Holy Trades Batman!

So I wasn't home for the game tonight, so I can't comment on much of it other than this:

1) Brian Duensing = amazing performance tonight! 8 strikeouts in 7 innings? Not normal for a guys making only his 3rd major league start. I had to laugh though, Betsy sent me a text while I was out saying that Brian got a hair cut, the only reason I found that funny, had to do with the conversation in the comments of this post. Apparently he listens well and the job isn't even mine yet!


2) Joe Nathan = Damn it man! How many time did I have to scream at my radio that you only had to face 3? And then I turn it off and you get the final out. You're on deck for the hair cut line ;-)


3) I'm sad that Crede is going on the DL (I will make sure and tell him that in the morning when Betsy and I see him) But at the same time, we get our White Sox killer back in time for that series starting Monday!

Welcome back Jose!

So with all that outta the way, apparently the Indians took Yohan Pino from Triple A Rochester to complete that trade. But now we have two more....

Jon Rauch from the Diamondbacks and apparently Ron Mahay from the Royals. I always hate it when trades are done and it's "for a player to be announced later". I'm one of those people that sits on pins and needles hoping it's not one of my guys. More than likely it will be someone from Triple A or even Double A, but you just never know.

I just find it funny that Smith is trying to make all these changes now. Where were they months ago? At the rate he's going we're going to be playing ball in September with a totally new starting rotation and bull pen. I heard there is one more trade in the works, but nothing has really been said about it online anywhere.

Here's to hoping all this actually helps and doesn't hurt us in the end.

Stats Time

Kudos to Kubes on his 3 run homer! Nice going Jason :-) And what's with all the guys getting hair cuts? Everyone leaves for 4 days and we have guys coming back with no hair!

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So while I was watching tonight's game, I decided to do a little comparison of a couple of our players. It's nothing too in-depth or nothing too complicated, it's basically just comparing numbers for 4 players:

	AB	H	SO	R	RBI	AVG
Young	192	51	59	20	25	.266
Casilla	111	20	21	8	5	.180
Morales	67	23	10	10	4	.343
Redmond	89	21	10	5	4	.236

I had thought about doing this after I heard that Jose had yet again been sent back to Rochester, but then after seeing Casilla's piss-poor performance tonight I knew I needed to do this post. It didn't surprise me that he went 0 for 4, it really didn't because I didn't expect him to do any better, that and Bert did pick him for Pick the Stick so Betsy's theory still stands true!

I understand that Bill Smith says we need a 12-man pitching staff and Gardy has said the same thing. I can see that we need a bigger pitching staff considering some of our starting pitchers have struggled lately. And Smith says having the third catcher is a luxury, fine whatever, but from what I have read Jose can be used in other areas in the infield and his batting average is so much better than Alexi.

Now I know this is probably going to set a few people off, but my opinion on the whole Redmond/Morales thing is this. While I have nothing but respect for Redmond and think he's a wonderful catcher, I strongly believe that Morales needs to be in the majors. He has nothing but proven himself while he's been up here doing everything that's been asked of him plus he knows how to kill the White Sox when we need it the most.

Delmon is a totally different area. He can be on the top of this game one day, making great plays, hitting the ball all over the place and then there are days where I can sit down and watch a game and wonder why is he still here? There are other people that deserve a chance. I know he went through the rough period with his mother dying and that's understandable, but lately I just don't know.

We need strong defense and strong offense and I'm a little iffy if we can get that from the line up we have right now.

Random thoughts

I was so looking forward to a sweep this weekend, but I suppose since we were playing in the friendly confines of Wrigley we should let them win one, it's the Minnesota nice thing to do after all.

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There really is no theme to this series post, so here are some random thoughts that I have on the weekend:

* We said goodbye to Alexi (again) & Swarzy and hello to LNP & Jose (again). Alexi going back to AAA didn't surprise me, but after his performance on Saturday, saying goodbye to Swarzy is tougher then I thought. He has proven he can pitch against the best of them and I'm already set to welcome him back when we get extra roster spots in the fall (if not sooner).
* Joey's power and performance this season still amazes me. I'm not sure where it's all coming from (not that I'm complaining). I did have to laugh in Friday's game when they were talking about the garage door and the next thing I know I'm seeing Joey's ball go right over the garage door.
* I was impressed with all our starters for this series and our relief pitching had actually picked up a bit.

Now the guys get to come home for a week, they are all probably ready to sleep in their own beds, I know I would be!

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Random funny item for the weekend, I purchased the 2009 Official Team Yearbook today at the Pro Shop while out shopping and was reading Ernie's page (Justin) and he said his biggest fear was flying. I wonder how that works out for him?