caulfield12

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 06:54 PM) If you are going to be bad for 5 years, he is the one who makes most sense to move. They have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. There's just too many examples in recent years where those 2-3-4 prospects for one star player deals that didn't turn out well. Sale's the closest thing we have to a superstar in our organization, and if we trade him, we're no different than the Marlins trading Mike Stanton. If that's the case, we might as well go down to a $30-40-50 million roster and start taking the subsidies from the city of Chicago that guarantee 1.2 million in attendance and get 100% behind a rebuild. The thing is...nobody wants to go out to the park and see this current team anyway, well, maybe a few sentimental Paulie fans who want to say goodbye to the franchise player for the last decade. They would arguably be more profitable if they lopped off $50-60 million from payroll. I actually think a lot of fans would get more enjoyment out of banishing half of the current starting line-up to the Phantom Zone.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/forget-jona...et-jesse-crain/ Really good article on Crain's improvements with the White Sox under Cooper, and why he's more valuable to other teams (see Tigers) than someone like Jonathan Papelbon. They should trade him and then bring him back as a starter in 2014, haha. Not often you have a reliever with three above-average pitches.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 06:34 PM) Half a season of Crain is not getting you Castellanos. I know, but Reed and Crain would.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 04:49 PM) Gillaspie would be a terrible everyday 1B. He's still a question mark at 3B because of his bat, so I don't know how you think he's a 1B option. If the Sox somehow acquire a stud 3B prospect, Conor moves to the bench or is traded. Well, if you have to choose between Avisail Garcia and Castellanos, you take Castellanos and worry about where you play Gillaspie later. He's a good fielder, LH, good stroke, he would be poor man's Mark Grace at 1B and maybe ideally he's suited for the bench on a very good team, but it's not like Viciedo, Black or Wilkins are great options at first either. I don't see why Kendrys Morales would want to come here...just don't see the White Sox in a huge bidding war for him coming off this season. More likely, we'll end up with someone like Adam Lind or Carlos Pena.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 04:22 PM) Are people still really high on Avisail Garcia? He's been moved up and down a lot and hasn't stuck despite opportunities, and my brain was starting to put him in the "Viciedo" mode of either needing a long time to find it or maybe never finding it. He has all the physical tools. Sometimes, they even play him in CF. Great arm strength, can run but not a pure base stealer. Very strong fielder. The main question is about when/if he'll develop the power game. Because he looks like a Baby Miggy, you can't even tell them apart when they're walking side by side. And where is Castellanos going to play? If they would trade him for Reed, you take it and don't look back. Gillaspie could always be shifted to 1B.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 03:56 PM) Crain and Lindstrom, yes, but I don't want to give them someone who is going to beat us for the next 3-4 years in Reed. I don't see any reason to believe Reed's ever going to be a truly dominant closer. He'll have a 75-80-85% save conversion rate, but he's unlikely to be a Top 5-7 guy. Would be glad to revisit this prediction in 5 years....just not seeing it. If you get absolutely bowled over by an offer, there's no real reason not to take it at this point. But that's highly unlikely to happen.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 03:49 PM) Yeah, if we pull back to 3 games out and then trade away Crain, then I think everyone will have a legit complaint. That 1997 team was 23-27 at the end of May (4 GB), 40-39 (2 GB) at the end of June and 53-53 (3 GB) at the trade deadline. Not to mention that on paper, those mid to late 90's Indians teams were even better than this year's Tigers. And that particular Indians' team eventually did go on to the World Series against the Braves. It's harder to make a case when we're 33-52 our last 85 games and losers of 17 out of our last 22 games.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 03:02 PM) Why would you spend money on free agents if you just sold off your best players? Because they want to have at least 1.2 million tickets sold next year?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jim-leyland-w...-181600768.html If the Tigers are realistically looking at Joba Chamberlain, we might as well trade them Reed/Crain/Lindstrom, etc.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:34 PM) Another poor performance from Danks. But, I don't think we wll see consistency from him as a solid starter until either late in this season or even next year. It takes awhile to come back strong from shoulder surgery. One a good note though for today Konerko and Dunn homered. Good to see that. I am looking forward to a Sox comeback For this season, what do you consider a "Sox comeback"?

He loves Viciedo when he is hitting or throwing, but not taking bad routes or misplaying balls in LF, lol.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:31 PM) I typically think the manager doesn't mean as much as most people do, but I do blame Robin for the poor defense. I really thought he did a great job drilling the team on it last year -- they made such a huge point to mention how the Sox were the only team taking infield before every game -- that I really don't think there's any excuse for them to be so bad this year. More practice. If you play like Bush leaguers, you gotta work to get better. Actually, the players should simply be forced to read all the SoxTalk and WSI threads on "Sox defense/fundamentals/base-running" for 2 hours every morning...forcing them to come to the park at 9 or 10 instead of 11 or 12. That should do it.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:24 PM) 10 back on June 20. Love it. It has saved you a lot of wasted time making numerical predictions/projections, haha. Just joking. But that's at least 2-3 "classic works of literature" you can now fit into your leisure time, right?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:26 PM) Veteran-loaded or working through a bunch of rookies? Those teams with AJ, Koskie, Cuddyer, C. Guzman, Rivas, Mientkiewicz, Jacque Jones and Hunter all entering the majors at roughly the same time...in the 1999-2001 period, they played a completely different game than this year's White Sox team. No comparison. And they had Hawk's all-time favorite, Brad Radke.

QUOTE (mike89128 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:15 PM) Blyevan addressed that during one of the twins broadcasts.Said Twins always give their minor leaguers a shot at the majors.Otherwise,he said they lose heart and become stale.He also said you have to cut loose your veterans to keep the talent train going. Except the Mauer/Morneau contracts essentially forced them to part with Nathan, Cuddyer, Kubel and Hunter (well, less so than the first three guys). It's one thing when you're parting with a DeAza level of player, but those four guys were their core veterans, and still relatively close to their primes. Then you add in the Delmon Young fiasco, JJ Hardy (who's gone on to be very solid for Balt), they've just made a string of bad moves. And if you want to dump Span and Revere, you better have someone behind them who's ready...it was clear they pushed Hicks to the majors at least 3-4 months too early. Jumped the gun on that one.

So we're now on a 33-52 streak. First time with a record of 12 games below .500 since the 2007 season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 02:03 PM) Frankly, yes, bringing up Phegley is the sign that Flowers's time as the starting catcher has run out. I thought that by being patient, working for it, and putting up good minor league numbers, Flowers earned at least a good fraction of the season to see what he could do. He got that shot and he hasn't shown much so far. He's got about 6 weeks left on the clock I'd give him. I don't care if they're both RH hitters after the trade deadline. This team's folded. Who cares if we don't have a LH catcher on the roster? What I mean is....why not just play Phegley everyday for 6-8 weeks to shake things up? If Flowers is too "psychologically weak" to take the demotion and pouts or goes into a shell or "feels he was robbed" of his opportunity, then good riddance. If Phegley falls flat on his face, you can still give Flowers his official final shot in August and September, although playing in those conditions with zero pressure (see Fields in 2007) might not be the best way to judge him for 2014. 35,837 in attendance today for the Twins, already past the 1,000,000 mark. OR, they simply acquire another catcher with one of their trade deadline moves....there's that option.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:57 PM) At least if it were me, the only things that would keep Phegley from getting a shot would be: Flowers going on a tear, Phegley getting hurt. I want to see what he looks like against big league pitching and in handling a rotation before I give him the job based on AAA numbers, and the last thing I'd want is to commit $60 million to McCann if I have a guy in my own system who can do 75% of the job. But isn't bringing up Phegley basically sending the signal to Flowers that it's the last step before they give up on him? It's why they never brought up Flowers when he looked like a really clear challenger to AJ...you pretty much have to give up on Flowers (or send him back down to AAA), and give Phegley the everyday job for 6-8 weeks. If they're sharing time, you can't really make a determination on either player for 2014. Because you're always going to say if he merely hits in the best possible match-ups/situations (like Viciedo in 2010), is he an everyday catcher or just a back-up/platoon guy? Plus they're both RH hitters. Can we actually compete with 75% of a catcher, 75% of a CFer (DeAza), 75% of a SS (Ramirez) and god knows what coming from Beckham? You have to fix the core of your team (up the middle) first, then build outwards from there. At least that's the traditional way of looking at it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:53 PM) I wouldn't say it's sad you'd want to watch the Hawks try to earn another parade and/or watch Game 7 tonight as LeBron either gets praised universally or buried. I really don't like hockey that much, but I know there are millions of huge Blackhawks fans. Well, I at least enjoy the thrill/drama/excitement of any sport played at its highest level. And it's hard not to root against LeBron or Tiger Woods, lol. (I say that having been a huge Tiger fan before that Thanksgiving night and all the ensuing allegations/gossip/rumors/innuendos).

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:48 PM) Wait, you prefer watching the NBA or NHL Finals instead of June baseball game? In all honesty, I haven't watched a full NBA basketball game from start to finish since Jordan retired. I enjoy hockey in person, but not so much on t.v. (the same way I feel about soccer/futbol). It's college basketball, MLB, NFL and college football, golf (the one sport I hate to play), tennis...anything that's not car racing or wrestling/mma. See Alexei Ramirez made another huge error and Danks still is struggling. That's nothing new. Hopeful of seeing Appel pitch here in the Quad Cities if he gets summoned before the middle of July...they already have Correia at SS.

Crain just broke the White Sox record with his 28th consecutive scoreless appearance. Pretty sure it was JJ Putz who had it (2010), unless it was Jenks or Santos.

Had no idea that the Sox were even playing this afternoon. It's pretty sad when I would rather watch NBA games or the NHL when I really don't care much about either sport, but still prefer the drama/excitement of any sport played well compared to what has become of this White Sox season.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 20, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) Bring him back for one more year. In all honestly, I question Hahn's ability to evaluate talent. I know many blaim KW for his hyper aggressive trades. The trades that depleted the farm system. However, if Hahn was KW's assistant GM, he was ALSO part of that problem. Hahn didn't do much of anything this past winter and I thought that was a small red flag. The time to shed some salary and sell high on a few players in nearing- he better make some long term based trades soon. We can fault him for overvaluing Flowers, or the assessment he was ready to be a full-time catcher. And Keppinger, although he was never designed to be the full-time starter at 2B and there's some evidence he's been playing with an injury. What could he have done, realistically, with the budget constraints coming off the disappointing missed playoff appearance that wouldn't have involved spending more money and going over the payroll limits imposed by JR and the Board? Traded Floyd and Peavy? Traded Viciedo? DeAza? Dunn? Rios? Ramirez? You can't really fault Hahn for what's happened so far...but he will be blamed for making "bad" trades over the next 6 weeks. A lot of posters have been open and honest about their frustration and disappointment with the coaching staff as well, including Harrelson (although he's not aiming at Ventura, apparently). It's impossible to blame Hahn to the same extent you blame Williams, even if he was part of the front office that entire time...if you're going with that logic, then Buddy Bell should be just as much under the gun, yes?

http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-teachers-uni...-051815962.html I know Steve will love this one....this is even funnier, because of her using the example of the Cubs' business model and being a self-professed White Sox fan.

We should be worried for Chris Sale's psyche. 5-6 record now. 2 more errors committed (Gillaspie with his 4th, Gold Glove Beckham with his 4th already), giving the White Sox 49 in 69 games, on pace for 117 for the full season. Third (just barely behind HOU) in errors per game, trailing the Angels, who are in 1st...but worst in overall fielding percentage. Have to be worst in the passed balls category as well. Flowers had yet another ball he should have blocked that he applied the "lazy backhand" move to.