Marty34

Could not be happier with the performances of the 6 or 7 most important players to his team's future. Sale, Quintana, and Santiago are proving that they can be part of a championship rotation and Peavy and Rios keep building their trade value. Viciedo is showing progress as well. So far so good.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 26, 2013 -> 09:35 AM) You can't, which is why Boyer has an impossible job. The current fanbase whines about everything. It used to be everyone wanted to be the Rays around here. The manager is a genius, they have young talent out of their farm system. Of course winning never entered the equation. Now everyone wants to be like the Cardinals. Could you imagine how you would have minimalized a WS trophy if the Sox had won one winning 83 games? I am always up for changes that improve the Sox chances to win. Your ideas do nothing of the sort. They only improve your opportunity to complain, which is great for you, but not so great for people who would rather be happy the Sox one than have them lose so they can say get rid of so and so he won't be on the next White Sox team that makes the playoffs anyway. Sox fans are whiners so what. How does that prevent the Sox from winning?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 23, 2013 -> 08:52 AM) IMO, the problem is this team needs a new fanbase. White Sox fans are probably the biggest whiners in baseball. They just took 2 out of 3 against Boston who had 3 starters who were 15-1 on the season, and the White Soxhad to scratch their ace in the finale. Yet, people are complaining. There are many people on this board who whine when the Sox lose, but in their minds the solution is to lose games. So they aren't happy losing, but want to lose even more. This is not the NBA. One or 2 drafts don't change you overnight. How does a team go about getting a new fan base? This is right up there with you being for changes that improve the team.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 25, 2013 -> 11:03 AM) They need a total rebuild. They should hire Marty to consult. I like your philosophy Dick, pro changes that help a team.

Series is fun when it's on the weekend. Just another series otherwise.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:33 PM) #1, this is something Jones needs to work out in the majors. Everything is fine with him physically, there's no one in the minors who will perform better than he will, and he has had about 2-3 outings which have really, really skewed his stats to look terrible. I won't suggest he's pitched well, because he most certainly hasn't, but the 6.33 ERA is quite misleading, considering he has a FIP of 3.74 and an xFIP of 4.54. His numbers should look better than they are and there really is no better option to use in the minors. It's just a matter of throwing him and letting him work it out. #2, whether Phegley is the better option is up for debate, but the only argument you need for Phegley to stay down is service time. The most Phegley would add to the Sox at this point between the time he would not longer be Super 2 eligible is half a win. Half a win is absolutely worth the $5-10 million in additonal funds that Phegley would cost the Sox in the long run by simpy calling him up 3-4 weeks too early. On top of that, by letting him wait until no longer Super 2 eligible, you allow Flowers a little extra time to figure his swing out. Worrying about service time for Josh Phegley is about as absurd as it gets. As far as Nate Jones goes, you can't hide a guy in your bullpen when it doesn't have a guy who can pitch multiple innings.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 23, 2013 -> 02:58 PM) Jesus, careful watch how hard you pat yourself on the back, you might break a hand. A moderator on Soxtalk writing that is funny.

Part of the problem this organization has is it waits too long to fix fixable problems. Demoting Jones is an example of that as well as continuing to play Flowers when Phegley is tearing up Triple A.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 23, 2013 -> 12:37 PM) Would Marty implode if the Sox went on a tear? Nah, but this board would talking about me.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 23, 2013 -> 12:17 PM) C'mon Marty...you're just throwing s*** against the wall at this point...the guy clearly has the stuff to be successful, he just needs to continue to refine it and make the appropriate mechanical tweaks. I don't think there are a whole lot of people here that are expert enough to determine when a young player who has succeeded before in this league is done or not. Jeesh, people within the game aren't even expert enough to make this determination much of the time. For all we know, Cooper could spot one thing in a side session and have most of this solved... I don't particularly like Nate Jones but maybe he can be a decent set up guy, but he sure isn't one now. Demote him and let him fix whatever it is, in the minors.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 23, 2013 -> 11:54 AM) I'm trying to think, and it's difficult to recall if I have ever agreed with anything you have ever posted aside from your wanting Alexei's contract gone. I agree there. The age argument for pitchers is one of the dumbest arguments ever put forth, and every year pitchers prove it wrong. If you have the arm and you can learn how to throw strikes with it, then you can get MLB hitters out. Put away the graphs, take your head out of the sand, it's really not that hard to understand. MLB is littered with relievers who are one year wonders. If Nate Jones were anything more we would have see it before he was 26. He may have a 2-3 year run when he's 30, but do you want to keep him on the roster until then?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ May 23, 2013 -> 11:17 AM) This is what is killing me too. Was Juan Nieves that much of an influence out there, because I don't get the Nate Jones regression at all. I seriously thought he would challenge Reed for the closer's role this year. At this rate, I don't see him lasting long if someone emerges in the minors. And that's a real shame because Nate showed so much promise last year. If nothing else, you had to think he was going to be the lights-out bridge to Reed. I think Robin's going to have to start leaning harder on Lindstrom. As for LH relief...yikes. Red flag was he was 26 before he showed anything.

Nate Jones is awful. Demote him, please.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 21, 2013 -> 07:44 PM) Its less of a difference than left and right field, especially seeing that Beckham came up as a shortstop. If nothing else, it's insurance against Alexei getting injured. Reading anything into it is overreacting. DH him or Sanchez if it's nothing. Beckham hasn't played a game at short in his ML career.

You don't play a Major Leaguer on a rehab assignment out of position for no reason.

Why would Beckham play SS?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 21, 2013 -> 02:28 PM) I would just have Danks keep rehabbing the arm until it is absolutely necessary to bring him up. There are $65M reasons why he makes the start Friday. They need to see where he is at and the Marlins are a good measuring stick.

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ May 15, 2013 -> 08:13 PM) The trade ended up working out but we should have gotten more or better prospect(s) along with Pods/Vizcaino. Look up Carlos Lee's stats with us. It's shocking how productive he was even if he was dumb/couldn't bunt/couldn't field. Goes back to anyone being able to play LF.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 15, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Here's the problem with saying the same thing over and over and over and never backing it up. Reality sometimes intrudes. 3 days ago Alexei had an OPS close to .600 and yeah, you could say he's declining. It'd be bullplop because it's 100 at bats, but a person insisting on it could say that. He just went 8/12 against the Twins. Now his numbers are quite a bit better than last year. Career OBP is .316 and he's now at .317, career .276 average and he's hitting .284 now. OPS is below his career number, but it's now 30 points better than 2012. So, based on the same standard you used 2 days ago to declare he's declining, Alexei is now improving on his 2012 results. If the Sox faced the Twins every day your prediction of 90 wins would look a lot better.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 15, 2013 -> 04:49 PM) You say these things with such conviction, yet you fail to respond as to who should replace him. It's May 15th, and the Sox are in the exact same spot they were in last year. Trading him, like you have suggested, is absolutely assinine at this point. They'd feel awfully dumb if they traded him and lost out on a playoff spot by 3 games because Carlos Sanchez came up and put up a .240/.280/.320 line with mediocre to bad defense. You have wanted the Sox to get rid of Ramirez for years now, and you've already declared Viciedo a bust. You've denied as much in the past, and there is literally 0 reason to trade either one of them while there are others the Sox could trade instead of them, yet you remain adament about trading those two. It's a bit ironic. What's ironic about it? The Sox have 1 postseason win since 2006. I don't care who replaces Ramirez, I don't care who replaces Peavy. The goal is not to have the 10th best shortstop or a very good #2 pitcher for this year. The goal is to win a World Series and keeping Ramirez and Peavy on a decaying roster is what bad baseball teams do.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 15, 2013 -> 12:29 PM) Alexei Ramirez has the 10th highest WAR among shortstops. He has the 6th highest average, and to assume that he's suddenly turned from a .100+ Iso kind of guy to a .080 Iso guy is silly. He will start hitting for a bit more power, he'll continue to field, and he'll continue to be an incredibly valuable player. But, if you are so sure that Ramirez would not hinder it, surely you have a better solution. If you say Sanchez or Beckham, or anybody else in the minors, I'm just going to simply say you're absolutely 100% wrong. And if you're bringing in a free agent, it's going to cost the same anyways, and then you're sacrificing defense on top of it. You know if he is as valuable as you say, he should bring quite the return in a trade. Ramirez is not going to be part of the core that brings the Sox their next post-season team. Too old, declining.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 15, 2013 -> 11:26 AM) Marty, I respect your willingness to be the Devil's Advocate, but the problem with your logic is there are just too many unknown variables which can occur to answer a question like this. Keeping Ramirez could certainly win a championship, if other things came together. Does trading Ramirez win you a championship? In the unlikely event that enough things came together for the Sox to win a World Series the difference between a 33-34 y.o. Ramirez and his replacement would not impede that.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 15, 2013 -> 11:15 AM) You're right, Flowers to shortstop! As a fan, I care who plays shortstop. I really don't think there are many logical candidates out there to play SS right now who will be available this offseason who are better than Alexei. Does keeping Ramirez win you a championship?

Who cares who plays shortstop. I mean seriously. People talk about 2005. Why not deal Peavy for position player prospects and backfill the rotation through free agency? You aren't going to rebuild this offense with 30 somethings.

The anti-rebuilding crowd like to throw out scare tactics like "Astros" and "irrelevancy" while ignoring the fact that the Sox have 1 postseason win since 2006.