caulfield12

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) Former Cy Young winner Bob Welch dead at 57.........way too young. He was awesome with the A's Also the last MLB pitcher to win 25+ games...27 to be exact.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 05:56 PM) But they lost 14-2 and gave up 20 hits. Well, that's because Leesman sucks and is just filler...along with most of the remaining pieces of that bullpen.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:00 PM) Has there ever been a pitcher in the MLB or the minors who has ever been a full time starting pitcher AND a position player on his days off? I know Mike Hampton and Micah Owings and Carlos Zambrano had pinch-hit before, but did anyone play full time as both a pitcher and a hitter? Dontrelle Willis is another name that comes to mind in this category. Brooks Kieschnick did it with the Brewers in 2003 and 2004, but he was a reliever and a bench player with spot starts.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 07:27 PM) Is he gonna pitch or hit professionally? I would bet on pitching, since it's the White Sox and we've had some previous examples like Brian Anderson, Jason Dellaero, Sergio Santos, Brooks Kieschnick, etc. Those were position players who switched, but this kid has mostly been known for his work as an infielder, and "dabbled" with pitching, right? One of the things the Tigers' broadcasting crew said that Don Cooper keyed on with Noesi was his "fast arm action" and that he felt they could work with him, despite that disastrous appearance for the Rangers against the Sox (7 runs). So I'm just guessing...but there must be something about his arm action/mechanics/repeatability they really liked when they scouted him. We have more than enough infielders at the moment, anyway. Picked up by the Chicago White Sox a month later and signed to a minor league deal, Kieschnick then radically changed his career approach. Up to this point, Kieschnick had pitched in exactly two minor league games in his career—both token relief appearances in blowout games, one in 1999 and one in 2001. Nevertheless, in the 2002 season Kieschnick switched his primary focus to pitching, hoping to better his chances of making a major league roster as a pitcher who was also a versatile utility player. He ended up spending the entire 2002 season in the minor leagues with the triple-A Charlotte Knights, appearing in 25 games as a relief pitcher, 1 as an outfielder and over 40 as either a pinch-hitter or DH.[2][15] He finished the season batting .275 with 13 home huns in just 189 at bats; as a pitcher, he was 0-1 with a 2.59 ERA in just over 31 innings pitched. He was then signed by the Milwaukee Brewers before the 2003 season...and played the most versatile super utility role of all for 2 seasons, both pitching and hitting.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 09:52 AM) I wish I had the mental capacity to figure out what your point is here. I'm not saying you don't have a point, just that I'm just a little sad thatt my brain does not possess the processing power necessary to find it. I'll restate it simply. Rios (with the Rangers) and Garcia (with the White Sox) were essentially the same player, OPS-wise. Because Rios had 16/17 steals, and is a better defender (although we saw a TON of lapses out of him in 2013, although not quite like 2009/2011)...that trade was significant enough in and of itself to shift the balance in the standings so that the White Sox finished with the 3rd pick overall and took Rodon, while the Cubs finished at 66-96. To summarize, if Rios wasn't traded, the argument goes...we would have won 66 or 67 games (a 3-4 game improvement) over 63-99 and ended up with Kyle Schwarber as the #4 draft pick instead of Rodon at 3.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 09:36 AM) I don't mean to pile on, but man, that is a ridiculous argument. And even though Alex Rios had a worse OPS than Avisail Garcia, it still means a 3-4 swing in the standings over just 48 games, since the Cubs won 66? Wow. If Rios is so great that he can make up that much of a difference in the standings in 7 weeks, then why would they have traded him in the first place?

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 09:32 AM) Seriously, do you have a point? Gee, Alex Rios leaving for the Rangers automatically put us ahead of the Cubs in losses and got us Rodon, and it had nothing to do with Jake Peavy, or Matt Thornton...or any of about 15-25 other variables we could throw out there as the reason. That makes sense. He must have been THE reason. And because of all that money we saved not having to pay him, it's also the only reason we were able to free up money to sign Jose Abreu (as well as the signing bonus), even though we were willing to spend $140 million on Tanaka anyway. Seriously, do you also believe that?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 09:26 AM) So now you've admitted that others had a huge effect too, and a lot of other players picked up their performance. Why do you not find it reasonable that the team would have played better with a better player down the stretch? It's the same argument people made about how Ventura was a great manager in 2012. A lot of us said ANYONE not named Ozzie Guillen would have seemed great to that team, and would have had the same effect as a manager, essentially. Ergo, another logical or reasonable person might also say that team was a lot better off with Ozzie Guillen (or Rios gone), not so much because of the production or manager that replaced them but simply because of the "breath of fresh air/change of scenery" effect it had in the clubhouse. Still waiting for Rock Raines or bucket to weigh in...

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:42 AM) Because he's got an electric arm who throws a ton of ground balls and has enough stuff to strike people out. Right now, people assume he's a starting pitcher. If he ends up being a reliever, he'll fall down these lists but he can still be a valuable piece. And yet all we keep hearing about Danish is that he's around 88-90 as a starter while Montas is 95-98. Also, about his throwing motion/arm angles and mechanics being unconventional, so he gets compared to Sale (being risky to project as a starter, not the overall quality or level of talent/ability).

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) 1. You are comparing 114 games to 48 games. 2. Peavy was also traded, maybe getting rid of him from the clubhouse was the reason the Sox played better. Which is kind of the point...there's no way to determine it. Or maybe it was not having Matt Thornton getting lit up like a Christmas tree? FWIW, Erik Johnson basically pitched as well as or better than Peavy down the stretch, etc.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:40 AM) But I'm using what I do know, which says that Alex Rios was a better baseball player down the stretch. If you want, you can speculate that because Alex Rios was dining with both the wives of Dunn and Ramirez while also getting cotton candy for Viciedo's family but not De Aza's while consistently getting the right chewing tobacco for Mark Parent but always getting the wrong bubble gum for Robin Ventura, he was causing problems in the clubhouse, but there is absolutely no way to quantify those numbers so why are you even trying? It never seemed like Rios caused problems with his attitude in Chicago other than the occasional lack of hustle, and the team damn near won the division twice when he was with the White Sox. But they didn't. You really don't think it's human nature to try harder to impress new teammates, especially when you're going from one of the three worst teams in the majors (with perhaps the most negative attitude/mindset of any Sox team in recent memory, and the most mental mistakes) to one of the best franchises in recent MLB history? Fair enough. What do Rock Raines and bucket think about this specific question? There's no way I'm going to be convinced we would have won more games with Rios still around. We can look at their record before he left the team (.377) and afterwards (.417) and that's just as compelling as virtually identical OPS numbers.

Why are we so high on Danish again?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:23 AM) Alex Rios was also far superior on the base paths and in the field. He was a better player in the last 6-8 weeks of the season last year than Avisail Garcia. But there's no way to quantify what affect his mood/attitude had on the clubhouse. White Sox before Rios trade (43-71, .377 winning percentage) After Alex Rios trade (Aug 9)...finished 20-28, for a .417 winning percentage. If you extrapolate the team's record with Rios, they would have been expected to finish 61-101. That he played BETTER for the Rangers, in your opinion, doesn't mean he would have put up those same exact numbers (especially 16/17 in stolen bases) in Chicago for the final 6-7 weeks.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 8, 2014 -> 09:03 PM) I definitely agree with that. Don't think he can beat Hillary, though. It's going to be weird having Bill back in the White House as First Man. I wonder if Hillary will try to stifle him if he opens his mouth a lot as First Man. She should have in South Carolina leading up to that primary in 2008. That was perhaps the turning point, IMO.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:04 AM) Great call. Alex Rios OPS with the Rangers, .772 Avisail Garcia OPS with the White Sox, .774 Doubt it would have made any difference. In fact, with the team in free fall and everyone basically out for their own stats, you would/could/should even argue we might have lost more with Rios' attitude still in the clubhouse around the youngsters... I get that he has a very solid 859 OPS right now, but that has no bearing on what transpired last season in the final 2 months.

I guess it's kind of like that run the Twins had against us from 2001-2004, 2006-07 and 2009-2010. The Tigers are 41-21 against us since the beginning of 2011.

“I tend to be an optimistic guy,” Hahn said. “I never anticipate problems. Look, in reality, we have a history with Scott, a positive history with Scott. He had Joe Crede, he’s got (Dayan) Viciedo. We had Andruw Jones here. A fair amount of this concern, or discussion on how this could be difficult, I think is unnecessary and really not significant to us determining what’s going to happen here.” There’s some thought among baseball analysts that Rodon would ask for a signing bonus similar to what the No. 1 pick is expected to receive. Though top pick Brady Aiken signed with the Houston Astros for $6.5 million, the suggested slot for the No. 1 was roughly $7.9 million. The suggested slot amount for the third pick is $5.72 million and Rodon could try and command somewhere in between those two amounts. www.csnchicago.com (Dan Hayes)

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 04:42 AM) My thinking is they have a long term plan and should do what Houston is doing. Bring these kids up to play over the hacks they have. If they can't win with them in 4-6 years, than you move on or keep em. Or try to get more Springer/Singleton (offered to Dominguez and Grossman as well) "pre-service" contracts out there...of course, Boras is already onto the Astros and has been quoted extensively about this issue, and is Bryant's agent. The Cubs have another problem, waiting for Almora and Soler will put them into 2016 or 2017. There's no way they can afford to have a five plus year rebuild before they can arguably be competitive (and even then, it's not a given).

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 06:25 AM) I wonder how many tens of millions more they needed to throw at Tanaka for this board to stop saying this bs Apparently $200 million. It was easy to argue in 2005, when payroll went down as we parted with Ordonez, C-Lee and Valentin and added the veteran core in the form of about 8 new players that would lead us to the World Series title. But a direct relationship between Abreu and Rios, or Peavy and Rios...is elusive to grasp at best.

QUOTE (GoGoSox2k2 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 06:15 AM) If we do not trade Rios, we likely do not have the money to sign Abreu. Also, if we do not trade Rios he may have resulted in an extra win or two the last couple months which would have put us picking behind the Cubs in the draft and we would not have Rodon. Great move by Rick Hahn to shed that salary. Well, you can also say the same thing about trading Peavy, Crain, Thornton, etc. Or just the head-to-head record between the two teams last year. I think it was more a result of the convergence of luck and circumstances (the two teams ahead of us being comfortable with high school pitching prospects and maybe not so enamored with Scott Boras or his traditionally-high slot demands) than this pretty out there idea that Hahn planned to take Rodon a year ago, since that wouldn't have even been possible unless we accumulated more losses than the Marlins and Astros, etc.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 02:30 AM) That's what Kansas City's season has been like for their fans as well...a microcosm on one play.

There are some parallels to those Red Wings and the current Detroit Tigers. Like the Wings, the Tigers have star players and championship aspirations, but they have struggled at times. The Tigers have endured a particularly painful stretch since ascending to the best record in baseball at 27-12 back on May 18. It has been a breakdown on all fronts. The starting pitching has struggled, particularly Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. The defense has been terrible. The bullpen has been, well, about how we expected it to be: awful. Joe Nathan looks 100 years old. And, aside from Ian Kinsler, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, no one is getting on base consistently. This is when the Tigers need a Steve Yzerman-like leader, who will stand up and say, “Look guys, we’ve been playing terrible lately. We HAVE to play better, and we KNOW we can play better.” When I look at the Tigers’ roster, I don’t see a natural leader. Miggy is the best player on the team, so some may look to him for guidance. But he seems more focused on his own play than others. Just because someone is a star doesn’t necessarily mean he is a leader, but that also means that the mantle of leadership needs to be picked up by someone else. So, who else? Torii Hunter is a veteran and has seen it all during his playing days, but he strikes me as the team’s comic relief. Torii is the guy who would crack a joke to break the tension after losing five games in a row, but he would not stand up and call out the team. Two pitchers with Cy Young awards — Verlander and Scherzer — have leadership qualities, but it’s tough for a guy who plays only once every five games to stand up and say, “We sucked tonight.” Also, Verlander appears to be going through personal issues trying to recapture his form, and Scherzer, who has also been struggling, likely has contract issues in the back of his mind. Kinsler can’t be counted as a leader, after his comments prior to the season. When asked to lead players after veteran Michael Young left the Texas Rangers, Kinsler was apprehensive. “I was bogged down,” Kinsler told ESPN: The Magazine in March. “They wanted me to lead these young players, teach them the way to compete, when the only thing I should be worried about is how I’m performing in the game.” Even Brad Ausmus seems to be taking a more hands-off approach to the team. During the depths of the team’s recent slump, the manager addressed the players, but they continued to lose. I feel as if Ausmus, a rookie manager, doesn’t want to press his players, to push them, because he has come to a team that has been to the ALCS three straight times, and he doesn’t want to mess with that success. The Detroit Tigers are built to win now. Several players will not be back next season, and as each season goes by — and the team gets a little older — that championship window closes a little more. As the team continues to struggle, someone needs to stand up and speak up to right the ship and try to motivate the Tigers to play like we all know they can. http://www.freep.com/article/20140610/SPORTS02/306100050/

Lots of excuses and a bit of disrespect from Porcello... “Our guys did a heck of a job tonight battling and swinging the bats well, especially after a tough travel day that they had last night,” Porcello said. “I tip my hat to them. I just didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.” Porcello allowed nine hits and six runs (five earned) over five-plus innings with four strikeouts. Of the nine hits he allowed, five were for extra-base hits (three doubles, a triple and a home run). “Not to disrespect anything that they did tonight and take away how well they swung the bats, but from my side of it, I didn’t do a good job of making pitches,” Porcello said. “That’s what it comes down to.” He did take responsibility for one mistake. “That was a play where I just didn’t think and airmailed it,” Porcello said of his throwing error. “That was a stupid play and I deserved to come out of the game after that.” Porcello said it was a desperation throw. On a night when he didn’t have his best stuff, he tried to do a little too much. “There’s nothing you can do when a guy lays down a perfect bunt,” he said. “I, for whatever reason, thought I was going to do something about it and didn’t have the chance.” “We came back and got in the game and had the tying run at third there,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus. “That was a bright spot.” http://www.freep.com/article/20140610/SPOR...icago-white-sox

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 9, 2014 -> 09:35 PM) I hate to admit but the second movie almost got to me..... made me think of all of those whom I lost. both, actor and actress were in movie just this spring. You're referring to Divergent, I think....

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 9, 2014 -> 08:05 PM) there were several more, seay, weaver and I believe a pitcher who went to pitch for the marlins when they first came into the league. sorry, but I can't quite get the names at this point. edit ... it was Alex Fernandez pitcher In 1990, Fernandez won the Dick Howser Trophy for National College Baseball player of the year while pitching at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC). He previously played at the University of Miami before transferring to MDCC to be eligible to enter the Baseball Major League Draft. He was drafted that year (1990) in the first round (#4). Pitched for the Marlins from 1997-2000, retired with multiple injury issues.