Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Seymizzle @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 09:38 AM) A.J. Casario A five-tool player and excellent pro prospect ... strong left-handed hitter with good speed and ability to hit the ball to the opposite field for power ... outstanding outfielder with one of the strongest throwing arms in the ACC ... hustles every play. Sounds like a great value pick at this stage in the game. http://www.umterps.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/casario_aj01.html The above link is his player profile, says he is a senior but I believe he is a junior. He was drafted by the Dodgers in the 27th round out of high school. Apparently the Dodgers wanted him to go to a JUCO for a year and they'd give him more money than the typical 27th round pick. He decided to go play for the Terps instead. Expect him to hit well in short-season but the question will be whether he has the tools to hit as he moves up into the higher levels, imo.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 09:24 AM) 33 ER and 9 HR in 24 IP? Yeah that's not looking great. He must have improved this (senior) season. I'l see if I can find this year's stats. Does Big West have a conference page with stats? Unless I'm nuts, he doesn't play in the big west

QUOTE (Seymizzle @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 09:18 AM) Sox are drafting a lot of college seniors so they'll most likely sign. First off, welcome aboard, and second off, your spot on. It looks like a lot of these guys are seniors that they plan on getting into the system. We'll see them in short season ball soon enough, imo.

Took me a while to see me give any analysis but than I found it: And I still wish we had taken Crawford. He was on BA's list of great value picks in last years draft (based upon professional production). And we all know Dan and I had the biggest JorDanks mancrushes around. More of my expert analysis. Pretty much holds true to this day, imo (between Beckham and Smoak). Luckily Skipworth isn't there as he's struggled mightily thus far. I still like his long term future but I'lld take Becks over him, haha. Another doosie, this time me ripping on Fathom (which I almost never do, but it was too good not to relive, haha):

There could still be a debate between Smoak and Beckham. Smoak is a hell of a hitter.

I got a busy day at work so I plan on attacking these picks in a set of ten or so, mainly talking about guys that have some sort of skill-set or interseting fact about them. However, the reality is that most of the guys going right now are either going to go back to school and try to improve there draft stock (especially any high school kid and a lot of juco guys) or they will most likely be organizational guys. That said there might be a few intriguing guys that come off the boards, maybe a college senior whose slid down for whatever reason or something like that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 08:21 AM) If you are getting on base 45-50% of the time, you aren't really staring at strike three that often... I believe he's talking about Swisher and I'm in complete agreement with him. When your hitting .240 without a ton of power (he has decent power, but not a ton) than you aren't an everyday player (unless you play gold glove defense at an elite defensive position). I think average is becoming one of the most underrated stats in baseball. There is a lot to be said about a guy that can handle the bat. There just arent' as many guys that can do it anymore and it is kind of sad. I think back to Tony Gwynn and Ichiro (luckily he still plays, although he's clearly on the downside of his career).

As long as the Sox are in "contending" mode, we will see Josh Fields play first base. However, if the club falls out of contention you can expect to see Allen or even Viciedo promoted to handle 1st. My guess would be that they'd call up Allen before Viciedo because Allen is probably a bit more ready, although Viciedo clearly has the highest upside. That won't happen for another couple weeks, although a loss today would put the Sox closer and closer to the point where they have to turn there attention towards getting some of these young guys ready for next season. Not only so those young guys are more capable of playing next year, but so the Sox get a period to evaluate the guys at the major league level and decide what exactly they'll need to do to be able to compete next season (in what will likely be another season where a .500 record in the Central means your a contender). I personally expect to see Danks in Chicago by the end of July, however, Allen being up depends on what the Sox do with Thome/Konerko. If Konerko is healthy and Thome wants to stay in Chicago, Allen wont' get AB's. If Thome wants to go to a contender, well, than we'll see Allen promoted with Konerko sliding to DH. I'd say Paulie would get off-days but as long as he can take the field I don't see Konerko sitting out, he's just not the type of guy to do it. He's a gamer and he'll battle through, whether we are competing or not.

I want to point out that we are serious about seeing changes, if people don't change, we'll have to do things that we at Soxtalk don't like to do and it starts with suspensions and would end with bannings. People need to understand that this site wasn't built to be a cesspool, rather as a tremendous resource and community of awesome Sox fans!!!!

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 07:19 AM) Once it works on Firefox (hey I tried to help you) I'll be there. Well the forum works...afterall it is a part of Soxtalk, haha. We'll be set once we get on our new server at month end. A faster server too

Why does this surprise anyone? Ozzie has always been Mr. Conservative when it comes to injuries. It doesn't surprise me at all that he said this as he probably doesn't want the club thinking about Q right now since he's not playing currently.

I wonder if Kenny told he's going to be a bench guy, but after things settle down (ie, we trade some guys and open up roster spots) that Fields is going to get one last chance at either 3B or LF. If we shut Quentin down, than we'll need another outfielder and Fields might be that guy.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 10, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) haha true But I just dont think he's ever gonna be healthy consistently. Based purely on a hunch. I'm not "smart" and haven't done any "research" about it, just a hunch... I had a hunch that the SOx were going to trade for Randy Johnson a few years ago. Hopefully your hunch is as wrong as mine was, lol. I also have a hunch that we'll see Jordan Danks by the end of August, more likely by July.

I've updated the thread title.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 10, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) Fine let me rephrase, he wont be with the White Sox in 2011 Haha Cali. At least we agree that there is a lot of reason to be excited about the Southsiders (Flowers/Becks/Danks/Poreda/Hudson/Carter).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 10, 2009 -> 03:11 PM) Well, the good news is...hypothetically speaking, this gives Anderson one last chance. Possibly. Anderson will play in CF until Danks is ready and than at that point, if Anderson still hasn't produced, who knows who our other outfielder would be (I can't imagine it will be Pods at that point, but maybe).

Interesting. Things are going to be very interesting this month.

The foot injury is just that a long term injury. I don't know what other injuries he's really had aside from the arm trouble which goes back to his college days. I'm not predicting another 2008 season, but he'll have a few ASG in a Sox uni.

Quentin isn't going to get released people. He'll be just fine.

Its easy to plug it, haha. I could plug my nude photos too since its my site, but I wouldn't want to blind everyone, LOL.

This is a very telling post and something that I think we need to make a thread on. Speaking of which, when is the ASB?

I think we all realize Wise isn't a major league starter. The sad thing is he might be an okay 5th outfielder and I definately see him as a good fit in the NL. The guy is doing his best and doesn't deserve to get booed. If you want to boo someone, boo em cause they aren't trying, not because they don't have the talent. Boo Ozzie when they call his name cause it is him and obviously Kenny responsible for who is on the roster and who plays.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jun 10, 2009 -> 02:27 PM) I'm sure Jason would agree with me.....if you go into the FutureSox forum, that's some of the best discussion on this website. It is the thing I'm always most proud of. Partly because of my love of being an amateur scout who has had job offers to make it a career. Unfortunately, it wouldn't pay the bills, lol.

You also have to note that to the media, Ozzie is doing his best to actually temper expectations. With Poreda it was him telling what he expected, with Beckham, he basically did everything he could to try to take some of the pressure off the kid. Look at Ozzie's track record. I can think of one, maybe two players that were you that didn't get playing time when they might have deserved it. McCarthy and Brian Anderson. Anderson has never really hit so that might not really be a bad thing and by most peoples account he wasn't mature enough to handle the show. Garland was still young when Ozzie took over and he pitched at his best with Ozzie as his manager. Danks and Floyd are another two young pitchers who developed nicely under Ozzie. Bobby Jenks came up in the heat of a penant race, Ozzie shielded him from the pressure early and than as he produced he earned that bigger role and was our stud reliever during that magical post-season. Getz hasn't really been jerked around, Alexei and Quentin both developed. Someone might point out that Quentin wasn't supposed initially start the season, but you know what, he got his at bats. Really our only legitimate grief is at the way CF has been handled and that more or less also falls heavily on the GM who never gave the Sox a legitimate guy to use (Wise/BA/Owens...none our starting Cfers).

A loss here might be the straw the breaks the camels back and leads Kenny to make another move or two towards the future. 6.5 back is a decent amount, especially when your past June and the team is still struggling to hit and pitch. Usually by June to the middle of June you got a pretty good idea of who your club is, unless of course you haven't had a healthy squad (the Sox have had injuries, but I still think they have a pretty good idea that they are a mediocre club at best).