caulfield12

QUOTE (spiderman @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 04:55 PM) He's owed $13 million next season. They probably would give very little in return and ask the White Sox to pick up some of next year's salary. Well, they are sitting at 98% odds of making the playoffs without him... And they have foregone making big in-season moves before in order to preserve their younger core of pitchers for future years. The Tavares death hurts them a lot in this area of depth, as well. Maybe Piscotty is available, or a low-level minor leaguer.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 04:13 PM) Faith and loyalty - the White Sox way! Meanwhile, over in Philly, Ryne Sandberg has resigned as manager there due in large part to his team's dismal results. But it's also because many of those who might have similar faith in him and therefore might help him save his job, will be unemployed themselves as major front office moves are expected soon. Good, 'ol fashioned, results-oriented accountability, seemingly alive and well in the City of Brotherly Love. And on the South Side, the Jerry Reinsdorf legendary loyalty reward program soldiers on. Wonder which team will return to postseason play sooner - the White Sox or Phillies! Andy MacPhail is joining the front office there, right? Writing on the wall wirh Amaro, Jr. As far as Sandberg goes, the final straw was probably miscommunication over Utley's health and the fact they're scared to death he will get enough plate appearances for his $15 million option to kick in for next year.

Anibal Sanchez , #19 RHP 6-7, 4.59 ERA, 88 SO Though Sanchez saw his scoreless streak end at 21 2/3 innings with two home runs, he still has given up just three runs over 23 2/3 innings in his last three outings, all of them victories. He has been tougher at Comerica Park. Jose Quintana , #62 LHP 3-7, 3.92 ERA, 73 SO Quintana posted his 10th quality start last time out, allowing two runs and five hits across seven innings, but picked up another no-decision. The White Sox average 2.21 runs of support per his start -- the lowest among all qualified MLB starters.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 08:08 AM) White Sox have a better record than Boston, and are just .5 games behind Oakland. Why are their chances higher? Still 90 games to go and they're 6 back in the wild card. Eaton and Cabrera are showing signs of light. Anything can happen. It was at mlb.com. Boston is behind Oakland and Seattle now...7.7%. Had the Twins way down in the middle of the pack. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/probabili...sp?ymd=20150625 Has Cubs at 71.8%, higher than the Pirates in the high 50's and two consecutive playoff appearances. Bottom four NL teams are basically dead in the water.

With Cueto's vale taking a hit due to injury concerns, that should help Samardzija... 10. Jeff Samardzija. The results haven’t been there for Samardzija, who sports a 4.53 ERA and has allowed 10.5 hits per nine innings. This month alone, he’s allowed 10+ hits in three different starts. But you have to wonder if Chicago’s defense has something to do with his .338 batting average on balls in play, and maybe he’d be a 3.50 ERA workhorse on a different team. A trade seems inevitable, giving Samardzija a chance at a midseason do-over. As far as free agent fixes, if Heyward's really going to get $175-200 million and Alex Gordon $90-115 million, they have to try to bring in Wieters and add Gallardo, AJ Burnett or Scott Kazmir to replace Samardzija. Then replace 3b and SS via trade...just doesn't seem possible to do it all without trading Quintana. That would leave Sale, a free agent pitcher, Rodon and Danks/E.Johnson/Montas/Fulmer as the rotation...screw it, they need offense AND defense, and they're only 13th out of 15th in AL ERA as it is. Of course, with our defense factored in, they could easily be 9th-11th.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 06:19 AM) Opinions like these actually make this thread one of the better ones annually in my opinion. Many people have a problem with the idea of rooting for losses and I completely understand. It makes you conflicted as a fan. This post sums it up nicely though. It would be very beneficial. Good stuff, Joshua. Doubt anyone expected The Braves to be even close to .500 after losing Heyward, Gattis, Upton and Santana....Shelby Miller is really looking good so far in ATL. Plus, they have the new stadium to look forward to.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nba/article25552873.html Bill Self on the Alexander situation... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-da...-061802287.html Just the second "top five" recruit in the last 11 years to go undrafted, joins Scotty Hopson of Tennessee.

Guess he won't be traded to KC, haha...the A's and Royals are facing off again this weekend. Inside the clubhouse, some Royals view Lawrie as a nuisance, an occasionally reckless player who exposes both himself and opponents to injury with his aggression. But they do not appear to classify him as a villain, the way some on the team view White Sox starter Jeff Samardzija, who tussled with Cain during the 50-man row at U.S. Cellular Field later that April. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...l#storylink=cpy

http://news.yahoo.com/vandals-target-confe...-053121976.html I might even have to agree with y2hh on this...it's one thing if it's Nathan Bedford Forrest-related, who was close to brilliant but as savage as it gets in terms of military tactics, but quite another with some of these generic monuments. How far do we go, not teaching anything about the Civil war for fear of offending someone? Do Iraqi americans have the right to deface Gulf War/Operation Enduring Freedom statues if their relatives were accidentally killed by a drone strike? Can't Vietnamese whose daughters were raped at My Lai justifiably deface that sacred Washington monument? Heck, shouldn't the Jefferson Memorial also be attacked, and Mount Vernon, where George Washington kept slaves? What about Arlington National Cemetery....the Lee/Custis family owned that land until it was taken by the North when Robert E. Lee decided he couldn't fight against his home state and chose to lead the Army of Northern Virginia.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jun 26, 2015 -> 01:54 AM) If you're not going to make the playoffs, might as well aim for the highest pick possible. One of the worst positions that a franchise could operate in professional sports is the middle, you're missing out on the high end talent and you're not competing for a championship. So again, if you’re not going to the playoffs get the highest pick possible. And, you're also having little to no impact on attendance revenue over the remainder of the season. It might impact season ticket sales for next year (more), but not enough to offset the difference in talent between a top 3-6 talent and one in the 12-15 category. If we picked 4th and 9th in the last two drafts, we wouldn't have been able to select Rodon and Fulmer, arguably. This article describing the current plight of Tigers' fans describes it almost perfectly...especially paragraphs 3 & 4. http://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tige...ecord/29310315/

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 06:32 PM) Ken Rosenthal said Sox are out of it but it's tough getting any returns in a trade at this point. He thinks Shark should be dealt. I think we should sign Shark and hold tight for next year and just look at upgrading at catcher and 3B. BUT, I am not giving up on this year and at least a wild card spot And your SS plan? Please don't answer Sanchez and Micah Johnson, or Beckham and Micah/Sanchez up the middle. As of the moment, White Sox at 2.3% chance at wild card, Oakland at 10.3%, Boston at 10.5%. “There might be a change here and there but you have the people you have unless you can move them,” Ventura said. “Those are the facts. Right now we’re going to have to figure out a way for this group to get better...You have to keep them together, keep them pointed in the right direction and there’s an element in here that you don’t want them to cave into it.” “You continue to compete and you have to be able to come out here,” Ventura said. “You practice right, you get the right mentality going and you go play. And there has to be that expectation there. There is a professionalism that goes with it and whether it’s going good or bad, you better be coming out ready to compete.” “I get my point across and these guys know that and there’s moments that are louder than others. There’s moments that are more poignant than others. But in the end, this is professional baseball and there are standards that are there and I’m trying to make sure those are met. And when they’re not, it becomes a tougher conversation with guys. You’re upfront and they know what’s expected.” http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/robin-...&ocid=yahoo Glad Ventura wasn't hired as the inspirational speaker at his daughter's graduation!

At the moment, the A's might be the American League's best team even at 34-41. Take a moment to wrap your mind around that one. Ridiculous? Sure, maybe. But the context is impressive. At 14-30, Beane's massive offseason overhaul appeared to have blown up in his face. Injuries were a huge factor, but it's a bottom-line business. Since 14-30, the A's have gone 20-11. They may now have one of the two or three best rotations in the American League and a very deep, very good lineup. There are still issues with the bullpen and defense, but the A's are close to being pretty much the team Beane expected them to be. And in a division in which every team has an issue or two, the A's have pluses that could outweigh their minuses. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/132917242/oa...with-hot-streak

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:19 PM) I 100% agree with the bolded, and think anyone who does not is a dope. They both (Cabrera and Avi) can throw well at least...last time I checked, Garcia was leading the AL in assists. That said, you need to get whoever worked with Viciedo coming into the 2012 on outfield play to help Garcia. It probably won't take, but there's always HOPING. With Cabrera, he can make some pretty good plays...but he's likely to continue to regress as ages. That said, someone like Rajai Davis is 34 years old and puts himself through extremely intense offseason training, all the scouts say this is the fastest he's gotten down the line to 1B and 1B to 3B on singles in his career.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) Flowers and Soto rank 5th and 7th in the AL currently according to this page. 12th and 14 if you scan for all baseball. http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php What I should have said was to work as a roving instructor at both the major and minor league levels, because it's already an ingrained trait with Flowers (at least according to the stats). What were Nieto's stats in this area last year? Also with Kevan Smith, Austin and especially our young Latin American catching prospects (Arizona/Dominican Summer League, etc.)

The Good: Eaton's continuing to hit. Beckham and Carlos Sanchez defensively. Sanchez 2nd game winning RBI. Rodon sliders, 7 swinging K's today. Ventura's decision to put the tying run at 2B and walk Cabrera to face Josh Wilson (who did have a 4 hit game against us, but is the definition of career journeyman/AAAA player). JB Shuck continues to make contributions in key moments. It's nice to be 5-5 against DET and pinning them with some huge losses (the walk-off HBP to Avi comes to mind) that will make their path to the playoffs harder and hard. The Bad: Tyler Flowers blocking pitches and general pitch selection by the catchers David Robertson almost had his 4th blown save in 12 appearances after flying out of the gate Alexei Ramirez continues to struggle mightily with RISP. He had a late K and I think all of the pitches were out of the strike zone. Conor Gillaspie is beyond terrible and might be the first DFA candidate of the position players...unless it's Bonifacio. Abreu was clueless up there today, career high in strikeouts for a game. Avi Garcia continues to make bad plays in RF and has hit just .155 in his last 29.

Jesus. Please DFA Gillaspie, Flowers and Ramirez. Not even sure why Bonifacio's on this team. Rodon could have had the win, but huge kudos to Carlos Sanchez for his 2nd game winning RBI. Also, two huge double plays started late on nifty plays by both Carlos and Gordon Beckham at SS. Robertson sure has been shaky the last 12 appearances....almost had his 4th blown save in that span, and 5th overall. But survived thanks to Victor Martinez being PR for by Ausmus late.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:00 PM) David Price, a guy Rodon has been compared to more than once, had a 4.42 ERA his rookie year. He started cutting back on the walks, and became a star his second season. Rodon will figure a way to cut the walks. When he does, as long as he doesn't get hurt, he will be in the Cy Young conversation. And how many different pitches can Price throw for strikes? Carlos needs to be able to throw that change-up with command at least 7.5-12.5% of the time to be an elite starter. Petricka up in the bullpen.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:59 PM) That doesn't sound like that pitch to me, it was a hanging slider? Tigers' announcers called it as a high change-up...would have to watch the video replay.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) No but the walks are way too many. He never walked guys like this in college. Because big league hitters lay off pitches outside of the zone and make you come to them... Completely different scenario in terms of talent level, most NCAA Div 1 line-ups have 2 pro prospects, maybe 3 out of 9 in a line-up.

Rodon ERA on the season finally over 4.00 again... 98 pitches, nobody throwing in the White Sox bullpen. Hmmm... Trying to be too perfect there.

Fine, Bryant would have 95 walks, Rizzo 85 walks and Abreu just 34 in 600 at-bats. Last year, Abreu had 51 in 556 AB's. That's a pretty big falloff. Good thing that pitch went foul, slider got killt there by Cespedes. Got him with the 90 mph follow-up slider. Flowers can't even catch it, that's at least twice today he's missed. 7 swinging strikeouts....6 on sliders. And it's a game again. SIGH. Change-up up in the strike zone. JD Martinez one of the top five waiver claims in the last 2-3 seasons. 9 homers, 23 RBI's in his last 56 AB's.

Rajai Davis really lost that ball and isn't a good fielder at all....Gose has at least a 50/50 shot at flagging it down. That was ball was up in the air a long time, turned the wrong way and couldn't recover. Acccording to the Tigers' announcers, he's been pretty good this year, but that's not usually the case, at least in LF.

Just the 3rd time they've scored 4 runs or more in the last 21 games. Good call to let LaRoche swing 3-0, kind of a no brainer with Simon completely losing his command.

Just his 15th walk of the season. Kris Bryant or Rizzo puts up those numbers in 2-3 weeks. That's shockingly low compared to last year for Jose.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:33 PM) Eaton's OPS is now over .700. Considering he was well under .500 to start May I'll take it. If only his glove could improve with his bat... And the baserunning....and the throwing decisions. If there's one thing that's for sure, Vince Coleman should be gone if they don't see any improvement before the ASB. Whatever he's doing, the message isn't getting across. Steverson, Buddy Bell, KW, Vince Coleman, Ventura...something's gotta change.