iamshack

De Aza is a stud. Another great find...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 08:39 PM) Doesn't count, was off a lefty. Keep it up

Ugh. Two big outs by Rios.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:24 PM) There are enough receivers in this draft that going secondary makes sense. It's not my ideal pick, but I'm not running the Bills, so my opinion doesn't mean a thing. It matters to me, Wite

This pisses me off because De Aza shou be on...the 3-1 pitch the ump called a strike was horses***.

QUOTE (jeffro2525 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) They're about to win a 4th straight and we're about to lose a 3rd straight...who sucks right now? Them. They hav the worst pitching in baseball right now and their sweep was the Twins. Gmafb.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:15 PM) Would u guys be satisfied with one win this series considering the payrolls, team expectations, etc? If we can only beat Baltimore 1-4 then I don't like our chances in this series either. One win in a 4 game series? No. I don't care who the f*** we're playing. Besides, the Red Sox suck right now.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:13 PM) What a crazy sport. Humber is as bad tonight as he was great the other night. Sox are getting in the habit of sucking at home again ... yikes. Yeah, I don't like that trend either.

Ahh, I was afraid of this...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:53 PM) Because Crede and Rowand, both older and more experienced players, especially Rowand, tore up the major leagues the first time they played for the White Sox. Not. It took both of them 2-3 seasons to establish themselves as regulars, and it wasn't until they were actually given an opportunity to play everyday that this happened. The "win now" mentality is the same one that now has us trading Dayan Viciedo after just 50 AB's when his career MLB OPS is around 700 before the age of 23. Ugh. I'm sure we can find players in the course of White Sox history that have had initial struggles and then gone on to succeed. In fact, this is the usual MLB experience. Nowhere am I arguing that Viciedo has no chance to succeed. All I said is I DO NOT SEE THE PROGRESS OCCURRING. I DON'T SEE HIM ANYMORE AS A FUTURE STUD HITTER. Feel free to do so yourselves. IMHO, I'd deal him.

Don't think that's a bad pick for Miami, considering the fall-off after the top 5 guys or so, but I don't understand their lack of faith in Matt Moore...

That was like the old Alex.

Let's go Alex!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:34 PM) If you're expecting him to come up and contribute immediately in put up or shut up mode, then AAA until he was actually ready would be the rule. And you're just pretending if you didn't expect him to get off to a bad start. I did. No, I'm saying the stud prospects that turn into stud players don't usually struggle every April or struggle with major league pitching in three consecutive years, regardless of how few at bats they get. At some point they show tangible progress. I'm not seeing ab's that look much different than the ones I saw in 2010. In fact, for the most part they look worse.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:30 PM) I can't believe how bad the attendance is tonight. My guess is Santiago might have had something to do with that.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:30 PM) The Vikings took Kahlil anyway. *shrug* Yeah, but I'm sure they threatened to trade the pick to Tampa or some other potential Richardson suitor.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:29 PM) Because its April and es not in Charlotte because the team is in rebuilding mode. How many years do you want to him to repeat AAA? And what the f*** does April have to do with his ability to have good at bats?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:28 PM) Except for getting better with the bats every year. That all important walk rate was improving every year too. And then one injury setback to boot. I'm not seeing any evidence of that this year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:25 PM) The list of 19-20 year olds in AA isn't that long either. Hell, the list of guys who got to the bigs at 21 is even shorter, and I'd bet a lot of te bounced back and forth. But he's 23 now and hasn't made significant progress since then.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:18 PM) Really? I certainly didn't come into this season expecting put up or shut up for him. He's had indifferent experience and he's been completely jerked around and given the Ozzie "take this Kenny!" benching, in addition to having 3+ positions in 4 years (3b, 1b, 3b, rf, LF). And especially after the injury last year, he could still use a few months at Charlotte if the big league team was going for the division this year. Well those are your expectations. I have mine. If you can find the list of guys that have bounced back and forth between AAA and the MLB for 3-5 years, regardless of age, and went on to be all-star caliber players, I doubt it's very long...

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:09 PM) http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/30103/dayan-viciedo Look at his career stats, all major league games. .697 OPS, most would probably agree that's the VERY BOTTOM, the floor. That's only 30 points off the MLB averages that Balta quoted for the position. And, he didn't even learn how to start taking walks until last year at AAA. Now he's gotten away from that again, but it's only 50 at-bats we're looking at folks. In some ways, he's become too passive and not aggressive like when he first came up in 2010...hearing mixed messages perhaps about patience vs. taking the first hittable pitch and ripping it (see AJ Pierzynski). He's probably not going to be a 30 homer hitter, but 18-24 homers is clearly a rational expectation. The RBI numbers are skewed low, but you have to look at where he's been hitting in the major league line-up at that time. Now iamshack will probably argue that Ozzie protected him and gave him the most favorable match-ups and that those numbers are skewed up, but we'll never find out if he doesn't play a full season. We have NO OTHER young hitters that can be impact bats, he's cost-affordable, so someone who's only 30 points below the AVERAGE MLB LFer at age 23 seems like someone you'd want to hold onto. But that's just me. There is no doubt he was protected! He's only faced left handers, for the most part the last two years! That is a fact. Not only is he hitting below average, but he's below average defensively as well. I just don't have a ton of room on my roster for guys that are below average hitters and fielders...now, is could he be a nice bat off the bench or a nice platoon bat? Sure. I just think we could get more value than that by trading him now than if we wait til it becomes apparent that that is all he is.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 07:08 PM) Really? I feel like at least needing a year is incredibly common. Well, this will now be the third year he is seeing major league pitching. I know he has only gotten 100 PAs each of the last two years, but it's time to put up or shut up. I don't think even Marty is arguing that he shouldn't play...I think the two of us just don't think he will pan out...I don't think that should be confused with us saying "bench him."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:50 PM) How many guys his age or younger are putting up big numbers at the major league level? There have been all kinds of guys his age or younger that have broken in in the last several years and excelled at the mlb level... Now that's not to say that he won't turn a corner when he turns 25 or something...like CarGo for instance, but I'm just not very aware of players that reached the higher levels of the minor leagues at really young ages, struggled at AAA or the major leagues, and just needed another 2-3 years because of their age. You usually either succeed or you don't once you reach this level, regardless of age.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 06:40 PM) He is also 23 years old. He could be in the minors, and no one would find that unusual. If he ends up as Beltre or Carlos Lee, that is a huge win for the Sox. Ok, people keep mentioning his age, and that is fine, but of these players that enter the minor leagues at a very young age, or excel through the minor leagues at a young age, it seems to me as though there are very few that just take an extra long time because of their age. The "ripening" time of a major league prospect, if you will, really doesn't seem to vary all that much with age to me...it seems more like a certain number of years it takes to adjust to the increasingly better levels of competition, regardless of age. I may be wrong, but I am not really recalling a whole lot of prospects who entered the minor leagues at a very young age, and just needed to spend the extra 2-4 years down there because they entered pro ball while some of their colleagues played in college, only to emerge in the big leagues right around the same age range.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2012 -> 04:44 PM) Here's BA's first real article on him as a 19 year old, with a scout rating him as a better hitter than a guy who got a $2 million bonus from the Giants and became their top prospect (Prior to some murder charges). Here's him getting called a "Top 3 pick". Here's what his agent was saying about him, in an article written by Joe Cowley: I don't think there is any questioning his power...unfortunately, there are softball leagues full of guys in every town with amazing power....the hard part is actually hitting MLB pitching, which, he has struggled to do consistently. His upside, IMO, would be Adrian Beltre. I just don't think the odds are very high that he fulfills that upside.