CWSGuy406

QUOTE(danman31 @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:55 AM) How does that improve our team? Dye>Baldelli Baldelli had an OPS+ right around 120 last year. He plays better defense than Dye and runs the bases better. It would hurt us a bit for the rest of the season -- I agree with that -- but we'd still be getting three+ years from Baldelli as opposed to the three months left of Dye.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:53 AM) Afterall, the Sox gave Anderson plenty of time to dig his own grave last year (not only with his production but with his approach to the game, day in day out). Not really -- the platoon began in the second game of the season, IIRC.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:42 AM) They could probably send Dye to the Angels for Saunders and Willits/Aybar and then flip Saunders to the D-Rays with someone to get Baldelli.... I thought about a Saunders-for-Dye trade just a couple of nights ago. We don't need Saunders, but he's a guy that would appeal to the D-Rays seeing that he's had some success at the big league level. Package him with some of our prospects (Broadway, Logan, McCollough) and see if we can get a deal done.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:40 AM) I'd love to have Rocco, but he really seems to struggle staying healthy. He seems like one of those guys who is going to lose his speed sooner rather than later. Well, he'd have two factors working for him here. First, the Sox tend to do a very good job of keeping injury-plagued players healthy, and he wouldn't be playing on turf everyday anymore.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:38 AM) PS: there are lots of guys who can hit in the minors and then blow in the major leagues. He's one of them. Haha, I love people who believe minor league stats mean nothing when there's evidence contrary to that. That being said, you (not you specifically) had to be dumb to think Brian was going to hit .270 last year. He struck something like 130 times in his last year in AAA. He seemed to finally adjust around the halfway point of last year, but Ozzie still felt it necessary to platoon him despite the fact that (around the halfway-to-three-quarters point) he was hitting righties better.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:35 AM) Haha, sorry about that. I won't even fix that. I still have my eye on Baldelli. Too many OFers for that team. I wanted Dukes until you and Cheat informed me about his problems not only off the field, but with his teammates. In fact, I wouldn't be totally averse to sending Dye to a west coast team for a pitching 'spect and then sending that 'spect and some of our lesser arms to Tampa for Rocco.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:31 AM) His approach and swing is crap whether he's playing every day or every thirty days. LOL. You really don't get it at all... But go ahead, let's hear it.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:25 AM) Give me a break. He had the same crap approach last year, too, and he had all of the first half and significant parts of the second half to make adjustments. It isn't playing time -- he's either uncoachable, suffering from bad coaching or simply an all-around mediocre baseball player. He made improvements last year which is what you want to see out of a young player. He needs to be playing SOMEWHERE everyday. Charlotte looks to be that place with Terrero up here.

When Podsednik comes back, Iguchi better f***ing stay at the top of the order.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:22 AM) I love BA as much as the next guy, probably more, but he's hurting the team and the team is hurting him right now. He needs some AAA time to figure stuff out. It doesn't help that he's allowed one out of every ten days to make adjustments. OMG A DARIN ERSTAD XTRA BASEHIT!

I think that pitch was right down the middle. I wonder where Gameday has it.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:10 AM) Crede with some meatballs to hit, and hits his 1000th pop up of the season. I was thinking the same thing. Fastball right down broadway and a hanging slider.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 03:03 AM) Crede will go because of Boras + his back. It's the right decision. A no-brainer. We'd have no one else if we didn't bring Fields up at third. I'm thinking about a free agent in 2008-2009 (maybe it's a year later) who has certain connections to Ozzie... That's why I brought it up.

QUOTE(fathom @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 02:58 AM) Jerry Owens won't be a starter in the majors. At best, he's a 5th outfielder. I was told last week that Fields will be a 3B for the Sox during his career....I took that to mean Crede is gone after this year or next. Josh is pretty small, right? MinorLeagueBaseball had him listed at 6"1, but I didn't buy that. Anyways -- have the Sox ever thought about moving him to second? His arm strength might be wasted there, but it'd put less pressure on the Sox to resign Iguchi. And his bat could make him one of the better 2nd-baggers in all of baseball. Or is that impractacle?

Where are all the comments from people bashing BA on his first AB? That was pathetic from Erstad.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 02:46 AM) Alright, so now did Anderson do good? Nope -- he was close enough to the wall where he could have continued rather than slid and ran into it. Erstad would have ran through the wall after catching it.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 23, 2007 -> 02:13 PM) The point is, people are selectively leaving out yesterday's stats to make their case. Erstad won't have another 2000 season, but he's not as bad as he has shown recently, because he wasn't healthy. We all know from watching Thomas from 2001-2005 that a player in his 30's (and Erstad's now only 32, not 37 or 38 like Thomas in 2006) can have a very good season if he feels 100%. Sorry, I stopped reading after you put Frank Thomas and Darin Erstad's name in the same sentence. Too funny. Go make some more threads.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 09:05 PM) I'll go with OLB Lawrence Timmons of FSU and G Ben Grubbs of Auburn with the first 2 picks. Would drafting a LB in the top 60 picks be a result of the Briggs situation or just that they want to upgrade Hillenmyer's spot? I haven't really kept up with the draft -- even though ESPN has been shoving it down our throats the past fifteen months. Obviously the O-Line needs to start to infuse some younger talent. I'd imagine that Desmond Clark is going to start declining as he's getting older, so I like the TE idea. And since neither Benson nor Peterson are exactly 'burners', I like the faster, quicker RB idea too. Other than that? Perhaps grab a more reliable dime back? We seem okay on the defensive line, although grabbing another DT couldn't hurt with Tank's situation. On offense, they could use a wide receiver. They have two fast guys in Berrian and Bradley, how about a bigger more physical WR? Comments would be appreciated. I'll be lost in a sea of names this weekend.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 02:39 PM) Yes, which is a lot better than guaranteeing $18 million to an older player IMO. Haha, some of these arguments are histerical. "Guys -- Kenny could've done something WORSE, so don't worry!" He was healthy in 2005 and had a .325 OBP. So pretty much, you're wrong.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 06:16 AM) a.) they tend to improve according to their abilties. You are assuming that Anderson has more ability than Erstad, or at least the same. I don't see that. I don't see him as anything more than a good defensive player. Anderson was a first round pick. Anderson had a minor league OPS of .861. Now you're questioning Kenny Williams, too, BTW. Kenny Williams traded Chris Young because he was sooooo confident in Brian Anderson. The talent is there, that's obvious to anyone. Talent to become an All-Star? Probably not. But talent to become a .260/.330/.430 (pessimistic ceiling, BTW) player, which, combined with his defense, would be fine. Oh, okay, so Erstad gets excuses for why he's been a heaping pile of suck so far this year. You just let me know when poor Darin has had enough time to get nice and comfy. Spring Training numbers mean little to nothing to me. Ozzie said the CF job would be on the line. It clearly wasn't, because if it was, Anderson would be playing every day right now seeing that he was the better baseball player in ST. What have you been watching? Erstad so far this season has been MUCH worse than Anderson's full season last year. For God's sakes his OPS+ coming into today was 39. You're right -- he proved this 700 ABs ago. Since then... not so much.

QUOTE(southsideirish @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 05:36 AM) Can he hit more HRs? Possibly, but I am not looking for Erstad to hit HRs. We have enough HR hitters in our lineup. Yes, damn those homers. We need more hitting to the right side, more 4-3 putouts. I'll give you that -- Erstad is AWESOME at those. I'll answer the question that you've wanted answered, ie why should Anderson start over Erstad. Here are my reasons -- whether or not you choose to 'accept' them is your call. a.) Young players tend to improve, old players (over 32) tend to decline. This is a general rule of thumb. I look at Erstad and Andersonand see two players who, if both (hypothetically) given the exact same number of at-bats, would probably put up similar numbers. Anderson would hit for more power, Erstad would hit for higher average. The difference, of course, is that if Anderson were our everyday CFer, he'd be hitting ninth, rather than first. And nine times out of ten, I'm going with the younger player. b.) This offseason is a big winter, one where there are TWO clear CF upgrades on the market in Ichiro! and Andruw Jones. KW has expressed interest in Jones in the past (almost traded Maggs for him and maybe Russ Ortiz, IIRC). Ichiro! is obvious -- I think that the drooling over Erstad is bad, but the drooling over Ichiro! would be ten times worse. At least he's a good player, though. Anyways -- if the Sox were to give Anderson 450-500 ABs this season, he would have close to 1000 ABs at the major league level. At that point, I think it would be fair to make a decision on Anderson's future as a White Sock. c.) This doesn't address the question, but you say that Anderson looks overmatched. He was told prior to Spring Training -- or at least, this was said in the papers -- that he would 'compete' for the CF spot. He outplayed Erstad in Spring Training, with a similar batting average but much better OBP and SLG% numbers. Anderson looked decent in Spring Training, and has since been relegated to the bench. d.) In Erstad's last 150 (ish) ABs, he's putting up a line right around .215/.270/.310. Slice it any way you want -- that's not good. That's worse than Anderon last year -- much worse, in fact, and that's hard to do.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 04:42 AM) Erstad is almost exactly identical to Iguchi over 2005-06 if you average out his composite 2001-2005 seasons. Since 2002, Erstad has posted an OBP over .330 once. In Iguchi's two years here, he's already done it twice, both times over .340. This is pretty much what we're doing now, except Podsednik is in for Mackowiak. I don't view Mackowiak as an everyday player, and I wouldn't like him playing everyday, but it would be just about the same thing as having Pods out there. My gripe with Pods is more with his use of a roster spot. You take Podsednik off the roster, you can add a lefty masher in Eduardo Perez. Or if we want to rehash this for the umpteenth time, spent the money on Trot Nixon.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 04:14 AM) Haeger hasn't exactly been lights out this year in Charlotte. Seems like he's been having a bit of trouble getting command of his knuckler. Jason -- I was surprised to see Cunningham start the year at Winston Salem, as normally the Sox (seem) to like to push their OFers in the minors (cases in point: Jumping Chris Young straight from Kanny to B-Ham, the pushing of Sweeney despite his lack of dominance at one level, and even starting Fields at Charlotte last year after a less than stellar campaign at Birmy). Anyways -- how long do you think he has until he's wearing a Barons jersey? Month-and-a-half?

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 04:34 AM) So you would rather that KW gave Dave Roberts $18 million over 3 years at his age? Nope -- apparently you didn't read my post. I would've been perfectly happy with keeping Eduardo Perez, cutting (or trading) Podsednik, and going with Mack/Ozuna/Anderson-Terrero in LF. Or going with one of the older OFers who got one year deals -- Trot Nixon or Moises Alou. Either of these options is better than going with Podsednik. He's basically Darin Erstad except he sucks defensively and is limited to one position (the easiest position).

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Apr 24, 2007 -> 04:29 AM) It might have happened 2-3 times all last season. I'll go with Erstad. If he's still hitting .200-.225 on June 5th, then I would certainly be willing to look at giving Anderson or Terrero a shot. His bat has been coming around the last week or so, and those "seeing eye" hits are exactly what most hitters need to feel the momentum is turning in their direction. Baseball is 90% mental, and Erstad's 18 months removed from being an everyday regular. I love the implied assumption here that Brian Anderson will be no better than his 2006 numbers. Apparently young players don't get better. And apparently it's smart to bank on 32 year olds who haven't been good in over six years.