caulfield12

LOL at Paulino's ERA heading into tonight's game. He's actually getting worse at the minor league level.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 13, 2014 -> 12:54 PM) Yes, I believe he will be managing in 2017. He isn't ozzie, his mouth won't cost him. He's a White Sox legend; JR won't approve of any firing I don't think. I guess it's two quite different questions. Should be managing, as in the very best option to lead the Sox to the playoffs? Will be managing, in terms of how much rope he has if the next two seasons were to go south in similar fashion to 2013...which is unlikely to happen with Abreu's presence alone unless Sale were to be on the shelf for an extended time. Then all bets would be off. But having Rodon could make up for that, as well. And whatever players we can bring in as FA's. Healthy Avisail for the entire season, etc.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 13, 2014 -> 12:44 PM) Sigh. If you are supposed to look at the back of their baseball cards, how come you didn't do it? Leury was hitting .357 vs. LHP with 3 doubles when he went to the plate. That's really your argument? Can we say limited sample size? I'm guessing most of those lefties didn't have nearly the stuff that Doolittle does. Nor were those situations where he came up against lefties anything like the most important at-bat of the game, they were at garbage time (primarily). I can do the same thing, lol. RHP vs. LHP (650 projected PA) | Leury Garcia PA AB R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG OPS $ vs. RHP 650 599 61 6 50 34 0.225 0.271 0.308 0.579 4.0 vs. LHP 650 615 58 5 50 24 0.236 0.271 0.307 0.578 -0.5 It's not like the time he refused to walk Sal Perez in order to go after Moustakas, who was in the worst hitters in MLB at that time, but it wasn't one of his better decisions, either.

So you guys honestly believe he will still be managing the White Sox in 2016 and 2017? I'm not seeing it. I think he's more of a transitional manager like Torborg or Manuel and we bring in a more experienced guy at some point to get them over the top. It's an interesting debate though...I don't think there's any argument that a lot of areas of managing (bullpen use/line-up construction, having that knack for making the right move at the right time) that haven't shown as much improvement as you'd like. Then you have 2012 as the counter-argument....with the counter-argument to that argument being almost anyone would have been better than Ozzie, that the defense and fundamentals have fallen off a cliff since the last two weeks of 2012 and that he basically "lost" last year's team before it was torn apart by all the mid-season trades. Balta and Fathom would certainly give you strong answers here. Having his "own" team without Dunn and Konerko on next year's roster will give us a more "objective" opportunity to properly evaluate. A healthy Avisail Garcia and more/better options than guys like Sierra/Leury Garcia/Nieto/DeAza will help as well. Same thing with the bullpen. Hahn's done Ventura no favors with guys like Cleto, Downs, Paulino and Keppinger. Ventura did a great job with that rookie-filled pen in 2012, but has looked lost/clueless at lots of points since then. Having Noesi/Carroll/Rienzo as the back of your rotation doesn't help, either.

You know what's going to happen....Jackson will be that one high school hitter that becomes the "next Mauer" and all three pitchers at the top of the draft will be flops. We've seen all the stories about David Clyde, Van Poppel, comparisons to Clemens/Nolan Ryan. It's going to be nearly impossible to justify passing on Kolek...but it's also scary to me that we have to "project" Aiken to grow into his body or start throwing harder than he already is at 18 in order to be successful at the next level. The White Sox have never been successful projecting any young high school pitchers...and haven't even attempted to incubate one, since Honel and Jason Stumm.

I still don't understand, today, why you wouldn't prefer to have either Semien or Sierra hitting there (yes, I understand he already pinch ran, but that was completely unnecessary to take Dunn out at that moment as he wasn't even the tying run...Ramirez was, and he was able to steal 2nd on his own)? Are you telling me that you can't read the back of their baseball cards or simply go to thebaseballcube.com? If Semien's now expected to strike out when he came into the season as your system's best combination of patience and relatively decent/high contact rates, what does it say that he has already fallen so low in the eyes of the manager in terms of trustworthiness, even though he's had huge hits at least 4-5 times already this year in similar situations?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 13, 2014 -> 11:53 AM) HS pitchers typically have the highest bust rates of 1st round picks, but if Rodon is gone I'm not sure how you justify passing on Aiken or Kolek when there is such a disparity in talent between and the next tier of college arms. Regardless of your risk tolerance for HS arms in general, the decision seems like a no-brainer to me if Rodon is off the board when we pick. With all the system-wide issues developing hitters, and concerns about guys like Hawkins/Thompson/Barnum that have started out younger at 18, etc., does anyone really believe they would select Jackson?

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ May 13, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) So black people are nobody's. Sad. With four Cubans on their team alone, I wonder how much marketing is directed towards Hispanic fans? Seems that a lot of major league teams have given up on anything besides RBI as their African-American outreach in terms of marketing, and that program hasn't exactly produced a bonanza of prospects in the twenty years or so since it began, but the White Sox have had a lot of identifiable Hispanic players like Aparacio, Ordonez and Guillen, now Abreu. What's their percentage of the attendance-base? 1%? 2%? 3%? And yet Hispanics are the fastest growing percentage of the typical MLB fanbase, now comprising around 14% of the total US population. What's the percentage breakdown in the area within a 15 mile radius (especially South) of USCF? I know the White Sox has that Orgullo Sox (Sox Pride) section of their website, and the Hispanic broadcasting team...but haven't heard nearly as much about that after Guillen left as manager.

Kauffman is about a 35-45 minute drive on I-435 for the majority of the fans coming from Johnson County, Kansas. That said, there are two interstates meeting there, there's a TON of parking for both the football and baseball stadiums together...but a lot of the same issues about nothing to really do in that area, other than tailgating for Chiefs' games. You've got some fastfood restaurants like Taco Bell across the street than fans would/could grab some food at if they're in the mood for saving money on ballpark food, but nothing resembling an entertainment district, which is more downtown (Power & Light District, where the Sprint Center's at as well).

Is there anyone who still believes Ventura is going to be the one who leads the White Sox to their next playoff appearance?

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:59 PM) It's not an argument I am going to make, but what does that due to the psyche of Leury Garcia when/if you do that? Semien hasn't played SS all year and Alexei hasn't played CF since '08. Garcia is about to be sent down to Charlotte. It should inspire him to become a better player, hopefully. As a non-power hitter, he's got to learn how to make contact at least, that's the only reason he was up there instead of Semien, Ventura assuming Semien would strike out when all that was needed was a base hit.

“I could tell right when I walked in,” Ventura said. “I got there from airport and you could kind of tell it was flat. You’re trying to get them going and it was flat the whole time. The first play kind of set me off from there. It was just flat the whole time, and the position we’re in with as many guys hurt and the way we’re trying to get through this period right now, you can’t come out flat. You don’t want to see it any time, but there are exceptions to it. Right now, you can’t play that way.” Teams often get accused of looking flat when they don’t hit, as the White Sox often were in 2013. Lack of offense and lack of energy go hand in hand. “It has nothing to do with that,” Ventura said. “I can tell the way we are by the way it is in our dugout. I can tell. And I know what it’s like. It’s not like I haven’t had a day when I felt flat. You can either give in to it or you can try and change it. And I didn’t think anybody tried to change it. They knew what I was thinking during the game. They knew exactly what I was thinking during the game. That’s what comes out. “There are times when you try to help them by not having batting practice on a day game but we seem to, as a group, have a day like that when you give them some rope to let them rest and it ends up going too far. And you can say it’s lethargic or, whatever, but I know what it feels like I’ve been on a team that it happens like that. It’s not like I don’t know from experience or know what it looks like.” Catcher Tyler Flowers said he thought the White Sox looked flat in large part because of Anderson. But he also said he’s so focused on working with the pitcher that he doesn’t have time to take stock of the clubhouse and dugout as Ventura would. “He gets to oversee everything,” Flowers said. “He can take in everybody’s energy or their lack thereof. Kind of easy for him to see all that. … It seemed like he wasn’t pleased with that.” Flowers said the White Sox have played with good energy this season, that it has consistently been good. While Ventura agrees for the most part he doesn’t want any lapses and chose Sunday to send a message. “It’s your responsibility of showing up every day and what it’s supposed to be like every day,” Ventura said. “And that wasn’t there yesterday.” www.csnchicago.com (Dan Hayes)

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:20 PM) This was the true gaffe. Not that it matters now, but who plays CF if they pinch hit Semien for Garcia and Marcus gets a hit? We'd have two horrible outfielders (Sierra, Viciedo) and Semien in the outfield. CF Semien 2B Beckham 3B Gillaspie DH Abreu RF Sierra LF Viciedo SS Ramirez 1B Konerko C Flowers Got to love Alexei getting that hit with 2 strikes and then stealing 2nd base to get the tying run in scoring position with 1 out. He has been so great all over. Well, they never needed to take out Dunn. But that would have meant Dunn/Sierra or Semien/Viciedo was your OF. It's not like Leury Garcia is anything resembling a natural CFer, either. You do whatever you have to do, though, Garcia had no prayer to get a hit there. Overmatched all game. And, if they really needed to, they could have moved Alexei Ramirez to CF and put Semien at SS for one inning.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:18 PM) Funny thing with this argument is I really like Johnson and Danish. However, it is disappointing to me that they are two of our three best prospects along with Anderson. In a top 10 system, those guys would be in the 8-10 range in my opinion. Yes, then you have Beck and Trayce Thompson falling backwards, too. Actually, Davidson should have been Top 3, based on the 2013 season. Not sure if he managed to get 130 at-bats at the big league level or not.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:12 PM) Yep. He is in his 3rd year! Wtfkinda move is that and it screwed them ran out of players (again). I would be willing to bet about any amount of money that Ventura's not the manager the next time the White Sox manage to reach the playoffs.

Soon coming to a White Sox bullpen near you. Brian Wilson and Eric Gagne.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:09 PM) What I don't get was wasting Dunn and Sierra by pulling Dunn in the 9th as a run that didn't matter Illogical. Maybe he knew he wasn't going to pinch-hit Sierra, but Sierra's actually been the hotter hitter than either Garcia or Semien the last 7-10 days. You can avoid (or try to avoid) the double play ball with Viciedo at the plate, but that wasn't even the tying run yet, Alexei Ramirez was.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:08 PM) Micah Johnson does not have good power. He's not Carlos Sanchez, but I don't think he is a double-digit HR guy in the majors. At best, he's Ray Durham-esque his first five years in the big leagues. Maybe in his 30's, he puts on weight and becomes a 12-18 homer guy, but that's not his game right now.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:06 PM) Do not get Garcia hitting either. Obviously, he had plenty of time to think about it. He had already used Sierra, Konerko and Flowers. Just idiotic. I don't care if Dunn was going to be in the OF, if you've followed the White Sox for 40 games this year, Semien was the much better bet to come through.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:04 PM) And that's why you don't want your worst hitter getting the most ABs. Good job Robin There's just no way you don't have Semien hitting there over Garcia. If you don't have any confidence in him, then send him to Charlotte. Period.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 12, 2014 -> 11:04 PM) Then move Dunn to this spacious OF? Yikes. EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot Sierra still exists. Semdog would have been nice. Absolutely. Sierra already was used as a pinch-runner.

Might as well send Semien and Garcia down to AAA.

Why isn't Semien hitting here? WHAT?

Ramirez running on first move. Almost took off too early.

Should be Konerko, Flowers and then YIKES...Garcia. Make that Semien. NO DP here Paulie. Cat and house game now with Ramirez stealing 2nd.