caulfield12

Jay Bruce/Ryan Braun/Wil Myers, come on down... Poor John Farrell.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:59 PM) Q deserves to be off the hook. Melky smoked that ball. Abreu and Frazier swinging at the moon Brett puts us on top! Definitely not for THIS game, but certainly IN GENERAL.

Whenever a certain someone complains about others in the game threads, then the White Sox always tend to rally. It's like Greg's house-betting always backfiring. Remember the last time, when Ventura was kicked out for arguing, Renteria was managing the team and he assumed he would take the loss because nobody can manage better? Sox winning, Sox winning...party time!!!

Who'd have thought that Junior Guerra would be 4-1 as a starter with a 3.67 ERA? Thompson is finally fading a bit with the Dodgers and Puig is back again, so his PT will decrease, but it's crazy how a change of environment will work wonders for some players and everything will click. Also helps when the organization you play for has 100% confidence (and patience) in you...where you can't lose your position after a week or two of bad at-bats. Others, like Erik Johnson, he gone. Tie Game again. We're bad fans for being in the thread, though, because the White Sox WERE losing and now it's tied again.

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:46 PM) Hate to beat a dead horse, but this exactly why I hate the Shields trade. Bench is razor thin - we have nothing to call up. OFers like Coats, and Shuck...Avi. What has this 5-9 hit in the last month? I'd be shocked if it's even .190. They eat $15M to toss Danks, only to toss another $3M on Latos, take on $5M this year for Shields (and another 2/years $22M)....That's $23M THIS YEAR over a #5 that could get something able to hit weight in at least 5 spot for EVERY DAY. Pathetic. Don't forget Rollins and Jacob Turner...

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:46 PM) And Royals are great at home too. Hard to compete with that unless you have a similar home record. But they're also 12 games under .500 on the road. Balances out. If the Indians' fans get swept up in the euphoria of first place and the Cavs' championship and start to believe again in that organization, they will start to get a significant home field bounce. They've always played well at home these last 4-5 years even without good attendance, fwiw. Some prediction models have the Tigers over the Royals, and they're going to be 2 games clear of us as well (see 2nd WC thread).

Pretty much could predict the veteran Tazawa would carve his way through this line-up. But somehow they got to Kimbrel, so there's always hope. But he's MUCH tougher in save situations.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:38 PM) I certainly expect them to trade him. This org simply prefers bad veterans to non-hyped young players. And trading for Bruce is just the kind of fool move I expect Hahn to make. Not sure what kind of player he'll be, but I've liked what I've seen. To sit him like this amongst this team of stiffs is just ridiculous. I see Colton Wong is now playing CF. That's a concept that's just beyond the grasp of the White Sox. We did change Beckham's, Viciedo's and Semien's position numerous times...we should get credit for that. And Micah didn't have the arm for CF or even LF.

But I can tell you right now that tomorrow will be the biggest number of posts of any game this series. I won't even bother to post, because you'll accuse me of only joining a "losing" game thread. Will simply wait until after the game.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:33 PM) It is amazing how you always have something else going On when they are winning, yet if they are getting killed or lose a lead, your posting like crazy. It is just a fact. Go ahead. Commission a study. You can go through every game thread and count the number of posts. But you should also do that for EVERY poster here. And tell us all the posters who have more posts in games that the Sox win...good project for you to take on. Aren't those fans by definition "fair weather fans" if they only join game threads when their team is winning and don't follow the team every single game of the season? If they don't post at all and just give up on games when the team is losing, what does that mean?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:29 PM) Of course. There are a couple of guys here who take great joy when the White Sox are trailing. I started listening to the game, fell asleep, the Sox were leading...when I woke up it was already 4-2 and then Frazier tied it. So did I cause these two runs to be scored? LOL. I would love to play the stock market with the ability to predict exactly what would happen! By definition, as soon as the Red Sox had scored 4 runs, then the fans SHOULD HAVE just stopped paying attention going by Q's history of low run support. And does this also mean that we can HOUND all the White Sox fans for the next 3 months for not coming to game threads if the team's not competitive? That they are all bad fans for not posting in game threads....like the final two months last year?

QUOTE (Insp @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 07:26 PM) Now that the team is doing poorly, there is a lot more posting here. I'm 100% sure that's the case this week on the other side of the city as well...

Still can't believe Duke K'ed Pedroia with the bases loaded and no outs. Well, that's six runs surrendered by Q. Guess that officially ends the Cy Young discussion for him.

That's probably the worst thing you can say about Quintana. Those games where he's cruising in innings 1-4 and gives up a crooked number in the 5th...also slowing down so much with RISP that he bores the hell out of the defense and viewers, but that's a function of being under so much pressure with the offense giving him so little run support he has a razor thin margin of error.

Short-lived tie game. We must lead MLB in runs surrendered the inning after scoring run/s and also RISP stranded when the scoring threat arises with 0 or 1 outs. Also, runs given up with 2 outs by our pitchers.

What the heck is going on? 4 runs in a Q start? I think over the last seven, the total was 5 or 6.

Did we just draft any "pure" fastball hitters? Seems it's always going to be easier to teach a fastball hitter how to adjust to a breaking ball than to take a slider speed bat and speed it up somehow in this era of 95+ fastballs. Looks like going by the pitch count that Rodriguez isn't long for this game...wall ball single by Cabrera.

We have a way of bringing out the best in pitchers who start the game with abysmal ERA's. #goTeamSteverson Starting to think all the opposing GM's realize/believe Q has more value to any team BUT the White Sox. We are becoming expert on scoring on wild pitches or errors at least this series.

On the plus side, they FINALLY scored more than 1 run. You can also probably pull the plug on Erik Johnson w/ the Padres.

So your rebuttal argument is that we've signed ONE "top player" out of Venezuela that 85-90% of SoxTalk hasn't even heard of? The odds for OU's Mr. Hansen winning the AL Cy Young some day are higher than that kid making it to the major leagues.

Perhaps the fact that a good 50% of that 35%+ number of current MLB players are originating in Latin America is somewhat important? It might even be closer to 40% right now, I'm not going to chase down the number by looking at all the current rosters. So if you're cut off from 20% of the talent in the world, you have to find it in other places. (See CLE/KC rosters for a comparison) The White Sox have mitigated this SOMEWHAT by the Cuban (Ramirez/Abreu), but the answer, I think, is Jesus Pena, a relief pitcher. And that was a decade or so ago. We've had Eduardo Escobar and Carlos Sanchez as well, but no true impact players. Basically, we never had a presence in Venezuela, even though Ozzie was one of the most famous players/managers in the history of that country....about 10-12 MLB teams at one point had baseball academies there, although many have closed up shop with the increasing danger in the country, kidnappings, military dictatorship, anti-American sentiment, etc. Fwiw, we also found Paulo Orlando and Andre Rienzo out of Brazil, but Orlando never contributed to the White Sox. The follow up on that...well, Jerry Krause went down to do South American scouting for JR and hasn't been heard from since. Finally, there's the Asian market. We had Takatsu and Iguchi, and that's about it, unless you want to count Don Wakamatsu. A number of the Korean hitters (starting with Kang in Pitt) have made pretty big impacts over the last 18 months, but the White Sox haven't come close there for a decade. What the explanation is, not sure? Scouting budget/resources? KW famously signed Iguchi from reviewing video from the Japanese professional league. I'm not even 100% he actually saw him in person. I remember we did sign a Taiwanese or Korean pitcher back about 6-7 years ago for a decent-sized bonus but he fell off the map/injuries, etc. Maybe he was traded to the Red Sox, but he didn't get very far. I'll give one final example. The Royals signed Cheslor Cuthbert out of Corn Island, Nicaragua. His father was and still is a lobsterman. I think there's been perhaps 10 players in the last 30 years or so out of Nicaragua, with Dennis El President Martinez being one of the most famous. David Green of the Cardinals, it has mostly been pitchers. At any rate, it's an island of 6000 people with one paved road for approximately 10 KM. Yet somehow a scout was able to identify his talent and they came up with a $1 million signing bonus for the kid, who has been a critical factor in stabilizing the infield after Moustakas went down. The point is if Todd Frazier got injured, there would be a huge falloff to Carlos Sanchez or Saladino at 3B. Minor league depth and good Latin American scouting allows you to fill in the gaps and not have to keep dumpster diving for veterans (and some bargain veterans ARE good, if you signed Asdrubal Cabrera or Ian Desmond, you would be delighted with your purchases...it's just that those examples are few and far between....the success rate is about 10-15%, at best).

They're actually 15-9 in their last 24 in Fenway, and have won something like 5 out of the last 6. Haven't played them very well at home, though. Of course, the Red Sox have been crap for 2 of the last 3 seasons (2013 the exception) coming into 2016. Just call us the "False Positive" Sox and get a pregnancy test kit maker as a title sponsor, lol. Innovative giveaway item to attract female fans.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 05:15 AM) You should be licking your chops if you have Boston this week in a 13 run pool. Anybody still do 13 run pools? Especially with their offensive struggles the first two games and then Q tonight....they'll be like sharks sensing blood in the water across an entire ocean and going into predator/cruise control attack mode. Erik Johnson today, Shields goes tomorrow. "Almost all of his hits were with two strikes," Padres manager Andy Green said. "I think it's a little bit of a function of he's working predominantly one side of the plate." Johnson and Green saw some progress. "Compared to my last outing, I'm definitely taking more than a few steps forward," Johnson said. "I had a feel for all four of my pitches. I used them well, just a few balls left the yard. "For me, it's just putting myself in situations where I've got to stay away from that." Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/sports/article843...l#storylink=cpy

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 05:48 AM) I legitimately have no idea what is supposed to go on I'm this thread anymore. It's a complete Trainwreck. Which LeBron acted in and Michael Jordan starred in Space Jam. Much better than Kazaam for Shaq or that film Durant was in. Just going the back end route to disprove the "Associative Theory of HoF front office and managerial careers." Actually, it won't really matter if Shields keeps providing historically bad performances and the team never scores more than 1 run for Jose Quintana again. Hahn and Ventura will both be gone...at some point between this week and mid October. It's okay, the seeds have been planted.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 22, 2016 -> 05:19 AM) They averaged 89 wins a season during his tenure and he drafted players. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgers/20...retrospect.html I Have a friend who is one of his best friends and I met him a couple times many years ago. He is a good guy, someone who has no clue as to his work or character shouldn't be taking potshots. You really are being totally classless. And as to Hahn you already posted in this thread every GM in baseball could have negotiated the contracts he secured. So no need to slam on the brakes and say that isn't what you meant. No, I didn't say every single GM....just that his skillset is QUITE common around the major leagues, and that's not the ONE thing we should really be hanging our hat on if we want to develop a consistently winning organization. As far as Dan Evans goes, he has a cameo role in the SoxTalk book club, The Only Rule is it Has To Work. He seemed a nice enough guy...the two BP narrators seemed like they kind of felt sorry for him, that he was relegated to such work after being a former Dodgers' GM. He flies directly in the face of your theory that members of the Sox front office/coaching staff will go on to have Hall of Fame careers once they inherit more talent or more resources in other organizations. Even with the Dodgers' payroll, he wasn't particularly successful and didn't retain his position for very long. Nor did he ever get another MLB GM job. Which is likely to be the same fate for both Robin Ventura and probably Rick Hahn as well. If you want to talk about character assassination, lol...how about your constant sniping and attacks on Jeff Banister of the Rangers last year? You don't know him or his family or his character. You constantly ripped him, probably just to take the opposite stance because I said he was going to be an excellent manager and should have been considered by the White Sox. I even tried to get Phil Rogers to write an article about Banister to see if the Sox would at least listen, but to no avail. Did the same thing back when Wally Backman was managing in the Sox system, but his personal issues had already become too obvious to ignore. At any rate, I'll pass on your apologies to Jeff, Karen and Alexandra when I am in Arlington for the A's weekday series in late July. I'm sure he will appreciate the fact that he was overlooked by the Sox like he was by many MLB teams for over 20 years.