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Everything posted by caulfield12
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Yes, Balta....he used to have a devastating cutter and a nasty curveball. They were close to unhittable. But for whatever reason, he doesn't throw them with the same crispness or conviction anymore. But at that time, when he was consistently 95-99 with the fastball, the cutter was a pitch that was around 90-91 MPH and impossible to square up, especially for lefties when it was thrown down and in. Then he had that 10+ MPH differential with the curveball...even more difficult. You'd have to ask Jenks why he can't throw it as well anymore, the conjecture has attached to his protecting his elbow so he can get a contract for 2011.
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And I don't really care about Jenks' "stuff" these days. The main thing that matters is putting away hitters when it counts...like Edwin Jackson did yesterday, and Jenks used to do. Now, when he gets ahead, instead of just blowing hitters away, he'll try to get them to chase offspeed pitches. It has happened way too often...and, as the old saying goes, "you shouldn't get beat on your 2nd/3rd/4th best pitch." Javy Vasquez always had GREAT stuff, but he managed to make 2-3 really really stupid hanging pitches per game that always seemed to turn the tide to the other team...it doesn't matter how many K's he piled up or how many pitches he had in is arsenal, it's the lack of cajones he sometimes demonstrated when the game was the on the line. Jenks used to have that ability, and now I think the entire team is questioning whether or not its gone for good. Closers sometimes rebound, look at Brad Lidge, but it's more than a shadow of a doubt now when Jenks is in to close a game, it's to the point where you expect something bad to happen, and that's absolutely horrible for the morale of a team that's playing like we have been for 51 games now (the second best all-time White Sox streak after the 1983 Sox rolled off a magnificent 39-11 stretch that buried the Rangers).
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Capps blew that game because Delmon Young might be the worst LFer in baseball. In all honesty, he did give up the hit to Dan Johnson, but it wasn't Capps' fault, anymore than Benoit deserves a loss today for a lousy speaker getting in the way of a high pop-up that should have been the 3rd out. Maybe it would be better to use the example of Valverde...he was the 2nd or 3rd best AL closer until they encountered the Tigers, and he took the loss today as well. I guess that's right in line with Jenks' three terrible performances beginning July 18th through today (MIN/SEA/DET).
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That means we really have to praise Kotsay and Garcia, haha. I said it in the game thread, Freddy Garcia is the MVP of this ballclub. Without his steadying and indomitable presence the first two months, we're down 12-15 games in the standings and essentially out of it. Say what you want about KW and the DH situation, but Omar Vizquel, Castro, Andruw Jones, Santos and Garcia have all been great (and incredibly cheap) pick ups. Putz might have been the FA value signing of the year. And Kotsay saved the game for us twice today.
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Classic Guillen quote on Jenks. Okay, GREG, wherever you are, don't even bother trying to argue with everyone about Jenks. Just let it go. It's not worth it, especially because there's a 75% chance that Ozzie will have him closing more games within the week. He's not going to be DFA'ed or traded, he'll get his chance for redemption before it's all over...maybe even against the Twins, although I think I will just turn off the computer or radio when that happens and look the next day to see what actually transpired.
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Rongey is making the case that Kotsay has been getting better AB's than Jones, without the results to show for it. That was the first call, about appreciating what he brings to the roster, etc. Although at least he was realistic enough to realize that KW might still be out there scouring the waiver wire for a deal on someone like Jose Guillen, Xavier Nady or Manny Ramirez.
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Putz has to be the choice because of his experience and the fact he's only given up runs like twice in 3 months. You can use Thornton and Santos in high leverage situations...Santos becomes a little bit like our version of Joel Zumaya. I'm not sure what we do with Jenks in all honesty. Putting him behind Linebrink, I'd almost rather they DFA'ed him for the good of the team, because I really don't think he will be good for the Sox if he's not the closer. Hopefully he can suck it up, but you know that he'll be pouting since it will be very very difficult for him to get a good contract for 2010 if he's not closing the final two months of the season. Hopefully someone will claim him off waivers and KW will send him to another team and we can get back someone useful. Wishful thinking.
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The White Sox are amazingly 17-20 in games they don't homer this season. By the way, Garcia has around a 3.3 ERA in all of his starts (I think it's around 17) except for three really bad starts where he's been rocked. Farmer said Rios was our MVP, but I'd definitely go with Freddy Garcia this season...if he didn't hold the rotation together the first six weeks by the force of will alone, we'd have been 13-15 games back and almost hopelessly out of it.