caulfield12

Huge difference in our offense when Beckham's .724 OPS is 8th in the starting line-up. With Fields, Getz, Lillibridge, BA/Wise/Owens, Miller and Lillibridge earlier in the season, we used to have 4-5 guys in every line-up below a 700 OPS.

We have to win at least this game or hope the Indians can hold off the Tigers tonight (3-2 lead in the middle innings) because TMRW it's the dreaded Toma Ohka versus Justin Verlander match-up. Of course, that's probably the game where everyone bets on the Tigers and the Indians rise up and score 11. Connie Mack story from 1932. Saving money on train fare for the owner, he decided to bring only two pitchers to a game. The starter gave up four hitters and was pulled by Mack in the first inning. The reliever ended up going 17 innings, giving up a record 29 hits but winning the game 18-17. Those were the days.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 11, 2009 -> 06:59 PM) You have to wonder what happened to Liriano. He was still good last year, although it was against really bad teams. The difference between the torque of an 87-90 MPH tight slider and a loose low 80's version without control that you can bury inside on the RH hitter's hands. And a decent-velocity fastball but one about 2-3 MPH slower than in 2006. Basically, hitters don't fear his slider anymore, he's afraid to hurt himself again...so the hitters just wait for him to have control problems and sit on FB's when they get up in the counts.

Perkins back up to 90 MPH now...should have finished him off. Let's hope Gavin can shut down the Twins until we get to their middle relievers.

Good line by the Twins' announcers...the White Sox are looking for a fifth starter, WE'RE looking for a first starter. Probably it's Blackburn for now, but he's certainly more like a Radke type than Liriano/Santana in 2006. ANTI-JINX: Yes, Gavin, you looked really good last time out against KC until things fell apart in the middle innings on you, along with the Alexei Dumbfense.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 11, 2009 -> 06:53 PM) Besides for Thome, he might have the most opposite field power on the team. I'd give that honor to Quentin, too. Konerko and Dye can also quite easily go out to RCF, especially JD. Beckham isn't used to playing in the Dome. He should have known when Cuddyer turned his back on the ball that it was going to be either a homer (missed by a foot) or off the baggy and picked up the 3rd base coach to see if Cox would send him home or not, but probably 8/10 chance he scores if he reads it correctly. At least Pods got him in, it would have sucked when we should have been leading 4-0 to only have the 2-0 lead.

Because Perkins was questionable coming into this game...and didn't get over 85-86 MPH in his start against the Yankees. But we're about to let him off the hook unless we bring in that 2nd runner from 3rd. Perkins was always an injury waiting to happen...he's battled arm/shoulder problems throughout his career.

Daring baserunning by Pods....thankfully he made it on a near perfect throw by Hawk's idol Gomez.

Perkins is only at 82-83-85 MPH fastball. He won't last very long in this game unless he can at least reach the high 80's. He threw 89-93 when he was healthy in 2007/2008.

I hate the way the White Sox play against the Twins more than I hate the Twins or their franchise. There are many things we could learn from them, although Harrelson would have you think they've won every World Series this decade the way he goes on and on about them. After all, we are basically .500 against them this decade, Hawk, we won 3 ALCD titles to their 4, and we trump them with the World Series title.

Brad Radke to Twins >>>> Joe Crede to White Sox

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 11, 2009 -> 06:20 PM) When are the Sox going to have a ceremony for Jon Garland? When Garland has 9 career opening day starts for the White Sox. Mark Buehrle is a better pitcher than Radke of course, but I think in terms of franchise importance over a very long period of struggle and losing before they finally righted the ship in 2001/02, he's closer to Mark than he is to Jon Garland.

How he won 20 games for that 97 Twins' team is a mystery that will never be solved....almost 150 career wins, in 2006 he was pitching in tremendous pain the entire season but refused surgery and just gutted it out. That was an incredible stretch drive in the 2nd half to overtake the White Sox and Tigers on the last day.

Brad Radke speech...inducted into Twins' Hall of Fame. Very classy guy, great, gritty competitor.

$6 million dollar 7th inning set-up men who walk Nick Punto to start off an inning... They're not going to get us back much of anything in trade, maybe an NL team will get really desperate to push him back into an 8th inning role at times like we had to with Linebrink out for 2+ months last season. As far as starting Poreda, agree 100% with KHP here. Now starting the likes of Torres, JVB, Omogrosso, Ely, Cassel or Harrell lowers our chances of winning out of the box to about 25-30%, but our offense has been scoring some runs as of late. We would do better to preserve the value of Poreda. Clayton would no longer be the centerpiece of the Peavy trade if it were to be made again today...he might be the 3rd/4th/5th piece after Aaron. Personally, I would go with a hunch and pick Omogrosso. Many others here are advocating for Torres and some for Colon. Colon seems by far the most likely going off what we know about Ozzie, Coooper and KW. Forgot Egbert and Whisler, I guess they're in the David Cook/Charlie Haeger tier of Sox prospects at this point, along with Mr. Torres.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 08:47 PM) I sort of think so, but then again I get to watch a decent amount of Twins games and a lot of times they do the same thing against other teams, but the Twins also get a lot of breaks in their field. Do they make their own breaks or are they lucky? Maybe a combination.... I think of the Twins as Martina Hingis and the White Sox of this decade as the Williams sisters, lol....well, maybe Pods, Garland and Slayer are cuter. At any rate, the Twins don't make very many mistakes or beat themselves, but they can also get overwhelmed or dominated by a powerful team like the White Sox are/were/can be, especially at USCF. The Twins actually got some really good defense tonight (this team is nothing like the 2001-2004 models) out of Harris, Cuddyer, etc. Unexpected places on the diamond. D. Young, Harris, Cuddyer and Morneau aren't very good defenders....the Twins used to put 9 players out there who were GG quality. A bunt scoring the insurance run, Jenks giving up the run in a tie game or one we're trailing, not holding runners on base, the umpiring, not getting in runners from 3rd base and less than two outs...walking Nick Punto, pitching to Joe Mauer, it's like the Perfect Storm.

LOL at the fact that D. Wise is our best option right now against Nathan and Oz isn't using a PHer....

Still have a 2.43% chance...make that -2.43 with Wise batting.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 08:46 PM) Who will hit the deep fly ball this wknd that Carlos Gomez robs of a homer? Unfortunately, Carlos Lee isn't here to provide that fly ball. DAMN you Torii Hunter, Koskie, Guzman and Mientkiewicz, even if you're not even in the stadium... Don't buy that we have a 7% chance to tie the game after 1 out. Not against Nathan, in their home park, with the way we played in Minnesota with a playoff team last year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 08:43 PM) Every freaking game is deja vu at this place. Tomorrow or Sunday, we'll have a game where we hit 5 deep fly balls to left field that get caught on the warning track. Don't forget there will be a very high choppers hit by the Twins in a big situation, and Kubel will crush a home run in a big spot. I prefer something more random, like Denny Hocking ripping a homer off Foulke, Tyner stealing two bases and scoring on a bunt single by random Pirahna...Kubel does seem to kill us. Maybe a GW Crede RBI is due? Gomez hitting for the cycle? D. Young actually waking up this season? Of course, you expect production out of Mauer/Morneau/Cuddyer/Kubel...that's nothing new.

Perfect, well played Gardenhire. Jenks, you deserved to give up that run letting someone like Tolbert steal 3rd. RidONKulous.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 08:33 PM) This reminds me of game 1 we lost last year in the 3 game series in September. As I recall, it was a 5-4 game? Basically where we should've won it but basically handed it to the Twinkies and they went on to sweep. After Nathan shuts us down in the 9th, I'll be THRILLED with one win this weekend. Well, the key difference is that we led that entire game...versus trailing or being tied from the beginning tonight. Down 4-0 with Blackburn on the hill, we probably shouldn't have even made it a game. Then the Cuddyer play in RF reversed all the momentum, along with Beckham not getting the go-ahead run across the plate. And Carlos Gomez single-handedly destroyed us that game...tonight, Mauer's the hero (theoretically), but I never felt we would win this game after we couldn't take the lead and you knew Dotel/Thornton/Linebrink would figure out some way to untie the game at the HHH. PS: I hope Jenks throws a WP here so he can understand how stupid it is to let runners steal at will on the Sox in the late innings. Stupid baseball. Yes, concentrate on getting the hitter, but sometime it will come back to bite him in the big 'ol butt of his.

I think I might have walked Mauer even with the favorable LHP/LHP match-up and with an MVP coming up after him in Morneau... PS: Our bullpen isn't nearly as good in reality against tough competition in the 7th-8th-9th as it looks on paper. Walking Nick Punto. Then letting him steal 3rd? Typical brain cramps for the White Sox, and a microcosm that inning of how the Twins peck, peck, peck teams to death until there is no meat left on the skeleton to devour.

That strike 3 looking on Dye was really low and out of the strikezone on ESPN. What happened? Is Ozzie arguing?

For those wishing we left Danks in to run a 120+ pitch count, why would all these teams be lining up for Dotel if we don't trust him ourselves in these key later innings situations?