caulfield12

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 06:32 PM) Ken Rosenthal said Sox are out of it but it's tough getting any returns in a trade at this point. He thinks Shark should be dealt. I think we should sign Shark and hold tight for next year and just look at upgrading at catcher and 3B. BUT, I am not giving up on this year and at least a wild card spot And your SS plan? Please don't answer Sanchez and Micah Johnson, or Beckham and Micah/Sanchez up the middle. As of the moment, White Sox at 2.3% chance at wild card, Oakland at 10.3%, Boston at 10.5%. “There might be a change here and there but you have the people you have unless you can move them,” Ventura said. “Those are the facts. Right now we’re going to have to figure out a way for this group to get better...You have to keep them together, keep them pointed in the right direction and there’s an element in here that you don’t want them to cave into it.” “You continue to compete and you have to be able to come out here,” Ventura said. “You practice right, you get the right mentality going and you go play. And there has to be that expectation there. There is a professionalism that goes with it and whether it’s going good or bad, you better be coming out ready to compete.” “I get my point across and these guys know that and there’s moments that are louder than others. There’s moments that are more poignant than others. But in the end, this is professional baseball and there are standards that are there and I’m trying to make sure those are met. And when they’re not, it becomes a tougher conversation with guys. You’re upfront and they know what’s expected.” http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/robin-...&ocid=yahoo Glad Ventura wasn't hired as the inspirational speaker at his daughter's graduation!

At the moment, the A's might be the American League's best team even at 34-41. Take a moment to wrap your mind around that one. Ridiculous? Sure, maybe. But the context is impressive. At 14-30, Beane's massive offseason overhaul appeared to have blown up in his face. Injuries were a huge factor, but it's a bottom-line business. Since 14-30, the A's have gone 20-11. They may now have one of the two or three best rotations in the American League and a very deep, very good lineup. There are still issues with the bullpen and defense, but the A's are close to being pretty much the team Beane expected them to be. And in a division in which every team has an issue or two, the A's have pluses that could outweigh their minuses. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/132917242/oa...with-hot-streak

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 02:19 PM) I 100% agree with the bolded, and think anyone who does not is a dope. They both (Cabrera and Avi) can throw well at least...last time I checked, Garcia was leading the AL in assists. That said, you need to get whoever worked with Viciedo coming into the 2012 on outfield play to help Garcia. It probably won't take, but there's always HOPING. With Cabrera, he can make some pretty good plays...but he's likely to continue to regress as ages. That said, someone like Rajai Davis is 34 years old and puts himself through extremely intense offseason training, all the scouts say this is the fastest he's gotten down the line to 1B and 1B to 3B on singles in his career.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) Flowers and Soto rank 5th and 7th in the AL currently according to this page. 12th and 14 if you scan for all baseball. http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php What I should have said was to work as a roving instructor at both the major and minor league levels, because it's already an ingrained trait with Flowers (at least according to the stats). What were Nieto's stats in this area last year? Also with Kevan Smith, Austin and especially our young Latin American catching prospects (Arizona/Dominican Summer League, etc.)

The Good: Eaton's continuing to hit. Beckham and Carlos Sanchez defensively. Sanchez 2nd game winning RBI. Rodon sliders, 7 swinging K's today. Ventura's decision to put the tying run at 2B and walk Cabrera to face Josh Wilson (who did have a 4 hit game against us, but is the definition of career journeyman/AAAA player). JB Shuck continues to make contributions in key moments. It's nice to be 5-5 against DET and pinning them with some huge losses (the walk-off HBP to Avi comes to mind) that will make their path to the playoffs harder and hard. The Bad: Tyler Flowers blocking pitches and general pitch selection by the catchers David Robertson almost had his 4th blown save in 12 appearances after flying out of the gate Alexei Ramirez continues to struggle mightily with RISP. He had a late K and I think all of the pitches were out of the strike zone. Conor Gillaspie is beyond terrible and might be the first DFA candidate of the position players...unless it's Bonifacio. Abreu was clueless up there today, career high in strikeouts for a game. Avi Garcia continues to make bad plays in RF and has hit just .155 in his last 29.

Jesus. Please DFA Gillaspie, Flowers and Ramirez. Not even sure why Bonifacio's on this team. Rodon could have had the win, but huge kudos to Carlos Sanchez for his 2nd game winning RBI. Also, two huge double plays started late on nifty plays by both Carlos and Gordon Beckham at SS. Robertson sure has been shaky the last 12 appearances....almost had his 4th blown save in that span, and 5th overall. But survived thanks to Victor Martinez being PR for by Ausmus late.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 01:00 PM) David Price, a guy Rodon has been compared to more than once, had a 4.42 ERA his rookie year. He started cutting back on the walks, and became a star his second season. Rodon will figure a way to cut the walks. When he does, as long as he doesn't get hurt, he will be in the Cy Young conversation. And how many different pitches can Price throw for strikes? Carlos needs to be able to throw that change-up with command at least 7.5-12.5% of the time to be an elite starter. Petricka up in the bullpen.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:59 PM) That doesn't sound like that pitch to me, it was a hanging slider? Tigers' announcers called it as a high change-up...would have to watch the video replay.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:56 PM) No but the walks are way too many. He never walked guys like this in college. Because big league hitters lay off pitches outside of the zone and make you come to them... Completely different scenario in terms of talent level, most NCAA Div 1 line-ups have 2 pro prospects, maybe 3 out of 9 in a line-up.

Rodon ERA on the season finally over 4.00 again... 98 pitches, nobody throwing in the White Sox bullpen. Hmmm... Trying to be too perfect there.

Fine, Bryant would have 95 walks, Rizzo 85 walks and Abreu just 34 in 600 at-bats. Last year, Abreu had 51 in 556 AB's. That's a pretty big falloff. Good thing that pitch went foul, slider got killt there by Cespedes. Got him with the 90 mph follow-up slider. Flowers can't even catch it, that's at least twice today he's missed. 7 swinging strikeouts....6 on sliders. And it's a game again. SIGH. Change-up up in the strike zone. JD Martinez one of the top five waiver claims in the last 2-3 seasons. 9 homers, 23 RBI's in his last 56 AB's.

Rajai Davis really lost that ball and isn't a good fielder at all....Gose has at least a 50/50 shot at flagging it down. That was ball was up in the air a long time, turned the wrong way and couldn't recover. Acccording to the Tigers' announcers, he's been pretty good this year, but that's not usually the case, at least in LF.

Just the 3rd time they've scored 4 runs or more in the last 21 games. Good call to let LaRoche swing 3-0, kind of a no brainer with Simon completely losing his command.

Just his 15th walk of the season. Kris Bryant or Rizzo puts up those numbers in 2-3 weeks. That's shockingly low compared to last year for Jose.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:33 PM) Eaton's OPS is now over .700. Considering he was well under .500 to start May I'll take it. If only his glove could improve with his bat... And the baserunning....and the throwing decisions. If there's one thing that's for sure, Vince Coleman should be gone if they don't see any improvement before the ASB. Whatever he's doing, the message isn't getting across. Steverson, Buddy Bell, KW, Vince Coleman, Ventura...something's gotta change.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:30 PM) They are running out of options here. Alexei keeps making errors and Gillaspie keeps making errors. Beckham can only play one position at a time And our only other plus defender, Sanchez, can't hit his way out of a wet paper bag. Of course, Beckham looks worse and worse everyday offensively, starting to almost feel sorry for him...

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:28 PM) Not sure how much longer they can keep him out there. Might as well play Bonifacio more and see if he can elevate his trade value...what's to lose at this point? Draft position?

We're currently on a pace to score 549, would be the lowest total for the Sox since 1968, the year of the pitcher. The Tigers were the only team in the AL that year to average over 4 runs per game, we're heading for an average under 3. Even the 1984-1987 teams were better offensively.

At this point, I'm not even sure a DFA of Conor is going to send any message... Is that really going to help Eaton, Avi or Alexei somehow play better? Maybe if was Conor and Flowers both.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Jun 25, 2015 -> 12:23 PM) Only one of those guys plays right field and it's the most expensive one. Cespedes could play there for sure. Gordon, though, is really much more comfortable in LF. Or they could move Cabrera to RF, although no matter what you do....those guys are all going to be too expensive since just one of them would blow the whole offseason budget.

"This is how they play. That's just ridiculous. Easy play, just airmailed it." LOL.

Something on Rodon's left hand is clearly bothering him... Blister issues from that slider?

More stellar defense. Hahn needs to add RF to the shopping list now. Cespedes, Heyward, Alex Gordon...hopefully not aging Ben Zobrist.

Last 29 games for Avisail, .155. Sanchez-like. Low walks, high K's, BABIP readjusting as predicted. The only way out of that is getting a ton of XB hits, which hasn't happened. Great, 7 in a row quickly retired. Is that right, we just had a stretch of 6-7 games in a row without any SOX batters having consecutive hits? Just wow.

Cespedes has single-handedly kept that offense afloat for much of the last 4-6 weeks. Definitely deserves to be in the All-Star game, not sure if he'll make it or not. Of course, if the White Sox picked him up next year as a FA, he'd probably go into the tank and start airmailing throws from the OF like post PEDS Sosa.