caulfield12

Can't believe Saladino and Mitchell are only 0.08 points apart for batting average now. Hernandez didn't have a quality start, but he's now 5-1 and has been our most consistent starting pitcher in AA/AAA.

Matt Capps rears his ugly head again in Minnesota. Twins had rallied for 3 to tie in the bottom of the 8th and Capps gave up the tie-breaking run with 2 outs (after a wild pitch moved the runner over) to Choo.

I don't even remember Danks' ERA being 6.46 in 2007. That's Barry Zito-esque. 23,538 for attendance, better than we had been doing, but the Tigers do have 3 superstars and should clearly be the biggest draw of all our divisional rivals. 4-3 versus DET 5-4 versus CLE 1-2 versus KC 7-11 at home

Marty34 knew this one was coming after tonight.

Well, Reed survived. Huge win there. But somehow we need to fix Danks. And Zach Stewart/Dayan get co-MVP for this one.

Biggest AB for Viciedo in recent memory. Tiggers obviously want DP or K, pitched around Alexei.

C'mon Cubans!!! Dayan needs to dial it up a notch or two for this guy's FB. And lay off the high ones.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 14, 2012 -> 07:58 PM) Where'd he move? From the mound to the mound? Jerking back and forth from relieving to starting to relieving...not quite the same as a position change, but similar ideas. Hit and run is fine, but not a straight steal. AJ usually makes contact at least.

Seems every middle reliever in baseball these days throws 93-99 MPH. Definitely the era of the pitcher, whereas articles came out a decade or so ago wondering if hitters would dominate forever.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 14, 2012 -> 07:55 PM) Seems interesting that KW seems to have a much easier time getting good arms than hitters when he hasn't thrown a pitch in his life But the OPS numbers and OBP for most of our young hitters align nicely with KW's career as a hitter, lol. And there's another parallel, Williams too was moved around the diamond, just like we have done with Beckham, Sale and Viciedo, not to mention Santiago.

Except Bere before all his injuries threw in the mid 90's and had a "fosch" ball that was devastating. But good God, he was one of slowest working pitchers I can remember this side of Contreras.

Heart of the order coming up. Most important inning of Stewart's 2012 season here. I don't know how he's doing it, has to be command and movement, because it's certainly no velocity. So for now, I'll apologize to young Mr. Stewart, although I don't believe it can last for much longer. I guess for now we should hope for Molina to start throwing in the 80's instead of 89-93 as well.

Morel threatening 400 OPS, now at 415. Alexei at 481. What happened to the 2008 version? Yeah, yeah, I know...he'll heat up in June and July and August. Well, at least Beckham got on base for Dunn, there's that.

Viciedo hitting .417 against sliders in the middle of the plate, lol. Cue Fathom comment...why would you throw him anything but a fastball above the letters or a breaking pitch way off the plate for him to take a Uribe-esque cut at?

The problem with Morel is we have no replacement in sight, other than Lillibridge (who the majority view as a platoon option, at best, and who has very limited experience at 3B at any level). So unless they trade Thornton/Crain/Floyd and get back a young starting 3B, they pretty much have to stick it out for the next 2-3 months and determine once and for all if he's going to be a part of the future. He goes to AAA for 2 months, hits decently (in line with minor league track record) and then puts up a similar August/September to 2011, then who would have any confidence he would repeat it again in 2013 after what happened this season?

QUOTE (Baron @ May 14, 2012 -> 07:31 PM) Lets see if Morel can get below .180 tonight That won't be hard, only 1 more AB. More worried about Viciedo than Morel, who I've already given up on and just preferring to be surprised by but not expecting anything more than Chris Snopek (minus the marginal power but better defense) from now on. Took Bryce Harper 54 AB's to get his first homer. Hitting .236 now.

The Royals announcers have stopped counting the sheer number of line drives hit at fielders...and then it starts to snowball, you start to press and get out of your normal game, like it did with Swisher in 2008. A year ago, you would have said Hosmer was the sure thing and that Moustakas looked incredibly shaky, more like Alex Gordon when he first came up than a perennial All-Star. Now things have almost completely reversed, although Hosmer's at least hit some dingers and collected some RBI's.

QUOTE (Cali @ May 14, 2012 -> 08:19 PM) Our "ace" can't even make it past the 4th inning. Money well spent... The problem is that Danks never really was an ace. He just got that label largely because of 2008 and Game 163, but he was never in Lester or Sabathia or CJ Wilson's neighborhood. He's an average #2 (obviously he's pitching worse than that this season) or a very good #3, but not really the textbook definition of an ace or stopper. Maybe the contract's in his head, just like Dunn in 2011 or AJ in prior years when he was thinking too much about his future with the Sox.

Axelrod throws harder than Stewart. Maybe he should just bring it down to the mid 80's and he'll be below the normal fastball hitting speed but a tick higher than BP. Gameday had that as an 84 MPH two-seam fastball. Is that even possible in the big leagues? Guess so. Maybe KW should go with all "command and control" pitchers who throw in the high 80's now.

Delayed steal? How does Cabrera steal 3rd there? What the heck is going on? Stewart just assumed he's not going anywhere?

Maybe it's not QUITE as dramatic as last season because of the different expectations, but a 6-14 run and 6-12 at home is at least putting the organizational thoughts back in the direction of tearing the current team apart with the possible exception of Konerko. Dunn and Ramirez (when his offensive game recovers in the summer) should be marketed as well. Why not? Without Peavy, there's so a low magnitude of probability they can be competitive in 2013 and 2014. That's making HUGE assumptions that Danks and Humber don't implode and Sale's elbow stays intact.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 14, 2012 -> 08:01 PM) How do you explain the loss in velocity? I don't think he's injured, just pressing. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playe...&position=P He's down by 1.5 - 2.0 MPH on all of his pitches across the board. I'm going to venture to make an obvious statement that the Tigers are about to go on a run and take off with the division from this point forward...Smyly can't possibly continue to pitch this well, but he's 100X better than Brad Penny as a fifth starter. He's the best pitcher ERA-wise in the AL and he's behind Verlander, Porcello, Scherzer and Fister.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 14, 2012 -> 07:57 PM) I was thinking that the same Sox scout who said De Aza could play CF better than Rios is same person who must have advocated that Teahen could play 3b. We know Buddy Bell is the one who pushed for the Teahen acquisition because they spent so much time together in KC. As far as DeAza goes, not sure...think they were primarily looking for a leadoff type hitter to stow in the minors for depth and thought at the time that Rios was going to be the long-term solution there for years to come.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 14, 2012 -> 07:57 PM) I was thinking that the same Sox scout who said De Aza could play CF better than Rios is same person who must have advocated that Teahen could play 3b. We know Buddy Bell is the one who pushed for the Teahen acquisition because they spent so much time together in KC. As far as DeAza goes, not sure...think they were primarily looking for a leadoff type hitter to stow in the minors for depth and thought at the time that Rios was going to be the long-term solution there for years to come.

There's got to be something physically wrong with Danks. This season is going to be a long one, revolving door from AA/AAA to Chicago all season long for pitching tryouts.