caulfield12

That's a hard one to call. On one hand is JR's noted loyalty, which is a double-edged sword at times. On the other, 7 years and counting without a playoff appearance. If the organization decides Renteria's the better manager to get them to the promised land, then they'll make the move, but with a heavy heart. Ventura's currently a lame duck manager (like Brad Ausmus) and doesn't have a contract for 2017, at least for now.

Greg, there's nothing there of substance to respond to. Kass has a right to an opinion, but that's all it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

If there were any easy answers at catcher, they would have been utilized. They might have missed on Saltalamacchia, but there just weren't many options on the trade market. Kevan Smith isn't going to be the answer with "on the job" training for a first place team. Erik Johnson doesn't have the faith/belief/trust of the organization. They trust Gonzalez's track record in the big leagues more than any potential that Johnson might have, and Gonzalez has done his job, more or less, keeping them in every game he's started. Same thing with Latos, who is/was a huge bargain for that price tag no matter what happens from here on out. Winning organizations don't release guys like Jimmy Rollins (especially when he's been one of your new leaders) and panic when the team's 2 1/2 games out in first with Chris Sale going tmrw. Saladino's unlikely to be a big league regular. Anderson needs more seasoning, if we've learned nothing from the trail that starts with Joe Borchard, Brian Anderson, Gordon Beckham, Marcus Semien and many others, it's that you have to be patient with your young players...it's just not the right situation to throw him into right now. Maybe, just maybe...in July or August. One thing we know, though, is that advanced scouts for other teams will pick apart his every weakness and expose it. The key will be making adjustments. It's hard to be patient. There are only 3 other teams in the majors that have gone longer than 7 years since their last playoff appearance. 5 of those 7 years have been bad/terrible/forgettable ones. Davidson isn't coming within 1000 miles of this roster. If anything's going to happen, it will be adding a LH bat for outfield/DH. They're definitely not bringing back AJ Pierzynski. In other words, no to all of these moves...for now. First place teams can't afford to panic, or the season's already lost. There's too much veteran talent in that clubhouse and Chris Sale's smelling his first Cy Young. They should be able to keep it together, or Ventura will be shown the door.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/the-whit...e-some-options/ Rick Hahn prepared to make a big move today!!! Oh my god, he didn't make a big move...last week he didn't either, when the lead was 6/7/8 over the Indians/Royals/Tigers. ERGO, nothing can ever change. We might elect a president whose positions change every day to the point where, according to research/tracking, 82% of his statements have turned out to be categorized as "lies" or, at best, "half truths." The situation in January (the time of my original post) for free agents also isn't QUITE the same as the end of March. The price for Ian Desmond at that time was expected to be $15 million per season, around the same as the qualifying pick. Ian Desmond eventually signed for $8 million, which was about half that. Not to mention the White Sox could, from an accounting standpoint, look at it as a "savings" of roughly $2 million or so on draft spending if you wanted to spin it in that way, so the real cost to this year's overall organizational budget would have been $6 million. IMO, there's a huge difference between $15-16 million for one year of Ian Desmond AND losing a compensation pick (which would then be regained in all likelihood)...versus just $8 million for one year. At that price, the reward outweighs the risk. PLEASE NOTE: DICK ALLEN BUMPED THIS THREAD, I RESPONDED TO HIM AND HIS POST DISAPPEARED. I WOULD ADVISE THE MODS TO JUST BURY IT AGAIN, BECAUSE THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS HAVE TO HEAR HOW I'M NOT A WHITE SOX FAN OVER AND OVER AGAIN...NOT A SURPRISE, SEEING WHO OUR NEXT OPPONENT IS ON THE SCHEDULE.

Sure, but he's averaging 5.65 IP per start over EIGHT starts. That needs to be increased to 6.33-6.5ish.

If you remove David Robertson from the equation, the White Sox might not be far ahead of the Reds.

QUOTE (Dunt @ May 18, 2016 -> 09:35 PM) 2 ER over 6 innings with 7 K's and 1 BB? Ya, I'd say that's "pretty good" Rodon HAS to get his pitch count to a more manageable number where he's getting the ball to the bullpen in the 7th. We have to start using our relief corps in the 6th or earlier, it exposes all the problems, as we have already seen repeating itself as a theme in the last 10 days.

At any rate, it was difficult for the White Sox to react so late to both the LaRoche and Danks situations catching them off guard. That said, they probably didn't expect to be in the position which they are now in...just hoping to be in the mix. Desmond/Alvarez/Jackson would have dealt with two pressing issues (SS production and LH power). It still would leave us potentially two starters short, as counting on Danks/Erik Johnson was probably the most foolhardy part of the off-season. They kind of lucked out with Latos' first three starts, but that mirage disappeared. Now we have holes at SS, CF (offensively), catcher, LH power, bench speed, bullpen and 2 starting pitchers (assuming Rodon will recover and be an above .500 pitcher the rest of the way). And the jury's still out on Lawrie and Avisail Garcia. Having the "real" Jose Abreu show up would be a huge lift.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 18, 2016 -> 09:25 PM) They cared way too much about saving the comp pick this past offseason YEP. Which is pretty amazing considering how "short term"-oriented the White Sox always were under KW. You plug Ian Desmond in at SS, you have a MUCH more potent offense and basically the same or likely better overall defense (certainly range) compared to Rollins. Saladino fits perfectly in that super-utility role. I don't think there's any way they were going to sign Desmond and Fowler, buy they still would have had plenty of money left to bring in Pedro Alvarez as part of a DH platoon. Other than Eaton and Cabrera, and those guys are gap hitters...we just don't have any LH power that opposing managers have to respect in late-game situations. One certainty, though, is that the White Sox aren't going anywhere if we don't see the same Rodon who started the last 10 games or so last year. Last night, he was "pretty good," at least his stuff looked appreciably more lively.

To add insult to injury, it was Rajai Davis who tied the game for CLE, yikes...Kipnis just made a highlight reel play, 2 outs for the Reds and nobody on base. At any rate, Quintana vs. Dillon Gee strongly favors the Sox, Gonzalez vs. Duffy (on a pitch count) is a toss-up and then Rodon/Ventura could go either way. We miss Volquez/Kennedy entirely, so there's no excuse for not taking 2/3 against KC this weekend. KC is going to be on a bit of a high since they're back to .500, playing much better defense and Moustakas is returning on SAT.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 18, 2016 -> 09:18 PM) Sox doing a poor job of bouncing back after tough losses. Bad game tonight. A pessimist might say our starting pitching suddenly stinks with just two excellent starters and three so-so starters (at best). Obviously Rodon will be excellent some day. Bullpen, as has happened ever since Joe Morgan said it was the best in baseball, gets off to a red-hot start now looks average (cept for the lockdown closer). I'm hoping Putnam will continue putting up zeros cause in theory he's a better prospect than Albers IMO. Sox are catching the Royals at a bad time. This team blows right now. Putnam isn't close to being a "prospect" anymore...he's more of a journeyman veteran who seemingly has found a home in our bullpen but hasn't been AS effective as he was in 2014. He's fine for a "second unit" in the pen, but he's not currently the guy who can blow away guys (see Giles yesterday) and tends to pitch to more contact...which is fine as long as those sinkers and forkballs are hit at fielders and not elevated. Btw, your OKC obliteration of the Warriors isn't working out so well.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 18, 2016 -> 09:06 PM) I just don't get how our scouting of MLB players that we bring in via free agency can be so bad And the future best infielder in the AL Central, Francisco Lindor....just went yard. Two problems: 1) Budget constraints 2) We can't scout at the major league level nearly as well as we do the minors...and we can't even scout our own division as well as they've counter-scouted us over the last decade, with a few exceptions.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ May 18, 2016 -> 09:08 PM) I don't understand how a team that was once 13 games over .500 have somehow managed to look so poorly in the past 7 games... 4 in a row now. We were 6 outs away from 14 games over...and actually rose to 2nd after this weekend (behind the Cubs) in ESPN's Power Rankings. If the Indians rally to win this game, they'll only be 2 1/2 GB, having picked up 3 1/2 games over the course of 10 days. Allen pitched TWO perfect innings...on to the 12th.

Indians using closer Allen here in the bottom of the 11th in Cincy... Stupid Reds, can you win ONE game at home?

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 18, 2016 -> 08:09 PM) Would be a shame if Abreu's rookie year turns out to be the best year of his career. See Carlos Quentin 2008, Gordon Beckham 2009, Dayan Viciedo 2012.

Boston leading KC 4-1 behind Price and Cincy finally takes a lead to the 9th against CLE.

Jesus, getting the runner in from 3rd and less than 2 outs....we must be in the bottom 5-7 teams in all of baseball. Still lacking in contact hitters in clutch situations. The Astros can get away with it due to overall power across their line-up.

Now's the time we ACTUALLY need Scott Carroll for once this season. Chris Sale is really going to be deserving of a Cy Young award if he can stop this bleeding.

Bottom four in the current Royals' order: Cuthbert Infante Orlando Whit Merrifield I'm not sure the White Sox can approach that on their worst day. That said, Moustakas is coming back on Saturday, just in time to face us (of course, he's ducking Quintana on Friday and staying at NW Arkansas.)

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 18, 2016 -> 07:41 PM) Good news is his replacement is already on the bench. Way to dog it Navarro That's great that we have Renteria in place...but it's not really going to help us this year. Still seems improbable that they'd fire Ventura in the middle of the season.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 18, 2016 -> 07:38 PM) The sox sent out a questionnaire asking if you would bunt in a tie game after pitcher has thrown 8 straight balls in the 7th. He was the only person to say yes, so he got the job Fairly certain Ozzie would have played for the big inning with the Sox bullpen so shaky as well...and down Nate Jones already at that point. Seems the AL Central is back to being a 4-team race again. Hard to believe if you think back to the way things felt when Frazier hit that grand slam what feels like a month ago now.

Well, at least the Reds are fighting back and it would be pretty shocking if the Red Sox got swept in KC...so there's that for now. Still, not MUCH consolation since there are no easy solutions available pitching-wise.

Would be nice to have a catcher with Castro's speed (but he can't hit the way he used to)... Four "bad" starts in a row now for Latos. At least he helped us get out to a 6 game lead, it's up to Hahn to figure out a way to sustain it by making some moves at mid-season. None of the balls were hard hit, but walks and doinks and grounders...just not going the way of the Sox since last Tuesday night.

Well, the way the first inning started (left to go to work and just tuned in again), thought the score would be 3 or 4-0. So there's that. Latos recovered somewhat. Still hasn't been the same pitcher we saw the first three starts, but everyone knew that wasn't going to continue. We SHOULD be able to get to Fister at some point. He's not the same pitcher who befuddled us with the Tigers anymore.

Zenefits, for example, is a case study dream for a unicorn company gone awry...but it hasn't received nearly the attention of Theranos because of the unique nature of Holmes' story IMO. It's hard to resist. Other than Meg Whitman, Melissa Mayer and Carly Fiorina, there haven't been many women at the highest levels of a tech company...let alone being perceived as the "technical-side" brains behind the operation. In fact, the first time I read her story, she was being referred to by none other than Bill Clinton as a future Nobel Prize winner for how innovative the "blood drop" tech was supposed to be.