Jake

Maybe I/we don't know enough specifics, but Ozzie was gone in 2012 and KW remained and Rios had the year of his life. It could be that the Oz/KW circus and not just Oz was the problem, but it seems like the inexplicably horrible play by key players went away when Ozzie left.

I think that Trayce Thompson is the highest ceiling player in our system and, even if not, is the current "most likely to be a star" player.

I'm on the same wavelength with most people here. I don't believe we'll move him at this point because it seems unlikely that he'll fetch the talent that he's worth to us. Rios is a guy we can build around if we want to and if we change our minds, I'm betting he has more trade value at that time in the future than he does now. He has certainly been one of the more enigmatic players we've had, though. As far as 2011, I still don't understand that season. I rarely think the manager has much to do with anything, but it sure seems that Ozzie has infected a few players over the years with bad play. Rios, Dunn, and Swisher come to mind.

I can't believe they would be willing to let Freese go. Carpenter also hasn't rated as a good 3B while his UZR at 2B this year has been excellent. I'll settle for Matt Adams though as there is just no place for him on their team without injuries.

Dog house might not be the word. You don't get punished for playing badly, you get punished for giving poor effort. I think his effort is fine. I think it's safe to assume the benching against righties is to give Manto and the staff a chance to work with him on things without his having to go in games and use it right away. FWIW, Manto has said that one of the biggest hurdles to working with Dayan has been his inability to take lessons right into gameplay. Basically, he has to internalize a mechanical change before he is comfortable trying to apply it in games. Some guys can/will try anything in a game scenario whereas others (Dayan included) don't like being a work in progress as they are trying to hit MLB pitching. Looks like he'll have his wish with some days off to work on things. It appears to me that he is being platooned, also. Not a good permanent option, but it may definitely benefit his psyche to get favorable matchups for a while as he slumps. It seems to have helped Conor Gillaspie quite a bit with his mini-slump of a couple weeks ago.

When you have decided to trade your players are bad enough that you need to trade them away and let the others walk via free agency, that means you no longer hold your manager accountable for the losing. That means it is the fault of the players.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 01:59 PM) I almost feel guilty for rooting for this kid to fail, but what do you expect when you have weirdos busting a nut every time he comes to the plate. lol my feeling exactly. In other news, Freddie Freeman leads final man voting

One of the "issues" with Phegley as a prospect was a supposed lack of ability to get loft on balls. He would square up what should be home run balls and just hit line drive singles. You could see yesterday that he does indeed possess an ability to turn around a good fastball and put some air under it. I'm guessing that that is a new development. You can see a different issue commonly cited with him, that he has a bit of an issue catching the ball. He hasn't dropped anything with men on base yet, though. He does block balls well, which is one of the funniest things about him. Scouts report that he blocks balls fabulously well, but gets passed balls frequently on balls he doesn't catch. Luckily, he's been able to catch a bunch of guys he's worked with in AAA so far in the big leagues. We might see a bit more of this stuff as he catches guys he's never seen before.

Jaws has ranked his QBs from 32-15 so far and still no Cutler. That's encouraging.

My feeling is that the less Dayan hits, the less they will consider a position change. Paulie will be gone at the end of the year and you have to wonder how many "injuries" he'll deal with this season. Then there is Dunn who is equally likely to be gone in just a couple of weeks as he is to stay the duration of his contract. It's hard to tell. Anyway, Andy's first ~15 games at AAA have been "meh." It did take him a season to adjust to AA, so he may need at least the rest of this season to adjust. Of course, I don't think anybody would foresee him coming up on a full-time basis before September rolls around anyway. Regardless, I don't see any way that they would let him have success in AAA and then never give him a shot with the big club. If he does get blocked, I have a strong inkling that it won't be Tyler Flowers or Dayan blocking him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 8, 2013 -> 09:04 AM) Hernandez must have skipped that day of Bible study. Perhaps the victims were adulterers?

I haven't seen anything all that negative on Anderson's defense. My impression from most scouting reports is that folks haven't seen him enough to say for sure, so the easier stance to take is to say they don't know if he will stick yet not cite any specific weaknesses. Anyways, as someone else pointed out, it is fairly common for young infielders to commit a boatload of errors at the lower levels and eventually get better. Conor Gillaspie is an example on the White Sox -- many questioned whether he could pick it when/after he was drafted, but began cutting his errors in half year by year until now, when he is a damn fine defender. This isn't to say Anderson is a lock to be a defensive wizard, but it is just difficult to say.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 11:38 PM) I agree. Morrison would have to go to 1B though. He has not hit very well in his career as an OF. Or fielded well.

I bet they won't want to trade him until that fundraiser thing happens

QUOTE (Paulstar @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 08:44 PM) If Wilkins plays well for the next two months and there are open spots on the 40 man, I don't know why you wouldn't expect to see Wilkins get a september call up. I highly doubt he ever does anything of significance at the MLB level, but when you're a team looking at a 60 loss season, the odds of someone like Wilkins getting a call up increase dramatically, especially for a team searching for power anywhere available. ^^

I don't think having good players on next year's team is against the rules. It's not a race to see who can lose the most games. Even if we don't load up to compete, we can deal guys at next year's deadline.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 08:25 PM) What would be their incentive to trade him...? Maybe if it was Viciedo and something else....change of scenery trade. I sure don't know what their incentive would be other than his going to arbitration next year and the fact they are stupid. Viciedo for LoMo would probably actually be a fair deal. Unfortunately, Dayan isn't a douchebag so I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I'd say the likelihood of Rios getting traded is falling precipitously. I don't think we want to give him away and that is looking like what we'll have to do unless he catches fire in a hurry.

I'd love to stick LoMo on this team. The Marlins might be dumb enough to do it, too. Who knows.

Who knows. I'm sure they wouldn't be deliberately sabotaging him, given the investment they put in him. There must be something going on -- maybe lots of side work, maybe a nagging injury, discipline, tough to say.

Much can change. If he ends up with an .850 OPS in AAA like he has posted at every other level, they'll find him some at bats. It would surprise me if he isn't at least watching games with the big club in September.

I still think you're getting screwed.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 06:29 PM) Prepare to be shocked then, he's made a very steady and deliberate climb through the system, possesses a set of valuable skills and will most likely earn a september call up this season if not next. He's put up solid enough numbers to warrant getting a chance to see if he can stick and be a bat off the bench or perhaps a fill in 1B. I agree. Whether he sticks in the MLB is anybody's guess, but the smart odds are on him donning a White Sox uni for some amount of time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 04:58 PM) After only $2 million and a signing bonus the first season, right? Yeah I think we just paid him what he would have been due w/o the extension (I forget what, but you're probably in the ballpark)

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 7, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Of course, if we move him beforehand, then going after additional ones of those guys becomes a realistic option. Let's not forget how back-loaded Danks's contract is. 14.25 this year as well as the rest of the deal.