caulfield12

I still don't understand why Guerra wasn't the pitcher you bring in that situation, as statistically he has been better than pretty much anyone but Putnam the last couple of months. Oh, well. #drivetoprotecteddraftpick

Hawkins absolutely ripped a rocket on one hop the outfield. Hardest hit ball of the month for Courtney. Needs to turn things around these final three weeks of the W-S playoff drive. Backdoor slider gets another K...4 outs in the first 7 via the strikeout. Called strike 3, back to back strikeouts looking. 5 K's out of 8 outs. Polish Prince 5-3 to Keon Barnam, Rodon cruising now. 7 consecutive batters retired.

Atoned for his error there. 3-0 Dash.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 05:42 PM) thanks caulfield how are you following the game? milb.tv and audio from winston-salem home announcers http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=m...tching/2014/ALL Tyler Kolek not exactly mowing down the Gulf Coast League so far

That call means a lot to the Cardinals, Dodgers, Pirates and MAYBE the Braves. I guess if we finish with the 7th-10th pick in the first round of the draft, we can't/won't say it's a meaningless loss, either...just like the Cubs beating us head-to-head last year gets thrown out as the reason we now have Rodon and they got "stuck" with Schwarber instead of Rodon.

Trey's father is Polish (if that wasn't clear enough from his name) Gets his first Carolina League hit and first RBI. Rodon top of the 2nd Strikeout, flyout to whoever the hyper guy who's acting like Hunter Pence for the Dash in RCF....infield ground-out. Stress-free inning. Of course, that was the 7th-9th place hitters, so not surprising.

21 pitches. 6 consecutive innings without a run surrendered. Think he got strikeouts on the change and the best hitter on their team with bases loaded on the bread-and-butter slider. Winston-Salem needs to get going. 7 consecutive losses, mirroring the White Sox the last couple of weeks. Still tied for first place in their division with about 20 games remaining in the season for the 2nd half playoff spot. Rondon, like Alexei, has a tendency to make mistakes on routine plays, then turn around and make the spectacular one.

QUOTE (woods of ypres @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 04:45 PM) Wot. Its his second year as GM, and only first year in a rebuild. Give it a little time, man. We were already rebuilding in June/July last year when we started to trade our veteran core away. In the end, while Eaton has played well while actually ON the field, he's spent too much time off it. If we can't count on either Eaton or Garcia to stay healthy, well...there's not much they can do...as they won't blow things up completely with Sale/Abreu but you can't turn around a roster completely in even two years without a strong minor league system and the willingness to increase spending back to the $110-125 million mark again. It's hard to imagine how long it will take to see that payroll again, because the board of directors will simply point to the lowered attendance and continued stream of lost sponsorships/revenue stream(s).

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 04:34 PM) I'm going to try and stay positive and suggest that who knows, maybe this will keep the team in the top 10 draft pick when the season ends. I just feel bad for Flowers but especially Jose Quintana. He pitched his heart out and didn't deserve that terrible fate of 4 earned runs after entering the inning with a shutout. It seems he just completely comes undone this year whenever something bad happens in an inning, whether it's an error but also as things unfolded today...you just KNEW that big hit was coming as soon as you saw Belisario entering the game. Hopefully this play, the one in the Reds/Marlins game....and the earlier one where a forceout was accidentally reversed because the catcher was blocking the plate even without a tag play being on.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/redsblog/2...rlins/13448865/ Everyone should read this story....after the Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton threw out a runner by 15 feet but it was overturned just like the play today. Lots of good comments from Mike Redmond, coaches, players, etc. Completely agree. Make sure to watch the embedded video. That was even worse than the Flowers call today IMO.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 04:28 PM) Umpires don't write the rule book. The problem is that there are going to be 30-50 different interpretations of the same rule...it's way way too subjective, as the Posey play illustrates. What will they do next? Make a circle around the plate area and force the catcher to wait outside of it for a throw to be delivered to home from the outfield or infield? Or just make EVERY play at home a force out/tap the plate play where there is never going to be any tag or contact at all?

Why don't they just do like high schools which have the policy that you must slide into home plate and not try to take out the catcher or jar the ball loose unless you can clearly score standing up without a play?

Guess that MLB wanted to keep the NL West interesting. Harrelson's 100% correct. They might as well have the catchers wear skirts, stockings and garter belts. Catchers should simply catch the ball, back up behind the plate and let every run score. Ty Cobb would be turning over in his grave. As far as Rick Hahn goes, he's done one good thing in the last year or so, and that's Jose Abreu. (I'm not even going to give him credit for Rodon, because the Astros are 50% responsible for bungling that one). Other than Jose, there would be a tremendous amount of pressure on him to keep his job for 2015. Adam Eaton is injury prone (he will have missed about 25% of the games this season by the time he returns), and the jury's still out on Avisail Garcia (whether he can hit, play the field or keep from getting hurt). Matt Davidson has been a complete disaster. You can add that to Jeff Keppinger, Scott Downs, Paulino and Ronald Belisario. If Hahn had any cojones, he would DFA Belisario and admit that signing has been a debacle as well before the bullpen returns home to be murdered by the Blue Jays and Orioles power hitters. Poor Jose. http://www.foxsports.com/florida/story/ray...ion-rule-022414 Another viewpoint on the "obstructing" home plate rule from Joe Maddon...hadn't thought about that side of things http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11129670...ons-controversy How the rule was misinterpreted on a force play where the runner was STILL called safe when he was clearly out but the catcher was "blocking the plate"...this rule doesn't even seem clear to the review panels

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) But Dunn's not terrible at hitting right handed pitching (see HR last night) and Viciedo is He's not Gordon Beckham bad, and he was doing great in this statistic about 2 or 2 1/2 months ago, but right now he's only at .669 OPS-wise against righties.

Well, and it was mentioned after that first series in COL, that hitting three homers right off the bat like that could have been the worst things that happened both for Baez but also fan expectations.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 09:03 AM) This narrative is already getting old: http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/america-i...ople-1620169913 I would say it's equally old considering it's almost 150 years since the Civil War and things like this are still happening in America...when I was teaching in Colombia, my students were constantly asking me why the U.S. government was treating all the people in New Orleans so poorly after Hurricane Katrina, and I didn't have a good response for them. I suggest reading ZEITOUN by Dave Eggers and asking you after you've finished if you still feel the same way about how the government and police have acted at different times in our country's history. It's not always something to be proud of...and trying to banish the media seems to be 100% CYA time.

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 11:29 AM) Alcantara down to .679 now and this is coming off a game of 2/3 with a double. Baez down to .784 and dropping fast. Amazingly, he has no walks in 37 at-bats. He's going to give 2010 Dayan Viciedo a run for his money in the walk category. Also, no homers yet outside Coors. I think some Cubs' fans are starting to come to the realization that IF these guys turn out to be studs, it's still a few years down the line. I think most Cubs' fans thought as soon as they brought these guys up, they were going to have an immediate impact and top 5 offense in baseball as a result but never underestimate the growing pains that come with the jump from the minors to the majors, especially when expectations are enormous (unless you're mike trout, who is the very exception to every rule) The real panic would start if Bryant struggles at all in 2015. Anything less than a 900ish OPS is going to be a huge disappointment, and that's going to be extremely difficult to live up to, right away...as a rookie. Basically, the weight of a half decade of pent up hopes and frustrations on his shoulders. If the Cubs are lucky, Soler can "sneak" up and start performing well a bit under the radar, with more of the focus on Baez for now.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 11:45 AM) For the record, you bring him up all the time as an acquisition target But more to demonstrate there's almost nothing desirable that's going to be out there on the free agent market...certainly not in our price range.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 12:16 PM) Top of the list, is that anyone who expects the Sox to spend $100 million on a starting pitcher is delusional. All the John Danks experience has done is probably strengthen the resolve that long terms deals for SPs are not a brilliant idea. Maybe they hit on a guy who is down, that the teams thinks can be fixed, but they aren't going to spend top dollar in the free agent market for a pitcher. And of course when the Cubs eventually/finally do sign an ace (probably Lester) and the White Sox don't, there will be the usual penny-pinching stories in the media, despite our payrolls from 2006-2013 being evidence to the contrary.

Seems they're really shopping Dunn hard right now. No Viciedo two days in a row. Certainly part of it's the fact that Danks HAS to play CF out there in SF, DeAza would be a disaster with that much ground to cover.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 13, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) I believe there are some restrictions. If you send a guy down, I do not believe you are allowed to immediately call him back up unless there is an injury that occurs. I think Danks can technically only be called up another 5 or 6 times this year. Doesn't have have to wait at least 10 days before he can be recalled again when he's sent down? Maybe I'm imagining things.

For the record, I want no part of Colby Rasmus. I do find it interesting how many are interested in signing Victor Martinez at his age, when he's just as likely to go south right when the White Sox most need him to be competitive in 2016 and 2017.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-...-153055373.html Well, Ward's father obviously isn't content with the explanations that are out there...obviously, he's going to be emotional too, the funeral is today or tomorrow, right? Some pretty direct accusations made at Stewart. This isn't going away anytime soon.

Then I'm going to go by "past demonstrated ability to succeed" in the majors and try to sign Colby Rasmus over trotting out the likes of Taylor, Danks, Wilkins, Willingham, Sierra, Tuiasasopo, etc. Taylor's already 29. There are reasons (just like Joe Borchard, for example) he was never given an extended look in the outfield, despite his obvious potential/ability at one time. We could just as easily argue that Jared Mitchell should be given that opportunity...since it seems whatever statistics are being put up in Charlotte have almost zero grounding in reality with what we're actually going to see in terms of major league performance. It's for this reason alone they're more likely to stay with Viciedo for 2015. Sure it would be nice to say, I'll take Melky Cabrera for LF, Russell Martin for C, James Shields for the #2 starter, Andrew Miller or Gregerson for LHR, Uehara/Robertson/K-Rod/Soriano/Janssen as a closer...but I will be believe it when I see it actually transpire.

So he's 0 for his last 13? He was 13 for 25, I think...hmmmm.