illinoisredsox

August 29th

Rice has been a PITA against the Sox since he came up.

I believe my words were he's never put together a good full season. To me that means having some consistency. He had half a good season last year. He missed the first 3 1/2 weeks; I don't remember why.. He was pretty good his first 3-4 starts, though always throwing a ton of pitches. He was very mediocre his next 5-6 starts. Then he turned it around and was fantastic from the last half of June through the end of August, showing us all what he could be. Once the calendar turned to September, he was terrible, culminating in a 2 inning postseason start against the Yankees in a game which could have sent the Sox onward in the playoffs. Overall, his numbers were good last year. But they are an average of a very high highs and a very low lows. Any pitcher will have a bad game or two here and there. He had multiple bad months. Yes, his relief numbers this year (3 games total) are incredible. But being an ace is not just numbers, it's a mentality. An ace wants the ball in the biggest moments. An ace doesn't fall apart when something bad happens behind him. Bello has never shown that he has that mentality. Decorum prevents me from telling you what you can do with "you are foolish and you should not be posting here".

Havng a bad season presumes you’ve actually had (a) good season(s). He’s had a couple good half seasons but he’s never put together a full good season. The best that can be said is that overall he’s been healthy and never missed much time due to physical injury. This year not withstanding, stats wise he’s been remarkably mediocre overall

So should we start ordering those World Series tickets now? I'm trying to contain my giddiness. Maybe he's the new designated opener for Ding Dong. At least Breslow only had to part with some of Henry's cash.

What the team needs to do is sell. Unfortunately, another stupid cost cutting move they made is they no longer scout AA and AAA teams, so that makes trading guys like Chapman and Gray more of a risk than it was 10 years ago when you could target minor leaguers who could actually play baseball instead of just checking some athletic boxes. Wanna know why teams like the Rays seem to come up with guys who helped them immediately? It’s because they know their farm system and everybody else’s.

It’s not Bailey’s place to say anything and Breslow won’t send him down because Craig might have to admit he made a mistake with the extension.

Won’t disagree there, but when you have the nerds telling Jim Rice not to talk to the young hitters because what he’s saying doesn’t match “our” program, there’s at least some smoke that it could be happening.

Bredlow’s nerds won’t let him. I’m surprised Durbin going outside the organization for some help (a move that seems to have paid off at least a little) hasn’t gotten him sent down.

The “Sell the team” chants should stop. Now. For one thing, it’s not going to happen. ”Fire Breslow” should replace it; that one might be beneficial and it needs to happen ASAP.

Hunter Dobbin’s father apparently had a tweet or x post that said Breslow and his nerds are making all decisions both pitching and hitting and that even Bailey has very little input as to how the pitching staff is used. If it even has a scintilla of truth to it …

Maybe the White Sox had a different and what has turned out so far to be a more correct assessment/ evaluation of KC.

Unless you posted it at the time, it’s pure and worthless 20-20 hindsight.

More understandable than the Narvaez one earlier. I’ll be consistent with my earlier comment on Narvaez. At least with Gasper, it was breaking pitch they ticked the corner, not a fastball that got plenty of plate.

Can’t believe Masa didn’t challenge that first pitch. It was 5 inches high. He’s having done problems swing the ball today.

Well said. Every time a runner is thrown out does not mean it was a baserunning mistake. Sometimes the other team makes a play. On that one, if Ramirez throws it anywhere else, Abreu is safe.

Especially on that pitch. Some nasty breaking ball that nips the corner by a tenth of an inch maybe. A fastball where that was no way.

He’s had a weird season. He’s had 3 horrific outings where he allowed 7+ runs, which has driven up the ERA. He’s also had multiple games where he’s pitched well enough to get a win but the Guardians haven’t scored for him. He’s been supported with 2 or less runs in 8 of his 12 starts.

Apparently Rafaela was in the original lineup but was scratched due to a sore lower back. So we probably owe Tracy an apology on that one.

I don’t have a problem with Cedanne getting a day off. He definitely wore down late in the season last year so a day here or there might help that. i don’t have a problem with Contreras having a day off. Again, it might keep him a little fresher. Having both off on the same day is moronic and tells me Tracy is not in total control of who plays when.

You certainly are the master of 20-20 hindsight. The Crochet trade was a failure? Seriously? Yeah, I know he's hurt right now. That doesn't change the fact that the trade got us an ace. You don't get that trading scraps.

The yellow line is whatever the ground rules of the park says it is. For example, at Fenway there is a vertical yellow line in left center which shows the rightmost part of the Green Monster. A ball that hits right of that line is a home run. A ball that hits the line or left of the line is in play. Most of the time, yellow lines signify in play and are there to help the umps determine over the fence or not. And let’s be realistic, an ump is running out trying to get closer look but he’s still going to be a couple of hundred feet away trying to make the call on a line drive. In today’s case, there was a clear view (blown up) showing the ball hitting the line. It was ruled correctly by New York. Umps are better off ruling a ball in play and letting things play out rather than ruling a ball out of play. A call can always be changed after review to a home run or a foul ball with minimal impact.

How bad have the Sox been playing? Chapman hasn’t appeared in a game since May 20th. He did warmup up last night.

I would like to have seen Wong running there, especially when it got to 0-2. Worst case he gets thrown out and Duran leads off next inning. Didn’t matter since Duran struck out on the 3rd pitch but still …

Except we saw a lot of this last year as well.