caulfield12

At least Viciedo's going up the middle and to RF. He's due for a big May homer binge, one would think.

Dunn raising his trade value. Hawkism....the worst thing any hitter can hear, "He's got a good change-up." Abreu will be fine, he just needs to get used to all the offspeed stuff and variations on those pitches...cutters...sliders...all those different speeds, whereas except for El Duque, Cuban pitchers usually only have two pitches at the same speeds each time they throw them.

Hawkins with a K 19/57 (.333) with 4 walks. 20/58 (.345) now Wilkins and Black both struggling mightily for the Knights. Wonder if we'll ever see Deunte Heath in a White Sox uniform again?

Poor Quintana. Had a great chance to break the game open. Oh well, Lewis doesn't have anything so far, velocity or location. And, by the way, what the hell is going on with DeAza? Flying open early? Homer happy? It seems he always goes into a huge slide after he hits 2-3 homers in a bunch.

Of course, league's leading hitter and he hits into a double play. SIGH. Rolled over on a slider. C'mon Tyler, let's pick him up. The offense has done that quite a bit this season.

Abreu 1 for his last 25...now 2/26 slide. Dunn, active MLB HR leader, dumps one into the outfield. C'mon, Viciedo. We need to get a lead here and start putting the pressure on Lewis. Base hit, McEwing holds up Abreu.

Can WE EVER HAVE AN EFFECTIVE RUNDOWN? Geez, poor Quintana...he was pitcher the last time an inning collapsed because of Ramirez and Abreu out there. This time we BARELY managed to get the out, it was almost close enough to challenge at 1B. Cue Balta. Actually, it was a BIT more difficult with the runner at 3RD, but STILL. 8 6 3 4 5 6 rundown. Sheesh.

17 no decisions last year for Quintana were an AL record. Didn't know that. Indians had 15,188 against Buehrle today in freezing temps. 29. CLE 17,001 30. CHW 16,959

Lewis used to be a power pitcher. Now he's throwing about as hard as John Danks.

QUOTE (flavum @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 05:39 PM) Scott Carroll probably not an option...especially now. 3 walks and 5 runs in the first. Feeling the pressure to prove himself a bit?

The difference is that the odds of Buehrle being as good as he has been in 2014...well, I don't think anyone (other than Greg775) went out and placed an O/U bet on Mark having a sub 1 ERA heading into May, let's just leave it at that. Tanaka's the 26 year old you anchor the front end of your rotation around for a decade...or nearly so. Buehrle's the veteran pitcher who might come across a wounded dog in the field and decide to devote the rest of his life to an animal shelter or farming life..that you don't have as part of the core of your rotation in 2016-2017-2018 when the team simply has to be competing for playoff spots.

Let's keep in mind, if we had signed Jimenez/Santana (and one year wouldn't have made ANY sense)/Garza or kept Peavy, and our attendance continued to be last in the major leagues, there probably would have been some legitimate financial pressure to cut from somewhere else anyway. And then, one month from now, it's that we couldn't have competed anyway with Flowers, or Gillaspie at 3rd, or Abreu going through his ups and downs on the learning curve, or without a defined closer, Semien/Beckham at 2B, etc. Then we would have to do the same thing we did with Peavy and Edwin Jackson (and trying to do with Danks), dump them.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:12 AM) ? what am I missing? He's trying to poke fun at my assigning probability/percentage chances at different things. Apparently riding Cooper's butt isn't interesting enough (and he can't exactly say that Jimenez would have been a great signing either).

It definitely would increase exposure for the future stars of tomorrow and make the draft more and more interesting, as it is for NFL/NBA and NHL fans around the world. One of Boras’s concerns about the sport’s talent pool is the impact Title IX had on baseball scholarships. Many of us who believe in Title IX don’t think football should be included in the numerical calculations, since there are 85 football scholarships per Div. I programs, and women do not play football and thus shouldn’t be included. But Boras has another suggestion—during the last ten days of February right in between pitchers’ PFP drills and the opening of exhibition games, have a 64 college tournament in Florida and Arizona, played at nights in major league spring training parks. MLB Network could televise the tournament, college players would have faces, not just Baseball America, MLB.com and Keith Law names, and when Carlos Rodon, Jeff Hoffman or Brad Zimmer get taken in the first round of the draft, fans watching MLB Network will have a clearer picture of who and what their team is getting. Peter Gammons article on Boras http://www.gammonsdaily.com/peter-gammons-...re-of-baseball/ He also wants a posting fee that would go back to teams (say $20 million for David Price) veteran free agents/minor league/international development so that teams would be able to keep their stud young players through year 6 instead of having to trade them after year 4. Then, in lieu of draft choice compensation, Boras suggests that there be the equivalent of posting fees that teams have been willing to throw out for prime Japanese pitchers like Tanaka, Yu Darvish and Daisuke Matsuzaka. He suggests that if David Price is coming to free agency at 29 at the end of the 2015 season, there should be a certain automatic compensation level—be it $10M or $20M, whatever, that could be re-invested in veteran players and the draft; if the Rays, for instance, were to lose Price, it would get increased draft slot numbers, so they could sign veteran players for the present, spend more on the draft for the future and “be able to keep a Price for the full six years before free agency. It makes sense for their fan base.” In addition, again for instance, when Giancarlo Stanton and/or Jason Heyward, or even Trout or a Manny Machado hit the market under the age of 28, the payment would be even greater. “Rather than preparing to trade a premium player after his fourth year, they could have him for their fan base for the full six years,” says Boras, “then get legitimately compensated.” Is Boras speaking out for his own interests? Of course. But small market owners wanted the change in the Japanese posting system so that most every team can at least post $20M, and larger signing markets willing to give Tanaka $100M would have that count towards luxury tax and revenue-sharing numbers, which so many of the recent local television megadeals do not, in case you think the Phillies and Indians are going to be equally compensated for regional television rights.

Give Coop a pitching staff with Buehrle (almost 30 IP, low 20's K's, only 2 ER on the season), Sergio Santos, Santiago, Addison Reed and Gio Gonzalez and things will suddenly look quite different for Don Cooper. The Dodgers ran Belisario into the ground last year...he was the RH version of Matt Thornton for them. That's no mistake that the Cardinals and Royals both gave up on Cleto (pretty sure the Cardinals know what they're doing and what they have and don't have in pitchers). Downs looks like this year's version of Jeff Keppinger, a very odd signing in terms of looking at the "big picture" and why the hell we needed a reliable LH reliever when we didn't even have a "sure thing" in Jones or Lindstrom at closer. Veal...well, we all know how bad he was in 2013 and then again this year, and he was our second best LH option.

QUOTE (Benchwarmerjim @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 10:08 AM) 3 of the top 5 scoring teams in the American League hail from the Central (Twins, Sox, Cleveland) And three of the teams with the worst backend rotations, too.

When's the last time Boras represented a collegiate pitcher in the Top 5-10 picks and it really worked out well/fortuitously for that team to have drafted that pitcher? In other words, if they had it to do it all over again, how many of his clients have turned out to have been worth the headaches and hassles for their acquiring clubs?

Hahaha. So, in retrospect, if we had actually kept Sergio Santos and Jake Peavy, we would be on the cusp of contention in the AL Central this season. Weird.

The other three were Paulino, Surkamp and Rienzo. Beck/Bassit at 8/9.

All the things in that last paragraph are logical. You can add concerns about Rodon's over-reliance on the slider, and that being his dominant/outpitch, the very high probability he ends up like Liriano in TJ territory because of the torque on the elbow. Or throwing it a lot less and having to become effective by somehow changing or improving his repertoire of other pitches (Liriano going more to sinking fastballs, playing into strong infield). We really do need that powerhouse RH complement to go with Sale/Quintana...it's logical. The point about Boras taking him FA after six years and going against the tide of all these younger players buying out free agency years 1-2-3, that's as strong a point as any. It goes 100% against what we've managed to put together with Sale and Quintana.

QUOTE (SCCWS @ Apr 19, 2014 -> 09:12 AM) I found it strange at the time that before spring training the article that ran about Paulino being ahead of Rienzo. Obviously some combination of Hahn, Coop and Robin were already ticketing him to be the 5th starter. Then the results of spring training did not change that opinion. Either some combination of that group totally missed the boat or the other 5th starter candidates are really not legit. If the next in line are really weak, Hahn should have acquired another arm over the winter in case a starter went down to injury or totally flopped. Considering Johnson and Paulino had a limited resume of recent MLB success and Danks had some questions surrounding him, another arm should have been added via trade or FA. Well, we did just pick up another former phenom, albeit damaged goods. Should have gone after Simon from the Orioles after they dumped him. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

If we use Axelrod all season, we actually might end up with the lowest attendance in MLB this year. That's not going to happen. Sacrificial long man, fine, whatever. Not a part of the rotation equation.

Anderson should get 2014 and 2015 to see if he can stick full-time at SS. If it's still not working, they will have to try 2B/LF/CF.

Who would have thought that Eric Stults would end up being the second best pitcher the White Sox have let go...after Gio Gonzalez? Well, I guess you have to count Peavy in there two, so 3rd. He's had a very solid/quiet/effective career at PetCo. Now could he have put up anything resembling those same numbers at USCF, it's doubtful.

Simon was dumped by the Orioles, for example, and has become one of the better pitchers in the early MLB season. Sometimes you get a Quintana or Sale, other times you swing and whiff on these types of deals.