caulfield12

Morel definitely has the RF power stroke going, as opposed to the pull-hook power one. Dunn 2 for his last 19, mostly K's. Yay, 5 for 25, back to .200.

OUCH. Right in the throwing shoulder.

I think it will be Colin Ballester here for the Tiggers.

Gavin playing with fire and skating off scot-free. Whew. Nice to have that nervous feeling at the pit of your stomach again after 2011. And nice to see a grand slam not result.

Wilk has to be out of the game. Got hit in the dugout by Fielder's liner.

33025 attendance. Take that, JR and KW.

Hanging curve, Jackson 3/3 and looking very good this season, at least so far. Boesch has failed to advance Jackson three times in a row. Not the optimal 2 spot hitter, must be driving Leyland nuts.

Unfortunately we can't use Flowers as a DH against LHP because that means AJP would have to play everyday. Lillibridge is the only option. Unless we brought up Gimenez or Phegley as a 3rd catcher.

Nice call by Fathom on the T-Flow homer. 2/2 in throwing out runners this season, slider speed bat matches up perfectly with Wilk.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 14, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) Yep, Wilk seems to have found his release point on his pitches. At this point, I'd take CoJack over Dunn against LHP. I'd take Herve Villachaize over Kojak. Should have played Brent today to give Dunn a mental break.

This almost feels like the 2005 season, where the starting pitching dominates, we get a few clutch hits and the bullpen shuts down the opponent and rarely blows a lead. Obviously, that team had a lot more power, but not by much (Dye/Everett/Thomas when he was healthy, along with Konerko/Crede/AJ).

11 k's in 24 AB's for DUNN, 60 K's for the team. First time that Wilk's mother has seen him pitch in-person in the big leagues. She's a teacher in CA. 61 K's, Paulie still without a homer, but coming up with the clutch RBI's. Rios, well, at least he didn't strike out.

Shades of Carlos Quentin there with D. Young. Payback there for Young from his days with the Twins? Three DP's in four innings, could have had a fourth if not for the super close call at 1B with Boesch running. (Of course, that would have prevented the subsequent DP). But can't count on the defense carrying us all season long.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 14, 2012 -> 03:01 PM) He almost has to get sent down if this keeps up for a few more weeks. Another reason the Fukudome pick-up was a good one. Lillibridge can play 2nd, otherwise we'd be using Jordan Danks as our 4th OF. It will be interesting to see if they prefer to use Lilly as a starter or give Kuhn a chance. Probably will be Brent first, Kuhn as last-ditch option.

Rios and Beckham both have only 3 hits so far, Gordon 3/21 (143). Morel looking no better. 2/21 for Morel now. Yikes.

Floyd dialing it up against Cabrera, pulling out a 94 MPH fastball to get the final strike. Our percentage of throwing out runners is much better this year. Yay for small improvements in fundamentals. 50 pitches now for Gavin, that was a much more reasonable 10, thanks to the double play.

QUOTE (knightni @ Apr 14, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) Like Buehrle...? More like Jamie Moyer, Bruce Chen or Tom Glavine in the latter years. Tigers still don't have a win from a starting pitcher yet. You can partially blame Papa Grande for that, as well as Verlander choking the other day with a 2-0 lead in the 9th against the Rays. Both hits to Jackson on 1-2 pitches. NOT GOOD, GAVIN. You've got to put a guy who is perennially a strikeout leader away.

White Sox offense is the Cuban Connection. Otherwise, not so much. 59 k's. Still looking for any differences from the Walker years. I guess it's the fact that we're getting some clutch hits and hits with 2 outs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 14, 2012 -> 02:39 PM) Pretty strong crowd there today Low 30's, high 20's? Not making Wilk work hard here...not even making solid contact yet. Last April 2nd, we were 2-0 and in sole possession of first place in the AL Central. Haven't been in 1st since that moment. The Cuban Missile launches, whereas the North Korean missile failed.

Raburn was among the league leaders in homers this spring, started 2/23 now. Reminds me of the spring Wilson Betemit hit 8 dingers. Meaningless. Around 40 pitches already, so we'll need the bullpen in the 5th or 6th inning in all likelihood. Dirk only threw 82 MPH in high school, has always had other pitchers throwing much harder than him as long as he can remember. Raburn was 12/32 (.375) before that AB against Floyd. Got off lucky.

Good hustle and positioning by Beckham to back-up Konerko on the put out at 1B.

2 games in a row Young got hit. White Sox now with 58 K's and essentially leading the AL, but only ahead of 3 AL teams in runs scored. The only two teams ahead of us, Oakland with 64 and Seattle with 59 K's, have played 8 and 9 games respectively. As Fathom said earlier, Floyd doesn't throw hard enough to leave those fastballs over the plate, needs to use his offspeed stuff to put hitters away with 2 strikes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 14, 2012 -> 02:36 PM) Ellsbury to the DL, separated shoulder, could be out 2+ months, not decided yet whether or not surgery is necessary. Maybe they need Alex Rios, haha.

Along with all those guys who succeeded, Jon Rauch was the #1 prospect, or at least in the top 5-10, on every list that came out. Matt Guerrier would later be traded for Marte. Josh Fogg would become part of the trade for Todd Ritchie, ouch. The likes of Lorenzo Barcelo (White Flag trade), Brian West and Jason Stumm wouldn't make it, lots of injury problems, particularly with Barcelo, Stumm and Rauch (labrum and an attitude that didn't sit well with KW and many) Danny Wright was productive for a couple of seasons and then flamed out. Matt Ginter was on the US Olmpic team with Rauch and in the Top 5 of our system. For most of that time, the two pitchers (other than Garland/Kip Wells) who made the most impact ended up being Buehrle and Josh Fogg, who were just on the outside of our Top 10 or in the 9-15 range during those years. Just before that, you had Parque and Snyder, not to mention Durham/Ordonez/C-Lee. We also got Foulke and Howry from the White Flag deal, Caruso, etc. Of course, this was the "These Kids Can Play" era and we had a lot of high draft picks at that time, to be fair. Oh, and I just remembered Rocky Biddle and Gary Glover, although I think Glover came from either the Jays or Brewers. Scott Eyre, too. So many.

Probably figures no reason to shake things up when we've won 3 in a row...and then the mysterious "rainout" line-up with Beckham leading off which might have been tongue-in-cheek. Surely there'll be some changes if Beckham, Morel and Rios struggle today again with multiple K's. Maybe Dunn too, although Porcello's a righty so not sure you'd want to sit him in punishment for a bad performance against a LHP when he should be playing every game against RH pitching.