caulfield12

Especially with Humber on the mound against Weaver. You have to take your shot for the big inning, home or not (referring to bunting early in the game). Not to mention the fact that with the bullpen in its current condition, does a one run lead do anything? Hope they didn't waste Santos for tomorrow's game, I don't want to hear that excuse from Ozzie for not using him in a save situation. And what I really don't understand is bunting (sac) with players like Alexei, who have REPEATEDLY failed in that same situation, year after year. If he bunts on his own, that's one thing, he's successful as often as not in those situations.

Well, we did lead the game for the 13th time in a row. Only 24 more to go to match our previous record streak. We'd beaten the Angels seven games in a row, so you knew it was likely to end with Weaver and Haren pitching this weekend and Humber on the mound. Humber's been a lot better than expected, actually. Morel's been shaky so far, but I'll excuse the error tonight because of the wet field and playing conditions. I'm not sure how many will if he continues his current error pace, though. Santos continues to look strong. Wish Dunn would have come through earlier...I think the game would have turned out differently if we took a 3-0 lead instead of 1-0 at that point. And B. McCarthy's pitching for the A's like he did for the Sox in 2005. At least he's beating the Tigers.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 15, 2011 -> 05:04 AM) One of the other points that I made in the paper I wrote on this subject was that 5 days in between pitching appearances is probably not the optimum time to achieve the best performance. I made that assertion based upon the limited understanding that I have about sports medicine and human physiology. It doesn't take the body that long to recover from strenuous physical activity. Intense weight training is probably about as demanding as any physical activity there is. A weight lifter, or body builder will routinely take 2 days rest in between training any given body part. Squats and other leg exercises are probably the most grueling exercises one can do. Even those exercises can best be performed, with the least amount of soreness, if done every 3rd or 4th day. Pitching 45 to 90 pitches should not be near enough to cause injury, and therefore an athlete should be able to repeat that effort after a couple of days of rest. It is widely recognized that the more frequently the body is asked to perform a task, the better condition in which it will become. Of course, there is a point at which the body is taxed too frequently, and can't sufficiently recover, but 2 or 3 days should be enough rest. In fact, pitchers do throw a side session in between starts. The more frequent performance of a given physical activity, short of over taxing or injuring the body, should result in a better conditioned athlete, and improve the skill performed. How sharp would a basketball player's shooting skills be, if he played once every 5 days? We all know how much more pitchers used to throw in years past. Many of us have long been critical of this notion that a well conditioned athlete can't safely throw more than 100 pitches any more frequently than once every 5 days. If you never allow the body to become conditioned to anything more, it won't be. However, that is not to say that the body can't be conditioned to do more. It seems that baseball coaches have not figured out yet that pitching is first and foremost a mechanical skill activity rather than a strength activity. This idea, this misunderstanding has held back and probably ruined more pitchers than any single thing. Dick Mills

http://comments.startribune.com/comments.p...ns&start=20 100+ posts ripping Gardenhire for "pulling" Pavano when he had asked to come out, ripping Mauer for being soft (the Twins have only homered 3 times in 12 games now) and worrying about All-Stars Nathan and Capps both blowing consecutive save opportunities back to back. The weird thing is the Twins are now an 6-19 dating back to the end of last season, the playoff sweep by the Yankees and the first two weeks of this season. Outscored 148-79 by the opposition during that timeframe (25 games, roughly 1/6th of a season)....pretty amazing the Twins are only scoring 3 runs a game for that long a stretch, but then you look at their stadium, missing Morneau, a hobbled Mauer, etc. They should still be better than our offense in April and May, 2010, right? Are they merely lulling White Sox fans into a false sense of complacency? What unpredicted Piranha (last year, it was Duensing and Valencia) will victimize the Sox this season?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) I just have to say it...David Weathers! Doug Jones might be the better choice here...or can we bring MacDougal back AGAIN?

Remember, Joel Zumaya wasn't exactly Mr. Automatic as a closer, either. He was always much better in that "wildcard" set-up role from the 5th-8th innings the first year or so of his career.

Heath Bell...wait until June/July Jonathan Broxton...umm, for our entire minor league system? Matt Capps...why would the Twins trade him to us? Francisco Cordero...too expensive in terms of contract and asking price Octavio Dotel...umm, no, he wasn't capable of doing it for us in 2008 or 2009 Frank Francisco...no thanks, even though the FO is pretty familiar with him Ryan Franklin...I would rather use Jesse Crain, which isn't saying much Mike Gonzalez...another lefty? Jonathan Papelbon...would be ironic if Jenks took over that role (he'd have to pass Bard) and Papelbon changed "Sox" too Jose Valverde...Tigers trading him to us, maybe if they're 15 games back, but doubtful and expensive

History has shown guys without former closer's pedigrees are able to get the job done (short-term or long-term) in Chicago... Bobby Thigpen Roberto Hernandez Bobby Howry Keith Foulke Shingo Takatsu Damaso Marte Tom Gordon (one of the few exceptions) Dustin Hermanson Bobby Jenks I'm going to bet on Santos being the next. The highest profile guy, Billy Koch, was probably the biggest disappointment vis a vis expectations.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 07:54 AM) I'm glad you like the idea. It seems pretty compelling to me. It's a lot easier to find and pay 6 really good pitchers, than it is 12. As I stated, I wrote a paper on it which I still have a copy of somewhere. I gave it to Don Cooper at the end of the 2009 season. I have no idea what he thought about it, or even if he really read it, although he promised to do so. I'd be very interested to get the input from some of the astute observers on this board, if they would carefully consider the concept. A lot of Little League coaches have developed and morphed the idea to have their two best starters go 3 innings back-to-back each game I remember most leagues had a 10 IP limit per week, something like that. It's kind of like battling the teachers' unions over tenure. As soon as a single pitcher went down with injury who was a part of your revolutionary system, it would be scrapped. Heck, the World Baseball Classic has been put in jeopardy (and certainly in terms of full participation by all the best American-born players) due to the extra wear and tear of adding 10-14 more days of pitching and injury risk into the season. I think the only way it could be adopted would be if you could find a battery of surgeons like Jobe and Andrews who supported the idea that allocating pitches thrown in this manner would lead to fewer or the same amount of arm/shoulder/elbow/labrum injuries, not MORE. While I agree with the fact that any team picking their 6 best pitchers out of 12, from a statistical probability theory, has some credence...it also falls to pieces when you consider all those starts where the pitcher gets knocked out in under 3 innings pitched. If one of the two guys simply didn't have it, you can't radically recalibrate their pitches thrown allotment without seriously having to rearrange the entire "rotation" from week to week. Then you run the risk of a pitcher coming out of the top 6 or entering the top 6 having an injury because he hasn't fully adjusted. It's hard to imagine your #7 guy getting the kind of work he'd require (it would be all mop-up/blow out) on the major league roster. He'd probably have to be waiting in AAA getting a regular and consistent workload of pitches so he would be ready to jump into the "rotation." So then you'd have agents for pitchers 7-9 on the roster feeling their clients were getting buried in AAA because their workloads were less (not being able to accrue service time and get to arb/FA) or not having the ability to showcase their talents, like in the 50's and 60's when players like Roberto Clemente were "hidden" in the minor league systems of loaded major league teams (in that case, the Brooklyn Dodgers).

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 08:53 AM) Any chance Kenny kidnaps Marmol and legally changes his name to Tony Pena? I'd say the chances are much higher of the "real/original" Tony Pena (former Royals' manager and Pirates' catcher) becoming the next White Sox manager.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 08:18 AM) Seriously I quit reading when you extrapolated out blown saves over the course of a season. Of course. This team's still on a pace for 94.5 wins and 67.5 losses. With the worst bullpen in baseball history for the first twelve games of a season. Let's wait for Hawk's magical 54-60 game benchmark (end of May/early June) and then we'll see where the trend line lies. Actually, and I'm a fairly consistent Ozzie supporter...but one thing that really pissed me off was the post-game comments, where he was b****ing about how the guys who get the saves are the "heroes" and the media loves them, but when the bullpen fails, the reporters are grilling him over the coals. You'd think after 30 years in baseball, he'd understand the nature of the beast. I guess more "Ozzie being Ozzie" with that. One area where the team can definitely look to save money in the future is the manager's contract. Hopefully if the team comes up short again, JR won't accept any more excuses for underperformance with the $128 million payroll. "I see the same (stuff) you guys see. Exactly same (stuff)," Guillen said. "I might call (former Sox closer) Bobby Thigpen to help us. You know why? When we play good, they send those guys to this damn table and (you) talk to them like heroes. When we (mess) it up, I'm the one who has to … sit here and talk to you guys." Watch up for that bus coming up in the rearview window, guys. Unfortunately, that won't counterbalance the effects of Teahen's contract and possibly Thornton's now, too. And right now I'd say 75% of the blame lies with KW and the rest of the front office for 1) rolling the dice with Thornton and 2) letting Putz go without making more of an effort to keep him as the closer and using some of the money they're allocating to Thornton ($5.5 million per year) to sweeten the offer to Putz.

2011 White Sox Bullpen in 12 games....6 blown saves in 7 opportunities=14% success rate Pace for 162 games=81 blown saves 2010 WORST MLB BULLPENS Baltimore 35 SV/62 SVO (27 blown saves)=56.5% Florida 39/64=61% Arizona 35/59=59% For White Sox to beat Baltimore, they'd have to go 35/55 the rest of the way=63.6% St. Louis Cardinals have only 10 blown saves in the entire season, AL average is 18 2009 WORST MLB BULLPENS Seattle 49/77 (28 blown saves)=63.6% Washington 33/58=57% Baltimore 31/53=58% For White Sox to beat Seattle, they'd have to go 49/70 the rest of the way=70% Oakland and Cincy lead majors with 12 total blown saves, AL average is 19 2008 WORST MLB BULLPENS Seattle 36/67 (31 blown saves)=54% St. Louis 42/73=58% Detroit 34/62=55% For White Sox to beat Seattle, they'd have to go 36/60 the rest of the way=60% New York Yankees have 9 blown saves the entire season, 21 is the AL average 2007 WORST MLB BULLPENS Colorado Rockies 39/68 (29 blown saves)=57% Boston and St. Louis have 11 blown saves for entire season, AL average is 19 blown saves 2006 WORST MLB BULLPENS Kansas City Royals 35/66 (31 blown saves)=53% White Sox only have to go 35/57 (61%) to beat the Royals Minnesota Twins have 10 blown saves for the season, AL average is 20 2005 Chicago White Sox 54/73=74% success ratio, but only two blown saves led directly to losses in the first 86 games 2010 SOX 43/57=75.4% 2009 SOX 36/54=66.7% 2008 SOX 34/52=65.4% 2007 SOX 42/65=64.6% 2006 SOX 46/63=73% 2005 SOX 54/73=74% 2004 SOX 34/46=74% 2003 SOX 36/53=68% 2002 SOX 35/46=76.1%

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 03:27 AM) If we're truly "all in" we need to go and trade for a closer ASAP...not sure if it's going to be possible but someone should be out there by the All Star break hopefully If there is, it's going to be someone along the likes of K-Rod (due to contract and off-field and deterioration of stuff) or Fuentes/Capps last year (with the Twins). We're only going to be able to get a 3rd or 4th tier guy that will probably give us the same results as Jenks the last two seasons. http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/blog/roto_...=fantasy-343622 Article at yahoo sports (roto) arguing for Santos as closer.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 06:24 PM) Make it 3 Is that now two or three blown three run leads in the 9th??? Sale blew a lead in the 8th by giving up two runs in a game they eventually lost, I think to the Royals. Then we had the game two nights ago we ALMOST blew b4 Alexei saved it. The only game the bullpen didn't mess up was the Masterson/Danks game, and we were actually leading that one heading into the 5th or 6th by one run. After that, the bullpen really let it get out of control, but we've been leading at different points in all 12 games now. And we've gone down 1-2-3 like ducks in a row in final at-bats in the five losses so far.

The White Sox bullpen has been struck by the Gremlins, that's for sure. You couldn't even trade all of them (minus Santos and Crain) for a GMC Gremlin at this point.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 03:32 PM) Cowley: And I agree. Not sure, but, in hindsight, certainly more logical giving someone with a track record of success the closer's role rather than gambling on Thornton. Most likely, Putz's injury history scared them away from a long-term deal. UNFORTUNATELY, "All In" has become the philosophy for the White Sox bullpen now...letting all the runs in to score and lose the game.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 03:28 PM) i agree w/this - let Matt get his confidence back. And maybe learn an effective secondary pitch. They're just sitting dead red. At age 33 or 34? In the middle of the season??? I don't think that's possible. They tried with Poreda and that didn't take. Heck, they tried with Masset and Sisco, to an extent.

Have we gone down 1-2-3 in the last inning of all our losses?

Ranger Rongey will really earn his money this afternoon. I think the most fun today will be listening to him taking a bevy of amusingly inane calls to the post-game show.

Well, this is refreshing. Greg Walker's job hasn't been mentioned more than a couple of times....other than Konerko saying he's one of the two smartest hitting coaches working in baseball today. Yet no "fire Don Cooper" threads have appeared yet. Maybe tomorrow, during the off day.

Reinsdorf and KW have to be PISSED PISSED PISSED that his team that should be 10-2 or 11-1 and gathering momentum and excitement for this coming weekend homestand against the Angels now has everyone wanting to give away their tickets or auctioning them off like credit default swaps in late 2008.

Now there are even bigger problems. With the idiotic Teahen deal and the extension through 2013 (with another million dollar buyout for 2014) now for Thornton, you might have two busted contracts weighing on the payroll, just when we got out from under the Linebrink fiasco. I just can't believe Thornton's already been ruined by 12 games as the "closer." He has to be pitching with a dead arm or hiding an injury.

You REALLY have to feel sorry for Danks. No wonder he doesn't want to sign a long-term contract. Who would want to, with the bullpen we're supporting his starts with, and the lack of run support ever since he's been a starter for the White Sox.

Pena warming up in the bullpen. Yay!!!

QUOTE (peanut33tillman @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 03:03 PM) These White Sox teams over the last few years just dont have "it." That cut throat we're better than you attitude, the ability tobeat opponents you should beat IE: the Minnesota Twins. I'm tired of if bull$@^* I dont care how much money we spend or "how stacked our lineup and roation is" back it up and do your job I'm tired of underachieveing since the post WS '05 season. So what do YOU suggest? Bringing back Jenks? Hiring a personal psychologist for each member of the bullpen? Voodoo? Shock therapy? Maybe we should just lobotomize them so they're automated robots who don't know the difference between the 6th and the 9th innings? Yeah, the bullpen and Juan Pierre are huge concerns. But we're acting like we're in the same position as the Red Sox or Rays. We're only 1/16th of the way through the season. We're not going to continue to blow 86% of our save opportunities or KW, Ozzie and/or Reinsdorf will all be lying dead from heart attacks, have resigned or quit. It can't continue like this indefinitely.