Not devastating. In fact, the only real outcome I had in my mind from this game was “I can’t wait until the Twinks play on grass.”

Go get ’em tomorrow, boys.

You have to be shitting me.

But OC, Thome, and Swish are a combined 5-48 against him with one double

I’m not used to this losing playoff games bullshit.

is this one of those “we can’t criticize someone otherwise we’d lose access” deals?

at defense now-a-days. BA should start.

…sucks. I’m not sure anyone expected any more out of him. He has done a great job of living down to expectations. Game two will be much different. Buehrle is much more of a gamer and can certainly hold runners on first better.

But I expected the Sox to lose that game so no big surprise. Have to get them in the 2nd one.

Matchup: White Sox (89-74) at Rays (97-65), 6:07 p.m. ET, TBS
Probable Starters: Mark Buehrle (218 2/3 IP, 4.36 RA, 1.34 WHIP, 140 K) vs. Scott Kazmir (152 1/3, 3.60, 1.27, 166)
Pythagorean Record: Chicago, 89-74 (811 RS, 729 RA); Tampa Bay, 92-70 (774 RS, 671 RA)
Hit List Rankings: Chicago, #10; Tampa Bay, #3
Series Favorite: Rays, 69.2%
Prospectus: The Rays got the win in their first-ever playoff game yesterday, in large part thanks to a pair of homers from their first-year third baseman. Evan Longoria added to his burgeoning rookie ledger by becoming the second player to homer in his first two post-season at-bats, joining another third baseman, Gary Gaetti, who did so for the Twins in 1987. Longoria also picked up an RBI single, making him the fourth player to collect at least nine total bases and three RBI in his post-season debut, along with Ted Kluszewski, Ken Griffey Jr., and Todd Walker. Longoria also stole a bag, and the Rays will likely stay active on the basepaths against a Chicago team inept at holding runners.

Now Longoria and his mates will try to take control of the series in this Game Two battle between left-handers. As Nate Silver pointed out in yesterday’s series preview, Tampa Bay’s one real weakness is an inability to hit southpaws. The Rays’ offense is worse against left-handers than any of the other playoff offenses, with a 726 OPS that ranked 22nd in the majors this year, and that was in evidence yesterday: after the Rays jumped all over Javier Vazquez early on, Chicago rookie lefty Clayton Richard came out of the pen to hold Tampa Bay scoreless for 3 1/3. The Rays’ diminished capacity against southpaws has been mitigated somewhat by the return of Rocco Baldelli, who will be in the lineup tonight, either at designated hitter or right field, with both Cliff Floyd and Gabe Gross going to the bench. Joe Maddon has a pair of switch-hitting options in Ben Zobrist and Fernando Perez for his outfield, and he could also sit down left fielder Carl Crawford to give his lineup four right-handed bats across the outfield/DH positions, although Crawford may get the nod based upon his lifetime numbers against Buehrle (10-for-21). Baldelli has also had success against Buehrle, as he homered and doubled in his one start against the lefty this season in late August. And, in point of fact, the Rays actually hit Buehrle well this year, scoring 13 runs off of him in 19 2/3 innings across three starts.

The White Sox lineup will likely also take a different look this evening. Nick Swisher appears to have buried himself in the nether regions of Ozzie Guillen’s doghouse, for he has not had a plate appearance in the past four games, having been relegated to the bench against all right-handers. However, with Kazmir on the mound, Guillen will dust off his underachieving switch-hitter tonight to replace the lefty-swinging Dewayne Wise in left field, and Guillen will likely also tap the right-handed Brian Anderson to play center in place of Griffey. This was the alignment Guillen favored the last two times Chicago faced a southpaw. Swisher’s better side of the plate is the right side, where he has hit for a bit less power over the course of his career but been much more patient; Anderson has eight home runs in 85 plate appearances versus lefties this season, while showing almost no ability to get on base via any other means (he has more than twice as many extra-base hits on the season, 21, as walks, 10). Playing Swisher and Anderson has the added benefit of upgrading Chicago’s outfield defense, which is shaky when Griffey is in center.

Swisher’s presence in the lineup also serves to give Chicago a greater chance to work the pitch count against Kazmir, who has not gone longer than six innings in any of his last 12 starts. The one thing that Swisher excelled at in a down season was tiring pitchers out, as he saw a major league-leading 4.51 pitches per plate appearance. Kazmir threw an average of 4.30 pitches per batter faced, tops among all hurlers with 150 or more innings this season, and was third with 18.1 pitches per inning. Even with an injection of discipline to go with seven righty bats in the lineup, the Sox will have a tough task in getting to Kazmir, who gave up just three runs over 13 innings in his two starts versus Chicago this year.

When looking over the entire history of deadline-day trades, one is inevitably reminded that the vast majority of all trades, deadline and otherwise, amount to nothing, with nonentities being swapped for nonentities. This is true even of the big names that are typically dealt from also-rans to contenders around the non-waiver trading deadline of July 31 (and, before that, June 15). For buyers, very few trades have the kind of impact envisioned at the time of their consummation: a marked improvement at the position the acquiring team is upgrading and a boost into the postseason.

It is for this reason that the trades made by the Angels, Brewers, Dodgers, Red Sox, and White Sox around this year’s deadline are notable. Each of these clubs acquired a veteran. Three of the five received extraordinary performances from their acquisitions, and all five made the playoffs. Consider the performances of these players by the simple measure of Wins Above Replacement:


CC Sabathia 6.7
Manny Ramirez 5.6
Mark Teixeira 4.8
Jason Bay 2.5
Ken Griffey Jr. 1.0

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8154

follow-up on our Rachel Ray discussion yesterday (we have weird gamethreads)

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832362

I did not watch the game. How did Griffey look on Iwamura’s triple over his head in the third?

Let this simmer for a bit before I totally freak out

Fuck that, I want Kazmir to throw 20 pitches, all of them hit for home runs. Unrealistic you say? No, what’s unrealistic is the sucker of life-force Ken Griffey Jr. still starting at CF.

http://www.mouthpiecesports.com/blog/2008/10/02/white-sox-tribute-rap-song-bad-men-wear-black/

http://banderson.mlblogs.com/