Rex Hudler

Yes all ended well......... but you are looking for an ace. At this time last year, Beckett certainly was not one. Granted Beckett's ceiling has always been sky high, but you could not have predicted that he would dominate the way he did. I'm just saying that the pitchers on the Sox staff could step up. Anything could happen.

MnSoxFn (MSF) is the draft guy. I follow it a little bit, but beyond that, just soak in all he shares.

Beckett was 2-3 with a 3.76 ERA at this time last year. Other than tools and a few flashes, he had shown no true indication he was going to be an "ace" in the playoffs last year. Jas, Benson, Perez or Garcia are no better than what we have now. They would give us depth, but are not top of the rotation guys on a WS contender. Or they haven't taken that big step in that direction yet.

Four more hits today get him up to .324. Try and keep up! LOL

you beat me to it Cheat..... scroll back up.

I do believe he is draft eligible, yes. 12-0 with a 1.45 ERA isn't too bad.... but that mullet he is sporting has got to go!!

Another 4 hits today takes him to .324. Then again, if this were in the Minor League thread, you'd already know that. ;-)

And he is 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA in 29.2 IP. He has only given up 15 hits and 9 BB while striking out 31. A 0.876 whip isn't too bad....... Ok, so no he will not be the guy they go to, but I wouldn't be shocked if they did. I just believe they have better candidates right now.

It's a little more complicated than that..... When a team signs a Type A free agent, the team losing the player is awarded the first round pick of the team that signed the player if that pick is in the second half of the first round (picks 16-30). If the signing team's 1st round pick is in the first half of the round (picks 1-15), the team that lost the free agent gets that team's second round pick, instead of their first. In this scenario, the Angels signed Colon, but they were slotted to pick 12th overall, meaning the Sox get the Angels second round pick instead of their first. When teams sign multiple free agents, the team that loses the highest rated player gets the first round pick and the team with the next highest gets their second round pick. The Yankees signed both Paul Quantril and Tom Gordon. According to the rankings, The Cheat posted above, Quantril was rated higher than Gordon, giving the Dodgers the Yanks first round pick and the White Sox their second round slot. This applies only to free agents that were offered arbitration by their original club, so some free agents such as Greg Maddux, Gary Sheffield, etc. are not factored in. No compensation is due the teams for losing such players. For instance, if the Braves would have offered arbitration to Gary Sheffield, they would have gotten the Yanks 1st rd. pick, the Dodgers would have gotten their 2nd rounder and the Sox their 3rd round pick.

Didn't take long for Anderson to blow past .300, did it?

Which is exactly why baseball should do what is possible NOT to allow this type of thing. Baseball is not NASCAR, nor should it ever be. It is commercialized enough with Fox and their stuped TV promos. How many times are they going to show the announcers act like they are text voting on a stupid cell phone? This in itself isn't so bad, but the closer you get to a line, the more gray it becomes, making other things seem "not so bad". I am not offended by the Spiderman deal, I just don't see the benefits of it, and am afraid of what it could eventually lead to.

I'm telling you, it is the Year of the Light-Hitting Middle Infielder! See below: Ron Belliard - .380 Michael Young - .377 Juan Uribe - .372 Jack Wilson - .363 Tony Graffanino - .333 Matt Kata - .318 Caesar Izturis - .291 Royce Clayton - .286

With Blakely, Franklin and Murphyas three of our four outfielders, I wouldn't mind seeing Anderson here pronto, if he will hit.

I don't think so...... I still see weaknesses in his swing that make me think he will eventually be headed back toward that .250 hitter he has always been. Perhaps he can find a home near .280. But there are still plate discipline issues I am concerned with. Let's see how a long season plays out before we start thinking about promotions.

Just totally guessing, but I would think it had to do with comfort and results. He had walked more people than normal, so perhaps he just didn't have faith that he would master it. I know from playing many years ago, that when you try something new it can be frustrating. It is one thing to be "experimenting" in practice, or in his case ST, or Instructs, but when you don't feel comfortable in games and aren't getting the results you want, it is real frustrating. The temptation to go back to "what you know" is great. My guess is that he just felt it wasn't working well and didn't want to have a s***ty season trying something new. A bad year at this stage in his career could hurt him in a big way. It could get him released or just effectively kill any chance he had to make the big leagues. I know I wouldn't want to be monkeying around with something new while watching my ERA soar, knowing my career is on the line.

In no particular order.......... The good..... Mike Morse has surpassed everyone's expectations. He is a career .248 hitter. His swing is a bit long and he doesn't take a lot of pitches as evidenced by only 4 BB's. But he is showing power in a tough stadium to hit in and has been solid in the field. While watching him play defense, I don't get much of a reaction, positive or negative. I don't see Jason Dellaero skills, nor do I see Edward Scissorhands, so that is all I have to go by now. Michael Spidale is doing exactly what he needed to do coming into this year. His weaknesses are a lack of power, a below average arm and falling into a habit of hitting too many fly balls. He takes walks (.430 OBP) and has 9 doubles. He will need to keep his average up and not fall off like last year where he lost approx. 30 points in the last two months of the season. He is not real big, so perhaps his body breaks down over the course of the long season? His OF defense is excellent and he can really go get balls in the gap. He will never get much acclaim as a prospect, but he has a chance as a 4th OF if can have a good year in AA. If not, he will become just another minor league OF with a couple of nice tools. Chris Stewart is a light hitting catcher who is very good defensively. He doesn't have Olivo's arm strength, but his release is as quick as they come. He is hitting for a higher average than expected, but hasn't produced much (3 BBs, 3 2B, 2 RBI). Defense is definitely his forte. Arnie Munoz is blowing away the Southern League. He doesn't look imposing, nor does he have an imposing fastball. He does, however have a big time curveball and varies speeds with it. His changeup has been real good and he can sneak it up to 90 mph occasionally, although he is normally around 86. The only knock on Arnie is his size. Will his body hold up through a full season's worth of starter innings? Will MLB hitters be intimidated when looking at a 5'7" pitcher? Will his curveball and change be good enough to offset an average fastball? Results are what matters so I think he will be okay. Whether that is as a starter or a reliever, remains to be seen. Jeff Bajenaru does not belong in AA. Lights out is the easiset way I can describe him so far this year. A BB/K ratio of 2/17 in only 10.2 innings is especially impressive. He locates well, throws in the low 90's and his slider has made hitters look stupid. The pitching staff has been solid all the way around. The starters, minus Honel and Wing have been excellent and the bullpen has held up their end of the deal. A team ERA of 3.08 says it all. The bad... Kris Honel has only pitched 4 innings and is on the DL. After a simulated game on Sunday where he was throwing in the low 80's, I don't think he will be back soon. I hear he has no more pain and no medical exams have found anything, so it is a mystery what is wrong. Ryan Wing is still in Arizona rehabbing tendonitis in his shoulder. Originally expected to report to Birmingham in May, it now looks as if it will be at least June. Wyatt Allen just can't cut it. I have seen no indication of any command or real idea of where the ball is going to end up. It looks as he were a risky draft pick based on arm strength that never could learn to pitch. Jim Bullard hasn't been that bad aside from one spot start where he got drilled. The bad part of his situation is that the Sox converted him in the fall to a sidearm arm slot ala Kelly Wunsch. Bullard recently abandoned that arm slot and is back to his normal 3/4. Rather than working to get better in Instructional League, the off-season and spring training, he was led into a failed experiment and lost development time. The ironic thing is that they were trying to make him like Wunsch, now they are trying to get rid of Wunsch. Ruddy Yan has disappointed. He is hitting just .239 which I can chalk up to being early in the season. But he only has 4 stolen bases while being caught stealing 5 times. He has also walked just 4 times and struck out 17, which is not what you are looking for from your leadoff hitter. The vets/free agents have been extremely disappointing. Darren Blakely, Rob Sasser, Micah Franklin, Aaron McNeal and Nate Murphy (average age 28.6) are hitting a collective .220 and have 126 strikouts between them (averaging 1 for every 3.1 AB's). The ugly... -- .240 team batting average -- 219 strikeouts in just 821 AB's -- Only 21 SB, after having 8 in one game -- Shaffer hitting .103 (put him out of his misery please) -- Micah Franklin hitting .129 and looking unbelievably overmatched. His swing is incredibly wrong for this big ballpark. He is getting twisted into a pretzel on breaking balls time after time. He had his big league time. Time to move on.... -- Kris Keller is really struggling with an 8.10 ERA. He has his one game in the big leagues. Time to move on.....

You want a box? You can't handle a box!! Tough night for T-Nic....... Anderson is hot...... Winston Salem ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi w k avg. Nicholson, Tommy 3b 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 .204 Gonzalez, Andy ss 6 2 2 0 0 1 3 0 1 .256 Sweeney, Ryan rf 6 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .221 Anderson, Brian cf 6 1 4 2 0 0 2 1 0 .290 Rogowski, Casey dh 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 .275 Becker, Brian 1b 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 .307 Martel, Normand lf 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .245 Rosa, Wally c 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .235 Myers, Mike 2b 6 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .235 Totals 51 7 12 2 0 1 7 4 12 Frederick ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi w k avg. Carter, C cf 7 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 .275 Alvarez, G ss/3b 5 1 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 .271 Harris, c lf 7 2 1 0 0 1 3 0 1 .259 Gredvig, D 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .318 Hubele, R 1b 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .281 Johnson, T dh 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 3 0 .256 Littleton, BJ pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .282 Keylor, C rf 6 0 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 .228 Diaz, R 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .462 Fahey, B ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 Martinez, O c 6 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .353 Robinson, L 2b 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .320 Totals 51 6 16 3 0 1 6 7 4 Winston Salem 0 1 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -- 7 Frederick 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 6 E_G. Alvarez. LOB_Winston Salem 10, Frederick 18. 2B_B. Anderson 2 (9), C. Carter (6), C. Keylor (5), L. Robinson (3). HR_A. Gonzalez (3) off R. Stahl, C. Harris (1) off N. Lubisich. RBI_A. Gonzalez 3 (7), B. Anderson 2 (12), B. Becker (17), M. Myers (2), G. Alvarez (5), C. Harris 3 (9), T. Johnson (18), C. Keylor (10). SF_B. Becker, T. Johnson. S_R. Sweeney, G. Alvarez 2, T. Johnson, L. Robinson 2. SB_B. Anderson 2 (3). GIDP_C. Rogowski. DP_Frederick 1. Winston Salem IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Lubisich, Nik 6 9 3 3 2 1 1 4.30 Castro, Julio 1-3 1 2 2 0 0 0 5.40 Stumm, Jason 1 1-3 3 1 1 0 0 0 5.68 Hudson, Jeremy 4 1-3 0 0 0 4 0 0 0.00 Larson, Adam (W 1-0) 2 3 0 0 1 3 0 6.35 Frederick IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Stahl, R 4 1-3 6 4 3 3 2 1 3.52 Neal, T 2 2-3 2 2 2 1 5 0 6.75 Keefer, R 1 2-3 1 0 0 0 1 0 4.91 House, C 1 1-3 0 0 0 0 2 0 3.86 Piersoll, C 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 5.06 McCurdy, N (L 0-1) 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 3.80 PB_W. Rosa. IBB_off J. Hudson (C. Keylor). HBP_by J. Castro (C. Harris), by A. Larson (O. Martinez), by R. Stahl (N. Martel), by C. Piersoll (A. Gonzalez). WP_R. Stahl. T_4:10. A_1,194.

That's the reason he is in AA now. Yofu really doesn't belong in AA either.

Reyes merely took Aceves' spot on the roster. Shaffer hit what I believe is the hardest ball I have ever seen him hit last night, burning the CF and short hopping the CF wall. Of course, something had to go wrong and he got thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple, making the first out of the inning at 3B. tsk tsk

try the standards...... bboyer@chisox.com brooks.boyer@chisox.com ETC. ETC I think it will be bboyer@chisox.com, if my hunch is correct.

He's more 85-86 on a consistent basis, but can run it up to 90 on occasion. The changeup is his 3rd pitch and it has been very good for him so far. He was spotting it well the other day, despite being off on his command with his fastball and curve.

No...... he is a career .250 hitter. Give it time to see how long this will last. He still has weaknesses.

I'm surprised the Sox told the reporter about his radar gun readings.... I would think that would be kept internally.

Well he keeps giving up runs in AAA..........

No idea what they will do with Baj. He should be in trips right now...... Things will shake out, they always do.......