caulfield12

Translation: Dick Allen, not useful. But I jest. I've already exonerated him for losing our Gordon Beckham bet, where he incessantly vilified me for a couple of weeks for being negative and "rooting for a Sox player to do poorly (hitting under .240 was the prediction)," that I wasn't a real fan, was a miserable person, didn't come to games or buy season tickets, etc. Nevertheless, he still needs his fix of taking shots at Don Cooper and protecting Gordon Beckham. Probably not the right side of the argument to be on at this point for most Sox fans. So this year, it's on again....I'm predicting Gordo will be over .270 with no pressure at all on him. It's not that I WANTED him to do poorly, it's just that 2010-2014 taught us to expect nothing different...like pounding a round peg into a square hole or vice-versa. FWIW, I enjoy MR. ALLEN (couldn't write I enjoy DICK without envisioning Beavis and Butthead) about 80-85% of the time (haha, assigning percentages is always fun)...especially when it comes down to discussions about team finances/business aspects of the game/economics principles. Overall, he's one of my favorite posters, along with Marty and TUC. Always having complete agreement or enforced acceptance of a certain viewpoint/censorship will destroy a board. And I've probably had as many run-ins and arguments with Kyyle and Northside as he has...maybe more. Their bark is worse than their bite (waits nervously to be banned while enjoying chicken tenders with honey mustard dipping sauce at Applebee's with Ozzie and Ozney in Lawrence after B12 tourney game).

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:40 AM) I'd be more interested if his price falls into the $20-30m range. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of knowing how the Gillaspie/Beckham experiment will turn out, but I'd almost rather see him at 3B than 2B, assuming Micah Johnson eventually can handle it. That would give us a tremendously-athletic infield, Olivera/Alexei/Micah/Abreu-LaRoche.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:36 AM) 10 years ago Illinois was the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tourney. Now they are about to miss the tourney for the 5th time in 8 years. Bruce Weber did more damage to the Illinois basketball program than sanctions in the 90s and looking more and more like Groce is not the guy to right the ship. Depressing. Try missing 10/15 tourneys when your school had made something like 18/23 prior to that, and the main reason was because the coach had the temerity to never lose a first round NCAA game but consistently had a hard time getting to the Sweet 16 since 1986-87. And some would argue it's 11/15 since the Hawkeyes were relegated to the play-in game after losing 6 of their final 7 and collapsing down the stretch. That said, Iowa is not Illinois (because of Chicago alone). I suppose for the Illini, it's almost ludicrous to miss anything approaching 50% or more.

Doesn't Illinois have one of the best recruiting classes in the B10? I would think that HAS to count for something, although it's a trap in a way...when you hesitate to pull the trigger on firing a coach because you're afraid to lose his "prized recruiting class." (also, like IND with Crean). http://globegazette.com/sports/local_sport...1cc4c002e0.html When they canned Lickliter, Iowa nearly instantaneously lost Ben Brust to WI and Cody Larson to the Univ of Florida, as well as F Aaron Fuller. They were both pretty highly touted, but neither of them ended up being star players and Lickliter would just have postponed the rebuild process for another 2-3 years had they stuck with him. Brust averaged 24.6 points as a senior at Mundelein High School, earning one of five spots on the Class 4A second-team all-state team selected by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. The 6-foot-2 guard topped 50 points in games against Evanston and Buckeye (Ariz.) as a senior and scored more than 30 points five times this season. He also averaged 5.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.1 steals. He committed to the Hawkeyes last summer and was part of a November signing class that ranked in the top 25 nationally at that time.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/112350602/ta...th-skippers-gms

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/112289452/so...six-year-offers 4-6 year offers on the table, fired his agent and trainer recently, fwiw....must have been blowback from the UCL elbow ligament rumors being out there everywhere.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...;mode=probables Montas getting the start today, despite not having a picture avail at MLB.com. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0304-story.html

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 07:29 AM) Does anyone ever look bad in spring training on the practice field? Just take the encouraging things about Jesse Crain. You would think he has at least a minor shot of being on the opening day roster, but I actually read from some insider non fluff piece, the Sox are "hoping" to get him in a spring training game as some point, so really, if Will Ferrell can play spring training games, Jesse Crain isn't close. Ynoa may be a decent pick up. But until he starts showing how great he looks in games that count, I take all the good reports with a grain of salt. His ERA was over 5.00 in high A last year. I don't recall Felipe Paulino looking particularly good in ST last year.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/12/us/ferguson-...ests/index.html FERGUSON PART DEUX Right on time for a new Cardinals' season.

http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/white-...&ocid=yahoo Was at 93-96 already....clearly, he's not going to go North with the major league team...but if he stays healthy, it's quite easy to imagine him making an impact, especially if guys like Petricka, Guerra and Putnam are struggling.

Rodon definitely wasn't sharp, and his fastball wasn't crisp. They weren't all over him, but they weren't swinging and missing much at all on the fastballs, which he threw 85%. Hence, the idea that he was mostly out there to get to his pitch count (50?) and work on fastball command/control on the corners. He wasn't exactly hit around in the first, balls found some holes....then again, he did get lucky when a runner was stealing and the batter hit the ball right at where Sanchez was running to cover the bag or it would have been another hit. Gallo did a good job of going with the pitch and taking it to the opposite field, fwiw. To me, the biggest problem was his control and the fact that he kept getting behind in the count and was forced to come over the heart of the plate with fastballs. He didn't seem TOO ruffled about things, and Brantly didn't help matters much at all, EITHER. He probably threw less than a half dozen sliders, and they were more slurvish than the sharp breaking one that's his plus/plus pitch. Melton was remarking that Rodon threw 97 MPH at NC State when he broke onto the scene as a prospect, and seemed to believe he was at 95-97 MPH today, but just from the naked eye and the batter's reactions, I'd guess it was 91-93/94. No proof of that at all, just my idea. The change-up, the 3rd pitch he's supposedly been working on...definitely a work in progress and way below average. It will get better if he improves his fastball command, can get ahead in counts and then the hitter gets into defense mode. The one main plus is that he's not going to go through the spring with a 0.00 ERA and force a discussion with Boras and the media about it being a travesty if he's not on the OD roster. As for height, I'd say 6'1 or 6'2", he's a BIG guy, the power in his trunk/torso/legs makes him appear shorter than reality because of his build.

Is Melton big enough for anyone at Deadspin to care? As long as he doesn't pull an OU fraternity comment out of his butt, he's probably still golden...really, if there's ANY tangible proof that JR is loyal to a fault that exists out there, it's Melton's deteriorating spring training performances that are even more comical than the worst of Hawk Harrelson's petulance with umpires or the Sox getting shafted.

Yay, first tv game of the spring!!! It wasn't working on my ipad last week when I was away from home.

QUOTE (flavum @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 09:01 AM) Looking at Rodon, I see a lot of comparison to David Price in terms of career path. Price was drafted in 2007, but didn't play. In 2008, his Age 22 season, he made 19 starts at various levels, and went 110 innings. Then he made his Rays debut in mid-Septmber, and basically was a reliever for the postseason run, and got 20 more innings. Total- 130 innings Then he went back to AAA to start the 2009 season, Age 23. He made 8 starts/34 innings, and an unspectacular 3.93 ERA, but was called up in mid-May. He then made 23 starts for the Rays, over 128 innings, and had his struggles--4.42 ERA. Total- 162 innings Then he went on to have several great seasons starting at Age 24, with mostly 200+ innings. He had one year where he missed about 6 starts. The Rays went 105-65 in his starts. If the Sox are getting Rodon for 6-7 years, let's play this right. He's 22, and has 24 minor league innings under his belt. He needs innings, and there should be no rush to move him up. My hope is that they really don't need him before September, but can use him for their own postseason run. You never know what the need will be during the season, but at the very least get about 40-50 innings in the minors before thinking about calling him up. Very well said, we can go ahead and hope for 140, 150, 160-170...but that would be about the absolute max, and it will probably be closer to the lower than higher number IMO. More importantly, we shouldn't expect domination out of the gate. OTOH, times have changed dramatically for baseball offenses during the over half decade since PRICE debuted. 4.42 ERA would be 3.8-4.2 these days, depending on the competition in your division, stadiums, etc. (like NL West vs. AL East).

http://m.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article/112...sox-drop-royals The dreaded Merkin puff piece on Johnson has arrived. "You notice his speed and his range, even his at-bats, you start seeing what people are talking about and he's getting in the middle of everything," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "He had some nice turns defensively, I thought he showed some of the range. He had the one ball that came out of his glove, but he still was able to get to it. He just continues to play hard and play with purpose." #thechosenoneprodigalJOHNson

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/pro...?P=Engel-Beltre 25 year old Dominican CFer who looks to be a high 600's/low 700's OPS guy with 31 and 36 stolen base totals on his stat sheet. Last really productive offensive season was Bakersfield in 2010, although he has put us as many as 13 homers in a minor league campaign, 2012 in AA. Property of the Rangers his entire career until now.

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 12:44 AM) that TV deal and the money coming in is really good. It matters to Mark Teahen and Jeff Keppinger, haha.

Best scenario, Sanchez in the minors....Johnson proves himself, Bonifacio backs up everywhere/PR and Beckham is platoon 3B and occasionally at 2B (Bonifacio should get most of his ab's here and in the OF) and 3-5 games at SS, at MOST, for Gordo.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 05:08 PM) That's kind of a strange ranking; Tigers and Angels have farm systems at the bottom, but they are in the top 1/2 on this list. What is the time window or horizon for that? 2-3 years out? 5 years?

QUOTE (shysocks @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:11 PM) Related: Soler, Baez, and Bryant just left the yard back-to-back-to-back. I know because Twitter lit up with Cub jubilation. Cubulation?

Sanchez, at best, is described as complementary or competent. That's upside, he "won't kill you" or something like that. Johnson can change a game offensively AND defensively (at least, he showcased that side of his skills today). Royals' guys saying Micah Johnson had an absolutely SUPERB performance today. 4/4, two great defensive plays and almost made the defensive play of the pre-season if he could have held onto the ball.

Hawkins impressing so far this spring... Didn't realized we'd cornered the market on LaRoche brothers, I guess to replace the Danks Boys.

Anyone have any "inside info" on this guy? Former Ranger...just showed up in the game today.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:42 PM) Yea those things have to be handled with an inner fire. The season is too long to let things bother you. Vow to do better then let it roll off your back. Yeah, visibly frustrated and had his hands folded across his chest....lets chalk it up to competitiveness and not immaturity or petulance.

Micah Johnson has dominated this game offensively and defensively... Would have been the best play of the spring had he held onto it according to Royals' radio guys.