Joe Cowley says our season is over: do you agree?

[Balta1701]

You know, I'm not quite sure where all the venom directed at Teahen is coming from. He's been worse defensively than he's supposed to be, but so have some other people, and a lot of the other guys on the team have been worse with the bat than him. Quentin, Pierre, Beckham, Ramirez, Nix, Vizquel, Pierzynski, Beckham all have OPS's well below Teahen's, and at least Quentin's defense has been just about as bad too.

 

Where are the posts saying people will go out of their minds watching quentin or beckham suck next year?

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

You guys that have season tickets will go out of your mind watching a team with Teahen playing LF or 1B or anywhere next year. It'd be tough to pay money to watch him play on a regular basis as he has this year before he got hurt. Do you just try to drink n eat all game and enjoy the ballpark experience rather than think about him being out there?

Yeah, and this is where it gets complicated, because the fans don't like watching that crap. Mark Teahen would be better served standing there below the fan deck with a hose in his mouth. We can call it the Fountain of Suck and every time an opposing player hits a home run we can shoot it off and put colored lights on it.

[ThunderBolt]

Voted no. Last I checked the season didn't end on June 2nd.

 

Teahen getting the hell out of here is a blessing. Get some pieces, because the Tigers suck and the Twins are far from world beaters.

Has this team showed you any signs they could compete with the Tigers and Twins? They don't have to be world beaters to be 8.5 games better then us.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

You know, I'm not quite sure where all the venom directed at Teahen is coming from. He's been worse defensively than he's supposed to be, but so have some other people, and a lot of the other guys on the team have been worse with the bat than him. Quentin, Pierre, Beckham, Ramirez, Nix, Vizquel, Pierzynski, Beckham all have OPS's well below Teahen's, and at least Quentin's defense has been just about as bad too.

 

Where are the posts saying people will go out of their minds watching quentin or beckham suck next year?

The difference is that Quentin, Beckham, Ramirez, and AJ have all done things that show they deserve some rope. Even Pierre as well I guess, although I hate him. Nix and Vizquel are good comparisions because they're bench players, which is what Mark Teahen should be.

[greg775]

Where are the posts saying people will go out of their minds watching quentin or beckham suck next year?

 

That's true, but to me, Teahen seems so bad and overmatched that he's the guy who would drive me to drink the whole game just seeing him at third. But you are right, seeing Pierre, Kotsay, this year's version of AJ, Quentin and Beckham is mind numbingly bad and I realize Kotsay and Pierre have had some decent moments.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

Has this team showed you any signs they could compete with the Tigers and Twins? They don't have to be world beaters to be 8.5 games better then us.

The split with the Rays and won the last two series prior to that. Come back and take 2-of-3 from the Rangers and that's 4 positive series in a row. It's June 2nd, and remember how late it was in 2003 when Kenny made those acquisitions. The Sox just need some pieces and I've seen nothing to show me that the Twins and Tigers can't fall victim to a few 3-7 stretches down the line. I mean the Twins are just 10 games over and at the start of the year people here were basically calling them juggernauts. Let's just try to win please.

[Balta1701]

The difference is that Quentin, Beckham, Ramirez, and AJ have all done things that show they deserve some rope. Even Pierre as well I guess, although I hate him. Nix and Vizquel are good comparisions because they're bench players, which is what Mark Teahen should be.

Teahen's a little older, but he was still highly regarded on the way up and has still put up an .874 OPS for a full season (and a 122 OPS+). Even though that was 2006, we're counting on Quentin to do a lot based on a couple seasons ago, etc.

 

I know why people's instincts are to go after Teahen, but look, unless he picks his game up big time, he should be basically an average bat that we can plug in somewhere that we have a hole. If he's down there hitting 8th and putting up slightly below average numbers, great.

 

Teahen becomes a problem when his defense is awful (and this year, it's been godawful, worst of his career by a long shot) or if the guys we're counting on to be significantly above average don't come through.

[WCSox]

Teahen is a bad 3B and is getting paid way too much. But he's not nearly as bad a hitter as some people here are suggesting. Right now, he's sporting a 94 OPS+ and a .340 OBP. Not good, but not horrible either. He projects as a 90-100 OPS+ guy with a .330-ish OBP and some gap power. That's not a bad guy to have at the back of the lineup.

 

DFAing Teahen would be an incredibly dumb move. If you don't want him on the roster anymore, you eat half of his contract and trade him for a throw-away prospect. You don't eat the entire contract out of anger.

 

The Sox are looking at losing both PK and Jones next year and are cutting payroll. It's unlikely that Kenny will address both positions via free agency. If nobody in the minors is ready next March (the likely scenario), Teahen at 1B or DH for a year is a likely get-me-by option.

 

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

Teahen's a little older, but he was still highly regarded on the way up and has still put up an .874 OPS for a full season (and a 122 OPS+). Even though that was 2006, we're counting on Quentin to do a lot based on a couple seasons ago, etc.

 

I know why people's instincts are to go after Teahen, but look, unless he picks his game up big time, he should be basically an average bat that we can plug in somewhere that we have a hole. If he's down there hitting 8th and putting up slightly below average numbers, great.

 

Teahen becomes a problem when his defense is awful (and this year, it's been godawful, worst of his career by a long shot) or if the guys we're counting on to be significantly above average don't come through.

Quentin was a beast in 2008 and then he broke his wrist. Going into 2010, we saw 2009 as the lingering effects of that surgery combined with other injury problems. 2010 was supposed to be the first healthy season for Quentin since he was a beast, and of course he's struggled mightily. But in terms of talent Quentin still eats Mark Teahen.

 

Teahen OTOH did something very good 4 years ago, and those numbers 4 years ago were an aberration that has actually held up his career numbers to make him appear better than he actually is. Just because people here talked up Teahen all offseason doesn't mean he is/was anything special. He was a poor defensive UT on the verge of being non-tendered who Kenny irresponsibly gave up players for and committed 3 years to. It's like Kenny Williams was possessed all offseason and just got his soul back.

[elrockinMT]

Cowley really went out on a limb with that.

 

The guy seems miserable covering the Sox. He mocks them whenever he can. Maybe he should quit.

 

 

The truth hurts sometimes

[Thad Bosley]

Why Mark Teahen is considered to be a starting player on a Major League Baseball team continues to blow my mind. His skill set screams "25th man on the roster" to me. He is not a good offensive player by any stretch of the imagination. Even without the injury, he was on pace to hit 10 home runs and drive in 49 RBIs this season, a staggerlingly low output for a guy who doesn't do anything else especially well, offensively speaking. And of course we all know now too well just how lousy he is with the glove. The only thing even remotely approaching value that he brings to a team is versatility. You can, ostensibly, plug him into five positions on the field, but even then, he's probably not your first choice as a replacement. No, from what I've seen with my own eyes this year, and what his five year track record strongly suggests, he really is the left-handed version of Jayson Nix, who just happens to be the 25th man on our team at the moment!

[RockRaines]

Why Mark Teahen is considered to be a starting player on a Major League Baseball team continues to blow my mind. His skill set screams "25th man on the roster" to me. He is not a good offensive player by any stretch of the imagination. Even without the injury, he was on pace to hit 10 home runs and drive in 49 RBIs this season, a staggerlingly low output for a guy who doesn't do anything else especially well, offensively speaking. And of course we all know now too well just how lousy he is with the glove. The only thing even remotely approaching value that he brings to a team is versatility. You can, ostensibly, plug him into five positions on the field, but even then, he's probably not your first choice as a replacement. No, from what I've seen with my own eyes this year, and what his five year track record strongly suggests, he really is the left-handed version of Jayson Nix, who just happens to be the 25th man on our team at the moment!

Love your projections, especially when you didnt take into account his ridiculously slow start due to tinkering in his swing. He was coming on pretty good of late, and looked to be back to his career norms. And it was only a year or so ago when people were calling for more players that can hit the ball the other way with authority for a change of pace in the order, well Teahen does that fairly well.

 

 

And I honestly dont think he will be that bad over the course of a season at 3B at all. The skill is there, I think alot of it is becoming familiar with being at 3B full time.

Edited June 2, 2010 by RockRaines

[dyuen]

The split with the Rays and won the last two series prior to that. Come back and take 2-of-3 from the Rangers and that's 4 positive series in a row. It's June 2nd, and remember how late it was in 2003 when Kenny made those acquisitions. The Sox just need some pieces and I've seen nothing to show me that the Twins and Tigers can't fall victim to a few 3-7 stretches down the line. I mean the Twins are just 10 games over and at the start of the year people here were basically calling them juggernauts. Let's just try to win please.

Except we aren't going to win with kotsay batting 5th and DH and with Omar or whatever crap is playing 3b. Not one other team in baseball would give them this many at bats

[Balta1701]

Except we aren't going to win with kotsay batting 5th and DH and with Omar or whatever crap is playing 3b. Not one other team in baseball would give them this many at bats

Oh, that's just silly. Lots of teams give at bats to backups/fill-ins/guys who aren't that good. Go look at a team like the Red Sox, giving >250 at bats to Hermida, Hall, and Lowell, when none of them are producing. Vizquel, for another, is right now on pace for basically the same number of at bats he had last season.

 

They might not hit them 5th, but really, if the guys who were supposed to be putting up the big numbers were doing so, we wouldn't care nearly as much.

[ThunderBolt]

Hermida, Hall and Lowell are guys who either have unfufilled potential or are being counted on to revert to career norms. There's no comparison to starting a backup 1b and a utilty guy at DH and giving them a wealth of at-bats. Especially, considering the roster makeup of the Red Sox and how they have options all over the field.

[RockRaines]

I would like to flip Konerko to the Cubs for D Lee

[fathom]

I would like to flip Konerko to the Cubs for D Lee

 

Isn't Lee a FA after this season? To me, he's the infield version of Alexi Rios. I'd love to have him be our next 1B. He'd be a monster at the Cell, as he loses more home runs than anyone on the Cubs due to the wind blowing in.

[RockRaines]

Isn't Lee a FA after this season? To me, he's the infield version of Alexi Rios. I'd love to have him be our next 1B. He'd be a monster at the Cell, as he loses more home runs than anyone on the Cubs due to the wind blowing in.

both are FA, both are relatively the same age, Konerko is producing, maybe the Cubs would flip him? I would rather have DLEE every day of the week to be honest.

[lostfan]

I think most of us figured, going into the season, that this offense would be pretty bad. I wasn't any exception, but this offense has been even worse than I thought it'd be. The part that hurts isn't really that I thought questionable acquisitions Teahen would underperform, I thought we'd be able to survive that. It's been guys like Quentin and Beckham, that we counted as close to sure things, basically performing like they don't belong on an MLB roster for weeks and weeks. Add to that Buehrle, Peavy, and Floyd all performing well below average so far and we've really dug ourselves a hole that I can't see ourselves getting out of. Even if they get red-hot in the middle of June, I just don't see it. The team I'm looking at is going to get another top 10 pick in the draft at this rate.

[DaTank]

I'd like to keep TCQ, Beckham, Rios, Danks, and Floyd to build around.

 

When are people finally going to stop all this nonsense talk with Quentin? Outside of 2008, he's shown no ability to be a remotely above-average MLer. In 5 different ML seasons, aside from '08, the highest he's batted and got on base was .253 and .342, in his rookie season for the D-Backs in '06.

[The Ginger Kid]

It was over two weeks ago. Twins have played a tougher schedule than we have, and now they have Kubel starting to heat up. Plain and simple, they're a better team than the Sox.

and so are the tigers - i think it will be a great race. The Tigers pitching could get a lot better and you have to be impressed with how Leyland is handling their rookies.

[southsider2k5]

When are people finally going to stop all this nonsense talk with Quentin? Outside of 2008, he's shown no ability to be a remotely above-average MLer. In 5 different ML seasons, aside from '08, the highest he's batted and got on base was .253 and .342, in his rookie season for the D-Backs in '06.

 

Its funny what hitting 36 homers and driving in 100 will do for your expectations of a player...

[SoxPride56]

Its funny what hitting 36 homers and driving in 100 will do for your expectations of a player...

 

 

One year wonder.

[greg775]

Yeah, the season is over. Has been for a while.

What do you do if you are the White Sox? It's early June and Chicago fans who do not have season tix really have no reason to spend all that money to go to games.

The only people who will want to go simply love baseball and those people probably can't afford it.

The only reason to go is the same reason you'd go to a minor league game. Just to watch baseball. But with prices this high and this bad a team ... good luck marketing department and good luck Sox investors counting the empty seats this summer.

The start of summer and this team is so boring and so lousy in so many ways.

Guess the 3 Cub sellouts will ease the sting a bit.

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

its part of the plan. Q casually throws out an MVP year and then sucks the next two years. Sox will sign him for like 5 bucks and watch the f*** out hank aron and barry bonds. hes a team player/company guy.