unless he skipped over someone else in the future, which could happen on the Sept. 22 off day.

Nice summary, btw, Mr. Michaels, as I was not able to keep up with the game this evening…but what have you done to cheat? ;)

i thought i read that it was so javy would be ready for thursday @ the bronx on regular rest

Floyd is scheduled to get four more starts from here on out but from there it gets a little dicey. If you don’t include the final two games of the season, Danks, Vazquez and Buehrle each have three starts the rest of the way, with Broadway/random-guy-off-the-street/Egg getting at least two more.

The last two games is where it gets a bit crummy. The Sox are going to have to attack those last two games with two of the ‘big four’ going on short rest. It figures that the guy who would be going on three days rest for that second-to-last game is Danks.

Can’t the Sox extend Poreda for a couple of three inning ‘piggyback’ starts, seeing that we’re so short-handed? (Don’t answer that, it’s mostly rhetorical and just me whining.)

you need to make a t shirt with that cat holding that belt….please

i know in a previous thread some weeks ago it was discussed that perhaps the big boy is not throwing the slider effectively for strikes, and thus ignoring it altogether. did he even try to throw it last night??? i could check gameday, but skipped out after the 6th last night.

echoing what you said the other day, cheat, clayton richard should not be pitching for a contending team. obviously the DH fucked things up some but the move to broadway over richard against detroit makes sense under the circumstances, as you point out.

1. I like our chances tonight. MB’s gonna come up big.
And Doc is hittable. 3 runs will do it. You heard it here first. Ridicule away.
by winningugly on Sep 10, 2008 3:05 PM EDT

I must amend the formula: MB + OD – BJ = W-2

2. Cheat, thanks for changing the avatar.

You got it!

You like great infield defense? You got it. (Swish, great play at first, scooping that ball off the line. Che leaping 5-feet in the air to grab a shot to right-center. Uribe’s missiles from third…)
You like beating an unstoppable line-up and their ace pitcher? Done!
You enjoy a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt (AJ almost redeemed himself for the horrible base-running from third in the 10th Saturday night, as he crossed the plate before that bunt could even be fielded)? Thank you, Owens.

I love a good MB outing. Nothing pleases me more, I must say.

And WU would have been right – we only needed 3 runs against Halladay to do it….that is, as long as Buerhle was pitching.

The photo finish only made the game more fun – and knowing that Swish’s first hit of the night (first left side at-bat after striking out 3 times from the right against Halladay) led the way to BA’s *insurance RBI in the bottom of the 8th…..WOW. What a finish.

What an effort by the whole team. I loved it.
And slept worlds better last night than Tuesday.

san diego claims haeger.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080910&content_id=3454108&vkey=news_sd&fext=.jsp&c_id=sd&partnerId=rss_sd

This week’s SI has named the Sox the “heaviest” (i.e. fattest) team in MLB, with an average weight of 226 lbs. per man. Imagine the average if Alexi wasn’t on the squad!

Good job guys!

..it’s all Angels & Dodgers. Must be nice to have a.) clinched the div. in early Sept and b.) have a .3.5 game lead over your div. rivals. God forbid we should have an easy sept.

Here at Baseball Prospectus, we’ve been advocating the four-man rotation for a long time—longer than I’ve been here, actually. There have been a very few teams who have tried it, and they invariably changed course quickly, usually because they didn’t really prepare and just tossed guys into it without altering the real process. Other teams have talked about it, but lacked the institutional will to carry it through. Tom Verducci wrote recently that teams used closers in the same way for no real reason, other than that handing the ball to that designated guy is not only easier to explain to the media, it also makes it easier to blame someone else on the occasions when it doesn’t work. So it surprised me when I discovered that the White Sox have shifted, if not to an out-and-out four-man rotation, to a five-day rotation, where their four starters are taking their regular turns every fifth, and the fifth starter in the rotation gets skipped as often as the schedule permits. I paused, thought about it, and realized that this shouldn’t have surprised me at all; Kenny Williams isn’t afraid of trying new things or of doing things his own way. We haven’t always been supportive of his methods or his choices, but the results speak for themselves, both positively and negatively. The same could be said for Ozzie Guillen, or for Don Cooper. They’ve also set an apparent lower pitch limit, with none of the four starters going more than 110 pitches. I say apparent, because aside from Javier Vazquez, none of the other four have gone over that number more than once all season. If the White Sox get to the playoffs, these are the kinds of moves as far as pitcher handling that deserve far more notice than Williams and Guillen and Cooper have received, but that doesn’t make this kind of management any less smart.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8058

2 out run scoring double by morneau in the 1st. going to top of 2, 1-0 twins.

Matchup: Blue Jays (78-67) at White Sox (81-64), 7:11 p.m. CDT
Probable Starters: Shaun Marcum (142 IP, 3.61 RA, 1.16 WHIP, 116 K) vs. Gavin Floyd (174, 4.66, 1.24, 123)
Pythagorean Record: Toronto, 83-62 (647 RS, 552 RA); Chicago, 81-64 (728 RS, 640 RA)
Hit List Rankings: Toronto, #7; Chicago, #6
Prospectus: One thing that continues to pop up all over the internet (and here at Baseball Prospectus via chats and reader e-mails) is the viability of Alexei Ramirez as the Rookie of the Year recipient. There are a few problems with having Ramirez take home the Jackie Robinson Award despite his production this year, thanks to stiff competition and an assortment of holes you can poke in Ramirez’ candidacy. Ramirez has hit .298/.318/.475, which is solid in the power department but reflects a lack of patience. His .316 BABIP is a smidge above expectations, but if you were to adjust for that, Ramirez would be hitting closer to .281/.301/.458; it’s just a few missing hits, but just those few shows you how close Ramirez’ line is to losing a good bit of sparkle. That’s not a strong enough argument by itself to dismiss him, especially since awards are based on what players have done rather than what they should have done, but there is more to the argument as well. Ramirez has accumulated 18.3 VORP on the year in 437 plate appearances, placing him third in the AL rookie class behind Mike Aviles and Evan Longoria. Though this shouldn’t factor into a race determined by counting stats, he has, on a rate basis, been the fourth most productive rookie offensively per game in the AL (via VORPr), behind the aforementioned pair and the Twins’ Denard Span. In just 357 plate appearances, Aviles has been more productive offensively than Longoria by .01 per game, though the defensive difference between them more than makes up for that.

As for Ramirez’ glove, it’s never going to help him win any awards, as he ranks last among qualifying second basemen in John Dewan’s Revised Zone Rating, and has just 13 plays outside of his zone as well, which should give you an idea of how little range he’s displayed (the next-lowest total is Jeff Kent’s 20). Aviles, if he qualified, would be in the top third among shortstops via RZR (which may be overstating his value due to a small sample, but it sure beats ranking last, like Ramirez), and Longoria is one of the best at his position. So, after adding defense to the equation, it’s silly to include Ramirez in the discussion, especially since this is just considering the position players. Pitchers can take home the award as well, and there are 10 of them who have produced more than Ramirez this year in VORP, with four or five of those guys as deserving of the prize as either Aviles or Longoria.

Noticed that Minny is tied in the 6th?

Maybe some hope?

Ivan Drago’s punch (fictional): Pg = 2150 psi

that’s a lot, my friends.