caulfield12

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:22 PM) Oh, he's most definitely a threat. But he's got to win this series. 4 MVPs at 28? He's every bit as efficient as Jordan was. So you can't use that. It's all about titles. Not completely, or Bill Russell would be considered the greatest player.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:18 PM) One defensive rebound late in the 4th and they're celebrating a 5th title. Allen really elevated on that 3. Not easy to hit with that much of a vertical, but that's why he was signed. LeBron was falling apart and looked desperate during that 8-0 run against them before he finally hit the desperation three.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 04:13 PM) I know. It's tough for him to be the worst player in White Sox history when he's not even the worst player on the current team. Worst player paid over $10 million per season by the Sox. Rios in 2011 would be close. Although some would argue John Danks in 2012, albeit not fair when he was injured for most of last season.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:12 PM) Fitting way for it to end. Manu plays like crazy and a Miami foul doesn't get called. Guarantee Lebron gets the foul call were the situation reversed and he was driving with one down... Chris Bosh really came through, and one of the biggest 3's of Ray Allen's career. Huge 5 points late in the game. The Spurs also missed 3-4 free throws late that turned out to be huge. What a game of swings and momentum shifts. Almost gave up when the Spurs were way up and then turned it on again after the Troncoso fiasco.

That was a lousy no call on the Ginobili drive. Allen was draped across his right arm.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 05:10 PM) You worry about that when the time comes. These things usually work themselves out eventually. I think whoever is traded is going to be based on the return. It would be silly to move anyone just to save money. They need to get talent back. And to whoever thinks Ramirez has to go, who exactly is going to play SS? Not just the rest of this year, but for the next couple of years? The Sox have so little in house, Ramirez has to play all the time, and it's not like starting SS are abundantly available in the trade market. The Sox will be dumping some guys, but I think it will be the guys that weren't coming back in 2014. I think Peavy stays, rios stays, Ramirez stays, Reed stays, Paulie probably stays. Wonder what the incentive to keep Konerko is next year unless they're going to bring in a LOT of offensive talent to give a legit chance at competing again?

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:17 PM) I hope this was the end of the Troncoso Experiment. There was ever an experiment? Just not any other options in AA/AAA. Sad state of affairs. Not really surprising it ended this way, just that he managed to fall apart after there were already 2 outs and Doumit struck the deciding blow, with his .224 average.

Any thoughts on Jeremy Farrell? Noticed he's on the Carolina League All-Star team as a starter.

Any hitter who has the projected ability to hit 20+ homers has to be the priority right now. Hawkins, Thompson, Barnum, you simply can't win with a "small ball" approach at USCF. The likes of Walker and Sanchez are complementary players, although Sanchez has a decent shot to be a starter in the middle infield.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 06:26 PM) Axelrod would never get you much of a return. Well, whatever we were going to get is quickly disappearing, the window closing a bit. There was at least THE IDEA he could bring us back something...a couple of weeks ago.

The way this season is going, any idea of trading Axelrod and getting any kind of decent return is being wiped out as well. First Floyd, then Peavy, we might as well have all our assets fizzle to make it the perfect storm of a season.

Of course, another big defensive blunder....with Golden Boy this time. Sigh. We're third in the AL in errors....climbing again.

It's pretty obvious that Rios and Crain have been our two best performing players, other than Chris Sale, this year. You could have made an argument for Reed until about 2 weeks ago. Personally, I'm just tired of all the mental mistakes that DeAza and Ramirez are making, but that doesn't mean dumping them because you're frustrated with them (or Viciedo, for that matter) will end up helping your organization long-term in any way. It has been said 1000 times, but it bears repeating. No Rios=no chance to compete in 2014. You can survive without Peavy, arguably, because of the starting pitching depth that we have, and the fact that his salary can be replaced by another bat. If you're going out to buy Rios' contribution on the FA market, you're just as likely to get burned as not, if you look at recent history with acquisitions like Swisher, Keppinger or Dunn. Frankly, other than Chris Sale, there's nobody on the roster that's 100% safe. I doubt there's really anyone that would upset a majority of the fanbase if they were to be dealt, either. For me, it would be frustrating if they gave up Viciedo at this point, got basically nothing back in return offensively and he ended up blossoming with another organization for his age 25-28 seasons.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 10:03 AM) They might have the best pitching staff in the majors. Anyways, who knows how much longer they can hang on to Travis Snider too. I also have no problem with Tabata either. Alexei and De Aza for Snider, Tabata, Barmes, and Stetson Allie (the former pitcher, now hitter, who is absolutely destroying Low-A ball pitching, and yes, I know it's Low-A ball, but still) Interesting, but it's probably going to take a little bit more than that. Obviously, Barmes is just a throw in to cover the position in case they're not going with Beckham/Carlos Sanchez there...and maybe DeAza is back to an 850-900 OPS player in the NL Central, but I wouldn't be in favor of this move if I'd been scouting the Sox for most of the season and saw all the flaws in DeAza's game. It all depends on how highly they would value acquiring Ramirez...and the expense of that contract will hit a small market team more significantly moving forward.

If they're going to suspend all those players, they at least should should do it no later than the middle of July so teams can fix their rosters by making moves before July 31st. They're already past the point where all of them would be out for the remainder of the 2013 season.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:30 AM) I've seen reliable reports putting him upper 90's pretty consistently. Not sure where you've read low 90's consistently. I was referring to Erik Johnson with the second part. Someone earlier in the thread questioning his velocity and putting him exclusively in the high 80's.

I'm going to have to watch the video/replays. Just going off the reaction of Farmer and DJ because I just got back to the US and haven't decided whether to depress myself with MLB.com for just one month before I go to Africa. At any rate, both DJ and Farmer were ALL OVER Dunn and Ramirez. Wonder why/how they both misread those plays? In the case of Quintana's throw, if the runner's caught between 2nd and 3rd, you absolutely have to get him running back towards 2B quickly or the runner from first can at least move up into scoring position on the play. If executed properly, that runner's always going to stay at 1B for fear of making two outs on one combined bad base-running play.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jun 18, 2013 -> 09:05 AM) Which teams are likely be in on the following players, assuming they hit the market: Crain Thornton Lindstrom Alexei DeAza Rios Reed Who needs these guys & what are we going to get for them? List the suitors & make up some deals. I don't know about trading Reed right now. He's just blown a couple of saves recently....unless someone absolutely bowls you over with an offer, you need Jones, Reed and maybe Webb to be the three homegrown pieces of next year's pen. How many contending teams are desperate to put Addison Reed into a closing or set-up role? How many teams believe he would be effective if you took him out of that closer's mentality and pushed him into the 7th or 8th inning after closing for 1 1/2 years and all of his minor league and collegiate career?

I can't remember who said Webb was throwing nearly 100.... It was someone who watched a game and was told the Birmingham readings were 3-4 MPH too low on the radar gun. From everything we read, he's consistently 91-92-93. Touching mid 90's. I simply refuse to believe at that size he's in Dylan Axelrod territory in terms of velocity.

Just last night, in the game.... 1) Gimenez making another horrible defensive play, when a decent throw and the runner's out by a country mile. 2) Alexei Ramirez botching a simple rundown play that SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRACTICED IN SPRING TRAINING 100 TIMES and allowing a runner to get from 1st to 2nd. There's just no excuse for that kind of mental mistake. Little Leaguers do it more proficiently. 3) Luckily Viciedo came through with the big triple...but, previously in that inning, Dunn should have gone from 1st to 3rd on the Konerko single up the middle. No excuses. He has to get to third. Then he would have scored to tie it up on the Gillaspie ball to the right side of the diamond. Every game. you can point out NUMEROUS errors like this. I wouldn't mind if they lost and were simply outplayed, it's just hard to stomach and mind-numbing how many mistakes can be made with no consequences.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 08:07 PM) Sounds like a love it or hate it movie. Haven't read much in between. That's true of most of his stuff. I really liked Dawn of the Dead and 300 was good entertainment...at least he has an artistic vision. Even when it fails (like Sucker Punch), he adheres to his faith in himself and doesn't waver in letting movie studios interfere with the final product.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 08:06 PM) You have absolutely no clue if that's true It just makes zero sense. Do you really think Hahn's going to dump his mentor's pet project at this stage, especially with how well some of the other Cuban players like Puig and Cespedes are performing? The only way is if there's a hitting coach out there (the equivalent of Don Cooper) who has detected a mechanical flaw that's fixable in his swing that will allow him to succeed against RHP or basically anyone throwing over 93 MPH. Since he managed to hit 25 homers last year, everyone knows he has the ABILITY to hit the ball and hit it hard, especially to the opposite field, but I just don't see what the point of trading him now would be? It's like trading a stock that has gone from $110 to $140 per share...not selling, then watching it come down to the $10-15 per share level. Unless you want to take a tax loss and it's hopeless to think the stock's value will recover, you hold on and wait for a rebound.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 07:59 PM) You're just realizing that now? Viciedo now 6-39 in June with no homers. If he has any substantial trade value left, you have to consider moving him. That train has already come and gone. Nothing to do but hold onto him now...the problem still exists that we don't have more than one 25-40 potential homer hitters within 2 years of Chicago in the minors, and that's a very iffy Trayce Thompson. So we're stuck with him. Of course, this happens to be the first time all season that Bedard has gone 100+ pitches in a start.

Too bad CB Bucknor isn't the umpire. At least getting Hawk's goat would be fun. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/yahoo-sports...52526.html?vp=1

At least Courtney Hawkins hit a homer, lol. And has a walk. Unless they change the roster, watching Hawkins, Johnson, Trayce Thompson and our new draft picks will be a lot more interesting than anything happening with the big league club. Can't believe Jared Mitchell is 1) hitting .147 and 2) hasn't struck out yet tonight. Wonder if there will be a game this year where there's no game thread at all...the way things are going, it wouldn't be a shocker, especially a weekday that everyone forgets the starting time or a Saturday afternoon game.