AND THAT'S A WHITE SOX WINNER!!!!

[Jake]

Sale said the White Sox have to do something else to rid themselves of this rash of injuries. If they continue to occur the two-time All-Star might be open to hiring a witch doctor or sacrificing a live chicken, anything to rid the White Sox of this epidemic.

 

[RELATED - White Sox Chris Sale sore from start but elbow is fine]

 

“We have to disinfect the clubhouse,” said Sale, who is nearing a return. “We’re getting bit by the bug. Something’s going on. But you look around baseball and we’re doing a little better than most. You look around baseball — there’s freakish things happening around baseball for some reason, with pitchers and guys on field with obliques. Be thankful it’s not more.”

 

Dan Hayes, www.csnchicago.com

 

Ozzie's into Santeria, might have to bring him back

[South Side Fireworks Man]

Sale said the White Sox have to do something else to rid themselves of this rash of injuries. If they continue to occur the two-time All-Star might be open to hiring a witch doctor or sacrificing a live chicken, anything to rid the White Sox of this epidemic.

Apparently Ozzie Gullen's influence lives on among the White Sox.

[caulfield12]

The pickoff by Petricka was huge, not to mention the home run by Paulie. After the bunt and the injury it certainly looked bleak. Royals fans are furious. They are blaming Yost for taking out Aoki for Dyson on the basepaths. I don't see how Yost can ever trust Dyson again after the blunder which definitely cost KC the game.

Great win. Definitely helps make up for some of the lousy losses Sox have had in Kauffman past few years.

Paulie's home run was pretty damn impressive. To center in a pitcher's park. He isn't finished yet. He has two home runs; Dunn six. Dunn has double the at bats. I won't be negative tonight, though. Great comeback win.

 

p.s. There's really no reason to pitch Carroll again. Got to try somebody else. He's not MLB caliber.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sort/OPS/order/true

 

Dunn is still 29th in all of MLB in OPS.

 

That would mean he's leading 9 other teams, including the Royals, in this category.

Edited May 20, 2014 by caulfield12

[greg775]

greg, you are no longer my financial advisor. You have led me to financial ruin

 

I was right about the over. I should have just said bet the over.

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

Great to see Konerko yarding. Since nothing will change the fact that Abreu is out for the next few weeks, the one thing I'll hold on to when attending a game in that time span is seeing what may end up being the last time Paulie sees some regular at bats.

[Soxfest]

Nice comeback win.

[caulfield12]

Jason Vargas, Salvador Perez and a changeup that wasn’t working

May 20

BY LEE JUDGE

The Kansas City Star

 

According to Fangraphs, Jason Vargas throws a fastball, a slider, a cutter, a curve and a changeup. So if one of his pitches isn’t working, it seems like Jason’s got some alternatives.

 

Monday night it looked like Jason Vargas’ changeup wasn’t working.

 

Alexei Ramirez hit a third-inning home run on a changeup, Dayan Viciedo hit a fourth-inning home run on a changeup and Paul Konerko hit a fifth-inning home run on a changeup. That’s over a thousand feet of home runs on changeups. After I noticed all the home runs had been hit on changeups, I checked the other hits Vargas gave up; four of them were on changeups. When six of the eight hits you give up come on changeups, maybe you need to throw something else.

 

After the game both Ned Yost and Jason Vargas said the changeups were up in the zone. Some nights that happens—you just don’t have command of a pitch. But when a pitcher doesn’t have a pitch, you’ve got to figure out a way around it. Throw something else, or throw it in a spot where it won’t hurt you. Salvador Perez and Jason Vargas didn’t do that; they continued to throw changeups and paid the price—and so did their team.

 

 

 

A slider-speed bat

 

I wrote this way back on Opening Day when the Royals got beat by an Alex Gonzalez walk-off single. Gonzalez is 37-years-old and the pitch he hit that day was a slider. I’ve been waiting for another older hitter to beat the Royals on an off-speed pitch and the 38-year-old Paul Konerko did that on Monday night.

 

"He’s got a slider-speed bat." That’s that they say about a guy who can’t get around on a good fastball anymore. Ask if there are any hitters in their late thirties who still have good bat speed and the list is short—heck, there may not be enough old hitters with good bat speed to make anything resembling a list.

 

That being the case, if a guy is getting older you probably don’t want to give him anything off-speed in the strike zone. You can show it to him, that might keep him from cheating on a fastball, but keep it out of the zone—beat the older hitter with fastballs.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/20/50340...l#storylink=cpy

Edited May 20, 2014 by caulfield12

[cabiness42]

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...t&p=2980861

 

Go to Vegas and bet KC and the over in a gift parlay.

 

Can anybody loan greg some money? He may be a bit short this morning.

[Dick Allen]

Jason Vargas, Salvador Perez and a changeup that wasn’t working

May 20

BY LEE JUDGE

The Kansas City Star

 

According to Fangraphs, Jason Vargas throws a fastball, a slider, a cutter, a curve and a changeup. So if one of his pitches isn’t working, it seems like Jason’s got some alternatives.

 

Monday night it looked like Jason Vargas’ changeup wasn’t working.

 

Alexei Ramirez hit a third-inning home run on a changeup, Dayan Viciedo hit a fourth-inning home run on a changeup and Paul Konerko hit a fifth-inning home run on a changeup. That’s over a thousand feet of home runs on changeups. After I noticed all the home runs had been hit on changeups, I checked the other hits Vargas gave up; four of them were on changeups. When six of the eight hits you give up come on changeups, maybe you need to throw something else.

 

After the game both Ned Yost and Jason Vargas said the changeups were up in the zone. Some nights that happens—you just don’t have command of a pitch. But when a pitcher doesn’t have a pitch, you’ve got to figure out a way around it. Throw something else, or throw it in a spot where it won’t hurt you. Salvador Perez and Jason Vargas didn’t do that; they continued to throw changeups and paid the price—and so did their team.

 

 

 

A slider-speed bat

 

I wrote this way back on Opening Day when the Royals got beat by an Alex Gonzalez walk-off single. Gonzalez is 37-years-old and the pitch he hit that day was a slider. I’ve been waiting for another older hitter to beat the Royals on an off-speed pitch and the 38-year-old Paul Konerko did that on Monday night.

 

"He’s got a slider-speed bat." That’s that they say about a guy who can’t get around on a good fastball anymore. Ask if there are any hitters in their late thirties who still have good bat speed and the list is short—heck, there may not be enough old hitters with good bat speed to make anything resembling a list.

 

That being the case, if a guy is getting older you probably don’t want to give him anything off-speed in the strike zone. You can show it to him, that might keep him from cheating on a fastball, but keep it out of the zone—beat the older hitter with fastballs.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/20/50340...l#storylink=cpy

If Konerko has a slider speed bat, and that is still debatable, the problem is Vargas has a slider speed fastball. 86.8 average fastball. Change ups are good pitches, but if they are up, they are bad pitches.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Dick Allen

[Dick Allen]

I was reading that to qualify for a major league pension, you only need 43 days service time for the minimum $34,000 a year once you hit 55. Scott Carroll needs only about 3 more weeks.

[cabiness42]

I was reading that to qualify for a major league pension, you only need 43 days service time for the minimum $34,000 a year once you hit 55. Scott Carroll needs only about 3 more weeks.

 

What a bizarre, random number.

[southsider2k5]

What a bizarre, random number.

 

An MLB season is 170 days for their contract purposes. 42.5 days is one quarter of a season.

[witesoxfan]

I was reading that to qualify for a major league pension, you only need 43 days service time for the minimum $34,000 a year once you hit 55. Scott Carroll needs only about 3 more weeks.

 

He should get it. At this point, unless they need the room on the 40 man later in the season or he gets hurt, he's going to be a September call up.

[Leonard Zelig]

Crazy amount of strange things happened tonight.

 

Bottom of the first was a half hour with a bunch of bad plays.

 

Alexei drama in the dugout. I loved Downs walking in front of the camera like a true veteran.

 

Guccione sleeping at 3rd.

 

Alexei play at first and then the fake injury he had so the Sox could get a good look at it in the clubhouse and still fail. Then you have Eaton make Alexei take it slow down walking into dugout because he scraped his elbow. LOL

 

Lindstrom tears something in his leg at the worst possible time.

 

Can anyone tell me at what point in the game these happened? I'd like to see without watching the whole game.

[Dick Allen]

Good bit there, Dick. I wonder how much the FO and certain players sweat this throughout baseball.

I think if it's close, most teams try to help the players out. I know the Sox activated Jerry Hairston in 1990 even though he didn't play for the sole purpose of him hitting the full benefit service time.

[elrockinMT]

greg, you are no longer my financial advisor. You have led me to financial ruin

 

 

Send me what's left and anything your family gives you to tide you over this rough patch and I will invest it for you in my 401K

[greg775]

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...t&p=2980861

 

 

 

Can anybody loan greg some money? He may be a bit short this morning.

 

If u guys had bet the over like I said, you'd have not had to sweat it out at all and made some cash.

[cabiness42]

If u guys had bet the over like I said, you'd have not had to sweat it out at all and made some cash.

 

You said bet the KC-over parlay. Maybe you don't know what a parlay is, but you only win money if both parts win.

[Leonard Zelig]

3rd and 5th innings respectively. I know it sucks watching games when you know the outcome but this was a crazy game to watch.

 

I was pissed the game thread overlooked Alexei challenge play. There was full fledged effort by Alexei and Eaton to stall after the close play at first. Alexei saw that he was called out, was upset for a few seconds and then all of a sudden had a jolt of pain from a scrape. This scrape was so serious that Eaton had Alexei slow down and helped him into the dugout.

 

I am sure we will never find out why Alexei had to be held back by all the latinos after his home run. There was a good shot of Nieto laughing about it though so someone might have just been messing with Alexei and he took it too seriously. Then you have Downs, like a boss, realize they were on camera and walk in front of view to cover Alexei's emotions.

 

I just thought there was a lot of interesting, cunning acts throughout the game, very fun game but a long one.

 

Thanks raBBit, I'll check those innings out.