caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 12:31 PM) Nieto has always been thought of as an offense first catcher. But it's still the equivalent of Courtney Hawkins getting promoted to the majors in terms of competition level for him. That often works for elite pitchers, but almost never hitters.

Got into Hosmer's kitchen there...nice pitch to tie him up. At this point, not sure if we're cheering for a Danks trade to clear even more payroll or simply hoping he's the 2008-2010 version. With the premium on pitching, I'll take the later, until someone forces him out of the rotation. Konerko 12/49 with 5 career homers against Chen.

Royals' scouting report on Nieto: MLB average at blocking pitches and throwing...scary to think about the hitting part. Couldn't we have just brought back Corky Miller, lol? Danks 6-0 lifetime against KC and 4-0 at Kauffman, something has to give.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 12:22 PM) RV probably didn't want to set up KC for Tim Collins on Gilaspie-De Aza when you can't pinch hit for either of them today. And 90% it will be DeAza raising his value and Viciedo's sinking, since he has already proven he can hit lefties consistently to a .326 career mark, but what's the value of one-dimensional platoon corner outfielders these days?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 12:21 PM) Does Ventura know Gillaspie was horrendous vs LHP last year? Kinda baffling to see him batting so high in the order. Would rather see see Leury Garcia hitting there. Or Avisail, for that matter. Konerko at 3B, haha? We can feel the thought process, we sort of wish Jeff Keppinger was up at-bat...that's quite a scary thought.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 12:19 PM) Is this game supposed to be blacked out for me on MLB.TV ? I'm in Texas. Probably because the Saturday day games between 12 and 6...that window is blocked for FOX, even if they're not running games nationally. Or are they already this early in the season?

And that's what will happen with Viciedo playing once every 4 or 5 games. Will be overanxious to make up all those PA's in just one at-bat to try to fight his way into everyday playing time. No rhythm. Chen 7-2 against Sox since 2011.

Abreu jammed on the pitch inside but able to muscle it into the outfield anyway. Encouraging. Viciedo, 10 for 29, 3 HR's/7 RBI's versus Chen lifetime 18th career start against Sox, 7-5, seems like it's 15-3.

Eaton hustling all the way, very close. DANG. Semien would have had an infield single were the runner not already there at 1st.

Eaton, atta boy, stay hot! Semien having early problems this season with the bunt tool. Also feels like he's constantly getting behind in the count.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens with three particular character arcs now on AGENTS OF SHIELD. Having just watched the t.v. show before the movie, there's quite a few areas of crossover, which hasn't been successfully pulled off in ages. No Agent Coulson in this CA movie, but some Hill and the new character of the nurse Kate. Wouldn't be totally shocked to see Chloe Bennett (Skye) figure somehow into a future Avengers movie.

QUOTE (Bigsoxhurt35 @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 12:01 PM) Obviously lol...it'd just be nice to see him at .260 with 17 HRs. Anything over .240 for Flowers would be a minor miracle.

Flowers is 1/12 career against Chen with HR/2 RBI. It is a bit strange not to wait until Sunday, but I guess it doesn't matter with how many day games we've had. Maybe they thought Nieto had a better shot at Chen compared to Shields?

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 06:39 AM) Maybe he's toast. And yet somehow Nestor Molina was even worse, haha.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 05:19 AM) Yeah, one of the things that caught my eye from the games yesterday was Olacio striking out 6 batters in 2 IP. If the Sox plan on keeping him in the bullpen going forward, then he must have gained some serious velocity coming out of relief and they must expect him to move fast. Given his age, they did not have to give up on him being a starter just yet. And as we see with a lot of top relief prospects, keeping him in a starter's role at least gives him a chance to develop his secondary stuff. The Sox must feel Olacio can be a dynamic left-handed reliever at the major league level and pretty soon to make this change so early into his career IMO. Saw where Santos Rodriguez was on the 7 Day DL with the Mobile Bay Sharks (Arizona)...and guess Leyson Septimo's still recovering from his surgery last season. Minor league free agent.

QUOTE (lord chas @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 08:53 AM) Danny Manning to Wake Forest. He is a great developer of bigs He was working with as a member of the KU staff with top flight talent...we'll see if that continues as he tries to recruit elite players to a once-proud program with names like Tim Duncan and Rodney Rogers.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Apr 5, 2014 -> 01:21 AM) Pretty optimistic - but it's possible. I do believe a vast majority of the weakness we've seen in this team will be naturally addressed in a short time. IE: Starting pitching tightening it up, defense coming together, bullpen control coming around. There's lots of room for growth. 90 wins this year or not, the step is the important part of your statement. Unequivocally we'll do that. My crystal ball already showed me. Cleto and Jones are unlikely to "just get it" and click for more than 2-3 months at a time. Jones, due to mechanics...they're going to be maddeningly inconsistent. Cleto's going to have to get ahead in counts and keep hitters from sitting on the fastball or he'll get killed even at 95-98. Let's cross our fingers on another Don Cooper miracle, though. The Cardinals and Royals couldn't afford to have him work out his problems at the big league level...whereas the Sox can. Lindstrom doesn't even have close to Sergio Santos level stuff. He'll be one of those 60-70% save conversion guys who become valuable set-up men in the 2nd half on another team but who don't merit a huge package. Let's just say the odds of him becoming the next JJ Putz are somewhere between slim and none. Belisario might end up surprising...or Veal. It seems Downs has just gotten old, like Thornton did over the last couple of seasons. We need Webb and Petricka and someone like Guerra or Boggs to go all Cliff Politte.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:50 PM) Caufield are u back in KC? or still overseas somewhere? Caufield and Fathom are interesting. They never post in the winter. They are like bears in hibernation. Then they reappear. They are regular-season aficionados. I'm in China. Suffering through all these 4 a.m. start times. Before that, Indonesia for 2 1/2 months, as well as India and Kenya/Tanzania/Ethiopia. Although I will honestly admit it was hard for me to stay awake after the lead was already 7-2. Still, the team has shown the capacity to rally back offensively. And, like you, I was excited to see Ventura start against the Sox...he's going to have to wait until early next week. Not sure who they're playing, maybe Tampa?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 09:23 PM) Welcome to the rebuild. It was unrealistic to expect to hit on all three of Garcia, Eaton and Davidson, but at least 2/3 making it....that's pretty much critical. Obviously, the season's still young...at some point they're going to have to ditch Dunn in order to give Viciedo more regular at-bats than playing roughly 1/4th of the time. I don't know if it's realistic to expect a competent offense in 2015 by simply plugging in one of DeAza/Eaton/Garcia/Viciedo into the DH spot. On the plus side, though, we are getting more and more athletic with additions of Semien, Eaton and Leury Garcia. Still, we're dealing with a somewhat unexpected downside...the benefit of shifting DeAza to LF and putting Eaton is CF has been offset negatively by Avisail's shoddy/plodding defense in RF so far. We're much younger with Garcia in RF than Rios, but we're losing stolen bases, power (so far) and defensive ability. Garcia has the stronger arm, sure, but his fundamentals have been so poor that it's about as helpful as Jermaine Dye possessing a strong arm but always throwing flat-footed or falling backwards. Say what you want about Viciedo, but he always gets his forward momentum behind the ball when he's making a throw.

Agents of SHIELD, The Blacklist, Person of Interest and Scandal all picking up steam as their seasons near conclusions. By the way, we now know the ethnic identity of Lip's "personal assistant/friend with benefits," she's an adopted Filipina. Wonder what happened to the cute blonde teaching assistant from earlier in the season....as well as the girl he met in the laundry room who volunteered to help with Liam? Finally, Shameless is going somewhere...Frank's coming back from the dead, Carl has a Bonnie to go with his Clyde, and perhaps the most important scene of this year with Ian and Mickey. Even Debbie bounced back from her trauma, although no idea where that "relationship" is potentially going. Fiona, though...still lost and drifting while Lip has become the center of the family and the hero/anti-hero of the show. Wonder what Frank coming back as a more central character will do to the direction of the show?

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 08:10 PM) I would maybe steer the Dodgers towards someone else to fill that role, like maybe a house plant. Never a good thing when your wikipedia page has "at least" written in front of the # of children you have, followed by "as of 1998". Former Chiefs' linebacker Derrick Thomas has much the same story. It's only rivaled by Dennis Rodman's father, Philander. http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgersnow/l...y#axzz2xygtzyhU Magic Johnson on Puig's tardiness... http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger...egins-ominously On balancing the playing time for Kemp, Ethier, Crawford and Puig. Seems Ethier is the most likely to sit SAT against Bumgardner. http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_...angeles-dodgers Ramona Shelburne on Puig's maturation process...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 08:18 PM) Was this at Tennessee? Y'all could have sent me in person if it was here. Only if you can send reports back after the game from Krystal or Waffle House.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 07:03 PM) I see your point, but no other ball club/stadium has this problem, or has come up with a solution? Kansas City has the exact same stadium layout/design/configuration and a similar propensity for fans to sit in the lower bowl as USCF...their ushers are very vigilant about letting someone into the box seats, which is of course their responsibility. It gets crowded, but they've managed to widen the concourses as well as adding to the outfield/patio area so not everyone is drawn to the area between 1st and 3rd. Have never noticed a big problem there. It goes back to "protecting" the experience of the box seat holders.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Apr 4, 2014 -> 06:41 PM) Atta boy Hawkins Would almost rather see him rack up a ton of doubles and triples...because as soon as he has one of his homer streaks, he'll follow it up with a bunch of K's and 0fers. Dash just gave up 5 runs that inning. Hawkins also has a single and a walk. NO K's! 3/6 so far on the two game season. There was the K on three pitches (guy throwing 87-89 MPH fastballs). By the way, the single was actually on a ball (kind of a gork shot) that SS Raul Mondesi misjudged and then ended up throwing out Hawkins trying to stretch it to a double. Barnum still without a hit this year.

Didn't realize Semien and Johnson were college roommates at CAL. And now we know why they kept DeAza around...not only as trade bait, but insurance in case they need to send Garcia back down to work on some things (and the knowledge Jordan Danks isn't in the long term plans). Same thing with Davidson/Gillaspie. Or keeping Beckham/Ramirez. We might have been getting about 1/2 year ahead of ourselves, but we're just going to have to be patient and HOPE he can figure things out at the big league level. Another problem is that you don't want to move Viciedo back to RF again. Not until/unless Garcia struggles out there for 2+ months. Abreu chases a ball out of the strike zone for the K. Haven't seen much of that out of him.