caulfield12

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.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) Actually I think that was Robin Ventura but anyway. You might be 100% right. Ventura could have gone to KW/Hahn or even mentioned to JR at one time or another last season that there was no way to "fix the bullpen" without there being established/defined roles and someone at the back-end he could go to confidently...that the team was losing confidence in its ability to close out games and "expecting bad things to happen" (not unlike now) in the 7th, 8th or 9th inning. They tried to bluff their way through it when Nate Jones went down with Petricka and Belisario and the task proved to be too big.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:45 AM) Yes! You're reading it wrong. KW acquired Billy Koch in 2003 so the David Robertson signing in 2015 was also Kenny. Right. KW basically had his viewpoint about what a closer should look like (more Koch/Jenks and less Foulke). For the last decade, he evolved and started following the A's philosophy of pump and dump with closers, so to speak. Now, all of a sudden, when we come off a year of bullpen struggling (same thing with 2007), we see an overreaction and over-investment in Duke/Robertson to correct for the lack of minor league development. Who advocated for this more, KW or Hahn?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:39 AM) So you mention about 6 closer acquired on the cheap by....KW, and then say signing a closer to a big money deal seems like a KW move, when he really has never done it before. I can't believe I am defending him, but where do you come up with this BS? You tell me, who pushed the most to sign Robertson...was it Hahn, getting KW and JR on board....or KW, pushing Hahn to get it done and after/then convincing JR? We've read all the stories about how it actually took place at the winter meetings, but who was the one who pushed for the overpaid, expensive "elite" closer the most?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:25 AM) Rongey had him on White Sox Weekly this Saturday and my god does he sound clueless. He literally offered no insights into any of our minor leaguers, but rather spit out high-level nonsense like "a lot of these guys can't do two things at once". He seems like one of those guys that pretends to have all the answers but simply spews a bunch of BS. Without question, Buddy Bell should be the first one to go if we shake up this organization. http://www.theheckler.com/2011/04/20/white...stupid-callers/ I'm not sure whether to laugh about stuff like this or feel that it's ridiculous we're supposed to feel sorry for him?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 09:53 AM) The solutions are still very few. The families don't travel very often as no kids do very well leaving every 3 days and they can't travel with the team. Most of the players do not make the"millions" Don't forget about the February and March of Spring Training where the kids are in school and can't leave and neither can their fathers. don't forget they also started this in the minors as well. Baseball is not a lifestyle that is easy on a family. It is very difficult to make it work. If you value money over everything else and think it can make it work, you're right for some. However for many it doesn't. Just because they make alot of money doesn't make it an easy life. Their actual life is much more difficult than the average person. That is why many people including me got out of it. Agreed, that's why I gave up on minor league baseball after two seasons...it was taking my enjoyment away from the sport I loved. While in theory, the idea of doing what you love works (sometimes), it's hard to have the patience to fight for those 8-12 years and still not be sure you're going to end up in the destination in professional sports that makes all the sacrifices in terms of family/friends/social life/free time/travelling worthwhile.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 10:23 AM) Hahn would need to be a complete idiot to take that job. There were two competing philosophies about closers. The KW one was to go out and get the established guy, like a Billy Koch....ignoring the fact that Howry, Foulke, Gordon, Takatsu, Hermanson and Jenks were all inexpensive and able to get the job done pretty darned effectively. We saw that trend continue with Sergio Santos, Hector Santiago and Addison Reed...shipping out pitchers from this position and continually trading them to fill in gaps (or try to) in other places. Essentially, copying the Oakland A's way of doing things, which wasn't to sink a ton of money into the closer's spot, and trade those players when they became more expensive. It DEFINITELY SEEMS like a KW move to go after an elite closer like Robertson and do a slight overpay...because it's ignoring that trend which has existed since 2002-2003 with the front office acting out of desperation (just like the Dotel/Linebrink/MacDougal deals).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 28, 2015 -> 01:35 PM) I don't know if Avisail Garcia can be turned into a successful ballplayer or not, but this is the mess the white sox are in. They have a roster no where near strong enough to compete even for a wild card even with significant extra spending and that isn't going to change any time soon. First they need to overhaul their player scouting. They can't keep acquiring these high risk players who don't contribute on defense and have poor approaches at the plate unless they develop a newly-found ability to coach those guys into hitters. That's on both scouting and development. They're doing terrible at it. Beyond that, they need to start over. Get rid of as much veteran payroll as they can. These guys are literally useless to this franchise. If all they turn into is guys who are relievers for Charlotte in 3 years, that's ok, it's better than what we have now. Next, they need to acquire as many Avisail Garcia like guys as they can and give them playing time as long as they're cheap. Guys with talent but who will need several years, at the least, to see if they can learn how to become big leaguers. The key for guys like this is "don't rely on them in the least". If they put up sub .700 OPS numbers for multiple years in a row, you cast them aside when they become expensive, and maybe you keep the solid contributor or two. Meanwhile, continue making picks at the top of the draft, and for gosh sake please don't give away any more 2nd and 3rd round picks for garbage like what we brought in this year until we actually have a roster around them. Stop trying for the quick fix, realize what kind of mess we've made, and act like it. The way out requires patience, coaching, and rebuilding the organization up and down. No more quick fixes. No more gambling $50 million payroll increases on highly questionable players. Another thing is that with the right defensive set-up, a fundamentally-sound middle infield and the players all buying in...you can turn guys like Jason Grilli or Mark Melancon into quasi-elite closers that aren't very expensive. Hahn got desperate and overreacted to the 2013 bullpen problems the same way KW overreacted to 2007 and went out and spent a lot of money on Dotel, MacDougal and Linebrink (compared to past years). While Robertson/Duke gave them a boost and helped keep them floating the first 6 weeks or so, the roof was bound to cave in at some point with the general direction of the entire roster pulling everyone but Sale down.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:49 AM) This is true. Most of us don't miss all of our kids little league games, don't get to be there on their birthdays. We don't need to live away from our families for 8 months of the year. It's a pretty easy life for them because of the money. OTOH, with the money involved getting bigger and bigger, it's MUCH easier for those players and families to be together on the road for part of spring training (schools have breaks) and for at least half of the time during the summer. Sure, there are 81 road games, but with the money being what it is, even then....it's not an insurmountable obstacle for families to spend time together during summer vacation as well. Look at the situation with Mark Buehrle and his dogs...complicated, but not insurmountable. There's always a solution when millions of dollars are involved.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 09:12 AM) The quickest fix will be several players returning to their former levels of play. It isn't so crazy it will happen. And we waited for Dunn and Danks to do just that....and, are still waiting. Even with Cabrera and Eaton hitting much better, this team is still fundamentally-flawed. With those players rising, guys like Ramirez, Beckham and Avi are correspondingly falling, so we're still not doing anything much besides treading water. If it's not the bullpen, it's the defense...if it's not the offense, it's the base running. We can fix one wall of the foundation, but the whole thing will collapse eventually and need to be rebuilt from the ground up. And I'm not even sure who we are waiting on NOW that we can expect to return us to greater glory? Alexei Ramirez? Samardzija? Quintana? Beckham? Sanchez? Gillaspie? Flowers? Robertson/Duke?

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:15 AM) Which major free agents were the Indians banking on? Their expectations were based on growth from starting pitching. Unless you're not counting them among the four teams that had expectations. Maybe backdating it to the idea of Swisher and Bourn coming in before 2013 (probably)....while their "core" of Santana/Brantley/Gomes/Kipnis/now Lindor has basically remained the same. Their pitching staff was either internally developed or traded for (Bauer/Carrasco), but no huge free agents additions there.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:01 AM) I hope they don't overspend this year though. Ideally, they'll go nuts next year because I think the system will be different in 2017. The Yankees were/are just getting old, almost all their everyday position players. They had no choice but to bring in fresh blood. With the Cubs, it's more about that philosophy and the "niche exploitation" of the rules...they have PLENTY of position prospects (and added Eloy Jimenez, the #1 guy) simply because they want to build up enough talent/surplus they can use all of them to fix gaps in the pitching staff at the major league level. They will strike again in July/August simply because they're in a good position for the wild card and they have that surplus to trade from. And maybe the "insider knowledge" of impending rules changes, and the fact that now's as good a time as any to overspend in one particular year if they have the connections with those players and their agents...or the Red Sox with Rusney Castillo and Moncada. Same thing with the Dodgers, it's just a numbers game with guys like Puig, Guerrero, Arruebarruena and Hector Olivera. Throw enough talent and dollars at a problem, eventually the law of averages dictates some of it will stick.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 08:12 AM) For sure. To me, the issues go back to those late Ozzie years though. From 2008-2011, this team used its already weak farm system to supplement the big league roster. There were multiple years that this team should have been "sellers" under KW/Ozzie and they hung around and just never did it. They went for it every year and took the draft and international market for granted. They weren't spending the appropriate amount of $$ in those areas. Hahn took over a barren system. I think his past few drafts have been positives and they've brought in some promising talent from the international market. I think that there is talent in the system but it is at AA and lower. They signed Abreu to a nice deal and he ended up being a superstar type hitter. They have a #1, and #2 starter locked up cheap for years. They didn't want to waste those years and they decided to take a shot this year. It backfired. They'll trade Shark, Ramirez, and maybe Duke. And then they'll try to win again in 2016. It's just what this organization does. At least the system is being fed finally though. I'd do more to take advantage of the international market but they are spending their full allotment on the draft and it will bear fruit in time. It was just neglected for so long that they find themselves in the immediate mess that they are in now. Pretty much. The only other way around it is huge spending on 23 and older Cubans and/or the Asian market. However, with the success of Kang with the Pirates, you'll start to see more openness as far as the Korean leagues, imo. He's the second guy after Choo (recently) to make an impact (not counting Hee Sop Choi and Chan Ho Park). The White Sox went to Takatsu and Iguchi and then seemingly abandoned that market, for whatever reasons. My biggest problem is that I'm just not convinced Ventura and KW are the right leaders for this new generation of baseball....I still think they're too traditional/old school. That said, the White Sox had the biggest gain in defensive shifts from 2013 to 2014....they went from 73 to 534 in one season. No other team in the 2014 Top 13 was under 249 shifts in 2013, so that has been a big organizational change.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 07:36 AM) imho, i think the value of Shark is still high. but other teams will play hard ball to low ball the sox in any trade. Well, my specific comment was on Quintana's value... As far Shark goes, the market will be set with Cueto/Hamels/Chapman, and then Samardzija and Kazmir (if the A's/Beane decide to trade him). Because of the asking prices out there on those first three, Samardzija will become a lot more attractive, IMO. It's always a case of supply and demand, and, other than the K and BB numbers with Jeff, everyone in baseball understands how bad the White Sox have been defensively and can look at all the fip/dip/drs data and reach their own conclusions about what's going on with his 2015 season (with the move to a tougher league/division and smaller parks being another element of his statistical slide).

QUOTE (harkness @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 07:31 AM) On paper mass amounts of writers/pundits and baseball fans thought the Sox were going to be good (because of the roster/and moves). Now we have a ton of guys underperforming (nearly everyone). It's a little bit silly to think that has NOTHING to do with the coaching. I could start giving you some rosters of some other teams with good records that do not look any better than ours. And you can practically guarantee Farrell would be gone in Boston without 2013 to fall back on. All those teams who "won the offseason" (Padres, Mariners, White Sox) are struggling. Not surprisingly, the three teams below us in the MLB overall standings (Phils/Brewers/Marlins) have all changed their managers.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 27, 2015 -> 10:34 PM) That is kind of how I am as well lol. My theater does $5 movies on Tuesdays so I might wait and see it on a Tuesday and hope hardly anybody is there Glad I never saw the one with Richard Gere and Joan Allen in the theatres....the Japanese story based on HACHIKO, the Akita. That was 100X worse than Marley & Me, because I'd already read the book/s and knew Marley's ending. TED 2 was as expected, it had its funny moments and cruel humour, but it is just came off as a bit disjointed (literally, with all the marijuana bongs, and figuratively). I guess the first point is there's just no way to replace Mila Kunis, even though Amanda "Gollum" Seyfried does her game best. Macfarlane is really pushing the line with what a white writer can get away with...I'm sure a lot of African-Americans would have been offended by some of the jokes, although that's par for the course and almost expected with him. The story is more about TED and Tammy-Lynn, it's almost like they wanted to sneak another Mark Wahlberg film into the market but he wasn't really 100% free to play the main character, so they built the story around Ted's baby/adoption and then constitutional rights later on. Morgan Freeman's appearance near the end is almost jarring, where the movie takes on an AMISTAD feel (briefly) that's a bit misplaced or just doesn't quite feel appropriate (linking slavery/Dred Scott with a toy's "rights") in the light of recent events around the U.S. The heart of the first movie was the attempt for John to hold onto his relationships with both Ted and Mila Kunis. That dynamic is completely missing from this one. (Note: I'm happy I recently sold my Hasbro stock...inside joke).

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 07:18 AM) how many games can be blamed on RV miscalculations??? yesterday game is proof, Jeff should have been removed. To go back to that point, why do teams like the Cardinals, Rays and Rangers always have multiple minor league options to fill in for major league injuries....whereas we've had no major injuries during the season, yet still aren't even close to having the ability to fill in most of the gaps in the 25 man roster from Charlotte and Birmingham.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 07:04 AM) There is one overriding constant to being a really good coach though: they all have/had really good players. And that's management's response to cover for Ventura. That he overachieved and ALMOST won Manager of the Year in 2012. The problem with this particular line of defense is that it also opens up the front office to even more questioning...if the talent level from a "near playoff" team in 2012 has degraded so badly, whose fault is that, then, precisely?

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 06:41 AM) Doubt you get a catcher for Shark. I think you get a solid prospect like an OF or 2B. Q would bring a Catcher+ in offseason. I would hope so, he's a TOP FIVE WAR LHP for the entire major leagues since 2012, ahead of even Bumgarner and Lester. The absolute decrepitude of our defense is making him look like an "average" pitcher, and our offense's lack of run support is making it nearly impossible for him to get some quality wins and build back his confidence to 2012-14 levels. Now every GM knows this, but they are what's depressing his value a bit.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 29, 2015 -> 06:50 AM) What? I like the use of BUSCH, haha. Because the Cardinals (Busch/Budweiser ties) and Tigers are/were technically small market teams and both have exploited this definition to get extra picks in the draft, although both operate like bigger market teams than the White Sox.