Friend of Nordhagen

QUOTE (MnSoxFan @ Jul 14, 2015 -> 07:35 AM) But, but, but... KW went and saw him in person and praised his swing. So we have that!!! Did he play football? Because that would've been important, too.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 03:12 PM) It took some real skill, some real determination to lose this ballgame. You have to be impressed by this one. They stared a win straight in the face and said "We will NOT." The commitment was total, the result inspiring. These are the 2015 White Sox. Bow before them.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 18, 2015 -> 08:28 PM) If Schwarber dropped a lot of weight, you could imagine him playing LF (right is much tricker in Wrigley) as long as they had plus defenders in CF and RF...but it's a bit of a stretch. Then again, if you've watched guys like Lonnie Smith, Pete Incaviglia and Kevin Reimer play LF, anything is possible. Good points, Caulfield, but that's right: he'd have to lose some weight, or they'd have to carry him out there. Could happen, I guess, but it also becomes a bit of a liability then. Maybe if Almora figures it out for CF, they could partially compensate.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 18, 2015 -> 08:30 PM) Lol. so basically, one of (if not the best) hitting prospects in baseball can only be traded to the al or for pitching because he has nothing but DH in his future? #stopIT. #GoodTimesWithYou

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 18, 2015 -> 08:16 PM) No, you're pigeonholing Kyle Schwarber because he's a Cub. If he were a Cardinal you wouldn't be doing that. I can't believe grown men can't leave emotion out of their sports fandom. What? Jeez, dude, you must have me confused with someone else. Maybe you should leave emotion out of YOUR sports fandom. I'm looking at the Cubs situation, just like everyone in baseball (including the Cubs) looks at the Cubs' situation. He's pretty much not an outfielder; they have Rizzo (you like HIM, right?) at first. So Schwarber's going to catch, displace Rizzo, or perhaps be trade bait. That's it. This is not a surprise. If you've followed the Cubs like you claim you have, then you know that Theo's whole plan is to gather as many hitters as possible (the most valuable commodity in baseball today) and then sort it out later. Some will make it, some won't, some will be traded for pitching. Or did you miss the part where they traded for Addison Russell even though they already had Starlin Castro and Javy Baez?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 18, 2015 -> 08:02 PM) So I guess he can't play MLB then? lol. Stop. a sustained run of excellence is approaching. Uh, I didn't say anything about the Cubs upcoming "sustained run of excellence." I said that Kyle Schwarber is a helluva hitting prospect who may not be able to play a position -- which is exactly the scouting report on him a year ago. That means he can be an absolutely devastating DH, which means, at the least, he has immense trade value for half the teams in baseball. He MAY be able to catch at some point, but even the Cubs know that he can't right now. Reading. A skill.

Kyle Schwarber . . . home run. Looks good up there, really good. Also, not a chance he can stick in the outfield, competently. So, if he can't play catcher (and he can't yet), he's strictly a DH. They don't have those in the National League. So this will be interesting.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 17, 2015 -> 10:18 PM) Schwarber, Bryant and Russell combined tonight: 16 AB, 6 runs scored, 8 hits, triple (Schwarber), two homers (Bryant, grand slam and Russell), 9 RBI's That's one entire week for the White Sox. And that's without getting much of anything from Soler in the last month or so (now on the DL). "Soler on the DL" has been a common occurrence at every stop. Those other fellas are pretty good, though.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 15, 2015 -> 08:57 PM) Cubs calling up Schwarber The "Pump Up Schwarber Trade Value" tour has begun. He's only here to DH, then going back down to Triple A -- because he has no position.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 03:01 PM) Or how about this....this morning around 8:30am, on the Score's update segment, they played a radio clip of Kris Bryant's amazing RBI single. Then, they get to the Sox game, and not a single audio highlight from the team's flagship station. Just seemed like another example of the hype that's taken over Chicago. The Cubs are in the CBS family now, so the hype train must be driven by the 24-hour CBS sportstalker. That's why Maddon's on the Score once a week, and why Len Kasper is a Cubbie plague on every show on the station.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 21, 2015 -> 12:02 PM) Just saw this elsewhere, but kinda funny to see the Cubs lineup 3 years ago today: Cubs lineup, April 21, 2012: C: Clevenger 1B: LaHair 2B: Barney SS: Castro 3B: Stewart LF: DeWitt CF: Mather RF: DeJesus SP: Maholm It's amazing what a few smart moves -- and purposely throwing games for 3 straight years -- can do for a team.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 02:29 PM) What was Maddon ejected for? For being slurped by the Chicago media because he "drinks wine" and "rides his bicycle" and "wears fun glasses" and "has never won a World Series." I only made up one of those.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2015 -> 10:08 AM) Len Kasper ‏@LenKasper 30m30 minutes ago Theo said if not for inj's at 3B (Olt/La Stella), would have waited to bring up Bryant. Prefers to do it on road. MLB needs trumped all. "MLB needs trumped all." Uh-huh, Len. If Theo says it, it must be true. Because Theo also said Bryant was sent to AAA, in the first place, for "baseball reasons." Yet here he is, just 2 weeks later, batting cleanup for the big league team in his FIRST GAME. Boy, those AAA coaches sure must be great. Kasper's a complete Theo/Jed fanboy hack. Boring.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 10:23 AM) I need context. His glasses. His glasses are the context.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2014 -> 09:36 AM) No, he is loyal to Theo and Jed, and everyone wants to play for Maddon. The extra $20 million and possible 7th year at $15 million is just a coincidence. I'm super-excited to hear Len Kasper put it all into perspective for me, all while reminding me of how he plays in a band and is super-hip.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 31, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) That's exactly what he came from in Tampa. He wasn't the lead dog there, he wasn't ordering all those shifts and what not on his own. Epstein is more probably more of a dictator than Freidman was, but it's not that different than in Tampa. Yep, I know that. Friedman hired Maddon, though; don't think that didn't establish and affect their relationship. Now, though, Maddon's a star, a celebrity -- and it wasn't Theo Epstein who gave him his start. Very different dynamic.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Oct 31, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) Baez didn't play well when he got to Chicago but he'd shown enough at Iowa to earn the callup. Don't look at this in hindsight. I'm not looking at it in hindsight. It wasn't just the strikeouts. He had been hitting below .200 in AAA into late June. You'd think for being so statistics-savvy, the Cubs braintrust might've considered the small sample size of his success (1 month) at that level. Even they said they were promoting him as a "reward" for his hard work and recent success.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Oct 31, 2014 -> 09:51 AM) How was bringing up Soler and Baez done for marketing? Sure it may give an attendance boost but those guys were ready to come up. Soler, yes. Baez, no.

Maddon's great. But I have a few observations, and potential pitfalls, regarding his hiring: (1) Two weeks ago, Renteria was swell because of the progress made by Castro and Rizzo. Why mess with that? (2) If we've learned one thing from the dominance of sabermetrics, it's that the front office guys run things, all the way down to the field. (Ask Art Howe and even Terry Francona about that.) Maddon is a lot of things, but one thing he is not is a shrinking violet. I'll be curious to see how it works out with Epstein and Hoyer. (3) There seems to be some groundswell that Joe's presence will lure free agents. But if the reason for Maddon's reputation was his ability to handle YOUNG players, how do we know he can actually handle a team with those veterans? In fact, the best Rays veterans were lost because of budget (Shields, Crawford).

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 13, 2014 -> 11:40 AM) I found both WSI and this board in 2003 but when I first started posting I was mostly on WSI. But between the Mods just being complete assholes there, the minor league coverage here and just the people in general, I switched over here and completely stopped posting there within the year. Same experience here. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned Daver. I'd forgotten that guy. Good Lord, what a pud.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 3, 2014 -> 11:01 PM) Fine, then there are still arguments to be made that Russell OR Schwarber (especially the former) might end up being better players than Baez or Soler. It's hard to argue against Bryant RIGHT NOW, but it's not simply three players in the discussion, it's at least 4 and possibly 5 (although Schwarber probably can't be in that conversation unless he can catch, as opposed to playing 1B/LF/RF). Who knows? At present, I'd guess that Schwarber will be an OBP machine but ultimately have no position; Almora will be a steady player, whose offensive shortcomings will have to be made up for by his defense (and other players). Russell, Soler and Bryant all have very high potential -- very impressed with their numbers and consistency. But Baez being discussed as Mark Reynolds, already, should tell us a lot.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 3, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) Did anyone believe Alcantara would have more homers than Baez? That's been a surprise, although overall his offensive numbers indicate more or less a slightly below average MLB CFer...and he's doing on the job training defensively. Of course, Soler's the new "golden child" of the moment and Baez has been kind of been forgotten about, but his season, were it not for September...is to the point where you'd have to consider sending him back down or shutting him down if that was an option. So he has no choice but to struggle and try to battle his way out of it, which the Cubs ultimately believe he'll be able to do. While all the while, if he continues to struggle, we'll hear more and more how he was a Hendry guy. Funny how we didn't hear that when he was being hyped a month ago.

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 02:04 PM) I'm going to mow the lawn ... As White Sox slogans go, this beats "The Kids Can Play"

DRAFT. PICK.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 01:53 PM) I am sick of Viciedo. He makes up for the D with his high OBP, impressive slugging average and blazing speed on the bases.