caulfield12

That's the question...how assiduously do Cooper and Ventura really look at those current stats and comb through them when looking at bullpen match-ups? Ventura's a lot like Harrelson in that sense. His memory of previous seasons overrules what his eyes are seeing in the current season. It's like his brain can't synthesize both pieces of independent information. So we have this prevailing idea that Mauer is nearly equally dangerous against lefties (as righties) because he had a 740 OPS in 420 at-bats from 2011-2013 against lefties. But his overall OPS during that time was 838 with an 885 OPS against righties.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:32 PM) +1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 I will root for progress and the core of the organization to do well. If they happen to lose games those...it's not crushing like in 2006 or 2008. I still remember that stupid Jenks/Carlos Gomez game in 2008 down the stretch and the feeling that moment...in the last couple of years, you just pretty much expect to lose. Perhaps we're so used to losing now and seeing everything go wrong in the 7th-8th-9th inning that nothing surprises anymore.

Webb's got a long ways to go before he ever becomes a big league closer. Where's his alleged 96-98 MPH fastball?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:45 AM) Hopefully he paid for that seat with the Marlins paycheck. If he was there to see someone from the Giants organization (Bochy, etc.), then 100% he was comped through them. Just can't imagine him actually paying any money to the Chicago White Sox yet. More than likely, he just came to the "Will Call" window and surprised the heck out of the agent working that window.

It was more over the White Sox being used to inflate A-Rod contract value as a "false suitor" when there was never any intention for him to come to Chicago (which surely drove JR up a wall). They've had a few recent contacts with Boras because of Danks, Viciedo, Crede...I think Hahn on draft day mentioned a couple of other examples. Andruw Jones was another, for sure.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 04:06 PM) I've got to dispute this. Winning mid-80's numbers of games and missing the psotseason is still a competitive team to me. And I should throw in, I'm not quite sure the 2012 team was "Designed to compete" and yet somehow they pulled it off. Or 2008, for that matter. That said, nobody will reward the 2010 and 2012 for their "surprising" finishes or KW's seemingly logical additions of guys like Youkilis, Liriano and Myers.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 04:32 PM) Problem there, if it really is a problem, is Eaton and Gillaspie would be the only LH bats. (Assuming we're talking Tomas/Eaton/Garcia with Dayan at DH) That's another reason to look at Frederich Cepeda (to balance out the line-up), if they're close to being in "win now" mode for 2015. He's a little long in the tooth, but a 2 year deal with an option would be plausible and much cheaper than Tomas. Plus, Tomas almost means Thomas in Spanish, and we shouldn't trust those with two first names, like Ricky Bobby. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb This article about the continuing downtrend in offensive production would highlight why the addition of Abreu was so significant and also why they might think twice/thrice before throwing in the towel on Viciedo.

Yeah, he's more likely to be a Boggs than a Putnam at this point. When a team as bad as the DBacks are willing to give up on you...that says a lot. Then again, Webb hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire. But I don't think they're to the point with Daniel that sending him to Charlotte would be of any benefit to his career, for example, making him the full-time closer down there and seeing how he would respond (and since they lose 2/3 games, he wouldn't get so many opportunities anyway).

Switzerland was ranked 6th coming into the tourney, right? Crazy World Cup so far. Can't wait for that Uruguay/Italy winner-take-all game. Interesting match-up. Wasn't that impressed with Italy at all watching them in the first half. Might as well have been watching the 2009/11/13 White Sox highlights.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 04:22 PM) I've been a Viciedo supporter on the board for a long time but he just doesn't offer enough offensively to justify him playing in the field and he really doesn't hit enough to be a primary DH. He's just not very good. And yet we've been saying similar things about Gordon Beckham in 2011, 2012, 2013...and here we now are with about 25% of the fanbase or more wishing to keep him around. Fwiw, Beckham's now 26 or 27, Viciedo just turned 25. There's ZERO doubt if Viciedo ends up with a 650ish OPS, compared to 750ish...that the writing will be on the wall in terms of his White Sox career, and there will be considerable justification for moving on. That doesn't mean he doesn't end up later on becoming a Bautista/Encarnacion/Morse/Melky Cabrera/Pedro Alvarez when he's 27-30, etc. But the odds are not in his favor, either. And for all of those examples, there are plenty of guys like Domonic Brown who were even MORE hyped...struggled...put together a career year and then failed to make adjustments to pitchers readjusting to him (which may be the case with Dayan since the middle to end of May this season).

It goes back to that effective velocity article that someone linked. When Danks is throwing nearly every pitch within 4-6 miles of the previous one, and the spotters aren't able to distinguish between fastball/cutter/two-seamer/four-seamer/slider and change-up, then there's a huge problem. As we all know, when you can push that difference to 8-12 MPH, then you have something. With movement and tricking the batter's eye into seeing 87-88 as 92-93, then you can pitch quite effectively...but, as mentioned before, you can't come after hitters when you're behind in the count with your fastball and expect positive results start after start unless your location is just pinpoint.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 03:49 PM) You want a rich man's plaything? Look at 1060 w Addison and tell me if that's better for you. I think that reference is to the Detroit Tigers.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:09 AM) Pitch perfect. Except for Anna Kendrick singing Titanium in the shower... The funny thing is that's exactly what Marty or Ayn Rand would also say. Since 2005, maybe there is this idea coming from ownership that the fans "owe" the White Sox their loyalty/allegiance and discretionary dollars, as if they were Shakespeare in the Park or a ballet company operating as a non-profit/501-c-3. Well, as all research proves, you lose the goodwill from a World Series title after about 5 seasons, and that's exactly what happened...despite that 26-5 run in 2010, not making the playoffs that year and then the disastrous 2011 season with Rios/Dunn/Ozzie becoming a joke and the running feud with KW turned off a lot of fans who were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think there are some other issues here that make the comparisons harder to make. One, the feud between KW and Ozzie Guillen, and JR's attempts to pacify both, which ended up frustrating them and causing them not to be able to do their jobs. As far as keeping Reed, Peavy and Rios and "going for it" in 2014, what would the argument have been why that team with the same players would go from 63 wins to 90 wins? It's just not a credible or realistic position to take. Now in 2007, the circumstances were quite different because that team was only 2 years removed from a World Series championship and the core guys (AJ, Crede/Fields, Buehrle, Dye, Thome, Konerko, Jenks, Garland, etc.) were still in their primes or fairly close to them still. You could argue that 2007 was a blip or aberration...whereas now we're going on six years without a playoff appearance, so the desire to "stick with the plan" doesn't make sense anymore because it hasn't been working for so long. Plus, there's sentimentality of holding onto those core guys from 2005. Did anyone really get upset when we traded Peavy, Rios and Reed? Not really. I think there'll be more fans upset if Beckham is/was traded than those three guys, particularly Rios and Reed.

From the write-up, and questions about the injury he suffered in this last season (referenced to the fact that his playing time was cut and he struggled a bit for Industriales)...I'd guess he will be somewhere between Soler on the bottom end and Abreu on the top end...$45-60 million should be the range. According to this report (BA), he has below average speed (which runs counter to Bjarkman), and he looks more like Viciedo in terms of frame than someone with the athleticism of a Puig or Cespedes in the OF.

So would you rather spend $60-75 million on this guy or double that on Tanaka? We definitely need help in the outfield, not only this but 2015 and beyond...but it also seems that it's about time that one of these guys flopped. Soler hadn't really been that disappointing before the injuries hit this year, but 22 year olds aren't a sure thing. Then you look at the type of deal that Cespedes signed, where he can become a free agent after four years (2015 season), you don't want to give that type of deal to a 22 year old because you'll miss out on his prime of 27-30.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:27 AM) I think Hahn and KW are very similar and would do very similar things. KW always said that there was a time when the Sox were going to have to re-tool and start trading veterans for prospects. However, with what he deemed the core players still doing well he was sticking to the "go for it" plan until the organization felt iut was time to switch philosophies. I don't think it is a coincidence that once the organization decide to "go in a different direction" that KW stepped aside for Hahn. KW did his time and didn't want to go through the "re-tooling" process. He went back to what he always said he liked the most' scouting. I have no doubt that if KW had stayed the GM that he would be on a similar path as Hahn. Maybe not the exact same moves but a similar philosophy. Remember who the primary scout for the big players is for Hahn, KW. Other than Jeff Keppinger, most of the moves would have been pretty similar. We'd already traded a closer in Santos, so doing the same thing with Reed wasn't a surprise to anyone. Abreu, check. All the bargain basement relievers, and Paulino. Check. We can't sit here and say KW would have already become impatient with Flowers and went out and spent money on Salty, etc.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) Dave Dravecky is the only thing that comes to mind. But that was cancer-related bone breakdown, right?

This thread has just gone awry. As far as David Wells helping Buehrle significantly, it's possible...but Sirotka was also a left-hander who came into his own in 1999 and 2000 and was the leader of that pitching staff, in many ways. I'm sure he also had a positive influence on Buehrle.

Finally found a copy of The Fault in our Stars online, with Spanish subtitles, haha. It's been pretty tough here in China not being able to watch Neighbors, The Other Woman, Chef, The Grand Budapest Hotel and 22 Jump Street, Million Dollar Arm. Pretty sure How To Train Your Dragon 2 comes out next month. Transformers 4 next weekend... Just to keep Greg happy, I've watched Noah, Son of God (not my favorite telling of that story, The Passion of the Christ or even The Last Temptation of Christ were much more compelling viewing), Heaven is for Real (always enjoy Kinnear), Blended (Chinese students love this movie, showed it the final week when we were done with reviewing for finals). Edge of Tomorrow and X-Men are still playing here...along with Godzilla. And then episodes of the new 24/Live Another Day season. Never watched the original, but am enjoying it.

http://m.whitesox.mlb.com/news/2014/06/19/...ss-gets-a-boost Here's the whole Carroll story...about his "doodle" hats that you can erase and write new messages on them every day. Points for creativity...they sell for around $20. Yeah, that number is Liberty, Missouri, Kansas City north suburbs.

http://m.whitesox.mlb.com/news/2014/06/19/...pts-for-college White Sox happy their 39th round pick (part of their ACE/RBI program, Public League player from Morgan Park) is going to university. Phil Rogers "feel good" story. Kid seems like the Public League version of Adam Eaton. Lives in Dolton.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 01:51 AM) Baseball isn't like other sports. Your odds against a team can change drastically game-to-game because the pitching match-ups change each day. If other sports played 3-4 game sets like baseball does, there would be TONS of sweeps. But in baseball, it's hard to sweep anyone. I put it at like 5% chance we get swept. Like the recent Royals/Twins 4 gamer...all the momentum in the world was on the side of KC.

Eaton with another bad throw. Caught it flat-footed and then had a little hesitation/"look first" in his attempt.

Morales 0 for this last 16 Why do we have Scott Downs on the roster again?