caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 09:43 AM) How do you know there is a lack of urgency? Did you read it on a message board? The fact is, your favorite team and model organization hasn't been all that great the last couple of months. I guess their leadership or coaching or something must be lacking. The leadership crap is just like the chemistry argument. Konerko was a great leader in 2005. When the team is bad in 2013, where is the leadership. You can have great leaders, that doesn't mean you will win more games than you lose. Have you ever even played a baseball game or any game for that matter? Does the team with the best coach usually win? Or is it the team with the best leaders? Or is it the team with the best players? Or is it the team with the best performers? I'll go with the last one. Gee, no, I've never played sports before, lmao. Many White Sox insiders have noted time and time again that the team was never quite the same after the losses of Rowand, Everett and eventually Juan Uribe and Mark Buehrle. Yes, we've heard time and time as well that the 1970's Yankees players hated most of their teammates but they came together and won because they had the most talent, blah blah blah. Well, the fact of the matter is that there's a TON of parity in MLB today...and when the margin of talent differentiation is lowered, leadership becomes a more important factor in a team's success.

The Astros computer system, dubbed Ground Control, was featured in the Houston Chronicle last year. Shortly after the article appeared, the Astros said people were trying to get into the database because they could see a URL in a photo that accompanied the article. However, the site and link were also available via Google. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/ast...own-5300746.php When the Astros hired general manager Jeff Luhnow in December 2011, he had a 25-page plan he presented to owner Jim Crane. In it were details for this website - a complex, built-from-scratch database - that would be fully tailored to every one of the club's needs. Since senior technical architect Ryan Hallahan was hired in February 2012, the database has become just about the most useful baseball tool available. Some features, like a trade analyzer, seem ripped straight from a video game. It's one of the coolest toys the public will never play with. The Astros are not the first team to build their own database, although they believe theirs rivals anyone's. The Cleveland Indians gained notoriety as the first to build a confidential system, called "DiamondView." The Boston Red Sox further popularized the trend with theirs, nicknamed "Carmine." The name comes from the David Bowie song...."This is ground control to Major Tom"

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 09:51 AM) I just dont get it. Why are the Cardinals hacking the astros back then? The Cardinals were the premier organization and the Astros were just straight up garbage To get back at Luhnow, who had polarized that front office before leaving for Houston. Partly, because they felt they were entitled to, because the system was largely (in the minds of the Cardinals/aka Gavin Belson of Hooli/"Silicon Valley" reference) developed as "work product" in St. Louis and then brought over to Houston under a different name (and further refined by the likes of Sig Mejdal)...and Luhnow brought quite a few of his guys from St. Louis over with him, which led to more hurt feelings between the two organizations. Prior to joining the Astros, Sig worked for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2005-11, most recently as Director of Amateur Draft Analytics. During his time with St. Louis, Sig was involved with modeling, analysis, and data-driven decision making throughout all levels of the organization. He was a key contributor in the draft decision processes that led to the selection of more Major League players than any other organization during that time frame. Earlier in his career, Sig worked at Lockheed Martin in California and for NASA. He earned two engineering degrees at the University of California at Davis and later completed advanced degrees in Operations Research and Cognitive Psychology/Human Factors at San Jose State University. source: Houston Astros website The hack, reported to have been not very sophisticated, was apparently motivated by the suspicion on the part of Cardinals officials that Astros GM Jeff Luhnow had improperly taken proprietary knowledge from the Cardinals upon his departure. The key paragraph from the article states: Investigators believe Cardinals officials, concerned that Mr. Luhnow had taken their idea and proprietary baseball information to the Astros http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2015/6/16/878...sible-hack-into

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) This is all a bunch of BS. You don't know the leadership structure of either the White Sox or Royals. Abreu bland, Kendrys Morales policing everyone? LMAO. Get real. Once again, obfuscation. Obfuscation. Obfuscation. Why don't you address the question, then...which is that there APPEARS to be a lack of immediacy or sense of urgency from this team. How do you explain this team getting absolutely hammered by opponents in the early innings? If it's not leadership, it's not preparation, it's not coaching...then what is it? All the White Sox players are "mentally weak" and the front office doesn't know how to put together a cohesive and proverbial "sum of all the parts is greater than the individual numbers" team? With Ventura, I should also add Mark Guthrie...who always serves as his "unofficial" translator for post-game interviews.

With Almora disappointing and McKinney probably ticketed for a corner....it does make a lot of sense for the Cubs to go after a game-changing CFer, even one who's 2 or maybe even 3 years away by most reports. Almost nobody believes Fowler is going to be the long-term solution, he's simply a placeholder until a better option comes along...although he's been fine for his particular role so far this season.

I think the reason it's working pretty well (despite the loss of James Shields) for the Royals is that you do have a pretty much perfect mixture of youth and veterans. Obviously, Infante's not playing very well (probably the worst overall 2B in the AL), but each clique of players has a ringleader, like we saw in 2005. With the Latin players, it's Salvador Perez and now Kendrys Morales policing Escobar and especially Yordano Ventura. As much as Hosmer and Moustakas are hated by many, there's the steadying presence of Alex Gordon who arrived as a regular 2-3 years earlier and gets respect as the "veteran" of the group, the vanguard of that first wave of prospects. Gordon, from all reports, work as hard as Juan Pierre on his game, always the first to arrive and the last to leave and never satisfied with all the elements of his game. Then you have Lorenzo Cain doing his own thing and bringing a certain amount of swagger and confidence (just like Torii Hunter in his prime years with the Twins, but even this season again) to the entire organization with his bold style of play. So just in their starting line-up, they have four really strong leaders, and that's not even counting Hosmer and Moustakas, who have big and arrogant/confident personalities as well. What players in our starting line-up match that? Eaton? Abreu is about as bland as Ventura. Expecting Alexei to be a leader? We might as well watch paint dry. Avi kind of has that playful, big teddy bear personality, is a jokester and prankster, but there just aren't enough position players who can be counted on right now. Catcher is perhaps the most important position on the field and we have Tyler Flowers...who is having a hard enough time for the last two years holding his position to be considered a leader. Beckham has a personality, but he's failed so many times offensively he can't be the leader except in granting interview requests, and Conor is even more boring and vanilla than both Ventura and Abreu somehow. Last year it was cute, this year it's symptomatic of the overall team malaise. Then there's the growing disappointment with Samardzija's performance as well as his leadership abilities (so far). Very little out of LaRoche and Cabrera's almost non-existent.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 08:33 AM) Its funny, in hindsight I keep seeing all of the mentions about the Samardjiza deal being bad, and how much we miss Semien. But seeing Liriano last night reminded of missing Eduardo Escobar. I really didn't think we would miss him from that deal, but at the very least he is the utility infielder on this team, and we don't have to worry about defense off of the bench for sure. Thus, saving the money wasted on the Bonifacio signing.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 08:11 AM) Did you have that concern every time a white cop got named? If that happened, then maybe people wouldn't rush to make up lies to fit their agenda? These three were perfectly willing to completely screw the lives of the white officers, possibly even put them in the crosshairs, because of what? Would suck for them, but I don't care. The difference is that a civilian is generally not as well prepared to defend themself from attack. Assuming you're naming these people, and shaming them....do you want them to buy weapons to prepare for that eventuality? How many of the white police officers named in these high profile cases have been attacked by civilians as a result? http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/opinions/jon...lity/index.html Blaming black protesters for "increased crime"?

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 07:46 AM) Eye-witnesses are notoriously unreliable. I don't know about this particular case but a lot of them would pass a polygraph with flying colors because they truly don't believe they are lying. They honestly believe they saw something completely different than what really happened. The human mind/memory can be a messed up thing. For example, Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas case. Passed the polygraph test, etc. Sometimes we believe in a lie so strongly that it essentially becomes the truth, at least our version of it.

QUOTE (glangon @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 07:28 AM) With Wieters returning to the Orioles, a trade for Caleb Joseph would be a good thing, a good defensive catcher who hits better than Flowers and Soto. He's batting .250 with 5 homers and 20 RBI's and allows 66% of runners to steal on him which is better than anything we have in the majors or AAA and with the Orioles in contention we could maybe offload Shark to them for Joesph and a couple of prospects. Except all indications point to the fact that the Orioles are generally satisfied with Joseph (especially considering the price) and most likely will let Wieters go the FA route. Who poses a greater threat to Matt Wieters' future in Baltimore: Caleb Joseph or his agent, Scott Boras? -- Dan S., South Florida Boras, unquestionably. Joseph will be the first to tell you -- and he did tell reporters several times this spring -- that there's no replacing Wieters. And while Joseph has certainly grown into a defensively sound catcher in his second year, he doesn't have the experience or the offensive ability yet that the switch-hitting Wieters does. Keep in mind, Wieters was on pace for a career year offensively in 2014 before an elbow injury eventually required Tommy John surgery. Wieters hasn't played this season and is still on a throwing program in extended spring camp. The more time he misses this season -- his final under team control -- the less leverage Boras may have to work on a megadeal for his client. Could that work in the Orioles' favor? Maybe, but it could be a stretch. When the sides were talking, they were said to be worlds apart. Bridging that gap, at least with where things are now, would be incredibly difficult. source, MLB.com

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 07:32 AM) How is it that the Cubs are able to spend wildly again this period, didnt they blow past their limit last year? I'm a little confused myself. Seems like it's the Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees and Angels who can't sign him before July 2nd... Martinez, 20, is eligible to sign right now, but the fact that he hasn’t with the 2014-2015 signing period closing in mid-June is significant. That implies, strongly, that he is at least seriously considering (or has quietly agreed to) an offer from a team that is locked out now but won’t be in July. The top candidates to be that team? Cubs and Dodgers. And while the Dodgers have been winning the Battles of the Moneybags lately, I suspect the Cubs have the reserves to put up a fiscal fight for a player they really want. And they might have another fight, too, on the number three prospect, Lucius Fox. If the Cubs land Fox, this class becomes incredibly good. Like Martinez, there are a lot of team involved on Fox, but unlike Martinez, Fox cannot sign until July 2. Given that he arrived on the scene a little late, any team that does not want to blow the spending limits may already be promised to enough other players that they won’t have the room for Fox. That puts the deep pocketed teams who are committed to blowing past the limits in the drivers’ seat, and that means it may well be the Cubs and Dodgers fighting for the wheel. http://www.bleachernation.com/2015/06/05/c...julio-martinez/

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 07:25 AM) So I believe someone said today is the last day for some teams to get EJM inked to a deal before the July 2nd deadline. Who is no longer able to sign him after today? It’s unclear as yet whether Martinez will sign in this period or the new one beginning July 2, but he’ll have to put pen to paper in short order if he’s to head to the Yankees or Angels. Those two clubs will be unable to spend more than $300K after this July 2 class closes, and they are among the teams who Sanchez lists with interest. The Cubs, Blue Jays, Nationals, Rockies, Tigers, Dodgers, and Giants have also reached out to Martinez’s camp, per the report. “I’m working hard to get to my goal to play in the Major Leagues, ” says the 20-year-old. “That’s what I have always wanted to do.” baseballamerica.com

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 07:07 AM) They should be named and shamed as much as possible. And then what happens when a white person hunts one of them down and kills them out of revenge? Naming and shaming are funny things....if you were asked who was responsible for costing taxpayers billions of dollars as a result of the whole credit default swaps/adjustable rate mortgages, most posters MIGHT be able to come up with Angelo Mozilo. That had 100X the impact on everyone here personally, yet do we as a society really want to take this type of approach? Should we do the same thing for girls who make false or contradictory rape allegations, even when they're minors? How do you decide who should "fairly" be named and shamed? What happens if people take the law into their own hands as a result? How many of the white people who have falsely accused black people of robbing or attacking them do we remember? There was the Stuart case in Boston, the Tawana Brawley hoax on the other side, but does that prevent white people from doing the same thing?

Derek Norris is a really good defensive catcher, but the Pads just acquired him this year. Jason Castro has been mentioned a LOT over the last two or three years around here. Nick Hundley would be another one who grades out very well this year. However, it's almost like you're forced to take a AAA/AA high level prospect, because the cost for major league catching talent is usually so high...and our offense right now is so limited that it's hard to make just incremental improvements if you're going with "defense first" personnel. That said, I would love to hear a reporter ask Robin Ventura why he feels the defense played so well for most of the 2012 season, and then fell apart the following year. Why did guys like DeAza, Viciedo and Alexei play so much better? It seems like Abreu was improving a lot in the second half last year and now he's gone backwards. Eaton, backwards. Alexei, fading. Cabrera is just so-so at best and Avi hasn't made much progress in this area, along with Conor and Flowers. It's almost a team-wide malaise, other than Beckham and Sanchez, who obviously have their offensive limitations. Even LaRoche hasn't been up to par compared to what he showed the last couple of seasons in Washington.

Baseball-reference.com ranks the White Sox last in the majors in Defensive Efficiency while Fangraphs.com has them 29th of 30 in Defensive Runs Saved. The White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies are both nearly double the New York Yankees, who rank 28th in the majors with minus-22 Defensive Runs Saved. The White Sox are minus-43 and Phillies are minus-45. The Kansas City Royals are first overall with 42 Defensive Runs Saved. “Defense is always going to be something that you need to be able to win,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “But there are also momentum swings with defense. Defense can help you help the pitchers. Teams that play good defense get momentum because you don’t need to do as much offensively to be able to cover it. When we get better at that, and we get some hits with some guys on, it looks better. When you stub your toe in one area of the game, it can cost you.” So what is the plan for getting better at that, exactly? Obviously, they sent down Micah and are playing Beckham over Conor at 3B, but that's only a half solution at best if those particular moves don't move the needle at all offensively. http://www.csnchicago.com/white-sox/poor-d...haunt-white-sox

QUOTE (glangon @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 04:05 AM) It's probably not a priority for them at the moment but Noesi is a train wreck and Carroll wasn't, Carroll has seemed to settle well into the long relief role and done well there, Carroll on a regular basis seemed to steady the ship without giving up a lot of runs and give our offense a chance of getting back into the game (which they didn't take) whereas Noesi seemed to ship runs everytime he enters a game. Rodon's innings will probably be picked up by the likes of Beck and Johnson in the last month. I think they see the likes of Beck and Johnson more as starters than long relievers and when Shark is traded and Rodon runs out of innings, these guys and possibly Montas and Danish could come more to the fore. With the trading of relievers, all of them bar Duke and Robertson are probably on the block with Hahn knowing that he has Jones and Crain ready to come back near the All-Star break and Albers rehabbing soon with Lindstrom still in AAA. I'm thinking that 2016 could see a very settled pen with Crain, Jones, Carroll, Duke, Jennings, Albers and Robertson with the option of Lindstrom, Petricka, Putnam and Webb depending on who gets traded / released. To that list, you can add add Montas, Danish, Sanburn, Blake Hickman (the White Sox plan to convert him into a reliever), Junior Guerra, etc. If the future rotation is expected to be Sale, Rodon, Fulmer and Danks (2016), that only leaves room for one of Danish/Montas/Beck/Johnson in a starting role. Or maybe two of them, depending on what assets they can get back for Samardzija OR if they trade Quintana and/or acquire a 3/4 guy to hold down the fort while they're waiting on Fulmer's arrival in the rotation. My own belief is that the bullpen is one of the areas they will try to "sell high" on now with either Petricka, Putnam or Duke if they can get the right pieces back...and, if not, they just end up holding them, as will likely happen with Alexei Ramirez and Jose Quintana. I'm also not 100% convinced we will see Lindstrom or Albers again in a White Sox uniform.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 15, 2015 -> 11:19 PM) Interesting thought. The Cubs have been drafting and acquiring hitters as the new market inefficiency, while the Sox keep finding pitching yet losing games. I don't think it's the hitters that are the market inefficiency, as much as those trades that replenished the system by taking struggling pitchers from other teams and turning them all into assets: Feldman and Clevenger to the Orioles for Jake Arrieta, Pedro Strop and international signing money Samardzija/Hammel (who they got back, another form of market inefficiency the Cubs can exploit, the popularity of playing for the Cubs in a stadium that's going through "exciting" renovations) for a Top 10 player in Addison Russell as well at Top 10 prospect in former first rounder Billy McKinney Garza to the Rangers for Olt, Justin Grimm (he has been helpful to the bullpen), Neil Ramirez, CJ Edwards (another Top 10 prospect)...Olt was a bust but that still turned out okay Then they took advantage of their "big market" status to go after Jorge Soler...as well as: Chicago added more talent in the July 2 international signing period, signing the top two prospects available, Dominican outfielder Eloy Jimenez and Venezuelan shortstop Gleyber Torres, for a combined $4.5 million. The organization spent more than $7.6 million on its top five international signings, blowing past its international bonus pool of more than $5.5 million. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2014...p-10-prospects/

It’s the 12th time this season the White Sox have lost by at least five runs. “It went downhill pretty quick,” center fielder Adam Eaton said. “You hope you can get more than two hits offensively. Defensively you have three errors and throw the ball around and its not a good sign. But this is a good team. We’ve got to continue to work hard and try to compete every game and every at-bat. But we need to start doing it a little more frequently and grind out at-bats and same thing on the mound and defensively it has got to be much better.” www.csnchicago.com/Dan Hayes

It was time. Whether the Padres' decision to fire Bud Black was the right move remains to be seen, but it was the necessary move on Monday. It is unclear if a managerial shakeup will cause these underachievers to wake up — but it was clear that the front office had to try something. The influence a skipper has on his ball club is one of the more nebulous and debated topics in sports. Some say an MLB manager can mold a mediocre team into a title contender, while others deem him no more valuable than the bat boy. What cannot be disputed, however, is that the Padres' last playoff appearance came one month before Black was hired in 2006. So what do you do to try and end a drought? You make a mid-season splash. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/15...e-to-go-padres/ The second page of the article is particularly relevant. If you see Ventura as "Mr. Nice Guy," then Bud Black is that, but even more so. The Padres have two examples of "choke jobs" under Black, the White Sox have 2012 down the stretch. Both teams in 2015 entered the season with high expectations and both have been among the most disappointing teams in baseball (you can argue between the Mariners, Red Sox, White Sox and Padres for MOST disappointing and not be incorrect with any of those four choices.)

QUOTE (glangon @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 01:24 AM) It shouldn't matter what anyone in Charlotte does but other organisations seem to benefit from having options and some decent AAA players. If you look at the other franchises out there such as the Scrubs, the Mets, the Red Sox and the Yankees. Every one of these teams has rookies with options to go with their veterans, they have a balance and a mix. We don't, so when things go bad and you need to make a move to bring up a guy to freshen up the line up, we can't do it without eating money or sticking someone on the DL. This, I agree with this. Ramirez should have went last year when his stock was high, we should never have signed Boneyfishio and although it was nice to see Beckham hit well for a few weeks, it looks like he's back to his old ways. I think once this losing streak is out of the way (and I reckon it could go beyond the Rangers series) and we are over 10 games out of the lead, then I think you'll see Shark, Ramirez and anyone else we think we can get value for traded (especially bullpen pieces) You also neglected to mention that we should have DFA'd Noesi who has been much poorer than Carroll in the long-relief role. As for Noesi/Carroll, I guess it's not a priority for the organization at the moment. It will be when they reach Rodon's innings limit, but right now he's only at 54.3 IP and has at least 100 innings more to go this season. In fact, if he averaged only five innings per start, he could pitch until the very end of the season, theoretically, but he's probably going to be limited to 15-16, no more than 17, starts the remainder of the year (because even though his total innings pitched aren't SO high, his pitch counts per inning are, to say it in the most positive way, elevated.) That would give him 24-26 starts, which is about in the area he needs to comfortably get to 190-215 innings next year. Thinking about the 2016 and beyond teams, though....they might want to give Beck or Erik Johnson some experience in that "Carroll role" and see how well they respond over a 1-2 month period.

QUOTE (JoshPR @ Jun 16, 2015 -> 02:43 AM) Gamethreads have become unbearable..... In all honesty, what positives were there last night? Beckham made a couple of good defensive plays and almost hit a home run but it went foul. Plus, there's the overwhelming optimism surrounding the Hawks and even the Cubs right now...it's human nature to be frustrated when your favorite team seems to be getting left way behind.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 15, 2015 -> 09:14 PM) In his 3 pre Steroid seasons he was 68, 94, 77. So he's essentially an 80 who has already peaked and should be on the downturn of his career from an athletic standpoint, especially taking into consideration the physical early onset of physical deterioration that PED's usage can cause. So 70-80 is certainly a predictable or expected range. At least this one isn't as surprising as Dunn in 2011, although there were indicators the final 2-3 months of 2010 with Adam as well.

8/50 (.160) since his injury at the end of May. He does have 3 homers and 7 RBI's, so he hasn't been completely unproductive with those hits at least.

Which was reportedly one of the reasons the DBacks were eager to let Eaton go (and, of course, they had AJ Pollock behind him on the depth chart). He's seemingly fine when things are going well for the team or he's doing well himself, but when circumstances aren't exactly ideal...well, you get the drift. We'll see how well he gets along with Melky, Alexei, Samardzija, LaRoche, Duke and Robertson when everything is going against them. For awhile, the whole "I'm the one who stirs the drink" thing was cute, though. Like Harrelson's The Will To Win, the team's play didn't last long enough for it to become much of anything besides a joke's punchline.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--m...-044924957.html Passan The Year of the Rookie is Upon Us Features Rodon, Bryant, Addison Russell...doesn't even have room to include Gallo in the Top 9.