CWSGuy406

If I'm hitching my wagon to anybody at this point, it's probably Nevin Griffith. It might be a slight overdraft at #25 but he looks like your "high risk/high reward" high school pitcher with the most potential in that part of the draft. I also like LaPorta, too, if the Sox are going to take a position prospect. Kid -- and as I say "kid", I realize he's older than me, hehe -- can flat out hit...

FWIW, I'm not seeing either of these guys in the above article in Baseball America's top 30, and they're not on the eight listed "lip of the cup", either.

Too bad we don't have a "Greg Walker Lynch Mob thread" that we could put this in...

Juan Uribe's approach at the plate is terrible, and you could see it in that 8th inning at bat he had against Farnsworth. Farns hung three sliders up in the zone, but Uribe's not staying back on the ball at all -- he's just falling forward well before the pitch gets there. Uribe was at his best in September of 2005 when Hrniak or Frank Thomas were implementing that front leg 'tap' timing system. It allowed him to sit back on the ball and see it further into the zone. I don't want to try and act like a 'hitting expert' here, either -- believe me, I'm far from that -- but this looks so f***ing obvious to me. Uribe is sapping himself of power with the current way he's swinging the bat. Because he's stepping forward so soon before the ball gets to home plate, any power that he should be transferring from his back leg is sapped. Basically any power he has is coming from his arms, and I don't think that's a good thing. I'm so glad Greg Walker found it necessary to "fix" things.

That's' Donald Veal, the Cubs top pitching prospect coming into the season, getting smoked by Birmingham. And FWIW, Jeff Samardzija hasn't been a whole lot better with an ERA near 6.00 and almost as many walks as strikeouts (16-to-20 in 50+ IP). Believe it or not their system is actually worse than ours, although they're going to add a real impact bat on Thursday in Josh Vitters.

I don't even care, the Sox don't have to win this game but show some f***ing life and put up a three spot. Make it interesting. This team gets down four runs and doesn't even give it a chance to put the tying run at the plate.

Jeter has no range. Uribe EASILY makes both of those plays (the hits). Now I will wait for somebody to interpret this as me saying Uribe is better than Jeter.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 04:03 AM) How else would you describe Fields? He'll be a K monster next year. He is a K monster down in AAA. Of course he's going to strike out a lot. That doesn't mean he won't be a good baseball player. I'd like to see him prove that he sucks in the majors before I say that he sucks. I know the Borchard comparison will always be above Fields' head until he proves to be a capable major leaguer, but IIRC, Borchard never walked as much as Fields has this season. Borchard also never got better after his first year at Charlotte -- he peaked at age 23 and never got a heckuva lot better than that. Fields, OTOH, is putting up the same numbers he did as last season, even after a tough April. That might be true, but even if you thought that Crede wouldn't repeat last year, you should have reasonably expected something along the lines of his career numbers -- .259/.305/.446. This complete dropoff couldn't have been predicted unless Crede is hiding an owwie in his back. Either way, Mike Lowell isn't (or shouldn't be) the answer to any question the White Sox are asking.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 03:54 AM) They both suck. Tough to argue with with analysis like that.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jun 5, 2007 -> 03:47 AM) It'll be bad, then. Lowell will be 34 by Opening Day 2008. This team needs to get younger, not older.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jun 4, 2007 -> 09:26 PM) Fathom...for once, you and I are in incredible, total agreement. And I still want the draft picks if we don't trade Dye. Draft picks we wouldn't get with Abreu. This trade would pretty firmly plant me on the "I want KW's head" bandwagon. What a terrible move this would be -- Abreu's power has fallen off a ledge, and because pitchers know he can't hit the ball with authority (as much) anymore, they're going to go after him more. This would be an embarrassing move.

SPOILER QUESTION I'm confused as to what happened to the other two people (the foriegn guy and his sexy model wife) -- they talked a little bit about it at the very beginning of the show, but my attention was sort of diverted. Did it end up not working out because Vince didn't "seal the deal"? Also, on an unrelated note, they had a two hour special on Pablo Escobar on the History channel. That really would make an interesting movie, to say the least, although (tying this back into Entourage), Vince is going to have put on a lot of weight and age a little bit to play the part to a 'T'.

A-Rod is definitely changed -- for better or for worse, I don't know -- this year. He just hit an opposite field shot in the ninth to put the Yanks ahead of the BoSox (that's not the wierd part, no 'not-clutch' joke here) and, after tagging home plate, he put his hand over the little camera that ESPN Sunday Night baseball has that follows guys down the third base line on their home-run trot. If I saw correctly, he also shot a little smile, too. Gosh I hope he opts out and the Sox get him.

FWIW, the guy doing the mock draft for the Sox had them taking Tanner Robles, a left-handed pitcher who's rated the best prospect in Utah. Here's a scouting report I found on him from PG Crosschecker:

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 4, 2007 -> 01:45 AM) Why has Burgess fallen so far? If he's still around, I have no problem taking a high ceiling pick with a possible 40 homer a year outfielder. Baseball America says that his ability to make consistent contact is a big concern. Weathers is a reliever. Seeing that the Sox have all of two picks in the top 100, I'm not taking a reliever, even if he is on the fast track.

http://minorleagueball.com/story/2007/6/3/15622/22068 The person picking for the Sox takes Matt LaPorta at #25. I know it's not the high school power arm that everybody wants, but honestly, I wouldn't mind LaPorta. This farm system is totally devoid of position prospects, unlike in the pitching department where there's some good (not great) arms throughout. LaPorta is hitting .402/.582/.817 at Florida this season and has only struck out in ~9% of his at-bats. Compare this to say, Joe Borchard, who struck out in ~23% of his at-bats in his final season at Stanford. Anyways -- assuming the first 24 picks went the way they did in this mock draft, who would you take?

Congrats Cleveland, you ARE the Eastern Conference's tallest midget! Can the Cavs seriously win one against San Antonio?

QUOTE(fathom @ Jun 3, 2007 -> 03:35 AM) Yeah, I always say Neal Cotts allowing one homer all season throwing only 91 mph high fastballs is one of the most astonishing stats you'll ever see. Also, I'm pretty sure Cliff Politte has the lowest percentage of hits on balls put in play. Just based on memory, and without looking at BAPIP, it sure seemed like Hermanson was a lot luckier with regards to line drives hit right at people. I don't know what was in Politte's right arm in 2005, but he had an amazing slider and a great two-seam fastball. But yeah... that year was really something to behold.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jun 2, 2007 -> 10:17 PM) In the end a lot of it comes down to who develops players and who doesn't. The Indians, Twins, and Tigers have been developing players while the Sox haven't And clearly the Sox have been lagging in that area. I'm in no way defending Sox player development/scouting -- it needs to improve, no questions asked. To be fair, though, Detroit and Cleveland have reaped the benefits of being consistently 'bad' for such a long time (Cleveland to a lesser extent). Detroit was in a position to get Bonderman because they were sellers in 2002. Verlander was a second overall pick, and future additions Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller are/were also top ten picks. Cleveland also benefited from years of losing/selling -- see the Sizemore/Colon trade. Don't get me wrong -- this doesn't absolve the Sox scouting department by any means. I'm just saying that both Cleveland and Detroit have been lucky enough to pick so high to go along with that good scouting. The Sox have had neither of those -- one of them falls on their shoulders. Minnesota, OTOH -- is there anybody better?

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jun 2, 2007 -> 09:55 PM) Some of you guys are complete f***ing morons. The Sox were the best team BAR NONE in 2005. They have always been a competitive team since 1990, and the team has never finished below .500 with KW as GM. You're definitely spot on. People are pointing to the early years as a fault of Kenny's, but don't look at the vast improvements he has made as GM -- really, that's what's I liked seeing. The farm system is a big problem in the organization right now, and that falls firmly on Kenny's shoulders. However, he has vowed to change -- this week's draft will be a big hint on whether he's serious about those changes.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 2, 2007 -> 09:54 PM) Actually yes I was saying sell high this winter, as were a lot of others. I don't recall that. You got a link? Maybe you were -- but the only person I remember actively calling for Josh Fields to be with the big club is beatox. No doubt Shapiro and Dombrowski have done good work with their respective clubs. Kenny has vowed to change the 'standards' in the organization for drafting. I want to see where that goes before I call for his head. Kenny is a GM who has usually learned from his mistakes. So all of that would have made a five-ten game difference? Let's look at the only comparable package of players that another team received for a starting pitcher this winter, the Jason Jennings to Houston trade. Mind you, however, that Jennings is a couple years younger than Garcia and coming off of a much better year. Willy Tavares is having a nice year at .322/.385/.349. He'd be a nice fourth outfielder to have, but he wouldn't be doing the same thing in Chicago. Clearly the large OF in Colorado is helping him, and he'd be facing much tougher pitching in Chicago. Jason Hirsh has been 'okay' in Colorado, a 5.10 ERA in 70 innings. The direct comparison is between him and Gio, I guess, because they look to be the centerpieces of both deals. And then there's Taylor Buchholz, a guy who probably projects as a reliever. He's got a 5.55 ERA in about 50 innings pitched. I know everybody here -- myself included at one point -- thought we should have gotten Mike Pelfrey and Lastings Milledge from the Mets for Garcia. The only thing I fault Kenny for in the Garcia trade is his overvaluing of Gavin Floyd. It's really not as bad a trade as everyone wants to make it out to be, though -- if Gio gives us just one year of league average pitching, the trade becomes a wash.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ May 31, 2007 -> 05:16 AM) http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=209363&hubname= I'm still liking Patrick Kane the best, although that Turris is a close second. I have faith in Tallon, though -- I like the talent he's accumulated in the Hawks junior ranks. Also, I don't know if you know this, but if Ottawa doesn't start shooting more, they can kiss the Cup good-bye.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 2, 2007 -> 09:46 PM) Also, my apologies, I guess i'm the only one that could see that MacDougal has a long track record of walking a ton of batters and getting hurt. So you foresaw MacDougal -- a career 3.87 ERA pitcher -- having an ERA over sixseven with nearly a walk per inning? You really do know your s***. You definitely need to be working for the Sox. I can't wait to see Chris Getz starting at second in 2008! Woo-hoo!

My question is, how could this year have been avoided? What move could Kenny have made that would have the Sox sitting right up there with Cleveland and Detroit? I know as of right now, it's easy to say he should have sold high on Crede this winter, but were you saying it then (in the winter)? And were you clammoring for Josh Fields to stick at third this winter, the Josh Fields who was coming off of a year in which he struck out in about 30% of his at-bats at Charlotte, more than Brian N. Anderson? I hate to say it, but sometimes you have to chalk it up to "s*** happens (or happening)". Cleveland and Detroit are just better than us. Nothing wrong with that... At this point, Kenny just needs to avoid making matters worse and trading any of the future for a short-term fix.

You probably should have waited a half hour, as that can probably considered proper 'cool-off' time for a post-game thread. Only a half-hour, though...