caulfield12

At least Alex Rios arrived to play this season, unlike in 2009.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 09:41 PM) Take Pena out! You really want to put Jenks or Putz in there? Well, since Garcia will probably be bombed out of the game by the 3rd or 4th tmrw, why not?

Pena with 50+ pitches now. Hard to fault him here.

This season is going south in a hurry. Don't even have Mitchell to look forward to, replacing Pierre.

You can forget about getting out of this inning unscathed.

Sooner or later, the Twins will figure out a way to score a run. They have too much talent.

QUOTE (beckham15 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 10:01 PM) We will also lead the league in No decisions unfortunately Not to mention blown saves/blown leads and last with RISP.

It's going to be interesting to see if we can surpass the Mariners and Royals in the runs scored category this season.

Wow, Pena got out Morneau. Which means Cuddyer or Kubel will hit a homer.

Are season has already degenerated into Jayson Nix being our most explosive option off the bench. Yikes.

Pinch run Kotsay for Konerko probably....

The one thing Ozzie does really well (managing the pitching staff and bullpen) and now we're bagging on him for that. If we had any type of clutch hitting the last 3 games, things would look much different (well, at least Rios manned up). If Danks wouldn't be throwing 30 pitches in the first inning, we wouldn't have to burn the pen until an inning or two later. Alexei didn't help matters with his error, extending the inning and pitch count.

Can anything go right for the White Sox this season? Geez.

Juan Pierre might be replacing Teahen as my least favorite player of the early season. Or Linebrink, who I'm almost starting to feel sorry for. Who would have thought we'd be staring 1-4 in the face after that great opening game?

Gee, there's a surprise.

C'mon Pierre, you're DUE.

Well, it wasn't so long ago that Linebrink was one of the best set-up guys in all of baseball...in all fairness, they had warmed up Linebrink in the previous inning after we were down 3-2 I think. And Santos, if he keeps throwing like that, will quickly jump ahead of Linebrink and Pena in the pecking order. Note to Alexei Ramirez: Wake up! Atta boy...make up for that ridiculous brain cramp.

Tigers off to the hot start now too, 3-1 on the year after beating the Indians at home. If Dontrelle Willis is actually going to be a serviceable pitcher again, that team looks a lot more dangerous.

Well, it's also definitely not going to be Putz with him throwing those 92-93 MPH Billy Koch-esque fastballs...not unless he can get back up into the 94-97 MPH range again. Which may or may not ever happen.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 10:57 AM) yes vizquel would be a horrible option. hes not an option to start at ss. thus 3b would be much worse. no 3b saves 2-3 runs a game with defense, they simply dont get that many plays. and to have a guy in the lineup for "situational hitting" and bunting purposes is nuts. you would hear a lot more complaining about that lineup. the only way you would move beckham back to 3b is if we had a stud hitter at 2b, which nix is not. I never said 2-3 runs per game. That's crazy. From what I've heard/read (and I'm in China so I can't go back through the play by play and analzye every opportunity he's had, which plays he missed which might have been made by a defender with superior range, the Valbuena "bunt" that shouldn't have been fielded...a play that Vizquel has masterful instincts with) over the course of the first three games, he MIGHT have saved 2-3 runs (TOTAL). Does anyone who's watched each of these 3 games personally agree or disagree?

Replacing Paul Konerko is much more of a priority for KW at this point than Mark Teahen, because Teahen was signed to an extension...whereas we traded Brandon Allen/Fields and unless Tyler Flowers is taken off catcher, Viciedo, despite his height, is our best internal candidate for that position.

Still, the fact remains that Omar Vizquel might have actually saved 2-3 runs if he had been out there instead of Teahen. If would arguably have made us a 2-1 team instead of 1-2. Of course, it's not a long-term solution, we all know that much. No matter which option we use, it basically sucks. (KW, you suck too...not for trading Fields and Getz, but for signing Teahen to an extension when there wasn't a strongly compelling reason to do so). Moving Beckham again is simply unthinkable at this point. We might as well go with the Juan Uribe/defense first approach until Teahen pulls his head out of his posterior and wakes up.

I'm starting to think that with Rios leading off, we might end up injuring him by running too much with him...not to mention he will probably end up with the third highest home run total on the team, after Quentin/Konerko. Personally, I'd rather keep Rios at 5/6. No matter what we do, there are issues. Batting Beckham leadoff wastes his RBI/gap-to-gap hitting ability, but it still seems better than Pierre if Juan's only going to be putting up a .320-.330 OBP and he's not able to steal at a proficient clip. Teahen shouldn't be anywhere but in the bottom 2-3. At least until he proves he's anything more than a 725-775 OPS hitter.

Let's hold off on pronouncing Viciedo at 3B dead for now. Playing Vizquel at 3B isn't worse because he gives you much better defense at any position you play him (certainly better than Teahen) and he can lay down a bunt and advance runners at a very minimum. He's not a good hitter, but he's a smart situational hitter.

Teahen struggling as bad as he is...that's not going to work. He's just not a high contact hitter, period. And he's not a particularly strong bunter, either. If the whole idea is to sacrifice our #2 hitter, we really should turn the clocks back to Minoso (err, Vizquel), play him at 3B and let him bunt every time he comes to the plate.