Tag Archives: pitching is the art of instilling fear

May 21, 2011 · 3:28 am

A tough loss to the Dodgers. Or: Blogging after a loss brings out my whiny side.

If, time and again, I can forgive Gavin Floyd for being, well, Gavin Floyd and occasionally forgetting how to pitch, I can forgive Sergio Santos for tonight’s outing (and probably a few more besides) – as painful as it was. It happens to everyone, eventually. It’s going to take more than that for me to start worrying when I see him warming up in the ‘pen. Sometimes, it is just not your day.

Which, yes, tonight’s loss was kind of all-around painful (I guess I have gotten more used to winning lately than I realized. Winning is fun! Can you blame me?), but it also highlighted a few of the things that have been bothering me this season.

Most notably, I am now going to take the opportunity to whine about the thing that is currently bothering me the most. So much so that I don’t even have to think twice about trying to come up with the thing that is currently bothering me the most. :p (The remainder of this post is brought to you by the fact that a friend of mine texted me to inform me that tonight’s game was the free mlb.tv game of the day and I caught the middle 75% of the game at work. Free mlb! A mixed blessing tonight, I think. :) )

Warning: You are about to enter a free-for-all whining zone. Proceed at your own risk.

The pitch counter. Everyone needs to stop looking at the pitch counter. Particularly with the starters. We have a 6-man rotation. We’re not following the rules, SO WHY IS EVERYONE WHO CALLS THE SHOTS MARRIED TO THE PITCH COUNTER? I don’t understand.

Does it matter so much if someone throws 120 pitches when he gets 5 days of rest instead of 4? Pitching is so much a mental game that I just don’t understand when someone is in a groove, throwing well (like tonight, with Humber and then with Crain), that we automatically can’t send them out in the 8th inning? The whole ‘We have a set-up man. We must use him’ mentality. What would happen if the pitcher feels good and wants to go out and finish (more of, if not the whole, job) and the coaches just let him? Now, when everyone in the starting rotation gets an extra day off, is the time to try.

Or, conversely, when (like tonight, with Santos, or Gavin’s start against Oakland last week) nothing is going right and the pitcher’s rhythm is off and things are just basically falling apart, we have to watch the started struggle through 2 or 3 or more rough innings, just because they’re the starter and the should be pitching 6 or so innings or around 100 pitches? What would be so wrong with pulling out one of your long relievers (or, in a real bind, one of your well-rested starters)?

I know that I am probably blowing a lot of hot air, and I know that I know way less about strategy and timing and the ins-and-outs of managing a baseball team than everyone who is involved in the White Sox organization (probably even less than the dude who gets coffee and makes the photocopies, really), but I guess, as an outsider, I don’t understand how we can break convention and have a 6-man starting rotation, but can’t seem to ever think outside of the box when it comes to anything else with the pitching staff.

No comprendo, señores. No comprendo.

And, now I’m done with the whining. My frustrations have been aired and I am ready to move on to bigger and better things tomorrow. My optimism is (mostly) alive and well in the month of May and I still love this team.

Here’s hoping for a fog-free day at The Cell tomorrow.

Go, Sox!

Peace out, y’all.

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May 12, 2011 · 1:09 am

Extra innings. Again. Or: A wild win in the 10th means I’ll be tired all day tomorrow.

1. I woke up (again, sleeping through the first few innings) in time to catch the end of a solid, and confidence-inducing, if unspectacular, return of Jake Peavy. Congrats to him for all of his hard work. I’m psyched to have him back and hope he stays healthy. And, then, resigned to a loss, I figured I’d catch a couple of innings before heading off to sleep and then all of a sudden Jesse Crain comes in and I haven’t seen him pitch in a while (gotta root for the hometown boy!) and the game looks like it’s been put away by the Angels, but then it all flips on its head with wild pitches, batter interference and a little help from OOOOMAR!

2. Any time that things get all wonky in ChiSox land and Omar Vizquel gets to come into the game, I’m cool with it. Though, I’d prefer if it didn’t happen because of someone else’s injury. And, tonight, he didn’t let me down. He started with a good defensive play at third and then proceeded to double, driving in a run, followed by a sac fly in the next inning. *devilhorns* The Angels announcers were calling him “The Pesky Omar Vizquel”. :) I’ll take it.

3. Dunn was running everywhere tonight. I think he probably stole Paul Konerko’s pink shoes and spray painted them. He was running with conviction, it was kinda awesome.

4. I’m still feelin’ Brent Lillibridge these days. It’s becoming routine to see him come in for Quentin late in the game and I’m really digging it as an overall strategy. Quick on base, can pull out defense when he has to, and saving Quentin a little bit of wear and tear – since it seems like he’s becoming a leg on which we stand. :)

5. Santos. Again. Solid, with a propensity to walk just a few too many batters, I think. But, still a good solid outing and I’m always glad to see him on the mound. He did a good job (with some defensive help) to keep the score steady while the White Sox had a late inning rally. Second win for him, awesome.

6. HOLY CRAP. The 9th innings in this season are going to take years off my life. But, it helps when they go our way. :) If I could watch every game with either the Angels’ or Rays’ announcers, I would and I was reminded of why tonight. Interesting, poised and so classy. It was a pleasure to spend the evening with them, though I know they would have been happier without our late rally.

6. Konerko’s flying catch on the second-to-last out was a thing of beauty. But, it probably won’t make the highlight reel because, shockingly, it was actually overshadowed by the play he made on the last out. (It did make mlb.com [here].)

7. Which brings us to Thornton. Who, I admit, still makes me cringe with fear when I see him warming up in the pen. But, what was a solid outing on the mound (again, aided by a late-inning burst of defense) turned into a defensive play that probably bought him a little bit of confidence from some of the ChiSox faithful. Because, WHAT?! The 3-1 defensive play was ridiculous.

pk play.jpgI have said it before, and I will say it again. I would always rather see a game end on an awesome defensive play than a walk-off any day of the week. And, this 1-2 punch from Konerko is going right up with Lillibridge’s 1-2 punch from the series against the Yankees as some of my top moments of the season.

Drama-rama tonight. And, we manage to avoid heading back into a skid.

Go, White Sox!

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May 10, 2011 · 11:55 pm

I wish I had blogged yesterday. Or: Looks like the Angels are back in town tonight.

So, I missed the first 8 innings of last night’s game after falling into a sleep so deep that it was practically a coma. So, naturally, I missed all of the fun and excitement. Which is too bad, since there is not a lot of excitement, and also not terrible amounts of fun to be had while being a White Sox fan watching tonight’s game.

(Edited after the game to say: Okay, I changed my mind. As long as he’s not hurt, AJ Pierzynski’s never-ending endless foul balls off of himself and the home plate umpire was kind of entertaining. The crowd reaction and the look that AJ shot into the camera the second time he whacked himself in the foot was actually rather amusing. Although, the camera then followed him into the dugout after he struck out and there was not a lot of fun going on in there. I hope that is not a sign of things to come.)

1. The AT&T Multiview makes me nauseous.
2. I seem to have an even lower tolerance for the announcing than I usually do.
3. The bats are cooling off a little – which, okay, fine… that’s not so bad in and of itself, but when the pitching’s cooling off at the same time, it hurts more when we go down swinging. Literally. Swinging into SOs, DPs, and fly-outs. So, ugh.
4. Not particular to this game, but watching everyone and their mother successfully steal pretty much every base they attempt is getting a bit old. I can’t remember any time that we caught someone stealing, though rumor has it that it has happened once or twice.
5. I think I just watched Brent Morel totally miss a catch. Like, completely. It was kind of amazing, actually.

The Angels aren’t really giving us any wiggle room tonight, and they seem to be consistently finding every gap in the field (of which it seems like there’s about 5 or 6 more than there usually is). They’re too tough of a ballclub for us to cool off against and they’re taking advantage of it – not that they’d have to try terribly hard tonight.

So, today’s positive thing. Because even though I seem to be in a cranky mood today, and some of our pitching might have left something to be desired, I still have things I like about these boys.

Firstly, I think Jeff Gray is trying to get some more points on [Anders’ Bullpen Leaderboard].

And, secondly, this:
startingrotation.png

That’s pretty groovy and, really, nothing to complain about at all.

Tomorrow is a new day. And, a pretty exciting one at that.

(And, sure, if I’m still hoping for a miracle tonight, I bet I’m not the only one. :) )

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May 8, 2011 · 9:37 pm

Pink is my lucky color, too. Or: Another win. This one for Santos.

So, two in a row. Hasn’t happened much lately, and it really is a reason to be excited these days. And, fine, there are teams elsewhere in the AL and (presumably) in the NL that would laugh at the ChiTown fans being excited about a 2 game win streak, but we’ll totally take what we can get.

There was some good stuff to talk about today. Firstly, sad that Buehrle wasn’t able to get his win, but it was nice to see Santos put one in the win column. He’s been a little bit of a bright light in the midst of our early bullpen troubles and it was neat that he got to pull out the W today.

W-L: 1-0; ERA: 0.00; SV-SVO; 3 for 3 – 15 scoreless innings

AWESOME

However, that being said, Santos’ solid outing (striking out three, only walking one and sporting a fantastic pink necklace) is not actually what I have chosen as the highlight of this game today.

The highlight of the game today is, without a doubt, Paul Konerko’s pink cleats. I was scouring the depths of the internet for a photo of them, but I have sadly come up empty.

Instead, I will link you to the following clip. This is the play that put the White Sox on the board for the first time today, it was the last play that I got to see before I headed out for work (it is becoming increasingly apparent that my work schedule is completely nonsensical, isn’t it?), contains some questionable fielding that was – for once – not courtesy of the White Sox, and, of course, featuring the awesome pink cleats of awesomeness(tm). [click here]

Happy Mother’s Day (what’s left of it) and let’s see if we can keep this momentum going tomorrow in LA – a heavy feat, but if we need extra help, I’m going to send a request to Paul Konerko to break out the pink cleats again.

Hey, it couldn’t hurt!

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May 8, 2011 · 1:51 am

Optimism is easier when you have help. Or: A win in the west.

It’s easy to be optimistic today. Especially when your scoreboard looks like this:

The bats were on fire tonight. Just like the expected AL Central standings are upside down, the batting order decided to stand on its head, too. The bottom 3 guys were smokin’ out there. It was nice to see. Not that I can explain what lit the fire under the butts of Morel, Beckham and Rios, but I’ll take it. They went 6-for-6 with two doubles and two RBIs and who would have thunk it? There was also some better-than-average defense, so that was a plus. (There was also some great defense by the Mariners… I’m still smarting a little from the home run that they stole from Pierzynski).

[Also, as a side note, I apologize to Mariners fans everywhere – and to the man himself – but I really can’t help but giggle and think of board games every time I hear Milton Bradley’s name.)

But, today’s chosen positivity comes from Gavin Floyd. Who I kind of love like Catherine (of “The Wizard of Ozzie“) loves Mark Buehrle, even though I want to shake him and tell him to just calm down and breathe a lot of the time when I watch him pitch.

He was, again, pretty rock solid – with the notable exception of the 2nd inning – and was really in a zone tonight. It was a pleasure to watch him work his stuff for the first game I was able to catch in a long time.

99 Strikes. Awesome.

The game today was MLB.tv’s free game of the day (which also meant I could listen to the Seattle feed – bonus!) and meant that I could catch the game at work. Which ain’t too shabby.

So, all in all: Watching a baseball game at work, watching the Sox grab a win, watching Gavin pitch a great game that was actually supported by the rest of the team, and some surprise action from 7, 8 and 9.

goldstar-award.jpgEdited to say: In fact, it was such a generally solid and cohesive outing all around that I am going to give everyone a gold star tonight. Go, team!

It was a good Saturday night.

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May 4, 2011 · 3:11 pm

There is still good stuff about Chicago, Day 4. Or: May might be a very long month.

So, yes. We lost a no-hitter last night.

We lost an ugly no-hitter, even.

But, since I am determined to stay positive, there were good things about last night.

It might be a little bit sad that we lost such an ugly no-hitter, and it might be almost unbelievable that we lost a no hitter with better pitching than our opponent. But, we did.

Which is a good thing. Really. Hear me out.

So, the starting rotation is slumping (more or less). The bullpen is slumping (more or less). And, the offense and defense and the bats are slumping. But, for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t the pitching that was the problem.

It’s discouraging that you can pitch a better game and still lose a no-hitter, but it’s nice to see that our hurlers can still throw a pretty good ballgame. At least, to me, that’s still a positive. One less thing to try to fix.

I found a nice little wrap-up that sums things up nicely:

Batters faced: Minn = 30, ChiSox = 32
K-BB Ratio: Minn = 2-6. ChiSox = 4-1
Strike pct: Minn = 53.7, ChiSox = 66.1
1st-pitch strike pct: Minn =36.7, ChiSox = 59.4

So, instead of focusing on the ugly things about this game that allowed us to lose a no-hitter when our pitchers actually did get the job done, I’m going to focus on the fact that Jackson and Thornton (thank goodness, it was nice to see) did a pretty bang-up job. Unfortunately, they just got a little banged up, too.

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May 4, 2011 · 12:29 am

The positivity will have to come later. Or: WTF – the sequel.

I will be back with something positive to say later, because I can’t really totally react to the result of tonight’s ChiSox game yet because I didn’t actually see it for myself. And, I really am determined to be positive.

But, seriously? A freaking no-hitter? I don’t even know that there are words for the entire absurdity of this White Sox season. A pitcher with a losing record and an ERA over 9???

Honestly and for serious? Okay, so I might not have predicted a win, but I sure didn’t see this one coming.

I think all that I have to say can be summed up with: WTF?!

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May 3, 2011 · 1:01 pm

Extra ChiSox awesomeness, Day 3 Or: A win!

Finally, a win at The Cell. It was a nice surprise to load up GameDay around the 7th inning and see that we were winning. And, then to tune in again at the bottom of the 8th, and bite my fingernails a little bit throughout the top of the 9th.

santos-save.pngSo, yes, of course it’s a little easier to be positive today! But, if I was going to focus on one thing to be positive about, I think its time to talk about Sergio Santos.

3 saves in as many opportunities, he still has a 0.00 ERA (though, everyone who saw the game in NY knows that he owes that, in part, to Brent Lillibridge), and just generally coming out and getting the job done.

It is nice that we, as a collective unit of White Sox fans, don’t have to cringe every time we go to the bullpen in the 9th inning. Sure, the beginning of the season means that we’re all probably a little on edge, but at least we have someone that is proving to be up to the task.

Go, White Sox!

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April 27, 2011 · 10:48 pm

Winning streak ends at two. Or: The good and the bad, but nothing really ugly.

1. I still haven’t gotten over the events of yesterday. So, I am going to link to a video that contains both of the much hyped-about catches.
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14199891

His expressions (he knew exactly how perfectly-timed those plays were) and his excited fist-pump the second that he made the second catch were pretty awesome to watch. Way to make the most of your time in the game.

And, I am also going to link to a rather amusing article about someone hacking Lillibridge’s wikipedia page – which is how you know that you’ve “made it”. [click here]

Seriously, we have had so much late-inning drama in all of the games where we’ve actually been in contention to win, it was nice for the drama to go our way and not have to endure – at worst – a disappointing loss and – at best – another inning or more of drama.

And, also, give me a game that ends on a spectacular piece of defense over a walk-off homer any day of the week.

2. In regards to today’s game, I missed the first inning and a half and, as such, missed pretty much everything that happened in the game. I missed Ozzie getting tossed, I missed Buehrle’s early struggles that led to the 3-run homer and I came back just in time to watch 5 innings that were, essentially, a pitcher’s duel. (And, due to a ridiculous lack of sleep lately, I may or may not have fallen asleep about 2 batters before Jesse Crain came in. Sad for me, since I have really enjoyed watching him pitch lately and would have liked to see it.) And, sadly, there was nothing more to be done and, aside from a single RBI courtesy of Adam Dunn, there really wasn’t any more action. From either side.

There were a few times where we left runners in scoring position (the time with the bases loaded was particularly painful), and yeah, the offense could be better those times. But, there was something remarkable about tonight’s loss. We didn’t win, which is disappointing, but we didn’t really have an active role in giving the game away. To me, anyway, it just felt like a normal, run-of-the-mill, every day loss and not like another team crushed us and then wiped the floor with us afterwards.

And, honestly? Today’s type of losses aren’t nearly as painful to me. It happens sometimes. You win some, you lose some. And, hopefuly we’ll do better tomorrow.

3. It’s snowing in Minnesota and they’re postponed in Chicago? And, I thought the recent weather in Chicago was going to be the last time I saw the players bundled up on the field. That’s nuts.

I think *everyone* is going to be happy when April is over.

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April 25, 2011 · 11:37 pm

I almost forget how to write an entry after a win. Or: !!!!!

I am so out of practice with how to write a blog after a win that I almost don’t know what to say. Mostly, I’m just happy that I get to use my winning tag instead of my losing tag.

It was an exciting night at Yankee Stadium (for the southside): Humber carrying his no-hitter into the 7th, good defense, good offense, and some solid outings by the bullpen. It was nice to see the pinch running grabbing that insurance run (Good to see you again, Brent Lillibridge!), that 3-6-1 double play in the 9th and just some of the utter randomness we witnessed tonight. Like Ramirez’s infield fly-ball single – say what?! – that you kind of had to see to believe. I was actally surprised that there was no way to get that down as an error. I hope mlb.com puts up a copy of that at some point.

happydance.jpgI don’t even care that the amount of excitement I am feeling over actually winning a game is a little excessive. We’ve had a rough go of it lately – I’ll take all the good I can get.

Now we just have to figure out how to do this two days in a row.

And, tomorrow, I will be sitting at home, trying to use the power of my mind to *will* Gavin Floyd to remember to keep breathing and try to stay calm. He can do it, as long as he doesn’t beat himself.

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