caulfield12

If Morel and Beckham both struggle again tonight, you might see changes Tuesday. Depends if we win or not, partially. Managers can be so superstitious with line-ups when the team wins, despite how the individual players perform.

Saladino and Wilkins hopefully breaking out today, Tyler with a triple, Andy with a double in their first AB's. Carlos Sanchez 1 for 2.

Twins coming into their own personal House of Horrors, Yankee Stadium....sporting an ugly 2-7 record. BTW, Carlos Lee's next homer will be #350. Konerko just a handful away from 400.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) If he keeps this up, he could be in Charlotte by June. I'll be amused when we have to move Viciedo back to RF when we put Mitchell in left. Hopefully it will mean the end of Alex Rios.

Who wants to play Battleship? One of the flimsiest game/source material/action figure connections ever made, trumping GI Joe and Transformers. So far, the movie has performed well overseas, coming out May 17th stateside. It's becoming known as one of the loudest movies ever made. Interesting cast, with the Rihanna supposedly holding her own, Brooklyn Decker (yes, last seen in an Adam Sandler movie wearing, who guessed it, a bikini?) and Taylor Kitsch, who went from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS to two of the biggest and most controversial movies of the year, Battleship and John Carter. Interesting directing choice in Michael Bay...err, Peter Berg (yeah, the same guy who used to be on Chicago Hope as a doctor) and has gone on to a surprising directorial career.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 02:34 PM) Giants lock up Bumgarner to a 5-year extension. Now it's Lincecum's turn. I wouldn't think of giving Lincecum that deal until he proves he's 100% healthy. Daniel Bard experiment continues in Boston....strong through six, but ended up walking 7 guys (7 K's) and the last walk pushed the go-ahead run in. He was pushed well over 100 pitches at that time, probably because Valentine's become a bit shy about going to the pen early, plus, he hadn't given up a run. Definitely ran out of gas, although hindsight's always going to be 20/20, Bobby will be an easy target for his detractors today. Not having either Crawford or Ellsbury in that line-up of theirs really makes them a station-to-station team. And it looks like David Ortiz is drinking from the same Fountain of Youth sports beverage as Paulie. Think Shields was something like 1-9 with nearly a 7 career ERA at Fenway coming into that game. Strasburg throwing 97-98 MPH in the first inning. Amazing what doctors today can do, unless you have shoulder problems. With that change-up and curve, he has all the tools to be as good as, if not better than, Verlander.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 01:04 PM) I've been at 78 wins all year. But I can see a path to the mid 60's. Get off to a bad start driven by a number of guys, sell off a couple of the more reliable pieces (Floyd, Peavy) to save wahtever money can be saved, call up youth to replace them even if they're not ready (Molina), and then have Sale and Humber tire out in the 2nd half while playing other kids. And if that happened, KW should still keep his job, because that would be a necessary step in a rebuilding process. Definitely, add to that AJ (so you can see more of Flowers and maybe Phegley) and Crain or Thornton going to a playoff contender, a completely viable scenario.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 12:24 PM) On the bright side, there should be no foul three run homers to worry about with replay coming in. Wasn't that Crede?

Except Anderson never came close to putting together 4 months of exceptional everyday play together. Not even close to Gordon's half-season of success in 2010. And not so sure at all that anyone can feel halfway comfortable with where Rios is at right now.

http://blogs.herald.com/.a/6a00d83451587d6...ea29e0c2970c-pi Someone who's much more tech savvy than I can post this picture somehow in a different format.

Paulie is so respected, Rogaine refuses to countenance him as their spokesperson. That's about the only thing you can tease him about, and his greying goatee.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:24 AM) Ouch. That hurt. LOL Okay, the odds of Jackson getting 200+ AB's are greater than Cowley winning the Pulitzer Prize.

This is tantamount to saying Andy Gonzalez should have been made a full-time starter in 2007/2008. Let's not get carried away with Escobar too much. Andy has/had a 720 career OPS in the minors, a full 54 points ahead of Eduardo. He's actually still playing in the Southern League/AA, for Huntsville. Escobar can run better, he's a "plus" defender at SS but we can't assume he'll just seamlessly become Alexei's double play partner at 2B when 90-95% of his career has been spent at SS. I put the Escobar as full-time starter at 2B in the same category as Conor Jackson as the platoon partner for Dunn.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:48 AM) did i read that right or did Beauty and the Beast just get referenced? Hey, it was the last animated movie to ever be nominated for Best Picture! Just enjoy the implied idea that Cowley thinks of himself as "Beauty/Truth/Integrity" in this situation, fighting a one man war like Don Quixote against the relentless repression of JR and KW and Don Cooper. Yes, now we're to literature references as well. Just heard this line in the Red Sox broadcast. "What do baseball and pancakes have in common? They both depend on the batter. Ha, ha, ha." So funny, NESN.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 10:15 AM) The Sox are not apt to pinch hit for Dunn regardless of the match up. If they did they may as well say they are going to platoon him That very situation came up with Lillibridge last year when Brent was as hot as any hitter in the AL but Ozzie still went with Dunn, to the consternation of 95% of SoxTalk. I think Greg and Rongey were the only ones still defending the decision at that point in the season.

Jose Bread + Water has a point. Cowley providing us free column inches of negative publicity, it's worth its weight in gold. Because he has the effect of galvanizing the fanbase against him in a way that nobody else does. Surely, his agenda isn't going to discourage any casual fans from going to the ballpark. Look at the attendance numbers Saturday and Sunday, probably 3-5,000 more for each game than would have been expected coming into the season. He's not unlike Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. You can't help but root against the guy....even though KW might be the "Beast" in this analogy, Cowley's constant sniping and attacks make him come out as an almost sympathetic character. You combine that with the quiet dignity, professionalism, humility yet a prevailing aura of confidence from Robin Ventura, you have the makings of a one-sided battle, especially after Ozzie's official come-uppance last week. When the best thing you can resort to is attacking Ventura for being too boring/vanilla or quoting Molina's stats every single start from Birmingham (conveniently ignoring both Santos and Santiago simultaneously), it makes for an interesting storyline which will inevitably end up in a bad way for Joe's career.

Poor Ozzie will feel left out. There's a Marlins thread, now a Joe Cowley thread, even a Mark Buehrle thread, but nothing devoted 100% to Ozzie. Wonder how Marty34 will feel about this thread, lol? Probably he will propose we create a similar thread to catalogue all the misdeess of one Kenneth Royal Williams and/or Don Cooper.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2012 -> 08:13 AM) Of course...at this point in the season, it's worth questioning the type of pitchers the Sox have faced. The Sox have faced the Rangers and Tigers pitching staffs...Detroit is #2 in the AL in strikeouts and the Rangers are #4. Of course, they're also up high in strikeouts because they faced the Sox, but Texas also played the Mariners and you'll note the Mariners appear on your list, and the Tigers also faced Boston and Tampa Bay, both of whom also...appear on your list. It's difficult to say with complete clarity, but outside of 2 games in Cleveland, the Sox have faced some pitching staffs who can strike you out. The Sox also got a game against Masterson, who is averaging 8.3 K/9, so that's not exactly letting up either. Probably need at least 40, maybe 54 games (Hawk's famous 1/3rd mark of the season) to really know what we've got offensively. If anyone would have been told we were 5-3 at this point in the season and 1/2 game out of first place, they would have been "pleased as punch." Except for maybe mcgrad, marty34, ozzie and cowley. Even Marty34 surreptitiously seems like he's happy with the Sox level of play, but it's hard to trust!! We also have to protect the pitching staff, which is why the team slants more towards defense versus offense. Hence, Beckham and Morel, and another reason why you start see more and more of Flowers as the season wears on...granted, AJ looks absolutely great so far.

Yep, Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy family absolutely hated each other with a passion, but also desperately needed each other simultaneously (the presence of a Southerner on the ticket). Or you can look at Abraham Lincoln's cabinet for the best example, a "Team of Rivals" as the famous book goes (or infamous, depending upon your opinion of the writer after the plagiarism charges). Of course, Joe Biden also faced the same problem when he ran for President, it's one of the strongest reasons against a possible candidacy of his in the future. Hillary might very well have one last grand fight left in her.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...lb&c_id=mlb Kind of seems like a much smaller version of the Ozzie flap, with Valentine backtracking and claiming he was misquoted or what he said was mischaracterized. If Valentine's actually telling the truth, he has a right to be pissed that someone "spun" his comments into something they were not...or at least seriously took them out of context to "break" a "Red Sox already split with internal dissension" story. That's another refreshing change about Ventura, I doubt we'll see something like that anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the fragile ego of Beckham, Morel in the 2 spot, Rios, the idea of Dunn sitting against LHP, etc.

We're also first in the American League in strikeouts. In a hitter's park, if you're not going to hit 15-25 homers per season (like a Uribe or Crede), you can't strike out 10 times already. See Beckham. See Morel. We've struck out 70 times, or 8.75 outs per game. Around 1/3rd of our outs have been K's. Obviously, that's not a sustainable ratio. White Sox=8.75 per game TB=8.0 per game Oakland=7.6 per game (hello Yoenis) LAA=7.56 per game BAL/BOS/TOR=7.44 per game Seattle=6.8 per game

The Green (with Envy) Monster... Well, Ozzie and Bobby found out that their acts can grow tiresome in less than one week of regular season action. Which way does the volatile/combustile John Henry go with his response? Of course, those Red Sox players have so much pride, many of them having won 1 or 2 championships under their watch. A lot of the players are not nearly as good as they were before, Varitek's leadership is missing from the clubhouse, Ortiz is nearing the end of his career (when it looked done 3 years ago and was called prematurely), Pedroia's been hurt a lot, Beckett and Lackey haven't been the same, a lot of wounded pride with how the last season ended so ignominiously, maybe frustration with their closer situation, the addition of Crawford and subtraction of Papelbon....lots of factors there to consider. With the rise of the Rays and now the Blue Jays to a lesser extent, they're getting more than they bargained for.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07...useum-babe-ruth This thread was QUITE the find. Seems pretty incredible now. Amazing how everything in life comes down to money and greed (see story above). I wasn't a member here, I was just doing a search (the name of the Sox board member Pogofsky) to see if this story was somewhere in the archives...and we have this amazing thread written the year before we spent just $65 million dollars and blew through the playoffs and World Series. Remembering the mentality of Sox fans at that time, the frustration, things have changed so much from back then.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6040100006.html Discuss. I know JoshPR and myself are on-board, since he's my all-time favorite player. Points for... 1) The fact that MLB is now comprised of roughly 30% Hispanic players 2) The fact that Clemente and Gehrig were the only HOFers who had the usual five year waiting period waived 3) His off-field humanitarianism and outspokeness on civil rights issues 4) His exactly 3,000 hits, 12 Gold Gloves, .317 career average and mythological status due to his death Against... 1) Not as famous as Robinson 2) Wasn't the first or perhaps even the best Hispanic player 3) Played for the Pirates 4) Breaking the color line was arguably much more important than being one of the leading Hispanic players 5) He didn't face nearly as much discrimination as Robinson did, all by himself, in 1947 6) He had a controversial and tempestuous relationship with the press/media while he was alive 7) Didn't serve in the U.S. military like Robinson (who was actually court-martialed but cleared of wrongdoing)

"I learned the valuable asset of controlled aggression,'' the White Sox general manager said Friday. "As a football-mentality type guy I didn't know how to translate my aggressiveness into a sport where you have to back off and have kind of a controlled aggression. It wasn't until Cito Gaston pointed something out that it clicked.'' Controlled aggression. Williams stood up in the Sox dugout to demonstrate, swinging an imaginary bat as he reminded himself out loud to contain his emotions until unleashing them at the right time to maximize impact. "It worked,'' Williams said, smiling. "But by the time I got it, it was too late. I was relegated to the bench.'' More of KW's "wisdom"