caulfield12

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 08:36 AM) and if they don't fire anyone, good luck in selling those season tickets and corp tickets. would anyone have faith in the sox org if something drastic is not done?? The Sox can ignore the potential benefits of an exciting metamorphosis at their own risk. But Hahn's promising offseason has only resulted in a bump of 1,014 fans per game and their average of 21,910 ranks 27th in league attendance — with 49 home games left for the division's last-place team. They'e already lost 50% of their offseason ticket bounce. And selling advertising for radio and t.v. broadcasts from here on out (if they weren't already locked into season long packages) will become a game of rapidly dimishing returns. Other than playing the Cubs and July 17-19th (2005 reunion)...things are going to get uglier without anything beyond cosmetic changes taking place.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 08:31 AM) Yesterday, Matt Abbatacola said that he knows that the White Sox wouldn't get what Sale is worth in a trade but that they should do it anyway? What? Somehow, one gets the feeling Baseball Prospectus, Yahoo and Grantland aren't all lining up to give him an "inside baseball" column. Maybe mlbtraderumors as an intern, if he's lucky. If not for Hawk Harrelson, nobody would even know his name outside of a few Score insiders.

I thought the Rays would be smart enough to steer away from that grease fire. Btw, Kipnis is putting up some incredible stats recently. Time for Phil Rogers to dream Jason was on the South Side and pen an All-Star advocacy column.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...629-column.html David Haugh with an even stronger shot across the bow... Stop yourself before suggesting managers make no impact on wins and losses. Save the sabermetrics for evaluating leadoff hitters and relief pitchers. Some things in baseball simply cannot be adequately measured by an acronym. A city where Cubs manager Joe Maddon works is the wrong place to make that argument too. Like a boss in any profession, the right manager can create a culture conducive to winning whether establishing that new environment involves more structure, accountability or just plain fun. Who is the Sox's Maddon to lead the total rebuild necessary? Should Ventura be the only guy to go? Even if it takes until next offseason to answer those questions, starting the process now makes sense. .... When Reinsdorf discusses the future of the Sox with executive vice president Ken Williams or general manager Rick Hahn — in that order, as Williams made clear — you suddenly wonder how capable he is of distinguishing between Ventura the manager and Ventura the person he has known and admired for 26 years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/rosen...630-column.html Advocates trading Chris Sale, among other ideas...which is basically blowing up the entire roster and starting over. Fact is, nobody’s sure how the Sox front office works after Williams’ comments over the weekend that Hahn isn’t good enough to take Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s first phone call. Hahn, though, made the announcements of the new signings and acquisitions last offseason. So, I guess Hahn is in charge of making the roster and Williams is in charge of blowing it up. That’s apparently why Williams accompanied the Sox during consecutive series losses in Minnesota and Detroit. He wanted to evaluate players. He didn’t need to spend the money. The players stink. Trade as many as you can as fast as you can. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...-htmlstory.html 39% blame players, 36% blame Ventura/coaching, 25% the front office

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 08:00 AM) Ventura is low hanging fruit. Rather see analysis of the Sox drafting, evaluation and front office. If you fire Ventura, Cooper should go too. But i don't see the point in firing them now really just to put the bench coach in charge. Well, the column certainly doesn't advocate for Mark Parent like Cowley used to do with the Joey Cora fluff pieces.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/73...obin-dial-ozzie The article reaching the desperate conclusion of putting Ozzie back in charge of the circus, taking some shots against Ventura and Mark Parent along the way...

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 30, 2015 -> 06:36 AM) My guess it will turn out like Beckham's hot streak, but De Aza is tearing up in Boston both w bat and glove. Just incredibly streaky...did that in the beginning with the O's as well last year.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 11:03 PM) The 2012 team featured: A career year for Pierzynski. 27 home runs, .827 OPS The final year of vintage Konerko. .857 OPS The final year of excellent Rios, .850 OPS DeAza's best full season, 2.5 WAR an in-season trade for YOUK!, .771 OPS in 80 games w/ White Sox Tank Viciedo's best season, 1.0 WAR Most improved Adam Dunn, 41 HR .800 OPS NONE of those players ever reached those heights again. Most not even close, 4 are not playing major league baseball now. You also got standard issue, non-crater seasons from Alexei and Gordon, something Alexei might not be capable of anymore. As Hahn has stated many times, they knew they'd have to shift away from that old core and rebuild at some point soon. And the team showed them when the next year. Yeah, Quintana (as a rookie) for most of that season pitched like one of the best pitchers in baseball...out of seemingly nowhere. Reed, Jones and Santiago more or less held their own...along with a cast of 8-9 forgettable rookies and journeymen in the bullpen. It was definitely an older core...it was pretty much a comment to play "devil's advocate" with all this back and forth going on about who's to blame for these last three seasons. We'll probably never have a good answer, anymore than most fans are satisfied with that prevailing argument that the "Rowand/Everett leadership vacuum" led directly to the 2nd half collapse in 2006 and complete disaster in 2007.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:23 PM) That's pretty much what any of our stats would be. Even us dudes would luck into some cheapies and take a few walks when somebody is throwing s***balls. Not even close. Most would be lucky to foul off a pitch or two...let alone actually put a ball into play. Anyone over 35+, unless they're playing some type of sport with extreme hand-eye coordination like badminton, racquetball, cricket....forget about it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 09:08 PM) Pretty good post. Flavum, save this post. I think this is how it'll play out, sir! It might be Alomar time, actually. Beware, however, Tony Pena sucked as KC skipper! OMG! Don't tease me. The return of Ozzie would be immortal. OK, think of it. Robin quits tomorrow. Oz is interim. What would it hurt??? See how he behaves the remainder of a lost lost season. If he shuts his mouth and is a modern day manager, five year extension, baby!!! I love Ozzie and this plan would hurt nobody. This team has long been out of it. I repeat .... WHAT WOULD IT HURT? At the least it could resurrect the career of a guy who deserves to be in baseball? Greg775, Bill Self and the manager of the local Lawrence Applebee's or Chili's all have a higher probability of being the next Sox manager while KW is still ensconced in the front office suite.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:41 PM) Teed it up for me as well. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Not good at pitch framing, haha. Seriously, that would be a clubhouse where it might work for 2-3 months, but he doesn't have the right type of personality for managing in today's environment. In the end, he's better off in broadcasting. Sandy Alomar, Jr., or Joel Skinner or even McEwing would be much better choices. Parent was a catcher as well, but haven't seen anything to be extremely impressed from his tenure with the organization. Anything besides Buddy Bell would be a step in the right direction. No to Konerko, Thome, Rowand, DJ...and Steve Stone is too comfortably situated from a financial standpoint to do anything but front office work if he was to leave the broadcasting booth. That might be one of the problems for Ventura...being too comfortable, in the sense that his family will still be set for life no matter how long his tenure as a manager lasts, compared to someone like a Clint Hurdle who didn't make nearly enough as a player (and with pensions now, it's QUITE comfortable) to set up both his children and grandchildren for life.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:51 PM) Yep. If they score 4 runs a game during that 0-8 stretch, they'd be something like 36-38 and the tone would be much different. This game can go back and forth.... If they hadn't had so many comeback victories when down 2-3-4 runs early, only to rally late. I think there were at least 5-6 of those examples, more than the White Sox probably had in 2013 and 2014 combined. The pythagorean number for expected wins and losses being way out of whack. ERA and BA is the bottom 3 in the AL, the worst defense (by DRS), one of the worst bullpens, the worst baserunning/near the lowest percentage of opposing baserunners thrown out, etc. OTOH, the sheer talent level of Sale, Abreu, Rodon, Quintana, etc., makes it impossible for them to be the absolute worst, compared to the Phillies or Brewers. If any offense could consistently score exactly 4 runs per game in this run-averse environment, they'd probably be a 108 win team. The problem is most teams will score 6, 2, 0 and 8 to get to those 16 runs, leaving them the likely losers of two games unless they're getting incredible starting pitching, defense and a lockdown closer nailing down games.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:23 PM) They are both good at pitch framing though Caulfield……..wasn't it you that pointed that out? Haha. I'm just giving you a hard time. Both are bad. I think Phegley is bad too though. I think more than anything it was the rumors of Phegley being on the outs with management, as he was perceived as having an "attitude" by some...of course, looking at his statistics with the White Sox, it's not like he was owed anything. On the other hand, any catcher in baseball "stuck" behind Tyler Flowers would understandably be a bit frustrated. Pitch framing is very important/underrated, but it's hard to see what other defensive facets Tyler excels in...so yeah, it's kind of amusing that this one statistical factor which really didn't exist on the radar screen five seasons ago is now what's keeping him as a major league starter (well, 60% of the games, at least).

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:16 PM) They don't like Phegley's game-calling skills. He was never going to play for the Sox anymore. Which makes it a bit ironic that the team with the best ERA in the AL has use for him, but the team with the 13th best ERA doesn't. And, going by the game threads this season, there aren't very many fans of Tyler Flowers' or Geo's pitch calling, either.

SF Giants waiting on Peavy and Cain first before they make any kind of deal.... Royals waiting on the return of Ventura/Vargas...Kris Medlen and former 1st rounder Sean Manaea are both rehabbing in the minors and getting closer. They're more concerned with their lack of frontline "oomph." Right now, they have Volquez, Duffy, Chris Young, Blanton and Guthrie. Not sure how confident they are in Young/Blanton keeping this up. http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-can%E2...&ocid=yahoo In the middle of January, a fan stepped to the microphone inside a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom and told the Cubs prospects on stage: “We love you like we love our wives and our children.” If that sounds a little creepy, well, that’s how prospects are treated in the age of social media. They got the boy-band treatment at Cubs Convention, fans rushing forward for autographs as soon as the Q&A session ended.

Part of it's the immediacy and depth of information from the internet, which didn't exist for most of the 80's and into the early to mid 90's. The other reason is ESPN and its massive network of channels...showing LeBron's high school games, or nearly every single game of the Little League World Series. Before, we just had the final/championship game in the U.S., and I can't remember if we had the international championship, but it definitely wasn't on ABC.

QUOTE (harkness @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 03:13 PM) Minnesota and KC look good.. the rest look just as crappy as the White Sox or worse. Almost the entire Minnesota starting 9 is now homegrown. Of course, that's not entirely surprising with Terry Ryan back in the GM chair. Buxton, if he can stay healthy, is a future superstar (ceiling-wise), and they've got 2 more Top 25-35 guys in Sano and Berrios. Cleveland has a much deeper and stronger connection to Latin America right now, with Francisco Lindor being the prime example, but they've also discovered the likes of Yan Gomes (Brazil) and Carlos Santana, to name just a few. Their newest 3B is also a Latin player, internally-developed, and they had Ramirez at SS, but he didn't hit well enough to hold that position.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 05:53 PM) Heyward Goodbye, $175 million or maybe even $200 million. That's well beyond what we spent this offseason on LaRoche, Cabrera, Robertson, Samardzija (one year payroll addition), Bonifacio and Zach Duke combined. The biggest problem is we're not playing in OLD Comiskey. If we had a huge outfield like Minnesota does, it would make more sense to spend millions on RF defense, but we're in a park that rewards offense first and foremost.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 11:32 AM) So Dunn declined, therefore no White Sox players will ever bounce back. (Danks doesn;t count, his shoulder was ruined and no one thought he was bouncing back. Or at least no one should have) The point isn't those particular players, or Melky Cabrera...it's that the White Sox simply can't afford to make mistakes or suffer major injuries because they're not in that group that can eat major contracts and live to tell about it. For one reason, financially, for a second reason, the lack of major league ready replacements residing in AA/AAA. It seems recently we're always "stuck" with players who we have to keep sending out there to take their lumps...which has a corresponding negative reaction cycle from the fanbase as they become cynical and start to give up hope those players will ever amount to what they were initially billed as.

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 05:12 PM) He has played basically one full season with the Sox (via parts of 3 seasons). In 153 games he has hit .272/.317/.414/.731 with 19 HR 79 RBI 42XBH 10 SB (in 18 tries). Those numbers at the plate look fine to me for a 22 - 24 year old during a period of time where the average MLB OPS is about .708. Garcia's usefulness as a starting outfielder will hinge on whether or not he can take his hitting up a notch and his fielding up 2 or 3 notches. As he currently stands, he is not proven to be a building block for the future but his athleticism allows for the possibility he'll improve in the OF in a way that Viciedo was never going to and his approach at the plate makes him more hitter than just whiffing slugger. Tank was given 3 full seasons to try to improve. We'll see where Garcia's at after his first full one is done in September (yes, September, I'm saying it here, this team will not make the playoffs). There's only one problem with this... If he's leading the league or close to leading the league in OF assists, where do we expect his positive defensive improvement to come from? There are a ton of balls dropping in front of him because he's not comfortable going back on the ball. The White Sox are literally forcing/benching Eaton to change his defensive positioning due to not playing shallow enough. Even when he's in doubles-prevent defense, he's taking the wrong routes and not cutting off balls before they get to the wall. Any ball up in the air is an adventure, with one exception...the balls down the foul line or where he has to run a long long distance to get to them and get can up a full head of steam going in a defined direction. But initial reads and first step/false steps, he and Eaton are practically brothers out there in that regard this year. Say what you will about Dayan Viciedo, but his 2012 season at least showed he had the potential to put one full season together defensively, to the point where he wasn't hurting the team out there and came up with quite a few positive plays. In the end, they will live with his OF defense, but he's got to be more selective at the plate....fewer K's, more walks, more XB hits and not so many singles.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 02:49 PM) This is already practiced by the organization. In the minors you had people who aren't very good at catching a baseball to begin with like Viciedo and Fileds trying to play 3rd. I may be wrong but even when they got Swisher he never really played CF. There's a point where trying to fill a whole with a player based on need doesn't work. Mark Teahen at 2B, etc. The Royals also briefly tried him there and in the OF...before Buddy Bell had his amazing revelation he could help the Sox at 3B.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 11:13 AM) KW has done different things in different times. I agree with DA here. The Sox have done both strategies (building up closers/buying closers) with varying degrees of success. To attribute an ideology to KW and acknowledge he has partaken in a different strategy more frequently in the same post is a big contradiction. It seems like you're just looking for reasons to hate on KW. I don't hate KW, nor Hahn. I just want to know who chose Robertson as the primary closing target, that's all. If one thing is obvious, this current structure isn't working, and something HAS TO CHANGE. The end.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:59 AM) I see how you ignored this: “I’m a little disappointed,” Reinsdorf, the 78-year-old owner who is never one to mince words, said to the others at the summit, referring to how far his team appeared to be from contending. Reinsdorf had another message: I don’t want to hear about a rebuild. Do what you need to do to make this team a contender in 2015. Well, they should have traded for Donaldson/Grandal or Cervelli and signed Brett Anderson, Kendrys Morales and anyone not named Melky Cabrera (such as Cespedes, Aoki, Yasmani Tomas, Rasmus, etc.) to play LF. Then they could have used some combination of Semien/Phegley/Bassitt/Ravelo to get a younger/cheaper closer candidate.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:52 AM) Here's the story from SI. It appears the "culprit" is JR. But let's not let facts ruin some KW bashing. http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/01/30/white-sox...david-robertson Hahn and his lieutenants had their work cut out for them. To turn a team that had won 63 and 73 games, respectively, the previous two seasons and had posted the majors' third worst run differential in 2014 into a contender overnight would be no small undertaking. They’d have to be creative, and they’d have to be aggressive — and the Samardzija trade would be a start. It was Reinsdorf's idea to OKAY THE SPENDING. It wasn't his idea to choose Samardzija, Robertson and (eventually) Cabrera specifically. From that article, it was clear that Samardzija and Robertson were the two initial targets of the off-season. But someone put them on that list in the first place, and it wasn't JR writing in ink on that infamous BIG BOARD. Someone "sold" the idea of going after Samardzija and Robertson to him, just like Buddy Bell was the one who pushed for the Mark Teahen acquisition, or Marco Paddy with some of his specific Latin American targets.