caulfield12

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 07:36 PM) They haven't "built" this team. They 'are building' this team. And the previous two seasons whose defense you reference was during the process of them tearing down and selling off the old team. Catching defense doesn't seem like it's been a major problem. Fangraphs says Soto's better. And he now seems to be starting half the games. Abreu is going to play first base. Just like Miguel Cabrera plays first base and you put up with his deficiencies. Sanchez has been pretty excellent in the field. Micah was terrible which is why he's not playing there now and won't unless/until he becomes at least passable. Alexei was excellent last year. He seems to have some unforeseen mental issues going on this year. Even still, Fangraphs has him as the #16 defensive shortstop. Gillaspie is bad at third. Beckham is above average. Gillespie has gone from being the starter last year to being a platoon player with a late-inning defensive caddie, to now not even getting every start against righties. All while you and I and Rick Hahn and everyone else knows he is not the long-term plan at third. But if he simply hit up to his career average against righties could make for a fine platoon guy. But he hasn't hit that well this year. Several White Sox players haven't hit that well this year. Many people where clamoring for a free agent upgrade at third last year. Those people should look at what Pablo Sandoval (5 years $95 million) is doing. Fangraphs has him as the worst defensive third baseman in baseball by a good margin. Chase Headley (4 years $52 million) is #27. There would be reason to be upset with Rick Hahn if he had shelled out all that money. Cabrera isn't great, but he's at least in the neighborhood of average and an enormous improvement over Viciedo. Eaton has not played well which is disappointing because he has the ability to be excellent as we've all seen. And the f.o./coaching staff are aware, based his benching for not playing where they've told him to. He seems to be a s***ty meathead who would do a lot better if he didn't try to overwork that tiny brain. He should be fine if he just blindly busts his ass and does what the brain people tell him to do. Garcia has been bad. He's the one player with some possibility of being here longer term from whom you expect to see some improvement. This will also be his first full season (if he makes it through). He also seems to be dealing with a knee problem. Maybe he'll hit enough that you worry less about the defense. Maybe he needs a defensive caddie and more time at DH. Maybe he doesn't hit enough to warrant him having the job. Those questions will answer themselves over time. Again, first half of his first full season. And you'll note he hasn't bee offered a long term extension. The Cabrera signing is the closest thing to longish term commitment (at only 3 years) to a player who's subpar defensively. And he's not that bad. And he can move to DH after a couple years if he's still here. The thing with Cabrera is Detroit doesn't have a DH in Victor Martinez who's Gold Glove caliber behind him, he's pretty much awful at every position C or 1B, especially now with the knee problems. LaRoche, on the other hand, is only the third player of the starters who could at least be above average (along with Eaton and Ramirez). As far as Alexei Ramirez goes, see the quotes from a veteran scout I pasted above. To counter, Defensive Runs Saved has both Eaton and Alexei Ramirez as 25th (out of 27) and 27th in the majors, and anybody's who has watched the White Sox this season can absolutely testify to that....they both made errors again in Wednesday's game. Beckham and Sanchez aren't long-term solutions (due to their offensive shortcomings). The best thing we can say about Tyler Flowers is that he's good at pitch framing. Soto has actually been better (recently) at throwing, probably due to the fact that he's getting into a rhythm from playing more frequently. But he's too old to be a long-term solution. As noted, the biggest issues are Eaton and Avisail, because they're supposedly part of the long-term core. Ramirez, too, has hurt simply because everyone had the idea they needed to pick up his option and at least have his steady defense behind the pitching when the team was legitimately attempting to compete in 2016. So you have three players sliding or regressing (Eaton, in particular, is inexplicable)...three positions that you need to replace (3B, 2B, C)....Melky Cabrera, who throws well and that's about it, he won't get any better at this stage of his career...and the debatable decision to play Abreu over LaRoche.

‘‘The White Sox, they should be ashamed of themselves the way they’re playing,’’ a veteran scout who has seen the Sox play about a dozen times in person this season said...They had two good games against the Rangers [victories Saturday and Sunday], played good baseball, and then they come out and play a game like [a 13-2 loss Monday to the Twins]. It’s unacceptable. It’s shameful.’’ ‘‘Errors, bad throws, mental errors,’’ the scout said. ‘‘Defense and guys not hitting in the clutch. For players, it’s not OK. This is the major leagues...Ramirez is going backwards on both sides,’’ the scout said. ‘‘He was one of the best in the game last year. Now he’s one of the worst.’’ ‘‘I’m sure Robin is doing his best,’’ the scout said. ‘‘Maybe one time he should fake it and throw something against the wall. This is unacceptable, and Robin has to know it. Maybe he has handled it. I don’t know what is done behind the scenes.’’ http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/71...med-31-39-start

What would the Dodgers want with Adam LaRoche or Melky Cabrera? Some trade proposals are just....

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 04:05 PM) You could do that if your offense was going to be really solid too. You can prevent runs using the pitchers and then win games by pumping out runs. That's been almost the Tigers formula the past few years. And even the Tigers were smart enough to realize with the losses of Scherzer and Verlander that they'd need to tighten up their defense. So they added Gose, Iglesias and worked with Castellanos on improving his defense. They at least had a plan and made some moves to improve a weak spot.

And, it's a lot easier to make a quick recovery in the current AL East than the Central...that hasn't been the case since 2005-2006.

But hey, they finally got Ozzie to agree to officially return July 17th-19th for the 2005 Reunion weekend. One thing to look forward to over the remainder of the season.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:46 PM) The Tony LaRussa whose team was just roundly mocked for dumping one of their top prospects for some salary relief? Does that sound like his idea or ownership's (because of financial issues)? No different than Teahen/Jackson being bundled...although this is more egregious than that one even.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:41 PM) True. The time to fire him was that series where we lost all four to Minnie. Or even before that. He's a joke, but no more than the players. Right now, you'd have to give a D or F to LaRoche, Gillaspie, Lexi, Sanchez, Micah, Flowers, Soto, Melky, Abreu, Bonifacio. For the most part the pitchers have been OK. Abreu is a B. He's not getting as many pitches to drive and he's being forced to be more aggressive trying to carry the team on his back. But he's almost at .300, at least coming into today. B-, at worst. LaRoche C+ or B-.

QUOTE (lord chas @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:38 PM) Attendance is going to drop like a rock after July 4th if this nonsense continues http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?sh...p;#entry3186851 We're already 27th. Perhaps we could "pass" Miami going downwards, Cleve and TB would be hard to overtake. Then again, the Rays keep this up and 29th is possible. Funny the Sox attendance with even a winning organization and super creative front office would have been abysmal as well down in St. Pete. Charlotte might outdraw us in actual seats occupied here on out.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:33 PM) This is not a defense of RV, but seriously, do you honestly think (insert any name here) would make a difference at this point? Well, we'll never know because of their fear of being disloyal to Ventura...especially if this terrible style of play continues into next year. It will remain one of those unanswered questions if the baseball equivalent of Brad Stevens could have turned the season around.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:29 PM) The Twins are going to cost Sale the Cy Young this year, just like the Indians possibly did in 2013. He's given up 32 earned runs this year, and 16 to the Twins. They've scored half the runs he's given up this year (more than half if you include unearned runs). 9-4 against Sox, 9-15 against the rest of the AL Central. Winners now of 1 of their last 7 series. Still hanging in there for the Wild Card.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:26 PM) The complaints for not pulling him were 100% pitch count. It was a hard inning. The defense made at least two mistakes to prolong it. My main concern was Sale trying to throw as hard as he could against his old nemesis Mauer...simply because of his frustration level with the defense and umpiring.

Yes, every street named after Nathan Bedford Forrest should be forcibly renamed...Longstreet should be forced onto the Stone Mountain facade.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:17 PM) Re: Micah, we did. Re: Anderson: buxton's OPS at AA was 100 points higher. Re: Anderson: if we were in a pennant race right now, with the way Alexei is playing...you might get me to actually say "Why the f*** not". I have a hard time imagining Aaron Hicks taking his job away when he returns from injury...all depends on the k rate. 15 k's in 37 ab's and a 501 ops. Maybe it's the Alabama (aka Asian Crazy) jumping worm's fault.

QUOTE (Knackattack @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:06 PM) I'm okay with trading everything on the team but Sale. If we can't get a good team around him before his contract is up he will still be worth a boatload in his 2nd to last year. Knowing the Sox, they'll trade Sale/Quintana first out of misguided sense of loyalty to Ventura's managerial legacy.

Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan...Sale is the fourth. Get used to seeing Buxton doing that against us....but it's a bit like the White Sox calling up Micah Johnson or Tim Anderson in terms of his offensive preparedness.

It's a pretty good trick to have three errors and no unearned runs. I'm sure Chris enjoyed the stress of the extra pitches on his arm. Ridiculous. Like the MERS outbreak, its spread and is now affecting everyone on the team like a virus.

Sale getting very frustrated with the ump there...glad the record means more than trying to win the game all of a sudden. This seems to be the exact situation which would bring about an injury, going after Mauer and Hunter. Kind of feels like we are forcing this record and not being respectful to the sport a bit.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 01:02 PM) Why the hell is he still in? You had to pull him last game because he threw too many pitches in his previous start, so why leave him out there in a blowout? Once he got to ten...you pull him with how things are going this inning. Some weird decisions leaving Danks and Sale in so long this week. Even if you pin it on the defense partially this inning, he has been hit hard. Sale still at 96.

Great defense from Eaton again....sigh. What happened with Sanchez earlier in the inning...shouldnt he have had the tag at second? One step forward, two steps back. Double figures in k's but it's kind of hollow at this point. We are making the Twins question the promotion of Buxton...well, maybe.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jun 24, 2015 -> 07:20 AM) I forget where I said this the other day but more teams are willing to wait for their higher valued prospects to become MLB ready. The cubs would seem to be one example. They have plenty to trade but they realize they need more time to see who sticks, then the players that do not stick could very likely be traded this winter for pitching. I see Boston doing similar things with holding onto certain high level prospects. Both teams are loaded but not likely to make the playoffs so,imo, they are continuing with their respective rebuilds and see where they are at this winter. The ever increasing price of FA is making teams think otherwise about dealing top prospects. That's not to say no team will deal top prospects, just seems like prospects are holding more value in the eyes of some teams. That said. Maybe a team like Boston changes their perspective if a young lefty like Q was on the trade table. They do seem pretty adamant in keeping their best though so who knows? Passan just wrote about this yesterday. They're not going to make wholesale changes, and certainly dont want to dump Ramirez and Sandoval for pennies on the dollar. Betts and Bogaerts are close to untouchable, along with Rodriguez and Swihart. The pitcher they value the most for the moment is Brian Johnson. Unless the White Sox view Rusney Castillo as a future star, there's not a good fit. Yoan Moncada has a disappointing 576 ops in the low minors (roughly 100 abs) so far but they wont trade him this quickly.

The real question is who will put on the brakes in the front office now and preach patience...one step forward, two steps back, etc.? It hasn't ever been JR or KW's style...and for a GM beginning to have a target on his back (if he doesn't make any changes), his job longevity won't exactly be helped by "rebuilding" now when the fanbase was promised the 2016-2019 window of getting back into the playoff hunt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/educat...4eb1_story.html As well as makes up a phone call from Mark Zuckerberg (supposedly while in Panama)...urging her to go to Harvard, where he of course didn't even graduate. This is the corollary to the participation trophy idea...it's the "tiger" parents who are unwilling to accept anything less than eight Ivy League acceptances, who force their kids into mastering multiple instruments, leadership in volunteer activities, sports year-round (captainship is a plus), clubs/extracurriculars, student newspaper editor, training center classes for SAT, arts/drawing/singing/dance in order to differentiate their son or daughter from all the other perfect SAT scorers who look virtually identical to admissions counselors. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/genius...d8e5_story.html Opinion piece on the situation.

Probably from watching too many Adam Sandler films there in KS.

Carlos Correa is pretty good, haha. Don't think he can catch Bryant and Pederson for NLROY, though. Unintended trade consequences situation with the Rays/Mariners...they swap two former top prospects in Montgomery (originally with Royals, the forgotten part of the Myers/Odorizzi/Shields/Wade Davis deal) and Erasmo Ramirez. Ramirez ends up pitching well for the Rays and keeping them competitive when everyone had basically already given up on him in SEA. Meanwhile, Montgomery's pitching a shutout against his former team, the Royals.