caulfield12

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 09:19 PM) I'd feel pretty damn good if the Sox win the next three and get to 27-27 at the 1/3 mark of the season. You just had to do it, haha. Okay, well...now you promised everyone 27-27, let's see how well that holds up, starting with Rodon tmrw.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/move-aside-bea...=trending_now_1 Move aside Bears, the Blackhawks are taking over Chicago Wall Street Journal "sociology" take on the budding dynasty nearing 3 titles in 6 years...

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 05:42 PM) To the Mariners: Mark Trumbo and Vidal Nuno To the DBacks: Wellington Castillo, Dominic Leone, Gabby Guerrero and another prospect. Vladimir's cousin...looks like the spitting image of him, except for the way he Vlad the Impaler played.

QUOTE (LDF @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 02:41 PM) with all due respect, i don't see the comparison. For the White Sox plan to work, he has to hit 30-40 homers per season. The failures of Beckham, Viciedo, Melky (this season) and pretty much the entire infield/C to hit with any power (or to utilize their speed efficiently) have brought the White Sox to this relatively desperate position.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 02:24 PM) The problem is Balta can't be objective with past PED users, so he honestly believes Melky will be 60/70 wRC+ type hitter. Which is still much more likely with our free agent history than 130-140+ on the other side. It's a coin flip, at best. And even with the likes of hitting on a PEDs guy such as Nelson Cruz, and signing Cano...the Mariners (Ackley, Miller, Zunino, Seager) are still not much better off than the White Sox offensively...which just goes to show how hard (and costly) offense is to come by when you you don't or can't develop it yourself. Same can be said for the Red Sox, Yankees and Phillies, teams with far bigger payrolls than ours. It's likely the Angels will also fall short on the offensive side as well. If you can't have at least 50% of your offense be homegrown, the odds start to get very long unless you are a starting pitching assembly line.

The only thing we have in common with the Phillies is holding onto older cores beyond their shelf life and Amaro/KW both putting their feet in their mouth occasionally. If you could prove to me today that Anderson, Hawkins, Micah, Sanchez, Montas, Danish and Adams would all fail to make it as big league regulars, trading Sale and Abreu would be the best possible solution. Of course, then you'd have to trust the same front office team not to screw up those moves...which seems even scarier to the anti-rebuild group. Assuming Eaton and Avi are both going to make it, that still leaves six other line-up slots to fill if you're going to hold onto Abreu (which also assumes that Melky Cabrera was/is done as a better than average player). That's just way too many positions to fill with our current "pushing the limits" payroll situation. Even if dealing Samardzija provides you with another above-average position player (far from a sure thing at the moment), you're five players away....so you're needing at least 3/5 of the remaining to be good to make up for the 2 that will be busts an weigh down the bottom of the line-up. That means a .667 success rate on trades for position prospects with just Samardzija and Alexei to deal...and let's say a trade of our struggling top minor league prospects. The best argument for holding onto everyone is Anderson becomes a stud at SS and Hawkins another Mike Stanton in the OF, allowing you to push Melky/Avi off the field to DH. And one of the four pitchers (assuming we draft another college arm, to go along with Adams/Montas/Danish) makes it. Even then, you've got three players in Melky, Avi and Abreu who should be DHing, but maybe some miracle allows the offense to overcome the defensive inadequacies. To be perfectly honest, it doesn't seem possible unless we get extremely fortunate and find our own Yadier Molina/Sal Perez/Gomes at catcher.

The myth of the Red Sox Empire/Nation and new metrics http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/06/...WFYL/story.html Basically, if you take away that 2013 World Series they're not much different than the White Sox over the last seven years “There’s no issue with the coaches. The issue is with the production on the field. That’s either going to change or this is going to be a terrible year,” Henry said. “Did this whole team become a collection of poor hitters? I don’t think so. I think that the production has been poor. I think that there are adjustments that are needed to be made.” “Did we spend too much on offense and not enough on pitching?” Henry said. “With hindsight you could perhaps say that. But we don’t have enough offense. As far as I’m concerned I don’t remember seeing our offense look this badly maybe ever since we’ve been involved here.” http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/06/...JwK/story.html#

Nick Martinez , #22 RHP 4-1, 2.03 ERA, 35 SO Martinez had a streak of four straight winning decisions snapped Thursday, but he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 16 straight starts. That's the longest such streak in club history. He lost in his only start vs. the White Sox last season. Something's gotta give with either the offense or Sale...who will blink first? One of the scariest and guttiest Sale performances was the time Chris was pitching with an 86-88 mph fastball and using almost all offspeed stuff down in Arlington. How he got through that was beyond me.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 05:33 AM) Lots of nonsense in one paragraph that an "outsider" shouldn't throw out there. How do we know he's not an upgrade? Donovan may not last a full season? This isn't MLB. Coaches get a few years. If the Bulls don't take the next step in 3 years, Hoiberg probably will be gone along with everyone as the rebuild. There haven't been many top coaches from the college ranks who could succeed equally well in the NBA. Wooden Jr. /Stevens with the Celtics and Larry Brown immediately come to mind. Lon Kruger wins everywhere but in the pros. P.J. Carlesimo had moderate pro success after Seton Hall but is mostly remembered today as the coach Latrell Sprewell choked. For every example like that, there are five or ten Pitinos or Caliparis. http://abc7chicago.com/sports/college-coac...ts-them/762899/

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 06:07 AM) The 2013 team was more Rick Hahn's than it wasn't. It wasn't like he came from another organization to inherit that mess. As Asst. General Manager, he had influence on every single individual comprising the roster that year. He also had an entire offseason beforehand to make changes to the roster, and he didn't, really, other than adding Keppinger. So I'd say he is as much to blame for that horrific '13 season as his predecessor. It seems a little far fetched to me to suggest that from 2002-2012, when Kenny was GM and Hahn was Asst. GM, that somehow Kenny was solely responsible for baseball decisions made to the team during that timeframe, and that subsequent to 2012, it has all just been "The Rick Hahn Show". I think Kenny's periodic interviews suggest rather strongly that he is still very influential on any baseball decisions made. So as far as I can tell, since 2002, the White Sox have essentially been run by the trio of Reinsdorf, Williams & Hahn, with only a change in titles for the latter two a few years ago, while maintaining a consensus view between the three in terms of strategy and decisions made throughout these past 13 years. And, if anything, the push to sign Abreu came mostly from Williams and Paddy on the scouting/talent evaluation side vs. Hahn's contracts/ROI/financial obligations expertise. I would love to know who pushed the most for Melky Cabrera, in particular. And who among KW, Hahn and Ventura most actively supported keeping Flowers as the starting catcher.

QUOTE (Thad Bosley @ Jun 3, 2015 -> 06:07 AM) The 2013 team was more Rick Hahn's than it wasn't. It wasn't like he came from another organization to inherit that mess. As Asst. General Manager, he had influence on every single individual comprising the roster that year. He also had an entire offseason beforehand to make changes to the roster, and he didn't, really, other than adding Keppinger. So I'd say he is as much to blame for that horrific '13 season as his predecessor. It seems a little far fetched to me to suggest that from 2002-2012, when Kenny was GM and Hahn was Asst. GM, that somehow Kenny was solely responsible for baseball decisions made to the team during that timeframe, and that subsequent to 2012, it has all just been "The Rick Hahn Show". I think Kenny's periodic interviews suggest rather strongly that he is still very influential on any baseball decisions made. So as far as I can tell, since 2002, the White Sox have essentially been run by the trio of Reinsdorf, Williams & Hahn, with only a change in titles for the latter two a few years ago, while maintaining a consensus view between the three in terms of strategy and decisions made throughout these past 13 years. And, if anything, the push to sign Abreu came mostly from Williams and Paddy on the scouting/talent evaluation side vs. Hahn's contracts/ROI/financial obligations expertise. I would love to know who pushed the most for Melky Cabrera, in particular. And who among KW, Hahn and Ventura most actively supported keeping Flowers as the starting catcher.

Over the last 24-48 hours, we've had both a micromanaging owner and KW describing their team's current level of play as embarassing or pathetic...but nothing from the GM or manager of those two respective SOX organizations. We've also had two dreaded votes of confidence. So who really wears the pants? It seems to me that KW is speaking for Reinsdorf.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 09:57 PM) It doesn't take other teams very long to realize a guy can't play baseball. He played well for them last year in a limited role and had his typical hot streaks...but he wasn't an everyday player any longer.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 09:38 PM) But name another team in which he'd be a starter? Are there any? He's actually way worse than DeAza. There are at least 8-10. He's got a guaranteed contract from Hahn for the near future...his OPS has rebounded in May to more or less his normal levels in 2014, the problem was that atrocious start will weigh down his overall stats for another month or two despite how well he plays. There are plenty of problems with his decision-making both defensively (mostly on throwing) and on the basepaths, but he's a Top 8-10 CF in MLB when he's on his game, like he was for most of last season. He also needs to pick up his walk rate...anyway, DeAza's no longer with the Orioles, and the White Sox don't have ANYONE who can play everyday to replace Cabrera, Eaton or Garcia. Most common theory is the new contract caused him to put too much pressure on himself to "be the man" and "stir the drink" instead of staying within himself. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../OPS/order/true

And he's "The Mayor" for crying out loud. A couple months ago on CyFan they had a legitimate thread started trying to garner enough votes to convince the powers at be in Ames to change the name of the town to Hoiberg, IA. Little did they know it appears he's been looking for a ticket out of that hell hole for quite awhile. #3 is exactly what I was thinking as well when I read Jon's post from earlier. TJ's ability to recruit players to come play for him will be the biggest key to his success. He was able to convince guys to come play for Hoiberg quite well, but he had Fred Hoiberg to sell. Fred's NBA experience both on the court and in the front office. His NBA style of play and his hands off mentality that he takes to coaching his players. Fred is well known for his long distance shooting ability as well so I'm sure that was a big selling point too. Learning from a shooter like Fred is huge. TJ doesn't have Fred to sell anymore, but he did spend a lot of time learning from Fred himself. Whether or not that will be enough to attract good players remains to be seen. It certainly won't be as easy. Sampling of comments at hawkeyenation.com, haha Actually, with a consensus Top 10 team coming into next season...it's both an enviable but also "pressure cooker" situation where the fan base expectation is an Elite 8 appearance right off the bat. If the new coach can do that or something similar, he can leverage it in recruiting. If the players turn on each other or the coach and things don't work out so well, then you're going to have a much harder time rebooting and building a solid foundation from the very ground up.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 09:28 PM) Wow what a blowout tonight. I know Shark's line was pathetic and it probably doesn't matter, but 7-for-35 with no walks tonight for the offense is really a typical night. With Melky and LaRoche appearing average AT BEST, slightly below average at this stage and no Abreu, this really isn't a big-league lineup. Arguably Sanchez, Soto, Gillaspie and Eaton all couldn't start for any other team in baseball. Meanwhile, Beckham is Beckham. You are talking about a very very weak lineup. I would think this is the series we get swept this road trip. This is the one. We simply can't outscore a team like Texas. Eaton should be fine...he's the least of the problems going forward at this point, at least in the bottom 3-5 "problems" that could easily be identified and catalogued.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 09:15 PM) The reviews for Inside Out are absolutely incredible so far and a lot of people have said it was easily the best film at Cannes. Looks like a return to form for Pixar. I'm excited for that movie coming out in a couple of weeks. 20/20 in positive reviews. Seems like the perfect "message" movie for kids these days. Good timing...we've had a lot of "empty" movies recently without many redeeming qualities other than mindless entertainment. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/#

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb...ck-castellanos/ How the Tigers fixed their defense. This has lots of really interesting graphs and stats on infield defense....and the improvements to "average" that Castellanos has made. Wonder if anyone with the White Sox coaching staff has mapped out a similar strategy with Conor Gillaspie? Amazingly, the Indians are only 2 GB of the Tigers at the moment and have Kluber going trmw. KC has gone from +14 to +9.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb...ck-castellanos/ How the Tigers fixed their defense. This has lots of really interesting graphs and stats on infield defense....and the improvements to "average" that Castellanos has made. Wonder if anyone with the White Sox coaching staff has mapped out a similar strategy with Conor Gillaspie?

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/7/71/65...aster-miss-time back until next week. "4-4 is not bad. I’m not backing off one bit from my prediction. We have a good ballclub and we’re going to be there at the end. The division is so tough and nobody is going to run off. Kansas City hasn’t hit a slump yet and they will. Every team does. And we’re going to be there in September. The only way we don’t win this thing is if we don’t catch the ball.”

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 08:44 PM) Your giddiness about White Sox losses is annoying enough. Kim Kardashian tweets in a gamethread is ridiculous. I can at least be proud of the manager who got us each a South Atlantic League championship ring in 1995...if the White Sox are going to get blown out by 13 runs, what else is there to discuss?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 08:38 PM) I agree. I don't know what happened to Jennings. He was cruising earlier this year, but the wheels have fallen off. Noesi better show he can pitch out of the bullpen or he is going to have to get a real job. If someone suggests he was overused for what his role in the beginning of the season called for...well, we're seemingly good at turning players who have gaudy NL stats into average or bad AL players. That's a talent.

Kim Kardashian West ✔@KimKardashian Can't wait til my website is active! I'm gonna do live video streaming so every time someone talks s*** I can go blast the f--k outta them Kim Kardashian should at least be a mod here. That undoubtedly be more entertaining than this season so far.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 08:29 PM) I'll take the pitching coach at this point. The Red Sox at least got that. You want to give odds on whether that "vote of confidence" will survive a below .500 season? And there's more ego involved here...especially as the Cubs near competitiveness. He and Lucchino can't admit they made a mistake pushing out Epstein....they really have to stick with Cherington to prove it was the "Red Sox System" and not any one particular "God-like" front office executive who led to those three World Series titles.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 2, 2015 -> 08:27 PM) Funny you say that because Henry said both the GM and the Manager were staying put. Still waiting for Reinsdorf to blame himself for the dysfunction in both his baseball and basketball operations, lol. I think we've been on the same wavelength, so you have to blame ownership as much as you can blame the general manager," said Henry. "The strike zone is larger than it used to be, so you can't be as patient as you used to be," said Henry. "The game of baseball has changed a lot. The standings reflect that. You have Houston playing extremely well. You have the Yankees and the Red Sox -- the whole of the American League East, typically the best, for a long time perhaps the best division in baseball, is now, at least of today, it may be the weakest -- so this is a game of adjustments, and that's one adjustment that I believe we probably have to make." I'd love to believe Reinsdorf is paying attention enough to this season's results that he could make some type of analytical comment (that the Moneyball/OBP theory is fading) about what change/s in approach need to be made exactly. source: mlb.com