caulfield12

Isn't Sands also the emergency catcher, or is that Saladino? (Because that situation comes into play QUITE frequently, you know.)

Sands=LF/RF/1B/DH VERSATILE. Well, compared to Jimmy Rollins' two positions, unless he can now play 2B.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 06:16 PM) Why is Rollins hitting in front of Avi? Same reason Sands and Shuck have been hitting 4th or 5th at times...who knows? Meanwhile, Rodon has 63 pitches so far and 9 total outs. Okay, 64 and 10. That's a bit better, 70 pitches. Still likely going to have to go to the bullpen. Does Rodon realize throwing his fastball at 90-93 makes it like a change-up and is speeding up the opponent's bats? When he's at 94-98, he doesn't have nearly so much hard contact, and it make the speed differential on the fastball that much more effective...

Well, that's what tends to happen when you don't pitch for 12 days...but his stuff definitely isn't overwhelming Sox hitters so far. Basically, his fastball tonight is the equivalent's of Erik Johnson when he was going well, 90-92 MPH. CORPSEBALL...especially with Abreu currently a punch and judy single's hitter and no Cabrera in the line-up. Anemic.

Abreu has lost all the drive coming from his legs..."spinning" too much instead of transferring his weight from front to back. Bad luck for Shuck, should have been a single up the middle with runners on 1st and 3rd, nobody out.

And if you don't start out establishing that 96-97 mph fastball...hitters are going to feast on that "average" one. Fathom's right. In tonight's starting line-up, we only have a clear advantage at two positions, although you could argue 3 if Cabrera was playing (over Upton). Not to mention Castellanos has been much more dangerous this season. Indians all over the Royals and Volquez early, 4-1.

Martinez would be a sure-fire HOFer if he played all of his games against the White Sox. Don't get this idea of only selectively using his 96-97 MPH fastball instead of just laying it in there without superior command at 92-93. All you need to do is go 6 innings...he's worrying about stamina to pitch into the 7th? Somebody needs to talk to him because giving up that velocity SHOULD give you the ability to put it on the black.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 04:52 PM) Or, maybe Ozzie saw before anyone else that Viciedo was incapable of adjusting to major league pitching. That's actually pretty impressive, that he could pick up on that with Beckham, Viciedo, Brian Anderson and Josh Fields while being stone-cold drunk half the time.

So everyone out to get Trump in the future...since 99% of Americans have "non pure" blood due to migration from another part of the world in their genealogy. "out to get Trump!" And, of course, that other 1% is those pesky Native Americans who are also "out to screw over Trump" on casino deals "hiding behind their political correctness and still expecting handouts from the government because our ancestors made their life a wee bit difficult back in the day." I really think everyone needs to watch that documentary "You've Been Trumped." 83% at rottentomatoes.com. (This is where Greg will state everyone's avoiding reading all the anti-Hillary books and right wing "think tank" mockumentaries on the Clintons that make "COLLAPSE" look like an SNL skit.)

Out 8 weeks or longer...for those who didn't read the Pence article in full. Giants now another competitor w/ the Sox on the "outfielder/DH" demand side equation.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 03:14 PM) But seriously what are they afraid of with Coats? He's 26 and leading the league in batting average. How do you not call him up now? Because they prefer to wait until he cools off...bring him up...then they argue they were justified in not bringing him up because he wasn't ready? The same thing happened with Viciedo one year, Ozzie wanted to keep Juan Pierre in an everyday role "because he worked harder than everyone else on the team and was universally-liked and admired for his career achievements." And at least TIMO PEREZ could hit K-ROD!!!

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 03:14 PM) But seriously what are they afraid of with Coats? He's 26 and leading the league in batting average. How do you not call him up now? Because they prefer to wait until he cools off...bring him up...then they argue they were justified in not bringing him up because he wasn't ready when he goes 2/21 out of the starting gate? The same thing happened with Viciedo one year, Ozzie wanted to keep Juan Pierre in an everyday role "because he worked harder than everyone else on the team and was universally-liked and admired for his career achievements."

Maybe they figured that DET hitters couldn't get the job finished against Aroldis Chapman, so Kahnle will have the same effect on the Tigers' line-up? Would almost rather have Leury or Bourgeois out there because they can at least cover RF or CF compared to the disaster looming anytime Sands or Garcia set foot in that rather large expanse of grass past the infield dirt.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 02:35 PM) So why aren't we saying that Cleveland isn't going to win the division or doesn't deserve to win the division because they are 2-4 against the Twins? Why not say that the Royals don't deserve it if they are going to go 1-3 against the Indians thus far? Or 1-3 against the under .500 Yanks and 0-3 against the last place Angels? The Indians and Royals aren't exactly juggernauts, here. Yes, the Royals are playing much better of late, but both teams have had wildly inconsistent stretches and shown plenty of weaknesses. So have the Sox. I'm call it about even in early June. I hope you're being hyperbolic when you say the White Sox absolutely need to win a series in Detroit this weekend. They may win 3, they may lose 3, they may win or lose 2. It will likely have little bearing on the strategy or the overall standings. No one is going to run away and hide with this division. The composition of this team will drastically change WHEN (not if) the front office acquires players to make their run later this summer. It's likely we won't have the same rotation, daily lineup, or bench. We will likely be much improved, if we can remain injury free. So yes, we will have a much better time beating the Royals and Indians when we are actually sporting a Major League Designated hitter, a deeper bench, and a more seasoned rotation. Additionally, Rodon and Saladino are good examples of players that are apparently benefiting from seasoning on the job, and may be better as we go on. Wouldn't you agree? Would you say that they might be more reliable major league pieces in September than they were in April? Because there are so many teams in the AL that are still in it, it's likely that the White Sox will not acquire all of their pieces until potentially late July or early August, when some teams finally give up. I think I'll wait until then to start proclaiming certain series "must win" I think more was expected by the majority of fans (of Rodon), 1) because of the way he finished out 2015, and 2) because of Chris Sale, and the idea he could somehow follow the same path because he was even more highly-touted coming into the draft. Since we're talking historical, I bet it would be quite difficult to find an American Central division winner that started 3-12 or 4-11 that season against the other three top teams out of 4 and made it to the playoffs...or had a record closer to .500 at home than .600 heading into June. So yes, we will have a much better time beating the Royals and Indians when we are actually sporting a Major League Designated hitter...you could just as easily have said RF, because it was assumed until the Austin Jackson acquisition that our RFer would be MOSTLY Avisail Garcia, who almost everyone at this site had serious concerns about coming into the season. We can use the rationale that we didn't know about LaRoche until it was too late to even get a Alvarez or Chris Carter type, but this was the offseason to sign Fowler or Ian Desmond at 50 cents on the dollar and we didn't take advantage because of that draft pick. Do you think we could get their equivalents for $3-6.5 million on the trade market this June/July? Probably not happening. One poster today speculated we would need to overpay and offered Fulmer for Carlos Gonzalez and that ugly contract of his. (Compelling argument, maybe not...but there's no sure thing with so many teams all searching for improvements at the same time that we can easily fill holes without the cost being greater than originally planned for.) Maybe you're right, we can acquire them or all the sparks to the offense are available already ("for free") at the minor league level (another than another starting pitcher, that is)....in Anderson/Coats/Hayes. We shall see. And the part about winning 2/3 against DET, it's just as much for the fans...mostly because a sweep or winning just 1/3 coming into a key homestand is going to put the team psyche, fans, media and Ventura back into "tense mode" again.

Who is Biancalada? Is that a new mocktail in Chicago?

Any update on Austin Jackson in the Twitter-verse yet?

QUOTE (Special K @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 01:26 PM) Might be an overpay since we would only have 1 more year of control. That being said, we are unable to get a top tier bat through free agency (Abreu more or less doesn't count because he was kind of a mystery, not a known commodity). That's just a fact. We also know the White Sox organization simply cannot develop a top tier bat. That is also a fact. We do know the Sox can develop pitching. We also don't know what we have in Fulmer at this point, though I still think he will be good. But even if we unloaded Fulmer, we'd still have a very solid 3 in the rotation. I think it's a lot easier to sign serviceable 4th and 5th starters than it is to obtain an impact bat. But if we were to do this trade, knowing our luck he'd probably turn into another Gio. Can you afford a 780 OPS (that's his 3 year splits away from Coors) out of a guy making that much money who is injury-riddled, no longer a plus defender and will cost you the pitcher projected to fill a rotation spot for the next six years...when just average pitchers on the FA market are now receiving $60-90 million contracts? Can we please stop assuming every "slugger" will just magically come into USCF and light it up with homers like Frazier has done (but many a hitter have failed to do, namely Dunn and LaRoche, Swisher, etc.)??? His WAR is telling a much different story over the last couple of years than his OPS, another key factor. CarGo basically gives KW his "name acquisition" but doesn't provide the flexibility of adding to the rotation in any significant way....maybe one more reliever and a bench player, that's it.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 3, 2016 -> 01:16 PM) Those are his 2016 splits. Sands has a career .816 OPS against lefties in the majors. Yeah, made a mistake. The problem is those AB's should be going to Rollins, anyway. And Ventura seems to believe Garcia SHOULD (at least until recently) have been putting up Sands' 816 line against LHP anyway. The problem is he's not utilizing them in a platoon but "going with hunches" and the even bigger problem is most of our hitters are garbage against RHP because we're a RHB-dominated line-up (other than Cabrera and Eaton). Leading to that second worst league OPS against RHP. So the ONLY thing Sands is actually (and it's theoretical, based on career numbers and not results so far) good at is something the White Sox don't even really need at the moment on their roster. You can't use him as a PR and he's a defensive liability. Well, other than at 1B, where he might be as good as Abreu but definitely not as good as Saladino or Frazier.

The White Sox absolutely need to win at least 2/3 in DETROIT to prove they can actually win a series for once against one of the 3 remaining contenders for the division. If we can't beat the arguably (and statistically backed up) 4th best team in the division, then who/when/how? Just like we like to blame Ventura, KC fans will blame Falling "Asleep at the Wheel" Yost for last night if they end up on the wrong side of the season series with CLE (and giving them huge momentum now with two crazy walk-off twins in a row over TEX and now the Royals). The fact of the matter is that we were pretty fortunate to get Minnesota and hold them down when they were just mental midgets. Now they're playing much better baseball (see series against SEA recently)...and they're 4-2 against the Indians, for example (should have even been 5-1). If we're NOT going to beat Cleveland and KC now (when they're missing so many key players), then when? When we've acquired this ideal LH power hitter, improved the bench, bullpen and starting rotation in July/August? This also puts us in the uncomfortable position of having to beat up the Tigers...on the road, something that (recently, at least) has shown is quite tough to do because their offense matches up pretty well with our pitching (other than Sale, when he's on) staff. Plus, we're apparently going to be without one of our most consistent hitters this year in Cabrera, and playing at least one terrible defender in Sands/Garcia in that huge RCF.

Not to mention Trump has politicized moving a PGA golf tournament off one of his Miami courses to Mexico City...so, of course he's against that and will prevent it as president on the grounds that "Mexico City is dangerous and filled with rapists/serial killers/narcotraficantes" because that's HIS OPINION and not because as a business they have a legal responsibility to conduct their business in a way that doesn't alienate 60-75% of their fanbase and especially their sponsors who would boycott tourneys held on Trump courses. We've already seen this happen with a huge restaurant project Trump was planning in Washington, D.C, with a famous Hispanic chef pulling out because of his comments about Mexico...and then Trump Org. suing and having no earthly idea why said chef wouldn't want to have anything to do with a joint project (any longer) despite already losing something like $1 million before even opening, lol.

Yes, GreatScott, if we can make the assumptions that the trades worked out exactly like they did for the Cubs, for the most part...and they just as importantly made the right first round/supplemental draft picks AND also had the resources to throw so much money into international signings. The timing would have been almost perfect to hit with all that talent about right now or next year...when the Royals and Tigers were falling off and the Twins (that backfired for them, so it seems...they've arguably been rebuilding since 2011 as well) and Indians rebuilds were also arriving on the scene. There is this prevailing idea that AT THE VERY LEAST we should be able to outspend the Indians and Twins, right???

That sounds like pretty much the exact same reason the Orioles gave up on Gonzalez...because there had been a decrease of at least a couple of MPH off his fastball. (Obviously, Lincecum once was mid to upper 90's and Gonzalez didn't throw THAT hard...and there's his current claim that gaining an extra 2 MPH back from where he was before the hip problem will be just enough to allow him to be a 4.25-4.5ish ERA guy in the AL). Do we know exactly how much LA is paying Lincecum? Because if you look at all the money invested in Turner/Latos/Gonzalez, it's probably still less than what the Angels are giving him.

I believe more fans are surprised at what happened to this year's team during this current skid (6-15) than they were the "collapse/choke" of 4-11 the final 15 games of September, 2012. All along, the fans expected that the Tigers were the team with the superior talent, and the White Sox were relying upon so many rookie pitchers who'd never been in a playoff hunt...not to mention the signs the defense was already regressing after the first 4 1/2 months or so of fine play and the "breath of fresh air" from Ozzie being gone from the clubhouse. There was nothing during that "things slipping away" streak in 2012 that was quite reminiscent of the Rangers' 13-11 loss and especially three consecutive heart-breaking losses to KC, not to mention the fact that that Tigers' team was MUCH better in terms of talent than anyone we're fighting with right now. Of course, there wasn't anything similar to the "heartening" effect of Matt Albers' trip around the bases, either.

Don't be too sure Jackson's ready...of course, you know that him and Avila would give anything to play in these games to prove the Tiggers wrong about letting both of them go. Shuck, Sands, Avi and Eaton. YAY!

23-10 then 6-15