caulfield12

Which is what we were saying at the end of 2007 as well, right? That's the ONLY reason to hope, that KW turned things around twice (2004-2005 and 2007-2008) in total course reversals. But the Tigers, Indians and Royals all are better positioned (for the next five years), and the Twins are drawing 40,000 per game and have a beautiful new stadium.

It is way too kind to KW...though. That's the weakness. There's 20 mistakes that he has made since the end of 2008 we could list. Wilder, etc. What has Buddy Bell actually done that's had a positive impact? Recommending the Mark Teahen trade and then long-term extension? How has Bell improved our minor league system? Is there ANY evidence that we can point to at all? Only 3 positives. Viciedo, Humber and Santos.

Look at the White Sox line-up and approach tonight. Gordon Beckham's swinging out of his ass against sliders 2-3 feet off the plate that Roberto Clemente or Vladimir Guerrero couldn't hit. He simply cannot hit an above-average major league fastball up in the zone with that stance. Rios, Dunn, Quentin and Ramirez are trying to pull nearly every pitch...how many DP balls and two-hoppers to 3B and SS do we need to see in one year. There's no reason Alexei Ramirez should be hitting into so many double plays, none! Other than Konerko, Pierzynski (sometimes) and Pierre, how many of our hitters take the ball and accept hitting it where it's pitched? Perfect example tonight was Konerko's solid base-hit to 2B/RF through the hole. At least Morel's TRYING to do things correctly up there, but he's just overmatched and needs to play everyday in Charlotte to regain some confidence. You have the sense that those four are the only team players offensively, and maybe Lillibridge, although his offensive approach for the past 6 weeks has been absolutely miserable. At that size (and speed), you have to cut down on your swing, make contact more consistently and put the ball on the ground. Period. If all these players are tuning out (or listening but the results never show up in the games)....then you HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT...unless you want to eat the contracts or trade Rios, Dunn, Beckham and even Ramirez or Quentin. Here's the thing. Profit/loss or cost/benefit analysis comes into play more than anything, and JR's a wise businessman if overly loyal to a fault. One thing he knows for sure. Whatever our season ticket base is now, let's say 16-18,000 per game, it's going to be cut down to 7500 to open next season if Guillen, Walker, Williams, Dunn and Rios are all back. It might even be down to 5,000, but the last thing he can afford to do is cut payroll by $30 million, lose Buehrle, bring in no new talent or reason for hope (other than Viciedo) and not change a a single thing operationally/strategically in terms of the direction of the franchise. I don't think JR is dumb. Something has to give between now and the end of December. It simply has to.

I'm sure he's flattered so many people noticed him in one day, lol.

Except if we started the season with Santos as our closer, we might not have had that 4-18 stretch that buried our season right off the bat and killed any fan enthusiasm for the Sox this season. That and feeling confident Morel was ready to play everyday.

I wonder if this is simply a back-handed way to snipe at us for the Teahen/Oney thing? If nothing else, as they say....all publicity is good publicity. Maybe it should serve as yet another sign to JR that something is SERIOUSLY wrong with his organization and the overall level of discontent of the fanbase. Not that you need to express it with death threats against KW or OG to get your point across. I think I've joked about having Rios "kidnapped" next season so they wouldn't have to pay his contract. I suppose sensitive Mr. Rios could take that literally and begin thinking a cabal was forming in dark corners...but I've never seen anyone who SEEMED serious or in any way threatening. You never know with the internet, of course.

At that point, the score was already 8-1 I think....he saw a two-run blast into the RF bleachers, can't remember who hit it for the Yankees, maybe Chavez.

Isn't LaRussa going to be much too expensive? I wonder if they think it would be better to slash payroll to $85-95 million if they have a big-time manager to market. Same philosophy the Marlins are taking with Guillen/Valentine. And at least they have Hanley and Josh Johnson to promote. We might not even have Konerko and Buehrle the way things are headed.

De Aza cares at least. That was one enjoyable highlight from last night. Probably will be benched again for Rios because of the back of Alex's baseball card. Rios 4/16 with a triple and 4 RBI's against Colon. That guarantees him CF, I guess, despite what De Aza did last night. Or is Nova starting instead? In that case, there would be ZERO reason to start Rios over Alejandro.

But actually sending a message to even ONE player might wake SOMEONE on this team up. Probably not. Maybe they've just decided it's too late to try and the habits of this team are already ingrained too much to change them.

His inexcusable act ended up in the Sox having to burn through Thornton, Crain and Santos last night. You just can't get tossed when you and Ohman have ONE CLEAR RESPONSIBILITY...to "take one for the team." They need to start sending messages (unfortunately it's hard to do this with the likes of Rios, besides benching him) by sending players down or releasing them. Try Lindsay up in the pen for awhile and see what he can do. Accountability. A little of it would be nice.

Still, the point that Sox fans or message board posters are "ignorant" about something simple like the difference between Venezuelans and Mexicans...it's just too simplistic to throw out stuff like that and "tar and feather" an entire board. I bet Ozzie Jr. is just taking the amalgamation of all the hate and racism that is projected towards his father (especially from talk radio callers or letters received at USCF) and painting with far too broad a brush. Fans don't like his father? They have to be racist, right? That is the only possible reason, if you're his son. The irony of course is how many prejudiced or outright biased statements that his father has made since he became manager of the White Sox. There's plenty of reasons to be upset about his managerial performance, but his ethnic background shouldn't be one of them, any more than Obama's race. There is that fringe out there that would not vote for Obama if he saved them all from drowning personally...and certainly Sox fans who have never approved of Ozzie because of his constant cursing or whatever, but c'mon Junior. Try to have a more nuanced viewpoint instead of seeing everything in black and white. Does anyone really believe Ozzie Jr. took the time to read about immigration reform or slam/political topics? Really?

By the way, Rongey finally admitted in the post-game that the Sox MIGHT need more leadership in the clubhouse. Someone the other players respected who could get on everyone...and also with a sense of humor, I guess in the Rowand/Everett mode. He was having a little bit of difficulty articulating exactly what it was, but you just have the sense there's something terribly off with the chemistry, clubhouse, atmosphere around this team. You don't get the sense that most of the players enjoy being around each other much or want to stay after games. Obviously, it can't be Jake Peavy because he's been hurt so much and has pitched more like a fifth starter than an ace for the majority of this season. Beckham was also supposed to be that Jeter-esque leader and franchise cornerstone and we know where we're at with Gordon at this point in time. This is the danger of KW's approach...these players didn't all come up together and weather adversity and learn to win as a unit. They've always been a collection of spare parts and castoffs and former 1st round draft picks from other organizations. That approach can work every once in a while, but it's simply not a recipe for developing a consistently successful winning franchise. During this five-game losing streak, there have been NUMEROUS mistakes from a fundamentals standpoint that aren't being addressed or corrected. The only player who was supposedly called out for this was Lillibridge, and yet Rios does it 2-3-4 times per game without being held accountable. Quentin and Ramirez should or could be superstars under the right instruction, but they just do whatever they feel like doing at the plate and don't seem to be "team first-oriented" in terms of advancing runners or changing their approach with runners on base or 2 strikes. Fine, Walker doesn't teach "pull/hook," but he can't at least TRY to get some of these guys to take outside pitches to the opposite field instead of trying to go around them...resulting in weak grounders to 3B and SS. It's been the same story all season long. Doesn't matter if it's KW's fault or Ozzie's, both need to go. The sooner the better.

K. Walker 0/4, 3 K's. Thompson 0/4 2 K's. At least Mitchell is showing signs of being a serious extra-base threat. Maybe/hopefully the stolen base ability and instincts will come later? Or he's just hesistant or gunshy to hurt his ankle again sliding into the bases? Does he steal headfirst or sliding feet first? I guess I'd rather have a doubles/triples hitter on the horizon if the only other option is a slappy singles hitter who puts up Juan Pierre numbers. Of course, OBP and K's will tell the tale as far as Mitchell ever being able to make it as a leadoff hitter...or to the majors, period.

Diamondbacks Indians if the Sox are out of it, although they're falling off now too Pirates, although that ship looks like it has already sailed Brewers (I think most are sick of the Cardinals) Nationals (although Harper is far from likeable, Strasburg is coming back this weekend for a rehab start)

Waiting for Godot (Viciedo) That's all that's left. And watching DeAza player over Rios in CF (maybe!) Unless it's a LHP, in which case we know that Alex will be out there no matter how many mistakes and misplays he has in CF. Forget about his hitting.

THEY BOTH NEED TO GO. EVERYONE. EVEN COOPER AND BAINES (SADLY FOR JR) I WILL TYPE THIS IN ALL-CAPS BECAUSE WE SUCK SUCK SUCK AND GAVE UP (EXCEPT FOR DE AZA)

Except the Twins don't want to beat the Angels, who are suddenly the hottest team in baseball, along with the Brewers. As long as they stay within 2 1/2, 4th place is still in sight by Sunday. (CORRECTION, Twins look to be only 1 1/2 back or closer...beating the Angels now 8-4). Not that they would draft the better player even if the Twins end up a couple of spots behind them in the draft order.

Rios, grand total of 3 misplays tonight. Misjudged a fly ball, letting it drop in and not even making an attempt to throw the runner who was clearly caught halfway between the bases (it was Gardner) out at 3B when there was 100% a play on him. Threw the ball to the wrong base (3B) yet again, allowing the runner who should have been at 1B to advance into scoring position and nullify limiting the big inning with a potential double play ball. Ole'ed the ball hit right at him into CF, instead of keeping it in front of him. BRUNEY ABSOLUTELY HAS TO GO TO CHARLOTTE. Period. No excuse for not knowing your role was to prevent the entire bullpen from being wasted. You just can't get tossed out of the game right there. Instead, we had to use Thornton, Crain and Santos needlessly. ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY or FUNDAMENTALS with this team, as usual. Great game by DeAza. He actually showed up to play. If De Aza's not starting over Rios tomorrow against a RHP, Guillen should be fired as soon as that line-up card is posted. We have 3 "team players" in the form of AJ, Konerko and Pierre. Everyone else is either clueless or takes a selfish approach up at the plate. Morel just has to be better. Period.

3-0 Tigers. Adam Dunn ... we really should have never had that hyperbole thread because it's now clearly impossible to describe the history-challenging seasons of Dunn and Rios without using them. 33 straight offspeed pitches from Gavin against the Yankees last start. 3 victories in a row. 32 K's in 38 IP, 35 H's. sub 4.00 ERA. Yankees' announcers don't know who or what Southpaw is...lol. JR and Einhorn and Hemond are all there, having to witness this train wreck. GOOD.

I want to see Dick Allen (the poster or the real one) installed as the hitting coach for the next 2 months just to see if things could possibly get any worse. We'll find out by the end of the weekend if we've actually reached rock bottom yet. 2007 was bad, but this is now much more depressing.

Is that you, Natrone MEANS?

Yep, the 2002 Indians and then the Twins for all three of those years would have destroyed this Tigers team.

That's just Kenny being Kenny. I would welcome some show of emotion this year or, at the very least, something resembling a plan (other than blind faith) to get out of this mess. KW is on the verge of being the Al Davis of the American League if things get much worse. Well, maybe not THAT bad, but the Raiders had their Super Bowl appearance too in the midst of all the chaos and underachievement and busting draft picks. Just win (or lose in this case) baby!

Well, the Tigers are 4-17 in games started by their 5th starter this year. Sound familiar? Basically, they're the 2002-2004 White Sox with two true superstars and Victor Martinez as well. Similar offensively, too, when clicking on all cylinders. And somehow, Fister has only given up 4 stolen bases in his entire career...maybe I misheard and it was 6, but an unbelieveably low number fo 70 games pitched. If AJ's back for 2012, we could have used someone with those numbers. But still think he'll be just "meh/average" for the Tiggers.