BlackBetsy

Seems about right...Twins trying to give themselves a morale boost / psychological edge on the Sox, especially if Liriano has a good first start. Hopefully, the Sox will be 5 1/2 games up on the Twins by Monday.

QUOTE (michelangelosmonkey @ Jul 23, 2008 -> 09:23 PM) Cardinals 1st round drafts: 1999 Chance Caple: Nothing 1999 Nick Stocks: Nothing 1999: Chris Duncan: M'eh 2000: Blake Williams: nothing 2000 Shaun Boyd: noothing 2001: Justin Pope 2002: No pick 2003: Daric Barton: junk 2004: Christopher Lambert: nothing 2005: Tyler Herron: nothing 2005 Mark McCormick: nothing 2005 James Green 2006: Christopher Perez (albert Pujols 1999 13th round) There are lots of ways of acquiring talent. To say, "bad drafting in the first round= bad team" is crazy. Its certainly not an ADVANTAGE but neither is it a hopeless obsticle. Having a sharp GM that can trade unproven talent for real talent is one way around the drafting problem. Way too much focus is given on the 1st round of MLB amateur draft. Ummm....so the Cardinals' drafts are sucky as well? How about the Twins' first round picks since 1999: 1999 - BJ Garbe (bust) 2000 - Aaron Heilman (solid swing man) 2000s - Adam Johnson (bust) 2001 - Joe Mauer - HOF potential 2002 - Denard Span - solid production thus far this season. 2003 - Matthew Moses - (bust) 2004s - Jay Rainville (HS pitcher, still an OK prospect) 2004s - Matthew Fox (bust) 2004s - Kyle Waldrop (HS pitcher, marginal prospect) 2004 - Glen Perkins - solid mid/back-end rotation starter 2004 - Trevor Plouffe - marginal prospect / bust 2005 - Matt Garza - great prospect, flipped for 1/1 pick Delmon Young. 2005s - Henry Sanchez - bust 2006 - Chris Parmalee - solid prospect / OBP star 2007 - Ben Revere - hitting .400 as 20 year old in Midwest league...33 SB Four major league regulars + two stud prospects...pretty solid in comparison.

JD

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 09:36 PM) Who would you like him to run out there? Dotel for 2 innings and have him be unavailable and have Masset go out there with a lead tomorrow? The circumstances suck, but thats what we have right now. Ummm...how do you know we'll have a lead tomorrow..or that it will be close...or that Danks will need relief? You play to win the game you're in based on the variables you have without injuring your players.

Dotel in the 7th makes much more sense. Dotel 7th, Logan if you need him, Linebrink in the 8th and Jenks in the 9th. Masset makes no sense.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 01:23 AM) I like Cabrera because he's a generally good hitter and is a player you really don't like seeing at the plate or on the basepaths; that said he's not a dangerous hitter by any means I'll give him this - he gets runners in from third with less than two outs. Something everyone else on the Sox seems to fail at miserably - especially JD.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 22, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) the 2004 draft netted the White Sox, in part, Gavin Floyd, Jim Thome, and Nick Swisher (along with a couple other players switching jerseys along the way too). Josh Fields looks like either a good trade piece or the starting 3Bman next year, and while it's an empty ERA, Lumsden has put up a good ERA in AAA this year. 2004, the year where the Sox just so happened to have compensatory picks, is probably far and away the best draft the Sox have had in the past 10 years. Not that that should be surprising or anything. It's also funny that you mentioned 1999 but failed to mentioned 1998...the Sox drafted Kip Wells with the 16th pick - he's still bouncing around the league and has had success at the MLB level, though appears to be washed up at this point. And then they took some dude named Aaron Rowand as a sandwich pick at 35. He's only like the second coming, according to some around here. Getting extra draft picks is good and increases your odds of attaining supreme talent, which is one of the reasons the Brewers were just fine with letting go of LaPorta for Sabathia. I started at 1999 b/c it was the year where the Sox had a ton of supplemental picks. And Kip Wells netted the Sox Todd Ritchie in probably Kenny Williams' worst deal. The 2004 draft was a real exception out of the last 10 years of the Sox drafting...not a rule by any imagination. Blind squirrels and nuts and all.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jul 19, 2008 -> 03:14 PM) Why would they do that? It's not like Beltre is way overpaid or that there is an over-abundance of Gold Glove-caliber third basemen with 25-40 HR power. To save $9 million and rebuild the team with prospects and ML-ready players. He's making what, $13-$14 million per year for a .780 OPS? That's fairly well overpaid.

Do we have a Kenny Williams, Jr. watch going? .114 AVG / .279 OBP (fairly good for such a bad average) / .229 SLG.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 19, 2008 -> 09:46 AM) seriously you are referencing a draft 9 years ago as a reason why the Sox shouldnt want 2 draft picks? OK, here are the Sox first round / first round supplemental picks since 1999 - 2000 - Borchard (bust, expensive at that) 2001- Honel (bust, injuries), Wyatt Allen (bust) 2002- Royce Ring (college reliever, traded for a worthless half season of Alomar) 2003- Brian Anderson (strug-gell-ling) 2004- Fields (showed promise last year, but in minors), Lumsden (bust, injuries), and Gio Gonzalez (very good, but traded away-twice) 2005- Broadway (low K/9 pitcher doing OK in AAA) 2006- McCullough (bust, not really talented) 2007- Poreda (jury still out) The Sox's drafts since 1999 are the reason why they aren't consistently winning the AL Central, especially given their payroll. Other than 2004, when the Sox picked Fields and Gio Gonzalez, they haven't been able to figure out who the top shelf talent is. So, no, I don't feel any great loss over a supplemental first round pick given up by trading Cabrera away mid-season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 19, 2008 -> 05:17 AM) third, Seattle would pay some of that contract if it meant getting another decent prospect in return or Minnesota could simply eat it. That's the key point. Seattle would do fairly well in the deal if they threw in $9 million of the $18 million or so owed to Beltre (leaving the Twins with, effectively a 1 1/3 year, $9 million deal for Beltre) to get good prospects back in return. I could see the Mariners doing it for one of Buscher/Span and Bonser or one of the Twins end-of-the-rotation guys, all of whom are expendable if they acquire Beltre and Cuddyer and Liriano return. If you don't think the Twins are going to give the Sox more than they can handle down the stretch, you are kidding yourself with BP's playoff odds.

QUOTE (striker62704 @ Jul 19, 2008 -> 08:47 AM) if he walks as a FA don't we get 2 draft picks? Did a lot of good to have 4 picks in the 1999 draft.... http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?f...aft_type=junreg

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus likes Brian Roberts to the White Sox. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7820 I don't like this deal unless it's accompanied by sending Orlando Cabrera out of town (Dodgers, maybe, for a prospect)

I haven't seen any word on Beckham in a loooooong time. It would be nice to have him get some pro ball in this year. Not to mention that the "all but signed" Jordan Danks is still not signed.

If JD said something right away in the dugout about being distracted...he's wrong. You say something after the game or later just letting him know so he coordinates. OC stealing second is the right move there easy...getting to 3rd with 1 out when he knows there is a 100% chance he can make it. Dunno what it was about, but there's no way that OC was in the wrong there, unless he was complaining that he wasn't congratulated enough. The Dodgers are hunting for a shortstop...I could see the Sox making a deal to get OC off the team and switch Ramirez to short.

After every speech in the Roman Senate, a Roman Senator would conclude with a Latin phrase Carthago Delenda Est, meaning Carthage must be destroyed. After 10 in a row for the Minnesota Twins, in which they have had ridiculous comeback after ridiculous comeback with a team that was supposed to finish in 4th place...something needs to be done. Minnesota needs to be destroyed. I need to hear how you intend to contribute. I plan on taking a picture of Joe Mauer out with me in the yard and picking up my dog's poop with it. Then I'm going to jinx the Twins by leaving "We Can Never Lose" messages on Twins blogs. And then I'm going to post a profile of Michael Cuddyer ("CuddyBear") on a dating website for overweight Minnesota singles. Please, let's hear some other contributions.

Although I think the Kenny Williams Jr. draft pick was a disaster, it is worth noting that he's had a BABIP of .130, which means he has been very unlucky for a guy his speed. Given that he's already light years ahead of his old man on strike zone judgment, it can be said that he may at some point be an organizational player. Still a waste of a 6th round pick.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Jun 14, 2008 -> 01:59 PM) I'll be there tonight for my first game of the year and my daughter's first game of her life. I hope she gets to see a lot of fireworks. Just FYI...two of my friends took their small (3-4 year old) children to games with fireworks and it really made the kids upset (one buddy simply had to take his daughter home right away - she was inconsolable). You might want to prep her beforehand.

Should be 3-1 Sox at minimum right now. Really horrendous execution from the offense. And AJ was a member of the Twins...shouldn't he be able to get a bunt down? Very annoying.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 2, 2008 -> 08:39 PM) hmmm i dont know much about carter....whered he come from? hes not exactly young, but hes not really old for that league either...if he continues to succeed he will have a good oppotunity to advance.... looking at his K and BB numbers from earlier in his career....looks like this kid may really have figured something out Move up to W-S is probably warranted...he's a bit old for low-A, so no harm in moving him up.

My guess is that Donny Lucy's career as a catcher is over. Once a patella gets dislocated, it is more likely to recur. Given the wear and tear on catcher's knees, I have a hard time seeing Lucy playing for any amount of time as a catcher. Since 90% of his value relates to him being a catcher, and he doesn't have the bat to stick elsewhere...I gotta believe that despite maybe a feel good story about him coming back, his baseball career is effectively at an end.

QUOTE (scenario @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 07:35 PM) Norfolk @ Charlotte Egbert pitching Game was OK until they took Eggy out. Eggy gave up 1 run in 5 IP, 7 ground outs to 3 fly ball outs...gave up a homer. The guy's good.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 22, 2008 -> 09:36 PM) What do we know about Ely John? Also he is 22 years old. Will he see him in AA Birmingham this season? And what's the report on this guy? *Major college guy *Performed well enough in debut in Great Falls, which is in the ultimate hitter's park in the ultimate hitter's league. *A tad old for his league (High-A) and thus his success can be explained as much by facing less experienced, younger hitters *It's still early in the season *Was voted as having "best secondary pitch" in Sox minors last year. *Looks like low ceiling.

Toronto is picking up the rest of the contract, so he's relatively cheap to sign. Candidates - Baltimore (not tremendously likely) - current DH is Aubrey Huff, who could move to 1B (maybe) to replace Millar. Texas (somewhat more likely) - current DH is Frank Catalanatto, who is not a prototypical DH Seattle (somewhat more likely) - current DH is Jose Vidro, who is not very good at all. Minnesota (seems very possible) - current DH is Craig Monroe, who is dog doo-doo. LA of A (not very likely) - Gary Matthews Jr. is current DH, with others. Would have to be a platoon type situation. Oakland (not very likely) - He already left there, they have a decent DH platoon. I don't think KC is going to bench Billy Butler or move him to first to replace Ross Gload. NYY, Bost, Cle, TB, Det, White Sox, and Toronto are all fine without Frank. I wouldn't be surprised if he wound up in Minnesota, Seattle or Texas, with Baltimore as a dark horse.

Yup. Jack Egbert's back.