caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 26, 2008 -> 09:44 AM) BTW, my prediction for White Sox 3rd baseman next year is Melvin Mora. I'd like a Roberts/Mora trade as much as the next guy, but for who? The only thing with Mora, I just don't like this idea of taking on contracts of players in their 30's anymore...at least Swisher, albeit a failure to this point, is close to in his prime. Maybe he's just not that good, I don't know. The results with Cabrera have been mixed. For whatever reason, he's gotten on Ozzie's bad side and it's hard to get back in his good graces. Maybe it's because O-Cab thinks of himself as the "on field" manager and there's a fight for control or authority or respect between the two. Also, I know Cabrer and Renteria (both Colombians) had a falling out. I wonder if maybe there's also an issue we don't know about...something that has happened besides the call to the booth, the leaving the clubhouse early, etc. I know a lot of Venezuelans and Colombians don't get along, from my one year living down there.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 26, 2008 -> 07:58 AM) ding ding ding That begins and ends all discussion about September. In fact it so perfectly sums up this moment, I just don't want to open any other thread. But couldn't we make the same argument, statistically, about our record since July 21/22nd, when Linebrink left his 8th inning set-up role?

Williams wondered how many days the Sox had spent in first place since 2002. He said he couldn't believe they had been there so often and won only the one title, in 2005. He almost looked like he wanted to cry. Imagine how he felt after Carlos Gomez and the Twins kept fighting back and the Minnesota bullpen—the one that had been 4-14 since Aug. 4—handcuffed Chicago hitters. The Twins eventually tied the score in the eighth inning and won 7-6 in the 10th on Alexi Casilla's two-out single off an exhausted Bobby Jenks. Minnesota had completed a sweep that was imperative, moving into first place by a half-game over the stunned Sox. They have led the Central for 145 days this season and 464 since the start of 2002—almost exactly 40 percent of the time—but the Twins are the team that stands up at the end. from chicagosports.com (Phil Rogers) 1) Fact, in Williams' time, he has won one AL Central Division title (1/8=12.5) 2) Fact, in Williams' time, the Twins have won 5 out of 7 (71.4%) I would like for these numbers not to be true after Monday, but the odds are exceedingly in the Twins' favor. 3) Fact, the White Sox are 5-17 in games played in domed stadiums this year. There are about 500 threads here, so why not another one? At least the keyboards are fired up! I kept going back and forth and thinking about how painful this was, comparing it to 2000 or 1983 or 1993. It really reminded me of the game the Twins won when Denny Hocking hit a walkoff homer against Foulke for some reason, that game sticks out in my mind. I went back and forth between anger and sadness, wishing that Guillen would implode or resign, and definitely that Walker would be asked for his walking papers. Bainsey, too. Just for once, I wanted us to be able to say that we beat the Twins in a division race where both teams were pretty equally matched. It doesn't matter if the Twins go down 3 and out to the D-Rays (which would be likely if they can't use Liriano and Slowey is also out)...and we can go back to the old 2005 >>> five playoff appearances argument. I can't imagine Williams keeping his job if it weren't for 2005...after last season. He's done a good job, all things considered, to put the team in a position to compete, just like he did in 2003 and 2006. I would gladly go through three seasons of below .500 baseball if I knew at the end of it we would finally have a great team again. The problem with KW's philosophy is it's not unlike that of the Kansas City Chiefs (putting together competitive teams season after season, just not quite good enough to get to the playoffs or do damage there)...but when the wheels come off, they really come off!!! I can't even say that I was shocked or suprised at the final result. Everyone knows that Jenks isn't the same pitcher he was in 2005...although the statistics, overall, are good, he's just not the same intimidating pitcher, which is why I really think it makes some sense to shop both Jenks and Thornton NOW and see what might be available from other clubs. Whether it would have been better to use Linebrink or Dotel, I doubt it. A walk off homer from either of those guys would have sent out threads of outrage about not using our best pitcher in the most crucial innings of the season. Ozzie believed in Dye, Griffey and Thome to the end, and here we are. Realistically, it comes down to pitching, and the Twins' pitching was just better (certainly the bullpens) and we fell into our normal trap of not adding on runs and building the lead. Dwayne Wise's at-bat (not bringing home Uribe) and then Griffey batting against a LHP with runners on 2nd and 3rd, just no excuse for that. Wise should have been benched after Game 2. Now we have yet another issue with Swisher's "bruised feelings" about riding the bench in the most important series of the season. These games, once again, exposed all of our flaws for the world to see. A lack of clutch hitting, station to station baseball, almost never putting pressure on the opposing team on the basepaths (of course, it would be nice to have a catcher who could throw and pitchers who could hold runners, too), just the lack of creativity and imagination and adjustments from most of our hitters... Most of us agree we are happy about Quentin (now he's a villain again, for knocking himself out of the line-up), Ramirez, Danks and Floyd. And that's about it (I guess you can add Buehrle!). Those five players symbolize what this team could be...but they're only 20% of the roster, and ultimately the Twins' team won over the White Sox individual statistics once again. So I hope KW will cry and cry, that might finally convince him to do something about changing the make-up of this roster, just as he did before the 2005 season.

I think it's Linebrink or Thornton. You can't risk Dotel at this point.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 25, 2008 -> 07:58 PM) Let's assume Floyd gets to about 110 after 6...who pitches the 7th might be Ozzie's most important decision of the year It will be Thornton for Mauer/Morneau/Kubel, unless we get some more runs or Gavin just tears through the next four batters. Then you'll see Jenks come on in the 8th I think, possibly Linebrink for one hitter or two, but VERY VERY short rope for Scott.

Floyd has four more batters to go. Then Ozzie has to go to Thornton, unless Gavin just really finds that curveball and gets on one of his patented rolls through the line-up for 2-3 innings. Unfortunately, he's at 94 pitches and he still might have to go Monday on three day's rest against DET. I wonder who would be pitching for the Tigers in that theoretical game?

Why can't Ozzie use Anderson there? He's just bound and determined to play Griffey until we're setting up tee times for next week.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 25, 2008 -> 07:41 PM) i thought konerko was supposed to be hot. he's got one hit in this series. Past tense. 5 for 28 stretch recently. Got cool just when we needed him to carry the team with CQ out.

That was a foul ball according to Farmer and Stone. Well, we definitely succeeded in letting them right back into this game when we needed Gavin to mow down the bottom of the order.

Looks like it is at best 50/50 that Cliff Lee will make his scheduled start against us Sunday.

BA would have no prayer against a pitcher like Slowey. Fine, I'll play along and give you a 0-0 tie, but our offense isn't likely to score the way things are going, not if we couldn't get a big hit off Blackburn.

It's especially nice to hit .311 with RISP. Every hit in this game has been to the opposite field. They just have the right approach and game plan. The Twins' pitchers and approach is just better. Get ahead with a first pitch strike, usually on breaking balls. The odds for the batter go down astronomically starting off down 0-1. Just very difficult for our hitters to pick up the offspeed stuff in that building for some reason. And very few batters on our team (other than Ramirez) can make the needed adjustments at the plate from pitch to pitch, and AB to AB.

White Sox 5-16 so far in domes this season. The only consolation is we would have been completely embarassed playing at TB. At least Minnesota has a chance to actually beat then, especially with Wheeler looking vulnerable and Percival battling health issues.

Where will the bunt or infield single end up with this at-bat? Gork shot? Dunker?

Young a career .398 hitter vs. CWS. Guess it just went down a bit.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Sep 25, 2008 -> 07:30 PM) What the f*** Griff? I hope he did that without a call and gets his ass benched. It's a little late in the season for a Griffey benching to have any effect on this team. Even if Griffey was benched, he still wouldn't use Anderson, lol.

Why is he swinging at a 3-0 pitch that's outside and high, not low in his happy zone. Everyone is pressing. They HAVE to fire Greg Walker or I will have no hope of this team every making the post-season again.

so he has some material in case there's a blowout. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AkLc...o&type=lgns

This game will be remembered for that call at 2B. The White Sox are so terrible in domes this year, realistically, what are the odds of beating the D-Rays? We could play Minnesota, Toronto and TB 100 games on the road and possibly win 10-15.

117 pitches now.

Adam Russell and MacDougal? Has Guillen lost his mind? You either use Thornton or Buehrle to get through the heart of the line-up in the 7th.

The question is, what line-up will Ozzie use tomorrow? Can you stay with Wise,junking the experiment with the new line-up after one game? Do you try Swisher? Slowey is a command and control pitcher.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 24, 2008 -> 08:53 PM) we get bonser next inning or Crain...I think Gardenhire is struggling with the decision. Both have been consistently erratic all season long.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 24, 2008 -> 08:51 PM) Hell of a job managing Gardy. It was pretty obvious that Blackburn was throwing BP fastballs last inning. Griffey had homered, two out of three lefties coming up, and Blackburn's pitch count was up. You can credit him for picking Breslow (over Mijares, Reyes, Guardado), but it wasn't a great move.

Good thing it's not debate this inning. Breslow went to Yale.