Kalapse

KW was interviewed on Comcast and said the backup catcher position will be filled internally. THE WIKI ERA BEGINS IN CHICAGO!

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:30 PM) So 2 games this spring? Or at-bats, ok read that wrong. I don't know where I'm going with this anyways. I guess I'm wondering if he played at 1st this spring and looked shaky before. He's played there a bit this spring and looked pretty bad early on in the game yesterday. QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:32 PM) It isn't one post...it's a conglomeration of the hateration (yeah, that's right, I rhymed) that has been going on. Look, I can handle it well. Last year, when the Sox were not-a so good int he second half, I joined right in. I just don't understand why everyone is so down on this team IN SPRING TRAINING?!?! And it's getting old and wearing thin. Jeez, at least give them 10-14 regular season games before we freak out about a torn labrum or 4th outfielder. HOw many teams out there would love to have these problems instead of doling out $55 mil for a crap pitcher or $300 mil for a team that still can't pitch? Some of us aren't as optimistic about this team as you are, especially with the competition in the AL Central. I guess we could put off talking about the team until mid April but that would make for an incredibly boring forum and some pretty lame discussion.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:22 PM) I don't see this as being a less talented team than last year's squad... LOSSES: Garcia, McCarthy, Gload, Cotts GAINS: Erstad, Danks, Sisco*, Masset*, Floyd*, Aadrsma*, Hall** * = if makes team ** = if shoulder functional Here is what strikes me from the above - look at the losses. Cotts proved 2005 was probably a fluke, and Gload while talented, wasn't going to get any real playing time. So the only losses of any consequence were Garcia and McCarthy. And I think it was pretty well established even last year that Garcia was headed downhill fast. The only USEFUL talent we lost, really, is McCarthy. And even he is struggling. The gains aren't overwhelming, for 2007 (though we put ourselves in a much better place for 2008 and beyond), but there rae some there. Most importantly - the team was already immensely talented, and we lost none of that core of talent. No one we really needed. So I guess we disagree here - I think this team is about as talented as 2006's team, maybe slightly more. Proven talent is more or less what I meant. There's no doubt the players coming in (sans Erstad) are more talented tan those who are now elsewhere but this team has even more question marks than last season and less players who have proven they can produce at the major league level. With the Hall injury the bench is about equal to what it was last year so that's a wash. I think the lineup is weaker with an older Dye (most likely to regress) and Thome as well as the addition of Erstad who is only going to leave this team with no 4th OF when he goes down some time in mid April. I also think Iguchi will struggle this year for as long as he's at the bottom of the order. Danks will be lucky to come close to Garcia's s*** production from last season and there are no indications that the others will revert back to their previous form. The bullpen is more talented but not necessarily improved. Jenks is a major question mark, his bad 2nd half last season, s*** spring training and the hardware keeping his elbow attached to the rest of his arm scare me. I full season of MacDougal should be a big upgrade as with a full year of Thornton but the backend is just as much of a question mark as last season. So more talented bullpen? Yes. Improved? Who knows. So in all I think the team is weaker than it was going into last season but more set for the future because of it.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:25 PM) Had he played 1st base before at all this spring? 2 AB, 2 G, 5 PO, 2 A So yeah, he's pretty experienced at the position.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:11 PM) Let's just keep harping on it...maybe all of the negativity will heal his labrum faster. He's gone...possibly for the year. Let's find an alternative or suck it up with Wiki or Gustavo. Not comparing, but anyone remember Wally Pipp and Lou Gehrig? Sometimes all you need is a chance. It's a new year and we haven't even hit Opening Day. I was responding to a post, if you don't like it don't read it. I'm not going to avoid responding to a direct statement because you can't handle it. I don't mean to be an ass but I just don't get why you did that. Wiki Gonzalez is 33 years old and has been given quite a few chances, failing miserably each time and I've been thoroughly unimpressed with Molina's play in Spring Training as well as his minor league production. Nothing about either of them indicates they could produce at the major league level. As for possible replacements, there aren't a lot out there. I'd absolutely love Damian Miller but outside of that I can't think of many other names.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:07 PM) The Tigers will regress. And the Sox are less talented than last year? I don't know if I agree with that, less proven for sure but I wouldn't say less talented. Why would the Tigers suddenly suck and the Sox improve despite having a roster with less proven talent than last year? I think that's better. They weakened the lineup and starting rotation from last year also filling the bullpen with a bunch of huge question marks.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 05:02 PM) His batting stats aren't impressive at all... http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/127172 '06 Vs Lefties: .292/.333/.500/.833 '05 Vs Lefties: .302/.331/.403/.734 '04 Vs Lefties: .294/.339/.431/.770 All while playing above average defense. Since he'll basically only be facing lefties these numbers impress me quite a bit.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:58 PM) I don't like the way he runs his mouth, and that is pretty much constant. I don't like that he is thinking of BA as a utility man, which is not a great role for him. I don't like that Floyd gets a longer look for the pen than Haeger, as I said earlier today (that may be Ozzie and/or KW, not sure). I don't think moving Gooch down the order, again, was a good idea (which it seems Ozzie has since corrected). That's just in the spring, and off the top of my head. I'm no great Ozzie defender. Thank you, I very much appreciate your honesty.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:47 PM) You guys can't really believe this team would go 74-88. They have essentially the same starting staff as last year, a better bullpen, all key players back and about the same depth (losing Hall does hurt). They absolutely played the worst baseball they could have played in the second half and still won 90 games. This team will be in the 90+ win category again this year. The big surprise for people will be when the Tigers suck a dutch d**k this year... Why would the Tigers suddenly suck and the Sox improve despite being a less talented team than they were last year?

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:54 PM) Name one player, off the top of my head without making a trade: Javy Lopez Secondly, I've seen them play enough, I have MLB.TV and watch almost every game. How many games was Hall going to play in a week, the max, 1. Therefore, it is a lost, but it's not the end of the world, calling for Ozzie head, etc. You people need to relax a little bit. Not the end of the world. 2 games a week at a minimum. Javy Lopez is a DH and a bad one at that.

A backup catcher over the past 2 seasons for the Sox is a guy who is going to pick up 140 ABs (most all of them through starts) and play in 46 games. Hall was likely going to get even more ABs this year because of his prowess against left handed pitching.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:45 PM) I don't doubt you were busy doing all those things for a second, collapse, although you did manage to get back on here a few minutes later to criticize him being in there. So was it steaks? Burgers? Brats? I suddenly have a craving for a grilled steak and a Blizzard... It was chicken and asparagus actually. QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:48 PM) I'm not writing it off, what I'm saying is that there are the same players out there as Hall that can do the same things. And yes, KW overpaid for a backup catcher. Name 1.

QUOTE(AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:43 PM) back up catchers are a dime a dozen. I'm sure KW can lure Javy Lopez here or a player like him. Its not as a big deal like losing Tads, Crede, Dye, etc. for the season. Too much overreaction for a back up who was marginal at best. Good to know Kenny Williams just guaranteed $3.8M to a dime a dozen player. No, it's not as big a loss as losing a starting position player but to just write it off as a meaningless injury just seems foolish to me.

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:37 PM) Right or wrong, seems like it's become the easiest thing to do for any Sox misstep... Name for me right now a single thing Ozzie has done over the past few months that you disagree with. I'm just curious if you can come up with anything. This goes out to everyone by the way because I can name a few times that I've agreed with s*** he's done such as the Danks situation, that was handled when IMO.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:35 PM) My point is that the plan was to use him at 1B this season as well, so it was obviously not that "out there" to have him playing 1B in a ST game. Both he and Ozzie liked the arrangement. I think you'd have more of an argument if you asked what was he doing in that late in a game in which we were being blown out, but anybody can get hurt anytime playing baseball. I don't think it was something egregiously obvious like leaving in a pitcher for 130 pitches or asking the DH to play center. I think when shockers like this happen we want to make sense of them and the easiest way to do that is blame Ozzie. Hey, didn't AJ's Cub rival who punched him take one in the jewels behind the plate last year, ending his season? He was playing his position. 1.) I'm not trying to make sense of anything by blaming Ozzie, I just don't think Hall should have been at 1B, I'm still not convinced Hall was in the plans for 1B and I definitely don't think playing Hall at 1B this season would have been a good idea (said this when they signed him as well, you can go check that if you'd like.) 2.) You mention Barrett getting hurt while behind the plate? So what? Who cares? What does any of that have to do with this situation. You need to stop comparing this to any other situation, it's fairly simple Hall was playing out of position and got injured. He very well could have been playing his usual position and suffered a similar injury but he WAS NOT, he was at 1B. Those are the facts, mentioning other catchers who were injured while catching has nothing to do with this.

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:31 PM) I will never go get a brownie batter blizzard during a Sox game again, as I missed the actual play that hurt Hall. I believe I was out on the patio when the actual play occurred, I went out to fire up the grill, came back in and Toby was laying on the ground. I just said to myself "WIKI TIME!" I assume the Blizzard was worth it though, right?

QUOTE(SleepyWhiteSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) s***ty, but a freak injury. Can't see how Ozzie is getting full blame. Toby was looking impressive this spring and I was excited to see him during the season. Interesting to note: with most of the usual suspects in the game thread, not a word about how outraged they were with Ozzie putting toby hall in at 1st base prior to the injury. Hindsight is always 20/20, of course. For the record I was sitting on my bench press watching the game on MLB.tv, I had no idea Hall was even playing 1B. If I had actually been watching closely I likely would have said something but it was 6:00 and I was trying to bench, watch basketball and listen to the Sox all at the same time. I'm usually pretty good at first guessing Ozzie as opposed to a lot of the 2nd guessing that goes on.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 04:22 PM) Sorry but I agree. Suppose he was behind the plate and a bat hit him? Or he got bowled over? And on and on and on... Then no one would be blaiming Ozzie but what the hell does that have to do with anything? I don't see where the 'what ifs' play into this situation. What if Dye were playing 1B and tore his ACL forcing him to miss the entire season?

QUOTE(fathom @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:46 PM) What are they saying? The same bulls*** you'd hear from any announcing crew that knows absolutely nothing about the players or team they're commenting on. They talked up Molina a bit as a prospect and mentioned Wiki as a quality veteran catcher. More or less a brief overview from a guy that knows nothing of the situation. He also said Erstad is a guy who can run and has some pop so I'm a bit confused right now.

Fun to hear these Giants announcers chatting about the White Sox backup catcher situation.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:21 PM) Um, has anybody confirmed this besides hearing about it on a radio show? Do Mark Gonzalez and Scott Merkin count?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:12 PM) We all know Erstad was being put into that starting spot for ST at least, but Anderson has been pretty much doing what he needed to, to get the spot. There was always the chance BA wouldn't get the spot back. The only part I didn't expect was Anderson for a utility role. You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy your decent to my level of thinking. Of course you will probably never fall as far as I have but you're getting there and I love it. Not really in a nasty way, more or less a misery loves company sort of situation.

QUOTE(JohnCangelosi @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:10 PM) Somebody tell me "April Fools" came a few days early...but for real guys, let's not TOTALLY catastrophize this...he's a career .265 hitter and if he got 500 AB's in this year (which he wouldn't) he would probably have 10 HR's. I know it sucks in our division with all the tough lefties but we can get through this. Molina has looked decent in the few ST games I've seen??? I've been entirely unimpressed with Gustavo, I don't know what he looks like when he's playing with the Barons and Knights but the guy has had an absolute puss arm all spring and s*** at the plate. At least we still have Chris Stewart waiting in the wings as some decent organizational depth. Right? RIGHT?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 03:01 PM) Anderson in LF? He was RF the other day. What happened to the "Anderson won't be a backup" thing? This is a little upsetting. Its like they are putting Anderson and Erstad in the opposite roles they should be in. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than Anderson in AAA and Terrero as the 4th OF. Maybe better because he could more easily become the starter, maybe worse because he won't be getting the playing time. Welcome.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Mar 26, 2007 -> 02:56 PM) I would've liked to have him five years ago. A huge chunk of Ichiro's value is his speed and I don't foresee him being able to steal 40-50 bases per season over even most of the duration of his contract. Methinks that we'd end up over-paying for him. Meh, he's only 33 years old and will probably pull in a 5 year deal. I'm not really all that worried about a 38 year old Ichiro, he's an insanely effective pure hitter (one of the greatest of all time) and will always have a ton of value because of his ability to make contact. I forsee Ichiro becoming more of a power hitter later in his career as well, he already has excellent power now that he doesn't really utilize so when/if he legs start to go he could start driving the ball. Plus I foresee him as being one of those guys that doesn't break down until after he leaves the game, sort of in the Ricky Henderson mold where he'll just never lose that athleticism.