Gamethread: White Sox (65-51) vs Tigers (55-60) 6:05PM CST

[greg775]

And Ozzie puts in a defensive replacement in RF where everybody insists Carlos sucks and gets ripped for it.

 

I repeat ... you can second guess the manager in any win, much less any loss.

We led 2-1 in the ninth and lost the game. Guess who deserves the blame? First and foremost the closer. Then yes, I agree IF we hit better earlier, etc., we coulda also won, so he's not the ONLY goat.

But just as some blame my favorite White Sox for losses, one could blame tonight's closer for the loss in Baltimore and tonight' implosion.

 

Oh and it's shortsighted to blame tonight's beloved closer and not shortsighted to blame the fatter closer when he sucked.

...Right, that makes sense.

Edited August 15, 2010 by greg775

[kitekrazy]

Good article!

I can't believe some of the Oz haters are overlooking the reason we lost tonight's f***ing game.

We led 2-1 in the ninth, folks!!!

 

Yes, the baseball IQ is starting to decline here as well. Shouldn't we go back to blaming Walker for the anemic hitting and Coop for the pen wetting their pants?

[Balta1701]

And Ozzie puts in a defensive replacement in RF where everybody insists Carlos sucks and gets ripped for it.

 

I repeat ... you can second guess the manager in any win, much less any loss.

We led 2-1 in the ninth and lost the game. Guess who deserves the blame? First and foremost the closer. Then yes, I agree IF we hit better earlier, etc., we coulda also won, so he's not the ONLY goat.

But just as some blame my favorite White Sox for losses, one could blame tonight's closer for the loss in Baltimore and tonight' implosion.

 

Oh and it's shortsighted to blame tonight's beloved closer and not shortsighted to blame the fatter closer when he sucked.

...Right, that makes sense.

Putting in Jones into RF was 100% the right decision and ripping him for that was crazy.

[chw42]

And Ozzie puts in a defensive replacement in RF where everybody insists Carlos sucks and gets ripped for it.

 

I repeat ... you can second guess the manager in any win, much less any loss.

We led 2-1 in the ninth and lost the game. Guess who deserves the blame? First and foremost the closer. Then yes, I agree IF we hit better earlier, etc., we coulda also won, so he's not the ONLY goat.

But just as some blame my favorite White Sox for losses, one could blame tonight's closer for the loss in Baltimore and tonight' implosion.

 

Oh and it's shortsighted to blame tonight's beloved closer and not shortsighted to blame the fatter closer when he sucked.

...Right, that makes sense.

 

Or, you know, he could have put Teahen in RF.

[greg775]

Yes the massive 2-1 lead. How could we have coughed up that one. We should put our hands together for our offense for grinding it out against the mighty Rick Porcello. Too bad the damn pitching staff can't keep throwing sub 2 run beauties.

 

At home? Against Detroit?

Yeah it is not shocking our closer blew that one. Sure.

We had the game won. We couldn't close it out.

[kitekrazy]

We noticed that Putz was taking too much time between pitches. I was about to fall asleep. Maybe his tactic was to put hitters through an unbearable sense of boredom so they would swing away at everything.

[fathom]

Oh and it's shortsighted to blame tonight's beloved closer and not shortsighted to blame the fatter closer when he sucked.

...Right, that makes sense.

 

Look around, Putz is getting blamed. If Jenks was able to keep himself in better condition, then maybe he wouldn't be having back spasms!! I'm sure you'd defend Ozzie for letting AJP face a lefty instead of Castro in the 9th...because you know, AJP is a STARTER. Yep, he's one of the worst offensive players in all of baseball.

[fathom]

Putting in Jones into RF was 100% the right decision and ripping him for that was crazy.

 

I hate losing Quentin's bat though, which makes it even dumber that he's not being put at DH and letting Teahen play RF.

[chw42]

And Ozzie puts in a defensive replacement in RF where everybody insists Carlos sucks and gets ripped for it.

 

I repeat ... you can second guess the manager in any win, much less any loss.

We led 2-1 in the ninth and lost the game. Guess who deserves the blame? First and foremost the closer. Then yes, I agree IF we hit better earlier, etc., we coulda also won, so he's not the ONLY goat.

But just as some blame my favorite White Sox for losses, one could blame tonight's closer for the loss in Baltimore and tonight' implosion.

 

Oh and it's shortsighted to blame tonight's beloved closer and not shortsighted to blame the fatter closer when he sucked.

...Right, that makes sense.

 

That's completely different.

 

Putz has been great all year long. To say he sucks because of one game wouldn't be the right way to look at it. That's shortsighted.

 

Jenks has an ERA over 5 and a WHIP around 1.5. He's been inconsistent and has blown some very big games where he had 2-3 run cushions (most notably the Twins one). To say that Bobby is awesome because he struck out the side with a two run lead is also shortsighted, as you're ignoring what else he's done before that.

 

[kitekrazy]

Really...right now is when the stupid, stupid Thome decision is hurting.

 

You act as Thome never had hitting slumps. If you are not a member of this Jim Thome fan club there's a lot of logic on why he's not here.

 

[chw42]

You act as Thome never had hitting slumps. If you are not a member of this Jim Thome fan club there's a lot of logic on why he's not here.

 

Like what?

 

He hits into too many shifts?

He strikes out too much?

He's too slow?

He can't play anything but DH?

 

Some of those are legit, like the non-versatility thing, but when you have a run-scoring challenged offense to begin with, who cares?

 

Plus, you replaced him with a guy who hits into the 4-3 at least 30% of the time, is almost as slow, and can only play 1B and DH.

 

Oh yeah, he's also a .230 hitter with a sub-.700 OPS.

 

When you look at the big picture, being part of the anti-Jim Thome fan club makes no sense. Now if his replacement was Johnny Damon or Vladimir Guerrero, then fine, have fun at your club meetings.

Edited August 15, 2010 by chw42

[Balta1701]

You act as Thome never had hitting slumps. If you are not a member of this Jim Thome fan club there's a lot of logic on why he's not here.

 

I don't even want to bother. If you've watched this team this year and haven't seen the gaping hole in left side offensive production, and at the same time you've watched the Twins and seen how ridiculously effective he's been as a part time DH...then you've been closing your eyes during too many games.

 

Of course, if you closed your eyes during every Sox offensive appearance the last few weeks, you'd be in a better mood than many of us.

[southsideirish71]

Since 2004 we have had 2 winning August's. And thats with the grindiest grinders who ever grinded at times during that tenure. We have to reverse that trend if we want to win this division.

 

 

 

 

[greg775]

I have nothing against Putz's complete body of work. I just think it's ridiculous that anybody is pointing to other reasons for losing tonight's game when if Big Bobby blew tonight's game there'd be ONLY one reason we lost. Big Bobby Jenks.

 

I'm sad we lost. But Putz blew the game in Baltimore and blew the game tonight. The other reasons are fine and dandy, but you have to use those same reasons in the games Jenks blew.

 

I loved the writeup on the site. That correctly identified the reason(s) we lost tonight. Nice article. I must remember to read those summaries more often. They are well done.

[southsideirish71]

I have nothing against Putz's complete body of work. I just think it's ridiculous that anybody is pointing to other reasons for losing tonight's game when if Big Bobby blew tonight's game there'd be ONLY one reason we lost. Big Bobby Jenks.

 

I'm sad we lost. But Putz blew the game in Baltimore and blew the game tonight. The other reasons are fine and dandy, but you have to use those same reasons in the games Jenks blew.

 

I loved the writeup on the site. That correctly identified the reason(s) we lost tonight. Nice article. I must remember to read those summaries more often. They are well done.

 

The offense blew the Orioles series. Some of the worst pitchers in the game and we pretty much looked like it was Cy Young in his prime.

 

Sure Putz blew the game tonight, he had the lead and coughed it up. He gets the L. But it is a bit myopic not to see the elephant in the room with what our offense has been doing a lot this year.

[kitekrazy]

Like what?

 

He hits into too many shifts?

He strikes out too much?

He's too slow?

He can't play anything but DH?

 

Some of those are legit, like the non-versatility thing, but when you have a run-scoring challenged offense to begin with, who cares?

 

Exactly. This team will always have scoring challenges because they think of nothing but swing for the fences unless you are Jaun Pierre. The roster has changed but you still see the same lame hitting like last year and Thome was part of that.

 

[Balta1701]

Exactly. This team will always have scoring challenges because they think of nothing but swing for the fences unless you are Jaun Pierre. The roster has changed but you still see the same lame hitting like last year and Thome was part of that.

This team has scoring challenges because they're 8th in the league in OBP. They're 6th in the league in slugging, 7th in the league in batting average, and 3rd in the AL in batting with runners on base.

 

We are hitting fine with runners on base. #3 in the league with runners on base. BUT...we are #13 in the AL in at bats with runners on base. We're getting fewer runners on base than Seattle. When we get runners on base, the offense has been very effective. We are abjectly awful with no one on base.

[southsideirish71]

Exactly. This team will always have scoring challenges because they think of nothing but swing for the fences unless you are Jaun Pierre. The roster has changed but you still see the same lame hitting like last year and Thome was part of that.

 

This team has scoring challenges because our primary DH has an OPS of .685. Thats the equivalent of having Podsednik as your starting DH. This team has challenges because 5 of the starters are at .700 OPS or below for the year. Its hard to score runs when you lack the ability to hit with power or to drive the ball. We have guys who can do that. However we have a lot of substandard offensive players on this team getting lots of ABs. This team is not trying to hit the jack, or more to the point. Those not named Andruw Jones are not trying to hit a jack in every pitch. This year its not that. This year is just a lack of offensive talent.

Edited August 15, 2010 by southsideirish71

[kitekrazy]

 

I don't even want to bother. If you've watched this team this year and haven't seen the gaping hole in left side offensive production, and at the same time you've watched the Twins and seen how ridiculously effective he's been as a part time DH...then you've been closing your eyes during too many games.

 

Of course, if you closed your eyes during every Sox offensive appearance the last few weeks, you'd be in a better mood than many of us.

 

Maybe you should have watched last year as well. Your theory assumes he would be just as effective for the Sox. Your Thome envy ruins any baseball sense you could have. Go back to watching more Twins baseball and you might see another side to this.

 

[greg775]

The offense blew the Orioles series. Some of the worst pitchers in the game and we pretty much looked like it was Cy Young in his prime.

 

Sure Putz blew the game tonight, he had the lead and coughed it up. He gets the L. But it is a bit myopic not to see the elephant in the room with what our offense has been doing a lot this year.

 

I can see the elephant in the room; I just think it's funny all of a sudden there are a LOT of reasons we lost the game and not just the closer implosion. I mean, cmon, not to you specificially, but it's pretty obvious there would have been an explosion of the worst kind on here had a certain ex-closer blown this one. That bomb he gave up in Baltimore was tied for the first hardest hit ball I've seen all year. That shot and the one by Teahen yesterday. Both were crushed.

[Balta1701]

Maybe you should have watched last year as well. Your theory assumes he would be just as effective for the Sox. Your Thome envy ruins any baseball sense you could have. Go back to watching more Twins baseball and you might see another side to this.

Hell...comparing Target Field and the Cell, he ought to have been more effective with us. The issue is...you can't try to make him a 600 PA player like Ozzie kept trying to do with him, you need to give him 300-400 PA's...and then use the rest of the PA's to move guys like Quentin and Konerko to DH and using Jones and someone else as a backup.

 

It's amazing how well Thome would have worked with the rotating DH. It really is. It's EXACTLY what they wanted in terms of giving them the chance to give extra rest to the guys in the lineup.

[southsideirish71]

Maybe you should have watched last year as well. Your theory assumes he would be just as effective for the Sox. Your Thome envy ruins any baseball sense you could have. Go back to watching more Twins baseball and you might see another side to this.

 

You take the 2004 Chicago Whitesox all or nothing offense and give them this pitching staff and we are running away with this thing hiding.

[Balta1701]

I can see the elephant in the room; I just think it's funny all of a sudden there are a LOT of reasons we lost the game and not just the closer implosion. I mean, cmon, not to you specificially, but it's pretty obvious there would have been an explosion of the worst kind on here had a certain ex-closer blown this one. That bomb he gave up in Baltimore was tied for the first hardest hit ball I've seen all year. That shot and the one by Teahen yesterday. Both were crushed.

Changing the closer for the first time this season after about 20 saves...big deal.

 

Changing the closer for the 2nd time after only 2 more saves...not as big of a deal.

[greg775]

This is BY NO MEANS praise of Andruw (I am not very good anymore) Jones, but doesn't he have more homers than Thome this year?

[greg775]

Changing the closer for the first time this season after about 20 saves...big deal.

 

Changing the closer for the 2nd time after only 2 more saves...not as big of a deal.

 

Welcome to the closer's job, Mr. Thornton. Hope you can last longer than Putz.