BlackBetsy

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 19, 2012 -> 12:24 PM) Except they'd rather play cricket so what's the point? Vastly more money to be made in baseball. The Indian national cricket team players (read: best in the world) have an average salary that equals the major league minimum. I'd imagine club or league cricket pays far less....although endorsements are likely more lucrative for cricket. I don't know the relative pay of bowlers vs. batters in cricket and whether there is a premium on either.

QUOTE (BlackBetsy @ Aug 19, 2012 -> 12:18 PM) Haven't seen this show....what was it? And since his name is Singh...I would otherwise guess that he is a Sikh. Does he wear a turban (required for Sikh men) when he pitches? Googled my own question- he wears a regular hat. He doesn't appear to be Sikh. But that would be an interesting thing. The show is a pretty cool concept...since India has a pretty good cricket tradition, it wouldn't be a bad place to scout for good arms.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 19, 2012 -> 10:10 AM) Interesting to see in the Kanny box, the appearance of Rinku Singh (for the other squad). I hadn't realized any of those Indian pitchers from the reality show was still around, but he's playing A ball now, putting up semi-decent results. He can supposedly throw 92. Haven't seen this show....what was it? And since his name is Singh...I would otherwise guess that he is a Sikh. Does he wear a turban (required for Sikh men) when he pitches?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 18, 2012 -> 06:44 PM) Beckham was supposed to be the next Utley, IMO. I have to admit...I thought he was going to be a Paul Molitor-type. Yikes, that was a bad call.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 18, 2012 -> 10:12 PM) Dash lost 8-4 Keenyn Walker with 2 HR.....Trayce Thompson had one of the 3 Barons hit. It did not stay in the ballpark.

I think Remenosky may make the Southern League Hall of Fame.

C'mon Sox! Give me an In Play (Runs)!

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Aug 8, 2012 -> 07:48 PM) I don't understand why the Sox are willing to give away so many AB's with Viciedo in such a tight race in August. Until the Tank goes on another heater and hits 5 homers in a week. Not sure who they would replace him with. The market for OF on waivers is not exactly hot. The most frustrating thing is Tank's failures with runner on 3rd and less than two outs. It seems like he fails consistently in that situation lately. Of course, I just checked Baseball Reference and he has an 1.066 OPS in that situation. So much for my impressions.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 1, 2012 -> 01:55 PM) In my opinion, Courtney Hawkins is the #1 prospect in the system and if people have Trayce Thompson at #2 at this point, it is not a reach. This is soooooo depressing. The Sox system seems to be getting worse.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Aug 1, 2012 -> 05:11 PM) Peavy is going to cost $4M if we let him walk. That is locked in and will be on the books. Period. So, if we pick up the option the effective cost is $14M. Now, who can we sign for 1 year at $14M that will be better than Jake Peavy? Probably nobody. Also, you are giving up potential mid-season trade bait is we suck next year, or a draft pick if he says all year. I'd say to pick the option up. This. Seriously. One year $14 M for Jake is a no-brainer. But it's not my money.

It surprises me that with MRI, CT, etc. doctors still have to do "exploratory surgery" to figure out what is wrong with someone's shoulder. What I worry about is that Danks' problems are shoulder problems. The list of pitchers who have come back from shoulder surgeries successfully is a LOT shorter than those who have come back from elbow surgeries.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 29, 2012 -> 03:00 PM) League's not bad. His K numbers are way down from last year and his walks are up, but he's kept the ball in the park. Safeco is why he's kept it in the park. Meh peripherals this year - BB/9 is 3.9 this year. Why take on another problem? There have to be better answers out there besides Brandon League.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 29, 2012 -> 09:30 AM) If we are still thinking that the Sox need a grindy utility guy who has been targeted by Kenny in the past, I am sure the Mariners would give us a ton of cash and Chone Figgens for pretty much nothing in return. Geoff Blum is also a free agent. ;-)

I'm not a huge fan of this move simply because a 6 man rotation means that instead of 60% of games being started by Sale-Peavy-Quintana the rest of the way, only 50% of the games will be started by Sale-Peavy-Quintana. Liriano is somewhere in the category of Humber and Floyd in terms of reliability. Each of those three can throw great games (how many 1-hitters has Floyd thrown? Humber and Liriano with perfecto/no-no in their histories), but they get blown up regularly, hence their ERAs. HOWEVER, this trade makes sense if: (1) you think one of your current starters is going to go on the DL (cough Sale cough); (2) Sale and Quintana are showing signs of hitting the wall and either Sale or Q will be ineffective without more rest; (3) Humber just drops straight into the bullpen and you are upgrading Humber for Liriano. I tend to think that Humber is likely to be dropped from the rotation unless he pitches well in the next 2 turns around the rotation. But he's been solid two of the last three starts and it's not unreasonable to think that he could be better than Liriano or Floyd or even Q the rest of the way. He certainly has the potential to be good for long stretches (see 2011) and Liriano and Floyd have demonstrated they can be bad for long stretches. 2013's rotation should be interesting, assuming Danks is back. Danks-Peavy-Sale-Quintana-Floyd (assuming Q is not a fluke and is really is Buehrle part 2) is a top-5 rotation. Humber would still be under control if they wanted to dump Floyd. Also - somebody mentioned how much more the Tigers paid for Sanchez than the Sox paid for Liriano. A couple of points - Turner is a career 7K/9 pitcher in AA and AAA with a 3+ ERA. He's not the second coming of even Porcello. He's a rotation filler. Have no idea based on raw stats why he was ranked at #22 overall. I guess he's 21 and there is room for improvement, but his stats don't jump off the sheet at you like a Brandon McCarthy's did. His best feature thus far in the minors seems to be avoiding the HR. However, he's thrown 25 innings in the majors and given up 24 runs (23 earned). Small sample size for sure, but I'm not sure why he's ranked as highly as he is.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 28, 2012 -> 04:20 PM) No. The Sox wouldn't take Willis. That was the hang up. The players were secondary. Trading Cabrera let them out of Willis' contract. They were all about the Benjamins. Well, that can't be right, since Dombrowski signed Willis to a contract extension after making the trade. Willis was under club control during the 2008 season (arbitration eligible), so the White Sox would have only been stuck with Willis for one year if they didn't want him. And Willis was still a passable pitcher in 2007 before the trade - he threw 200 innings and had a high ERA, but he could have been re-dealt if necessary. So, no, taking on Willis was not the hang up.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 28, 2012 -> 12:43 PM) The Nationals should trade for Joe Mauer. There are a lot of trades that make a lot of sense that won't happen. Mauer is the golden boy in Minnesota. If you don't keep a guy like Mauer around, who is going to be part of the solution for any franchise, why even have a franchise in the first place? The Nationals-Twins have at least one trade that makes a lot of sense that should happen - Denard Span for a reliever + Roger Bernardina or Denard Span for two relievers.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 28, 2012 -> 12:16 PM) Crazy to think about the impact Cabrera would of had if he would landed with the White Sox rather then the Tigers. Well, Cabrera had an offensive WAR of 6.6 in 2010 (lets assume he would have been DH or his defense vs. Paulie's defense would have been a wash) and Kotsay had an offensive WAR of -0.7 as the Sox's primary DH. Put together the delta and it's 7.3 wins. The Sox lost the division by 6 games. So, yeah, major impact.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 28, 2012 -> 11:29 AM) I don't remember, but did we get Swisher before or after that Miggy trade? I think the package that the A's got for Swisher (Gio 8.4 WAR, De Los Santos -0.3 WAR, and Sweeney 5.9 WAR Post-White Sox) is better than the package the Marlins got for Cabrera AND Dontrelle Willis (Andrew Miller -2.8 WAR, Badenhop 1.8 WAR, De La Cruz -0.9 WAR, Trahern 0.0 WAR, Rabelo -0.5 WAR and Maybin 6.6 WAR) Of course, at the time everybody thought Miller & Maybin would be All-Stars (Maybin actually had a pretty good season last year) so it doesn't look similar at the time. But the Sox prospects have had more major league value by a score of 14 WAR to 4.2 WAR. With hindsight, Florida would have to have taken the Sox package.

Keenyn Walker's BABIP is .445 this year. All other things being equal, now is the time to trade him if you can get a piece for the ML team.

FYI, in 35 games in the second half, Thompson is .279 / .331 / .543 with 40 Ks in 140 AB (28% K/AB) vs. .217 / .304 / .455 with 91 Ks in 253 AB (36% K/AB) in 67 first half games. Walks are down, but contact is up. His path is worse than Chris Young, but Young was really impressive in the minors. Young was pushed to Birmingham from Kanny at age 21 after a .868 OPS season at Kanny at age 20. Clearly Thompson was not ready for that. I think it's all about improvement. Young kept improving in the minors and then dramatically slowed at the MLB level. If Thompson keeps improving, his trajectory is pretty good. Next year at AA will be the real test for Thompson. If his AVG and K rate improve in Birmingham, I'd gamble he'll be a solid major league regular.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Jan 17, 2010 -> 06:25 AM) Late post- is anyone on the forum aware of any recent "Pitcher Reclamation Projects" who suffered extreme wildness but were tweaked by a new coach and wound up developing some level of control?? One thought - taller pitchers develop later. Think Randy Johnson (26 before he pitched adequately, 29 before he became dominant). Jon Rauch developed into a quality reliever at 26. Ron Reed wasnt a quality reliever until 33. Oh wait...Cabrera's already 29. Most likely a lost cause.

This is a great concept. How about a couple of rules? Minimum 200 AB Minimum 100 IP or 50 games pitched? That rules out guys like Egbert who were awful but didnt get much of a chance. Jose Paniagua would get eliminated, but he wasn't as bad as he is infamous.

QUOTE (WHITESOXRANDY @ Dec 16, 2009 -> 07:59 PM) I hope it's Nick Johnson. So do I. OBP machine, plays a good first base (can alternate with Konerko for rest) and is lefty. Would like him a lot.

QUOTE (DaveBrown85 @ Dec 13, 2009 -> 12:30 AM) i was so mad when they traded away Reed I was upset that they traded him away....and I'm very surprised that he never hit well in MLB. Guys don't hit .400 in the Southern League without having talent. He must have had some huge flaw (like a slider speed bat or something) that just got exposed in the majors.

Teahan, Vizquel and now Andruw Jones....getting to be a bizarre offseason. If Vizquel and Jones are just bench players, who cares. But if they get more than 150 AB each...the 2010 Sox are in trouble. It's funny how Kenny tends to keep acquiring people 3-4 years after he first tries to acquire them and well after they can contribute. Griffey, Alomar, the other Alomar, now Vizquel and Jones. By the way, the following members of the 1996-1999 Indians were acquired by the White Sox at some point: Albert Belle Sandy Alomar Omar Vizquel Kenny Lofton Jim Thome Bartolo Colon Roberto Alomar Alan Embree Herb Perry A little bizarre for one team to acquire so many players from another, don't you think?