scenario

The Sox would have to finish the season at or below .500 to end up in the top 15. That means going 2-11, or worse, in their final 13 games. Possible but highly unlikely.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 19, 2010 -> 09:48 PM) He does? What about me? What... am I wrong? Did you want them to lose?

LOL... comeback all this way and we're going to lose on a 3-base strikeout??? That would pretty much sum up our season.

When considering a 21 year old player's defensive potential, you really can't evaluate him by what you see in the field now. Viciedo has soft hands and a cannon arm. Those are things you can't teach. The rest (most of it anyway) can be learned via coaching and experience. That said, I do not think Viciedo will end up at 3B. His bat is near-ready now, and the Sox won't allow him to 'learn' 3B at the major league level if they have other options. Next year, I picture he'll start the year in Charlotte at 1B, unless he makes the club and rotates between 1B and DH. But I'd rather he get more at-bats in the minors and work on hitting off-speed stuff. Long term... I could see them pulling a Ryan Braun and sticking him in an outfield corner, probably left. Would do much less damage defensively that way and allow them to make use of his best defensive attribute... his arm.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Sep 18, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) I never saw him state that he wanted them to lose. And really, from his comments, he probably could care less if they won or lost. He didn't want them to lose. He just wanted them to hurry up and come to Birmingham.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Sep 17, 2010 -> 12:39 PM) The thing is, the system couldn't get much worse. It's been raided with graduations and trades. It was average to below average to begin with. Throw in another quick riser like Sale and the system just doesn't have the time to recover. I'm not that offended by the talent the Sox are producing. It's actually been ok, but they haven't been in the system at the same time to make the system look good. But the Sox minor league "system" is really a combination of two components: finding players + developing players. Isn't it? So, if you hit a couple of homeruns in finding players who move up quickly, does that mean the "system" sucks because those players are not sitting in the minors developing? Would our "system" actually be better if the players we found/drafted weren't capable of rising up to the majors as fast? And were just guys viewed as having alot of potential while they plodded their way through each level? Sort of an interesting paradox, isn't it?

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Sep 17, 2010 -> 11:12 AM) The Twins like to keep their tools guys down in AA, and let a lot of their middling older prospects play out the year in Rochester. Most of their talent gets a stint in Rochester. Besides, a 49-95 record is just plain horrible. Rochester is usually good for 70-something wins each year. It's also worth noting that their AA-team went 44-98 this year.

Yeah, take away Morel, Viciedo, and Sale and I find it hard not to throw up looking at their roster. (Although I still think Jordan Danks could pan out if he can cut down on strikeouts.) One thing that surprised me this year was how horrible Rochester... the Twins AAA team... was. They had one of THE worst records in all of MiLB... winning almost 20 games less than Charlotte.

I think most levels of our organization will be interesting and competitive next year... except Charlotte.

I think they'll probably give Retherford one more shot and start him at 2B. He was solid at every level up til this year... and had a decent showing in the AFL. Andrew Garcia and Dale Mollenhauer don't appear to be more than organizational filler.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 16, 2010 -> 01:07 PM) Considering that every year only 3 or 4 teams win 95 games, it would be pretty freaking impressive if he could manage this year in and year out. You're not going to be able to accomplish it every year, but why not shoot for it? Just seems too often we go into a season with a roster that, if everything goes as expected, is only an 85 win team. And while "85-games and pray we do better" may seem a reasonable objective for teams that spend less money than we do... it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that we should aim higher. I believe if you go into a season thinking you have to win 95 games to compete, you design a roster differently than you do to win 85 games. IMO, teams that are designed to win 95 games have to be less tolerant of mediocre performance than we've been. For example, a team trying to win 95 games is more likely to go after Adrian Beltre to play 3B than Mark Teahen.... wouldn't have gone into the season with two guys on the downside of their careers as a DH platoon, etc. Yeah, I know there are many discussions/arguments about how and why decisions got made... and how things could have been done differently. But I can't help but think we might have done things differently if we approached the problem as if we "had to" win 95 games to compete.

Dear KW, Next year, please try to put together a roster that looks like it could win 95 games... Rather than your usual approach of putting together a roster designed to win 85 games, and hoping that - you catch lightning in a bottle - some burned out retread reverts back to their glory days - the team plays above expectations, - and/or that other teams (particularly the Twins) under-perform With the amount of payroll you have to work with, this doesn't seem like an unfair request, does it? Regards, S

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Sep 15, 2010 -> 11:38 AM) You can't make this statement using batting average as your barometer. Batting average doesn't doesn't stabalise after 600 AB, let alone 156 AB. It doesn't tell you anything of worth (such as whether a player has made "significant improvement") in that small of a sample size. I know... but when a player has a total of 600 at-bats in his entire professional career, you have to make judgments based on small samples, because that's all we have numbers-wise. Plus, the 1/2 season we're talking about is really the first time he's been healthy for an extended period. No doubt the Sox are basing their evaluation of him at this point based on tools rather than stats. (He didn't get enough at-bats in college to get an idea of his capabilities either.) So, I wouldn't use the numbers we have to set a baseline for future expectations. All I'm suggesting is that given the information we have, his increased success in 150 at-bats over 40 games (the second half of this year) seems a long enough period to justify continuing the experiment, rather than flushing him. And I firmly believe that if his name was Joe Smith, rather than Kenny Williams, fans would cut him infinitely more slack.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 15, 2010 -> 08:52 AM) He managed to get 274 at bats in 74 games this year. That averages out to 3.7 at bats per game. He would've gotten more had he not spent so much time on the DL. The only hope is that he spends a lot of time on the DL, otherwise he will get 500 and hit leadoff all year while sucking big time. I hope he decides to retire, he's taking at bats away from other prospects. I wouldn't put him on your Kyle McCulloch type hate list yet. If he wasn't KW's son, would you really get this irritated about him? He's played less than two full seasons in the minors. He's got athletic genes. And he showed significant improvement in the second half of the season this year... batting .282 after the all-star break. I think it's worth seeming him at the AA-level (and healthy) before we try to force him into retirement.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Sep 14, 2010 -> 10:41 PM) What was it Oney said before the season started? KW Jr. has gotten at bats all year long when there were better options with better averages on the bench. On the other hand, KW Jr. is 4-8 with 2 doubles so far in the series. So, the decision to put him at leadoff may seem curious, but it's hard to argue with the results.

The Dash lost 5-3. They had a 3-2 lead going into the 8th, thanks to an outstanding start by Dylan Axelrod. Then Brandon Kloess gave up 3 runs. Big opportunity missed. Bah. Series tied 1-1. The remaining games are on the road.

Another thought... I enjoy watching and following sports at all levels... not just "major league". If sports was all about who was going to 'make it' at the top professional levels, then why bother watching college football or basketball? The odds of minor league baseball players making it are at least as good as that. The way I look at it... these are sort of like the "WhiteSox College" teams. And I follow them and think about them pretty much the same way I do other college sports.

I love MiLB. And not because it's a feeder system for MLB. The quality of games and competition is generally very good. You get closer to the field and the players. It won't drive you into the poor-house to go. You get to see some players who will make it to the majors, often before anyone except scouts and hardcore fans really know anything about them. One of the best parts, IMO, are the surprises that come as a result of watching players develop... guys who don't look like much... and then the 'light bulb' turns on for them. I think it's exciting and fun. And apparently alot of other people do too. Because attendance at MiLB games has literally exploded over the last 5-10 years.

Dash wins 4-0. Sauer went 8 innings... gave up 5 hits... struck out 6... walked none. We got 12 hits... with KW Jr. leading the hit parade... going 3-4 with a double and a run scored. Loman, Lewis, Martinez, and Garcia got two hits apiece.

Game 1 of the Championship series has started... Potomac @ Winston-Salem Sauer pitching The Dash locked up their berth in the 2010 Mills Cup Championship Series by sweeping the Kinston Indians in the opening round of the playoffs! The Dash now take on the Northern Division Champion Potomac Nationals, beginning at 7 p.m. on Monday at BB&T Ballpark! Winston-Salem will also host Game Two of the series before hitting the road for Games Three, Four and Five (Games Four and Five only if necessary).

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 13, 2010 -> 02:06 PM) I'm not sure if I'm even joking, but can someone list the 2001 All-star roster? Probably a better idea of the type of player KW/Ozzie will target. LOL. Probably not far off. Just for fun... here are some of the guys from that game that are still playing... (alot more than I expected actually) Ivan Rodriguez Maggs Jorge Posada Troy Glaus Freddy Garcia Ichiro Manny Arod Jeter Billy Wagner Ben Sheets Chipper Jones Albert Pujols Vladimir Guerrero Lance Berkman Andy Petitte Jimmy Rollins Todd Helton Cristian Guzman Mike Cameron Chan Ho Park

Something really strange... My connection on mlb.com is actually about 5 seconds ahead of Comcast. I don't ever think I've seen the game on computer actually ahead of the game on TV.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Sep 12, 2010 -> 10:17 AM) This is an argument that will live for years on soxtalk, but didn't I hear recently that the Sox were second in runs scored since the All-Star break? How much better would Thome have made this team? Replaces one of the weakest links in our lineup (Thome > Kotsay) Takes away several Twins wins I can think of... including the walkoff against us in Minny. The swing between those two events probably makes the difference in the standings. And the Sox runs scored since the ASB is somewhat deceptive. We have been a very inconsistent offense. We had big scoring days followed by games where we couldn't buy a run against crappy pitching. It's exactly the sort of thing that happens when you have a combination of bangers and low OBP (aka high probability out-producing) players in the lineup.

Last night's win by the Twins could have been the freakin' dagger in our season. It's been slipping away from us anyway, but we're at the point now that every game in the standings is huge. There are 20 games left. If the Twins play .500 ball (win 10 games), we'll have to go 15-5 just to force a game 163. So, we're at the stage where we have to go on a torrid winning streak and hope for an epic collapse by the Twins to give us a chance. Go Bears.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 12, 2010 -> 03:07 AM) For the organization, yeah. I'm talking about you guys. It seems some of you really care if Great Falls or Winston-Salem wins their league title. Like will you order a 2010 Winston-Salem High A championship shirt? Oh my god. I busted out laughing typing that. To each their own. The minor leagues to me are nothing more then for player development. Not picking on you J4L, but once in a while people post similar things... and it drives me crazy... I'm going to use your post as an example to make a point. If all the Sox minor league teams finished in last place, no doubt people would comment on it as validation for their impression that our system sucks. But if a team plays well enough to make the playoffs, it's not worth commenting on? Except to announce your lack of interest as a post in the minor league forum... and question why people are interested??? The point of a forum is that it provides a place for people who ARE interested in a subject to talk about it, isn't it? So why show up just to piss in the pool and call the swimmers stupid? Plus... I would think that if you are interested in player development, that you would find this thread interesting. Successful MLB player development systems typically have minor league teams in the playoffs on a regular basis. Not only is their an obvious correlation between good players and good teams... Player development includes teaching people how to win under playoff pressure too.