Balta1701

Bad play by Conor too, that ball was going to roll foul.

Not a successful inning for bare handing the ball.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 03:38 PM) Minor would make sense. Santana, zero sense. The player we drafted with the 2nd round pick we'd have lost had we signed Santana came out of high school and clocked in at #5 in the organization on the recently released future sox top prospects list.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 03:32 PM) Is Miguel Gonzalez much of a prospect? I know he's rated as the best defensive catcher in the system and in triple A while only 23. Whats the profile on him? His OPS above rookie ball is about .600. He's never been used as a full-time starter even in the minors. If we had a team that didn't need offense maybe we wouldn't care about our backup catcher hitting under .200. Solid in the run game.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 03:33 PM) Didn't the Sox have interest in Santana when he was a free agent? I'd say based on how long it took for him to sign and what he signed for...no. Some posters did.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) What's next, we will bring back Juan Uribe and Neal Cotts? There's a big difference between APPRECIATING everything Konerko has done for the team and Reinsdorf and simultaneously having a plan or goal to compete in 2015 and beyond. Now that's not going to be hurt by Konerko's presence, UNLESS there's someone in the front office who believes Andy Wilkins could be a full-time DH next season, and not platooned against LHP. However, they'll never know what Wilkins can even do against RHP if they don't figure out some way to get Dunn off the roster (along with Beckham and DeAza). I'm not going to go as far as pointing to him specifically as THE reason we lost in 2012....it was a combination of Ventura's managerial inexperience, the team just wearing down (Sale and Quintana), injuries and MOSTLY the fact that very few believed they were actually better than the Tigers, so I'll just say it was 25% the White Sox choking and 75% the more-talented Tigers just prevailing in big games when it really counted. The fact that right now they have not moved Dunn and given Wilkins an opportunity is for me right now generating frustration roughly equal to that generated by Konerko being on the roster

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 02:19 PM) I thought the question was if you you a fan of his not whether he was the best player in baseball?. I thought that was a middle ground. Has he been bad lately, yes. Am I still a fan of his because of his career, yes. The specific post I replied to asked "why would you not be one of his biggest fans" and included the sentence "I just don't understand what Paulie has done for people to not be eternally happy about him". I think that responding negatively to that is perfectly fair as that's pretty far from any reasonable middle ground.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 02:13 PM) lookingfor de Angels have a tv deal like the Dodgers coming up soon? If so, money won't be a problem for them. They were already looking for pitching before this news. No, they don't. Time Warner apparently is getting completely screwed on the deal with the Dodgers and so even if the Halos got a new contract it wouldn't be anywhere close to the Dodgers deal unless Time Warner somehow turns around their luck with the legal cases they're losing.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 02:09 PM) That makes you not a fan of him and his career. It happens to almost all players in their twilight years. His entire career as a White Sox player with all the good he has done means nothing? Why can't there be an in-between ground between lionizing him as a veritable deity like one particular poster in this thread and "not being a fan of him and his career"? He shouldn't be on this team this year and he's been in the way for the last 2.5 years. As much as anyone, his falling apart with the bat in 2012 was absolutely key to that team missing the playoffs, and he's been paid a lot for the privilege. He had a couple rough years early in his career, had a great peak, was a key to both the 05 and 08 playoff runs, but in hindsight the White Sox would have been better off not signing him to either of his last 2 contracts.

Well this is one of those threads you see and say "WTF"?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 10:19 PM) Yeah, I'm no prospect guy, but it seems like he's the real deal for sure. Ryan Braun a good comparison? (Stats-wise. not PED-wise) Houston really f***ed up the last two drafts. They would look a whole lot better with Bryant & Rodon as opposed to Appel & nobody. The one difference you can say is that Bryant strikes out more than Braun ever did. More power but more K's at the plate.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 01:41 AM) Just curious. Why are you not one of his biggest fans? I sometimes don't get fan mentality. What more could Paulie have done in his career? He had a stretch of SEVERAL amazing seasons and in one of them the Sox won it all. People have the right to like whoever they want. I just don't understand what Paulie has done for people to not be eternally happy about him. I guess he's so slow people think he's a stiff for some reason. He has been incredibly disappointing for the past 2.5 seasons, literally costing the team a chance at a playoff birth in the first of those, while being paid well over $20 million for the privilege of being really bad over that time period.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 06:03 AM) Finally, Jordan Danks just turned 28. Dayan is 25 and put up a 744 WAR rookie season at age 23 in the big leagues. Take THAT Mike Trout! Viciedo single handedly was worth 744 wins in 1 season!!! His performance was worth $3 billion dollars in 1 season!!!!!!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 11:03 AM) Ventura signed an extension that begins next season. He will be the manager unless Rozner and his buddy have a new job that hasn't been announced yet. As for the defense, this has been pretty obvious for a while but everyone wants the Sox to trade Alexei so apparently it isn't so important. I do think finding some more pitchers would help, as would finding a couple of more hitters. Hopefully, Garcia is one of those hitters. It does strike me as interesting that although they announced "Ventura signs extension" as far as I could tell, none of the terms were ever released, maybe suggesting this was something of a deal that offers the team and the manager a little more flexibility in the event that either of them decides that they were done.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 10, 2014 -> 10:33 AM) With a 4.69 fip & 4.47xfip for scrap heap pick up not bad at all, he could conceivably be a 1-1.5WAR pitcher next season over 30 starts. For league minimum, thats a great job by Hahn finding a serviceable 5th starter when people like Jeremy Guthrie are making over 8M for similar production. Just to note again, some of those numbers are related to him not being stretched out when he got to the White Sox and the Sox having to leave him in to get shelled in order to stretch his arm out for starting. Factoring that in his real ERA might well be somewhere closer to 4 and his FIP would probably drop as well.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 09:58 PM) Soler looks like he's going to be the best of the bunch. His stats in the minors tell me he just waits for his pitch and crushes it. If I had to pick one, I'm going with Bryant. In person he just puts on a show.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 02:47 PM) I'm not comparing the sox to cubs. I'm talking strictly about the cubs. And regarding the braves, A's, and twins, they never had the offense to compliment the pitching. Like I said, you need both to win. Not that you need a 95 Indians offense or a 95 braves pitching staff but generally speaking you need to be very good on both sides of the ball to win the world series. Of course there are exceptions, but more often than not, the team that is balanced both offensively and defensively wins the World Series. Relying too much on either offense or defense is a recipe for failure in the playoffs because as soon as that one side of the ball struggles you need the other to pick up the slack to get through a 7 game series. When was the last time a team won the World Series while being in the bottom third in runs allowed in their league? To get that pitching they are either spending big money (which is a big question mark right now) or trading away their offensive prospects. What would it take to get a guy like Chris Sale in a trade? Russell and Baez maybe? Well there goes 40% of their big time offensive prospects just to get an ace. How about rodon and Quintana? Soler and bryant? It's not easy to build a strong staff without spending money on big time free agents (Lester, scherzer, etc). Until they get the pitching, they aren't winning the World Series. That's not jealousy or envy or anything of the sorts. It's just a fact. Just to note, from the White Sox's side I wouldn't do either of those.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 02:46 PM) Put him in the DH role. You said this in the other thread: QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 02:42 PM) Giving PK more at bats will not harm this team. I see a bit of a problem here.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:58 PM) Nice. Then bring him on staff as soon as next year. I could handle Paulie as bench coach or third base coach. If he wants to manage long term, before the Sox hire him I'd prefer to see him take at least a year off to actually spend time with his family and take a break after a nearly 20 year career counting time in the minors. That way, at least he's had some time to think about whether he wants to get back into a locker room full time after a breather. I would definitely like him to spend time as a coach somewhere before the Sox make him their manager. Even if its behind a novice.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:56 PM) Dunn's hitting .157 vs. lefties with two homers I believe. It's not so easy. He has 17 homers and 44 RBIs all season. Where's the clamor to not let Dunn play any more? Not talking to Balta but all the Paulie 'dislikers' (people don't like when I say haters). I think Adam Dunn should be on Oakland by now and Andy Wilkins should be up getting his at bats. If the Sox have to chip in a couple million for it to happen it should have been done already and I can't figure out why it isn't.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:50 PM) Well I stand corrected, but I don't what non-Rodon Sox prospect you would prefer over him. Yeah, that's the problem, right now there's no extremely strong #2 in this org with that kind of tool. But it's not overwhelming like you'd think with most "top 10 prospects". If Baez is a top 10 prospect in MLB then Rodon must be top 5 because there's no way on Earth I'd do that deal straight up.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:50 PM) I can go either way at this point. This past week has me swaying to the "Tank" side and my whole whole "Finish as best as possible to appeal to FAs" statement has me on the other side of things. I can't see them signing a big time FA addition if they wind up with the 11th/12th pick in the draft. They have to improve that position before they'd consider it, that pick is just too valuable with where this team currently sits.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:49 PM) He's a better hitter than Leury Garcia, better than Beckham. He's not the worst hitter on the team by a long shot. Who would you rather see bat the final six weeks? Paulie or Dunn? Paul Konerko's numbers against right handed pitching are very, very close to Leury Garcia. Denying that doesn't change it. If there is a righty on the mound, I have no urge to see Konerko. I don't need another Leury Garcia in the lineup.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:45 PM) A devil's advocate would say he's shown enough he's still got some ability and would have a fine season if give a ton of at bats. Paulie's only problem is his legs. He's so slow it's forced him out of baseball. I've seen him turn on some pitches this year and bash them. His final season has been OK. He's not embarrassing himself like poor Pudge Fisk did at the end. It's not hurting anybody playing Paulie the last six weeks. The team is crap and Paulie is harmless. Paulie's biggest problem by far is that he's Leury Garcia against right handed pitching. He would absolutely be embarrassing himself if he had to face righties more often.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 9, 2014 -> 01:43 PM) That is amongst the league leaders in pinch hitting and pretty good from an OPS. Again, proving the point that he has been a very good pinch hitter. That is very good production off the bench. Ventura should be using him more often in that role. "Amongst the league leaders" = 8th out of 28 guys with that many PA's. He's at the 75th percentile. The 75th percentile for batting average, for example, is hitting .278. That's decent but the language is being stretched to compliment him.