caulfield12

Will be interesting to see which direction Rios goes in from here... He showed a little emotion on a pull-hook grounder (maybe it was a DP ball, can't remember), slammed his helmet down on his knee after running through 1B. Mully and Hanley were of the opinion this display boded well. Others aren't so sure.

Pfizer Cisco Texas Instruments Realized I was holding these three stocks (all underwater)...anyone have a compelling reason not to sell and write them off against taxes?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) You know, you can actually google "Matt Thornton Fangraphs" yourself. It isnt' that hard. Velocity: 2008 95.4 2009: 95.7 2010: 96.1 2011: 95.7. Is that average velocity or average velocity on all his pitches thrown? It just seems his stuff isn't as crisp as before, based just on the eye test. And maybe if all the pitches are in that category, he's never thrown more fastballs than any previous season it seems. Once again. Perception. Could be wrong easily enough. How much less is he throwing his offspeed pitches in 2011?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 10, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) Caulfield, I think you need to accept the fact that Crain is not going anywhere. But wouldn't we have said the same thing about Linebrink back in 2008. Crain has had a really good two year run...better than he's ever been before. But I still don't think we need both Crain AND Frasor. It's a luxury we probably won't be able to afford unless we win the division this year. Sure, I'd keep both of them and get rid of Wil Ohman. You'd rather have 2 quality relievers than 5-6 Ohmans paid half that amount.

Thornton hasn't been missing as many bats as in years past. It's largely because the more fastballs you see in an at-bat, the greater your chances of timing it are...and command/location. Where's fangraphs on this? I'd swear he's down at least 1-1.5 mph on his fastball average this season. Finally, because there's so much more contact being made....there's always a bloop, bleeder, broken bat single (he breaks more bats than anyone I've seen in recent years but they almost always wind up with a man on base), he's just also a little bit snake-bitten. But that IP-H ratio has never been so lopsided. I would guess there's only one other year since he joined the Sox that he's given up more H and IP.

But, if the choice is keeping Danks/Quentin/Buehrle or MATTY for 2012, one of those guys becomes much more feasible with Thornton/Crain/Frasor gone, and you pull the trigger on that deal every time if you can get something of value back in return. Especially with the overkill of having two righty set-up guys that are highly compensated and that being the strongest area of our farm system at the current moment.

I think we need to go to China, India and Brazil and just starting signing anyone who can throw 93+ on a radar gun. Would probably work out better in the end than our Broadway/McCulloch strategy. Give me 25-50 of those guys and you're more likely to have a Santos or Sale than throwing money at high draft picks.

Actually kind of created this with Dick Allen in mind. Talking about this aspect of baseball is more interesting (to me) than Greg Walker threads.

Matt's age, diminished velocity compared to previous years, his expanding contract, his inability to control any secondary pitches on a consistent basis, his failure/s as a closer in April, his IP/H ratio, our high probability of needing to cut payroll by at least $20 million next year....etc.

I don't know, I'd have to go with the Lefty Williams curveball on that score.

It sounds like some kind of new snack chip....like a saltine cracker by Sun Chips. Not scary or intimidating at all. The Slidinators doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, either.

White Sox continue their tour of former pitching prospects from other teams....Reyes with the Braves, now Hunter from the Rangers.

What's a Rioist? Is that like a Maoist? Rios has been resurrected from the dead? You support him if he hits above .200? A bit confused here.

Hoyt Wilhelm knuckleball has to be up there somewhere for consideration in this category. Even the Charlie Hough knuckleball... Let's see, Goose Gossage fastball in the early 70's.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110809/SPOR...3/1050/sports02? I thought this was an interesting way to assess the work of Dombrowski and Leyland...because the team's attendance has been up and he's secured the rotation through 2014 (Verlander, Scherzer, Porcello, Fister, Turner) then he's defined as a success? Wow! Good thing they weren't using those two criteria for KW. It would be a big failure in both items, because the future of our rotation is anything but stable or predictable beginning 7 weeks from now or even this week. Loved this response in the messages section at the bottom.... Dombrowski is 726-846 as Tigers GM - think the RED WINGS would RE-SIGN a GM that had a 46% WINNING PERCENTAGE??? DD has done MORE HARM THAN GOOD - HE'S ONLY WON ONCE, ONE WS, IN HIS WHOLE GD CAREER!!!!! STOP TREATING HIM LIKE A HOF GM WHEN HE'S CLEARLY NOT - HOW MUCH $$$ HAS DD WASTED??? ADD IT UP - OVER $100 MILLION!!! DD hasn't won SQUAT HERE - is he WRITING HIS OWN CHECKS or is Ilitch now COMPLETELY SENILE??? Leyland's MENTAL health is everyone's concern - anyone who bats RYAN RAYBURN 3RD WILL LOSE EVERY TIME BOYCOTT LITTLE CAESAR'S - I DON'T MISS IT AND MY VITALS HAVE IMPROVED SINCE I QUIT THAT INFERIOR PRODUCT Now if they had WON a DIVISION TITLE since 1987 (or since I bought them in the 90's) and had BETTER than the 11th best record in the MLB out of the 30 teams (making the Tigers SECOND TIER, MIDDLE OF THE PACK) there might be some justification The AL Central is a JOKE - the Tigers are 3RD in EVERY OTHER DIVISION Detroit is a BORING PLACE in the summer - CoPa and the casinos are the draw, not the product on the field How's INGE doing on TOLEDO where he BELONGS??? Heard as much about him lately as ZUMAYA!! Funny how the Tigers have WON MORE since K-INGE went DOWN - watch Leyland bring him up in September and the WS take the AL Central

And Morel too (replacement level stats at 3B), although it's not as fair to pick on him as Rios/Dunn/Peavy. Beckham and Pierre deserve just as much, if not more, criticism. And we don't really know how much the White Sox have got back on Peavy's contract...if he pitches the final two months like he has the last 3 starts, he might actually come fairly close to the level of his contract if you include all the payouts from insurance. That's another figure not figured into salary/payroll projections for the Sox.

So it's pretty fair to say we're down about 15-20% in revenues generated strictly from 81 gamedays. And the team supposedly made $25 million in profit with a payroll roughly $25 million lower in 2010. I suppose it makes sense...or it could be they're already planting the idea that the highest the payroll could possibly be in 2012 is $113 million or so (without Buehrle still in the fold, probably $95-105 million). Of course, they're already saving some money with Edwin, Teahen and possibly Frasor leaving at the end of the season with Type B comp. coming back.

It goes way, way beyond Daniel Hudson. You could cut $50-75 million from our payroll and come close to the same record with replacement level performance at 3-4 key positions.

It would have been better if Sale wasn't so darned good out the pen last year...but, even then, they STILL had Thornton, so there was no pressing reason not to let Sale start (in 2011), because Thornton was also in the fold. Of course, the way it's turned on, he's our second most important relief pitcher....and you could argue the most, because he can pitch anytime between the 5th and 9th against lefties or righties. And it's not like they could have projected Humber being such a strong starter the first 3 months of the season either. Not even Don Cooper's that prescient.

Or t-shirts with the color of the opposing team, reverse "black out." Obviously having more Yankees or Red Sox fans in the stadium SHOULD HAVE made them feel like they were on the road but that didn't exactly work out well.

Maybe the club sees it like free advertising and building/extending the fanbase? Like TBS/Turner with the Braves in the 80's and 90's. It's a good question. Logically, you would ASSUME that a superstation's games would net more revenue than a regional broadcasting sports network?

Quite frankly, we should be close to elated with a 675-725 out of either Morel or Beckham at this point.

C'mon Charlie Brown, kick the football. Oops, what happened? The winning run was the Indians' first since they scored two in the first inning. The game started at 7:06 p.m. and ended at 1:52 a.m. It was the Tribe's 13th walk-off win at home. They are 18-14 in games decided in the last at-bat. The Indians managed just three hits in the last 13 innings. The win went Frank Herrmann (3-0), the seventh and final reliever to pitch for the Tribe. If the game had gone to the 15th inning, Josh Tomlin was warming to enter. cleveland.com/sports Choo likely to come back next week. Sizemore, possibly back in September. 12 in a row at home against DET. Let's go, Indians. At least for 2 more games. Or do we want CLE to split with Verlander winning the final game? Sweeping DET would seem to be the preferable result, even if it keeps them in front of us. By the way, I bet not too many teams in MLB history have made the playoffs with a record of more than 5 games under .500 at home and more than 5 games over .500 on the road. Solutions? Stay in a hotel for home games and bus over together? Play in Milwaukee? Black/alternate jerseys at home? Switch dugouts? Tell Carlos to quit being "so intense" in front of home crowds, where he has sucked this season...and Gordon the last couple of years?? Trick Gavin into thinking home games are road games....like in "Goodbye, Lenin!"???

Trading Beckham at his lowest possible value just doesn't make any sense. Rios could be the leadoff hitter. Or Lillibridge/DeAza. Ramirez would be the 3rd best option. Go with Door #2.

Extend KW! Lifetime Movie of the Week. Who will play Sergio? Let's go boys!