Jake

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ May 31, 2012 -> 11:29 AM) Marty, I will support you, sir. Viciedo showed us so little, in that the HR-power wasn't there enough to make up for the fact that so much of avg-inflated OBP seemed to be on bloops/luck over the last two years. At least at the major league level. On the flipside, many of his bloops are not luck, in that they are created by his pure strength. He's obviously not going to keep the first-ballot-HoF pace throughout this year.....but I have to say he seems willing (much like at the beginning of his 2011 callup) to try the whole plate patience thing. The big key is this - when pitchers leaguewide start being worried about him, how will he react to that. For awhile I thought we had a Jorge Cantu ceiling here offensively, but I'm glad to realize that was a low expectation. I think pitchers were afraid of him from the beginning and that's why we saw him almost always being pitched the same way. Pounding him with fastballs, especially inside, coupled with breaking balls off the plate. He's learned to cover fastballs better by going to the opposite field and has been swinging at fewer balls. You now have to throw Dayan strikes to get him out...and he hits strikes hard. You're seeing them trying to go with this same game plan but not doing well because he has adjusted.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 31, 2012 -> 11:27 AM) If that is true, he comes back and he shows no signs of improvement. If that is the case, we have a replacement for him on the roster. Morel's September shows that he could be way better than what Hudson is going to give us. If he can't demonstrate he is better, than you bench him. I don't know if Morel will ever be good, but last year he was at least good enough to belong in the MLB. I don't know that he was meant to regress this season. I won't say that the healthy version is the .280/15-20 HR/75 RBI player that we hoped for, but he should at least hit well enough not to be an automatic out.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 31, 2012 -> 09:38 AM) As he should have. What AJ did was an unnecessary, bush league play. AJ started it and his pitcher paid the price. I think if Beckham hadn't been hit nothing would have happened. But eventually you do need to protect your players if it looks like it's getting out of control. I think AJ was happy to take a HBP for spiking Zobrist. Throwing at Zobrist may have had something to do with Becks being hit or there very well may be something we don't know about Zobrist's reaction to the AJ play. What people say to each other in those situations...we cannot know but who knows, maybe Zobrist said something personal/offensive/worse than "f*** you"

The quality of OH's at bats suggest that his average will go up. There's a sample size issue with his CWS numbers, but qualitatively it isn't that difficult to project those numbers up. You keep mentioning his defense like it's been bad - one error was a "bad" error and the other was the kind you expect on a tough play and was made possible by making a nice play with his glove. He's also made several very good plays, including one that likely decided a game for us. I know we like to think that you have to have an All-Star at every position to "compete the rest of the way," but this isn't the case...you just can't have any black holes, and that's not Hudson. If his next ten games make him look like a black hole (doesn't look like one now), we'll hopefully plug in a healthy Brent and not miss a beat. I wouldn't entertain too many thoughts about acquiring another alternative because we don't have the players or organizational philosophy to get a big fish right now. I don't know if there is a division lead big enough for KW to give up young players for a fix on the MLB roster.

Almost everyone that plays in the MLB will NEVER have a run as good as Dayan's tear in progress. That says something in and of itself. There have been players that seem to be as talented that just never do this. This really reminds me a bit of the runs that Quentin would go on where it seems like he'll just prevent you from losing. Luckily, DV is a bit more durable We just need to make sure that when he slows down he doesn't have any months like he did in April. And we need to do something to keep the Cubans from being worthless in April EVERY YEAR.

While Brent Morel is probably a more talented hitter than Orlando Hudson, I still remember a Brent Morel from last year that had frustratingly bad at bats. Never swinging aggressively, never taking a walk. The only redeeming quality was that he looked to the opposite field, but it was in a Juan Pierre kind of way, like he didn't want to hit ball too hard. Nothing was more frustrating than seeing him swing at anything the pitcher threw up there in a 2 strike count. If he could work a count like Hudson, he'd be a better hitter. But he has never shown me that he has an ability to intelligently pick spots to swing aggressively, know which strikes not to swing at, how to balance a 2 strike approach with one that might result in a hit, etc. Hudson is the better hitter because of what is between his ears.

Have to wonder if Morel hid/downplayed the injury to try to stay in the lineup. It always looks bad in hindsight, but in the moment as a player you're thinking that it'll just go away and you won't have someone potentially playing well in your position while you're resting. Of course there is some chance that his injuries have been played up by the team to explain his poor play. I don't know.

QUOTE (knightni @ May 30, 2012 -> 09:22 PM) I wasn't upset with them dealing Hudson at the time because, salary aside, it looked like a fairly even trade stat-wise. I'm upset that Rizzo bamboozled KW into being forced to keep Jackson instead of completing the 3 way to get Dunn. THEN Rizzo gets the Sox #1 on top of it the following season, with the Sox signing Dunn as a type A, AND he signs Jackson as a free agent for free. ^^^ this.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 30, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) I have been saying this for years, and maybe people are starting to realize it.... The Nick Swisher trade is the worst deal Kenny has ever made. Results-wise, sure. We got nothing out of Swisher and Ozzie forced him out of town when he had zero value, leaving us with nothing to show for the trade.

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ May 30, 2012 -> 08:56 PM) First game back, probably only wanted to give him 3 ab's and call it a day. Seems odd to me, what are you learning about his health if he can't make it through the whole game? I figure the goal has to be as many repetitions as possible to sharpen up for the MLB and prove his good health.

Simon Castro is a very legit prospect at this point. He's talented and is looking like the prospect that once topped the loaded SD system. Hernandez is not terribly talented but is left handed and producing quite well at AA. That's a very interesting rotation down there with Quintana (I think he's going to be headed to AAA actually)

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ May 30, 2012 -> 01:12 PM) Keith Law Updated 2.0 Draft Having the Sox take Smoral. Like the upside on this pick-Big Lefty Shades of Aaron Poreda, it seems to me. Not always a fan of taking pitchers that you have to really teach a third pitch. 90-94 mph isn't anything too stunning, especially since he's fairly heavy for a young guy at that height. Missing the chance to show off his changeup and prove its there with that foot injury would scare me away.

Brent Morel 2 for 3, but pulled in the seventh. Not sure what's up with that??? Injured???

Brent Morel 2 for 3, but pulled in the seventh. Not sure what's up with that??? Injured???

I feel really bad for the kid having what seemed to be shaping up to be another good outing taken from him from that ump. We shouldn't have been throwing at anybody, but the ejection was ridiculous and despite how well he's done that could be his last major league pitch...and that sucks. You never know what happens when he gets sent down. It's likely that the only thing to do here is send him down. I don't really want him missing starts. It's crazy how this kid with no stuff is jumping to the top of our prospect ranks.

QUOTE (MuckFinnesota @ May 30, 2012 -> 06:44 PM) This is all sad but true. Cubs draw an increase of 2% with fewer wins. White Sox draw 2% fewer fans and have 5 more wins at this time last year. Given the amount of people in this city and the amount of following for the Cubs, how likely is it for the Sox to increase average attendance by 5,000-10,000 more fans by the end of the season? Is it logical to think there will be an increase if they can stay hot or are we not a large enough fan base to make it out to the park for Boyer and Co. to make their quota? I don't know...we have had some very decent attendance years. There was even a time when nobody went to Cubs games. Winning will cure our ills, I have no fears of being a team like Tampa that wins and still nobody cares.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 30, 2012 -> 06:14 PM) I don't actually think they should do this, but the thought came to me that maybe they should shut Sale down now until after the break. Keep Quintana going through interleague and the rest of the first half. If he's good, then maybe you feel comfortable trading Floyd. Then Sale gets 15 starts/100 innings in the second half. That would put him at 155-160 innings going into the postseason. I'd be interested in them finding some clever way to lessen the workload. I suppose this is what they make the big money for.

It's hard for me to say the trade was bad when it made perfect sense. It seemed like a very fair deal at the time...unfortunately all of the worst things happened. Swisher had next to no value when we traded him away. The way Swisher was handled was one of the first big red flags for Ozzie Guillen for me.

QUOTE (kev211 @ May 30, 2012 -> 06:02 PM) And have Sale and Peavy start less games. No thanks. You realize Sale pitching less is what we need to happen. 200 innings from him is potentially disastrous and reckless on our part. If we can limit his innings without making his individual starts shorter and without making him stop permanently in the middle of a pennant run, that'd be perfect. Peavy likely falls into this category too, along with Humber.

There's a chance that it was intentional, but only due to the game situation. People make bad throws all the time, you'll probably see one of our pitchers do that exact thing at some point.

QUOTE (gatnom @ May 30, 2012 -> 05:15 PM) Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... It's been what, three starts? Granted, I haven't been able to watch any of them (turned the game on today right as he was making the pitch that got him thrown out), but there's no need to hamstring our roster because of three starts. I don't think he's pitched so well that it's as if he MUST be on the roster. I do wonder if the Sox are eager to have a chance to reduce the innings workload on several of their starters, though. Being able to give Sale, Humber, Peavy periodic rest could be very beneficial...but again, I don't know if they want to bother with it and it could blow up in their face with one bad outing from Q.

The quality of at bats we've had from O-Dog are qualitatively much better than Morel this season or even last season. His bat is going to come around some but it is difficult to say how much. His defense has been fine and it might actually be difficult to say that Morel outdefends him given the same plays over the past week or so. I'm not for changing anything unless Orlando's play drops off rapidly or Morel really looks good in Charlotte. The key for Morel will be how healthy he is after ~2 weeks of everyday play. Seems like he's hardly had any time to heal up. I don't think we're in too bad of a spot right now as far as our options at 3B go...but maybe the winning streak is rubbing off on me.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 30, 2012 -> 04:46 PM) 1.) Sale has been huge. Thank goodness that insanity of putting him in the bullpen only lasted about a week. Thank goodness that turned into an organizational mulligan or do-over. No harm no foul on that mess. p.s. I never called Peavy a bum. People got on me for saying the cliche ... that he's a bulldog with a good attitude. I did hate on Rios and Dunn, but admitted several times last year Dunn was handling it all well. Many of you bagged on Ozzie for not benching Rios and Dunn, though. I pointed out you don't sit guys making that kind of jack. This board exploded for Oz not pinch hitting for Dunn and benching Dunn and Rios after KW said it was OK. I was not as hard on them as MANY others on here. 2.) That makes sense, but how many at bats will Robin give Morel to see if he's "performing better?" I'm thinking that back problem isn't going away anytime soon. 3.) Under. I say between 20 and 25 a game. It won't turn around this quickly. You know, you can just put your responses to each quote between the quotes. It's a pain to keep scrolling up and down to see what you're responding to.

I was thinking of a modified 6 man rotation. You give everyone periodic breaks for 1-2 starts with Quintana taking those starts. You keep everyone that is pitching on a 5 day schedule with one guy getting time off. You'd have to let go of Ohman or option Santana/Stewart to do it. Might be too hard to do or not worth f***ing around with Quintana.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ May 30, 2012 -> 12:18 PM) AJ is only lovable because he's on your team. Everyone else everywhere hates the guy for a reason. You f***s would be fellating Brett Lawrie if he were on the Sox. I only see him doing douchebag things, not things that can be perceived as competitive, etc. Get back to me when AJ chucks his helmet at an umpire