CWSOX45

QUOTE (AWhiteSoxinNJ @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 02:06 PM) Why? There's still another month. I've been saying this for the past 48 hours. It was simple, we either give up Viciedo to get Dunn or Manny, or we wait to claim someone through waivers. I'll take the waiver route, and for all the people complaining about trading Hudson, they should be glad that Kenny didn't pull the trigger and give up Viciedo.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 11:58 AM) I'm not giving KW credit for being interesting and making things fun. You gotta get s*** done. And it's looking more and more like the only upgrade is a guy with an ERA over 5 and just overall mediocre pitcher. Relax. If he doesn't get anything done by 4 PM, he still has the entire month of August to get something done. Trust me, nearly every player in the Major Leagues is put through trade waivers, so he'll have plenty of opportunities to try and strike a deal.

Excellent job of hitting by Beckham.

I like what I see from Mr. Harrell tonight, fastball has good movement and cut action against righties. CH/SL looked pretty good too tonight.

What people also forget is we have the Waiver period as well to pick up an additional arm. Worst case scenario if we don't get another arm is that Harrell has a couple of spot starts.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 08:48 PM) The Angels for years have drafted and signed guys who fell due to signability concerns (ie: J. Weaver) I'm well aware. However they also have a track record of developing talent at the minor league level, not all of their picks were signed "over slot" The Angels and the Twins are two of the most successful organizations in terms of developing talent form their minor league farm system. However in my opinion the Angels made this move because they had 5 of the top 40 picks in this years draft. Pretty easy to stock a farm system when you have those picks.

Alexi Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo were both signed out of Cuba. That works for me. We also didn't have to wait a long time for them to develop, Ramirez was major league ready and Viciedo wasn't far behind..

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 25, 2010 -> 08:20 PM) It's not hard at all to scout/find talent. You just have to be willing to pay for it. It's no surprise that the Angels were easily able to pull off a deal like this, as they always spend in the draft/international market. The Angels develop talent, they find the tools just like everyone else does. How many draft picks did the Angels have in the first couple rounds of this years draft? That's why they were able to make this deal for Haren. It's because they had 5 picks out of the first 40. They had no problem parting with the talent that they did because they knew more was coming in.

I don't post often, but when after reading this thread I thought I'd say a few things: 1. This team is in first place, the goal each and every year is to put ourselves in position to win in October, at this point you can't say that we are not in that position. There is still a week left until the trade deadline. Kenny Williams will do everything in his power to plug the holes for the stretch run. 2. If you want Ozzie and Kenny fired, who would you bring in, and why? If you're calling for their heads I'd like to hear who you think could do a better job with the same amount of resources. People don't realize how difficult it is to scout and find talent. The talent pool is so limited every year, and sometimes it only comes down to who can get to the talent first. International Scouting is completely different, there is literally no regulations in the Dominican, and the level of corruption is beyond description. (Which is why Sandy Alderson with MLB is working so hard to bring change to the region.) By no means am I attacking the original poster, just attacking what he is proposing. If you want to go around calling for people's heads, you better have an idea of who you want to replace them and a reason why they'd be an improvement over what we have now.

I really don't like these type of posts. You guys do realize that there are 10-12 scouts at every pro major league game. Every organization has scouts that are in charge of scouting professional teams and writing reports on each and everyone of the guys that they see. That way if a name ever comes up in a trade discussion the GM will have some idea of what a guy can offer him. Gonzalez is just trying to create something out of nothing.

I've seen Holmberg pitch. I think the kid has a ton of upside. When I saw him he could effectively locate all three of his pitches. He knows how to pitch, and he's extremely aggressive and goes right at guys. Granted his fastball didn't crack above 89 when I saw him, but he did a great job mixing his pitches and keeping guys off balance. All the positive signs you want to see with a young pitcher. As long as he can continue to throw his curve and change for strikes I really think this kid will be higher up on our top prospect list in the future.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Dec 28, 2009 -> 08:48 AM) I am a little confused about this one and wanted to pose this topic on the FutureSox board as a general topic but with specific reference to our farm system. It has been generally concluded that all three of an Hudson, Tyler Flowers, and Jordan Danks our among our top 5 farm prospects. But my confusion lies as to how an external supposedly objective site like "Baseball America" or "Baseball Prospectus" come up with their farm system ranking and ratings. Is it a combination of the overall system and then each individual rating for each prospect? I mean I visit other forums as do the majority of us to occasionally make fantasy trade proposals but lately other posters or knowledgeable people rebut the Sox farm and say neither Hudson or Flowers are 5 star prospects. Hence my question. I used to think if either cracked the BA top 50 then they were automatically 5 star prospects but I guess not. Can someone help me understand, Kenny Hates Prospects maybe? Pay no attention to these "5 Star" rankings that Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America come out with. Most of the time these writers haven't even seen a majority of these players. A lot of the times these writers grill scouts about which guys they've seen and which guys they like, as a result most of these writers just regurgitate scouting reports that they have seen on other websites. Just remember to take everything you see from these so called experts as a grain of salt. One example comes to mind last year, when Jayson Stark came out with an article saying that if Gordon Beckham didn't change his swing, he would never be a good hitter at the Major League level. (This couldn't be further from the truth.) Stark had no idea what he was talking about, he most likely just talked to a lone scout who suggested that Beckham needed to change his swing if he continued to struggle, and as a result Stark spun it so his readers would take a greater interest in his article.

7 Runs in 5 games.....Let heads roll already.

Nick Blackburn would only have 6 k's through 4 innings against us. He's been **** since the all-star break. He came into tonight's game with an 8.22 ERA. I don't know what else to say, but something has to be done. It's probably a combination of our advance scouts, Greg Walker, and the dinosaurs we have in the middle of this line-up. 5 runs in 4 games is unacceptable at any level in baseball. Something needs to be done before the end of the season, possibly before the end of this road trip.

Sergio Mitre working on a one hitter. I've said it before and I've said it again, on most occasions it looks like this team has no plan at the plate. They turn over on sliders and breaking balls, they're all pull happy, they don't work the count on guys that they should, it's the same thing over and over. I'm sure Walker comes up with a game plan, but if the player's don't want to listen then there is no point in having Walker on the payroll. A change is needed.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 6, 2009 -> 04:24 PM) I wonder how accurate those pitch locations/types are. Gameday seems to miss an awful lot of them to me, especially with certain pitchers (i.e. they have a 4 seamer, a 2 seamer, or a cutter that are close in velocity). There's a problem with these stats. Run Values per pitches are given out based on the result of each pitch. For example if a guy strikes out a batter on his change-up, the run value on that change-up is going to be much higher than it would on a normal fastball for a strike. The problem with this method is that those fastballs are undervalued. For example I remember seeing that Tim Lincecum's change-up run value rating was off the chart, but in reality it shouldn't be that high, because the previous fastballs thrown earlier in the count are used to set up that change-up for strikeouts. Basically if not for those fastballs for strikes, Lincecum's change-up wouldn't be nearly as effective. I myself am a fan of Fangraphs and run values, however with all these new age stats, it's important to remember that all of them have flaws, such as UZR, Run values from Fangraphs and others. Just keep that in mind when you read this stuff on the internet.

I'm done. So is this team. Goodnight.

Pathetic. I'm ready for someone to be fired. I don't even care who it is anymore. Maybe the firing of a couple of coaches will wake up this joke of a team.

Seriously the lack of situational hitting is a f***ing joke. Mental Midgets.

Good work fellas. Way to battle. I'm expecting to be 4.5 back after tonight...

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 09:18 PM) agreed, but at this point i wonder what any change is really going to bring. It can't hurt to try at this point. What's the worst that could happen? I'm hoping Ozzie has a tirade. For some reason when that happens they go on a 7 game winning streak, then lose the next 4. At this point I'd take it though.

QUOTE (CWSOX45 @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 09:13 PM) Will Detroit take advantage of us losing AGAIN? Stay tuned. 1-0 on Miggy's double.

Will Detroit take advantage of us losing AGAIN? Stay tuned.

Don't look now, if Minnesota wins tonight they're only one game behind us. What a joke.

QUOTE (nastymasty21 @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 09:03 PM) so our strategy going into this road trip is to hope Detroit loses. That's been the strategy for the last two weeks.