GreenSox

QUOTE (mike89128 @ Aug 6, 2013 -> 03:57 PM) Yahoo Sports has a good article on Viciedo. Tone of the article suggests Viciedo will not be back next year. Article says Manto, Baines and Ventura have basically given up trying to install some disciple to his swing. His jammed thumb from last night might open the door for Garcia soon. Wouldn't be surprised if Viciedo goes on the DL. No point in giving him away. Selling low is the wrong way to operate. they also say Viciedo has a very fast bat and good swing plane. Manto can't seem to fix him; maybe if we bring in a 2nd professional to work with him it might help.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 5, 2013 -> 10:02 AM) For how little the Sox paid him, Wise was an incredibly productive and valuable player during his White Sox career, both tenures. He was a good 4th outfielder and he should have always remained that, as he was never qualified to be a starting player. It was not his fault that he was thrust into that opportunity in 2009, and he was given unjust grief due to Ozzie Guillen. Without his production down the 2008 stretch run, the Sox don't secure a playoff birth. I still remember watching his grand slam on ESPN against the Tigers after Marcus Thames hit a grand slam to tie the game and that was such a relief, because the Sox were seemingly prone to blowing leads down the stretch in 2008. Thankfully, everything worked out. There sure was something crazy about that team and hitting grand slams, as they had 12 of them that season. He caught the ball for Beurhle and he got hot in 2008 after Quentin went down. But for most of the time with the Sox, he was productive in the sense that the 2013 Sox offense is productive His OBP with the sox is .266; his OPS is 661. You could find dozens of players at the minimum salary who can best that We caught some lightening from him in 2008 and that's it.

Move De Aza to LF. Garcia in right. Sign a defensive CF. Dump Rios. Wait for prospects, or sign a FA when we're close to being ready. Ethier? Good gracious he's owed nearly $90 million and he's not much better than Rios.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Aug 3, 2013 -> 09:07 PM) Nice to Johnson bouncing back from that groin injury. He should be the next guy called up. He at the least deserves a look in September. No real need to start the clock ticking on these guys right now. Call them up in September. Garcia, of course, already has a ticking clock.

You should have upped that offer, Arizona.

I have no interested in a has-been manager with no history of success. Of course some managers who haven't won much are still capable and understand the proper decisions to make and can execute them...they may have just had teams that lacked talent. A young manager with fresh thinking who has been sitting at the side of a successful manager should work. No more insiders; no forcing legacy coaches on a manager.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 10:29 PM) I'm ok with keeping Alexei next year but I like the idea of the sox letting their '15 core take their major league lumps. I think in the offseason more teams will be open to the idea of Rios and Ramirez, because as it stands now the top FA's available is quite disheartening outside of Cano, Ellsbury and McCann. Choo looks like a platoon partner, with his split of .176/.323/.198. The mets strike me as suitors for one or both of them and they have a decent looking prospect in Wilmer Flores that isn't going to move murphy or wright off their respective positions, he is incredibly young at 21 soon to be 22 in 4 days. Just don't rush the core. Many start developing bad habits to compensate when they aren't ready for ML pitching.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) It would be nice if he could develop into a 3B considering Beckham, Johnson, Sanchez, and Anderson are in the system. Beckham played 3rd when he first came up with the Sox. I thought he did a real good job there. Hopefully we have these issues of abundance to deal with eventually.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 10:03 PM) The only thing that concerns me with Santiago is his BB/9 and HR/9, he owns 3.97BB/9 & 1.12HR/9 as a starter thats a yellow flag. Since July and including tonights game he is at 3.22BB/9 a .75 drop and 1.15HR/9 a .03 increase. Hector needs to follow in the mold of Rienzo and keep his pace up, because when he takes to much time between pitches it goes to s***. As a starter he has a 4.24FIP @ a 3.20 constant thats below average. Hector has the talent to be just as good as Sale, he just needs to get those two things in check and he will be money. I think Hector is our second to best pitcher...he has to work on the things you mentioned. What worries me is that the dugout doesn't agree and they devalue him - e.g. their instincts were to put him in middle relief. That's why I keep saying is that if we can get a blockbuster deal by sending out one of our pitcher for an equal or greater return in young positional talent, it would be Quintana to go, not Santiago.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 3, 2013 -> 08:47 AM) Those four guys have a combined ERA of 4.68, and the Sox overall bullpen ERA this year is 4.18. The Astros bullpen ERA is 5.11. As much as I'd like to see the Astros get hot at some point, and the Sox continue to suck, the Sox aren't getting the 1st pick. But the good news is the Sox have a very good shot at the 2nd pick...and that might be a better position to be in. The Astros will take Rodon because he's awesome and they need pitching. And the Sox will take the best offensive player, which is ok with me. These guys are much worse than their ERA (not that the AStros bullpen isn't either). They are inflating our starters' ERAs with their inability to put out fires and their great ability in letting inherited runs score.

QUOTE (flavum @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 10:24 PM) Astros bullpen is getting them the #1 pick. May I introduce you to Misters Troncosco, Lindstrom, Veal, and Purcey?

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 08:36 PM) Why does a 3B, 1B, RF, and LF have to have a certain amount of power?? We need players who get on base and can knock people in who are on base. Look at the Cardinals. Allen Craig has 11 home runs this year, a lot of power? Nope, but he gets hits. That is all we need. Economics. Teams need power. Power hitters who can play corner positions are more plentiful, thus they are cheaper to obtain. If you try to get your power from CF, C, SS and 2b, you have to pay more for it... it is scarce. Thus, it is a more efficient use of resources to take your power at the corners. That's also why it's worthwhile to give our new acquisition a fair look in CF.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 01:01 PM) Not sure if these two examples were in the same game, but Ventura did use Septimo instead of Veal once to face Fielder (who had no chance vs Veal), and Prince homered. Then, with the Sox making a furious rally off of Benoit, he asked Youkilis to bunt which resulted in two poor attempts and strike 3. this indicates what he did all September. Used the back end of the pen in high leverage situations (and he's done it all year long this year too) and starting bunting like a madman in September.

The two new bright spots of the year pitched tonight: the development of Santiago as a first rate starter and Jones as a first rate reliever. I'd like to see them give Jones some save chances, if there are any to be had.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 05:17 PM) I'm more interested in whether this deal can be recreated in the offseason No way. The other team loses the value of the veterans in the key 2 months of the season. We still should be able to move some of these guys along, but we won't get the same deal our way. That's assuming it was for veterans, and not for Sale, Quintanta, etc.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2013 -> 12:16 PM) The Rays had Top 1-2-3 draft picks for how many years? Josh Hamilton, BJ Upton, Delmon Young, David Price, Longoria, Moore, etc. Dewon Brazelton was also right up there, because they were afraid to deal with Boras/Teixeira. Now Rosenbloom's going after Hahn for trading for a RFer when that position is still occupied by Rios. Guess he has SOMETHING of a point, although the remainder of this season doesn't matter much, and there's still August and the offseason to figure out how to get rid of Alex. Rosenbloom's suggestion was benching Viciedo and/or DeAza, BUT benching Viciedo for the next two months doesn't do anything at all to help the Sox...there is, however, no reason they couldn't play Garcia everyday and rotate Dunn/Rios/DeAza at-bats, if they chose to go down that path. Rios will be moved this month. It will be moot.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:38 AM) If is lack of skill and experience is the problem this year, how do you explain last season? His lack of experience and skill showed markedly last September. I just don't see how a player who has never even sat on a bench as a coach and then was away for a decade, has the credentials as a manager. And it's not all him...he had accept the legacy coaches as assistants, of course.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 08:40 PM) I want to see Beckham at short the rest of the year, Gillaspie at second (groom to be a super-sub of sorts), and Morel at third. The Sox lose valuable evaluation time with every game Ramirez plays. I tend to concur with the you; if not that specific plan (please post a warning when you write scary things - like Morel at 3rd). We should also clear out the bullpen soon of the Troncoso's et al and give some prospects or even another set of AAAA players a chance. It's ridiculous to play useless veterans.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 03:19 PM) For Kotsay...because he's a career .275 hitter as a pinch hitter and in the NL when you have the pitcher's spot that's incredibly important and overvalued. A team like the Padres can live with that guy on the bench because they can use him for an at-bat a game, particularly from the LH side. He's not in the AL, that's why he's still playing. Wise....well, I think Rios has had what, 1 day off this season? Even when Wise was here he wasn't being used. Blame the manager for that if you want, but we need someone on the bench the manager will actually use somewhere on this team. Kotsay is in a different league of baseball player than Wise and his career .267 OBP. Can't blame the manager for not playing Wise...applaud him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 01:20 PM) Part of the problem also is that we have a number of guys who also need to hit better. I agree. That's a lot of the problem with the OBPs. Just throw strikes at them and they get themselves out. Can't walk on balls over the plate. T

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 11:24 AM) Cause let's face it, Hahn's explanation for how they're going to use the savings is a bunch of BS given the new spending caps on amateur players. It's still not helpful to waste money on other teams' stiffs.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 12:29 PM) If all this experience is a prerequisite, how would you have any idea what anyone is doing wrong? I take it you have zero experience in a major league dugout. I never said I could manage. But it's not hard to identify, critique obvious mistakes. Yes it is easy to be a critic. That's why we don't paid. It's very difficult to implement a lot of decisions, obvious as many are. That's why MLB managers get paid huge salaries. It's not an easy job.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 1, 2013 -> 12:29 PM) If all this experience is a prerequisite, how would you have any idea what anyone is doing wrong? I take it you have zero experience in a major league dugout. I never said I could manage. But it's not hard to identify, critique obvious mistakes. Yes it is easy to be a critic. That's why we don't paid. It's very difficult to implement a lot of decisions, obvious as many are. That's why MLB managers get paid huge salaries. It's not an easy job.

Yep; that's the way they used to do it. Hawk must have slept through the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s....

He just discussed how Ventura handles players. That part's probably fine. But his use of personnel and strategic decisions are not so fine. Ventura is Williams' guy. Hahn is supposed to be a more modern baseball guy - needs his manager and coaching staff sans legacies.