caulfield12

Great, another Indians' top pitching prospect is on the way!!!! 7. The American League’s best team, the Cleveland Indians, another strong starting pitcher. Which happened when Alex White joined them after 175 minor league innings, outdueled Rick Porcello(notes) in his first start and handed Jered Weaver(notes) his second loss the next time out. White, the Indians’ No. 1 pick in 2009, is the pitcher’s equivalent to a metal band: hard, harder and hardest. Hard is his slider, an 85-mph power breaker. Harder is his splitter, an 87-mph beast he has yet to use much in his first two starts. Hardest is a 93-mph fastball he threw three-quarters of the time to solid results. If White continues to pitch well, the Indians will have more starters than rotation spots. Mitch Talbot(notes) and Carlos Carrasco(notes) both pitched well before hitting the disabled list, and Fausto Carmona(notes), Justin Masterson(notes) and Josh Tomlin(notes) aren’t going anywhere for the time being. It’s a good problem to have, made all the better by their 2010 No. 1, Drew Pomeranz, sporting a 1.27 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings at Class-A Kinston. He'll be at Double-A soon, the level at which... … Jeff Passan yahoo.com/sports

QUOTE (High Mileage @ May 8, 2011 -> 10:44 PM) He came over in the Greinke trade. He was the Brewers' top pitching prospect, not sure where he falls in line in our system... 1. Mike Montgomery 2. Danny Duffy 3. John Lamb 4. Chris Dwyer 5. Jake Odorizzi? Don't forget Aaron Crow, even though he's a current member of the bullpen, he's a rookie technically. And Mazzaro from the A's, who was supposed to be the 5th starter coming into ST. That's a lot of starting pitching depth. The White Sox don't even have a single guy who would come close to cracking the Royals' Top 7. Howard Sinker on the problems of Justin Morneau... I am undecided how much of his troubles in the field are his own problem, as opposed to being caused by the rotating cast of mediocre middle infielders. Alexi Casilla, in particular, has done Morneau no favors with his throws to first base. Almost all of the others have also contributed to making Morneau look duller in the field than he's been in the past. But maybe the hardest thing to watch has been Morneau's residency in the third or fourth spot in the batting order, when his struggles are that much more obvious. Nothing has happened recently to suggest that an end is around the corner. Here's a look at the most troublesome statistic: The website baseball-reference.com breaks down a batter's performance against pitchers based on power and finesse. Power pitchers are defined as being in the top one-third of the league in strikeouts plus walks over the last three seasons, plus the current one. Morneau is 1-for-17 (.059) against those pitchers. Against the middle third, he's 1-for-22 (.045). In his half-season of 2010, he batted .319 against power pitchers and .343 against those in the middle third of strikeouts-plus-walks. startribune.com/sports

Thought High Mileage would enjoy this article if he hasn't already seen it, reminiscing about Bo Jackson's arrival 25 years ago and how similar hopes are being placed on Hosmer. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ak7z...memories_050611 Alex Gordon was obviously a victim of the George Brett comparisons, as his natural position was 3B. Will be interesting to see how/what they've learned with that failure (and Teahen) so they can protect Moustakas as much as possible. For a long time, Appier and Jeff Montgomery were the perennial Royals' All-Stars, after the Bo Jackson era. Then you had Mike Sweeney as the "franchise player" after Damon, Dye and Beltran were all traded. Berroa and Febles looked like they could be stars together in the middle infield and both flamed out, particularly Berroa, a former ROY. And a brief run of Zach Greinke as the man, especially in his Cy Young season.

2-1 so far. Pretty safe to predict 2-4 (4-5) or 3-3 (5-4) for the next six games, especially considering that we're missing Haren, Weaver, Anderson and Gio. The only question is which direction this whole thing goes if we muddle along? We have another hellacious stretch of teams to play at home after the team returns back home to Chicago. Could easily have been 3-0, but I guess we have to build upon something, which is our first series victory (tied KC and NYY) since we beat Cleveland and Tampa Bay in the first 10 days of the season. Amazingly, Cleveland hasn't lost a single home game at Jacobs since those first two.

Lillibridge hitting 6th? Hmmm....well, I guess no better choices. And Quentin, despite his homer against Felix, has been ice cold.

And the Rangers were in bankruptcy, so that's not exactly the usual situation. However, FWIW, they had almost the same exact payroll in 2010 we had in 2005.

Except DeJesus just hit two homers in one game to single-handedly win it for the A's last week against CLE. Even when Sweeney goes 5/6, his team loses, largely because they're all singles.

And where is Alex Rios in comparison to those 2?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 8, 2011 -> 08:04 AM) If this were Mythbusters, this would be Verified. Or "Cheaters"

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 7, 2011 -> 12:24 PM) Hudson pitches tonight (Sat). Gio won last night. Looks like Sweeney getting back in A's lineup. Hard to do with Willingham, Crisp ensconced in CF and DeJesus. That's why he still has less than 40 AB's this season.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,2491155.column Kind of a contradictory article by Rogers about the future of the White Sox, and the manager's position. And I don't seem to recall a huge collection of talented players coming into the system with Schueler. He can take credit for Magglio, Lee, Durham, Buehrle, Rowand and Crede, but all those players were veterans when Ozzie took over. It almost sounds like he's defending Jerry Manuel, not Ozzie. Strange. Seems he's against firing Guillen and leaving KW in charge, then lists about 15-20 possible managerial candidates, headlined by Dave Martinez and Sandy Alomar, Jr. The name that hasn't been mentioned much is Joe McEwing. Personally, I can't imagine a single White Sox fan being "amped" or excited about Cora. Some of the other names mentioned were DeMarlo Hale with the Red Sox, Ron Wotus with the Giants, Scott Ullger with the Twins and a long list of recycled guys like Jim Fregosi.

And that will drive your manager and pitching coach crazy, Gavin. Between Jackson and Floyd, two of the most enigmatic talents in the game in one rotation. That pitch to Kennedy was the definition of center-cut.

Well, there are your runs, Gavin. No excuse for the starting pitcher or bullpen not to hold this lead. The real question is it an Ozzie-proof lead with the way he's been managing this year?

I think this is the last time all season the bottom of the line-up will simultaneously be a combined 9 for 9. 14 hits in 5 2/3.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 7, 2011 -> 09:46 PM) Someone want to tell me again how AJ has no power left? If he had power, it would have gone out, lol.

Bradley earning his money out in LF.

Beckham looked like a high school QB there with that throw. At least it was accurate. Rookie Alex White on the mound for the Indians, one of their top prospects.

That's all we need, a hand injury to Konerko. LOL@Jean Pierre. His head is so small, they don't make a batting helmet that fits him so he has to wear his cap inside to make it fit correctly.

Okay, that will work Adam. At least he hit a ball close to right on the button, knuckleball affect to Saunders.

Forgot about that possibility. DON'T BUNT ALEXEI.

I'm thinking missed squeezed play and DP or triple play.

Maybe all of our hitters should just deliberately miss on bunt attempts and just swing away with 2 strikes.

Rios now 6/7 against Fister. At least he can hit someone. Dropping those balls into LCF with parachutes right off the label.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 7, 2011 -> 08:17 PM) Very nice 3-2 change-up to Smoak. The previous change he hung and really got away with one the way Smoak's been going recently.

Based on Beckham turning on a fastball and pulling it down the left-field line against Felix in the 8th and his first AB in this game, two consecutive hits FEELS like progress. What else do we have?