Be safe, be well and have fun.

BigBadBill - 04 July 2012 06:30 AM

Be safe, be well and have fun.

Bill, Have a great 4th of July!! You called it...You wrote yesterday that Volstad would pitch well, until he saw a bright shiny object and he saw a lot of them in the fifth inning, because he wasn’t focused on getting batters out that inning. When I saw the Cubs were leading with Volstad on the mound, I thought he was going to prove me wrong, but he became the same Chris Volstad, that we expect to lose in the fifth inning.

Just my opinion for what it is worth, but with Ian Stewart out for the season and Josh Vitters mashing the ball in AAA, it may be time to call him up in his 6th year of minor league baseball.

His batting average has improved each month from .261 to .284 to .324 to .462. He hit 14 homers in 449 at bats in 2011, but already has 13 this season in only 299 at bats. He won’t be 23 till August 27. Don’t expect everyone to agree with me, on the callup, but with Valbuena hitting .230, this might be the time to make the move.

Castro, LaHair, Rizzo and Vitters might make up a good nucleus for the Cubs to build on.

The flag should not be burned either but a lot of liberals seem to like the idea.

Tickled me to see Roy Oswalt lit up last night. He turned down $10 million offers to pitch this spring. He is making $5 million for half a season. He gets a $500,000 bonus for winning Cy Young Award, which is preposterous to begin with, since he is only playing half a season. He sure didn’t win any Cy Young votes last night. He might be considered for the Neal Cotts Award though.

Kevin Youkilis .242 and Adam Dunn .216 don’t have to worry about their batting averages, if they can combine for more 5-8 games, with 2 HR’s and 6 RBI between them. Every starter had at least 2 hits in the 21 hit attack with the exception of Gordon Beckham who was 0-3. I look for Youkilis to get even better as the season goes on. He doubled his 4 RBI’s of his first seven games in one game.

Hope the Sox don’t repeat last week when they scored 14 runs against the Yankees in one game, then were shutout the next day, in a 4-0 loss to the Yankees. Tonight’s game should be winnable with Axelrod 0-1 going against Scott Feldman 2-6.  Thursday’s game could be tougher with Jose Quintana 3-1 facing Matt Harrison 11-3.

Sox scored 14 on Friday, 0 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday before the 19 run outburst. So they scored 33 runs with two games games of a total of two runs sandwiched in between.

Chris Sale’s 10 wins are only topped by Matt Harrison and David Price in the AL. His 2.19 ERA is only behind Jered Weaver at 2.13. Batters are hitting .194 against Weaver and .198 against Sale to lead the AL.

Weaver leads in WHIP at 0.94 with Sale at 0.95.

Last night was an example of what that Sox lineup is capable of when they’re clicking. The problem has always been they’re not consistent enough doing it (just ask Jake Peavy).

As much as I think KW is an idiot, he did pull off a steal of a trade for Youklis. I think we got the better part of that deal. He plays a pretty solid third base, can also play first when needed, and he’s a pretty good on base guy who also has some power. I think the change of scenery will do him good.

Now just make sure the pitching staff is in order, and this team will be pretty damn tough to beat in the second half.

Had Gavin Floyd not acted like Gavin Floyd against the Yankees the Sox would have won that series too instead of splitting it. I agree with K-Dub that the return of a healthy Danks & Humber will be like a great trade without giving up any prospects.

BigBadBill - 04 July 2012 12:50 PM

Had Gavin Floyd not acted like Gavin Floyd against the Yankees the Sox would have won that series too instead of splitting it. I agree with K-Dub that the return of a healthy Danks & Humber will be like a great trade without giving up any prospects.

I’d like to see the Sox move Floyd if at all possible.

Humber + Floyd = Dempster?

BigBadBill - 04 July 2012 01:18 PM

Humber + Floyd = Dempster?

That could work.

TomD - 04 July 2012 12:32 PM

Last night was an example of what that Sox lineup is capable of when they’re clicking. The problem has always been they’re not consistent enough doing it (just ask Jake Peavy).

As much as I think KW is an idiot, he did pull off a steal of a trade for Youklis. I think we got the better part of that deal. He plays a pretty solid third base, can also play first when needed, and he’s a pretty good on base guy who also has some power. I think the change of scenery will do him good.

Now just make sure the pitching staff is in order, and this team will be pretty damn tough to beat in the second half.

Tom nailed it...The hitters are in place...they just have to hit night after night, not score 14 runs, then one or two runs a couple of games, then score 19. Jake Peavy should have at least 10 wins with any kind of support. Still makes no sense how they could score 35 runs in his 6 wins and only 2 runs in his 5 losses. Two of those losses were 1-0 losses and one was a 2-1 loss.