caulfield12

Who's closer next year? Petricka? Putnam, doubtful. Webb, probably needs a bit more seasoning. Bassit or Guerra?

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 09:39 PM) I agree completely. He's still a well below average fielder at this point in his career. Fast in a 40-60 yard sprint isn't quickness, and that's why he will never be a basestealer...above 8-10 per season. He also isn't "first step quick" in terms of his outfield jumps and reads. On the other hand, he would make a great fullback in the NFL.

Great clutch hit from Avisail overrides Alexei, Abreu and Wilkins' struggles. Great job by the entire pitching staff today.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:41 PM) Best trade chip on the roster this offseason Unless it's Alexei...or Tim Anderson.

Royals had bases loaded, no outs and Perez hit into a line out off Al Al with Gordon picked off 3rd...no runs score. Huge for the Tigers, IF IF they can figure out how to score on the Royals' pen.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:22 PM) You also have to remember how great Montas looked in the minors this year. Montas can either be a rushed closer to another frontline starter. We'll see how patient they are...and what they really think of Webb. Would like to see how much they push Olacio as well. The AFL placement is indicative. It's also possible that Danish's stuff would play better as closer...another version of Keith Foulke with the angles/movement/deception and "average" fastball velocity.

Huge K of the surprising JD Martinez with runners at 1st and 3rd and two outs... Shields with only 2 hits and a walk surrendered through 7, and 100 pitches. 2-0 Royals going to the top of the 8th.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:15 PM) No shock this team is struggling to score without Viciedo and Flowers in the lineup, as they've been nearly the only source of power the last 3 weeks. It will be interesting to see if there's actually more than 4-5 thousand at the game tomorrow. Even 2007 had the entertainment of Fields, Owens, Andy Gonzalez and Wasserman. This is just beyond terrible. Well, at least Bassit's still fighting, there's that. A lot of the positives are being erased for me until/unless Avisail Garcia really impresses. Of course, excuses about the injury will be provided, with SOME validity, but there's far from even 50/50 certainty right now he's a 5/6 hole power bat or run producer at this point in his career. At 7-9, okay...it is what it is. But that's not what the acquisition was billed to be.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:44 PM) Since you guys are talking Astros, forget Castro and go after Collin McHugh. I'll take McHugh over signing BMAC or Masterson anytime. Not sure what it would take to get McHugh but I'm all over that s***! Sale, McHugh, Q, Noesi, Rodon with Carroll and Danks ( unless traded) as long men/ back ups in the pen. Hi, Jeff Luhnow here. You want McHugh? Your starting pitching depth sucks, you realize that? Well, at any rate, I would like Tim Anderson or a package of two of these guys (Hawkins/Montas/Danish). No, I DON'T want Davidson, Johnson or Semien, either. You can keep your so-called prospects/suspects. Rick Hahn. Gulp. Phone clicks. Fade to silence.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) This would be a nice game to lose considering every team worse than us has lost or is going to lose tonight. Only Houston and Arizona are left to play. Trotting out that 6-9 against a contending team desperate for a win and with a rookie starter, we almost deserve to lose. It's pretty clear this team is the M's or Royals offensively with Abreu hitting more like Miggy Cabrera this season than Jose Abreu through July.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:43 PM) DID YOU GUYS KNOW HAWK THINKS THE BULLPEN IS REALLY IMPORTANT Let me guess, he's talking about the Royals, Mariners or possibly Detroit's 7th-9th inning struggles?

Despite giving up 38 hits in his past 23+ innings against DET, Shields has earned his Big Game moniker in spades tonight. Huge game for the Royals' pen to win in order to shift the "momentum" which may or may not exist in baseball...ask the Brewers, Mariners or A's/Angels.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:39 PM) Wilkins has struggled so bad this September................this may be doing more harm than good bringing him up. How? You find out that he's overmatched and see if he can make the needed adjustments. If he continues to flail away like this, it crosses another option off the list and forces his hand a bit more in terms of either trading for another bat or signing a FA. Personally, I'd much rather see Mitchell out there than Danks, because we already know exactly what Jordan is capable of doing.

QUOTE (CWSpalehoseCWS @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 07:03 PM) Why not keep Gillaspie and try trading for Dominguez? He might be easier to get than Castro. That's a R/L platoon I would like to see for the Sox. Because it's much easier to just keep Semien in that platoon role than giving up real talent for Dominguez? Just like it's probably better not to trade two starters for one in Castro unless it's abundantly clear that individual player is a HUGE upgrade at a position.

QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 06:59 PM) There is a pretty big reason that 26-27 year old 1B in AAA aren't usually considered prospects, even when they are putting up numbers like Wilkins. He looks awful. This team has packed it in the for the year. They should start sitting Jose more as well. You have to push those guys to their limits, because you're going to need them not to run out of steam in August/September 2015 or definitely 2016. They need to experience the feeling and realize the next time that there's light at the end of the tunnel and that they can overcome it.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 05:51 PM) Heads are you going to allow this? More respect to Seneca Wallace. He beat the Brad Banks/Gallery/Dallas Clark Hawkeyes team the only time in the regular season before they got punked by USC in the bowl game.

With news that the NFL had the video and sat on it/ignored it, the heat's only going to go up now on the commissioner's office.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 06:42 PM) Sometimes a .500 pitcher on a bad team is still a .500 pitcher on a good team. I know people don't think a pitching record matters but guys have won 15 or more on teams with a losing record. Some players bring confidence to a team with their presence. I thought Jack McDowell was that kind of guy. So is Chris Sale. Halladay with the Jays, Greinke for a season or two with the Royals.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 06:43 PM) Wilkins could not hit a beach ball. Well, on the plus side, that makes the likes of Flowers, Garcia and Viciedo look much better in comparison.

Seems like Abreu's been stuck on 99 RBI's for 2-3 weeks now. Didn't realize that the A's had such a terrible collection of batting averages, but Oakland can score runs in bunches...moreso when they had Donaldson, Moss and Cespedes going. What happened to Reddick? He looked REALLY good...and just fell off the map, kind of like Dayan, although I think he's had a number of injuries the last couple of seasons.

Not the most exciting Sox line-up 6-9. Would have preferred to see if Viciedo could keep up his power-hitting, if only for entertainment's sake and/or trade value. Porcello is really dealing tonight. It's going to be interesting to see how KC responds next weekend at Kauffman were they to absorb a sweep. Essentially, they'd go from 2.5 games up to 1.5 games back (in roughly a week) with the expected loss in the 2-0 make-up game against CLE going into their final AB. Kind of like 2012...substitute KC for the White Sox. Except we would have won this game, with an Addison Reed nail-biting save...only to fall apart even more down the stretch (4-11).

Viciedo and Chris Carter would end up hitting 40+ homers for them next season, lol. Flowers would go for 25. Book it.

When the commissioner's facing headline stories on CNN.com calling for his ouster, he's going to probably going to make it worse somehow because the guy's ego is just too big. Of course, you need bigger names than Olbermann and Sage Rosenfels calling for your resignation/firing.

Not to mention you get two years of Jason Castro at higher arbitration salaries...we control Tyler's rights for one additional season, which would take us through 2017. So we're basically giving them two starters for the right to pay Jason Castro an even higher salary and then we'd likely only have him for ONE competitive season, in 2016.

QUOTE (professa @ Sep 10, 2014 -> 05:21 PM) If we're giving them Flowers and Gillaspie, they better be giving us Castro and +++ back. Flowers actually has a higher fWAR than Castro this year, but not as much upside. I'd rather part with a prospect than Gillaspie although Houston might be interested in him because of how abysmal Dominguez has been this year. Yet another danger of those Springer/Singleton type deals that start almost before a player's in the majors now. If Dominguez, Grossman and Singleton all agreed to those 7 year contracts (when they were offered), they'd be in huge trouble and hamstrung a bit financially before even reaching their competitive window.