Balta1701

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 05:05 PM) It's just a guess, based on his K/AB rate, yes? I mean, as someone else said, what's the worst thing that could happen, at this point?? What else is he or Danks going to learn in AAA? If they're so fragile they end up like Brian Anderson or Josh Fields, well, then so be it. Then we really have to look at our drafting philosophy and totally revamp our FO structure. I'll disagree with you on D2: he has an awful lot still to learn in AAA; he has to learn to hit AAA pitching. He's only hitting .257 with a .705 OPS right now. Supposedly they have him doing legitimate work to shorten up his swing and try to make better contact and cut down on the strikeouts. Flowers is a bit different...not only has he been in AAA for longer, he's been in AA for longer as well, and he's putting up much, much better numbers in AAA than D2. Flowers is striking out a lot, but he's also hitting those pitchers. D2 isn't.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 16, 2010 -> 05:05 PM) The White Sox "saved" money last year unloading veterans, yet when it came to acquiring more offense at a reasonable rate this offseason, they passed. The "savings" means nothing. I disagree with the notion he's got nothing to learn at AAA. You throw him to the wolves now and he fails, you may never get him back. He made some progress defensively last year. He still has a lot of things to work on, getting rid of a guy like AJ who has been as close to the heart of the team as any player and putting all the pressure on Flowers is a disaster waiting to happen. Ease him in during September or if AJ gets hurt, and see what he can do next year, but always have a back up plan. If the Sox traded AJ right now and sent $1 million with him...they'd save more by dealing that 1 contract than they did by dealing both Contreras and Thome.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 16, 2010 -> 05:04 PM) Sounds like Wednesday might be the decision day for a lot of our personnel. Why? That's a poor time to start doing it. Except maybe Beckham.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 16, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) It's a little messed up right now. It thinks Andruw Jones is Paul Konerko... I think the blame for that goes for whoever has created the feed in the first place, which probably goes back to MLB at some point.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 16, 2010 -> 05:00 PM) Flowers has a .901 OPS but he also has 39 k in 101 AB and is only hitting .257. The one knock on him was he is going to k a ton in MLB. Right now it may be half his AB. There is no need to rush him unless you enjoy Josh Fields-like offense. Here's the question to ask...how much is he going to learn from a couple more months in AAA putting up a giant OPS and hitting the ball easily out of the park? If he's going to struggle when he gets to the big leagues, may as well do that this season. If we wait until after June 1, it doesn't really cost us any extra arbitration time by having him at the big leagues, and you save some money if you can move AJ.

QUOTE (qwerty @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:57 PM) ? It's stands at .905 today. Was .907 yesterday. Bah, I looked at the wrong line, I looked at his #'s for last year. My bad.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:54 PM) Keep AJ around. Its not like the Sox have a 20 year committment to him, just the rest of the season. When Flowers starts consistently raking in AAA and if the Sox are out of it, call him up then and let him play. There really should be no panic about this 5/10 stuff. People are going to realize AJ was a lot better than they thought when he is gone. Bah, if you could trade him with minimal return, you save $3 million or so, and Flowers is putting up a >.900 OPS at AAA. You're right though, we'd miss AJ's work behind the plate. Just be nice if he was hitting >.200.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) The trade return from Howry, Baldwin, Durham, Alomar and Lofton...I think we got one "useable" asset. We did get the likes of Felix Diaz, Onan Masaoka, Berry/Barry, Emenencio Pacheco, Jon Fireball Adkins, etc. That was Frank Francisco, who we packaged later for Everett. And on the other hand...the Indians turned Casey Blake into Carlos Santana. Just because one sell-off trade didn't net people who worked out doesn't mean others won't.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:48 PM) I never said to bring up Viciedo or Danks. But to argue that there's any reason to hold onto Kotsay and Vizquel when you have younger guys like Flowers or Lillibridge who could do more with their ab's, is a joke. I don't even like Lillibridge, i'd give the play to Nix, but there's is nothing at this point that Kotsay and Vizquel can offer this ballclub outside of veteran status, that these kids cannot. You'd actually bring up Flowers and expect him to be a part time DH and backup 1b? Oh, and to platoon with our other RH hitting DH? Why am I bothering talking to you?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:44 PM) What is the public left to do? Bathe in oil. It's fun.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) Neither!!!! Yeah, Thome's .864 OPS would make this lineup all stinky.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:45 PM) If you don't like how Beckham is hitting and one of those guys that thinks he should be optioned to Charlotte, you are really going to be frustrated with the 3 you mentioned striking out all the time in the big leagues. Wait until they are ready. Honestly, given that AJ's about to be a 10/5 guy and Flowers is our best hitter at AAA...I wouldn't be angry if we could find a taker for AJ in early June and made that switch.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:40 PM) There really is no pointing in having Kotsay or Vizquel on this team at this juncture. DFA them both, try to get Vizquel a job elsewhere, and bring up two of the younger guys. Why exactly would you want to bring anyone up? Lillibridge is the only one who can play middle IF positions hitting worth a darn. You'd be crazy to bring up Viciedo right now, and even more insane to do so and put him in a part time playing role. Putting Vizquel at DH is a more intelligent move than that. CJ's not hitting at all right now. D2 isn't hitting either, FWIW. May as well let those guys hit in the minors. No harm happens to you if you hold onto the players in the big leagues, maybe you even find someone willing to trade you a Brian Anderson style washout later in the year.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:36 PM) The explosion was an accident, not because of deregulations. the resultant spills were because of safety items not working, things that prehaps should have been caught in an inspection, that never happened during Obama's watch. While oil flowed, Obama played golf. Time to stop the leak, clean it up, enforce the regulations you have and stop blaming Bush. But you just demonstrated that lack of regulation you said wasn't at fault!

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:27 PM) He used to be a four inning pitcher for us for awhile. Effective first innings. Always thought the pen shouldve been in consideration for El Titan We tried him in the Pen for a while. It actually makes sense, that forkball out of the bullpen is going to be a really hard pitch for anyone to adapt to even if he can't throw it for a strike, after 8 innings of seeing other people's stuff. The reason we never could do it consistently is that he had that long, long warmup routine, where he was throwing the forkball using a softball, etc.

Soxnet.net game wrapup.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:19 PM) Well, the window when Paulie Konerko was great trade bait has quickly closed. Really? You must have a really low opinion of major league GM's don't you? You expect them to overreact immensely and give up a huge price for a guy who has a few weeks of real good power, then the moment he has a bad series all trade value vanishes?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) This news just in KW, the Tigers have done more than put themselves in a position to compete with you. They've not only gotten younger and cheaper (Austin Jackson, Scherzer, etc.) You do realize Scherzer's been awful, correct?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 04:09 PM) It wouldn't make sense to use Nix,Castro or Quentin there. You don't want to ruin Teahen's fragile confidence!!!! Quentin is unavailable due to illness. Castro is still your backup catcher.

And Williams can't throw a strike with 2 outs. At least they didn't use Thor.

Just to say in advance...I have zero problems with Randy Williams pitching here.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 03:59 PM) Ramirez finally reaches the 240 mark, 600+ OPS. Teahen, our scary 220 corner IF with 2 homers, 7 RBI's and a mid to low 600's OPS from 3B. One of the five worst infield defenders in all of the ALCD. Like him or not long term...he's going to be a better hitter than he has been the last 2 weeks.

Alexei has 6 hits in his last 2 games. We've been waiting.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 16, 2010 -> 03:51 PM) HOW MANY OF US SAID Thome would be getting a ton of DH at-bats (playing with Kubel against RHP and D. Young on the bench)? And yet, Delmon Young was key to winning that 2nd game against us. You know, there was a time when getting the tying run on base...I'd feel good about that.

You get only 27 outs...it doesn't make sense to give away 3 outs on the basepaths.