It’s Kornerko now.

As far as the closer situation goes. Linebrink doesn’t look comfortable in that role, and if he’s expressed desire to not close games, then shit don’t let him near a save opportunity this week unless the Sox are up big time.

Thornton if there are some lefties coming up, Dotel if there are more righties.

I’d like to keep Liney in the setup role. If he’s not comfortable closing then I wouldnt’ mess with his head and risk messing up the 8th inning monster that he is now.

with Jenks losing his velocity and Lidge getting a big contract that Kenny will eventually have to trade Jenks in the not-so-distant future.

Jenks injury thing then it will become a huge problem. The best thing to do is to ignore it and it will go away. I mean look at Tampa, they lost their closer right? And they’ve got the best record in MLB.

regards

I think trading him this offseason would be a great idea. Would Texas want him in exchange for someone like Teagarden? The Sox will need an OF (preferably CF) and 2B next season and they have no decent C/1B/DH prospects in the system. Moving Jenks to fill one of those needs would work for me.

I think hit the nail on the head re: Uribe. We do not have a major league SS (even replacement level) in our syatem if we trade Uribe. Getz had never played SS in the minors before this year and 2B was his primary position in college. He is not a major league SS, he’s just playing the position at Charlotte because they’ve already started the competition for 2B next year so they want him and Richar to play middle infield every day. Ozuna can’t even play 3B. If something happens to Ocab we’d be in trouble. Not to mention the negative impact when O takes a day off.

With a league average fielder at SS with a replacement level bat (Uribe) you can still win. With a replacement level glove (let’s say -25 runs a year with the glove) and bat not so much. Unless we get a SS back (Hu?) it’s a no brainer to hold onto Uribe and DFA pablo.

If the playoffs started today, Twinnesota would be the wild card.

A month ago, we thought the only way the Sox would get in the playoffs is by winning the division, because our division was so far behind in the wild card race. Now our division is in the thick of it.

I still think we can beat the Twins for the division, but the wild card is winnable too, which just has to increase our playoff chances.

... Quentin was the quintessential three-sport athlete. Though not a starter on the state championship basketball team, he stood out as a role player, as “the guy you’d put in to rebound and he’d grab 13, 14,” Green says. “He would do whatever the coach asked him and do it with this amazing sense of pride.”
...
Some, including Quentin, say football may have been his first love. He excelled at linebacker and H-back enough to garner Division I attention.

“He had an unbelievable desire to win every battle,” says Sean Doyle, his high school football coach, citing the city championship game his senior year in which Quentin forced and returned a fumble for the tying touchdown, then set up the game-winner with his running.

But it was baseball where Quentin made his biggest impression. As a high school underclassman, he hit a home run off the top of the scoreboard in left-center field at the University of San Diego stadium. In his senior year he hit one over the scoreboard, every bit of 400 feet-plus.
...
As a 12-year-old Quentin was 5 feet 9 inches and 140 pounds, and sported a mustache. His mom and dad sympathized with parents who complained that he was too big to play with their boys.

“No way was he going to play [Little League],” Queta says. “We were afraid he was going to hurt somebody. The poor little third baseman would be gone if he hit it hard.”

rebounder, linebacker, returner

Q! can do it all!

Sox get 3 against the Royals and 3 against the Rangers on the road this week. Now would be the perfect time for the Sox to increase their lead right before the All-Star break.

Joe Crede would be willing to participate in the Homerun Derby if asked. Uh….okay.

Source: the radio

On the drive to work, listening to Steve Dahl, I had to LOL. The Stever was talking about the Blackhawks’ plan to play Detroit on New Year’s Day in Wrigley Field, Dahl said, “Why New Year’s Day? Because that’s the only time of year you can go there and it doesn’t smell like urine.”

then go check out the nba summer league stream…got some all-star commentating going on over there

... Jayson Stark commented on the Harden situation on Thursday:

The A’s will consider any offers that allow them to add and subtract at the same time. But any Harden deal would have to at least approach last winter’s Dan Haren extravaganza.

A reminder: Baseball America ranked Carlos Gonzalez as the game’s #22 prospect, and Brett Anderson was #36. The Cubs don’t have two players like that. Then add Greg Smith and Dana Eveland, who have combined for a 3.52 ERA in 207 innings this year. Oh, and toss in Chris Carter and Aaron Cunningham for good measure. That was a haul, even for an ace like Haren.

... Proceed with caution with Bedard. Due to a decent 2006 season and an elite ‘07 season, his value is still extremely high despite not showing anything too impressive in ‘04, ‘05, or this season. Last season is aberrant, especially if you take a look at his K/9 rates. Going into ‘07, Bedard had never put up a K/9 above 8, yet in ‘07, he skyrocketed it to 10.93. That’s nearly a 33% increase!

This season, his numbers are more in line with his career averages, even though he’s pitched more than half of his starts in the most spacious ballpark in baseball, Safeco Field. In fact, there is a huge disparity in his home/road splits: Bedard has a 2.35 ERA at home in Seattle, and a 5.73 ERA on the road.

Bedard is having a mediocre season despite a BABIP at its lowest point in his six-year career. There’s nothing abnormal with his peripherals other than his sudden conversion to fly ball proneness. In ‘07, 47.9% of batted balls off of Bedard were of the ground ball variety and 34.8% were fly balls; this season, only 40.3% are ground balls and 42.9% are fly balls. I think it’s safe to assume that Bedard altered his pitching style to suit the large area in his home ballpark, and this is why his BABIP is so low—the expected BABIP on ground balls is a bit higher than on fly balls.
...
The most alarming aspect of Bedard’s season thus far is not the sudden change in batted ball tendencies, or the non-11 K-rate; it’s his inability to pitch past the fifth inning. He’s only pitched more than 5 innings seven times in his 15 starts in ‘08. He averages nearly 17 pitches per inning and, as a result, he’s usually close to 100 by the time the end of the fifth inning rolls around. Bedard taxes the bullpen. The Mariners have three pitchers in the top-15 among American League relief pitchers in innings pitched: Sean Green (5th, 48 IP), Ryan Rowland-Smith (12th, 40.2 IP), and Mark Lowe (14th, 40.1 IP). ...

http://deadspin.com/5022642/beachwood-ohio-cancels-little-league-all+star-game-to-boost-self+esteem-of-players-retroactively-surrender-to-germans

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s verbal attacks on reporters, general managers, players, fans, and blow-up dolls are somewhat disturbing, if not highly entertaining for those of us who don’t have to deal with them directly. But did you know you too can be eviscerated by Ozzie if you type with the appropriate amount of bile?

Guillen has made his e-mail public, so White Sox fans far and wide can tell him how spectacular a job he’s doing, or just anonymously insult him without imminent threat of physical retaliation. Chicago Tribune writer Rick Morrissey decided to test the account to see if Guillen really did check it. The writer fired away numerous semi-anonymous, timid, annoying messages to Guillen to see if he’d bite. None of them did — until Morrissey sent this one that “ripped” Guillen for this car dealership ad: ...

PLEASE read the threads at Blog-a-Bull. People are declaring the season over during a summer league game!!!

he makes lots of defence errors and likes to hit the ball up in the air to the fielders. But the most important thing is that his back will explode at some point during the next month. They should at least try and get something for him before he gets on the injured list.

and I hate that bubble gum thing he does, disgusting.

regards