caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 12:49 PM) Gameday has Q's velocity at 90 today...less than last year, correct? 90-93 last year, right.

Great play there by Ramirez and Abreu. Shift takes a hit away in that case. Abreu's play there actually wasn't a bad one, fwiw. He's getting better than the first couple of weeks, that's for sure.

Sigh. Quintana not closing out innings this game. Weird defensive positioning too, especially with Alexei too far in the hole and Beckham in the middle of the diamond.

Tigers' announcers expresseding skepticism about Rienzo's arsenal. And they've seen him twice, both times he pitched pretty well against DET, this year and last. Also expressing wonderment why the White Sox aren't drawing well with the excitement surrounding Eaton, Garcia, Abreu, etc. Flowers with two hits again already, although one was a doink. Chiding White Sox "pr" people for not promoting White Sox as having top three hitters in the AL with Flowers (not quite eligible), Viciedo and Ramirez.

Go away, Beckham. Can never hit a fastball to save his life.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 12:12 PM) It's more that our pitching depth is horrible right now. This is where Balta says who cares? If it doesn't matter, the White Sox would be willing to take Kolek or Aiken at #3 (if available), and yet almost nobody believes they would actually do that with their compressed timeframe for getting back to respectability and not being second to last in the majors for attendance for the next three years. Only if the White Sox are willing to go out and spend the money for a Masterson or Shields to bridge the rotation to contention can they really afford to go after a high school starting pitcher. And having three lefties in the rotation makes Rodon just a little bit less of a "must have" than it would be if the White Sox had five righties. So obviously it's not the PBA, or it would be Kolek/Aiken/Rodon at 3. Certainly not Turner, when there are 100 arguments for Jackson over him. Heck, most draft boards now expect Turner to be at the end of the 1st/start of the 2nd round.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:44 AM) Luck. You know that. Furthermore, way to cherry pick. Beckham had game-winning hits his first season, too. Semien's OPS is sub-.700. He's done nothing to hold down the spot. If his offensive performance was even Leury Garcia level, you'd have a point. The old maxim "you don't lose your position due to injury" is overplayed and overrated, but Semien hasn't performed well enough to combat it at all. So Alexei Ramirez was lucky in 2008 and now in 2014? All those walk/BB totals from the minor leagues are going to balance out too...he's not going to have more K's at the major league level than Hawkins at W-S, for example. It's not like rookies just maintain a flat or level statistical curve in season-long projections. Dayan Viciedo has something like only 11 K's and 5-6 BB's now. Who would have projected that? Or Flowers? Odds are that Semien's walks will increase and K's decrease, it's on the back of his minor league cards.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) Why? Because you don't like Hoffman? Great. Now when the HS arms go 1-2, the Sox can draft Trea Turner at #3. Joy. Why would we do that when we just drafted Anderson and have Semien, L. Garcia, Keppinger and Carlos Sanchez all capable of playing that position? Not to mention Saladino.

Viciedo and Ramirez 1st and 2nd in AL batting average. Abreu Top 5 ROY/AL MVP candidate. Not bad so far. Even Nieto's held his own (mostly) in limited playing time. He hasn't been Corky Miller.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:35 AM) There's no reason for anyone to suspect anything after a rehab stint. There's just no link between rehab stint performance and ML performance for anyone. Good players have terrible rehab stints all the time. I'm assuming since Beckham is back that his oblique is no longer bothering him, because obviously there was no rush to bring him back. He might perform well, he might not. Something seemed to have clicked towards the end of last year and that may continue. Or it might not. Who knows? Just give him his last shot and ship him out of town if he fails. Semien could definitely benefit from playing in AAA still. His performance so far has been far from good, despite timeliness. He's 18th/25th in OPS, for qualified 2B. WAR, he's 9th at 2B for the majors, albeit small sample size. Clutch wise, he's hit three huge game winning homers (if we had a bullpen to lock those wins down). How many game winning hits does Gordon Beckham have from 2009-2013? 10-12?

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:26 AM) Still not totally sure how serious the Hoffman soreness is, but I would agree. Hope Rodon goes 1-1 which sets us up nicely for Aiken or Kolek. And yet vitually nobody's making the projection of him going 1st (overall) at the moment...I'm sure everything will change again in the next 5-6 weeks.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:27 AM) Someone should probably tell him that then. We have too many infielders as is. We need OF depth. We have an elite fielder in Danks so he certainly makes more sense for us. Danks is very good. Elite, no. Brian Anderson was a better CFer, and he wasn't quite elite either. Stretches of elite...yes. Better than Rowand, Eaton and Danks, for sure.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 09:15 AM) His numbers in AA this year mean nothing. He was rehabbing. It's like spring training numbers. How has that translated for Jordan Danks? Besides, Beckham has better career numbers than Semien. So if Beckham doesn't "deserve" it, why would Semien? Have Semien start taking some fungos in the OF. It's not a big deal having an infielder play some OF. Having an OF move to the infield is a bit more complicated. Many forget, Alexei Ramirez debuted as a CF for the White Sox. Gillaspie said he probably will miss a few more days. I wouldn't be surprised if he winds up DL'd. Ramirez played a ton of CF in Cuba and was scouted at that position (in tryouts), along with SS/2B/util infielder. Semien hasn't played LF or CF in the minors at all. If he did at CAL, I'm not aware of it, but would have to look up his collegiate numbers to verify. Does anyone expect Beckham to resemble anything close to hot offensively after that rehab stint? 220's average with minimal power is what we're all pretty much expecting with that oblique.

No Beede/McCulloch/Broadway, haha. Yes, I know McCulloch was a fringe first rounder, and probably 2nd/3rd if not for financial limitations on draft back then. At any rate, you don't take a pitcher in the first five picks you can't project as a 1/2. The end.

QUOTE (Jake @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 08:39 AM) That might save us from ourselves And back to Rodon? Maybe Hoffman will end up injuring himself (if it turns out be more serious) having attempted to impress everyone with velocity/radar gun readings, just like Rodon in his 134 pitch start. Crazy. What's going to happen next in this soap opera?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 24, 2014 -> 08:36 AM) I think you can find 5 or more starts for him a week if you let him play some OF. Please, no. He's already got enough to think about without getting his mind wrapped around playing 4 or 5 positions. Has he EVER played the outfield in the minors? I think it's just SS, some 2B and just a little 3B.

Flowers was leading AL in hitting about 10 days ago and now 9th in line-up. Funny season so far. Don't like Danks hitting first, though. Oh well...better not to mess with Alexei's mojo and move him out of comfort zone down at the bottom.

I wonder if our attendance would be over 20,000 per game with Abreu AND Tanaka? Kind of doubt it. Maybe? I'll give Sox fans the benefit of the doubt and believe they would really start to come back to support the team, despite the obvious bullpen flaws....seeing a clear blueprint going forward. Makes you feel more confident about their decision-making process going forward when they were so right (and it's early) about two huge FA's. Hopefully that will extend to the June draft as well. Don't forget Ventura with the Royals. Although only 3 starts so far, electric stuff.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 11:51 PM) 2012 started off wayyyyy worse. Santiago started out as closer, then they went to Thornton, and 5 blown saves later they finally went with Reed. The first 10 innings split between those first 2 resulted in 23 hits, 4 walks, 11 ERs and 6 HRs. Lindstroms first 10 innings have resulted in 11 hits, 4 walks, 3 ERs and 0 HRs. Nevertheless, 5 blown saves in 8 opportunities....the key/end result...was basically the same as 2011 and 2012 at the start of those two seasons.

"JOE" Nicholas Cage movie...is actually very good, mostly underacted for a change by Cage. A FLASH OF GENIUS, Greg Kinnear movie about the invention of the intermittent wiper blades, Ford basically stealing the design and manufacturing themselves and the subsequent legal battle and personal struggles of Dr. Robert Kearns, really enjoyed this one. Kinnear's a lot like Kevin Costner is his "everyman" roles and Lauren Graham was good, too, as the frustrated but proud wife. Transcendence was beautiful to watch but super slow in the middle...good chemistry with Depp and Hall, but it just fell completely flat in its ambitions.

Barnum with a 3/4...nice to see that. Guerra and Francisco with clean innings, although with a big lead.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 23, 2014 -> 08:01 PM) Rienzo with the win. Did not see that coming. Semien isn't afraid to get a big hit. Like that guy. That would/should be THREE game winning homers for him in less than a one month. Alexei Ramirez 2008-esque. Gordo, we really don't need you back, buddy.

Yay...now 3/8 in save opportunities for the White Sox bullpen. Shades of the final play in Bobby Jenks' clincher against the Tigers in late 2005.

Avila's been white hot. There's trouble here, Sheree.

Jesus, Lindstrom. This is worse than Bobby Jenks in the last couple of years of his White Sox career. At least he USUALLY got the job done though, SOMEHOW.