caulfield12

Summary: Danks (302), Flowers (310) and Gilmore (375) continue to rock. Shelby's (305) looking a lot better so far this season, too. Salvador Sanchez is the only other bright spot among the hitters. Crossed fingers on Escobar's bat...Silverio seems to be a lost cause, although he did homer, but he's hitting only .167. Gregory Infante was rocked, Kyle Bellamy sharp. Thompson at 345 (K/BB) so far on the young season

By the way, The 2005 and 2008 bullpens, overall...were still better than this White Sox pen. Thornton is the most dominant set-up guy we've ever had in a White Sox uniform...but the 7th and 8th innings were automatic in those years (when Linebrink was healthy...the version with Dotel in the 8th, not so good). Santos is the big wild card. If he can emerge like Jenks in 2005, that changes the whole composition of the pen. Pena's getting better and better, there's renewed hope for Liney...but you have to be concerned about the lack of life on Putz's stuff. It might be a case of needing a full year to be 100% healthy. Still, for what we're paying him, it's not a bad deal at all IMO. And he becomes a valuable trade chip if we can't catch the Twins, along with Andruw Jones.

Way to have a birthday party, Mr. Andruw Jones. Let's hope he's really back for the sake of our offense. Everything's clicking now, got the hanging slider up in his eyes after battling his behind off. The Mariners' announcers (who are obviously familiar with Matt) were just GUSHING about his performance. Said that was by far the best they've ever seen him pitch. I don't think ANYONE can complain about his performance versus Thome. It's the plethora of at-bats going to Kotsay and Vizquel that are the real issue. Gavin pitched pretty well after the first inning or so, had a nice string of 9+ batters retired and his overall game line sucks because of Putz. We now have to seriously look at promoting Santos over Putz...although Ozzie might give him another couple of chances, or put Pena in front of Santos, too. It's coming, just like when Jenks showed up in 2005 out of nowhere. Fear the Sergio.

Why are they going with Jenks over Santos? I hate Jenks in tie games....100% hate it. White Sox still can't seem to buy a big game-changing hit with RISP....although Rios has come through quite a bit early this year. But his DP ball also really hurt us, too. Well, he's one of the few guys swinging the bat well. Hard to get too upset w/ Andruw Jones hitting into a DP when he has 5 homers in such a limited number of AB's.

Well, one thing's for sure. Ozzie is going to have to think LONG and HARD next time about not using Santos when Putz is only at 92-93 MPH with no life/movement.

Alexei with another brain cramp...well, I'll just pretend he was trying to insure that Quentin scored. Donny Lucy with first career steal. 3 SB's for the Go-Go Sox tonight, none by Pierre.

The Braves are rumored to be one of the teams following Konerko closely. They're very unsure how the health of Troy Glaus will hold up.

Dadgummit, we need for Alexei to get on a tear. THIS TEAM ISN'T DEAD?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 3 solo homers...White Sox baseball, you gotta love it. Sets up an interesting decision with Konerko if the Twins continue to lead us by 6-8 games and Paulie keeps looking "hitterish." White Sox outhomering M's 22-6 on the season. Yet the team records don't reflect it exactly.

Thome with his 3rd HR of the season, hitting .222. He did K with the bases loaded. Minnesota cruising behind Pavano, up 5-1. Pods 0/2.

Walker needs to sit down with Beckham and show him some tape from last year. He's developed a little bit of a loop...last year he was locked in, short, quick and level. Up the middle and to RCF, doubles gaps....turning on some pitches and jacking them out. We're going to rue that DP ball...once again, the bullpen has to deal with no margin for error. 4-2 would feel a lot more comfortable, because the M's aren't exactly an offensive powerhouse either.

Nix has a very strong arm, even for 3B. Not sure if he made up for his error, but nice to see him rebound and make a strong play.

I don't know about putting Peavy ahead of Floyd... You can argue at least Garcia threw one QS out of 2. Peavy's been hit hard or wild three out of four times out there. Ramirez/Lucy/Nix...one of the weakest bottom 3's we have had since Mark Johnson and Royce Clayton in 01/02/03.

Trayce Thompson 0/3 Danks 2/2 For some reason, when I click on MILB here in China, it won't refresh now to get most recent stats.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Apr 23, 2010 -> 06:51 PM) Is Nix playing today cause Ozzie took a day off? I didn't see Ozzie in the dugout yet, and they've been showing Cooper a lot. And yea, I know it's prolly only cause Floyd is stinking up the joint. Hey the game's tied 2-2, ...terrific. TEAHEN 0 for 11 with 4 K's lifetime against RRS. I think Hillman proved he's not a good match-up for most lefties. If we lost this game, this would be the 8th game already we've lost out of the first 17 where we were leading at one point.

One pitch pitcher again...50+ pitches already, bullpen will get 3-5 innings. Don't throw a fastball up in the zone please.

In related good news, Twins leading they Royals 2-0 and threatening for more. 7 GB?

Ugly D facilitates the crooked number inning. Figgins almost hits a homer, that would have been a news flash. WHERE IS THE BOTTOM?

Nix with the miscue...3B hasn't been solid for us at all since Crede. Yikes, we were so spoiled for 20 years in Chicago.

Comeback Player of the Year. Just keep it going. Fingers crossed. Jordan Danks 2/2, but just CS. Just saying. We know that Pierre is going to be there no matter how many times he rolls weak GB's to 2B.

How can Ichiro maintain his speed in mid 30's but Pierre can't? Second, QUENTIN=DH...somehow, his D might be more disappointing than his offensive decline. Hard to argue he's more than a notch above JD. Play Jones and Rios in RF.

Flowers and Hudson, maybe Danks....they're the only ones you can think of promoting in the first half of the season. No way Morel or Morel are ready yet. Lillibridge and Gartrell might never be on the White Sox 25 man roster. CJ Retherford has a chance to stick in Nix's/Vizquel's spot.

FWIW, Marte was ALSO out of options (from his time in SEA and NYY) when we traded Guerrier, who was something like our 7 prospect at the time...granted, our system was very weak and he would be been 9-12 in many other organizations.

Lester's deal 2009 – $1 M 2010 – $3.75 M 2011 – $5.75 M 2012 – $7.625 M 2013 – $11.625 M 2014 – $13 M or $250,000 buyout I guess the other contract we'd have to look at would be Fausto Carmona....that was $15 million. But Lester's deal was signed after Year 2, Danks' would be after Year 4....so a Danks deal would start basically at the 2011 step in the Lester contract: It would work out to $38 million for 4 year for JD1, average yearly value of $9.5 million per season.

Well, let's start with this idea. Blackburn and Floyd are at $14 million/4 years, I think....something like that. Slowey wants the same deal, basically. Now I'll throw out a name just for argument's sake, because it's current/topical: Zobrist and the Rays have agreed to a five-year contract extension, the St. Petersburg Times reports. Spin: The deal is guaranteed through Zobrist's arbitration years and includes team options for 2014 and 2015, his first two years of free agency. Zobrist narrowly missed Super Two eligibility for arbitration this winter, but guaranteed money for at least the next three seasons (financial terms will be revealed later on Friday) is a nice vote of confidence from the Rays after his breakout 2009 campaign. This would be one possibility for the Sox, a two year deal for Danks (not year to year or going arb) with a team option for 2013. Zobrist is getting $30 million guaranteed, so, I think I'd offer JD1 $33-39 million for 3 years, if he agrees to the club option or simply making 2013 a guaranteed contract year. Or perhaps a "mutual option." Considering what we are paying Peavy and Buehrle, what we paid Contreras, it doesn't seem like such a bad or unfair deal at all. You might have to go into the low 40's to get it done or risk losing him....or being forced to trade him. It's not going to make Gavin Floyd very happy, that's for sure. But we can't just let our best player walk, either.