but the sox faced some really good pitching tonight… especially from Street (I think that was his name, I only heard the game on the radio)..

you win some, you lose some. We swept two teams in a row. We just gotta come back and grab the next three.

Honestly the Sox have faced some really good pitchers lately and done very well. Sure I’d love to win this one, but its not like we got blown out

Our starters who have thrown CGs this year were matched up against pitchers who slot in leaderboards the following way:

Current AL ERA Rank: 1, 4, 6, 7
Current AL WHIP Rank: 1, 2, 4, 9

I saw a lot of hard hit balls, good play for the most part. It just didn’t happen for them. C’est la vie.

wu warned him to keep his dick in his pants, and he didn’t listen.

than the mosquito bite on my elbow.

Genetics FTW

wear pants like what Oakland wear, it’s a physical game right? I can’t understand why the players have to wear stupid stiff pants with a fucking belt to keep them up. Surely, better pants allows more comfortable movement at the plate and in the field right?

You have to look at these sort of little details sometimes.

regards

Because the gamethread last night (which I wasn’t able to join due to a crappy computer) seemed like a complete meltdown!

Matchup: Athletics (46-39) at White Sox (49-36), 6:05 p.m. CT
Probable Starters: Joe Blanton (114 IP, 5.29 RA, 1.43 WHIP, 55 K) vs. Mark Buehrle (111 2/3, 4.35, 1.30, 62)
Pythagorean Record: Oakland, 49-36 (373 RS, 313 RA); Chicago, 52-33 (416 RS, 328 RA)
Hit List Rankings: Oakland, #5; Chicago, #4
Prospectus: The Athletics came up with a 3-2 win in last night’s series opener at U.S. Cellular Field, breaking Chicago’s nine-game home winning streak, and also handed ex-teammate Nick Swisher an 0-for-4 collar with three strikeouts. So far, the White Sox have not reaped as much benefit as they had hoped to from their offseason trade with Oakland for Swisher. He has been exactly average offensively, with a .260 EqA. Meanwhile, a third of the haul that Oakland GM Billy Beane received for Swisher, outfielder Ryan Sweeney, has produced a .276 EqA, the fourth best mark on the A’s. Swisher has been on a tear recently, however, as he produced a 1032 OPS in 108 PA during the month of June, and seems poised to flip on the power that has been largely missing in the first half. Swisher and his teammates have been popping the ball out of the Cell all season-75 homers and a .482 SLG in 42 home games-but might find it difficult to continue that trend tonight and over the rest of the weekend, for Oakland has allowed fewer home runs (60) than any other team. Blanton is the pitcher most likely to be taken deep of any A’s staff member (12 times), though, so White Sox fans hoping for in-game fireworks might yet be rewarded.

One of the Oakland pitchers contributing to that homer suppression is 28-year-old rookie reliever Brad Ziegler, who has tossed 15 scoreless innings since getting called up from Triple-A Sacramento on May 30. Ziegler’s 14 straight scoreless outings to open his career represents the fourth longest such streak by a rookie since 1956. The right-hander was a starter in the minors up through 2006, but at the very end of that season was converted into a sidearming reliever by the A’s, who were looking for the next Chad Bradford. It appears they may have found him: Ziegler gave up 20 homers in 163 innings during 2006, but upon moving full-time to relief in 2007 did not surrender a single long ball in 78 1/3 frames. Add in this year’s 24 1/3 homerless innings at Sacramento, and his performance thus far in the majors, and Ziegler has now thrown 117 2/3 innings of relief since the start of last year without allowing a long ball. In that span he has also given up just 6.8 H/9, with an RA of 2.14.

So who goes?

With team captain Paul Konerko ready to leave for Charlotte Friday afternoon to begin his rehab assignment, his projected return date is now finally set for Tuesday in Kansas City, barring any setbacks.

What that means for the Sox is Nick Swisher now has to move back to center, and a roster move is coming.
Yes, there were scouts in attendance to watch Juan Uribe get the start at shortstop in the 3-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics, but if the Sox are unable to make a move with Uribe before then, expect Wise or Brian Anderson to be sent packing to Charlotte.
"I mean I know they have been playing well here … they can win this whole weekend and then I play on Tuesday and we lose, everyone is going to be, ‘Oh, it’s because Konerko,’ ‘’ Konerko said Thursday. "But that question is almost not for me. It’s like listen, ‘I’m on the team, I got hurt, I worked to get back and if I’m back, hopefully they want me.’ That’s the question for [manager] Ozzie [Guillen]. What am I supposed to say? I mean I hope they want me back.’’
Guillen does.
"P.K. has been here long enough,’’ Guillen said. "He should know what he’s doing.’’
What won’t be easy for the Sox is who to send out? The bottom line is someone’s feelings are about to be hurt knowing that the record put up in Konerko’s absence was a team effort by all 25 guys.
"It’s going to be hard,’’ Guillen said. "We’re going to make a couple moves. I think right now we think about what decision we’re going to make when he’s coming back. We don’t have any decision yet. When that day comes, we should be prepared. But what decision we’re going to make, my center fielder obviously has got to be Swisher.
"Every time you make a decision when you’re going to lose a player when you’re playing well, it’s not easy. The decision, right or wrong, we got to make one.’’
The million-dollar question, who would you send out?
-Wise?
-Anderson?
—Uribe, even if you can’t trade him?

Posted by Joe Cowley

http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2008/07/so_who_goes.html#more

by Kevin Goldstein

The old cliché is that you can go to a game and chances are you’ll see something you never saw before. On the same level, when you sit with the scouts, you can learn something you never knew. I attended last night’s game between Low-A Kane County and Burlington. It was a relatively uneventful game on a prospect level, but then in the fourth inning, something cool happened. Looking at the play-by-play of the game, it’s simply put, "Mike Moustakas flies out to center fielder Corey Brown." In reality it was a majestic thing. By the time it came down there was a four-man committee standing in short-short center with the two middle infielders, the centerfielder and the left fielder all having enough time to vote on who should catch it and sign a declaration declaring so before Corey Brown put his glove up to snag it in. One veteran baseball man turned to me and said, "How many kids in this league can hit a pop-up like that in this league? That’s pretty special." It sounded strange at first, but then I learned that it really was special. Talking later that night to a scout, I learned that many of them time pop-ups and it helps them measure raw power. They’re already starting their stopwatches on the crack of the bat to time the batters’ speed to first, so they leave it on and measure to time in the air of the pop flies. If you get past seven seconds, you’re getting into Mark McGwire territory. The more you know . . .

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/07/sabathia-brewer.html

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080704&content_id=3063152&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnerId=rss_mlb

thanks for the memories, joe.

he can do a lot; oh, you mean well? ehh, I don’t have anything there

by Dayn Perry

http://foxsports.com/mlb/story/8308750/

And a nice one!

Barack Obama, noting he was in the midst of Vikings fans while speaking in Fargo this afternoon, suggested that they should instead root for the Chicago Bears.

“You guys need to be re-educated,” said the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. “Go Bears!” ...

LOL!

“Any catcher, really, could be a good manager; if you catch, you know all the other positions,” Paul Konerko said.
...
“Anarchy,” is what outfielder Brian Anderson projects as a clubhouse run by manager Pierzynski.
...
“He’d be a good one,” said backup catcher Toby Hall, possessed of his own managerial aspirations.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

there’s a balrog!