caulfield12

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.

Thank god Liriano also means no Mark Kotsay in the 5 hole either. It would be nice to get Andruw Jones some consistent at-bats and see if he can go on a hot streak and carry the offense for a week or so with how bad our hitting has looked.

QUOTE (EvilJester99 @ Apr 9, 2010 -> 09:23 AM) How long b4 KW gets pissed and signs Dye or someone else to hit DH?? With our supposed payroll situation....never. It would be like admitting that letting Thome and Dye go was a mistake, and he doesn't do that very often. Not to mention the biggest need is for LH pop. For all we know, Andruw Jones could very easily put up the same numbers as Dye at 1/5th the price with much better defense.

It's a little early to be talking about trading Mark Teahen. Let's give the season at least 3 weeks before we start talking about benching players...not to mention the weather conditions are far from ideal for hitting. Does Teahan have a relatively short rope, compared to some of the others around here like Ramirez? Sure. But Brent Morel or Viciedo are both far from ready for everyday duty, and there's that slight matter of the extension that KW felt justified in giving to him. We all saw how Nix struggled when he was moved all around...he might get an occasional start in the first month, but he's not going to be getting regular at-bats in any type of scenario except for Teahen going 0 for the first three weeks or something dramatic like that.

I think most of our fanbase was ready to turn the page with Thome and/or Dye. However, knowing the replacements are Jones and Kotsay...there's the gist of the problem. It's not letting Thome go...or even the fact that he'll now hurt us as a "hated" Twin, but the fact that KW whiffed again this offseason and left a Grand Canyon-sized gaping abyss in the middle of our line-up. Still, if we had a clutch hit with the bases loaded early in the game OR in the 9th, things obviously would look much more favorable than they do right now.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 8, 2010 -> 10:54 PM) You can make the correct decision and not have it pan out and you can make the wrong decision and have it work spectacularly. When you're struggling to find hits and you're not allowing your best pure hitter to take swings because you apparently have little faith in one of the best base stealers in the game to swipe a bag late you're making the wrong decision. But didn't we see the same type of situation numerous times with Pods...where, instead of stealing, we'd be forced to bunt him over? I can't think of more than a few times after the first half of 2005 (when he was 100% and running every game) that he reached first, stole 2nd and THEN was bunted over to 3rd. If we have to waste an out with Beckham, then what's the point of even having Juan Pierre on the team, if we can't run without 85% certainty that he'll reach 2nd base. Then it might make SOME sense to bunt, but still better to let Beckham hit, despite his failure with the bases loaded earlier in the game.

Last year, the White Sox could get momentum going during the season....pretty much never. From game to game and series to series, seemingly nothing carried over, except not winning the games when we had chances to sweep. If the Twins keep getting this type of pitching all season long with that offense, you can forget about it anyway. This team was constructed with the idea of hanging close with the pitching and being able to eke out 1-2 run wins on a consistent basis. That's obviously been a big fail for two nights in a row. Almost feels like a broken record. Bullpen and fielding lapses, no clutch hitting....no Alexei in April. Trying too hard to manufacture runs...which puts a lot of stress on the hitters, knowing we no longer have a dominant or explosive type of offense anymore. There's nothing wrong with having this type of team in April's cold Chicago weather, but it's not going to work when the weather heats up. It's not even working now.

Now we're back to wishing/hoping we could pencil someone into the line-up with Jim Thome's numbers. Even though we apparently don't need or want Thome anymore. Maddening.