caulfield12

Pshew. Flirting with disaster. And not the movie with Tea Leoni.

Waste 0-2 count. Balk. Put 2 runners in scoring position. Lovely.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 6, 2012 -> 01:02 PM) He had a great run for a while there but you knew he'd turn back into Alex. You have to cross Peavy and Dunn off your hitlist and add Danks and Morel to Rios.

Maybe throwing at BP speed is under the "hitting speed" and fooling the Tigers hitters. He's struggling to get the ball past 89 today. Weird.

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 6, 2012 -> 12:56 PM) someone earlier said you were posting like a pregnant woman and it's true... you've been b****ing about KW non-stop yourself. what a weird post. Seriously, if Marty's been watching Stewart pitch from spring training on, there's absolutely nothing to like, and no way to project success at even the AA/AAA level. Remember, this is a guy who had a 7.88 ERA against any team not named the Twins (worst hitting team in the majors, essentially, without Morneau) last year. Throwing 89-91 MPH against any major league team for 2-3 times up is a recipe for disaster without perfect control. So yeah, I really thought the main reason Marty wanted to see him is because he was another "centerpiece" acquired for one of our key players last year.

Making Paul Konerko's contract in his 30's now look even more amazing (knock on wood). And Dunn's doesn't look quite so bad as far as hitters in their 30's (especially DH types) getting paydays. Jayson Werth is another one that was just insane.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2012 -> 12:53 PM) Completely disagree. Stewart just doesn't have much of anything out on the mound. I've said it before, but I think AAA would hit him hard right now. Secretly he wants Stewart to get hit hard so he can rip KW, lol. As it is now, it's hard to even notice he's on the team or get anyone all worked up about him.

Another problem with Axelrod in the rotation. Stewart and Ohman have almost exactly the same velocity when they come into the game. You'd prefer to be able to follow Dylan with Jones. Bailed out by the DP ball. Fortunate to be only down 2-1. VERY.

Wow, this game is really dragging...almost 100 pitches for Axelrod in less than 5 IP. Don't expect that kind of pitch count from a control pitcher. Needed Dylan to go six innings there....one of the first early hooks of the season by Ventura. Boston getting hammered by Baltimore again. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, not. I think Farmer hates Showalter more than anyone in the game of baseball.

Jason Kipnis with 5 homers already, Indians out in front of Darvish 4-0 early. Cabrera was 2-23 before that at-bat against the Sox this season. Rays are 13-2 at home, btw. White Sox leading the AL right now in BAA, under .220 coming into play today.

Cabrera's definitely playing a lot better at 3B than he did 4 years ago. Not great, of course, but average or maybe even a tick above. One of the big surprises with the Tiggers this year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 6, 2012 -> 12:28 PM) Is Axelrod just lobbing it up there? Is this guy for real? Is he known as a soft tosser? Wow. Jamie Moyer. Bruce Chen. Mark Buehrle. Tom Glavine. It's more about changing speeds, location and movement than sheer velocity, although you have a lot less margin for error when you have the stuff of a Scherzer or Porcello compared to the likes of Dylan Axelrod. Tyler Flowers is just rusty both offensively and defensively. With his type of swing, he can never be successful playing once every 7-10 games.

He's done a great job to keep us in the game against a Tigers line-up that's just inching towards breaking out again, but he just seems like one of those guys who eats a lot of innings and is always on the edge of getting knocked and has a 4.75-5.25 ERA. Have to give him the benefit of the doubt though, as he had a very good start against DET last year and pitched well in his 22 innings for us last year. Minnesota has scored something like 1 run in the last 36 innings and only 9 hits in the last 4 games. Brutal, already 12 games under .500 and they're not close to selling out that stadium anymore except on occasional weekends.

Axelrod getting quite a few swings and misses. Command, change of speeds is obviously the key with Axelrod, keeping hitters off balance. The problem, of course, is that if you "pitch backwards" and throw offspeed stuff to get ahead in the count and then the 88-90 MPH looks to be mid-90's and above...but he's also missed quite a bit on location. Forces the opposing hitters to be super patient, which is something our Sox hitters historically aren't. He just can't afford to miss with that fastball. He started off with fastball after fastball with Austin Jackson, inexplicably. Guess the best definition of him is "pitchability," he's put up some incredible minor league numbers since the Padres dumped him and we claimed him. Still think he's probably more of the last man in the bullpen than a #5 starter, but he'll get some starts to prove himself if he can keep us in games. Definitely have a better feeling about him than Stults, FWIW. Tigers' announcers mentioned that Porcello has gone to the full wind-up, which is pretty darned rare these days. Getting another 2-3 MPH on his fastball.

Porcello throwing harder than normal at 94/95 to start the game. 3-4 lifetime, 6.02 against the White Sox in his career. 24 runs in the first 20 IP against us, 10.80 ERA. 2.76 in last four games, 29 IP.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:58 AM) Wasn't there a poll on here before the season where Reed had the most votes as player that soxtalk wanted to close? I definitely remember a poll after the first or second blown save and he got about 85-90% of the votes. Of course, that wasn't factoring in Chris Sale as an option. That's where you would get a really interesting debate, and I'm sure it will happen the first time one or the other blows a save. Knowing the White Sox, Jeff Soptic will probably be the next closer after Reed/Sale. Or Bobby Jenks. Nathan Jones would work, too.

QUOTE (MAX @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:56 AM) I mean no offense, but if Reed failed, posters such as yourself would likely be complaining that kenny (the devil) rushed him into the closers role. However, it's not like the situation with Sergio Santos, where he proved (or maybe earned is the better word) his way into the role over time. He was the closer at SDSU for Strasburg, all throughout the Sox minor league system and probably in high school as well. If he's not adequately prepared now, he never will be.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:53 AM) From the sound of it, Sale had similar elbow soreness pitching out of relief last year as well. If the Sox knew they were going to put him back to closer at the first hint of soreness this year, then it's unlikely his trade value would ever be higher than it was this past offseason. There's also the theory that despite what's being said, this was more of a move to stabilize the closer role this year regardless of how healthy Sale is. Which only makes perfect sense if we've been sold a false bill of goods on Addison Reed. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:50 AM) closers are not worth the money they get. how many have already gone down or lost their closing spot this year alone? it's in the double digits already. literally any shortstop can become a closer. however, if you've got a guy playing for the minimum who's pitching lights out, given up no runs with an 11 k/9 - your BEST reliever - why not make him the closer and leave your best starter in the rotation? to have him stay as a set-up guy does strike me as a waste when you look at all the other potential around him. Brian Anderson appears in a brief cameo to say "I can't!!!"

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:46 AM) I don't agree with any of this. Just sayin. He knows baseball just like the rest of us, I see nothing that puts him on a different level. Actually, I do respect Fathom's opinion about Ventura a lot more than my own about Williams because he's less emotional and prone to overreaction. But it's still in the "infancy" period of Robin's "training days" as a big league manager. And Marty34 is fun to go back and forth with when he's not deliberately trying to instigate.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 6, 2012 -> 11:35 AM) Probably would have been a lot easier to think about "how nice it will be if it works out" if they didn't already have Reed in the system though. I said this after the Santos trade, but who cares about the back-end of your bullpen if you're going through a rebuilding process? Now, if KW and Jerry decide to spend money on upgrading the starting rotation after the year, then it's no longer in the rebuilding phase and having a good closer is important (Captain Obvious, I know). Well, there's your Moneyball 2.0 book to start working on. (Build backwards from dominant bullpen to then filling in the starting pitching around it). Trade Santos for a #3 starter in Molina, stand back and watch Santos fall apart or be ineffective due to injury while controlling Molina for 6 years. Turn 4 homegrown products (Sale/Reed/Jones/Santiago) into the modern-day equivalent of the Nasty Boys. Trade two veteran relievers you acquired at little or no cost (Thornton and Crain) and turn them into more serviceable cost-controlled starting prospects. Or Frasor for Webb and Jaye, as another example. Incubate future starters in the 6-7 spots (Axelrod, Stewart, P. Hernandez, Petricka, Santiago, Castro, etc.). Throw in a veteran loogy in Ohman for a little veteran stability and "grizzledness." A Matt Thornton/Christian Bale as Batman beard is helpful, although not full-blown like Dan Haggerty or Mr. Wilson on the Gigantes. FWIW, now with Axelrod on the roster, we have TEN (10) homegrown players on our roster, trailing only a handful of teams in MLB. The most was 13 coming into this season (Astros) and there are a couple of other teams I can't remember off the top of my head.

Okay, I'm offering an olive branch. I won't mention Don Cooper for another 27 games, until Game 54. Will you agree not to mention Greg Walker, no matter what happens with the Braves and the White Sox? On that day, we can open the debate again. Right now, the results are premature and inconclusive. You can argue we might not even know until 2013 or 2014, but let's table the discussion (at least) until that point. I know it will tempting if Dylan Axelrod gets rocked to say that Don Cooper can't work miracles...or if he pitches a great game, many would say Cooper took a pitcher with just average major league stuff and made him serviceable, so I'm agreeing to refrain one way or the other.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:14 AM) Solid point except for the small fact that Garcia was the only one that panned out. Unless you define it as leading to Zach Stewart, saving money on Mark Teahen and adding Lillibridge/Flowers/Santos Rodriguez. But clearly comparing Stewart to Hudson/Holmberg's going to be a debacle that never goes away from KW's recent resume. In the middle, from 2003-2008, Williams was among the best. 2001-2002 and 2009-2011, the absolute worst or bottom 5. No in between with KW.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 6, 2012 -> 09:57 AM) When they acquired Swisher and Cabrera, they made it a point to say they needed some vocal guys in the clubhouse. There have been plenty of posts through the years with posters being pissed at Konerko for not being a loudmouth. It was ironic, that even though that team won the division, KW couldn't get rid of those 2 fast enough. The whole our "leadership fell apart when Rowand and Everett departed" argument for the Sox downfall after 2005. I prefer the Uribe/Crede/Curse of 2008 one, though.

We're going to be facing Tomlin for the 3rd time in a month. Wonder if they could change from Humber to Stults or Santiago at the last second for that one? Actually, it wouldn't matter because Game 2 starter Zach McAllister held the Sox to 2/15 last year (the only 2 hits by Beckham).