caulfield12

MLB AT BAT is showing two earned runs for Rodon...3.96 ERA on the season.

Only two of those runs are earned, for what it's worth. Can't assume a double play.

Meanwhile, Adam Eaton continues to be the best defensive outfielder in baseball...a bargain compared to Heyward.

Well, so much for the stellar defense. Two errors, and another miscommunication or hesitation with Rodon seeming he would make a play...which forced Frazier to take a step back towards 3B before he realized he was the only one who could make a desperation throw and the only way to execute it would be a bare-handed pick-up. Rollins apparently got his cleats caught in the ground...there wasn't much contact with Schoop.

Trading Anderson makes little sense if you look at how many position players potentially will be gone after 2017...which is pretty much everyone but Abreu and Eaton. You simply can't continue to not produce ANY regular position players internally and continue to compete at a mid-tier payroll number and with mid-tier revenues. Realistically, the only way to do that is to be able to find a Jose Quintana, Latos, JD Martinez, Colin McHugh, etc., with your scouting department and not ever have to pay top free agents. That's just incredibly difficult to do consistently against 29 other organizations that are all looking for the exact same assets you are. Whether Anderson is at SS, 2B, CF or DH, he needs to be in our future batting order.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 05:32 PM) Hawk just said Avi is the most talented player on this ballclub. *sigh* Old ballplayers can never get away from that "five tool" way of thinking, comparisons to guys like Mays, Mantle (before the knee problems) and Clemente. Avi has elements of all five of the tools, although it's hard to argue at this point that "defense" would still be one of them. He does have a strong arm, has power (potential), batting average (potential) and can run well for his size, but needs a bit more time to get going full-speed and isn't first-step quick but is quite fast after he gets a full head of steam going. Realistically, he could say Tim Anderson is the most talented (potential) player in the organization and it would make more sense than saying Avi is the most talented.

He doesn't need to be an 800+ OPS guy, although that would be great and what Dunn was producing even when we perceived him to be relatively terrible compared to expectations. 725-750 would probably get the job done. What won't work is a sub 700 number. Just had an RBI triple. Batting average up to .224 with 3 homers and 9 RBI's. At any rate, we all know that Jose Abreu is the key batter that has to get going and put up his historical numbers (average of 2014/15)...around 900-925 OPS.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 05:09 PM) DFAing and under-performing veteran less than one month into the season is going to be noticed by other veterans and will not help the Sox's ability to sign free agents. I agree. That's why a trip to the DL/bullpen makes more sense. It's this line of thinking that had us giving almost all of the playing time to Alexei Ramirez in a lost season in August and September, instead of discovering what Tyler Saladino had to offer there. 95% of the time, the team that offers the most money wins the free agent, Drake LaRoche notwithstanding. And that's beside the fact that the White Sox just don't sign $100+ million, premier free agents. Or haven't yet at least.

I'm not sure about being counterproductive PR-wise... How smart is it to start him against one of the better offenses in the game in the Boston Red Sox, at home, where the fans will have what reaction if he gets bombed again? Wouldn't that be even more sad/depressing? What are the odds he can shut down Boston the way he's been going? As we keep reacting to those "relax/chill-out" comments...even Connor McKnight just said the same thing, well, we can "afford to keep sending Danks out there because we're off to such a good start/have a 3 game lead, etc.," that's wrong-headed thinking. If we were in the position of the Minnesota Twins instead, and looking up at the rest of the AL Central, what would the spin on that be? That we're already finding ourselves in a position X number of games back so we might as well wave the white flag and throw every fifth game away, yet still believe the other four starters can carry the team back into contention? Yes, the Royals and Tigers have been struggling, and the Indians were without Brantley...this is when we should be stepping on the gas and trying to extend that lead for when the rest of the pitching starts to return to merely human.

What's the worst stretch Viciedo went through in that same category? Has to be a pretty similar one, maybe not at the AA/AAA level but in Chicago.

Greg, it's not a matter of getting arm strength back. It's the shoulder/capsule, which isn't nearly as resilient and has proven to be an enigma for even modern medicine and improved surgical technology/techniques. The weird thing is there was a period there where he was consistently throwing 89-91 last year and even touched 92/93 on a few occasions. It's like that version completely disappeared at some point in the last 12 months, never to be heard from again. It's almost like his shoulder has deteriorated or he's hurt another part of his arm/elbow and is compensating for that. At any rate, the end is near. Before the season, I would have said that they would try him over Jennings as the 2nd lefty/long man, but I'm not even sure that's a realistic option at this point with how well the bullpen has been doing and how unlikely it is that Danks can re-establish any value pitching in mop up innings out of the bullpen. Sunk cost. Move on. Thanks for the memories in 2008, especially that Blackout Game. He'll always have that, and 2010 was pretty sweet, too. Both Danks and Gavin Floyd ended up being pleasant surprises and were main cogs in that rotation for a number of years while we held onto our 2005 core (probably too long, in retrospect). It's a sad thing neither Danks or Brandon McCarthy have been able to stay healthy. Both have been snakebitten, especially McCarthy, but he's been able to bounce back when it looked like his career was on the ropes a number of times.

Mark Buehrle OR Tim Lincecum, c'mon down, the price is right!

Definitely depressing when you start looking up the Sox top tier prospects and read over their minor league numbers so far this season....brutal. Courtney Hawkins might be on an even worse trajectory, after starting off his career with such promise (ala Jared Mitchell).

Shades of Jim Parque near the end...will never forget that four homer game by Mike Cameron.

I've been hearing that "relax" line ever since the 2000 rotation started to fall apart in the second half of that season...obviously, you don't idiotically run out and overpay, but you need to be more proactive this year (perhaps more than any other) because it has been 4 years since our last competitive team and everyone who followed the team through 2003/2006/2008/2010/2012 knows how critical starting pitching can be in the 2nd half. They were VERY fortunate to have Latos fall into their laps at the last minute for a bargain basement price, or the situation would be close to dire. Counting on Latos with those peripherals to recreate Loaiza's 2003 or Contreras' Aug, 2005 - May 2006 isn't particularly wise, either. At any rate, I don't think anyone in that front office is feeling a false sense of security about the starting pitching right now, or resting on their laurels. In the end, the ONE season we should have been able to RELAX was 2005 the final week, but not after having the --IT scared out of us the three prior weeks by the hard-charging Indians.

But you can't have a repeat of 2003 (and Lip mentioned 1996, which I don't remember as clearly) where you lose 85% of the starts from the fifth starter. Kenny Rogers for the Twins (relatively cheap signing) was single the biggest difference in that 2003 season. Nightmares will result from reading the list of all the guys who had a shot to start in the fifth spot and failed in epic fashion, as well as in 2010 and 2012. At least we did manage to win the one Gonzalez start, but we've already given away four games in the Danks spot in the rotation. Just an incredibly reasonable expectation of 1-3 in those games puts the Sox record at 17-6, for example.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Apr 28, 2016 -> 08:55 PM) Does Danks have a son? If so, does he want to start bringing him to the clubhouse? The Sox can easily fix this situation if the right pieces fall into place... Seriously though, Danks looks like toast. I highly doubt they will flat out release him at this point, but something needs to be done. Maybe they can call on a phantom injury and see what some combo of Gonzalez, Johnson, Beck, or Carroll can do in the meantime. Sox really need a traditional long man out of the pen to help the 5th spot out. I really don't see Danks being able to win more than 5 games if he stays in the rotation all year. Maybe we should (at least temporarily) keep anyone affiliated with the country music industry/Nashville away from the White Sox...one thing that LaRoche and Danks both share in common.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Apr 28, 2016 -> 08:41 PM) On 2 days rest? Nah When did Gonzalez previously pitch for Charlotte? I meant starting Danks in the game against TOR Gonzalez gave up 5 runs in and then holding Gonzalez for this start against BALT. It doesn't really matter, because Danks would have been massacred by the Jays and we might have been swept by their reawakened offense. As it stands right now, we just woke up a zombie-like Orioles team. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They tried to get ahead of it by pitching Gonzalez against a team that he'd been relatively successful against in his career, and that Danks had been destroyed by.

Yeah, and I'm sure part of that also must have been related to the passing of Robertson's father. Hopefully, long-term, it brings the team closer together. Talk about bad timing for Danks, though...the Orioles only had scored 5 runs in the their 4 games (1.25 per game). We woke them up and pushed them back to a 3 RPG average, haha. Oh well. If it forces the White Sox to finally make a move instead of sacrificing every fifth game, that's the best outcome to hope for. Tmrw we have a "no name" pitcher with pedestrian stats. Historically, that has meant the White Sox would struggle against him. Let's see if anything has changed. UP NEXT White Sox: LHP Carlos Rodon (1-2) is to make his fifth start on Friday. He pitched a scoreless inning in his only other appearance at Camden Yards on April 29 last year. Orioles: RHP Mike Wright (1-2) has a 6.23 ERA in three starts and 17 1/3 innings this season.

QUOTE (SoxSteve @ Apr 28, 2016 -> 08:20 PM) True but last year in Atlanta he hit 39 doubles and 379 OBP. Not bad At some point, they'll have to do something if Garcia's OPS is still in the low 700's. The last thing they're going to do is overpay in early May for Nick Markakis when he'll come back down to earth and they'll eventually have to send money the other way to clear an open spot for a player who will be part of their long-term future in the new ballpark. Having watched hundreds of veteran players come into Chicago at least 2-3 years (others more like 3-5 years) past their prime career seasons, I've come to expect realistically expect disappointment rather than over-performance since that's been the case 85-90% of the time since I started following the White Sox in 1979. Every once in a while, you can catch lightning in a bottle, but it's pretty darned rare that it's sustainable. For example, Markakis being 4/5 tonight with 3 RBI's and now 11 doubles on the season. Somehow, someway...that wouldn't be happening on the White Sox when they're in first place and sporting the best record in baseball.

Seems like the White Sox would have been better off throwing a motivated Miguel Gonzalez against his former team, but that would still have meant sacrificing one of the Blue Jays games and maybe that series doesn't end up as more than one win. In retrospect, it's hard to imagine Erik Johnson doing MUCH worse...or Beck. Then again, maybe not.

Markakis is a fine "complementary" player at this point in his career. The only question with him is how highly motivated the Braves are to get rid of that contract, as they've done with Bourn and Swisher already. There's something like 3 years and $30-32 million remaining. As far as making statistical comparisons, you're much better off looking at his last two seasons in Baltimore than one month in the NL East. While he has always maintained very high OBP rates, his power has fallen off precipitously, and his formerly Gold Glove level defense has degraded to well below average. What that's worth to the White Sox, I'm not sure. They would probably be more interested if his contract was expiring after next season...fwiw.

Sonny Gray is available for the entire White Sox farm system, basically...A's are going to get a king's ransom if they auction him off to the highest bidder.

I thought Danks was pitching on Friday? Hmmm...well, this is a game that our "win expectation" is probably about 25% despite the winning streak. I guess the worst thing to happen is burning through the bullpen, but, as mentioned, there might be a rainout or two for recovery.

Well, the Reds have Hamilton and the Royals have Gore/Dyson, but I'm not sure if the tradeoff would be worth it since Hamilton simply can't get on base often enough. Hamilton, Jackson and Eaton with Melky DHing against RHP would be the best possible defensive alignment. Three CFers in one outfield. But you're giving up a lot of power potential at USCF, the obvious downside. You can get away with a Pods when you're receiving decent power numbers from nearly every other position on the diamond (Dye, Thome/Rowand, Konerko, Crede, Iguchi, Uribe, Everett/Thomas, etc.) Not sure what the cost would be at this point, the Reds might be reaching the point where they're willing to cut bait but they have a rebuilding season, so there's nothing to lose by giving him at least 3-4 more months this season to turn things around.