caulfield12

A 1-2-3 9th for Thornton? What's going on here? Wow, great job. Humber has single-handedly saved this season... Reds, you SUCK.

Great play by Beckham. There's no way in hell they could afford to send him to AAA if his OPS was 575.

Looks like Crain is set up to close the game against Byrd. One more out for Matt. It almost scares me more to stick in Crain in the middle of the inning!!

How can we continue to go with Dunn? Looks like Thornton will be going for the save in the 9th, as Sergio has pitched in 3 straight. Against Ramirez, Pena and Byrd. Strap on your seat belts. As someone mentioned, you have to insert Lillibridge defensively for Dunn or Ozzie should be suspended for 10 games for dereliction of duty. Would feel more comfortable with Crain out there against Ramirez, but it is what it is. If Matt can get Ramirez, he SHOULD be okay. Please pitch away, though. So many dunks/dinks/broken bats/infield singles against Thornton that end up to haunt him as a 9th inning pitcher.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 2, 2011 -> 06:55 AM) No he wasnt. Ironhide has been a suped up GMC Pickup in all three movies http://www.wallpaperez.info/movie/Transfor...onhide-302.html He identified himself as Que in the movie, but on the IMDB it says Que/Wheeljack. He was rather forgettable IMO. Not in a bad way, just kind of there. Do you mean the one who used to be a Decepticon and changed sides? I think they found him in a museum as an SR-71/Blackbird and then he "teleported" them all to Jordan? And he was involved in the final battle as well in Egypt and helps out Optimus with an "assist" of weaponry.

Pierre can bunt but not for a sacrifice. Ramirez and Beckham should never try to bunt again, unless it's on their own for a hit. Morel can do it PRETTY well. Vizquel, obviously. Not sure about Lillibridge...but it could have helped the last 2-3 times he's been up with RISP. Ozzie has been adjusting to this problem by putting runners in motion a lot more often recently to avoid the double play....but we don't exactly have a roster full of contact hitters after Pierre, Vizquel and AJ. I'd feel fairly confident about Morel making contact, too.

$150+ million and Alex Rodriguez's quote that he's the best player in baseball today say NO. Dunn's, Peavy's and Rio's already-existing $150 million in commitments say no as well. Reyes' injury history prior to this year isn't confidence-building. Reyes is having a great season, undoubtedly, but there's just no way with our current financial situation...even if we managed to make it to the playoffs, attendance and revenues in all likelihood will be down....unless thousands more fans start showing up between now and August 15th. Finally, Ramirez is actually one of our strengths. Probably our best and most important player when you take both offense and defense into consideration. While I would love to see a middle infield of Reyes and Ramirez (pushing Beckham to another team or back to 3B, which doesn't make sense because of how good he's become at 2B)...it just seems completely unfeasible. I would imagine if anything we'd be cutting salary this offseason...with the possible loss of Buehrle and the probable loss of Jackson. Down to the $95-110 million mark, unless something changes drastically in our fortunes the next 80+ games.

Does having Dunn, Pierre and Rios drawn-and-quartered multiple times count?

I'll save Lil Bulldog Hibbie the time to start a new thread. NOW only 3 games behind the Tigers, 3 1/2 behind those pesky "they just won't die" Indians who the Reds still can't figure out for yet the 4th time this season. Broke through the 2 games under mark for the first time in four opportunities.

Some big-time cooler destruction. Giants' announcers declared that's the worst they've ever seen Wilson pitch. Just didn't have anything out there. Ironic, because he gets the victory after blowing 3 consecutive saves in 2 days.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 1, 2011 -> 08:50 PM) Saladino homered. Replaced late in the game....porque? I must be half-asleep. Saw Jim Parque in the minor league thread at first. Wilkins with his 13th homer. Looks like Mitchell is having a tough time turning the corner on his rebound season. Thompson now with 15 doubles but also 3 K's and only a .227 avg.

Even more of a bummer. Wilson has COMPLETELY lost it, literally and figuratively. On the verge of blowing yet ANOTHER save opportunity, this time with a 4-1 lead. Leaving the bases loaded and being pulled for the Affeldt Duck. Bases loaded error by Burriss, Giants completely imploding. This came after two bases loaded walks by Tigers' relievers with 2 outs in the top of the 9th to pad the lead to 4-1. Wow. Amazing ending. Minor miracle...bases loaded with 1 out and winning run at 2nd and they get a line-out DP ball off the bat of BOESCH.

But you just can't trade Quentin when he's been trending cold when you know 1) he will get hot again, 2) his bat can carry the team better than anyone when he's streaking, even Konerko and 3) Viciedo's still a BIT unproven, at least in the OF. I can imagine what would happen if Quentin went on to put up MVP numbers with an NL team while Viciedo struggled and the prospect we got back in return for Quentin turned out to be a bust. The only way I would consider it would be for a major league ready starter in AA/AAA...and very very few teams will part with that kind of talent.

Milledge has to figure in there as well with Danks...fighting with DeAza for that final opportunity in the OF. Escobar will eventually at least get a shot at the Vizquel role because of his glove.

Indians taking it to the Reds again. That would make it 4 in a row and sweeping them in The Battle of Ohio so far this season. Wilson with blown saves for the Giants in two consecutive games. This time against Magglio Ordonez in the 8th with two outs. Still struggling to keep the game tied going into the 9th.

Santos is really growing in confidence. Three games in a row with dominating stuff where there wasn't even a hint of a comeback or threat. Pierre shifting ALL the attention in the line-up back to Mr. Dunn. Bruney has been surprisingly effectively...between him and Humber, two of the best "zero cost" acquisitions of the off-season. Ozzie, please, never ever make Beckham bunt again in those late inning situations. Just let him hit away. Acknowlege what your players are capable of doing and what they're not. Finally, let's also start executing to get those late inning runs on the board from third base and less than 2 outs.

Needed to go off-speed there against Fukudome, AJ.

4th opportunity to get to -1 game under .500. Let's go, boys!

There's no way we replace Morel with Kuhn, any more than the likes of Cook and Gartrell were going to replace Quentin. Heck, you can add De Aza to the list, too, probably. Color me skeptical on Kuhn, but I'd just be happy with another Craig Grebeck or Ozuna. Unfortunately, Lillibridge already does a lot of these same things, so it's pretty rare you have 2 players replicating the same skill sets on the same bench, not with just four players and two of them having to be Teahen and the back-up catcher. When I hear names like Reed, I also think of Jeff Abbott. Put some pretty outstanding seasons offensively in the minors and never came close to producing at the major league level. Then again, hitting was pretty much his only "plus" skill, and without much power.

The Rangers and White Sox (some will also argue the Twins, but their underperformance has as much to do with injuries) are the two main enigmas in the AL. Like usual.

That article on Reynolds was interesting. No way that I'd consider Zach G. a star though. Can't even imagine watching a movie with him carrying it. Some interesting omissions from his list of 24: Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Colin Farrell, Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Russell Brand, etc.

The 2005 offense had "complementary" players like Uribe, Rowand and Crede. Those same players would be #3 options on this team after Quentin and Konerko for offensive firepower. Thomas raked in the middle of the summer when he was actually healthy. Pods and Iguchi were very dangerous together the first four months. We haven't gotten anything like that level of production this year...especially the steals and getting out of top for early leads in games on a consistent basis, not since the first 2-3 weeks of the season. Pierre hasn't intimidated anyone at all this year...opposing teams WANT him to run so that they can throw him out. We're really missing that 3rd option offensively that was supposed to be Dunn, the role filled by Dye and Thome previously. As far as not addressing the pitching before 2006, we did exactly that with the Javy acquisition. It just didn't work out as well as expected, but remember all the talk of having TOO MUCH depth with McCarthy on the outside looking in? Javy just didn't get the job done except when the pressure was diminished. As far as the team not having a clear or coherent identity (call it a "strategic vision"), I'll definitely agree with Cowley on that. KW tinkers way too much, and it has consequences.

Rongey arguing that Viciedo won't make a difference to this line-up. Ugh...same argument we heard that Kotsay didn't hurt the White Sox last year. I was actually ALMOST thinking if Rios continues to struggle that I'd be okay with Pierre in CF and Viciedo in LF. ALMOST. But how long can they keep trotting Dunn out there? If Lillibridge continues to slump, there's no other option against LHP (for Dunn), because you need Castro and Teahen isn't going to be starting against lefties, either.

Unexpected victory with our "Sunday" line-up, coming down from 3-0 and 4-1. Beckham finally showed some life, and his defense alone makes his presence palatable. Pierre with a huge game, finally. A stolen base by Juan and caught stealing by AJ. HOW???? 9-6 in interleague so far. Dunn might be the one getting replaced by Viciedo. How many times have we been 2 games under? 5-6-7 times? Sergio recovered nicely from being down in the count to Smith and wiped them out again. Crain bailed out Sale, but Chris got the key strike-out of Helton at least. 5-8 in extra innings. 13 games is a lot for just half a season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 30, 2011 -> 04:41 PM) Yeah, this has been a rough 2 nights for Street hasn't it? What did Street do poorly tonight? C'mon Sergio, not the leadoff walk, whatever you do, make him hit it.