caulfield12

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:57 AM) Sox already beat Greinke this season. His first loss on the year. But he also dominated us at least once and I think it was twice...

Ironically, the entry for non-sequitor is spelled wrong!!!! Should be a -UR ending. I just added that comment because it reminded me of the poster who always had David Cook's picture on every message...that there would many comparing Haeger to Wakefield and Hough and the Niekro's and thinking that he could be a mainstay of our rotation. And I wanted to see what "scenario" had to say about Shelby...even though it's a Gavin Floyd thread. By the way, does anyone think Jon Danks would take Gavin's contract if offered again today? PS: Can I file a formal complaint my "Piniella comments" thread was highjacked by a minor league attendance discussion tangent, lol???

QUOTE (scenario @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:39 AM) Was just looking at some old posts (circa 2007... thank you for pointing them out Tony) that are priceless... Including some that were absolutely brutal slams of Gavin and suggested dumping him in favor of Charlie Haeger, etc. LOL. That's gotta make some sort of top 10 list. What next, Gartrell or Cook will be starting at a corner OF spot in 2010? So what do you think of Shelby's season so far? Sort of a disappointment, I would imagine...although not an unmitigated disaster, and his OPS is still quite a bit higher than Viciedo's, mostly because of the higher walk totals. Seems that Getz/Fields/Shelby are really the ones who might be on the outside looking in. Having a Danks/Mitchell/Quentin outfield is pretty exciting with it's possibilities, and maybe Shelby could be a 4th/5th OF, back-up infielder (like Ozuna in a way) and PRer.

The difference is.... 1) Garland was almost never consistently "dominant" where he would shut down opposing teams or throw more than an occasional shutout 2) Garland never was a strikeout pitcher...he was always more of a finesse guy, even though his FB was sometimes 92-93 3) Garland never really showed that he was anything but a 3-4 guy with us, Floyd continues to have more "upside" by far over the entire length of that contract...like Jose, he can be simply dominant when he has complete confidence in his stuff 4) Garland has/had better control, but Floyd can be a "quality" starts machine, whereas Garland was usually giving up 3-4 runs per game (it seemed, just my perception...don't hate Garland, but nor was he close to my favorite player either)

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 09:13 AM) Dye staying on this team this year and next year is probably worth more than you would get in a trade for a half season of him to be honest. He is also our best player, and doesnt look to be slowing down. He might be our best, but I would argue Buehrle over him, because of his influence on the rest of the pitching staff. Now usually you would never pick a starter over a position player, but I think we could survive more easily without JD than we could without Mark Buerhle, who won't be 100% appreciated until he retires or is pitching with another organization (let's hope not!)

KC has had our number this year, especially Greinke. Time for some payback...although they can be a tough team for us to beat since 2006, especially playing in KC.

It might turn out blowing that 5-1 lead against the Cubs was the reverse spark this team needed to come back to life...to realize how close they were to being 5-0 against a team that was supposed to be one of the best in the NL and outplaying them completely. 6-2 or 5-3 in this stretch of games coming up against the Indians and Royals and we're close to back in business. Doesn't seem like the Twins are any better off than we are (except for having two MVP's in Mauer/Morneau, and Cuddyer/Kubel are VERY solid as well in the middle) with holes like 3B, Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto (I knew they'd regret that signing, would have been better off with Juan Uribe or Adam Everett), the RH set-up pitchers, etc.

With Mitchell/Danks in 2011...Beckham, Viciedo, Flowers, Allen (at least two of those guys working out)...we should have the best team in the division if we can find just one more solid/reliable starting pitcher. Of course, it seemed we had 10 starters coming up through the pipeline around 2000/01 and the only ones who turned out were Buehrle and Garland in the long-term. Heck, I even think The Little Engine That Could (CJ Retherford) might make a nice story of an UFA making it to the big leagues...a good example for all our minor leaguers that success and persistence pay off, they even those players who aren't highly touted can force their way onto the radar screen (Boone Logan also comes to mind in the recent past) and KW/Ozzie will give them a shot (D.Wise is another maybe bad example to some). And I'm not 100% ready to cut the cord on Dye/Konerko/AJ/Thome if it makes sense...and it does...to keep at least one or two of those guys around in 2010/11 under the right conditions monetarily. I'll just put it this way....the other night when Valverde blew the save, I was thinking "hey, we're really close to being back in this thing after struggling for so long to find an identity"....now it's the pitching and Gordon Beckham that are sparking this team to life.

Brandon Backe (32) Miguel Batista (39) Josh Beckett (30) - $12MM club option with a $2MM buyout Erik Bedard (31) Kris Benson (34) Daniel Cabrera (29) Chris Capuano (31) Bartolo Colon (37) Jose Contreras (38) Doug Davis (34) Justin Duchscherer (32) (would have to undergo extensive physical eval though) Adam Eaton (32) Shawn Estes (37) Josh Fogg (33) Freddy Garcia (34) Jon Garland (30) - $10MM mutual option with $2.5MM or $1MM buyout insurance, no way you give him much money, more like bringing back Pods Tom Glavine (44) Mike Hampton (37) Rich Harden (28) Mark Hendrickson (36) Livan Hernandez (35) Tim Hudson (34) - $12MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout see Justin D. Jason Jennings (31) Jason Johnson (36) Randy Johnson (46) John Lackey (31) Cliff Lee (31) - $8MM club option with a $1MM buyout of course, Shapiro would be burned in effigy if he traded Lee to us Braden Looper (35) - option Rodrigo Lopez (34) Jason Marquis (31) Kevin Millwood (35) - Rangers can decline $12MM salary for '10 unless he reaches 180 innings in '09 Brian Moehler (38) - mutual option Brett Myers (29) Vicente Padilla (32) - $12MM club option with a $1.75MM buyout Chan Ho Park (37) John Parrish (32) Carl Pavano (34) Brad Penny (32) Odalis Perez (33) Andy Pettitte (38) Joel Pineiro (31) always the type of pitcher who looked a lot better than his actual results on paper, like Gil Meche Sidney Ponson (33) Mark Prior (28) revenge on Cubs factor, why not give it a shot, nothing to lose... Horacio Ramirez (30) Jason Schmidt (37) see pitchers with injury concerns above...could he have one Cal Eldred 2000 season left? John Smoltz (43) Tim Wakefield (43) - perpetual $4MM club option Jarrod Washburn (35) Brandon Webb (31) - $8.5MM club option with a $500K+ buyout Todd Wellemeyer (31) Kip Wells (33) Randy Wolf (33) but how well could/would he do in the AL? One name that hasn't come up at all in this thread is Brian Omogrosso...any thoughts on his future in the organization (probably as a RH set-up guy to replace Dotel I would guess)??

Glass is half empty or half full, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic viewpoints...mixed in with realistic/pragmatic ones. 1) Beckham is playing out of position, and he probably profiles the best offensively at 2B 2) We pretty much have to play Anderson/Wise and Fields/Getz/Nix in every line-up 3) Quentin might never be healthy again this season... 4) How long can we expect Contreras and Richard to keep pitching as well as they have? 5) Poreda has shown some flashes, but the bullpen has looked more and more vulnerable recently, especially Liney/Dotel/Thornton 6) Pods looked like he was done three years ago, pretty much. How long can his rebirth possibly last, or for him to be injury-free? 7) Ramirez seems a lot like Soriano Lite...he can play you out of and back into games quite easily, but very inconsistent...still, a 700-750 OPS at SS is nothing to be laughed at (see O Cabrera's 2009 stats at what could easily have been a $10 million additional contract and a blocking of either Getz/Beckham from playing time, yes Dick Allen, I remember your ubiquitous comments about them offering him ARB)

Getz and Beckham turned out to have the key insurance RBI's of the game, as it turned out. Don't think they would have scored 3 against BBBJ though. That Indians' line-up has so much talent, they outscore us by 1 RPG, it's a shame for their fans they don't have a better manager. By the way, how in God's name does Delmon Young have a 595 OPS??? Just wow. We can partially thank Bill Smith for our 2008 ALCD championship...that and holding onto Livan Hernandez too long over Liriano and getting NOTHING in return for the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana.

Yeah, with LEE pitching, Ozzie will overload with righties and also use Castro and Anderson. Only one thing is for certain, your guy Betemit won't be in the line-up against Clifford. He could go really crazy and stick Nix or Fields in LF if Alexei is ready to play. Well...was worried if we were leading by 4 or more that the bullpen would struggle....lo and behold. Jenks is MUCH more valuable to this franchise than I give him credit for sometimes...because Thornton/Linebrink closing has disaster written all over it. Would almost rather see Omogrosso in that role, but not QUITE.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:43 PM) Nothing yet, but it didn't look bad after he got up. He'll be fine, maybe sit out a game, but that is as much as I'd expect he would be out. It will be interesting to see if he uses Beckham or Nix at SS tomorrow. Playing Beckham with Fields at 3B would work, but I think they will go with Jayson, for fear of upsetting the confidence Beckham has growing more comfortable by the day at third.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:39 PM) I think we have to live with the fact it's never going to happen. Ozzie reitereated that the other day. Nix at 3B isn't going to work as a long-term solution. He has the arm and fielding ability, but he just hasn't proven he can hit well enough to play anywhere but up the middle. It would be better to trade someone like Shelby III for a Tyler Wigginton/Herbert Perry type and move Beckham over to 2B.

QUOTE (Baines3 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:34 PM) Beckman 3 for 3, he sure is coming on late as far as hitting goes. 6-0 Sox. 17 for his last 58=.293 That said, I don't expect Gordon to hit more than 18-24 homers on a consistent basis. But those numbers, solid defense, gap hitting, maybe 30-40 doubles....Chase Utley Lite will work. If Juan Uribe could have ever figured out how to consistently manage a 750-850 OPS (raising his walks), he would have been SO much more valuable...but he still led us to the playoffs twice. But Beckham can obviously take his share of walks. Hopefully Getz will pick it up in that category as well as he matures and starts to feel he belongs.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:32 PM) You mean Wise is the CF of our future? If anyone would have said we'd be competitive still with Anderson/Wise in CF, Gordon Beckham being forced to come up from the minors and Carlos Quentin on the shelf for much of the first half, I would have probably said they were insane/crazy/pathological. That and some clutch performances recently from our entire staff, and better than expected results from Richard and Contreras, this season is starting to get a little interesting.

I was tempted to say bring back Juan Uribe to play 3B with Beckham moving over to SS...then Getz comes through with another huge clutch hit. He plays above average defense and has very good speed, better to have this problem I suppose than having to play Owens/Russell/Wasserman/Fields/Andy Gonzalez, that's for sure.

At least it was a slider. Nice to see the Sox running all over Martinez like other teams do against AJ.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 08:05 PM) haha Did they just start that? What do they shoot off to clear out the Lake Erie mosquitoes? Old Municipal Stadium, right on the lake, used to be horrible for bugs/insects.

I really can't believe earlier in the season that I was talking about putting Floyd on waivers and exposing him to any other team in baseball to claim his contract...have to give kudos to Gavin and Coop here. There couldn't have been a pitcher who was more lost earlier in the season, and now he's going to have two strong seasons to reinforce his confidence and cause him to finally believe 100% he belongs in the big leagues.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:58 PM) Isn't it crazy how often Gavin gets bases loaded against him in the 6th or 7th inning? I recall about 5 showdowns in those situations already this year. Well, that was Alexei's fault 90%, even though it wasn't an error. It seems he has actually pitched much better this season (especially recently) with runners on base than last year. He had absolutely a ton of unearned runs last year...although there was one situation (maybe it was DET?) where about 3 runs scored against him and they DEFINITELY should have been unearned. 2008 was Floyd/Danks, this, so far, looks like the year of Porcello/Jackson emerging and Verlander "re-emerging." But the Sox might be able to hang in there because of their pitching, which is so much better than 2007.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:53 PM) Why does Eric Wedge have a job? We should thank our lucky stars that they do have Wedge as manager. As an Indians' fan, it must be a shame to only have the 2007 meltdown to show for all that talent on the roster this decade under him. They don't pull the bag after the game for a guy after his first steal, do they??? Those things aren't cheap...maybe he has the option for the club to buy it for him. Not that he doesn't have the pocket change personally to afford it!!!

QUOTE (joejoedairy @ Jun 29, 2009 -> 07:54 PM) hyperbole See Denkinger, Don. 6th game, 1985 World Series, Royals versus Cardinals.

WHEW! Dammit, Alexei. You need to spend 1 hour per day working on soft liners hit at you, over your head and on one hop...that call reversal might end up being the play of the game, as Garko always seems to kill us.

Pavano at 100 pitches. Will be nice to see the Indians' bullpen tonight. They're not so good, to say the least.