Backwards Sox

Cliff Levingston · Post #1 » by **Cliff Levingston** » Mon May 19, 2008 2:57 pm

This season has been pretty weird so far. Going in, Cliff Levingston was deathly afraid of the pitching. Contreras getting older and much worse coming in. Vazquez coming off a good season but relatively unstable. Not to mention the two young guys Danks and Floyd. On top of that, we had tons of questions about the bullpen even after adding Dotel and Linebrink.

Looks like Kenny's moves (or non-moves in terms of the pitching staff) have paid off so far. Floyd and Danks have the lowest ERAs of the starting pitching staff (under 3) while Contreras and Vazquez are at a good 3.35 and 3.53 respectively. The only disappointment has been Buerhle, but he's not too horrible at 5.27 (just inconsistent). Meanwhile, the bullpen has done a good job including Dotel (for the most part), Linebrink, Logan, Masset and Jenks.

Conversely, Cliff Levingston thought our offense would have to carry us, and that it would be fairly capable of the task. Not so much, with two of our 3 big bats (Thome and Konerko) batting measly .203 and .212 respectively. Add on Swisher at .213 and Cabrera at .225 and the top of our lineup (for most of the season) has pretty much sucked. Thank god for Quentin who's knocking the cover off the ball, surprisingly, and great season by A.J. so far.

Thoughts?

Howling Mad · Post #2 » by **Howling Mad** » Tue May 20, 2008 3:50 am

The thread title has it correct.

Assbackwards!

I thought this lineup had enough guys, enough key guys, to not struggle, but who would've ever thought it was going to be CQ doing all the work? This guy is being born and is the real deal. Good for Sox fans, the usuals just aren't doing it right now.

Pitching!

The guys you thought were going to be alright, aren't, and the guys you thought were going to suck, don't. I can believe the two young fellas, Floyd and Danks, plus that bullpen has held their own.

You know what you can get from the vets, so they'll come around and pay dividends sometime.

Never did I think they would be able to pull this off, but so far the big bats are still hibernating and you guys are winning with pitching. Good stuff, good luck, except against us! :wink:

Cliff Levingston · Post #3 » by **Cliff Levingston** » Tue May 20, 2008 3:10 pm

To think that Cliff Levingston was pretty upset with the McCarthy trade last year. So far, John Danks and Nick Massett are pitching pretty darn well and McCarthy hasn't even pitched this year.

Cliff Levingston expects the roles to slowly change. The pitching staff won't be able to keep this up all year as we've seen time and again with Contreras especially. Also, you can't expect Quentin to keep this up as pitchers get some more information on him. Hopefully the veteran bats like Thome, Konerko and Swisher can start hitting, but we've seen Konerko go whole seasons playing like crap.

Shootdabull · Post #4 » by **Shootdabull** » Tue Jun 3, 2008 3:21 pm

Cliff Levingston wrote:To think that Cliff Levingston was pretty upset with the McCarthy trade last year. So far, John Danks and Nick Massett are pitching pretty darn well and McCarthy hasn't even pitched this year.

Cliff Levingston expects the roles to slowly change. The pitching staff won't be able to keep this up all year as we've seen time and again with Contreras especially. Also, you can't expect Quentin to keep this up as pitchers get some more information on him. Hopefully the veteran bats like Thome, Konerko and Swisher can start hitting, but we've seen Konerko go whole seasons playing like crap.

Hey Cliff I was right there with you. I thought McCarthy was going to be pretty good pitcher for us. I also thought getting rid of garland was really going to hurt the staff big time. Now if we can only get MB to return to form.

The hitting really needs help just ask Ozzie. The three guys you mentioned have been huge disapointments especially when you consider we gave up the farm for swisher. I think Kenny needs to make another move so we don't waste the wonderful pitching we are getting this year.

Cliff Levingston · Post #5 » by **Cliff Levingston** » Tue Jun 3, 2008 4:52 pm

Shootdabull wrote:Hey Cliff I was right there with you. I thought McCarthy was going to be pretty good pitcher for us. I also thought getting rid of garland was really going to hurt the staff big time. Now if we can only get MB to return to form.

The hitting really needs help just ask Ozzie. The three guys you mentioned have been huge disapointments especially when you consider we gave up the farm for swisher. I think Kenny needs to make another move so we don't waste the wonderful pitching we are getting this year.

Kenny has a point though when he mentioned how the offense should come around. It's hard to imagine a lineup with Konerko, Swisher, Thome and Dye in it being so pathetic all year.

Shootdabull · Post #6 » by **Shootdabull** » Tue Jun 3, 2008 6:43 pm

Cliff Levingston wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Kenny has a point though when he mentioned how the offense should come around. It's hard to imagine a lineup with Konerko, Swisher, Thome and Dye in it being so pathetic all year.

The problem with Kenny quote though is Thome is looking old & Konerko had a bad year last year is seems to be going down from there. You could live with that if this wasn't the heart of the order. The line up is old and slow, it seems like over half the at bats come from guys on the wrong side of 30. This team could use some speed. Swisher should be hitting his peak and if this is it its pretty scary. I expect he'll hit better, but so far he has been brutal. I don't understand why we keep signing Uribe back. On the positive side Carlos looks like he maybe the man, Crede has come back well, Dye & AJ are doing well. With as well as the pitching has been - I still think Kenny needs to make a move to provide some offense. I'd like to see it turn around, but I think it needs a push. deehate to see us waste this pit

SportsWorld · Post #7 » by **SportsWorld** » Tue Jun 3, 2008 7:17 pm

I can't believe Josh Fields is still down in AAA while Nick Swisher is sucking it up. Bring up Fields and have him play CF and bench Swisher.

Shootdabull · Post #8 » by **Shootdabull** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 3:48 am

Sure as soon as I bash Nick he hits a HR. Let try that again. This is the best Swisher can do! He can't hit a curve ball to save his life. He should be all set for tomorrow now.

Sportsworld - I think I would try fields at first over CF - Konerko could use a rest - he put up another o-fer

SportsWorld · Post #9 » by **SportsWorld** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 3:59 am

Eldred is doing well in the minors. On Mac, Jurko, and Harry they suggested putting Konerko on the 15 day DL and bring Eldred up. Woudln't be a bad idea since Konerko has done nothing.

nitetrain8603 · Post #10 » by **nitetrain8603** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 5:15 am

SportsWorld wrote:I can't believe Josh Fields is still down in AAA while Nick Swisher is sucking it up. Bring up Fields and have him play CF and bench Swisher.

Fields has the most difficult time ever playing LF. No way he can play CF. Also, he's doing pretty poor down in AAA last time I checked.

Shootdabull · Post #11 » by **Shootdabull** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 6:34 pm

SportsWorld wrote:Eldred is doing well in the minors. On Mac, Jurko, and Harry they suggested putting Konerko on the 15 day DL and bring Eldred up. Woudln't be a bad idea since Konerko has done nothing.

I would try giving Pauly a few days off first sliding aj to first and let toby catch. Maybe a few days off, then some batting practice he could get his act together. A few days at first should be easier for aj. Just thinking. I don't know much about eldred except he is the only one hitting in the minors for us. I think its tough to put a vet on the dh when he is still able to play.

Cliff Levingston · Post #12 » by **Cliff Levingston** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 7:09 pm

What about Owens in center? Could we bring him back, play him in center for a little bit to move Swisher to 1st in order to give Pauly a break?

Agreed that he's been a huge disappointment since signing that big deal post Word Series win.

Shootdabull · Post #13 » by **Shootdabull** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 7:34 pm

Cliff Levingston wrote:What about Owens in center? Could we bring him back, play him in center for a little bit to move Swisher to 1st in order to give Pauly a break?

Agreed that he's been a huge disappointment since signing that big deal post Word Series win.

I thought about that one and it would give us some deperately needed speed in the line up. I know Owens has been up and down - does he have a lot of options left? I would think Pauly is eventually going to start hitting again or at least .250, I was hoping a short break might snap him out of his funk, instead of a longer trip to the dl.

SportsWorld · Post #14 » by **SportsWorld** » Thu Jun 5, 2008 4:41 am

There's Konerko. Maybe that game winner gets him back on track.

nitetrain8603 · Post #15 » by **nitetrain8603** » Thu Jun 5, 2008 3:29 pm

Cliff Levingston wrote:What about Owens in center? Could we bring him back, play him in center for a little bit to move Swisher to 1st in order to give Pauly a break?

Agreed that he's been a huge disappointment since signing that big deal post Word Series win.

Owens isn't doing much. To me, he won't benefit you unless he's a pinch runner.

Well I thought he was always overrated. Heck, that year he got off to a slow start too and barely recovered to have decent numbers for a power hitter. His main problem is that he has chronic back/hip problems and now his wrist is hurting too. All anyone has to do right now aside from throwing low and away(like any Sox hitter, he'll chase that all day) is jamming him inside on his wrists.

Shootdabull · Post #16 » by **Shootdabull** » Thu Jun 5, 2008 8:24 pm

SportsWorld wrote:There's Konerko. Maybe that game winner gets him back on track.

Wouldn't that be great - I missed HR I gave up to soon.

Were my eyes deceiving me or did I see Estaban (sp) warming up. I had the sound down but I thought I saw a shot of him in the bull pen. Its nice to remember his glory days with us, but he has been a huge bust since we last had him. I think he's worth at least look maybe he can regain some old magic.

mildsauce04 · Post #17 » by **mildsauce04** » Sun Jun 8, 2008 12:24 am

Shootdabull wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Were my eyes deceiving me or did I see Estaban (sp) warming up. I had the sound down but I thought I saw a shot of him in the bull pen. Its nice to remember his glory days with us, but he has been a huge bust since we last had him. I think he's worth at least look maybe he can regain some old magic.

Let up a couple of runs last night, luckily they were meaningless. Loaiza was pretty ineffective in his career before he came to the Sox and after he left. Can't hurt too much to give him a shot, but I hope we don't have to use him outside of situations like last night.