caulfield12

QUOTE (JoshPR @ May 11, 2014 -> 02:39 PM) Francisco making his debut, years after the sox signed him out of the dominican We got him from the Red Sox for Howry, then traded him to the Rangers in the Everett deal.

DeAza 2/37 against LHP this season, gave them another run defensively in the 1st inning...last thing you want to do is give a rookie pitcher the lead and some confidence. Sigh. Francisco in the 92-93 range, hit 94 as his high once.

Think big. You can't get an ace if you're the White Sox via trading prospects without dealing our system away, and we're not going to be able to afford Scherzer/Lester/Shields and Masterson's not quite a 1 either. If you look back over the last 10-15 years, Contreras, Peavy and Freddy Garcia are the only "aces" we've acquired from outside the organization via trade. All of them were brought in under unique circumstances (Contreras failing against the Red Sox and in NYC pressure cooker, Peavy because of salary cutting, Garcia because of the relationship with Ozzie). Among the other "aces," Buehrle and Sale were drafted, along with Gio Gonzalez. Now is not the time to be timid. We missed on Tanaka, and we're unlikely to be in a position to outbit everyone on the next Japanese/Korean superstar unless our attendance picks up dramatically.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ May 11, 2014 -> 09:10 AM) Kyle Freeland (6'4", 185 lbs. from Evansville) is still a guy to keep an eye on: 1.75 ERA, 87.2 innings, 72 hits, 7 BB, 111 Ks. 48-to-4 K-to-BB in the Cape League last year, too. http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/gam...-kyle-freeland/ You'd expect Rodon and Freeland to have even more dominant IP/H ratios. Of course, it's even more difficult to assess high school pitchers. 1. Tyler Kolek, rhp, Shepherd (Texas) HS/Houston Heat Kolek broke his non-throwing arm early in his junior season. He resumed throwing in early May and within a month his 91-94 mph velocity jumped to 97, and he touched 99 mph at an Area Code Games tryout. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Kolek has strength throughout his extra-large frame, long levers and athleticism, garnering Division I scholarship offers as a defensive end. A Texas Christian signee, he delivers his fastball from a three-quarters arm slot, giving it heavy boring action and good downhill plane. Both his low-80s slider and mid-70s curveball show plus or better potential, with the curveball showing more promise. www.baseballamerica.com This was from July, 2013, already. The scouts can't even agree whether Kolek is athletic or not. Perhaps not in the Greinke/Verlander/Hoffman kind of way, but anyone who's garnering scores of football and baseball scholarships from D-1 schools has to have something going for him.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 11, 2014 -> 08:56 AM) He's actually fallen right back into the same old habits...look at his May splits...in April he was laying off the bad pitches...but he's not anymore... Well, it's hard to say anything conclusive yet, since he was sitting for more than half of that month (April) before Garcia went down. He was at .348 and has now had a pretty bad stretch for 35 at-bats. That said, he very easily could have gone 2/4 yesterday again, as he was robbed on a great play by Owings. We'll know a lot more which Viciedo he is by the All-Star break. There's no arguing that he's never been close to the walk rate he's putting up now since his last hot extended streak in the minors when Ozzie didn't want to play him over Juan Pierre.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ May 10, 2014 -> 09:47 PM) How much longer can we go with 3 outfielders? Eaton told the DBacks' radio guys he's going to be ready to go out on a rehab assignment in the next 2-3 days.

QUOTE (oldsox @ May 11, 2014 -> 07:04 AM) Good chance Phegley is on Sox team in 2015, Nieto getting his dose of AAA. Barring trades, injuries, of course. I think they're more likely to go with a veteran (as the 2nd catcher), if they're on the periphery of competing for a playoff spot next year...more of a mentoring type with Flowers, like a Blanco or Hannigan. The pitching staff trusts Tyler a lot more than Josh. It would take a pretty amazing defensive turnaround for them to bring Phegley back as a full-time player, unless Tyler just completely falls apart the next 4 1/2 months. Which is certainly possible, of course. But they don't make a natural platoon and it's better if one or the other is the declared starter, IMO.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 10, 2014 -> 09:53 PM) With exception of Ramirez, it's not like power #s have gone way up. In fact, Viciedo's nowhere close to his 2012 homer pace of mid 20's. But he's a much more effective and dangerous hitter right now, and the homers always clustered in bunches for him.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ May 10, 2014 -> 05:59 PM) Poreda was not a safe pick. The consensus pitchers with frontline potential are Aiken, Rodon, and Kolek. If anyone else did they would be in the discussion with those three. Nola is being discussed because of the rumor that the Sox are considering the second tier of college arms which indeed would be sacrificing ceiling for more certainty. The theory is that they would also be garnering some financial flexibility via significant underslotting and the ability to grab multiple players with significant talent. I don't think people are necessarily arguing that it's the definite way to go, just exploring who might be the selection if not one of the big three. Yeah, with Poreda, it's more like...he has the fastball, but we believe he can develop his other pitches well enough to become a starter. Then again, that wasn't a very high pick. Neither was McCulloch. Broadway was the only one that stung a bit. Or wasting a pick on Royce Ring in the first round.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 10, 2014 -> 07:56 PM) Mitchell 3-3 Always incredibly streaky until the bigger end. At least he's consistent in that.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 10, 2014 -> 08:29 PM) That Flowers play--he should know better, but do the coaches actually have to start yelling down to them at 2B to remind them not to do what he did? That play can't happen again. I don't think there's time to get a good read on the 3rd base coach in that situation...because there's no room for hesitation, pretty much have to go on contact, guessing he simply assumed that Owings was going to 1st with the throw instead, but it was pretty deep in the hole. Play was in front of him.

Yeah, I heard a stat tonight that the White Sox were first in the AL (and maybe the majors) in run-scoring in the 9th inning. Wonder why Flowers went for 3rd on the DeAza infield grounder...pretty good chance Alejandro would have been safe at 1st, with runners on 1st and 2nd, one out for Beckham/Semien/Abreu. Also saw a runner (Marte) only end up on third when he started from 2nd on a double. Don't see that very often. Not even in the glory days of Thome/Crede/AJ/Dye/Thomas/Konerko moving station-to-station.

At least we made it a game at the end...hoping with your heart that Konerko could hit a walk-off or at least tie it up. Abreu with one of his more forgettable games. Flowers getting thrown out at 3rd in the 8th when he could have cut the lead to one turned out to be a pretty big run in the end.

3-0 swinging by Goldschmidt, Semien had his eyes closed and just swatted at it and got lucky to grab it, haha.

White Sox with ten hits or more in their last 5. Have limited opponents hitters to four hits or less (starting pitchers) the last week as well, except for the Carroll start Thurs. This game starting off exactly like last night's, through 3 scoreless for both teams. So another offensive explosion in the bottom of the 4th is coming, right?

QUOTE (Hawkfan @ May 10, 2014 -> 04:19 PM) Well, if viciedo is hitting better, pitchers will be less willing to throw strikes early, especially to an agressive hitter. So that may be the cause for more first strike balls. sample size is probably too small for that assumption however. I also had my first visit to the infamous fangraphs website today, and noticed that Viciedo has swung at more pitches outside the zone this year. (very insignificant amount). Willing to listen and research more, but I'm only a fan of patience if it means not swinging at balls outside the strike zone. He doesn't have Abreu's size and plate coverage, but Viciedo being aggressive when he's ahead in the count and driving pitches to RF that are just a bit outside of the strike zone is fine. Technically, they're "bad" pitches, but how many hits did Vladimir Guerrero get on non-strikes during his career? We can't take away his aggressiveness 100%, but he's certainly controlling his swing more because the majority of his hits are to CF and RF, compared to being so pull happy and swinging out of his a-- no matter the game situation.

But isn't take Nola another version of Broadway/McCulloch/Poreda, except at the 3 spot? Obviously, Wacha went #13 and was great, but nobody's projecting Nola as a frontline starter or ace at the big league level right now, are they? (Of course, there were critics/skeptics about Adam, too.) Even though the odds aren't great that Kolek has the ability to be the next Clemens, or Strasburg, are you sure you can afford to pass him up when you can grab another guy like Fedde (possibly) at 44 as added insurance? It seems Freeland, Finnegan and Newcomb will go well before that, though. Going for the "safe" college pitcher seems to be a recipe for disaster. I don't know much about Nola, but he's more Quintana than Sale, isn't he?

Ross .391, 5 HR, 16 RBI's career against the Sox

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 10, 2014 -> 04:14 PM) Where's Caulfield ? Holden I told you Cleto would be gone. I don't remember what thread but it was a recent one. Here. A lot of this is because Putnam's become so reliable now, and they don't want to risk losing Noesi, because of his potential ability as a starter. They also were able to pile up some experienced veteran depth in AAA in Guerra and Francisco. What they're planning to do with Webb going forward, no idea.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ May 10, 2014 -> 04:46 PM) I know you've been trumpeting this for a long time now and logically it makes sense. But despite all the injuries , the bullpen woes, somehow the Sox have shown the resiliency to remain .500 when all logic would have you believe otherwise. Therefore , I state, that if we get healthy and if the bullpen has come together and if we keep hitting a wild card birth is not entirely out of the question. It wouldn't hurt the fans to start voting often right now for Sox All stars. There are plenty deserving as of this moment. I think Brooks Boyer should start making signs , or placards to hand out to any fans willing to take them and display them during the game saying " We Believe". The team believes in itself . Why shouldn't we ? See Royals, 2003, Tony Pena as manager, Nosotros Creemos, and this team has a lot more talent that that team...led by Jose Lima's pitching and Beltran/Berroa/Randa/Sweeney/DeJesus offensively. http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/white-...&ocid=yahoo Sale feels brand new after simulated game, went full out last two innings...White Sox don't want him to be too amped up, problems are all muscular and not ligaments/tendons

Two off-seasons ago, the Diamondbacks traded away center fielder Chris Young and right fielder Justin Upton in part to create playing time for Eaton, who tore through the minor leagues and looked like he might be a mainstay at the top of the order for years. But Eaton missed the first half of last season with an elbow injury and upon returning hit just .252 with a .314 on-base. He said it was mentally difficult to struggle for a team filled with veteran players expecting to win now. "It does wear on you mentally," Eaton said. "When you go 0 for 4 or 0 for 5, that kind of turns in your head when you go to bed at night. It's like, 'Justin Upton is gone because of me and I'm not doing what I need to do,' and that kind of tumbles. You live and you learn. I'm still a young player for sure, but I think going through those difficult times makes you better going forward." azcentral.com/sports White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers (21) hits a home run against Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Joe Thatcher (54) during the eighth inning at U.S Cellular Field. Chicago White Sox defeats the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-3. (Photo: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports) Fullscreen CHICAGO — Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon McCarthy was angry, but he didn't know what he was supposed to be angry about. He said the ball felt great coming out of his hand. He thought his command, though not impeccable, was decent. "I really just," McCarthy said, grasping for words, "I'm still baffled." He couldn't explain how he went from throwing three perfect innings to allowing hits to nine of the 10 batters he faced in the fourth inning of the Diamondbacks' 9-3 loss on Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field. He couldn't understand how nothing changed on his end — not the way he felt physically or mentality, not his plan of attack on the mound or the quality of his pitches — and yet everything changed as it pertained to the results. Despite retiring each of the first nine batters he faced, four coming via the strikeout, and despite regularly hitting 94-95 mph with his sinking, two-seam fastball, McCarthy was charged with seven runs in 31/3 innings, an outing that stunts the progress he'd been making in the results column in recent weeks. "There's outings where you know you stink," McCarthy said. "You're falling behind guys, you're making pitches right down the middle of the plate, where you deserve to be punished. Then there's outings like this where I came in here and I was furious about what happened but you don't know why you're mad yet." And even after having some five innings to think about it from the time he left the game to when he spoke with reporters, he had few answers. He admitted he wasn't perfect in the fourth inning. Some pitches could have been better. But he didn't think his imperfection was enough to lead to those sorts of results. There was a curveball down and away that Alejandro De Aza laced to center field for a double, a fastball in that Gordon Beckham shot into center field for a single, another fastball, this one 95 mph and away, that Conor Gillaspie lined to left for another single. None, he thought, were terrible pitches, leaving him open to every theory — even the possibility of tipping pitches, something he said he doubted yet couldn't entirely rule out. "Everything was struck well and going back and looking at some of them," he said, "they weren't wonderful pitches, but they weren't pitches that people typically drive." The big blow in the inning — Alexei Ramirez's grand slam to left field to give the White Sox a 6-2 lead — was a different story. It came on a down-the-middle fastball on a 3-0 pitch. "He was cruising, man," catcher Miguel Montero said. "He was really good. I was like, wow, this guy is throwing a heck of a game right now because he was making pitch after pitch and then it just happened. The wheels came off and they got contagious that inning hitting. And they were pretty much unstoppable, to be honest." McCarthy, who had a 7.78 ERA in his first three starts, had posted a 2.19 ERA in his previous four.

http://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=8839 Nationals' fans respond to Keith Law column about supposed mishandling of Bryce Harper and Matt Williams' (and by extension, Gibson too) many issues as a manager.

http://meadowparty.com/blog/ If you want Keith Law's ruminations on foods and beverages, and fine dining/culinary arts, have at him. * The top 25 MLB players under age 25. The comments are a cesspool of no-one-ever-reads-the-intro ignorance, too. He really fancies himself as a renaissance man about town who dabbles in the art of baseball when he's not reading Harry Potter books in different cockamamie accents to his daughter.

A Ramirez trade becoming less and less likely, even though from a statistical regression point, it makes some sense...clearly, he had a lot of things on his mind last year, and eventually the entire team lost focus and it snowballed or mushroomed. Ramirez's father-in-law, Federico Poquelin, was shot to death outside of his home in the Dominican Republic during the spring of 2013. Ramirez was devastated and, no doubt, was affected by the tragedy. "Every year is different," Ramirez said before the game Friday through a team interpreter. "You know, sometimes we have personal problems that in one way or another affect you. I feel like those things are behind me now." With his attention more focused on baseball this season, Ramirez appears to be playing free and easy. And the results reflect that. He entered Friday night with an OPS of .853. "My expectation is to play hard every day and stay healthy," Ramirez, 32, said. "That's my only expectation. God will provide and get some good results." Manager Robin Ventura notices a rejuvenated Ramirez. "When you're doing well … it's easier to look like you have life," Ventura said. "Even in games that he doesn't get a hit, he's trying to be a leader out there and taking over in certain situations in the infield, which is nice to see. "You have a shortstop, he's very athletic, and in the play he made the other night (making an over-the-shoulder catch in the outfield and doubling up a Cubs base-runner at first) … you could see that. He really has taken to that responsibility in the middle of the infield." Ramirez says he also is inspired by the presence of the 27-year-old Abreu. "I am very happy to have all of my teammates, especially being Latin … the players from Cuba," he said. "That is a source of pride for us and as a team collectively." Ramirez was well aware of Abreu's prowess in Cuba and potential for the major leagues. "I don't know what the people (of Cuba) thought about him, but I know … I played with him for two years," Ramirez said. "… All he needed was an opportunity to do what he has done, and he is a great player." In the meantime, Ventura has encouraged Ramirez to take more of a leadership role, especially on defense. "You can try to do that, but a guy has to want to do it and he just seems like this year he started doing it in spring training," Ventura said. "Part of the result of last year (a 99-loss season) is guys coming in with maybe a different focus on the things that they can get better at. The defensive stuff, he just has been into it more this year." www.chicagotribune.com/sports

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...&mode=video Puig/Bumgarner confrontation over bat flipping http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...&mode=video