caulfield12

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:28 AM) If anything, those guns were high. Gaudin was clocked at 94 mph, and I've never seen him over 92 in the past. Harden was at 97 occasionally. Garland reached 90-91, but his velocity has been down (obviously) with his shoulder impingement issues since this spring. I was surprised he found another gear with his fastball late in the first and then into the second, as he was throwing almost every pitch all night long from 85-90 MPH and getting away with it. I've seen MacDougal consistently at 96-100 in Kansas City, on scoreboard/TV/home/visiting/ESPN.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:20 AM) Just like AJP's bat speed, it was down almost the entire 2nd half of last season. I really wonder what strength program we have with our pitchers, as almost every pitcher seems to have their velocity go down with us. Loiaza destroyed his arm with that cutter. We've had a lot of injuries too. There will soon be calls to fire Cooper, lol. Contreras' velocity is way down. Buehrle's was way down last year. I think Thornton is the only pitcher with a reliable fastbal in the middle to upper 90's, although we keep promoting this idea of 6 pitchers in the bullpen with closer's stuff. Huston Street hardly throws 90 and he's more effective than any of our pitchers. Garcia, but his velocity was already declining when he came here. Garland was down, especially the first inning or so. Aardsma is nowhere near mid 90's. MacDougal used to throw 98-100. Masset's around 92-94 I would guess. Heck, we were told Felix Diaz and Jon Adkins were flamethrowers.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:16 AM) I said all this before the season even started. Go back and read that why don't you. There isn't much of a discussion behind that subject though, what do you want to debate about it? Poster 1: Jenks is bad Poster 2: Yeah, no s***. Poster 1: Cool. Poster 3: I concur. FUN!!!! So it's easier to blame the loss on Pods and Guillen because discussing the elephant in the room would be boring? It seems there are a lot more posters here blaming both of them than Jenks. Now why is that?

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:13 AM) Are you f***ing serious? I mean, are you dead f***ing serious? And I can recall a few guys taking flyballs off the head, and none were knocked out. There's NO WAY IN HELL the ball didn't hit the wall first. The replays will confirm it. It bounced off his head on the rebound. And Canseco is a huge guy, Pods isn't.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:12 AM) I thought it hit off the wall first. I don't know about Bobby's velocity. Pitchers velocity is usually down at the beginning of the year, and the WGN gun might be a few mph off. I do hate how he throws that pathetic slider when he has a great curve. Nobody is addressing the real issue, and that's the fact that Jenks hasn't been the same pitcher since June of 2006, and, even then, his velocity was down 2 MPH from where it was for most of 2005? He's going to be better than Koch if he can get ahead, because his offspeed stuff can be effective, but he's going to get hammered because his fastball has less movement on it than Brandon McCarthy's these days.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:10 AM) I don't remember saying any of those things. Damn get on someone else because you're obviously not berating the correct poster. Calm the f*** down. When you say Anderson should be in or Pods can't throw or whatever, what exactly are you saying?

QUOTE(Wanne @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:06 AM) You were on the Warren Commission too with the magic bullet. How does a fly ball hit a wall and drop straight down?!? Umm...because there's rubber padding out there and Pods hit the wall at the same time, so the padding was pushed inwards, creating more of a downward trajectory for the ball when it hit. If it landed directly on his head, he would have been knocked out.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:05 AM) Ridiculous hyperbole only makes you look silly. Try sticking to the subject instead of tangents like that. Yeah, hyperbole like blaming Pods and Guillen for the loss instead of Bobby Jenks is much more preferable and politically-correct. Go ahead taking on everyone's favorite whipping boy, Pods. Who will you have to berate when he's gone besides Guillen?

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:04 AM) We've been so non-blessed with pathetic throws to home over the last few years that people forget that it's possibly to get guys out. 7th inning blown lead (LOSS) 8th inning blown lead (WIN) 9th inning blown lead (LOSS) We've already blown more games than the Minnesota Twins did all last season when leading going into the 7th inning IN THE FIRST FREAKING WEEK OF THE SEASON. That's an accomplishment we can all be proud of.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 12:01 AM) It would have been a close play. Either way someone with a real arm should have been in LF. Maybe we should just go ahead and release Pods and play Brian Anderson everyday in LF and have him leadoff while we're at it?

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:58 PM) As mad as I am, I'm still here laughing hysterically at the melon shot off of Prancer, that is A1 quality gold there! Only in Oakland. The ball hit the wall, then came down and bounced off his head. Do you need glasses?

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:57 PM) There's no guarantee we would have won the game, but Jesus, if the ball can hit you in the head obviously it shouldn't be too difficult to place your arm above it and complete an out to end the inning. Gee, why is our closer giving up 3 hits prior to that, hanging curveballs to Todd Walker (flashback to Jose Vizcaino slapping a ball in LF from the World Series)? Walker's normally a better fastball hitter, but why do you speed up the bat of a guy coming off the bench and throw him a curveball? It's like Contreras refusing to challenge hitters all over again. Jenks and AJ, I guess, realize the emperor has no clothes in terms of Jenks' fastball. I have a feeling we will go through 3-4 closers this season. Why is he throwing 89-93 MPH? He should be on the disabled list tomorrow, because something's seriously wrong.

QUOTE(dasox24 @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:50 PM) I don't see how you could blame Pods for this one. We should've never been in this situation. If anything, BA should've been in the game. Plus, all Jenks has to do is get one more out, and it's over. Or the Home Plate Ump could have not f***ed us over for our 2nd run of the game. A 2-run lead in a game like that would have given us (or Bobby) a much different mind-set. Jenks is nothing but Billy Koch with a better offspeed pitch. His ERA was close to 5 in the second half, and his fastball has lost 2-3 MPH from midseason last year. Maybe we just caught lightning in a bottle, because our bullpen still sucks. The fact is, in our first seven games, we've blown leads in the 7th and 8th and 9th (Thornton twice, now Jenks). The Minnesota Twins simply don't lose those games. We've already blown the same number of games in one week that they blew all last season from the 8th inning on. We might as well just release Anderson if we're not going to play him. Move Erstad to LF or play Anderson in LF, but improve your freakin' outfield defense in the 8th or at least the 9th innings.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 09:03 PM) Cassel pitched very well, that's a great sign. He should have a good season in high-A considering he was a college pitcher at a good program in a decent conference (UC Irvine). I'll wait until he hits AA before I get really excited about him though. The good pitching at the minor league level seems to be coinciding with the major league team picking it up. Our team ERA is now down to 4.11, getting close to that sub-4.00 mark we need to compete this season. I get a little excited to see how Carter, Cunningham and Allen are doing...but, as with Cassel, I'll wait to see how they do in Birmingham first.

QUOTE(Wedge @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 09:30 PM) don't like the early pitch-count... That offspeed pitch rivalled some of McCarthy's last year, before he would get into a rhythm and get a feel for that pitch. It was just hanging there.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 09:22 PM) Oakland fans Where did Garland's fastball go?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 07:32 PM) the equivalent of the White Sox trading Heath Phillips for a solid reliever. Or, on a higher scale, the White Sox trading Tyler Lumsden and Daniel Cortes for the power arm of Mike MacDougal. Or David Riske for Javier Lopez...that was a good deal for the Sox, even though Riske's not the same pitcher he was 2-3 seasons ago.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 06:29 PM) thats strange... did they need room on the 40? I'd gladly pick him back up... can never have too much pitching, especially young lefties. Yeah, this move makes no sense by the Rangers right now. And they traded Fabio for Haigwood... Haigwood was always a little bit like Liotta to me...he has to have EVERYTHING going right for him to be successful in the big leagues.

power ratings/rankings lists from the early season... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...rankings/2.html 22nd in SI? One ahead of the D-Rays? You've got to be kidding, seriously.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 03:14 PM) 4th in the division and behind the Cubs. Gotta love it. The Cubs, Phillies and Cardinals ahead of us? What the heck just happened?--Tiger Woods. I love how the Twins split with us and they go up by two spots, AFTER they're slaughtered by the Yankees last night. Good stuff. At least the idiot was smart enough to acknowledge that we were better than where he slotted us...whatever that means. I guess it means we might move back into the Top 10 if we're leading the AL at the beginning of May.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:30 AM) more importantly, what kind of pitcher will Garland be tonight... If I remember correctly, Garland got one of our rare Oakland wins, last year I think, or perhaps 05. And Vazquez's stats against Minny were horrible, and look what he did Saturday. You never know in baseball.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 12:01 PM) Don't forget Sisco, Jenks, Masset, Aardsma....he remade this entire bullpen of young power arms out of nothing basically... I was referring more to the 05 team, but you obviously can't leave Jenks out. Takatsu, if you want to start with him, was another "scouting" discovery through video like Iguchi that nobody else was really fighting with us to sign.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:53 AM) Well, Kenny has got the technique exactly right in this instance: You don't try to pay the price for a proven relief arm. You either go after someone with a good arm who is still unproven, or someone who cannot put it together for whatever reason. Gillick should take a page out of his book- it's sitting there wide open for the rest of the league to see... See Hermanson, Politte, Cotts, Riske, Thornton, Marte...we almost NEVER go out and pay "full value" for a reliever like the Cubs did with Howry and Eyre. The article today in one of the Chicago papers is already questioning Baker's overuse of both those guys, which they speculate is leading to trouble in the first week of the 07 season.

QUOTE(Soxbadger @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:46 AM) Gio was a first rounder, Buerhle was like a 22nd rounder. They are not just going to rush Gio to the majors and put him in the bullpen where he may or may not get work. They are going to take their time with him and hopefully it works out for the best. McCarthy wasn't a high draft pick (he was the top prospect), but the assumption by most was that he would learn a lot more in our bullpen going against major league batters than he would at Charlotte. Same thing with Garland, when he struggled at various times in the majors and some wanted to send him back to AAA. OTOH, Gio's coming off a pretty shaky 2006 season, so he has a lot more to prove.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 11:49 AM) Obviously his arm has not gotten stronger. However, his jumps and routes have, which have led to his improvement. I don't believe I stated that Pods has turned into an all-star defender; I stated he has improved. IMO, even with his strong arm, Dye should be replaced defensively late in games before Podsednik should, barring your "runner on third with less than two out in a tie game" scenario. The way he came out of the box on that double and his homer are very encouraging. He also is playing LF more confidently. He's never going to be an All-Star, but a return to 2005 form would be more than many realistically expected out of him.