BlackBetsy

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Jun 24, 2005 -> 12:31 PM) No you don't "gut" it for a 2 month rental. You gut it for the best pitcher in the NL the past few seasons, who at $8+ million this season and $10 million next season would be a complete steal with the current prices for SP on the FA market. Pavano got $10 mil and isnt half the pitcher Schmidt is. Schmidt has been a top 3 pitcher in the majors for the past 3-4 seasons. You don't find pitchers like this available, ever...This is all barring his is completely healthy, and if the Sox scouts believe that he is healthy, then you get him. No one can match Schmidt-Buehrle-Garcia in the playoffs. No one... And if someone signs Schmidt, you get a sandwich pick at worst...like Gio Gonzalez.

Great stuff. Whoever put that up is a genius.

For some reason, Randa (read: Sox Killer) on the Twins (read: Sox Killers) really scares the ever living daylights out of me. On a side note, what is: supposed to mean? I get pretty much all the other smillies.

QUOTE(whitesoxmanager @ Jun 23, 2005 -> 12:48 PM) you know this might sound utterly rediculous but i can never understand why the Cubs & Sox don't help each other over the hump especially when one is making a run and the other isn't...the cubs season is by no means over, but in the past couldn't these two teams just rent each others talent and then after the postseason just return to sender? i mean what is the mayor doing? as much as i would hate to see the cubs win...it would have been cool to see MB on the Cubs the year they gave away the WS to the Marlins, & how nice it would be to see prior for cubs fans this year pitching for the sox? there are guys out there that could break legs if the player wasn't returned...no? I agree with you 100%. It is utterly ridiculous.

Actually, I like Schmidt a whole lot. Let me give you a couple of reasons why this could happen. KW (and before him, Schueler) have had good relations with Sabean. The Sox have done several deals with the Giants over the past few years. Schmidt is a guy who is in the final year of his contract. If the Giants are going to be rebuilding, he's someone that they may not resign. This also makes him attractive to the Sox - there is no long-term commitment. Schmidt's $8.75 million salary is really only $4.5 million or so for the rest of the year. With this year's bump in attendance...and probable playoff tickets to bring in more money, it's manageable. If the Giants want to eat some of the salary - say $2-$3 million, then they might buy a better prospect. They say that B-Mac and Anderson are untouchable. I don't know about that. I thought Reed was untouchable, too. But a guy like B-Mac (flyball pitcher) fits in very well in a pitcher's park in San Francisco. If I talked to his agent before the deal and felt I could sign Schmidt to a decent three-year deal ($27 mill total), I'd probably do it. I would HATE giving B-Mac up, but - to be quite honest - his stint in Charlotte and with the Sox this year really give me pause. That said, it won't take more than B-Mac and a low-level position prospect like Collaro to get Schmidt. Or, possibly Anderson and someone like Sean Tracey. Guys in the last years of their contracts with $ 4.5 million left to pay don't warrant big bucks unless their is a bidding war (which is how I think Seattle got Olivo, Reed and Morse for Garcia). I think there will be enough top-of-the-rotation pitching available that the bidding won't get too bad. Now, the Twins could make a move for Schmidt. He's their type of pitcher and they could give the Giants Liriano and Scott Baker and get that deal done.

Great Falls with a 7-6 victory. Two hits for Acosta, 3 hits for Allen (including a double and a dinger). Pitching was less than spectacular, but Marshall struck out two in a scoreless 9th for the victory.

Kannapolis blew a 4-0 lead, losing to Asheville 8-7. 2 HR's for Sean Smith, Hansen with 3 hits. Ricks 1-1 with 3 walks. Great strike zone control for Adam. (He's hitting .231 but has a .384 OBP). Box Score

How did the Sox get Sanchez?

QUOTE(KevHead0881 @ Jun 22, 2005 -> 01:26 PM) Back to the topic though, my vote was for McDowell. 20 game winner, won in the playoffs, and had sustained success. Give Buehrle a year or two and he should easily be at the top of the list. Whoops. Black Jack was 0-2 with a 10 ERA in the playoffs in 1993 for the White Sox. To me, it was close between Buehrle & Fernandez & McDowell ....the ERA+ for all of them very close, although McDowell was lower but more consistent. I picked Buehrle. My bet is that Buehrle would be a CLUTCH playoff pitcher, unlike McDowell (who was tipping his pitches, unfortunately).

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jun 22, 2005 -> 12:32 PM) Through 70 games 2005: 48-22 1915: 46-24 1901, 1907, 1919, 1954, 1990, and 2000: 45-25 Something to look forward to, best records after 80 games. 1901, 1907, and 1919: 52-28 1915, 2000: 51-29 1917, 1920, 1954, and 1957: 50-30 [steps back and enjoys the view] Is there an easy way of getting these data - or did you go year by year through baseball-reference.com (or retrosheet) to turn this up. I did this on my blog, and had to go year by year.

I believe right now, the AL playoff matchups would be: White Sox vs. Red Sox Orioles vs. Angels Seems to me that the winner of the White Sox v. Red Sox would stand a pretty good chance of going to the World Series. If Schilling was back, the Red Sox would probably go Schilling - Clement - Wells - Wakefield The Sox would go: Buehrle - Garland - Garcia - Contreras That's a tight series. To tell you the truth, given their offense, I'd give the Red Sox a slight edge. I'd hope for a Sweep, because if the series in on the line for the White Sox in game 4, Contreras is a guy that gets KILLED by the Red Sox. Still WAY too early to talk about this. The Orioles do not have enough pitching to last if Bedard is out for the season, and the Yankees are not dead yet. In fact, I'd be surprised if the Orioles wound up in the playoffs. I would not be surprised if the playoffs looked like this: Red Sox (AL East) vs. Rangers (AL West) White Sox (AL Central) vs. Yankees (WC) or Red Sox (AL East) vs. Twins (WC) White Sox (AL Central) vs. Angels (AL West)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is asking when Twins fans should give up on their team. I voted "now." Won't you join me? (NO registration required) Link to Poll

Thanks, Cheat, for the graph. The way I see it, the Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs/Twinkies/Saturday Night Fireworks Games + 22,000 at all the other games will be enough to get the Sox to about 2.05 million. Believe it or not, that would only be a modest increase from last year. If you want to carry the +10% trend through, and account for the Yankee games played in early 2004 (which drew 93,000, or about +50,000 over what you would expect for mid-week April games), it's more like a 18% increase. If that keeps up, the Sox are looking at about 2.27 million in attendance (28,000 per game), which would be good for the 4th best attendance of all time (behind 1991, 1992 and 1993). P.S. The White Sox led the American League in attendance 8 out of the first 17 years of the AL. They've led the league in attendance only one year (1960) since.

Yeah, watch him win tonight and then go John Snyder on us.

I think El Duque is our fifth starter...but we should USE him like a fifth starter. When there are off days, skip his turn in the rotation to give him extra rest. Or maybe have him start once a week (like Ted Lyons, when he was a "Sunday Starter" for the Sox). That should keep him fresh and competitive. I think 20 quality starts out of El Duque is what you want. I thought before the season that if the Sox could get 25 starts from El Duque, that would be good enough. Remember that our fifth starters were 5-15 with a 9+ ERA last year in 25 or so starts...a 4.88 ERA out of El Duque looks downright awesome compared to that.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Jun 21, 2005 -> 01:27 AM) Understand McCarthy supporters, it's more than control which is ailing our top pitching prospect. He needs better stuff--period. He needs to develop a changeup. It's really that simple. I don't believe suggestions of learning to "keep the ball down in the zone." How exactly is that something you can work on without tweaking his delivery? Either you have the ability to pitch down in the zone or you don't. When I've seen McCarthy hit his zone, which he has done well, it's been murdered. No one is fooled with McCarthy. And yes, I noticed Dye misjudged a fly ball, which added 2 ER to his line; but it was obvious aside from that moment he was not pitching well. Well, it's kind of obvious to suggest that McCarthy needs three pitches to be successful in the majors. He could probably use four. I think he's working on his changeup, and it will improve. What I don't understand is why he doesn't pick up a cut fastball from Buehrle. It's an easy pitch to learn (it involves little more than adifferent grip on a fastball) and would give him movement in the zone and hopefully he would be able to jam lefties or back door them with it. As long as he can locate both the fastball and the cut fastball, he should be effective. A sinker would also be a very effective pitch if he could throw it, given his tendency to give up home runs. By the way, I don't blame Dye for getting a bad jump on Teahan's blooper. It was just one of those things - big swing, ball hits near the barrell of the bat and you would normally either hold your ground or drift back. Happens to all outfielders, good and bad.

I thought the Royals pitchers did a great job of hitting against him. They fought back from 2 strikes a bunch of times, and hit a bunch of pitcher's pitches. The truth is that he didn't have very good command of his curve ball tonight. Not sure why - but that was the difference. If he throws that for strikes, he'd be owning the Royals. If Dye catches Teahan's jam shot, that's two fewer runs. Stairs did a great job of hitting with that opposite field shot off a high fastball. Give Stairs some credit. Still don't know why he walked 4 though. Clearly didn't have great control. Even so, McCarthy wasn't afraid of the bat. No dingers is a good sign.

24th Homer for Daigle in W-S loss. Link. Whisler takes the loss. Birmingham rained out. Charlotte loses in 10 innings. Norton goes yard.Box score. Kanny off today.

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jun 20, 2005 -> 01:30 PM) My favorite moment was in 2000 against the A's at home. Singleton walked in the 9th with the Sox down one. He stole second, and took third when the throw went into CF. He then scored on a balk. In the bottom of the 10th, Valentin walked to lead off the inning. Thomas came up and hit a shot off the top of the wall, while Valentin chugged around the bases. There was a play at the plate, and Jose did a perfect slide to get just out of reach. There was one of those long pauses from the ump that seemed to take forever. Then you hear the call, "SAFE!." And the crowd erupted. I was at that game (one of only 4 or 5 home games I've been to since I moved out of Illinois in '96)! Park was packed for fireworks - I remember the Sox scratching and clawing to win that one. Here's the box: August 5, 2000. Thomas hit a bomb that game, too.

I was at the Sox's 5 run comeback in this game in 1992. I remember my girlfriend at the time - who wasn't much of a baseball fan - wanting to stay at the game while I wanted to leave. Lo and behold, they came back with an incredible rally in the bottom on the 8th. By the way, here is your Ventura homer game. Jeff Carter started that game for the White Sox. I'm sure I knew who he was at the time, but I swear I had never heard his name until I clicked on the box score. The Pope, Don Pall was the winner in that game. Melido Perez in relief, although he gave up 6 runs. Wow, Kenny Rogers was still in the bullpen at the time. Amazing to see classic Frank - 2 for 2 with a home run, plus 3 walks. I remember him absolutely crushing Ventura with a bear hug at home plate when Ventura came to home plate.

Winston-Salem doubles up Wilmington 6-3. Good game for Schnurstein, 2-3 with a dinger. Valido with 2 more hits, he's up to .320 Story was Haigwood, though. 6 IP, only 2 hits, 0 ER, 1 walk and 11 Ks! Birmingham down 4-0 in the 6th, only one hit for the Barons. Southern League Scoreboard Knights in a slugfest - they are down 8-6 in the 7th. HR for Toca. Kannapolis yet to play.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 17, 2005 -> 09:17 AM) Tom, tell us more. Are you suggesting a managerial change is needed, or the coaching staff, or both? Didn't Razor Shines have some problems with his team when he was coaching the Kanny (or W-S) team?

QUOTE(Randar68 @ Jun 14, 2005 -> 05:29 PM) Rogo is 24 in AA after spending good parts of 2 years on the DL or nursing injuries and playing just one healthy full-season in W-S. Okay, so if Rogo was 27, and had spent parts of 5 seasons on the DL, he would still be the same prospect? Doubtful. He's 24 in the Southern League, which is borderline old for the league. Did I say that Rogo SHOULDN'T be promoted? I'm pretty sure that I said the organization would be better off with Rogo in AAA and Daigle in AA than a Toca in AAA, Rogo in AA and Daigle in high-A. Yep. I did say that. Funny how you ignored the things I said that you might otherwise have agreed with to flame me. Dunno. Young doesn't seem to have a problem getting them out of Birmingham. I'm guessing more than 5. I see Rogo spending 3 years in high-A, just like Daigle. I see Rogo struggling in his first two years there, too. There's not the same player, but there are comparable parts to their histories. Moreover, I see the Detroit organization giving up WAY early on Daigle. Nook Logan put up pretty much the same stats with the Tiger AA club, and now he's in the big leagues. In fact, the Sox were probably dumb for putting him down in Kannapolis last year - too low for his prior performance in high-A. I make one post clipping an article from MiLB.com and suggest that it's time for Daigle and Rogo to be bumped up, and it becomes an "infatuation." Nice try. I'm that sorry someone OTHER THAN YOU has an opinion about the Sox minor leagues. It's YOUR TERRITORY, I guess. I should have smelled the pee you left on the trees around here. When did I ever say that Rogo is not a prospect? All I ever said that at 24 years old, he's at the verge of becoming a non-prospect. I love Rogo's plate discipline and think he'd be a great option to replace Konerko. I'd like to see him get a half-season of AAA to see if he'll be ready. Mind you, half of Rogo's 1,000 at-bats and the bulk of his .800+ OPS came last year, in his 23 year old, third season at high-A, which undercuts your argument about his career performance. You can either argue he's been a great player for three years or that he has been injured, but you can't argue both. Further, if he has lost key development time, as you say, does that make him less of a prospect? Which is it? Has he lost key development time - and we know you can't time travel and make it up - or is he still a prospect with a high ceiling? Make up your mind about what you are arguing. Graduationg? Yup, that's an intelligent form of argument. Just ignore the performance of Daigle thus far this year and concentrate on one thing only - his age (25). And then insult the person who doesn't agree with Randar's view of the world. You'll move up in the real world that way really well. Try it out on your boss. I don't recall many people saying anything about Daigle on the boards here until the numbers he put up were simply too

Fair enough, but isn't it also possible that Daigle has actually improved, and may have a chance at helping the Sox? If that's a possibility, wouldn't you want to find out? There are more than a few players who struggled in the low minors before "figuring it out." Maggs is an example after repeating Hickory (although he was a year or two younger at the time). By the way, Rogo will be a non-prospect like Daigle soon (he's 24 now). In fact, if you look at the 3-year repeat of W-S for Rogo, you could compare him to Daigle pretty easily. Not to take anything away from Rogo, I think he's a good talent and I love his plate discipline. I'm not saying Daigle isn't a dubious prospect based on age and the fact that he was cut by another organization (although any MLB team could have picked up Maggs before the 1997 season, too). But his numbers are SO eye-popping as to warrant seeing whether he really has turned a corner.

OK, except for the fact that Rogo should be promoted to Charlotte to take the spot of the AAAA player there now. Is the Charlotte team that desperate for "stars" that they have to keep guys like Toca around and keep Rogo down?