would rather play for the big inning.

Reed in next. Let's get a run at least and get Sale off the hook. He doesn't deserve a loss here.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:24 PM) Morel's hitting .286 with RISP this year. .333 with a man on third. .667 with man on third less than 2 outs. Small sample, but hey, he's excelled in that sample this year. But clearly, with how he's been going recently, Ventura had more confidence in the bunt than letting him hit away. 2/7 is not a trend, or 1/3 or 2/6 or whatever. Against any pitchers throwing 94-97 this year, forget about Morel hitting their fastballs. (See Beckham, see Viciedo for further examples).

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:22 PM) What happened to Fukudome, picked off 3rd? Morel PROBABLY missed the sign on the suicide squeeze and got him picked off. 3 runners left or picked off 3rd base that should have scored today.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:21 PM) And his managing in the 9th last night and then pitching to Cespedes today Probably Morel simply missed the sign. I'm sure that will be the explanation.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:17 PM) Dude, the A's suck. You're declaring Cespedes an All Star caliber player because he poked a bloop RBI single to CF? He has all the tools, yeah. He's going to K a lot, but he is also going to put up 30+ homers and 80-90 RBI's in that huge mausoleum of a stadium. He could also get 25-35 steals. Declaring him an All-Star has nothing to do with that AB at all. I never said the A's were good, dude. I said about 10 times before this series they shouldn't let Cespedes beat them. Advice not taken or heeded.

Now we can have the development/win-now argument again, lol. Especially after that play. Ventura, with Escobar hitting next, felt the best chance there was the bunt. That says something about the confidence he has in those guys coming through with hits.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:14 PM) WAY TO f***ING HUSTLE RIOS AND FUKUDOME!!! TIE GAME! If they didn't hesitate/double-clutch, Rios probably is out at home. But nice to see us force the issue when we held up the runner (AJ) earlier in the game at 3rd...

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:08 PM) Gimme a break. You'd rather be the A's than the White Sox right now? Be my guest. I'd just like to see us produce one All-Star caliber position player who's enjoyable to watching hitting. I thought Viciedo was going to be that guy, but we'll just have to wait and see. And no, I wouldn't want to be the A's simply because the Rangers and Angels have way too many financial advantages right now that it's not even close to a level playing field in that division. Other than the Tigers, we have no competition from a financial standpoint. The Twins have already started making financial decisions like parting with Cuddyer, Kubel, Young and Nathan because of those two big contracts, and will have to deal Liriano and some of their other players eventually if they keep playing like this.

It's nice to have exciting young players who you actually look forward to watching hit. 16 RBI's already on the season for Cespedes. More than Beckham, Morel, Viciedo and Ramirez combined. 3.38 ERA for Sale now on the season.

2-0 pitch, Sale's been losing his velocity today in the later innings, around 89-90-91-92. You leave that runner at 3rd with one out, the next inning is always going to be an effort to get through.

If Alex Gordon was picked in the top 3 by the White Sox, I'd be willing to be a LOT more patient with all the money invested into him. Morel was never a "can't miss prospect" by any stretch of the imagination. Nobody ever claimed he was a franchise player or that you could build your team around him....there was always a question whether he'd hit for enough power to play regularly at 3rd. Some felt yes, with the OPS numbers coming down in the post-OPS years. I'm not saying he's as bad as Chris Snopek, but he's closer to that now than Ventura or Crede. And how long did we give Josh Fields? He actually put up a nearly great 2007 season and he was in the minors the next year.

15 innings without a run for the Sox, lol. Thankfully, our pitching has been just as good, at least for now.

14 scoreless innings for the Sox. Perfect bunt by Ramirez. Now, we have to execute. DeAza has been an XB machine this year. Hitting them all over the outfield and out of the field of play. Without Humber and Alejandro, where would KW be? Maybe out of a job.

And we at least have options for Morel. We can play/try Lillibridge there for a couple of weeks. It doesn't work, we go back to Morel after he's had a chance to take a deep breath, relax and approach the opportunity to play again everyday from a fresh perspective instead of being caught up in a downward spiral day-after-day.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 03:44 PM) I'm a big fan of seeing Hosmer, Pujols, Alex Gordon, and a number of other names on there. Clearly you can't sustain a team with people like Pujols hitting in your key RBI spot. Things need to change and that guy needs to go back to the minors. You're seriously comparing the best player in the history of the modern game of baseball with a guaranteed contract for $250 million and BRENT MOREL? C'mon, you're better than that. Alex Gordon at least has the pedigree and the huge (for him) season offensively last year. It wasn't six weeks (Morel), 2-3 months (Mark Teahen)...it was a legitimate full season of play.

Hanging breaking ball. Had to get it down in the dirt or at least lower.

46 pitches, 36 strikes. 14 up, 14 down. (Worked in the Humber thread!) Okay, so much for that...Farmer and this post jinxed Sale, haha. Started off 3-0 count, Suzuki's getting his hits off Sox pitching. So tired of hearing how often Thornton gets balls off the ends of bats or breaks bats when they end up hits against the Sox in key situations, BTW.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/lea.../qualified/true For eligible players in the AL, OPS-wise, Morel would be last if not for Miguel Olivo. Beckham's 5th from the bottom. Sounds familiar. At least it's not a list also including Dunn and Rios. That's the main plus.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) I see that the game thread is right back to calling for people benching and saying that it's totally unsustainable to try to develop these guys at the major league level. When Brent Morel's looking for a 94-95 MPH fastball and doesn't have a chance to hit it, what are you going to do/teach/instruct/develop? I'm actually thankfully that Dayan's not taking another 0 for 3 or 0 for 4 with a couple of K's or GIDP. At a certain point, it becomes counterproductive. And, with our starting pitching, the Angeles struggling migtily, the logjam in the AL East and the Twins/Royals in the toilet, there's a legit opportunity to compete this year, whether we want to be drawn into it or not...it's not KW's nature to be patient. It's not like Morel was a Brandon Wood-level talent, Josh Fields or even Andy Marte coming up...nobody projected him as a future All-Star. Perhaps our expectations were inflated due the fact he was a higher prospect in our system than he would have been in other organizations, as well as the fact we had about ZERO position prospects, there's that, too.

How long will Beane hold onto Parker and Millone, lol? In July of their 3rd seasons? They really need that new stadium ASAP.

The biggest plus for Chris Sale is only 41 pitches through 4. He's learning how to be less concerned with blowing guys away in the mid 90's and earning easier outs more quickly by letting up on his fastball unless he really needs to get a K with runners in scoring position. Using his fielders. That's what they're there for. Work quickly, keep the D on its toes like Humber in the perfecto.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) Lillibridge has got to shorten his swing again though. He looks like a different player this year compared to his approach last year when he was going well. You can live with one of Morel/Beckham struggling, but both of them really hitting at such a miserable level really hurts your lineup. No idea. The guy did have the 2 hit game recently. One would think with close to everyday play, he'd get a bit of a rhythm with 4-5 appearances every game and would/could shorten his swing naturally. They're going to have to do something for Brent's mental health before he falls apart completely.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. AJ was due to hit into a DP sooner or later. And he's still hitting way over his head at .346.