scenario

QUOTE (bighurt4life @ Aug 16, 2008 -> 08:40 PM) Bristol v Princeton Bristol pretty much shut down so far except Silverio has 2 errors to make it an even 21 on the short season Bunky Kateon also went 2-3 to raise his season average to .293. (Sorry... I just like saying his name.)

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 16, 2008 -> 06:44 PM) they got one in Oakland, so that should mean something atleast Amen to that... With Sox wins in Oakland about as common as Haley's Comet sightings, today is cause for celebration.

QUOTE (tommy @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 08:23 PM) GAWN. C-GON

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 08:49 PM) Has Beckham been promoted yet? No... the bum made an out tonight. Stick a fork in him.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 07:09 PM) Great start, but before we get excited look at the ERAs of the pitchers he has faced. And starter Michael Felix did himself no favors today... 6 earned runs in 0.0 innings... That'll screw up the 'ol ERA.

QUOTE (Jimmywins1 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 07:09 PM) Beckham said he was going to play fall ball, don't know if that's what he meant, but he's going to be doing something to make up for the time he lost. Beckham is making up for lost time tonight... Walk, single, and double in his first 3 trips to the plate.

Beckham plate appearances tonight: 1st - walk 2nd - single 3rd - double

Charlotte @ Norfolk Charlie Haeger vs. Ryan Bukvich Birmingham @ Tennessee Cassel vs. Veal Winston-Salem @ Lynchburg Anthony Carter pitching Miranda playing SS. Great game for Carter tonight. Looked like the Kannapolis version tonight. 7 innings; 0 runs on 4 hits; 4 K's; 1 walk. Attaboy AC. Kannapolis @ Hickory Socolovich pitching Beckham batting second and playing SS. The Hickory pitcher walked the first 6 guys he faced and got pulled without getting anyone out. A new pitcher came in and served up a slam to Matt Inouye. 7-0 Kanny in the first inning on one hit. LOL. Great Falls @ Idaho Falls Billeaud pitching Princeton @ Bristol - Game 1 Panigua pitching Princeton @ Bristol - Game 2 TBA

3/4 Irish... 1/4 German So... I like beer and I talk too much.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 12:44 PM) Richard gave up 25 hits in 13 innings, as well as 15 earned runs and 4 walks. Following the Texas outing (a bizarre fluke since his lifetime k/9 ratio in the minors is in the 5's), he only had 4 more strikeouts in 9 innings. Almost everything he threw was hit very hard, and his only legit major league pitch was his fastball. Not sure what what saw of Clayton Richard was impresive, except that it took the Twins a few innings to figure out the crap he throws and that he struck out a lot of Rangers hitters while they lit him up. Hey... Knock yourself out extrapolating his career from cherry picked stats in a small sample size if you want. It doesn't change the fact that he's had a dominant year outside of the instances you've chosen to pick on... Or the fact the WhiteSox apparently have enough confidence in the larger body of work to bring him back up.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 02:07 PM) According to this article, Danks is headed for Kanny. Danks article Excellent. Thanks JPN. Key notes from the article: - $525,000 signing bonus - Joins Kannapolis on Tuesday.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 10:40 AM) I'm not quite sure I get it. Clayton Richard sufficiently proved he is not ready to pitch in the major leagues yet as a starter, and I highly doubt he is in the bullpen either after starting in the minors all year. Broadway might not be very good, but he's now 2 for 2 in having good major league starts, so at least he's shown (unlike Richard) that he can get some major league hitters out. Can't get people out? In his major league debut, Richard struck out 7 Texas players in 4 innings... including striking out Josh Hamilton out 3 times. (Meanwhile, the Sox made 3 errors behind him.) And the Rangers have one of the best offenses in baseball this year. He looked very good the first 4 innings he pitched against the Twins. Faced two players over the minimum, while striking out Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, and Sox-killer Mike Redmond. (Yes he gave up the big inning, but Ozzie leaving him in to face Mauer/Mourneau after he started to struggle was stupid.) But struggled badly in his last outing. (Yes he sucked against the Royals.) Seems like the final impression he made is sticking with people more than the earlier ones. Richard was lights out at two levels in the minors this year... good enough to have him picked to start the Futures Game and be on the Olympic team. Suggesting he "can't get anybody out" after watching him pitch a total of 13 innings in MLB (at least half of which were very good) seems to be overly critical to me.

CF Justin Greene was recently promoted from Bristol to Kanny. Not sure if that has any impact on where Danks will get sent, but thought it was worth noting. Gallagher and Marrero are holding down the corner outfield positions in Kannapolis. Neither of them is going to sit. Me thinks Greene could end up going back to Bristol to make room for Danks, although he was doing very well in Bristol and deserved the promotion.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 08:42 AM) Look at draft picks from all teams in the same period of time. The entire draft is a crapshoot, tons of players never work out for teams. Its not just the Sox, but we are close to the Sox so we see everything as a failure compared to other teams Exactly. And it's particularly true when you don't have any picks in the top 15 players each year. After the top 15 it is REALLY a crap shoot. There just aren't too many slam dunk players in the draft. What is really sad is to look at teams who draft high and screw it up. Anybody who wants to amuse themselves should look at the draft history on www.thebaseballcube.com and just click through the year-by-year draft results. It's pretty interesting. It's got a nice summary so you can see which guys made it to MLB. When you look at some of the picks and think about the guys some teams passed up, it's hard to imagine what some of these GMs were thinking.

QUOTE (Jim Spencer @ Aug 15, 2008 -> 08:18 AM) Egbert is 4-10 with a 4.68 ERA, but he does strike-out alot of guys (105 to just 35 walks). The only other starter, Whistler is 11-8 but has lost his last 3 starts. Maybe Tomo Ohka The numbers, particularly won/loss record, don't tell the whole story... - Egbert had a bad May right after he came off the DL. - He was very good in June/July: 3.18 ERA combined in 10 starts; 63 K's vs. only 13 BB's; 2.32 ERA in July. (He was great in July). - He's gotten lousy run support. Bottom line: he's been pitching pretty well most of the summer and would probably be a good choice for a spot start.

Look at where we were drafting... 1987 - McDowell - #5 overall pick 1988 - Ventura - # 10 1989 - Thomas - #7 1990 - Fernandez - #4 You don't have to be a scouting/drafting genius when you're picking that low every year.

I found this article from Rob Neyer helpful to clear up alot of misunderstandings about options, waivers, and other transaction rules. Rob Neyer's Transactions Primer Here's the section on Options: "Options" After three years as a pro, a player must be protected on a team's 40-man roster, or he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft (more on that later). Once he's served those three years, and assuming he is added to the 40-man roster, his club then has what are called "options" on him. When a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the 25-man Major League roster, he is on "optional assignment." One common misconception about the rules is that a player may only be "optioned out" three times. Actually, each player has three option years, and he can be sent up and down as many times as the club chooses within those three seasons. When you hear that a player is "out of options," that means he's been on the 40-man roster during three different seasons, beginning with his fourth as a pro, and to be sent down again he'll have to clear waivers (more on those below).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 07:50 PM) But who pitches in the next turn in the rotation? Depends if Richard gets used in relief or not. If he does, then they'd probably ship him back to Charlotte and rotate Broadway back up. It only costs a couple of plane tickets. It's smart roster management to shuttle AAA guys back and forth like this when you need them to give the team a fresh available arm.

Makes sense. Since Broadway pitched today, he really doesn't help us for the next 5 days, so why not bring up a pitcher who can. It's basically the same thing they did after Richard's last start. Sent him down and brought up Russell to give us depth in the pen. It's a good strategy in case somebody blows a start out in Oakland and we need a long reliever. Using Richard in that role would save the rest of the pen.

I think the Sox have had Broadway working on pitches... broadening and refining his repertoire. So, it's natural that he may perform better at the MLB level because he won't be experimenting like he was in AAA. He's only going to be throwing his best pitches. He's got absolutely nasty late movement on some of his offspeed stuff.

QUOTE (SadChiSoxFanOptimist @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 10:30 AM) Scouting, selecting and drafting is only one phase of our sad history... Even if we selected and drafted the very best talent available, White Sox development staff has never been effective. Face it, if we had a decent development philosophy and organizational capability, there would have been more "wins" from the hundreds of kids we drafted. For me, this is the hardest part of being a lifelong Sox fan -- the much-heralded rookies aren't ready/don't perform and we have to win trades in order to compete. Anyone know where we rank among MLB teams in Rookie of the Year awards? That's an excellent point. If I was going to point the finger at a flaw in the organization in the last 10-15 years it would be development rather than drafting.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 09:13 AM) I was thinking that about Miranda too, but, two problems there. First, where does he play in W-S? Paiml is at SS (and not playing that well), and I think Persichina is their 2B and is doing pretty well. Seems a bit crowded. Second, Miranda has been playing primarily 2B at Kanny. Escobar, who is struggling, has been the SS. So, assuming Beckham plays SS at Kanny, that probably means its Escobar going elsewhere, not Miranda. I'd just promote Miranda and let the managers figure it out.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 14, 2008 -> 10:06 AM) The last 28 first round selections from the White Sox have a grand total of one all-star apperance and that was Rowand in 2007. As an organization, we have been terrible in assessing top talent or being cheap and signing the less talented player who signs for less. That's the kind of thing that happens to teams that have long records of success. Think about it. Last year was the first season in 20 years that the Sox finished lower than 3rd place. And 14 of the last 20 years the team has finished with a winning (.500 or better) season. Players drafted in the bottom half of the first round are never 'sure' picks. You have to suck once in a while to get an elite draft pick. 2007 was the first year in a looong time where we sucked. So you really can't evaluate our draft success/failure of our late first round picks. We've had quite a few other successful players come up through the system who were not first round picks.

The thing that dragged the Sox minor league system down the last few years has been trades... not drafting. They're "average" in their drafting success... not a disaster. If you doubt it, go to thebaseballcube.com and look at year to year drafting results for all teams. There's a nice feature where you can see the highest level each player drafted achieved. It doesn't take too long to realize the Sox are no different than most teams in draft yield. The vast majority of teams with good minor league systems achieved it by: - Sucking for long periods of time and stockpiling high draft picks - Having free agents walk and stockpiling high draft picks So... bottom line... we had an average system... and it got tapped out by trades.

Some interesting analyses of Richard's potential. Amazing what people can learn by watching a guy pitch his first 13 innings at the major league level. :0 Wow... he didn't throw a no-hitter his first week in the bigs. Stick a fork in him.