caulfield12

Suzuki's a good fastball hitter inside and Reed wasn't afraid to challenge him there. Great to see him recover from the walk and balk and not give in to the hitter. Now we have to score....because Thornton against the A's or Jesse Crain are a bit scary in a tie game on the road.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:52 PM) The biggest issue with Rios has been that he's passive and doesn't care, so I don't see why you'd be thrilled that he didn't care he was pulled. Not didn't care, but seemed to be supportive or at least not visibly upset or demonstrative about the decision. In the second half of 2011, if that happened with Ozzie and the way the team was going, that would have tipped the clubhouse into the abyss probably.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:51 PM) Does this give Freddy some job security? He looks cooked. Yeah, he's been horrible so far this year. Hughes is only throwing 89-91 MPH. Kuroda's been another version of Irabu or Kei Igawa.

Passes Kaline and Big Cat Galaragga, 48th place on the All-Time list. Addison Reed for the bottom of the 9th against Reddick, Cespedes, etc. Santiago if we can somehow score here.

Thank god, Ventura gets bailed out by the best pure hitter in the American League. 400 HR's. As does Chris Sale, thank you very much, EL CAPITAN. First blown save for Balfour. Too bad Paulie didn't get to face Grant yesterday after Dunn.

Greg wants Ventura fired, maybe. So the Yankees have CC, Nova, Hughes, Kuroda, Garcia and maybe Pettite. No Pineda until mid 2013 probably.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:38 PM) Horrible managing by Ventura. Absolutely horrible. If Morel executes there, which a major league player should be expected to...then we're all saying how smart it was to trust the game to our great bullpen and nobody's complaining so much. Pineda out for the full season and longer. Tore his freaking labrum on the last pitch of his final rehab outing. Worst possible injury for a pitcher these days. Gavin Floyd to NY? Of course, they also have Pettite in reserve, but Nova's their best starter now.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:38 PM) Don't forget to vote corpseball in 2012, guys. "out early, out often" You jinxed the four game winning streak, lol. No more positive threads this season, please.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:34 PM) Cause Robin like almost all managers play by the "book." You bunt him over. The exact opposite. He's shown he will manage by gut/feel/instinct more than anything so far this season, like the suicide squeeze last inning or not going to the bullpen to start the bottom of the 8th yesterday. Not always going lefty/righty or righty/lefty with late inning bullpen match-ups.

They're seriously going to walk Dunn and face Konerko? Crazy.

Ugh, this game just goes from bad to worse. We need a hit with RISP in the WORST possible way.

Bunting problems continue this inning. That one wasn't alleviated by Ozzie moving on. Runner to 2nd on a the WP. Bunt again? Almost would rather play for the big inning.

Reed in next. Let's get a run at least and get Sale off the hook. He doesn't deserve a loss here.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:24 PM) Morel's hitting .286 with RISP this year. .333 with a man on third. .667 with man on third less than 2 outs. Small sample, but hey, he's excelled in that sample this year. But clearly, with how he's been going recently, Ventura had more confidence in the bunt than letting him hit away. 2/7 is not a trend, or 1/3 or 2/6 or whatever. Against any pitchers throwing 94-97 this year, forget about Morel hitting their fastballs. (See Beckham, see Viciedo for further examples).

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:22 PM) What happened to Fukudome, picked off 3rd? Morel PROBABLY missed the sign on the suicide squeeze and got him picked off. 3 runners left or picked off 3rd base that should have scored today.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:21 PM) And his managing in the 9th last night and then pitching to Cespedes today Probably Morel simply missed the sign. I'm sure that will be the explanation.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:17 PM) Dude, the A's suck. You're declaring Cespedes an All Star caliber player because he poked a bloop RBI single to CF? He has all the tools, yeah. He's going to K a lot, but he is also going to put up 30+ homers and 80-90 RBI's in that huge mausoleum of a stadium. He could also get 25-35 steals. Declaring him an All-Star has nothing to do with that AB at all. I never said the A's were good, dude. I said about 10 times before this series they shouldn't let Cespedes beat them. Advice not taken or heeded.

Now we can have the development/win-now argument again, lol. Especially after that play. Ventura, with Escobar hitting next, felt the best chance there was the bunt. That says something about the confidence he has in those guys coming through with hits.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:14 PM) WAY TO f***ING HUSTLE RIOS AND FUKUDOME!!! TIE GAME! If they didn't hesitate/double-clutch, Rios probably is out at home. But nice to see us force the issue when we held up the runner (AJ) earlier in the game at 3rd...

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 25, 2012 -> 04:08 PM) Gimme a break. You'd rather be the A's than the White Sox right now? Be my guest. I'd just like to see us produce one All-Star caliber position player who's enjoyable to watching hitting. I thought Viciedo was going to be that guy, but we'll just have to wait and see. And no, I wouldn't want to be the A's simply because the Rangers and Angels have way too many financial advantages right now that it's not even close to a level playing field in that division. Other than the Tigers, we have no competition from a financial standpoint. The Twins have already started making financial decisions like parting with Cuddyer, Kubel, Young and Nathan because of those two big contracts, and will have to deal Liriano and some of their other players eventually if they keep playing like this.

It's nice to have exciting young players who you actually look forward to watching hit. 16 RBI's already on the season for Cespedes. More than Beckham, Morel, Viciedo and Ramirez combined. 3.38 ERA for Sale now on the season.

2-0 pitch, Sale's been losing his velocity today in the later innings, around 89-90-91-92. You leave that runner at 3rd with one out, the next inning is always going to be an effort to get through.

If Alex Gordon was picked in the top 3 by the White Sox, I'd be willing to be a LOT more patient with all the money invested into him. Morel was never a "can't miss prospect" by any stretch of the imagination. Nobody ever claimed he was a franchise player or that you could build your team around him....there was always a question whether he'd hit for enough power to play regularly at 3rd. Some felt yes, with the OPS numbers coming down in the post-OPS years. I'm not saying he's as bad as Chris Snopek, but he's closer to that now than Ventura or Crede. And how long did we give Josh Fields? He actually put up a nearly great 2007 season and he was in the minors the next year.

15 innings without a run for the Sox, lol. Thankfully, our pitching has been just as good, at least for now.

14 scoreless innings for the Sox. Perfect bunt by Ramirez. Now, we have to execute. DeAza has been an XB machine this year. Hitting them all over the outfield and out of the field of play. Without Humber and Alejandro, where would KW be? Maybe out of a job.