caulfield12

Goodbye, Melancon as closer. A little bit different getting 20 saves for the worst team in the majors and closing for the Red Sox in DET against the likes of Cabrera, Fielder and Avila. If Austin Jackson keeps hitting like this, watch out. Interestingly, the only player in history with more strikeouts than Jackson in his first two seasons is Pete Incaviglia.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 02:47 PM) I dunno, I think a 3-2 game or a 4-3 game is just as fun to watch as a 13-12 game. KW and the White Sox marketing department respectfully disagree. Except for 2005.

Just when Cub fans finally had a local hero to cheer for, they're quickly reminded it can all be eviscerated in a heartbeat (see DET/BOS game).

KW: Hey, Benny Boy. How's it going? BC: Not so good, man, not so good. This whole GM thing is kind of stressful. KW: Look at our roster. We've got four closers, and Nathan Jones has closer stuff, too. BC: Take the 2 best prospects from our minor league system and we'll throw in Tom Brady to back-up Cutler over there. Cubs gave 2 more runs back and the Yankees are going to be 0-3. What the heck is going on? Wouldn't be a complete shock if the Yankees didn't make the playoffs...luckily they have 3 options to get in now. Pirates take 2/3 from Philly. Twins 0-3, although not completely unexpected.

Goodbye, Aceves as closer. 10-7 Red Sox lead quickly evaporates with a Miguel Cabrera 3 run homer. Metro Boston, Ben Affleck and Peter Gammons in more panic than War of the Worlds live broadcast back in the day. Perhaps they should just take NESN off the air for the remainder of the game.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 02:31 PM) All those guys were great baseball players. Did you see the homers he hit Friday and Saturday nights?

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 02:29 PM) Catch up to that high fastball with his jump swing... It worked for Pods and Ichiro, haha.

Sorry, 45 inches, just a little hyperbole and overexaggeration. But that's still better or comparable with Michael Jordan. Maybe only Spud Webb, before he became a topless womens' strip club-sponsored basketball coach, and a few others top that.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 02:23 PM) We have that Viciedo guy who can be just as good... Except for the fact that Cespedes can play a position pretty well defensively, run and has a 50+ inch vertical.

Never trust the stats of a Padres pitcher, especially an overly portly one. The guy only had given up 5 homers combined in the last two seasons, and his high for a single season in homers surrendered is 5. Yikes.

Jared Mitchell with his first triple (of many) this season. Was listening to the Marlins game and Jose Reyes has 100 on his career. that guy can really run. Josh Phegley with another multi-hit performance, hitting .600. Seems like he's finally 100% healthy, or at least as close to it as possible.

Unless someone in your family has been killed by a drunk driver, then, not so much.

Who will melt down more today, Tiger Woods or Carlos Zambrano? Ooops, former Cub, does that count for this thread? And that trade the Padres masterminded for Matt Latos was an absolute steal....would be no suprise if Volquez alone does better that Matt out there in that huge park. The other 3 prospects are all going to be key building blocks, particularly Yonder Alonso.

Both Floyd and Harrison have historically struggled in April. Floyd's April ERA is 5.71 -- the ninth-highest among 119 active Major League pitchers with at least 10 career starts in April -- while Harrison's April ERA is 5.42 -- the 13th highest. Although it's always difficult to judge how Spring Training numbers will translate to the regular season, Harrison has reason to be optimistic. He was the Rangers' best pitcher in camp -- posting a 1.69 ERA and .190 average against -- thanks in large part to concentrating on stepping straight toward the hitter and driving straight downhill. In the past, he had a tendency to stop to the side. "This makes me more consistent hitting my spots. I'm not pulling off," Harrison said. "I do that when I try to throw too hard. I pull off and not hit my spots. Going downhill makes my curve a lot sharper and my slider more of a real slider." While Harrison had an impressive spring, Floyd struggled, posting a 6.64 ERA in 20 1/3 innings as opposing batters hit .296 against him. Part of the reason for those high marks was the usual Spring Training tinkering, as Floyd worked on expanding his arsenal. "I worked on my changeup, I worked on a cutter, I worked on using both sides of plate with all my pitches," Floyd said after his final Cactus League outing. "I'm trying to refine things, trying to get better as a pitcher. Things have been going real well." www.mlb.com Josh Hamilton is 6/10 off Floyd. Konerko is something like 1/10 or 1/11 against Harrison.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) While partly true there are plenty of folks around that are coming to realize just how bad that team is. There is almost no hope there for even a casual watching of a baseball game unless you really like to watch Starlin Castro. The fact that they could be 2-0 if Marshall was not traded for a AAA pitcher is not helping. Why trade Marshall and not Marmol? Also if you look at the state of the Red Sox right now you realize Theo and Jed were about to be unemployed and the cubs came to the rescue. I'm not so sure about that, the Red Sox were the best team in baseball for 4 1/2 months last season. Take away the complete collapse, and Epstein is a boy wonder again. But you're right, Cherington's in the same seat that Theo was headed for, and just like Ozzie, he probably saw the writing on the wall and got out at the best time for him personally. The core players on that team are aging (Youkilis and Ortiz), they have the horrible Lackey contract, as well as Dice-K still on the books, and they're going to have a horrible time with that bullpen until Bard gets moved back, which then opens up a gaping hole in the rotation. And Beckett just doesn't have the same dominating level of stuff he used to have, it's not unlike what we're seeing now out of Ubaldo Jimenez.

Don't forget Beckham, too. Everything has a way of evening out. Opposing pitchers will make adjustments to Cespedes, too. He's not going to hit 120 homers, at least it's unlikely with the lack of protection currently available in the A's line-up.

Feels nice to sneak away with one in a super tough environment against the top or second best offense in the AL. CLE has really come out of the gate struggling, and we've played well there in recent years, so coming back for the homer opener at 3-3 or 4-2 would be great.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 8, 2012 -> 07:01 AM) Good point. Better teams manage to win games they should have lost and bad teams manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is too small of a sample size but I wouldn't mind a season of winning ugly. To tell the truth, felt like a 90% chance Thornton was going to walk Napoli there. The crowd was going nuts, and it was a bit of surprise that he was still in there instead of bringing in Crain with the bases loaded, but it was a refreshing show of confidence in Matty by Ventura (instead of going with Ozzie's typical L/R match-up stuff). There was a high strike call that was very borderline, so I guess it evened out some of Winters' bad calls on Friday against Gordon and Dayan. Apparently, if Santiago had given up the tying run, then Crain was going to enter the game, if it went to extras. We let the opener get away, and this felt like a game we were heading in the direction of a loss after they tied it at 3-3 and Peavy seemed to be struggling. That's the beauty of baseball. Not to mention the fact that a similar play that Hamilton snared Friday, DeAza ended up letting the ball get all the way to the wall, Peavy was about to fall apart, balks, bobbled balls on the infield, but he managed to right the ship and limit the damage. Guess we should all give up looking for that 95-97 MPH heater from Peavy and just hope 1) he can stay healthy and be a quality starter and 2) we can save some money on his contract and/or get some decent prospects back in return at the deadline.

The 1971 original version of Straw Dogs with Hoffman, or the 2011 version with Kate Bosworth?

Goon is pretty good, but nothing close to some of the best sports movies. Jay Baruchel, the side-kick, is annoying as hell. Allison Pill, the love interest, is cute without being cloying. SHAME, Fassbender movie about sexual addiciton, wow....such an intensive movie. As Ebert mentioned, and it was one of his ten best of the last decade, not something I would want to watch again anytime soon. Carrie Mulligan does a slow version of Sinatra's New York that you can never forget. As an added bonus, she's naked, which kind of surprised me, as she definitely has passed the point in her career where she would be pressured to do that for a role. Fassbender is great in this role, if you haven't seen HUNGER about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, that's another must-see.

Is Olacio really 6'7"? Wow, the biggest lefty I can remember with the Sox was Jeremy Sisco. Thornton's big, but not THAT big.

The Sox had nine homegrown players on their opening day roster, tying them for fifth in the American League. The Twins had 14, followed by the Angels with 12 and the Royals and Rays with 11 apiece. chicagotribune.com/sports http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...1.column?page=1 Good Haugh article on Ventura's managerial style

Apparently, Ventura changed his mind because Lillibridge was 2/3 against Holland and he felt it would be good to get all the bench players on the field sometime in the first two series. That's reasonable enough.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/break...0,7742946.story See the different treatment here of Ozzie by the writer and the organization, comparing to Cowley's constant rationalizations to defend him?

3rd homer in his first 13 AB's. Hit an absolutely monster shot straight over the CF fence just now to bring the A's back to within one run from a huge deficit earlier in the game, a little to the right of straightaway actually....through very cold air out in OAK. Crushed 3 400+ foot bombs already. He's going to strike out a ton, and he's raw, but Dallas Braden said he's hit some of the hardest balls he's ever seen. King Felix was super pissed at the bullpen. Thank god he didn't end up on the Tigers, Cubs or even Marlins.