Okay, I'll try a J4L rant today

[elrockinMT]

Steve Stone made some quip about Gonzalez always hitting Ohman.

 

 

Where was Matt Thornton?

[fathom]

Where was Matt Thornton?

 

Tired because he had to bail out Bruney on Saturday night.

[caulfield12]

Alexei and Rios really have regressed defensively, compared to last year. Pierre, we all know about.

 

Thankfully, with all the stats out there now, I'm hopeful someone won't express the "well, we're the best in the AL in fielding percentage argument." Even our own scouts are telling other teams it's not actually true.

 

Morel and Alexei, for all their abilities, have still messed up a number of routine plays. But especially Alexei. And Brent's a rookie...so I'll leave him alone for now. Ramirez is 29 or 30, this should be the prime of his career, and he's regressing again. And Morel (whenever he makes some positive contributions) will probably be benched tomorrow for some random reason, just to start Vizquel.

 

This season is just so annoying. We won't give DeAza any chance against lefties when he was hitting over 300 in Charlotte in those situations. We didn't play Lillibridge when he was hot, and now he's getting more playing time when he's completely lost up there with his swing. Same with Viciedo.

 

KW has done about 3 things right the last 18-24 months. Humber, Santos and NOT resigning Bobby Jenks. Clearly, Thornton didn't have the offspeed stuff or the right mentality/make-up to be the closer either, and we had to go through that devastating early 4-18 reversal in order to find that out. Yeah, yeah...it would have SEEMED crazy to name either Sergio or Chris Sale as the guy coming into 2011 (both) with so little experience, but that's what the scouts would have argued.

Edited August 1, 2011 by caulfield12

[greg775]

Trading Jackson for a righty reliever did wonders for us this weekend! It is so infuriating how many bad decisions this organization has made the last three years. There is no excuse for Thornton to still be on this team.

 

I thought we'd trade Thornton to the Rangers, really did. Maybe they realize he's now a bucket of suck and didn't want him? That is possible.

[caulfield12]

One pitch pitchers (even a 95-97 MPH fastball) in their mid 30's making over $5 million a season (going forward with the extension) aren't in as huge a demand as we thought.

[kitekrazy]

Trading Jackson for a righty reliever did wonders for us this weekend! It is so infuriating how many bad decisions this organization has made the last three years. There is no excuse for Thornton to still be on this team.

 

Of course, trading for Jackson was unnecessary.

 

[kitekrazy]

One pitch pitchers (even a 95-97 MPH fastball) in their mid 30's making over $5 million a season (going forward with the extension) aren't in as huge a demand as we thought.

 

That isn't as near as bad making him the closer opening day. That's like 3 or 4 games wasted there.

 

[kitekrazy]

Alexei and Rios really have regressed defensively, compared to last year. Pierre, we all know about.

 

Players come here and regress.

 

Swisher

Teahen

Rios

Dunn

Peavy

 

 

It's a mystery as to why.

 

[caulfield12]

Swisher, Beckham, Rios and Dunn are the main ones.

 

Teahen was never any good in the first place. That was a huge reach by Williams.

 

Peavy, it's pitching in the AL outside of PetCo Park and having lost his stuff (especially the slider) due to a once-in-a-decade freak injury that's at least partially attributable to the way he was handled by the Sox from the time of the trade. But most of it was simply bad mechanics in the first place.

 

 

[Real]

Safe to say this organization isn't as good at identifying talent as other ones?

 

Our best pitcher over the last 8 years is a 38th round draft pick: You can say we got lucky on that one.

 

Gavin Floyd was a top 3 pick, and you could say he's been "OK" judging by his career numbers so far.

 

Danks was a really good trade, I can't question this one.

 

Beckham, yeah, give me a couple more years but so far, huge let down.

 

Rios, I love how the Chicago media is trying their hardest to protect KW on this one. I haven't heard the "He was trying to block the Tigers" card played as much as I ever have, than this year. When he was acquired, it was almost never brought up. Now that he's a f***ing disaster, it's because Kenny was trying to block the Tigers? Right.

 

Dunn. Can't argue against this one, other teams wanted Dunn too. And judging by his career numbers, you couldn't have predicted this season. I mean, you could "say" you predicted it, but it wouldn't been unwarranted, totally biased and arguably based on an agenda.

 

Alexei, given he was acquired when most other teams had absolutely no desire in picking him up, that was a good catch. Though we could've gotten "Lucky" on that one too.

 

Pierre? Why couldn't we have gotten a real leadoff hitter in their prime? Oh, it's because we didn't have the bullets to get one via trade. And of course we aren't getting one from this farm system.

 

I'm sold on this organization not being nearly as good at identifying talent as others. There's a reason we're in the bottom 3 (in MLB) in minor league ratings.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Real

[Dick Allen]

I thought we'd trade Thornton to the Rangers, really did. Maybe they realize he's now a bucket of suck and didn't want him? That is possible.

Thornton a bucket of suck? Next year when Sale is in the rotation, if the Sox get rid of Thornton, you'll see what suck really is from the left side in the bullpen.

[caulfield12]

It all depends on what KW is planning for Sale.

 

Rotation....then it's certainly justified to keep Thornton. If not, he's a bit expensive and superfluous if we're in salary-cutting mode.

 

Ohman is certainly not a solution in any important situation.

 

Santiago might be the answer, but he's a ways off. Or Santos Rodriguez from the Javy deal.

 

 

[caulfield12]

Sabathia now 18-4 career against the White Sox.

 

This team continues to shoot themselves in the foot fundamentally...and there's zero accountability being exemplified by the coaching staff.

 

 

1) Two very important runners in Beckham and AJ (who's our smartest player) picked off of second base in horrible baserunning blunders.

 

2) Lillibridge once again failing to execute in a sacrifice bunting situation.

 

3) Lillibridge missing the cutoff man on a throw from RF.

 

Now Brent had a hustle single and did a good job late in the game holding them to the single on the ball down the RF line...but you absolutely have to get that bunt down. He jabbed at a ball that was quite high and a bit outside from way underneath it, of course the result's going to be a pop-up.

 

Zero hitting with RISP, as usual.

 

You just can't beat Sabathia unless you execute better than that. We had quite a few chances to break through, and just never came up with that big hit. Story of the season.

 

And Dunn had a couple of balls in the early innings that could have been outs, and probably would have been with Konerko playing over there. I think both of those plays eventually led to a run. At the very worst, it would have been a 2-2 game without Dunn at first...and Konerko would have come up in at least one key situation with the opportunity late in the ballgame to drive a run in from the 3 hole.

 

At least we were spared the automatic Rivera punchout of Dunn in the 9th inning.

 

Beckham had two hits, but he looked completely overmatched against Rivera, and Dunn looked about as good as John "I Am Not A" Kruk against Randy Johnson in the All-Star game in his last at-bat against Sabathia in the 8th.

 

And this isn't the Mo Rivera of 2006 or even 2001. He's a one pitch pitcher, much like Thornton.

 

It's inconceivable that you can continue to trot out Dunn against LHP (against the best lefty in the majors) without at least shaking things up and a bit and trying someone like DeAza.

 

For all intents and purposes, Dunn's season is beyond salvaging. It will go down in epic proportions as one of the worst ever.

 

Jake Peavy, great job gutting it out. You should only have given up 2 runs in this game, but you had to deal with Dunn over at 1B.

Chris Sale...you're the most valuable left-handed reliever in the game today. You just made the Yankees look like an American Legion team the last two innings.

 

Thanks for coming back to life Alexei Ramirez. We need you.

 

And Nick Swisher, if you pulled something like that (laughing in the dugout after the ball Ramirez dropped and he didn't run out), you'd be pulled from the game right on the spot and benched the following game. The Yankees aren't going to keep you around after the conclusion of this season. Good luck on the Padres/Royals/Orioles/Astros/Mariners.

Edited August 2, 2011 by caulfield12

[kitekrazy]

I assumed a loss. A 3-2 loss surprised me. I was thinking like 7-1 loss.

[greg775]

I assumed a loss. A 3-2 loss surprised me. I was thinking like 7-1 loss.

 

I think 7-1 is what's in store each night the rest of the series. Team looks even more dead than usual.

[caulfield12]

Rios, grand total of 3 misplays tonight.

 

Misjudged a fly ball, letting it drop in and not even making an attempt to throw the runner who was clearly caught halfway between the bases (it was Gardner) out at 3B when there was 100% a play on him.

 

Threw the ball to the wrong base (3B) yet again, allowing the runner who should have been at 1B to advance into scoring position and nullify limiting the big inning with a potential double play ball.

 

Ole'ed the ball hit right at him into CF, instead of keeping it in front of him.

 

 

BRUNEY ABSOLUTELY HAS TO GO TO CHARLOTTE. Period. No excuse for not knowing your role was to prevent the entire bullpen from being wasted. You just can't get tossed out of the game right there. Instead, we had to use Thornton, Crain and Santos needlessly. ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY or FUNDAMENTALS with this team, as usual.

 

Great game by DeAza. He actually showed up to play.

If De Aza's not starting over Rios tomorrow against a RHP, Guillen should be fired as soon as that line-up card is posted.

 

We have 3 "team players" in the form of AJ, Konerko and Pierre. Everyone else is either clueless or takes a selfish approach up at the plate.

 

Morel just has to be better. Period.