Package him with Kyle McCullough next year for the rotting corpse of Gary Sheffield so we can all forget that the White Sox organization ever drafted these two bums in the first round.

Meanwhile, the Twins face four lefty A’s starters in a row — Dana Eveland, Dan Meyer, Dallas Braden, and Greg Smith. Even though these guys are far from studs, the Twins offense sucks more against lefties than righties. Hopefully, the A’s aren’t tanking it already.

we may have seen the best day of juan castro’s life.
or not.
whatever.
i’m just saying look on the bright side.
sheesh.
what’s your problem?

Not from the standpoint of in-game decisions, but pregame decisions — namely (and most if not all of these were noted in the gamethreads, so this is not groundbreaking, just synthesis):

1. Against a wild pitcher, he kept out one of his most patient hitters in Q!, and the more patient of his third basemen in Crede.
2. In a stadium with a very large center field, he put El General in CF. Even assuming the whole “center is easier than the corners” bit that KW has thrown out from time to time has merit normally, it’s hard to believe it does in Camden, where it’s 406 to straightaway center and stretches out to 417 to left center.
3. He did this in a game that (looking over shoulder to make sure no one is actually listening), as SSH notes, looked imminently winnable going in, with the Sox best (or at least most consistent) starter going against a pitcher with an ERA over 7 and a team with little to play for.

Someone (Vince, I think) noted that it looked like Ozzie was trying to steal one with the off-day coming up. My question is why? Isn’t this the game you make sure you win? The next game is against Beckett in Boston. To me, that’s the game you try to “steal” — face it, you have little chance of winning anyway. Why not rest Q on Friday after the off day on Thursday if you want to get him back to back days of rest? They may have lost this one no matter what — Danks did look bad — but it did not seem like they were given the best chance to win today which, while sometimes necessary (after the near fade in 2005, I’m all for resting guys as much as possible), seemed odd in this case.

Anyway, the lead remains technically whopping at 1 game (though barely), and Punto popped out to third yesterday. Outlook: Still sunny.

The bullpen will be well rested for Friday.

That’s all I got.

One day he’s the bee’s knees, the next he’s never coming back…

Today he’s back on top of the world.

I can’t stand it.

Because Scott Linebrink’s right shoulder felt “great” after a 30-pitch bullpen session Wednesday, the reliever said a simulated game “might not be too far in the future.” That could portend a return to the White Sox’s bullpen.

…

Linebrink thought he might have corrected a mechanical flaw dating to his days as a prospect with San Francisco when he had a tendency to drop his arm angle and throw across his body. He missed the end of the 1998 season and the start of ’99 after shoulder surgery.

“It’s something I’ve always battled,” Linebrink said. "I’ve been too quick with my lower half and let my arm drag. You want to work north and south and eliminate east and west.

“I was [throwing] 18 inches across my body, but I’ve gotten a lot better with it. It’s understanding the way you throw. Sometimes you forget some of these things, and the simplest mechanics can jog in your memory.”

link

A day off is OK. In retrospect the game we “should’ve” won wasn’t won or lost by the hitters – Danks was off, the pen needed some shuteye for the weekend, and the O’s were ready to break their 5 game losing streak. this was one of those “reverse lock” games that are hard to win.

No problem – still up by one. Soldier on. But the gamethreads the last couple nights have been el lamo. Hopefully we are not getting complacent or bored – were in the stretch run from here on out.

SO GET IN THE GAME! WIZ, CHIBURB, AND ALL THE REST OF YOU BUMS WHO NEEDED AN EMOTIONAL BREAK – LET’S GO!

and it was freakin’ ugly. so was the fugly trying to flirt with me at the sports bar, ugh. danks didn’t have it. was surprised to see ozzie give Q a day off. reckon he ain’t used to playing a full season, but considering we’re neck to neck with those goddamn twinkies, we should ride that mofo for all he’s worth.

…and if we needed more evidence that griffey cannot field in center!

giants fans calling in this morning bitching about bochy removing lincecum last night with 2 outs in the 8th, even though he’d already thrown 132 pitches!

danks’ mechanics were messed up. release point quite inconsistent (and a few times wildly and ridiculously off) and “higher” than normal. looked absolutely atrocious to me. coupled with the fact that he was working at a snail’s pace, it’s pretty obvious that something was bothering him. laboring would be a kind description of what he was doing.

Matchup: Twins (75-58) at Athletics (61-72), 7:05 p.m. PT
Probable Starters: Nick Blackburn (157 1/3 IP, 4.58 RA, 1.32 WHIP, 78 K) vs. Dana Eveland (132, 4.36, 1.49, 92)
Pythagorean Record: Minnesota, 73-60 (670 RS, 604 RA); Oakland, 64-69 (519 RS, 541 RA)
Hit List Rankings: Minnesota, #10; Oakland, #20
Prospectus: Last night Brad Ziegler’s compelling season continued into its latest chapter, as he closed out his sixth save in six opportunities since taking over the closer’s job from Huston Street, shutting down the division-leading Angels while lowering his RA/9 to 0.39 on the season. After Garret Anderson reached on an error to lead off the ninth and Rob Quinlan walked following a Reggie Willits sacrifice to put the winning run on first, Ziegler got Juan Rivera to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game. It was the third game-ending double play that the side-arming rookie right-hander has induced in his last seven appearances, and the 16th twin-killing the A’s have turned in his 46 2/3 innings on the mound this year, 15 of them on ground balls. To put that number in perspective, Mark Buehrle has had 27 double-play grounders this year to lead the majors, while throwing close to four times the number of innings that Ziegler has. Forty batters have hit against Ziegler so far in situations where a GIDP was possible, and they have complied a remarkable 37.5 percent of the time. Thus far his filthy sinker has produced 87 grounders versus 22 flies, a G/F ratio of 3.95 that ranks as the second best in baseball behind Chad Bradford (5.60). Batters have had extreme difficulty hitting anything hard in the air against him, and just four of the 28 hits Ziegler has allowed have gone for extra-bases—three doubles and a triple—leaving his opponent ISO a paltry .034. Last night’s effort moved him into first place in the majors in ARP, with 25 runs prevented above average, and he now ranks seventh in WXRL at 4.3 wins added.

A Tale of Two Teams

I received an email from reader CW regarding the AL Central race as it pertained to the August 15 Hit List:

Could you please explain why the [White] Sox are 10 places above the Twins in the rankings but yet only one game ahead in the standings? I understand that PECOTA has a lot to do with the rankings but 10 spots? Seems to me the Sox are a little over-rated and the Twins a little under don’t you think?
Though they form the basis of the pre-season Hit List and are incorporated into the ones early in the season, at this stage of the year PECOTA has nothing to do with the Hit List rankings. It all comes back to the Adjusted Standings and the various ways we refine a team’s run differential to determine its true strength. Rather than tackle a ranking that’s nearly two weeks old, let’s take a look at the Twins and White Sox through Tuesday, when the 76-56 South Siders held a two-game lead over the 74-58 Twins.

Both teams have positive run differentials, but the White Sox have a more favorable one that’s nearly double that of their pursuers. They’ve outscored opponents 684-568, a margin of 116 runs, while the Twins have just a 65-run advantage on their opponents, 664-599. The first-order Pythagenpat projections based on those actual run totals have the White Sox playing at a 77.5-win clip, the Twins at a 72.5-win clip, expanding the gap between the two teams from two wins to five.

Adjusting for the run elements which went into scoring those runs—hits, walks, total bases, stolen bases, etc.—as well as their park and league scoring environments, the White Sox’s margin shrinks to 109 runs (684-575); they’ve scored as many runs as their run elements suggest they should, but have allowed slightly fewer. The Twins’ margin shrinks even more drastically to seven runs (609-602); they’ve scored 55 more than they should have. That’s the widest margin in the league, and as I pointed out last week, that has much to do with their .312/.388/.457 performance with runners in scoring position, the league’s best with regards to batting average and OBP. The two teams’ second-order projections derived from their Equivalent Run totals double the spread between the two teams to a hair over 10 wins, with the White Sox at 76.8 and the Twins at 66.7.

Adjusting for the quality of their opponents’ hitting and pitching via their own EqA and their EqA Allowed maintains the White Sox’s margin at 109 runs (692-583) while restoring a bit of favor to the Twins offense (624-608). The third-order projections derived from these Adjusted Equivalent Run totals maintain a nine-win margin between the two teams (76.7 wins to 67.6).

Now, many would be content to leave it at that, but the Hit List actually incorporates the winning percentages derived from all four runs-scored/runs-allowed sets. In doing so, it gives weight to the fact that the Twins have bagged more wins than their run differential suggests (mainly thanks to some good high-leverage work by their hitters and bullpen), without ignoring the fact that teams’ projected records are better predictors of future performance than actual records are. Using the numbers discussed here, the White Sox’s Hit List Factor is .581, the Twins’ is .532, equivalent to a 6.5-win margin at this stage of the year.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8006

great Red Sox / Yankees game today. Good to see the Yankees help out the Sox cause.

Giambi was a stud today. He scored all three of his teams runs including the walkoff single with the bases loaded.

Josh Beckett has been scratched from his scheduled start Friday and is scheduled to see Dr. James Andrews.
No details yet, but Beckett must have had more tingling in his hand yesterday and/or today. His bullpen session Tuesday reportedly went fine, causing him to be penciled in for Friday. The Red Sox figure to place him on the DL and call up someone — perhaps David Pauley — to start Friday.

Source: Boston.com

The Red Sox are calling the decision to scratch Josh Beckett from his scheduled start Friday a precautionary measure.
“I think the best word I can use is we’re just trying to get some closure,” manager Terry Francona said. “We never want to send anyone out there that’s not 100 percent. We’re no more pessimistic about him today than we were, but when he goes out there [again] we want him to be able to pitch with peace of mind.” GM Theo Epstein added that it was his understanding that the tingling was not still present in Beckett’s pitching hand, but that “the elbow itself doesn’t feel 100 percent.” The Red Sox plan to move Daisuke Matsuzaka up to Friday and call up David Pauley to start Saturday.

Source: Boston.com