Open Thread

1. Konerko is a vile, blackhearted wretch who has never ever done anything good and is bad and mean and worse than Erstad, Ozuna, McDougal and General Zod combined. He doesn’t like baseball (even less than Adam Dunn), God or Q, and he made Bennigan’s go bankrupt because he did not run out a pop-up.
2. In England, "irony" means pictures of Nazis. In the U.S., irony occurs whenever Mark Buehrle faces 37-year old backup catchers and career minor leaguers with no lifetime homers.
3. Duchsherer is better than Burnett who is better than Contreras, but Contreras is better than Duchsherer. All of them are better than Masset, who is better than Konerko. Konerko is better than … wait, sorry, Konerko is not better than anyone.
4. Not only have the Cubs never lost to any team in anything ever, but their fans can beat the crap out of Mike Adamle, everyone associated with Raw and a group of 2-year olds watching PBS Kids using only a floppy hat and a "W" flag.
5. The season is over because no team in baseball history has ever won a 4-game series against a team after losing the first game of the series, and every first place team who has ever lost a 4-game series to a second place team has finished behind the second place team by season’s end. Also, no team has ever made it to the playoffs (in any sport on any level) after being in first place and having its lead fall from 2.5 games to 1.5 games.

by The Actual El Guapo on Jul 29, 2008 12:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

But the satiric over-exaggeration of the zeitgeist is sort of a meme in and of itself now. And an annoying one at that.

Here is something on when Internet Meme’s get out of control, sorta interesting.

http://homerderby.com/archives/2376

...my office at the corner of H’wood & Vine just shook like a mofo for 5 minutes. My Harold Baines auto. bat fell off the shelf and danced across the floor. Smells like…victory.

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/07/i-hate-it-when-people-say-things.html

Activated RHP Esteban Loaiza from the 15-day DL, and waived him unconditionally; placed 3B-R Joe Crede on the 15-day DL (back), retroactive to 7/22; recalled 3B-R Josh Fields from Charlotte (Triple-A). [7/25]
Placed RHP Scott Linebrink on the 15-day DL; recalled RHP Ehren Wassermann from Charlotte. [7/26]

While most pennant pursuits might involve a bit of drama any time any major "name" player breaks down, the happy plight of the Sox is that the hot corner is one of the few places where they really don’t miss a beat when they lose their regular. Not that Crede hasn’t done a nifty job of making a comeback, having done the things you expect of him—playing an aggressive third, and depositing balls into the left-field seats in the Cell with his usual aplomb by hitting .263/.339/.550 at home against significantly less useful .247/.305/.393 everywhere else. Fields hasn’t had a great year at Charlotte, having hit only 248/.325/.450 overall, but between some knee problems that shelved him in May and the perhaps understandable distraction of having his name bandied about in almost any White Sox trade rumor, it’s important to focus on the fact that the core skills of the 25-year-old are still in place—he’s still got power, he’s still pretty athletic, and he should still be a seamless one-for-one plug-in in Crede’s space in terms of what he generally gives the Sox. After the year, if they’ve held onto Fields, they should be able to let Crede slip away without any regret.

As for the pen exchange, Linebrink’s shoulder was hampering his performance as well as his availability, and this isn’t a pen that can afford that sort of absence, since it basically becomes the Bobby Jenks Show at that point. Not that the Human Barrel hasn’t done his thing since returning from the DL, but perhaps Wassermann can recapture last year’s situational magic and join Boone Logan in giving Ozzie Guillen some ROOGY/LOOGY mix-and-match options in the seventh inning before hoping that Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton can hand leads to Jenks. It looks OK on paper, but they do still have to play the games and inspire a few more Ozzieruptions, of course.

https://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7875

Cabrera ss
Anderson cf
Quentin lf
Dye rf
Thome dh
Konerko 1b
Ramirez 2b
Fields 3b
Hall c
Richard p

In case you’re wondering why the lineup looks different, the Sox are scheduled face left-hander Glen Perkins.

christ.

but I knew others would know better! And yea, Cabrera is fine, he’s the de-facto leadoff and whatever can’t mess with chemistry yada yada yada. But please bat Swisher 2nd, jeez.

“Kotchman for Teixeira in works”
Posted by Jayson Stark

Angels first baseman Casey Kotchman was pulled off the field during pregame warmups this afternoon at Fenway Park. And there are strong indications he is about to be traded to the Braves for Mark Teixeira, according to a source with knowledge of those discussions. Details are still being finalized, and additional, lesser names are expected to be involved. But Kotchman for Teixeira is the core of this deal.

The latest: A second source with knowledge of these discussions says the Braves will get Kotchman, plus a second lesser name, for Teixeira in a 2-for-1 deal.

The deal is supposedly Mark Teixeira for Casey Kotchman and pitcher Stephen Marek.

... U.S. Cellular Field is PETA’s fifth most-vegetarian-friendly ballpark in the nation, behind Philadelphia Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park, the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park, Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field and the San Diego Padres’ PETCO Park.

Wrigley Field doesn’t even make the top ten, sadly for veggie-loving baseball fans, though we think the beer at Wrigley is probably vegetarian.

PETA Assistant Director Dan Shannon gushed about U.S. Cellular’s fare: “The food vendors at U.S. Cellular Field are swinging for the fences when it comes to offering fans great vegetarian options that are kind to their health and to animals. Cholesterol-packed, meaty fare makes fans fat, so if you want to stand up for the seventh inning stretch, give the delicious vegetarian foods a try!”

Shannon cited U.S. Cellular’s veggie dog, Gardenburger, veggie taco, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, veggie taco salad, nachos with salsa, fruit cup and corn on the cob as examples of its vegetarian-friendly offerings.

by Sal Baxamusa
July 29, 2008

Marcel thinks so. The rest of the year projection for Teixeira is .287/.379/.521. Casey Kotchman, traded to the Braves for Tex, is at .281/.348/.438. That’s over 100 points of OPS. Both are supposed to be good fielders, so we’ll call that a wash. But since the Angels have the AL West all but wrapped up, so this is an upgrade for the postseason. Long-term, it’s hard to call this a win for the Angels, but if Tex has some postseason heroics, all will be forgiven.