GreenSox

If Petricka and Putnam are going to pitch like this, they're dispensable. Petricka should be good for a clean inning of ground balls...he doesn't need to be walking guys. Kahnle has been killed by walks his entire career...so far,he has 1 in 4 Charlotte appearances. Walks are the only thing that have held him back. Small sample size to be sure, but if that's cured, this team can use him.

It's not a left handed bat necessarily. It's a bat. Frazier needs to come out of his coma....if the Sox are going to pay that much for a hitter, he needs to hit. The problems aren't because he hits from the right side. The can also switch Garcia out and try some other guys (Sands, and, dare I suggest, Saladino once in a while). If we can throw 4 lefties in the rotation, we can use right handed bats. They just need to hit.

I notice a lot of guys on the Sox farm teams who are under 25, but were with other teams last year. I assume that these guys were cut, and the Sox picked them up to fill rosters and aren't real prospects. Just wondering as there still is some relative youth there.

Prefer 5 years of Saladino to 2 months of a platoon hitter. If I'm right on Saladino, it would allow them to trade Anderson for a good hitter (not a platoon hitter) with perhaps some extra years, instead of wiping out everyone else in the farm, if they have to. We'll see what happens. Sox love to trade with Billy Beane. Interesting thing about Frazier is that he spent 4.5 years in the minors before he hit the majors...and that was as a college draftee.

Austin Jackson improved 2 positions defensively. Eaton's a pretty nifty RF.

Great job. This team trounced the Sox last year.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 07:57 AM) The Sox would trade Saladino straight up for Reddick 100% of the time and it isn't debatable. I admittedly have a higher estimation/valuation of Saladino than his numbers would warrant. And I hate rents....their high failure rate just does that to me. That the winning organizations don't dump their good young players, also does that to me. I'd rather that approach than than Kenny Williams 3/16 methods. But par usual, here come the pejoratives for Sox prospects.... "utility infielder" just like Trayce is a "4th outfielder" and Semien and Phegley (who out-hit 1/2 the Sox regulars last year) are scrubs. While Cooper was pining and awing over Hector Noesi, Bassit was putting up solid numbers for a back end starter. Let's not forget that utility infielder Escobar, who has outplayed every Sox SS since the Williams traded him. On what basis is Saladino a utility infielder... Because Cooper and Ventura think he is? Because he's not highly ranked? Sometimes solid, but not spectacular minor league numbers translate to solid major leaguers. Check out the Giants infield sometime.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 15, 2016 -> 07:09 AM) Sonny Gray for just Tim Anderson....don't think so. Now since we're on the subject of the A's, Josh Reddick is a much more realistic and relevant name to our discussion. Presumably, Dan Jennings would be the one to go in possible Danks demotion to pen/long man/second lefty. And, with the way Duke has been pretty shaky against LHB, there's zero chance they just cut him. Well Gonzalez was cut by the team with the worst pitching in the American League so I'm not really holding high hopes for him. I think Danks being acceptable or Eric Johnson coming in and throwing are more likely than Gonzalez. As for Reddick that's a rent of an extreme platoon hitter who has never had an OPS over .800. A's would want Saladino for him and that would be a huge mistake. He's a major leaguer. Looking forward to our Anderson/Saladino and maybe Sanchez infield for years to come.

Cubs will have the best record in baseball by a wide margin. 6 NL teams are in total rebuild mode (that includes the Padres, who, if not rebuilding, are still awful) so there will be a lot of record and stat inflation (ahem, when proposing to trade for NL players). St Louis is taking a stop back this year, and the Pirates just aren't as good as they were last year. Cubs have no real weaknesses and are built to pound the bad and mediocre teams. Playoffs are a different story, however.

Pretty bad. Most of the guys who hit well tonight are org. guys. Good to see EJ bounce back. They'll need him this year (if only to trade him).

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 07:52 AM) Semien does not come with league average defense. He's not a SS, but he's a good hitter and the Sox had no hitting and...that's enough, don't want to get started on this subject. Eh could be the Astros, who for all of the stellar drafting and development they do, make some monstrously bad trades.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 04:39 PM) It's been nice. Last year Sox had so many guys get off to putrid starts and it just snow balled it seemed. Now maybe guys can relax a bit and start hitting even more. I agree...and closure of holes in the lineup should create some synergy as hitters will be relieved of pressure to "do it all' knowing that there isn't a stiff hitting behind them.

If Frazier would start hitting, this offense would be fine. The only real hole would be at Catcher, which is acceptable. I also think that the harm to the pitching staff from the loss of Flowers' "pitch framing" has been exaggerated. The stat boys need to work on a "pitcher-independent" framing stat. I suspect some pitchers frame themselves. Nice start by Melky. Keep that OPS over .720, please. Saladino needs more than 2 appearances per week. He may be a gem.

QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 14, 2016 -> 04:06 PM) It would have to get really bad for that to happen. I just don't see it, and some of that goes into the loyalty argument with JR. Him being pulled from the rotation is much more likely, hopefully sooner than later. No room for him in the pen either if he can't pitch any better than this. Strong pen has been a key to this start,and they can't waste a spot pampering Danks. Hopefully he has a good start Saturday.

Are they perhaps working on some stuff with Fulmer...such as smoothing out his delivery...that might make him take a step back so that he can take 3 steps forward?

Sands/Shuck and then Avi (maybe). And after Dunn, Laroche and 2 weeks of Frazier, if people think trading young players for yet another NL slugger w/ severe splits who rakes in his home hitters' park is the answer, I don't know what to say.

Good to see Petricka have a strong appearance. He should be good for a clean inning,as needed. They seem intent on using Duke as a situational lefty. I hope it works out.

I'm just glad he's gone. Kudos, again, to Williams for enabling the departure.

Groupthink in midseason form, I see. The Sox have had a solid payroll for years. 3 playoff appearances in 15 years with that payroll and after inheriting a division winning team with a top farm is pretty poor performance. JR isn't cheap...he's just ridiculously tolerant of non-performing employees. The good news is that the farm system is churning out some good players. The bad news is that the braintrust doesn't seem compelled to take advantage of it.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 13, 2016 -> 12:21 PM) I think that the Sox really liked Trayce as a fourth outfielder. True But I'll take the evaluation skills of the Dodgers over Kenny Williams, Robin Ventura and Don Cooper.

QUOTE (ChiSoxFanMike @ Apr 13, 2016 -> 11:19 AM) CarGo is the obvious solution if the team is serious about winning IMO. How many more "proven veterans" will be the obvious solutions? Kenny Williams has tried this approach. And it fails repeatedly. And Cargo, as do most Kenny Williams targets, have massive, glaring warning flags all around them.

Sox dispatched several young players over the last two years, who are far outperforming the proven veterans they were traded for. I see no reason to trade for prospects from another organization, when the Sox can't properly evaluate their own. They aren't very good at evaluating the veterans either. The best choice is to just keep calling players up and see who sticks, recognizing that the evaluators judged a .900 OPS from a young player as fourth outfielder quality. That said, the team will contend if the bullpen holds up. They are relying on four guys and that eventually will have to be broadened for the pitching to be good enough.

That's fine, but the 2 catchers, 2B, LF and SS aren't hitting either. Now I realize the clear distinction between Avi and the players at those positions. But at some point, this goes beyond making dugout life pleasant for cooper and ventura.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Apr 12, 2016 -> 09:23 AM) from a front office perspective, 2006 was a better team than 05. FO did their job on that one-- 06 team just did not get it done on the field (despite still being very good). Fell victim to the chaos that is baseball more than anything else. Not really. Williams ran a still productive Frank Thomas out of town. Then, after dispatching his starting CF, Williams, par usual, completely misevaluated his young talent, and traded the only one of 2 rookie CFwho could play, leaving us with a starting CF who couldn't hit. And of course, Williams' poor evaluation skills have been a huge anchor for this organization for years.

If shuck isn't a plus defender, he has no business on this roster. If he is, use him as such.