caulfield12

Floyd with a career ERA of around 6.5 in April and 5.25 in May. LOVELY. And 30+ pitches to get out of the first, which means he'll be lucky to get to the 6th inning, further destroying our pen. Just send Williams or Linebrink out there I guess as sacrificial lambs to the slaughter.

Who would you rather have at 3B? Peralta with his long term deal and statue-like range/defense, or Mark Teahen?

Well, at least Floyd's throwing 95 MPH. Throwing a curveball to Sizemore before he has control of it with a full count? We always manage to make Choo look like a superstar...and we overexpose Thornton to their line-up to the point where he's consistently ineffective against CLE.

That's great...although the idea is that you score the runner from 3rd with Konerko's sac fly after Pierre steals and THEN you bunt. Jesus.

Great, Pierre is a gunshy leadoff hitter who can no longer steal. Brilliant, and Beckham's been reduced to his worst asset, bunting. Idiotic.

I think it hit me when I was more excited to look up what Hudson, Danks, Flowers, Viciedo and Retherford were doing than our box score. The funny thing is that I woke up in the middle of the morning here in China and didn't even realize we had blown the lead...so I was saved from being really really aggravated from having listened to the whole disaster, which was almost exactly like the Twins' game the previous Saturday but this one was even more frustrating. I remember last year listening to many of the Barons games in the first half, until they broke that team into 1,000 pieces. Heck, I'm even a bit excited for Cub Scout/Sin City villain lookalike Mr. Lillibridge.

The only good thing that you can say is that Ozzie didn't single out Nix and also included Vizquel/Kotsay for the bashing. But dang, aren't you upset you're not getting thrown under the bus, if you're Donny Lucy? You might think Ozzie feels you're totally irrelevant if he's not even thinking about your name...haha. I'm also mystified why we don't think Quentin, Beckham or Rios would need guidance/assistance from time to time with their hitting? Quentin looks fine on paper, he's got his stats, but his overall approach at the plate these days reminds you of Juan Uribe/Joe Crede/Frank Thomas/Brian Anderson in their final days.

If you look at the Twins, look at all those guys they developed internally... Bartlett, Casilla, Morneau, Mauer (yes, we know about Prior and this was the ONLY pick they could have made), Garza, Blackburn, Baker, Slowey, Perkins, Liriano (the trade of the century), Span, Cuddyer, Crain, etc. Then you have the likes of Duensing, Swarzak, the list goes on and on...and they ALWAYS seem to unearth bullpen gems like Rincon (steroids), Reyes/Mijares and Neshek that can dominate the 7th-8th to bridge to Nathan, although Guerrier/Crain was A BIG HOLE last year. We have had to go out and BUY talent, the likes of Dotel and Linebrink. Our answer? Wasserman? Maybe Santos will help out, but it's ironic that someone drafted at another position becomes our best young reliever in five years. They teach their pitchers how to value first pitch strikes and the best possible IP/BB/K and WHIP ratios. They maximized "value" when they got Garza look in the first, whereas we have targeted the likes of Royce Ring, Broadway and McCulloch in the same areas of the first. They have a slew of athletic young outfielders, most notably Revere and Hicks. The scary thing is they completely whiffed on the Johan Santana trade (Gomez did net Hardy eventually, who's solid) and on the Bartlett/Garza deal, although Young is getting more consistent PT and producing finally. Then you have the annoying Piranhas like Denny Hocking, Koskie, Rivas, Mientkiewicz, Blanco, Punto, Redmond, Jason Tyner, Lew Ford, et al, that have killed the White Sox over the years. AND YES, I KNOW THEY'VE ONLY BEATEN THE A's ONCE AND WE WON IN 2005. TIRED OF THAT ARGUMENT.

The same division we're 2-6 against...if recent history has taught anything, the White Sox have good seasons when they dominate in the ALCD intradivision games and they play well at home. Last year, we completely lost the home-field advantage we'd have for most of the decade, with the exception of the 2007 disaster/debacle. Something needs to be shaken up, no more tinkering....the engine needs to be totally overhauled and rebuilt with a better BLUEPRINT.

Hudson was just so-so yesterday...decent. But it wasn't one of those "look at him go" starts that begs a promotion yet, either.

We can't have a consistent line-up simply because we don't have enough major league regulars. Simple as that. The ONLY players who deserve the right to play everyday are Konerko, Beckham, Rios and Quentin. The jury's still out on Jones, but he's earned the right to get MORE consistent playing time. That's only FOUR or five PLAYERS out of 9. AJ is another mystery...right now Lucy is more dangerous.

If Kotsay and AJ don't do anything today but roll into GIDP's and weak outs, Ozzie will really be under some media and post-game call-in fire. I really think he's trying to get fired. He keeps playing Vizquel 10 years too late. Andruw Jones is our most dangerous hitter, and he's nowhere to be found for 2/3 games. Right up there with Jones is Quentin...so great, let's take Jones, Quentin, Thome and Dye and replace them with: Pierre/Kotsay/Vizquel/Teahen I've never said this as a White Sox fan, but we DESERVE to lose if we're going to make completely ASININE line-ups. I know it MIGHT work, then Ozzie will be a genius for "shaking things up," but he's lost his marbles, his ego knows no bounds. And Jayson Nix is just sitting there rotting away. It's 10X worse than what he did to Brian Anderson, Sean Tracey and Jon Rauch.

Dick Allen, just be happy (or not, this year) you can actually watch the games on TV. Here in China, the broadband strength isn't close to strong enough for MLB TV. Since 2005, the only games I've seen were all the playoff and World Series games in 2005 (various sites in Colombia), the disastrous 2nd half collapse in 2006, the 2008 playoffs (somehow Thailand ESPN carried them) against the Rays and the first two months of the 2009 season. I've really come to love listening to all the other teams' radio broadcasts through Gameday Audio and AT BAT now this year...in this day and age of technology, it feels old school/retro but it's the best way to experience baseball, IMO. It's probably the best investment I've ever made of $9.95 or $14.95 that I can ever remember in terms of the entertainment value derived. Just going to Alice in Wonderland in 3D here in China costs that same amount of RMB.

Teahen can't be considered a plus offensively simply because of his walks...because getting on base for Alexei or Juan Pierre doesn't really do much good these days. Beckham's come up short in a lot of RBI situations too so far, although it is only 12 games, he and Pods were nails with RISP last year. Konerko is Konerko. He is what he is at this stage of his career, a slightly above average offensive 1B and slightly below average defensively who's making about $6-8 million more than he will on the open market in 2011. He did ALMOST tie the game up yesterday...he's certainly far from being anything resembling a problem compared to our other pressing issues. It's really Pierre, AJ and Ramirez that are damaging the offense the most... FINAL THOUGHT: Pick a philosophy and stick with it KW. SEE MARINERS, SEATTLE. Teahen is not and never will be a good defender, see Fields, Josh. If the White Sox had an infield of Uribe, Ramirez, Beckham and Orlando Hudson, we'd at least be a .500 ballclub, GUARANTEED. It would give us at least a 50-75% chance to hang with the Twins all season long. (One other problem...the Twins have the resources now to go out and address any flaw in their ballclub, which means they can easily add a 3B and middle relief or even closer at the break. We simply cannot make a significant, $5 million plus or more, addition...) Plus we'd have the flexibility to rest a struggling player. We can't really sit Alexei because neither Vizquel nor Nix are long-term options at that position.

And for Gavin to pitch better than the norm on the road...not that playing at TOR, KC, BALT or CLE can truly be considered road games anymore.

Well, of course. The Red Sox had a bases loaded situation with no outs and a chance to win and didn't score and got swept in a DH (at home) by a very very talented Rays team, one that we see soon. And the Cardinals must have had 4-5 bases loaded situations in their 20 inning game yesterday. At one point, they were near 20 runners stranded and climbing and were 0 for the day with runners in scoring position. Every team has bad days...it's just that we have now managed TWO 3 game losing streaks that both times have incorporated one of the five worst teams in all of baseball. That's not easy to do in the span of two weeks. You really have to wonder, besides the Royals, who might be capable of losing at least two individual series to the Indians in a row??? Well, technically we're only ahead of BALT and HOU, but that can change relatively quickly at this point in the season.

Which year did Joe Morgan say (in the early stages) that we had one of the best bullpens he'd ever seen on the Sunday night ESPN broadcast? Seems it was in 2008, when Linebrink was going really gangbusters in the first half.

Well, the ALCD can be proud of one thing. Four of our teams are in the bottom 10 in the majors in attendance. Looks so strange to see Minnesota in the Top 8. Looks like Phil Rogers will be writing a "pro-Twins" article every weekend this season, since he can't write about Vazquez-Chris B. Young anymore...maybe he'll revisit the Swisher trade, just to annoy us. Or spotlight Chris Carter's progress this season.

There's no way this team can lose 90 games. That said, I'll stick with my original prediction of 78-84 wins. The scary thing is that the Mariners and Rays are playing as well as any teams in the majors...whereas the Twins are coasting now after starting out on the West Coast. Yes, it all evens out...I get that, it's early, yadda yadda...but has a White Sox team ever recovered to make the playoffs after being 8 games or more back in a season?

"I'm going to sleep like a baby — wake up every (bleeping) two hours and cry," Guillen said after the Indians scored two runs in the eighth inning to pull out a 3-2 victory and drop the last-place Sox five games behind in the American League Central with their third straight loss. Classic Ozzie.

Basically Ozzie said there's no need for the White Sox to even have a hitting coach. Unless Viciedo, Danks and Flowers are playing regularly at the big league level. That's brilliant Ozzie. I'm sure Mike Gellinger enjoyed your comments as well. So it seems he's acknowledging that at least some of the hitters just aren't listening/preparing or they're just completely tuning out and doing their own things up there with no consequences to their playing time.

TOR, but we get to face Seattle at home this week. That should be interesting. But Tampa Bay will absolutely destroy us. (Which means the White Sox are actually due to win a series, and it will be that one).

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 08:52 PM) Ozzie just gave an interview that not only deflected blame from Walk, but threw Jayson Nix under the bus. What a lovely human being. "It's not Greg Walker's fault," Guillen said. "(Bleep) it. I'm not going to fire a guy that has nothing to do with this thing. Look at (Mark) Kotsay, (Omar) Vizquel and (Jayson) Nix, they don't need a hitting coach. They need to (bleeping) get hits. "Every time I have a problem with my coaching staff, I'm the first one who fires them. This is like a chain, bro. If they don't hit, they blame the hitting coach and then the manager. If they are not pitching, they blame the pitching coach. It's about blaming people." "I take the blame. I don't want Walk or Coop (pitching coach Don Cooper) or Joey (Joey Cora) to take the blame. All of this thing, blame it on Ozzie. Don't blame Kenny (general manager Ken Williams) or Jerry (chairman Jerry Reinsdorf) or anyone else. Don't put anyone in the middle. When we are not hitting, not pitching or not winning games, my name is out there. That's why I'm the manager. "I'm not afraid to get blamed. I don't give a (bleep) to be blamed." And Later we get this gem: “There’s too much freaking information in baseball now,” Guillen said. “There’s too many (bleeping) guys on the computer. It’s simple. I say that. Pete Rose never watched a computer. Rod Carew never did. All those hitters, they go out and see the ball, hit it and move on.” I'm about ready to cut the cord with Ozzie. http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/...kers-fault.html Nix didn't deserve that at all, he actually got a hit this week. Like how Ozzie cites how Cabrera was a much better match-up for a RHP than a LHP, and how afraid he was of fat guy MaTola (LaPorta) and Kearns facing Thornton. Really? What's the difference between using a laptop and index cards? Ozzie is/was using Twitter before, he should have some growing intellectual concept about the possibilities of technology applications. It's like that stupid argument all over again in Moneyball, the Fuson School and the DiPodesta/Ricciardi one. YOU HAVE TO USE BOTH...embrace the future. I think Ozzie knows he's "old school" and he sees all these guys like Epstein, Bill James, Daniels and Jack Z. and the writing is on the wall, TO HIM. We wouldn't want to threaten the "good 'ol boys" school of Baines, Walker, Cooper, Cora, Raines, etc., in the dugout, would WE? I mean, it's not like it's EASY for someone without a background in playing (at the very least, minor league professionally) to get into coaching at any level with a major league team. It's next to impossible. Old traditions die hard. I think what would scare Ozzie even more is the kid in "Little Big League" or someone from Ranger's call-in show or one of the Sox message boards managing the team better than he does. Because he's always arguing about how uneducated the fans are about the game and how they have to go to work at 4 a.m. (I guess we're back to the all White Sox fans are blue collar factory laborers in the 1970's) and he's Ozzie so he can say whatever he wants with absolutely no consequences or accountability. Thanks for 2005 and 2008 Ozzie, but that doesn't get you a lifetime pass...not with the paying fans. Maybe with JR.

Still, I think ONE move needs to be made before this thing gets out of hand. Flowers seems like he would need to play everyday...Ozzie's not going to bench Pierre yet or play DeAza over him...or give Nix playing time. Danks isn't ready quite yet...it's like every possibility is a Catch-22 with Ozzie managing this team. But SOMETHING needs to be done to wake this team up. I would settle for giving Danks at-bats over Kotsay, but Ozzie would never do that either. I also don't think Ozzie and KW want to deal with the distraction of AJ's contract status and Flowers getting AB's against LHP quite yet... But letting Flowers play catcher part-time and DH part-time would be the best way to inject some life into this offense internally.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 06:57 PM) Matt LaPorta is now MaTola, hahaha. Ozzie, you should quit this job if you don't even know who's on the other team. Jesus. I'm 98% sure he was thinking of former MLBer Chad Mottola.