caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 12, 2015 -> 04:36 PM) How exactly are they trying to do that? He's been a 2 pitch pitcher since coming up - fastball slider. So far 1/3 of the pitches he's thrown in the big leagues have been sliders. He's thrown a total of 3 pitches that pitch FX didn't think were fastballs or sliders and conveniently they match the slider velocity, so I literally don't know if he's thrown a single changeup. According to pitch F/X, he's actually thrown more sliders this season than Chris Sale. The first two times out as a reliever.

There's a huge difference (partially due to his delivery, which is far from smooth) between 180-210 and 140-160. It seems they're already trying to limit slider usage when that's his best pitch...in order to avoid him becoming the next Francisco Liriano (and interestingly, that 2006 Twins' 3-4 month run is exactly what we need right now).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 12, 2015 -> 03:57 PM) Hey great speech, now welcome back to reality. Reality is that the White Sox will always be limited by their fan base. It is the reason why our rebuild is rushed as soon as reasons for any optimism can be found. Even the Cubs after six years of perpetual sucktitude were outdrawing the White Sox by 12,000 a night. Even in 2006 after a World Series title we drew 3000 a night less than the Cubs. It gives them resources that the White Sox will never have. It allows them flexibility that the White Sox will never have. Even after a playoff year, and after a very near playoff year, attendance fell. If that is what being a non-fickle and not compromising fan is, then you should also have the intelligence to understand that this organization will always have a hand tied its back when compared to most of the rest of baseball. You can't have it both ways. It means periods of success will be shorter because they won't have the resources to hold the team together that others will. It means that recoveries will be shorter, and less robust, as they can't devote the time needed to full rebuilds that others can. It means there will be choices made between spending in the majors and in the minors because both can't be afforded. It isn't slamming fans. It is reality. 2006 (second half), 2007 and 2009 hurt as much as the strike because that was their window to take advantage of the momentum gained through 2005. Sox fans began to lose faith. Borchard, Anderson, Fields and Quentin...not to mention Floyd, Danks and eventually Beckham, all ended up disappointments. Peavy and Rios got a lot of publicity but were inconsistent at best. While Sale and Abreu have kept the franchise alive and relevant, they haven't played well together as a full team or unit for three years now. Plus, we have been absolutely dominated by the Tigers and Royals when the games really mattered in second halfs. What franchises have fans to overlook that? Minnesota. Cleveland. Seattle. Toronto. Arizona. Colorado. All those teams are in similar boats with the White Sox. Oakland, too. Pittsburgh and Cincy. Atlanta...although they have the new stadium. TB. Not every team has a fanbase like St. Louis, the Cubs or Milwaukee. Detoit's also an anomaly due to Illitch's spending. We are literally surrounded by four outliers. Houston made the right move....they suffered historical bad seasons, tv and radio disasters, eventual bankruptcy of the network, Appel over Bryant, Brady Aiken, Singleton...and have still emerged whole on the other side by sticking to their plan no matter what.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 12, 2015 -> 12:15 PM) I've seen at least three posts now conflating this "all in" with the KW "all ins" (pick your year) and as you said, it should stop. This isn't picking up Alex Rios on waivers or trading for Jake Peavy. The Sox have exactly one contract they might have trouble moving (La Roche) and even then it's not like they are on the hook for much there. The only player of any consequence they gave up was Semien who wasn't going to see much time here anyways. We can argue that picking Micah over Semien was dumb but whatever it's clear they didn't have a plan for him here. Cabrera's quite possibly another contract that won't be easy to move or will require us eating part of it. And Duke...although perhaps last night was a sign of overuse/familiarity more than an indicator of a particularly worrisome event or trend. Finally, moving Robertson just puts us right back into boom/bust territory again. The scariest problem is there's just way too much uncertainty at C, 3b, 2b and SS for our 2016-2019 cycle. And that's operating under the assumption Eaton, LaRoche, Cabrera and Avi are all solid or above-average over that time frame. Those are all quite challenging positions to fill, especially C and the left side of the infield.

“You’re always curious, obviously, because you feel like you might be playing them (the Mets) in the playoffs,” Maddon said. “But my focus is so much on us, what we’re doing. I went through the same exercise in Tampa Bay, where you’re playing against a lot of really stern competition in that division. If you get caught up in trying to compare yourself to everybody else, I don’t think it really works. “I really believe in comparing yourself to yourself first. And whatever everybody else is doing doesn’t really matter. I don’t mean to sound pretentious about that at all. “It’s about us getting our program across, our players buying into our program, us playing the game we think is the right way to play the game. And then how everybody else wants to fit into that, that’s fine.” www.csnchicago.com

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 11, 2015 -> 11:42 PM) Nah, I realize how crazy it sounds, I just believe due to his unique background he could pull it off. Q doesn't know how crazy he sounds, help. It would be a great human interest story. That said, I just think making it to the majors as a utility guy/PR would be amazing enough (like TB's Jim Morris in Rookie being rediscovered as a high school science teacher years after being drafted). With his advanced age, it probably doesn't matter what he does in the minors unless he put up a 1200-1300 OPS, and that's just not the kind of stat line you're going to get out of an Alvarez-type of player.

QUOTE (harkness @ May 11, 2015 -> 10:12 PM) Fair enough... however out of the countless people I talked to all of them talked about the Shark deal and how the White Sox now had a elite starting staff... I didn't encounter one person who thought it was a bad deal. It was a "win now" move though, one year too early...as it turns out. The main question is how much value they can extract for Samardzija compared to what they gave up to get him in the first place. It better not be like the Swisher, Javy or Edwin Jackson returns. Let's not forget that the Tigers only had to give up Drew Smyly and Austin Jackson to get a Cy Young winner in Price.

QUOTE (Andy the Clown @ May 11, 2015 -> 09:29 PM) I'm done with this franchise until Reinsdorf dies. Busted organizational philosophy that starts at the tippity top, and is executed by long-time buffoon KW. The trade of Semien for "Shark" is the perfect illustration of everything that is wrong with the franchise (along with the endless run of dips*** managers): Zero interest in developing young talent internally, zero appreciation for those few prospects with real "baseball" skills, and a desperate, needy affinity to go "All In" and mortgage the future when everyone else in the world knows you don't have a prayer. The Sox should just move to Quebec already. I'm appointing you new marketing director. We haven't tried an "insult the management/FO to the point where fans will come out and support the organization out of some combination of guilt/civic pride/fear of losing the team" approach. It would be a neat twist on KW's "can't spend $1.00 when we've only got 50 cents in our pockets" mantra.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ May 11, 2015 -> 08:33 PM) Who's next on the Reinsdorf "No Experience But Loyal To The End" list to replace these guys? Thome or Konerko. Richard Dotson... I know Konerko isn't ready...and they can't possible force Thome on the fanbase after this, not without any official minor league managerial experience. Going with Dave Martinez would be cool since his mentor's on the north side of town and he's a former Sox. Sandy Alomar, Jr., was a finalist the last time as well.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 11, 2015 -> 08:35 PM) No it wouldn't have been. The offense can still build off their momentum. A blowout could have been disastrous. There is no momentum in baseball, I keep hearing repeated by the statisticians. Momentum is simply that day or night's starting pitchers.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2015 -> 08:28 PM) Has he kept them healthy though, outside of Sale/Q? Floyd and Danks both had catastrophic injuries, and Peavy was injured a lot during his time here. Crain and Nate Jones, too. Actually, a lot of the credit should go to Herm Schneider, Allen Thomas (Director of Conditioning/Strength/Weight Training).

Just when you start to believe in them, they break your hearts again. Almost would have been better getting blown out, sign. Because that at least gives them the 'ol, "well, they fought back and made it a game...just expended too much energy in tying it, etc." argument for protecting the status quo.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:24 PM) Losing Semien and Phegley doesn't hurt my feelings. At least we tried. Keep trying. The problem isn't Semien as much as the fact that he has to pitch a lot better to bring us back something useful for 2016. And any time you have a middle infielder at his age (and years of affordable control) putting up a Top 40 MLB OPS playing half of his games in OAK...when our own offense is among the worst in baseball and SS is aging by the day, well, that's a problem, too.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:21 PM) Samardzija sucks. No thanks, take your $100 mil somewhere else. Except the more he sucks, the lower his trade value...making "retooling" the roster for 2016 that much more difficult. Have a feeling he'll roll off a good string in June when we're around 10 games back and he knows that a trade is imminent...especially if the Reds decide to hold on to Cueto.

Another Bryant homer. Seems he's going to be binge homer guy, now that he's managed to get that first one on the board.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:17 PM) This team is just poor at all aspects. Can't believe it. I thought we'd be a lot better. We're getting waxed by the Brewers who fired their manager. If the Brewers somehow managed to sweep the Sox, with a new manager...and "positive" improvement since the change...that will bring the focus back to Ventura a bit unless the Bulls manage to knock off LeBron.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:13 PM) Some thought Flowers was ready and couldn't wait to get rid of AJ. Sox don't have anyone in the organization that can play as good at SS as the 33 yr old Alexei Ramirez. I think that was more of a case of needing to move on (see Mark Buehrle, or Jermaine Dye), concerns AJ wouldn't be a good mentor to Tyler and maybe the wear and tear was taking a toll on him physically...wanting to allow him to play for a contender when they were going into a rebuilding movement, etc. They weren't sure about Flowers, but they felt sure AJ could no longer be the long-term answer as an everyday player and that he wouldn't mix well with younger players in a developmental situation.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:04 PM) Yep, and slugging very little right now. His numbers prior to the cycle were that of a slap hitter. In other words, more Melky Cabrera to look forward to.

QUOTE (daggins @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:03 PM) Anderson has 2 walks in 120 plate appearances. He is not even close to ready. I'm sure this is a skill he will magically pick up at the major league level.

QUOTE (daggins @ May 11, 2015 -> 06:02 PM) At home, while winning 20% of their away games? About 71 games. Even the Fightless Phillies are 4-13 on the road.

Uecker already opening up his Minnie Minoso repertoire of stories. And speaking of reminiscing about the past... Sign Julio Franco!!! All the 40-60 year olds!

QUOTE (Blackout Friday @ May 11, 2015 -> 05:57 PM) There is a comp pick. White Sox will be averaging 8,099 per game by the time that player pays off at the major league level. They will trade him this season. Hahn's job is riding on fixing the problems for 2016.

Phillies and the Rockies only teams with worse RS/RA differentials after this inning. Philadelphia -60 Rockies -47 White Sox -41 Brewers -40 Red Sox are closest in the AL, at -26. Cleveland at -19, so they're bound to improve due to their starting pitching.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 11, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) We have no idea who works hard. Avi showed an amazing work ethic returning last year. There's a lot of things to question about this squad, but their work ethic is something I don't worry about. Yeah, forgot about Avi. The big question is how there can be such a disconnect between the "off the field" physical effort of conditioning and the inability to execute in game situations. One would think there should be some type of correlation between effort and results.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ May 11, 2015 -> 05:48 PM) what was the error? Ramirez messed up a routine grounder that put runners on 1st and 3rd....contributed to that big inning, although probably not as much as the hanging slider.