caulfield12

And 42 was one of the better baseball movies of the last decade. A lot of people think Field of Dreams is too sentimental, but that bar was really set in that era with Major League, A League of their Own, Major League and Bull Durham, along with Eight Men Out. Bad News Bear and Bang the Drum Slowly from the 70's, along with The Natural. Other than Moneyball and The Rookie (yeah, I know, it's Disney), it's been a minefield of hits and misses, like any Costner attempt in recent years or Trouble With the Curve.

Beckham has a little of the Konerko/Quentin disease, overthinking things...being too analytical and changing things around (mentally and physically) too much when things aren't going well. We all know he has a hitch in his swing, and it's never been successfully addressed at any level of the Sox system. It has caused him to struggle his entire career with dominant fastball pitchers, with a few exceptions when he quickened up his stroke or was able to forget about pulling the ball so much (getting in-between like Alexei many times before this year) and being able to consistently drive the ball up the RCF gap. Then, when opposing pitchers would make adjustments and take that alley/approach away, he'd struggle to readjust or simply fall apart again like this year when things started out so encouragingly (more or less a repeat of his high batting average/low power...then poof! offensive disappearing act in 2013). Viciedo has more troubles with pitch selection, and knowing when to shorten it up and go to the opposite field, but at least, as we all know...he has the raw power to get it over the fence in any part of the park, in any stadium. And, he has shown the ability to hit fastballs and RH pitching at different points in this season.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 11:33 PM) Rienzo optioned to AAA Finally! Cooper out and Eaton running into the wall hasn't helped matters. Keep Sale/Abreu/Quintana/Eaton healthy down the stretch, and hope for encouraging signs from Avisail and Viciedo. There's been a lot of talk about not playing for a higher draft pick, but right now as long as everything outlined in the aforementioned sentence occurs, winning 75 vs. 70 games is irrelevant completely. I'd even say they're probably going to be in a better position to evaluate both bullpen guys (whoever else is left to bring up in September) and Semien, Sanchez, Sierra, perhaps Michael Taylor and Micah Johnson. Reading some of the comments above, we also have that huge looming question about what to do with Tyler Flowers. Has he done enough to warrant not being replaced over the last 3 weeks? Hahn surely would have a hard time answering that question without having the next 45+ games to decide, which means you're unlikely to see Phegley or Kevan Smith get much of an opportunity. Webb and Nieto definitely need some more seasoning in the minors, that's pretty apparent.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 04:04 PM) Here you go Y2HH: get ready! What about Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot?

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 05:03 PM) I guess that is one way to think about it. I am more incline to say it is to get the world wide interest in the movie and thus make a bigger profit at the gate. We've already seen this happen with the Red Dawn remake, where the Chinese were exchanged for North Koreans inexplicably launching an invasion of mainland USA (Washington state, I think). As some films already are even more profitable in China than the U.S. (Pacific Rim, Titanic 3D, Cloud Atlas, Transformers 4), nothing is surprising when it comes to pandering to the Chinese, even the product placement of a famous Chinese milk and tea.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 06:45 PM) Phegley with his 19th home run And yet not even a hint of any thoughts by Hahn of promoting either Danks, Wilkins or Josh. That's pretty telling.

This is one of these cases of not wanting to hit Alexei leadoff (assuming he's not very comfortable there), and who else do you go with? Conor? Sierra? Beckham? There aren't very many good options. If Beckham was hitting 1st, everyone would be jumping on Ventura, even more than Garcia, who's at least entertaining (albeit that entertainment should be limited to 3 PA's per game rather than 4-5). It doesn't really matter, unless Abreu hits 3 homers or goes for the cycle, nobody will even hear the result all day tomorrow with the constant bombardment of Baez is God Already/Playoffs Are Just Around the Corner for the Cubs stories in the national and especially local media. At least it's less embarrassing with both teams on the road. Carroll's probably due for a bad start so we can tune out early (I think I just called in the Greg775 sure sucker bet against the White Sox jinx like anytime we face Chen/Guthrie).

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 06:42 PM) Just wondering out loud...he is only 27... He hasn't had any major knee/ankle or leg problems, right?

Fwiw, the Rockies started lefties in 21/22 games, something like that. Of course, they're the team with the worst ERA in baseball...however much you're going to correct ERA for that fact.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) I just want to say that this has been a good discussion so far, so let's try and keep snark and venom out of the discussion. This one can get a bit heated at times, just want to make sure we all keep level head. Brian Anderson had 10X the number of defenders that Gordon has remaining at the moment, fwiw.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 02:32 PM) By the way, I do agree with some of the other points you bring up regarding Beckham and Semien being separated and just because we don't see a future in Beckham doesn't mean we just plug and play Semien. Semien was up a little earlier then expected and clearly was in a little over his head and went back to AAA with some more things to work on. While I want him up and would like him to get valuable at bats and more importantly allow our front office and scouts to get a better view and better idea as to whether we can count on Marcus, the fact that we have other internal options if Marcus struggles, probably allows the franchise to be more conservative in waiting because there are some other guys who have nice tools and could work at the position as well (Sanchez / Micah). I happen to think Semien will play at this level but again, nothing wrong with letting him get his bumps and continue to work on his game at AAA, plus to your point, he isn't lighting it up and I do really think there is something to be said about bringing a guy up when he is confident. Also by letting him go through the struggles in the majors, then go down to the minors and make adjustments and actually succeed based upon those adjustments (hopefully that happens and we see a nice hot streak), he will also have been able to pass a big mental hurdle which will be so important in his early major league development. You also had another great point on not having an entirely new middle infield and I think that is probably a very underrated reason why Alexei stays around (not to mention the fact that he's signed to a fair price and is one of the leagues top shortstops). I also don't see Semien, Johnson or Sanchez playing well enough defensively to fit in at SS. Rondon is the guy we have and he's still a ways a way (and again very raw; I'm probably the highest on him on this entire site and it is because I believe you have to have strong up the middle defense in this current era of baseball and that up the middle defense focuses more significantly on SS / CF / C. We need Jose Iglesias (expendable with the Tigers now content with Suarez), Rondon and Leury Garcia for the most entertaining from a defensive standpoint, yet most offensively-challenged infield in baseball. Carlos Sanchez would be the next choice. Has there ever been any talk about Micah Johnson at SS? This is the first I've heard it. What happened to the idea that Sanchez was a "plus" defender, by the way? Because he's apparently put on weight and hasn't remained his quickness for SS? Arm?

Fwiw, the last time this happened was with the Blue Jays and Yu Darvish, where the club was fighting with the local fans who didn't believe they'd actually made a real honest attempt to sign him, even though they were trying to take credit for giving it the old college try and being right in it up until the end.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 01:59 PM) That's fine, but every game thread, if Beckham makes an out it seems posters start foaming at the mouth. He's been bad. He's admitted that, but I don't see why it is necessary to bring Semien up now, and not wait a while. Anyone can say he's ready, but how can anyone really know that? It isn't like he's dominating. Let it go a few more weeks, maybe Beckham finds some luck, someone gets hurt and another team trades for him, and maybe Semien gets hot, he was good last night and comes up confident. It seems to me the reason people want Semien is based more on Beckham than Semien. I think the White Sox need to call him up based on him and not Beckham, he was on the roster because of Beckham's injury initially and was in a bit over his head, or they wind up having more problems down the road. The same reason the Cubs brought up Baez in August. Because you can't simply go on September results to determine if he (Semien) should be a projected starter coming into 2015 season...45+ games gives you a far bigger sample size than 25 games. (Not to mention he's a natural SS, so he needs to show how well he can play 2B at the major league level, as they might move Russell to 2B and Baez to 3B or a corner OF spot, or keep Bryant at 3B or move him to RF). We've seen guys like Fields or Morel look good in September and then POOF it disappears the next season when it really counts and the weather's cold.

I've heard he topped out at 97, but 92-95, sometimes touching 96, is more to be expected...

26 strikes, 39 total pitches in 3 IP for Rodon. 2/1 strike to ball ratio. Keon Barnum with a leadoff double, top of the 4th.

Looks like Rodon might actually be getting a 3rd inning after all. That's new. 4-3 groundout, Jake "TUC's Hero" Peter to Barnum, 1 out. 0-2 count results in a K on a high fastball, blew away the hitter. 3 K's in 2 2/3 IP. Seems to be working on his mechanics. Visualizing the pitch, and then try to repeat his delivery..creating a trigger of sorts. Another 3-0 count. Popped up the batter to Keon Barnum after falling behind, got a strike and then the weak contact. Through 3 with a manageable pitch count, 3 IP, 2 hits (both singles) BB, 3 K's

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 10:37 AM) Well he's all arms and legs, his fastball averages 93 and can touch 96, his slider averages 80 (a 13 MPH difference!), and his changeup comes in at 84. He's also using his changeup a lot more this year too - the fastball usage has remained the same from last year at 51.4%, but the slider and changeup have swapped places - slider usage last year was 29.6% with the changeup at 19%, while the slider is at 18.1% this year and the change at 30.6%. The result? K/9 has increased, BB/9 has decreased, he's generating more infield flies, the line drive rate is down, and as a result, the decrease in home runs allowed, despite allowing more fly balls, seems like organic growth and not an outlier. Let's hope Rodon can follow this path as well to avoid undue wear and tear from the slider torque.

Rodon gives up a single to start the inning. The guy who had the hit picked up 6 RBI's yesterday. Terence Marin warming, looks like Rodon's only getting 2 innings again, not 3. Buddy Bell also in attendance with Hahn. Almost had a K, batter barely fouled it off, then would have had a second double play but the runner was moving on the pitch, ground out 5-3, runner to 2nd. 3-0 count now. Has had a few walks, which is normal with all the rust the last couple of months. Walk, 4th overall with the Dash to go with his 6 K's. 1st and 2nd, one out. Swing and a miss on a change. Dude's hitting in the 150's with 25 hits, but only 14 of them have stayed in the park. Pitch bounced away from Narvaez, runners both advance. 2nd K today with the bread and butter slider in front of Hahn. 2 down. Jirschele takes a grounder and records another 5-3 out. Rodon escapes any damage and is likely out of the game for Marin.

The problem is that the Cubs aren't going to get away with trading Almora/Alcantara/McKinney...they're going to have to touch their core four or whatever they call them, core five really with Russell now.

Hawkins has been getting a steady diet of curveballs/offspeed stuff recently...although he K'ed on a fastball. May and Rondon singled to lead off the inning, but the only run scored on a Coats ground out up the middle. Leadoff hitter for the P-Nats, Swing and a miss on a filthy 0-2 slider. 6th strikeout with the Dash. Steve Carlton-esque. Getting ahead of hitters early. Rondon made a great diving play on Renda but couldn't get the 2nd batter with the throw...which came from his knees. Apparently he's the 2nd fastest runner on Potomac. Peter, Rondon to Barnum double play ball, inning over.

Not sure how Amaro still has a job at this point. They're stuck with so many bad contracts right now....it makes Dunn/Danks look like a walk in the park. Of course, they have a higher payroll and are generating more revenue, despite being 10-15 games under .500 for most of the season.

Hahn being interviewed by the radio guy for the Dash. Says they're pleased with the progress that Rodon is making with his change-up, which is their (from a front office standpoint) number one priority right now in terms of Carlos perfecting that 3rd pitch he'll need in the big leagues...as he was able to get by with just FB/SL 95% of the time with NC State. Has been there for a three-day trip...seems to be very pleased with how the Dash have been coming around the last six weeks, with the obvious exception of the Montas and Anderson injuries. Didn't talk about any of the other players other than Rodon and how impressed they've been with his make-up, work ethic and willingness to learn. Apparently going on a first trip to Washington, D.C., with his son Jacob over the weekend.

Watching it again, that dude's really lucky he didn't chip/damage his teeth or severely injure his neck by jamming it into the bag.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 07:30 AM) That's not a thing. He's one of the best pitching prospects in the game right now. I was JUST joking. I'm at least going to follow it on radio...not going as far as subscribing to milbtv for just 2 1/2 weeks, though.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 7, 2014 -> 08:00 AM) They are going to ask for half of their farm system, just like they did with the Dodgers, and nothing will happen. And even the Dodgers aren't willing to easily give up Pederson/Seager/Urias, let alone all three of them. One does have to wonder if the calculus is now shifting to trying to dump Crawford or Ethier instead of Kemp now or in the offseason.