caulfield12

It happened to Frank Thomas, too, later in his career. At one point, he had a career average of around .316, but the second half of his career, he basically became a dead lift-and-pull hitter to LF. At his best, he would dump outside pitches into RF with his strength and drill doubles into RCF...he would cover the outer half of the plate and take it the opposite way. His weakness, where he hated to be thrown, was inside, especially up and inside. Thome has basically had the same approach his entire career.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 29, 2009 -> 01:03 PM) Looks like Beckham threw a runner out at home on a 1st and 3rd steal situation. Nix 2-3, 2 BB. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if he's in Arlington on Friday night. Nope...the runner was picked off leaving early from first (on a steal attempt), Harrell noticed it, they had the runner caught between first and 2nd, then the runner from 3rd broke for home and they caught him in a rundown after the throw from Gordo. Did a pretty bad job on the rundown, the other runner got all the way to third. Thanks, Buddy Bell. Beckham also threw a ball into the dirt that Allen bailed him out on.

Christian "The Crusader" Marrero Don't Call Me Eli Marrero Well, Viciedo took a bunt when he was playing back and threw it all the way down the RF line, allowing the runner to advance to third (hit and an error), but Harrell has limited the damage by pitching it around and also picking off a BayBear when he left early trying to steal 2B with a runner on 3rd and one out. Someone tell Harrelson there's another Yunesky (Sanchez) in baseball...although I think Betancourt on the M's has an "I" in his first name. Beckham down to .278. Viciedo has grounded out twice, Flowers K'ed and struck out. Brandon Allen has also been quiet...just fell to .299. Flowers is down to .286. I guess it was due to happen, as we've been playing some of the better teams in the SL like Mobile and Jacksonville.

I'm not BA fan, but he goes 0 for 7 in the DH and now Lillibridge is a better bet to do some damage leading off? God, this sucks not having Getz playing. When he does come back, we can't really know what to expect....he has been very streaky this season. When he got injured, Chris was arguably our best hitter. Is Betemit a better option to play 3B than Fields??? It's kind of tough to just stick Wilson out there in this weather when Josh has been playing nearly everyday. Well...if you play as badly as Brent did yesterday and are the leadoff hitter the next day, there's just not much you can say. Let's just hope Nix is on the way soon.

Jay Mariotti is pitching? Let's go Barons, take back first place!

Kroeger would be the most likely player to be recalled. Betemit, to Fathom's eternal delight, would get most of the at-bats, in all likelihood.

If we bring back Vizcaino, Cotts, Garcia, El Duque, Garland and Garcia, we'll have the best staff in baseball history. If baseball could be played in a "time warp," that is, or Strato-O-Matic reality from 2005.

Well, I guess the argument being made is Thome (or Griffey, etc.), aren't the same hitters, so they should try to adjust. Some want him to bunt and hitter grounders down the 3B for possible doubles, others think that is pretty much insane to suggest a radical change in approach (at age 38) when he's been a HOF player despite facing shifts (like Ortiz or Bonds) his entire career.

1) Because they pitch into the shift...and try to force him to roll over and ground to 2nd. If they threw all the pitches on the outside half of the plate (especially high), he would have many more opportunities to hit homers that way. As far as bunting, I don't know if we want Thome running full out at age 38 and risking more injuries like the heel problem he currently has. It's a lot easier for him to get a walk than learn how to bunt for the first time at his age. 2) In all fairness, Thome has hit at least two homers to the opposite field...and one single to the left side on the ground, and that's just from the games I've watched.

How concerned were the White Sox with Brian Anderson's 0-for-3 performance in Game 1 of Tuesday's doubleheader? Apparently not much. He was in the leadoff spot for Game 2 for the first time in his career. ''I felt good about Brian for a couple years now,'' hitting coach Greg Walker said. ''We've seen pregame work now for two years that we think equates into game performance. We've challenged him a little bit where, 'Hey, it's time to step it up and start taking this pregame work into games.' We've seen that the last week, but now it's time to take this to the next level, which is consistency.'' That has been the Achilles' heel for the former first-round pick. Before stumbling against the Mariners -- he went 0-for-4 in the nightcap -- Anderson was hitting .462 over his last seven games. Sustaining a hot streak is what makes Anderson a work in progress. ''This kid is a superior athlete that is learning to hit in the big leagues, and sometimes it takes guys longer than others,'' Walker said. ''His problem is not the basic knowledge of how to hit because he's got it. It's about taking it to between the white lines. The last week was a nice showing, but now it has to keep up.'' The question facing the Sox -- which now sounds as if it will come up in late May rather than June -- is what happens when Dewayne Wise returns from a separated shoulder to try to reclaim the center-field job from Anderson? Manager Ozzie Guillen has indicated it wouldn't be fair for Wise to lose his spot because of an injury, and frankly, Anderson feels almost the same way. ''No idea. Zero. Not a single idea,'' Anderson said when asked what he has been told about the situation. ''I wish [Wise] a speedy recovery. You want to play every day, but you don't want to play because someone got hurt. I know he's working his butt off, and hopefully he gets back sooner than later.'' www.suntimes.com/sports

Which raised the question of whether the Sox would consider re-signing Freddy Garcia, whom the New York Mets released after he had posted an 0-2 record and an 8.18 ERA in two starts at Triple-A Buffalo. "He'll find a job and hopefully he'll pitch better for the next team," Guillen said of Garcia, who pitched for the Sox from 2004-06 and is married to the niece of Guillen's wife, Ibis. "I'm not going to say for us yet because I don't know anything about it. But he will find a job. "I don't think he should retire. There are a lot of worse guys out there. A lot are very bad. And there are a lot better than him. But Freddy can still help. If Freddy's healthy ... Freddy knows how to pitch. And right now, that's my view." www.chicagotribune.com/sports

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 11:49 PM) Our depth at nearly every position is pathetic this season. That's what happens when you don't spend any money during the offseason. It's funny that the Sox really thought Viciedo would contribute at the MLB level this season. Our "depth" in terms of players who can sit on the bench is not good, that's true, with the exception of Betemit, who's not being utilized properly. You will get your wish soon if Fields continues to struggle. He's kind of getting lost in the shuffle because of all the focus on Owens, Getz, Lillibridge, the leadoff spot and Anderson. Viciedo, I think, will be fine. His hitless streak got a lot of attention, but he's already back up to .235 in the span of just a couple of games. From everything I've heard on the Net and listened to on the broadcasts, he has been much better than expected at 3B, and has a cannon for an arm. At any, he's come a long way in a couple of days from being on the cusp of a demotion to Winston-Salem (that was more an imagined one). Our AAA team is horrible...our AA team is one of the best in the minor leagues. But none of those guys are going to come up and play part-time, as Ozzie has said repeatedly. Despite our offense, the real concerns are always going to be, first and foremost, pitching. Broadway's pathetic performance wasn't unexpected by anyone.

It seems Konerko has saved Dye's butt 2-3 times already this season by picking him up with two outs and RISP. AJ has, what, 2 RBI's? How is that even possible with the OBP from the middle of our line-up? At that rate, he'll have 16 all season. You just have the feeling that Getz will have lost all the momentum from his hitting streak and we'll get nothing from the leadoff spot the next 3-5 games, and we're going to really need to manufacture some runs with so many upcoming games against the Rangers. Thankfully, the infield hasn't had a chance to bake to a golden Ore-Ida brown yet or we'd really be in trouble. Our "fast" players like Lillibridge and Owens can't get on base, so they're basically useless now. Well, Owens has always been since his hot streak in 2007, and 98% of the board hard doubts about Lillibridge's offensive ability coming off of last year.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 07:41 PM) And people still think he has a future... There's a future for every pitcher in the organization from Winston-Salem up based on the way Egbert and Broadway have performed. All they have to do is seize the opportunity and run with it.

In 6 of the last 8 games, we've been shut out once and were almost shut out twice. We were almost on pace to be shut out 32 times this season. In those six games, the only victory the miracle this afternoon where all our baserunners (in the entire game) and hits were salvaged by Konerko's clutch GW double with two outs, our offense has put up 35 hits in 190 at-bats for a .184 average. If you add the two routs (25 for 74), it only raises the average to .227 over that time span, but still pretty horrible. Is anyone concerned? Is Thome just not going to be the same hitter we're used to? Is Chris Getz going to get the "fragile" label? Will Owens and Lillibridge ever contribute offensively as starting players? Will Betemit be used enough where he can even give you quality at-bats as a PH at some point this season? Yes, there's the weather. Yes, there's Felix Hernandez. But we've also been shut down by the likes of Bergesen, Tallet, Eaton and Jakabauskas, a former infielder not too far removed from Florence and the Frontier League. Two of those guys had 7+ ERA's and Bergesen was making his major league debut. Has the Greg Walker lift-and-pull school ruined some of our hitters? If you've watched most of the games, the only hitters who are consistently taking pitches where they are pitched and NOT rolling their wrists are Konerko and Getz. Fields, who you'd like to see use his power and turn on some balls (like he did in ST), is now primarily an opposite field hitter, but he needs to hit for power to make up for his defensive lapses. Fields, Anderson and Lillibridge still have huge swings, as does Ramirez. Quentin is trying to jack every single pitch out of the park, ala Thome. AJ looks horrific these days. I just wonder (and I know Ozzie won't make an in-season change) if it wouldn't be the best thing for the White Sox and our future young prospects (Beckham, Allen, Flowers, Viciedo, Shelby, Danks, etc.) if we brought in a new hitting coach for 2010. Beckham and Allen are definitely not pull hitters, and Tyler Flowers has power to all fields, as does Viciedo. I just hope that we see a different "era" of White Sox hitting start to emerge (no, not the Miller/Lillibridge/Owens one) in the next couple of years, one that's not completely reliant on waiting for warm weather and kind winds from May through September. Yes, they won the 2-1 game earlier today, but that was an anomaly, because the defense really tried to give that game back to the M's. Thoughts?

On the bench. Oh, my God. Anderson is leading off. Never thought this day would happen.

Nope...if they activated Wise and BA was sent to Charlotte with Owens still on the roster...along with Lillibridge...that would be the "nuclear meltdown/3 Mile Island/Chernobyl/Bhopal" precipitating incident for this website.

If Colon did that, he would still be 60 pounds overweight. Ha!

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 06:33 PM) Very nice to win first game of DH. Not sure how we won with the one inning of getting a runner and Bettancourt/Balentien's near 3 run homers. Look at it this way. Our defense was horrible down the stretch and we had Jerry Owens and Brent Lillibridge starting, no Jim Thome, and we still won against a 12-7 team. Not bad.

Bartolo Descending (ERA) Colon. Or a : Not to be confused with a ; Bart is hardly a semi-colon, he's a FULL Colon.

I'm guessing Jerry Owens, and Nix takes his place. Although actually I would prefer an Owens unconditional release, Nix to take Lillibridge's spot and we signed a veteran like Edmonds, Geoff Jenkins, Luis Gonzalez or Jay Payton. Heck, Frank Catalanotto wouldn't be the worst either, except they would all take non-existent AB's away from Wilson Betemit. I would even rather have Frank Thomas on the bench than Owens on the roster. Bring up Pods. Anything but Owens. ABO. Ozzie, if Getz isn't going tonight and we're playing Jerry Owens, try Betemit at SS or 2B (hopefully putting Lillibridge on the pine). Lillibridge doesn't have much of a chance to put in anything over 90 MPH and up into the field of play with any authority.

Bartolo Colon, 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA if not for one pitch by Matt Thornton to Ben Zobrist. Thaaaat's a niiiice.

That ball was gone from May through September with normal temperatures. You could see from Jenks' reaction he thought it might go out.

Don't throw him a first-pitch FB.

Viciedo.