posted on Sunday, August 12, 2007 2:25 AM by Jim

August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

On a night where Gavin Floyd regressed to his bad self and the Sox offense resembled its first half self, Josh Fields found a way to provide some excitement once again.

The rookie took the first pitch he saw from all-world closer J.J. Putz, who entered the game having allowed only 25 hits in 53 2/3 innings, over the left-center fence for a grand slam.  The blast, his third in two days, turned a 7-2 game into a 7-6 game.

Unfortunately, Putz settled down and retired Jim Thome on a hard liner, and struck out Jermaine Dye and Darin Erstad to end the game.

Of course, when Darin Erstad is batting fifth, that means that the Sox didn't have much of a chance in today's game to begin with.  Today's lineup not only featured scuffling rookies Jerry Owens and Danny Richar, but also Erstad (in place of Konerko), Alex Cintron (in place of Juan Uribe) and Toby Hall.  That's not exactly a squad that can escape an early hole.

That's exactly what Floyd put his team in when he gave up a three-run homer to Raul Ibanez in the first inning.  In Floyd's defense, it didn't look like a homer off the bat, but with the way Floyd threw the ball tonight, he could've actually fared worse.

Here's the story in eight words:  Lots of fastballs up, lots of get-me-over curves.  He didn't have the hook that he used so effectively against Detroit, and he couldn't establish the inside corner with his heater.  When neither of those things are working, Floyd doesn't have much of a chance.

Jose Contreras kept the Sox in the game with five scoreless innings of relief, but it wasn't particularly impressive.  He made his share of good pitches, of course, but there were quite a few at-'em balls and just-missed pop-ups that preserved Contreras' line.

Record: 54-62 | Box score | Play-by-play

Comments

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Sunday, August 12, 2007 11:17 AM by Gregory Pratt
Contreras' velocity at the ballpark was pretty good and he was getting his pitches over. He let quite a few runners on but most of them came from being blooped and softly-hit to death. Jose looked fine yesterday. He was and is a better pitcher than Floyd at any level and the only reason to ever consider pitching Gavin Floyd over Jose Contreras is money. That's it.

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Sunday, August 12, 2007 12:03 PM by Jim Margalus
One thing I do like about this version of Contreras is that he's dropping down less often. But I felt that he made some pitches with runners on that better teams would've killed him for.

And it looks like Gavin Floyd is this year's version of Brian Anderson for you.

(Not that I disagree with you. But since Floyd is out of options next year, I think they have to see if Don Cooper can work a last-second miracle before ditching him, even if only for the purpose of bumping up his trade value.)

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:59 AM by Gregory Pratt
I loathe Gavin Floyd and love watching him get destroyed. He is not a good pitcher and never will be. He hasn't been a good pitcher since high school. People who are holding out "hope" or need to "see more of him" to give him "a fair chance" are fools. He is what he is, and we've all seen it. The sooner the Gavin Floyd Experiment ends, the sooner we can fire the scouts who told KW he was good and KW for believing them. (As I've said on other places, I'd be in favor of firing Kenny Williams but I'm afraid we'd replace him with Ron Kittle or Darin Jackson, considering Reinsdorf's Incest Policy.)

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 4:13 PM by Jim Margalus
I can't quite understand that. Seems like a waste of energy to have that much disdain for an ordinary bad ballplayer, especially one who hasn't faced DUI, assault, rape charges. I peg guys at failures from time to time, but I hope I'm wrong. To me, the satisfaction of being right is greatly outweighed by having to watch them suck. Different strokes for different folks.

Nevertheless, Floyd's results are pretty much immaterial, because Gio alone for a shoulderless Freddy Garcia was a coup. May as well get somebody with major-league pitches (which Floyd has) and see if he can use them in a major-league fashion (which he doesn't, and likely can't).

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 7:14 PM by Gregory Pratt
I don't, you know, hate Floyd. I enjoy watching him get bitchslapped all around the field because I haven't seen a pitcher get slapped around like he does since Bobby Abreu's Homerun Derby pitcher. And I enjoy, in a smug way, being the one who didn't buy the bullshit about Gavin Floyd. Anyone with eyes and Baseball-Reference dot com, a passing familiarity with Floyd and a willingness to look at the numbers/scouting reports could've predicted what he's doing now. That's why they call him "She" in the press, and scouts do it too.

"3. Gavin Floyd (RHP, 2004-06): While in Philly last week to cover the Phillies-White Sox series, a Chicago beat writer offered an update on Gavin Floyd. "She's doing better in Triple-A," the scribe chuckled. Floyd had the same reputation in Philly while becoming a first-round bust. Drafted 4th overall in 2001, Floyd showed everything it takes to be a great pitcher except — How should we say this? — guts. He was traded to the Sox last winter in the Freddy Garcia trade, then lost a starting job that was handed to him heading into spring training. Now, he's back in Triple-A still working on getting tougher on the mound."

When he's out of baseball, I wish him all the best of luck but until then, I hope he gets tagged for 5+ runs in less than five innings everytime because that's who he is, and the fewer abberations he has, the less times I'll have to watch him suck.

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:32 PM by Jim Margalus
I see more where you're coming from. The use of "loathe" and "love watching him get destroyed" threw me off.

I guess I don't see anything objectionable about the way they've handled Floyd this year. He didn't earn the spot in ST, so they didn't give it to him. They're not babying him at the big-league level; only using him to keep Danks' innings down and let Contreras figure some stuff out. There's no talk about him having a starter spot next year, so it doesn't draw my ire.

Now, Nick Masset -- there's a situation that frustrated me. He didn't pitch well in ST, his velocity wasn't anywhere near what the scouts reported, didn't do any one particular thing well, and he had a big-league job gift-wrapped for him, which he held for more than two months. Even when he was demoted, there were plenty of excuses made for him.

They don't seem to have the same opinion of Floyd that they do with Masset (and Erstad, Pods, Owens are in the same group), so I don't see any reason to wring hands. If anything, I'd rather see him take the beatings than somebody who's not ready for the big leagues yet, like Egbert or Gio.

# re: August 11: Mariners 7, White Sox 6

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 12:41 AM by Gregory Pratt
Well, I hope the organization has no real hope for him, but I wonder if Kenny Williams still believes that Gavin Floyd is one of the top prospects in the game.