Chisoxfn

Are you guys seriously trying to tell me that Quentin has better bat control than Alexei Ramirez? Ramirez has some of the fastest hands in the bigs and while he might not recognize breaking balls all that well or have a phenomenal eye for the strike-zone he does have an uncanny ability to hit the ball to all fields and to make contact on really difficult pitches. I'd argue that Alexei has the better bat control.

That is insane (about Hoffman).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 14, 2009 -> 02:48 PM) Flower is nowhere near ready defensively, he is still learning the position. AJ gets crap for his inability to throw guys out, but Flowers would be worse than that in every aspect, AND doesn't yet know how to handle pitchers. Trading AJ, who is key to this team and is having a good offensive season, doesn't make sense. And even offensively, he's not "ready", but he's close. 2010 we should see AJ one more year, with Lucy backing him up, and Flower in AAA getting one more full year behind the plate learning how to catch. Flowers will be a 2010 callup or a 2011 Opening Day starter. You do NOT want him playing backup for more than half a season, as he needs to be playing to develop. Lucy isn't a future starter, or heck Castro or whomever, just have them back up for now. 2011 Opening Day seems ideal, or maybe 2010 midseason as the backup at the earliest. The non-hitting aspects are far more important than the offense for a catcher. I hate to say this, well I don't hate it, but I'll break the news, Flowers will be with this team next year at the latest. The Sox love his bat and they'll find a way to get him ab's, maybe with AJ here, maybe with AJ elsewhere, who knows.

He's a good minor leaguer, but thats what he is.

The most recent quotes were a-ok with me. Oh and Beckham just raked an opposite field double and had a much better at bat. He's starting to figure stuff out, but another guy that really is hitting well is Christopher Getz, who I think is going to be a very very good long-term 2nd baseman (good defense, high obp, I like his upside to be a #1 or #2 hitter).

Getz is starting to put s*** together.

I'm glad we have Cutler cause otherwise we'd see the Bears and Vick in the same sentence (from reporters, not necessarily that the Bears front office would go after him).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 12:21 PM) Isn't he it the one they found out is three years older? It was speculation by Bureau, but whether true or not, we really don't know.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 12:55 PM) You do realize Putz just went down for 2-3 months with elbow bone spurs right? at the tiem I made the post, no, but I read it earlier today. Still, they aren't going to have two closers, long term it wouldn't work, imo.

Don't know if this was posted or not, it is about our 31st round selection, Jacob Wilson:

GBecks and Poreda!!!! Welcome the new kids (for July that is)

Happy Bday to one of the best posters Soxtalk has. A true asset and a good buddy, even if I've never met the feller

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 11:02 AM) And it would be even worse in Beckham's case, since KW is obviously not gonna trade him. So he'll just be in the clubhouse on the team everyday with Ozzie hating him the whole time. If Ozzie treats Beckham poorly or mishandles him than I think you'll start to hear grumblings of a firing. Right now I think everything about Kenny and Ozzie disagreeing is being blown way out of proportion but that might change a month from now when significant changes are made and Danks and others are up and Poreda is in the rotation (probably in replacement of Count).

QUOTE (everafan @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 11:00 AM) How many times has Thome been on the DL since he's been dwith the Sox? I can only recall once. I'm not certain, but he's missed a decent chunk of games with various ailments and I swear he's been on the DL multiple times but I might be wrong.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 10:59 AM) Guys with swagger and attitude in the clubhouse who are in their first season with the White Sox....yeah ask Nick Swisher how that went... I think the problem with Swisher was that it might have rubbed people the wrong way with how he handled his struggles as well as how he failed to listen to our coaches or make any adjustments with his swing. But you bring up a valid point, I'd even point even more so at a guy like Cabrera whose a smart baseball player that is well liked in most circles but rubbed some people the wrong way in Chicago.

The swagger Beckham has is much needed cause our clubhouse and team leaders, aside from AJ and Buehrle, are very unemotional and un-inspiring on the field and in general are quiet guys. I also think that AJ and Buehrle have had a very large part on why our young pitchers have developed and improved and our young hitters haven't. You might also bring the Coop vs Walker argument into the debate but I'd prefer to stay away from it since we are debating Ozzie here. Plus I think that topic has been absolutely killed.

Our sister site,FutureSox.com, has been working hard to set-up interviews with some of the recent additions to the White Sox organization and Jared Mitchell has been nice enough to agree to an interview with us, which will occur in the next week or two (most likely after the CWS is over). Please share with us any questions you'd like to have answered by one of our "Stars of Tomorrow" and what we all hope is the next Carl Crawford!

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 10:04 AM) "He's very cocky." 'You guys [the media] do a pretty good PR department for Beckham,'' Guillen said. ''I've been in Chicago for 17 years, playing and coaching. Has anybody been 0-for-whatever he is, he hasn't got booed yet? He hit a ground ball to second base and got a standing ovation from the fans [the other day]. Somebody hit a ground ball right at him, and he got another standing ovation. Good job, guys. Keep it up. I hope he sells a lot of shirts, but I need production.'' I'm certainly not going to say Ozzie hates Beckham cause that's pretty ridiculous at this point but he certainly hasn't had one good thing to say about him since Spring Training. Wow, I hadn't read that quote. That is downright awful. I don't know what the context is but the kid is a f***ing rookie. Making a statement like that does nothing good. Instead it tells the kid that he hasn't done s*** and that I'm not impressed. I certainly hope Ozzie has a different attitude behind closed doors.

To me the most interesting part was when he talked about how guys, no matter how cocky they are, have doubts as to whether they belong when they are called up. That alone tells me that you as the manager need to make them feel as welcomed as possible. And I have on good record that Ozzie didn't always do a good job of that (*cough*Brandon McCarthy*cough*). However, I had hoped he had improved and I'm going to have to hope he has and if he hasn't I'm confident that Kenny would than make the right decision and find a manager that works better with young players. I can also point to pitchers that Ozzie has done a great job handling (Richard, Danks, Floyd, Garland)

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 12, 2009 -> 09:45 AM) Perhaps he's along the Sisco, Aardsma, JVB lines. Marquez was very bad last year. He was a throw in. KW talked him up, but that was just propaganda. He never has had anywhere near the stuff of guys who the Sox have had success bring back from the dead like Thornotn, Contreras, Floyd and Loiasa. BTW, I couldn't care less what Nick Swisher's OPS is right now, I still think KW did well to dump him even if nothing he gets back pans out. Completely agree DA. Nick Swisher is a bad baseball player. I do think he would be a very valuable NL player in a utility role, able to play a ton of positions. Is he better than some of the guys we've ran out, absolutely, but long term he isn't my type of ball-player so I had zero problem losing him. It would have been nice to get some talent back, but I'm at least content that the Sox had financial savings and most likely put it into Viciedo. When you say JVB are you referring to Vanden Bosch? Cause I really don't think you can compare those with Aardsma and Sisco. I don't recall anyone hyping JVB as making our squad or anything along those lines.

Cubano, can you catch me up to speed. Are any of these guys high upside talent? You usually have been pretty good on this and I know we've discussed it in the past but for some reason I'm having a major brain fart.

I've seen some people doubt Richard of late, so heres to hoping you go out and kick some butt Clayton. It would be huge if you have a good season as it really would put our rotation in great shape (both statistically and financially since it would mean we'd have 3 guys in our rotation that are young with talent). And than of course Buehrle.

Awesome debut for Shirek....7 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs. Beautiful.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 09:06 PM) I hope it is an injury. This organization for some reason really seems to be right on pitching prospects. The entire planet had given up on guys like Jose Contreras, Gavin Floyd, Esteban Loiaza, and DJ Carrasco. But somehow we turned them into studs. When they started talking up Marquez, I listened, based on their history. I don't know if I'd call Carrasco a stud. But in general I do think the organization has a good eye for talent. You also have to factor in the misses as well (Aardsma, Sisco, MadDougall, etc).

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 08:42 PM) I'm going to defend Treybone, he's an aggressive RBI guy. But he spent the first month or so of the season batting leadoff. He's also been yo yo'd up and down the lineup. Plus, he is only playing 4 out of 5 games. He seems to have picked it up since spending more time in the 7,8,9 holes. Last year he was hitting consistently in the top of the order, usually 2, 3 or 4. Yes, there has been a decline in all of his numbers, but his approach has obviously been changed, and the adjustment is taking time. One thing that always is failed to be mentioned is the adjustment from playing at Ernie Shore and playing at Regions Park. Unfortunately, those two parks are so different that it can throw off a lot of players. I've seen it over and over before. Shelby needs more time to develop, plain and simple. I'll give him the second half to pick it up, with the likelihood that players like David Cook will be promoted. Awesome post JPN. Its just another reason why I am so glad that you are a constant contributor amongst these parts. As 99% of us aren't able to see these guys in action very often, we aren't able to pick up on these sort of things. I'd definately point to Marquez but second would be Gilmore because I expected a lot of out of him after hearing the praises I had heard from scouts this past spring and seeing his raw power potential for myself. Shelby falls in at 3rd because well quite frankly, I've never been a Morel fan and think of him as Bill Mueller. That said, I'd be pretty stoked if he turned into Bill Mueller cause he was a pretty damn valuable baseball player.