balfanman

Wow, I definitely have lost any respect for Fox Sports after this. I may be bias, but how could the Sox lose 4 spots in the rankings after a series in Texas where they played the defending champs that tough? http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/powerRankings Behind Cleveland and the Royals by that much and only 2 spots ahead of the Cubs is a little ridicules in my book. I don't expect them to be ranked in the top 10, but come on.

But that's just the point that HickoryHuskers was making. It's just a catcher or 2 or 3 on either end of the spectrum that really affect that stat one way or the other, a minority. Other than Buehrle, the Sox pitchers over the years have done a very poor job of helping him out at all.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 07:22 PM) Black with his 2nd homer, hitting the ball well early. The kid has not had a homerless game since I took him as my sleeper pick and AAP. Coincidence, I think not!

I would have to think that having the name Castro had to have been, at the very least, a small part of making this deal. As someone else has mentioned, this could come back and make K. W. look very petty if word got out that this was true, especially if it was the main reason. I think it is much more likely that a deal for another infielder as a back up in the minors was already talked about, especially after, was it Martinez, had 4 errors in one game recently. It could be that they already had Castro in mind before all of this broke loose and Kenny decided that this would be the perfect day to consumate this deal. Maybe they had a few minor league infielders in mind, trying to decide which one to pull the trigger on, and having the name Castro made up K. W.'s mind as just an added bonus in making the deal without it even being on his mind originally.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 03:19 PM) Happy flight? http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1803 I love it!

All Aboard!....for the "happy flight" back to Chicago.

I'm not so sure it's the "putting all the bench players in" lineups that bothers me so much. I like to see them all play at times, and they should all be major league quality or what are they doing here in the first place. What bothered me more was the "well we've already won the series anyway so let's give a half hearted effort for the series finale" attitude that seemed to be prevalent. Especially when those lineups made no statistical sense for the most part. How many times did Ozzie rest the guy who was hot instead of the guy who was slumping. Or resting the guy who had a good history against a certain pitcher in favor of a guy who was 0 fer.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 01:15 PM) How about the suggestion that Robin was just having fun with the lineup yesterday since he knew it would get postponed? I thought of that earlier too. Would Robin do something like that?

Manto for Dictator!....oops, President!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,5909253.story Not sure if I posted the link correctly, if not, mods could you please correct this. In this Tribune story it talks about how Robin Ventura sees winning the last game of a series as important. He states that because the whole team spends time together on the flight home, the winning of the "Get away" games helps to build team comradery and a winning atmosphere. The article also talks about how it helped the Cardinals when they won. I must say that I would agree with this and it is one of the many things that I despised about Ozzies "leadership".

Let's hope that this is not another one of those "score runs in the 1st & take the rest of the game off" days for our offense.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 11, 2012 -> 07:21 AM) How about he wakes up and the White Sox are on tv! How can one complain about that? That's what I was thinking. Is there a problem there?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 08:24 PM) 4/4, HR, SB for Dan Black. All right! Here's hoping that me taking him as a sleeper prospect & AAP skyrockets his career. Paulie....watch out!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 08:45 AM) When a guy is a top 10 in the MVP voting level player but never reaches the #1 MVP, best player in the league for a year or two level, he has a shot at the HOF, but he needs the career milestones to do it. 3000 hits or 500 HR or something like that. Guys like Biggio, Michael Young, etc. I'm not sure what he has, but wouldn't 2 - 3 more decent seasons put him near 500 homers?

QUOTE (tonyho7476 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 08:23 AM) I agree, but his ability to throw out runners is pathetic. He has been somewhat better this season though and I understand that the pitchers have been working on helping both A. J. and Tyler out in that department. At working on it moreso than in past seasons, anyway.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 08:32 AM) He's top five in almost every category in our franchise, Yet he's still not considered a Hall of Famer. Speaks a lot about our franchise. True, but if, IF, he is able to produce for the 2 - 3 more seasons, then I would think that he would be almost a shoe in for the HOF. Not first ballot mind you, but he would get in. Again, JMHO. Interesting discussion though.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 07:46 AM) Rios is an important part of this team. As much as most of you guys can't tolerate him, he's owed a lot of money over the course of the next 3 years. It's in our best interests to bring him back around to at least mediocrity somehow. By all accounts he's been working very hard to try and get his career back on track. This is not the time to send a message and make him pout for the next two months. As much as it might suck to have to deal with a fragile ego, or whatever you want to call it, our success in large part depends on him making some key contributions to this team for the next few years. As someone else stated, Alex is by all accounts trying. While it may appear to us differently, I really don't think that Alex is a lazy ballplayer. Struggleing, yes; fragile ego, maybe; doesn't always say the right thing, yes there too. But I don't believe he is lazy. All other aspects of his game seem to have improved this year with the work he has put in. I would think that among the worst things you could do at this point of the season is to send a message like benching him in the middle of a game. Now if he reverts back to old habits, that may be a different story. JMHO

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 07:43 AM) Paulie's Sox career ranks: Games: 4th with 1920 (Appling 2422) Runs: 5th with 1020 (Thomas 1327) Hits: 5th with 1983 (Appling 2749) Doubles: 3rd with 362 (Thomas 447) Homers: 2nd with 389 (Thomas 448) RBI: 2nd with 1235 (Thomas 1465) Strikeouts: 2nd with 1143 (Thomas 1165) Total Bases: 3rd wtih 3528 (Thomas 3949) Extra-base Hits: 2nd with 758 (Thomas 906) GIDP: 1st wtih 236 So he is within reach of most of these with 2 - 3 decent seasons. He is almost a perfect example of the race between the tortoise and the hare (not a comment on his speed), he has been, with a few exceptions in his career, about as consistant as you can get for a slugger.

I know A. J. has his faults, and there's always going to a few catchers in the league that overall you'd rather have than A.J.; but since 2005 when he arrived we sure could of done a lot worse in the catching department. I'll take him!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 06:22 AM) Yes, Frank Thomas. 3,949. So Paulie has a shot to catch him with 2 -3 decent seasons then.

Over the offseason, team president David Samson made a run at the "Cuban Missile," rookie slugger Yoenis Cespedes, vowing to be "aggressive right to the point of stupidity." I'm more upset that they're trying to steal Alexi's nickname than anything else in that story.

Konerko, meanwhile, had two hits and moved into a tie with Luke Appling for second place in franchise history with 3,528 total bases. Noticed this line in a Tribune article this morning. Does anyone know who is #1 and can Paulie catch him? Is it Big Frank?

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 05:11 AM) Aside from the one-too-many fastball last night, Santiago looks good. He looks confident on the mound. He's got some good velocity on his fastball, and that screwball can be pretty nasty. But isn't the "one too many fastballs" issue more on Pierzynski than Santiago? A.J. is the veteran signal caller here.

In a park that leans towards helping pitching, the Intimidators' offense did fine. It all started with Dan Black. The 24-year-old led the league with 41 doubles and 98 RBI. He's probably just organizational filler, but the Purdue product was extremely valuable. This was a blurb in Future Sox sumarizing the teams 2011 season. He seems to have been somewhat of a doubles machine in a pitchers park. I'm not familiar with the ballpark, but maybe if he ever played at a homer haven like the cell some of those would be home runs. Between college and the minors, he has a knack for leading his team in that category. He also seems to have a decent idea of the strike zone and is willing to take a walk. Who knows, with the right situation he may someday be a complimentary player on Major League team. Here's hoping that he keeps improving.

I had forgotten that Dan was originally drafted as a catcher out of Purdue University, however he was quickly moved to 1st base. That probably tells us that if he's going to reach the big leagues, he'll have to hit his way there. Dan Black 40 | 1BStatus: ActiveWinston-Salem Dash Class A Advanced Carolina LeagueMLB Parent Club: Chi White Sox PlayerFull Name: Daniel David Black Born: 07/02/1987 Birthplace: Carmel, IN College: Purdue Height: 6' 5" Weight: 240 Bats: S Throws: R 2005-Present: Year Team League AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS 2009 BRS APP .333 3 12 1 4 0 0 0 1 4 0 2 0 0 .333 .333 .667 2009 KAN SAL .209 57 196 25 41 7 2 1 17 55 31 49 1 1 .336 .281 .617 2009 Minors .216 60 208 26 45 7 2 1 18 59 31 51 1 1 .336 .284 .620 2010 BRS APP .288 57 208 23 60 15 2 6 33 97 23 47 1 0 .364 .466 .831 2010 Minors .288 57 208 23 60 15 2 6 33 97 23 47 1 0 .364 .466 .831 2011 KAN SAL .286 135 510 82 146 41 6 18 98 253 50 109 7 5 .354 .496 .850 2011 Minors .286 135 510 82 146 41 6 18 98 253 50 109 7 5 .354 .496 .850 2012 WS CAR .091 3 11 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 .286 .091 .377 2012 Minors .091 3 11 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 .286 .091 .377 Biography: Selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 14th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft out of Purdue University ... led the Boilermakers in home runs in 2009 (15) and 2008 (18) ... tied the Big Ten Championship record with three home runs in a single game and set a championship record with five homers in four games in 2008. Awards/Honors: 12/22/2011 MiLB.com Organization All-Star 08/30/2011 SAL Post-Season All-Star