Princess Dye

Frank has every right to have a ton of pride in himself. And to feel a chip on his shoulder from being robbed of a few things. That ego getting out of hand from time to time is him being human, nothing more than that.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 7, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) This was always my comment on Peavy. His follow through always reminded me of dodgeball

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 6, 2014 -> 11:09 PM) All I've heard from inside is how different this team is. Last yea they supposedly checked out at one point. Eaton apparently wore on the vets on his old team, here he is one of the biggest leaders. That's good for us. Hawk has alluded a few times to guys' temperament...De Aza being jovial, not serious jokester. Alludes to Alexei being kind of a lazy/not intense on every play guy. Do you think these sorts of things are accurate, and/or a problem? Or is it more like...guys like this will kind of take the shape of the club -- so if things are bad they get less intense, but when things are going good, they focus better?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 3, 2014 -> 10:14 AM) Back up catchers get plenty of time, especially since the Sox don't have a workhorse behind the plate. If Flowers leash was 2 bad games, they shouldn't have given him one to begin with because everyone on the team will have 2 bad games in a row this year, several times. Nieto will play, but I think people will realize he probably is in over his head fairly quickly. The fact is, if Nieto didn't have to be returned if the Sox wanted to send him to the minors, he wouldn't be here. You may be right on that last point, but also keep in mind that he's here to fill a role this organization lacks. We dont have LH hitting catchers and he's going to be here, doing that, on the days that is called for. Sure, it wont be a straight platoon but it still will be a role he's filling once a week. What catcher OPSes does he have to be an improvement on from last year? .600 for Flowers, .500 for Phegley. Not tall timber.

I was defending ADA most the offseason and all it took was one game to make everyone do a complete 180 on him. He went from most brainless player of all time to suddenly The Guy for that decision-making-heavy role of #2 hitter. Despite being an ADA supporter i dont see him as a fit for the #2hitter. He's perfect for lower in the order, LF. Great teams still need that 2 WAR no frills guy and he could be that....if we can...be great soon enough.

Semien doing this and handling this ASAP solves so many issues. You want to give him a chance to get this done as he has room to grow. The best case scenarios of this impact BOTH this year and future years, because he is under our control for a long while. There are just absolutely no downsides to sticking with Semien. If he struggles for a whole year, you learned about what you need going into next year. If he takes off and succeeds and gets comfortable, then you just helped your contention chances in the present as well. I literally just cannot see the downside of looking for anyone else to do this.

QUOTE (BaconOnAStick @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 04:42 PM) Alexei in the 2 hole, now. I really want Semien to be given the opportunity to work through his butterflies and get a chance there. Even after Beckham is healthy. Semien profiles to be a guy who handles that spot, whereas we should already know exactly what Alexei is, as he's not young and we've seen him for awhile. Please no knee jerk reactions to a couple positive recent outcomes. We need to be smarter than that, and we need to develop young talent. That's what this year is about.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 09:13 AM) Thank god it's no longer April 1st. I don't have to ignore thread titles like "Avisal Garcia 's dog bites sluggers penis. Threatens a young career - retirement possible" GO SOX! Might teachim some plate patience

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 2, 2014 -> 08:56 AM) Opening day 3-hole hitter on the bench. He's ill.

QUOTE (Kevtrem @ Apr 1, 2014 -> 03:25 PM) So, Gillaspie batting third and Lindstrom closing games struck me at least somewhat surprising form yesterday. Granted I know its Opening Day and well probably see many lineups, but I can't help but to think about Hahn's impact here. Matt Davidson is the third basemen of the future (technically could be of the present as well), Hahn has made that quite clear. All the beat reports indicate that Nate Jones, Daniel Webb, and now even Maikel Cleto have the potential to be closers. Arbitration statuses of both Jones and Davidson clearly play a role, but I'm thinking more than that. I would say that most believe that Davidson will get significant playing time this year, and I subscribe to this thought process. I believe Gillaspie will be given every opportunity to succeed in the White Sox lineup by batting third, with Eaton getting on and Abreu as protection. I think Hahn is fluffing Gillaspie, if he is competent he should have at least 30-40 RBI by the deadling, in hopes of an overpay and vacating the third baseman duties. I see the same situation with Matt Lindstrom. We saw in the offseason, people overpay for saves. If Lindstrom succeeds in the closer role, his stock skyrockets and the Sox continue collecting young players at the deadline. It may be wishful thinking, but if the Sox do intend to trade Gillaspie and Lindstrom at their peaks of value (using generic stats), we could have another very productive deadline. Alexei and Beckham could be on the move with the middle infielder depth in the Sox system. Thoughts? Gillaspie manning the position well could also lead to them considering Davidson at other positions too. Everything is probably in play, as Davidson might be good enough to deem not hurting us at 1B or dh (but maybe hurting us at third)

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 1, 2014 -> 03:05 PM) He burned about every single bridge he had to the White Sox. I dont envision him ever coming back. Surely he could come back for events or ceremonial things -- but you mean..just..not as an employee ..ever again, right?

ambassador 2 cuba

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 07:34 PM) And if Dunn could learn not to strike out... Not really a fair comparison though because the insane level of problems ADA had last year were not present in '12 or '11

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Mar 28, 2014 -> 07:26 PM) God I hope so. I don't want De Aza anywhere near this team. If the mental mistakes are behind him...and he's more comfortable in LF...then suddenly you have a guy whose OPS and decent speed is welcome on this team. 2-something WAR players sadly are hard to come by for CWS.

Go Birmingham! uh oh hope they dont..actually win

.338 OBP .501 SLG 30% k-rate LH Centerfielder Good-Year-Dunn!

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Mar 27, 2014 -> 02:30 PM) I wonder how he hit .370 in AAA to be honest. He just doesn't seem like he has a clue at the plate. The age is something to keep in mind -- and the fact that he's been young at every level he's played in. What you should be excited about is that the .370 in AAA and the Sox '13 performance are recent signs of change. He's young enough still where that matters.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 27, 2014 -> 09:32 AM) If you can hit, it doesn't matter how bad you field. Ask Miguel Cabrera. Well that then brings up whether we're talking MVP Caliber as in 'what you have to do to win it from the voters' or 'what you have to do to earn it' also the example youre issuing is a few-times-per-lifetime hitter. a 1b type guy has to be unreal-good to be mvp-earning-caliber

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) FWIW, Abreu is projected by most to be an All-Star/MVP-caliber player, at worst to be Paul Konerko Lite. 'projected by most'? ...i think it's more like...people believe his ceiling is super high. But there is a ton of mystery with him to say the least. He's careful at the plate which costs him bat speed youd find with other all-star 1B stars. There is no shame in that but i'm expecting all-star or near all-star.......as MVP caliber, considering his position & defense as well, is quite the high expectation.

I mean, if you're a Rienzo guy, fine - i understand the logic. let a young guy try and/or crash burn but i have to think they basically saw their '13 test run with him as - 'this guy will be relieving for us more likely than anything else.' unless something changes, he's kind of in that bad-world of starter-versatility without much excellence at any one thing. I am rooting for him but it kind of brings into question if even relief at MLB-level is ...a long career for him.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Mar 26, 2014 -> 02:51 PM) Why are the Sox so high on Paulino? Baffles me. teams that dont have many good players then tend to like players more that have some idea of what a baseball is and/or have played before. surely the wealth of sox starter options isnt blindingly full to you

Flowers is here because of his all-around ok-ness in the various catching categories. And he'll catch a ton because of that. Despite Nieto's switch hitting, i'd expect him to ride the pine a ton. Flowers' catching actually earned him this place in the organization(as well as the total lack of other catchers of course). Flowers' catching was impressive enough to make Phegley a (sort of) early cut. It now appears that the only guy Phegley was earnestly competing against, if at all, was Flowers. Judging from the Baseball Prospectus piece (in the comments section) with Joshua Kusnick, where he reveals how early-in-the-works it was to put Nieto on the team. And also based on how important it (apparently) was to the white sox to have a left-hitting catcher on the team.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 25, 2014 -> 09:25 AM) I just want to point this out, something to think about... Adrian Nieto last year, age 23, 6th MiLB year, High A: .282/.371/.446, 11 HR, 18.3% K/PA Kevan Smith last year, age 24, 3rd MiLB year, High A: .286/.370/.484, 12 HR, 14.9% K/PA Offensively, I am not convinced Nieto is any better than Smith at this point. In fact I'm fairly sure I'd take Smith's bat over Nieto. Defensively, Smith was considered raw, but also has improved and there are positive reports about his pitcher handling. His CS% in 2012 (2013 I can't find) was 33%, and he had 14 PB in 92 games. Nieto is considered better defensively overall, and the pitchers seem to like him in camp (which is big), but.... His CS% in 2012 (I can't find 2013 data) was 32%. He had 14 PB in 85 games. Numbers aren't the full story of course, especially with catchers. But looking at the body of work, I am not sure Nieto is any better as a total package than Kevan Smith would be. Similar hit and OBP results, Smith more power, Smith better contact rate, similar CS% numbers, and defensively I think Nieto may be at best only slightly better. And Nieto has had 3 more years to develop. Why are people convinced Nieto is ready for the majors and Smith isn't? If your plan is to develop a Gregg Zaun or something along those lines (and yes guys like that definitely matter) then you want to take a shot on an already-defense-first-guy to develop that bat to be decent. . enough .. to be a Gregg Zaun type guy. I doubt you want to invest tons of time into making a flawed defensive catcher into a Gregg Zaun type. I also have been intrigued by Kevan Smith but in addition to the slight age difference lets remember Nieto has the switch-hitting. Nieto may not be outstanding but he ticks a lot of boxes for you. Which is worthwhile when you are investing time in a guy.

It's possible they just believe he's a defensive catcher and cheap, so as far as the bat...can just see how it progresses without wild expectations. It's a year when one can afford to do this, and since we arent planning on winning the WS anyway--- you can send Nieto in '15 if need be and hope he didnt get his progress derailed in any way. No point in spending on a veteran when Flowers is about to catch a ton of games for us

There's some obsession with outcome here. Ok fine, Reed can become Mariano Rivera #2 but it doesnt change that we're doing the right things lately. I am fine with good thought process. Give me good thought process and if there are blips along the way, i'll gladly take it. Good thought process is - build up relievers to have more perceived value than they're worth, send them to a better team when you are in a valley-year, and get a better high-ceiling prospect that is cheap for years on end. Davidson can have impact while you are getting better as a team, whereas the thing Reed does well is only of some impact when you Already Are better as a team. What kind of haul was the Mexicutioner worth before his injuries? They never pulled that trigger. Kept being Bad With Good Closer. So outcomes can work either way. We can guess endlessly. It's a nowhere debate. I do like our line of thinking though. That has obviously changed, and for the better.