scenario

QUOTE (TLAK @ Apr 14, 2008 -> 08:59 PM) I appreciate your thoughts. But I think the White Sox could have used an Owens type tonight. Put Swisher's on base at bats down the order and perhaps some chaos from Owens in front of Cabrera and they might have scored a couple runs. Its hard to win with a station to station team unless they bash, they only have one way to win right now. One of the criticisms of Swisher in Oakland was his inability to hit with guys on base. In fact, his career BA RISP = .220. So, his best value to the Sox is probably at leadoff, where he can play to his strength... getting on-base via walks. (He was one of the leaders in the AL last year in walks.)

Nice closer outing for Jon Link at Birmingham. 1 inning... 3 up... 3 K's... I think he might be worth starting to pay attention to. He did a nice job for us last year after we acquired him (from San Diego for Mackowiak). And this year, 4 saves, 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, in 6 games... with a 1.59 ERA. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...&pid=456899

QUOTE (TLAK @ Apr 14, 2008 -> 06:03 PM) If Jerry Owens could maintain the level of play he had in the 2nd half last year he would contribute more wins than Quentin. He has raw speed + base stealing moxie, can run down balls in the OF and is a pain in the butt to pitch against. When the dog days come around the White Sox are going to need what he brings. I like Quentin and Anderson but neither can do what Owens can do. They can do other things better but unless Ramirez were to gain some traction Owen's is the only long term lead off option they have. A real lead off hitter will make Cabrera better and Swisher belongs between Konerko and Dye anyway. That said, until they are sure that Owens is going to play like late last year, there is no sense in shaking things up. Owens will have to get on a roll in Charlotte, and he will need to prove he can play at a high level for a couple weeks in a row, to get brought up. But an Owens who is going good, is a very good option for the White Sox. I sure hope Ozzie and Kenny are not listening. I couldn't disagree with you stronger. Swisher is a MUCHHHHH better on-base option than Owens, which makes him a better leadoff option. Not even comparable. Not even a pony race. There is NO research that suggests having a speed guy at the top of the order contributes to wins. NONE. In fact, almost all of the baseball research over the last 20 years suggests the opposite... that most steal attempts are a waste of time that create outs and take runs off the board. Promoting Owens over Quentin would be a baaaad mistake. Quentin is simply a much more talented player. Not sure how anyone could want Owens over Quentin. If you want to promote Owens over Brian, I could live with that. But, frankly, it's a toss-up between those two with Brian being the better defensive option.

Article on Henry from the Victoria BC Times... right after he was drafted in June 2007. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonis...4d65a0a&p=1

W L ERA G SV IP H R ER HR BB SO GO/AO AVG 3 2 1.88 18 8 24 15 6 5 01 09 22 9.60 .185 Nice season when your closer has a 9.6 groundball to flyball ratio.

Full Name: Thomas Henry Mabee Born: July 10, 1985 Birthplace: Surrey, BC Height: 6-4 Weight: 230 Bats: Right Throws: Right College: Morehead State University Selected by Chicago White Sox in 19th Round (599th overall) of 2007 draft http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/M/Henry-Mabee.shtml Mabee was the closer for Great Falls in 2007 and was considered one of the best relievers in the Pioneer League. CLOSED DUE TO RELEASE

Winston-Salem scored a run in the first inning, without getting a hit, or without the pitcher giving up a walk. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...wswafa_myrafa_1 Don't see that happen every day. Since the opposing pitcher has only given up one-hit all year, it's a good thing we can manufacture runs out of thin air when we have to.

Here's a link to an article about him with text below... Retherford's roles help ASU By Mark Armijo The Arizona Republic May. 31, 2006 12:00 AM Is there a position on the diamond that Arizona State University junior C.J. Retherford can't play? Retherford has played third base, second base, catcher and pitcher this season. He played some outfield at South Mountain Community College and was shortstop for one season at Hamilton High. About all that remains for Retherford is to attempt to play every position in a single game. "We've actually joked about doing that," Retherford said. What isn't a joke is how ASU coach Pat Murphy views Retherford's contributions. Although 10 teammates have a higher batting average than Retherford and only two have committed more errors, Retherford has been indispensable, Murphy said as the Sun Devils open NCAA tournament play in Houston against Baylor on Friday. "He's just a winning player. He can help you in so many different ways. "He's a ball rat and I think he's going to be playing baseball for a long time." Retherford was a standout pitcher at Hamilton, going 21-2 his final two seasons, and was the winner in the Class 5A championship game. But Retherford also could hit, which is why Hamilton coach Mike Woods played him at third base and shortstop when he wasn't pitching. Retherford was a two-way player at South Mountain, where he hit .329 in two seasons and was 15-7 on the mound with a 3.14 ERA. At ASU, he hit .287 during the regular season. However, Retherford has made only two pitching appearances. "I'll do whatever (ASU) asks me to do," Retherford said. "If they want me to pitch, I'll pitch. If not, I won't. I have no problem with that. I kind of got off to a shaky start this season, but I kind of like playing a lot of different positions. It gives you more opportunities to play." Murphy asked him to fill in as a backup catcher and now believes it's Retherford's future in baseball. "We may lose him in the (draft next week), but if we don't, we've got a big role for him next year. I'm just very thankful we have someone like him on this team." And Retherford is thankful for the opportunity. "It's a whole other game in the Pac-10 and I think I should have hit a little better," Retherford said. "But it's my first year up here and I guess I'm not too disappointed." Neither is Murphy.

Chris J. Retherford Birthdate: August 14, 1985 Height: 5'11" Weight: 190 lbs. Bats/Throws: Right/Right Signed as a free agent*, during the week of June 23rd, 2007 Played at Arizona State University *We also signed his teammate Joe Persichina as a free agent. Here are notes I found about Retherford from various sites including the Arizona State baseball website. College World Series - June 16, 2007: Arizona State third baseman C.J. Retherford hit his fourth home run of the season in Saturday's win over UC Irvine. All four homers have come in the postseason. "I think I'm just seeing the ball better," Retherford explained ASU coach Pat Murphy interrupted, telling Retherford to go ahead and blame Murphy for not playing him enough this season. Retherford started just seven games this season. "I'm saying that we saved him as a secret weapon all year," said Murphy. 2006 (Junior): A versatile utility player who saw action at five positions...appeared in 49 games, starting 34 of them...hit .305 (40-131) with 29 RBI and 27 runs scored...hit three homers, two of which came against Arizona on 5/2...pitched in three games, recording one save...turned a rare feat on 6/3 against Prairie View A&M in the NCAA Tournament, catching and pitching in the same inning (7th). Junior College: Played two years at South Mountain Community College for head coach Todd Eastin... helped lead the Cougars to the 2005 JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colo... was a two-way player throughout his junior college career... combined to hit .329 (126-for-383) with 22 doubles, five triples, four home runs and 58 RBI in his two years at SMCC... on the mound was 15-7 with one save and combined for a 3.14 ERA... recorded 148 strikeouts in 186.0 innings... as a sophomore in 2005, hit .341 (75-for-220) with 11 doubles and 31 RBI... named to the All-ACCAC first-team as a utility player and also earned NJCAA All-Region I honors... named the MVP of the Region I Tournament to help SMCC clinch a spot in the JUCO World Series... ranked among the league leaders in batting average... as a freshman in 2004, hit .341 (51-for-163) with 41 runs, 11 doubles, four triples, two home runs, 12 stolen bases and 27 RBI in 58 games... on the mound went 7-3 with a 2.25 ERA... struck out 75 and walked only 20 in 92.0 innings... named second-team All-ACCAC and All-Region I second-team... ranked ninth in the ACCAC in ERA... played summer baseball for Subia in the 2004 Connie Mack World Series and was named to the all-tournament team. High School: A 2003 graduate of Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz... earned three varsity letters under head coach Mike Woods... team captain his junior and senior season... as a senior hit .325 with six home runs and was 10-1 on the mound... helped lead Hamilton to the 5A state championship in 2003... was the winning pitcher against Horizon in the state championship game, beating current teammate Matt Trink... was a first-team All-State selection by the Arizona Republic... named to the All-Tribune (East Valley Tribune) team his junior and senior seasons... two-time 5A all-state selection by the AZBCA... hit .320 as a junior with two home runs and was 11-1 on the mound with 99 strikeouts in 93.0 innings pitched.

Charlie Haeger has pitched much better than his ERA suggests. He's only had one bad inning, I think, in his two starts. So far, on the season, he has 12K's and only 3 BB's in 14 innings. I hope his improved control continues. That will be critical for him if he's going to make it and stick at the big league level. (Historically, his K/BB is about 1.5, and a BB/9 > 4.00, which isn't going to cut it. Difficult to see him achieving league average ERA or lower with those ratios.) Edit: Turned out that Ohka pitched tonight, not Haeger.

Check out the stat line on Tommy Hanson, the pitcher Winston-Salem is going up against tonight. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...&pid=462102 In two starts this season, he has given up ONE HIT. Has 20 strikeouts vs. 3 walks in 11 innings pitched. Yikes. Another good looking young pitcher in the Atlanta system.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 14, 2008 -> 04:37 PM) Not to say that Alexei wouldn't benefit more from playing against live pitching everyday- he most definitely would- but as Scenario mentioned, working on hitting major league breaking balls is not the only thing Alexei is trying to learn. Perhaps when he becomes more comfortable in this country and with the language, he will be more apt to learn more getting regular ab's in AAA. Yeah, what really got me thinking about it was the recent article Scott Merkin wrote about Contreras learning English. http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=cws Very interesting article. The challenge of working in a country where you don't speak the native language... that is very different where you came from (like Cuba)... in a highly demanding, competitive, and public job... wow. Stacks the odds against a player being successful. Not something alot of fans think about, I would guess. I didn't really before reading it.

There might be some advantage to sending Ramirez down to Charlotte to get him more playing time, but I think they'll keep him around. Reason? I think the club is more concerned about his adjustment to the US than they are about him getting at-bats against AAA pitchers. The Sox major league coaches + Contreras provide a much better transition team for a non-English speaking player... especially one making such a huge cultural change.

Another great outing by Charlie Shirek today. 6 1/3 innings; 4 hits; 1 unearned run; 5 strikeouts; no walks. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...hicafx_kanafx_1 Glad to see Kanny came back late in the game so he didn't get tagged with a loss. On the season so far (3 starts), Shirek has a 0.54 ERA... given up 1 earned run in 16 2/3 innings.

QUOTE (BlackBetsy @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 08:50 PM) You mean you haven't accepted Kent Gerst as you personal savior yet? :unsure: LOL. No, I'm not ready to sign up for the Church of Gerst yet. Hard to get too excited about a guy who hasn't broken .700 OPS in rookie ball yet. Stats may not be everything. But the lack of stats is something. However, if he's as toolsy as some people have suggested, and just needs a little more time to develop, then good for us. It will be interesting to see how he does this year at Great Falls.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 13, 2008 -> 10:31 AM) I just noticed that Wes Whisler is having a surprisingly good start for Charlotte. He just hadn't looked good the last couple years, and some of us were saying maybe they should put him back in the field again. But this is nice to see. Keep it up, Wes! I still think he has a better chance making MLB as an outfielder than he does a pitcher. He put up some stud like numbers offensively in college. But he has never been more than a mediocre pitcher. Makes me wonder why they want him to pitch. Is there that much of a premium on lefties? Offensively he might have a chance to be better than mediocre. 6'5" guy with good power and good OBP. They don't exactly grow on trees. Mediocre pitchers do.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 09:32 PM) Donny Lucy batting .400. And Toby Hall is better. HAHA. In 4 years in the minors, Lucy averages a .257 BA with a .680 OPS. In 7 years in the minors, Toby Hall averaged .310 BA with an .817 OPS. Hall's major league numbers (.262 BA and .674 OPS) are similar to Lucy's minor league numbers.

Charlotte about to nail down a victory... http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...colaaa_chraaa_1 Fields, Bourgeois, and Lucy all with multi-hit games. Owens started in CF tonight.

Winston-Salem lost 10-4... http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...salafa_wswafa_1

Well... JLowe got LIT up tonight. Gave up 7 runs in 3 1/3 innings of a 14-1 Kannapolis loss. On the bright side, Logan Johnson got two more hits and raised his average to .462

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 04:43 PM) Good call on Jose Martinez, I didn't know he was at Kanny. I don't see Inouye being much, but, who knows. And I guess I didn't see a lot of pitching talent, but, if its there, great. I wasn't really seeing it. As for Charlotte, I guess it all comes down to your definition of "prospect". I think that squad has 8 or 10 guys who are likely to see significant major league time in their careers. But if you dismiss Fields, Bourgeois, Getz and Lucy, then yeah - its a much thinner roster. Well, I'll happily stand corrected - I'll have to keep my eye on Kanny and see who blossoms. Hopefully some of those guys can prove me wrong. W-S is the team I am most interested in watching. I'm not really meaning to bash Bourgeois, Getz, and Lucy. I just don't see them turning out to be MLB starters, much less stars. I hope I'm wrong. W-S is definitely the team I'm most interested in watching... probably because of Poreda and Miranda. I'm also really interested in watching the progress of CJ Retherford. The kid is a classic bat-rat... was a two-way player (pitched and played a position when not pitching) on a team that won a JUCO world series. Pitched, played catcher, 3B, and shortstop at Arizona State. Actually pitched and caught in the same inning of a game once. LOL. Hurt his senior year or definitely would have been drafted. I've got a feeling we may have picked up a diamond in the rough with him. Offensively, he was 'the star' at Great Falls last year on a great hitting team. He not only lead the team in OPS (over 1.000). He broke the all-time Pioneer League record for doubles in one year. I listened to alot of the GF games on radio last year, and he was incredibly clutch. Seemed like he always came up with the big hit. I figured he would be at Kanny this year, but the Sox bumped him directly to W-S, so I figured the they must see something in him. Maybe he won't turn out to be anything special... but... I think it's definitely worth watching his progress. Sort of a classic 'underdog does good' type story. Here's a few notes I put together after doing some research on him last year (link).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) Hickory @ Kanny, 7:05pm EDT, J. Lowe (who?) goes for the Intimidators Johnnie Lowe, the Sox 6th round pick in '07, was tabbed by Baseball America as having the Best Fastball in the White Sox 2007 draft class (including Leroy Hunt and Aaron Poreda).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 02:27 PM) I wouldn't dispute much if you said they were deeper in talent than B-Ham, maybe - that's close. But I think Charlotte has far more relative talent, especially with guys like Fields, Wassermann, Egbert (DL), Broadway, Lucy, Getz and Bourgeois down there. I didn't count Fields, because's not really a prospect at this point. He's simply in baseball purgatory due to the Crede situation. I don't view Bourgeois as a serious prospect. Ditto for Getz, who is a nice player, but likely to be a utility guy at the major league level. I don't think Lucy will ever hit well enough to be more than a major league backup. Other than Fields, I think the most serious prospect in Charlotte is Richar. So where is the real 'talent' at Charlotte? Egbert, Broadway, and Wasserman. If you throw in Fields and Richar, then yeah, I would put Charlotte in front of them, but not by much. I think the pitching staff at Kanny is very good. Probably deeper and as good in terms of talent (although further behind in development of course) as any in our system. I believe that Christian Marerro and Jose Martinez will turn into serious position prospects. Matt Inouye had a .900 OPS season in GF last year and looks to be a solid catching prospect. (The Sox thought enough of him to send him to winter ball.) And a couple of the others have potential to be utility types and not just org-guys. I guess the way I looked at it is: (a) pitching is favorably comparable to any of the others; and ('b) there are a couple of reasonably serious position candidates, which most of the others, except for W-S, seem to be lacking. That's why I consider them near the top rather than near the bottom.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2008 -> 10:37 AM) And when I say Kanny is the weakest, I don't just mean in terms of team record. I mean that it seems to me they are the most lacking in prospective talent. I don't agree with Kanny being the weakest. Not at all. In fact, I think it's the second strongest group... right behind W-S.

Another good start for Broadway: 7 innings; 5 hits; 4 strikeouts; 3 walks; 1 run Josh Fields looks like he woke up: 4 for 4 including a homerun so far tonight. Game still in progress... Knights up 2-1 in the 8th.