caulfield12

It's amazing how bad Ellsbury, McCann and Beltran have been this year. (Not to mention Sabathia). Without Tanaka, Betances and Solarte (all international free agents), they'd be in major trouble. Two home-grown guys, as well. The Yankees have always done an excellent job with their Latin American scouting and development.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2014 -> 07:17 PM) Anderson doubled his walk total on the year. And Hawkins' K numbers continue to increase.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 23, 2014 -> 08:11 PM) Noesi hasn't won a game in forever. Maybe pull him now. Carroll was warming up but there's no way you can use him with the Sox taking the lead. Have to use Petricka or Webb here.

Way to go Alexei. Already surpassed his homer total for 2013, with 2/3rd's of the season left to go. This game was crawling along in sand. Girardi was about to put in Betances for Kuroda, the 3rd oldest starter in baseball after RA Dickey and Colon. Wanted to get him the win. Kelly Johnson sucks at 1B, btw. Also, Carroll was warming up. Thank god that potentially disastrous situation was avoided with the White Sox taking the lead.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ May 23, 2014 -> 06:21 PM) I wish the Sox had McCann. Have you looked at his stats (this year) and contract? Salty's deal is looking much better so far, comparatively.

6.26 ERA for Noesi in a Sox uniform, 16 ER in 23 IP. 23 IP/28 hits. You'd have to think they would be more willing to try Petricka as a starter again, than Webb. But that's not even very likely. Still think they will bring Hanson in before they get Erik Johnson hammered.

Well, that one can't be blamed on the defense. McCann's been in a terrible slump, too. Earl Weaver's favorite play....the three-run homer.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/yahoo-sports...-035501841.html

QUOTE (beautox @ May 23, 2014 -> 03:38 PM) Doubt it, Sox will likely have 4 possibly 5 top 100 prospects. For this conversation lets say we draft Rodon or Aiken, they'll most likely slot around 14-18, Hawkins provided he doesn't fall off a cliff again should rank in a similar spot as last time (#68), Davidson provided he keeps up his hot streak should remain where he was last year around possibly a little further down #68, Micah should slot around 75-80ish based off where 2B prospects tend to land and the fact only Mookie and Odor are actually ahead of him and performing right now and Tim Anderson even with his rawness should be around 93-100. So thats potentially 5 top 100 prospects. Please tell me how I'm crazy. That was Hawkins' rating was coming into last season. He's going to have a huge fight on his hands to overcome last year's wave of criticism (think White Sox fans overlooking Dunn's 2011 for reference to how scouts were taken aback by Hawkins, even though most will acknowledge he was rushed a level too quickly in retrospect). Davidson also has an uphill battle to figure in somewhere between 80-100, and he is simultaneously fighting against an additional 15-20 players who are being drafted this summer. Anderson has the raw ability, but there are doubts about him sticking at SS. He's still the most likely to be ranked (in the Top 100, of all our prospects) after the #3 guy in the draft. If we somehow got Fedde or Hoffman at 44, they might be in the last 10.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 23, 2014 -> 04:58 PM) I should say that I never said I wanted Rasmus, I just said that he's not out of the realm of possibility. All I know is that we have money to throw, he hits LH, plays great defense and hits for power. These are all things any team could use. Obviously his track record isn't without flaw but would he be anywhere near the White Sox price range if he was? It's one thing not to want to bring Rasmus aboard, there's definitely an argument there and I quoted some below, but taking shots at the Sox ability as an organization to keep players healthy is bulls***, especially with the snarky overtone. It wasn't long ago they were considered an anomaly because of how much they succeeded in that department. You're right but are we going to refrain from signing marquee FAs as a whole? We'll have to adjust to the current market demands at some point to supplement our homegrown talent. I would comfortably wager that in the next two offseasons there will be a contract that surpasses Abreu's dollar amount. His attitude is definitely a concern but that, along with his injury concerns, could make him an affordable commodity. I've been opining for Victor Martinez since last offseason but it seems now his ability to hit the baseball is very apparent around the league with his great start. Either way, the Sox are going to need to bring a long something in the middle of the order for next season if they are serious about contending. Well, especially considering they already knew about Abreu's pre-existing ankle conditions and Chris Sale's mechanics when both those guys were brought on board.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 23, 2014 -> 01:24 PM) At this point the fact that sales elbow hasn't blown up with that motion perhaps is evidence that he has top percentile ligament strength and that if he does have problems it won't be the elbow, maybe shoulder. I hope that's the case. And a shoulder injury is the last thing you want to see with any pitcher. See Webb, Santana, Danks, etc.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 23, 2014 -> 09:15 AM) I think he's the best pitcher in the AL and it's not particularly close, and the only other pitcher I can even rate on his level is Kershaw. Scherzer, before his start against the Indians, had the numbers to go up against anyone. And it's hard to say that about Sale unless he goes through 2-3 more seasons of 30+ starts. He's never going to be Mark Buehrle durable, but.... http://espn.go.com/mlb/features/cyyoung Cueto and Tanaka are deserving of consideration overall, as well. Verlander's clearly going backwards. Curt Young (A's pitching coach) with Grey, Chavez and Kazmir (two reclamation projects if there ever were) should be MVP...considering all the injuries that staff has overcome.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 23, 2014 -> 01:20 PM) The good news is the White Sox, particularly this season, have an exemplary record of keeping their players healthy so we could be confident at him overcoming those problems if he came to the south side. Are we going by the historical record or the last 18 months or so?

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 23, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) I really don't think Rasmus is out of the realm of possibility but if Hahn understands that we have been nearly last in defense the last two years one of the ways of changing that is shifting Eaton to LF and bringing in a defensive CF. Rasmus is a LH power hitter who plays a great CF. Kind of a buy low candidate with the injuries he's had. I follow the Blue Jays pretty regularly and their fans find it unlikely that they bring him back. Do you think Hahn's willing to stake his job on that kind of move? Because you're still talking Abreu-esque money, probably...with the dearth of quality free agents out there, and Sandoval imploding so far this season. It's too bad we didn't have a shot at Morneau (with this the last year of Dunn) as that's turned out to be a great pick-up for the Rockies. Seth Smith has been highlighted by many in the last year or so. Melky Cabera's had a great bounce-back year but how much can you trust that? And, once again, he's more of a corner guy, he doesn't belong in CF. Or do you go after a veteran like a Morales (DH) that probably isn't part of your long-term core but can be here for the next 2-3 seasons...or Victor Martinez, who's basically Konerko's age but hitting better than even Miguel Cabrera so far. That would mean leaving Viciedo in LF or RF, and that's two defensive liabilities in one outfield together (including a rusty Avisail).

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ May 23, 2014 -> 01:05 PM) The Fielder injury creates a market for Dunn now, as they will have insurance money from his contract to cover Dunns. I think we could have as many as three top 100 prospects, #3, M Johnson, and Hawkins. The pitching in the upper levels has taken a step back thus far, but there is plenty of time for it to rebound. I think the system will be in the 15-20 range by the end of the season which really is dramatic improvement from where it was two seasons ago. Two years from now it has the chance to be a top 10 system if the investments they are making in Latin America pan out. With guys like Zapata, you're probably looking at more like 3-4 years still before they could be a Top 100 MILB prospect. Let's just say it probably wouldn't be until the 2016 or 17 season that one of them broke out, and then you'd have a half year's lag time for it to be reflected by Baseball America, BP, etc. We're getting SOME credit for now at least being a part of the conversation on these guys, though...being taken more seriously as a player, but it's just potential for the time being.

How many guys in the Sox current minor league system have the ability (if everything goes right) to be All-Stars at the next level? Probably only Hawkins and Anderson, with Micah and Davidson a notch below them but more likely average or slightly below average as major league regulars. A year or two ago, you might have said Trayce Thompson, but that's becoming less and less likely by the day. Hawkins is always going to get more attention (positively and negatively) than an "under the radar" guys like Semien because of relatively high first round draft pick status and outstanding power, which tends to overshadow good to average across-the-board skills of someone like Marcus. Semien does lots of little things well (not talking about his K's this year), but he's the kind of player you have to watch game after game after game to appreciate. On the major league level, at least Viciedo and Beckham haven't been completely helpless against fastballs...Viciedo has learned to shorten his swing and punch the ball into RF, maybe because of Steverson, or it could also be due to the influence of Abreu as well. The question is how quickly that approach/system can be expanded to help address the contact issues for some of our best hitting prospects that are examined every night under a microscope by us? Finally, while Ravelo looking like a possible prospect has been a nice surprise, he really doesn't have a place to play going forward unless he can play LF or they decide to DH Abreu close to full time. Sure, they can package some of these guys like Semien and Davidson and Ravelo, but you're starting to get one of those Cubs' fans/call in show Xbox trades where you can send five of our prospects and get an elite young starting pitcher (like a Bauer, Giolito, Bundy, Gausman) in exchange for our leftovers.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ May 23, 2014 -> 12:12 PM) Who is in CF in this scenario? Colby Rasmus, haha. Melky Cabrera.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ May 23, 2014 -> 12:12 PM) Who is in CF in this scenario? Colby Rasmus, haha. Melky Cabrera.

The Mariners traded for a young strike-thrower (Noesi) and one of the very top prospects in baseball (Jesus Montero). Nothing wrong with the idea. Nothing wrong with the ideas of the players they got. Plenty wrong with the realities of the players they got. Noesi interested me, because he could throw strikes. And it’s because of him I’ve come to appreciate the difference between regular strikes and quality strikes. It was a strike he threw last night to Coco Crisp, don’t you know. Missed up, by two feet, but that pitch didn’t go in the books as a ball. Noesi’s been able to find the zone, but he’s been unable to find areas within it, and on top of that, he was the original guy who struggled with 0-and-2 pitches before Erasmo Ramirez struggled with 0-and-2 pitches. A couple years ago, before we knew what Noesi really was, he allowed five 0-and-2 home runs and three 0-and-2 doubles in 48 plate appearances. Ramirez, at least, hits spots and has a good secondary pitch. Noesi’s pitched cluelessly, and he hasn’t had the stuff to get away with it. Reporters picked up on it before I did. I tried to be forgiving for a while. In the long run, Hector Noesi made no friends. It’s interesting how many people can’t stand him, since he was a bigger factor in 2012 than in any other season. He barely did anything a year ago, and he lasted two appearances in 2014. Noesi spending most of 2013 in the minors did nothing to soften people’s impressions, and I think today’s being considered a joyous occasion, because the Mariners swapped out a long reliever. Even the Mariners got sick of the act, since they put Noesi on the roster and then changed their minds after a handful of days. The general message here is, the team isn’t screwing around, it intends to win this year. The specific message is, go away, Hector Noesi, you are not needed any longer. You only get so many chances, as a pitcher. Noesi’s 27, so he’s not young anymore. He can throw in the low- to mid-90s, so it’s not like he won’t have a job in a month somewhere, but his stuff isn’t special enough for him to keep getting good opportunities, and his approach isn’t good enough to make up for the stuff. At some point, with a frustrating pitcher, you have to cut ties and move on to the next crop. The Mariners ran out of reasons to be patient with Noesi, and while some other team could and will take him on, Noesi’s career isn’t starting anymore. He’s not some kid who just needs time. Now he’s been dumped by an organization, not in a trade for a player, but in a trade for a roster spot that doesn’t have Hector Noesi in it. Noesi isn’t yet a journeyman, but he’s headed down that path and you have to wonder if he realizes it. Noesi was born in 1987 in the Dominican Republic, in a municipality named Esperanza. Esperanza is Spanish for hope, or promise, and that’s something Noesi’s always had, and something people have had for him. It’s 2014 now and Hector Noesi is a long way from home. At the moment, in a professional sense, he doesn’t have a home at all. http://www.ussmariner.com/2014/04/04/hecto...ariners-career/

Suspended games turn history on its head MLB · 10 hrs ago · Suspended games turn history on its head Summary It's all in the Major League Baseball rule book. The Reds traded Griffey to the White Sox on July 31 that season, so when the suspended game resumed Aug. 25, Griffey was called on to hit for Brady Anderson in the bottom of the 14th inning of the game the White Sox lost, 4-3. http://www.veooz.com/news/5HCrb7P.html

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ May 23, 2014 -> 07:09 AM) Clay oo as in goo (Sweet) Lou eace like in peace Clay oo lou eace Ron Doan if it's Spanish, it should be clay-oo-lay-us

I think we already went through that one this year. The two "Utes"....oh, you mean "youths" "positrack, which was not available on the sixty-four Buick Skylark..."

X-Men is great. I'd put it up with there with The Avengers, both Captain Americas and the first Iron Man. Well done, Mr. Singer. Saw at an IMAX in 3D, btw.

Whoever they take, let's just hope the Wacha comparison holds a lot of water...whether it's Nola, Freeland, Newcomb, Finnegan, etc. http://www.thegoodphight.com/2014/1/13/530...-aaron-nola-rhp aron Nola is a 6'1", 183 lb Right Handed Pitcher from LSU. He'll be 21 almost exactly on draft day. He was a Second Round pick out of High School in 2011 by the Toronto Blue Jays. Last year and this coming year, he is the Friday Pitcher for LSU (if you don't know what that means, Friday is always Ace night for College teams. The best pitcher on the staff typically goes on Fridays). Baseball America currently lists him as the 5th best College Prospect heading into the 2014 season. He sports an 8.45 K:BB ratio. Racking up a somewhat pedestrian 8.79 K/9 against an insanely miniscule 1.04 BB/9. He's not getting drafted to be anyone's Ace, but he'll be a top pick because he's a pretty surefire bet to Start in the Majors in a few years. If he can add some muscle and a few ticks on the Fastball, maybe he can be a solid #2 Starter. Safe pick for a team that might think they're only a few years away from competing. So what does Nola have going for him as a Pitcher? He throws a 2-seam Fastball that probably grades out as a 55, with upside if he can add velocity without losing it's current hand side tail which runs in on right handed hitters. He current throws it in the 90-93 mph range. His second offering is a Power Curve, which is similarly about a 55 pitch, but shows the potential to be a plus pitch (60 or better) with some refinement with a staff like the Phillies that has done fairly well with curveball pitchers. His one drawback on the Curve comes from his delivery. Nola pitches with a 3/4 arm slot that borders on sidearm. That causes a few problems: For one thing, he already a little shorter than ideal for a Pitcher and the low arm slot gets rid of even more downward plane on his pitches. Secondly when he tries to work inside with the Curve on Right Handers, the ball sometimes hangs a bit. Since everyone knows what a "hanging curve" is, I probably don't need to go into detail about why that's a bad thing. It is correctable though with some coaching and a pro-workout regimen, this issue on the Fastball speed should both resolve some. His third major pitch is his change-up, which is an average offering (50 on the scouting scale), but could play up die to his 2 Seamer coming from the same arm slot. By far Nola's best feature is his advanced pitchability. He already 'gets' pitch sequencing. He changes the hitter's eye level, works corners, sets up his stuff. He's a real Pitcher, not just a thrower. A team could probably Mike Leake Nola, though a few years in the Minors to refine things would be a big help (and probably would have been for Leake, as well). How 'bout a video? The one below is from the 2012 Cape Cod League (video by mkalbis). I'm not a Pitching Mechanics expert, but I do know that I've read a lot about them and the mechanics below look textbook for the armslot he pitches from. No "inverted W", by the time his foot plants his hand is up with the ball facing Center, his glove is well controlled and tucked to his chest, his foot faces landing foot faces home plate without fading off towards 1st or 3rd (which can lead to the pitch travelling to the same side of the plate) and the whole motion doesn't look high effort. It's a pretty simple, clean delivery. He does lock his front leg now and then, which can lead to pitches coming in high, but ultimately these should be pretty easy to fix. Here's an even better (and briefer) look at his mechanics. Video posted by Gibson D. Here he is discussing his Complete Game streak from this past Season. I kept waiting for a question about Dwight Schrute. I don't know how excited I'll be if Nola is the Phillies pick. He doesn't tick many Phillies boxes, as a Shorter Pitcher with limited projection, but he's somewhat in the Adam Morgan mold, he fits the new found emphasis on not Walking everyone and given the dearth of Pitching in the system ready to contribute, he'd be a nice, fast-track arm that could start for the Phils as soon as late 2016. That said, with the 7th pick in a deep Pitcher draft, I'd rather get a guy with a 40% chance of being an Ace, than getting a guy with a, perhaps, 70% chance of being a reliable #3 Starter.

Probably one of the best profit margins for a movie since The Passion of the Christ for Mel Gibson and The Blair Witch Project for that screenwriting trio whose names I still can't remember for the life of me. Of course, from the thread title, you think he's buying a sports franchise (probably minor league baseball) or set of movie theater chains in Texas or producing a country music album, but no. Didn't realize Magic Johnson was part of the Dayton (MWL) ownership group, fwiw.