caulfield12

And yeah, I'm usually doom and gloom too, but I have no problems with the trade...partially because I know what Shields has meant to the Rays and Royals from following those two teams closely. The ONLY problem I would have is if they don't address the OTHER obvious, elephant in the room hitting problems...and maybe find a replacement for Avila if he continues to have 0 homers and 2 RBI's into July. One more BIG bat (preferably with an 850+ OPS split against RHP) and a return to health from Jackson and Cabrera in the line-up changes things a lot. Obviously, no 2014-15 Abreu, they're still not going anywhere. Sale, Quintana and Rodon even feel like concerns right now, especially Chris and Carlos, and Jose in the sense that you don't want him to get down on himself again losing all these 1-2 run games with negligible run support. If Anderson and Fulmer are for real, then they just might be okay...not sure about 2016, but going into 2017, they have a shot. It just sucks we've given up so much ground winning the division feels like a pipe dream since we've shown no signs of being able to beat any of our divisional opponents other than the Twins.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 05:48 PM) Youre not alone in your stance. His Bs and obvious agenda has bugged me for years, even when I was just a daily lurker and didn't post. He's one of the best five posters on this board, and he knows his stuff about non-baseball related matters as much as anyone here. It doesn't matter what someone's opinions are, or it shouldn't, as long as they are well-informed. And his always have been. If you went back about 5 years, you'd see guys like Balta or Lip were pretty consistently optimistic and hopeful. These last 4-5 seasons have taken a lot out of MANY White Sox fans, which have been reflected in the tv and radio ratings.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 04:33 PM) And this is one of the two reasons I haven't been posting. Because if you're not a fan of this team, its now personal for too many people. Agreed, 100%. Being compelled to feel a certain way when when your heart and head tells you the opposite just doesn't sit well with me. It's like the more someone tries to convince you that your argument is wrong, the more hardened your position becomes. Having followed the White Sox for most of my 46 years on this planet, that Texas game and this past weekend against the Royals are hard to recover from...you need to have a really good manager, not just an "average/run of the mill" one. And it's not just one specific decision by Ventura, it's a serious of increasingly questionable decisions that have added up over 4+ years. There just haven't been many tangible signs of improvement in his managing, the first time you have hope that the worm has turned, then you have this complete collapse that just sucks the wind out of your sails and makes you want to give up on baseball for a while just for your sanity's sake. We keep hearing managers don't matter...especially the sabermetricians, but they hate discussing something that's not statistically quantifiable beyond something idiotic like pythagorean wins and losses.

Matt Kemp is available, KW, get it done!! Better yet, Kemp and Myers. Let's just start going crazy like Prince and AJ Preller in the 2014-15 off-season.

Trayce Thompson and Marcus Semien both make the All-Star team, and Frankie Montas becomes an ace set-up guy for Kenley Jansen. That's the direction this season is headed. Heck, for good measure, Trayce will probably be added to the Warriors' roster to play with his brother and rain down 2-3 treys in garbage time in a clinching Game 5 win at Oracle Arena.

I can just see adding Carlos Gonzalez or Bruce tomorrow. Margalus at SSS might need to rethink his position about the Padres being in even worse shape if Anderson and Fulmer both aren't impact players. Honestly, it really sucks being a Sox fan these days when you have guys like Beckham, Quentin, Viciedo and now Abreu start off with such promise and then completely fall apart. Eaton, Frazier and Saladino are the only reasons to watch, with Lawrie also slumping from his earlier form and Coats of course gets hurt his first game in the bigs. Hopefully he's not out for an extended period of time, as he deserves an opportunity for extended playing time. Does anyone enjoy watching Rollins, Avila, Shuck, Sands or Garcia hit? And, for most of the season, Austin Jackson could be added to that list of offensive anemia except at least he plays pretty good D still. Maybe Abreu comes out of it, but he's about as mentally shot as Matt Albers is right now. Feels like the whole team is shell-shocked, even Sale...and that's coming out of a series where they beat the Mets 2/3 on the road. We did give Pelfrey his first win of the season at least.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 04:58 PM) Realisticlly - there's no way to like this trade for this year unless we also complete more trades. There is also little evidence to support the idea that we are not making more trades. By the end of July, or sooner - I fully expect this lineup or similar: Eaton Cabrera Abreu Frazier Bruce Lawrie Jackson Anderson Navarro / Avila At which point Bruce will devolve into the player we've seen the last 2-3 seasons in CINCY but the White Sox will be short Spencer Adams. But that's great because we have a stupid compensation pick instead of Desmond or Fowler. That's really helpful about right now, as we're going to have to give up more than the equivalent of that pick just to get rid of all those AB's for Garcia, Sands, Shuck and Rollins.

Obviously, having Cabrera and Jackson out came at the worst possible time. But it's up to the coaching staff and front office to figure out how to get through it instead of watching things snowball. KC was 1 game under .500 and got to 8 games over while simultaneously having to replace 25-30% of their roster, including 3 All-Stars. Cleveland has been without Brantley, Almonte (PEDS), Byrd (PEDS), Carrasco missed most of the first two months, and yet that hasn't stopped them from getting on a run. Gomes is clearly not back to the same player he was before his injury, either. Their freakin' outfield is Rajai Davis, Lonnie Chisenhall and Jose Ramirez. C'mon!!!! Uribe and Napoli are playing key roles, too.

6-17 stretch after they were up 6/7/8 over their three main ALCD competitors. 3-11 against KC/CLE/DET "Hard luck" Jose Quintana vs. Justin Verlander looming...and then an off-day. Trading for James Shields when they have about 5-6 more obvious needs (although Latos has been pretty bad since his first 4 amazing starts to begin the season.) Brilliant! Starting to think that everyone needs to be gone...and then an objective outsider brought in to realistically assess a possible fix for 2017 before they consider blowing it up completely. You just added Shields' contract, so trading your core doesn't make much sense, especially when Abreu is worth about as much as a ticket to watch the US Men's Soccer Team these days. Tigers only 1 1/2 GB from knocking the White Sox back into 4th place. 1) Albers is cooked...so need to move Putnam to that role or add another reliever or pray Petricka comes back to form. 2) Sands/Shuck don't belong on an MLB roster. 3) Rollins and Avila also don't belong on the roster anymore 4) We only have three reliable relievers at the moment. 5) We have zero offense against RHP other than Eaton/Frazier/Cabrera. 6) Continued erosion of defense and more and more misplays recently...can't do much with RISP, every aspect of the ballclub is falling apart. Sale has lost his best fastball, Q's devolving into his hard luck/zero run support guy (joining Miguel Gonzalez), and Rodon can't take the next step forward, looking more like a 4 than a 2 at the moment. 7) Don Cooper looks like he's wearing pajamas rather than a big league uniform, and the team (other than Coats) is about as lethargic as a three-toed tree sloth or bear coming out of hibernation. Might need fresh blood across the coaching staff...things have just gotten stale. Pitch calling hasn't been good, are there any positives right now other than Eaton and Frazier? OR, Hahn just managed a smoke and mirrors start (fueled largely by wins over MN, OAK, Toronto and Texas) that created the illusion of a competitive team...?

Verlander vs. Q tmrw screams 1-0 loss for the Sox with 12 k's against a rejuvenated Justin who has been pitching much better recently. Now Saladino can't make the play in the sloppy conditions...needed to use his glove probably and just get rid of it as quickly as possible. Never felt so depressed about a White Sox team 2 games over .500 and possibly just 2 or no worse than 2 1/2 games back. Now Ventura has to use Duke. 6/15 with four doubles for Cabrera against Duke. Funny. Finally, mercifully that half inning is over.

This whole thing of blaming KW for Shuck or Sands is based on what exactly? White Sox completely falling apart at the seams...aggressiveness from Lawrie backfiring there, of course. When it rains it pours. But glad we didn't use Albers yesterday down by 2, lol.

Albers' confidence is shot. Not going to get it back against this Tigers' lineup. We needed another rh reliever, outfield bat/lhb or dh or replacement for Avila even more. Rollins is done. Shuck and Sands are just not getting at-bats on a good team. Avi is still what we thought he was. Rodon hasnt taken a step forward and Sale is struggling without hs best fastball. Not to mention Latos' struggles...

Worst defensive outfield now on the field in mlb will come into play?

Would like to say that's the death knell for Sands but maybe not with Shuck and a possibly injured Coats behind him.

Martinez 5/12 against Albers.

Yeah, forgot Eaton wasn't in CF. Now Albers hurt in slippery conditions.

Great play by Coats, though...hard situation with it right between them. Coats cut his lip it seems.

If Eaton's hurt, the season is really in jeopardy. Great play by Coats, though...hard situation with it right between them. Coats cut his lip it seems.

Flavum....if Abreu can't even turn on Pelfrey's inside 92 mph stuff, you just might be right. Just a terrible time for Cabrera to be out of the lineup. They just might have no choice but to try a managerial change with a 3-11 record against KC, Cleve and Detroit.

Seemingly guaranteed Cy Young to Sale is quickly becoming less of a certainty. Now you go to Albers? But not yesterday?

Need to pull Sale here soon...92 mph fastballs getting tattoed. Sale backing up or you have another run scoring.

Baserunning, Abreu and the absence of Melky Cabrera killed the Sox when they could have put the game away in the first but let Pelfrey off the hook. That lack of a knockout punch has seemed to bite the Sox quite frequently during this current 6-16 stretch. Would be his first win of the season if they hold onto this one...which might not be so easy to do with that bullpen. Greene in for the 7th. Just got off the DL. Normally a starter. Sky high ERA. Looks like Shields will be starting Tuesday. Offday Monday. Better hope they can get a win somehow before they come back to Chicago or the USCF mood will be pretty ugly again. Thought that Albers game was the turnaround game they needed but apparently not.

"Angry" 95 mph fastball there. Not scoring an extra run in the first and only get two off Pelfrey just not going to get it done. Martinezes killing the Sox again. Victor 18 for 38 career-wise against Sale.

Btw, great aggressive throw earlier from Coats to hold Victor Martinez to a long single a couple of innings ago...couple of good plays, actually. Rollins's ops closing in on the 600 mark, aka new Mendoza line.

Has to be a dead arm period for Sale...great changeup there to finally get Kinsler. Didnt want Aviles and Iglesias to be the ones beating you in that lineup. Still looking like an earlier bullpen appearance than Robin would prefer for a typical Sale start.