caulfield12

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) I think Peavy actually has more value than Rios because he has WAY more suitors. If the Phillies don't make Lee available, Peavy is the best SP on the market like Rios is the best bat. The difference is that only about 3 teams are obviously in the market for Rios, while 10+ are looking for pitching. IF IF IF he proves himself healthy in his 3-4 JULY starts. Right now there's no Peavy market until Sunday's game is over without any setbacks. If he starts the 14th, that would put him on schedule to start the 19th, 24th and 29th, roughly speaking (haven't looked at the major or minor league schedules for those dates).

http://deadspin.com/espn-reports-some-stup...-puig-749042942 http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/07/yasiel-pui...s-to-criticism/ "You just hate the guy. You want to crush him." Miguel Montero pontificating for over 2 minutes about Puig's behavior. Now we're getting SILLY when ESPN is reporting these types of stories. And USA TODAY? WHAT? You'd think he was Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton or John F. Kennedy. According to a report on ESPN, Yasiel Puig’s interpreter was “reprimanded by stadium security” for trying to help the Cuban sensation meet women. Deadspin has the video. Here’s a transcript of Pedro Gomez’s report: Puig’s interpreter was reprimanded by stadium security for trying to get a woman’s phone number for Puig. Not the first such occurrence, a source told ESPN. And on Monday, five-time All-Star Luis Gonzalez approached Puig to introduce himself. Puig didn’t even acknowledge his presence until hitting coach Mark McGwire barked that Gonzalez had won a World Series with a game-winning hit off Mariano Rivera, and he deserved respect. Puig then barely feigned a hello. I don’t want to speak for any other media outlets or tell anyone what to do here, so I’ll speak for myself: Over the past month, I have spilled thousands of words heralding Puig’s awesomeness on this website. And because I have contributed to the now overwhelming hype around Yasiel Puig in some small way, I am in no position to criticize him when he acts like a big shot. I’ve helped make him a big shot, though obviously not as much as his batting average has. Puig, we know, has been through a heck of a lot over the past year and a half. He seems like a pretty private guy who doesn’t love the attention, and it’s impossible to say any of us would behave any differently in the same circumstances. Who knows what Puig had to do to leave Cuba, and what he left behind? What’s so wrong with giving him, I don’t know, two months to adjust to life in the big-league spotlight before we start taking shots at his character? I’m content to enjoy Puig’s on-field performance without needing to probe too deep into whatever parts of his personal life he doesn’t want to share. There’s nothing actually wrong about his trying to meet women or even — heaven forbid — his crankiness toward Luis Gonzalez. And it’s entirely unclear why his interpreter would have been “reprimanded” for acting as wingman. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/07/yasiel-pui...omen-says-espn/

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 02:26 PM) A "decent #4"? Jose Quintana has the 17th best ERA in the AL and has a better ERA than Justin Verlander in a much better hitter's park. A team with Quintana as their "Decent number 4" would have a .700 winning percentage these days. Maybe he thinks Villanueva is a decent 4 and Jackson a good 5?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:36 PM) This is Peavy vs Rios. Peavy is a great starting pitcher, so he's always going to have good value, plus it's a relatively weak pitchers market. Rios is maybe a top 12 right fielder, but he's one of the best bats on the market right now. His value now versus where it will be in 5 months is drastically different. Alexei is going to have enough value right now simply because it's a position of weakness for many teams, but we can't act like Alexei is irreplaceable either. If the Sox can get solid value for him, especially if they get a shortstop prospect in a return trade, then they absolutely should do so. He still has the REPUTATION as a great starting pitcher because of 2007/Cy Young and Petco. He was near great for 4 1/2 months last (except against the Tigers), and he was VERY GOOD in 2013 before the rib injury that he unwisely tried to pitch through. If he can get his fastball back up to 92-93 again (and with consistency), we'll generate a lot of interest.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 02:21 PM) Shoulder injury. This is what can happen Fastball velocity went from 91.5 to 88.5. A 3 MPH drop in velocity is going to do a lot of damage. He might be a guy the Sox look at, but shoulder injuries typically force pitchers to either learn how to pitch again or learn how to live in the real world. And why getting John Danks off the payroll just to clear salary wouldn't be the worst idea in the world... Jurrjens has struggled with injuries in the past few years. He had right knee surgery after the 2010 season and dealt with a groin issue in 2012. Part of his struggles last season may have been connected to a weakness in his surgically repaired knee. Hermie will fix him. TM.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:05 PM) It isnt going to change anything, this Inhumans have been around since the 70s Guess I'm not the comic con type. I've never even read a Comic book...maybe there was one about Pope John Paul II that was issued when he became pope in 1979, lol. Wonder if that's worth anything? Probably not.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:35 PM) Okay, so the Sox have a bona fide ace in Sale, and a decent #4 in Quintana. What else? Peavy ain't gonna be here in two years. Danks is damaged goods. The Cubs are in an infinitely better position to do damage between the years of 2015 and 2020. People who can't see that are either blindly hating because they've been programmed to despise all things Cub-related, or they don't know their baseball too well. Who is 4th amongst all MLB starters in K/9 ratio? Hector Santiago. You must not watch many White Sox games if you totally forgot about him.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:45 PM) I'm not trying to convince anybody, it's merely my opinion. I do believe that Phegley is for real. There are times you will see it. Take Magglio Ordonez for example. He was 2 years young, but he went from a .260/.330/.460 line to a .330/.365/.475 line. The Sox AAA team at that point was in Nashville, so I have no idea how that stadium played, but it's an example of a guy who busted out. No, I don't believe Phegley's max OPS is .700. I believe he can be anywhere from a .650 OPS guy to a .900 OPS guy; a guy who hits for average, a guy who hits for power, a guy who does both, or a guy who really doesn't do a lot of either. He might just be seeing the ball really well this year - I don't know. But when you consider all the other prospects in the system, and consider that Phegley was thought of as a good hitter coming out of college, it is entirely possible that he just needed to get healthy and into the swing of things to start producing. He was pushed through the system quickly even with those health problems, and he looks like a good player right now. Also consider that catchers do take a little while longer to develop into hitters. I can keep going on, but I really like Phegley moving forward, and I think I would have rated him 2nd behind Johnson if I could do it over. Is there any reason to believe he's changed his offensive approach or swing plane this year? The rap on Phegley was (one of them) that he was a line driver hitter, but not someone capable of hitting a bunch of homers.... Now, every time he swings, he's getting under the ball and putting it up into the air to straightaway LF. Obviously, they're going to start developing a book on him, like has happened the second time around with Puig...going with low and away breaking ball and sliders and busting him inside with fastballs to see if he can make those adjustments.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 02:02 PM) Morrison is a guy I think the Sox should pursue. Potentially the best #3 hitter on the market, build a package around Johnson if need be. Not sure how the Marlins still view Morrison. He's only 25, and he was sort of the face of the franchise in some respects a couple of seasons ago, along with Hanley, Stanton and Josh Johnson. If they're keeping a lot of their veterans, trying to compete in 2014....then this move makes sense. But if they're going to play it halfway or not be "all in" (which most think would be ill-advised), then the danger is losing a cheap #3 starter for someone who's had a very difficult time staying healthy and has gone through a lot of offensive inconsistency. CF (trade) 2B Beckham RF Rios DH/1B Dunn LF Viciedo 1B/DH Morrison C Phegley 3B Gillaspie (possibly platooned with Kepp if he's not dealt) SS Ramirez They you have a rotation of Sale/Peavy/Santiago/Quintana and a huge ???. You can trade away Crain and Thornton (along with Kepp and DeAza), but that probably won't fill in CF, and it definitely won't bring back a major league ready starting pitcher. In all likelihood, you're forced to go into the FA market and put Granderson/Ellsbury/Choo (discussed over and over again) in CF and also pay top dollar for a starting pitcher....or you try something White Sox-ish like getting the Cubs to fork over $15-20 million and bring back Edwin Jackson to be the last man in the starting rotation and hope/pray Don Cooper can turn him around yet again.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:05 PM) Ehhh, maybe. Even if starters only go once every five games, if you can essentially pencil in 25 wins from their starts, you are a quarter of the way there. That's given that you have a capable offense too. It's not a black and white area here, there's plenty of gray when it would come to a hypothetical trade like that. Building a team through free agency is one of the most expensive and cost inefficient ways to build a team. You don't build your team through free agency, you supplement it. Teams that go into free agency looking for an ace or a cleanup hitter usually have to shell out 5-9 years at extreme costs ($20+ million a year) and they watch those players decline rather quickly. Unless you're the Dodgers, who produced Ethier, Loney, Kemp, AJ Ellis, Kershaw, etc. But paid through the teeth for Crawford, Puig, Hanley Ramirez, Ryu, Zach Greinke and Adrian Gonzalez. That's six HUGE acquisitions that most organizations can only do once or twice a decade. Heck, they spent a lot of money on Juan Uribe. The Blue Jays tried this approach to limited success because of the regressions from J. Johnson, Buehrle and RA Dickey.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 01:00 PM) Looking back, if I could do it over, I'd rate Phegley #2. I'm buying into his success over half a season because he's finally been healthy for more than a year now and able to really go at it, but, at least in the early going, it's carried up to the majors. It's just hard to project what he can actually do, because, given his history, even including all that's gone on, it's hard to project his min/mean/max and what he can actually bring to the table. Honestly, considering his numbers this year and the way he's swung the bat at the majors, I don't think maxing out at .280/.350/.500 is unreasonable, nor do I think .230/.300/.400 is unreasonable. We just don't know. That, and the fact that he's a bit older, (I think) pushed him down this list. Are you 100% sure you're being steered too much by this season's results and the 3 homers in the last week...the "full/completely healthy" argument, as well. But yeah, that 700 OPS number doesn't seem completely unreasonable. For a long stretch last season, Flowers was managing it in part-time play. The problem is all these guys with 700 MAX OPS numbers....at least from what we know of them now, maybe Gillaspie can be 750, maybe Phegley can put up 700, maybe Viciedo can put up 800. Carlos Sanchez would be lucky to put up 550-575 right now at the major league level, and 650-675 looks like his ceiling (at the moment). One thing we lack is anyone we can COUNT on putting up an 800 every year. Konerko and Dunn were supposed to be that, along with Dayan.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 12:59 PM) And if we were starting with nothing, or if we were starting with equal resources on each side, yes, I would probably seek out pitching first. Unless that pitcher had mechanical flaws.....like Prior/Wood/Strasburg/Peavy, etc. Some believe Sale would go the same direction. For example, look at Verlander and Cain, two of the best pitcher of the last decade, both seemingly breaking down from overuse. Lincecum, from throwing too many sliders/off-speed pitches. Price has struggled for much of this season. Elite pitchers break down MUCH more frequently than do elite hitters. For example, despite their size, look at how durable Fielder and Cabrera have been. (The one counterexample seems to be Pablo Sandoval, but he's dangerously overweight or has an eating disorder situation). Now if it's 2006 Justin Verlander, that's another matter altogether.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 12:57 PM) It's definitely risky. I'd rather sign good free agents to go with our own homegrown guys. But great free agents, not guys like Keppinger. I wish the White Sox had the Oakland A's ability to compete despite not being big spenders. Our talent evaluators must suck compared to teams like the A's and Rays. The A's have gone through a LONG period of rebuilding/reloading to get to this point...look at how many years and losses between playoff appearances. Now if you're talking the Rays or Cardinals or Rangers or Giants, those are the models to follow.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 12:55 PM) I'm not quite sure that's the belief of every scout. I think there's a whole lot of people who think you build from pitching first. I'm talking a 1:1 deal, like Stanton/Sale. Yes, a deep/quality rotation is always a must, but we're discussing young superstar for superstar trades... Sale/Harvey/Kershaw vs. Posey/Trout/Harper/Machado/Puig/Stanton/Cabrera, etc.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 12:50 PM) The Sox are dealing from a position of strength here with a sought after commodity. If you don't get the package you desire, then move on. The one player who really does need to be traded is Rios. Why would you say that? Because it's easier to replace a RF than a SS of Alexei's caliber? Contracts/dollars? The decent season he's having so far, vs. Alexei's missing power and errors (somewhat mitigated by steals, TC/range and doubles).

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 12:27 PM) Or because you have concerns about his durability. Or because you feel like you have more SP available to you then you do position players. There are plenty of reasons to trade him, and you guys need to stop thinking of this as anything other than what it is - trading one commodity for other(s) because you believe it improves your overall strength. That isn't to say Chris Sale isn't special, because he is. But he also isn't so unique that his contribution to the whole cannot be replaced with others. And the belief by every scout in the game that, while pitching and defense wins championships, you always take a superstar position player who will play 154-162 games vs. an elite starting pitcher who will affect only 32 or so.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/07/12/inhuman-...-matt-fraction/ How will the introduction of "INHUMAN" change the Marvel Comics universe, if at all? With the newfound popularity of zombies and vampires, you know something like this was coming down the pike eventually. http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/07/12/sharknado-syfy-react/ Sharknado is taking over, boo-yah. Have to watch Piranhaconda now, too. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/piranhaconda/

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:55 AM) Hahn knows he has to have a decent SS to compete next season and/or the season after, and right now there isn't anything they have that is that close, so unless he can pick one up with another player, if he is trying to win next year, I really doubt he trades Ramirez. With the offense being the primary area of focus, there's no way they can stick Carlos Sanchez out there to start the year in 2014...if his OPS is barely 600 at AAA right now, one can only imagine what would happen at the next level.

Thanks in part to an odd alliance in which the Blue Jays’ and Braves’ fan bases submitted votes for each other’s candidates, Toronto reliever Steve Delabar and Atlanta first baseman Freddie Freeman have won the 2013 All-Star Game Final Vote and will be added to the rosters of their respective leagues for next Tuesday’s contest. Just as notable as who won, however, is who didn’t: Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig, whose brief stint in the majors has led to a weeks-long debate about the merits of his All-Star worthiness, finished second in the NL vote and now, barring an unforeseen development, will not take part in the Midsummer Classic. Freeman collected a record 19.7 million votes to finish ahead of Puig, who got more votes than any player in Final Vote history except for Freeman. The 23-year-old Braves first baseman, who is in his third full major-league season, is off to the best start of his young career, hitting .307/.388/.470 with nine homers. Those numbers, which have helped propel Atlanta into first place in the NL East, make him a reasonable if not clear-cut choice for his first All-Star team. Still, this feels like a missed opportunity for baseball to capitalize on the sudden burst of popularity for Puig... Gee, you think? Frankly, this is a stunning failure by Major League Baseball. Just utterly stunning. A short list of the most exciting young players of the last 40-odd years includes Fred Lynn, Mark Fidrych, Fernando Valenzuela, Dwight Gooden, Bo Jackson, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and ... Yasiel Puig. Some of those players were All-Stars as rookies, and some weren't. But few played as well as rookies as Puig has. Of course, most played a lot more as rookies. As I've said, there's essentially no precedent at all for an All-Star like Yasiel Puig, which is a fine defense if Major League Baseball feels compelled to mount a defense. Sometimes precedent doesn't convince me. It seems to me there's something wrong with a process that includes the fans and the players and the managers and the Commissioner's Office ... and still doesn't allow for the inclusion of the Most Exciting Player who also happens to be hitting .400. Let's ask The Fundamental Question: If we weren't already doing it this way, is this how we would do it? Of course not. The current system is a Frankenstein monster, an admixture of measures designed to satisfy an ever-growing number of constituencies. Unfortunately, Baseball has neither the will nor the ability to start all over. So in the absence of a revolution, let me instead suggest adding yet another stray body part to our monster ... This isn't actually my idea. This is my friend Rob Nelson's idea. He has lots of good ideas (here's one example). This particular good idea, though, is a special "phenom" category for the All-Star Game. I don't know that I would restrict the category to rookies ... Maybe any player who's 24 or younger and hasn't been an All-Star before? More to the point, I would let the Commissioner's Office make the choices, with input from the managers and ... wait for it ... Major League Baseball's publicity people. This year, that would mean Yasiel Puig and probably Jose Iglesias (S. Marte, Gattis, Segura, Shelby Miller, etc.). But maybe there aren't two guys like that every year? Then the Commissioner's Office should just hold a couple of slots every year; if there's nobody like Puig and Iglesias who gets everybody excited, the slots can simply be handed back to the managers. The problem with the current process is that, in trying to satisfy everyone, MLB has left itself little room to accomplish a truly worthy goal: making the All-Star Game compelling to casual baseball fans. Theoretically, the Final Vote was supposed to do that. But when the process gives you Freddie Freeman and Steve Delabar -- to be sure, both of them fine baseball players -- then you know the process has failed. Utterly. www.baseballnation.com

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:46 AM) I think one of the guys Ventura has the problem with is Flowers, and I don't think it has to do with his attitude per se. I think it has to do with his swing and approach. Hahn specifically mentioned CF and C as postions he was looking for when he addressed the media recently, so De Aza and Flowers are probably the problem children. And, if they had any type of solution that didn't involve Keppinger, Tyler Greene or Angel Sanchez, SS would be on that list too....probably they have no idea which way to go with Alexei Ramirez and are waiting to see if an attractive enough offer comes along.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:25 AM) True and he's wrong about Phillips anyway. He hit 11 HR in the SAL as a 19-year-old. I wasn't trying to be right or wrong. I honestly had no idea....I just remember when the Indians acquired him he was known more for his speed than his power, although he had some of both. The reason I brought him up was the constant comparisons on draft day between him and Anderson.

QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 11:07 AM) DeAza is another one of those guys that the SOX may be better off just keeping him for now. I doubt he'd fetch much, and he is actually pretty productive offensively. He is frustrating defensively for sure, and even at the plate, but I think the SOX are better off holding onto him, moving him to the 7 or 8 spot next year. Problem is, where does he play if Tank is in LF, which is where he should be for now. He is not great in CF, and to me doesn't really seem to be a winner. IF the SOX can move DeAza for something of value, he's probably gone. There's really not any sense of a team-wide approach (go back to Pods/Iguchi at the top), or that DeAza is doing anything besides flailing away...but he's not striking me as a protypical leadoff hitter by any stretch of the imagination. There's just no cohesiveness and sense of sacrificing for the team or teammates and making good decisions each plate appearance. Alexei's just up there hacking away, DeAza, Viciedo....Dunn every once in a while shows a willingness to go to the opposite side (recently), but for the most part was pulling everything into the shift. About the only hitters (other than Rios) you can say much at all positive about for their approaches have been Gillaspie and Beckham, but, with the team out of the race...everyone's just kind of up there taking their hacks and looking just as much at individual stats as opposed to team performance/wins and losses.

Lorenzo Cain?

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 10:14 AM) Owings has been a consistent 3% BB guy in the minors. Only a handful of players can be productive with plate discipline that bad. I'd rather ask for someone like Holmberg, Chase Anderson, Eaton, etc. Do we really need another LHP? Eaton's been starting in CF for them recently, they're not going to trade him at this point...

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 12, 2013 -> 10:15 AM) Anderson did show a little power in JuCo, so I wouldn't dismiss him developing that as time goes on. What were Brandon Phillips' power numbers in the minors? It seems it took him almost 10 years to go from a singles/doubles/triples hitter and stolen base threat to more of a middle of the order hitter.