caulfield12

By the way, Eduardo Escobar still has a .718 OPS playing half of his home games (300ish AB's) in a huge pitcher's park. Never thought he was capable of going .650+.

Welcome Jake Petricka offically to the closer's role. Or Webb. Or Guerra.

Welcome to Mr. Irrelevant...err, most irrelevant MLB game on the docket for today, except for draft choice position next June. Nice try Twins...you gave Kendrys Morales his spring training at the MLB level and then probably shipped him out at pennies on the dollar to the M's. Building that new ballpark was the worst thing that ever happened to them from a competitive standpoint. It has turned into Safeco Central.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 05:21 PM) C Todd Hundley 1B Hee Sop Choi 2b Bobby Hill SS Shawn Dunston 3B Josh Vitters RF Felix Pie CF Corey Patterson LF Alfonso Soriano How is Soriano there? Maybe Brant Brown, Brett Jackson, Jerome Walton or Dwight Smith. You could also add Kevin Orie and Gary Scott at 3B. Dunston didn't live up to his billing, but he was a fine MLB SS, if an inconsistent offensive contributor. Nobody had a better arm for that position in my memory. Geo Soto completely imploded.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 05:21 PM) I was listening to an old Baseball Prospectus podcast the other day that talked about how Jack Z was coached for his GM interview about new statistics and still judges players by batting average, RBI, homers, ERA etc. And I wasn't saying the Mariners specifically, I was saying a Mariners-type front office. They didn't put that defense in place (from 3-4 years ago) with Endy Chavez/Franklyn Gutierrez/Jack Wilson/Ichiro using any type of offensive statistics that I've ever heard of.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) For the players and their development. Too many people pretend like player's aren't affected by a s***ty environment. It's about managing to put together an environment where the players can semble some sort of argument in their heads that they should put in their work every day and try to win. Getting us salary relief that we don't currently need to sign some overpriced player from a weak free agent class to ANOTHER bad contract isn't worth frustrating the guys you are trying to develop into a "core." Who is more likely to do that in a development season? Players playing out the string and waiting for next year or retirement, like a Peavy/Rios/Dunn/Konerko....or guys with the fire to play like Eaton, Garcia or maybe even an Andy Wilkins who has a ton of skeptics to prove wrong. Obviously, Beckham/DeAza/Ramirez/Flowers...and even Viciedo at this stage...are what they are. How does continuing to run them out there everyday not contribute to that same s***ty environment? If the major argument is trying to maximize their trade value, fine. But that's not exactly leading to a healthy environment for a team. either. This was never going to be a year of stability/consistency/cohesiveness (especially the bullpen). Going into 2014, it looked like we had 5-6 positions that would be changing before 2015. The only thing that's changed about that scenario is Conor is sticking so far at 3B, and Viciedo's on the way out (with major questions now about Davidson, E. Johnson and Semien). A.Garcia got hurt and Abreu/Eaton (arguably) have proven themselves. Then you have Alexei. Everything else is in flux, other than Sale/Quintana at the top of the rotation.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 05:03 PM) 7 games ago he was hitting .251 with a less than .300 OBP. I don't recall anyone saying the Sox just had to see what he can do at the major league level. Because those numbers (April-May, as opposed to June and July) would indicate he was hitting as well as Alejandro DeAza his first two months in AAA. So that's either a sign of progress/learning/adjustment or just an insignificant blip on the radar/statistical noise. We can do the same thing with 6 weeks chunks for Beckham and Viciedo, while ignoring what the rest of the season is telling us. The truth is we know a heckuva lot more about Gordon and Dayan at the major league level than anything we can forecast or predict with Wilkins.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 04:55 PM) The one thing that gives me pause for the Yankees seriously being in on Danks is how heavily they used peripherals to evaluate Brandon McCarthy, and to a lesser extent Chase Headley (batted-ball speed). I feel like we'd be more likely to offload Danks to a team like the Mariners who still seem to use basic evaluations of performance, because Danks does not look good outside of the ERA, which itself is meh. Except the Mariners were the first team to use defensive metrics extensively. Just because they're interested in Viciedo doesn't mean they're ignoring his peripherals either, it just means they believe he has potential to be something more, so they can try to buy him on a low (just like 2 months ago teams inquiring about Beckham would have been overpaying had they been forced to pull the trigger at that point for an injury). The Mariners don't need pitching. That's the least of their problems. They need to improve nearly every element of their offense, other than Seager, Cano and Zunino. J. Jones and Ackley have been doing fine recently but who knows how long that will last. SS (Miller), Morrison and Hart have been really hurting them. Basically, their outfield's been a mess.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 11:43 AM) I did not mean we have any phenom in waiting that I would propose making such a rash decision to open playing time for. Just generally speaking, if you have a Kris Bryant or Carlos Rodon ready and waiting in AAA there should be an urgency to use their production on the major league team. In this case with Andy Wilkins, there no such urgency. Which goes back to what the Cubs are doing....their prospects like Bryant are TOO phenom(enal), so they absolutely (and literally) have to wait on them to make sure they don't waste a year of them reaching Super 2 status too quickly. Their Iowa roster has more talent than their MLB roster, even including Rizzo and Castro. Most GM's would take Russell/Soler/Baez/Bryant straight up over Rizzo/Castro these days.

Wouldn't Baez at 3B and Russell/Castro (choose the better defender to stick at SS) in the middle infield make the most sense?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 10:45 AM) It's hard for me to consider Beckham a bust of a draft pick considering he made it to the majors and has been a steady contributor when you are comparing him to guys like Jared Mitchell, Kyle McCulloch, Lance Broadway, Kris Honel, and Jason Stumm. As a prospect, yes, but a lot of those first rounders never even got close to Beckham's status as a prospect. EDIT: Given everything, I think Joe Borchard is the biggest draft bust in the franchise's history. With Fields and Brian Anderson following closely in terms of negative impact on the franchise in the last decade. Fields, because with Crede's demise, it led to the revolving door of Teahen/Viciedo/Beckham/Omar Vizquel/Morel/Hudson/Youkilis, etc. Anderson, because "Torii Hunter Lite" never came to fruition, except against Felix Hernandez...leading to another huge hole in the line-up in CF that has lasted until 2014. Borchard was our best chance at a home-grown left-handed power hitter in a generation. His failure more or less led to the acquisition of Thome eventually, and then Dunn. And Jon Rauch, not because of his draft position, but expectations and what he actually accomplished in a Sox uniform.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 10:15 AM) I think it's funny to watch the sentiment on Dunn swing wildly over the course of his contract when at it's completion he will give the White Sox basically what his career lines have been if you factor in age related regression. It's gone from excitement (finally a left handed middle of the order bat!), to unrequited bitterness and unmerciful booing, to discussing re-signing him, to now wanting to cut him thanks to an organization filler having a hot week. Andy Wilkins completely deserves a September callup when the roster expand, but Dunn's production/value is not tied to Wilkins in any way whatsoever. You make trades/cuts to make room for phenoms, not organization fillers. If you want to see what we got with him, give him some meaningless September at bats and a chance in Spring Training to win a bench spot. We have one of those, possibly, in Rodon. Three possible phenoms in Anderson, Hawkins and Montas. (NOBODY IN ALL OF BASEBALL WILL USE THAT LABEL for Saladino, Sanchez and Semien). If you want to push it, you include Adams and Micah Johnson, although that would be a MAJOR stretch. Who would you propose should play LF, 2B, C and DH next year, assuming Alexei Ramirez is still around?

The Purge---B Sabotage---C+ (Last Man Standing is much better) Tammy---F

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 09:06 PM) Eh, that Verlander guy turned out ok. Avila is good too. They have been good about unloading their prospects for the major league team, though. Avila hasn't been that good for a long time. He looked like a future AL All-Star for many years to come his first season or so and then his career went into a Boesch-like tailspin. Porcello has been good, but not quite like projected on draft day...similar to Jon Garland. Castellanos, jury still out. We'll see about Suarez. Rondon was a bust as closer.

It's far from a sure thing that Castro would deal well with the position change to 3B without moping and 2) whether he would be the same player offensively (2014 version, at least) if his defense started going south. Granted, power numbers are way down for MLB 3B, and there's almost as much of a lack there as at catcher, but moving Castro seems like a recipe for disaster. They would probably be better off moving him to a team who wants to keep him at SS for pitching. And Alcantara playing CF is just like Alexei Ramirez. Far from a finished product.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 08:09 AM) You are basing this off like a 2 week hot streak. I want you to remember that. If Dunn is traded (I believe he will be), I have no problem giving Wilkins a look for the remainder of the season, but counting on him as anything but insurance next year is crazy talk. I might actually prefer Jim Thome as the Sox full time DH. Now that's crazy talk. Baines or Ventura would be better.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 07:58 AM) If you had Bonds and Bonilla, chances are you wouldn't have had Thomas, or McDowell or Ventura or Fernandez, and yo uprobably wouldn't have had Lance Johnson as he was acquired for Jose DeLeon who was acquired for Bonilla. Bonilla was a rule 5 pick up by the Hawkeroo. Okay, Bip Roberts, haha.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 07:20 AM) Just an injury replacement. They don't burn an option on a guy they like and if they lose Morel to waivers (they won't), they don't care. He's really fallen off. There was a time when he hit .320 in the minors. He's hit something like .250/.320/.350 this year at the minor league level. Back troubles man. No. The guy was in the majors and was a regular for 5 seasons. Top 6 picks of the 1985 draft: Brewers - BJ Surhoff (34.3 WAR) Giants - Will Clark (56.2 WAR) Rangers - Bobby Witt (15.1 bWAR) Reds - Barry Larkin (70.1 WAR) White Sox - Kurt Brown (never played in majors) Pirates - Barry Bonds (162.4 WAR) We very easily could have had Bonilla and Bonds together instead of the Pirates (along with Thomas, Ventura, McDowell, Alvarez, Sosa, Bere, Thigpen, Hibbard, Radinsky, Fernandez and Lance Johnson). Talk about a loaded team. Oh, well. Life goes on.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 07:36 AM) For a guy with an .804 OPS (3rd on the team) Adam Dunn sure does get a lot of grief as a player who apparently people would rather see anyone else. It's funny. I was accused of being pessimistic in the very thread a DH with an .804 OPS needs to be replaced immediately because he is just too painful to watch. Wilkins has had an unreal week. But it is just a week. It has nothing to do with his OPS or his production the last two months (or lack thereof). Comparing OPS in a vacuum doesn't help much either, because we all know Alexei Ramirez is worth 10X what Adam is despite a lower OPS. It's all about 2015. Replaced immediately...maybe that's too strong, but why would it matter if he was, assuming they could get $2-4 million of salary relief at least? Is there anyone who would care one way or the other if Dunn is gone? I would venture to say that more fans would come out to the ballpark to see youngsters who have the drive/fire/determination to prove themselves than someone playing out the string. The White Sox are basically stuck between 4-8 games below .500 and nothing dramatic is going to change that, so what's the harm in finding out if Wilkins is capable of putting up an 800+ OPS against RHP? If he does that, it means the White Sox could use their RH players (Garcia, Viciedo, Semien, etc.) next year in combination with Wilkins and save spending $10-15 million on a veteran DH.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jul 22, 2014 -> 02:06 PM) well, I would like to thank those who posted either for or against. many thanks in closing, what I wanted to point out is, baseball org were always taken advantage by others in in the sox case, jr was always above board. I wanted to point out, why not, why couldn't the owners play hardball, they the owners will lose their advantage when they become free agents. now, what came across with my examples (poor one at that) is I was defending HOU and my dislike for Scott B. while I do dislike Scott B and the way he does business, I was trying to us him and examples of what he was behind in the sox dealings as the example. thanks It's kind of like comparing a torts lawyer and a Fortune 500 corporation. Of course, they are often going to be diametrically opposed in their positions. That's what provides the checks and balances, preventing one side or the other from becoming too powerful, along with the MLBPA. To say that the White Sox deserve sympathy for having to deal with Scott Borases of the world, that would be going too far. The Sox are valued somewhere in the $700-850 million vicinity. Nobody should be crying too much for them.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jul 24, 2014 -> 06:31 AM) And just like dick, you put words in others mouths. Nowhere has anyone said it was a" happy story" . I will say this yet again as I did yesterday so here goes one more time. With what Sox fans have endured the last 3 1/2 seasons with Dunn , it's about giving a Wilkins a shot and nothing more. Nobody has said Wilkins IS the future and nobody has ignored the fact Wilkins is not a top prospect. I agree its likely he does not develope into much but again, when you consider the position the Sox are in , what have they got to lose by bringing Wilkins up and see what he can do? Wilkins is 25/26 years old so he is old to be considered a spect but he is in the age group that fits with Hahn's plan so there's nothing to lose by giving him some at bats. Let him give Jose a break from playing first here and there. At the very least, he should be rewarded for his recent hot streak. It's good for the Sox minor leaguers to see that almost anyone can get an opportunity (for now) if they produce tangible results. Whether he's a platoon placeholder or flames out in 2014, who knows? But anything's better than 2 more months of Dunn. And I'm not sure anyone thought Conor Gillaspie would still be holding down 3B four months into the 2014 season. Sometimes, players surprise. Not usually. But it's not beyond the realm of possibility, either. In the end, we're already playing "most irrelevant game in MLB today" with the Twins, who cares? We're going to be replacing 2B, LF, C, DH and possibly SS in next year's line-up, so let's roll the dice.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 11:31 PM) I think most people respond to their circumstances. If good is near, they're good. If bad is near, they're bad. So are the only good people the ones who remain good in the face of the circumstances that usually produce bad? Or, are the only bad people those who remain bad in circumstances that usually produce good? I've always been fascinated by the Holocaust and what stays fresh in my mind is the concept of "the banality of evil." It came from Hannah Arendt's description of a Nazi middle-management figure who was put on trial for his crimes against Jews. He, and most other perpetrators, were not exceptionally evil. Not born to be evil. They could have been caught up in something for the greater good. In this context, banality means not "trivial" but rather commonplace. The idea is that, for the most part, people go with the flow. Be it evil, be it good. Nazi Germany, of course, isn't the only example and perhaps not even the worst (let's not get into the business of comparing human atrocities). Was every person that existed during slavery and Jim Crow America automatically evil unless they were actively fighting against those institutions? Are many of us or our loved ones evil due to the ways they enabled institutions (and more personal situations) to actively harm gay people? There are a million examples. So, as to the original question, I don't know. We are capable of a lot. There aren't many people who will be reliably "bad," but not many who will be reliably "good" either. Viktor Frankl's book about the Holocaust addresses this topic exceedingly well..."Man's Search for Meaning"

1) Beane has already said on numerous occasions that Chavez and Kazmir (look at their IP totals from 2010-2013) are going to have to be rested down the stretch, as well as being extra careful with Gray....and that there was no way he saw those three and the Cubs' additions being the only starters from the time of that trade. 2) He was something like 6-0 with a 2.60 ERA over his last 11 starts, so even if he was on the market, it would take more than any package we could put together short of Alexei Ramirez. 3) Beane will not put the interests of one valuable pitcher over the plan he set up for the last three months of the season (as well as the playoffs).

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 06:29 AM) I think the Sox are covered at first. I dont know why you want another first baseman(Howard), but I am fairly sure that the Sox will be using Abreu going forward DH....and resting Abreu occasionally

It's way too cutesy and attempting to be overly-clever to be written by a baseball player. That whole "About Schmidt" thing with the African refugee/orphan, that was classless.