caulfield12

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 07:25 PM) Well, that's 5 miscues in the first 4 innings of a game. Can everyone in the lineup get one? Alexei Flowers Viciedo De Aza Beckham Konerko's going to have to do it on the basepaths...is he fast enough to put himself in a position to make a base-running blunder?

Beckham with a horrible turn/stumble around 2B. He should have put on the brakes right there. Despite 5 bad plays, we're still winning comfortably...at least for the moment.

QUOTE (DukeofChicagoA1 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 07:21 PM) Conor Gillaspie is a good player. Make sure to post that in the other thread, haha. He's a decent MLB 3B who could get even better and stronger. Not great, definitely not bad. It's funny, the Giants could use him really use him right now with Sandoval down again.

Doesn't that end an 0 for June for Conor? Or he has one hit? Well, he wasn't going to let anyone rob that one at the fence. Might be the final start of Wang's MLB career. Supposedly, the Jays said they were going to give him just one to prove himself. Not going well against one of the worst AL offenses for him.

Great job, had to make 'em pay for pitching around Dunn, that's how you do it.

That was REALLY close at 2nd. The ball was definitely there first...despite the throw from the knees by Arencibia.

Typical pull/hook infield out to the left side by Alexei. Won't miss that.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 07:04 PM) I just can't believe they continue to make all of these brainless mistakes. It's every f***ing game. The 2005 team would go 2 weeks without making this many mistakes combined...at least the first couple of months of that season.

Nice change-up to get Arencibia for the 2nd out. Quintana's really struggling with that inside slider to RH batters... Why was Rajai Davis going back to tag up with 2 outs? SHEESH.

But where do you even start with this mess? Benching DeAza for a game when he's our best hitter right now, along with Dunn and Keppinger? Ventura DOES need to bench Ramirez, simply because he can't play every inning all season...but I don't think he's ready to start Beckham there in a major league game.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:53 PM) I like what the Mets did. Why not? At least we'd have the 3rd/4th pick in the draft next year. It's certainly not getting any better on its own or by itself, or just wishing it away. Except the closest player we have to being AAA "worthy" where it might actually help their future career would probably be Dayan Viciedo... Now DeAza picked off...4 mistakes through 3 innings, and counting. With DeAza, although right now he's probably our hottest hitter, it's going to be trading him, not sending him down to Charlotte. Because playing Casper Wells or Danks or Tekotte or whoever...all those guys have been worse or made the same amount of mistakes or even more when they've played. Giving Casper Wells all those at-bats that Dayan needs to develop aren't going to help much, unless they're deliberately playing for draft position.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:45 PM) I see the dumb White Sox team showed up again tonight. That was just a bad read. Beckham's from the other night was more unpardonable. But Ventura has refused to bench players...partly because the options behind them are limited, at best.

Trade Dunn, lol. Viciedo with a wicked liner up the middle. Didn't roll over on it. Dayan's a good match-up with Wang, who doesn't throw hard. Well, that's three mistakes already in less than 2 innings. What else is new this season?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:35 PM) Pitch around Izturis? When you're behind in the count like that and their worst hitter's coming up, you think about it, at least. Harrelson thought they were pitching around him, FWIW.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20130611 Hawkins 0/2, BB, K

Here we go again... Should have pitched around him to get to Kawasaki, although, as Hawk noted, this guy's 2/2 against him.

More bad defense.....Flowers should have at least knocked that down. SIGH. Gift wrapped run, as Stone says.

Since when does Quintana throw 94?

Well, at least Alexei's pace for errors has fallen to the mid 20's. We seem determined to stay in the bottom 3 for AL defense. Gordon Beckham, HOF, haha. That was a good play...Harrelson overdoing the call a bit.

Of course, there's a different between AAAA prospects/suspects and REAL/legitimate prospects. Talent.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 03:16 PM) There's reason to let him try and work it out, because he has an incredible arm. Counting on him as anything more than a bad Damaso Marte is too much though. If he can figure it out in AAA, then he has a chance to be a really valuable reliever. I'm not holding my breath. Incredible might be pushing it...I mean, it's not like he's in Sergio Santos pre-injury territory in terms of stuff.

And this is where our current state of purgatory is putting us in a difficult position. Were the draft to be held in 2014, based on today's standings: 1) Miami 2) Houston Then a huge drop-off 3) Mets 4) Cubs 5) Milwaukee 6) LA Angels 7) Toronto/Dodgers 9) Seattle 10) Minnesota 11) WHITE SOX So we're basically close to terrible, and yet not even in a Top 10 draft position. Let's say we were winning at roughly a .400 clip (where the Mets are), would it make any difference to be at 23-35 right now versus 28-34 (but most likely a team 4-10 games under .500 without any changes, taking into consideration the more difficult 2nd half schedule) for our attendance/revenue over the remainder of the season? Or if we had the Cubs' 25-36 record? Yet they're probably going to end up with another Top 5 draft pick. With Peavy out, is there anyone who realistically thinks this Sox team has a chance to compete with DET?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 03:48 PM) Johnson is still in A ball - he isn't going, unless he's promoted between now and then. Semien is an obvious choice. Ravelo maybe, to see what they have there. Walker perhaps. It isn't about "deserving" anyway - it is about the reasons you send someone. Those reasons include: specific development needs, or being a marginal prospect and they want to challenge them, or lost development time during the season. And it is pretty early to even guess who falls into those categories by September. Has anyone seen something in Ravelo that would cause them to believe he could hit at least 10-15 homers as he progresses...? I can see "specific" development needs, but it's pretty much a waste of time if those players don't project as anything more than bench players in the major leagues...unless there was someone they knew internally had fatal flaws but could be marketed because of their success in Arizona, sort of like when that league spring-boarded Tyler Flowers into consideration as a trade/acquisition target. Coming into this year, I guess Kevan Smith would have been another name that would be in that mix...between the Winston-Salem and Birmingham teams. Saladino, although one would think that ship is close to sailing. I only added Johnson because of his level university experience vs. high school player...making him more likely to be selected for the AFL than someone as raw as Hawkins. We're to the halfway point of the respective minor league seasons, so it's not too early to at least speculate on.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 03:25 PM) Even though it's coming from Buddy Bell, I don't think that's the right approach. A guy like Keenyn Walker is the perfect example. His average dipped from .280 at Kanny to .240 in WS after the promotion last year, and he only played 37 games at WS to finish off the season. He should absolutely be starting the year at WS and continue to work on his swing, and prove he can handle Advance A hitting before promotion. As a result, he's barely hitting above .200 this year, and as it looks now, it's a long shot for him to make it to the majors. Walker not being at Winston-Salem to start the year...you're right, especially with his history of playing football and not being 100% dedicated to baseball as his only sport. Just because a player has certain physical tools or attributes doesn't mean they should ALL be pushed like they're coming from the same cookie cutter mold. In fact, you could argue that some Sox minor leaguers would build up a lot more value to other organizations (as trade candidates) were they not pushed so hard in our system, oftentimes leading to either failure or struggles that diminish their luster.

They're going to have a difficult finding 3 position players that really deserve to play in Arizona. Micah Johnson would be the obvious choice right now, and it would benefit Walker or Thompson as well. Carlos Sanchez, maybe. Perhaps DeMichele or Semien, whichever they feel has the highest upside. You'd love to have one guy in the AFL every season that you felt had a shot at being an MLB All-Star someday.