caulfield12

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...ws&c_id=cws Apparently they're going to do all the work to get Sale ready to return without him going on a rehab assignment away from Cooper and Schneider. Has played catch now a couple of times. "He's playing catch. He's loosening up, feeling better each day," Cooper said. "We don't really have a timetable. I haven't spoken to [White Sox head athletic trainer] Herm [schneider] yet today, but we speak on the bench every night when it comes, and he's starting to feel even better as days go on." White Sox manager Robin Ventura doesn't believe Sale will need to go on a Minor League rehab stint before he comes back, with Sale having the ability to get that work done with the White Sox. He also doesn't feel the team is taking any extra precautionary measures this time compared to the time in each of Sale's previous two years as a starter that he has been shut down. "No. It's the same. It's the same," Ventura said. "The times before, the first time we were more cautious than anything moving him from being a starter. But having gone through it, this is just part of stuff that has happened to him before, you just want to make sure. "He's the one that will let you know when he's feeling good enough. He'll know when he's ready."

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 09:39 PM) Scariest one yet so far this year. But, we'll se.. LEESMAN

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 06:25 PM) Lined out to right center. Must suck being a Sox fan rooting against Sox players. I'm a fan of him bringing back something that helps bring us another pennant. Just don't think he'll hit over .240 in the process of doing that. We shall see.

Let me guess, Beckham JUST missed the concourse on that flyout?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 06:19 PM) Joe Maddon bunts early like Ozzie. Yanks relief pitchers cruising after 10 pitch innings to insert his closer like dumb Robin, and tinkers with his line up daily like the tinkerer, Jerry Manuel. Yet some think so much of him the want his bench coach to manage the White Sox. Parent or Cooper? Please go back to speaking normally, instead of this quasi-facetious/sarcastic tone.

So Rienzo didn't field it cleanly...then got a second error for the XB, allowing the runner to 2nd? Shades of Clayton Richard there. Might as well bring him back, too.

Would prefer to just stick Paulino in the bullpen and see if he can catch fire there. If that fails, adios...and next in. Leave Noesi and Carroll and Rienzo some opportunities to prove themselves while Johnson's getting his head back together.

Wow, have yourself a month, Micah. He proved he could be a devastating baserunner last year. This year, he's proving he can be a legitimate threat offensively.

The bullpen was what didn't protect Sale...nothing to do with Santana/Jimenez/Garza/Paulino at all.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 05:30 PM) Anyone know how the rotation shakes out going forward? After Quintana tomorrow, I see a lot of TBDs. Noesi or Putnam tomorrow. Petricka I guess would be the 3rd choice. http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/73322...ess-with-sinker How throwing the sinker has transformed the Cardinals' organization....and we saw the same with the Pirates as well, infield defense/shifts/going away from velocity of four seamer for downward movement of two seamer. Let's hope sinkerballer Carroll becomes the 2014 version of Esteban Loiaza with his cutter.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 05:17 PM) Yeah, but that was clearly by design. To be honest, I don't think the Sox could afford losing such a big portion of their fan base if they went into a Theo-Cubs style rebuild. I have no problem with getting players that are so close to the majors, as it's not like the Sox have had a good history of developing hitters that spend a long time in their system. Hence, the Davidson acquisition rather than someone like a Soler at the high A level...or the equivalent of another Courtney Hawkins. Mitigating the risk factor, while tamping down the upside just a bit. We're in Year 1 of a strategic rebuild that started this offseason, they're in Year 4. And we're already well behind the Rays in attendance. If it wasn't for the Indians, we'd be last. That CLE situation is a good example of two huge sell-offs decimating a similar fanbase that supported the hell out of that team in the 90's/early 2000's and set a record for consecutive sellouts at Jacobs. And bad ownership...disliked by locals. Well, maybe not Sterling/Snyder/Ted Stepien bad...but BAD.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 05:03 PM) As I said this winter, this is an older core by rebuilding standards and they have to hit the ground running. Thankfully, they've done that. Too bad the Sox didn't address the pitching situation in a serious manner. Yeah, because Conor, Semien, Micah Johnson, Tyler, Abreu, Vicedo, Davidson, Eaton, A.Garcia, Sale and Quintana are all so old. C'mon. The only veteran we MIGHT think about holding onto is Alexei. DeAza and Beckham are "old" compared to the youthful feel of the current roster now. John Danks feels like he has been around forever and he's not close to old, either. They couldn't get Santana for more than one year. Josh Johnson would be on the shelf. Jimenez sucks. Does Matt Garza put us over the top? Obviously, it would be nice to have gotten Tanaka, but $175 million for 7 years isn't automatically a good contract despite how well he has pitched out of the gate.

It's crazy how this has shifted on an almost daily basis. Kolek could be the next Roger Clemens or the next Colt Griffin/David Clyde. Would love to hear Cooper's insights, which, of course, we will never get until after the draft...but what he's telling Hahn and the front office about his perceptions of all four of those guys from watching video. Rodon is more polished, the more finished product and could be ready to contribute this season even...Hoffman is more of a 2016-2017 timetable guy with the higher upside but the more realistic possibility never to live up to the hype, either. Of course, multiply that by 5X for Kolek and 3X for Aiken.

QUOTE (LDF @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 02:21 PM) 500 is not a bad thing, we will be in a good position to continue to build and maybe be active in the FA market next season. lets also think about the state of flux our pitching is in. to org has been ranked dead last, then we moved up some and then even higher last yr. so we were all jazzed about the players we have, but were any pitcher really ranked high beside Johnson? as I have been a proponent of not falling into the spin doctoring of the sox machine, to paint a rosey pict. Nope, just Chris Beck, and there are a million concerns with his early-season pitching performance, "strikeoutability," not having a knockout pitch, etc. Of course, we said the same thing about Jose Quintana as a rookie, and he's simply heard those criticisms and worked harder than ever to to overcome them.

As for the pitching: The bullpen has been predictably awful, since teams that know they’re going to be bad have no reason to invest in relievers, but the rotation has actually shown signs of life. Left-hander Dallas Keuchel, 26, has improved across the board in his third big league season, striking out a batter an inning and inducing more ground balls than any other starting pitcher. Collin McHugh, who’s also 26, has been even more intriguing. The Astros grabbed the former Mets 18th-round draft pick off waivers and called him up on April 21 to replace injured righty Scott Feldman, and McHugh has been unhittable in his first two starts. First, he obliterated the Mariners, striking out 12 and allowing no runs on three hits over 6⅔ innings while nabbing the first win of his big league career. Then, he showed he could go deep into games on Sunday against the A’s, firing 8⅔ innings of two-hit ball, surrendering a single run on three walks, and whiffing seven over 114 pitches. While McHugh’s surprising success might be a case of exploiting a weak Mariners offense and catching the A’s on a bad day, it’s also indicative of what teams need to do when they’re all but mathematically eliminated by the start of spring training: throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. The Astros are going to build around Springer, Jose Altuve, Jason Castro, and the next generation of young talent that’s currently percolating in the minors. If they can find even two or three other useful pieces on the major league roster to supplement that core, they can call this season a win. And hey, if they bank a third consecutive no. 1 overall draft pick, they’ll reap the rewards that terrible teams are supposed to reap, even if it’s ugly to watch … and even if no one is watching at all. grantland.com

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 10:06 AM) Abreu also on top of the CBS stock watch http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-he...-a-steal-so-far I also found this one pretty funny. Remember six months ago when many were interested in Granderson for the OF? Seems like a lifetime ago with Eaton's presence on this team leaving so indelible an impression.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 01:54 PM) There are a mess of players on the Sox who are hitting WAY over where they will be at the end of the season. Just like it's impossible for our ERA to be last or next to last in the AL. Flowers is already coming back down to earth. Ramirez and Viciedo will too. Still Abreu, with his HR/RBI totals, would seem to have room to grow average-wise. Would you be SHOCKED if Dunn was around a 900 OPS in June/July? I wouldn't. Eaton's playing about as expected. It's not like he's at an 850-900 OPS. He hasn't even really mastered the art of stealing bases and wreaking havoc on the basepaths. Semien won't keep striking out like this. He's shown the ability to make adjustments at every level in his career as the season progresses. DeAza won't be this bad. Beckham can't get any worse, so nowhere to go but up.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 01:34 PM) So how many wins do you think it will take to win the AL Central? 89-92. Without Sanchez/Fister and a reliable bullpen, DET is more vulnerable than ever before. They're not going to get much offensively from Romine. Rajai Davis isn't going to play this well all season. Their offense isn't nearly as formidable as it was in past seasons, IMO. The biggest questions ultimately are the continued health of Verlander/Scherzer/Cabrera. If one of those three guys goes down or becomes ineffective for a long stretch, then DET is beatable. With all of them playing at or close to near their peak levels, forget it.

If we had Santos (5/6) or Reed (6/7), does anyone believe we'd be at least 2 games over .500 now? Four games? SIX? What about Peavy and/or Rios? Would both of them be worth a 2-4 game swing in the standings at this point? What would our record with both Tanaka and Abreu be? Of course, a lot depends on Sale, ultimately, without him...as Fathom pointed out, we're probably a 65-69 win team. Johnson coming back and being at least decent, as Carroll can't be counted on to go all Humber/Loaiza/Eldred for the remainder of the season. We've added enough bullpen pieces to Charlotte (Guerra, Francisco, De Los Santos) and now Noesi there's hope that at least one of those guys, if not two, can ultimately succeed. Nobody expected the starting pitching to be so bad, and the bullpen was filled with ? marks but not projected to be the worst in baseball, either. Ramirez, Viciedo, Flowers and Conor have all been playing better than expected...and, of course, Abreu. Even Dunn. The only offensive players we could/should be expecting improvement from would be DeAza and Semien (and perhaps Beckham, based on how bad most expect him to be). So if/when the offense comes back down to earth, some pitchers will start to improve or perform beyond expectations and we're still around .500, THEN you can look at those kinds of moves like YOUK/LIRIANO/MYERS that don't hurt you, but more likely, it's the moves like adding Contreras and Freddy Garcia, or when we've added Peavy/Rios in past years. Yet adding payroll right now seems dubious at best because of our attendance issues. Just like "win now" moves that cost us valuable contributors to the 2015/16 teams. On the other hand, the fans are starting to get more and more excited about Abreu and the overall resiliency of the offense to come back over and over again in exciting fashion, so Hahn will have some serious thinking to do, considering the fact that we SEEM to be weathering this early season storm of playoff-caliber teams better than expected and having some stability/established roles at the back end of the pen (7th-9th) would do wonders for the confidence of the team going forward. And only Hahn and Schneider seem to know when/if Nate Jones can be expected to contribute this season. That's the single biggest factor with our bullpen right now, the return/non-return of Jones. At least until June/July.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 08:46 AM) It'd be nice to skip Wednesday's starting pitcher which figures to be the ghost of Tommy Hanson. Maybe...but I think they will want to bring up Hanson when the weather's nice and the match-up is more fortuitous. He just doesn't have the endurance/stamina without a couple more minor league starts. At least one more, if not two. If nothing else, we can keep auditioning pitchers and seeing who can perform. We know Leesman can't get it done, we already knew that in the first place. Rienzo and Carroll have got a chance, though. Maybe even Petricka. Putnam has pitched decently in his limited outings, it's better than starting an Axelrod or Surkamp and having them get hammered.

And the whole Santana argument is cancelled out by the fact that he wasn't going to sign for 3-4-5 years at the money the Braves were willing to offer for just one season, so as great as he has been pitching so far this year, he's much more valuable to the Braves than the White Sox for ONLY 2014. He wanted and still wants that $100 million payday, if he continued with his current pace for entire season, unlikely as that is...even in the NL, then he could come darned close next off-season. Now if we want to argue that signing Santana under those circumstances was the best solution, we would have simply kept Jake Peavy at a very similar cost, right?? Because competing in a single season and building towards the future don't go together with a contract like Santana currently has. Who's to say Scott Carroll won't end up being another Phil Humber? You never know. Maybe Paulino will be sent to the bullpen and end up as the closer by the end of the year, although that's even less likely than a Humber or Eldred type performance out of Carroll.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 08:31 AM) It's pouring here in the South Loop and the forecast doesn't look to be changing any time soon with 100% change of precipitation until 9 PM. So I'd say there's a good chance we get our first postponement tonight which may not be a bad thing which our rotation in shambles and Verlander-Scherzer slated to go in the two game series. The attendance is going to be abysmal, horrible weather for the pitchers....conditions should be much nicer in late May and the potential to generate more revenue than anything that this game will create, it's hard to imagine them playing. Plus, as you mentioned, the rotation being more or less in shambles.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 08:04 AM) Zero. It may get postponed, but it won't get canceled. May 29th would be the make up. Yeah, yeah, got it. Although, theoretically, if it was postponed to very late in the season, and the game didn't affect either team's playoff chances, they it might literally be cancelled since it wouldn't be made up.

What are the odds tonight's game is cancelled? At least 50/50?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 28, 2014 -> 07:21 AM) Personally I still think if Viciedo ever gets time to settle into a position, particularly RF, his arm will play well enough there to make him an average fielder and a guy you're happy with in the OF. I could certainly be wrong in that, but worth stressing that letting him work his way into a position over time has not been tried at all. I think ideally, Viciedo's in RF, Eaton in CF and Avi Garcia in LF. Then you can look at that LH bat like LaRoche, Melky Cabrera, V.Martinez or Kendrys Morales for 1B/DH. You also have Conor to consider, DeAza (looking doubtful but things could change and probably will)...Davidson's development, etc. Or you could move Semien to 3B, leave Ramirez alone at SS and try to find a 2B who can hit...which would preferably be Micah Johnson, and is unlikely to be Leury or Carlos Sanchez.